Counterspy

There seems to be a risk of screwing the wrong person or organization since the spam originates mostly from hijacked or phony addresses, much like a Distributed Denial of Service Attack. See http://www.grc.com for description. They also have a forum for spam and news.grc.com. If domain banning were levelled at hotmail and yahoo for example, you would see fast action indeed. The problem is that so many ISP's would need to cooperate and so many have open relays, that it becomes an impractical idea, although it does work with smaller ISP's. When I was on Sympatico, they spent a good deal of time on the ban list with email bouncing and still didn't plug open relays. Among the open relay blockers is http://www.orbz.org/ , http://www.dorkslayers.com/remove.html , http://www.dorkslayers.com/timeline.html , http://www.ordb.org/faq/ . http://www.sohoskyway.net/supportctr/spam/index.php is an interesting site that describes different approaches to spam. Counterspy

As far as reporting bugs on bugzilla, you should read the Cooker mailing list to see how attention they actually pay to them. They "deprecate" so many it makes one wonder why they ask in the first place. Counterspy

Thank you for your efforts in finding an answer. I did not see the final message until my system froze on bootup because of another problem. It was "llioOPenone failed". I have since abandoned Mandrake and switched to Redhat until 9.1 comes out. It doesn't work there either so I have attached my old printer, a Canon BJC 240. I believe I have another hardware problem that prevented a Mandrake reinstall from working and if I can't find the problem, I'll begin a gradual system upgrade. Counterspy

Did you check the errata pages and security update pages on the Mandrakesoft sites? Did you check any of the update mirrors if it does not appear in Mandrake Update? Counterspy

If you are talking about Powerquest Bootmagic, then get rid of it. These boot managers cause no end of problems and are hard to remove. If you are talking about Drive Image, make sure it will deal with Linux partitions, including journalling such as reiserfs or ext3. There is a partiton manager included on your Install disks called Partimage. After you have installed use the Install software option from Software Management in the Mandrake Control Center. Just putting Powerquest 5 is not helpful since they have several products with different version numbers. Counterspy

It is a tiring task that does not permit errors. At least you know where to look and what do to before it happens to you again. Counterspy

For insurance, if you ever need Parted for partiton recovery, make sure you create the required boot disks in advance. The images are here: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parted/bootdisk/ . You can get them from the site and use the rawrite program in Windows from your first install disk should you forget to do this or follow the instructions on the site for Linux. Testdisk still has a Windows executable, but has added code for operating in Linux and requires additional files. Get them here along with the docs: http://www.cgsecurity.org/index.html?testdisk.html . Other Linux partitioners include Gpart here: http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/user/76201/gpart/ , sfdisk and cfdisk as well as Linux fdisk. See the man pages for them. Ext3 and Reiserfs are supported by some but not all. Check in advance for these and other journalling systems. Ranish Partition Manager works in Windows and is free from here: http://www.ranish.com. It has a prominent warning about using Windows software on Linux partitions. I would be satisfied with its use depending on the extent of damage. Acronis, Paragon or Partition Magic should never be allowed to write to a disk with Linux installed. They calculate the partition sizes differently and report errors that be inaccurate and will hose you system. The only exception I would make is the experienced user who has used any of these in a variety of recovery scenarios. Keep in mind that Linux partitoners should be used with Linux and Windows partitioners with Windows. Any of the three above can be used for initial partitioning or LOOKING at damaged partitions. There are three How-to's that should be mandatory reading before partitions are messed up: Linux Hard Disk How To, Partitioning mini How-To, and the Partition Recovery mini-how to. Get them here: http://www.tldp.org . Counterspy

I am getting the following message repeated several times at bootup and have no idea how to go about fixing it. Here is the message: ptal-mlcd:ErroratExmgr.cpp.2469,dev=<mlc:usb:PSC_2100_Series@/dev/usb/lp [0-9]*> pid=1477, e2. There should be spaces between Error and at and ay and Exmgr. The printer is obviously a USB device, specifically a HP 2110 All-in-one Printer, Scanner, Copier. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I should mention that the first time I installed Linux it worked, but has not done so since. I have tried not plugging it in until printer detection in the install, but have not tried plugging it in during a reconfig on MCC. In Windows you do not not plug it in until the software is installed. After you assemble the printer and load it with paper, plug in the USB and then plug in the power. Moresettings are made in the printer's control panel after paper is ;oaded. The printer works in Windows in all three functions quite well. Thanks, Counterspy

I had not run into this before but I am afraid I have bad news. In the situation you are in you cannot use parted because you need to access the root partition and for this purpose you must use floppy disks, the images for which are on the parted site. It looks like your only avenue is Testdisk which, although it requires some compiling still has Windows executable that you can download. I should have checked this sooner since the parted images are made in Linux. I will try Windows but to see if it works and post the results. There is one more possibility that may work and that is the Ranish Partition Manager which is free and will deal with Linux Partitions. I just tried it in the DOS box in Windows, and it might work although it clearly warns of data loss using a Windows partitioner on its opening screen. Counterspy

You are talking about Diskdrake I think. If you could see the partitions with Diskdrake, then they are still there. You still need to recover from the change you made making that primary partition and restore your boot loader with the rescue disk. Do a search of the messages here and the old docs under troubleshooting for how to do that. There have bee substantial changes in Testdisk since I first downloaded it. It now has two additional programs in source form and another large chunk of itself which requires compiling under Linux. I do not have the time to deal with this at the moment so I would say you should go with parted. Read the docs for the program carefully and you should have no problems with it. If the partitions are still there it will see them and you should be able to figure out what to do from there. If you have any problems post again. Counterspy

It seems like it is not seeing the correct usb port. You can set this in KPPP. you may need to experiment with several different ports before you land on the right one. Counterspy

What program are you using so we are all on the same page? In principal Parted, Linux fdisk, Cfdisk and Sfdisk are the same: These numbers are imaginary and from memory with much information missing but illustrate what one should see: Starting Sector Ending Sector Partition Type 1 1000 Primary Dos 1000 1000000 Primary Extended 1000 3000 ext2 3001 5000 ext2 5001 70000 ext2 70001 500000 ext2 500001 955000 ext2 955001 1000000 swap This is an amalgam of the output of different programs. I have put the partition types in labels, but ususally they will be hex numbers but those are not ingrained in memory either. They should be in the docs of each program. You can see from this how an extended partition works. Each partition within it becomes a logical partition. I will run parted from running Linux later also. Three more programs have been introduced to the mix already discussed, Linux fdisk, cfdisk and sfdisk. A normal linux installation has the first and at least one of the second. You cannot just stick any numbers in any of these; they must be on cylinder boundaries. Windows and Linux calculate partitions slightly differently with Windows being cylinders, heads and sectors and Linux being start and length fields. It might be wise for you to read the Large Disk How-To before you do anything to see the underlying principles. The Linux Partitoning mini How-Two shows is a walkthrough of partitioning with Fdisk. I forgot about the Partition-Rescue mini How-To which gives a detailed walkthrough of the total process of recovery from a non-working Linux, but does deal with the dual boot case. They also discuss another utility I have not used called Gpart. If you got Tom's Rboot iether Parted or Gpart might help. These are available at http://www.tldp.org . This site should be in your bookmarks for future reference. READ THESE BEFORE DOING ANYTHING even though they do not apply to tour situation. I will post the output of Testdisk later if you have not replied that you are not using it by the time I'm back in a couple of hours. I need ot reboot the computer into dos mode or use a boot disk in Windows to use it. Counterspy

Read the Partitioning Section in the Install Section of othe old docs at the top of the page. Counterspy

There is a program called Testdisk which may help you out of of this problem. Find it here: http://www.cgsecurity.org/index.html?testdisk.html and read the documentation carefully. Your problem most likely started with aborting the defrag. What you have done to the partition table is really open to question but this won't stop Testdisk. (See below about how it should be partitioned, IMHO). It is likely that the partitions are still there and only the partition table was manged which may be recoverable with Testdisk. Keep DOS fdisk away. You will need to put Testdisk on its own floppy so it can access the partitions without using them. If Testdisk doesn't deal with the problem, I know of no other reliable way of fixing this except by rebuilding the partition table by hand with a sector editor. The only thing that bothers me about this is that you are writing to the disk. I would be much happier if you didn't do any writing even to get Testdisk up and running and used another machine. The most powerful recovery utility I support is Linux Parted. If you could get parted on a Linux boot disk with a complete OS like Tom's Rboot, this is another approach you could take, using Linux to rescue Linux and Windows. Find Tom's here: http://www.toms.net/rb and get parted here: http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/os/Linux/distribut.../Mandrake/RPMS/ or off the CD. Parted might extract with Tom's but I am not sure that there is a Mandrake packager on this disk. Another Linux user may be able to do this for you. Parted works with actual cylinder numbers and you need to carefully read the docs on the site. Another suggestion I ram across while searching for the links would be to use your install disk in expert mode to look at the partitions and see if they are still there. This might enable their recovery with the Rescue Mode of your first install disk or the recovery of lilo. From what you have said you fiddled with the partition types which introduces another level of complication. Mandrake will live quite comfortably in an extended partition and this can be changed with parted. If these fail, there are three commercial Windows Partitioning progams that you can download with some functions crippled. They are Acronis, Paragon Disk Manager and Partition Magic. They will read what's there and you may be able to recover different things with each. If you know someone with any of these, a rescue floppy set can be created from the full versions significantly increasing the likelihood of recovering some if not all. I do not recommend you go out and by any of these in the present situation since you are very likely going to need to reinstall. All of these possibilities will require a great deal of time and patience and every move must be carefully thought out. It may be that you may just decide to bite the bullet and reinstall. It depends on the data that will be lost. If this is what you decide to do, get things back to normal Windows with fdisk/mbr in Dos mode and then run fdisk and create an extended partition for Mandrake. The Mandrake expert install will allow you to create the partitions you want. After you are up and running, get Parted and Tom's for future disasters. In the future, you should never stop disk programs that are moving data around. Normally, a Windows utility does not recognize other partitions at all and would not touch them. If you can afford it get the full Norton Systemworks and if you can't get Norton Untilities. Use Disk Doctor and Speeddisk in the future. Windows defrag does not move its own system files marking them in the map as unmoveable. Norton Speeddisk moves all programs regardless. You can also manipulate the swap file to the front of the disk for faster access but that is a discussion for another day. Counterspy

Hmmm! Publishing their own books. No other authors/publishers interested in the allegedly most popular desktop version of Linux? Another revenue stream? Most books lose money except textbooks, best sellers and niche markets. All computer books dated when they hit bookstore shelves. Will you still love me etc. etc. Counterspy

The second question gets a no. See the discussion in the Topic Installing Mandrake. There it is about two Mandrake's but it is the same issue. For the first question the answer depends on what type of modem it is and if Mandrake has a driver. Check out this site: http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/hardware.php3 to see if Mandrake supports it. Look here if it is a Winmodem: http://www.linmodems.org . If you don't know then follow the instructions on the second site for identifying the chip set. If it is not a Winmodem, chech the manufacturer's site for a Linux driver, followed by a Google search if that comes up empty. Counterspy

It's been my experience with Redhat and Mandrake, Grub did not pick up the Redhat information. I would assume that if one copied the procedure for new kernels by adding stanzas and then running little script at the the end would accomplish the same result. This is a shortcoming that needs to be remedied that would not only solve the dual boot issue but the asinine procedure for updating to a new or different kernel. Not being a programmer, just how difficult would it be for code to scan for new kernels and init files as part of the Add button on the kernel configuration menu? It would seem that this too eludes the budding Mandrakes at the Magician works and world wide corps of would be's, by spending too much time in the kitchen perhaps. Counterspy

I would prefer to think of it as a cynical attitude which has been there since Gr. 9 high school. My yearbook description that year was "Quite a debunker, an interesting guy", an opinion which I suspect is not shared by some. My cynicism was further honed when I got a summer job with the local CBC radio station as a technician. They paid my way through university and graduate school. After the first year, I went back for five more, and as I gained experience, they sent me on more difficult and challenging assignments. You don't work in the media even that long without becoming a cynic. The folks behind the scenes just never get a chance to say it out in the open. I try to maintain an sense of humour when I write, otherwise I wouldn't be able to get of bed in the morning. Counterspy

Followup! It hosed the entire system requiring a reinstall. I was able to get into the Gnome Start Screen. There is not a word of warning in the section on this topic in the Mandrakesoft manuals. I am still without printing on my HP All-in-one USB printer. It seems that every time a new technology rears its head, the XXX's at Mandrakesoft take two versions minimum to learn how to program it even when the manufacturer tells them how and releases driver software. Once again the power pack will consist of demo and freely downloadable software aside from some legitimate commercial software. After all this, why do I stay with Mandrake, you might ask since I am constantly raking Mandrakesoft over the coals. It is because both the newsgroup and this site go miles beyond anything other distros offer (Debian excepted, that's my next) and light years beyond the Mandrake Club and most of the rest of their site. And I'll still be here when the judge bangs his gavel for the final time and after as Ben Reser's rant fo a takeover by volunteers becomes true with bankruptcy. Why we can even call it Lothar Linux after Mandrake the Magician's muscular sidekick and beat to pieces all of the other distros. Did anyone ever notice that libparted is in the Mandrake Install list and Parted isn't? Thank you people for the helpful suggestions. I won't be making that mistake again. Now off to read the latest in the cooker mailing list. Counterspy

What if you use Grub? Everyone here seems to talk only about Lilo, abandoned as "deprecated" (only a computer programmer could come with this usage) software by Redhat, like it or not, the most influential distro. Is that really appropriate usage. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Deprecate Dep"re*cate (d[e^]p"r[-e]*k[=a]t), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Deprecated (-k[=a]`t[e^]d); p. pr. & vb. n. Deprecating (-k[=a]`t[i^]ng).] [L. deprecatus, p. p. of deprecari to avert by player, to deprecate; de- + precari to pray. See Pray.] To pray against, as an evil; to seek to avert by prayer; to desire the removal of; to seek deliverance from; to express deep regret for; to disapprove of strongly. His purpose was deprecated by all round him, and he was with difficulty induced to adandon it. --Sir W. Scott. Well I guess that there is a lot of praying going on at Mandrakesoft. Counterspy

Having not tried it before, I decided to try the Software Install in the Mandrake Control Center. My first impression was favourable since it offered various ways of listing the software on the 3 CD's and my Mandrake Update site. I chose groups which presented a categorical list instead of Mandrakesoft's schizophrenic expert install list. My disillusionment started when I discovered that software I had checked in the intitial install was listed for install and not updated from the Update site. (I have all three boxes checked in Update.) After checking off 500 Mb of software to be installed, the program proceeded to remove old software before the CD insertions and the download started. Leaving it to do its job, I went off and did some other things and came back to see a screenful of KDE components that could not be updated because of a mammoth list of dependencies. I clicked ok and was promptly booted out of the whole install process including those programs that did not need dependencies. Now I don't know what is on the machine and only time will tell if the functioning of Mandrake has been affected. I have rarely been so angry and disgusted at the hamfisted, incompetent and incomplete programs that Mandrakesoft foists off on its dedicated user base as innovations. I would need a lot of persuading for anyone to explain why the whole job was dumped instead of just the part that didn't meet dependencies. Never mind how the the dependencies were allowed to occur from within a Mandrake utility allegedly using urpmi in the first place. Simply put, this was a mammoth waste of time and exposed what appear to be critical holes in the install process aside from the deficiencies in the program itself. And they wonder why the big boys don't take them seriously. The Club??????? Bankruptcy and unemployment, here they come. Counterspy

Have you looked at the various logs to see if there is more information in them? Counterspy

The gory details are on this site: http://www.mandrakesecure.net/en/kernelupdate.php . On the advisories page, there is a list of versions. Here is what it says about the kernel: I removed the md5sum information but as you can see there is nothing to indicate which kernel you should be updating. Which newbie knows their kernel version? Which newbie knows about stanzas outside their literature course? Given that this discussion involves some of the most experienced users here makes me shake my head in sadness with the realization that with an approach to managing their distro like this, Mandrakesoft has little chance of making it to the six month mark. Several weeks ago I read a cooker thread where a senior programmer was defending himself for not writing software like parts of Mandrake Control Center that resized with screen resolution complaining that they should try resizing GTK sometime. Of course everybody runs Mandrake on 19" monitors with 1024x768 resolution. If he had been working for me, I would have kicked his ass out the door and sent him his personal belongings by parcel post. This is a sample of the continuing dialogues on the cooker list where volunteers try in vain to pry changes including submitting code from an intransigent group of Mandrakesoft programmers, even for designated bugzilla reports. It is clear that the new CEO has not gotten around to these problems yet, and LeMarois and Duval have not been fired as they should be (or failing that given the job of midnight shift building maintenance). Its really too bad. Counterspy

Yet another example of Mandrake failing to document adequately. The shorewall docs take up as much space in a 2" ring binder than four of the five Mandrak docs. Counterspy

Leave the Mandrake in the extended partition along side XP. PM can do horrendous damage and your disk will be fscked up thoroughly if you put a primary partition after an extended partition. In an ideal world XP would be in a primary partition and Mandrake in an extended partition. That might be a daring move with PM but it might work. That would give you three primary partitions, one short of the maximim. It has the advantage of keeping Mandrake and Windows entirely separate. One question that has dogged me throughout this discussion is that boot partition. What is it doing? Not being an XP owner, I don't know if it is necessary for XP. A radical solution would be to delete it and change XP to a primary partition and move it to the front then creating an empty extended partition for Mandrake. PM "should" stop you from overwriting the first 63 sectors on the disk where the MBR and partition tables reside. Mandrake's boot loaders (I like Grub) would pick up XP and allow you to boot into it. You could lose XP beyond the Recovery console's ability to recover it if anything goes wrong in the install. If it is a bootloader like Boot Manager or System Commander, it would be my choice to get rid of it as an unnecessary complication. It depends on how much data on XP needs preserving and whether backing it up is a reasonable alternative. Before doing anything, use the XP equivalents of Scandisk and defrag or Norton Disk Doctor and Speeddisk to push all the xp data to the front of the partition. Another way would be to use PM after Mandrake is installed which is still a risky move and impossible if you are going to use a journalled file system other than ext3 and you are using PM8 which allegedly supports moving ext3 partitions. Basically, I am not enthralled with using PM on a Linux install of any kind, but there are those here who disagree. I must admit I have done it before deciding on Parted for Linux. One last caution. Do not under any circumstances let PM correct errors it thinks it finds. That will do you in for sure. The Large Disk How-To at http://www.tldp.org points out the reason. If choose Documentation in the Mandrake install you will have it on your system under the Docxumentation icon in the main menu. Counterspy