Just a shot in the dark, try entering "uptime." Does the system load go way up when this is happening? One possible cause is something in a profile script looping. For instance, on some older versions of RedHat, any command in ~/.bashrc would call ~/.bashrc again. ... View more

I'm not sure I can suggest much more about the WLAN card. I do have another suggestion on the soundcard, though. Try "alsamixer" and play around with the settings. The new on-board soundchips have a lot of off-the-wall settings that kmix doesn't recognize. In particular, they have multiple PCM channels that sometimes bypass other settings such as "master." Alsamixer is a text-based mixer; you'll have to bring it up in a console window. The odd channels show up at the far right. (use right-arrow to scroll.) Most of the ones I've seen are called "VIA DXS," others are "Sigmatel." It depends on the chipset. ... View more

What OS are you running? Fedora Core 5 has some "issues" with the mixer. Only root and the first user to log in can set the mixer. This is a "feature." I think they've crossed the line between "secure" and "paranoid." How hard is it to stick a dummy plug in the microphone jack? Presumably this "feature" can be disabled on installation, but it doesn't always seem to work. Check your permissions on "/dev/mixer" to see who is allowed to access it. For your WLAN card, you probably need to add the packages to "modules.config" or "modprobe.conf," but I'm not very familiar with the syntax. Personally, I'd simply stick the modprobe commands in a script that runs on boot. ... View more

I think what Ivan is trying to say is that you SHOULD be running ntpd. Check the man pages on ntpd and ntpdate. In a nutshell, here are the commands I call from a cronjob to set the time. Note that ntpd has to be stopped before running netdate. killall ntpd /usr/sbin/ntpdate -B pool.ntp.org /usr/sbin/ntpd hwclock --systohc At bootup, "-b" should be used instead of "-B." You don't want to change the slew based on a free-running hardware clock. ... View more

I'd say you're right. It appears that the drive writes CD's but only reads DVD's. A number of the fields, including "Identifikation," are simply the manufacturers description read from the devices ROM chip. It can say anything they want and, intentional or not, it can be misleading as to whether the drive is capable of writing DVD's or only CD's. Here is a comparison of the "Device seems to be" fields in your output and some of my drives: Yours: Generic mmc2 DVD-ROM. Pluto: Generic mmc2 DVD-ROM. Falcon: Generic mmc2 DVD-R/DVD-RW. Serv01: Generic mmc2 DVD-R/DVD-RW. Gaia: Generic mmc2 DVD-R/DVD-RW. Hera: Generic mmc CD-ROM. "Pluto" is an HP Pavillion xz-275 laptop that has a factory CD writer but only reads DVD'S. The next three have DVD writers. And, for comparison, "Hera" only has a CD-reader. ... View more

Maybe the problem is just that--bad media or media incompatible with your drive. I have a spindle of Phillips DVD-R's, and about 80% of them return that error. I've had no problems at all with other brands. "Growisofs" is working for me, but I had the same problems you did with xcdroast and k3b. However, the discs I tried with those were all ruined, so, be sure to try a fresh disc. Here are a couple of commands I sometimes use to check the status of my drive and media. It might help. cdrecord -atip cdrecord -toc Here's the end of what "-toc" reports on those bad Phillips discs. Sense Key: 0x2 Not Ready, Segment 0 Sense Code: 0x3A Qual 0x00 (medium not present) Fru 0x0 Sense flags: Blk 0 (not valid) cmd finished after 0.000s timeout 40s cdrecord: No disk / Wrong disk! ... View more

Try using "groisofs." If not already installed, it should be on FC5 install discs. Here's the command line I use in a script. In the example "$V" is the volume name, which the script sets to the date and time. "/dev/hdd" is the writer's device name. Whatever I want to write to the DVD goes in directory "/cdwrite/data." If it's big, place a link to it in that directory. "growisofs" will create the image file and write it to the DVD on the fly. -------- cut here ---------------------- growisofs -Z /dev/hdd -V"$V" -R -J /cdwrite/data -------- cut here ---------------------- ... View more

I haven't seen your soundchip, but on most of the ones I've dealt with there are a number of mic settings under alsamixer. Here's a script I use to initialize my mixer. Your "numid's" will probably be different,but it will give you an idea what to look for. You can get a list of what you have and how they are set with this command. Redirect it to a file as it will be long: amixer contents Pay particular attention to "Mic Select." Most on-board sound chips have a lot of features that aren't implemented on the motherboard. Multiple mic's are one, and the wrong one may be selected. Also check "Capture Source" if you're trying to record from the mic. My script: ############################################# # Mic Boost (+20dB)--numid=15--type=BOOLEAN # ############################################# A="amixer cset numid=15 1" ; $A > /dev/null if [ $? != 0 ] ; then echo $A ; fi # : values=off ######################################### # Mic Select--numid=32--type=ENUMERATED # ######################################### A="amixer cset numid=32 1" ; $A > /dev/null if [ $? != 0 ] ; then echo $A ; fi # ; Item #0 'Mic1' # ; Item #1 'Mic2' # : values=1 ############################################### # Mic Playback Switch--numid=13--type=BOOLEAN # ############################################### A="amixer cset numid=13 0" ; $A > /dev/null if [ $? != 0 ] ; then echo $A ; fi # : values=off ####################################################### # Mic Playback Volume--numid=14--type=INTEGER--max=31 # ####################################################### A="amixer cset numid=14 31" ; $A > /dev/null if [ $? != 0 ] ; then echo $A ; fi # : values=31 ############################################# # Capture Source--numid=26--type=ENUMERATED # ############################################# A="amixer cset numid=26 5" ; $A > /dev/null if [ $? != 0 ] ; then echo $A ; fi # ; Item #0 'Mic' # ; Item #1 'CD' # ; Item #2 'Video' # ; Item #3 'Aux' # ; Item #4 'Line' # ; Item #5 'Mix' # ; Item #6 'Mix Mono' # ; Item #7 'Phone' # : values=5,5 ... View more

Can't you just use "ctrl-alt-F2" to come up with a command prompt at a virtual console? It sounds like this is what you want to do. I don't understand why you don't want to use runlevel 3 if you don't need a graphic environment. ... View more

Just so you'll know you're not alone: I have a similar setup, using Fedora Core 3, except my Logitech PS2 trackball works fine through the Belkin switch, and the Logitech USB trackball does not. My hope is that when I upgrade this machine to Fedora Core 5 the problem will go away. It's resolved some mouse issues on other machines. ... View more

I read your second post more closely. If the user was not listed in /etc/shadow to start with, that was your problem. "Passwd" will not create a password where none exists. If the user is not listed in /etc/passwd then I would edit that file to create the account manually. Here is an example: steve:x:500:100:Steve:/home/steve:/bin/bash The fields are: 1: Username 2: Always "x" (I suppose this field was once used for the password) 3: Userid: A unique number, but similar to other users' id's. 4: Group id: Same as the other users. 5: User's real Name 6: User's home directory 7: Login shell. ... View more

I'm not sure if you've checked this or not: There IS an entry in /etc/shadow for this user, isn't there? If not, you could simply copy your (or root's) entry and change the user name. Then you should be able to change the password as root, or log in as the user (using the password for whoever you copied) and use passwd to change the password. ... View more

Vitally hit the nail right on the head! Since my "guru" switched to a Debian distro (which I don't care for), I'm pretty much on my own. FC5 is my favorite, with SuSE 10.1 as a close second. FC5 suports my HP R707 camera (the subject of an earlier thread) and SuSE doesn't. Consider carefully how much security (or paranoia) you want during install. For a home user "selinux" can be a pain, the firewall is good for the internet, but annoying on a LAN, and when setting up the soundcard there is a security feature you might want to turn off if you want more than one person to be able to use the mixer. (I forget what it's called, but there is only one such feature on by default.) ... View more

Kmail is my favorite. It's not hard to set up. If you're getting your mail from an IP you'll need their server name and your password. You might want to check with their tech support, particularly on the server name. If you have a local mail server mounted you simply put in the path, for example "/mnt/ns1/var/spool/mail/(username)." If you have both types, simply set up multiple accounts and it will check them all. I alias all my local mail to ns1 so I don't have to set up an account on each individual machine to get the logs. ... View more