Mandrake 10.1 questions...
 

Okay, I just installed my first linux distro, mandrake 10.1 dual boot with MS Windows XP home. First off, on the start-up, it failed to install like maybe five or six programs that were set to install, so I may be missing a few essential applications. Immediately after installing, I ran into the problem of how do I install things using mandrake? I am not quite sure what to do with that ark utility, or even sure if that is the right utility at all to be installing tar.gz files. I did somehow manage to install firefox, and get it running (not even sure how I did that), but now it is miraculously gone (kind of confused about that). I have tried to install yahoo messenger for linux on mandrake with no luck at all, and a lot of confusion. I have a lot of software that I am very partial to, most of which runs in linux, which means I have a lot of installing to do. Yahoo has instructions on how to install on a few other distros, but mentions nothing of Mandrake. I think that is the first thing I want to install, since for some odd reason (probably due to partition errors :( ) messenger just crashes every time I run it in XP. I think if I can figure out how to install these tarball files, I can figure out most of the rest on my own...

As a second question though, I would like to know if it is possible (pretty darned sure it is) to move files (lots of them) from XP to mandrake, and if so, then how do I do that. I am pretty sure that XP was kind of jostled in a bad way by the partition operation, so I would like to just get all my music, documents, and videos off that partition, and reformat it, and reinstall XP there.

Third question: Does anyone have any recommendations for some software that will help me learn to navigate mandrake better, or aid me in my navigation of it? I am using that "gnome" interface right now, but a lot of people dislike that, so maybe I need something else. Also, what does tar.gz stand for?

Thank you all ahead of time for your help, it is much appreciated...

Ben

Yahoo Messenger: same problem:
 

I also have the same problem, I am working on it currently. When I run ymessenger, it brings up a window to setup yahoo messenger and then crashes, saying Segmentation Fault.

Let me know if you got the solution.

Yes, it works finally. Uncheck all the options (default), that asks to place icon in the desktop (kde as well as gnome), and you will be able to run it successfully. gaim also works good. now I have to choose between these two.

I assume, you have installed the yahoo messenger correctly and getting segmentation fault like I do.

GAIM and Kopete do the job fine, so its not really necessary to install the client from yahoo unless there is a specific feature you need.

I was referring to windows when I said yahoo messenger was crashing, I am running dual boot. I still have not figured out how to install yahoo messenger correctly. And yes there IS a specific feature that I need in yahoo. That feature is that everyone else I know has it!

This is obviously a Linux/Unix site, so problems with applications running on Windows, should be asked in appropriate forums or on sites that are windows specific.

It wasn't a question involving windows, I never asked how to correct that problem if you read my post.

I asked these things:

How do you install yahoo messenger on mandrake 10.1 , or any of those tar.gz files for that matter

What does Tar.Gz stand for?

Can I transfer files (lots of them) from my windows partition to my linux partition, and if so how?

Short and to the point. I guess this forum runs differently then other help forums I have visited. many others want as much information about your problem as you can give them...

Just because *everyone* is using Yahoo Messenger doesn't mean you have to run the Yahho client. ;) Try gaim, or kopete. They will both talk to yahoo, as if they were YM clients themselves. They also talk to MSN, AIM, ICQ, and IRC. One client, multiple protocols. :D

And to install gaim, just go to the Mandrake Control Center ("Star --> System --> Configuration --> Configure Your Computer"), select Software management from the left side of the panel, then select "Install" from the new panel that comes up. Enter "gaim" in the search box, and press "Search". select the file(s) that come up in the lower left box, and click "Install" at the bottom. It should ask you to enter your installation CD (one or more), and when it's done, voila! You have gaim installed, and it *should* be in your menus to use.

You posted while I was replying. ;)

"tar.gz" files are files that have been "tarred" (tar is a *nix-standard packaging method) and then "zipped" using the gzip utility. They are *source code* collections, which you need to compile and install. Mandrake newbies should almost never use tar.gz files. Use the Mandrake repositories to get software. Set up your urpmi repositories using Easy Urpmi (link is in my sig). Then use the Mandrake Control Center to download and install whet you need almost as painlessly (or even more so) as you do in Windows.

As for your files on Windows, just use your file manager (Nautilus? -- I don't use Gnome, myself) to browse to "/mnt/win_c" (or a similar name - your Windows partition as mounted in Linux), and copy them to yout home directory just like you would using Windows Explorer.

Excellent! Thanx for that! I am glad I don't have to run yahoo anymore! Though I DO play with the IMvironments sometimes... maybe one of those messengers will run the IMvironments too?

You don't actually have to transfer the files to the Linux system, if they are files like music, for instance. Your Windows file system, which is NTFS type, is mounted so you can read from it, but not write to it. This will mean that you can listen to music, watch video files, which is as it should be. If you have documents, you should copy or move them, since projects you work on don't make much sense being read-only...

I had no idea what IMVironemnts were, so I went googling. I found this: "NOTE: IMVironments are currently available only for Windows users at this time."

That didn't work... it said that the signatures didn't match. I told it to finish the install anyway, and it said there was a problem during installation, and that it needed some files (about 4 or 5 of them)...

also, I am going to download easy Urpmi, but I have no idea what "architechture" I am running. Does it matter what I put there?

Set it up as 10.1 Official, and I assume i586 architecture (the default). (Unless you are running something really strange. ;) )