JediSB

I'm really stupid. I set the BIOS to boot from the second hard drive and it booted into Linux just fine. I then used the procedure in the link above to boot from the Windows boot loader, ands switched the BIOS back. I'm up and running. Now if I can just fix that modem problem.

I edited the original post as I went back and discovered I left out some details and got some other ones wrong. If anyone can re-read it and gain some insight I'd appreciate it.

I've installed both Mandake 8 and Mandrake 9 before and never had any problems. But I've always installed it on partition of a single drive, dual booting with Windows XP. This time I tried installing Mandrake on a second second hard drive I've added to my machine. I had a few issues this time. The system wouldn't boot from the first install CD. I checked the MD5 hash values efore burning and the ISO files were fine. I burned the discs with Nero 5.5 and checked the "verifiy written data" field. Everything is fine there. I even tried setting the BIOS to "CD-ROM" for all boot devices and the system still booted into Windows from the first HD. So I created an install floppy using rawwritewin.exe which got me into the installation just fine. The second hard drive is set up with the Linux swap partition first and then the ext3 partition located after that. I installed Linux on this second partition, hdb1, and choose to install LILO on hdb, after trying it on hdb1 and it not working. I had planned on using the Windows Boot Loader to boot into Linux, as I had done with previous Mandrake installs. The installation went fine with the exception of an error in configuring my modem, but when I rebooted I couldn't boot into Linux. The install did not prompt me to create a boot floppy (as Mandrake 9 did) so I fired up rawwritewin.exe and created a boot floppy by using the "boot.iso" file, which I assume was the correct one, as cdrom.img would only boot to an install menu. If that is incorrect, please let me know. Since I can't boot into Linux from the boot floppy I can't follow the steps in the link provided above to use the Windows boot loader. I'm guessing its because Linux is installed on the second hard drive. Did I leave out something? What do I need to do to get Linux to boot from the floppy? Thanks in advance.

Texstar used to have an RPM of Mozilla with anti-aliased fonts enabled. I've noticed there is a Mozilla RPM for 9.1 on his FTP site but the RPM name used to have xft in the name. This one does not so I'm not sure if has the hack enabled or not. ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/contrib/texstar/ You'll find lots of other nice stuff there as well.

All of those manufacturers make diagnostic software for their drives. More than likely you've purchased a whitebox/OEM/bare drive that doesn't come with these disks. However, if you buy a drive in a retail box it should come with a disk. You can download these tools here: Maxtor/Quantum - PowerMax utility Seagate - Seatools utility Western Digital - Data Lifeguard Tools Fujistu - Diagnostic tool I've used the Maxtor tool myself when Windows XP's CHKDISK kept finding tons of errors on my HD for no apparent reason. The tool let me run several low-level tests to check the integrity of the drive. It was fine so the problem is coming from XP. I just haven't pinpointed it yet. I ended up using the MAxtor disk to do a low level reformat of the drive and reinstalled everything. I'm still getting the problems with XP. (Which is why I'm D/Ling Mandrake 9.1 BTW.)

You could use ISOBuster in Windows to convert the .NRG to an .ISO. It also works with .CDI, .IMG, .CUE and a number of other formats. Not exactly the solution you were seeking but a decent work around.

That only solves the word processing part of the equation. What about spreadsheets? It has been my experience that .XLS spreadsheet files created in SO/OOo tend to get muddled in Excel more than .DOC files created in So/OOo do in MS Word. Tab delimited or comma-separated are not always an option. I could see how Cross-Over Office could help deal with that. Fortunately I don't have to share files with people that often and use the native SO/OOo file formats in both Windows and Mandrake.

I got a reply from the old MUB. Solves my problem in a different way: Additionally, someone mentioned downloading the RPM as in the post above this one. Someone else advised not to:

(I mentioned this somewhat in another post but wanted to get some more input. Also posted at the old boards as well.) I'm running a fresh install of Mandrake 9 with OOo installed from the Mandrake CDs. I had tried to install the Evolved OpenOffice RPM and the install bombed out, saying the file libpanel_applet.so.0 was required. I later discovered that this was a "core" GNOME file. I don't understand why it wouldn't be there as I have GNOME installed (though I'm running KDE.) I've searched the Mandrake CDs for the package that contains this file with no luck. It seems to available through Cooker though. However, many people he apparently have not had this problem so I'm kinda stumped. I posted to the forum on the Evolved OO site over 2 weeks ago. I've gotten no response from the author. Has anyone else had this problem? Any idea what I can do to get Evolved installed? Should I D/L this file from Cooker? Is there another way?

What about Mozilla? It is definitely as capable as KMail, although you may have to futz around with the fonts get it looking nice. If I can ask, why the aversion to KDE? With Evolution you are just switching camps from KDE to GNOME. Mozilla is independent of both.

I just tried a file search using Konqueror and it literally crippled my system to the point of just having to turn it off and reboot. I search the entire file system, including mounted Windows partitions as I couldn't find a way of excluding them while still searching everywhere else. I waited almost a half an hour and nothing would work. The pointer would only respond with jerky movement, if at all. Clicking on "Stop" to stop the search didn't work. The Kicker menu would not response at all. XKill wouldn't start. I could go on. I really want to use MDK 9, but when something as simple as searching for a file causes that much trouble, it makes it hard to think positively. The file I was searching for was "libpanel_applet.so.0". I had tried to install the Evolved OpenOffice RPM and the install bombed out, saying this file was required. I later discovered that this was a "core" GNOME file. I don't understand why it wouldn't be there as I have GNOME installed. Anyway, beeing a Noob I wasn't sure where this file should be so I just searched the entire file system. Bad idea. So I have 2 questions: 1. Why does a simple file search take so long and bring the system to its knees in the process? 2. What can I do to get Evolved OpenOffice installed?

drop the "www." from the link in the first post. It should be: http://krusader.sourceforge.net

I got xft2 RPMs from the Texstar FTP site. You need to make sure that the font you are using for your menus, etc. is a true type font. (I'm using Tahoma for everything, which I grabbed from my Windows partition. It is what Win2K and WinXP use for menus, etc.) I also turned off anti-aliasing for fonts sized 8 through 14. (I think that tweak was on one of the pages I posted above.)

If you got to Texstar's FTP he has these packages for MDK9.

Can anyone point me to an audio editor for Linux. I'm looking for something that is close to professional level, ala Cool Edit Pro or Wavelab. I've checked out Audacity but wasn't overly impressed. One thing I definitely need right now is a declicker function as I am transfering some old vinyl records to CD. Audacity supports VST plug-ins but I've yet to find a free VST declicker for Llinux.