coverup

You can do incremental backup with tar. Have a look at this article http://linuxgazette.net/issue47/pollman.html

A separate /boot partition is useful only if you boot many Linux flavours... and anyway 100 MB is quite big (can hold some twenty kernel images, or more).

2G swap is too much- lower it to 256M or 512M (I also have 2GB RAM, set my swap to 256M and AFAIK never made use of it for the last couple of years or so).

15G for / is also biggish (10 tops), you don't need /usr at all (maybe /var, if you are setting a corporate server and you want to handle bulky logfiles) and why use FAT32? It's slower than NTFS with ntfs-3g, and can't handle files larger than 4GB.

I often see suggestions that there is no need to allocate more than 512MB to swap. However, if it's a laptop and I want to be able to suspend, then shouldn't swap be bigger than RAM by at least 30%?

Also, there are buggy applications which use a lot of swap space. I had this experience with evolution 2.0.x which due to some weird bug, could actually fill up entire swap and hung the computer. With that version of evo, swap was always about 50% full.

You cannot run chown to change ownership in fstab, that's why I suggested uid, gid which do exactly that. But you can add the above commands to /etc/rc.local. They will be run on every boot, so you will get the same result as if you were running them from command line.

It may also be that codepage=850 0 0 was the reason you could nbot mount the partition. I copied that command from my fstab, and was to mount FAT32 buffer parttion, codepage=850 0 0 was required for that. Try removing that fragment.

Thanks John, but I rather think that the problem lies somewhere in the section

setuid=lawrence,setgid=lawrence,exec,users,codepage=850 0 0

because the partition CAN be mounted if I remove that from the mount command.

The directory names ARE probably confusingly similar; :unsure: zstore is the mount-point given to the partition when I formatted it (which is a directory in the main file-structure (correct??) and where it is mounted at boot - according to KDiskFree, anyway) and zqstore is the mount-point which I created in my own /home/username directory, where I WANT to mount it. Alle Klarheiten beseitigt??? B)

 

Happy New Year to all

What if you use uid=lawrence,gid=lawrence? You need to give the user lawrence read-write permissions. It is time for man mount :D

Many thanks for all of your replies, the one I've decided to go for is the partition with a mount point in /home/username. Now comes the tricky bit, the dreaded syntax. B) I assume that the option in MCC is "Mount points" followed by "Setting up sharing of your HD partitions"; I've selected "Custom" but am now unsure whether to select SMB or NFS. Could one of you help me further? Many thanks, again.

Neither. SMB is for cross platform sharing between Windows and Linux, and NFS is for sharing over the network.

You just need to unmount the data partition and re-mount it giving the user read/write/execute user privileges.

Assuming that the created partition /dev/hda11 was mounted during boot to the mountpoint /data, unmount it and re-mount using these commands, as root (change username, group name as relevant):

# unmount /data
# mkdir /home/username/newmountpoint
# chown username:groupname /home/username/newmountpoint
# mount /dev/hda11 /home/username/newmountpoint setuid=username,setgid=groupname,exec,users,codepage=850 0 0

(the last command must be a single line).

Check if you can read and write to this partition. If everything is Ok, then add the last line (without the first word "mount ") to /etc/fstab.

Provided it's just data and not configuration or settings files that you want to "share", then an approach that I (and many others) use is to create a separate "data" partition, for documents, pictures, music etc.. This partition can then be mounted in any linux system running on your machine. It also means that if, for any reason, you need to format your /home partition, your data will be safe.

 

Jim

Create a separate "data" partition, as jkerr82508 suggested. Also, create a mount point in /home/username and mount the data partition to that mountpoint, using MCC or manually edit /etc/fstab. Your shared files will now be in /home/username/data; filebrowsing is easier that way since you always begin with a homedir.

Sharing all of /home/username may not be a good idea because config files for GNOME, KDE, and other software storred in /home/username may have a slightly different structure in different distros/versions; they may not always be compatible.

Thanks for this tip.

You use 1024x768 on both screens... is this your LCD's native resolution? Is your external CRT capable of more than 1024x768? I would like to have native 1400x1050 on the LCD and native 1280x1024 on the external LCD (TMDS), is it possible at all?

You could simply continue using this.... Usually you should look for updated versions of the X driver module that belongs to your graphics card.

You answered your own questions :D

Maybe this thread will help. The bottom line is you need to create a ~/.xinitrc file which X will use to start session.

In the course of trying to get Xine to display properly I installed XFree 86's newest version. I used the install.sh to direct me on which files to add to the directory.

I did fix the issue with the funky display, but now KDE will not automatically start.

It gives me a commandline login . Entering the UN and PW work and I simply press "kde" to get it up and going. I'm gonna be giving this PC away when done. Is there any thing I can do to fix it ?

 

When I shutdown I do get something that says that Xserver is shutting down or that I destroyed it. Also I don't get the options to shutdown when I log off.

I have word for word the same symptoms listed here. https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtop...02&hl=Xfree

Were you by chance messing with /etc/inittab? Open terminal, and type in the command prompt:

$ more /etc/inittab |grep initdefault

If you see this:

id:3:initdefault:

you need to change it to

id:5:initdefault:

You can do it by editing the file as root. Or go to mandriva control center, there must be an option to boot into GUI on startup. Make sure the box is checked.

Anybody? Anybody? Something 'o-o' economics.

You only need a WiFi manager to discover networks. You don't need to use a WiFi manager at all, if you use the laptop in two or three fixed locations (etc, home and work). I simply switch from one network to another using a script, which I run from the CLI. It is possible to link such scripts to a hot key, but I never bothered.

Does anybody have an experience with Mandriva on a newer ThinkPad T61? According to ThinkWiki, users of Ubuntu/Debian have variuos kinds of trouble with them: resume from suspend does not work, the screen brightness cannot be adjusted (Nvidia), Wireless is flaky, Nvidia card drains too much power, sound does not work out of the box. Lenovo certifications for RHEL and SLED confirm that the laptop is not trouble free. I wonder if Mandriva experience is similar.

I'm using GNOME...doesn't work :)

To configure GNOME font properties, run gnome-font-properties from terminal. Also, you might need to try using other fonts and/or adgust dpi settings, e.g. by starting Xserver with the option -dpi. The font problem could be related to how the monitor displays text, rafter all the graphics card or Gnome/KDE only serve signals to the monitor. Make sure that monitor settings in xorg.conf are correct for your screen. If you can, try another monitor too.

Thanks, it worked (of course). But how do I set up the shortcut?

Assuming your desktop is KDE, right-click on the desktop and follow Create New ...-> File... -> Link to Application. In the General tab, give the shortcut a name. Next open the tab Application, and cut and paste the magic spinynorman's command in the line that says "Command". Click Ok, and the link/shortcut must appear on the Desktop.

Hello Yossarian.

 

I am using KDE so I guess that is why I cannot see it. I do not have Gnome installed to check it out.

With KDE I don't miss too many things but Gnome is a different matter.

 

I did do the pcspkr thing and don't know what to expect at this point. (rebooted)

Cheers. John.

If you added pcspkr to /etc/modprobe.preload, this module should load after reboot. To see it working, eg, open konsole then go Settings->Bell-> check System Bell, then hit Backspace in the empty command prompt - you should hear bell coming from the internal PC speaker, instead of speakers connected to the soundcard.

If you use only Gnome/KDE apps, this sounds like an unnecessary feature, but in Emacs, xterm, etc, I think, you won't get the system beep unless the pcspkr module is loaded.

I am considering buying a dlink dwl g650m cardbus WiFi adapter. I chose this card because because it is a MiMo card, which (as dlink claims) works more reliably when the signal is weak. I saw two kinds of this card in the shop, one of them is green and another one is blue. Does anybody have an experience with any of those? Which one of them is newer/better? Can it be made work under Linux (I guess, with ndiswrapper)?

Add the following line to /etc/modprobe.preload (or, if you still run a kernel 2.4 based system, /etc/modules):

pcspkr

That happened only when I tried to set static IP on the computer, but I don't know why I got a blank resolv.conf.

... because with static IP, one has to specify all information manually, including creating resolv.conf. See my post...

Great! Though I don't get it ... If you were on a static IP address, why was the router over-writing the resolv.conf?

(1) On the router, in the WAN configuration section, check whether you can specify your ISP's DNS server IP addresses. If you can - specify them (call the ISP and find out), if you cannot - the router receives them automatically, and you don't need to enter that information.

(2) On the router, in the LAN configuration section, specify a static IP address for your computer. If your router supports NAT (they all do) it should allow you to do that - this is necessary if you run a server on your LAN and need to make sure that it has a permanent IP address. We will use this feature for our benefit :D . Eg, if the router's LAN address is 192.168.0.1, then your PC should be 192.168.0.2 (or 3, or 4, or 5, etc).

(3) On the Linux PC, configure it to use static IP address - the same one as you configured on the router in step 2, eg, 192.168.0.2. Specify the subnet mask 255.255.255.0. Also, specify the router's IP address 192.168.0.1 as the gateway. Next open terminal, become root, fire up an editor and create/edit the file /etc/resolv.conf. The file must contain the following lines:

# List the ISP's DNS servers here
nameserver aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd
nameserver aaa.bbb.ccc.eee
# You can list your router here as well
nameserver 192.168.0.1

(4) Save the file, exit editor and restart network services - run as root

servce network restart

That should be all.

How does the PC obtain IP address from the router? If you use DHCP, the router attempts to write DNS server IP addresses received from the ISP to /etc/resolv.conf. It looks like it cannot do it for some reason, and this causes some problem which can only be cleared by booting into windows. I would guess the problem is on the router side. Did you try using a static IP address? In this case you will need to create /etc/resolv.conf yourself, the router should not attemt to assign nameservers to staticaly configured interfaces. This may clear the problem.

Do you use one of the ports on the PC or do you have a hub? I have a similar problem when I am using a 4-port USB hub. The keyboard and mouse work fine since the day they were plugged in, but my Palm pilot often fails to connect, and I have a string of error messages in /var/log/messages about the device not accepting address. Once I connected directly to one of the ports on the PC, the problem's gone...

Another amusing story about USB: I have a nice `space saver' mousepad with a USB hub which is not detected at all - the same message again "the device not accepting address, error -71" etc.

It worked for me fine following instructions on the web. I think I had to install java runtime environment (JRE) for this to work.

Will HP Follow Dell With Ubuntu Linux PCs?

The article cross-references the thread on the Ubuntu Forum dated 2004(!) C-mon... On a serious note, HP was offering Mandrake on CDs back then.

I didn't see that they needed to have the same SSID.

My understanding is that different SSIDs mean different networks. Therefore, if I move from the area covered by the router (SSID1) to the area covered by the repeater (SSID2), I have to manually disconnect from the network SSID1 and connect to the network SSID2. In principle, this is Okay, but not having to reconnect manually would be a lot more covenient, especially when signals are weak and drop-offs are frequent.