Ok I got Mandrake 8.2 and it sucks that all i gotta say about that but im trying to fix this damn problem ok when i try to load programs every once in awhile i gotta keep clicking on it i admit my comp is alittle slow for this distro but like when its going to load up it doesnt take that long to boot. And it a message will pop up every once in awhile stating i gotta modify my /dev/null file or something???? what does that do?? and i tryed to change my host name and i went into the terimal and su and typed hostname blahblah ok that worked fine and i loged out so it would change ok when i loged back in it said was unable to find this host blahblah this will affect gnome??? plz help me

Matt3333

what specific errors are you getting /dev/null is basically nothing so an exact error would be helpful and to change your hostname what are you changing it to what kind of network are you on btw more details will help us out and specific errors helps as well also post your hosts file it could be a problem with that make sure you have something like 127.0.0.1 localhost in there along with your host name of your computer in most cases.

I would first turn off the hourglass icon for application loading (found somewhere in the look and feel section of KDE configuration). It sometimes mucks up the works. Next, I would try running problem apps from a command line (open a shell after finding out the what the command line is for launching that app, then launch it from command line so that you can see the full error message). You may have some form of broken dependency or something. Also, if you installed to a 586 generation processor (Pentium I&II, AMD K6, etc.) you should have installed using the patch disk, which can be created from the link found on Mandrake's errata page. Otherwise, your installation may be nerfed...

Make sure you install keeping you /home partition seperate and adequate in size for your needs, to that you don't loose data. You can easily re-install without re-formating the /home partition and have maintained all your user data and settings intact.

Mandrake is sometimes a problem as a distribution because it utilizes a a less standard CD format (700 MB vs. 650 MB). The result is some CDs have problems with the install and sometimes packages don't get installed during installation phase.

Hope this helps.