Counterspy

1) The quote is almost as recent as the posts in the thread I started. 2) It is buried in an unrelated topic. 3) It isn't in the search engine before I found the command line fix. How in the world is a new user supposed to find that? Quotes are relevant when they are timely, like last September or October. It is not something new users would find even then. IMHO, it is silly to go to the wall to defend the indefensible. Today the Mandrakesoft CEO is quoteds as saying that 9.2 had improved quality over 9.1. Good for them they are making money, albeit with supervision of the bankruptcy court well past March. Let's hope 10.0 is a real improvement. At least we are now hearing from the top and not the perpetual dancing monkey, Duval. See Newsforge if it isn't mentioned on this board already. Counterspy

I may have found a way around this by accident. After running Mandrake Update, since I was still in the MCC, I decided to fix up a few small things. Without making the connection, I made several minor changes using Menudrake and when I rebooted, all was fine. Counterspy

Post your work on the mklivecd home site. He is publicizing all such efforts that take the time. If you want to go here: http://livecd.berlios.de/ . Counterspy

I am totally disgusted with myself for forgetting that the only safe way to update Mandrake is to avoid Mandrake Update. As a consequence I am reinstalling the whole thing for fear of lurking problems on my secondary machine. Fortunately I have all of the updates I need on a CD with 300 Mb. of fixes. This is just the way to keep new users who don't know about forums like this one. I might have saved myself some time by reading your excellent search results but I want a trouble free install since I am loaning my secondary machine to a friend to use while he picks his own. Occurrences like this is the main reason why I don't recommend Mandrake when asked for a choice. It's really too bad. I'm using it now to write this but I have been a user since 7.0. Things could be oh so different. Counterspy

I hope bvc's patients have lots of patience. Counterspy

In small print at the bottom: It always surprises me when people discover these joke sites and then post the url only to find out that they have been around for years and previously posted on top of that. Counterspy

Sarah, I thinkk you're being a purist. Nothing is wrong with that but the first CD of Sid and Sarge have a segfault on keyboard selection. Counterspy.

I posted this today at linuxiso.org and thought that it might generate some interesting responses here as well. So here goes. I am struck by the the number of people who mention hatred of M$ as the main reason for switching to Linux. Does anyone have any ideas about how this hatred could be mobilized by the many who feel it but who we (or many other people) have never heard from? Counterspy

Sorry I never thought of that. Sometimes the simpler solutions are the ones we don't see. Counterspy

You should be getting some more visitors from the newsgroup alt.os.linux.mandrake. There was a short thread there on how difficult it was to find the URL and some posters were under the impression that this site had folded or had been incorporated into the "Club". I read it daily but find that the longest threads are more concerned with troll identification and bashing with some useful Mandrake information. One poster was surprised that the membership numbers were not much, much higher. I suspect that if your interested in maintaining a presence there, some of the regulars from here should post over there. The quality of the newsgroup as an information source has been in slow decline IMHO, so it may be a waste of time, although the postings from here may raise the quality. Counterspy

I did I a network install of Sue 9.0 standard and was most impressed. Everything worked right out off the network and surprisingly had my KDE configured exactly the way I would have done except for a few kicker items. It is an evening of work but it worked out well for me. Counterspy

There are three ways to install Gentoo and the best way to describe them is to read about them on the Gentoo site. Count on spending a couple of days for the install if you choose the total compile method, but you will learn more than you can imagine and you will have a system tailored exactly to your machine. There are two less onerous methods and a live cd as well. Whichever method you choose, you will be getting an excellent distro that matches Debian in standards setting for quality and documentation. Counterspy

Although I still use Mandrake 9.2, I no longer recommend it as a first distribution for anybody. By the same token, I do not dissuade people who want to use it either. For those on the fence I suggest that they first try Knoppix and if it suits them, they can go on and look at many of the available products and choose the one that seems to suite their needs the best. Often the easiest is to do a hard drive install of Knoppix creating Debian, and by so doing, enter the world of the most stable distribution (and one of the most difficult) to be had. Mandrake had a chance to enter that world by enabling a hard drive install of MandrakeMove from the download version but once again they have blown an opportunity to be back up with the recommendations to use Knoppix and other live cd's as test beds before install and repair disks for any distribution. The people posting in this forum have stayed in there through thick and thin despite error-filled releases and poor quality control as described by OS News. The fact that they lay out all kinds of precautions, warnings, and workarounds has not diminished their commitment to Mandrake (as opposed to Mandrakesoft) and this forum serves as a signficant resource to the Linux user community for what they do here. They have created additional resources such as the download area and once committed to Mandrake, one does not need to go far for support for any problem. I left regular posting here and found another forum which suited me better as a regular poster, in part because I wanted a distribution that worked out of the box. Others post both here and there. You will find that the same warnings, some taken from here, are the currency there as well. With the changing landscape involving major distributions, interest in Mandrake has increased and the work done here has increased in its importance. It is not until you balance Mandrake against many other distributions that its lost potential to be the top distribution comes home directly. Often there is a short sightedness regarding the history represented here as the contributors to this forum solve the problems to make Mandrake a better distribution in particular and as a consequence strengthening the Linux community as a whole. This is how we keep Linux free software by putting back what we take out. I think you missed that in your post. Drop by http://www.linuxiso.org and see a different view of the Linux world. Counterspy

AFAIK it has none and likely never will have unless Texstar undergoes an epiphany with Mandrakesoft. I suspect that he will produce a better product because of the goals he has set for it and his reputation goes beyond living up to expectations. Counterspy

Their bailout could come from a test underway with Israeli government. As it stands they have still lost close to US$2 million. They have cut their organiztion to the bone. They (along with most other Linux distros except Suse (the only one I have seen) have pretty much stopped the retail option because of Mandrakesoft-described as poor sales at that level disproportionate to returns. The next release must be a killer or they are toast. Also watch the January court review and if their plan to be out from under court supervision by March as Duval has indicated. From where I now post the most, there has been an increase of interest in other distributions after the Red Hat move with Slackware and Suse leading the recommendations. Knoppix as a painless road to Debian is also being widely discussed. Since Linuxiso.org supports forums for many distributions, there are many divergent discussions. It is the place to go for those interested in opinions about alternatives and I was surprised on coming back here how many more people are running more than one distribution. Counterspy

It seems that somehow Mandrakesoft corrected(?) the .img files for those who need to use a boot floppy to start the install by changing the kernel to 22-21 instead of 22-10, at least for the hd.img. In a response below to John316, I put a link to a generic floppy that would install any cd from any distribution when autobooting was not possible. This change to 22-21 was verified with a sector editor on the floppy created with rawwrite. It might be a good idea to verify that the generic link I posted works or uploading floppy images that will create the 22-10 boot. Counterspy

There is no question that he needs the Enterprise kernel. Ever since moving to my current machine with 1 Gb. of memory, the Mandrake installer has always chosen the entersprise version. Counterspy

From a suitable update mirror, download the 21-22 Kernel and the kernel source for the same version. Install the using rpm -ivh <kernelname>. Install the kernel source with rpm -Uvh <kernel-source>. You may be saved because the -ivh install puts the new kernel along side the old so you can test drive it before deleting the old one. Counterspy

Make sure you are burning at 2x to see if that much of a speed reduction makes a difference. Also consider using CDRW's. They save burning coasters and seem to work better for a lot of different distributions where I spend most of my time. Counterspy

I found this site: http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/ on the Knoppix page for making a boot floppy for any bootable CD. This may solve your problem. Counterspy

Check the download area and add your request for the correct file as well as the one I have made. Counterspy

Then we have the answer. Just how that was allowed to happen is another Mandrakesoft screwup. Chang the 22-21 to 22-10 if you have not already done so and I think you should have no problems. BTW, where did you find the sector editor. I used the one I got with Norton Utilities on the second of the three floppy emergency disks they so kindly provided. I did have the Acronis Disk Editor but found it to be junk like most of the other Acronis programs. Footnote: As an afterthought, It occurred to me that there may be a problem here with a clash of the kernel versions when you go to start the hd install. If this is the case, we can ask Anon to upload a copy of the correct hd.img files and perhaps all of the image files. I think I will do that anyway. Counterspy

I would check the faq install and the doc "creating a persistent /home partition". I am planning to do that now that I have my 11-19 Knoppix. It is now a menu option in the distro. Counterspy

I believe that there are a number of such 'think tanks" operating now. One is the Free Software Foundation. Another is the Gnu Project. Another could be said to be built around Debian. While there is no question that these organizations have different agendas, they are all necessary at this stage of Linux development. The great area of failure is touched on in another thread here and that is the lack of vertical applications. Until Linux can replace Windows in the specialist areas of the economy, it will not displace M$. Counterspy

See my post in MAndrakeMove. Counterspy