davecs

I have a Microsoft Keyboard (sorry!) which has a key labelled "F-lock". When F-lock is ON, the Function keys operate normally, but when it is OFF, they are labelled as follows: Help, Undo, Redo, New, Open, Close, Reply, Fwd, Send, Spell, Save, Print I have backed up and edited the keymap file at /etc/X11/xkb/symbols/gb and allocated the following values to these keys: Help, Undo, Redo, XF86New, XF86Open, XF86Close, XF86Reply, XF86MailForward, XF86Send, XF86Spell, XF86Save, Print When I run KDE Control Centre, these codes are recognised under Accessibility > Keyboard Shortcuts > Global Shortcuts. However, most of these keys are not much use at Global level, I need to get them to work at Application Level. And that is the problem KDE does not recognise them when I try to allocate them as Application Shortcuts. Is there a workaround for this problem, such as giving them values in the keytable which are recognised for Application Shortcuts... There is another problem in that the Windows key is returned as F13 and cannot be used as a system shift key, which is what I want it to be... Note that in Global Shortcuts I did successfully allocate "XF86Close" to "Kill Application" so why does it work in Global and not in Application? DAVE

That sounds good, having to download the kernel-source. So if you have an nForce motherboard and an ethernet/cable internet connection, and have to download the kernel-source before you can compile the nForce ethernet driver, you're up a gum tree, nest-ce pas? DAVE

Now DVD burners are getting cheaper, I am thinking of getting one. The Pioneer 106 which does ±RW is now available at a fairly attractive price, has anyone got one and does anyone know of any problems with it?

The first version of Linux that I actually managed to install properly adn get working was Mandrake 9.0. Supermount was a pain in the ar5e! If you tried to access an optical drive without a disc in, it was several minutes before you got your machine back! 9.1 has not completely eliminated this problem, but has got the wait to manageable proportions, so, on balance I have kept supermount. If you want to do without it, in KDE at least, you can create icons on your desktop that have, on the context menu, mount/unmount commands. In fact I have created one for my Compact Flash card reader. It's no big deal. Just right click on the desktop, select Create New... CD/DVD Device or Floppy Device and off you go!

Mandrake ASKS that you join the club. You are not forced to. You can link to contrib sites, and other people who do Mandrake rpm builds such as plf and texstar via the Easy Urpmi site. I've got Mplayer, complete with DVD-readability, all the multimedia stuff and the latest KDE and K3B thanks to me following the instructions in this site. As far as I know, this level of independent specialist support does not exist for any other distro.

Can you let us know what you set "USB Device Legacy Support" to? To avoid the same happening to someone else? DAVE

Sorry I have to buy a new mobo myself. Could you tell us what problems you are experiencing?

I have a mobo which needs nForce, the Asus A7N266VM, and it provides 2 USB ports on the back, and two more headers on the mobo to connect 4 more. Internally they are actually 2 blocks of 3 USB ports. One of these blocks (which includes the 2 "default" ports) actually causes the computer to freeze under Mandrake 9.1 when you plug a peripheral into it. It does not freeze under Windows. (Though it is generally unstable under Windows and, to say the least quirky under Linux. And yes, I have updated the BIOS.) Due to this and other niggles with with it (when you have an ethernet internet connection the system regularly freezes for short periods, resulting in sounds breaking up and a staccato movement of the mouse across the screen), my next mobo will NOT have an nForce chipset. On the other hand, I have had no problems with the nVidia graphics modules so I will consider an nVidia video card. On the question of whether you should use a USB mouse, I admit to using the occasional DOS program, which requires a PS/2 or USB mouse for it to work. That is only a small disadvantage of a USB mouse, but I cannot think of any advantage: I would have thought that the answer is therefore obvious.

You need to visit the following site: http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon Here you will get full instructions for adding alternate sites to your Software Installer, and you will be able to download mplayer (and lots more) from one of these.

Using Mandy9.1 have installed Kino and Cinelerra. Kino captures ok from my DV recorder via IEEE1394, to either AVI or MOV. However when on the editing tab, I can't play it, it just fast-forwards. I can edit bits out, etc, and it does correctly compile the MPEG file, but I am finding the playback problem frustrating, as it means I am having to guess what bits to cut, etc. Cinelerra just does not work. It loads, but that's it. I can open a MOV file, but cannot actually do anything with it. It won't play it or edit it in any way shape or form. Obviously I have something missing. WHAT?

The problem with Mandrake is that it takes control of the menuing system from KDE (and other frontends). So any programs you install from a tar.gz have to be added manually. What you read here represents a general technique for a number of programs. You need to copy the OOo icons into the directory /usr/share/icons You will need to be root to do it. Then you need to use menudrake. To do this, run Mandrake Control Centre > System > Menudrake > System Menu Configure All the programs you need are in the directory /opt/OpenOffice.org1.1.0/program (check - yours could be different) and are scripts starting with 's' They are: sagenda, scalc, sdraw, sfax, simpress, slabel, sletter, smath, smemo, svcard, sweb, swriter So to create a shortcut for OOo Writer, you would use the following entries in the add program dialogue box: Title: OpenOffice.org Writer (or whatever) Command: /opt/OpenOffice.org1.1.0/program/swriter Once you press OK you can add a Long Title and select an Icon. When finished, save. You may need to repeat all this for your personal menu if different. Click on "K">Configuration>Other>MenuDrake to amend your personal menu. There is another, simpler way of going about it, with Mandrake 9.1 Download edition you will need Disc 3. Just use Software Install to install "oooqs". This puts an icon in your system tray. You can right-click on it and select "Configure etc" and in the General tab, set the path to OpenOffice.org as /opt/OpenOffice.org1.1.0/ You can use other Configuration options to select which OOo element runs when you double-left-click on the icon, and if you right click you can select from the menu. Me? I did both. My other gripe with OOo is that it does not correctly uninstall older versions when you upgrade. Once installed, though, it was worth the hassle. Such a great program!

Thanks Boonders. I am more concerned about modifying files already produced by my camcorder than ripping new DVD files. (Thanks to switching to Linux and Open Source software, I can now afford them! :wink: even at UK prices!) However, I will look at the various commands that were downloaded with DVD::RIP. (Quick hint - Use Mandrake Control Centre to remove the file, but don't actually press the button to remove it. You will get a list of files in the right-hand window, and all the programs are those that start with /usr/bin !) I already had Easy Urpmi set up. IMHO that is what lifts Mandrake above the crowd!

I am submitting this tip in the hope that it will save someone a month of agony! I recently bought a DV camcorder and PCI ieee1394 host adaptor. I checked for compatibility at the site: www.linux1394.org If you look at the site there is a load of scary stuff about recompiling the kernel, etc, but with Mandrake 9.1 you don't need to. This is what you need to do: First visit the easy urpmi site (http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon) and setup you software source manager so you can load up all the programs and libraries recommended by the linux1394 site. I think you can get them all bar one. You'll definitely need libraw1394, libdc1394, testlibraw1394, gscanbus, kino, dvgrab, etc. I seem to remember that I found all of these except one via software source manager except one, I think it was libdc1394, but I found an rpm using a google search. Basically, in the "add software" icon in Mandrake Control Centre, search for 1394 and install everything, plus Kino and Dvgrab. Gscanbus is also worth having to check if everything works. Open a terminal, and, as root, add the following lines to /etc/rc.local (hint type "kate /etc/rc.local"): modprobe video1394 modprobe dv1394 modprobe raw1394 Due to dependencies, ieee1394 and ohci1394 or equivalent will also be loaded. Now add these lines to /etc/modules.conf alias /dev/raw1394* raw1394 alias /dev/dv1394* dv1394 Once saved, reboot. Once back in KDE or gnome, open a terminal, change to root and type in: cd /dev mknod raw1394 c 172 0 mknod dv1394 c 172 0 (don't worry that these lines produce an error that they are already present) chmod 666 raw1394 chmod 666 dv1394 Now programs like Kino should run and recognise the ieee1394 subsystem.

I DID IT!!!! I DID IT!!!! Sorry for shouting, but.... I DID IT!!!! I already had all the modprobe lines added to rc.local and the devices only worked for root. In a terminal I changed to root and typed cd /dev ls I saw that there were some reversed entries (ie highlighted) which did not correspond with directories listed in Konqueror. One was /dev/nvidia. There is a line in /etc/modules.conf which reads alias /dev/nvidia* nvidia . I concluded that they were "virtual" devices and wondered whether I could "chmod" them as if they were real ones. So I added these lines to modules.conf alias /dev/dv1394* dv1394 alias /dev/raw1394* raw1394 and rebooted. I then went back to the /dev folder in a terminal as root and typed: ls dv1394 and raw1394 were now there, highlighted as before! I typed: mknod raw1394 c 172 0 mknod dv1394 c 172 0 Both these lines produced errors, directories already present, but I continued: chmod 666 raw1394 chmod 666 dv1394 Now I ran kino as user from the menu and it ran with full access to the 1394 system. To find out whether the change was permanent, I took a deep breath, rebooted (I nearly suffocated - it takes a while!) and ran kino again, and it worked! Anyway, thanks everyone for trying. I'm about to log off and get the partition image discs out... time for a backup, methinks!

Does anyone know of any Linux software that can put an MPEG-1 header on an MPEG-2 file? The reason for this is that most DVD players, mine included, play VCDs but not SVCDs. VCDs have a res of 352x288, whereas MPEG-2 files have a res of 480 (or 720) x576, resulting in a sharper picture. For some reason, many DVD players which will not play SVCDs, will accept a VCD with files at SVCD resolution, provided the header of the MPEG file was altered prior to creating the VCD. The contents can still be at the higher resolution. Result: a huge increase in picture quality. I can do this in Windows, there is a free program called TMPGenc, is there a similar Linux program that can do this. I have contacted one of the Transcode authors and it does not, nor do there seem to be any plans... Does anyone have any info?

I have been searching and posting all over the net on this one. I have found a website where the author advises on making Kino work with a DV Camcorder, and basically he accepts that the ieee1394 subsystem will only work as root, so you have to run Kino from a terminal as root. I am not happy with doing this, though I have had to so far. Although I have loaded 5 modules, (ieee1394, video1394, raw1394, dv1394 and ohci1394) only the first two appear as a "device", ie, /dev/ieee1394 and /dev/video1394. From what I gather, I need to have similar devices for the next two. Is there another way of loading the modules (other than modprobe) which will also produce the devices?

I just used OOo1.1rc1 to export to PDF, and it was perfect. There are three output levels and I picked the middle one. I e-mailed it into work where we use Windows 2000 and few of the fonts are available, and it rendered and printed perfectly. It does seem strange and I've noticed this a lot, but sometimes there seems to be variance on how different computers work with the same programme. Perhaps it's hardware or it's memory intensive. Anyone know?

There are two ways to go about this. One: Copy all the OOo icons to /usr/share/icons. Then run Mandrake Control Centre > System > Menudrake > System Menu Configure. Once you are in Menudrake, switch Environment to "All environments". Then enter every element of OOo in the usual way. You will have to locate where OOo loaded, usually /usr/local/OpenOffice1.1rc or /opt/OpenOffice1.1rc then open the directory "program" and scroll through the icons to letter "s". You will see icons for sagenda, scalc, sdraw, sfax, simpress, slabel, sletter, smath, smemo, svcard, sweb, swriter (main ones bolded). Also you will see spadmin, which helps you set up your printer. All these can be assigned places on your system menu which will then be available to yourself or any other user. Two: For Mandrake/KDE users, load "oooqs" from your Mandrake disc. Run it (from "Run" in KDE menu). An icon will appear in your system tray. Right-click on it and select Configure. Set it up how you like it, and you can then run all your OOo bits from there. Me? I've done both!

I mounted mine using a KDE Desktop Shortcut! Plug in the card and make sure it is listed in the hardware in Mandrake Control Centre. A directory with a name like /mnt/memory_card will also have been created. Right click on the KDE desktop and select Create New > Floppy Device (really!!). Under "General" change the icon but select one with the little green arrow! Change the title to Memory Card. Under "device" select /dev/sda1 (/mnt/memory_card) or similar and change the icon to one similar to the icon under General but without the little arrow. Press OK. Now, provided you have the device plugged in and a card in it, double clicking the icon will mount it and open a window to it. To unmount it, right click on it and select unmount (always do this before closing down). Hope this works for you! Another thing just hit me: have you tried using auto instead of vfat in your mount command?

If you know a Windows computer with Partition Magic, you can use it to make a DOS Floppy disc, which will enable you to resize all partitions. I think there are also GNU/Linux mini-distros which you can put on disk for the same purpose. Or CD-based ones like knoppix which I think include these sort of tools though I could be wrong. Before you start messing around with partitions though, back up your data!

I don't need a new Kernel!!!! The various 1394 drivers supplied with Mandrake 9.1 worked all along, it's just that they are only available to root, so when I ran Kino as myself it thought they weren't there! When I ran Kino as root it worked! OK! So what's going on here and how to I fix it?

run the setup file & choose remove option .... but pls dont do that ... am sure you wouldnt have to ! :shock: Setup will remove the user bit in your home area, but it does not remove the main bit in the /usr/local or /opt area. Yesterday I upgraded KDE from 3.1 to 3.1.2 and OOo loaded quicker. I just loaded the new 1.1RC and it loaded quicker still, and the fonts look better on screen. It is a definite improvement over 1.1beta1. The only way I could find to get shot of the older version was brute force, i.e., open Konqueror as root and delete the old directory. Do that after loading the new version, I tried it once before and the new one would not load! Question: is there a way of carrying forward your user settings and not having to type them in again? Could I have loaded the /home stuff into the same folder as it was in previously?

The way I look at it, "contrib", "plf" and "texstar" make Mandrake Linux worth having! I trust their content and they've never let me down!

My mobo is a Asus A7N266VM, the worst purchase I ever made. The only reason I tried to upgrade to the newer kernel was because I have added firewire and want to plug in a DV Camcorder. According to linux1394.org, both the card and the camera I have are compatible with Linux. However, I read somewhere else that the nVidia chipset prevents Firewire (even another manufacturers PCI firewire card) working properly in Linux. Obviously a software problem because it works in Windows. That is, if my pathetic motherboard can run Windows for more than 1/2 hour without crashing!!! DAVE

You have to uninstall your current version using Mandrake Control Centre > Software Management first. The tar.gz actually works better than the rpm, because OpenOffice is made to have its files stored in its own directories, from where it serves users who have a smaller number of files in their home directory. So you kinda have to install twice, but it ain't hard, the instructions are pretty good. The rpms are built to simplify installing it, and as a result OOo works but not at its best from the rpm. The only trouble with using the tar.gz is that you will have to install the icons yourself then go into Menudrake to build the menus. Actually it isn't difficult, but it takes a while. I have to say, though, it's worth it! I will have to download the new version and uninstall the earlier beta, but I will probably wait until the final release is out. By the way, oooqs will find OOo and add a shortcut to your system tray! Even if you used the tar.gz!