pindakoe

2006 was solid, 2007 occasionally freezes for (some) keyboard input and mouse events. I can switch desktops so my windowmanager still listens, move to a console and Ctrl-Alt-BkSpc, but virtually nothing else works. No idea why but it happens at least every other day. For the rest: have got some major packages upgraded to more recent version (Xfce) which would be diffuclt (for me) from 2006. Also dkms/nvidia failed on me, this time such that even all accumulated experience (quite something since 10.0 I believe with dkms) couldn't get it to work). Then again the install of Nvidia's latest driver from their website worked like a charm. By now I tend to agree with the more seasoned sysadmins -- why change if it aint broken?

There will not be sound if alsa/sound are not running. Can you 9as root) try from the command-line a 'service alsa start' and 'service sound start' to see if this gives more extensive output on why it doesn't start. Also check /var/log/messages for any messages for alsa/sound.

IRC = Internet Relay chat. I had a similar issue. It turned out that the mic was working, but my mixer wasn't setup well and alsamixer (which I used to check) confused me thoroughly. Both the MIC and the capture level should be on a non-zero value (set them at 75% or so for a test). I have also enabled Mic Boost (+20 dB). As to Skype and port 9443: I have not opened this port and skype works (I think: only tested outgoing; not test incoming).

You only need one; multiple CD's exist for different combinations of languages. Check yr language

No such thing as a free lunch, or ... I stopped club membership over a year ago as I found the club offering me very little value and the distro progressing somewhat but walys with one or two areas that didnt quite work. I was pleasantly surprised that I could download Mandriva 2007 this year in October just after releause using BT and got a functional live CD. Installing to HD and then adding main, contrib (&PLF) gave me a fully functional version (with some gripes; dkms/nvidia failed in yet another way after a kernel upgrade, but one gets used to these things). I downloaded the 'non-free', i.e. version including nvidia/ati (and some other) kernel modules. The 'free' refers to free as in speech not free as in beer... So, where I had expected to look at alternatives (maybe PCLOS given its heritage) I am still on MDV.

I have read that Dansguardian is faster at filtering than squidguard & squid -- it seems to be better at managing large lists. It can also do content filtering (block pages based on content, rathern than only on address or name). I run DG on an Athlon XP 2800+ for single use (desktop use), with lots of lists. No delay ever. Largest list has over half a million entries... Note that DG only filters; it still relies on a proxy for some other tasks (which I do not quite understand). I run my setup with squid. The default blacklists coming with squidguard are old. You can find more update lists (using same taxonomy) at the website of the Univeristy of Toulouse and a US website (education board or something?) called MESD (also has some good background on squidguard). MESD also allows you to update your blacklist by rsync which typically reduces download size with 85% (I have a script to do this weekly). Note that not every list-type that is Toulouse if also in MESD; I update lists for ads and phishing from Toulouse. Anotehr huge repository for blacklists is ISAK which is based on Mozilla's Open Directory -- I do recall that their lists need some editing before being workable for DG, though (but this may not be the case for squidGuard).

I would also check you logs for clues (/var/log/messages). I usually use "logger" to write from scripts to the log in order to find how far my PC comes in long scripts before crashing. You can (if you want) pipe loads of output to logger and see it back in messages -- helped me out more often than once in trying to pinpoint where things went wrong exactly. No specific clues for denyhosts though.