hello.

new to linux

during startup, linux checks for new hardware.
this process takes about 1 minute.
I was wondering how I could disable this feature to decrease
boot time. If new hardware is to be added, I could enable this feature manually.

oh and another thing:

the mandrake 9.1 distribution had an older version of Gaim.
I understood that there is a newer version, and one that is GTK2,
meaning with the nice fonts I uninstalled the previous Gaim using the ordinary "package uninstall" option, but when I try do run the new gaim-0.68-1mdk9.1.i586.rpm,

it just says that everything is already installed.
or for a konsole transcript:

[mxz@HOME Downloads]$ rpm -Uvh gaim-0.68-1mdk9.1.i586.rpm
gaim-0.68-1mdk9.1.i586.rpm: read manifest failed: Success

thank you in advance for help
and please be tolerant

P.S specs:
amd athlon xp 2200+
Epox Nforce2 m/b
512 DDR Kingston PC333
80gb Matrox and a 60gb Baracude drives
PixelView NVidia Geforce 3
Realtek "generic" 100mbit LAN adapter

the second question: you have to be root to install an rpm. So first su to become root and then rpm -Uvh etcetc. If you've uninstalled the old version already, the option would -ivh (but I think the U option doesn't actually hurt in this case).

the first question: go to mandrake control center -> system ->drakxservices. Uncheck harddrake to start at boot and it will no longer check your new hardware each time you boot. You can also go through the other services that are listed to start at boot time and if you don't need some of them, you can disable them too.

thanks, i got the harddrake.

but i still get the:

[root@HOME Downloads]# rpm -Uvh gaim-0.68-1mdk9.1.i586.rpm
gaim-0.68-1mdk9.1.i586.rpm: read manifest failed: Success

when trying to install Gaim.

there might be a problem with the rpm. Try install texstar's gaim rpm. You can add his repository to your software sources manager so that you can download things using urpmi/rpmdrake. Go here:
http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon/urpmiweb.php