kfoss

I have tried both and found that there are things to like and hate about both. MythTV is a real pain to install, makes you rpm at list of files as long as your arm. If you get them all in and setup, it seems to be a well integrated suite. As for Freevo, it's a heck of a lot easier to install but relies on third-party apps such as MPlayer for its suite of apps. Personally, I got my own setup and use TVTime for TV viewing. In the end I would suggest mythtv if your brother wants a "home-theatre" style suite.

TopDog...if you goto to handheld.org and look at the platform you will see what is compatible with their linux distro. Currently, the best bet is a 3xxx-series Ipaq. I've been looking for a used or refurnished one for cheap to install linux on.

I've had a K7S5A for a while, both the regular and Pro. I have had lm_sensors working on it for a while, though not perfectly. Not all of the readouts seem to be correct. For example, my -12V has shown up as 0.98V. Any indications I have gotten tell me that if my -12V was at 0.98 my system wouldn't work. So something else is wrong. Even in gkrellm, their are issues as they have multipliers set by default. Can anyone else with the K7S5A MOBO and has gkrellm and lm_sensors working, post their sensors.conf and the settings specified in gkrellm?

I have a similar problem a long time ago. On my Linux box I was using the onboard SIS900 Lan port. However, from the explanation I got, the driver for this card is not the best and I was getting so many errors. I could hook up another machine and get great connections. In the end, I bought a 3Com 3c509-series card and I haven't had any problems since.

Veedub, I agree...I have been able to sync with my PPC, but just some files and if I spent another number of hours, I may have been able to sync the calendar (I believe). Unfortunately, the business world isn't capable of seeing the benefits of Linux. As such, at work our desktops are all M$ and hence every I need to sync with is on M$. I sincerely hope that this will change. At home I personally don't do anything if it isn't done on Linux.

iphitus...two palm pilot professionals (circa 1998) and a Handspring Visor.

I forget to add that I have found no real project that allow for Linux on Palm hardware :( Too bad, I got three Palm Pilots laying around doing nothing.

I've personally stuck to PocketPC/WinCE devices. At this time, they are more flexible when it comes to applications and accessories. However, syncing is another issue. I have been able to get synce going on RH9.0, so I can transfer files, but not PIM syncing. With my Toshiba E740 I don't need to connect to my linux box as I transfer through WiFi. As well, there is a growing project out there to allow a linux distro on HP Ipaqs. Goto 'handhelds.org' to see the status. From the screenshots, it look even better than Palm or WinCE. I just need to find an Ipaq that is cheap enough to take the risk and put Linux on it.

What type of CD are you using? Is it a production CD or a CD-R(W)? I know that some early CD drives have serious issues recognizing burned CDs.

Sudcrow...any results?

Thanks, it's great!

I may not be 100% correct here, but I have believe that the M$ WinXP ICS is not really a true proxy. I have never been sucessful at getting any of my machines to connect to the ICS server. On the other hand, I have been using NetProxy, a commercial application on my WinXP box with Mdk 9.2 as a client. Additionally I am using my Mdk machine as a proxy to the WinXP. Our NetProxy license is for only three machines. On those rare occasions when more than three are needed, all the other lower use Windows boxes are directed to the mdk box. It works, though the access speed is really slow for those surfing through the mdk->winXP connection.

I forgot to say that they were using an IBM ThinkPad 360C which is a 386SX with 4MB of RAM.

I pulled out my trusty Linux Format magazines and found in LXF#23, Jan 2002, they installed Small Linux 0.7.5 and it worked. They attempted to run TinyX, which did work, but then stopped because of a mouse problem. They did have 4MB of RAM though, with your 3MB, you may not want to try with X at all. If X is not really necessary, SmallLinux should work.

Banjo...you're right. I never made that leap of logic which would have saved me some heartache.

I've installed INK and it seems to work. However, it tells me that my black is at 0% and colour 77%. I know I'm not out of black and since there is no MAN entry or real help in the app, I have no idea if there can be a "reset" of the values. The Ink website shows that the 990C is supported, but...

I tried that exact same method. In general it works, and I've done the same for my /usr as I find it grows much quicker than any other major directory. However, there are some disadvantages. I had the HDD on which the /tmp was linked die. Unfortunately, the OS needs a /tmp directory to do basically all tasks. Without it, I was blocked from booting until I used a rescue disk to change the /etc/fstab and point /tmp to a working location.

I personally prefer MPlayer. It allows for playing a larger variety of file and compression types "out-of-the-box". If you have the codecs loaded, MPlayer can use them. Xine normally needs plugins to accomplish this. Additionally, MPlayer normally includes MEncoder which I found was useful for recording or transcoding files. It is over and above the basic AVI playing capability, but if you decide later that you want this functionality, it's already installed. With Xine, look for another app.

I share your fear of having to reinstall all the apps. I use my system for many tasks but a prime use is multimedia/video. It is a pain to get all the apps such as MPlayer and Transcode working the way I want them and then have to reinstall and go through it all over. I've learned to take notes during my installs as to what I installed and for what reason, ie. to satisfy what dependancy... If you follow the recommendations on this topic, you should be fine.

1. I used to have a 30GB partition which held everything, so the 8GB limit is likely not a limitation, though there may be limitations within your BIOS. 2. A clue to the answer to this question is the second word in my first response. I used to have it on an all-in-one partition. However, when I had problems with the OS or wanted to upgrade, I would lose all my 'home' data. It isn't usually a problem however I lost all of the backup files my wife was saving on her home directory and a bunch of digital pics. I like having 'home' on a separate partition and even better on a separate drive. 3. For the names, you really don't have much choice. The /dev/hdX names are based on where the drive is on the IDE bus and the types of partitions. Primary partitions are normally numbered as /dev/hda1 for example and extended partitions normally start above 5, such as /dev/hda5. So you'll need to set up your partitions in the same manner as the original install, with your new sizes of course. In general, I've tried to avoid this type of transition. I've been more successful with a complete reinstall on the new drive. Then with the old drive as a secondary, I slowly transfer specific config and data files, such as samba, network scripts, home directory, desktop configs, etc. Eventually I have the whole system set up, but at any one time I can always put the old drive into the primary position and have my old setup running in a minute.

Actually, this drive was added long after the OS install. It's actually the third HDD on the system, including two other 30GB drives.

Menudrake also allows the rebuilding of the menus. I needed to do a rebuild after I installed some gkrell plugins. I don't know which part caused the problem, but after the install I have almost nothing left in my menus.

It's been a long time since I did it, but in 1998 I put an early version of Slackware 96 (I believe) on my old 386SX/20, with 2 MB of RAM and only a floppy drive. It wasn't easy and there was no X, but I did it. I will look into some of my old Linux Format magazines as they have installed Linux on 386's before, sometimes even with TinyX! Do you have a CD-ROM?

That's great, I've been looking for something like this for a while! I'll try it on my DJ990Cse and let everyone know if it works.

I have the same issues as you, I just don't have different locations. I usually access the internet by way of a dialup proxy on a WinXP box that everyone shares. However, as I am having troubles accessing the ftp gateway on the proxy (see my other recent post), I try to use direct dialup from my MDK 9.2 box for the ftp access. This is not really that easy. I have to adjust many settings with respect to the proxy to even have a chance at accessing the ftp. I have never tried modifying the /etc/resolv.conf file as all the DNS addresses for the ISP are dynamic.