LINUX Mageia 3 Handbook
for the HP PC

Compiled by: Waldis Jirgens. Last update May 13, 2015.

I have installed Mageia 3 on this PC, upgrading the previous Mageia 2 which replaced OpenSuise 10.2. It serves as PC for my wife.

Note that the usual disclaimer applies:
If you use this information here, don't blame me, should you, your data, or your PC get hurt!

This is a supplement to my original Linux Mandriva handbook.
Installation
Installed RPMs
Hardware
Some Control Tables
Partitions
Some File Locations
Upgrading via RPMS
Changing System Settings
Boot Loader
Window Manager
Applications

Text Editors
Word Processing
Spreadsheets
Screen Capture
Graphics Editors
Browsers
Midi Sequencers
Utility

Mageia Links:
For online Mageia documentation try: http://www.mageia.org/en/support/
There are several types of manuals and a Wiki available.

Installation:
I installed the KDE version from the installation DVD without problems.

After the regular installation I installed some additional rpms from the installation DVD. Also:
Seamonkey suite, xfe file manager, gftp file transfer program, audacity audio editor.
Also:
mozplugger-1.14.4-1.mga2
TiMidity++-2.13.2-32.mga2
mpg123-1.13.8-1.mga2
flash-plugin-10.1.102.64-0.1.el5.rf.i386.rpm

Hardware
CPU: Dual Intel Core 2 at 2.13 GHz, Memory: 1 GB, Integrated graphics controller, integrated Intel audio controller.
Monitor: Flat panel LCD Model E190HQV. Resolution: 1366x768px.

Hard Drive (SATA):

    HDD: SATA
    Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
    Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
 
    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1         523     4200966   83  Linux
/dev/sda2             524       60801   484183035    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5             524         785     2104483+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6             786        3396    20972826   83  Linux
/dev/sda7            3397       60801   461105631   83  Linux

Some Control Tables
Grub menu.list:

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,5)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=934fa529-f07c-433c-9b15-021bc422ddd8 splash quiet resume=UUID=6de2acb7-3214-48a0-adde-aafb2f2de426 vga=788
root (hd0,5)
initrd /boot/initrd.img

title desktop 3.3.6-2.mga2
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz-3.3.6-desktop-2.mga2 BOOT_IMAGE=desktop_3.3.6-2.mga2 root=UUID=934fa529-f07c-433c-9b15-021bc422ddd8 splash quiet resume=UUID=6de2acb7-3214-48a0-adde-aafb2f2de426 vga=788
root (hd0,5)
initrd /boot/initrd-3.3.6-desktop-2.mga2.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=934fa529-f07c-433c-9b15-021bc422ddd8 splash quiet resume=UUID=6de2acb7-3214-48a0-adde-aafb2f2de426
root (hd0,5)
initrd /boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=934fa529-f07c-433c-9b15-021bc422ddd8 splash quiet failsafe
root (hd0,5)
initrd /boot/initrd.img

title desktop 3.8.8-1.mga3
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.8-desktop-1.mga3 BOOT_IMAGE=desktop_3.8.8-1.mga3 root=UUID=934fa529-f07c-433c-9b15-021bc422ddd8 splash quiet resume=UUID=6de2acb7-3214-48a0-adde-aafb2f2de426 vga=788
root (hd0,5)
initrd /boot/initrd-3.8.8-desktop-1.mga3.img

title desktop 3.8.13.4-1.mga3
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.13.4-desktop-1.mga3 BOOT_IMAGE=desktop_3.8.13.4-1.mga3 root=UUID=934fa529-f07c-433c-9b15-021bc422ddd8 splash quiet resume=UUID=6de2acb7-3214-48a0-adde-aafb2f2de426 vga=788
root (hd0,5)
initrd /boot/initrd-3.8.13.4-desktop-1.mga3.img

xorg.conf:

# File generated by XFdrake (rev 262502)

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the xorg.conf man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "DontZap" "False" # disable  (server abort)
    #DontZoom # disable / (resolution switching)
    AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse does not work
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor1"
    VendorName "Plug'n Play"
    ModelName "E190HQV"
    HorizSync 31-80
    VertRefresh 56-76
    
    # Monitor preferred modeline (59.8 Hz vsync, 47.7 kHz hsync, ratio 16/9, 78 dpi)
    ModeLine "1366x768" 85.5 1366 1436 1579 1792 768 771 774 798 +hsync +vsync
    
    # TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
    # 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     50.00  768  832  846 1000   576  590  595  630
    
    # 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     63.07  768  800  960 1024   576  578  590  616
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    VendorName "Intel Corporation"
    BoardName "Intel 810 and later"
    Driver "intel"
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "screen1"
    Device "device1"
    Monitor "monitor1"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout1"
    Screen "screen1"
EndSection

Partitions:
Current fstab:

# Entry for /dev/sda6 :
UUID=934fa529-f07c-433c-9b15-021bc422ddd8 / ext3 acl,relatime 1 1
# Entry for /dev/sda7 :
UUID=85b40438-a096-44e9-b5d0-f529b71d6e7f /home ext3 acl,relatime 1 2
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom auto umask=0,users,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy auto umask=0,users,iocharset=utf8,noauto,exec,flush 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda5 :
UUID=6de2acb7-3214-48a0-adde-aafb2f2de426 swap swap defaults 0 0

Command to mount a DVD: mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
/dev/cdrom is actually a symlink to /dev/sr0 which does not appear in fstab.

Some File Locations:

Video drivers for xorg: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers
Seamonkey: /usr/local/lib/seamonkey
Hardware configuration: /etc/sysconfig/hardcware
Icons are in /usr/share/icons (several subdirectories thereof).
KDE binary application files are in /usr/bin
LibreOffice: /usr/lib/libreoffice
Grub configuration file: /boot/grub/menu.lst
The X server configuration file xorg.conf is in /etc/X11
The X server log file is in /var/log/Xorg.??.log

Upgrading via RPMs:
Use the Mageia Control Center. You can also use (if you can sort out dependencies manually) rpm -i. The new application or driver is available immediately.

Changing System Setting:
Do this as root using Mageia Control Center. This program is the equivalent of mcc in Mandriva. Under OpenSuse there is an anomaly when trying to install the Canon PIXMA iP1300 printer: This is done by downloading iP2200_Linux_260.tar.gz from the Canon website, unpacking it and installing the 3 resulting rpms:
cnijfilter-common-2.60-1.i386.rpm
cnijfilter-ip2200-2.60-1.i386.rpm
cnijfilter-ip2200-lprng-2.60-1.i386.rpm
When subsequently trying to add the ppd file /usr/share/cups/model/canonip2200.ppd to the ppd database, yast2 does not accept it, claiming that the resolution of 600 is incorrect. To trick it into accepting the file, I zipped and copied it to /usr/share/cups/model/Canon/ip-2200.ppd.gz whereupon I could install the printer. Haven't done it under Mageia yet.

Boot Loader
As with my main system I now use Grub.

Window Manager:
I use LXDE (openbox based). It has many advantages of KDE without the overeheads. I have also installed icewm and fluxbox. Switching is done via the login-screen.
With fluxbox and icewm there is an idiosyncrasy:
If you use fluxbox as windowmanager you will want to have a file ~/,fluxbox/startup where you do an exec idesk to get icons on your desktop. This works OK, however the idesk background image at start-up is displayed for a split second and then the image is replaced by a neutral monochrome background. To fix that, use exec ideskr instead of exec idesk.
With icewm I made up a similar start-up script as with fluxbox. I call it icewmwm and also use ideskr instead of idesk.

Applications
One can source applications not only from Mageia, but also from some other places like the net, Linux Magazine DVDs, as well as various old installation CDs. Of course not every application gotten this way works - test it!

Text Editors:
kwrite, leafpad and nedit are the ones I use. Without X there is joe.

Word Processing:

LibreOffice is very good.
AbiWord is lightning fast and very good.

Spreadsheets
LibreOffice is very nice.

Screen Capture
ksnapshot is very nice, and easy to use. xwd with xwud too.

Graphics Editors
LibreOffice has an image-editor.
Gimp is excellent!

Browsers
Firefox and Seamonkey are both OK. Seamonkey has also a composer and a mail-client available.

Midi Sequencers
On this system I have Rosegarden.
I use timidity as driver for rosegarden. This requires the following, since rosegarden always tries to use "jack", which did not work properly on this system.

Rename /usr/bin/jackd to something else, so that rosegarden cannot use it.
Use the following script to start rosegarden:
#!/bin/sh
killall timidity
sleep 1
timidity -iA -Os &
sleep 3
rosegarden &
In rosegarden's "Studio" menu disable "Midi Thru Routing".
In rosegarden's "Studio" menu submenu "Manage Midi Devices" select as output: 128:0 TiMidity port 0 (write) as output for "General Midi Device".

There are plenty of effects to be achieved with midi-files. For a definition of the MIDI file format see http://www.sonicspot.com/guide/midifiles.html.
To see which instruments are associated with which program-change events, look at /etc/timidity/gravis/gravis/cfg
When done with rosegarden don't forget a "killall timidity:!

Utility
Xe is an SPF-PC clone enabling a wide variety of edit (also hexadecimal) and other utility functions.

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LINUX Mageia 3 Handbook for the HP PC

LINUX Mageia 3 Handbook
for the HP PC