[newbie] alternative browser?
Does anyone have any suggestions for an alternative browser for Linux? I don't like Netscape's, KFM, or Star Office's very much. I won't dare go into all the problems, though ;-)
Re: [newbie] AOL
Sean Armstrong wrote: Does anyone know how to run AOL from linux, or if it's even possible? Thanx, SA You may want to search the newbie list archives at linux-mandrake.com. I remember someone somewhere posting this either to this list, or to the Mandrake newsgroup on Usenet. I *think* someone said AOL was used with "wine" (Windows emulator) successfully but I have a hard time believing that! ;-) In any case, I think AOL is set up so that you don't have to use their software to simply use them for an internet connection. Karen
[newbie] Netscape error
I keep getting a Netscape popup in the middle of my email/browsing (it doesn't matter which) that "Bookmarks have changed on disk and are being reloaded". I have to stop everything and tell it "OK". This is the first day I have had this problem. I'm running Netscape 4.7 . Thanks, Karen
Re: [newbie] alternative browser?
"Brian K. Garel" wrote: "Karen M. Heiby" wrote: Does anyone have any suggestions for an alternative browser for Linux? I don't like Netscape's, KFM, or Star Office's very much. I won't dare go into all the problems, though ;-) netscape was crashing on me every 10 min it seemed and then I upgraded to communicator 4.7 and it is just great...the difference between night and day...I was noticing crashes when I was entering work sites that required passwords. You would enter the password and kaboom! That was with 4.61 but I haven't had any problems today with 4.7 Hope that helps! ;-) -- Brian K. Garel ICQ #1598357 "Seize the time...Live now; make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again" -- Picard (The Inner Light) I do have Netscape 4.7 and it crashes a lot less. But I am still getting this weird bookmark error. "Bookmarks have changed on disk and are being reloaded". I have to click "OK" to make it go away. It pops up about every 5 minutes, in a window. Very annoying. But no crashes, and yes, I have 4.7. The error happens when I'm reading mail as well as browsing, and I haven't made any bookmark changes. Thanks, Karen
[newbie] Environment Variables
Hello, I have three Linux books and none of them really explain what it is I'm doing when I set an environment variable. I gather that I'm telling my kernel where to find things, but that's a foggy concept. My main concern is java libraries. I downloaded jdk117_v1a and jdk117_v3 and have those installed, besides a directory that is already in my /usr/local/bin directory called "java", and whatever java stuff Netscape puts on here. WHen I export a JAVA_HOME, am I appending to a file somewhere for a new place to include when looking for java files? Or am I overwriting the path (therefore making my other java homes not work anymore?) If there's a file I'm writing to, what is it? I ask because I have a few programs that call for different java versions (Netscape seems to come with its own package) and I don't want one program to screw the other over if possible. For example, I don't want to overwrite paths that Netscape needs when I install jdk117 for ICQJava and in doing so, export a JAVA_HOME path to jdk117. But is this what I am in fact doing? If someone can explain this to me, or point me to literature that will answer my question, I would appreciate it. Right now I have "Running Linux" by O'Reilly and I have "Redhat Unleashed" and then "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Linux" and they really don't answer my question. I don't see any HOW TO's about this topic, or any docs. Thanks!! Karen
[newbie] Enlightenment Clean theme--better speed/stability?
Hi, I noticed that Gnome's speed and stability just about tripled when I started using the "Clean" theme. Has anyone else noticed this? Before, it would take as much time to open a program as Windows 98 does on a 233 MHz Pentium. I guess I was using the default theme for Enlightenment before, whatever that was. Now things open really quickly and seem to freeze up less. If anyone can replicate this, please let me know. I'm curious about this. Karen
[newbie] modem
I read the HOW-TO for modems and I'm lost as all get out. I would appreciate if someone could help me troubleshoot what is wrong by asking me some questions. I have a generic (Wisecom) 33.6kbps modem. It is not PnP, and it is not a winmodem. Here's all I can tell you so far: the setserial -g command appears to be configured correctly. My modem is on /dev/ttyS1 and it is linked to /dev/modem. I thought everything must be set correctly but still I can't get any fax/phone programs to work. /proc/ioports has me confused though because I don't know how to interpret what I see there. Next to the "3" it has eth0, so I don't know if that means "eth0" is using my modem's IRQ or what. I ran minicom and looked in /proc/ioports to see what it was using and minicom wasn't there. None of my fax or dialing programs work. Minicom thinks it's initializing the modem, but it won't dial anything. I don't know what else to say, so if you have any good probing questions for me, I'd be happy to answer them for the help. Not that I want to use minicom, but I heard it was a good program to check if your modem was working. I'd rather use the faxing programs such as efax, and learn how kppp works. Kppp says my modem is busy (I just rebooted though). Efax has a lot of I/O errors. Also, how do I set permissions for a modem? I get "permission denied" when I'm someone other than root, and I type "efax" in a terminal. TIA, Karen
[newbie] GAIM
Is anyone else noticing GAIM (AOL Instant Messenger) is freezing upon connecting? I wonder if AOL might have anyone not using their version of AOL IM for Windows blocked from their system? Like they're doing to MSN Messenger? My other concern is that I had a friend here trying to get my modem to work. Is there a remote chance something he did could be causing GAIM to not connect? I didn't think so, because my ICQ-clone programs are still working fine. I have been deleting and reinstalling GAIM and this is the first time ever that it's freezing up on me, after using it for a month. When I use Windows 98, my AOL IM in that is working fine. Karen
Re: [newbie] Star Java -- Is it worth it?
Would you be able to tell me where the newsgroup is? The only one I found on Deja is German. My local news server doesn't have a StarOffice newsgroup either! Thanks! Karen Jeanette Russo wrote: I got the Star Office Java working with help from the Star Office newsgroup. Wish I could find the post I used to do it. But the Star Office browser is slower than Netscape and really not much more stable. I think all in all Netscape is still the only reasonable browser on Linux and I have tried almost all of them Jeanette - Original Message - From: Benjamin Sher [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Helios-New [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, November 06, 1999 9:44 AM Subject: [newbie] Star Java -- Is it worth it? Dear friends: Perhaps this should have been my first question concerning Java in StarOffice 51a: Is it worth it? Is it any better, any more stable than Netscape 4.7's? And is it any more global in its reach? I may have put the cart before the horse. If Java in StarOffice is no better than Java in Netscape, then why bother? Might as well cut my losses and forget the whole thing. First, it would be nice to hear from some people who have actually succeeded in installing Java in StarOffice and have used it. And can you both hear and view Java applets on the Web? All of them or some of them? What's been your experience? Thank you so much. Benjamin -- Benjamin and Anna Sher Email:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sher's Russian Web http://www.websher.net
Re: [newbie] Clean uninstall
Hi, answers to the questions follow within the text: On Sun, 31 Oct 1999, you wrote: On Sun, 31 Oct 1999, Karen M. Heiby wrote: I would like to know how to cleanly uninstall Linux. I'm having peculiar problems that I think can only be fixed with a clean install. Here's what I've tried *several times over* but still does not work: 1.) Deleting the Linux partition from Windows a.) (In Windows 98) filling up my hard drive with junk--totally, then deleting the junk (just to make sure anything of Linux that might still be there is overwritten) b.) scandisk (Windows 98) and defrag (Windows 98) or c.) formatting the entire hard drive (with DOS "fdisk") and reinstalling Windows 98, repartitioning it for Linux (Partition Magic) and then reinstalling Linux 2.) Going into Linux as root, going to /, and typing the rm -fr /* command, which a.) gets stuck even if I wait a couple hours, I don't see anything happening. 3.) Going into runlevel 3 as root, going to /, and deleting each directory individually with "rm -fr nameofdirectory" a.) (However: I can't delete /proc b.) and I can't delete /lib) then, c.) I boot to DOS with a disk and using "fdisk \mbr" to delete LILO d.) I reinstall Linux Ok first off, if you allow it to format the drive during install it's gone, not sorta gone but gone, it would cost big money to retieve even a small piece... I tell it to format my Linux native partition but I swear it's keeping stuff. All three methods fail to get rid of my problems. For ex., KDE freezes when I use KFM to browse the /mnt directory. No other file managers (Gnome, KDE file manager, or any terminal) freeze, and it is not a permissions problem. It's just KFM/KDE! When I click the /dev directory in KFM and look at its permissions properties, the text (User, Group, Other) is grayed out but the checkboxes are nonfunctional but the proper permissions are assigned. Same goes for everything else in /dev. I can use chmod or any other file manager to modify permissions and have done so. /etc/rc.d/init.d/amd status says what? If automount is trying to mount something it can't it's gonna take awhile to time out. gmc has a feature (pretty sure this is in KFM also) that will show "the size" of the directories, if this is on and you have a recent harddrive (eg, BIG) it's going to take awhile It isn't trying to mount anything, I unmounted everything I could before I issued the command. Do the gears spin, does the mouse (or anything "freeze"), which viewmode.. html, long, text..? The "gears" spin just a little at first. It freezes with a black screen, shows the terminal a couple times, then just black screen again for about a couple of hours with just a blip or so of hard drive activity every couple minutes. I mean a blip, like a fraction of a second. Are you root when trying to change /dev/* file permissions? Yes, I am root. I *can* change the permissions in everything *but* KFM. GAIM (AOL Instant Messenger clone) is retaining my contact list, when that should never happen if it were a clean install. This is not a problem, per se, but just an indicator that I still have old information from previous installations haunting which are likely the cause of my persistent problems. Knowing AOL they don't trust you to keep track of your Buddies, so they store it on the server.. No, this can't be the case. I also have Windows 98 and every time I reinstall AOL IM, I have to re-add buddies. Gnome's "Settings" on the panel is kaput. I can click Gnome Control Center and get it running, but if I click anything else on the Panel under Settings, (Multimedia, Peripherals, etc. ) nothing happens. That's just a minor annoyance since I can use these from Gnome Control Center anyway, but annoying nonetheless. Any output on the terminal you started Xwindows on? No output, just nothing happens. During installation, I am never asked certain questions that I vaguely remember being asked the very first time I installed Linux, such as how much RAM do I have, etc. It seems to install as if it knows or thinks it's installing on top of another installation of itself. You were in expert mode, or it was an older version that didn't detect your video card so it had to ask. No, I installed it the first time in regular mode; since then I have been using expert mode. I have always been using the same version of Mandrake (6.1 which I got on October 4). What gets me is that after I tried Route #1(above), by filling up my hard drive, I should have written over anything hard drive clusters that had Linux in them at one time, right? Even the boot record was re-made with a new LILO. How come old Linux glitches a
Re: [newbie] Clean uninstall
I have had someone else email me from the newsgroup, saying that the Mandrake installation's re-formatting process also did not work... Any insight into this? Here's what he wrote: I have had the same thing happen several months ago. The regular format did not clean the partition. To make sure it is clean, do a "check for errors" when formatting. This will take a longer time. It was the strangest thing. I had got past the format and had selected packages to be installed, when the computer seized up. I was worried about one ext2 partition that I had not formatted to make sure it was still ok. I ran tomsrbt and found my entire linux still intact. The three partitions I asked to be partitioned (I even watched the display and drive lights working) were still there. I also was able to view them from Windows with "explore2fs" Just wondering, because I tried this in addition to everything else I mentioned before, and it did not work (during installation, checking the option to format hda2, my Linux native partition). Thanks for the help, Karen Bero wrote: On Sun, 31 Oct 1999, Karen M. Heiby wrote: Ok first off, if you allow it to format the drive during install it's gone, not sorta gone but gone, it would cost big money to retieve even a small piece... I tell it to format my Linux native partition but I swear it's keeping stuff. Can't happen. Unless of course you're using several partitions and formatting only one of them. GAIM (AOL Instant Messenger clone) is retaining my contact list Knowing AOL they don't trust you to keep track of your Buddies, so they store it on the server.. No, this can't be the case. It is the case. Try installing gaim on another machine and you'll see you have the contact list there too. I also have Windows 98 and every time I reinstall AOL IM, I have to re-add buddies. That's because their own implementation of their protocol is quite broken. LLaP bero
Re: [newbie] Clean uninstall
All righty! :-) Thanks for finding out for me. I had thought in the beginning, AOL's server might keep my buddy list, and thought "nahhh"! I guess they do!! Karen Alan Shoemaker wrote: KarenAxalon is doing a good job here so I won't interfere, but you need to know this so you'll let go of it as a reason that you must not be getting a clean install. The following is from the QA section of the GAIM home page: Q. Where the heck is my buddy list stored? It gets erased sometimes. A. Currently, your buddy list is stored on AOL's servers. Zilding is considering an option of storing buddy lists locally and will more than likely implement something fairly soon. Alan "Karen M. Heiby" wrote: Hi, answers to the questions follow within the text: On Sun, 31 Oct 1999, you wrote: On Sun, 31 Oct 1999, Karen M. Heiby wrote: I would like to know how to cleanly uninstall Linux. I'm having peculiar problems that I think can only be fixed with a clean install. Here's what I've tried *several times over* but still does not work: 1.) Deleting the Linux partition from Windows a.) (In Windows 98) filling up my hard drive with junk--totally, then deleting the junk (just to make sure anything of Linux that might still be there is overwritten) b.) scandisk (Windows 98) and defrag (Windows 98) or c.) formatting the entire hard drive (with DOS "fdisk") and reinstalling Windows 98, repartitioning it for Linux (Partition Magic) and then reinstalling Linux 2.) Going into Linux as root, going to /, and typing the rm -fr /* command, which a.) gets stuck even if I wait a couple hours, I don't see anything happening. 3.) Going into runlevel 3 as root, going to /, and deleting each directory individually with "rm -fr nameofdirectory" a.) (However: I can't delete /proc b.) and I can't delete /lib) then, c.) I boot to DOS with a disk and using "fdisk \mbr" to delete LILO d.) I reinstall Linux Ok first off, if you allow it to format the drive during install it's gone, not sorta gone but gone, it would cost big money to retieve even a small piece... I tell it to format my Linux native partition but I swear it's keeping stuff. All three methods fail to get rid of my problems. For ex., KDE freezes when I use KFM to browse the /mnt directory. No other file managers (Gnome, KDE file manager, or any terminal) freeze, and it is not a permissions problem. It's just KFM/KDE! When I click the /dev directory in KFM and look at its permissions properties, the text (User, Group, Other) is grayed out but the checkboxes are nonfunctional but the proper permissions are assigned. Same goes for everything else in /dev. I can use chmod or any other file manager to modify permissions and have done so. /etc/rc.d/init.d/amd status says what? If automount is trying to mount something it can't it's gonna take awhile to time out. gmc has a feature (pretty sure this is in KFM also) that will show "the size" of the directories, if this is on and you have a recent harddrive (eg, BIG) it's going to take awhile It isn't trying to mount anything, I unmounted everything I could before I issued the command. Do the gears spin, does the mouse (or anything "freeze"), which viewmode.. html, long, text..? The "gears" spin just a little at first. It freezes with a black screen, shows the terminal a couple times, then just black screen again for about a couple of hours with just a blip or so of hard drive activity every couple minutes. I mean a blip, like a fraction of a second. Are you root when trying to change /dev/* file permissions? Yes, I am root. I *can* change the permissions in everything *but* KFM. GAIM (AOL Instant Messenger clone) is retaining my contact list, when that should never happen if it were a clean install. This is not a problem, per se, but just an indicator that I still have old information from previous installations haunting which are likely the cause of my persistent problems. Knowing AOL they don't trust you to keep track of your Buddies, so they store it on the server.. No, this can't be the case. I also have Windows 98 and every time I reinstall AOL IM, I have to re-add buddies. Gnome's "Settings" on the panel is kaput. I can click Gnome Control Center and get it running, but if I click anything else on the Panel under Settings, (Multimedia, Peripherals, etc. ) nothing happens. That's just a minor annoyance since I can use these from Gnome Control Center anyway, but annoying nonetheless. Any output on the terminal you started Xwindows on
[newbie] Mandrake Update not working
I select all of the updates and click "GO". I get the explanations for each update, click "OK". I enter my root password and click "OK". I get the "Please wait..." dialog box for a split second, then it disappears. It isn't updating anything. Any help would be appreciated. Karen
[newbie] packages
Hi, I uninstalled Mandrake Update because of the problem I had. I'd like to reinstall it--can someone give me the name of the package on my first CD? Here's another question: When I use Kpackage to find a file, I get two errors: Kprocess error: Can't start dpkg Kprocess error: Cann't start kiss Thanks, Karen
Re: [newbie] Want to create more than one Linux partition with Disk Druid
What about swap space? Also, you need to leave a bit of room for "overhead." Linux reserves a few k of each meg for "bad spots" which may crop up later and uses that to fix itself as needed. I'm *guessing* you didn't tell Linux to make the /home on an "extended" partition, did you??? John Of course, I know about having to have a swap partition and I'm not having a problem with that. It's only 128Mb. I deleted a 5GB partition and tried to make one 2 GB and one 1.5 GB partition which only totals 3.5GB. That would leave 1.5GB for Linux to use to reserve space for the bad spots you mention, wouldn't it? I don't think the Disk Druid (used during Mandrake installation) asked me whether i wanted the partitions to be extended or primary. It just asks if I want "native", "swap" "DOS" etc. But then I'm all confused anyway. I know fdisk (Linux) asks that, but I didn't use that. ;-) Karen On Mon, 01 Nov 1999, you wrote: Hi, I followed the Ebooks instructions for partitioning in Disk Druid so I could make a separate partition for /home. I chose my native partition which was 5GB and deleted it, and tried adding two partitions--one 2GB, one 1.5GB (allowing for lots of extra room, even) one "native" mounting at / and one "native" mounting at /home. But as soon as I add the second partition it tells me it was not allocated, not enough room. I figure I must be doing something wrong. Any advice?
Re: [newbie] packages
On Mon, 01 Nov 1999, you wrote: "Karen M. Heiby" wrote: Hi, I uninstalled Mandrake Update because of the problem I had. I'd like to reinstall it--can someone give me the name of the package on my first CD? Here's another question: When I use Kpackage to find a file, I get two errors: Kprocess error: Can't start dpkg Kprocess error: Cann't start kiss Thanks, Karen If you wait a few seconds a box asking for root password will come up. After putting it in the blank space and clicking the appropriate button kpackage will install the RPM. Confused me the first few times also, but that's how it works -- I'm sorry, I'm not sure my question is understood. I can already get into kpackage. I am already to the point where I am in there with root privileges. When I click Find File and type in a file I want it to find, that's when I get the error. Was this what you are referring to? Thanks, Karen James Mellema, CRNA MA - The idea that an arbitrary naive human should be able to properly use a given tool without training or understanding is even more wrong for computing than it is for other tools (e.g. automobiles, airplanes, guns or power saws). (Thanks to Mike Marion - Unix SysAdmin/Engineer, Qualcomm Inc.)
Re: [newbie] packages
On Mon, 01 Nov 1999, you wrote: "Karen M. Heiby" wrote: Hi, I uninstalled Mandrake Update because of the problem I had. I'd like to reinstall it--can someone give me the name of the package on my first CD? Strangely enough, you'll find it as MandrakeUpdate :) I looked for it on my CD and couldn't find it--after looking in the RPMS directory for ages! I found it on the Mandrake website, though, thanks anyway. Karen -- Steve Philp Network Administrator Advance Packaging Corporation [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[newbie] boot floppy w/ forced cdrom
Hi all, I'm happy to say I was finally able to append = "hdc=cdrom" to my lilo.conf and my CD-ROM drive is detected more often than not. 1.) I wondered if someone could tell me how to do the equivalent when using a boot disk, just in case I need to use one someday. It'd be great to boot with a boot disk and know I was getting CD-ROM support (otherwise I won't). 2.) It doesn't seem like a big deal, but also I have this happen when booting with my forced CD-ROM setup. It says that the IRQ probe failed (0). Is there maybe a line I can put in my lilo.conf to help it out? Right now it takes my word for it that I have a CD-ROM but you know, well some of us are a little bit anal about it all ;-) Karen
[newbie] virtual consoles can't start x-server
Hi, What do I need to do to open another virtual console, and get it to run for ex. KDE? I log in with password, and type KDE and get a bunch of messages about it not being able to log into the x-server. Thanks, Karen
