[all] Patching StarOffice

(contributed by Xavier Basora)

StarDivision, makers of the StarOffice suite, has been bought by Sun Inc. Therefore the licensing policy for this product has changed: registration is no longer necessary and the download edition may now be used in commercial environments, too.

The patch ('regpatch') for the respective library used to be available from StarDivisions FTP-server, regrettably its current location is unknown.
Under normal circumstances you just have to copy the patch to SO's 'lib' directory and execute it (make sure the execution bit is set, otherwise runchmod +x regpatch). A reinstallation is notnecessary.
There seem to be cases however, where this doesn't work. Xavier Basora has contributed a posting from 'so-com-announce' which describes what to do then.

1. I had StarOffice installed already so logged in as user I had to go into Kpanel, Kmenu, Personal, Setup and uninstall StarOffice.

2. Downloaded this patch into my /home/armand directory.

3. Re-installed StarOffice from Kpackage

4. Ran /opt/Office51/bin/soffice to install StarOffice

5. Entered the Media Key, mine was: 68L9-1RTU-T5PL-UHFC

6. When it comes time to enter your Name and personal info, enter in the top box where it says Company Name: Sun Free Download Version

7. Enter in the Sun Registration Key: 680A-0JH7-M60MVR-CQPD-147K

8. When it finishes installing (be sure not to reboot until after installation is complete) log out and log in as root, then run
   chmod 777 /home/yourname/repatch

9. Then copy regpatch into the /opt/Office51/lib/ file by
   cp /home/yourname /opt/Office51/lib

10. Now change directory by
    cd /opt/Office51 and execute
    regpatch.

11. Log out and log in again as user.

12. Now open StarOffice from Kmenu, Personal, StarOffice and you will be presented with another registration wizard, get your modem connection up and choose the register through the net option. You will then be awarded your final Registration Key based on your personal information, enter that Registration Key and you're done!

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[= 6.1] DHCP trouble in 6.1

(contributed by Eric Dexter)

I've currently installed several copies of Mandrake 6.1, some with DHCP client support. There is one error that the RPM makes when it installs. It doesn't create a directory '/etc/dhcpc', this directory is where the client stores current Ethernet configuration files...or is supposed to. Instead, the RPM creates a '/etc/dhcpcd' directory, which the client is unable to use.

Renaming the directory should solve this problem.

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[=> 7.0/1?] Dial up Woes With 'Linuxconf'

(Thanks to Sperry Russ)

Under certain circumstances 'Linuxconf' sets a default route to the local network interface. This is bad because every request made via the dial-up connection (clicking a link, for example) will be directed to this interface and not to ppp0. The request will fail ('No such domain', 'No route to host').

Diagnostics:

1. Being offline, the route command lists a default route (0.0.0.0) which points to the local network interface (eth0).

2. '/etc/sysconfig/network' has additional entries:

   GATEWAY="192.168.0.1"
GATEWAYDEV="eth0"

Therapy:

• Sperry Russ solved this problem by setting GATEWAYDEV to"ppp0".

• I would suggest removing the entries from '/etc/sysconfig/network'. If this renders your local network unusable, ditch 'Linuxconf' and set up your local network by hand as shown in the section Connectivity.

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[= 7.0] RAM Disk Error When Installing from HD

ML user Benjamin E. Barrowes encountered this problem:

"I keep getting the same error right after pointing it to my HDD, "Error reading (loading?) second stage RAM disk" at which point it freezes. I know I pointed it to the right place, because upon pointing it somewhere else it informs me there is no Mandrake image there, etc."

He came up with this workaround:

"I decided to give Mandrake one more try using the ISO image and winimage to access it. Lo and behold, the the install flew past the ramdisk part with absolutely no problems and with the rest of the install so easy, linux was up and running within 1 hour!"

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