Getting the Most from Mandriva

Anti-Trend · 05-10-2005, 09:27 AM

Adding & Removing Software and Repositories

A Bit About URPMI
I am going to briefly cover the excellent software management tool of Mandriva Linux, urpmi. Urpmi is a program that makes installing, removing, and updating software easy and convenient. It is also integral to keeping a Mandriva system up to date, and you can even use it to upgrade from one version of Mandriva to a newer one. There are two ways to utilize this tool: via the command line interface (also called the CLI), or by using the graphical front-end in the Mandriva Control Center. In this exercise we'll cover the basics of both methods, as they both have their advantages. But before we can move on to that, we must first discuss repositories.

Repositories Explained
Repositories are collections of software which are provided specifically for a particular operating system. In this case, they are pre-packed by Mandriva staff or volunteers for a particular version of Mandriva Linux, and are signed with a special key to verify that the packages are clean & whole. These repositories are hosted on various servers all over the world, and are classified by the nature of their content. For instance, the 'main' mirror contains exactly the same content which would be found on the Mandriva installation discs. Main is useful as a replacement for the installation media, remote installations, and can even be used to upgrade an older version of Mandriva to a later one (more on that in a later tutorial). The 'contrib' mirror proves a vast array of software that is not part of the core software provided by Mandriva, but is packaged purely by volunteers. Contrib is an extremely useful repository. Similar to contrib is the plf (Penguin Liberation Front). This is separated into plf-free and plf-nonfree. So called 'plf-free' packages are those that were not included in the official mirrors for various legal or political reasons, but are usually not proprietary in nature. The 'plf-nonfree' packages are in the same general situation as those in plf-free, except they are also encumbered by proprietary licenses or patents. And possibly the most important repository of all is 'update', which provides security patches and bugfixes. There's also 'jpackage', but if you don't already know what it is, you probably don't need it. Finally we have the 'SoS' or 'SeerOfSouls' repository, which is a special set of cutting-edge applications which are backported from the development version of Mandriva to the latest stable version. This gives the user an excellent balance between being very current and yet not having to deal with typical 'beta' problems associated with development OS versions.

Setting Up Repositories
To get started, visit any one of the following sites :

If you want to add the SoS mirrors, they can be found here:
http://seerofsouls.org/rpm2006.html

Select your version (e.g. 2005 LE or 2006) and your architecture (x86_64 for a 64 bit OS, i586 for 32-bit OS, etc). Next, select your mirrors from the list and make sure you put a check mark beside the ones you're going to use. As far as the mirrors, I would use something in Europe. Personally, I usually use something in Norway or the Netherlands. When you proceed to step 3, it will give you a small list, which will looking something similar to this:

Code:

urpmi.addmedia main ftp://ftp.uio.no/linux/Mandrakelinux/official/2005/i586/media/main with media_info/hdlist.cz
urpmi.addmedia contrib ftp://ftp.uio.no/linux/Mandrakelinux/official/2005/i586/media/contrib with media_info/hdlist.cz
urpmi.addmedia --update updates ftp://ftp.uninett.no/pub/unix/Linux/Mandrakelinux/official/updates/LE2005/main_updates/ with media_info/hdlist.cz
urpmi.addmedia plf-free ftp://plf.time4t.net/pub/plf/mandrake/free/10.2 with hdlist.cz
urpmi.addmedia plf-nonfree ftp://plf.time4t.net/pub/plf/mandrake/non-free/10.2 with hdlist.cz

Copy and paste the text from their list into a console while you are root. An easy way to do this is to highlight it and middle click while focused on a console. Either do this one line at a time, or append && between each command and Linux will treat it like one long command. Once you've got your repositories chosen and configured, we can proceed.

If this part was confusing to you, don't sweat it. Just run my Quick Start Script in the article below and you'll already have all of the repositories you need.

Installing Software via CLI
In our example we'll be installing XChat, an excellent graphical IRC client for Linux, but the same principle applies for any software you might want to install. First, we'll do it the CLI way. At this point you should open your favorite terminal program. You'll need root privileges to install software system-wide:

Code:

su – root

Next we'll ask urpmi to install Xchat, automatically taking care of any dependencies and verifying the integrity of the package along the way:

Code:

urpmi xchat

...yep, that's it. If you decided later that you didn't want xchat, you would simply type the following (as root of course):

Code:

urpme xchat

all of the entries, icons, etc for the program Xchat would be automatically removed.

Installing Software Graphically
Finally, I'll touch on using the Mandriva Control Center to add/remove software. To access mcc graphically, click: Menu ==> System ==> Configuration ==> Configure Your Computer. Alternately you can launch mcc from the CLI by typing:

Code:

mcc

Once you have mcc up, click on Software Management.

Afterwards, click on Install Software. Change the search option to All packages, by group to see all software available to you (based upon the repositories you have set up).

In the search dialog, type xchat. Under the search results, click the box next to xchat. Finally, click Install. If you found later on that you wanted to remove xchat, you would run mcc again, click on Software Management, and this time choose Remove Software. In other words, the procedure for removing software is nearly identical to adding it.

For more detailed information on urpmi, type the following in a terminal:

Code:

man urpmi

All the best,
-AT

Fred · 12-10-2005, 07:30 AM

CONFIGURING YOUR KDE DESKTOP - Pt. 1

Introduction
KDE is probably the single most customizable user desktop environment currently in existance. The aim of this tutorial is to cover a few basic ways we can tune the KDE desktop to look & feel more like our ideal "dream interface". Before we proceed, please have a look at this animated KDE diagram, which illustrates the some typical (but optional) components of a KDE desktop:

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's dive right in. When you first boot up, Your desktop should look something like this:

Multiple Desktops
"Why should I bother?"
So why should you bother even having more than one desktop? You only have one monitor and can only see one desktop at a time, right? This option is very helpful when you are the type of person that does more than one thing at a time. On top of that, instead of having one, cluttered desktop, you can have a few, organized desktops. And when you're using a photo editing program, such as gimp, it is nice to have an entire desktop dedicated to each picture you are working with. Also, you can keep your tools on a separate desktop as the pictures so that it doesn't take up precious space in your work area.

"Where can I click to change desktops?"
See the box with a couple of numbers to the bottom-right? Those are your different desktops.

Adding More Desktops
If you want more, right click on the numbers, and go to “Configure virtual desktop.” Here, you can add and name desktops. If you right click on the box that has your desktops in it, and go to show, you are able to enable transparency, which can be nice (and fitting, if you follow this walkthrough to the end).

Add a Taskbar
If you want to add another taskbar for specific programs, etc. right click on the taskbar at the bottom and go to add->panel->child panel. It will immediately pop up on the left of the screen. You can put it in a different location by clicking and dragging it to the new location on your desktop.

If you like the taskbar at the top of the screen that shows you what Programs you have open (like Mac OS), then you can right click on your desktop and go to “configure desktop. Next, select Behavior

In the middle, you can see a section called “Menu Bar at Top of Screen.” Try the different options to see which one you like best.

Resizing Your Taskbar
To resize your taskbar, right click on any taskbar and go to “configure panel.”

Select the taskbar you want to configure out of the drop-down menu entitled “Settings for:” then adjust the length accordingly. You may also want to select a position so that it's in a location that best suits you. While you're here, you can also mess with the option “size” to adjust how large or small your taskbar is. When you're done, your desktop may look something like this -->

Transparent Taskbars
You can enable transparency on your taskbars by right clicking and going to configure panel, then clicking on the tab, “Appearance.” At the bottom, you'll notice the section “Panel Background.” Check “Enable transparency” then go to Advanced Options and adjust the “tint amount” and color according to your preferences.

When you're done, it should look something like this:

Fred · 12-10-2005, 08:10 AM

CONFIGURING YOUR KDE DESKTOP - Pt. 2

Hiding the toolbar
To hide the taskbar (i.e. When you're mouse goes over it, it pops up), right click on a toolbar and go to Configure Panel and then to the tab “Hiding” and select “Show automatically” under Hide mode.

If you want to get rid of those annoying little arrows at the ends of your taskbars, go back into Configure Panel and go to the Hiding tab. Under the “Panel-Hiding Buttons” section, unselect “show right panel-hiding” Make sure you change the settings for the Main panel and the Child panel so that they both wont have the arrow.

Changing the Icons
Click on your menu and go to System->Configuration->Configure your Desktop.

In the list, click on system, then Theme Manager
Click on the little “Icons” button and a new window will pop up with your different icon options. If you want some additional icons, try going to www.kde-look.org When you've found the icon theme/s that you like, download them (obviously).

When it's finished downloading, in your configure icons window, go to “install new theme.” Select the file that you downloaded and click ok. BLAM! There it is. So just click on your new icon theme and press ok.

Getting Some Style
While you're in the theme manager (Menu->System->Configuration->Kde->System->Theme Manager), click on the tab “Style.” A new window will pop up. As you scroll through the “widget styles” you will see in the previews what each one will look like.

What I chose was Keramik. If you click on Configure, you will get some additional options like “Animate Progress bar.” If you click on the tab “effects” and go to the drop down menu for Menu effect, you can select Make translucent. By doing this, your menus will have transparency like your taskbar. I wouldn't make it very transparent, though, or it'll be hard to see the words in your menus because of the background. While you're here, go ahead and mess with the Combobox effect and Tooltip effect.

Colors
Once again, in the theme manager, click on Colors. When the new window pops up, you will see that on the left, are the “pre-boxed” color schemes and at the top is a preview. On the right side of the screen, you can select an item, and below it, select a new color for the item. Once again, I chose Keramik.

Background
To change the background, you can either click on that background button in Theme Manager, or you can just right click on your desktop and click “Configure Desktop.”

As you can see, you have the options of no picture, Picture, or Slide show. If you choose “No Picture,” you'll have the options of selecting a color from the “options” section, or making it fade from one color to the other.
If you choose “Picture,” you can select one from that drop down menu, or click on the little icon that looks like a file and go to the location where your backgrounds are stored.
Lastly, you can try Slide Show which, like it says, creates a slide show of pictures.
Click on slide show, and then on Setup.

To add some pictures to your slide show, click add and browse to location of your wallpapers, select the file, and then click ok. If you want to select more then one file, just click and drag over all of them. Now that you have your wallpapers ready, you can change how often they are rotated and if they are shown randomly or not. Click apply and Ok to finish setting up your wallpaper.

Window Decorations
For this one, go to Menu->System->Configuration->Configure your Desktop and go to the LookNFeel Section then to “Window Decorations.”

Change how the border around your windows look by scrolling through the drop down menu. You'll be able to see a preview right below it. Depending on your selection, you will have different decoration options at the bottom of the window.

Fonts
You can change the fonts by going to the Fonts section under LookNFeel and clicking on “Choose” to find Font set that you like better.

Adding Program Icons
You can start adding programs to the new taskbar by either dragging ones that are already on the bottom to the new one, or you can right click on your taskbar and go to add->Application Button->and sort through your menu for the program you want added. If you want to add an entire menu, click on “add this menu” at the top of the list. If you'd like to add programs to the taskbar, you can also do this by right clicking, going to add->applet or add->special button.

As you can see, I've chosen to put the programs regularly used for browsing, etc on the taskbar on the left (child panel) and I put the programs for customization on the bottom taskbar (main panel). This is my own personal preference, feel free to do what makes you comfortable. If you're looking for any additional options to any of these configurations, I suggest you check out kde-look.org and see what they have.
If you have any questions/suggestions, feel free to start a thread with the topic

Anti-Trend · 15-10-2005, 01:29 PM

Automatic Updates via urpmi

Using Mandriva's powerful urpmi tool, we will have Mandrake Linux perform a fully-automated update process every morning at around 04:00. This will be accomplished using a very simple cron job. If you do not have broadband, this method is not recommended for you. If you haven't already, read & follow "Adding & Removing Software and Repositories" before proceeding -- it is a critical step! After you've setup your urpmi repositories, start a terminal. Type the following to gain root privileges:

Code:

su - root

...after which you will be asked to enter your root password -- do so. Once you have root access, type:

Code:

vi /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron

In the new file you've just created, add the following: (i enters interactive mode in vi, for those who don't know)

Code:

#!/bin/sh
urpmi.update -a
urpmi --auto-select --auto

...and save the file. (:wq! for those who don't know vi well) Once you've got your new cron script successfully created, you must make it executable by the root user. As root, do the following:

Code:

chmod 754 /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron

Optional: If you want to have the system updated weekly instead of daily, simply move the cron script from /etc/cron.daily/ to /etc/cron.weekly/ by performing the following command (as root):

Code:

mv /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron /etc/cron.weekly/

As the French say, Viola! Now your system will update daily, appending logs of what's transpired to a file called /var/log/urpmi.log so you can check on what's changed should you desire to do so.

Anti-Trend · 06-11-2005, 03:28 AM

Installing the latest OpenOffice.org in Mandriva

OOo 2.0 isn't included in Mandriva 2005LE or 2006, as they both standardized on earlier releases. As a result they will continue to patch the older versions on those distros until the support cycle runs out down the road. Of course, a Mandriva-packaged release of OOo 2.0 has hit Mandriva's club mirrors, but that doesn't help those of us who are not paying club members. If you aren't in Mandriva Club and you want OOo 2.0, you'll have to follow these directions from openoffice.org:
________________________________________________
Linux RPM-based Installation

Prerequisites

If you want Java integration, you want to make sure you have the latest JRE installed. It should be at least JRE 1.4. You can find the JRE for Linux at the Java JRE for Linux download site. Alternatively, it might be included on the installation media of your distro as part of a complete Java development environment.

Installation Steps

Unpack the downloaded image into a directory. For example, currently, the following command would unpack into the current directory:

Code:

tar xvzf OOo_2.0.0_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz

Su to root, if necessary.
cd into the directory with the unpacked image. This could be RPMS.
Delete any rpm files that do not apply to your system. For example, on a Fedora Core 3 system, delete any rpms specific to another distribution such as openofficeorg-suse-menus-1.9.79-1.noarch.rpm.
Then execute:

Code:

rpm -Uvih *rpm

________________________________________________

My Digested Walkthrough

Though their walkthrough doesn't mention it, it's a good idea to dump all of the RPMs in one directory before you do what they suggest. So my digested version of their walkthrough:

download & install Java for Linux
download OpenOffice.org 2.0
untar the contents of the OpenOffice installer into a temp directory
move all of the RPM files into a central locale
delete any RPMs that mention a distro other than the one you're running
open a shell as root, and browse to the folder containing your OOo RPMs
run the following command: rpm -Uvih *rpm
Clean up your installation mess by deleting all of the temporary files and RPMs created during the installation

Associating Documents with OOo 2.0

You'll probably also want to change your file associations to open your documents in OpenOffice 2.0 instead of 1.1.5. In KDE, this can be accomplished with the file associations tool. You can run the tool with the following command:

Code:

kcmshell filetypes

...or by Browsing through Kmenu -> System -> Configuration -> KDE -> Components -> File Associations. On any applicable filetypes (.doc, .sxw, etc), simply move OpenOffice.org 2.0 to the top of the "Application Preference Order" list.

Note:

If you've installed the SeerOfSouls repository, you can install OOo for Mandriva through your package manager rather than going through all the steps above. Plus, the end results are better, since the SoS version of OOo is built specifically for Mandriva!

Anti-Trend · 23-11-2005, 02:00 AM

Must-Have Multimedia Software

These are a handful of multimedia-oriented programs that no Mandriva user should do without on their desktop PC. After following the tutorial on Adding & Removing Software and Repositories, you should be able to install the following programs easily with urpmi. Please note that many of the following applications require the plf repositories, so make sure you've got everything set up and ready to go. The applications below are listed by the names urpmi knows them by in order to make installation as simple as possible for you.

mplayer – Probably the best video player software on any platform, and it'll play just about anything. Lucky for us, it's a Linux application.
mplayer-gui – The nice graphical user interface for Mplayer. If you plan on using Mplayer, you should probably get this too.
libxine1 – Xine may not be as good for playing most things as Mplayer, but it's not bad at all. What it really excels at is playing DVDs, so it's a must-have if you plan on watching DVDs on your Mandriva box.
xine-ui – Graphical front-end for Xine. Get this if you plan on using Xine.
xine-plugins – Assorted plugins to extend the compatibility of Xine with various multimedia formats.
xine-win32 – Adds support for various Windows codecs to Xine.
amarok – Probably the best audio player on any platform, and it only runs on Linux. Definately get this if you plan on listening to music at all.
amarok-engine-xine – Adds support for the powerful Xine audio engine to amaroK. The Xine engine is much better than the ARTS engine, which is what amaroK uses by default. If you have an ALSA-compatible sound card, you should configure the Xine engine to use ALSA as the default sound system. Definitely get this if you plan on using amaroK.
xmms – XMMS, or X Multimedia System, is a near-exact clone of Winamp for Linux created by the same guys who built Winamp. If you can't live without Winamp, amaroK is too feature-heavy for you or you just want an alternate sound player, xmms is for you.
xmms-alsa – ALSA sound output module for XMMS. If you have a modern sound card and plan on using XMMS, you need this.
libdvdcss – If you plan on watching encrypted DVDs in Linux, you need this.
libdvdnav4 – Ditto.
libdvdplay0 - “
libdvdcontrol9 - “
win32-codecs – Adds support for a myriad of Windows codecs. Since there is no official way to install Microsoft codecs in Linux, you'll find this invaluable.
mozplugger – Adds functionality to all Mozilla-compatible browsers (Firefox, Netscape, Opera, etc. etc.) to play embedded videos much like you would with a proprietary plugin from MS or Apple. Since no such plugins exist for Linux, this fills the void nicely, allowing you to play any codec your system is equipped from in-browser. Highly recommended.
mplayerplugin – Works with mozplugger to provide the best in-browser video experience currently possible on any platform. This is accomplished using the always excellent Mplayer, and allows you to maximize in-frame windows to full-screen, adds playback controls, and even allows you to “save-as” streaming clips when they've completed.
lame – The LAME encoder is arguably the best MP3 encoder there is. This program is non-graphical, but works with other apps such as K3b to provide MP3 encoding/decoding capabilities.
petit – Formerly known as 'gogo', petit is probably the fastest MP3 encoder on the planet. Since it is based on the LAME libraries, you will find it's audio output quality to be comparable.
gaim – GAIM is a chat/IM client which is capable of talking to every major form of chat server there is.

Before you install software via urpmi, you should first update your urpmi sources by running the following as root in a terminal:

Code:

urpmi.update -a

That will update your urpmi database so it is aware of the very latest versions of the programs we want to install. To install a program, just type urpmi followed by the name of the program to be installed. For example, if you wanted to install mplayer you'd run the following command as root:

Code:

urpmi mplayer

If you want to install all of the programs on my list of recommendations at once, just paste the following command into a terminal which is logged in as root:

Code:

urpmi mplayer mplayer-gui libxine1 xine-ui xine-plugins xine-win32 amarok amarok-engine-xine xmms xmms-alsa libdvdcss libdvdnav4 libdvdplay0 libdvdcontrol9 win32-codecs mozplugger mplayerplugin lame petit gaim

If the above gives you any troubles, you might install each program seperately or else try the following:

Code:

urpmi mplayer && urpmi mplayer-gui && urpmi libxine1 && urpmi xine-ui && urpmi xine-plugins && urpmi xine-win32 && urpmi amarok && urpmi amarok-engine-xine && urpmi xmms && urpmi xmms-alsa && urpmi libdvdcss && urpmi libdvdnav4 && urpmi libdvdplay0 && urpmi libdvdcontrol9 && urpmi win32-codecs && urpmi mozplugger && urpmi mplayerplugin && urpmi lame && urpmi petit && urpmi gaim

This isn't by any means a comprehensive list of software I recommend, but having installed the preceding programs I think you'll find that Mandriva is now a multimedia powerhouse. You can watch embedded videos in-browser better and with more control than your peers on Windows or OS X, play any format without annoying, bloated proprietary software wasting your resources and spying on you, and generally enjoy your PC that much more. If there's a piece of software you feel should be added to the list, please send me a private message and I'll check into it.

Anti-Trend · 06-12-2005, 01:24 AM

Changing the K Menu Icon in KDE

By default, Mandriva Linux uses a yellow star to represent the Kmenu icon in KDE rather than the typical 'K-Gear' icon. If you prefer to see the standard KDE icon instead, I have provided two different versions of Everaldo's excellent icons:

Crystal

- and -

Outline

You can use either set to replace the stock K Menu icon in Mandriva. To accomplish this, first decide on which icon set suits you best, Crystal or Outline. Next, download the appropriate zip file attached to this post. Open a terminal. Login as root and navigate to the directory to which you downloaded your zip file. Once there, you'd type the following:

Code:

unzip -o kmenu-crystal.zip -d /usr/share/icons/

...or if you wanted to use the Outline version of the icons instead, you'd simply replace kmenu-crystal.zip with kmenu-outline.zip. Oh and apologies for the zip files, I couldn't attach tar files due to current limitations in the forums.

Anti-Trend · 10-01-2006, 01:35 PM

Official Mandriva 2006 Documentation

The official documentation for Mandriva 2006 has been released to members of the Mandriva Club for free download in PDF format. Unfortunately, although Mandriva has released the documentation under the Open Publication License, they have not made the download available to the general public.

If you are interested in having a copy of the brief 94-page "Discovering Mandriva Linux 2006" guide and/or the exhaustive 782-page "Mandriva Linux 2006 Definitive Guide" handbook, we are currently hosting both!

Links:

Discovering Mandriva Linux (2006) - 94 Pages
Mandriva Linux 2006: The Definitive Guide - 782 Pages

Unofficial Mandriva Linux 2006 Starter Guide

Also check out this excellent Mandriva 2006 starter guide, which contains a huge list of howto's and FAQs!

Anti-Trend · 05-04-2006, 05:42 PM

Quick Start Script

Updated April 27, 2006

I've written a simple shell script to help kickstart your Mandriva experience. This script is written specificaly for an i586 Mandriva 2006 system with an always-on broadband connection. It will add new repositories, write a simple cron script to update your system daily, and then perform a full system update.

Important Notes:

Download the attached zip file at the bottom of this post. Extract the script to your HDD and execute it with the command sh add-repos.sh
This script must be run as root.
If you have other repositories you want to clear out such as installation CDs, run the command urpmi.removemedia -a before running this script.

Here are the contents of the script, so you know for sure it's not doing anything nasty to your system:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
echo "  ________________________________________  "
echo " /  Adding Mandriva 2006 Repositories...  \ "
echo " \________________________________________/ "
echo ""
echo ""
echo ""
echo ""
echo "******************************"
echo "**** Adding Update Mirror ****"
echo "******************************"
urpmi.addmedia --update updates ftp://ftp.esat.net/pub/linux/mandrakelinux/official/updates/2006.0/main_updates/ with media_info/hdlist.cz
echo "******************************"
echo "***** Adding Main Mirror *****"
echo "******************************"
urpmi.addmedia main ftp://ftp.uio.no/linux/MandrivaLinux/official/2006.0/i586/media/main with media_info/hdlist.cz
echo "*********************************"
echo "***** Adding Contrib Mirror *****"
echo "*********************************"
urpmi.addmedia contrib ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Mandrakelinux/official/2006.0/i586/media/contrib with media_info/hdlist.cz
echo "**********************************"
echo "***** Adding JPackage Mirror *****"
echo "**********************************"
urpmi.addmedia jpackage ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Mandrakelinux/official/2006.0/i586/media/jpackage with media_info/hdlist.cz
echo "**********************************"
echo "***** Adding PLF-Free Mirror *****"
echo "**********************************"
urpmi.addmedia plf-free ftp://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/linux/plf/mandriva/free/2006.0/i586 with hdlist.cz
echo "*************************************"
echo "***** Adding PLF-Nonfree Mirror *****"
echo "*************************************"
urpmi.addmedia plf-nonfree ftp://ftp.free.fr/pub/Distributions_Linux/plf/mandriva/non-free/2006.0/i586 with hdlist.cz
echo "**********************************"
echo "***** Adding SoS-2006 Mirror *****"
echo "**********************************"
urpmi.addmedia SoS-2006 http://seerofsouls.com/mandriva/2006/i586/2006/ with hdlist.cz
echo "***********************************"
echo "***** Adding SoS-Xchat Mirror *****"
echo "***********************************"
urpmi.addmedia SoS-Xchat http://seerofsouls.com/mandriva/2006/i586/Xchat/ with hdlist.cz
echo "**********************************"
echo "***** Adding SoS-Xfce Mirror *****"
echo "**********************************"
urpmi.addmedia SoS-Xfce http://seerofsouls.com/mandriva/2006/i586/Xfce/ with hdlist.cz
echo "  ________________________________________  "
echo " / Repositories Added, Making Update Cron \ "
echo " \________________________________________/ "
echo ""
echo "Creating /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron..."
touch /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron
echo "Populating /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron..."
echo #!/bin/sh > /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron
echo urpmi.update -a >> /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron
echo urpmi --auto-select --auto >> /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron
echo "Setting Permissions on /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron..."
chmod 755 /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron
echo "Done."
echo "  ________________________________________  "
echo " /  Cron Job Created, Performing Update.  \ "
echo " \________________________________________/ "
echo ""
sh /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron
echo "  ________________________________________  "
echo " / All done! Enjoy your new Mandriva box. \ "
echo " \________________________________________/ "
echo ""

As you can see, it is a totally linear script with no interactivity and no failure recovery. If you'd like to make improvements, please PM me the results and I'd be glad to post them.

05-10-2005, 09:27 AM	#1 (permalink) Top
Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek Join Date: Oct 2003 Age: 27 Male Posts: 4,806 Times Helpful: 522 Status: Offline My Computer	Getting the Most from Mandriva Adding & Removing Software and Repositories A Bit About URPMI I am going to briefly cover the excellent software management tool of Mandriva Linux, urpmi. Urpmi is a program that makes installing, removing, and updating software easy and convenient. It is also integral to keeping a Mandriva system up to date, and you can even use it to upgrade from one version of Mandriva to a newer one. There are two ways to utilize this tool: via the command line interface (also called the CLI), or by using the graphical front-end in the Mandriva Control Center. In this exercise we'll cover the basics of both methods, as they both have their advantages. But before we can move on to that, we must first discuss repositories. Repositories Explained *Repositories* are collections of software which are provided specifically for a particular operating system. In this case, they are pre-packed by Mandriva staff or volunteers for a particular version of Mandriva Linux, and are signed with a special key to verify that the packages are clean & whole. These repositories are hosted on various servers all over the world, and are classified by the nature of their content. For instance, the 'main' mirror contains exactly the same content which would be found on the Mandriva installation discs. Main is useful as a replacement for the installation media, remote installations, and can even be used to upgrade an older version of Mandriva to a later one (more on that in a later tutorial). The 'contrib' mirror proves a vast array of software that is not part of the core software provided by Mandriva, but is packaged purely by volunteers. Contrib is an extremely useful repository. Similar to contrib is the plf (Penguin Liberation Front). This is separated into plf-free and plf-nonfree. So called 'plf-free' packages are those that were not included in the official mirrors for various legal or political reasons, but are usually not proprietary in nature. The 'plf-nonfree' packages are in the same general situation as those in plf-free, except they are also encumbered by proprietary licenses or patents. And possibly the most important repository of all is 'update', which provides security patches and bugfixes. There's also 'jpackage', but if you don't already know what it is, you probably don't need it. Finally we have the *'SoS'* or 'SeerOfSouls' repository, which is a special set of cutting-edge applications which are backported from the development version of Mandriva to the latest stable version. This gives the user an excellent balance between being very current and yet not having to deal with typical 'beta' problems associated with development OS versions. Setting Up Repositories To get started, visit any one of the following sites : http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/ http://addmedia.notix.net/ http://www.linuxfordummies.org/addmedia/ If you want to add the SoS mirrors, they can be found here: http://seerofsouls.org/rpm2006.html Select your version (e.g. 2005 LE or 2006) and your architecture (x86_64 for a 64 bit OS, i586 for 32-bit OS, etc). Next, select your mirrors from the list and make sure you put a check mark beside the ones you're going to use. As far as the mirrors, I would use something in Europe. Personally, I usually use something in Norway or the Netherlands. When you proceed to step 3, it will give you a small list, which will looking something similar to this: Code: urpmi.addmedia main ftp://ftp.uio.no/linux/Mandrakelinux/official/2005/i586/media/main with media_info/hdlist.cz urpmi.addmedia contrib ftp://ftp.uio.no/linux/Mandrakelinux/official/2005/i586/media/contrib with media_info/hdlist.cz urpmi.addmedia --update updates ftp://ftp.uninett.no/pub/unix/Linux/Mandrakelinux/official/updates/LE2005/main_updates/ with media_info/hdlist.cz urpmi.addmedia plf-free ftp://plf.time4t.net/pub/plf/mandrake/free/10.2 with hdlist.cz urpmi.addmedia plf-nonfree ftp://plf.time4t.net/pub/plf/mandrake/non-free/10.2 with hdlist.cz Copy and paste the text from their list into a console while you are root. An easy way to do this is to highlight it and middle click while focused on a console. Either do this one line at a time, or append && between each command and Linux will treat it like one long command. Once you've got your repositories chosen and configured, we can proceed. If this part was confusing to you, don't sweat it. Just run my Quick Start Script in the article below and you'll already have all of the repositories you need. Installing Software via CLI In our example we'll be installing XChat, an excellent graphical IRC client for Linux, but the same principle applies for any software you might want to install. First, we'll do it the CLI way. At this point you should open your favorite terminal program. You'll need root privileges to install software system-wide: Code: su – root Next we'll ask urpmi to install Xchat, automatically taking care of any dependencies and verifying the integrity of the package along the way: Code: urpmi xchat ...yep, that's it. If you decided later that you didn't want xchat, you would simply type the following (as root of course): Code: urpme xchat all of the entries, icons, etc for the program Xchat would be automatically removed. Installing Software Graphically Finally, I'll touch on using the Mandriva Control Center to add/remove software. To access mcc graphically, click: *Menu ==> System ==> Configuration ==> Configure Your Computer. Alternately you can launch mcc from the CLI by typing: Code: mcc Once you have mcc up, click on Software Management. Afterwards, click on Install Software. Change the search option to All packages, by group* to see all software available to you (based upon the repositories you have set up). In the search dialog, type xchat. Under the search results, click the box next to xchat. Finally, click Install. If you found later on that you wanted to remove xchat, you would run mcc again, click on Software Management, and this time choose Remove Software. In other words, the procedure for removing software is nearly identical to adding it. For more detailed information on urpmi, type the following in a terminal: Code: man urpmi All the best, -AT __________________ See My Desktop \| Try Linux \| Install Linux \| Visit My Server \| Support Hardware Forums \| Easily rip DVDs in Linux

15-10-2005, 01:29 PM	#4 (permalink) Top
Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek Join Date: Oct 2003 Age: 27 Male Posts: 4,806 Times Helpful: 522 Status: Offline My Computer	Automatic Updates via urpmi Using Mandriva's powerful urpmi tool, we will have Mandrake Linux perform a fully-automated update process every morning at around 04:00. This will be accomplished using a very simple cron job. If you do not have broadband, this method is not recommended for you. If you haven't already, read & follow "Adding & Removing Software and Repositories" before proceeding -- it is a critical step! After you've setup your urpmi repositories, start a terminal. Type the following to gain root privileges: Code: su - root ...after which you will be asked to enter your root password -- do so. Once you have root access, type: Code: vi /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron In the new file you've just created, add the following: (i enters interactive mode in vi, for those who don't know) Code: #!/bin/sh urpmi.update -a urpmi --auto-select --auto ...and save the file. (*:wq!* for those who don't know vi well) Once you've got your new cron script successfully created, you must make it executable by the root user. As root, do the following: Code: chmod 754 /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron Optional: If you want to have the system updated weekly instead of daily, simply move the cron script from */etc/cron.daily/* to */etc/cron.weekly/* by performing the following command (as root): Code: mv /etc/cron.daily/myupdates.cron /etc/cron.weekly/ As the French say, Viola! Now your system will update daily, appending logs of what's transpired to a file called /var/log/urpmi.log so you can check on what's changed should you desire to do so. __________________ See My Desktop \| Try Linux \| Install Linux \| Visit My Server \| Support Hardware Forums \| Easily rip DVDs in Linux

06-11-2005, 03:28 AM	#5 (permalink) Top
Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek Join Date: Oct 2003 Age: 27 Male Posts: 4,806 Times Helpful: 522 Status: Offline My Computer	Installing the latest OpenOffice.org in Mandriva OOo 2.0 isn't included in Mandriva 2005LE or 2006, as they both standardized on earlier releases. As a result they will continue to patch the older versions on those distros until the support cycle runs out down the road. Of course, a Mandriva-packaged release of OOo 2.0 has hit Mandriva's club mirrors, but that doesn't help those of us who are not paying club members. If you aren't in Mandriva Club and you want OOo 2.0, you'll have to follow these directions from openoffice.org: ________________________________________________ Linux RPM-based Installation Prerequisites If you want Java integration, you want to make sure you have the latest JRE installed. It should be at least JRE 1.4. You can find the JRE for Linux at the Java JRE for Linux download site. Alternatively, it might be included on the installation media of your distro as part of a complete Java development environment. Installation Steps Unpack the downloaded image into a directory. For example, currently, the following command would unpack into the current directory: Code: tar xvzf OOo_2.0.0_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz Su to root, if necessary. cd into the directory with the unpacked image. This could be RPMS. Delete any rpm files that do not apply to your system. For example, on a Fedora Core 3 system, delete any rpms specific to another distribution such as openofficeorg-suse-menus-1.9.79-1.noarch.rpm. Then execute: Code: rpm -Uvih rpm ________________________________________________ My Digested Walkthrough* Though their walkthrough doesn't mention it, it's a good idea to dump all of the RPMs in one directory before you do what they suggest. So my digested version of their walkthrough: download & install Java for Linux download OpenOffice.org 2.0 untar the contents of the OpenOffice installer into a temp directory move all of the RPM files into a central locale delete any RPMs that mention a distro other than the one you're running open a shell as root, and browse to the folder containing your OOo RPMs run the following command: rpm -Uvih rpm Clean up your installation mess by deleting all of the temporary files and RPMs created during the installation Associating Documents with OOo 2.0* You'll probably also want to change your file associations to open your documents in OpenOffice 2.0 instead of 1.1.5. In KDE, this can be accomplished with the file associations tool. You can run the tool with the following command: Code: kcmshell filetypes ...or by Browsing through Kmenu -> System -> Configuration -> KDE -> Components -> File Associations. On any applicable filetypes (.doc, .sxw, etc), simply move OpenOffice.org 2.0 to the top of the "Application Preference Order" list. Note: If you've installed the SeerOfSouls repository, you can install OOo for Mandriva through your package manager rather than going through all the steps above. Plus, the end results are better, since the SoS version of OOo is built specifically for Mandriva! __________________ See My Desktop \| Try Linux \| Install Linux \| Visit My Server \| Support Hardware Forums \| Easily rip DVDs in Linux

23-11-2005, 02:00 AM	#6 (permalink) Top
Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek Join Date: Oct 2003 Age: 27 Male Posts: 4,806 Times Helpful: 522 Status: Offline My Computer	Must-Have Multimedia Software These are a handful of multimedia-oriented programs that no Mandriva user should do without on their desktop PC. After following the tutorial on Adding & Removing Software and Repositories, you should be able to install the following programs easily with urpmi. Please note that many of the following applications require the plf repositories, so make sure you've got everything set up and ready to go. The applications below are listed by the names urpmi knows them by in order to make installation as simple as possible for you. mplayer – Probably the best video player software on any platform, and it'll play just about anything. Lucky for us, it's a Linux application. mplayer-gui – The nice graphical user interface for Mplayer. If you plan on using Mplayer, you should probably get this too. libxine1 – Xine may not be as good for playing most things as Mplayer, but it's not bad at all. What it really excels at is playing DVDs, so it's a must-have if you plan on watching DVDs on your Mandriva box. xine-ui – Graphical front-end for Xine. Get this if you plan on using Xine. xine-plugins – Assorted plugins to extend the compatibility of Xine with various multimedia formats. xine-win32 – Adds support for various Windows codecs to Xine. amarok – Probably the best audio player on any platform, and it only runs on Linux. Definately get this if you plan on listening to music at all. amarok-engine-xine – Adds support for the powerful Xine audio engine to amaroK. The Xine engine is much better than the ARTS engine, which is what amaroK uses by default. If you have an ALSA-compatible sound card, you should configure the Xine engine to use ALSA as the default sound system. Definitely get this if you plan on using amaroK. xmms – XMMS, or X Multimedia System, is a near-exact clone of Winamp for Linux created by the same guys who built Winamp. If you can't live without Winamp, amaroK is too feature-heavy for you or you just want an alternate sound player, xmms is for you. xmms-alsa – ALSA sound output module for XMMS. If you have a modern sound card and plan on using XMMS, you need this. libdvdcss – If you plan on watching encrypted DVDs in Linux, you need this. libdvdnav4 – Ditto. libdvdplay0 - “ libdvdcontrol9 - “ win32-codecs – Adds support for a myriad of Windows codecs. Since there is no official way to install Microsoft codecs in Linux, you'll find this invaluable. mozplugger – Adds functionality to all Mozilla-compatible browsers (Firefox, Netscape, Opera, etc. etc.) to play embedded videos much like you would with a proprietary plugin from MS or Apple. Since no such plugins exist for Linux, this fills the void nicely, allowing you to play any codec your system is equipped from in-browser. Highly recommended. mplayerplugin – Works with mozplugger to provide the best in-browser video experience currently possible on any platform. This is accomplished using the always excellent Mplayer, and allows you to maximize in-frame windows to full-screen, adds playback controls, and even allows you to “save-as” streaming clips when they've completed. lame – The LAME encoder is arguably the best MP3 encoder there is. This program is non-graphical, but works with other apps such as K3b to provide MP3 encoding/decoding capabilities. petit – Formerly known as 'gogo', petit is probably the fastest MP3 encoder on the planet. Since it is based on the LAME libraries, you will find it's audio output quality to be comparable. gaim – GAIM is a chat/IM client which is capable of talking to every major form of chat server there is. Before you install software via urpmi, you should first update your urpmi sources by running the following as root in a terminal: Code: urpmi.update -a That will update your urpmi database so it is aware of the very latest versions of the programs we want to install. To install a program, just type urpmi followed by the name of the program to be installed. For example, if you wanted to install mplayer you'd run the following command as root: Code: urpmi mplayer If you want to install all of the programs on my list of recommendations at once, just paste the following command into a terminal which is logged in as root: Code: urpmi mplayer mplayer-gui libxine1 xine-ui xine-plugins xine-win32 amarok amarok-engine-xine xmms xmms-alsa libdvdcss libdvdnav4 libdvdplay0 libdvdcontrol9 win32-codecs mozplugger mplayerplugin lame petit gaim If the above gives you any troubles, you might install each program seperately or else try the following: Code: urpmi mplayer && urpmi mplayer-gui && urpmi libxine1 && urpmi xine-ui && urpmi xine-plugins && urpmi xine-win32 && urpmi amarok && urpmi amarok-engine-xine && urpmi xmms && urpmi xmms-alsa && urpmi libdvdcss && urpmi libdvdnav4 && urpmi libdvdplay0 && urpmi libdvdcontrol9 && urpmi win32-codecs && urpmi mozplugger && urpmi mplayerplugin && urpmi lame && urpmi petit && urpmi gaim This isn't by any means a comprehensive list of software I recommend, but having installed the preceding programs I think you'll find that Mandriva is now a multimedia powerhouse. You can watch embedded videos in-browser better and with more control than your peers on Windows or OS X, play any format without annoying, bloated proprietary software wasting your resources and spying on you, and generally enjoy your PC that much more. If there's a piece of software you feel should be added to the list, please send me a private message and I'll check into it. __________________ See My Desktop \| Try Linux \| Install Linux \| Visit My Server \| Support Hardware Forums \| Easily rip DVDs in Linux

10-01-2006, 01:35 PM	#8 (permalink) Top
Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek Join Date: Oct 2003 Age: 27 Male Posts: 4,806 Times Helpful: 522 Status: Offline My Computer	Official Mandriva 2006 Documentation The official documentation for Mandriva 2006 has been released to members of the Mandriva Club for free download in PDF format. Unfortunately, although Mandriva has released the documentation under the Open Publication License, they have not made the download available to the general public. If you are interested in having a copy of the brief 94-page "Discovering Mandriva Linux 2006" guide and/or the exhaustive 782-page "Mandriva Linux 2006 Definitive Guide" handbook, we are currently hosting both! Links: Discovering Mandriva Linux (2006) - 94 Pages Mandriva Linux 2006: The Definitive Guide - 782 Pages Unofficial Mandriva Linux 2006 Starter Guide Also check out this excellent Mandriva 2006 starter guide, which contains a huge list of howto's and FAQs! __________________ See My Desktop \| Try Linux \| Install Linux \| Visit My Server \| Support Hardware Forums \| Easily rip DVDs in Linux

12-10-2005, 07:30 AM	#2 (permalink) Top
Fred Moderator Join Date: Jun 2004 Age: 23 Male Posts: 650 Times Helpful: 36 Status: Online My Computer	CONFIGURING YOUR KDE DESKTOP - Pt. 1 Introduction KDE is probably the single most customizable user desktop environment currently in existance. The aim of this tutorial is to cover a few basic ways we can tune the KDE desktop to look & feel more like our ideal "dream interface". Before we proceed, please have a look at this animated KDE diagram, which illustrates the some typical (but optional) components of a KDE desktop: Now that we've got that out of the way, let's dive right in. When you first boot up, Your desktop should look something like this: Multiple Desktops "Why should I bother?" So why should you bother even having more than one desktop? You only have one monitor and can only see one desktop at a time, right? This option is very helpful when you are the type of person that does more than one thing at a time. On top of that, instead of having one, cluttered desktop, you can have a few, organized desktops. And when you're using a photo editing program, such as gimp, it is nice to have an entire desktop dedicated to each picture you are working with. Also, you can keep your tools on a separate desktop as the pictures so that it doesn't take up precious space in your work area. "Where can I click to change desktops?" See the box with a couple of numbers to the bottom-right? Those are your different desktops. Adding More Desktops If you want more, right click on the numbers, and go to “Configure virtual desktop.” Here, you can add and name desktops. If you right click on the box that has your desktops in it, and go to show, you are able to enable transparency, which can be nice (and fitting, if you follow this walkthrough to the end). Add a Taskbar If you want to add another taskbar for specific programs, etc. right click on the taskbar at the bottom and go to add->panel->child panel. It will immediately pop up on the left of the screen. You can put it in a different location by clicking and dragging it to the new location on your desktop. If you like the taskbar at the top of the screen that shows you what Programs you have open (like Mac OS), then you can right click on your desktop and go to “configure desktop. Next, select Behavior In the middle, you can see a section called “Menu Bar at Top of Screen.” Try the different options to see which one you like best. Resizing Your Taskbar To resize your taskbar, right click on any taskbar and go to “configure panel.” Select the taskbar you want to configure out of the drop-down menu entitled “Settings for:” then adjust the length accordingly. You may also want to select a position so that it's in a location that best suits you. While you're here, you can also mess with the option “size” to adjust how large or small your taskbar is. When you're done, your desktop may look something like this --> Transparent Taskbars You can enable transparency on your taskbars by right clicking and going to configure panel, then clicking on the tab, “Appearance.” At the bottom, you'll notice the section “Panel Background.” Check “Enable transparency” then go to Advanced Options and adjust the “tint amount” and color according to your preferences. When you're done, it should look something like this:

12-10-2005, 08:10 AM	#3 (permalink) Top
Fred Moderator Join Date: Jun 2004 Age: 23 Male Posts: 650 Times Helpful: 36 Status: Online My Computer	CONFIGURING YOUR KDE DESKTOP - Pt. 2 Hiding the toolbar To hide the taskbar (i.e. When you're mouse goes over it, it pops up), right click on a toolbar and go to Configure Panel and then to the tab “Hiding” and select “Show automatically” under Hide mode. If you want to get rid of those annoying little arrows at the ends of your taskbars, go back into Configure Panel and go to the Hiding tab. Under the “Panel-Hiding Buttons” section, unselect “show right panel-hiding” Make sure you change the settings for the Main panel and the Child panel so that they both wont have the arrow. Changing the Icons Click on your menu and go to System->Configuration->Configure your Desktop. In the list, click on system, then Theme Manager Click on the little “Icons” button and a new window will pop up with your different icon options. If you want some additional icons, try going to www.kde-look.org When you've found the icon theme/s that you like, download them (obviously). When it's finished downloading, in your configure icons window, go to “install new theme.” Select the file that you downloaded and click ok. BLAM! There it is. So just click on your new icon theme and press ok. Getting Some Style While you're in the theme manager (Menu->System->Configuration->Kde->System->Theme Manager), click on the tab “Style.” A new window will pop up. As you scroll through the “widget styles” you will see in the previews what each one will look like. What I chose was Keramik. If you click on Configure, you will get some additional options like “Animate Progress bar.” If you click on the tab “effects” and go to the drop down menu for Menu effect, you can select Make translucent. By doing this, your menus will have transparency like your taskbar. I wouldn't make it very transparent, though, or it'll be hard to see the words in your menus because of the background. While you're here, go ahead and mess with the Combobox effect and Tooltip effect. Colors Once again, in the theme manager, click on Colors. When the new window pops up, you will see that on the left, are the “pre-boxed” color schemes and at the top is a preview. On the right side of the screen, you can select an item, and below it, select a new color for the item. Once again, I chose Keramik. Background To change the background, you can either click on that background button in Theme Manager, or you can just right click on your desktop and click “Configure Desktop.” As you can see, you have the options of no picture, Picture, or Slide show. If you choose “No Picture,” you'll have the options of selecting a color from the “options” section, or making it fade from one color to the other. If you choose “Picture,” you can select one from that drop down menu, or click on the little icon that looks like a file and go to the location where your backgrounds are stored. Lastly, you can try Slide Show which, like it says, creates a slide show of pictures. Click on slide show, and then on Setup. To add some pictures to your slide show, click add and browse to location of your wallpapers, select the file, and then click ok. If you want to select more then one file, just click and drag over all of them. Now that you have your wallpapers ready, you can change how often they are rotated and if they are shown randomly or not. Click apply and Ok to finish setting up your wallpaper. Window Decorations For this one, go to Menu->System->Configuration->Configure your Desktop and go to the LookNFeel Section then to “Window Decorations.” Change how the border around your windows look by scrolling through the drop down menu. You'll be able to see a preview right below it. Depending on your selection, you will have different decoration options at the bottom of the window. Fonts You can change the fonts by going to the Fonts section under LookNFeel and clicking on “Choose” to find Font set that you like better. Adding Program Icons You can start adding programs to the new taskbar by either dragging ones that are already on the bottom to the new one, or you can right click on your taskbar and go to add->Application Button->and sort through your menu for the program you want added. If you want to add an entire menu, click on “add this menu” at the top of the list. If you'd like to add programs to the taskbar, you can also do this by right clicking, going to add->applet or add->special button. As you can see, I've chosen to put the programs regularly used for browsing, etc on the taskbar on the left (child panel) and I put the programs for customization on the bottom taskbar (main panel). This is my own personal preference, feel free to do what makes you comfortable. If you're looking for any additional options to any of these configurations, I suggest you check out kde-look.org and see what they have. If you have any questions/suggestions, feel free to start a thread with the topic

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