Quick Hacks VI

Summary:

• {all} 'Error Mounting Ramdisk'
• {= 7.2} Swedish In KDE2
• {all} Checking ISOs For Errors
• {= 7.2} Corrupt auto_install Floppy
• {= 7.2} Wrong Console Font
• {= 7.2} kisdn-free Only Works For root
• {= 7.2} Helix-GNOME On LM 7.2

{all} 'Error Mounting Ramdisk'

(Contributed by Shannon B. Saylors, edited)

"I got this error:

Mount failed: Invalid Argument. Error mounting ramdisk. This shouldn't happen, and I'm rebooting your system now.

I figured it out. It wasn't my media but my downloaded file1.1 I downloaded the ISO file again and found out that my first ISO download wasn't completed (even though it said it was). Downloaded it again at night when the servers weren't busy and BOOM1.1 It worked1.1 Hope this helps someone from pulling out all their hair1.1 "

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{=7.2} Swedish In KDE2

(From Mandrake Forum)

Kenneth:
"After choosing Swedish as preferred language during install something goes wrong. The install completes and after reboot:
- The login screen displays a "?" instead of "ä"
- When logging to KDE, the workspace is blank. Only the panel is visible.
I tried Normal install and Custom install, but the result is the same and KDE2 is unusable."

Peder:
I had the same problem, along with segfaults when clicking 'Help/About' in KDE applications,and found lots of errors regarding KDE switching to default locale.
I switched to "sv" instead of "sv@ny" in '/etc/sysconfig/i18n' and everything worked out swell.

LM user Michael Restrup adds (edited):

"Adding the line

LC_ALL=sv_SE

to the file '/etc/sysconfig/i18n' will make Perl stop complaining about wrong locales settings."

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{all} Checking ISOs For Errors

A large percentage of installation errors are due to corrupt ISO images.
A way to check downloaded ISO images is running an 'md5sum' check. To do this in Windows, get md5sum.exe, switch to the directory where the ISO file is located and run (from a DOS window):

md5sum -b {name}.iso

Depending on the DOS version, you might have to rename the ISO file according to the 8.3 convention first. The program will return a 32 digit md5sum. Compare this digit with the one listed for this image in the MD5SUM file on the server where you downloaded the ISO from. Repeat for each image.

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{= 7.2} Corrupt auto_install Floppy

(Reported by Christopher M.)

"I've been getting corrupt files with the 7.2 auto-install floppy since the release. I finally figured out the problem....."
(...)
"The auto_inst.cfg file is corrupt and is never complete. The problem is that the file is to big to fit on the floppy. If you add all the files up in size, other than the auto_inst.cfg you will find that there is no room left to put this full file onto the disk."

M's Quality Assurance is investigating in this problem.

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{= 7.2} Wrong Console Font

If '/' and '/usr' lie on different partitions, the font specified in '/etc/sysconfig/i18n' doesn't get loaded, if this font isn't in the '/etc/sysconfig/console' directory.
Fix: copy the font set in '/etc/sysconfig/i18n' from '/usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts/' to '/etc/sysconfig/console/'.

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{= 7.2} kisdn-free Only Works For root

Due to wrong file permissions, kisdn-free refuses to work for users.
Fix: change permissions as explained in ISDN For Users.

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{= 7.2} Helix-GNOME On LM 7.2

After installing Helix GNOME on LM 7.2, the display manager complains about not being able to find GNOME.

Cause: Due to bug in Helix-GNOME, '/etc/X11/gdm/Sessions/Gnome' lacks the execution bit. Furthermore the execution bit, if set, will be removed on each reboot.

Fix: As 'root', do

echo 'chmod +x /etc/X11/gdm/Sessions/GNOME' >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local

Execute the chmod command itself to enable Helix GNOME in the current session.

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