sitor

Hello guys, I installed 10.0 Community last night. Apart from the problem to get the mouse working (see this thread), Everything worked quite smooth. Oh, yeah I was not able to get my machine to triple boot. He did not want to install 10.0 next to 9.2. Told me that he could not create a second partition with the name /. Apparently partitions need to have unique names, but then how do you dual boot two linux distro's? Anyway, at one side I'm glad I did the upgrade. Now I am forced to use 10.0 (had to give up 9.2 do to the above), I will be forced to test as well. And KDE 3.2 is indeed great, it boots faster, ... On the other hand there is one thing that bothers me quite a lot: there are currently no rpm sources at all. No Contrib, Commercial, plf, etc. The only thing there is is Distribution (that is what is already on the CD, right?). And I am no hero at all when it comes to installing in less userfriendly ways. Does anyone have a clue how long it takes before those rpms are created when a new distro comes out? Would the 9.2 ones work on 10.0? Is there any risk in trying (we speak about my only and sole machine)? The fact that this version is not free yet, does this mean that it will take longer before the rpms are created? Ciao, Sitor

Hello, I just installed MDL 10.0 community. Although I am quite satisfied, there were some problems. For one of these I found a workaround which I will describe below. I was hoping that others that have found a workaround or fix for a 10.0 problem might post it in this thread as well, so that they are all together. Here goes mine: When installing 10.0, my mouse did not function at all. It is possible to do an install without it, but I needed quite some special partitioning and could not get it done without a mouse. After trying several things, I found out that if I plugged out the Keyboard connector (not the mouse connector, indeed the keyboard connector) and then simply plugged it in again, that all of a sudden the mouse did work. Installation could then be done with a working mouse. However I was not able to fix the problem. Each time I boot the machine, the mouse does not function till I use the same trick. Livable, but quite annoying. I wanted to file a bug report, but seemed not to be the first. Posted my workaround on the wiki as well though. Just for completeness: My mouse is a regular Compaq PS2 wheelmouse. The other person that already filed a bug report used an optical PS2 wheelmouse. Hope this helps someone. Ciao, Sitor

Hello Yves,, With the WinTV-FM do you mean the Hauppauge PVR 350? In the shops here in Belgium they are sold for about 250 €, so if that is the one, please let me know where you found it so cheap. Please keep us informed whether you can get it to work under Linux, whatever the brand is. Ciao, Sitor

Hi, Just my input: I have been a long time Windoze user and still use it at work. Since almost I year ago I started to use Linux. And my experience is that you get a lot more apps to pick from, and you can do it without having to open your wallet in a legal way. I'm not at all a hero with the command line, and never compile from source. RPMDrake does the trick for me. Almost all apps I ever needed did exist in rpm. The other did at least exist in binary. That requires some command line, but it is not too difficult. I agree as well that the upgrade option is just not usefull. A fresh install is faster, and if you have your /home on a seperate partition and conserve it during the install, then there is nothing that the windows "upgrade" does better for you. In that case all your application's congfigs are conserved as well. So if that was the reason to go back to Windoze, just give it another try. There is a little learning to do, because Linux is not a copy of Windoze, but you get so much out of it. I'm not saying that Linux is better in all respects. I still do have some minor issues: 1. No userfriendly alternative to MS Access 2. Most games for our kids only run on Windoze (perhaps they run in Wine as well, but configuring Wine just seems not evident, so it would take time to try, and it just ain't priority enough). That are the reasons that I am still in dual boot. Ciao, Sitor

Hi, When upgrading from 9.1 to 9.2, I first did the upgrade thing. That did not really work as it was supposed to be. Some thing did not really work OK and some bugs that were in 9.1 were still there although they were supposed to be fixed in 9.2. Finally I reinstalled, but conserved my /home (which is straightforward if you have it on a seperate partition as I do). Then I had some new 9.2 bugs (menu disappearing and stuff). But the old 9.1 bugs were gone and everything went much smoother. Also the reinstall was so easy, that I don't really see any need for the upgrade. By conserving the /home, you conserve also your configuration, so reinstalling that way is all you need in my opinion. I'm gonna do a complete fresh install for 10.0 though. I have a second HD now in my PC which is much more quiet (Seagate Baracuda), and I want my /home on that one. The old noisy HD (Maxtor, makes a hell of a noise), I want only to use for backups from now on. Ciao, Sitor

Godflesh, Thanks for the tip on the silent PC website. Very interesting articles. I think this will result again in a lot of reading before I really will be able to decide on the HW. Ciao, Sitor

I've been using M$ Office for over a decade, and I'm now using OOo since almost a year (even at the office where we do have M$ Office as a standard). My experience is that both have pro's and con's. Compatibility is still not 100%. Some features are not there yet in OOo. In some areas M$ Office is behind to OOo. What I do know however is the following: A colleague of mine was not able to open a M$ Office 2000 doc with M$ Office 2003. I opened the doc in OOo and saved it again. My colleague was quite impressed that all of a sudden he could read the document. M$ is turning users to install OOo, if they still want to read there old docs! So reverting to the post above from Gowater: if M$ Office is a virus, it seems that OOo is the virus cleaner. Overall, I think both M$ Office and OOo are both very satisfying and powerfull application suites that give a quite decent user experience. So seen the difference in price, I see no reason to use M$ Office! Ciao, Sitor

Hello, Do you have sources set-up for Internet installs? If not that explains of course why you cannot install OpenOffice. The Abiword thing seems a dependency problem to me. It would be good to file a bug report on that one (normally installdrake, or what is it called, should take care of that automatically). Ciao, Sitor

Thanks Gowater. Very helpfull. What do you think, might an XBOX make a good MythTV frontend (HW is not good enough for the backend, but maybe as frontend)? Ciao, Sitor

First of all, I've never really done any video editing so far (but that will change, just ordered my DV camera today), so I'm not at all an expert. But I have read some on digital video out of interest, so here is some of the things that I do know (but I can be mistaken here and there): On video formats: In M$, almost anything is in AVI, but that is just the extension. What does count is the codec that is used to compress the video. As raw video is so huge, it does not make a lot of sense to use lossless compression, but the Motion Pictures Experts Group (or short MPEG) has created a number of different compression algorythms that perform well depending on the purpose (video conferencing, DVD, ...). For storing video in good quality, and not too large files, MPEG 2 is the de facto standard (if I'm not mistaken, the format used on DVD's is an MPEG 2 based codecs). Next to that MJPEG is used as well (Motion JPEG, JPEG = Joint Pictures Experts Group and also the name of the most popular foto compression codec) This is a frame based compression codec (each frame is compressed independently, while the MPEG codecs also use interframe compression). If I'm not mistaken this is used as a codec for DV (low in artefacts but relatively high in files size) but also by Apples Quicktime. In order to get even smaller file sizes, MPEG 4 has been conceived. Although a lot of companies are still working further on better MPEG 4 codecs, MPEG 4 is already used quite often in the form of DIVX and XVID codecs, well known for sharing video content over the Internet . It does not make a lot of sense to use MPEG 1 today to store video (at least not as master). For the editing of home movies (probably entering as DV), I would suggest to keep a master of the edited movies again as DV, or at least as MPEG 2 on DVD. You can of course transcode a copy to MPEG 4 (DIVX or XVID) or even to lower quality (VCD or SVCD) for distribution (to get small files to distribute over the Internet or for compatibility reasons with DVD players that might be able to read one of these formats. The extension does not matter too much (can be AVI or MPG or MPEG). For the second part of your question, I would advice you to try two programs: Lives for working with movies in formats other then DV. This is relatively new software, still quite often some bugs, but from experience (wanted to rotate a movie shot with a still camera at 90°) the author is very helpfull (thanks again Salsaman!). From what I see on the mailing list, there is a small but active community in the rise around this project and it progresses quite good. Mandrake rpms do exist. Further for working with DV files (home movies from a digital video camera), I would suggest Kino. Seems only able to get DV as an input, but is able to export to a lot of other formats. Also for Kino there is a Mandrake rpm. What I would advice you as well is to have a look at the Dynebolic Live CD distribution: This can show all that you can do on video and audio editing on Linux. Use it to test with and if you find the software that you like, you can install it on your Mandrake. I hope this will help you further. Good luck. CIao, Sitor

Well my guess is that we are in a maturing state. With broadband becoming more widespread, there is not that much reason to use expensive distribution channels anymore. Certainly not for an Open Source model that is now more understood. At the same time, there is a consolidation going on. I think this is a good thing for Linux. The consolidation is required to gain enough critical mass to be profitable. My guess is that you will see different distro's that do more provide community centered services then sell software, or media containing software. There will remain different distro's using the same major building blocks, but offering different types of services just because the needs of the commities are different (e.g. desktop users wanting everything to simply work use Mandrake where you can simply urpmi plf packages, while in a professional environment people will prefer something like SUSE where they can rely on professional support). I guess that in the near future we will see more and more the different distro's specialize into their own niche. Ciao, Sitor

Here the same. There are only two things that can get my interest on TV: the daily news and a good movie (and it does not happen every day they show a GOOD movie that I haven't seen before). Luckily I have a network at home (wired, I work in security and maybe a little paranoid, don't want unsecure WIFI stuff behind my FW). Result: Half of the time I surf while my wife looks TV or reads some magazine..... When we're both at home that is. That XBOX thing interests me though. Is it powerfull enough to watch DIVX? Does it support USB, Firewire? Is it expandable (slots free)? Is it easy to put Linux onto it, or do you need a mod chip? Is it legal? Ciao, Sitor

Hm, you'll be starting faster then I will. My brother is still too much busy painting his appartment to care much, and I have not too much time left next to my full time job and two small kids. Let us know how it works out. Is Mandrake 10 bèta already stable enough? Do the MythTV rpms for MDL 10 already exist, or will you build from source (seems to be a real dependancy hell!). In any case good luck and keep us posted. Ciao, Sitor

Godflesh, what's wrong with VIA EPIA? They do seem to support Linux quite good. They're low power consuming, quite because of little cooling needs. All in all looks me to be a good price/quality ratio. Of course if you have experience with it, I would like to hear about it. Ciao, Sitor

I just heard that Longhorn, as being 64 bit, will mean that all the old software that users posses will no longer work (Billies eyes go $ $ ). Nice! You buy a brand new very fast 64bit PC, but, oh, don't forget to buy a new Office, and a new package X and a new package Y, ... Well, it will probably only cost a couple of times the worth of your new PC! Or get a very cheap (or even free if you are chep yourself) copy of a Linux distro and get a 64 bit OS with even more apps then you ever had,... User: the choice is yours.

I had confirmation from a colleague who has one that the Haupauge PVR indeed does not need a very fast CPU. That has set my mind to go with this probably in combination with VIA EPIA motherboard and processor. I read that both are quite well supported under Linux. For motherboard and processor, I'm going to check still on Transmeta though (heard that they would be more interesting price wise). Will post something if I find out more.

I think (hope) that one day Linux will be at least be an equal OS to M$ Windoze. However there is still so much reluctance. I'm looking to create an HTPC for my brother with Linux, but it is still almost impossible to buy a PC here in Belgium without being forced to have Windoze with it, let alone that you could choose to have a Linux distro pre-installed. As long as that is the case, Linux will stay for the motivated, not for the big public. The power might be in the fact that M$ also tries to control the content. If you are limited in the use of the content you bought on M$ and not on Linux, that might be a strong motivator to choose for Linux, also for those who do not care at all about Open or proprietary. Just some thoughts. Sitor

Hello guys, Thanks a lot already to all of you for all of the info. Michel, in what part of Belgium do you live? If you plan to build such a muchine as well, it could be interesting to share as much info as we can (were good HW can be found, etc.). I found something on a Belgian grabber for XMLTV on this page: http://membled.com/work/apps/xmltv/ If I understand correctly XMLTV as a DTD is indeed standard, but the actual content of the XML file, is of course dependent per country. I think the grabber is an application that goes to a certain source for that country and processes that info to the XMLTV format so that it can be used by apps like MythTV, but I'm not at all sure. About HW: VIA EPIA stuff seems to be good (-> low noise) and consume very little power, but they are quite limited in speed (up to 1GHz). According to the sources I found about it, it is quite sufficient for an HTPC (e.g. this TweakTown review). By accident I found a store that sells them in Holland and they do ship to Belgium: MyElectronics. They build them in some nice cases. But it seems that they standard use Matrox Hard Drives, and those are way too noisy for an HTPC (Seagate Baracuda is the way to go there). Still have to find out if it is possible to include all that is required (TVTuner card, FM tuner card, ...). I did not read anything about Transmeta being an interesting choice for an HTPC yet. Is it even for sale in Europe? What about Mandrake compatibility? OK, Linus worked there, but that does not make it 100% sure that it is Mandrake compatible (and before I buy anything I want to be). Godflesh, my spoken French is not too bad, but my mothertongue is Dutch, and when it comes to writing, I strongly prefer English over French. Ciao, sitor

Hi, My brother just moved out of our parents house to live alone. I advised not to buy a Tele, HIFI, VCR, DVD player, etc. but to buy a well equiped PC. Purpose would be to make it into a multimedia center with capabilities of jukebox, TV, Radio, VCR, DVD player, DIVX player, etc. I proposed him to installed Mandrake on the box (my brother has no Linux knowledge at all, and though I'm still a newbie, I'm fan enough to try to convert him as well ). I googled some to find info on how to do this, and found Freevo and MythTV are projects that might help us. I have a lot of questions remaining though, so I was hoping some of you guys might have some answers: 1. Which of the two is the most mature? 2. I found some rpms for MythTV (as I said, I'm a newbie, so I want start with kernel recompiling and stuff), but not for Freevo. Does anyone know rpms that work on Mandrake 9.2. 3. Could I install both at the same time, so that we can try them both? 4. I heard that the XMLTV way of working would be a very USA centered thing, and that it would not really work that well in Europe. Anyone in Europe who has experience with that? 5. Anyone that has experience with the Belgian XMLTV grabber (seems to be bèta for the moment)? 6. That grabbing with XMLTV is apparently organised per country. Does it work with any cable provider, etc. Will it work in both parts of the country (French and Dutch)? 7. A machine that should be used as such a multimedia center should boot very fast. My own Mandrake machine does this in 70 secs, which is way too much for this. Any tips on how this can be done (it should still be possible to be used as a normal PC and for accessing the net via ADSL)? 8. Apparently it is possible to control such a box with a remote using LIRC. Can you then use the remote to switch the box on as well? 9. It would be great that when the box is launched, automatically the MythTV or Freevo GUI is up. Is that possible? Is it then still possible to exit that GUI to use the PC as a regular PC? All other tips regarding the subject are of course very welcome. In return I will try to take the time to write a Howto on this. Ciao, Sitor

IMHO I think Mandrake does a great job creating the best distro for newbies (and I call tell, I'm one myself). I've been on the Club for half a year now, and I did not regret it. This board is much more fun then the Club and I find and get answer much more frequently here then at the Club, but the RPM downloads I can do there makes it worthwhile for me. Let them first make sure they survive, and then fix problems like better support. Better a good distro with lousy support then good support now, but no distro anymore in the future. At least that is how I feel.

So stupid that it is just plain funny.

I have a DVD +/- R(W) drive, and have written all formats with it with success. However I still have some questions: - I read somewhere that it is possible to use a +RW as if it were a HD (add and delete files at will). However I don't seem to be able to do that with K3B or other. - As a second, it would be already good just to be able to create a multisession DVD as with a CD, however, that seems not to be possible. :unsure: Anyone with experience with this? Ciao, Sitor

Well here is another guy that is really glad that you got it running again. I don't have time everyday to check upon new goodies here, but I got quite a scare that I couldn't anymore. It would take half of the fun away of using Mandrake! Thanks to all the guys (and girls if any) that make this happen! :D :D :D And thanks as well to all that guys that help out newbies like myself! Ciao, Sitor

I've been looking myself for the same thing. Up till now there seem to be some possibilities that are improving by the day: 1. Cinellera: I've read everywhere that it is so powerfull, but it clearly is not for the home user who wants to some basic quick editing. High learning curve. 2. Kino: I'm not able to evaluate it yet. Up till now I only work on some small video's from my still camera in mjpeg. Kino is not able to handle those (seems only to be able to have DV format as input, lots of formats as output though). This is the software I intend to use when I finally have my digital video camera. I read good things about it. 3. LiVES: This one is indeed able to work with mjpeg, so that is the one I have some (basic) experience with. The ability to rotate the movie was a feature I found nowhere else yet, and when you made the mistake with the still camera to shoot under 90° angle, ... Looks not so enormously mature yet, but a problem I had was corrected by the project owner within a day (thanks again Salsaman). Looks to me to have most of the functionality home users could wish. However sometimes work arounds are required, and documentation is not there yet. Also not optimized for big files (so watch it with DV files). Very promising though. All three can be installed from rpm package. Don't remember from contrib, plf or other source though. Hope this helps, Sitor

Good going! Keep us informed on what the reactions are and whether you will go further with the experiment. Ciao, Sitor