flarefox

It's still not working. I looked through the mandriva init.d scripts and couldn't find anything which would do that. localhost ~]$ ls /etc/init.d/ abrtd* ip6tables* network-auth* resolvconf* acpid* iptables* networkmanager* rpcbind* alsa* killall* network-up* rsyslog* apmd* lm_sensors* nfs-common* shorewall* atd* lvm2-monitor* nfs-server* single* avahi-daemon* mandi* ntpd* smb* checkflashboot* mandrake_everytime* oki4daemon* sound* cpufreq* mandrake_firstime* openl2tpd* sshd* crond* mdadm* openvpn* udev-post* cups* messagebus* partmon* upsd* dm* mtinkd* plexmediaserver* upsmon* functions mysqld* portreserve* vboxadd-timesync* haldaemon* mythbackend* pppoe* vnstat* halt* netconsole* pptp* wlan* hddtemp* netfs* preload* xl2tpd* httpd* network* reboot@

Here is the full chkconfig --list output: o@localhost ~]$ sudo chkconfig --list Note: This output shows SysV services only and does not include native systemd services. SysV configuration data might be overriden by native systemd configuration. abrtd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:off 5:on 6:off 7:off acpid 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:on alsa 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off apmd 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off atd 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:on avahi-daemon 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:off 5:on 6:off 7:off checkflashboot 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off cpufreq 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off crond 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:on cups 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off dm 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off haldaemon 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:on hddtemp 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off httpd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off ip6tables 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off iptables 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off lm_sensors 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off lvm2-monitor 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off mandi 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:on mdadm 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off messagebus 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:on mtinkd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off mysqld 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off mythbackend 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off netconsole 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off netfs 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:on network 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off network-auth 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off network-up 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off networkmanager 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off nfs-common 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off nfs-server 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off ntpd 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off oki4daemon 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off openl2tpd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off openvpn 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off partmon 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:on plexmediaserver 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off portreserve 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off pppoe 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off pptp 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off preload 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:on 6:off 7:off resolvconf 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:on rpcbind 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:on rsyslog 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:on shorewall 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off smb 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off sound 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off sshd 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off udev-post 0:off 1:on 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off upsd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off upsmon 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off vboxadd-timesync 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 7:off vnstat 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off wlan 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off xl2tpd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off And here is inittab: @localhost ~]$ cat /etc/inittab # # inittab This file describes how the INIT process should set up # the system in a certain run-level. # # Author: Miquel van Smoorenburg, <miquels@drinkel.nl.mugnet.org> # Modified for RHS Linux by Marc Ewing and Donnie Barnes # # Default runlevel. The runlevels used by Mandriva Linux are: # 0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this) # 1 - Single user mode # 2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking) # 3 - Full multiuser mode # 4 - unused # 5 - X11 # 6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this) # id:3:initdefault: # System initialization. si::sysinit:/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit l0:0:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 0 l1:1:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 1 l2:2:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 2 l3:3:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 3 l4:4:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 4 l5:5:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 5 l6:6:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 6 # Trap CTRL-ALT-DELETE ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now # When our UPS tells us power has failed, assume we have a few minutes # of power left. Schedule a shutdown for 2 minutes from now. # This does, of course, assume you have powerd installed and your # UPS connected and working correctly. pf::powerfail:/sbin/shutdown -f -h +2 "Power Failure; System Shutting Down" # If power was restored before the shutdown kicked in, cancel it. pr:12345:powerokwait:/sbin/shutdown -c "Power Restored; Shutdown Cancelled" # Run gettys in standard runlevels #1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1 1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty --autologin dee --noclear tty1 2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2 3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3 4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4 5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5 6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6 # Single user mode ~~:S:wait:/bin/sh It's also supposed to have a shell auto login, but that doesn't work, either. Sorry to be so much trouble! :(

Or not....I tried that out. I searched for dm. I found the thing that launches the window manager and disabled it. It didn't change anything! This is crazy and stupid! Who would've thought it would ever be so difficult to disable the gui in linux?

Thanks! I saw that mandriva is probably going to be closing soon. What version of linux does everyone recommend instead? What's close?

I want to just have bash show up when I start my machine, but it's not working. I have tried changing the inittab from 5 to 3. I selected "I do not want to automatically start X on boot" when configuring the graphics/display drivers and boot options. I also tried adding on the boot option "text" (sans quotes). Every time, kdm loads by default. What's going on? Is there some new/other option I should know about? I'm trying to get it to boot, auto loginto a shell, and then load a few programs that run in the background of my server box since using the graphical interface is way more than I need on this system right now. I still want it for if I decide to do something, but I don't want to use it. Help? Thank you!

I installed XBMC. It has several problems. The biggest is that after every video finishes playing, it hangs up and makes me kill the program, go to the desktop, and relaunch. It says it's looking for this file: /usr/lib64/va/drivers/fglrx_drv_video.so but that file doesn't exist anywhere on the system. In fact, va/drivers doesn't exist. All the fglrx files are in /usr/lib64/fglrx. None of the files are named fglrx_drv_video.so. They're named: libAMDXvBA.cap* libaticalcl.so* libatiuki.so.1.0* libGL.so.1@ xorg/ libAMDXvBA.so.1@ libaticaldd.so* libfglrx_dm.so.1.0* libGL.so.1.2* libAMDXvBA.so.1.0* libaticalrt.so* libfglrx_gamma.so.1@ libXvBAW.so.1@ libatiadlxx.so* libatiuki.so.1@ libfglrx_gamma.so.1.0* libXvBAW.so.1.0* Does anyone know what to do to make it not lock up? Thank you! [moved from Software by spinynorman]

Hello! I wonder if anyone else here has the same problem I do and what you did to solve it... I have 2 Silicondust HDTV tuners to pick up digital cable signals and mythtv on linux and mac as the backend setup. They're wonderful! But....the cable company out in the area I just moved to only sends analog through their coax cables. I'm stuck with nothing I can use. I can't justify getting ANOTHER tuner card and rendering these two dual tuner network cards useless...it just seems like a big waste. Is anyone else running into this problem? I spent forever on the phone with the cable company who said I needed to find something that could convert analog cable to digital. I haven't found anything even remotely close to that. Has anyone else done this? How did you manage? Is there a box somewhere I can buy that will convert them pass the 2 existing digital channels through? I don't mind if it remaps them or something. I just want to be able to use my tuners. Or is there some way to get the silicondust tuners to pick up analog as well as digital? I've been scouring the internet for something that could do this with no luck... Any help is appreciated!

Yes, that's perfect! Thank you!

Hello! This is a little off topic since it is video related but not exactly mandriva only. I'm hoping someone here knows how to grab a frame size from an mpg video file. I'm writing a tcl script (It's the first language I learned and the one I'm most comfortable with) to try and simplify my life. I run mythtv, but mythtranscode doesn't work for my setup with the output I need. I run myth on my mandriva pc and my mac and need to rescale everything to 720p video if it is HD or leave it as is if it is SD and transcode to h264 for streaming to my other computers and TV. I have several shortcuts already to check for commercials, transcode if it is 720p video, or transcode if it is 1080i, but I don't know how to query whether the video is large and interlaced or not. Does anyone know a command I can run which will give me back the frame size? Something simple? Is there a command built-into tcl that I don't know about or some command-line utility to dump the size? I'm using ffmpeg for transcoding now. I can get it if I run ffmpeg -i infile.mpg but that gives me many many lines of data and is difficult to work with and doesn't always output the same. There's got to be a simpler way to get the file statistics... Does anyone know? Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!

Hello! I was wondering if anyone knew what would cause software to just hang in the background? I know it works because I've used it before in a previous version of mandriva....but when I try to use it in 2008.1, it doesn't load. I'm talking about Side Effects Software's Houdini. If you don't know it, it's a 3d app used in the visual effects industry mostly for complext particle and shading effects. They have a demo "apprentice" version you can use for free. I'm trying to get 9.0 to work as I have a license for 9.0 that allows me to render in HD. Right now I am using windows but that version is buggy and crashes all the time (mostly due to windows itself not handling memory well). I want to swap to the linux version but I can't even load it. I install it as normal, then I cd to /opt/hfs9.0.794 and then source houdini_setup_bash and type hkey. hkey is what you use to get a trial license from sesi. I have the sesinetd license administrator running and responding fine. I have the programs all installed and functional, but it won't load. If I go to command-line interface for it, I can still use it.....but not well since I need to see what I'm doing. I tried running with and without compiz. I deleted all my preferences. I tried running as several different users. I ran it in kde 3.5.9 and 4.1. When I run hkey it will pop up a window that says "Connecting to license server" and then, after that window closes, it just sits there running in the background until I kill it. Never draws a window or anything. Does anyone have an idea of what the problem could be? I have glxgears running fine and that checs out, so I am at a loss for what it could be. The people on odforce are going through what they know of but I thought there might be a small chance that someone on these forums would know what the issue with it could be. Anyone? Thanks in advance!

I am running mandriva 2007.1 and I have a network drive that I want to use. Unfortunately, NFS will let files go to 40%, then lock up my system until the transfers complete. It is all mp3s and videos. If I try to stream the files, it playes for 3 seconds, locks for about 5, then plays another 3 seconds. After trying workarounds for this I decided to just go with samba. The transfers go fast and I can access everything. The problem is that I can't seem to mount the share with write access and I need that! If i browse to: smb://deemusicshare/Shared Files/ I enter my login/pass and everything works just fine. I can write that way but I can't stream music using amarok. If I use mcc to mount it and give users write access, users are not given write access! If I use smb4k to mount it, it crashes when I try. What's the problem? What am I doing wrong? ~Dee

I know it's not released yet, but there are many devices that claim to be 802.11n already out. They just have little disclaimers stating this is draft-n, or g+mimo or something. I was just asking because that's what the devices stated. So there is support for them? Where do I go to find this or to find which ones work? When I do a google search for wireless-n linux it only returns forum posts where people complain about it not working. I have a linksys and 2 belkin cards. The linksys is a wireless-gx4 card (the mimo card) and the belkins are both pre-n and draft-n. I'm just wondering if there's hope for using them with linux.

I have seen absolutely nothing on wireless-n. I tried to adopt it early on, but couldn't since ndiswrapper didn't work. driverloader started to, but died shortly after. NDISwrapper now is able to see networks and associate, but not send or recieve anything. Anyone else have different luck with it? What were your setups? I thought it would be adopted much faster considering linksys uses linux-based routers and (I think I read that) they release their source to the linux community as well, don't they? Just thought I'd ask and see what you all can tell me about it.

:( I'll wait for an update or something. I can edit the text file. I did an rpm search on pbone.net and I couldn't find a version of python-base 2.4 or python2.4 to download. Everything is 2.5 now it seems. I don't have 2.4 installed. Only 2.5. I'll just wait until something new is up I think. Thanks for your help! ~Dee

I went there and after following their steps I get this error instead: /usr/bin/beryl-settings:2: RuntimeWarning: Python C API version mismatch for module berylsettings: This Python has API version 1013, module berylsettings has version 1012. import berylsettings Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/bin/beryl-settings", line 3, in <module> import gtk ImportError: No module named gtk

Thanks! Everything works there except beryl-settings. The settings manager crashes on load and says: [dee@DeePC ~]$ beryl-settings Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/bin/beryl-settings", line 2, in <module> import berylsettings ImportError: No module named berylsettings I installed berylsettings so I'm not sure what could cause that... ~Dee

I get the same error with that only it is with every plugin instead of just the unsupported ones. :(

I posted this on the beryl forums and they said it was something about the compiling setup in mandriva. Does anyone know what I should do? I am trying to install the svn beryl and it continuously crashes. It says complains about vtables in some of the plugins and then crashes. After I removed those plugins, it simply crashes upon load. Here's the exact information: [dee@DeePC beryl_rpm]$ kwin: Fatal IO error: client killed ************************************************************** * Beryl system compatiblity check * ************************************************************** Detected xserver : NVIDIA Checking Display :0.0 ... Checking for XComposite extension : passed (v0.3) Checking for XDamage extension : passed Checking for RandR extension : passed Checking for XSync extension : passed Checking Screen 0 ... Checking for GLX_SGIX_fbconfig : passed Checking for GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap : passed Checking for non power of two texture support : passed Checking maximum texture size : passed (4096x4096) libberylsettings: Couldn't get vtable from '/usr/lib/beryl/libtext.so' plugin libberylsettings: Couldn't get vtable from '/usr/lib/beryl/libaddhelper.so' plugin libberylsettings: Couldn't get vtable from '/usr/lib/beryl/libobs.so' plugin libberylsettings: Couldn't get vtable from '/usr/lib/beryl/libtile.so' plugin libberylsettings: Couldn't get vtable from '/usr/lib/beryl/libminiview.so' plugin libberylsettings: Couldn't get vtable from '/usr/lib/beryl/libwall.so' plugin libberylsettings: Couldn't get vtable from '/usr/lib/beryl/libdebugplugin.so' plugin libberylsettings: Couldn't get vtable from '/usr/lib/beryl/libbs.so' plugin libberylsettings: Couldn't get vtable from '/usr/lib/beryl/libfake.so' plugin Reloading options sending command ** (beryl-manager:1877): WARNING **: Beryl caught deadly signal 11 Then, when I remove those plugins, this is what happens: [dee@DeePC beryl_rpm]$ kwin: Fatal IO error: client killed ************************************************************** * Beryl system compatiblity check * ************************************************************** Detected xserver : NVIDIA Checking Display :0.0 ... Checking for XComposite extension : passed (v0.3) Checking for XDamage extension : passed Checking for RandR extension : passed Checking for XSync extension : passed Checking Screen 0 ... Checking for GLX_SGIX_fbconfig : passed Checking for GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap : passed Checking for non power of two texture support : passed Checking maximum texture size : passed (4096x4096) ** (beryl-manager:1877): WARNING **: Beryl caught deadly signal 11 Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? It even does this when I install the RPMs of the newer beryl, so there's definitely something in my system that is causing it. Anyone here install beryl 1.999 or 2.0 and want to tell me what you did or updated to install it ok? ~Dee

When I try to pair my pc with my phone in mdk07, it fails. I can send files and recieve files, but pairing will never work because there's always a failure in the passkey-agent program. here is the a snippet of my syslog: Dec 29 14:06:03 DeePC hcid[28869]: Passkey agent replied with an error: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod, Method "Request" with signature "ss" on interface "org.bluez.PasskeyAgent" doesn't exist Dec 29 14:06:07 DeePC sudo: dee : TTY=pts/5 ; PWD=/home/dee ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/tail /var/log/syslog Dec 29 14:06:36 DeePC hcid[28869]: Releasing agent :1.30, /org/bluez/passkey_agent_32562 Dec 29 14:06:36 DeePC hcid[28869]: name_listener_remove(:1.30) Dec 29 14:09:01 DeePC crond[733]: (root) CMD ([ -d /var/lib/php ] && find /var/lib/php/ -type f -cmin +$(/usr/lib/php/maxlifetime) -print0 | xargs -r -0 rm) Dec 29 14:12:55 DeePC sudo: dee : TTY=pts/5 ; PWD=/home/dee ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/tail /var/log/syslog Dec 29 14:13:24 DeePC hcid[28869]: pin_code_request (sba=00:0C:55:F6:98:5D, dba=00:15:A0:9B:EB:E8) Dec 29 14:13:24 DeePC hcid[28869]: Calling PasskeyAgent.Request: name=:1.26, path=/org/bluez/passkey_agent_31430 Dec 29 14:13:24 DeePC hcid[28869]: Passkey agent replied with an error: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod, Method "Request" with signature "ss" on interface "org.bluez.PasskeyAgent" doesn't exist Does anyone know how to make this work or know where I can look for help with it? Thank you!

I am trying to access my mobile phone and sometimes my mobile headset. I can get the bluetooth adapter up and running, but that's all. When I try to connect to any device and pair with it, I enter the passkey on the phone and then the pairing fails! I have set everything up exactly as all the tutorials state, but nothing works. Can anyone tell me if there's some problem with bluetooth in 2007? I want to use OBEX to transfer files. My phone can do this because I can send files to the phone using obex, but I can't recieve files on my computer. Is there a setting I'm missing?

Awesome! That is a lot of what I wanted to do! That solves the problems. Thanks! ~Dee Here's my rsync scripts, so you can see what I'm doing. This is for Mandriva 2007 by the way, but it's more or less similar just a change in directory structure (my scripts have 2006 in them but commented out). [admin@elan ~]$ cat /etc/cron.daily/rsync_main #!/bin/bash # # This script syncs the Mandriva Main mirror. # # 2006 # rsync -rv --delete rsync://anorien.csc.warwick.ac.uk/Mandriva/official/2006.0/i586/media/main/ /home/ftp/pub/mirrors/mandriva/main/ # 2007 # rsync -rv --delete rsync://anorien.csc.warwick.ac.uk/Mandriva/official/2007.0/i586/media/main/release/ /home/ftp/pub/mirrors/mandriva/2007/main/ rsync -rv --delete rsync://mirrors.usc.edu/mandrakelinux/official/2007.0/i586/media/main/release/ /home/ftp/pub/mirrors/mandriva/2007/main/ [admin@elan ~]$ cat /etc/cron.daily/rsync_contrib #!/bin/bash # # This script syncs the Mandriva Contrib mirror. # # 2006 # rsync -rv --delete rsync://anorien.csc.warwick.ac.uk/Mandriva/official/2006.0/i586/media/contrib/ /home/ftp/pub/mirrors/mandriva/contrib/ # 2007 # rsync -rv --delete rsync://anorien.csc.warwick.ac.uk/Mandriva/official/2007.0/i586/media/contrib/release/ /home/ftp/pub/mirrors/mandriva/2007/contrib/ rsync -rv --delete rsync://mirrors.usc.edu/mandrakelinux/official/2007.0/i586/media/contrib/release/ /home/ftp/pub/mirrors/mandriva/2007/contrib/ [admin@elan ~]$ cat /etc/cron.daily/rsync_updates #!/bin/bash # # This script syncs the Mandriva Updates mirror. # # 2006 # rsync -rv --delete rsync://anorien.csc.warwick.ac.uk/Mandriva/official/updates/2006.0/main_updates/ /home/ftp/pub/mirrors/mandriva/updates/ # 2007 # rsync -rv --delete rsync://anorien.csc.warwick.ac.uk/Mandriva/official/updates/2007.0/i586/media/main/updates/ /home/ftp/pub/mirrors/mandriva/2007/updates/ rsync -rv --delete rsync://mirrors.usc.edu/mandrakelinux/official/updates/2007.0/i586/media/main/updates/ /home/ftp/pub/mirrors/mandriva/2007/updates/ There you have all scripts for main/contrib/updates. These are placed in /etc/cron.daily and the name you can see from the commands I used to display the script. You then have to do: chmod +x scriptname so for example: chmod +x rsync_main then, you have to configure urpmi on all your machines (including the one doing the mirror), to use the directories you rsync'd. So make sure you have an ftp server installed on the machine and allow anonymous access for all the machine to connect. I use vsftpd for mine, and it's real easy to configure. Normally the shared ftp directory is something like /var/ftp but I changed this by adding a line to the vsftpd.conf file: anon_root=/home/ftp and then you make sure that the ftp user has all rights to this directory: chown -R ftp:ftp /home/ftp The urpmi sources from /etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg on one of my machines: updates ftp://elan/pub/mirrors/mandriva/2007/updates { hdlist: hdlist.updates.cz key-ids: 22458a98 synthesis update with_hdlist: media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz } main ftp://elan/pub/mirrors/mandriva/2007/main { hdlist: hdlist.main.cz key-ids: 70771ff3 with_hdlist: media_info/hdlist.cz } contrib ftp://elan/pub/mirrors/mandriva/2007/contrib { hdlist: hdlist.contrib.cz key-ids: 78d019f5 with_hdlist: media_info/hdlist.cz } where I have the name "elan" this is the name of my ftp server, and so, you need to make sure that /etc/hosts can resolve this on all your machines. Alternatively, just replace with the ip address of the machine instead. Here is a script I made for adding the urpmi sources: [ian@europa Mandriva]$ cat mdv2007urpmi #!/bin/bash # # Urpmi sources for Mandriva 2007 # urpmi.addmedia main ftp://172.20.12.230/pub/mirrors/mandriva/2007/main with media_info/hdlist.cz urpmi.addmedia contrib ftp://172.20.12.230/pub/mirrors/mandriva/2007/contrib with media_info/hdlist.cz urpmi.addmedia --update updates ftp://172.20.12.230/pub/mirrors/mandriva/2007/updates with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz urpmi.addmedia plf-free ftp://spirit.bentel.sk/mirrors/plf/mandriva/2007.0/free/release/binary/i586 with synthesis.hdlist.cz urpmi.addmedia plf-nonfree ftp://spirit.bentel.sk/mirrors/plf/mandriva/2007.0/non-free/release/binary/i586 with synthesis.hdlist.cz Notice that main, contrib and updates are pointing to my elan machine with the ip address shown. And you're done on this part. One machine downloads the rpms which is the server. Then all machines point to this and get there updates instantly. By placing the scripts for rsync in /etc/cron.daily, it will sync every morning at 4am! While I know I don't want to mount the root, but definitely just install the software on every machine, that helps to know the mounting and copying scripts. It makes sense. I could have it mount their homespace on logon and then mount another space that copies all the default settings over for everything and then unmounts their homespace and removes the local directories when they log out for file space and convenience. That makes a lot of sense to do. I like the idea of that so they get a fresh workspace every time. Limits the number of errors they would have do to faulty settings, too, if it constantly refreshes itself. Thanks a lot! ~Dee On the login stuff, basically, on the server each user has a few gigs of space that is their homespace. I want to load that for each different username on login. Other than that, I want them to use the regular machine for all the normal data saving and just throw their saved files onto the server afterward. I also want to have custom icons load up on their desktops each time. That's really as far as I want them to go. I am locking them out of every other part of the system in the hopes that this will make it work faster and better. I've used partimage before on my home machines to back up everything before I tried something risky, but I never got it to save the data much and I never got a boot disk or cd made for it that would install correctly (network errors). It seemed really great, though with what worked. The apps the students will be running are: sketchup (windows only) (seeing if it will run in wine or something. It requires 100% OGL compliance which linux uses but I'm not sure how the wine emulation goes for that), SoftImage, several CAD apps, Lightwave (works wonderfully in wine/cedega, Blender with verse integration, Gimp with GAP and verse integration, photoshop (wine/cedega), openoffice, and a few other 3d/2d apps that I can't remember. I'll look up nxserver and tarantella to see more about them, too. Thanks for that! From memory lightwave is java is it not? (The linux version is also FREE as in beer) so no wine needed? The OpenGL will be a problem for thin clients... Tarantella were working on it last time I looked a few years ago but ThinAnywhere (Mercury) did a much better OpenGL job (but this was for HUGE datasets (TB each) If you can get everything working OK under Wine (that would be my first effort) then I'd simply run a file server ... 100 people logging in at once on a netboot is probably stressing the NW... too far... unless its a real minimalist boot.... but what I would do is simply put their homes on the server... For the install I'd make the absolute minimal boot disk and do an NFS install... The simple way is you just use the -o loop to mount the ISO... and kick off a pre configured install.... on the clients from CD/floppy... using network boot There are lots of tools for this basically its just a script... that the install takes and most distro's let you save this as a file and reuse it... in effect its just the install the most basic setup part and then a series of (for mandriva) rpm's to be installed ... i.e urpmi < /mnt/server/rpms/default/*.rpm then you edit the server /etc/skel which is the basis for user accounts and create what you want... then every new account it uses your pre defined stuff.... you can go mad and do GIMP and .gimp and .wine .. this way they base is all pre-installed in the users directory as you create the user. This part can also be scripted... so basically you run through the script with adduser <userlist and it creates ALL the directories and everyone is installed the same... Check out the LDP for guides on this :D and ask here :D but the concept is classic, its what Sun called Jumpstart years ago... No need to setup any users..on the clients. just configure it to use NIS (or even LDAP) for user authentification... and then you configure that on the server..

On the login stuff, basically, on the server each user has a few gigs of space that is their homespace. I want to load that for each different username on login. Other than that, I want them to use the regular machine for all the normal data saving and just throw their saved files onto the server afterward. I also want to have custom icons load up on their desktops each time. That's really as far as I want them to go. I am locking them out of every other part of the system in the hopes that this will make it work faster and better. I've used partimage before on my home machines to back up everything before I tried something risky, but I never got it to save the data much and I never got a boot disk or cd made for it that would install correctly (network errors). It seemed really great, though with what worked. The apps the students will be running are: sketchup (windows only) (seeing if it will run in wine or something. It requires 100% OGL compliance which linux uses but I'm not sure how the wine emulation goes for that), SoftImage, several CAD apps, Lightwave (works wonderfully in wine/cedega, Blender with verse integration, Gimp with GAP and verse integration, photoshop (wine/cedega), openoffice, and a few other 3d/2d apps that I can't remember. I'll look up nxserver and tarantella to see more about them, too. Thanks for that!

Thanks for all that, Ian! To answer your questions, it's not an amazingly huge number of computers but enough to make it tiresome for them to update them if/when the need arises. 80-100 pcs total. They have something like 300-400 students in there that all have logins and accesses. It's for a special class setup. I think the school system uses ghost, but every machine must be cloned exactly for that and I'm not really sure if all the computers in the lab have exactly the same specs for their hard drive sizes. I'll read up on all that. So, if I setup an ftp mirror for all my downloads...do you mean that I have one computer download and set everything up on itself, then do some sort-of sharing from that machine so all the others can connect to it for their software/updates? If I did a live install, I'm sure it would be taxing on a random ftp server to have 100 machines all trying to grab the same file at the same time....or more taxing than I would like to be on someone else's machines. I'll look more into the ftp or rsync mirrors.

I've been asked to setup a good linux lab for the local schools here (small town wanting to cut cost corners and I'm the local linux guy). Thing is, I only have experience with single-user linux. Can anyone point me to a good Q&A sheet or a how-to? What I want to know: Installing in the computers without overloading an rpm server. Is it called setting up a "park?" Partition cloning. What's the best tool for it in linux and what's the best way to go about it? I saw that madriva can let a windows network contain the login data for users. Any problems people run into a lot? I want certain programs and things to be loaded every time a user logs in, like their network drive and a few custom desktop entries. Is there a place to go to learn how to do that? I did some googles but the pages I found weren't very informative, so I figured you guys would have links that you know are good or could point me in the right direction. Thanks! ~Dee

Yes, it's a known problem. When running XGL and Compiz, Compiz will rarely work as a normal user from KDM. If you want it to work, you have to install the beta drivers, uninstall xgl, compiz, and drak3d, and install beryl and beryl-manager. You'll get exactly the same thing that you get with drak3d, only you'll also be able to run 3d apps and games. As it is, compiz + games = crash almost every time. I got it to run a game once with compiz... The official forums were filled with the same thing you described the day after 07's launch. Hope that helps. :)