ChrisM

for what its worth, it might be worthwhile to set your system up with 2 users - that way you can experiment and still have a working desktop to do your college work assignemnts. I'm a newbie too, and for the past 6 months have been visiting this site very regularly - its very friendly and very helpful. Before using linux, I wasn't even that versed beyond doing the odd windows instalation and fitting PCI cards. But I was totally fed up with the constant system crashes and security threats etc I moved away - and I have not looked back since. And since installing Mandrake my condfidence and ability has rocketed. Yes there will likely be times that you face issues where you'll be pulling your hair out - often hardware related - but overall I'd say I've been able to overcome 95% plus issues that I've faced, largely through the help on/from this BB. But it's all relative I guess - it depends on what you've got and what you want to do with it. Also, I jumped in at the deep end. Fed up and exhausted with my M$ experience I just wiped out Windows and installed Mandrake 9.2 - no dual boot - I forced myself into a situation - but honestly, it was nothing to worry about. I have a good friend who is a Windows nerd, and he thought I'd be back to Windows, he thought that me installing Linux was all bravado - but I'm now on my third installed version (9.2/10/10.1). Because of inexperience, I've done a number of reinstalls - but it's really not difficult , and had I the patience, confidence and time, I probably wouldn't have needed to most of the time. Again, its a learning thing (but no matter what you use, you should still always back up your data). I could have gone back to M$ anytime - the discs are now taking up valuable space in the junk box, collecting dust. I've stuck it out with Mandrake because it allows me to do what I want, and everything else is a learning curve. No bad thing there. And its such a relief not to be facing those constant crashes and have those regular virus worries. I have a couple of comfort blankets in the way of reading material - consider checking out this this and this None of them are teccy teccy, heavy going, and are aimed at newbies. They do come in useful and can help explain some of the concepts etc. I really should sit down and read them through properly myself one day! But, most of all, this site rocks, as does aRTee's. Good luck.

I've looked almost everywhere - you can't select/deselect through right clicking the icon in the tray, I can't find it mentioned in any help pages and I've googled. Surely somebody knows something about this little fella :huh:

Hey Chris Sorry, still don't know what the icon is called. Here's a screenie though - look for the little white X and red background - showing I've disconnected eth0 Right click on the icon and you get these options as [su] Disconnect/connect eth0 Configure network Monitor network Refresh Get Online Help Always launch on startup Quit Handy little icon I think. Desktop dull - yes I know

Moogman I too had 10.1CE and couldn't get security updates - I started this thread which following it, will lead you to this thread - allowing you to update CE to Official and therefore access to security updates etc etc Try it, i'm sure you'll like it :D

Tried what you suggested but it aint there. Its an icon which really lets you enable/disable your ethernet connection and it lives/lived in the system tray. I don't know what it's called tho. +++edit If there be no suggestions about how to get it back, maybe somebody could let me know what's it's called - maybe I can look for it at MCC/urpmi. (Mandrake 10.1) Thanks. +++edit (2) Got it back - did a reboot (well actually, it was a second re boot) - :huh:

The icon in system tray that allows you to manage your connection - I've lost it, and I don't know how to get it back, nor what it's called. It's not in the applet menu. Anyone know how I can get it back?

Thanks arctic, 1 of them is running 2.4.22 and the other is running 2.6.8.1 For now, I'm gonna do as you suggested earlier - I'm going to re -edit fstab to its original state, this way I should be able to get back to my CDs. The print server can be resumed - just need to look a bit more at problem printing. Thanks for your help on this one - in part the problem was overcome, but with a trade off. But like you say, its about tweaking boxes and learning along the way. Cheers and

Its odd why the PC will read numerous CDs and refuses point blank to deal with the printer driver issue - and then screws it all up into reverse with the fstab edit. Some of the settings somewhere are wrong. I've had quite a few hardware issues, in particular CDRoms.Without trying to resolve this now (i'm gonna save this for a really rainy day :P) this is what I've had to put up with recently. 4 boxes: a]1 unbranded CDR b]1 LG CDR c]1 LG CDR d]1Samsung CDRW-DVD a] would not boot from its CDR - so i had to borrow [d] to install 9.2 b] and c] installed 9.2 but got screwed in the process! d] no problems - just will not boot from DVD So [d] became saviour whilst a, b and c became CDR-less temporarily By chance, it was found that the CDR in [a] actually worked in [c] So, [a] and got new CDRWs - Philips 5200's Upgrading to MDK10.0 is no problem for [a] but the same discs, in the same model CDRW would not boot up from - so we had to borrow the combo from [d] but other than booting up issues, the CDRW in mounts OK I downloaded mdk 10.00 onto [d] but K3B didn't like the combo (or vice versa). So, I downloaded 10.00 again onto and turned it into a file server so that [a] could burn the iso's with it's K3B (I wanted to experiment with a server set up anyway). [a] and was 9.2 burnt the iso's OK and upgraded to 10.00 I tried to upgrade but could only do so by borrowing again from [d] - and then it was a waste of time, because of low resources. [d] when it got its combo back, upgraded to 10>10.1CE>10.1 Honestly, CDRW's are a pain. Until this latest issue, I have never dared change any of the settings - it's all been down to hardware config issues - and swapping stuff around. Anyway to sum up in reagrd to CDRW's [a] and [c] don't have any problems, its and [d] which are a headache - and funnily enough, these are the two boxes I refer to at the start of this thread. I give up . For now. A healthy dose of tenacity is needed here I think - or a new PC or 2 :D 6 months ago, I migrated from M$ and I think the most I'd done was install an internal modem and install a click and point OS such as ME/98/2000! Now I got me a home network running mdk9.2/10/10.1 sharing printers, folders and the internet. It might not seem that great but it's been a steep learning curve - ands without this BB i'd have been back to uncle Bill But those bad days are long gone. I've learnt more here in six months than I have in 6 years with M$ Cheers all Now then, where's that scanner...

I copied the files over to my HDD and was able start the setup. This works - to a point - as it doesn't see my printer! I was hoping to install from the CD on my client machine, just in something faield to install properly on the 9.2 box. A cruel twist of fate here. Anyway, using HardDrake I was able to install my printer to my client PC - and the results remain the same - still printing garbled text from .pdf documents - so I'm not so sure it's a memory issue now. Not sure what to do with the CDROM - editing the fstab allowed me to mount the problematic CD (but I couldn't open/read the .pdf manual - instead I've downloaded a copy of the same manual which I can open and read bizarre - I can also read the manual from the CD using my 9.2 box double bizarre ) I didn't notice a problem mounting other CDs in the past. Since I edited fstab though, whilst I can now mount the problem printer CD with drivers/manual I'm having problems mounting/reading documents on other CDs - see my previous post. All in all, a bit of a pickle :wacko:

Thanks AussieJohn I found it, but got it elsewhere. When I made a desktop Link to Application, a box appears on the desktop with the KDE wheel icon. Click on this and you are offered more icons, select System icons/Applications and firefox icon is there. I am certain this was never the case with 9.2 - so was pleased to see it's offerings here in 10.1

Once again aRTee has delivered I've just had a quick scan, and was pleased to see the mention of urpmi and the case of bad signatures. You are absolutely right in that it does confuse novices - I've come across this kind of situation with urpmi a couple of times as well as in the MCC (In know its the graphical face of urpmi). On at least a couple of occasions that I've come across bad signatures I've raised it here @ MUB - on other occasions I simply don't do the install cos I aint confident/experienced to know what's good/bad/indifferent. Might be good to mention that its poss to upgrade a CE version to official through urpmi. I've said this before elsewhere @ MUB, aRtee's site rocks

Thanks for this arctic, so far so good. I replaced 'auto' with iso9660 Should I have deleted the remainding text thereafter and replaced it with ro,user,noauto 0 0 (all I have done so far is replace auto with iso9660) As a user, I can now mount the CD rom and see it's contents However, I'm unable to install Acrobat reader: As the setup guide suggests I mount the CD and enter this command: # manual/acrobat4/INSTALL here a licence agreement is supposed to show, instead I get the following text: bash: manual/acrobat4/INSTALL: /bin/sh: bad interpreter permission denied Also, trying to install the software, I need to log in as root. In console enter ./setup.sh and get the following response: bash: ./setup.sh: /bin/sh: bad interpreter permission denied Any suggestions? +++ I've just tried a few data CDs - first need to hit the refesh button on the toolbar before it reads any files/documents - but then its not able to read all of them++

I have just downloaded it from the mozilla/firefox web site without any probs I thought that I already had 1.0 - but it's a preview version apparantley.

As user, I try to mount the CD from the desktop icon (to read the disc contents) this is the error warning: mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdc, or too many mounted file systems Please check that the disk is entered correctly. Here's the fstab readout /dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults 1 1 none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0 /dev/hda6 /home ext3 defaults 1 2 /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0 none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync,codepage=850 0 0 none /proc proc defaults 0 0 /dev/hda5 swap swap defaults 0 0 Any clues in this little lot? :unsure:

Here's the scenario. Small network at home. Problem with 2 PCs a: Print server - mandrake 9.2 14GB HDD 64MB Ram: b: Client running MDK10.1 10GB HDD 256MB Ram Printer samsung laser ML1755 (v similar to ML1750) Sending documents (OO.o/Star Office) to print is OK (a little slow, but as the printer is shared across 2 Clients,we accept this - well, for now). The Problem (in 2 parts): Part 1 Overview On both machines I can read clearly documents in .pdf format . Printing is very problematic - the fonts are coming out all garbled and are unreadble - I access a lot of .pdf documents, so its a bit of an issue. I've followed this troubleshhoting guide from Adobe - it fails on virtually all points - except point 6 - if I replace the printer with a Lexmark inkjet and use the same cable .pdf documents print OK. From the trouble shooter, this suggests it could be PC communication/hardware/memory problems. I've added another 32MB ram to the server (total 96MB) and still it makes no difference to the poor print quality. I still suspect it's Ram related - because ordinary documents print OK (therefore its a specific issue to Adobe acrobat) and the cable works on an inkjet. I thought increasing the swap space may be beneficial - but that's at 494MB so this is beyond typical convention of doubling up against Ram. I can get some more Ram soon - but my problem is I really woudl like to get this resolved even if temporarily now. That said, here's Part II. The CD with the manual and driver (linux supported) will not install on the client machine. I thought I might try this out - thinking that becasue my machine has more memory, this would confirm my thoughts and pinpoint the problem to memory conflict due to the low resources of the print server machine. To install, I need to log in as root, open a konsole and cd /mnt/cdrom followed by ./setup.sh This works OK in the low resource 64MB print server, but completely fails on the client responding with 'No such file or directory' this machine completly fails to mount the CD at all - yet it will mount other Cds fine. So my problem is I can't print .pdfs from a low resource unit acting as a print server, and trying to install the printer directly to my machine fails because it fails to mount the CD. Any ideas?

No problemo - sorry it hasn't work out - yet. Arctic confirms that urpmi now has the latest version of firefox, so it would definately make sense to install it from this - it'll sort all your install issues out for you. Good to hear you'll hang in and try again. I was once advised a healthy dose of tenacity can be a good thing - certainly is true when you are faced with a niggling problem such as the one you are going through. Again tho - urpmi will be your saviour :D Good luck.

I've upped my system to 10.1 and still couldn't get it to work. Instead I downloaded a 'dynamic binary tar.bz2' 'cos it said not to use the static unless all else fails. Anyhow - it all unpacked straightaway.

Thanks for this sebek. I'm using KDE, but I tried it anyway. If I right click on the document, it's still a faff to select 'Open with' etc. This got me thinking though. I right clicked>properties>general tab> and clicked on the 'edit file type' icon (the little spanner). In the window 'application preference order' you can select what programe should be used to open the document (defaulted to open office), you can then browse to where Star Office is installed and select the programme and tell it to be opened with Star Office as default. Voila. Still, a bit of a pain though if I have to do this with every single document. +++SOLVED: You need to open and save a document for each individual package just the once i.e. /writer/spreadsheet/presentation/draw etc etc. For each application/document type, follow the above instructions. Once you have selected Star Office to open the document as default, click on the Embedding tab, you should find that the 'use settings for application group' is selected. If it's not, then select it. Now, every saved document in the type of application you have just amended, will automatically open by default with Star Office when you click on the document icon.+++

Have you tried out the advice from Jet2k5? I'm only a noob myself yeah great sometimes, other times it feels Don't know why it's in the directory you've pointed at, be much quicker to send it to to Home? If you do a fresh install this is how I've done it. in Home, create a directory (folder) called firefox Using Konquror (but you can use any browser you may have to hand) go to this web site and download Firefox, save it to the folder you created in Home. When the download is complete, open up the directory and you will have an unpackaged download (mine's called firefox-1.0PR-i686-linux-gtk2+xft-installer.tar.gz but yours may be different). Highlight the icon (e.g. 1 click), this will turn it blue, then right click>Actions>Extract here. You will now have another directory called firefox-installer, open this up and double click on the icon called firefox-installer, this will open up a Set-up box with simple instructions and you just click on the forward buttons etc. This installs firefox! Now, you will notice in the directory, lots of new icons, simply look for the one called firefox - double click this to open up the browser. You now know where the directory is and you know how to open the browser. Come out of the directory, shut it down, and follow my earlier instructions to create a desktop link/icon - this should now work perfectly Its not command line stuff I know, but it's still all a world away from M$ where you don't even need half a brain with a hangover to install anything, let alone even have to think about where things are and unpackaging etc. Your confidence will build up with small success stories.. Cheers

I un-installed Open Office cos I've a copy of Star Office 7. Now I created a document with SO7 and saved it in a directory - when I come to re-open it, I cannot do so simply by clicking on the document icon. Instead I have to open up the Star Office group, File>Open>document - seems rather a long way round approach. I've looked at the SO7 manual - which doesn't suggest that you are able to just click on a document icon to open it. Also, when I first tried to open the document (by clicking on the icon), it said I couldn't because there was no oowriter - so I re installed open office - now I can open the document by clicking on the icon, but it opens up as Open Office writer and not SO7 Does anybody know a way round this (quick, easy and simple please :D )

Some really great stuff and tough to call, but I keep going back to Alloneworld - very calm. Man there's some scary stuff - how d'ya all sleep at nite!!! :lol:

Hi SpikeyKlitske does urpmi now download the latest version of FF ? - i think that not so long ago it was 1 or 2 versions behind. Be great if urpmi downloaded the latest.

Ok here's what you do Once you've downloaded and unpackaged Firefox. Right Click on your desktop Create New File>Link to Application application tab>browse>to the firefox shell script in the directory (usually firefox-installer/firefox) it needs the full pathway. click on the General tab, and give it a name. click on the big blue wheel, and you can change the icon. Click on Ok and yer done - all in less than a couple mins. If you know how I can get hold of a desktop firefox icon - let me know B) +++(aha - MDK10.1 has an icon - nice )+++ The above is same/similar if you want to put a link within your main menu of apps.

aRTee I try to mention it where I can - your site rocks If your new to Linux/mandrake - this is one of the first places we should all look - it should be one of the main links on the mandrakelinux web site.

Check out this thread I thought my computa biffed me But durvish is the dood