mittfh

Yup, several days later and I haven't seen the "Restricted" moan. Setting topic title to Fixed.

I think I'll head off to the official forum - even though 99% of packages are now 2009.1, the updater still thinks "a new version is available" and still cannot find the Restricted metadata. Even after clearing out my repositories list and using Easy-Urpmi to re-fill them. Plus the apparent mouse bug - according to mouse preferences I'm using left handed layout. But in reality, it's still using the right handed layout. And the lack of any sound in the GUI (although soundcard must be set up OK since running speaker-test in a terminal works!)

My soundcard is an SB Live! and worked fine in 2009.0 But since the upgrade to 2009.1, not a squeak or pip from the speakers. On the off-chance it was something to do with PulseAudio and the new mixer, I grabbed a terminal and ran "speaker-test -Dplug:surround40 -c4 -twav" - lo and behold the computer boomed out at me. I've checked the volume levels in Sound Preferences - all nice and high. There's nothing worthwhile in PulseAudio Preferences, and according to MCC it's using the standard emu10k1 ALSA driver. Pulse Audio, Automatic Routing, User Switching and Glitch-Free Mode are all enabled. EDIT: I've disabled Pulse, and sound is now working. However, as Pulse is tightly tied into Gnome 2.26, there are a few caveats... a.) System volume control has disappeared b.) Sound preferences doesn't work c.) System sounds don't work. Reading around, apparently the tight binding of Gnome's sound utilities with Pulse is a "feature" (ha ha) - as evidenced by the fact that if you attempt to uninstall Pulse, it will proclaim half of Gnome as dependencies... Which would be great if Pulse could actually do the job it's designed for and route sound from applications to my speakers...

Using urpmi --auto-update / --auto-select worked up to a point (incidentally, it didn't 'see' the restricted packages that the GUI can). Eventually, after it fell over a few times and I manually urpme'd 2009.0 versions of packages, I'm left with this: installing liblm_sensors4-3.0.3-2mdv2009.1.i586.rpm liblm_sensors-static-devel-3.0.3-2mdv2009.1.i586.rpm tango-icon-theme-0.8.90-1mdv2009.1.noarch.rpm perl-Nagios-Plugin-0.32-1mdv2009.1.noarch.rpm hddtemp-0.3-0.beta15.9mdv2009.1.i586.rpm nagios-check_lm_sensors-3.1.0-3mdv2009.1.noarch.rpm gnome-sensors-applet-2.2.3-1mdv2009.1.i586.rpm lm_sensors3-3.0.3-2mdv2009.1.i586.rpm liblm_sensors-devel-3.0.3-2mdv2009.1.i586.rpm gbrainy-1.1-2mdv2009.1.i586.rpm from /var/cache/urpmi/rpms Installation failed: liblm_sensors3-devel < 3.0.3 conflicts with liblm_sensors-devel-3.0.3-2mdv2009.1.i586 Installation failed: liblm_sensors3-devel < 3.0.3 conflicts with liblm_sensors-devel-3.0.3-2mdv2009.1.i586 Trying to install any of the lm_sensors packages manually also results in the same error, as they all appear to depend on each other. I've also picked up a strange mouse bug - regardless of whether left-hand or right-hand button layout is selected, it uses the right-hand button layout. As I'm a leftie, it's annoying having to remember to use the 'wrong' buttons... But apart from those niggles, I've more-or-less got 2009.1 - /etc/release thinks I'm running it, and when I booted up this morning I had the new theme (very William Morris-esque) and gnome 2.26. Edited to add word wrap to the code box!

I'm running Free (which upgraded from 2008.1 to 2009.0 six months ago without a hitch, but the 2009.0 I started the latest upgrade from was a fresh install following my Bluetooth experiments about a month ago), and in the meantime am seeing how far I can get through installing the 2009.1 version of task-gnome (plus mplayer - can't live without that!) I'll see how things go (planning to shut down and head to bed fairly soon-ish), so will search, try again and if necessary file the bug reports early tomorrow evening.

I've been upgrading my 2009.0 to 2009.1 this evening. Apart from a false start caused by it falling over when encountering the PLF version of mplayer, everything went swimmingly for 2 hours, with over 800 packages successfully downloaded and installed. Then it hit a snag... Unable to add medium, errors reported: ...retrieving failed: aria2 failed: exited with 4 no metadata found for medium "Restricted (Official2009.1-25)" ...retrieving failed: aria2 failed: exited with 4 no metadata found for medium "Restricted Updates (Official2009.1-26)" Heading into Control Center, removing all media and replacing them produced the same error. What do I do now? I'm sitting in a peculiar hybrid of both versions, so would like to complete the installation (preferably without re-downloading what's already been done!) And what are these mysterious "Restricted" media that are hampering my upgrade - I don't remember seeing them in previous versions...

(This workaround's been around since last Autumn, but since I've seen mention of BBC iPlayer here but none of ITV player, thought I'd give it a quick mention) Preamble: In the past couple of years, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have launched web-based video-on-demand offerings, allowing you to catch up with programmes you've missed (as long as you're using a UK IP address). However, whereas the BBC and Channel 4 opted to use a Flash-based solution, ITV decided to "upgrade" to Silverlight. And have also coded their pages in such a way that although the "Install Silverlight" link will take you to the Moonlight installation page, it still claims Silverlight isn't installed. There have also been reports from Windows users (who could theoretically use it) that it frequently pauses for buffering, and doesn't allow you to skip forwards or backwards (probably so you can't skip the adverts!). Workaround solution: Whilst reading an ITV forum on issues with ITV Player ( http://forums.itv.com/1/626841/ShowThread.aspx ), I chanced upon an unofficial third party workaround involving a Firefox plugin - http://chris.orr.me.uk/caughtup/ Somehow this channels content via his site, where it is converted into a playlist of WMV streams (minus the adverts), which are played in your system's default media player. Interestingly, while ITV have taken steps to remove its listing from Firefox Addons, they don't appear to have taken out any action against Christopher Orr himself...yet.

D'oh! (Searches in vain for a 'slapping own forehead' emotion, thinks might be a suitable alternative) I should have twigged that if there was a "kde-look" there might possibly be a "gnome-look" as well... :) (Notes that they're both hosted by opendesktop, who also host xfce-look, box-look, beryl-themes, compiz-themes, plus versions for Gentoo, openSuse and the Debian/Ubantu family - but not the RH/Fed/Man family) (Adds bookmark - those sites might come in useful in future :))

Thanks for that - I've downloaded several so far, and am busy experimenting with a Pic'n'Mix approach :) Meanwhile, I still find it slightly odd that in the ultra-competitive world of desktop environments, a bunch of GNOME users didn't set up a rival site to kde-look... :D

I've subscribed to a bunch of podcasts in Rhythmbox, but only after downloading a few did I realise I hadn't set up my preferred folder for podcasts (/home/ben/music/podcasts), and they were going into the default folder (/home/ben). I then made the mistake of moving the already downloaded podcasts into the new folder, but RB classified them as lost, and could only pick them up again in Music view. As it won't re-download them, is there any way of persuading it to recognise these podcasts? I couldn't spot any enlightening settings in /home/ben/.gnome2/rhythmbox/* or Configuration Editor /rhythmbox/*...

Just wondering... The ia_ora sound theme supplied with Mandriva contains just four sounds: startup, shutdown, error and notification. But interestingly within the theme's subfolder there are 'placeholders' (i.e. zero byte files ending in .disabled) for bell, dialog-information, message-new-email and trash-empty. Was there ever (or ever intended to be) a more complete set of sounds for ia_ora? I know almost everything else can be provided by the default freedesktop sound theme, but are there any others out there? The only other theme I can discover through a Google search is one called "Borealis" - but given how customisable Linux is, surely there must be others I haven't discovered... [moved from Software by spinynorman]

Righteo, my system's now happy with glibc courtesy of Tux99's workaround. And a further bit of poking around with urpmi's parameters allowed me to resolve another niggle that crept up earlier today... I'll share the saga just in case it helps anyone else... Rpmdrake decided it wanted to install mandriva-release-common-2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0.586... installation transactions failed There was a problem during the installation: mandriva-release < 2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0 conflicts with mandriva-release-common-2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0.i586 OK, grab a root terminal and try the urpmi route... [root@LinuxBox ben]# urpmi mandriva-release-common-2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0.i586 Package mandriva-release-Free-2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0.i586 is already installed installing mandriva-release-common-2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0.i586.rpm from /var/cache/urpmi/rpms Installation failed: mandriva-release < 2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0 conflicts with mandriva-release-common-2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0.i586 Installation failed: mandriva-release < 2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0 conflicts with mandriva-release-common-2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0.i586 OK, so what if I try "replacepkgs"? [root@LinuxBox ben]# urpmi mandriva-release-common-2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0.i586 --replacepkgs found package(s) mandriva-release-common-2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0.i586 in urpmi db, but none are installed OK, let's try skipping the dependency checks... [root@LinuxBox ben]# urpmi mandriva-release-common-2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0.i586 --allow-nodeps Package mandriva-release-Free-2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0.i586 is already installed installing mandriva-release-common-2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0.i586.rpm from /var/cache/urpmi/rpms Installation failed: mandriva-release < 2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0 conflicts with mandriva-release-common-2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0.i586 Try installation without checking dependencies? (y/N) y Preparing... ################################################################################ ###################### 1/1: mandriva-release-common ################################################################################ ###################### ---------------------------------------------------------------------- More information on package mandriva-release-common-2009.0-0.11mdv2009.0.i586 This is Mandriva Linux 2009.0 You can find the release notes in /usr/share/doc/mandriva-release-common/release-notes.txt or on the web at http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/2009.0_Notes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- That's better! Computers - don't ya just love 'em! :)

Not a lot more helpful... [root@LinuxBox ben]# urpmi --debug glibc getting lock on urpmi loading mirrors cache using mirror ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/carroll.cac.psu.edu/MandrivaLinux/official/2009.0/i586 using mirror ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/carroll.cac.psu.edu/MandrivaLinux/official/2009.0/i586 using mirror ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/carroll.cac.psu.edu/MandrivaLinux/official/2009.0/i586 using mirror ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/carroll.cac.psu.edu/MandrivaLinux/official/2009.0/i586 using mirror ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/carroll.cac.psu.edu/MandrivaLinux/official/2009.0/i586 using mirror ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/carroll.cac.psu.edu/MandrivaLinux/official/2009.0/i586 using mirror ftp://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/linux/plf/mandriva/cfg/2009.0/i586 using mirror ftp://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/linux/plf/mandriva/cfg/2009.0/i586 examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/synthesis.hdlist.Mandriva Linux - 2009.0 (Free) - Installer.cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/synthesis.hdlist.Mandriva Linux - 2009.0 (Free) - Installer (contrib).cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/synthesis.hdlist.Main.cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/synthesis.hdlist.Main Updates.cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/synthesis.hdlist.Contrib.cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/synthesis.hdlist.Contrib Updates.cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/synthesis.hdlist.Non-free.cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/synthesis.hdlist.Non-free Updates.cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/Main2/synthesis.hdlist.cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/Main Updates2/synthesis.hdlist.cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/Contrib2/synthesis.hdlist.cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/Contrib Updates2/synthesis.hdlist.cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/Non-free2/synthesis.hdlist.cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/Non-free Updates2/synthesis.hdlist.cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/PLF Free/synthesis.hdlist.cz] examining synthesis file [/var/lib/urpmi/PLF Non-free/synthesis.hdlist.cz] getting exclusive lock on rpm search_packages: found glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5mnb2.i586 matching glibc search_packages: found glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5.2mnb2.i586 matching glibc search_packages: found glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5.2mnb2.i586 matching glibc search_packages: found glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5mnb2.i586 matching glibc search_packages: found glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5mnb2.i586 matching glibc found package(s): glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5mnb2.i586 glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5.2mnb2.i586 glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5.2mnb2.i586 glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5mnb2.i586 glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5mnb2.i586 opening rpmdb (root=, write=) chosen glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5.2mnb2.i586 for glibc|glibc|glibc|glibc|glibc not selecting glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5.2mnb2.i586 since the more recent glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5.2mnb2.i586 is installed Package glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5.2mnb2.i586 is already installed scheduled sets of transactions: unlocking urpmi database unlocking rpm database EXITING (pid=19900) [root@LinuxBox ben]# Make of that what you will!

Update: Reinstalled 2009.0 from scratch (taking the opportunity to set a decent size to /, so I don't have to hide the DVD contents in /home and symlink them back!). GNOME working fine (unsurprisingly). Just one minor hitch... The following package has to be removed for others to be upgraded: glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5.2mnb2.i586 (in order to install glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5.2mnb2.i586) Yes, it wants to remove one version of glibc...to replace it with exactly the same version. Unsurprisingly, if I then go ahead with attempting the update... 1 installation transactions failed There was a problem during the installation: package glibc-2.8-1.20080520.5.2mnb2.i586 is already installed Nothing like stating the obvious - but someone forgot to tell urpmi.update...I've still got the nice red exclamation mark in my systray...

I've tried setting up a new user account and attempting to log into GNOME. As with my 'normal' account, the panels and desktop don't appear, but running "ps -A" as root on tty1 suggests that almost everything else is running (although I can't see it!) I've also successfully removed KDE4 (and everything within the Desktop Environments --> KDE section of rpmdrake) and installed almost everything within the GNOME section of rpmdrake without any effects. There doesn't appear to be a .xsession-errors or a GNOME equivalent hiding within /home/ben or /home/ben/.g* So I've backed everything from /home/ben (including the dot files and folders) to my USB HDD, downloaded the 2009.0 Free ISO and copied the files to a USB stick together with unetbootin, ready to reinstall from scratch. Before I go ahead, is there anything else worth backing up? I've been using lxde over the past few days - it's unsurprisingly faster than KDE4, and a useful backup to GNOME (but not as good as - still haven't worked out how to swap the mouse buttons, as it doesn't appear to have a graphical means, and seems to ignore the relevant option in xorg.conf...)

OK, here's the latest in the saga: I'm already using GDM, so that hasn't made a difference. Before logging in to the GUI, I used the CLI root on tty1 to shift /home/ben/.g* elsewhere. No difference. I'm currently sitting in xfce, which proves to be a better interim option than kde4 - admittely it's very Win-like, but at least PCMan is a lot faster (and IMHO nicer) than Dolphin. Meanwhile, I've encountered two other hitches. The rpmdrake auto update thingy offered the 180.29 updates to dkms-nvidia-current and x11-driver-video-nvidia-current, which I duly installed. However, as nvidia-current-kernel* are still 177.70, I've had to fall back to the nv driver. Downloading and installing the nvidia driver directly from nvidia's website didn't change things either :( And attempting to remove kde4-base (after double checking it wouldn't uninstall anything untoward!) - however "A fatal error occured: Can't use an undefined value as an ARRAY reference at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.10.0/urpm/main_loop.pm lin 312. ." -oOo- I have a 250GB USB drive - would it be worth backing up /home/ben/ (including . folders) and possibly other locations, then download the 2009.0 DVD and reinstall on top of itself? Or just put up with xfce for a couple of weeks until 2009.1 is released and offered over rpmdrake update? Oh, and is there a system log I can interrogate from the root CLI to determine any errors thrown up during gnome login? dmesg only appears to log the boot process until X starts.

Created and logged in as a new user - no difference - still greeted by a bunch of penguins admiring the starlight and nothing else... To further aid diagnosis, I've attached three text files, each containing the output of "ps -A" in different circumstances: justroot.txt - Just Root (on tty1 - CLI) withbenonkde4.txt - Root on tty1, plus me logged in as myself using KDE4 (works fine). withbenongnome.txt - Root on tty1, plus me logged in as myself using GNOME (standard Mandriva free wallpaper, nothing else). Running top for a few minutes seemed to indicate a lot of GNOME was working - although I couldn't see anything, trackerd and beagle started up, there were regular appearances by net-applet and mdkapplet, and urpmi.update ran. justroot.txt withbenonkde4.txt withbenongnome.txt

Following on from my Bluetooth adventures (Hardware forum), I decided to install KDEBluetooth4 (& therefore KDE4), to see if I could get my Bluetooth adaptor working. It didn't, so I then uninstalled KDE4 - unfortunately, I didn't pay too much attention to the dependency list and it wiped out a load of GNOME dependencies. Oops - nothing like being too adventurous... End result: get the login screen, but when I log in, I'm left with a blank screen, displaying only the Mandriva 2009.0 wallpaper. I also had a brief balloon informing me gnome-power-manager wasn't configured correctly. Logged in as root on the tty1 console, and saw a whole bunch of gnome stuff running. If only it was visible... Rebooted, logged into an IceWM desktop, installed task-gnome in an attempt to reinstall any missing dependencies. Rebooted, logged into GNOME, still no desktop, but at least the gnome-power-manager error isn't occuring. Rebooted, decided to reinstall KDE4, just in case that fixed the missing bits of GNOME. Well, I can log into KDE4 OK (and change the wallpaper - except not to one of Weblider's ones), but GNOME still doesn't want to play ball. I must have overlooked something, but I can't figure it out... (At least everything's still working - albeit with a desktop environment I'm not particularly fond of - took me ages to discover where KDE4 hides the mouse preferences...) (Oh, and yes - I will think twice before doing anything so drastic again!)

I bought a Belkin Bluetooth Adaptor (F8T017) to make file transfer between my PC and mobile phone a lot easier than copying everything to the phone's memory card then fiddling around with the cable. However Mandriva 2009.0 doesn't automatically recognise it unless I open up HardDrake, whereupon it demands I install Kdebluetooth4. Which would be fine if I was running KDE4, but I'm running GNOME. Thinking laterally, I installed all the GNOME Bluetooth components, but Gnome phone manager doesn't see the adaptor and HardDrake still demands I install Kdebluetooth4, which by the list of dependencies, appears to need KDE4 itself installed. Even upgrading to Bluez 4.32 and Bluez-gnome 1.8 didn't resolve the KDE4 dependency. Surely GNOME shouldn't need KDE4 installed in order to use this Bluetooth adaptor?

So I've compiled and installed lm_sensors (latest version) on my box (ECS GeForce 6100 PM-M2) and attempted to decipher the sensor names, but many are still a mystery. If you're up to the challenge of a spot of detective work, read on... Here's my "sensors" output: [root@LinuxBox etc]# sensors acpitz-virtual-0 Adapter: Virtual device temp1: +40.0°C (crit = +124.0°C) k8temp-pci-00c3 Adapter: PCI adapter Core0 Temp: +12.0°C Core0 Temp: +0.0°C Core1 Temp: +2.0°C Core1 Temp: +0.0°C it8716-isa-0290 Adapter: ISA adapter in0: +1.30 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +0.06 V) ALARM in1: +2.48 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +0.06 V) ALARM in2: +1.84 V (min = +2.05 V, max = +0.00 V) ALARM in3: +3.31 V (min = +0.03 V, max = +0.00 V) ALARM in4: +1.20 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +0.03 V) ALARM in5: +1.15 V (min = +0.54 V, max = +0.00 V) ALARM in6: +2.94 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +0.00 V) ALARM in7: +3.06 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +2.69 V) ALARM VBat: +2.99 V fan1: 2360 RPM (min = 21093 RPM) ALARM fan2: 0 RPM (min = 5273 RPM) ALARM temp1: +15.0°C (low = +64.0°C, high = +3.0°C) ALARM sensor = thermal diode temp2: +34.0°C (low = +38.0°C, high = +0.0°C) ALARM sensor = transistor temp3: +25.0°C (low = +0.0°C, high = +128.0°C) sensor = transistor cpu0_vid: +1.525 V My BIOS reports the following: CPU Tcontrol: 40°C System temperature: 34°C CPU Fan Speed: 2360 RPM CPU Vcore: 1.29 V VDIMM: 1.84V So the virtual adaptor temp1 is what the BIOS reports as "CPU Tcontrol" (overall temperature of the CPU die?) In k8temp, temp1 and temp3 are misreporting core temperatures (IIRC, someone's written a shell script to correct this), and temp2 and temp4 are non-reporting, so can be ignored (presumably the pins are there for the benefit of quad core Phenoms) In it87, in0 is probably CPU Vcore, and in2 probably VDIMM. temp1 may be CPU temp (i.e. should be reporting CPU Tcontrol) temp2 is probably "System temperature" temp3 is interesting - I didn't know I'd got another thermistor, so is it real or a fake? Updating sensors3.conf with my findings results in this sensors output: k8temp-pci-00c3 Adapter: PCI adapter Core0 Temp: +13.0°C Core1 Temp: +4.0°C acpitz-virtual-0 Adapter: Virtual device temp1: +17.0°C (crit = +70.0°C) it8716-isa-0290 Adapter: ISA adapter Vcore: +1.30 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +0.06 V) ALARM in1: +2.48 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +0.06 V) ALARM VDIMM: +1.84 V (min = +2.05 V, max = +0.00 V) ALARM in3: +3.31 V (min = +0.03 V, max = +0.00 V) ALARM in4: +1.20 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +0.03 V) ALARM in5: +1.15 V (min = +0.54 V, max = +0.00 V) ALARM in6: +2.94 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +0.00 V) ALARM in7: +3.06 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +2.69 V) ALARM VBat: +2.99 V fan1: 2368 RPM (min = 21093 RPM) ALARM fan2: 0 RPM (min = 5273 RPM) ALARM CPU temp: +17.0°C (low = +64.0°C, high = +3.0°C) ALARM sensor = thermal diode M/B temp: +34.0°C (low = +38.0°C, high = +0.0°C) ALARM sensor = transistor temp3: +25.0°C (low = +0.0°C, high = +128.0°C) sensor = transistor cpu0_vid: +1.525 V But what about the rest? Or the scaling formulae for the 5V and 12V rails? The it87 section of sensor3.conf as supplied just labelled in8 as VBat. Full stop. Aside: is it my imagination or do the alarm limits look rather suspicious?

(Not entirely sure whether virtual hardware queries should belong in software or hardware, so decided to play safe with software...) By default, cdemu / gcdemu creates just one virtual CD device at a time. However, a quick internet search reveals that apparently it (well, previous versions at least) can handle several simultaneous virtual CD devices - and there is a <device> parameter in the CLI (command line interface). However, specifying 1 or 2 results in: ERROR: Failed to load image: org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.UnmappedError.CdemudErrorQuark.Code233492487: Invalid device number. So evidently it's currently only configured to use device 0 (i.e. one device). Is there any way to persuade cdemu to accept multiple (i.e. 2) simultaneous virtual CD devices?

OK, here's an unusual one. I'm a regular visitor to a site called Camstreams (live videocam feed + chat) - particularly jonnie.camstreams.com The site uses a WMV stream, played in a 320x264 frame. However, on this particular stream, the video feed from the camera is 640x480, so using mplayer plugin only the top left corner appears (unless I view full-screen, which obviously displays the entire feed) However, on a Windoze box (such as my Vista laptop whose motherboard has since died), either in IE or FF with MS's WMP plugin, the feed is resized to fit the window. Is there any way of persuading mplayer to do this - or if not, use a little GreaseMonkey magic to achieve the same effect? -oOo- As an aside, I'll be really cheeky and ask another question: talking of mplayer, anyone know of a GNOME-friendly GUI for mplayer proper that can handle saving playlists? Seems a bit like reinventing the wheel to have Audacious installed for the purpose...

Update: Reinstalled Spring from scratch - this time via an 8GB USB key and UNetBootIn. System sounds are back - now I'm just waiting for all the updates to download...

Although it was a fresh install, it was using the same partitions as my previous 2008.0 install. This was installed before I acquired a network connection, so I had unwisely decided to attempt a gnome 2.20 --> gnome 2.22 upgrade via the "download the sources at work during lunch, then compile at home" route - very long-winded and after getting into a mess with trying the docbook stuff, I decided to obliterate it and (having acquired a net connection in the meantime) do a fresh .1 install, based on downloading the free DVD iso on my Vista laptop and burning it to DVD. Anyway, last night I decided that since I hadn't got anything on .1 that couldn't easily be replaced, reinstall .1, this time from scratch. Unfortunately my DVD-R had picked up a few errors in the meantime - it's not a good sign if glibc refuses to install, followed by about a dozen other packages! No problem I thought, so I decided to be adventurous and download the 2009.0 iso and burn that. Except verification failed and upon installation, it discovered errors on the copy to HDD routine. So tonight I'm planning to clean both the laptop (Vista) and PC (install target) DVD-RW drives and try again - although I'm concsious of my rapidly dwindling supply of DVD-Rs (Phillips branded & individually shrink wrapped, so you'd think they'd be more reliable than bargain basement generic spindles). Just out of curiosity, would it install if I copied the iso contents onto a couple of USB flash drives (a 1GB for contrib, a 4GB for everything else) and booted from them? Oh and before you ask, I do enjoy the challenge of doing things the hard way - needless to say, I work in IT, so wrecking computers is 'normal' :D

Fresh install, occupying 1/2 a 250GB SATA HDD. I've installed quite a lot of random stuff from the repositories, so if there's anything out there that might possibly conflict, let me know and I'll tell you if it's installed when I get home this evening :) (Quiet day at work...half the dept are training, so engaging in active work avoidance!)