Author Topic: Linux bound, but with problems to overcome.  (Read 2914 times)

TehRoxor

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Linux bound, but with problems to overcome.
« on: 26 January 2004, 08:12 »
I have had Mandrake Linux 9.2 installed for about a month now, and recently I've decided to start using Linux more than Windows(Due to frustration with the product itself as well as the bad ethics of the Microsoft Corporation). In order to become completely comfortable with Linux, I want to fix a few problems I have been having.

  • Screen "wobbles." This may come from a bad driver or refresh rate problem. I have an "NVidea XFX Geforce fx 5200 256MB" and a 21 inch Sony Trinitron.
  • I can't seem to get Flash or Java working with Mozilla. I am using Mozilla 1.5. When I try to install the Flash plugin, it says it is successfully installed but it does not work. Sun's Java plugin is acting similarly. I can't get a lot of other Mozilla plugins to work as well, such as the "Optomoz" mouse gestures. I tried installing that plugin as root. That worked, but then Mozilla would only open as root. I had to reinstall Mozilla to get it to work for any user.
  • Printer does not print properly. I have a Lexmark Z25 which isn't directly supported. I selected a similar model only to have it spit blank pages out at me upon attempting to print anything. Any ideas on how I can get it to work?
  • And not nearly as important: I would like to get my Microsoft USB SideWinder and/or my My Gravis Gamepad pro working. I like to play roms using my controllers...
  • Even less important: Are there any media players as good as Winamp 5? I do have XMMS, but that's nowhere near as good as Winamp 5. I can't get it to work with Wine either...
If anybody could help with any of those, I would greatly appreciate it. If you need more information, just ask.

I hope to become a regular member of this forum
Coming soon.

TheQuirk

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« Reply #1 on: 26 January 2004, 08:26 »
Screen: you have to be a bit more specific here. did you install the nVidia drivers?

Flash: did you use the installation utility?

Printer: Official drivers are available. Try them out.

Controllers: http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~vojtech/joystick/

Your Gravis one is supported. I'm not sure about the MS one--didn't search.

TehRoxor

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« Reply #2 on: 26 January 2004, 21:29 »
Wow, thanks. My printer works fine now. I'm about to work on the controllers. As for the flash plugin, yes, I did use the intallation utility... I think. I'll look for driver for my graphics card. I suppose that should have been the first thing to do...

Edit: The XFX website only has a fake link for a Linux driver. Does one exist?

[ January 26, 2004: Message edited by: Teh_Roxor ]

Coming soon.

Refalm

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« Reply #3 on: 26 January 2004, 15:19 »
I like Noatun better than XMMS.

flap

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« Reply #4 on: 26 January 2004, 16:00 »
quote:
Even less important: Are there any media players as good as Winamp 5? I do have XMMS, but that's nowhere near as good as Winamp 5. I can't get it to work with Wine either...


Just out of interest, how is winamp 5 better?
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restin256

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« Reply #5 on: 26 January 2004, 17:18 »
I like XMMS for audio but Totem for video. For some reason the default player skips.

preacher

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« Reply #6 on: 26 January 2004, 18:51 »
quote:
Originally posted by Teh_Roxor:
I am using Mozilla 1.5. When I try to install the Flash plugin, it says it is successfully installed but it does not work. Sun's Java plugin is acting similarly.


http://howto.linuxkungfu.org/java/
Here is a tutorial on java in mandrake 9. You will have to change a few things. First the instructions for the version of java you use. Second the location of the mozilla directory.

Mandrake doesn't come with Java support. Kaffe doesn't count. So here is the way I get the official Sun Java to work on my Mandrake 9 install. It works well enough that I can run Java apps such as LimeWire, so I imagine that it is working properly. I'm not a huge fan of Java, although it is nice to have official something for Linux.

I will assume for this tutorial that you are mildly familiar with the command line, so I will not tell you to press Enter every time, and I won't tell you to open a console. I will assume that you know how to browse webpages and know how to download a file to your home directory. If you can't do these things, find out first, and then come back to this tutorial later. But if you managed to get Linux installed, you ought not to have a problem with this.    

Go and download the Java RPM from Sun's Java Page. The most current version at the time of this writing is j2re1.4.1, and I will assume that you have the same version. So make changes where appropriate if you have a different version.

When you reach the page that lists all the downloads, choose the JRE Download for "Linux RPM in self-extracting file." Save this to your home directory somewhere. If you want to do Java developing, you can get the SDK version, which is nearly twice the size, and requires an extra couple of steps that I will outline below.

Now, from a console, you need to run this file like so: sh j2re-1_4_1_01-linux-i586-rpm.bin. Read the license and agree to it. After you accept the license, it will extract the RPM. (If you got the SDK, substitute the filename where appropriate.)

This will produce an output file called j2re-1_4_1_01-fcs-linux-i586.rpm, which you must now install. In the console, run su. Enter the password for root when it asks you for it. Now, run rpm -ivh j2re-1_4_1_01-fcs-linux-i586.rpm. The Sun JRE is now installed, but it is not the default for your system yet. We will fix this now. (If you got the SDK, substitute the filename where appropriate.)

In the same console, as the root user still, we must go and delete the old symlinks and replace them with new ones that point to the Sun Java binaries.

If you downloaded the J2RE, run the following sequence of commands:

cd /usr/bin
rm java javac jar
ln -s /usr/java/j2re1.4.1_01/bin/java java

If you downloaded the J2SDK, run the following sequence of commands:

cd /usr/bin
rm java javac jar
ln -s /usr/java/j2sdk1.4.1_01/bin/java java
ln -s /usr/java/j2sdk1.4.1_01/bin/javac javac
ln -s /usr/java/j2sdk1.4.1_01/bin/jar jar

Now, in order to be able to use Java in browsers, such as Mozilla, Galeon, and so forth, you must complete these additional steps:

cd /usr/lib/mozilla-1.1/plugins/

If you got the J2RE, use this command:
ln -s /usr/java/j2re1.4.1_01/plugin/i386/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji.so libjavaplugin_oji.so

If you got the J2SDK, use this command:
ln -s /usr/java/j2sdk1.4.1_01/jre/plugin/i386/ns610/libjavaplugin_oji.so libjavaplugin_oji.so

Now you are done, and you can close the console. Try installing a Java program, such as LimeWire, and it should work just fine.

I will try to keep this tutorial up to date from time to time, but it is not really my priority, since I really only installed Java for the purpose of installing LimeWire.
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TehRoxor

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« Reply #7 on: 27 January 2004, 00:17 »
Wow, thanks ThePreacher! That was a lot of help and now I have java working fine.

flap: Most of all, XMMS is based on Winamp 2, which lacks many features that Winamp 5 has(rating of songs, a media library to name two).

Does anyone know how to get Media Keys(Stop, play/pause, skip, mute, etc.) to work on a keyboard that has them?

[ January 26, 2004: Message edited by: Teh_Roxor ]

Coming soon.

hm_murdock

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« Reply #8 on: 27 January 2004, 02:46 »
so Winamp 5 does the things that iTunes has done all along!

cool

as for rating songs, who gives a shit? I go to the one I like and play it. who needs to rate them. I know what I like
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Fett101

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« Reply #9 on: 27 January 2004, 06:06 »
quote:
Originally posted by Teh_Roxor:
Does anyone know how to get Media Keys(Stop, play/pause, skip, mute, etc.) to work on a keyboard that has them?



Winamp 5 has a scankeys thing built in to do that. Darn.

TehRoxor

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« Reply #10 on: 28 January 2004, 04:54 »
quote:
Originally posted by Jimmy don't give a shit about MS:
so Winamp 5 does the things that iTunes has done all along!

cool

as for rating songs, who gives a shit? I go to the one I like and play it. who needs to rate them. I know what I like


Well, apparently I do. I rated all of my songs. That made it easy to enqueue all of my 5 star songs,
5 and 4 star, etc.

There is no iTunes for Linux.
Coming soon.

flap

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Linux bound, but with problems to overcome.
« Reply #11 on: 28 January 2004, 05:04 »
quote:
Does anyone know how to get Media Keys(Stop, play/pause, skip, mute, etc.) to work on a keyboard that has them?


Depends what window manager you're using. You have to map the keys to the relevant command. e.g. you map the skip button to "xmms -f" (if you're using xmms that is).

[ January 27, 2004: Message edited by: flap ]

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Master of Reality

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« Reply #12 on: 28 January 2004, 16:05 »
does anyone know if there is a utility in mandrake to map keys?

[ January 28, 2004: Message edited by: The Master of Reality ]

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Kintaro

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« Reply #13 on: 28 January 2004, 16:37 »
quote:
Originally posted by The Master of Reality:
does anyone know if there is a utility in mandrake to map keys?

[ January 28, 2004: Message edited by: The Master of Reality ]



http://www.google.com.au/search?q=utility+in+mandrake+to+map+keys&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&meta=