banjo

Great links. I guess I will go find a new

time server to use with my rdate command.

 

My goal is really just to keep my crappy PC clock

synched up enough to be on time for dinner, so the

more complex updating schemes are a bit of an

overkill for me. Besides, my wristwatch synchs up

with WWVB every night at 1 a.m, so I can always

manually set my clock using my wristwatch for better

accuracy. I just think that it is really cool that I can

update my system clock (more or less) with a simple

command.

 

Ain't technology grand?

 

Linux rocks!

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

I just found out how to update my system clock

using the Cesium clock out at NIST.

 

Find and install rdate-1.3-2mdk.i586.rpm if you do

not already have it. Then, as root, type

 

rdate -s time.nist.gov

 

This will read the clock from the NIST site

and update your clock to match it.

 

To get automatic updates, put it in cron

(assuming that you are online all the time).

 

If you just want to see the time, type

 

rdate time.nist.gov

 

You don't have to be root to see the time.

 

 

Ain't technology grand? 8)

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

 

(There is probably a fancier way to do this,

but I like to keep it simple)

 

Mandrake 9.1 rocks!

 

Linux rules!

Is it just me, or is this directory a well-hidden secret?

 

/usr/share/doc/HOWTO/HTML/en

 

The directory has a tutorial in it for everything!

It has taken me months to find this!

 

I do not remember reading about this in my NOObie

docs. Or maybe it just takes a while for me to "get it".

 

Anyway, any NOObies out there who need a tutorial

on just about any subject can probably find it in there

without spending the rest of your life in Google.

 

Doh! :roll:

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

 

P.S. If this is common knowledge, I am accepting

dopeslaps.

Thanks to all for the help.

 

I do have a system which will boot from

the CD.

 

So after all of this, it appears that the solution

was at my fingertips all along. But I also learned

a heck of a lot about how Linux boots while I was

researching this. 8)

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

Kmack,

 

Thanks for the links.

Maybe the CD is the way to go.

 

I suppose this old dog is still stuck in the past

with floppies and all. Can't fit much on one of

those things any more.

 

I will check it out.

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

Thanks.

 

I guess I was on the right track. Maybe I will try

again some other time when I have more time to wait.

 

If I could just find a rescue image that I could dd to

the floppy this would be a lot easier.

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

OK I give up.......

 

All I want to do is to make a rescue floppy.

 

That ought to be pretty simple.

 

Please don't send me out to Search, I have done that for

months, and I have read all of it three times. I am a

novice at Linux, but I have been using Unix for years

(very little sysadmin tho'). So, I can understand instructions

in unix-speak.

 

Here is what I have tried:

 

I made a "Rescue Floppy" at install time. But since I am using

9.1, the bug in the MCC made a floppy that does not work.

 

OK fine.

 

So I searched and got vectored off to the bootdisk-HOWTO

document which has 52 pages of stuff to do...... starting with

building a kernel. I read it, I understood most of it, but

I really do not have time to do that right

now (someday maybe after I get some more time under my

belt on this thing) I just want to make a rescue floppy.

 

OK fine.

 

Another source told me to update MCC and that

will get rid of the bug. Just how is that done? I went to the

Control Center and I clicked Software=>Update, and my

computer went off into internet Hell downloading "something"

(it doesn't say what) and cannot be cancelled. Thirty

minutes later I had to hang up on it. Just what is

it doing? How do I get this update?

(I hate fnWizards!).

 

OK fine.

 

So I went out to the mirrors for the Mandrake CC updates and I

was faced with a huge number of packages to download

with no real indication (at least to my ignorant eyes) of which

ones I need to fix this bug. The page says it is better to do this

"automatically" using the MCC, but........... how?....................

...where?...................didn't I just try that trick?

 

OK fine.

 

I searched out minimal floppy systems on the net, but

the docs on them are so vague that I have no idea

whether or not they will work on my system (I have

ext3 file system.... most of them tout ext2.......... will I

be able to mount my hard disk using them?....)

 

OK fine.

 

End of rant.

 

So here are my specific questions.

 

1). How exactly do I get this MCC update so that I can

make a rescue floppy? I suppose that is the cleanest

approach. I am on a modem, so terabyte downloads

are not going to work for me.

 

.........or................

 

2). Where can I find a rescue image that I can be fairly

well assured will work with Mandy 9.1 and my ext3 files?

I don't want to damage my system messing around with

outdated stuff. One page said that Mandrake has such

an image on its download page, but I can't find it.

 

3). What the heck is MCC downloading when I click on

the Update tool?

 

Thanks in advance to all the great folks on this

board. Sorry for the rant, but I am sooooo confused..

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

 

P.S. My goal is to learn enough so that I can answer

these questions for other folks....................but for right

now......... HELP!.......

 

:shock:

Well, I feel better.

 

As long as they are not mucking with the software

to pull the fnWindows scam on us, let 'em advertise.

Just don't turn Mandrake into fnMandrake......

 

Keep smilin :D

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

Here is the scary part:

 

The ads are pretty worthless to the buyers if

they are easy to defeat..... which they are now.

Who is going to pay for an add that is just

going to be deleted as the first step of every

install?

 

So, what is Mandrake doing to the distro to make

it more difficult to defeat the adds? If they are

mucking with the software to enforce these adds

and bookmarks, then color me gone.

 

I joined the Linux community so that I will own

my own system and not be dragged about by

clandestine software that directs my attention

where the vendor wants it to be. The fnWindows

community seems to think that fnGates still owns

my computer even after I have paid for it. That

is not the case with Linux...... or at least it

wasn't the case..

 

So, how do we know that they have not modified

the software in the distro to enforce these adds?

 

If I have to go into a Mandrake distro and recompile

everything in order to get control back, then I will

go find a cheaper distro or a free download

and go from there.

 

As I said, for the free downloads, be my guest.

But if I pay for a distro, it should be add-free.

 

Just a rant. I am still very very happy with my

Mandrake 9.1, and I have no intention of bailing out

now. I just hate to see this thing going in the wrong

direction.

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

Adds are OK for a free download, but if you pay for

the distro it stinks. I am bailing out of fnWindows

completely because they do this sort of crap, trying

to take over my computer in order to SPAM

me with their adds.

 

I bought the PowerPack for 9.1. I am very very

happy that I made the move. Mandrake is the best,

but if this stuff goes into the PowerPack for 9.2,

I will not be making that purchase.

 

So, how do we find out whether or not this junk is

going into the purchased distro?

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

So, after all this time I have finally

figured out what Kmail is doing with the

clock.

 

Doh!

 

After poking around at the system clock again

I found that the computer was set up for

UCT instead of Eastern Time Zone.

So it was adding the four hours to translate

into "local" time.

 

I know that I told Mandrake to use

Eastern time zone at install time!!....... I could

swear that it asked and I said "Eastern"......but I

guess it didn't take...............

 

Anyway, I set the clock to Eastern time

zone, and it works great now.

 

Thanks to all for the help.

 

Linux rules!

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

That is the same RPM that I had downloaded

and tried before. I got errors when I tried to

install it. So I tried what you suggested:

 

rpm -Uvh sodipodi-0.32-1mdk.i586.rpm

 

and that seems to have worked. So it appears that

updating the package works, but installing does not ???

One of these days maybe I will understand what just

happened.....

 

The 0.32 version of sodipodi is much better than

the 0.31 I was using.

 

And I also am now able to export the PNG file while

logged in using KDE.

 

Another thing puzzling me is that earlier

I had downloaded the source code and

attempted to build the program, but the configure

script gave me errors....

 

Package gtk+-2.0 was not found in the pkg-config search path.

Perhaps you should add the directory containing `gtk+-2.0.pc'

to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable

No package 'gtk+-2.0' found

 

.........which implies that my system is missing something.....

 

But the update worked anyway, which implies that

all is well........... ???

 

Oh well. I am very happy that the tool works now.

 

Thanks for all the help.

 

Linux rules!

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

I just use Yahoo! and it works fine.

 

No fnWindows is involved.

 

Linux rocks!

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

Hmmmmmm.

 

I downloaded 0.32 and tried to install it, but it

just barfed out the message

 

"error registering local packages"

 

Maybe I will go try it again and see if

I can get the new one installed. I am

new with RPM. Any ideas of what the above

error means? Can you tell me exactly which RPM

I should use for 9.1? Perhaps I downloaded the

wrong file from sourceforge. I am running on

a Celeron chip, and I am not sure where that

resides in the i586 i686 chain of processors.

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

OK. Never mind.

 

 

I figured it out.

 

I was running sodipodi under KDE, which is my

normal desktop. I decided to try it running Gnome

and it works just fine. I got my PNG. Yay.

 

I guess that is why I am the GNUbie.

 

Funny thing is that the rest of sodipodi seems to

work fine under KDE. So it was a rather deceptive

problem.

 

Thanks again for the help.

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

zero0w,

 

Thanks for the info. Nice image.

 

I have the Export Bitmap dialog up on the

screen with "test.png" in it. I still cannot get any

file to come out of it. When I click on Export,

nothing happens. One curious thing is the

the Bitmap Size area at the bottom of the screen

has the Height box empty and grayed out....???

 

Is there something else I must do to the image

before I can export it?

 

What version are you using; maybe there is a bug

in mine. I am running .31, which came with the

Mandrake 9.1 distro.

 

Thanks in advance

Banjo

OK. I give up.

 

I need a usable vector graphics program for my 9.1

system, and I cannot get there with what I have found

so far. I need to be able to create icons for my web

work, and while The GIMP is a wonderful pixel editor,

I cannot do this work with a pixel editor.

 

I have tried Kontour (Karbon 14) but that tool does

not have Bezier curves. There is only so much you

can accomplish with circles and stars.

 

So, I tried Sketch, which works, but I cannot get the

text to do anything but tiny tiny tiny fonts.

 

So, I installed sodipodi, which seems to be just what

I need....... only to find out that I cannot export my work

to anything but SVG, which is readable by next to nothing!

(There is a tool to export to PNG, but no matter what I do

it stores nothing.... no file is created).

 

I have sodipodi .31, so I downloaded version .32 and

tried to install it.... I just got the error

 

error registering local packages

 

I would be very thankful for a pointer to a working

vector graphics program, or a way to get sodipodi to

actually store a PNG file for me. Is there a trick to that?

If I can get a PNG file out of sodipodi then I can take

The GIMP and run with it.

 

Help help, oh help..........

 

Banjo

(keep smilin' :? )

(_)=='=~

Thanks for the pointer. I am new at Linux,

so I am just finding my way around.

 

Should I unistall the Vim that is there before

I install a new one, or can I just update?

Any tips or a pointer to a HOWTO would be

appreciated.

My Mandrake 9.1 came with Vim that was not

compiled for the graphical UI. I would really love

to get gvim running on my computer since that is

my editor of choice.

 

Anybody know where I can get an rpm that

has gvim enabled. I know I can build it from

source, but I have no real desire to do that if

I can just download it and install the bins.

 

 

Thanks in advance

Banjo

(_)=='=~

Thanks for the feedback.

 

My clock seems to be OK and correct.

At least, that is what it is showing in the corner

of the screen. Also, the outgoing messages are

correctly timestamped.

 

The incoming messages also seem to be

correctly timestamped by the sender. It

is just the "recieved" time in my inbox that

is off by four hours. I am not sure that I

really understand what that number is supposed

to mean anyway. Received by what? There

are numerous receipt times in the headers.

Maybe the GMT offset is being used incorrectly

or something.

 

I tried reformatting the timestamp output,

but that just reformats the incorrect data.

 

Not a big deal. I will simply ignore that field

for now.

 

Thanks again

Banjo

(_)=='=~

Here is a noobie question.

 

When I receive messages in Kmail, the receive

time has four hours added to it. The sent times in the

messages seem to be correct, given their locations

of origin.I cannot find anywhere to set a locale in the

settings dialogs. I assume that it is adding four

hours to my system clock.

 

Any ideas or clues about what I can do to

fix this.

 

Thanks in advance

Banjo

(_)=='=~

Great web sites!

 

I was not aware of those.

 

Thanks for the pointers.

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

Content! Content! Content!

 

It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.

 

I prefer to spend my energy on the creation of my

images than on comparisons of the tools.

 

I have just started using The Gimp, and it appears to

me that the toolset is rich enough to keep me busy for

many years........ but then, I have not used PhotoShop

either...........

 

I think that I will stick with The Gimp until I come up

with some radical ideas for images that cannot be

handled by it........ which will be a long time from now,

and then perhaps I will go look for a better tool.

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

I figured out the answer to my own

question. After uploading a file, Quanta

saves the upload time in the project file

(proj_name.webprj) in the following format:

 

<item upload_time="1059915573" url="archives.html" />

 

Newly added files are saved like this

 

<item url="archives.html" />

 

No upload time is mentioned.

 

So, I made a backup of the project file and

then edited it using Vim. Using global search

and replace, I added the same upload_time value

to every line where there was none.

 

Now, Quanta is convinced that I uploaded all

of my files at the same time. When I invoke

the Upload Project dialog, all of my files

come up unchecked. The automatic time stamp

detection feature should now work as

advertised.

 

Banjo

I am a new user of Quanta. I am porting

the maintenance of an existing web page

from Windoze to Linux, and I have now created

a project in Quanta to handle it. Quanta is a

great tool.

 

My problem is uploading the site to the server.

 

My web page has megabytes of files already

uploaded, but Quanta does not know that. So

each time I upload, it assumes that *all* of the

files have "changed" and it therefore flags them

all for upload. I have to unselect all the files

and then reselect the one or two I really need to

upload to avoid sending the whole thing up at

once. This defeats the capability of the tool to

determine for me which files need to be uploaded.

 

I do not want to waste hours of upload time

to upload all of the files that are already there

just to satisfy Quanta that they have been refreshed

on the host.

 

Does anybody know how I can go in and tell Quanta

to update all the timestamps on all of the files in

the project so that it will assume that they have

already been uploaded?

 

If I could do this, it would save me loads of time.

 

Thanks in advance