manly

I've installed both the multimedia kernel and it's source, and everything seems to be working properly. How can I test performance of the multimedia kernel vs. the regular kernel? I'm not really sure what the mm kernel changes, so I'm lost as to what would be a good test. Encoding mp3's, Quake FPS's, video editing? Tips would be appreciated. I would also like to recompile the multimedia kernel for my system (a celeron 433 :-P). I assume that it's not much different than compiling a standard MDK kernel. I would also like to patch the kernel with the suswap patch found at http://fchabaud.free.fr/English/default.ph...usp&FILE3=Index. The site lists many kernel versions... which one do I use? Also, is there an easy way to back up the source to the mm kernel before I patch it? Or would I have to reinstall the source? Thanks, Andrew

To do some testing, I logged in using failsafe, which gives an X console and nothing else. I ran artswrapper (setuid root), and then ran xmms, using no plugins and output set to aRts. ~5% CPU usage, all from aRts. Then, I ran Quake III, and ran a timedemo, ~28 FPS. I then ran Quake III without xmms running, still through aRts. ~35 FPS, but I noticed that the sound had a slight delay. I then ran Quake normally, after killing artsd, which gave ~35 FPS, and no sound delay. Of course, that way I can't listen to my music :-(. Running from within KDE seems to make little difference - I would assume that's my 256 MB chip @ work :-). Is there another way to play mp3/oggs without such a performance difference? Thanks, --Andrew

I just figured out how to use artsdsp so I can play mp3's through xmms and play quake 1-3 with sound. Using: artsdsp -m quake3 I can sucessfully run quake3. However, sounds from within the game are slightly delayed, and the framerate goes down by 5-10 fps (which is a problem when your system only does ~30!). Under Win2K, the difference is not really noticable (Quake 3 and Winamp). Is this just an arts performance problem? Is there another sound server that has better performance? Perhaps Esd? I use KDE, so aRts is prefered. Thanks! --Andrew

Try opening your case, and see what the mobo is labeled as. Then, go to that company's website, and download the manual (likely in PDF). It should tell you how to install an AGP card. This is assuming that you have an AGP slot and card. If you have another monitor lying around, you could also look into going with a dual-monitor setup. Both monitors work in X, and one (the one connected to the GeForce) will work for 3D. Complex to set up, but very cool and possibly cheap way to increase your desktop real estate. --Andrew

Almost all browsers have a configuration section where you can tell it what fonts to use. Look in the Konqueror prefs, and use the font that it's using in Mozilla/Netscape/Galeon. Also, if you want to get the texstar RPM's for Mozilla, I would highly reccomend downloading Synnaptic from his site first, as it works really well for resolving dependencies, etc. You can also add his site as a source in rpmdrake. As for Opera 7, I've been using the beta since it came out, and I've yet to experience a crash on it, much less any annoying bugs. It looks good, and 7.1 has loads of bugfixes from Opera 7 for windows. If you are getting annoyed with the other browsers, I would suggest giving Opera a try anyways. --Andrew

If you take a look at the contrib packages, there is a program for recording RealAudio Streams. I forget what it's called, but it's there for sure. Also, you could use a loopback device to pipe the sound back into a program that converts the stream to OGG or MP3 on the fly. --Andrew

I noticed the same thing (this is in Konqueror with MDK 9.1). However, I use bz2 instead, since it seems to be better at compressing files. If you need Winzip comatibility, use .gz. I think it has close to the same compression as .zip. --Andrew

It turns out that there was a directory, ~/.menu/, that was causing my problems. I rm -rfv'd it, and everything works properly! Upgrading to 1.32b fixed that problem. Now I can feed my killing addiction. Overall, this has been the best Mandrake eXPerience for me yet! By 9.2, I think we will have one ultra-sweet OS. :D --Andrew

I know you said RPM format, but I've found that Quake III Arena is one of the easiest and best games to install. Simply download the patch from id's website, su to root, and install it. Then, simply copy the files from your Q3 cd as per the instructions in the readme. I have Quake 1 and 2 working as well, but they required a bit more tinkering. --Andrew

I just downloaded the contrib RPM's for 9.1 (1.8 Gigs, 2400+ files), and they seem to be all right. What kind of modem do you have? Do you have problems with other apps not downloading things properly? --Andrew

Do you know where I can get 1.31? I don't have a copy of it, and it appears to be removed from most gaming websites.

Here is what I did in my Journey to 9.1. 1. Boot from CD, and it freezes when accessing the CD (this happened with 9.0 as well). I remember that my DMA has to disabled for my CDROM, so I reboot and pass ide=nodma to the kernel. 2. I was very impressed with the layout and design of the install program. Go Mandrake :-)! 3. I tried to do an upgrade. It said that it was going to take over 3 hours to install! The only way to get out was to reboot, as canceling doesn't allow you to exit the install. 4. I ran a regular install. I reformatted my / as ReiserFS (wanted to try something different), and left my /home as ext3. Install was great, it detected everything properly, and installed in ~35 min. 5. After the configuration step, X froze. I'm not sure if it's because it was trying to get on the internet to check for updates (the system wasn't connected). I could switch vt's and that was it. I did a reboot again, and took out the CD. 6. Mandrake 9.1 booted like normal! Here are the few niggling problems I'm having. I click on Home in the kicker, and I get a blank Konsole window. Desktop icons work fine. I was having similar problems with texstar's kde rpm's under 9.0, but I hoped that my reformat would fix them. I installed Quake 3. It loads properly, but only mouse clicks, and not movements, are passed to the program. It doesn't appear to be a mouse sensitivity problem. Otherwise, I'm very impressed with this release, especially the Control Center and Galaxy theme. Props to the Mandrake team! Andrew

That's strange... when I log in using failsafe, I simply get a terminal logged in as my normal user, in my home directory. Are you running MDK 9.1? Have you put on anything that might cause this error? Andrew

Now that Mandrake 9.1 RC2 is out, it's looking like the next release will be the final. Some upgrading questions: I am running Mandrake 9.0, with texstar's KDE 3.1, many other texstar packages, etc. I know with Mandrake that you can do a clean install, upgrade, or upgrade packages only. What's the difference between the upgrade options? Which way is least destructive to my configs? Also, I've seen some pages where they suggest partitioning a /usr as well as / and /home. Why is this better? Would it make sense to repartition that way when I install 9.1? Thanks, Andrew

The beginning of the thread was saying how Mandrake needs our support. My dilema: I'm a high school student, so I don't have a credit card. The 9.0 powerpack isn't avalible in my area (only 8.2!). How can I support Mandrake? Is there something else I can do? I just would feel bad if I didn't make a contribution and I lost my favourite OS/linux distro. :wink: Andrew

That makes more sense than the man page. :-) What I'm confused about is how buffers relate to determining how much memory is actually free. I remember reading in a HOW-TO doc to "ignore buffers, because they don't matter". So, are buffers like a system heap? Right now, free -m shows 111Mb of buffers used. I can't imagine the kernel taking that much RAM by itself. What am I missing? Thanks, Andrew

UDF is used for packet-writing, which is the format for things like DirectCD. Read support is fine, but read-write is considered experimental. I think DVD's may also use the UDF system. I'm not sure *how* you would write to a UDF system, I assume it would be along the lines of mount with rw and write like any other filesystem.

Go grab texstar's rpm. Then, as root, run apt-get update (while connected to the net). Run synaptic and be happy ;-).

I found out the culprit! It was MenuDrake. I upgraded to the latest (-5) rpms, and killed my prefs directories. The first thing I did was run MenuDrake, and when it was done, the problems I mentioned above started again. So, who do I report this to? Texstar, someone at Mandrake, etc. I don't know much about the MenuDrake configs, but is there something to look for that would cause this problem? Also, I know that rpmdrake will sometimes update the menus. Is there a way to stop that until I can find a solution (other than not installing anything ;-)? Andrew

As for booting into windows, you have to modify the lilo.conf file, and then run lilo as root. This will write the bootsector. Andrew

Yes, I am. Everything is with the most updated versions. Also, if I log in as a different user, it works fine (different .kde directories). Andrew

I've upgraded to the latest RPM's. I'm still having the same console problem when I open a konqueror window. Here is the breakdown. Folders work fine, but a konsole is opened. Any errors are outputted to the konsole instead of /dev/null (i assume?) Opening the Home directory opens a konsole, and it says that it's loading the GL library. No window actually appears. Control center opens up a console, shows for a second or so, then closes. Running of an eterm window works fine. I know it has to do with the settings in the .kde directory. Renaming it fixes the problem, but somewhere one of the settings i'm changing causes this problem. Is there a setting I can change manually (text file)? Andrew

Thanks everyone for the tips. Right now, I have a CD and floppy icon on my desktop, and just right-click to mount/unmount. I hadn't thought about the wear on the devices, so doing it for a floppy would not be a great idea. But then how do Autorun cd's work on Windows? I don't see them being queried every 5 seconds. I'm going to try the new kernel, since I'm in the middle of doing one now :-P. Hopefully the new supermount will make it all work the way I want it to. Andrew

Right now I am manually mounting devices instead of using supermount, as it gave me lots of trouble. I was wondering if it would be possible to somehow combine supermount and normal mounting. What I was thinking would be like this: 1. Daemon or something queries CD/floppy for a disk every x seconds. 2. Daemon detects disk, mounts it, and an icon show up on the KDE desktop with the volume label (sort of like gnome) 3. User is done with the disk, right-clicks, ejects and unmounts. Go to step 1. 4. If there are open files on the disk, "lsof /dev/mounted_disk" is run, and the output is shown so the user knows what programs to close/change before trying to unmount again. Is this possible? It just seems more elegant (like a mac!) than what Mandrake currently does. Andrew

I'm using the most recent RPM's as of yesterday ~ 9 PM EST. The biggest problem that I'm having involves opening Konqueror. Only folders work, not the Konqueror and Home, icons. I tried the fix metioned earlier, no luck. What's really wierd is that no matter what, a Konsole is opened, and messages are sent to it, as if I had run a console and typed konqueror. Anyone found a way to prevent it from opening up? I also tried renaming .kde to .kde-bak and resetting everything. Thanks, Andrew