Drifting in the Cybervoid

[Ensichrys]

...And losing my mind quickly.

I posted this in the general board because I really didn't know where else to go with all of it. Some of it has specific boards on this forum, but I think there's interconnection between the errors.

Basically, I have Fedora 12, am using an HP HDX 16 premium laptop, and I have a myriad of horrible problems and errors. (I'd reinstall Fedora, but apparently I experience a kernel panic when trying to boot off a live cd...).

I'm a Linux n00b and I thought I could learn smoothly as I went along, but there's just too much going wrong.

Here they all are:

1. Laptop has somewhat beefy specs (4 gigs ram, 1G dedicated graphics) and I apparently have no 3D rendering support, even though with windows I could play Crysis and Aion with no issues. Because of this, I can't use the desktop effects.

2. When I minimize a window, it's gone forever. Forget about it, it's not coming back up. I can't even see it on the panel or a taskbar.

3. SELinux abolutely refuses to be put into permissive mode (yes, I used su and all that jazz).

4. Speaking of su, I can't log in to my computer as root. I don't really want to for security reasons, but I should at least be ABLE to log in as root, should I not?

5. I'm a writer and, looking through the man pages (and most online dox), I want to tear out my hair and eat it. I'd like to know where to go to find complete documentation with complete, coherent sentences. For example:

You can switch the system into permissive mode with the following command:

echo 0 >/selinux/enforce

This makes it sound like a one step process, but below...

You'll need to be logged in as root, and in the sysadm_r role:

newrole -r sysadm_r

...what? What does this do? Why am I doing it? It should come as no surprise that this didn't work.

6. Wine... dear god, Wine... before you say "go to winehq" it's a problem with the audio tab and I had problems with my audio card before in f12 KDE. Wine doesn't work at all. On anything. Ever. Also, winehq is broken almost all the time.

7. I'm trying to get my computer to connect to my Netgear WN111v2 router via usb (Push n' Connect) but on the page to download the linux drivers for it, there are two downloads (one of which may or may not even be needed). The first one says to download it and, farther down, it needs another package to go along with it... or does it? It doesn't clearly tell me what to do anywhere.

8. Sometimes, when I'm using yum and I enter a package to install, it insists that the package does not exist, even though I'm looking at a page that is explicitly telling me to install said package.


I'd appreciate it if someone could help me in any way possible. I am fully aware that I haven't supplied all the necessary information, but I don't know exactly what I need to supply. Filling me in on that would also be appreciated (otherwise, I'm sure I can't be helped).

Thank you for your time.

[sidebrnz]

We'll need more info about your system to help you with your 3D issue. Does your laptop have ATI or nVidia graphics?

As far as Wine goes, it has a known problem with PulseAudio: the two don't work together. To get sound in Wine, create a launcher for the program, then edit the Properties and prefix the command with pasuspender to suspend PulseAudio. If you want to run C:\Program Files\Program\ProgName under wine, the command should look like this:

pasuspender "C:\Program Files\Program\Progname"

Good luck, and let us know what else we can do to help.

[scott32746]

Hello,

3) edit /etc/sysconfig/selinux
change SELINUX=
4) Logging in as root without being a user first is a security issues , but if you would like to search the forum on howto. Default setting is not to let root login into GUI
8) try yum update --skip-broken

[Hlingler]

2. When I minimize a window, it's gone forever. Forget about it, it's not coming back up. I can't even see it on the panel or a taskbar.

Try manually updating all software, then re-boot - open a terminal window, and command:
su
yum update --skip-broken
[...]
reboot

OR: perhaps you somehow zapped the panel window list applet ? You can always still use ALT-Tab to cycle through the list of open windows and recover "hidden"/minimized windows.

3. SELinux abolutely refuses to be put into permissive mode (yes, I used su and all that jazz).

???
su
echo 0 > /selinux/enforce

OR:
su
setenforce 0

Those are zeros, not capital letter "O".

4. Speaking of su, I can't log in to my computer as root. I don't really want to for security reasons, but I should at least be ABLE to log in as root, should I not?

You cannot login to GNOME desktop as root-user without tweaking - search Forum for answer. Blame GNOME Project.

V

[sidebrnz]

Another thing that might help: right click on one of your panels. Select Add To Panel and add Window List. This will give you back your application buttons. I don't know what happened to them, but I've had it happen myself, and this is how you get them back.

[Ensichrys]

Originally Posted by scott32746

Hello,

3) edit /etc/sysconfig/selinux
change SELINUX=
4) Logging in as root without being a user first is a security issues , but if you would like to search the forum on howto. Default setting is not to let root login into GUI

3) I tried this before and ran into an authentication problem because of 4). I'm sure the tweak will help.

Originally Posted by Hlingler

su
echo 0 > /selinux/enforce

OR:
su
setenforce 0

I've used these, and bash insists that it works, but SELinux is still denying things somehow.

Originally Posted by sidebrnz

Another thing that might help: right click on one of your panels. Select Add To Panel and add Window List. This will give you back your application buttons. I don't know what happened to them, but I've had it happen myself, and this is how you get them back.

This worked. Of course, my most baffling problem is one solved by using the GUI. Wow, I feel like an idiot.

Originally Posted by sidebrnz

We'll need more info about your system to help you with your 3D issue. Does your laptop have ATI or nVidia graphics?

As far as Wine goes, it has a known problem with PulseAudio: the two don't work together. To get sound in Wine, create a launcher for the program, then edit the Properties and prefix the command with pasuspender to suspend PulseAudio. If you want to run C:\Program Files\Program\ProgName under wine, the command should look like this:

pasuspender "C:\Program Files\Program\Progname"

Good luck, and let us know what else we can do to help.

I'm using nvidia 9800 Geforce with Cuda. Feel free to weep. Also, can you elaborate on what "creating a launcher" entails? I'm not quite sure how that's done in Linux.

[marko]

Originally Posted by Ensichrys

.
Basically, I have Fedora 12, am using an HP HDX 16 premium laptop, and I have a myriad of horrible problems and errors. (I'd reinstall Fedora, but apparently I experience a kernel panic when trying to boot off a live cd...).

I'd then suggest to not use the Live CD but use the full install DVD. The live cd has to do
some tricks that are more likely to fail than the DVD. Installing from the DVD is more
reliable

[BugRocks1]

Checking the status of selinux:

sestatus

Selinux is not the only permission manager on Fedora there is the PAM modules too have you checked those?

---------- Post added at 10:00 PM CDT ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 PM CDT ----------

GUI root login or login in as root using the graphical interface of gnome.

Type:

Find this line

And change it to:

Also to change the seelinux status I do believe that only "su" doesn't cut it you have to use "su -"

Instead of:

Try:

[sidebrnz]

To create a launcher, right-click on the Desktop, select Create Launcher, and fill in the form. Then, if you need sound, right-click on the icon for the launcher, select Properties and edit the command as above.

[Ensichrys]

Originally Posted by sidebrnz

To create a launcher, right-click on the Desktop, select Create Launcher, and fill in the form. Then, if you need sound, right-click on the icon for the launcher, select Properties and edit the command as above.

I did this, and the audio thing is still acting up. When I click the audio tab in wine configuration, it says I don't have an audio driver currently specified in the registry. It says a driver was selected for me and that I will have to click apply to save the changes, but I can't click apply because, immediately after closing this dialogue box, I get "The program winecfg.exe has encountered a serious problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." But, hey, at least they said they were sorry, right? I'm not going to be too anal about this since wine isn't really Fedora Project's problem.

Originally Posted by BugRocks1

Checking the status of selinux:



Selinux is not the only permission manager on Fedora there is the PAM modules too have you checked those?

---------- Post added at 10:00 PM CDT ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 PM CDT ----------

GUI root login or login in as root using the graphical interface of gnome.


Also to change the seelinux status I do believe that only "su" doesn't cut it you have to use "su -"

su - worked, but now that I've rebooted I can do it the other way. Thanks .

Originally Posted by marko

I'd then suggest to not use the Live CD but use the full install DVD. The live cd has to do
some tricks that are more likely to fail than the DVD. Installing from the DVD is more
reliable

This makes total sense. I'll do that in the future, if necessary.

[markkuk]

Originally Posted by Ensichrys

I've used these, and bash insists that it works, but SELinux is still denying things somehow.

When SElinux is in permissive mode, it will create an AVC denial report for everything that it would have denied if it had been in enforcing mode and the reports cause the SEtroubleshooter window to pop up. Are you sure you aren't just seeing these reports?

[Ensichrys]

Yeah. Before these lovely people helped me fix it, I was seeing denials. I have seen the reports as well, with the blue text and all that? Yeah, I've seen those before too, but this was different. Now they're just reports.

[sidebrnz]

You can't configure the sound for Wine when you're using PulseAudio. The workaround I gave you doesn't always get you the best sound, alas, it just gives you sound. Sorry it's not working better, but I'm no expert on that.

[Ensichrys]

It's cool, bugzilla works again.

Oh, about my direct 3d rendering... I'm still clueless with this one. Anybody have any insight? Need more info than just my card?