FullMonty-DVD: installation and maintenance

[pinoc]

Dear all,

please use this thread to post any issues/questions when installing or using the PCLinuxOS KDE4 FullMonty DVD edition.
Any questions/issues concerning the FullMonty Light version installed via the rpm-package available in Synaptic should go in the respective thread here.

Post-install Tips & Tricks for specific FullMonty DVD-editions:
========================================
FullMonty 2011.01:
- when upgrading FullMonty 2011.01 edition to KDE 4.6.1 please follow the information here

FullMonty 2011.09:
1) a kdm update in Synaptic will replace the FullMonty login and splash screen with the default one. To restore the FullMonty versions open a terminal (konsole) in your user-account, copy/paste the following command into the terminal, and enter your root password when asked:

Code:

/usr/bin/su -c 'cd /usr/share/apps/kdm/themes;cp -f background_fm.png oxygen/background.png;cd ../../ksplash/Themes/;tar xfz Default.tar.gz'

2) do not install/use plasma-applet-takeoff or the FM-desktop will be destroyed. To add it to the list of blocked packages open a terminal (konsole) in your user-account, copy/paste the following command into the terminal, and enter your root password when asked:

Code:

/usr/bin/su -c 'echo -e "\nPackage: plasma-applet-takeoff\nPin: version 1.0-1pclos*\nPin-Priority: 1001" >>/etc/apt/preferences'

3) new FullMonty tool, fm_docuportal, can be added, more info here


A note to all COMPIZ-lovers:
=========================
Compiz is NOT compatible with the FullMonty-desktop and for this reason it has been blocked for installation in FullMonty. Please use the KDE desktop effects instead of Compiz.
If you absolutely need to have Compiz then you can also keep your current FullMonty install and do the following to get Compiz working: Note: the following steps will ruin the FM-desktop of your existing user accounts!!!
1) run fm_switcher and change to the default KDE layout
2) add a new user-account
3) in a terminal enter the command:

Code:

/usr/bin/su -c 'rm -f /etc/apt/preferences'

4) start Synaptic, Reload, and then install the shiny Compiz-stuff
5) logout and login to the newly created user-account
6) configure your compiz-settings to your liking

7) when updating you may get a problem with the package MIXXX. Please uninstall MIXXX and then install the newer version of it in order to progress with updating the system.

regards,
-p.

[barrymad]

Thanks for putting this extended version of PCLinuxOS together and making it available for download.

Have been using Fullmonty 2010v11 on a 8gb usb.also many variants of Pclos for many years.

All have giving me great pleasure to use and learn from.

Used MultiBootISOs-2.1.5.0.exe from http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ to instal and boot directly from iso on usb drive.

Seems to work quite well on various pc/laptops,may struggle if 512mb memory or less of course.
See below copy of menu.lst of Grub4dos

default 0
timeout 30
color NORMAL HIGHLIGHT HELPTEXT HEADING
splashimage=/splash.xpm.gz
foreground=FFFFFF
background=000000

# Suggested by Erhan Sohail
title Boot First Hard Drive (HDD)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
map --hook
chainloader (hd0)+1
rootnoverify (hd0)

title Restart
reboot

title Shutdown
halt

title --- Custom MultiBoot Entries ---
root

title PCLinuxOS
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /pclinuxos.iso
map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 /pclinuxos.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel (0xff)/isolinux/vmlinuz fromusb bootfromiso=/pclinuxos.iso livecd=livecd root=/dev/rd/3 acpi=on vga=788 keyb=en vmalloc=256M edd=off
initrd (0xff)/isolinux/initrd.gz
map --unhook
map --unmap=0:0xff

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ just recently added PCLinuxOS to their supported boot.iso
list and I am very happy about that.
Hope this is of interest for you.
Cheers Bmad
foot note
I found because Fullmonty is 4gb iso you must put FM on usb stick first,then add other iso,s after.
As Grub4dos may boot error ie Error 60: File for drive emulation must be in one contiguous disk area.
   

[pinoc]

Hi barrymad,

great to hear you like the FM! Just to clarify: a FullMonty installation requires at the very least 13GB of disk-space so it can not fit on a 8GB usb pendrive. However, using the PCLinuxOS LiveUSB creator script (search for lusbc in Synaptic) you can put the 4GB FM-iso on a 8GB stick and then run a FM-livesession from there, which is probably what you did 

have fun!
-p.

[saiyuki]

No problems at all but a line to say thanks for this package. The only thing i have had to change was to install Calibre as it reads many more e-book formats as well as converts between formats.

Well done 

Saiyuki

[DLWood]

I'd also like to add my big "thank you" pinoc for this excellent issue.  Very impressive indeed!  I installed The Full Monty in a 3.0GHz P4 HP desktop with 1GB of RAM and onboard Intel graphics and it runs very well.

I have a few observations and questions:

1. Is there a special repository that you prefer, or will any of them do?
2. If I save something to the "desktop" it doesn't show up visually on any of the 6 desktops as currently configured.  How to configure KDE4 such that it will show up on, say, desktop1 as default?
3. When I start Synaptic, and the system asks for the root password, the system won't take any input from the keyboard.  I have to click OK and fail once for it then to accept input.
4. The only addition I made to the vast list of applications available was "neverball" (to get neverputt).  Sure do like that putting game.

Thanks again pinoc for all your hard work!!!  It's very much appreciated.

[pinoc]

Hi salyuki & DLWood
thanks for the feedback, I will add Calibre on the next FM as the default eBook reader.

DLWood,
1) all repos have the same content, so there is no preference. But right at this moment you should read the Synaptic info of the link at the very top of this page.
2) things saved to the Desktop in fact are on the Desktop and can be found in ~/Desktop/. However, the FM does not show this Desktop but instead a set of 6 virtual desktops. To add a new launcher in any of the containers on a given virtual desktop please follow the steps outlined in the file FullMonty_readme.txt in your Home folder.
3) So far we have only one other PC with this issue and I don't have a solution for it  . However, you seem to have found a workaround. Does text input work with other applications, like kwrite? Is this a USB-keyboard? Can you try another keyboard, USB or PS/2?
4) well, there are more apps one could put on, depending on the user's preferences, but there is a limit for remastering a DVD and I try to setup a good collection of popular applications for typical user needs.

regards,
-p.

[saiyuki]

A thought concerning DLWood's predicament with inputting passwords. I'm not sure if this is the same, but i have to place my cursor inside the requestor box to be able to type anything, otherwise it remains blank. 

Good news with Calibre 

Saiyuki

[DLWood]

I'm using a PS2 keyboard; I'll try a USB keyboard soon.  I can type text using KWrite just fine.  The only thing I've found that won't accept text is that root password box for Synaptic.  Funny, yesterday I think I tried clicking inside the box with the cursor, and it still wouldn't accept any text until it failed once....today, if I click inside the box, it will accept text.

[pinoc]

I'm using a PS2 keyboard; I'll try a USB keyboard soon.  I can type text using KWrite just fine.  The only thing I've found that won't accept text is that root password box for Synaptic.  Funny, yesterday I think I tried clicking inside the box with the cursor, and it still wouldn't accept any text until it failed once....today, if I click inside the box, it will accept text.

hmm, strange, so now all works fine with the keyboard? It should cause the issue happened with a USB-keyboard but you have a PS/2-keyboard. Don't really know what to suggest as I can not reproduce and hence debug this problem. Please let me know if you find out something else in this respect.
thanks!
-p.

[pinoc]

users having installed FM-2010.11 and then run lomanager will find out that their OpenOffice launchers on desktop 2 will no longer work because they have just replaced OpenOffice with LibreOffice. To fix the launchers for LibreOffice delete all the old OpenOffice launchers in the top left container on desktop 2 and replace them with the LibreOffice launchers you want to have. Instructions how to do that are provided in the file FullMonty_readme.txt in your home directory. The LibreOffice desktop files to browse to are located in: /opt/libreoffice/share/xdg/.

This info is irrelevant for users having installed FM-2011.01 where LibreOffice is already installed.

[uncleV]

3. When I start Synaptic, and the system asks for the root password, the system won't take any input from the keyboard.  I have to click OK and fail once for it then to accept input.

Isn't this related to a different windows focusing policy that you are not accustomed to?
I mean just click in the window to be able to fill the password?

Yeah I know this is a noob's suggestion but...

[smcs_steve]

Just took FM out for a spin -- many thanks to pinoc et al and the texstar team for an amazing effort. 
I am very impressed!
Posting from a live FM session (isohybrid to USB stick with persistence)
Regards,
>Steve

[oldnewb]

This is day 2 of using FM. I love it!!! Thanks for all the hard work making this.

At the moment I just have one silly question ... if I drag an unwanted application to the trash bucket, is it totally removed or should I remove it through synaptic?

Cheers

[uncleV]

Dragging the icon to Trash removes only the icon that points to the application.
So if you want to remove (uninstall) the application you shoul do it through Synaptic.

[oldnewb]

Thanks UncleV ... that is what I figured but I just wanted to be sure.

Cheers