oldwierdal

I updated my kernel this morning, and after it installed, I rebooted to the new kernel. Problem; MCC changed the hd information in /boot/grub/menu.lst from (hd0,5) {this is correct} to (hd1,5). The following was the original menu.lst; $ sudo cat /boot/grub/menu.lst timeout 5 color black/cyan yellow/cyan gfxmenu (hd0,5)/boot/gfxmenu default 0 title 2.6.27.19-desktop-1mnb kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.19-desktop-1mnb BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.27.19-desktop-1mnb root=/dev/sda6 splash=silent vga=787 initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd-2.6.27.19-desktop-1mnb.img ttitle 2.6.27.19-1 kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.19-1mdv BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.27.19-1 root=/dev/sda6 splash=silent vga=787 initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd-2.6.27.19-1mdv.img After installing the new kernel, this was the menu.lst; $ sudo cat /boot/grub/menu.lst timeout 5 color black/cyan yellow/cyan gfxmenu (hd1,5)/boot/gfxmenu default 0 title 2.6.27.19-desktop-1mnb kernel (hd1,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.19-desktop-1mnb BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.27.19-desktop-1mnb root=/dev/sda6 splash=silent vga=787 initrd (hd1,5)/boot/initrd-2.6.27.19-desktop-1mnb.img title 2.6.27.19-1 kernel (hd1,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.19-1mdv BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.27.19-1 root=/dev/sda6 splash=silent vga=787 initrd (hd1,5)/boot/initrd-2.6.27.19-1mdv.img Ofcourse, it hung, looking for a non-existant partition. It took a second look to see the problem, and I was able to manually edit the boot config and get going again. I then edited /boot/grub/menu.lst to make it correct. Problem solved, in-so-far-as the machine is concerned. I can boot and run it. However, I'd sure like to know why MCC rewrote the (hdx,x) info, and worse, why it wrote it wrong!! A newbie might have freaked out by this. Unless he spotted the wrong drive designation, and knew how to fix it, his machine would have been rendered useless. Has anyone else ever seen this happen? I've searched the forum quite a bit, and haven't seen any posts on this problem. If I missed it, and started a new thread unnecessarily, I apologize. Thanks for any feedback. owa

Thanks, Chris. I'll give that a try, probably tomorrow. Since I multi-boot, Fedora 9 being the most often used, there isn't a terrible sense of urgency just now. But I would like to continue my exploration of Mandriva 2009 if I can get past this self-inflicted wound. It seems clear to me that compiz and my video card are not playing together nicely. Thanks again. I'll post back the results. owa

Any login I choose, after logging in, results in windows which are at such a resolution that only the equivalent of the lower square inch will fit in the window. The panels are similarly disproportionate. It seems, short of reinstalling, my best option would be command-line edit of the appropriate config file, if only I knew which file, and where it is located. Thanks, owa

Thanks, daniewicz and theYinYetti, for the suggestions. I can launch both drakconf and drakx11, but the programs are so grossly disproportionate that they are unuseable. I am multi-booting with Mandriva 2009.0, Fedora 9, and CentOS 5. Would it be possible to edit the appropriate file? I could boot to say Fedora 9, mount the partition holding Mandriva 2009. go to that file, and edit it, if I just knew which file, and what to enter. Thanks for the responses. owa

Hi Greg2. I think I have that installed. This is the output of; $ rpm -qa | grep fglrx x11-driver-video-fglrx-8.542-1mdv2009.0 fglrx-kernel-2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb-8.522-3mdv2009.0 fglrx-kernel-desktop586-latest-8.522-1.20081002.3mdv2009.0 fglrx-control-center-8.542-1mdv2009.0 fglrx-kernel-desktop-latest-8.522-1.20081002.3mdv2009.0 fglrx-kernel-2.6.27-desktop-0.rc8.2mnb-8.522-3mdv2009.0 dkms-fglrx-8.542-1mdv2009.0 So, doesn't this mean that it is installed? $ uname -a Linux localhost 2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb #1 SMP Thu Oct 2 05:52:21 EDT 2008 i686 AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3400+ GNU/Linux What do you think? Thanks, owa

This is the output of; $ /usr/bin/lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge (rev 10) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge 00:12.0 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 Serial ATA Controller 00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller 00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller 00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller 00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller (rev 11) 00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 IDE Controller 00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge 00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge 00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02) 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control 01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 [Radeon Xpress 200G Series] 02:01.0 Communication controller: Agere Systems V.92 56K WinModem (rev 03) 02:03.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10) 02:04.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306 Fire II IEEE 1394 OHCI Link Layer Controller (rev 80) Is there a special driver, then, for the ATI Radeon Xpress 200G Series built-in video driver? How might I find an appropriate driver for this? Odd that 2008.1 did not seem to have this problem. Thanks for the reply. I'll see what I can find out about this. owa

I just installed Mandriva 2009, and everything seems to be working fine. Except, that is, that during boot, there is no splash. This is not a terrible problem. More just an annoying little thing that I haven't been able to fix. This is my /boot/grub/menu.lst; $ sudo cat /boot/grub/menu.lst timeout 5 color black/cyan yellow/cyan gfxmenu (hd0,4)/boot/gfxmenu default 0 title Mandriva 2009.0 (2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb) kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb root=/dev/sda5 resume=/dev/sda2 splash=silent vga=788 initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd-2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb.img #title failsafe #kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe #root=UUID=caafeff4-2710-4d75-8b58-68b941c181ff failsafe #initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img title CentOS (Final) root (hd0,0) configfile /grub/grub.conf title Mandriva Linux (Official) root (hd1,4) configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst And, splashy is installed; $ sudo rpm -qa | grep splashy libsplashy1-0.3.11-4mdv2009.0 splashy-0.3.11-4mdv2009.0 I read through another post on this problem, marked solved, except that it did not appear to be solved for one of the participants. Also, there didn't seem to be anything in it that helped me. I've uninstalled and re-installed splashy, complete with the same problem of many packages being removed in addition to splashy, and having to re-install nearly all of gnome. I've edited the /boot/grub/menu.lst to be certain it didn't contain an extra space after the vmlinuz info, and also after the BOOT_IMAGE= info, which, in the past has caused this problem. As I've said, this is not an urgent problem, rather just an annoying one. However, any help would be appreciated. Thanks, owa

I recently encountered a problem with a lost or damaged MBR. There are a number of ways that this might happen. One of them is mixing dual-boot or multi-boot installations of IDE or scsi device naming schemes, e.g. /dev/hdx or /dev/sdx. Usually, booting the install media and typing "linux rescue" at the prompt will take you, after answering a few questions and choosing the installation location of the OS you want to use for the boot loader, to a terminal. Then type "#chroot /mnt/sysimage", enter, and you can then cd to your /boot/grub directory, check and/or edit your grub.conf or menu.lst, and then type "#grub-install /dev/hdx (or /dev/sdx). The return will show the layout of your system, and you're done. Exit out of the rescue mode and reboot, and your grub menu is there. However, this time, when I would type "#grub-install /dev/hda, this would be my return; #grub-install /dev/hda /dev/hda does not have any corresponding BIOS drive. The most important thing I've learned in 40 years of fixing things, and 5 years of playing with Linux is this, DON'T PANIC! Think, study, research, ask for help. Just don't do anything rash that you might not be able to recover from. In this case I was fortunate, in that I was able to use the rescue mode as described above to finally find an OS,(I currently multi-boot with CentOS 5.2, Mandriva 2008 Spring, Mandriva 2009, and Ubuntu.) that I could do "grub-install" on and get my system to boot, even though it didn't happen to be my preferred installation. At least I had a working system from which I could work and try to find the problem. My searching led me to this; http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=153679 Stoat, the author of this gem, explains this far more eloquently and intelligently than I could. I recommend reading this post thoroughly if you have questions about this. It is really quite good. This is what I had for device.map in two of my installations; The first is from the CentOS installation; $ sudo cat /boot/grub/device.map (hd0) /dev/sde (hd1) /dev/sda (hd2) /dev/sdb (hd3) /dev/sdc The next is from the Mandriva 2009 installation; $ sudo cat /hda9/boot/grub/device.map (hd0) /dev/sda (hd1) /dev/sdb (hd2) /dev/sdc (hd3) /dev/sdi Note the discrepancy between the two. Because of the screwy device.map(s), grub-install was confused, and couldn't install. Following the information in the above link, I did this; $ sudo /sbin/grub-install --recheck /dev/hda and the return, as expected, described the device layout and succeeded. My device.map then looked like this for the CentOS installation; $ sudo cat /boot/grub/device.map (hd0) /dev/hda (hd1) /dev/hdb (hd2) /dev/sdb (hd3) /dev/sdc and this for the Mandriva 2009 installation; $ sudo cat /hda9/boot/grub/device.map (hd0) /dev/sda (hd1) /dev/sdb (hd2) /dev/sdc (hd3) /dev/sdi Although they aren't identical, the drive order, allowing for the difference between IDE and scsi scheming, follows the same sequence. So, I hope this information might be helpful if you should encounter a similar problem. Thanks, owa

I tried the update/upgrade via command line, and all seemed to go quickly without problems, until I rebooted. Then it locked up at the login screen. I have mine set for a timed login. The proscribed time elapsed, and the screen went black for a second, and returned to the splash and a curser with the dots running around it. I just left it, and 45 minutes later, that's where it was. So, I rebooted and logged in as root, with the same results. Prudently, I had a complete backup of the system on another partition, so I made free electrons of 2009, and restored my system to 2008.1. I still get the annoying blue arrow, but it's easy enough to make that go away. I'll just wait a month or so and let some of the bugs get worked out, before I try it again. P.S. It always helps to keep a good back up. It always helps to keep a good back up. I repeat; it always helps to keep a good backup. owa

You are quite right about Easy-Urpmi. Incidentally, I just did the update which installed mdkonline as well as a couple of others. As for KDE, I've really tried to like it. I really have. But I use gnome. It's like beer, I guess. You either like it or you don't. Again, thanks for the quick response. I'll just wait and let it do its thing with the updates. owa

Thanks for the quick reply. So..... Over the past weekend, I installed the Easy-Urpmi package. I do not recall seeing an 'mdkapplet' package since then. If I do sudo rpm -qa | grep mdkapplet, it returns nothing, meaning mdkapplet is not installed. Is it under another name, or has it not yet released. Assuming all has happened as expected, how can I tell if I'm running on Mandriva 2008.1 or Mandriva 2009? Unless I missed it, the link you provided does not indicate that Mandriva 2009 would be updated in this manner. Did you mean if I wait a day or two from today, Oct. 9, I should see this package? Or a day or two from the day I installed Easy-Urpmi, which was Sun., Oct. 5? Forgive me if I'm sounding dumb. I'm just a bit new to Mandriva. Besides, I'm old, and easily confused. owa

I agree, Adam. Very well written. I first looked at Mandrake in late 2003, but refused to joine the club. I tried it during the weak-release period, and ran away. As I mentioned in another post, I retreated from Fedora because of the extremely aggressive release cycle, and settled for the stodgey but stable CentOS. Ever inquisitive, though, I re-discovered Mandriva just over a month ago, and I have been quite impressed. As for the low opinion mentioned as the basis for this post, I've always been one to go my own way, and am frequently oblivious to what others might be saying. Until reading this post, I was completely unaware that Mandriva was being talked about at all, not to mention that it was not favorable. HUMA, I suppose, but I do go my own way. Again, a very interesting explanation, Adam. I'm nearly as impressed with your writing as I am with this distribution. owa

Please correct me if I'm wrong. My understanding is that with Easy-Urpmi, when a new release comes out, such as Mandriva 2009, your system will be upgraded from the current level to the new release level via on-line updates/upgrades rather than downloading the iso, burning a CD/DVD, and installing in what has become, for most distributions, the standard method. Is this correct? owa

My desktop computer slowly developed problems with the PATA/EIDE ports on the motherboard. Long in developing, and intermittant in nature, by the time I realized just what the problem was, my computer was finally rendered useless in its present state. For very short periods, I was able to boot to my rescue disk, and recover some valuable files from it, but that's about it. So..... I'm exploring options. Here are some givens; I am experiencing extremely limited cash flow at this point. I have successfully installed Mandriva 2008 Spring, dual boot, on my company laptop, from which I am posting this, using the Mandriva partition. WinXP Professional on the other partition for work. I really want to move away from using the company laptop for my personal use expeditiously. It is not panic-time, yet. But, I really want to get going on this piece of the problem. I believe that the rest of the desktop computer, i.e. cpu, etc. is still functional, as far as I can tell at this point. I have explored the possibility of getting a PATA/EIDE > USB external drive caddy which I could use with the company laptop. This is a viable option, yet it still involves using the company laptop for personal use. As I've said, I really want to avoid this. I have also explored the possibility of getting a pci/EIDE card to plug my hard drives and CD/DVD drive into on my desktop. The question I have with this option is, would the pci/EIDE drives boot if the motherboard PATA/EIDE connections are totally inoperative? I have also explored the possibility of getting a motherboard, motherboard/cpu combo, and a bare-bones box. The cost of a pci/EIDE card would be the least expensive option, IF it would work. The costs of either a motherboard, motherboard/cpu combo, or a bare-bones box are very close, and are do-able, if the pci/EIDE card option is not possible. The cost of the PATA/EIDE > USB external drive caddy is also close to that of a pci/EIDE card. Does anyone have any experience or knowlege on this? I'd appreciate any feedback. Thanks, owa

In fact, it was the kernel, somehow. Read my reply to the previous poster, dude67. Just from 40 years of troubleshooting problems, I determined that the problem started with the update which had finished just prior to the onset of the problem. Since the update included a kernel update, that became my most likely suspect. However, I do appreciate you taking the time and interest to respond. Thank you. More an other time. owa

Actually, I found the general, if not specific, cause of the problem, and I believe that it stemmed from this kernel. I was able to boot successfully to the original kernel, 2.6.24.4-desktop586-1mnb, with no problem with the desktop.... that is all was normal. So, having difficulty finding the offending kernel in the add/remove software program, I installed synaptic, and found it quite readily. I removed it completely. However, the problem still remained in the 2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb kernel, so, again using synaptic, I completely removed it as well. Then I rebooted to the original 2.6.24-4 kernel, and with synaptic, I re-installed the 2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb kernel, rebooted, and all is well. Specifically what happened, I don't know. To reiterate, I would have to open the configure Xserver, close it, log out, and then log back in. This was still the case after removing the *uc2mnb kernel with the 2.6.24-7 kernel, but the 2.6.24-4 was ok. Anyway, all is well now with this problem. Just as an aside, I really don't like the layout of the Add/Remove Software program. Some packages just aren't visible, such as the kernels. So, at least for the forseeable future, I'll use apt/synaptic as my package manager. Perhaps someone can point out how to see ALL the packages. It is entirely possible that I am just not quite used to the Mandriva way of things yet. Thanks for the reply. owa

Perhaps, because Red Hat was my first exposure to Linux, and I just got used to it, but regardless, I kept returning to Red Hat, then Fedora, after each experiment with any of the Debian based distributions. But, as I said, Fedora really got to be annoying. I have been using CentOS 5 for almost 2 years, now, and I really like the stability and functionality. But, it is in a very long release cycle because of its nature, and did seem to be a bit old. Nothing wrong with old. I'm old. I just wanted to look around for something which might fall somewhere between a 53 chevy and a souped up hot rod. I rediscovered Mandriva, and I really like what I've seen so far. I'll drive this for a while and see if it might be something I can stay with. owa

I got Mandriva 2008.1 setup on my Dell D630 laptop yesterday, and all seemed well. This morning, there was a notification that there were updates available. So, I did the updates. I noticed that among the updates was a kernel update. So, after the update was complete, I rebooted. The boot seemed normal, but after login, the desktop had just the background and the panel, no desktop icons or launchers. I was able to go into Configure Your Computer and change the monitor configuration to Dell Laptop, log out and log in, and the desktop was back. HOWEVER, this happens EVERY time, now. This began right after the latest update, this morning. I don't know if this hardware related or software related to the recent update. This is the output of ; $ /usr/bin/lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c) 00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Contoller #4 (rev 02) 00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02) 00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02) 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02) 00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 02) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f2) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA IDE Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02) 03:01.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. Cardbus bridge (rev 21) 03:01.4 FireWire (IEEE 1394): O2 Micro, Inc. Firewire (IEEE 1394) (rev 02) 09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5755M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02) 0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) and; $ uname -a Linux localhost 2.6.24.7-desktop586-1.uc2mnb #1 SMP Thu Jul 17 16:47:02 EDT 2008 i686 Intel® Core2 Duo CPU T7100 @ 1.80GHz GNU/Linux I have tried booting to all the available kernels with the same results. Does anyone have a clue what might be causing this? Thanks for any help, owa

I found the package I was looking for this morning, but thanks anyway. And I tested it and it works just dandy. Occasionally, I have build custom packages, though not so much in recent months. And, occasionally I will build a custom kernel from vanilla source. So, even though I don't get into that so much any more, I wanted to have it installed just in case I ever wanted to. The desire to get into rpm-building stemmed from the over-exuberance of Fedora releasing things that weren't really ready to release, even considering that this is part of the plan. It left users finding creative ways to fix things that suddenly stopped working after an update. (note that I said update, not upgrade.) And, I had to build my own kernels in the early days of Win4Lin. The latest, and last, I guess, version builds its own kqemu module with every new kernel on first boot, thus eliminating the need for users to build their own every few months. Thanks for the link. I'm learning as I go. And, I must say that I continue to be very favorably impressed. owa p.s. I really did know what Becky meant about the nickels. Just my wierd humor. owa

Actually, with all the media sources opened up, the only 'rpmbuild' packages I could find were these, which I installed yeaterday; $ rpm -qa | grep rpmbuild rpmbuildupdate-0.8.1-1mdv2008.0 java-rpmbuild-1.7.4-2.0.3mdv2008.1 I have not had a chance to try rpmbuild since installing these, so I don't know if I have the right packages or not. New to the Mandriva way of doing things, I haven't figured out good search commands, yet. If you have a good command line 'urpmi' search command, I'm all ears, so to speak. Else, I'll muddle around and find a good one and post back the results. Or, perhaps, these packages are really what I need. As I said, I'm not a virgin with Linux, just with Mandriva. To reply to the post previous to this, I guess it's just my German stubbornness that makes me keep installing VMware Workstation 5.(lotsa revisions, but still old, and less than 6) Dumb, really, to spend much time wrestling with it, as I rarely use it, in preference to VirtualBox. Really, dumb, but I still have a working installation of Win4LinPro which I've been able to force-feed into several upgrades of Fedora/Centos 5. Completely uncouth, and brutal, but I just copy the installation from my previous system, and poke and prod, copy and modify, till I get it to work with a full-blown installation of WinXP Home Edition. I only use it for the annual tax prep self mutilation because I can't yet get either TurboTax or TaxCut to work on Wine. Yet.. I refuse to spend the money to upgrade to VMware Workstation 6. My wife says I have a pocket full of buffalo poop, cause I squeeze my nickels so tight. What she means by that, I'm not really sure. Anyway, thanks for the responses, all. owa :D

As a matter of fact, I'm installing rpmbuild even as we speak. I found and installed nano with google. I did open up the options a bit on the media sources, and urpmi found all that it needed after that. The problem with VMware probably needs another of their patchanyanyany fixes. With VirtualBox, I find I use VMware less and less. The only reason I even bother with it is that I paid hard cash for it, and it d*** well better work! Thanks for the reply. Also, thanks for putting this in a more appropriate forum. I should have known better. owa

Hi! I'm an old fart disquised as the new kid on the block. I've been using Linux since 2003, jumping first into Red Hat 9, then Fedora, and most recently, CentOS 5.2. During that time I also played around with Debian and the Debian derivatives, but always returned to rpm-based Linux. Fedora began to be a chore for me, with their really aggressive release cycle. So I moved to CentOS. That was much more relaxed. But just a bit too relaxed. Sort of reminded me of Perry Como. Those of you under 30 probably don't have a clue there. I tried openSUSE 10, and gave it up. I again tried openSUSE 11.1. Better, but still no seegar. Yesterday, and for a while this morning, I installed and configured Mandriva 2008.1. Wow! I'm really impressed. Not only did the installer correctly identify and configure all my hardware, but it also installed my HP Photosmart C4240 automatically! I had been prepared to do some wrestling with drivers for this, that, and the other. I had all my ducks in a row, ready for the task. Not really disappointed, I didn't have to do much of anything. Something which has been lacking in nearly all the Fedora/Red Hat products is help documentation on board. All of the community forums are always ready and willing to help, but I have always thought it would be great to have the help documentation on board in a user/reader friendly format, rather than having to wade through man-pages, or googling on line for written documentation for some things. With my new toy, Mandriva 2008.1, it looks like almost all that I might be looking for is right here for documentation. Great! OK! Now for the other shoe! Mandriva 2008 is great/ However, I was disappointed that I didn't find my favorite little editor, nano, as part of the standard install. I was able to find it by googling, and got it installed, but every distribution I've tried from day one had nano. Personally, I think it is every bit as versatile and powerful as vi and vim, and for me it is far easier to use than either of them. Also, I wish sudo were included as a standard option. With sudo, and proper use of it, the risk of accidentally forgetting you've gone into su mode, and destroying your box is almost gone. Obviously, nothing is ever completely 'sailor-proof.' But sudo sure improves the odds for safety. I just have two remaining anomolies to fix; The first is rpmbuild. It's crying about a missing dependancy; $ sudo rpm -ivfh rpm-build*.rpm error: Failed dependencies: patch is needed by rpm-build-4.4.2.3-1mde2008.1.i586 elfutils is needed by rpm-build-4.4.2.3-1mde2008.1.i586 rpm = 1:4.4.2.3-1mde2008.1 is needed by rpm-build-4.4.2.3-1mde2008.1.i586 So, I'll need to wade through that. The next is VMware Workstation 5. The rpm installs, but, $ /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl chokes. I'll keep working on those problems, and post back for help if I can't get past them. Meanwhile, I'll just close with KUDO's to the writers and developers for fine work. owa [moved from Installing Mandriva by spinynorman - welcome aboard :)]