While I was installing mandrake for the first time (and the first time I have ever used linux) I seemed to do OK until I was asked for the commercial apps cd 2. It took the cd and seemed to finish loading (after 30min) but then gave me an error message that the cd-rom or cd-rom device was defective and took me back to the "choose your package" screen. I have since installed linux by just cancelling those CD's when prompted to put them in, but I feel like there is a lot of software that I am missing, not the least of which is star office 6.0. I am also having a hard time installing these apps from the cd itself. I am not getting an error message, just really difficult for me to convert over from the windows xp way of doing things. Ultimately I would like to reinstall linux using those cd's any thoughts???

Hmmm well here goes nothing.. If you can get an Xwindows system (not that you need one to install but you need one to run), i would suggest using RPM command and load up the packages...I just finished installing a star office package from a red hat distro (even though i'm running mandrake damn am i bo0tleg haha just playin)....give that a shot..RPm....but in gui, you can just click on the executable for star office...clik away...

Snake, I have had similar problems. When you are doing the install, make sure that the CD is clean. Also, make sure that you have a complete disc (md5 check) and that you are only using 1 CDROM drive.

One other thing, if you get the 1 CD to install, you can do what fa0na0ki said, only use mandrake software update. It will ask you which discs you have, and you can tell it you have all 3.

Then go through and select which packages you want to install and VIOLA! there they are.

Did you buy the discs or d/l them? You may find out that you actually didn't want a lot of the stuff on the other 2 discs anyway. If you are looking for a specific program/game you can always just plop in the CD and go into the RPM directory and install it.

I love Mandy 8.2 so if you have any q's, please don't hesitate to ask, I would love to help.

MC,

Yeah, I think you're right. I was reading and I think using the "package install" option might be the right thing for me to do. One problem though is that I have no idea what programs do what. I can get to the rpm's, but do I want to load this program, and where does it go once I load it? I have been using nautilus as my file manager, but I am not yet used to the linux hierarchy.