DragonMage

From your description, it seems that the mirror you are using for your update is busy. If it happens that frequent, I suggest you change the update mirror to something else.

Recompiling is not as easy as snapping your finger. Not only the code needs to be 64 bit compatible, but the supporting libraries also need to be 64 bit. An example for this is OpenOffice.org 1.1.x. It cannot be recompiled to 64 bit without a lot of hacks. Good thing that OO.o 2.0 should be available in 64 bit version. Anyway, MDV 2005 x86_64 uses 64 bit version of Firefox. Of course, I heard that you need 32 bit version of Firefox in order to use plugins such as Flash (no 64 bit available). I will check what version of Firefox that is available in FC4 x86_64, but I will be surprised if it is not 64 bit version too.

Now that Suse downloadable ISO is out, I think I am going to download the DVD (4.2 gigs.. that'll take, 2 weeks) and try it out. The 1 disk iso for MDV 2005LE definitely doesn't have multilib. It just doesn't have the space for that.

Probably because it's already fast to begin with. I think with Linux desktop, once you get over 1 GHz, you will barely feel any faster. I barely feel any difference between my old Athlon XP 1700+ and my current A64 3000+ in regular applications. FC4 is a bit lacking at the moment for me. Still cannot find an easy way to get codecs. I think I am going to reinstall my Mandrake 2005 LE

Actually, it's rather easy. All you need to do is install bind, bind-utils, and caching-nameserver rpms, activate named service, and you are done.

Compatible maybe, but definitely not the same. You probably know that Intel tacked on the EMT64 (the Intel Implementation) instead of building it from the base like AMD A64. Plus the fact that the EMT64 only means the ability to access 64 bit memory addressing so it can access more than 4 GB of memory. AMD's x86_64 has a few more additions to that, I think. One of them has something to do with IOMMU (IO Memory Mapping Unit?, not sure what it is). AMD has it, Intel doesn't. Linux kernel does support it, so 64 bit apps will be better in A64 compared to P4-64. As proof, here is a link from Anandtech about how 64 bit apps actually makes it worse in P4 compared to quite a bit of improvement in A64 http://www.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.aspx?i=2447&p=5 Look at the first chart. Anyway, I played around with the 1 CD iso version of MDV 2005 LE x86_64. It does feel a bit snappier. However, since it doesn't have wvdial, I cannot connect to the internet, so it's useless for me. I just finished downloading the DVD version of FC4 x86_64 last night. I plan to play around with it tonight. Wish me luck.

Seems to be an APIC problem. When booting up from the CD, press F1, then type linux noapic Hopefully the installation continues

The good news is: an x86_64 distro in an Athlon 64 could have an effect of 10-20% increase depending on applications. The bad news are drivers and plugins. No 64 bit Flash plugins for Linux yet for example. Since you will be buying it at the end of the summer, you may as well buy a 64 bit computer. The price difference is quite negiligible. Besides, you can always use a 32 bit distro if you find 64 bit distro lacking. My A64 is still running fine with 32 bit Mandriva 2005 LE. Note that if you buy a P4-64 bit, installing a 64 bit distro will barely have any effect at all. In fact, it may even be worse. It's something in the way Intel put 64 bit that disagree with the Linux kernel.

The ability to make a bootdisk should be available in Mandrake Control Center.

As far as I know, InCD uses a method called packet writing in order to "fake" a floppy like environment. I am not sure whether Mandrake has the ability to read packet written CD enabled by default in the kernel. I know that the ability is very experimental, and more trouble than its worth to enable in linux.

I have a feeling it's your monitor settings. What kind of monitor do you have? What are the specs?

From the *99# does that mean you are using GPRS modem? Can you show your /etc/ppp/wvdial.conf file?

If you want (almost) complete Linux compatibility, go with Acer. And no, I am not biased since my uncle is an Acer distributor in Indonesia :)

What kind of Motherboard is it? For Mandrake 10.1, you don't need to download and install the NForce driver. The Opensource forcedeth network module works usually. Now it may be that the motherboard uses a gigabit ethernet chip. For regular Fast ethernet, forcedeth works fine, both in my old Epox 8RDA+ (NF2) and my current Gigabyte K8NS (NF3)

I think this is a good thing. If it improves on the Discovery Edition (1 CD install ) it would be a good way for newbies to try Linux.

Maybe you should try the cups web configurator by typing http://localhost:631 This is because the model number in mcc maybe different from the model number in CUPS.

When you run Knoppix, do you run the fdisk (or whatever) as root? That's because by default, Knoppix mount the partitions as read-only for regular users. So open a console, su, then cfdisk /dev/hd(whatever), then delete the Mandrake partitions.

I just browse to http://www.newegg.com and saw an Acer Turion 64 (basically mobile Athlon 64 with lower speed grade) for under US$1000. I will be surprised if it is not Linux compatible since Acer releases several laptop models with Linux preinstalled in Indonesia. Dammit, this laptop makes me miss the US more and more. Here is the link http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16834115303

Well, it's been a while since I used any Matrox cards. But isn't the original Mystique (or is it Millenium) is certified as Linux incompatible? Anyway, if you want, you can try clean installing Mandrake 2005 LE. I found that x.org in 10.1 (which is version 6.7) is a bit unstable for me.

Well.. I am downloading Mandrake 2005 DVD Iso at the moment. It will take a couple of days to finish (since I can only download them overnight). As soon as it is completed, I will download the FC4 64 bit DVD iso.

I'll wait until the 64 bit isos are out for FC4 thank you very much..

As far as stability and flexibility, Linux has Windows beat. Here is something I experienced a few weeks back. There was a donation of five old computers (Compaq Deskpro, P3-500, 128 MB RAM, 10 GB HD). I was tasked to make them work so that means installing OS, Office, etc. Now, as usual, Compaqs that old usually have a sticker "Built for Windows 98" in the casing. Based on my experience with old Compaqs, they were not kidding when the computers are built for Windows 98. Everything should be detected with no additional drivers needed. So I installed Win98SE. The installation goes smoothly enough, but during the first run, it basically hangs whenever I tried to read the CD-ROM (in order to install additional software of course). I thought to myself, "What the?!" and then I tried installing Mandrake 10.1 in those computers. The installation, as usual, is smooth, but it again experienced random lockup. At least it goes longer than Windows 98, but it locks up during heavy use such Updates, running OO.o, etc. So I figured there has to be something wrong in the hardware configuration, but why does the installation run smoothly for both cases? After an hour or so of tweaking, I found a combination in Mandrake that doesn't cause any lockup. It seems that I have to use Vesa driver for X.org instead of the S3Trio64 driver. With that knowledge, even though the screen is a bit horrible (stuck at 60 Hz), I can run that computer for hours without lockup, running OpenOffice, video, audio, and stuffs. KDE is a bit slow for my taste, but hey.. what do you expect for 128 MB of RAM? Windows just doesn't have the flexibility to tweak until you find something that works.

I actually tried Xandros Open CD edition once since it was included in the local Linux magazine. My verdict, it's good if you only need it as a desktop but don't use it with a winmodem. It's been a while but maybe you should try Mepis first. That is, if that computer have plenty of RAM. Since it's live CD based, you don't need to install it to try.

For this discussion, I think you need to get out of the US and European centric point of view. Linux is doing well in other nations. In fact, I've seen Linux preinstalled computers, be it laptops or desktops in local computer stores and supermarkets in Indonesia. I have never seen this happened in the States. Why? For the US$ 100 you spend just for Windows, you can either upgrade the computer to almost 150% the capacity (double the HD, memory, or add a DVDRW) or live comfortably for 2-3 weeks. Of course, Indonesia is piracy heaven, so if you go to a local computer mall, you will see tons of pirated Windows preinstalled, even though there is a huge sticker in front saying "We only install genuine Microsoft products" :) So I believe that Linux will make headways faster in the have-nots nations, which outnumber the haves nations in terms of number and populations.

The login part is different for different provider. Once, I tried using a regular GPRS connection with two different providers (actually it's the same company, but two different "plans"). One of them requires login and the other doesn't. Here is a sample setup for wvdial for a local provider. Note that I use a USB cable to connect the phone to the computer. [Dialer Defaults] Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0 Baud = 9600 Init1 = AT+cgdcont=1,"ip","satelindogprs.com" Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 ISDN = 0 Modem Type = Analog Modem Phone = *99***1# Username = "" Password = "" As you can see, this one doesn't require login. So you can just put "" for both. Anyway, the only way to find out is to check the provider itself. Another thing, it is possible to use KPPP for GPRS connection, but the gotchas as far as I know are: 1. You connect it using a serial cable from the computer to the cellphone 2. The cellphone itself must be usable as a generic serial modem internally (I know siemens does, not sure about others). Anyway, good luck