Playing Windows games in Mandriva

Now let's see some of the fun things that you can do with Mandriva. Go the your Software Center and download a program called Wine. Wine is basically a Windows emulator. It allows you to run some Windows applications and games in linux. I like simulation games and I installed Wine and am using it to play a free baseball simulation game available on the net called Out of the Park Baseball 8. Download the Windows version of any game and right click on it's installer and select open with Wine. If Wine supports your game or application you will be able to run as if it was running on Windows. To see some of the games and applications supported by Wine check out this page.

Getting started with Mandriva

Now that you have Mandriva installed on your computer there are some things that you need to do if you want to have the full desktop(or laptop) experience.
The first thing you need to do is update your system. Mandriva installs it's programs in packages using a system called urpmi. Since Mandriva packages are always being updated and new packages being  added you need to update your system on a regular basis. There are a couple of ways to update your system. The easiest way is to visit the Easy Urpmi website and add the media for your version of Mandriva. Adding media simply means that you are adding new and updated software programs for your version of Mandriva.  Select your version of Mandriva(for example Mandriva 2011) and your architecture(i586 0r x86_64). You only need to add the official media but if you want access to programs like the vlc player which are not included in the default install of Mandriva you must add the plf media as well.
Because of legal issues Mandriva does not include several programs like video codecs by default. But these can be added if you add the proper sources through your Mandriva Linux Control Center. The sources can be added if you select Configure Media Sources for Install and Update. Once you add the media from easy Urpmi go to the Mandriva Linux Control Center and select Update Your System. New programs will be added to the Software Center. The Software Center is where you add and remove programs for your computers. Adding the media added new and updated programs to the software center. If you added the plf media you can now add the vlc media player directly from the Software Center.
Another way to update your Mandriva is by using a terminal. Log into a terminal as root(log in as su) or use a root terminal and follow the instructions given here.
If you want to be able to play videos and dvds in Mandriva you need to add the codecs because they are not included by default. The instructions for adding the main codecs to play video are located here.  The main codecs you need are win32 or gstreamer. For dvds you must install libdvdcss2. All of the instructions are on this page.
You are not limited to the Software Center to add your desired programs. You can also add downloaded programs from the net. For beginners I suggest that you download the rpm versions not tar gz. For example you can add the Adobe Flash player from this page. Choose the rpm version to download. RPM files can be installed with one click. Just right click the rpm file and choose open with Software Center. Tar gz files need to be installed in a terminal and require much more work. Experienced linux users can also use the yum command to add programs in Mandriva. Again for beginners rpm files are the way to go if available.
You can use this website to search for the rpm files for your desired programs. For example if you have problems installing the dvd decoder libdvdcss2 in a terminal you can search for the rpm at this website. Just make sure you download the rpm for your version of Mandriva.
I forgot to mention that Mandriva offers a Powerpack version for sale which is supposed to include extra codecs but I have never tried it.  In fact I read in some forums that you still need to install some codecs in the Powerpack version. I installed all of the codecs in the free version of Mandriva 2011 and all of my videos seem to work.

How to get Mandriva

So how do you get and install Mandriva. There are several ways to get Mandriva. The easiest  way is to order a cd from the Mandriva web site. But there is an easy way to install Mandriva without a cd. First you need to download a free program called unebootin. Unebootin is a program which allows you to install a boot loader for different operating systems which you can then use to install the new operating system when you restart your computer. Unebootin can also load the installer onto a USB pen drive which when formatted correctly and has the right amount of space( I would say roughly 2 GB should do for a full install of Mandriva).  Unebootin is available for both the linux and Windows operating systems though I had a lot of problems trying to get the linux version to work. The Windows version was much easier. Unebootin comes with many linux operating systems pre-installed on a menu so that all you have to do is pick a distribution, what version for example Mandriva 8.1 and where to place the boot loader- hard drive or pen drive. The pen drive option was not for me. You have to make sure your drive is formatted correctly and then you have to have a computer which can boot from the usb drive on restart. I could not get it to work on my old dell dimension 2400. The hard drive install worked for me. Another tip. When you
install a linux system always try one that has a net install option. For example Mandriva 8.0 net install. Pick hard drive as the destination for the boot loader.
When I first used Unebootin a couple of months ago I installed Mandriva 8.1 using the net install option on my hard drive. That doesn't seem to work anymore. Now the most current version of Mandriva on the menu that works is Mandriva 8.0. Mandriva 8.0 is just too outdated. When I installed Mandriva 8.1 the system itself advises you upgrade to the most current edition and will do so for you. Mandriva 8.0 doesn't do that. Though I must say even though Mandriva is an operating system which can be upgraded to the a more current version every time you do so you may encounter problems. The best way to install Mandriva is identify the version you want say Mandriva 2010.0 and install it as new installation. So how do you do that if the newest version on the Unebootin menu in Mandriva 8.0?
It took me a while but I finally figured it out. Unebootin also has an  option to use a pre-loaded iso image instead of something already on the Unebootin menu but you have to know what you are doing to make it work. Here is how to do a hard drive net install of basically any version of Mandriva. I will install Mandriva 2011 the current stable version(that's what I'm using right now) but for older computers with smaller ram you can use this method to install Madriva 8.1 or Mandriva 9.0 which are both pretty functional and can be upgraded.
First go to the Mandriva distribution mirror list here.  Now I will give the steps I used to install Mandriva 2011 which runs pretty well on my Dell Dimension 2400 with just 512 MB of ram. Once on the mirror page click Mandriva 2011. A sub menu appears. Now click on Packages Repositories. Now pick your continent I picked North America. Next pick your country I picked the United States. Now a couple of states appear with the http and ftp mirror addresses to download the boot.iso image, Pick the state closest to you I picked New York. Now pick your mirror I picked this one:
ftp://mirror.cc.columbia.edu/pub/linux/mandriva/official/2011/i586

When you click on your mirror you will go to the index of your mirror with all of it's folders. Mine was located here. Now follow this path carefully to locate the boot.iso file you need for Unebootin. First click on the install folder now I am here:
ftp://mirror.cc.columbia.edu/pub/linux/mandriva/official/2011/i586/install/

Now click on the images folder and now you see the boot iso file. Mine was located here.
ftp://mirror.cc.columbia.edu/pub/linux/mandriva/official/2011/i586/install/images/
Now right click on the boot.iso file and download it to a folder on your computer. Remember where you download it to. Here's another tip. In the same images folder is a file called all.img which you can also use the same way as the boot.iso file.
Now to summarize the iso file needed to install Mandriva with Unebootin is located in the mirror of the distribution in the install/images folder. The full path for the mirror I selected was 
ftp://mirror.cc.columbia.edu/pub/linux/mandriva/official/2011/i586/install/images/

Now that you have your boot.iso or all.img file for your desired Mandriva distribution here is how to use it with Unebootin. Look at the Unebootin picture above. Towards the bottom is the disk image option check that box. Underneath that is something that says type select hard drive. Now find the boot.iso file you downloaded and add it where it says disk image. There is a box on the far right which brings up your computer directories to select the file. When the name of the file appears on the line click ok on the bottom of the page and unebootin will install the boot loader onto your hard drive. Now when unebootin is finished it will tell you to restart your computer. Now when I restart my computer I press the f12 keys to bring up the load options. Press the appropriate key on your computer to bring up the boot options. You see something like this(see figure above of the boot menu). Choose option 7 Boot to a utility partition. Now you see this;
Windows
Unebootin
Click on the unebootin option and the installer should start. Just follow instructions on the installer but remember that that when they ask you what kind of install select net install not hard drive. The ftp mirror addresses appear automatically just select a HTTP or FTP address for your distribution and you are good to go. It takes a while to install so be patient. Here is another tip. If your using a older computer with smaller ram install Mandriva with a lightweight desktop like LXDE not Gnome or XDE. During the install process you will have a chance to select your packages(programs) to install. When it asks for what kind of desktop you want select custom to see the light desktop options like lxde or icevm. Remember the more packages you select the more memory will be used on your computer and the longer it take to install. When it gets the end you will have a choice to load Mandriva alongside Windows or remove Windows entirely and create a whole new boot loader for Mandriva. I erased Windows since I only have a total of 40 GB on my hard drive.

Mandriva vs Windows

So why did I want Mandriva in the first place. All of my computers came with different variations of the Windows operating system. Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows XP etc. So what with the desire for a new operating system. Windows is a great operating and nothing will ever to work exactly as well as Windows but it has it's drawbacks. The main one for me is it's viruses. With Windows I regularly had to format my drive and reinstall the system because I accidentally downloaded some virus which made my computer nonfunctional. Another annoying thing was the fact that each time you reinstall the Windows system you have to reactivate it. After a couple of times you can no longer activate Windows via the net you have to make a phone call to get a new reactivation code. When I read that linux operating systems are basically virus free I had to try it. I have tried several linux operating systems and found the best to be Ubuntu, Debian and Mandriva. The computer I was installing it on was an older computer. The Dell Dimension 2400 desktop with just 40 GB hard drive space and just 512 MB of memory installed. Ubuntu  seemed to use too much memory for the old desktop(though there are different Ubuntu distributions for smaller ram). Debian was fast and very functional- when it wasn't freezing. I don't know if it does it on all computers but on my old Dell Dimension 2400 the system froze on a consistent basis. If it wasn't for that I would have loved it. Not only was it fast but it was easy to use. Finally I tried Mandriva. Bingo success! Mandriva ran very well on my old desktop and was also easy to use. Not only that but there are older distributions available which use a smaller amount of ram. More on that later.

What is Mandriva?

In simple terms Mandriva is a linux operating system for your computer both desktops and laptops. The operating system of a computer is the system installed on your hard drive which allows all of the programs on your computer to operate. The most popular operating system is Windows. Linux is an alternative to the Windows operating system. A linux operating system consists of a kernel(basically the heart of the system) with many free programs and distributions built around it. The key word is free. Mandriva is meant to be a free operating system built with free programs which basically was  invented and contributed by users. There are some paid programs which may be installed to increase functionality but those are optional. Mandriva can be run on your computer without spending a dime. And if you know what you are doing you can make it do everything Windows does. 

Welcome to Mandriva for Dummies

Welcome to my blog Mandriva for Dummies where I will post tips and hints on how the operate the Mandriva operating system. Mandriva is a linux operating system for desktop computers and laptops. Think of an operating system that works almost the same as the Windows operating system but is completely different. I will also post tips on the linux operating system in general for users of other linux operating systems.