• Intel Core 2 Duo T6500
• 4Go of RAM
• GeForce G105M with 512Mo dedicated video memory + 1Go of system memory
• 15.6″ 16:9 HD LED LCD with a native resolution of 1366×768
• 500Go SATA HD
• 5 in 1 card reader
• DVD-Super Multi DL drive
• 1.3M webcam
• Windows Vista

I’ve done the minimal setup for Windows Vista and applied the most urgent updates. I don’t install yet some new application like Firefox, but at least, I crate the restorations DVD. I do allocate 200Go for Linux, and keep about 300Go for Vista in NTFS format. I did install Mandriva 2009.1, but as the vesa driver was used, I upgrade to Mandriva 2010.0 RC1. Not everything is working correctly however under Linux.

I’m very happy by this acquisition : the design is top, I do like the silver keyboard a lot, the screen is beautiful. My only complaint is the fact that Linux will not support it efficiently. I will do my best to allow my notebook to be correctly supported by the next Mandriva 2010.0 release.

• UXA and KMS support in drakx11 : As Mandriva 2010.0 will support UXA ( for Intel graphics cards ) and eventually KMS, the goal is to allow to enable/disable them directly from drax11 UI.
• Add runlevel 3 boot menu entry in grub options menu : This would allow to boot Mandriva directly in text mode without having to edit the kernel options.
• UPnP support in drakfirewall/shorewall : UPnP support may be useful for the applications supporting UPnP and thus willing to open a port on the firewall. A whitelist of applications could be used to only allow some specific applications to do this. Combined with a mdsum binary verification ( can be done by rpm ), this would prevent most trojans/backdoors possibles issues.
• Full NFSv4 support in Mandriva tools : Presently mandriva tools can’t cofnigure a NFSv4 server, and doesn’t handle idmapd configuration, especially in auto-install mode.
• App Store like GUI or how to make store.mandriva.com being a software channel distribution : This is related to my previous article about this question : About Apple App Store like GUI for Linux.
• reduce urpm tools executables by merging urpmq with urpmf, and urpmi.removemedia with urpmi.addmedia : The goal is to use the number of urpm tools executable and have more coherent naming and options.
• Integrate Moblin components : As Mandriva is part of the Moblin project, I guess that Mandriva could proposed a Moblin version.
• Use tracker with Nepomuk support instead of Beagle : Tracker aims to support Nepomuk, so as Mandriva have been leading the Nepomuk development and integration on the KDE side, i found normal to use Tracker with Nepomuk support under Gnome instead of Beagle.
• Integrate grid/cloud computing components : Mandriva is involved in a grid-computing project ( Xtreem OS ), so it could be interesting to integrate some of its components in the standard distribution notably Xtreem FS.
• Better Nepomuk integration : the title said all
• One click multimedia content sharing support : Presently with one click, a user can share a directory using CIFS or NFS protocol under Mandriva. Now the goal is to allow to do the same thing, but this time using UPnP-AV thus allowing Mandriva to be a media content provider.
• Flicker free boot : the title said it all. Since migration to splashy, we can see big flickering during the boot process, notably before X start. This si a regression compared to the bootsplash situation.
• Switch to Tomoyo Linux as Mandatory Access Control system : Tomoyo have been integrated in upstream kernel, Apparmor not : the choice is easy.
• easy iSCSI support ( GUI ) : This could be a very useful feature in grid/cloud computing, or allow to have low cost NAS for SOHO.
• Compcache support notably in kernel-netbook : This feature, really useful for netbook, allow to improved kernel perf under low memory systems.
• Move some Mandriva tools to github or Google Code : Why not ?
• Group support in consolehelper : This would allow to have more fine grained permissions for Mandriva tools access.

I tried to be as exhaustive as possible, but many ideas are missing, but I’d rather wait for another release. From firsts comments and rumor, 2010.0 will be an exciting release

First it should be noted that su means Substitute User, and not Super User. Indeed su allow to switch to whatever user you want and not just to the root user. However if no user is specified, then it will used the root user. This is logic because in a Unix/linux system, there’s only one user which will normally always exist and with the same name : root. Now that this point is clarified, it should be noted that you have 2 ways to switch to another user : the light way and the heavy way. Now let’s try to explain the differences between each ways :

• the light way : to use the light, just use the su. This will change the user, but the full environments variables of the user will not be execute, and notably, many environment variable will be inherited from the previous user. Another interesting behavior is the fact that you will stayed in the current directory. Here is an example when I will switch from the admin user to the invite user :

  [admin@info1 ~]$ whoami
  admin[admin@info1 ~]$ pwd
  /home/techmodis/admin
  
  [admin@info1 ~]$ env | grep -E 'BUS|USER'
  KONSOLE_DBUS_SERVICE=:1.48
  USER=admin
  KONSOLE_DBUS_SESSION=/Sessions/4
  DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-FWmPVm44Lx,guid=7e2ee933b5ed99e499368d4d4a28f64b
  
  [admin@info1 ~]$ su invite
  Password:
  
  [invite@info1 admin]$ pwd
  /home/techmodis/admin
  
  [invite@info1 admin]$ env | grep -E 'BUS|USER'
  KONSOLE_DBUS_SERVICE=:1.48
  USER=invite
  KONSOLE_DBUS_SESSION=/Sessions/4
  DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-FWmPVm44Lx,guid=7e2ee933b5ed99e499368d4d4a28f64b
  
  [invite@info1 admin]$ whoami
  invite

  As you may noticed, I’m still in the in /home/techmodis/admin directory, and thus even when I switched to the invite user. Please noticed also the $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS environment variable. This variable tell to all applications willing to use DBUS where they can contact the DBUS server. If the variable is not defined, then they will start a new one, but if the variable is defined, then they will try to connect to the DBUS server and failed if they can’t. As normally a user is not allowed to connect to another user DBUS session, you can guess that if an application started as invite try to connect to the DBUS session of the admin user, it will failed. Please read dbus-launch manpage for further details. Now If I try to start for example dolphin, it will failed as it won’t be able to connect to DBUS because it will not have the right to connect to the admin user DBUS server :

  [invite@info1 admin]$ dolphin
  (1985)/: KUniqueApplication: Cannot find the D-Bus session server:  "Did not receive
  a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy
  blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken."
  
  (1984)/: KUniqueApplication: Pipe closed unexpectedly.

• The heavy way : to use the heavy way, you just need to add the - switch to su. By using this switch, you will make su load the environment variables of the new user. Let’s see an example :

  [admin@info1 ~]$ whoami
  admin[admin@info1 ~]$ pwd
  /home/techmodis/admin
  
  [admin@info1 ~]$ su - invite
  Password:
  
  [invite@info1 ~]$ pwd
  /home/techmodis/invite
  
  [invite@info1 ~]$ env | grep -E 'BUS|USER'
  USER=invite
  
  [invite@info1 ~]$ whoami
  invite

  As you can see, when switching to another user, the new current working directory will be the new user home directory. Please note also that the $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS variable is not defined. This means that when an application will try to contact DBUS, as the variable is not defined, it will auto-start a new DBUS session. So this time, Dolphin will be able to start successfully :

  [invite@info1 ~]$ dolphin
  dolphin(2499)/kio (KDirWatch) KDirWatchPrivate::KDirWatchPrivate: Available methods:  ("Stat", "FAM",
  INotify")
  dolphin(2499)/kio (KDirWatch) KDirWatchPrivate::addEntry: Added File "/home/techmodis/invite/.local/share
  //user-places.xbel" for "" ["KDirWatch-1"]
  dolphin(2499)/kio (bookmarks) KBookmarkManager::KBookmarkManager: starting KDirWatch for  "/home
  /techmodis/invite/.local/share//user-places.xbel"
  dolphin(2499)/kdecore (KSycoca) KSycocaPrivate::openDatabase: Trying to open ksycoca from  "/var/tmp
  /kdecache-invite/ksycoca4"
  dolphin(2499)/kio (KDirListerCache) KDirListerCache::listDir: Listing directory: KUrl("trash:/")
  "/usr/bin/dolphin(2499)" Error in thread 3048703696 : "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown - The
  name org.kde.nepomuk.services.nepomukstorage was not provided by any .service files"
  "/usr/bin/dolphin(2499)" Error in thread 3048703696 : "QLocalSocket::connectToServer: Invalid name"
  dolphin(2499) ::GlobalModelContainer::init: Failed to connect to Nepomuk server via local socket
  "/home/techmodis/invite/.kde4/share/apps/nepomuk/socket"
  dolphin(2499)/kio (KDirListerCache) KDirListerCache::listDir: Reloading directory: KUrl("file:///home/techmodis/invite")
  ....

All of this explains why starting a KDE application with just “su” will not work. From dbus-launch manpage, it seems that one way to solve this is to add at the end of the variable the keyword autolaunch: : You can however include autolaunch in an explicit session bus address as a fallback, for example DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=”something:,autolaunch:” – in that case if the first address doesn’t work, processes will autolaunch. (The bus address variable contains a comma-separated list of addresses to try.). So if you know the application/script which is setting the value of$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS, then you can modify it to make it add autolaunch automatically at the end.

I do hope that this explanation will allow people to understand why they need to do some supplementary steps to start their KDE4 applications. The behavior of su is normal and exists since years on the different Unix systems. For further informations, please consult the su manpage.

Note : Please note that whereas PolicyKit support will allow to do administrative task in KDE Control Center ( KDM configuration for example ), this will not solve the issue which consists to run a KDE4 application under another user name. The usage of “su -” will still be required, and kdesu/kdesudo will eventually need to be ported to KDE 4 to allow to do it without using the CLI.

lsinitrd /boot/initrd.img

.

With lsinitrd, you will be able to see the list of modules included and thus loaded at boot, or the commands executed. This is especially useful for people needed specific modules not include automatically in the initrd by mkinitrd : they will be able to check if the right modules are icluded, or the right commands used. On a Mandriva cooker system using ext3 on standard partitions ( no LVM, no software RAID, no encryption ), this give the following output :

[root@info1 boot]# lsinitrd /boot/initrd.img
/boot/initrd.img:
========================================================================
-rwx------   1 root     root         2461 May 27 16:12 init
drwx------   3 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 usr
drwx------   4 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 usr/lib
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       801164 May 11 08:59 usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0.2100.0
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       137824 Dec 18 13:49 usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        13956 Apr  7 23:11 usr/lib/libbdevid.so.6.0.63
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           27 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/libpng12.so.0 -> /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0.36.0
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        87560 Feb 20 13:31 usr/lib/libelf-0.140.so
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           32 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 -> /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0.2100.0
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        21940 Apr 18 09:50 usr/lib/libsplashy.so.1.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       106308 Apr  7 23:11 usr/lib/libnash.so.6.0.63
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           31 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/libsplashycnf.so.1 -> /usr/lib/libsplashycnf.so.1.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       534584 Mar 12 17:25 usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6.3.20
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           31 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/libfusion-1.2.so.0 -> /usr/lib/libfusion-1.2.so.0.7.0
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           25 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/liblzo2.so.2 -> /usr/lib/liblzo2.so.2.0.0
drwx------   7 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        21948 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_i810.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        38332 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_mach64.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root       112284 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_nvidia.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        17820 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_ati128.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        21848 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_savage.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        13640 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_sis315.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        42620 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_cle266.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        46412 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_nsc.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root       129008 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_radeon.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        51028 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_unichrome.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        22112 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_cyber5k.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        13728 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_neomagic.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        17852 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_i830.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        13592 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_tdfx.so
drwx------   5 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/interfaces
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/interfaces/IDirectFBFont
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        13716 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/interfaces/IDirectFBFont/libidirectfbfont_ft2.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         9564 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/interfaces/IDirectFBFont/libidirectfbfont_dgiff.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        26892 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/interfaces/IDirectFBFont/libidirectfbfont_default.so
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/interfaces/IDirectFBVideoProvider
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        17816 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/interfaces/IDirectFBVideoProvider/libidirectfbvideoprovider_v4l.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        17776 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/interfaces/IDirectFBVideoProvider/libidirectfbvideoprovider_gif.so
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/interfaces/IDirectFBImageProvider
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        13632 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/interfaces/IDirectFBImageProvider/libidirectfbimageprovider_gif.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        13688 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/interfaces/IDirectFBImageProvider/libidirectfbimageprovider_png.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        13676 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/interfaces/IDirectFBImageProvider/libidirectfbimageprovider_jpeg.so
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         9532 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/interfaces/IDirectFBImageProvider/libidirectfbimageprovider_dfiff.so
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/wm
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        38520 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/wm/libdirectfbwm_default.so
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/systems
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        51152 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/systems/libdirectfb_fbdev.so
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/inputdrivers
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        13700 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/directfb-1.2-0/inputdrivers/libdirectfb_keyboard.so
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       173904 May  8 08:16 usr/lib/libpng12.so.0.36.0
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        38412 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/libfusion-1.2.so.0.7.0
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           24 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/libelf.so.1 -> /usr/lib/libelf-0.140.so
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       140648 Dec 21 17:40 usr/lib/liblzo2.so.2.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       529020 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/libdirectfb-1.2.so.0.7.0
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           31 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/libdirect-1.2.so.0 -> /usr/lib/libdirect-1.2.so.0.7.0
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           33 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/libdirectfb-1.2.so.0 -> /usr/lib/libdirectfb-1.2.so.0.7.0
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           26 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62 -> /usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62.0.0
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           30 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 -> /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6.3.20
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           31 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/libparted-1.8.so.8 -> /usr/lib/libparted-1.8.so.8.0.0
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           28 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/libsplashy.so.1 -> /usr/lib/libsplashy.so.1.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root         9576 Apr 18 09:50 usr/lib/libsplashycnf.so.1.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       430348 Feb 26 16:49 usr/lib/libparted-1.8.so.8.0.0
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 usr/lib/suspend
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        31292 Mar 27 12:59 usr/lib/suspend/resume
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        88232 Mar 25 19:53 usr/lib/libdirect-1.2.so.0.7.0
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 sys
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 proc
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 firmware
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 bin
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        85008 Apr  7 23:11 bin/nash
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           13 May 27 16:12 bin/splashy_chvt -> /sbin/splashy
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        30748 Feb  5 15:53 bin/modprobe
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root         5496 Apr 18 09:50 bin/splashy_update
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           23 May 27 16:12 bin/resume -> /usr/lib/suspend/resume
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        18368 Apr 18 09:50 bin/splashy
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root         9832 Feb  5 15:53 bin/rmmod
drwx------   3 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 dev
brw-------   1 root     root       1,   1 May 27 16:12 dev/ram1
crw-------   1 root     root       1,   3 May 27 16:12 dev/null
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root            4 May 27 16:12 dev/ram -> ram1
crw-------   1 root     root       4,  67 May 27 16:12 dev/ttyS3
crw-------   1 root     root       4,   9 May 27 16:12 dev/tty9
crw-------   1 root     root       4,   6 May 27 16:12 dev/tty6
crw-------   1 root     root       4,   2 May 27 16:12 dev/tty2
crw-------   1 root     root       4,   7 May 27 16:12 dev/tty7
crw-------   1 root     root       5,   1 May 27 16:12 dev/console
crw-------   1 root     root       4,   0 May 27 16:12 dev/tty0
crw-------   1 root     root       4,   8 May 27 16:12 dev/tty8
crw-------   1 root     root       4,  11 May 27 16:12 dev/tty11
crw-------   1 root     root       1,   5 May 27 16:12 dev/zero
brw-------   1 root     root       1,   0 May 27 16:12 dev/ram0
crw-------   1 root     root       4,  12 May 27 16:12 dev/tty12
crw-------   1 root     root       4,   5 May 27 16:12 dev/tty5
crw-------   1 root     root       4,  64 May 27 16:12 dev/ttyS0
crw-------   1 root     root       4,   1 May 27 16:12 dev/tty1
crw-------   1 root     root       5,   0 May 27 16:12 dev/tty
crw-------   1 root     root       4,  66 May 27 16:12 dev/ttyS2
crw-------   1 root     root       4,  65 May 27 16:12 dev/ttyS1
crw-------   1 root     root       5,   2 May 27 16:12 dev/ptmx
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 dev/mapper
crw-------   1 root     root       4,   3 May 27 16:12 dev/tty3
crw-------   1 root     root       4,   4 May 27 16:12 dev/tty4
crw-------   1 root     root       4,   0 May 27 16:12 dev/systty
crw-------   1 root     root       4,  10 May 27 16:12 dev/tty10
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 mnt
drwx------   5 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 etc
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 etc/blkid
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 etc/ld.so.conf.d
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root          114 Apr 14 23:00 etc/ld.so.conf.d/standard.conf
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root           14 Mar 28 15:03 etc/ld.so.conf.d/libarts1.conf
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         1817 Mar 27 12:58 etc/suspend.conf
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         2207 May 27 16:12 etc/ld.so.cache
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root           33 Apr  6 21:21 etc/ld.so.conf
drwx------   3 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 lib
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           19 May 27 16:12 lib/libuuid.so.1 -> /lib/libuuid.so.1.2
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           22 May 27 16:12 lib/libsysfs.so.2 -> /lib/libsysfs.so.2.0.1
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        71380 Apr  6 21:22 lib/libresolv-2.9.so
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root         9680 Apr  6 21:22 lib/libdl-2.9.so
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           16 May 27 16:12 lib/libm.so.6 -> /lib/libm-2.9.so
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       149336 Apr  6 21:22 lib/libm-2.9.so
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           18 May 27 16:12 lib/libz.so.1 -> /lib/libz.so.1.2.3
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       202056 Jan 15 16:43 lib/libpcre.so.0.0.1
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           21 May 27 16:12 lib/libpcre.so.0 -> /lib/libpcre.so.0.0.1
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           21 May 27 16:12 lib/libpopt.so.0 -> /lib/libpopt.so.0.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        17960 Feb  9 19:01 lib/libuuid.so.1.2
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        46612 Dec 22 16:43 lib/libsysfs.so.2.0.1
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        44932 Feb  9 19:01 lib/libblkid.so.1.0
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       117752 May 19 12:51 lib/libgcc_s-4.4.0.so.1
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           24 May 27 16:12 lib/libgcc_s.so.1 -> /lib/libgcc_s-4.4.0.so.1
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           20 May 27 16:12 lib/libblkid.so.1 -> /lib/libblkid.so.1.0
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        78152 Dec 16 18:45 lib/libz.so.1.2.3
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           25 May 27 16:12 lib/libmodprobe.so.0 -> /lib/libmodprobe.so.0.0.0
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           21 May 27 16:12 lib/libresolv.so.2 -> /lib/libresolv-2.9.so
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       602619 Apr  6 21:15 lib/ld-2.9.so
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        90656 Aug  6  2008 lib/libdevmapper.so.1.02
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           22 May 27 16:12 lib/libpthread.so.0 -> /lib/libpthread-2.9.so
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        26092 Feb  5 15:53 lib/libmodprobe.so.0.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       111636 Apr  6 21:21 lib/libpthread-2.9.so
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root      1376436 Apr  6 21:22 lib/libc-2.9.so
drwx------   3 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 lib/modules
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        80458 May 26 03:16 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/scsi_mod.ko.gz
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        19356 May 26 03:16 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/sd_mod.ko.gz
-rw-------   1 root     root         3941 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/modules.alias.bin
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        13270 May 26 03:16 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/sata_nv.ko.gz
-rw-------   1 root     root          757 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/modules.dep.bin
-rw-------   1 root     root        22168 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/modules.symbols.bin
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        90624 May 26 03:16 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/libata.ko.gz
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         2790 May 26 03:16 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/pata_acpi.ko.gz
-rw-------   1 root     root           43 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/modules.seriomap
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        28161 May 26 03:16 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/jbd.ko.gz
-rw-------   1 root     root           73 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/modules.ieee1394map
-rw-------   1 root     root        17149 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/modules.symbols
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         1886 May 26 03:16 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/ide-generic.ko.gz
-rw-------   1 root     root         5741 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/modules.pcimap
-rw-------   1 root     root           74 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/modules.ofmap
-rw-------   1 root     root          442 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/modules.dep
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        75829 May 26 03:16 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/ext3.ko.gz
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         3031 May 26 03:16 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/ata_generic.ko.gz
-rw-------   1 root     root         4038 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/modules.alias
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         1592 May 26 03:16 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/crc-t10dif.ko.gz
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        14930 May 26 03:16 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/ide-gd_mod.ko.gz
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         2332 May 26 03:16 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/ide-pci-generic.ko.gz
-rw-------   1 root     root          189 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/modules.usbmap
-rw-------   1 root     root           69 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/modules.ccwmap
-rw-------   1 root     root           81 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/modules.isapnpmap
-rw-------   1 root     root          141 May 27 16:12 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/modules.inputmap
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         5350 May 26 03:16 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/pata_amd.ko.gz
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        59037 May 26 03:16 lib/modules/2.6.30-desktop-0.rc7.1mnb/ide-core.ko.gz
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           17 May 27 16:12 lib/libdl.so.2 -> /lib/libdl-2.9.so
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           16 May 27 16:12 lib/libc.so.6 -> /lib/libc-2.9.so
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           14 May 27 16:12 lib/ld-linux.so.2 -> /lib/ld-2.9.so
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        30736 Oct 19  2008 lib/libpopt.so.0.0.0
drwx------   2 root     root            0 May 27 16:12 sysroot
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root            3 May 27 16:12 sbin -> bin
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root            0 Apr 21 11:18 etc/splashy
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root          567 May 27 16:12 etc/splashy/config.xml
drwxr-xr-x   8 root     root            0 Apr 18 09:49 etc/splashy/themes
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root            0 Apr 23 16:42 etc/splashy/themes/Mandriva-Powerpack-800x600
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        79193 Apr 23 15:19 etc/splashy/themes/Mandriva-Powerpack-800x600/suspend.jpg
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         3454 Apr 23 15:19 etc/splashy/themes/Mandriva-Powerpack-800x600/theme.xml
drwxr-xr-x   4 root     root            0 Apr 18 09:49 usr/share/splashy
drwxr-xr-x   8 root     root            0 Apr 18 09:49 usr/share/splashy/themes
-rw-r--r--   4 root     root       158823 Apr 23 15:19 etc/splashy/themes/Mandriva-Powerpack-800x600/background.jpg
========================================================================
#!/bin/nash

mount -t proc /proc /proc
setquiet
echo Mounting proc filesystem
echo Mounting sysfs filesystem
mount -t sysfs /sys /sys
echo Creating /dev
mount -o mode=0755 -t tmpfs /dev /dev
mkdir /dev/pts
mount -t devpts -o gid=5,mode=620 /dev/pts /dev/pts
mkdir /dev/shm
mkdir /dev/mapper
echo Creating initial device nodes
mknod /dev/null c 1 3
mknod /dev/zero c 1 5
mknod /dev/systty c 4 0
mknod /dev/tty c 5 0
mknod /dev/console c 5 1
mknod /dev/ptmx c 5 2
mknod /dev/fb c 29 0
mknod /dev/fb0 c 29 0
mknod /dev/tty0 c 4 0
mknod /dev/tty1 c 4 1
mknod /dev/tty2 c 4 2
mknod /dev/tty3 c 4 3
mknod /dev/tty4 c 4 4
mknod /dev/tty5 c 4 5
mknod /dev/tty6 c 4 6
mknod /dev/tty7 c 4 7
mknod /dev/tty8 c 4 8
mknod /dev/tty9 c 4 9
mknod /dev/tty10 c 4 10
mknod /dev/tty11 c 4 11
mknod /dev/tty12 c 4 12
mknod /dev/ttyS0 c 4 64
mknod /dev/ttyS1 c 4 65
mknod /dev/ttyS2 c 4 66
mknod /dev/ttyS3 c 4 67
daemonize --ignore-missing /bin/plymouthd
plymouth --show-splash
echo Starting splash.
nash-if-splash splashy_chvt 8
nash-if-splash splashy boot
echo Setting up hotplug.
hotplug
echo Creating block device nodes.
mkblkdevs
echo "Loading ext3 module"
modprobe -q ext3
echo "Loading crc-t10dif module"
modprobe -q crc-t10dif
echo "Loading scsi_mod module"
modprobe -q scsi_mod
echo "Loading sd_mod module"
modprobe -q sd_mod
echo "Loading libata module"
modprobe -q libata
echo "Loading sata_nv module"
modprobe -q sata_nv
echo "Loading pata_acpi module"
modprobe -q pata_acpi
echo "Loading ide-core module"
modprobe -q ide-core
echo "Loading ide-disk module"
modprobe -q ide-disk
echo "Loading ide-pci-generic module"
modprobe -q ide-pci-generic
echo "Loading ata_generic module"
modprobe -q ata_generic
echo "Loading pata_amd module"
modprobe -q pata_amd
echo "Loading ide_generic module"
modprobe -q ide_generic
echo waiting for root device UUID=8141d62a-0254-4405-be04-40b0dcb52cd1 to appear (timeout 1min)
waitdev --timeout=60000000 --rootdev UUID=8141d62a-0254-4405-be04-40b0dcb52cd1
mkblkdevs
nash-resume
echo Creating root device.
mkrootdev -t ext3 -o relatime,defaults,data=writeback,ro UUID=8141d62a-0254-4405-be04-40b0dcb52cd1
echo Mounting root filesystem.
mount /sysroot
echo Setting up other filesystems.
setuproot
loadpolicy
plymouth --newroot=/sysroot
echo Switching to new root and running init.
nash-if-splash splashy_update "chroot /sysroot"
switchroot
echo Booting has failed.
nash-if-splash splashy_update exit
nash-if-splash splashy_chvt 1
sleep -1
init
========================================================================

Now I’m just willing to give an advice to pulseaudio dev : I do agree when you want to simplify user life by providing more simpler UI. However you should also never forget that the rule one size fit all doesn’t exists. So you need to provide a way for users to provide customs settings. By the way, If no others OS like Windows or even more Mac OS X provide a so simplified UI for the volume control, there’s must have a reason.

This was my useless rant of the day, but you may understand that this piss me off as now I have 64 angry users who have to manually restore the volume control each time.

]]

When looking at this, the closest bug report I found on internet was the following : rh bug #442406 : Cannot read MCD configuration file. Indeed if I add the general.config.filename directive in for example %_libdir/xulrunner-1.9/defaults/pref/vendor.js, I will have the exact same error message : “Failed to read the configuration file. Please contact your system administrator.”

Using debugging shows that the content of vendor.js is read :

[telepro11@superviseur6 ~]$ NSPR_LOG_FILE=mcd.log NSPR_LOG_MODULES=MCD:5 AUTOCONFIG_DEBUG=1 firefox
[telepro11@superviseur6 ~]$ cat mcd.log

-1211701024[8ccf808]: general.config.filename = /etc/firefox.cfg

As advised in rh bug #442406 I do a symlink of %_libdir/xulrunner-1.9/defaults/autoconfig/ in %_libdir/firefox-3.0.8/defaults/, Whereas I still have the same error message, the debug log content is different :

[root@superviseur6 ~]# ln -s /usr/lib/xulrunner-1.9/defaults/autoconfig /usr/lib/firefox-3.0.8/defaults/
[telepro11@superviseur6 ~]$ NSPR_LOG_FILE=mcd.log NSPR_LOG_MODULES=MCD:5 AUTOCONFIG_DEBUG=1 firefox
[telepro11@superviseur6 ~]$ cat mcd.log
-1211115296[896f808]: general.config.filename = /etc/firefox.cfg
-1211115296[896f808]: evaluating .cfg file /etc/firefox.cfg with obscureValue 13
-1211115296[896f808]: error evaluating .cfg file /etc/firefox.cfg 80520001

As you can see, even using a full path won’t help. At least the general.config.obscure_value in %_libdir/xulrunner-1.9/greprefs/all.js is now correctly analyzed. If I use 0 as value, I still have the same error, but the log clearly show that 0 is used.

To allow firefox to start, I have to symlink /etc/firefox.cfg to %_libdir/firefox-3.0.8, and then everything will work fine, and the settings in firefox.cfg will be enforced/applied :

ln -s /etc/firefox.cfg /usr/lib/firefox-3.0.8/
NSPR_LOG_FILE=mcd.log NSPR_LOG_MODULES=MCD:5 AUTOCONFIG_DEBUG=1 firefox
[telepro11@superviseur6 ~]$ cat mcd.log
-1211705120[8b21808]: general.config.filename = firefox.cfg
-1211705120[8b21808]: evaluating .cfg file firefox.cfg with obscureValue 0

So, to use Firefox autoconfig features in Mandriva 2009 Spring while keeping the behavior of pre-Mandriva 2009.1 releases, you need to do the following :

1. symlinks %_libdir/xulrunner-1.9/defaults/autoconfig/ in %_libdir/firefox-3.0.8/defaults/
2. add in %_libdir/xulrunner-1.9/defaults/pref/vendor.js the following statements :
   
   pref(“general.config.filename”, “firefox.cfg”);
   pref(“general.config.obscure_value”, 0);
   
3. symlinks /etc/firefox.cfg in %_libdir/firefox-3.0.8/

Please note that using that setting general.config.obscure_value=0 is needed, or else while Firefox will load, settings in firefox.cfg won’t be read correctly and settings like the proxies ones won’t be enforced ( the user have the ability to modify them and thus even if we use lockPref ). The following bug report have been opened ( mdv bug #50829 ).

]]

• Digg : This one help to promote and give visibility to blogs or websites articles. Don’t hesitate to open account and to “digg it” Mandriva articles. For those willing to add me as a friend, my account is linuxwizard, don’t hesitate to add me as a friend.
• Reddit : Equivalent to Digg, the site code is Open Source. There’s also a french version. I don’t have an account yet, but don’t hesitate if you have one to spread the articles through reddit.
• StumbleUpon : Another Digg like site allowing to rate articles.
• Facebook : no need to present one of the most known social networking site in the world. So don’t hesitate to share on your Facebook’s profile page Mandriva related articles. Don’t hesitate to download the Facebook Toolbar for Firefox to share sites in one-click.
• Twitter : The famous micro-blogging service. You can share your links on twitter too, but beware of the size limitation of your twitter posts. You may want to use something like TinyURL to shorten the articles URL.
• Identi.ca : this is the equivalent Open Source equivalent of Twitter. So don’t hesitate to open an account.
• Ping.fm : Once you have open an account on several social networking site, updating them and feeding them may be a consuming task. Ping.fm allow to update your different social networking sites at once from one place.
• others popular social networking websites are : Mashable, Hi5

So here is the list of Mandriva 2009.1 Spring reviews :

• Mandriva 2009.1 “Spring” is Stunning (Digg it)
• Mandriva 2009.1 Spring (Digg it)
• Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring – First Impressions (Digg it)
• Screenshot Review Mandriva 2009.1 (Digg it)
• First Look at Mandriva Spring 2009.1 – Review and Screenshots (Digg it)
• Mandriva 2009.1 Install (Digg it)
• There’s Way More to Linux than Ubuntu: 8 Distros Compared (Digg it)

Happy social networking

]]

function check_document_form($vars)
{
   // check if file have been correctly uploaded
   if($_FILES['document']['error'] != 0)
   {
        return FALSE;
    }

   $fres = finfo_open(FILEINFO_MIME); /* ask to return mime type */

    // it seems that sometimes finfo_file returns mimetype;charset=xxx
    // like "application/pdf;charset=binary"

   // return the first element of the array by using reset
  $mimetype=reset(explode(';',finfo_file($fres,$_FILES['document']['tmp_name'])));

   // $GLOBALS['mimetype_document_tab'] is a global array containing the list of authorized mimetype
  if(!in_array($mimetype, $GLOBALS['mimetype_document_tab']))
  {
      return FALSE;
  }
  finfo_close($fres);
  return TRUE;
}

The issue with finfo_file() returning the mimetype and the charset instead of just the mimetype happen with PHP 5.2.9 under Mandriva Spring. I know at least that the charset was not return with 5.2.5 under Mandriva 2008 Spring. As the mimetype and the charset are separated by a semi-column, I’m using explode with ‘;’ as a delimiter to split the string in an array, and then use reset to return the first element of the array. This codeworks even when finfo_file() return just the mimetype.

]]

One of the new feature of the KDE 4 desktop is the new job framework thanks to the new Kuiserver which allow to display and group all KJobs in one place. This is useful to have a central place for notification or job progress ( notably file copy, … ). By default a job dialog will be displayed during a short period, and then it will be automatically hidden in the systray.I do really appreciate this.

With KDE 4.3, we will have even further improvements like the ability to disable auto-hiding, animated job icon the systray, better grouping, etc … Please read Jobs and notifications in the plasma systray. by Scheepmaker. However i still have one issue : the handling of copies to removable devices. Let me explain.

IMHO the application should be able to tell if it the job should be auto-hidden or not. This is pretty important when copying files to removable medias ( USB keys, USB or Firewire HD, USB mass storage mucic players, … ). Indeed, when copying a file to a removable media, a user should most of the time :

1. open dolphin on the removable media
2. copy the files to the removable media ( normally from dolphin )
3. when the copy is completed, select “remove safely” to ensure that files are correctly copied on the media
   then remove the media. This is equivalent to doing umount in the CLI.

This means that you need to know precisely when the copy is finished, but also you should be proposed to select the “safely remove” option if needed as you may screw your USB key/datas. Last but not least, a new user, not knowing how things are working, should not be tempted to removed unplugged the removable media before the end of the copy and without having select “safely remove”.
New users, or at least those not comfortable when using a computer, tend to have a very limited “view”. What I mean is the fact they only clearly see a tiny portion of the screen at a time, and have a bad peripheral broader view. Because of this, if you display the job window, and then hide it, then won’t be able to see where it have been hidden, and may not even noticed the icon in the notification area at the left bottom, and eventually understand its meaning. That’s why also the animation when hiding the job dialog should clearly show that the dialog is being reduced in the systray and where. Aaron Seigo already talked about these magical effects when things tend to appear or disappear suddenly as if it was a magical object. In short : you should have clear and proper transitions between the two states/locations of a dialog or widget.

Concerning our case with Kuiserver and files operations on a removable device, I think that :

• when someone copy files from dolphin to a removable device, Dolphin should told to no hide the job by default. Now smart/advanced users could still click on “hide this job” and fall back to present default behavior ( job is hidden, progress is shown in notification area ). This will allow new users to know what’s going.
• If not, a proper transition should be done explaining and showing that the job is not finished ad that the window is being hidden in the systray. However the issue with this is the fact that only composited environments will be able to handle this.
• At the end of the job, we should even have the ability to “remove safely” ( umount ) the removable device directly from the job dialog. It means that applications should be able to defined customs actions to do when a job is finished and allow users to do the action or not. Of course, i guess that this can’t be some applications specific actions, except if this can be handle by DBUS calls. Most of the time it could be phonon or solid ones. This way, when the job is finished, the dialog will propose to “safely remove” to ensure data integrity. Something like :

  If you have finished copying your files to this media, don't forget to click on "safely remove" to ensure that your data have been
  correctly transfered. After this you will be able to unplugged your media safely.
  [close]                                     [safely remove]
  

IMHO this feature will be very welcomed notably for users not knowing Linux or computers. How many times do we have to explain to a user under Windows that he needs to click on the tiny icon in the bottom right before unplugging the USB key ? At first they don’t see the icon, then they have complicated thing to do : right click -> safely remove -> select the device ( with some duplicated entries ) -> stop -> at the end they can unplugged the media. At least they know when the copy is finished as the dialog stay on the screen, which allow to reduce the risks of data corruption as they will not normally remove the media while the copy is still running. Under KDE 4, the auto-hide feature increase the risk that the user will just remove the media whereas the copy is still not finished. Please be aware that some USB keys don’t provide a LED showing that the key is being used, or if the user hurried/rushed, he won’t noticed this ( or the Kuiserver icon in the systray ) and will just unplugged the device thinking that the copy is finished and that Linux is marvelous as the transfer/copy was so fast … In the end he ends up with corrupted data or partitions.

References :
More on kuiserver and extenders by rscheepmaker
Extender grouping and notification images by rscheepmaker
fewer magical appearances by Aaron Seigo
Jobs and notifications in the plasma systray. by rscheepmaker
Easy, Beautiful Progress Notification in the Task Bar on forum.kde.org

]]