[newbie] Menu Editor (Where?)
Menu Editor (Where?) (http://forum.mandrakesoft.com/article.php3?sid=2915075142) Steven Adcock writes "Hey, I don't know about the rest of you, but where is that fabulous menu editor, which should appear when you click on the "K" menus properties. I have the two install CD's and have installed their entire contents but I cannot get the menu editor. Does anyone else get that less fabulous "OOPS The Menu Editor Is Not Installed." If not does anyone know how to get it??? Drop us an email [EMAIL PROTECTED] " COMMENT: Depends... On first beta, I am not even sure if the menu editor was working correctly. On second beta (current), maybe it did not get installed due to some dependencies problems. Run "urpmi menudrake" to get it installed, and don't worry - this problem has been solved in the meantime, so I beleive that 3-rd beta (in a week or so) will install menu editor withouth problems. As for dropping e-mails... I don't do that. Subscribe to "forum" mailing list, and you will be informed of all the new stories here.
[newbie] Video editing (2)
Video editing (2) (http://forum.mandrakesoft.com/article.php3?sid=2908081500) Some time ago, Mark Potochnik wrote about "Broadcast 2000", and asked if we could include it in the next LM distribution. The answer is yes: Few days ago, Till has made a package of this extraordinary program: it will be included in 7.2. In case you never heard about Broadcast 2000 before, it is: "Realtime, non linear audio and video editor for Linux. licenced under GPL". Thus, if you are into multimedia stuff, and want to integrate audio with video, capture, render, edit, or simply play back movies and mp3s... This is a program you have been waiting for.
[newbie] Removing Linux partitions
Removing Linux partitions (http://forum.mandrakesoft.com/article.php3?sid=2907023359) Gotrek writes "I want to remove the Linux partitions from my HD I used diskdrake during the install to resize my fat32 partition to be 1.5 gigs smaller and then allocated that space to Linux evertyhing worked fine. Now I'm moving linux to a seperate drive and want to re allocate the empty space to the original fat32 partition. How can I do this without loosing my fat32 partition and all my windows info? " ANSWER: Use DiskDrake. AFAIK, DiskDrake can enlarge FAT partitions just as good as it schrink them. There are at least two ways how you could do it: First way would be to install linux on a second HD, boot it, copy whatever needs to be copied from old partition to the new one and start Diskdrake. Another possibility would be to boot from install CD, and start "instalation" (or upgrade if you prefere) in "customized" or "expert" mode. "Format partitions" install point starts DiskDrake, so you can change what needs to be changed on first HD, and continue installing on second HD (or simply stop the install: pressing "exit install", or Ctrl-ALT-Backspace will do). In both cases you need to delete the linux partitions and resize FAT partition. Accidentally, the second metod also gives you an easy way to "get rid" of linux. Just don't forget that you will need a bootable floppy with DOS "fdisk" program to get rid of LILO/GRUB afterwards! PS: I am not going to send individual answers per e-mail to anyone. If you want to receive forum headlines per e-mail, subscribe to forum mailing list! 3-5 e-mails per day will certainly not hurt you.
[newbie] Linmodems
Linmodems (http://forum.mandrakesoft.com/article.php3?sid=2905114341) Due to wide avaliability of cheep junk-modems, "How can I get my winmodem working under Linux" question has made it very high on list of Frequently Asked Questions. For a long time, standard answer was "no, forget it", but this has changed lately to "maybe", "some" and "to some extend", because some vendors provided binary-only modules, and there has even been some progress on free-software front. Although this question has already been discussed several times on this forum, I decided to re-launch the story, because of two recent changes on linmodems.org and WG pages: First, there is a new table on gromitkc pages, with list of existing linmodem drivers and links to tarballs. Thus, search for drivers has just been made easier. Second change is that Mikhail Moreyra has written a driver for the CL-MD5620DT (Ambient Tech) chipset, and according to linmodems.org it does PPP! I have no idea how good this driver is, but if you have this winmodem, make sure to try out the driver. So, times are changing in Linmodems land, but don't expect too much. Binary-only drivers are bound to give you problems on next kernel upgrade, and GPL-ed ones are still in vary early stage (though the above mentioned one could be further than I thought), so you should still avoid these monsters if you can, and we will not be able to give you any sort of support if/when something goes wrong.
[newbie] Tips for buying a hardware
Tips for buying a hardware (http://forum.mandrakesoft.com/article.php3?sid=2902110054) I just saw a "linux buyers guide" on Duke of URL-s site, and this reminded me of one very important FAQ: Although linux hardware support has immensly improved, there are still products out there which are either completely useless for a Linux-user, have binary-only or beta-quality drivers. Winmodems, winprinters, PP scanners, some Adaptec SCSI controllers... It is a long list, and you do not even want to know it .-) So, what would be the easiest way to avoid unpleasant surprises? Well, I hope to see "Cool, it works with Linux", or even "designed for Mandrake-Linux" stickers on the hardware one day, but we are not quite there yet. In the meantime, here are some possibilities, ordered according to ammount of work you have to invest: 1) Buy from a linux-friendly store. If you buy from a dedicated linux-hardware company, or go shopping on a Linux-Mall, chances of surprises will be rather low. 2) Ask in the shop. I have been shopping for computer parts for years, and in some dedicated hardware stores this works really good. This will still not bring you very far in a warehouse, I am afraid. 3) Ask the hardware producer. This is a very nice vay of finding out if the product works with linux or not: All you have to do is find a contact e-mail, and ask "Does your graphic card XY work with Mandrake Linux 7.1?". If they do not know, don't buy. Binary-only drivers usually mean trouble too. OK, these were the "easy" solutions, but if you really want to, there are other ways too; 4) Search the mailing lists archives and other searchable archives (like this site). For Mandrake-Linux, I would start by digging in "newbie" and "expert" archives, and continue with other sources of info mentioned on our "Support" page. In particular, searching in "dejanews" is very powerfull. 5) Consult some big web-search site. Search for "Yourhardwarepiecename" + "Linux" + "support" or such... Sometimes it works really good - I use this approach all the time. 6) RTFM. A good starting point is Linux-Hardware HOWTO, There are also other ways - for instance one could ask friends, people in mailing lists, consult some "buyers guide" (Duke of URL looks qute nice to me, and he is a great fun of LM too .-), read the horoscope or whatever... However, I really think that today there are enough Linux-friendly shops out there, so if you want to save your nervs use one of the first three metods and be happy. As a side effect, linux-unfriendly shops will die out, which will make my tips completely obsolete. ;-
