Here is a great tip to let you burn CD’s using iTunes on Vista 64 Bit.
iTunes uses Gear Software’s CD Driver but only includes and x32 driver. Download and install the x64 driver from Gear’s website http://www.gearsoftware.com/support/drivers.cfm.
The first time you use iTunes check that your cd-burner is detected in iTunes advanced/burning tab. I’ve found that if you don’t open that tab before the first time you try to burn iTunes will crash.
This works great.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Often this topic gets questions about support for older versions of Red Hat Linux (now an obsolete Linux product from Red Hat) or Fedora. Since the answer is always (almost) the same, here you can find the most important information.
Red Hat versus Fedora
In the early days, Red Hat produced two kind of Linux versions: Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Linux. RHEL was (and still is) a commercial product which still exists (RHEL5 being the latest one). RHL doesn’t exists anymore, it is followed by Fedora Core.
RHEL is commercial software and can only be updated if you buy support from Red Hat.
Fedora is partly sponsored by Red Hat and partly community driven. They intent to include the latest and newest bits and pieces. Therefor, it is called "bleeding edge" technology. Drawback might be that certain things can work differently (or don’t work at all) after the next update. Fedora technology might (!) find its way into the next version of RHEL.
Support for any version of Red Hat Linux
By using "old" Red Hat Linux versions, you use old(er) software which lack support for new technology (such as SATA). Please think about this. Since such a OS isn’t supported anymore, you won’t get any (security) updates. Of course there are ways to tweak old RHL (or perhaps Fedora Core) versions into accepting new things, but you might want to skip lots of work and go for a newer version. If you want to stay close to RHL, there are two options: Fedora or CentOS.
Alternatives to Red Hat Linux
Two most used alternatives (close to) are Fedora and CentOS.
Fedora Core has a release cycle which is approx. 2 releases a year. That means that after approx. 1 year after release, support is ended. At the moment FC6 is current, FC4 (or older) isn’t supported anymore.
CentOS is a distribution which aims to be 100% RHEL (except for logo’s, etc.). It is build with the source files (which can be downloaded for free). Just like RHEL, support is 5 years after the release.
Drawback might be that since the main focus is stability, so not every package included might be the latest and greatest. But it is stable.
Updates for RHEL
People who are using a RHEL version WITHOUT a valid Red Hat subscription can’t update it. Period. There is no workaround. Using RHEL only makes sense with a subscription, otherwise consider using CentOS.
Build a RHEL/CentOS dvd
Another frequently asked question is how to create a DVD from the cd iso’s. This can be easily done with the mkdvdiso.sh script, see attachement.
Installation :
* For Dual Boot, create an Unpartitioned/Free space. You can use GParted for resizing existing Partitions. Don’t Format newly created space. Leave it as Free, Unpartitioned. During installation, select "Use Free Space and Create Default Layout" option in partition section.
* In case, you have new Hard Disk OR you wish to install Fedora Core only ( wiping existing OS ), nothing to do.
Start Installation. Installer will do the Partitioning and Formatting stuff.
Boot Loader :
Dual boot is DEFAULT. Leave this section as it is. GRUB ( boot loader ) will recognize Windows OS.
Packages Selection:
A lot of essential packages are not included by default and its a bit problematic to install packages from DVD/CDs later on.
Select "Office and Productivity", "Software Development" and "Web Server". Click on ‘Customize Now’ button. Keep already selected packages and add ( tick checkboxes ) packages listed below :
* Desktop Environment — KDE ( K Desktop Environment ).
* Applications —
*
Development — KDE Software Development.
*
Servers –
*
Base System –
Installer took around 35 minutes to complete FC6 installation. Reboot. Adjust Display, Date & Time etc. i disabled SELinux and FireWall. I have standalone Home PC and i dont need these.
Create one user account and always use that account only. Never login as ‘root’.
Fedora Core 6 installed. System is up an running !!
*
A lot of Services run in background that a Home PC User doesn’t use/need. Stop these services to increase system’s overall performance. Click on System — Administration — Server Settings — Services and enter root password.
Un-check checkboxes of these services. (in case, you are not sure, read ‘Description’ of each service. top-right Description box.)
———————-
anacron, apmd, atd, avahi-daemon, bluetooth, cpuspeed, cups, cups-config-daemon, mdmonitor, nfslock, rpcgssd, rpcidmapd and sendmail.
———————-
Click the
save
icon. click on
Edit Runlevel
in Menu and select
Runlevel 3
, uncheck boxes here too. save and exit.
Yum Configuration
*
All
baseurl
lines are commented by default. Yum will throw an error ‘
cannot fine valid baseurl…
‘
Yum repo files are in “/etc/yum.repos.d”. Remove ‘
#
‘ sign before the
baseurl
line in all files.
*
Install repo file of Freshrpms.net repository from
. ( a download dialog box will pop up on clicking ‘here’ link, Select open with ‘Software Installer default’ ). A lot of other repositories are available for FC6. Freshrpms is enough for me and i didn’t install other repos.
* GUI
of Yum ( Yum Extender ).
yum -y install yumex
i prefer Yum Extender than ‘yum’. Yum Extender shows a list of installed/upgradeable/available packages.
Package for playing mp3, mpeg and .dat files.
Fedora does not support these out of box. I prefer ‘xmms’ for mp3 and xine for mpeg, .dat files.
yum -y install xmms xmms-mp3 yum -y install xine xine-lib xine-skins
Flash :
yum -y install flash-plugin
OR download Flash 9 beta from
.
Note: ntfs-3g
package is pre-installed in Fedora 7. skip
install ntfs-3g
section.
Install ntfs-3g :
su - yum -y install ntfs-3g
It will install ntfs-3g, fuse, and fuse-libs.
Now create a folder to be used as ‘mount point’ for NTFS partition.
mkdir /mnt/ntfs_p
Edit
/etc/fstab
file so the partition is mounted at startup
su - gedit /etc/fstab
You can use any editor. vi, kate or kwrite etc.
Add this code in
fstab
file
/dev/sda1 /mnt/ntfs_p ntfs-3g defaults,umask=0 0 0
/dev/sda1 might not be the correct partition, depending on your setup. check it…
/sbin/fdisk -l
Change SELinux to "Permissive Mode" in order for ntfs-3g to work properly at startup.
gedit /etc/selinux/config
and change the line
SELINUX=restrictive
to
SELINUX=permissive
Save and reboot. You should be able to read and write to your NTFS partition now.
* Add/Remove ( pirut ) doesn’t work with DVD/CDs.
You can’t install packages from DVD/CDs. i thought Fedora Team will sort out this problem in FC6. They didn’t.
Solution : For installing Packages from
DVD
Put ‘
#
‘ sign before
first baseurl
line in three files
fedora-core.repo, fedora-extras.repo and fedora-updates.repo
in folder /etc/yum.repos.d
#baseurl=http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/$releasever/$basearch/os/
add new line below it.
baseurl=file:///media/disk
—- create a folder ‘disk’ in /media
mkdir /media/disk
—- insert Fedora Core DVD and mount it
mount /dev/hdc /media/disk
—- clean ‘yum’ cache.
yum clean all
click on Add/Remove Softwares and install packages from DVD. for installing from internet again, put ‘#’ sign before disk’s ‘baseurl’ line and remove ‘#’ before original ‘baseurl’ line.
For CDs,
check these tutorials
,
written by
.
* No Option in GRUB to Bootup other installed Linux Distros.
like FC5, FC6 didn’t recognize other installed
*LINUX*
distros. It recognized Windows though.
Solution :
Mount partition of other distro and copy ‘title, root, kernel and initrd lines from its /boot/grub/grub.conf ( or menu.lst ) file and paste in Fedora’s /boot/grub/grub.conf file.
* Yum throws an error “cannot find valid baseurl… “
Solution :
check "Yum Configuration" section above.
I didn’t download and install a lot of packages. I will keep on updating/editing this thread. Members are Welcome to fill in install instructions for other packages and Bugs/Fixes.
Since the release of RHEL 5, some problems have seen the light that require special attention. Here, you will find useful info to work around these pitfalls. Additonal tips and tricks will be posted here from time to time.
Many other distros based on RHEL (such as Fedora, CentOS, Scientific Linux, StartCom Linux, Red Flag Linux, White Box Enterprise Linux, etc.) share (almost) the same base, so the info posted here might be usefull.
As people where posting rubbish here, this topic is now closed. If you have valuable tips or tricks, please send them by private message, they might be added here.
Before you start installing
If you have a working system, it is advised to copy your current xorg.conf file!
Keep it in a safe place for future reference!
Monitor detection/configuration
It appears that the installer does not detect (every) monitor correctly. This will result in a misconfigured xorg.conf. When you boot into runlevel 5 (graphical mode), the X-server gets wrong information (or none at all) and makes a real mess of it. There is a simple solution for this: reboot in textmode and (as root) run system-config-display.
Note: there are people who claim that they do not encounter the problem and that it is an isolated thing. I have encountered this problem on every installation I have done so far (hardware used ranging from new to old). So, should you encounter it, you know what to do.
Installing Nvidia (legacy) driver
Installing can be done in different ways, either by using the Nvidia driver or by using a Nvidia-package from Livna. Since I use the official (legacy) one by Nvidia (sorry Red Hat/CentOS people), I will guide you through that one. There is a 11-step guide:
1. Do a clean install of the operating system.
2. After "firstboot" helps you setup a user, time, etc. (SeLinux OFF!), it will reboot. Use Grub to boot into runlevel 3 (textmode).
3. Configure your monitor with system-config-display.
4. Boot into graphical mode (runlevel 5) to verify the proper configuration of the monitor.
5. Use the shell to go back to runlevel 3 (as root, init 3).
6. Update your system by using "yum update" (latest kernel!).
7. Reboot (and select the newest kernel at boot).
8. Again, drop to runlevel 3 (needed to install the Nvidia driver).
9. Install the Nvidia driver.
10. Edit and configure xorg.conf as the Nvidia readme.txt says (e.g. remove [Load "dri"] and change the "nv" driver to "nvidia").
After this, you will need to add some more specifications which you can take from the xorg.conf you saved from the previous install. Add the following:
admin | 
05 30th, 2008| 
Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "record"
EndSection
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "disabled"
EndSection
Note: not sure if the "Composite" entry is needed for a non-legacy driver (you might want to try this yourself).
11. Reboot and you’re home!
(running several things to see how much "power" the system had)
(watch the increase in FPS after all programs where terminated)
Gnome screensaver (pictures)
The Gnome screensaver gives you the option of displaying pictures. Unfortunately, it won’t give you the option to configure it graphically. If you create a directory called "Pictures" in your home directory and fill it with pictures, it will work. If you would like to change it into something more useful (I don’t have such a directory in my own home directory), take a look at the following file:
/usr/share/applications/screensaver/personal-slideshow.desktop
In it, there is a reference to "/Pictures", change that into "/any-directory-in-my-home-directory" and you’re done.
Burning rights with NeroLINUX [FC7/C5]
When you install NeroLINUX, you will come across a problem related to the the software not having rights to the cd/dvd-player and cd/dvd-burner. An IDE player and IDE burner are identified/labelled as SCSI devices (/dev/sg1 and /dev/sg2). According to the latest info, this seems to be related to a udev problem.
Note: if you have a cardreader (internally connected through USB), it could be possible that your (SATA) burner isn’t recognised.
A functional workaround: add the following to /etc/rc.local:
chmod o+r+w /dev/sg* exit
note: there is an empty line after "exit".
Burning rights with K3b [FC7]
When you fire up K3b, you will probably get a message that cdrecord and cdrao will run without root privileges. To solve this, run the following commands as root from the shell:
chmod u+s /usr/bin/cdrecord chmod u+s /usr/bin/cdrdao
Remove investment chart [C5 / FC7]
One of the packages installed (part of the gnome-applets rpm) is the Investment Chart application (showing the value of a certain stock powered by Yahoo). You won’t see it during the selection of the installation packages, but it is present in the application menu after the installation: visible with Fedora, hidden with CentOS:
# locate *invest-chart* /usr/bin/invest-chart /usr/share/applications/gnome-invest-chart.desktop
You can simply remove it with these commands:
rm /usr/bin/invest-chart rm /usr/share/applications/gnome-invest-chart.desktop
HTTPD problems [C5 / RHEL5 / SL5]
Both CentOS-5 and RHEL-5 ship with Apache 2.2. When you use the graphical configuration tool, you will have problems getting httpd to start. Reason is that the graphical configurator generates a Apache 2.0 config-file instead of a Apache 2.2 file. And these aren’t usable with Apache 2.2.
Java Runtime Environment Version 6 [C5 / RHEL5 / SL5]
Installing the latest version of Sun’s
will result in a "no Java plugin installed" situation. This is caused by the (unknown) need for a library supplied by the compat-libstdc++-33 package. During the installation of JRE, this isn’t checked (!?!). Workaround, install this package before JRE, create a symbolic llink (as described on the Java site) to the plugin and you’ll be fine.
yum install compat-libstdc++-33.i386
Note: with the latest JRE package (6 update 3), this problem is solved!
Scanning problems [C5 / RHEL5 / SL5]
If you are using Gimp and can’t select your scanner from the Import menu, there might be a problem with the plugin manager (this problem happened with CentOS5.0 after a updating a clean install). There is a simple workaround!
Give the following command as root:
/usr/sbin/gimp-plugin-mgr --install '*'
Firefox 2 + Thunderbird 2 [C5 / RHEL5 / SL5]
RHEL5 is (still) being shipped with Firefox 1.5 although Firefox 2 is out with several good improvements (tabbed browsing, beter protection against phishing, etc.). Installing Firefox 2 is possible and relatively easy to do. And Thunderbird can be installed just as easy.
Firefox
Download the latest Firefox and extract it to a proper location:
tar xvf firefox-2.0.0.11.tar.gz -C /usr/local/
Install a required library for Firefox 2:
yum install /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5
Rename the existing plugin-directory:
mv /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins15
Rename the existing Firefox executable:
mv /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/firefox15
Create a new symbolic link</a> to the new plugin-directory:
ln -s /usr/local/firefox/plugins /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
Create a new symbolic link to the new Firefox executable:
ln -s /usr/local/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox
Thunderbird:
Download the latest Thunderbird and extract it to a proper location:
tar xvf thunderbird-2.0.0.12.tar.gz -C /usr/local/
Rename the existing Thunderbird executable:
mv /usr/bin/thunderbird /usr/bin/thunderbird15
Create a new symbolic link to the new Thunderbird executable:
ln -s /usr/local/thunderbird/thunderbird /usr/bin/thunderbird
You might have to restart Firefox and Thunderbird, but after that, you’re using version 2.
Keep in mind that you need to get the updates now yourself.
Release Highlights:
The
71.86.04
NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver Set for
Linux/x86
is available for download via
and
.
The
71.86.04
NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver Set for
Linux/x86-64
is available for download via
and
.
Please note:
If you encounter any problems with the
71.86.04
NVIDIA Linux legacy graphics driver release, please start a new thread and include a detailed description of the problem, reproduction steps and generate/attach an
nvidia-bug-report.log
file (please see
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=46678
for details).
1. Do a clean install of XP on your new second HDD (D:) and boot into it (don’t panic that Vista has disappeared!)
2. Install VistaBootPro in XP (you will also need MS’s Net framework I think?)
3. Start VistaBootPro
4. Select "Manage OS entries" and add "Windows Legacy for XP"
5. Click on "Reinstall the Vista bootloader"
6. Reboot and you should see the dual boot menu!
Again, if you don’t have a Vista disk, before you try this, get somebody else to confirm as I haven’t done this, but I think this is how you would do it!
As discussed in several threads on this forum, the current NVIDIA Linux graphics driver releases (71.86.04, 96.43.05, 169.12 and 171.06) can not be installed on systems using Linux 2.6.25 kernels without prior modification.
The patches and instructions below may help users that wish or need to use the above driver releases with Linux 2.6.25 kernels. The 173.08 NVIDIA Linux graphics driver release does not require patching.
The patches can be used with both the 32-bit/x86 and 64-bit/x86-64 Linux graphics driver .run packages (-0.run, -1.run and -2.run); to patch a driver, run the unmodified .run installer with the –apply-patch command line option (see the below for examples) and the patch file with the same version number. The 169.12 patch file can be used with the 171.06 .run packages.
For example, to patch the 169.12 Linux/x86-64 (i.e. 64-bit) .run package and install the updated driver on a Linux 2.6.25 system, use:
# sh /path/to/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-169.12-pkg2.run \
–apply-patch /path/to/NVIDIA_kernel-169.12-2286310.diff.txt
# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-169.12-pkg2-custom.run
Similarly, to patch the 71.86.04 Linux/x86 (i.e. 32-bit)
.run
package and install the updated driver, use:
# sh /path/to/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-71.86.04-pkg0.run \
–apply-patch NVIDIA_kernel-71.86.04-2305230.diff
# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-71.86.04-pkg0-custom.run
NVIDIA_kernel-71.86.04-2305230.diff.txt
NVIDIA_kernel-96.43.05-2290218.diff.txt
NVIDIA_kernel-169.12-2286310.diff.txt
To take full ownership:
1. Right click file, select properties.
2. Hit security tab, select advanced
3. Click owner tab, the hit edit (accept the UAC pop-up box)
4. Select your username, click OK, accept the pop up box, then OK out of all dialogue boxes
To take full control
1. Right click file, select properties.
2. Hit security tab, then click on your username.
3. Hit edit, then click on your username on the pop up screen
4. Check the box marked "full control" under the allow heading
5. OK out of all dialogue boxes
Now you have ownership and full control of that file.
Also in the release announcement, Clement Lefebvre revealed the release date for Linux Mint 5.0 Final: "This time I would like to thank not the team but the community itself. You’ve been great at reporting bugs and describing issues and annoyances with RC1 (BETA 032). The quality of your feedback was outstanding and it really helped us making Mint 5 better. Have fun with this better Elyssa and don’t hesitate to send us comments and feedback. The Stable release should come in a week or two and after that we should be looking at the first x64 or KDE ISOs."
Linux Mint 5.0 RC2 (Elyssa) can be downloaded today from Softpedia.
Remember that this is a beta release and should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only. Please report bugs to the Linux Mint Bug Tracker.
Linux Mint is a Linux LiveCD based on the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution. Its purpose is to produce an up to date, comfortable and elegant GNU/Linux distribution.
SOURCE: softpedia.com
May 27, 2008 marks the first time that the new Windows Chief discussed Windows 7 publicly, while managing to say little to nothing. It is clear that, at this point in time, Microsoft is only ready to share information about Windows Vista’s successor with its closest partners and nothing more. Sinofsky continues to keep all the details about Windows 7 swept under a translucent rug in Redmond, but he did point out that the next version of Windows would be no more than a year and a half away.
"The timing of it depends a lot on what we wanted to achieve, and you’ve certainly heard us, and we’ve been very clear, and will continue to say that the next release of Windows, Windows 7, is about three years after the general availability of Windows Vista, and we’re committed to that, and we’ve signed up publicly to do that," Sinofsky stated in an interview forBeyond Binary.
The Windows boss also reinstated Microsoft’s commitment to major Windows releases, and pointed to Windows 7 as the next monolithic version of the operating system. "Steven Sinofsky is the senior vice president for the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group - the user experience of Microsoft Windows and Windows Live services," reads an excerpt of Sinofsky’s official biography via Microsoft.
"(…)Windows 7 is a major release," stated Christopher Flores, Director Windows Communications. "It’s hard to describe any product that is used by millions of people and worked on by thousands of engineers as anything else. That said, the long-term architectural investments we introduced in Windows Vista and then refined for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 will carry forward in Windows 7."