aRTee

If you setup the system to go to init 3, you cannot have any autologin working I think - autologin only works if you boot to graphics mode. To debug your issue with the line to be added to the boot startup script, just execute it from the commandline, as root: sudo -u [username] /home/[username]/bin/vncautostart.sh and tell if that works or not, and if not, what it responded.

arctic, he mentions he can go to init 3 and run startx as user - hence no user config files issues; also, he never gets the login screen when booting to init 5. Another issue I can imagine is if there is some bug with the 'autologin' function. You could try to toggle that one (from whatever it is now to the other setting and back).

javaguy, do you do the update of the hdlist before trying to install something? main and contrib should be stable / unchanging, but who knows. And if there are requirements from things that also have updated sources, and your local (previously) downloaded hdlist is old/outdated, it may request old / non-existing files...? (Just guessing)

Hmm, could there be something wrong with your mdkkdm (login manager)? It seems your graphics are ok, just that your login manager never gets started properly - hence the blue screen. In which you can actually move the mousepointer? Go to Mandrake control center, and setup your system to use gdm,.. mcc - system - display manager. If need be, install it (urpmi gdm). Or see if you can use kdm (mdkkdm is a mandrake adaptation of the standard kde login manager kdm).

This is due to known bugs in the stock 10.1 OE,... do the updates and it should be ok. Set up your updates repository with the easyurpmi link at the top of each page here: http://www.mandrakeusers.org/easyurpmi Let us know if it helps.

Woah, that's it: this link: http://www.mandrakeusers.org/easyurpmi/mdkmirror.php was actually what it needed. And to put 10.1 official as Mandrake version (hey, shouldn't that read 'Mandrakelinux'? ;) ) and i586 as Architecture, all the above in the configuration thingy. But then: it only allows to add ftp servers for main, contrib and updates.... And, it doesn't read the current settings, for instance it tells me I have not set anything for main, contrib, or updates, whereas I have...

Welcome to the board! Just a thought on the side: howabout browsing the manpages and infopages on your system? In konqueror, put as address: man: or info: and off you go. For many config files there is a manpage, as well as for commands like urpmi, etc. As another aside, there are nice docs in html or pdf on the mdk official website, for getting started and more. Just go to the doc section, you'll see. Lastly, logfiles taking up too much space? They get tar-gzipped automatically after some time. My firewall / inetserver has been up for over 400 days, the logfiles are not remotely filling the system or anything. You will hardly have to worry about logfiles taking up too much space. All that being said, I agree with the idea that a book is nice - read it while you're underway by public transport, to not be at your computer etc. I do think that no book on Linux exists with no info on networking, unless it's really too much for ultimate beginners. Why not get a more complete book and skip the chapters you don't care about at the moment? Lastly, have you checked RUTE? http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/book/index.html

Give it a try: urpmi urpmi.setup (should tell you where the package is coming from, shouldn't it? Anyway, feel free to check where it's from.) and do a less /usr/sbin/urpmi.setup to see the code. My problem: I have no clue what the format is that it expects, and my perl skills are non-existant. So anon, I don't think it's your version of the easyurpmi site - works great for me. The perl code just expects something else, or I'm doing something wrong. In any case, it would really be neat if we could figure out what kind of page it expects and feed it that, based on the standard easyurpmi page. Hmm, maybe we have to get some perl specialist to comment on this, ... how's aru's perl knowledge..?

Ok, glad things are working out. Now, what you have to do: make linux start in non-graphics mode. To do this on a permanent basis, edit the file /etc/inittab and make the first real line (i.e. not commented out by hashes: # ) look like this: id:3:initdefault: (it likely has the number 5 instead of 3). This tells the system to boot to init level 3. You will need to create a script to start your vncsession under the regular user account. The easiest way is to work this out in 3 steps. 1 - create the scriptfile that starts the vncserver the way you like it, so that you can execute it from the command line as that particular user 2 - make sure it starts, even if before it has crashed, i.e. not exited properly 3 - call this script during bootup For point 1 and 2, the regular unix way is to create a dir in your user homedir called bin: cd (this makes sure you are in your home dir) mkdir bin and inside it, create a scriptfile with the necessary info: cd bin create the file "vncautostart.sh" and put the following inside; I'm assuming that you will use the display number 3 (can be anything I guess, not sure about number limitations though), of size 1024x768 and 16 bit colour. #!/bin/bash cd /home/[username] rm -f /tmp/.X3-lock rm -f /tmp/.X11-unix/X3 vncserver :3 -geometry 1024x768 -depth 16 The first cd command is to be placed in a known path, not sure how necessary it is; it may be that vncserver doesn't use the info from .vnc if you're executing that command elsewhere, not sure. In any case, substitute the [username] with the actual username. The 2 rm commands are to delete the lockfiles - these are to avoid starting an xserver if one is already running. If your machine should get shut down (hang, power loss, whatever) or in any case the vncserver doesn't get killed in the proper way (vncserver --kill :3 would be the right thing), the lock files will block another server from getting started; in this case, the script should only get executed at boot (which you only do once, namely when you boot), so no worries there - if the files are there, they shouldn't be, and if they're not, no problem. The -f makes sure there's no questions asked, they get wiped. Now, one more thing on this file, you have to make it executable: chmod +x vncautostart..sh Note: the .sh doesn't mean anything to the system, just to you that it's a shell script. The chmod command tells the system that that file can be executed. Next thing: to have icewm instead of kde (if you want a light wm, that will give you the same speed on that machine as win98 would), edit the file /home/[username]/.vnc/xstartup to look like this (this is mine on my server) #!/bin/sh # Mandrake Linux VNC session startup script #exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc exec /usr/X11R6/bin/icewm Basically, I replaced (well, commented out) the standard routine with the direct call to start icewm. I hope this actually still works like that - this particular file hasn't been used in 402 days (last time I booted my server - P2 350). Very last thing to do, add this command to the startup scripts that get executed at boot time; that would be the file: /etc/rc.local and the command to add would be: sudo -u [username] /home/[username]/bin/vncautostart.sh which you can most easily add by doing, as root: echo "sudo -u [username] /home/[username]/bin/vncautostart.sh" >> /etc/rc.local Let me know if this works for you, I hope I didn't mess up..

It's on cd1. At least, that's where my gui says it is. And I tried pointing it to easyurpmi.zarb.org and to the mdkusers.org mirror that's at the top of each page - to no avail. If that can be fixed, by creating the right page format, it can be used... Then it would have to be extended to have the option to choose which mirror to use, or even better, urpmi c/should be extended to have a list of mirrors for the same repository, and check which ones are updated and up, etc....

If those graphics cards are both agp cards, there's no way to get both of them in the system at once... normal systems only have one agp slot.

Maybe most people want to drive only in first gear. Don't forget, only a very small subset of computer users are actually computer enthusiasts. If not, there would be many more on Linux - with all the control and openness Linux offers. There is no convincing me about the CLI. I have trouble with GUI file navigation... And on Win, I feel helpless... but I'm sure that's common. Again, this is not for me, but for those who don't want to use the CLI. Downloading the rpm would have them subsequently download all dependencies... It must be with urpmi.

Actually, this tool gets the full mirror list. I think that since the mirrors are a weak link of urpmi, it should be possible to switch mirrors without redownloading the hdlist. Not sure if this tool can do that yet, don't think so. But I think mdk developers should enhance urpmi in this way- have alternative mirrors to download from for the same rpms. Let's face it, in case of troubles with urpmi, it's very often that mirrors are not up to date or down. BTW the point is, that if you say: "the CLI is really not that hard", you've already lost part of your audience. Sure, all who are on this board can manage. They also found this board. Whatabout those people who go for Linspire due to the clicknrun? Wouldn't they be able to be perfectly happy with mdk? I'm not talking about linspire users, but that type of users.

Considering they will be selling either 10.1 or older products, or 10.2 beta3 (rc1?) I don't see how anyone should buy any of those without 60% discount - or more. But, I might take a penguin or two off their hands, and a globetrotter if those come with a nice discount.. ;)

There's a tool for CLI-phobic users, to setup urpmi. Try this: urpmi urpmi.setup (Yeah, I know, for the CLI-phobic, this should read: MCC -> software -> software installation, search for 'urpmi', select the package 'urpmi.setup' for installation and confirm to install it.) Now, if you run, as root: urpmi.setup it will start a nice multibutton config gui, which actually expects something on some website. It's that something at some website that it doesn't get, and of which I don't know what it is. But it's the equivalent of the easyurpmi config page. My point is this: if we can create a page that contains the info that this GUI tool expects, and make sure it gets mirrored, just as easyurpmi gets mirrored, there will be no more meddling with the command line for the CLI-phobic. At all. Sure, currently they can just go through the routine with the 3 steps of the easyurpmi webpages (such as the one of which you can see a link here at the top of each page), and then copy the relevant info into the MCC - software - media manager --- add media - dialog.... But imagine: tell people to install urpmi.setup, then tell them in the GUI to select the configuration option, input the web address (Url for server list), click save and validate, then have them add media etc, all graphically... The reason I'm asking for this is the following: I recently had an email exchange with a guy who's in touch with people of the German Easylinux magazine, and their standpoint is to avoid use of the command line as much as possible. I know that the CLI is easier once you know it, but if you don't want to know it, this tool is the way to go. Let's not forget there are many who would favour the GUI method, and perceive having to use the CLI as a weakness. It's written in perl, so it should be fairly easy to figure out what kind of webpage it expects, by someone who knows perl of course (which currently excludes me). Lastly, it doesn't show up in my menu, but that's something the packager should fix.

Darkelve - you're right, we have our own mirror here at the site. The zarb.org site is the official one, but I already noticed our mirror was more up to date last week...! As for the updates via the command line: this doesn't show you which packages are available and whether it's a bugfix, security or feature update, but anyway, man urpmi should help you out, and I think the command should be: urpmi --update --auto --auto-select Hope this helps.

use http://easyurpmi.zarb.org to setup the "updates" repository / media. Then you can just use MCC - software - updates to do your security/bugfix updates.

Oh, before I forget: if you use KDE on Mandrakelinux 10.1, make sure you do the updates - there are some bugs in the base install that cause loads of issues with usb storage devices and KDE...

Disconnect the flash reader. Boot the machine. Then insert the memory card _before_ connecting the reader. Connect the reader. Monitor /var/log/messages as indicated above, and /etc/fstab. Tell us your results.

Could you be more explicit about what you need help with? What exactly are you trying to do, and where does your system not do what you would like it to?

What does your /var/log/messages say? Before connecting the drive, open a konsole, su to root and do: tail -f /var/log/messages Sometimes the kernel hints you may want to toggle the boot options noapic nolapic. You may also want to check the line that gets added to /etc/fstab to see how the drive gets mounted, but honestly, that should be ok. Well, tell us anyway...

Actually, yes, you can instruct the installer not to format the partition you designate as / as you can see in my screenshots of the install partitioner: http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/DrakX-s...e-zurich/12.png from http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/install101.html

You have to know that in lilo.conf the path to the kernel and initrd is the actual current path, not the path on that partition. Meaning: if you have a root partition /dev/hda6 with FC which is mounted at /mnt/fcroot and a root partition /dev/hda7 with Mdk which is currently running and thus mounted as / you will have to have in your lilo entry for FC: /dev/hda6 and for the kernel: /mnt/fcroot/boot/vmlinuz... and for the initrd: /mnt/fcroot/boot/initrd... I think that's where you erred..

About the video: at the lilo bootpromt you can hit [esc] and type: linux init 3 so the system will start in non-graphical mode. You can then log in as root, and do drakxconf for system configuration, or drakx11 for just graphics configuration. If things work fine there, you can do telinit 5 to go to graphics mode. Why the test works but after rebooting it doesn't, no clue. Buggy software? If you are trying things and you want to get the logfile so you can share it with us, you can ftp into the linux machine from the windows machine, just make sure the ftp server is running, if necessary start it: service proftpd start and if it's not installed, install it: urpmi proftpd (you'll have to insert the required installation cd, the system will ask you) Naturally, you'll then have to start it. You can now log into ftp from the windows machine with any ftp client that allows you to specify a username and password. The respective logfiles are: /var/log/XFree86.0.log and similar named files (*.old and such). As for setting up your machine to be approachable via vnc: make sure you have tight-vnc-server installed, to install it do: urpmi tightvnc-server I'm copying this from my website: file:/home/robert/webhtml/mandrake.tips.for.free.fr/howtos.html#network There are some more points to mention - first see if you can get this going - make sure you run the vncserver as regular user. To log in as regular user, you can hit alt-F2 and use that console. Switch back to the other/first one with alt-F1. (You can go up to F6; F7 to F12 are reserved for graphical sessions.) These extra points include starting icewm instead of kde (much lighter, gives the computer the same speed it would have running win98 or 95), and starting vnc at boot time, automatically. I have some notes somewhere, but it's really time for bed. Last but not least: to turn off the computer, do, as root: shutdown -h now (-h means: halt; -r would mean: reboot) Hope this helps!

Thanks for mentioning. I will have to see if I can make it...