Mandriva: Q & A thread

AirWolf

AirWolf

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Hi all:).

I've used Mandriva 2008 Free in the past and now I'm onto Mandriva 2009 One. Both with KDE desktop. I'm using a Lenovo 3000 N200 laptop.

I have some comments and some questions. So let's start with the comments first.
  • I originally moved onto Mandriva because it was the only distro where the sound on my laptop worked after install without any fiddling required. On the other distros I failed to get it to work even after numerous attempts.
  • On the 2008 Free wireless networking required the download of a ucode file to work, while on 2009 One it works out of the box.
  • On 2008 Free my sound buttons (increase volume / decrease volume / mute) worked out of the box, while on 2009 One and Free it does not.
  • Mobile internet devices work out of the box. the default networking software does not however have USSD or SMS capability.
  • Vodafone Mobile Connect once downloaded requires the execution of these commands to work, otherwise you will get an error about pap-secrets and chap-secrets.
  • All in all Mandriva is a very impressive free OS.
 
Now for the questions:

  • What are the default games included in Free 2008?:o I have Kbounce so far, but can remember the names of the others:o. One 2009 does not have any games included. My sister actually wants me to install Mandriva on her laptop because she liked the games she saw me playing on Mandriva:D.
  • On the network --> Samba Shares folder - I see our office workgroup, but I can't access it. The error message at the bottom says the location is invalid. I can however access other pcs that are not part of our office workgroup. The only difference I can see is that our office workgroup has a space in the workgroup name. Would that be the problem? I can add shared network folders that are in the office workgroup by using the pc name.
  • How do I install a network printer?
  • The shared network folder does not show up under my wine folders. How do I access network folders from wine?
 
I was able to successfully install and run MS Office 2000 under Wine, which I was unable to achieve in Ubuntu a while back. Possible advancements made in Wine?
 
I've changed the network workgroup name on the other pcs to something without a space and it works fine now.

On Mandriva 2009 One, the print utility is not included by default, so you have to install system-config-printer from software management, then setting up printers... appears under hardware options.
 
Yeah I also had that same problem with the space in the share name.

Question for you. Have you managed to watch movies over the network? I cant seem to do this via the network, it only works if I create a mount point pointing at the network share. It works but it's a ballache.
 
AirWolf said:
Now for the questions:

  • What are the default games included in Free 2008?:o I have Kbounce so far, but can remember the names of the others:o. One 2009 does not have any games included. My sister actually wants me to install Mandriva on her laptop because she liked the games she saw me playing on Mandriva:D.
  • On the network --> Samba Shares folder - I see our office workgroup, but I can't access it. The error message at the bottom says the location is invalid. I can however access other pcs that are not part of our office workgroup. The only difference I can see is that our office workgroup has a space in the workgroup name. Would that be the problem? I can add shared network folders that are in the office workgroup by using the pc name.
  • How do I install a network printer?
  • The shared network folder does not show up under my wine folders. How do I access network folders from wine?
Click to expand...

Hi Saule

I take it you installed from live CD and not the DVD?
1.)The games you are looking for should be in a package kdegames4 just search in the software manager.
2.) As for the network printer, go into control panel>Hardware>Printers, Click new and It should search for printers if there is not a new one connected to your machine it should come up with a network search for a network printer.
3.) As for your keyboard have you chosen your make in Control Center I see Lenovo is not listed but maybe try some of the IBM entry's as the FN keys work with my Acer out the box.

Let me know if you have any more question.
 
Slobber said:
Yeah I also had that same problem with the space in the share name.

Question for you. Have you managed to watch movies over the network? I cant seem to do this via the network, it only works if I create a mount point pointing at the network share. It works but it's a ballache.
Click to expand...

I haven't tried that. Which program are you using for movies?

web said:
Hi Saule
Click to expand...

I see you still remember my old name:).

web said:
I take it you installed from live CD and not the DVD?
1.)The games you are looking for should be in a package kdegames4 just search in the software manager.
Click to expand...

My current install is from the live CD. Mandriva One doesn't come on DVD AFAIK, but I do have the DVD for Mandriva Free (both 2009).

web said:
2.) As for the network printer, go into control panel>Hardware>Printers, Click new and It should search for printers if there is not a new one connected to your machine it should come up with a network search for a network printer.
Click to expand...

I've sorted out the network printer already. I originally got a little confused because there was no printer option under hardware, then I read this:

Printer configuration tool not installed by default in One editions

See also Bug #43635. The new printer configuration tool, system-config-printer, is not installed by default when installing a One edition of Mandriva Linux 2009. This means there is no available option to configure a printer. To resolve this problem, simply use the Mandriva software management tools to install the system-config-printer package. After doing so, the printer configuration tool will be available in the Mandriva Control Center, in the Hardware tab.
Click to expand...

So after I installed system-config-printer, the printer option came up under hardware, and network printer detection and installation was a breeze.

web said:
3.) As for your keyboard have you chosen your make in Control Center I see Lenovo is not listed but maybe try some of the IBM entry's as the FN keys work with my Acer out the box.

Let me know if you have any more question.
Click to expand...

I've tried all the IBM ones and still no luck. My keyboard has function keys for sound as well as separate standalone keys, and both sets don't work for the sound. The function keys for screen brightness does however work.

Strangely, all sound keys worked out of the box on Mandriva 2008:confused:.
 
@Airwolf: I use the best of course VLC. I used samba so I can see the network, but to watch movies I have to create the mountpoint. I haven't really bothered to research why it is like this though.

On your note around the sound. I just noticed my sound buttons dont work either. Wht I did is went into keyboard and mounse, and from there it does pick up the built in sound buttons so try that.
 
Slobber said:
@Airwolf: I use the best of course VLC. I used samba so I can see the network, but to watch movies I have to create the mountpoint. I haven't really bothered to research why it is like this though.

On your note around the sound. I just noticed my sound buttons dont work either. Wht I did is went into keyboard and mounse, and from there it does pick up the built in sound buttons so try that.
Click to expand...

Do you mean keyboard and mouse in the control centre? Mine came up as generic 105 key, and I did try the IBM ones as well as suggested by web, but still nothing.
 
No, "keyboard and mouse" from configure your desktop. There will be three options on the left and side. Try keyboard shortcuts. I used that to set kmix shortcuts for PCM volume up/down, and it worked like a charm. It doesnt pickup my mute button however. I don't know if your kb needs to be set to ibm first or not (I set mine @ install).
 
Slobber said:
No, "keyboard and mouse" from configure your desktop. There will be three options on the left and side. Try keyboard shortcuts. I used that to set kmix shortcuts for PCM volume up/down, and it worked like a charm. It doesnt pickup my mute button however. I don't know if your kb needs to be set to ibm first or not (I set mine @ install).
Click to expand...

Thanks for that - works like a charm:). But I set increase/decrease/mute volume to Front instead of PCM. On my mixer, PCM doesn't have a mute function so that's probably why your mute button doesn't work as well. For the task bar icon I just set front as master channel so it shows you the change in volume.

My mixer has two sections for front (I think for left and right), but if you mute either one it mutes both sides. Which is fine because the keyboard sound buttons are only able to adjust just the first front speaker and not both in the mixer.

Edit: In the 2008 version, using the sound keys brought up a translucent window showing you the volume metre and the change thereof as your kept pressing the button, which disappeared when you stopped pressing the sound keys. This doesn't happen in the 2009 version.

The 3 stokes on the volume icon on the task bar, seem to behave better when set on PCM but then your mute button won't work.
 
Last edited:
Hahaha thanks. I can live without the strokes and rather have a mute button. Will try the front thing. I will also try and make slighty better usage of my notebook and do some problem solving.

How are you finding KDE4?
 
Slobber said:
Hahaha thanks. I can live without the strokes and rather have a mute button. Will try the front thing. I will also try and make slighty better usage of my notebook and do some problem solving.

How are you finding KDE4?
Click to expand...

I quite like it:) Previously I had used Gnome on Ubuntu. Learning to use the terminal was really something:p. While in KDE almost everything can be done from a graphical user interface.
 
Har har! Now you've done it. The ubuntu fanboi's are going to come and get you.

What widgets are you running?
 
Samba network sharing is a bit flaky - sometimes it starts to ask for a username and password to log into shared folders while other times it goes straight into the folder. The shared network folders are not set to ask for authentication :confused: All shared folders are on XP machines.
 
Are you using Simple Windows sharing? Mine is pretty stable, but it seems if I want open certain filetypes or I want to edit files, I have to mount the share. I don't remember experiencing this with 2008/kde 3.5.9
 
Slobber said:
Are you using Simple Windows sharing? Mine is pretty stable, but it seems if I want open certain filetypes or I want to edit files, I have to mount the share. I don't remember experiencing this with 2008/kde 3.5.9
Click to expand...

Yep, standard Windows sharing with most folders editable as well, and few that are read-only.

Haven't had a chance to try it again at work.
 
Slobber said:
@Airwolf: I use the best of course VLC. I used samba so I can see the network, but to watch movies I have to create the mountpoint. I haven't really bothered to research why it is like this though.

On your note around the sound. I just noticed my sound buttons dont work either. Wht I did is went into keyboard and mounse, and from there it does pick up the built in sound buttons so try that.
Click to expand...


I downloaded VLC. I tried playing WMV files, but it just closes without playing:confused:.
 
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