Just thought I would post about my experience's with Mandrake 10.0. I have been out of the graphical side of linux for awhile, however ssh logins have been a daily ritual, and was getting sick of how expensive windows XP is, so I recently decided to install mandrake on a PC I have here. I also purchased a copy of Transgaming's Cedega for $15 bucks .. best software ever. (and point2play)

So far my setup is as follows ;

Athlon XP @ 2.5ghz
1GB RAM
GF4ti4200
Abit Nf7-s


I set out to get it to do pretty much what ever I could do with windows XP, I didn't think this goal was to unrealistic, I did some research before I selected this computer, based on hardware, chipsets, network cards, etc to see what was compatible and what wasn't. The only thing not supported was my Sata RAID... meh. I grabbed drivers for my network card and nforce2 chipset.

So far I have got almost everything to work, Firefox browser, Thunderbird email, Xpdf, acroread 5, gaim for MSN/ICQ, k3b dvd/cd burning, kwireless, xine, xmule, VLC (dvdcss etc), bittorent, ark, smb4k(win network browser), autoconf,java, flash, nmap, real player,xmms, skype,sane,xsane, cups and the list goes on. I can now play encrypted DVD's, XviD, DivX, MOV, MPG ... and with open office open any MS Office document. Networking is autospastic, my router and cable work perfectly. My wireless card is a minitar PCI 802.11, I got the source code of sourceforge (rt2400) and compiled it... followed the guide in the minitar forums . perfect. My printer works , my scanner works.

I played allot of dependency games and found allot of useful sites I thought I'd share for Mandrake 10 rpm's, which I've found are the best way to install stuff, although I compiled much from source, rpm's are so much better. This fellow has done allot of RPM"s that are extremely useful.

http://norlug.org/~chipster/rpm_index/cat2

Most People probably already have seen

http://www.kde-apps.org

and on that page is a link to

http://www.kde-look.org/

both great sources of programs , most compile easily and many of the more popular one's have rpm's


If you don't want to dish out for Cedega (I'll talk about that in a second)

try

http://frankscorner.org/

for information on getting WINE to work with most stuff.(Windows Emulation)

This place had nice info on the WINE config file

http://www.witch.westfalen.de/Wine-H...figsystem.html


This bloke seems to like Video editing stuff, lots of useful programs if you are into that

http://www.cyberknights.com.au/mdk10rpms/video.phtml


One Peave that I had, I don't know if others have had it or not but I will share it, my monitor was detected as only having refresh rates upto 75hz, this is fine really but I thought I go find out how to alter it anyway, some basic X11 config file editing here

http://mandrakeusers.org/lofiversion....php/t576.html


CEDEGA ... what more do I need to say? Get it. It's great. Two rpm's, very easy to install. Runs any game I have so far thrown at it with very little problem. Diablo II works out of the box, BF1942 needed a no-cd patch b/c of copyright protection issue's on the disc not being properly interpreted by cedega otherwise it runs really well, Doom 3 was great (if a bit slow but hey it's a ti4200), Command&Conquer the original, Red Alert the list goes on. Simple Double Click to Play, couldn't be easier. NO WINDOWS Folder needed, it makes it's own virtual drive with all the required DLL's etc ...

Any questions on how I got stuff to install or requests for RPM"s (links etc) feel free. Needless to say google is your friend for RPM's.

Regards
Luke

p.s yes my pc is watercooled.

Just a few other games to add to the list. Using Winex/Cedega I have played Jedi knight 2, Starcraft and Broodwar, Painkiller, Halflife, UT2004, Dues Ex and some others. The old argument about gaming in Linux is pretty much over.

Congrats on the install and thanks for the links.

Here is one for those interested.

www.linuxloader.com

Nice Link. Cheers !! I especially like his DVD::Rip program HowTo

Other Games include

Rune, Soldier of Fortune, Quake III, Unreal Tournament

Another nice application off KDE Apps

Fire Wall Builder

RPM's for mandrake 10 are on the site,

amazing firewall software.

So no one has any questions on getting there system running properly? Getting a game to work? A program?

:-)

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Success Stories and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Have you considered turning this into a Linux Tutorial?

Sounds like a great time you are having.
I wish I could only get my wireless to work, I am using a HP OmniBook 4150-B Laptop Running "Slackware 10"
PCMCIA card is a "Linksys WCF12" CF card in a CF to PCMCIA adapter.
Using KWiFi I am able to see the Network, AP and signal strength is excellent, however the Local IP says "Unavailable", I am new to Linux and don't know how to do much yet but I really want to learn. any help would be very much appreciated.
Thank You, Ken

mail sent.

A Tutorial hey? This weekend i'll put something together.

hey, i tried to pm you but it said i wast allowed, i dont know why cuz im activated...but anyway i have a questioned for you

concerning this part of your success story:
I can now play encrypted DVD's, XviD, DivX, MOV, MPG ... and with open office open any MS Office document.

can you tell me how you did all this? i got divx but i dont know how to install it. and doesnt mplayer play mpg and dvds?

i heard XIME will play .MOV files, and im working on that one too....

and i have no idea how you got open office to open any MSoffice doc.

can you please shoot me a pm?

Your best bet is to follow this How-to to get Mplayer working.

http://www.linuxloader.com/modules.p...howpage&pid=12

It is really not too hard to set up once you get your sources configured.