Tips and Tricks for Linux Mandrake 9.0

by Tedi Heriyanto <tedi_h@gmx.net>, January 3, 2003
===================================================

--------------------------------------------------------------------
This writing will give you tips and tricks for doing things in Linux
Mandrake 9.0. It can contains bugs and their fixes as found by me.
It also contains some usefull lessons, earned by me in the hard way.

Please do remember that YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Recently, I installed the Linux Mandrake 9.0 by accident. :(
I tried to upgrade from Mandrake 8.2 version, but due to an unknown
error, my computer suddenly hang in the middle of installation
of Mandrake 9.0. Finally, I clean install the Linux Mandrake 9.0 in my
system. What a mess. :(

(Lesson #1 : Backup your data)

With a clean install, gone are my configuration files that resides in /etc.

(Lesson #2 : Backup your configuration files)

So here we go with the first trick :

Trick # 1: Mounting floppy and CD from the command line
-------------------------------------------------------

In my previous system (with Mandrake 8.2), I've edited the /etc/fstab
to suit my needs, mounting floppy and CD from the command line. I
tried the shortcut available in the desktop to mount removable media in Mandrake 9.0, 
but it sucks a lot.

After tinkering and punching keyboards for sometimes, I modified the
/etc/fstab file from :

...
none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/sda,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
...

to the following :

...
/dev/sda  /mnt/floppy vfat user,rw,noauto 0 0
/dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom autofs user,ro,noauto 0 0
...

Beware: I've only changed the entries appropriate for floppy and CD
only.

With modification to the /etc/fstab file above, now I can mount floppy
and CD with the following commands :

For floppy:

(mounting)   => mount /dev/sda

the floppy is mounted on /mnt/floppy

(unmounting) => umount /dev/sda

For CDROM :

(mounting)   => mount /dev/scd0

the CD is mounted on /mnt/cdrom

(unmounting) => umount /dev/scd0


Trick #2 : The system cannot be poweroff automatically
======================================================

Here is the description :

I have a computer that can be poweroff automatically using command such as 
"halt" in Linux Mandrake 8.2. But after I upgraded to Linux Mandrake 9.0, that command
doesn't work anymore. So what is the problem ?

After experimenting a lot, I finally able to figure out a solution.

The solution is to install the kernel package
"kernel-linus2.4-2.4.19-1mdk" and use that instead the default kernel
supplied by Mandrake 9.0. Please do not forget to modify your
/etc/lilo.conf to include this kernel.

My /etc/lilo.conf is like the following :

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
vga=normal
default=2419-1linus
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
	label=linux
	root=/dev/hda7
	initrd=/boot/initrd.img
	append="quiet devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi"
	read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.19-1mdklinus
	label=2419-1linus
	root=/dev/hda7
	initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.19-1mdklinus.img
	append="quiet devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi"
	vga=normal
	read-only