Ixthusdan

I thank you all for your opinions. I will have a look at CentOS; I actually did not realize it was RedHat. I actually am considering Debian as well for the base system.

Ian, I really like the idea of administrating off-site as much as possible, and so do my clients. Obviously, a higher cost is incurred by them for on-site work. I am looking at the new Ubuntu server as a base for all of this. Any thoughts concerning the base system? (The only reason for choosing Ubuntu is no charge for updates, where as everyone else wants money for future updates. Ubuntu comes with the desired products, except I may need a better virtual set-up.)

Although it may require more attention, it does seem that using virtual machines would be better, just to separate the web from the mail. I already administrate 3 servers for this client; one more box with 2 virtual servers would not be that big a deal.

I have a client who wants to move his web site and mail in-house. I want to change the site to a better package. His current site is one of those drop-down-lists-and-change sort of thing which is not very appealing, IMHO. I can but a template for 30-60 dollars and edit the code to customize it. I am concerned about security, but am not certain I need to go virtual.

If I wanted to set up one box for a mail/web server, should I use Apache/Postfix or would I be better to create virtual machines on the box for separate web and mail servers? What do you think?

Yes, edit grub with Midnight Commander. Yes, use the package manager to remove unused kernels. Yes, shorten the menu. (It irritates me and I am not even looking at your menus! :))

Memory, hard drive, power supply, in that order.

If it takes time to error, I would go for hard drive or power supply, as it may indicate a thermal issue. If it happens immediately, I would look at the memory or the processor. (note: with a possible processor problem, you also have to evaluate the chip set.)

I have a Biostar board with an ATI/AMD chip set that will not communicate with the sata module for the installer. Neither OpenSuSE nor Mandriva will install. Funny thing is that older versions of linux will install. Do a text install and watch the kernel message screen to see where the freeze occurs. Post back after you look.

This thread is not for any problems, per se. Problems should be posted in the appropriate forum. Rather, it concerns distro oddities and irritations. Notice that this is not a complaint about any one distro or Linux in general. If you hate a particular distro, please post separately; this thread concerns pet peeves of your favorite distro or distros!

Mandriva still has a small irritation to me, in the it simply cannot set up a machine for dual boot without any adjustment to grub. I used Mandriva for many years before going to OpenSuSE for a couple of years. I have an Acer laptop that contains a small utility partition in the first position on the drive. OpenSuSE's installer correctly identifies the partition, as well as the adjacent Windows partition. Grub is set up ready to go! But not Mandriva. Now, the Mandriva installer is fine on a blank drive or a standard setup where the Windows partition is the first position on the drive. But on my Acer, I installed Mandriva 2010, and go to boot Windows with a request for the command.exe! This is where most users think that Mandriva has "blown away" their Windows installation. The point is I had to edit Grub and fix it. Mandriva's installer has always done this, and I used it as far back as version 7.0 So that is my pet peeve. :D

If you do

 urpmi --auto --auto-select --test

then you will see if you need to do anything else prior to installation. ;)

When I use the desktop menu (right click), and choose folder view activity setting, display, and set the icon size, my icons stay the size selected. I am running Mandriva 2010 x64 with KDE 4.4 from kde.org. I cannot duplicate your problem.

No doubt Microsoft is trying to penetrate Linux territory.

Absolutely true. They initially thought of "blocking Linux" but ran into difficulty with that. Remember "safe computing?" Microsoft's long term goal is to have the hardware only boot Windows, and Windows only work through the internet. They want to remove the bios. Your fees will be access, probably monthly. So acquiring a distro could help them develop this long term goal. But, they could do this anytime they wish by downloading a distro. I am still not sure how their continual manipulation of Novell fits their scheme. Originally, when they thought they had a patent challenge, I could see the issue. But they lost that one.

An admirable goal, to be sure. Others, of course, seek to move in the direction of a proprietary web, one which prophets a few companies. In the long run, I think the web and the pc will move in the same direction, whether proprietary or open. In a way, the move to make the web on cell phones and internet machines is a move in the closed direction, since those products are generally limited to the proprietary software they come with. Food for thought.

There are some who already think that SuSE was lost to Microsoft long ago. I used openSUSE until my recent move back to Mandriva, a move I made from desire rather than any other political or legal imperative. The question is, if this is a move to acquire a Linux distro, what does that mean in light of all the distros out there? I am not sure that it means anything, except to SuSE.

At the top of our page is a link called Easy-Urpmi. Go to that link and follow the instructions to the letter. Remember that if you open a console (terminal) type "su" press enter and then enter your root password. All system adjustments must be done as the administrator or root user.

Then you can open the Mandriva Control Center and find the software you wish to add.

Before updating your source, in a console as root, type "urpmi.removemedia -a" This command removes all sources, including the DVD. ;) Every time I install, I remove all sources before updating urpmi with live sources.

My great-grandfather had a well.

good for nothing

Hey! I resemble that remark!!

Welcome to MUB!

I am not sure what you are doing when you boot up. If the system tries to boot from the external drive, you will get a grub error since the device was not configured for booting. Boot without the external drive plugged in. Do you get a grub error? If yes, then you were editing the wrong drive! That would be toast. If you get a boot, plug the drive in after booting. You can then configure grub for booting from that device.

?

ditto.

The drive should be detected as ntfs, not vfat. This is why it will not mount.

I have seen this when a laptop is plugged in and not using battery. The power adapter is bad (the pin) or the place where it is inserted into the laptop is loose. Poor connection= power saving feature on the laptop= dimmer screen.

While Mandriva is booting (the bar) hit escape and tell us where it hangs. (the last thing on the screen)

For what its worth, the last batch of updates also removed my audio, which had been working. It's AC97 on-board.