Gowator

Do you have a firewire (IEEE1394) card installed? (or a second NIC) My guess it either its "not ready" when its asked for the Mac address or another card is detected as a NIC (firewaire can be used as a NIC) You might be able to add the MAC (59:f0:00:e7:39:f0) to the hints The follwong works for me in Debian sl@sidux32:/etc/udev/rules.d$ more z25_persistent-net.rules # This file was automatically generated by the /lib/udev/write_net_rules # program, probably run by the persistent-net-generator.rules rules file. # # You can modify it, as long as you keep each rule on a single line. # MAC addresses must be written in lowercase. # PCI device 0x10de:0x00d6 (forcedeth) SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:30:1b:b1:6a:85", NAME="eth0 " # Firewire device 00301bb100006aeb (ohci1394) SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:30:1b:b1:00:00:6a:eb", NAME ="eth1"

Let me know how it goes, so long as you save your self a safe xorg.conf you can always revert :D if it goes wrong. The aiglx stuff sounds like its for the ATI card ... I thought that anyway... All in all there seem to be rather a lot of combinations of XGL, AIGLX and such.... so Id be interested what you manage to get stable and working, especially with the 2 monitors which was my main problem.... I could have one 3D and one not (unstable) is about as far as I got but that's because my TV and everything uses the 2nd monior (projector) so my GF gets pissed when we have no TV... and I end up putting it back .. LOL

Yep that's it.... I just didn't find anything I found exciting or a reason to persist... Its not like there is anything serious wrong... just nothing to inspire me... even Linspire is more inspriring somehow even though I don't use it... Regarding the MCC even though I don't like Suse for other reasons its still a pale shadow to YaST... but perhaps I'm just getting old and boring :D I don't know if its just my experience but I used to be excited about what would be new in a new Mandr* release and now I just hope it works first install... that never used to bother me :D I'm hoping Metisse will provide that interest and pull Mandriva out of that box I have which is "not interested"

True, but it just rang a bell with me... Its hard to describe what's missing but I just didn't feel strongly enough about trying it to mess about for more than 5 mins... I guess if the install had worked I would have tried it (and I left it installed thinking I'd have a look later) but it just didn't give me any reason why I would want to...

Marillat has moved/merged his stuff to debain-multimedia Welcome to apt :D p.s. if you check out xorg.conf it should have a note to run dpkg-reconfigure xorg.conf --phig (or similar) if you ever need to rerun the config it did during apt-get. you can also dpkg-reconfigure dpkg (erm yep your reconfiguring dpkg itself) and set the verbosity and the fallbacks for the questions it asks. These can be quite involved, especially for server apps where you can choose to delete the data or not etc. The biggest shock I had moving to apt was the amount of questions it asks... in some ways its off-putting if you are used to urpmi because it leaves the app configured ... but you soon get used to it and the nice thing is it can dig you out of so many holes when you break something (if you like to meddle)

Yes but it still inherits some of the things that just don't make the grade. I agree completely that it has changed a lot but my problem is in terms of relevance. I honestly just don't see 10 top reasons to use Mandriva ... something you can say "Oh with those criteria Mandriva is clearly your best bet" or anything close.... Indeed inmany way's Mandriva has a distro has suffered progressively with every further step taken away from RH...because it used to be a "better for some" version of RH... and now its a "It might be OK for ya" distro... Even the best parts of Mandriva (for me urpmi) is actually half hidden away... so it just fails to distinguish itself in any way... and for everything it aims to be there is another better distro... for that specific aim. I think all round its falling into "jack of all trades, master of non" PCLinuxOS for instance is relevant, (IMHO) I might not choose to use it but its still relevant because it fixes the bugs and hardware is more consistent which brings me back to my old rant... and the main tech problem with Mandriva which is consistency... We can review any version of Mandriva and its largely irrelevant because you can't say the next version will work the same way. 2006 worked outa the box for me, 2007 didn't on the same HW installed along side. My prob is I could probably with not too much messing got it working but I just didn't see the point. its pretty sad but that's the feeling it gives me... if this had been a different distro giving me some probs I would have probably persisted but I was just left feeling "why bother"... so in many ways the quote about it being "irrelevant" sorta puts this into words for me...

Distrowatch rankings themselves are next to irrelevant in a dictionary since they only really track what people who go to distrowatch are tracking...and click on... this then captures a lot of those looking for a n00b distro... Conversely and arguably more relevant is http://distrorankings.com/ where you need to care enough to vote. Then the next way of gaugeing distro popularity is sales which is then totally distorted towards paid-only distro's... This may perhaps indicate why paid-distro's are on the rise if this is how you choose to measure them. The distrowatch figures for "hard core" distros like Debian, Arch or Gentoo are always low.. mainly because the people using those distro's don't give a rat's ass what distrowatch says... As for Mandriva being irrelevant that depends mainly how you define it... I can agree in some ways because its not really doing anything noone else is while drastically falling in popularity... Ubuntu might be best defined as very popular and so if nothing else its relevant... even though its not doing anything Debian isn't.. and this makes it relevant in itself. Mandriva is just a mix of different stuff, most of which "mostly works" .. from hardware which might work in any one release to wizards that probably work so long as you don't want to do anything the wizards fall-over on. It makes it very hard to give a good reason why to use Mandriva over say Ubuntu.or Suse.. probably the best thing about Mandriva being this forum. URPMI is OK if you really want to use a RPM based distro but its not up to apt... etc. and the 3D stuff seems to be causing more problems than making people happy. It sounds harsh but he has a point.. and maybe metisse will be a killer app to change this?

Is the database local (on your macinhe), Im guessing yes for now... Its probably not setup to listen on pipes?? can you post /etc/mysql/my.cnf (might be in a slightly different location) also check you actually set a password for root on mysql... (try without -p)

Yep Im with the above posters. The article is pretty much sour grapes... although I can't say if I were in Theo's position I wouldn't have them too. BSD is more solid and in lots of technical things "better" than Linux but it doesn't have the diversity of HW support Linux does. Then again Linux doesn't have the same diversity as Win* ... Linux has far more users and developers than BSD but BSD is technically better developed ... In the end it comes down to "so what" ... just like differences between Linux distro's ... What makes a OS or even distro "better" than another is dependent upon who is using it and for what. tyme is spot on, it just doesn't make any sense... AT ALL ... its like me looking at a review of Ford vs GM as an arguament to buy a Chevy... It sounds like your friend just doesn't want to change... so why bother?

Because, if you look at the market share, Linux is almost none existent in the desktop market. It's apparently not a cost effective option. Flash player is a much less complex program than photoshop, and would take significantly less time, money and knowledge to port. You'll note that Adobe does not make a flash creation program for Linux. Yep fair point but then they make that for no reward wheras they could make money back from photoshop... or a flash creator.... I honestly think they just think noone would pay??? Last time I looked Linux had a larger market shre in desktops overall.... than OS-X (although there is a fair weighting towards adobe in Mac use so that does distort it back... ) Like the HDR SW Photoshop is mainly just adding a GUI to math... when you scale it just does a mathematical algorithm (depending on method) and these are pretty standard in lots of other areas.... I'm not saying it would be easy but the parts of photoshop that make it photoshop are pretty much just math... If you look at my photo development SW (bibblepro) its a similar thing (or subset) it works with plugins like photoshop etc. many of which are 3rd party and the plugins are OS independant... when OS-X went onto Intel it took a few weeks of tweakig and QA but then it worked... because basically the algorithms stay the same Actually, it's a 1990's app - 1995, to be exact ;) Even so and thanks for checking... it has already lived a useful life... the prob is its still limited to performing like 1995 graphics cards... and whilst it now does more stuff in terms of filters etc. it still can't do what almost any windows freeware can do and open a native 16 bit file... I just checked and my TIFF files from processing are 48 bit... PS opens them in 48 bit space even though my display is only 24 bit... but when I do a gradient its in 48 bit... and then operations on that take place in 48 bit space so even if I finally write a 8 bit file its much better quality.

Yes but its not altogether clear.... You should probably just noit install kernel packages and I agree its not something to be in updates unless its more rigidly controlled... 99% of the time you are best leaving the kernel until its a major change or contains something you *need*... Mandriva and kernels and documentation is a big subject and one everyone probably hopes I don't rant about so... Yep.... Yep and other stuff can just stop working like dbus/hal etc. or other modules... The more experienced I get the less I mess with kernels...

Peter, urpmi is a wrapper OVER the top of rpm.... both can be used from the console or GUI.... functionally it makes no difference....except URPMI will find everything for you and save you a lot of pain.... You can also use for instance kpackage but honestly try at set up urpmi sources and go that way... As you use it it will become self explanitory and eventually you might need some stuff not in the urpmi repo's but by this time your experience will ease the pain... Regarding console/GUI...in 99% of cases it makes no difference but for the 1% when your upgrading something in X (especailly KDE) things can go weird.... In these rare cases restarting X usually works and if not you can drop to the CLI and urpmi the packages again...

Erm you can either boot into RL 1 fromthe grub/lilo screen OR let it boot then CTRL+ALT+F1 to a tty and init 1 From init 1 you can umount -a then you can edit the fstab... Yes because these entries are already in your boot manager... and the reinstall is trying to find other bootable partitions by reading it... Not really Mandriva was trying to be overhelpful... In reality what its trying to do is preserve your existing installs... and once you did it once it wrote it to the boot manager and kept finding it.... This is a "feature" of mandriva.... and its not uncommon in its type of hassle it makes... Mandriva strives to be simple ... BUT in doing so it can cause some weird things and usually these weirdnesses are not tested or easily reversible... Overall Mandriva is wizard based... you select a task (using wifi or ADSL or in your base the boot manager) and then it tries to do it all for you with the minimum of questions.... The problem is when it goes wrong its usually a bigger mess than if you did it by hand in the first place. Other distro's do the opposite... like arch or gentoo whenre you read and understand first... Both has advantages and disadvantages.... in this case you were unlucky...

Ill just quote that because it is central to the philosophy here.... In general if you mix questions up you'll find you only get part of it answered... 90% of people are looking for a quick fix not reasons :D but I commend you for wanting to understand .... For someone with your interest about WHY and not just HOW there are loads of resources... and IMHO the best ones are all FREE... this takesa bit of a mindshift ... A really neat feature in linux is that the documentation is usually involved with WHY and not just HOW...from your question I think this will suit you... (I myself need to know how... in order to learn or I just get mindblocks) man <command> usually brings up exhaustive documentation, it can also be under info <command> which when it exists is usually a more readable (longer but explained) format than man... for starters you can man bash or info bash and the same with the init command and shutdown.... but you can also google and find http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bashref.html Please ... we don't have stupid questions /:D so don't stop asking.... sometimes though its easier to point you to something to read, especially for people who want to understand...

WINE isn't a good test of portability...and it's more than changing the dialog boxes. You have to know what libraries replace which, and how those libraries function, then you have to call them properly, you have to reprogram the front end to use the new widgets (it's not as easy as "oh, instead of this one, use this one!")...and basically go through the whole Q&A testing (one of the more time-consuming processes) all over again - for a system you may have no [significant] knowledge of to begin with. Believe me, just because OS X and Linux are *nix variants, doesn't make them instantly compatible - or even close to it. Even if the linux version is a complete rewrite it doesn't explain why this company and others see no market in linux...Why is adobe wiolling to wrote flash9 and other freebies BUT not release photoshop that I would buy? I honestly can't see porting from OS-X as a huge deal once you get started... Ive been involved porting much more complex software from Solaris to IRIX and AIX and now the companies I worked with have mainly ported to linux... Perhaps a 2nd issue is distribution.... ? how do you distribute a linux version .rpm or .deb? how do you handle deps? etc. etc. I still think a major issue is we are regarded as thieves and freeloaders who wouldn't pay for say photoshop or this SW... Not really there is plenty of OS software in Windows, but there is also nagware, trialware and postcard ware etc. etc. However I think you make a good point that the Av Windows Joe doesn't understand the difference between FREE and free.... I think this is several issues and I agree somewhere between strongly and mildly with them all ... trouble is I also disagree based on different ones... The truth is its a very complex situation.... I'll answer your points with counters.... EVEN though I don't disagree completely with any of them but ... True ... but lets move on... To some extent we are doing that anyway because even OSS for Windows is OSS... if its GPL its GPL etc. HOWEVER (this is where I see a difference) the difference is OSS on Linux != OSS on closed OS... There are huge differences (and some similarities but I'll focus on the differences) Linux SW is built on a OSS OS, Windows isn't... is probably the biggest but this has lots of implications... OSS is meant to be better because of this and because the developers of SW A have access to the source code of the kernel and X ... unlike Windows where they are forced to develop against a SDK... whivhj in the case of windows is deliberatly limited anyway to prevent other companies making "better" integrated SW The second way this affects development is because of the closed Windows model with only a SDK and a few common Dll,s which are shared for "look n feel' ALL Windows apps are essentially monolithic... whereas in Linux very few GUI apps are standalone .. because they share common code with others... so again in OSS you have devels working on what they are interested in and do well... if that happens to be writing a low level driver then that's it and if its writing codecs then you do that.. there is no need to package it into a GUI because someone else who is interested in GUI's will do that for you ... An example is K3B.... its about 8MB (i18n is another 6) whereas Nero weighs in at a lot more... The situation is almost one of the inverse of the workflow ones I mentioned... Like I said Linux has great apps overall but there are gaps and these gaps are what screws it IMHO because noone wants to boot into Windows just to do one part of a 10 part workflow ... companies don't even want to switch platform even if the workflow is completely different people ... this is partly what killed Apples marketshare because drafting depts usually preferred Apples BUT the finance Depts wanted PC's and the IT dept really just wanted them to use one or the other :D Anytway, in most cases the linux gaps seem to be due to 2nd rate software that became hugely popular like GIMP... OSS software on Windows is hugely full of gaps even if we forget the OS itself isn't OSS because of the nature of Windows SW you can't really work only in OSS and plently of free but non-OSS and cheap SW plugs plenty gaps and the reverse situation exists... its very hard to have a workflow in Windows that's 100% OS... The only real reason I can think of for using GIMP under windows is if you are a linux user on Windows. Frankly GIMP by todays sofdtware is worse than pathetic, there are 101 better FREE programs in Windows for anything GIMP can do... but in 16 bit! And GIMP is crippled by design.... it will never be fit for semi-pro or even enthusiast work for photo's or use in a company doing pre-press work because it is designed in a 8bit color space... it can't even address the parts it needs for pre-press because its 8 bit and its developers refuse to consider changing so its screwed. So I still maintain GIMP needs to die or be killed....it is a 1980's app which has lived its natural life and needs to pass on and die.... (perhaps that word is too emotive but it doesn't need active retirement .. where it will continue to hold back other new 21C linux apps) In many ways OSS projects are entities like a company or corp and the danger is GIMP is like a retured company president who is also the father of the present president. My father (who I love dearly is like this)...he's constantly meddling and distracting my brother who runs the company he built...but he's from a different age. My brother uses laser and plasma cutters, CAD/CAM and has an internet site.. my father see's no need for any of these yet this is what todays customers want in terms of finish and product information. The product is essentially the same .. just sleeker, less obtrusive etc. and because its a 3rd party product that has to intergrate into someone elses product (in this case automobiles) it has to change with the auto industry... In many way's GIMP is the same... its constantly there and anyone trying to make a decent 16bit+ colorspace graphics prog for linux has to justify this... As an example, the product I wanted to buy for linux uses 48 bit color space, its the whole point of HDR (high dynamic range) since its blending/merging as a minimum 2x16 bit images to expand the dynamic range (bit depth) and even wroting the final back as a 16 bit floating point TIFF is a compromise... However the OSS equivalent can only use JPEGS which are by definition 8 bit... When Gimp was born graphics cards were pushing the limit at 8bit... today 24/32 is a norm... but today its holding back so many apsects.... The migration of printing services to Gimpprint is an example... how can we get decent 24bit color output from a printer from a 8bit app.

True but the question comes when its "native linux" SW being ported to linux... IMHO... I'll explain my thoughts on this using your example... Yes and No ... I think what Linux is missing is a complete workflow ... If I want to play games and its something involved (not just tuxracer etc.) then its no big deal to dual boot... Yep it can take a few mins but if your going to play a game for 3hrs the reboot time isn't so bad... Well it was spur of the moment but I've been thinking about GiMP for quite some time... The problem is GiMP is actually quite good in a very limited way.... but it just doesn't cut the mustard in other ways. Its useless for anything with 16 bit colorspace and lets face it you wouldn't think much of running your graphics card in 8 bit... So the problem is its intrinsically limited... but very popular in OS circles...and from my perspective a lot of good OS graphics progs are struggling just because of Gimp's popularity... The thing is there is loads of freeware, trial/nagware/postcardware on Windows already so diverting resources to porting Gimp is a bit pointless in many ways... meanwhile Linux still doesn't have a decent 16-bit raster graphics prog... it doesn't need to be photoshop but at least up to what PSP was doiung 5 years ago would be nice... Meanwhile we have cinepaint, krita and a whole load of other stuff being developed at a snail's pace because the perception is largely "but what's wrong with GIMP" ... and its all very well adding new stuff and new ports to Gimp but its forever stuck in 8 bit... So I'm talking here from a workflow perspective... I can open my raw files in Linux, manipulate the processing etc. but any real editing and I need to use Windows... or I can boot into Windows and do the whole lot and even print which can't be done from linux (at least professional quality) ... I realise this is in some ways my pet workflow :D but its not the only one... I scan stuff in linux and then need to boot Windows to OCR... unless its lots of text its usually easier to retype the damned thing... Going back ... to what I said... I know of lots of people who would pay for photoshop or Corel PSP under linux... OK I prefer FREE, who doesn't but when you have a job to do ... needs must but I really think Adobe think people won't pay and just use cracked versions... ??? They port FREE SW but not paid SW??? Fair enough but the basic algorithms stay the same .. the Windows version runs under Wine quite OK... its not completely stable and runs like a pig but :D it seems to run OK so changing the dialog boxes can't be that hard? I think the bottom line is they don't see a market ??? Like photoshop ... ?? My specific prob is I need a whopper of a machine for this... if it was just basic stuff I'd buy a minimac but this is pushing it to the limit... Again in many ways I think its workflow related... linux seems to just have missing parts and these missing parts seem trapped around the old-style 1990's linux? Imagemagick is quite capable but wrapped in a 1990's interface... etc. and the big put off for many people is that they can't move to linux completely ...so they stay trapped in the Windows cycle of new products needing version XX which puts more demands on hardware ?? I don't want to punish people for being stuck but equally the opportunties seem to be being missed for really good SW workflow in linux and if a few of these workflow holes were plugged then people would have a real choice...and there is still a whole load of free or nearly free (as in beer) Windows stuff... One example I came across is clamav.... the windows version requires some MSSDK stuff and this depends on something else and ultimately on IE6.something ... I just gave up when trying to get the stuff needed because I really don't want to accept the MS EULA... and here is the big prob... A lot of the Windows stuff pre-supposes you already think the MS EULAs are OK or just don't care, even when they are ported linux apps. Corel PSP again doesn't run under wine due to the windows installer wanting some stuff from MS... and being honest I just don't want anything to do with MS... Its only <half because I don't like MS but mainly because I don't USE MS... I don't want to need a virus checker, and all that goes with it.. or MS Live etc. etc. nor do I want to be locked into connecting to MS if I change some HW... I don't really want my virtual Win machine in the internet at all ... but the main reason is I'm just not interested in keeping up with keeping it running and unless you do then it grinds to a halt... I might consider Apple because its a different philosophy but I feel really bad to be considering having to use it just because some software I'd like to play with doesn't work on Linux or more liklely the SW manufacturs think Linux is not a market because we are all freeloaders... Actually I kinda resent the implication we are all thieves as well... which is the inderect way of interpreting it. When all I want is to scan and OCR a document or put a filter onto a photo I resent having to use Windows... (a bit) but mainly its just frustrating... Linux is SO CLOSE... in many areas the SW is better than Win but the missing parts are what kills it and the missing parts are not plugged because of 2nd rate SW like GIMP*... and the perception noone will pay IMHO *By 2nd rate I mean it lacks professional aspects... it works fine for basic stuff but its just unusable for some stuff.

OK here's my rant... __________________________________________-My understanding.... They really have no idea wtf Linux or OS-X is... or how easy it would be to take the UNIX version for the Mac and add a gtk or qt interface... instead of Coco or perhaps they just don't like Linux???? Sadly in most cases like this I think they just don't like Linux....or the idea of Linux because they are pre-disposed to beleive that Linuxers won't pay for software... so they won't make it... Personally I pay for my software... like bibblepro... so they just lost a sale since Im not buying a Windows version to run under wine...but I would have happily paid the $99 for a native version.... The whole point of this stuff is its standardised algorithms... anyone can write this and it just needs an interface so the whole thing is rather pointless to not do??? However once again OS software seems to cut its own throat.... http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net I'm really starting to think that we as OpenSource people should stop making ANY AND ALL software to run on ANY closed source OS.... because this is just getting to the point of pushig closed source OS's even more??? For instance my photo developing (raw file) SW comes with a Mac and Windows version with extra functionality... I pay for the SW and its very good and its not their fault... the part I can't use is the photoshop plug-in... by using OS I get less for my $$$ Another really good piece of digital photo SW is lightwave... runs on Java and the LINUX version is FREE....but unsupported... again the commercial company has promoted OS more than the OS movement??? To cap this off I downloaded a trial verison of Corel PSP ... and it won't even run under Wine??? More and more my digital workflow is being pushed into me having to run a native closed source OS... linux still doesn't have a decent image editor for 16 bit images... Even if GiMP did do 16 bit iots still not photoshop... and Cinepaint is still way behind in terms of functionality... and Corel have not even made an effort for PSP to run under Wine... To top this off performance is pretty much needed for proper quality but under Wine Photomatix takes about 10 minutes to Open the raw file... bibble takes milliseconds... but longer to convert than dcraw ... so if I do buy another PC to do photo editing its not going to be a cheap one.. I need something significantly faster than my present AMD64 3000+ and at least 2GB RAM... preferably 4GB... the more I think about this the more I think its time OS projects stopped supporting Windows versions.... Antoher example is Joomla where a significant amount of the code is fsck'd just to cope with being able to run on IIS ... again this seems counter productive, the apache OS users take a hit because of this and its not even like the desktop world where 90% of people are using Windows, the IIS market share is pretty small to start off and out of this a significant part is using MS specific stuff like ASP.NET anyway... I dunno... Im starting to think the open aspect of making Windows versions is becoming what is holding back linux?? Some projects like Gimp really need to die already... the devs have been firm about not supporting 16 bit color space... BUT the existance of Gimp is what holds back other image editing SW because Gimp is actually pretty good for many things... and so anyone thinking of image editing always runs up with "what's wrong with Gimp" ....

Hmm looking a bit more yoiu can already su.... this tends to the iostream thaty is used for the password not being setup correctly... try without saving the password kdesu (see options) su root -c <the_program> should work... kdesu -c kfm -sw should start the file manager... you can try -d for debugging and -t for terminal output and see if it gives any meaningful errors..

Im no exspert but I don't think because OpenGL is working that 3D desktop will necassarily work... obviously it won't work if its not working but the 3D desktop uses some additional OpenGL stuff which can be quite card specific... Option "RenderAccel" "1" Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "1" Option "RandRRotation" "1" Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "1" Option "DisableGLXRootClipping" "1" Option "TripleBuffer" "1" OK like I say Im not an expert (I tried it lost my 2nd screen so deactivated it) but it could be they way its trying to do it... Again as I understand trhis can be done either through XGL or the nvidia driver itself... perhaps the lower spec card is using the default6 method and the other is trying some advanc3ed stuff that doesn't quite work for that card? Sorry I can't be more specific but hopefully this helps

It seems more likely you user is not in the list for kdesu.. since the password is obviously fine help:/kdesu/ in konqueror will give you a better explanation... So you need su to be setup and working and priv's to use it... you also need /bin/true to be present and executable by the user..

Yep that's pretty much what kanotix does/did.... using the fuse userspace utils to mount the compressed filesystem ... and it works great except my experience from supporting people is until people actually install and commit to linux their experience is not the same... In the case of a liveCD there is the advantage you don't need to install and hence people use it in that capacity, for instance as a repair/rescue CD... anyway, I don't think its a BAD idea... I just think its probably less important as a tool for introducing people to linux than at first glance. In the end it eliminates the need to burn a CD but you still need to do an install... and although Debian installer is far more friendly now its still a installer... and the hard part really was never burning the CD ... leastwise if you can't follow the simple instructions to burn an ISO then your chance of installing a working system is probably not so high... of course many people mess up burning simply because they are in a rush and don't READ the instructions and although this skips over it its the same thing, if your installing linux you pretty much are going to need to do some reading... just my 2c... perhaps it will find uses which are beyond this, I don't think knoppix was expected to be used in so many creative and inventive ways (and to be honest I would have probably been saying the same back then and have been wrong) so perhaps I'll be proven wrong and this will help a whole load of people make the switch :D

This is a fairly common but seemingly random bug ... I had it once ... I messed about and fixed it but I can't remember how but these links should throw some light... http://www.gnome.org/~veillard/gamin/config.html http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=313606 http://mail.gnome.org/archives/nautilus-li...y/msg00196.html

It sounds OK in theory, Mandrake used to have this anyway but Im not sure how useful it is... my experience at least was that you don't really appreciate linux until you make a commitment to using it more or less full time .. and for a quick taste then the live CD's work fine???

Im not usre where Man driva set the 3D stuff ... one quick nasty fix to get you to the GUI (to turn it off) would be to go back to a non-3d driver... I beleive you can start hardrake from the CLI or just change the driver in xorg.conf... i.e. if your using nvidia change it to nv... It will probably spit out lots of errors but start... Give this a go first then we can put it back to accelerated graphics and no 3D ... (ps it could just be your card isn't supported)

nope .. you can't change them because they are mounted (you can't change the name of the mountpoint while its mounted) otherwise you are correct... he needs to unmount them first it might be easier to work out what he does want and then umount -a (it should leave /) then remove them from the fstab while unmounted, then delete and dirctories it created to mount them on...