tux99

padlock_aes is a module for the VIA hardware encryption feature of VIA C7 and Nano cpus.

A memory upgrade to 1.5GB will make a very noticeable difference. I had a P4 2.5GHz with 1.5GB RAM until a few months ago and it was perfectly fine with Linux (using it for the same purposes as you).

I only upgraded it as the mobo died, not because of performance and in fact my new mobo has a dual core AMD Athlon 2.5GHz and I don't see much of a difference during normal use.

Get the memory 2nd hand off ebay and the upgrade will be very cost effective (just make sure you know exactly what memory you need so you get the right type).

Try gnome, KDE is quite 'heavy'...

1GB is perfectly fine for normal desktop use with Linux.

Check if you system is swapping a lot:

# free
            total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:       2073680    1999788      73892          0      94588    1103992
-/+ buffers/cache:     801208    1272472
Swap:      4008208        268    4007940

See if the used swap value is high.

Also what DE where you using with 2009.1? Gnome, KDE 3.5, KDE 4, XFCE, LXDE,...?

Maybe it had been detected and re-added before you disconnected and you just didn't notice it earlier?

Have you added the PLF repos yet and installed libdvdcss? When I insert a DVD I get the option to play it with Dragon Video player (in KDE4) and playback works fine.

I have already installed it and also helped spread the news:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1193453

I must say, my first impression is very positive, KDE 4.3.2 is starting to be good enough to be a valid substitute for KDE 3.5 and Pulseaudio seems to work without problems so far (unlike in every other distro I tried so far).

Pulseaudio has great extensibility, but one ends up with no sound, sooner or later... :P

Alsa is certainly more solid, but it's API is extremely poor, and the sound quality isn't great, either.

Pulseaudio is just a (useless) layer on top of Alsa, it still uses Alsa as sound drivers. Why are you saying Alsa sound quality isn't great?

It's as great as your sound card or on-board chip will allow, there is certainly no quality issue with Alsa sound!

There are several libraries that avoid having to inteface directly with the Alsa API when writing software, there is no need for a crappy sound server like Pulseaudio just because Alsa has a complex API. In fact all apps, I have tried work fine without Pulseaudio so they are all capable of speaking to Alsa directly.

I assume it still comes with that POS (excuse my choice of words but yes, IMHO piece of sh1t is the only matching term for it... ) Pulseaudio installed by default...

I just helped a couple of Linux newbies getting Mandriva 2009.1 installed, they really liked it apart from the trouble to get sound working (which was only resolved by disabling Pulseaudio and then removing all pulseaudio plugins).

I have yet to experience a Linux install where Pulseaudio works fine out of the box, yes I know some people are lucky and it works for them, but that seem to be exceptions...

<paranoid mode on>

Sometimes I get the impression Pulseaudio could be a virus planted by M$ to make Linux less newbie friendly

<paranoid mode off>

Whenever packages get installed/uninstalled/upgraded it gets logged to /var/log/messages, just check what packages got uninstalled at the time/date when you did the uninstall.

 

Do a

# modprobe | grep p4

You you get a module "p4-clockmod" as loaded, then unload it and blacklist it. That way you won't have frequency scaling.

Why would he want to do that? His problem was caused by a wrong multiplier setting not by frequency scaling.

On a P4 frequency scaling saves considerable amounts of electricity, I had it on 'ondemand' for years on my P4 machine.

At 2.4GHz you got 40C which is ok, but if you change it to 3.4GHz you will see the temperature go up noticeably without using frequrncy scaling. There is no drawback in using it, only advantages.

The problem is that 2009.0 and 2009.1 have relegated KDE3 under /opt/kde3 so it's hard to use a 2008.1 package as the paths are all different.

I don't have an easy solution for you, maybe if you edit the specfile you get it working but that requires package building skills (can't help you with that as my package building skills are very basic).

I agree something is wrong, 300MHz minumum seems fine as I had the same with my old P4, but the maximum is too low, maybe you need a bios upgrade as the cpu is not detected correctly?

Also you should use 'ondemand' as 'performance' means it will run always at full speed which generates lots of heat and uses considerably more power.

maybe here:

http://www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=73

not a Linux forum, but it's a hardware forum which is very busy so someone might know an answer to your question

You probably have cpu-frequency throttling enabled, which means the cpu will slow down when full power is not required and speed up and full load. This is a very good idea with your cpu, as the Prescott gets very hot otherwise.

run the following commands:

these will tell you min/max frequencies

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu?/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu?/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq

this will tell you all available frequencies

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu?/cpufreq/scaling_available_frequencies

this will tell you all available governors (throttling rules)

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu?/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors

this will tell you currently used governor

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu?/cpufreq/scaling_governor

You're welcome, after 15 years of Linux I STILL have always something to learn myself... ;)

The UUID of the swap partition has probably changed.

Check the UUID of the swap partition with the following command typed as "root" user in a terminal:

blkid |grep swap

compare it with the UUID in /etc/fstab and replace the UUID in fstab for the swap partition if it doesn't match the output of the above command.

So when I type "startx" it prints something on the screen, but it goes blank so fast I can't read it.

If the driver doesn't work then it would fall back to the text console and you could read the error messages.

If it doesn't do that, but the screen stays black with nothing on it then the driver is ok (the Intel 855GME has been supported for a long time so I would be surprised if it doesn't work), you can switch back to the text console manually by pressing CTRL+ALT+F1 to check what it says.

It could well be that the output simply switches to the VGA port for an external monitor for some reason, so maybe try pressing the key that toggles between internal/external monitor, and check the BIOS settings with regards to the display device.

in safe mode, log in with your normal user and the type:

startx

this should start the X server, if there is a problem it will tell you an error message, post that here.

In Mandriva open the Mandriva Control Center (MCC, also called "Configure Your Computer") click on the "Network Sharing" section on the left hand bar, then click on the "Share drives and directories with Windows (SMB) systems" link.

This will open a page where you can set up file shares and printer shares. Just add a file share and click OK on the bottom.

Ok, now I understand, sorry can't help you much with that, but I guess it's just a matter of changing or adding some library paths in the Makefile as it seems to be complaining that it can locate the libraries.

Remember KDE 3.5 is installed under /opt/kde3 in 2009.0 and 2009.1 so you will have to adapt the rpm (rebuild from source rpm) or the Makefile that comes with the source code for that.

Apart from that I imagine it should work fine.

What is the name of the mandriva 2009.1 package you are trying to install?

Haven't been able to establish an

internet connection through the modem. I can set up the modem, make the connection successfully,

and log on, but no app seems to recognize the connection.

To help you with this you need to give us further details.

How did you set up the modem?

How do you determine the connection is up successfully?

Which apps have you tried that don't seem to recognize the connection?

What errors do you get?

A modem connection to the internet is normally setup via the MCC ('Mandriva Linux Control Center', aka 'Configure Your Computer'), under 'Network & Internet' by clicking on 'Set up a new network interface'.

Once the connection is up successfully, have you checked, that you have a valid IP address and a default gateway and DNS servers?

You can check the IP address with the following command line command in a terminal:

ifconfig

the default gateway with:

route -n

and the DNS servers by looking at the file /etc/resolv.conf once connected.

Then you could try to ping some IP address, first your default gateway, then your DNS servers and then some well known websites like for example mandrivausers.org :) .

If all that is successful then Firefox and other Internet apps should work too.

Backports can be useful if you want to benefit from newer versions of software (but don't select it as update repo, unless you want get them all automatically as updates).

Also PLF to get all the real goodies :D

https://mandrivausers.org/easyurpmi/

You can add a local directory as repository by typing the following command in a terminal (as 'root' user):

urpmi.addmedia --update "some_name" file:///some/directory/path

If you mess something up you can use urpmi.removemedia to remove the added repository again.

I don't think you need to reinstall, it just seems these minor issues need to be fixed.