Could anyone help me with some newbie questions wrt Mandrake 6.0? They are:
1. By default KDE 1.1 was installed. How do I switch to Gnome? Ideally in a
way that makes it easy to switch back to KDE 'cause I figure Gnome is not
yet complete enough to use day-to-day but I would like to take a look at it?
2. How do I switch window managers in KDE? I had been playing around with
SuSe which makes it easy (via the Yast utility) and something similar would
be great.
3. I used the Mandrake-supplied 'update' utility to install newer versions
of the KDE packages but the next time I started X my desktop icons were all
black and although I could move the mouse cursor around and bring up the KDE
menus, any applications I tried to run just froze. Also when I tried to
logout of X the system froze completely (or at least I couldn't find a way
to quit). Any ideas?
4. I'm assuming that the 'proper' way to update / install packages is to use
something like KPackager but I'm not sure exactly how to use it. Should I
start KFM, point it at an FTP site (suitable URLs, anyone?) and then just
drag packages over to KPackager? Or is Xrpm the best thing to use? Has
anyone got a URL for some step-by-step instructions on the subject of "how
to keep your Linux installation up-to-date"?
5. Assuming I get to the point of understanding how to do #4, is installing
KDE 1.2 just going to be a matter of following the same process as for any
other RPMs?
6. I was initially tempted to try something other than SuSe because I was
unhappy about Yast, in effect, abstracting me from the 'normal' way to
configure Linux. To be honest, I ended up selecting Mandrake purely because
it was the only other distro on the shelf in my local PC World. Have I made
a bad choice? I know Redhat is considered to be somewhat buggy so I'm a
little uneasy about Mandrake's RH parentage, particularly as I've already
experienced a few lock-ups (although to be fair these have all been whilst
using KDE rather than any command-line stuff). I *really* don't intend to
start some kind of distribution advocacy thread here but I'd appreciate some
comments as I'd like to feel more comfortable with my choice before I start
to venture into the unknown and try to do anything more advanced with Linux.
Thanks for your time. Sorry for the pathetically basic nature of these
questions but I'm willing to learn, I just need a little hand-holding as I
make my first steps away from being an NT-head (oh, the shame).
Mike Cunningham
