polemicz

I think there is a lot of bad press with Debian. I don't think it's all valid anymore. For a simple desktop that installer picks up and configures most everything without a problem. I write this from Etch on which I have KDE 3.5.1, etc. It has been very stable and my main "configuration" issue has been running my scanner as a regular user. Ubuntu configuration is Debian configuration and both sorely lack the tools of Mandriva. For my money Suse was too too idiosyncratic and if you tried to configure outside of Yast tough nuggies. I could never get the hang of Red Hat and being a KDE user couldn't deal with their botched KDE set-up (is KDE now working well in the current Fedoras?). The nice thing about Debian is that once you get things set up you are set up. I also think that as Linux installers get better and configuration tools are improved there will be less and less difference between the "ease of use" in distros.

In MCC-> Mount Points. Pick hdb (the slave) and set a mount point. My guess is that when you installed the installer saw the partition as a Windows file system and gave you a mount point in /mnt. In that case you should see two directories in /mnt for your windows partitions. If not set a mount point, say /music for example. When it asks if you want to put it in /etc/fstab say yes and you're done.

I've never had problems with HP or Epson both in terms of Linux support and harware reliability. What I'd suggest is that you look into cartridge costs. They quickly exceed the printer purchase price. Right now I have an HP 5940 that spits out b/w very fast and does decent color. It only cost $90.

My experience when a package fails to install from the cd it is because of a bad burn. As a rule don't burn faster than 4x.

modern guis are hogs. you may want to consider a lightweight window manager instead of kde or gnome. the issue is generally not the os, but the gunk on top of it.

With KDE stay away from kat! Also go over the issues with some nividia cards with the xorg that comes with 2006 (after updates all is well).

Whenever I have to use Windows I wish there were multiple desktops. I currently use 4 (once used 6, overkill). One is only for e-mail (lots for my work), nice and clean full screen, another is for browsing, another for writing and the last for whatever. Also don't forget when in a fix there are the virtual desktops (alt+ctrl+f1 etc). I can clutter up one desktop and have others clean as a whistle.

The issue of what "test" can do is if when logged in as test you get root permissions (su, MCC ) and then install software. It all depends on what you allow test to do. If you really want a fool proff way of checking things out just install a second version on Mandriva and dual boot (assumes you have the disk space). That's what many folks do when shifting over to a new version of Mandriva or playing with another distro.

There are big big differences between Gimp and Photoshop for professional graphics folks, such as colors and grays. For most of us they probably don't matter, but for others they are critical.

Which nvidia card do you have. There are problems with the newest drivers and older cards (I ran into this and had to use a "legacy" driver, 7174). Also make sure you get all your updates installed as there were problems with the xorg that 2006 used at release.

Post your /etc/fstab

I'm curious how these backups are being created. If you have the space on your hd why not create a separate partition for /tmp. You may also want to use a live cd to try to fix things.

I've installed Firefox 1.5 from Mozilla (a breeze) and with 1.5 I also ran the "check for updates" and Firefox did all updates without a hitch! Just as simple as with Windows. The "check for updates" in the Help menu is new to 1.5 I believe.

Did you add the smb users via smbpasswd? samba has a different user and password file than the regular system users.

Assuming youhave swat set up and set to run on request (MCC -> services) why not run localhost:901 from a browser? Totally unsure why you got what you did when you ran mcc from a root console. mcc on my 2006 system is a perl scrip that runs without a problem as root. Have you installed all your updates?

In checking the NEC burners on Newegg and Tigerdirect there are OEM and Retail versions. Aside from a pretty box to throw out is there any reason to buy a Retail version instead of OEM (about $8 extra)?

The Mandriva partitioner is quite nice (MCC -> Mount Points) and easy to use and as you have Mandriva installed might as well use it. There are lots of threads on partition schemes and file systems on the board. Some of the choices are idiosyncratic and some are based on specific needs.

If you're going to add distros it makes sense to plan out how you partition your hard drive in advance. Generally folks have a separate /home partition. Note also that Mandriva defaults the first user to a uid of 501, while Ubuntu defaults to 1000. You can deal with that, but you need to be aware of it. Enjoy and good luck.

An updated Mandrive 1.0.6 is the same as 1.0.7. The Mandriva package is called 1.0.6, but don't let that mislead you. All Firefox versions from 1.0.2 are security patches and all patches are in the Mandriva updates. For 1.5 you'll have to get the packages from Firefox. There are a lot of threads here on how to do it. Also the instructions on the Firefox site are pretty good. For what it's worth I use 1.5 and 1.0.7 and while 1.5 is quicker for some things for my use 1.0.7 is just as good.

A DVD drive stopped working on a system and I need to replace it, possibly with a DVD burner. I'd be interested in recommendations for good drives that work well with Linux. Thanks.

Welcome to the board. I'm not too sure just what you did. Do you have Ubuntu on hda1 and Mandriva (which version) also on hda? How did you set up your partitions and your bootloader? More specifics on your set up would be helpful.

My son just put an audigy2 platinum card in his 2006 system and gets nothing out of the front panel. All the connections seem fine. Google hasn't been too much help and I tried to run alsaconf, but get an odd "command not found" and alsa-utils are installed. I'm interested in any and all suggestions. Please be aware that I know nothing about sound and mixers. I wish I could be more specific about the problem. Card is seen properly s audigy2 in MCC Hardware. Thanks in advance. I should add that there is no problem with the sound, just the use of the front panel.

Do some searching on Lexmark as I've seen a number of problems here with them. Apparently they don't have good support. Also you can check the Cups site to see if they have drivers for yours.

It really shouldn't be too hard. When you set up Mandriva get your printer configured, usually it's pretty automatic, but some printers that don't have good Linux support can be problems (folks have had problems with some Lexmark printers and multifunction printers, check on this board or do a google). You will have to set up Windows and Linux talking to each other and that's Samba on Linux. If it's only printer sharing you should be able to get a shared printer set up in MCC (Mandriva Control Center). On the Windows end you will have to add a printer on a LAN. I've not had any problems doing this with Windows XP and Windows 2000. You will need to install the printer drivers on Windows. Potential problems may come with the wireless router, but I have no experience with wireless and have a 4 computer wired network with a mix of Mandriva and Windows XP and 2000 with the printer on Mandriva 2006, an old HP USB printer. I wouldn't get too worried about Samba stuff for a printer. It gets more complicated with file sharing because of permissions, users, etc. Make sure you don't have firewalls blocking you. Generally routers have decent firewalls so you don't need to put up much else (I'm not the most paranoid of folks). Hope this helps. Go for it.

I have never had a bad md5sum, but when I've tried to burn faster than 4x I end up with bad disks.