Cannonfodder

They just contain more software. You can just download software. The CD's are just to save you time by allowing you to select your software during the install instead of after. As far as using them now, you can define the CD's as your source and use them, but typically, its better to go to the internet and get the latest and greatest. So, I would just not bother spending any time on them unless you are planning to reinstall just because you want to learn more by practicing installs.

open a command line window and type SU <-enter your root password You will now have root priviledges and be able to make your modifications. When done, type exit and you will be back to your normal user .

Your critique seems to be along the lines of one you would apply to a M$ OS. In Linux, you are not limited to one distribution or OS. You can focus your energies on a Distro that focuses on GUI. Or if you are a CLI type person, you can focus on a distro that is more about that kind of lifestyle. Basically, you are dealing with a bunch of mechanics who are really into the how and why rather than just getting the job done. One suggestion is when asking for help, specify that you prefer a GUI approach based on your desire to get the job done. But if you are talking to mechanics, you are gonna gett waggy eyebrows for sure :)

Ok, you didn't answer my question really. Boot off the Mandrake install, and go through the install. When you get to the screen asking you if you want to do a CUSTOM PARTITIONING or let Mandrake do it, select CUSTOM. This will give you a map of your hard drive. Each partition will have a designation name such as HDA1, or HDA2 so on. List each one on a piece of paper and the file system it claims to have and post it here. Then simply reboot your computer and eject the CD, do not proceed with the install. Is your linux system very customized? Put a lot of work into it? If not, you might want to uninstall LILO or GRUB (go back to the default), delete the linux partitions (using the above mentioned screen), then restore with yoru manufactorers restore feature. Afterwards, you can put in linux again....

As long as you update your fstab and boot manager and the mount folders exists, you should be all set..

The md5sum program uses a mathematical algorithm for generating a checksum number based on the contents of a CD (byte by byte). If the checksum number you download (generated by the author of the CD) is the same as your computer generates, then your CD is an accurate reflection of the one originally created. If any bytes are scrambled during download or for other reasons, then the generated number will be different, indicating that you have an CD image that is different.

Before you do anything, can you tell us your partition table layout? By this I mean how do you have your extended partition (if any) setup? If you are using an extended partition, did you create it in windows or linux? Note that windows does not work well (last time I checked) with extended partitions created by linux (different partition table format). This can result in everything going away. If you are going to mess with windows restoring and so on, I would suggest a second drive for linux. Then you can rest assured that the two operating systems won't do something to the partition table that conflicts.

Just a note from one of the *grunts* at the mag :) Some of you may have fun with this..

Been emailing with them and they are fixing the issues. Very receptive.

I tried to subscribe but I get a www.ssc.com not found. I tried to click on the link to the linux only store in savahnah and got page not found lol! Startup issues?

Try rebooting and from the prompt, type init 5 If your graphical environment starts up you need to just tell Mandrake what runlevel you want to go up too. It may be putting you in init 1 - 3 (all non-graphical). If it works, you need to make it permanent. Edit your /etc/inittab to change the runlevel. Do a search on runlevel /etc/inittab to find similar examples. My linux system is down right now otherwise I would tell you how to edit the file.

I remember when that happened. M$ took the technology and the standards for the technology and then added a few features that were not standard. Big hoodoo! End result is that M$ backed down (this is from "OLD" memory so feel free to chop me off at the legs because I haven't done "RECENT" research :] )

See the link :) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4266977.stm Will remain to be seen as to how long the reverse engineer geeks take to break this one. I do note that within the article that they state the algorithm can be frequently updated..

When don't you go through mcc and setup the networking again? maybe the config files are snafu?

Try unplugging USB stuff and switching them around to different ports..

Why don't you start with ping and make sure your vnc app is able to talk to the remote server?

To be nonpartial about it.. I would start with this web site.. http://www.linux.org/dist/ It has documentation on each distro and is kinda fun because you can see all the different "intents" behind each distro. I'm in the process of installing Gentoo. I'm going to keep my windows distribution (since I do windows software development) but get gentoo up and running. If I don't like it, I might try something else.. PS.. Did it take you a year to dig your way out of the snow? :P

Ok, found the article.. Linux Mag Feb/2005 Last page of mag is an article "A Solaris Christmas" :)

There's an article in one of the linux mags this month about Sun's policy with Solaris. They have created a new "OpenSource" licence (except it isn't). The author felt that Sun was once again shooting itself in the foot with this licence as developers will avoid it based on the licence. Made a point that Solaris was a really nice OS (except for the license). Also pointed out an independant group that has an installable package that really transforms Solaris into an useable system. Have to see if I can find the article at work..

chown -r yourusername:yourusername E.g. if username is mryan chown -r mryan:mryan gives you access..

Just to double-check, are you sure that the partition is mounted? Not just a folder where you think the partition is mounted?

Better post that file :) etc/dhcpd.conf

Where you have an OS installed isn't always the reason why it won't boot. Usually it is because the boot loader isn't savvy enough to "fake" the OS into thinking its on the boot drive. For example, with some boot loaders, they will have an install mode and you can actually specify your OS that you are going to install plus where you want to install (wherever). It will then hide the other partitions to make the new OS's partition the first partition. After boot up, the partition is C: (even though its not really the first). Things you can do with a lilo boot loader at minimum is: 1. Install Win 98/XP/2k in the first partition 2. Install Linux elsewhere. 3. Install other distributions or complete linux distributions at the same time. In other words run Mandrake and Gentoo at the same time (there's a faq on this). The one thing that I haven't tried is installing XP elsewhere than the first. Not sure if LILO can deal with that. I wouldn't be surprised if it can though..

What is that? A were-santa? Very cool *admiring*

Have you tried an alternative keyboard?