coverup

you could also try xset

Don't now what this line means, and where it from.... but pleasure is mine!

Maybe it's what you run from rc.local?

Right-click on the desktop -> Configure Desktop -> Behavior -> Device Icons -> Check icons you want to see.

I had a similar problem with volume control (the buttons did not work) using 2008.0 on ThinkPad T61. It appeared that volume was to be software controlled, so I defined all keycodes and mapped them to the keys. Interestingly, I did not have to do anything special in Ubuntu to get the volume working The window you see looks exactly as the one I see when I press volume buttons. In my case, volume is controlled by kmilo, the KDE plugin for ThinkPad special keys. Check the KDE control center whether you have kmilo installed. Disable or uninstall it.

Mm... maybe you're right... I am spoiled by mandriva since I always use DVDs and powerpacks which have all the goodies... With crossover, it installs with some some warning messages, as a result of which MS Offcice 2000 becomes unusable. Apparently a common problem, since it has already recevied some feedback on cxoffce forums. It now works for me after tweaking sysctl.

Ubuntu has not quite achieved it... On one hand, I was able to connect to work via VPN using Ubuntu, Mandrake/iva always failed there. On the other hand, Ubuntu 8.04 still has several annoying problems: Flash drives do not automount, third party products (matlab, crossover office) need tweaking. Install gives you a very basic system which has only a handful of apps. While many applications are available for download, If you are a beginner, you would not know about them.

modprobe -r ehci_usb before connecting the usb drive. Then the drive will automount but the connection will be slow USB 1.

After using Ubuntu for two days, I found Ubuntu a bit annoying compared to Mandriva (sorry, Ubuntu users). It's more like using Mac - everything works but all bolts and nuts are hidden away, are strictly guarded and controlled. To Ubuntu's credit, for the first time in years, I was able to connect to VPN server at work from a linux machine (never had any luck with mandriva). On the other hand, perhaps I would prefer Mac to Ubuntu. But in the Mac vs Mandriva competition, Mandriva was a winner for me.

Same here... I don't have a card, and use a camcorder, which should not matter I suppose...

4965 works out of the box in Mandriva 2008.0. Not the latest and greatest, but it works!

I can see text in the kdcop-> klipper-> getClipboardContent. However, when I copy an image in Adobe Reader, the window pops up saying that the image has been copied to the clipboard, but I cannot find that image anywhere... Where does it go?

My ThinkPad has an RF switch too. I keep WiFi on all the time. I guess unless you are on a plane, you don't need to worry about it. As for getting WiFi to work, open the terminal, login as root using su, and you won't need sudo anymore. Simply disregard it in all Ubuntu commands that you are trying. Search this forum (possibly, tips and tricks?) to find how to configure ndiswrapper for using with Mandriva.

Do you have to type in an ftp login/password every time you want to access the drive? Also, does the drive have to have an IP address assigned to it? In that case this solution does not suit me.

Thanks for the replies. The drive will be used with desktop, therefore an AC powered option would suit me. Apparently using such drives with linux poses another challenge. From numerous articles on the web, it appears that the power management logic on those drives does spin them down after about 10-15 min of inactivity (that's what I want!), but waking them up from standby may be a problem. The drive can be put back to service by unplugging then reconnecting the USB cable, but this is not a solution since the backup script runs at 4am in the morning, when there is nobody there. The standby option can be disabled, but I want it to be functional to protect the drive from wear and overheating. Can anybody confirm/disprove this, or better recommend a drive which has power management supported by linux, or maybe have linux support mentioned on the box?

I consider getting a USB harddrive to do overnight backups. It will be used in my office, and they won't buy from ebay, etc, so it has to be a brand name available through retail. I can format it to ext3, etc, that is not a problem. Also, I would like the drive to be turned on automatically at around 4am in the morning, get mounted, have backup files written onto, then get unmounted and powered off. If the drive was powered 24/7, mounting/unmounting would be a matter for a simple cron script. Is it possible to power a USB HDD on demand, and what brand does have this feature?

if you are using KDE, you can clear clipboard history using Klipper. From my personal experience, the clipboard support in X apps such as emacs, and proprietary apps, such as Adobe Reader is often hit and miss. It has improved in 2008, but still far from being perfect.

Initially, I had the MDV version which came with the Mandriva Free DVD. I removed it and installed the PLF version with plf in the rpm name. You are right, aRTee, the PLF version is compiled with faad support. What about iTunes? I have looked at banshee, but could not find how to connect to the iTunes store.

I figured out that instead of downgrading to an outdated kernel, I'd be better off putting a next version of Ubuntu or Mandriva 2008.1. Still have not gotten around doing this....

Looks promissing, but is it possible to actually buy music from the iTunes store? I mean, DRM and so on...

Well, servers aren't laptops. This article suggests the HDD killer is laptop-mode http://ubuntudemon.wordpress.com/2007/10/2...ive-killer-bug/Is there any substance in this report?

Thanks. I tried transKode to now avail. All these pretty programs use third party engines, and what's worse, can't use them properly... One would expect that since Amarok and VLC use xine engine to play m4a's, so should transKode, but no, it uses faad, which does not work Anyway, the solution was to uninstall mplayer, and install the version from PLF which has all the goodies compiled in. My next problem is to find a client that would work with iTunes.

I am trying to convert an m4a audio to mp3 using MDV 2008.0. Using Ubuntu 6.06 I was able to achieve this by first converting m4a to wav with mplayer, and then compressing wav into mp3. In 2008.0, I get this: $ mplayer -ao pcm "03.m4a" -ao pcm:file="03.wav" MPlayer 1.0-1.rc1.20mdv2008.0-4.2.1 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20GHz (Family: 6, Model: 15, Stepping: 11) CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1 Compiled with runtime CPU detection. 98 audio & 216 video codecs mplayer: could not connect to socket mplayer: No such file or directory Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control. Playing 03.m4a. Quicktime/MOV file format detected. ========================================================================== Trying to force audio codec driver family libmad... Requested audio codec family [faad] (afm=faad) not available. Enable it at compilation. Cannot find codec for audio format 0x6134706D. Read DOCS/HTML/en/codecs.html! Audio: no sound Video: no video Exiting... (End of file) Also, using faad command gives this error: $ faad "03.m4a" *********** Ahead Software MPEG-4 AAC Decoder V2.5 ****************** Build: Oct 26 2006 Copyright 2002-2004: Ahead Software AG http://www.audiocoding.com Floating point version This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License. ************************************************************************** 03.m4a file info: RAW Error: Bitstream value not allowed by specification All faad files I could think of are installed. I can play the file using VLC and Amarok, but can't convert it to mp3 Where should I start?

In 2008.0, I could not play dvds until i disabled Compiz. Try disabling it.

I doubt you have many ports open unless you run servers. To check what ports your computer is listening to, run netstat -tan. It is a good idea to edit hosts.deny and hosts.allow to deny remote access to all services/ports, except for those you explicitly want to be open, eg, port 22 for secure shell access. Even after that you can add an extra line of defense by limiting the number of unsuccessful (read unauthorized) login attempts from a particular host (read bot), say to 3. Take a look at denyhosts. When run as a daemon, it monitors the security logs. If an IP address attempts to gain an access to your computer for 3 or more times in a row, that address will be added to the hosts.deny file for good. It will never bother you again.