Slack 10.2 on a Dell Latitude D510 (notebook)
So, a short backstory. I buy slack, and install it with very little problem. The only issue I came across was my drive not being recognized because when I ran fdisk I forgot to make it bootable. I set my runlevel to 4 since this is a work PC and a GUI is a must - and I pick KDE since I'm the most familiar with that one (as opposed to Windowmaker or xfce). On all the other distros I've had a few nagging problems getting flash/java etc.. to work right - but not on Slack. Flash installed and Java works nicely. My browsing expierence hasn't been nearly as bad as it was with Ubuntu or Mandrake. So, that being said, I have run across a few issues that I can't seem to resolve. You'd laugh if you saw my google search history on this stuff - but I must not be wording it right or going to the right spots for answers.
1. Flash has NO sound. I've enabled/disabled the sound system, made myself a member of the 'audio' group, made sure permissions were set to R/W on my plugins folder (these were all suggestions I found).
2. Sound issues not limited to Flash. I can put a CD in the drive or load up an MP3 - and it shows playing - there is no sound. I get sound from GAIM and my system sounds - just not from any media I want to play.
3. Mounting a CD-ROM drive - is it impossible to do unless I'm root?
4. Package Managers, or lack there of. I guess I got spoiled with Ubuntu and apt-get. I can't seem to find anything similar on slack. This may be by design, and if that's the case, so be it. I'll have to learn a little more about compiling and how to untar in the right directories.
5. Dual Screen - is this an option at all in Linux? The setup is - company gives us a laptop and then we have a docking station at work. We always need monitor space so all the WinXP users dual screen - keep putty on one side, customer notes on the other. I've heard rumors of a guy running Debian(Stable) that has it to work - but he's day shift and on a different floor. Something akin to a wise monk on top of some distant mountain.
6. Exchange - has any driver/program been written yet that will allow a mail client to interface with a corporate exchange box? I know that Evolution has a hook that will get you into OWA - or it's supposed to - but I can never get my credentials to validate through it. I have the option to pop for mail, but it takes quite a long time. That, I think, has something to do with our software upgrade - but if pop is slow - you can imagine how bad IMAP is. I'm using the webmail interface we have up - but it's clunky if you're not using IE.
7. SSH identity keys / login method. (sorry, not sure how to pre-empt this) I use SSH to get to customers boxes on a daily (nightly) basis. I have to type in where I'm going and validate off my keys. Is there a way to load any of this into the system when I login? I have a stupidly long password that I have to type in before each session, so I was hoping for something akin to a P-Agent (for Putty) that I can type it in once and go about my day. Stays in memory until I logout..or some script that I can execute that will pass the ssh command and store my key credentials so it's a ./script.sh and go?
I'm not running the 2.6 kernel I'm still running the stock version that came on my Slack 10.2 CD. I think it's 2.4. So if a Kernel upgrade will help, I'm all for it (though I'm terrified to do it because so many things work so well right now)
Thanks,
-K
1. Flash has NO sound. I've enabled/disabled the sound system, made myself a member of the 'audio' group, made sure permissions were set to R/W on my plugins folder (these were all suggestions I found).
2. Sound issues not limited to Flash. I can put a CD in the drive or load up an MP3 - and it shows playing - there is no sound. I get sound from GAIM and my system sounds - just not from any media I want to play.
3. Mounting a CD-ROM drive - is it impossible to do unless I'm root?
4. Package Managers, or lack there of. I guess I got spoiled with Ubuntu and apt-get. I can't seem to find anything similar on slack. This may be by design, and if that's the case, so be it. I'll have to learn a little more about compiling and how to untar in the right directories.
5. Dual Screen - is this an option at all in Linux? The setup is - company gives us a laptop and then we have a docking station at work. We always need monitor space so all the WinXP users dual screen - keep putty on one side, customer notes on the other. I've heard rumors of a guy running Debian(Stable) that has it to work - but he's day shift and on a different floor. Something akin to a wise monk on top of some distant mountain.
6. Exchange - has any driver/program been written yet that will allow a mail client to interface with a corporate exchange box? I know that Evolution has a hook that will get you into OWA - or it's supposed to - but I can never get my credentials to validate through it. I have the option to pop for mail, but it takes quite a long time. That, I think, has something to do with our software upgrade - but if pop is slow - you can imagine how bad IMAP is. I'm using the webmail interface we have up - but it's clunky if you're not using IE.
7. SSH identity keys / login method. (sorry, not sure how to pre-empt this) I use SSH to get to customers boxes on a daily (nightly) basis. I have to type in where I'm going and validate off my keys. Is there a way to load any of this into the system when I login? I have a stupidly long password that I have to type in before each session, so I was hoping for something akin to a P-Agent (for Putty) that I can type it in once and go about my day. Stays in memory until I logout..or some script that I can execute that will pass the ssh command and store my key credentials so it's a ./script.sh and go?
I'm not running the 2.6 kernel I'm still running the stock version that came on my Slack 10.2 CD. I think it's 2.4. So if a Kernel upgrade will help, I'm all for it (though I'm terrified to do it because so many things work so well right now)
Thanks,
-K
