Mandrake 9.1 Tips & Tricks

By Eduardo Sánchez | Sep 12, 2003 at 15:29:0

Here
is a brief list of some useful suggestions for any user

interested in getting a better use of a Mandrake installation.

These are derived mainly from my own personal experience, so

use at your own risk.

• 
  Installation: If you can't get the services of a good
  
  sysadmin (as in most SOHO/home situations) and don't feel like installing the distro yourself, get the help of a
  
  local"computer wizard" or better yet, contact your LUG (Linux
  
  User Group). They can help you surmount the issues described in
  
  the review.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Partitioning: If you plan a common desktop
  
  installation,you usually don't need more than 16 MB in your
  
  boot partition. More is a waste of disk space.
  
  
  
  
  
• Try to get as much swap space as you
  can. If you make heavy
  usage of your system, you'll need
  it.
  
  
  
  
• If you can
  afford it, set the X Window System color depth to
  16-bit
  (65,535 colors). This is the best balance between
  quality
  and performance for most situations and will likely
  result
  in great speed improvements when compared with 24 or 32
  bit
  depths.
  
  
  
  
• Install
  only the fonts that you are really going to use. The
  more
  fonts you use, the slower the system will be.
  
  
  
  
  
• While we're at it, don't forget to
  install the MS fonts and the
  Bitstream Vera fonts.
  
  You will not regret it.
  
  
  
  


• If you're a teTeX user (and this includes the LyX and
  TeXmacs
  users) you absolutely need to download the CM-Super
  font
  package, which is available
  
  here. This package, not included in the Download Edition,
  
  is a complete set of PostScript fonts for the Computer Modern
  
  font family of the TeX typesetting system. This enables normal TeX documents to have a much better look, especially when
  
  viewed in Windows machines as PDF documents. (But beware:
  
  CM-Super is huge: 64.6 MB!)
  
  
  
  
  
• Texstar has a package repository that is
  almost essential for
  any Mandrake power user; you can get
  most recent versions of
  "important" software there.
  Texstar's packages are aggresively
  optimized for speed and
  size, but are not tested as thoroughly
  as the regular
  Mandrake packages, so the usual disclaimers
  apply. In my
  experience Texstar's packages have always had a very
  good
  reliability record, and, should you have a question,
  
  Texstar is a very approachable and friendly guy. You can get
  
  the packages, together with many pointers to other Mandrake
  
  package repositories and an excellent urpmi
  
  configuration wizard at Texstar and TheDarb's site,
  PCLinuxOnline.
  
  
  
  
  
• Get the LinuxCookbook
  (also
  available on paper from No Starch Press) and read it. It
  is
  invaluable for getting you out of ruts and quicksand traps!
  
  
  
  
  
  
• If you can
  afford it, buy the boxed versions of PowerPack or
  ProSuite.
  The convenience of having a lot of software not
  included in
  the Download Edition in a physical medium is worth
  
  it.
  
  
  
  
• If you
  really like Mandrake, remember that the best way to
  support
  Mandrakesoft is by joining the Mandrake Club.
  

• Mirror.ac.uk - Very fast even from the United States (Tim's Pick).
• SUNET - Reliable mirror.
• iBiblio.org - Reliable mirror.
• Complete list of mirrors from MandrakeSoft