Re: [expert] New Desknote A907

[Terry Mathews]

Not really. It's a bit over $100, in line with LiIons of other laptops.
Also, has much longer run time than most comparable batteries.

Not great, but it's doable and you end up with a good machine for far less
than a true notebook would cost you.

Terry
> The battery is separate.(cost and physically)  AND expensive.


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Re: [expert] OT Will there be a tomorrow?

[Terry Mathews]

A) You have a different outlook on things from the other side of a 747.

B) Please keep politics off the mandrake-expert list. Whether or not there
will be a war in Iraq has nothing to do with your Mandrake box.


Terry Mathews
> Sorry to bother you, but we were discussing whether there will be a
> future for MandrakeSoft.
> After tonight I wonder whether there will be a future for us all and
> the world as we know it.
> I listened to the US-Amercan president.
> I'm not religious, I wish I were. This madman and the options he has
> scare me to death.
>
> wobo



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Re: [expert] New Mobo Roundup--Dr Tom

[Terry Mathews]

Yes, and so are the Promise controllers; however, the soft RAID is a better
setup, and since either way you are using the CPU...

Somewhere, I saw a comparison technically speaking between a Promise card
and Linux Soft RAID. SoftRaid was far superior in all aspects. :)

Finally, from what I understand, the Highpoint controllers are now
usable under Linux in their native RAID modes, via (no pun intended) the
latest kernel module code.  Not that I'm interested meself; I'm staying
with soft raid.  Still, the chance is there for anyone interested to run
the numbers.






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Re: [expert] And the prize goes to Charles...

[Terry Mathews]

> >> BUT after doing a complete OS installation with
> >>Samba selected, where is the samba.spec file? I contend that there is
> >>no such file.

Try installing the samba SRPM. It'll have the spec file in it and drop it in
your /usr/src/rpm/spec folder.

Terry




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Re: [expert] VIA Chipset Performance Handicap

[Terry Mathews]

Know what? Go buy your Intel SDRAM-based solution. I wouldn't want VIA to
lose prescious money on you; money that you would surely use up in tech
support calls. Just don't come crying to us when your prescious Intel
delivers a solution that doesn't feel any faster than a P3.


Terry
> You need windoze to apply the patches. Contrary to popular opinion, not
> every machine that runs something besides windoze multiboots the
> something else with windoze. The machine I'm writing this from has never
> ever booted any version of any M$ operating system.




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Re: [expert] VIA Chipset Performance Handicap

[Terry Mathews]

> > > > http://www6.tomshardware.com/mainboard/02q1/020220/kt333-11.html

> All the graphs on the provided URL were about Quake performance. Games
> are mostly about windoze video, which has little to do with real work.

Yes, but most games these days are very CPU and memory bandwidth intensive.
How else do you propose testing the speed of a motherboard without pushing
it's hardware? Because Mozilla does not stress the RAM bandwidth over a
continuous amount of time like Q3 does.

>
> > A) I have serious problems with calling VIA chipsets "handicapped".
Intel is
> > notorious for handicapping chipsets, VIA is notorious for screwing up
>
> I don't think Intel has ever intentionally handicapped chipsets, unlike
> what they regularly do with CPU's.

Just look at the i810e. Capable of driving a 133MHz system bus, it's RAM
frequency was fixed at 100MHz. I can come up with more, but it's 1:30AM here
and I really don't feel like doing research right now just to prove a point.
Intel handicaps their products, both chipsets and processors, in order to
keep their idea of what the market should look like in order.

> > chipsets. There is an important lack of intent there. VIA also tends to
fix
> > their mistankes, where Intel is happy to handicap their hardware (i810e,
> > Celeron FCPGA, P4 423pin, P4 478pin, the list goes on...).

> The PCI performance deficiency survived many VIA chipsets.

And VIA fixed it in their chipsets. The latest VIA 4-in-one drivers
integrate the PCI timing latency patch, and will install on all VIA
chipset-based mainboards including the MVP3 which is the oldest VIA based
PCI motherboard I can think of off the top of my head. Also, until the
advent of Ultra160 RAID cards and Ultra133 IDE controllers, there were no
devices capable of moving data fast enough to expose this problem. VIA did
not know they had unintentionally hindered the performance of their
products.

>
> > > AMD chipsets need faster RAM, as do the
> > > non-handicapped VIA. SiS support doesn't seem to be mature enough
> > > lately, so that leaves only Intel vs. handicapped.
>
> > Here again, you're throwing out "handicapped" and you're not using it in
> > reference to an Intel product. Shame. Also, you're completely missing
out on
> > ALi which is a decent chipset producer, as long as you don't mind the
fact
> > that they produce chipsets that don't exactly excel at being "gaming
> > garbage." I.E. their RAM bandwidth is not equal to VIAs or AMDs.
>
> I don't experiment with motherboard brands. I stick with the several
> I've used in the past. If they don't offer ALi, then I don't consider
> ALi. No ALi chipset board I've ever had opportunity to test was anything
> less than a dog compared to its contemporaries.

A) ASUS offers an ALI-based mobo. A7A266.
B) I never said the ALI board wasn't a dog. Compared to the VIA boards, it
is. Compared to the Intel boards, well...

> > AMD and VIA chipsets don't "need" faster RAM. They can take advantage of
it.
>
> If the boards using them don't accept PC133 DIMM's, they need the newer,
> more expensive, faster RAM.

So how is this different than Intel? You've got three chipsets on the Intel
end, each support their own type of memory and no other.
i845: PC100/133 SDRAM
i845.rev2: PC1600/2100 DDR SDRAM
i850: PC800 RAMBUS

On VIA, you've got two chipsets (Well, four if you count the unimproved
models):
KT133(a): PC100/133 SDRAM
KT266(a): PC1600/2100 DDR SDRAM

> > > I'm confused about this patch business. What do they patch, device
BIOS
> > > code? Drivers? Surely if drivers they would be windoze only, no? I
> > > didn't see anything in what I snipped that indicated the patches
applied
> > > regardless of OS, which to me means windoze only and therefore useless
> > > when I boot into Linux or OS/2.

> > The "patch" toggles a bit in the chipset that makes the PCI bus timing
more
> > agressive. Even though VIA still has a patch up for it, most reputable
>
> I never before heard that chipsets contained anything writable.

I could've stated that better. The "patch" is a fix to the VIA 4-in-one
drivers in Windows that when run flips a bit in the VIA chipset that makes
the PCI bus timing more agressive. Chipsets don't contain any writable
storage areas. BIOSes do though. All ASUS, or any other motherboard
manufacturer has to do is program the BIOS to flip that tiny bit in the
chipset and all is fixed (Well, tweaked technically since nothing was broken
to start with). I know ASUS did it, as the fix is integrated into my latest
A7V133 firmware.




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Re: [expert] VIA Chipset Performance Handicap

[Terry Mathews]

Specifically, what were your problems? Which motherboard brand and model?
Did you make use of the tech support offered by the motherboard
manufacturer?

Terry
> I will NEVER EVER by a MB with a via chipset again! Period. It has left me
so
> bitter, that I probably wont' even get an AMD cpu next time. I went to
AMD's
> website and picked a MB brand that was recommended by AMD. I spent 3
months
> screwing around, getting frustrated and cussing. Changed to an IWILL mb
and all
> my problems went away. Before that I had an Intel MB, intel chip and no
> problems. It isn't that AMD sells bad product, but a LOT of MB companies
are
> putting out shit. My 1.3 cents worth.




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Re: [expert] VIA Chipset Performance Handicap

[Terry Mathews]

> > No one makes the perfect chip/chipset; if someone did, everyone would
buy.
> > Right now, you would be hardpressed to match the price/performance ratio
of
> > AMD processor/VIA KT266A mobo combo with Intel. AFAIK, Intel P4 chipsets
> > only support SDR and RAMBUS...
>
> Nope. There's one designed for upgraders with perfectly good PC133:
> http://developer.intel.com/design/motherbd/wn/index.htm

First off, if this doesn't prove that Intel is The Man who is greedy, I
don't know what does.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1533

Second paragraph: The i845 is DDR capable, but Intel only allowed
manufacturers to use it as an SDR chipset...

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1533&p=16

Benchmarks in PC133 mode.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1489&p=17

Benchmarks of KT133A motherboards.

>From this, you have to keep in mind that the KT133A motherboards have
matured some since the time that article was written. Also, look at the
hardware differences between the two test rigs. The fact that the AMD
systems keep up in the only RAM bandwidth benchmark (Quake III Arena) says
quite a lot.

I'm not disputing that Intel makes an SDRAM chipset for P4. I'm just saying
it sucks. Check the numbers...

> Me too. Last system I built used a Soyo SY-K7V Dragon Plus
>
,
> but it wasn't for me. I'm just not thrilled with the current product
> options.

So you're telling me that you had a DDR AMD system based on the Dragon Plus
and want to drop it in favor of an SDRAM based P4 solution. ARE YOU MAD???

Terry




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Re: [expert] VIA Chipset Performance Handicap

[Terry Mathews]

> > overclocked to 964 mhz.  If you've got more URL's backing up what you
>
> I don't overclock anything. I want bulletproof.
Overclocked does not mean not stable. I've got a 1.4/266 T-Bird that runs
stable at 1.52GHz @ 143MHz bus. That means that my RAM is oced to 143MHz,
and running at CAS2 to boot. I have no, I repeat no, hardware glitches. Not
under Win98, not under Win2k, not under Linux. If you do not want to take
your chances and try overclocking your processor there are companies on the
web that sell pre-tested overclocked processors. They run them for days
straight using Prime95, so I would hazard a guess that they are stable. :-)

> > latest VIA KT266 mobo roundup at tomshardware.  There's also the
> > upcoming KT333A Via chipset for which there's a preview here:
>
> > http://www6.tomshardware.com/mainboard/02q1/020220/kt333-11.html
>
> Games garbage. My computers aren't toys. It'll be a while before I can
> afford yet another new memory type the way they've been changing so fast
> lately and keeping prices up.

Since when is increased memory bandwidth "games garbage"? Especially under
Linux, I can think of many programs that would benifit from increased RAM
bandwidth. X-Windows being one...

> > As for your choice in brand, I think that you are sadly mistaken if you
> > are planning on going with intel.  The only thing that intel has going
>
> Maybe you missed the point "if . . . today". Most VIA boards in retail
> inventory today either require new RAM (DDR or PC2100 or whatever) or
> have the handicapped chipsets (most). If I was buying at today's higher
> than when I bought memory prices, I'd want to use my PC133 memory, not
> spend just as much for (my current amount of) RAM as for the motherboard
> and CPU.

A) I have serious problems with calling VIA chipsets "handicapped". Intel is
notorious for handicapping chipsets, VIA is notorious for screwing up
chipsets. There is an important lack of intent there. VIA also tends to fix
their mistankes, where Intel is happy to handicap their hardware (i810e,
Celeron FCPGA, P4 423pin, P4 478pin, the list goes on...).

B) There are perfectly good SDRAM motherboards out there for AMD processors
made with VIA chipsets. The ASUS A7V133 is my favorite, and the computer I
am using right now... I can guarntee that it is faster than a SDRAM based P4
system. There is also an ALi chipset that provides both SDRAM and DDR RAM
slots.

> AMD chipsets need faster RAM, as do the
> non-handicapped VIA. SiS support doesn't seem to be mature enough
> lately, so that leaves only Intel vs. handicapped.

Here again, you're throwing out "handicapped" and you're not using it in
reference to an Intel product. Shame. Also, you're completely missing out on
ALi which is a decent chipset producer, as long as you don't mind the fact
that they produce chipsets that don't exactly excel at being "gaming
garbage." I.E. their RAM bandwidth is not equal to VIAs or AMDs.
AMD and VIA chipsets don't "need" faster RAM. They can take advantage of it.
Big diff. If you are running an SDRAM system, you can choose to get a 200MHz
bus AMD processor, or a 266MHz bus AMD processor. 100MHz RAM goes with the
200MHz proc, 133MHz RAM goes with the 266MHz proc. Every AMD motherboard I
have seen (And I have seen several) can detect the CAS settings from the SPD
chip, so there is no problems there. In short, AMD mobos are no more picky
than Intel mobos when it comes to RAM.

> > >> IMHO, via has been making great chipset for ages.

I wouldn't go that far. :-) They've had some winners though. MVP4, KT133A,
KT266A, see a pattern here? Always wait for the VIA rev.2 chipset. :-)

> Looks like an excellent reason to keep my Socket 7 systems running and
> wait for wider availability of unflawed AMD support.

Every system has some flaws. Most are minute. None have problems that can't
be worked through in software. Don't worry so much. It's computer hardware,
not national defense we're talking about.

> I'm confused about this patch business. What do they patch, device BIOS
> code? Drivers? Surely if drivers they would be windoze only, no? I
> didn't see anything in what I snipped that indicated the patches applied
> regardless of OS, which to me means windoze only and therefore useless
> when I boot into Linux or OS/2.

The "patch" toggles a bit in the chipset that makes the PCI bus timing more
agressive. Even though VIA still has a patch up for it, most reputable
motherboard makers (ASUS, MSI, Abit, Soyo) never had this problem in the
first place, or fixed it in a BIOS flash. So, since it is fixed in firmware
on most boards (And the firmware actually caused the problem; there is no
real defect in the VIA chipset), the fix is applied to all OSes. Also, I
know of one person who developed a kernel-mode "driver" to increase the
timing in Linux.

> > Until Dr Tom says something different than what he's posted so far, I'm
> > sticking with AMD/VIA.  IMO it's a winning combination.  As for me and
> > my house, we buy

Re: [expert] Why Linux?

[Terry Mathews]

> The penguin logo is pretty nifty.
It's certainly cooler than Apple's X. Or the apple for that matter...


Terry




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Re: [expert] VIA Chipset Performance Handicap

[Terry Mathews]

> > > Most AMD motherboards use performance crippled VIA
> > > chipsets. How good the CPU is matters little when the primary
bottleneck
> > > is the I/O bus.

> > IMHO, via has been making great chipset for ages.
>
> I don't think so. I found the article that lead to my comment:
> http://www.tecchannel.de/hardware/817/index.html

No one makes the perfect chip/chipset; if someone did, everyone would buy.
Right now, you would be hardpressed to match the price/performance ratio of
AMD processor/VIA KT266A mobo combo with Intel. AFAIK, Intel P4 chipsets
only support SDR and RAMBUS...

Intel != fast performance. Sometimes they get it right (440BX), sometimes
they get it wrong (i810e), sometimes they just get greedy (P4 423 pin --
unupgradable; P4s not dual-capable).

For the record, I'd rather not give my money to The Man. :-) Plus I have to
give props to a company that makes it easy to adjust your CPU's multiplier
setting (AMD).

Terry




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Re: [expert] Beta 3 - ISO buring problems

[Terry Mathews]

It's not really the age, as I had a Yamaha 4416 from 98 that worked with
700mb CDs just fine. The problem is that 700mb is not an ISO standard like
650mb is, and as such manufacturers of CD-R drives can choose on their own
whether or not to include support for it. HP decided no. :-) Glad I bought
Yamaha.


Terry
> I've had problems like this whith an older HP cdrburner (well 1 year old)
> we had at work.  Seems it was built prior to 700meg cd's and as such just
> wouldn't burn right on them.  I've also had troubles with some older cd
> readers that won't read anything 700meg (even commercial)  You could try
> cd'ing to the rpm directory on disk 2 and do an rpm -K ... this will do
> md5 on each individual rpm.  If there are any errors there, report them to
> Mandrake.  Sorry I couldn't help more.




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Re: [expert] usage

[Terry Mathews]

Run ifdown eth0 and iup eth0 at midnight one night, then run ifconfig the
next and write down the transmitted and recieved numbers...?


Terry
> Can anyone suggest a simple way of checking out how much data is passing
> through a Nic card within a 24 hr period?




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Re: [expert] Anyone know about SMTP after POP?

[Terry Mathews]

My advice: Don't bother. If you must create an open authentication SMTP
relay, the more modern way is SMTP auth.. But you have to compile your own
version of Postfix or Sendmail.


Terry
> Hi,
>
> I'd like to be able to allow a friend of mine who has an account on my ML
> 8.1 machine to use my SMTP server for sending mail.  I'm running Postfix
and
> the POP3/IMAP4 server package that Mandrake supplies in an rpm.
>
> Obviously, I don't want to open my mail server up to wide-open relay.  Has
> anyone set up a system where they can use a POP3 login to authenticate the
> IP address for a few minutes, so that Postfix will accept the relay from
> that particular IP address?  (Known, I believe, as SMTP-after-POP
> authentication?)
>
> Any help or pointers in the right direction would be appreciated!




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Re: [expert] 586/686

[Terry Mathews]

While it is true that Cyrix named their processor the 6x86, it is most
definately a 586 generation chip. AFAIK, Intel chips up to the Pentium3 are
i586, while the AMD Athlon is 686 as is the Pentium4.

The safest way to determine processor family is to go by what the kerenl
reports it as on the login screen.

Terry
> True and as well there are some i686 rpms on my box now... running fine.
Also when I compile a kernel under 2.2 I chose i586 under 2.4 I chose k-6
family.  Wasn't i686 originally the Cyrix soon followed by the Celeron?





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Re: [expert] 586/686

[Terry Mathews]

> > K5-*  == i486
> > K6-*  == i586

Not quite. K5 is a Pentium clone. K6 added MMX and K6-2 added 3dnow!. So, K5
and K6 should both be i586...
K6-3 is the same as K6-2 with the addition of on-die L2 cache...

Terry




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Re: [expert] PowerPC G4 Problems

[Terry Mathews]

No, sorry. I never accused Xdarwin of being quick. :-)

More RAM, faster processor will help. That's about it.

Terry

> I agree that Xdarwin is nice, and I used it previously to attempting to 
> install linux, however this leads me to another fundamental problem:
> 
> Xdarwin runs apps slow, and it runs them even MORE slowly when running 
> rootless.  Is there any way to make OSX reboot use a special 
> configuration for Darwin only?  Is there any way to speed up Xdarwin's 
> preformance in the OSX environment?




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Re: [expert] PowerPC G4 Problems

[Terry Mathews]

I much prefer LinuxPPC, as it's based more or less on RedHat. I think that
MandrakePPC is designed more for us gearheads that was a heterogenous
software environment, running Mandrake 8.0 on x86 and PPC... Although I much
prefer Mac OS X with Xdarwin to any of the current LinuxPPC distros...

Terry

> Not to rain on Mandrake here, but have you looked into Yellow Dog Linux?




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Re: [expert] PCAnywhere for Linux?

[Terry Mathews]

For a virus to damage more than the current user's files, it would need root
access. For that, it would have to have some sort of ability to "root" the
system, usually overflowing a port. The problem is that a virus that could
root several different UNIXes running different versions of services would
have to have many different hacks in it and would be very large in size, and
just the size alone would alert people to the fact it's a virus.

Viruses get by on x86 systems because of common exploitable problems. A
10-15MB virus would be much, much easier to detect.

> > Well, I don't know if I'd go that far. They aren't common, but linux
> > or any unix (or any OS really) can have a virus/worm written for it.
>
> A worm is not a virus. I think there's only 1 true virus written for
> Unix, and it was more of a "proof of concept, IIRC.
>




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Re: [expert] Anyone got a linux (and X) driving a DVI-D LCD display?

[Terry Mathews]

While I have no firsthand knowledge of using a DVI monitor, I know that the
nVidia closed-source driver for 4.1.0 supports DVI. Don't know if current
driver works in 4.2.0 or not.


Terry
>
>
> I need to purchase a video card for a system running linux Mandrake 8.1.
>
> The card needs to have DVI-D (i.e. digital DVI) output to drive a
> digital LCD monitor.
>
> Questions:
>
> 1) Do you have such a system running linux? (1st hand info please)
>
> 2) What video card?
>
> 3) What LCD monitor?
>
> 4) Is the current Xfree-86  (4.2.x) capable of driving the DVI-D port
>on the card.
>
> 5) If the answer to (4) is "no", is there some other (commercial?) server
that
>you are using?
>
> 6) Anything else I need to know?
>
> For what it's worth, my system Motherboard is a Tyan Tiger S2466 MPX
> w/ dual 1500+ Athlon processors.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.





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Re: [expert] Re: [MPlayer-users] NVidia will be bannished

[Terry Mathews]

True, but ATi's "open source" driver has a bug too, and it's not fixed yet.
I can't even get anyone interested in fixing the bug. :-( That's the main
reason why I bought an nVidia card. Open source is great, if you've got an
expert on hand to fix it from time to time. Sometimes, tho, having a company
write drivers for you isn't a bad idea.

>Maybe you right, but the real reason of this "hoopla" on nVidia's
>closed driver is the fact that one is unable, for example, to correct
>some specific nVidia bug for your graphic or video programme that one can
be developing.


While in general I agree with you, nVidia does have an important IP to
protect here, one that would even the playing board for Matrox and ATi.
Someday nVidia will decide to open-source their drivers, unless Linux takes
over Microsoft's marketshare (I wish). But for now, nVidia is interested in
providing Linux drivers. Let's applaude them for writing good drivers, not
scorn them for not open sourcing the driver, especially when so many
companies won't "put their money where their mouth is" when it comes to
supporting Linux. It's easy to just give the DRI project your specs, costs a
lot more to support your card _yourself_.

Terry
>So, that's why I think that nVidia should give, at least, a
>good list of specifications, on the contrary, I think, >perhaps some nVidia
>users can get limited and have to wait for nVidia driver >release.
>Actually, I'm not sure if such a impossibility will one day
>happen, but I simply do not like the idea that such risk >exists.




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Re: [expert] Re: [MPlayer-users] NVidia will be bannished

[Terry Mathews]

Also, I know in my heart that should nVidia decide to stop developing Linux
drivers, they will find a way to get the proper information to the DRI
program. I imagine that they would require DRI to not distribute source on
their card support, and to sign an NDA on some parts of the driver.

Not unreasonable considering that their driver architecture is the most
advanced in the industry. One driver can talk to any card, from the latest
GF3 to the oldest TNT. A serious advantage over ATi and Matrox, something
that might help ATi to gain on nVidia...

At least nVidia delivers a working, good driver, even if it isn't open
source. Promise, for example, has their own binary driver that sucks really
bad, and they even go so far as to try and sabotage the driver development
programs for the open source driver for their softRaid cards...

Terry
>  And to add to this, it's sad that some people worry about what may
> or may not happen in the future.  Consider this, Nvidia is supporting
> Linux, they are providing drivers which is more than some companies are
> doing and some people fail to give them their props for that.  More so,
> some companies support Linux by releasing the hardware specifications
> and leaving it up the Open Source programmers to implement, then they
> ride the we support Linux wave. Nvidia is using their programing talent
> to support these cards, there is something to be said for that.  I don't
> care as much about how the support is coming, as long as it is there.
> Now there are those who are more philosophically "pure" then me, and
> they have the choice to use what they want.  As I have that choice for
> myself.  I accept the reality that the programing talent in the Open
> Source world can not keep up with every piece of hardware for the pc
> world and if a manufacture choices to support there hardware they have
> the right to chose how, be it open source or not.
>
> As to the argument I am a slave to them because I use there cards and
> drivers is a far cry from being a slave because of my data being locked
> in a closed format.  I can switch a video card much quicker than I can
> change critical stored data.  It's only a piece of hardware, it's not my
> data which is more important for me to own access to.




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Re: [expert] Re: [MPlayer-users] NVidia will be bannished

[Terry Mathews]

I've just got a quick question on this topic: with all of this hoopla on
nVidia's closed source Linux drivers, what is wrong with them? Do they not
do something right? To the best of my knowledge, they implement OpenGL 1.3
to the letter; is something broken?

Because, after this open/closed source debate is over we will still be left
with the fact that nVidia's closed source drivers work better than ATi's or
Matrox's.


Terry




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[expert] Mandrake 8.1, KDE 2.2.2, and Xinerama support

[Terry Mathews]

Just wanted to let everyone know, since noone had an answer for me, that a
stock Mandrake 8.1 install has KDE that supports xinerama (I.E., it was
compiled with the --enable-xinerama option). To access the xinerama options,
go to KDE Menu ->Config ->LooknFeel -> Window behavior -> Advanced.

Terry




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Re: [expert] X Windows, too heavy, isn't it?

[Terry Mathews]

Yeah, A/UX 3.11 was the shit! I've had it running on my Q950 from time to
time. It's scary how well System 7.0.1 is integrated into the UNIX
infrastructure. Apple really shouldn't have let it die. A/UX is far, far
superior to OS X + Classic. Too bad that Apple never took the time necessary
to upgrade what was basically AT&T SysV 3.1 up to the 4 standard, that would
have made it a worthwhile system for major corps.

> Apple had their own version of Unix sometime ago called
> A/UX but that never really went anywhere. I just want to clear up that
> until Mac OS X, the Macintosh absolutely did NOT have Unix inside.

And on this whole X-Windows is too fat bit. The problem is not X. It's the
windowmanager that you run over top of X. For all of the system services
that X provides, it is very lightweight. Then again, considering that it's
gone through 11 major revisions as X11, and then 4 more as XFree86 forked
from X11R6...

Try a lighter window manager. iceWM, XFCE, twm can even be cool. KDE, GNOME<
and Enlightenment are very useful, providing most of the services that
Win98, NT, 2000 do, but they need a comparable amount of resources too...




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[expert] Mandrake 8.1 KDE version...

[Terry Mathews]

Does anyone know if the KDE RPM that comes with Mandrake 8.1 was
compiled --with-xinerama? I know that KDE can't read xinerama information
without it...


Terry




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Re: [expert] Log in remotely without logging in locally

[Terry Mathews]

I think you could to it in console mode too. If we are dealing with an
ethernet connection, methinks that passing "linux init=telnet x.x.x.x" to
LILO would make the machine come up to the other computer's login prompt.
Although this requires that the ethernet come up as part of the system init,
not as a SysV startup script...

Terry
> Yeah, this is possible. He's talking about a dumb terminal, (or an
> X-Term as they're called).
> Not the xterm (terminal window) within X.
> I suppose it would be possible to set up a cheap PC, as a dumb X-Term,
> and use it that way without actually loggin in to the PC.




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[expert] MJPEG tools and Mandrake 8.1

[Terry Mathews]

Does anyone use any of the Zoran zr36067-based MJPEG frame grabbers with
Mandrake 8.1? I'm curious to see if anyone has had this work successfully as
I'm frustrated and have a feeling the problem lies in the distro...


Terry




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Re: [expert] 8mm to DVD?

[Terry Mathews]

The best way I can think of, if it is compatible, is the Dazzle Firewire
Bridge and a Firewire card. The Firewire bridge lets you convert composite
to firewire, and _back_.

I don't know if you can burn a DVD in Linux... While making MPEG2 movies is
not difficult, I don't believe there is an open source program that can
generate the necessary menu information yet... You might have to resort to
using a Windows PC, or better yet a Mac and iDVD... Or if you are a good
coder... have fun. I think there is a lot in common with the menuing
information for VideoCDs, so that would be a good place to start.

Terry

> I need some
> killer video editing software and some pointers if anyone has done this
> before.
>
> Any ideas?




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Re: [expert] Shopping for Motherboard for Linux

[Terry Mathews]

Repeat after me: BogoMIPS are bogus... BogoMIPS are bogus... BogoMIPS are
bogus. They are only useful in the context of one system. If your system is
running at X BogoMIPS, and then you tweak a setting and now it's at X+Y
BogoMIPS, your system is running faster. You can't use BogoMIPS as a
benchmark to tell if a P4 is faster than an XP or not. For that, you need a
program that measures real MIPS... Or some other subjective comparision like
kernel compile times.

Terry
> I vaguely remember having higher bogomips before so I might have dropped
the
> bios to "bios defaults"
> still, 3060.53 bogomips is nothing to scoff at, particularly since it
> doesn't take any of the XP's optimisations into account, like SSE and
3dmax




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