I bought a new PC in the fall, and had great trouble finding
a linux distribution that would install and configure properly
on it. When the Mandriva 2007 disk appeared in Linux magazine,
I tried it....and everything installed and worked! I was (am)
very happy with it. However, not all of the linux software
came with the magazine version. I purchased it recently (Powerpack) and have been installing software from the disk.

The problem is that there seem to be problems integrating the
two package sources. I managed to configure the Media Manager
to read the Powerpack DVD....I get weird messages like...
NO OKAY No Key
...packages have Bad Signatures
...unable to remove package...
...cannot run the unknown installation program...

not all of these at the same time, granted, but everytime
I add packages, they appear.
And most of the software seems to be installed correctly, with
some exceptions. I don't know if it is due to the fact that
the software comes from two different discs?

A specific problem: xfig is installed, etc.; it comes up when
I want it, but when I click on a drawing button, everything
freezes up, and the mouse has no effect... the only way to
kill it is find the process number with ps aux and kill it.
As far as I can tell the dependencies should be satisfied
automatically, but it seems like there may be something missing
that the program needs. I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling
several times, same behavior.

My question(s):
1. Is the Linux Magazine distr. meant to be usable as a
working operating system, or just to see if it works on a
specific machine?
2. Has anyone had this problems with xfig?

Thanks! Ferrel

ps: sorry for the rambling message!

I am not familiar with xfig. usually when things lock up it means a library version or permissions problem.

Start the program from a shell window by typing in its name. Depending on where it is located, you might have to type in the full path to it as well. When it starts, it'll output error messages to the console window it starts from. This will get you started on tracking down the problem.

Even if you received a stripped down mandriva installation on the magazine disk, it's still mandriva 2007. Any package should install and run. When you have all your dependencies sorted out, everything should run fine.

I have noticed that the software installer isn't completely reliable in sorting out the dependencies; I did a bunch of updates last night and I wound up finishing the job manually after the package installer failed to pick up a number of packages that were needed to satisfy dependencies. I fired up ncftp and downloaded the packages I needed then installed them with urpmi.

There have been many discussions about the Linux Magazine copy of Mandriva 2007. Its not the final Mandriva 2007 release and is full of bugs. IF you have the powerpack version of Mandriva 2007, I suggest you do a clean install.

The DVD you got from Linux Magazine was a late beta version. That issue appeared on store shelves about the same time Mandriva Linux 2007.0 (official) was released. The timing caused a lot of confusion. Many believed incorrectly that it was the final release.

I agree with the above suggestion that you install the powerpak you bought as a clean install. That should resolve any remaining problems.

gotta agree there. i too bought a linux magazine when i saw mandriva 2007 on the cover disc i was impressed as it installed smoothly and found most my hardware, internet,network,graphic card etc even got the updates and graphic card working in 3d, was great untill i had to shut down to fix a mates pc. when i rebooted my linux box the problems started.graphic card issues, internet issues
so i got the powerpack and everything is brilliaant again
id go with the powerpack

Thanks for the information. I'm going to
install the Powerpack today.

A now related problem....I tried to make a backup
of home and etc, using K3B, and later growisofs...
and both times I received the following message:

$ growisofs -Z /dev/hdc -dvd-compat -R -J /home/ferrel
:-( unable to anonymously mmap 33554432: Resource temporarily unavailable

and nothing was writted to the dvd. What does this mean?

Thanks!
Ferrel