PCLinuxOS woes

[payasam]

Apparently because of a server problem, I have not been able to register on the forum of PCLinuxOS. I think someone here can help me with what are probably minor difficulties.

 

First, I have to mount Windows D: and C: manually each time. Not such a problem, but I cannot understand why those are not mounted automatically as they were in Mandrake/Mandriva.

 

Second, I cannot get CUPS configured and therefore cannot print. It did not come with the Minime iso, so I brought it in with Synaptic.

 

Third, I opted for the US International keyboard, and get a "file not found" message each time I boot. In PCLOS (as in MDV) Shift plus a numeric pad key does not work for selecting text: I get numbers instead.

[ianw1974]

You'll need to edit /etc/fstab and add the entries for your Windows partitions, here's mine as an example, of course, using ntfs as the file-system:

 

/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-15,ro 0 0

 

you'll need to change /dev/hda1 with whatever is your partition info for your two Windows partitions. Also, the /mnt/windows will be different for each partition. The rest will remain the same, however, if using FAT32, change ntfs to vfat.

 

The printer should be configurable through KDE's kcontrol "Configure Your Desktop" in Mandriva, else just run with kcontrol. Then go to Peripherals and Printers to add your printer. You should have some packages installed, similar to:

 

cups-common:cups-common-1.1.23-17mdk.i586.rpm
cups:cups-1.1.23-17mdk.i586.rpm

 

for cups to work successfully.

[payasam]

Thanks, Ian, mounting the Windows partitions seems clear enough. I'm on FAT32/vfat.

 

About CUPS, I must see. I know that the packages you name came in through Synaptic. I'm not in Mandriva any more, by the way, but PCLOS has much in common with it. I suspect you mean "Configure Your System".

Edited September 16, 2006 by payasam

[ianw1974]

Configure Your System was the MCC control centre. There was another called Configure Your Desktop which is equal to kcontrol. Just running this will give you the screen to add the printer.

 

You also need to make sure cups is running, so:

 

chkconfig --list cups

 

and see if it says "on" against runlevels 3 and 5. If it does, that's good, if not:

 

chkconfig cups on

 

to enable it, and then start with:

 

service cups start

 

and then go to kcontrol and add your printer.

[scarecrow]

In the current versions of CUPS (I think all started with 1.2.0 version) localhost needs authorization ( from the /etc/hosts file) to talk to the cups server.

[payasam]

Ian, the lines for C: and D: in fstab had the word "noauto" in them. Merely removing it has done the trick. I have a copy of the former fstab for when I decide that doing things manually each time is fun after all.

 

Configuring my printer was not difficult at all in "administrator mode", Ian and Scarecrow. Can't recalll any talk of authorisation, though.

 

I am left with a red warning on booting, about the US International keyboard. Only an irritant, since it doesn't seem to cause any other problems.