Hi. I have given up on Fedora 5 and have had great success with (simply) mepis3.4, just 3 liitle problems to fix and I'm happy.

1: I'm hoping I can play commercial DVD's again, just like I could before on that evil operating system that has been rotting my brain for the last ten years or so...just like yum was dodgy on FC5, so is apt-get update not working. I've tried editing my pico /etc/apt/sources.list , but still cant get libdvdcss2..

2:Also if someone could point out how I can get screen res up to 1200x1024, I'd be very happy. I have a BenQ FP951 lcd display and an invidia Geforce fx5200 card and Mepis 3.4-3 from Linux format DVD. I'm in Australia.

3: I have fvwm on DVD(LXF79) and I tried to install it using kpackage but it gave a lot of dependency errors. Is there a newbie - step by step guide to installing FVWM somewhere?

Thank you for helping to make the universe a better place.

Welcome to Mepis.

1. Add this to the /etc/apt/sources.list (or uncomment if there). Can't remember but I think libdvdcss is in etch. If not use stable
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org etch main

2. don't know

3. you could probably install it through kpackage/synaptic/apt-get.
apt-get update
apt-get install fvwm

Thank you. I'll focus on item 1. The DVD playback. I've tried your suggestion (both etch and stable) and I get:
"root@1[~]# apt-get install libdvdcss2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Package libdvdcss2 is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source"

followed by lots of other stuff I know is because my sources list has been played with too much.
Here it is (nano /etc/apt/sources.list):

oops site wont allow me to post urls, will try to post it in a reply to this.

Thank you for your help. My son will be pleased when I've fixed this up so he (and I) can watch movies together.

ok this is post 3

"# See sources.list(5) for more information

# This file should be edited through synaptic
# New sources should be added only in the section at the end of this file!

# Primary
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org stable main
deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main
deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/ unstable main
deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

# MEPIS apt pool - specific packages available on-line
deb http://apt.mepis.org/3.3.2/ unstable main


# mplayer
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ unstable main

deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ unstable main

deb ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ unstable main





## deb deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ sarge main
## deb deb http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian sarge main
## deb deb-src http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian sarge main"

Uncomment or remove these lines (not needed)

# mplayer
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ unstable main
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ unstable main


and then make this part read as below.

# Primary
deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org stable main
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org testing main
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org unstable main

Then apt-get update
apt-get install libdvdcss2

Or if you prefer in kpackage or synaptic you need to reload (update) then you should see a list of packages in "new."

Made changes as suggested, but still no joy. This is what I get:

root@1[~]# apt-get update
Err ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing Release.gpg
Could not connect to ftp.us.debian.org:21 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out
Err http://apt.mepis.org unstable Release.gpg
Could not connect to apt.mepis.org:80 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out
Err http://www.debian-multimedia.org stable Release.gpg
Could not connect to www.debian-multimedia.org:80 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out
Err ftp://mirrors.kernel.org unstable Release.gpg
Could not connect to mirrors.kernel.org:21 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out
Err ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable Release.gpg
Could not connect to ftp.us.debian.org:21 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out
Err http://www.debian-multimedia.org testing Release.gpg
Could not connect to www.debian-multimedia.org:80 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out
Err http://www.debian-multimedia.org unstable Release.gpg
Could not connect to www.debian-multimedia.org:80 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out
Failed to fetch ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists...ng/Release.gpg Could not connect to ftp.us.debian.org:21 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out
Failed to fetch ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists...le/Release.gpg Could not connect to ftp.us.debian.org:21 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out
Failed to fetch http://www.debian-multimedia.org/dis...le/Release.gpg Could not connect to www.debian-multimedia.org:80 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out
Failed to fetch http://www.debian-multimedia.org/dis...ng/Release.gpg Could not connect to www.debian-multimedia.org:80 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out
Failed to fetch http://www.debian-multimedia.org/dis...le/Release.gpg Could not connect to www.debian-multimedia.org:80 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out
Failed to fetch http://apt.mepis.org/3.3.2/dists/unstable/Release.gpg Could not connect to apt.mepis.org:80 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out
Failed to fetch ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/dist...le/Release.gpg Could not connect to mirrors.kernel.org:21 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out
Reading package lists... Done
W: Couldn't stat source package list ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.us.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/contrib Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.us.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list ftp://ftp.us.debian.org testing/non-free Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.us.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.us.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/contrib Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.us.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_contrib_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/non-free Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.us.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_non-free_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://www.debian-multimedia.org stable/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/www.debian-multimedia.org_dists_stable_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://www.debian-multimedia.org testing/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/www.debian-multimedia.org_dists_testing_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://www.debian-multimedia.org unstable/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/www.debian-multimedia.org_dists_unstable_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://apt.mepis.org unstable/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/apt.mepis.org_3.3.2_dists_unstable_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list ftp://mirrors.kernel.org unstable/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/mirrors.kernel.org_debian_dists_unstable_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Any suggestions?

I tried clicking on some of those links. SOmetimes I get a directory tree, othertimes I get:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE etc...

It might be a problem with your router/modem setup.
Have a look in the Mepis OScenter/Network interfaces/DNS and I have clicked use DHCP for DNS and timeout 20secs.
Check your ethernet card is set correctly too.

DHCP is set for DNS with 20s timeout. eth0 is also set for DHCP for ip. I dont have any trouble accessing the web or other computers on my home network. As for router settings, it seems to work fine? I havent changed the settings since I abandoned windows and it worked ok then (seems to work ok now too except I cant apt-get update).
So what else could be stopping apt-get from working?

Hmm

Maybe something got stuck when you first tried to install libdvdcss2.

Try this as root

apt-get -f install

This will fix any previous failed installation attempts, and hopefully then allow you to do an
apt-get update

apt-get -f install didnt help, same errors as above?

any ideas?

I'm running out of ideas.

As root apt-get clean, might do it.

It could be that you may have to re-install apt.

apt-get clean didnt work either.

It might help to know that I had similar problems with fc5 in that yum wouldnt work either. I'm using a netcomm NB5 modem router. looking at its setup it says I'm using PPPoe and NAT and firewall. I tried to disable NAT and firewall on the router, but this didn't help either.

I'd love to re-install apt but dont know how, seing as how yum wouldnt work, do you think reinstalling apt will really help?.

If yum wouldn't work either then it must be something to do with your modem/router and/or your IP provider not allowing you to connect.
Sorry, I'm out of ideas.

Edit: Last idea. Try disabling guarddog firewall software.