bigjohn

OK, so I tried to have a go, changing the panel icon's and with the properties open I changed the evolution icon, but it still look's too small and unreadable. Hence I reverted back. Now, as using a marble looking type icon, the "marble looking" sphere part is going to take up some of the icon space, and that'd result in having the actual app image being smaller (as in unreadable). So perhap's I'd need to change the size of the panel icon's first (and maybe make the app/taskbar transparent). How's that done with gnome - It's easy with kde, but on the basis that (according to "those with the knowledge") gnome is better. I still can't see it yet. regards John

I recently had a good discussion with some of the guy's at my LUG as to the "why's and wherefore's" of gnome Vs kde. They explained their view with polite, understandable, salient reasoning. Ok think's me, I'll look at gnome and have a go. Thus far, I've manage to change a couple of thing's (background and theme), but Im struggling to change some other stuff - icon's etc. I've sort of managed to change the icon's a bit, but I'd like to use the "glass marble" type icon's. I've managed to download and extract them from here. I've made a seperate directory at /usr/share/icons/gentoo glass icons. Great. Except, when I try and change an icon I get the image and it's very small and virtually unusable. Which matter's as I can't find anyway of "zooming" icon's like you can with kde Any idea's please? regards John

Ok, so with the presumption of accuracy of Gowator's post, perhap's it's fair to ask the actual relevance of this. Now that's not too sound critical/sarcastic/whatever, but having been using mandrake basically for 2 year's, I can honestly say that I don't know what half of the app's/services/facilities are, that start at boot time. It's not that I can't be bothered, but with different users, there are different requirement's. I should point out, that I only started looking into linux generally, because thing's that I read around the web, increased my level of understanding of OS's in a social, moral and ethical way. I'm not critical of MS per se, but don't like they way that they do business. Overbearing, patronising, bullying, etc etc. Now to make sure that I can follow the reasoning behind Gowator's original post,I checked out this So OK, most of that makes sense, but I don't know anything about "CGI programs", and as for perl, well that's another big ??? insofar as I've never dabbled/meddled etc. Yes, I understand that linuxconf is a config tool, I still don't follow why linuxconf appears (according to Gowator) to be so important? What's wrong with other config tool's of this nature - Why are Mandrake "so wrong" if they don't conform to the "standards"? I know that many, many, new users start out from a similar stand point as me, but they then "get the bug" (or perhap's get the penguin :D). Hence it would be nice to try and have a greater understanding of the issues. Afterall, isn't it down to what Mandrake are actually trying to do? i.e. the different approach to how their distro actually develop's - more desktop oriented, as opposed to some differing philosophy of purity (a la debian)? Because while I'm happy to "play", primarily what I want from a distro is ease of installation/setup. A straight forward way of personalising stuff (as different from having to completely start from scratch, spending hour's researching about, probably/possibly important, if obscure set up parameter's etc). And Mandrake satisfies my requirement's very well. In the past, I've had up to 4 linux distro's multi-booting on my system, though I've ended up back at mandrake because after settling on gentoo as my main distro, I managed to screw it up and after a week of looking/searching I failed to locate the source of my problem's (sorry, I can also be incredibly impatient!). With the mandrake, it was just a case of put the disc in, fire the system up and bingo! regards John p.s. "They" do say, that ignorance is bliss. Perhap's it's better for me to continue to wallow in the "ignorance" part :D

Just in case anyone's experienced some of the minor snag's that I've been having today. My system is running mandrake 10 official from a "boxed set" powerpack dvd. When I first installed, it ran kernel version 2.6.3-7 but being conscientious, I check regularly for any updates. Quite soon afterward's, I noticed that kernel 2.6.3-13mdk was available (well actually I spotted the kernel-sources 2.6.3013mdk that appeared in the updates). So, figuring that there must be a reason for the update, I went ahead and installed the updated version. It was eventful, but not too serious - all is explained in this thread. Anyhow, this morning, I noticed that there was an update available again (2.6.3-14mdk). So I downloaded it, then, because I have an nvidia based graphic's card, I got the 2.6.3-14 kernel sources. Now for reason's that I don't understand, the kernel just didn't want to install, even though the mcc>rpmdrake>rpmdrake+ facility kept telling me that everything had installed ok (previously when I've done this, I've just installed the kernel, followed by the kernel-sources and then booted it, opened a terminal, su'd to root, gone to an init 3 login, and re-run the nvidia driver to install it with the new kernel version. Whereas today, I've had to install and remove the kernel about 6 or 7 times before it's installed. I actually had to log into root and delete the 2.6.3-13 directory from /usr/src just incase it was causing a conflict for reason's that I don't understand. Anyway, by changing my urpmi sources a couple of times, and then repeating the removal and install it seem's to have installed ok. The nvidia driver install for 2.6.3-14mdk seems to have gone OK so the system seems it's running ok again. I haven't got a clue as to why this is happening, but thought it may be helpful to someone if they've been having these type of minor problem's. regards John p.s. My lilo.conf still show's entries for "linux" and 263-14 (which I'll change later), but for reason's that I don't understand the "linux" entry still boot's the system into the original 2.6.3-7mdk kernel even though it doesn't seem to have a directory in the /usr/src location - plus I never had to install the 2.6.3-7 kernel sources as the nvidia drive is already compiled/installed with the dvd powerpack. [moved from Software by spinynorman]

Ah, yes. (Clunk! - sorry, that's just the sound of the penny dropping!) Of course, I'm happy to admit that that particular comment was brought about by jealousy and frustration. Some of the desktop's posted are stunning. whereas a nugget like me has to resort to asking daft questions about what should really be relatively straight forward. That's when I find my brain switching into mode. For my first attempt, I'm quite pleased with the result, though I'll be happier when I can work out how to get rid of the background colour on the applications (and make the text white) - see below. regards John

Well not too sure what Ixthusdan was refering to with the "Oink" comment ? But thank's for the reply iphitus. Perhap's it's time for me to get my eye's tested :lol: regards John

Ah, that would explain it. I still don't quite follow what the bit that look's like 77 meant though. If it's the battery monitor, presumably it's for laptop's? and not telling me that the CMOS battery is at 77%? Also is the right click box the only thing that's available for it, or can you configure it any other way ? (i'm thinking on the lines of gkrellm's config facility) regards John

Thanks tyme, that seem's to have done the trick whatever it was. regards John

Nah, as soon as I try that, the whole lot disappear's. regards John

Cheer's scoopy, I'm not happy with it, by a long way, but in truth, it's been a long time since I've had what I'd call much sucess with "thing's linux". So I'm really pleased with how it's gone thus far. I'll post another one when I've had more of a meddle (I do feel guilty about wasting server space :o ) But many many thanks for the assistance. regards John

Well I've made some progress, as you can see from the screenie. It took me a while to work out how to change the default weather location, but I got there. I'm gonna have a good look around the stuff available for superkaramba, too see if there's any theme's that I like the look of - I did notice that you can switch off the task bar (and probably the kicker as well), but I'm presuming that scoopy's got it so the kicker stay's automatically hidden and just uses the "theme" bar, unles he need's something that only show's on the actual kicker??? I haven't really seen anything at kde-look that really grab's my attention. so much of it is those terrible japanese style cartoon figure's (sorry I don't recall the name of that type of animation - I'm full of "vino collapso", he he, England 4 Croatia 2! :D), or commercial art looking fantasy land/moon/space scapes. Not my cup of tea (or coffee for that matter). Hence my going for the mandrake background for the moment. Something "funky" to match the gorilla icon's would be nice. But I suspect that I've got a long way to go before I'm ready to produce my own ! regards John p.s. Maybe someone could tell me what the odd looking temperature scale in the bottom right hand side, just above the clock is?

It seems this is probably the best link. regards John

Well, having checked the meaning of bvc's reply, I did some digging and then went back into the process of trying to install the superkaramba manually, but I still get this libtool: link: cannot find the library `/usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.la' make[3]: *** [superkaramba] Error 1 make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/john/superkaramba-0.33/src' make[2]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1 make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/john/superkaramba-0.33/src' make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1 make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/john/superkaramba-0.33' make: *** [all] Error 2 But then I thought about checking so I did this [root@johnspc superkaramba-0.33]# cd [root@johnspc root]# whereis /usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.la libGL: /usr/lib/libGL.la /usr/lib/libGL.so [root@johnspc root]# As you can see, as far as the system is concerned, the apparently missing /usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.la seems to be there. So how would I get round that one? I'm stumped again (I'm always stumped when trying to install stuff manually - I've only ever been successful with nice, easy, straight forward graphical installing). Again, any assistance would be greatfully appreciated. regards John

So I've just tried to do the install manually, and it's binned me out with an error of not finding /usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.la and a quick look show's I don't have it. So where would that library normally come from ?? or where could I get it ?? regards John

well I think that I've installed superkaramba, but what I do with it is a total mystery. As previously mentioned, I downloaded and extracted it with Ark. But after searching through the various sub-directories in the superkaramba directory, I can't find out what to do next. I've also installed the gdesklets mentioned by scoopy, but as for "running a script", it doesn't seem to want to do that either (well in truth, I'm probably trying to do in wrongly)! so again any help or suggestion's would be very much appreciated. regards John

Ok, so I've downloaded superkaramba 0.33 and extracted it using Ark, which has given me a superkaramba directory. But stupidly of me, I don't follow what else I'm supposed to do with it to get it running Any idea's please? regards John

Ha ha :lol: ! It worked. See what I mean. My first attempt at some proper customisation. But I'd like to either bin the mandrake star as the start button and make the application button's transparent. Or maybe I'll try superkaramba from scoopy's link's and see what happen's with that. Thanks for the assist so far, I'll "shut me gob"! and go and see what I can find (again). Hopefully I'll understand what any stuff I find is telling me (though maybe not, as it seems that as far as IT doc's and stuff is concerned, I'm "as thick as 10 bog seat's, nailed together" :D regards John

So it should (in theory) attach if I do thing's right regards John

Ok thanks for the advice scoopy, but I still can't see it. Would it be some sort of option that I should have selected in my profile? Or is it like take a screen shot and then include that as a file attachment? or something like that? regards John

Ah, well I must have an incorrect keyboard setting, because trying Anon's suggestion I can't make anything appear at the cursor (left or right windows key). I installed karamba from mandrake sources (hell it may have been main, contrib, updates or plf), but it only had a mandrakised version of karamba, not superkaramba. Though I'll have to look in that. I also then presume that I'm wrong in thinking that karamba/superkaramba are only good for weather info, rss news feed's and curious little characters walking around my screen (kirby etc)? And I thought that "things mandrake" were supposed to be easy? Choice doesn't seem to be to much of an issue, but if I want to try anything other than what mandrake want me to try, then it seem's like I'm "up shit creek, without a paddle". There's just so much - and as to what I'd do with it if I knew how to use it ? AAAAARRRRGGHH! Oh well, never mind. Still, is it possible to upload a screenshot directly or does it have to be hosted then linked ??? regards John

All you buggers that do artistic type stuff are inconsiderate swines. I found the thread about customising desktops etc. It seems that all those of you who do stuff that can make desktop's, icon's, start menus, etc etc have done so much. So how in hell's name can i decide what I want to do next. I mean, an indecisive twit like me! I WANT IT ALL. NOW! Me, Me, Me. :lol: Seriously, there seems to be so many spectacular thing's that can be done with desktop/icon imagery I can't make my mind up what I should concentrate on first. I had a bit of a go last night, but I don't follow how I can upload a screenshot - or whether I need to get it hosted/linked - not for critical acclaim, but so I can show what I've done and how to solve a few thing's that are still confusing me. For instance. Id like to get rid of my taskbar, but can't find anything or anyway of changing it so I have the start icon (mandrake.png) as a floating shortcut. And while I've found the actual image file in /usr/share/icons I can't work out how to change it so it's a different picture i.e. where the file that control's how the task bar look's actually is. I mean, yes I can hide it, but I figured it'd look better as, like a desktop shortcut. But for the time being, I've managed to get it down to the start button, the image that show's 4 virtual desktop's, the applications thing (that show's what's running), the small panel that show's kscd and the klipboard and the clock. I've seen some desktop's that seem to have them as individual sub-panel's (sorry I don't know what else you'd call them). But also Id like to make them transparent - can I find a way of doing that? can I hell. Am I better using gnome? as I noticed that some of the screenshot's that look so good seem to be done with gnome, although there seem to be so many kde resources to do stuff like that. One massive quandary! regards John p.s. I used to have a link for a site that had lot's of wallpapers, including about 10 PLF images, as well as many many other excellent ones - memory tell's me that the URL was something like soviet.com, or kgbsoviet.com (well the word soviet was in either the URL or in the site name). I don't suppose that ring's any bell's with anyone does it? as a couple of hours searching hasn't thrown anything up.

Yeah, I tried that but for reason's that are "over my head" it didn't want to play (that was how I'd always installed it with previous versions of mandrake). Though now I've got the latest kernel version running OK, I might just have another go! thanks for the reminder regards John

Cheer's for that armondf, Just for anyone else who might need it, when I first followed armondf's instructions, my network printer still sat there completely mute. I ended up going through the setup/modify printer facility because in the instructions, it said about sending the print to socket://hostname:9100, which I had "slavishly" copied - wrongly and although I then changed it to my hostname it still didn't want to work. So I've run through the modify facility and instead of using my hostname, I've put in the LAN ip that I allocated. This kicked the printer into life, but the LED panel kept telling me that the "requested language wasn't available", now I haven't got a clue what that mean's (english used and english set as the default printer language, so obviously it's a "different" sort of language). So what I've done is to change the driver from HP5/5m postscript, to the HP 5 series - CUPS+gimp-print driver. This seems to have worked and it's now printing test pages. thanks to armondf for the instructions/advice. regards John

Hi forum, I've got an HP laserjet 5N plugged into my network, but if I just try to "add a printer" (as I did previously with earlier versions of mandrake) it's not detected. Any advice as to how I get this "added/configured" please? regards John p.s. When I searched, I found a thread that discussed this but mentioned installing the latest kernel update/upgrade, well I've managed to get the 2.6.3-13mdk installed and running, though I don't follow why that should make any difference?

Well I've also removed both the commented out vmlinuz/2.6.3-13 entry and the space in the append line of the 2.6.3-13 entry at the bottom (and renamed it mandrake, I might move it later, we'll see if it bug's me). Again, thanks for the help/assistance, "mucho appreciado" as they say in bad "spanglish"! regards John