Mandriva 2010 Free

You want to enable your Mandriva Desktop to do all the things you have become accustomed to. You have old mp3 and avi files, and so on. Okay, if you must. Linux is all about choice, is it not. So.. Let's add some "power" to your desktop.

One more note before we get down to business, all procedures i will suggest here require an active network connection. These are procedures that work for me. I have tested them many times. I have set up my desktop the way i need it. I would highly recommend that you set up sudo which will make all these commands work effortlessly - Part 2, Post-install Mandriva::2010.0 set up 'sudo'
A word to the wise from the dumb - backup your stuff regularly.

Ok here goes... I like to remove the CD/DVD as a source. But this step

1. Remove all media, can be skipped.

copy and paste this into a terminal,

sudo urpmi.removemedia -a

2. Add Media Sources

Mandriva 2010.0: i586 (32-bit), use command procedure 32bitMDV, 32bitPLF, and 32bitMIB

32bitMDV more info

copy and paste this into a terminal,

sudo urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist 'http://api.mandriva.com/mirrors/basic.2010.0.i586.list'

32bitPLF more info
enter this into a terminal

sudo urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist 'http://plf.zarb.org/mirrors/2010.0.i586.list'

32bitMIB more info

enter this into a terminal

sudo urpmi.addmedia --update MIB-basic_32 http://mib.pianetalinux.org/MIB/2010.0/32/basic/ with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz

sudo urpmi.addmedia MIB-experts_32 http://mib.pianetalinux.org/MIB/2010.0/32/experts/ with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz

If you have just done the 32bitMDV, 32bitPLF and 32bitMIB commands then skip this section

This is ONLY for Mandriva 2010.0: x86_64 (64-bit). To add media sources (software repos) to a 64bit Mandriva installation, complete the 64bitMDV 64bitPLF and 64bitMIB procedures

64bitMDV more info

enter this in a terminal

urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist 'http://api.mandriva.com/mirrors/basic.2010.0.x86_64.list'

64bitPLF more info

enter this into a terminal

urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist 'http://plf.zarb.org/mirrors/2010.0.x86_64.list'

64bitMIB more info

enter this into a terminal

urpmi.addmedia --update MIB-basic_64 http://mib.pianetalinux.org/MIB/2010.0/64/basic/ with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz

hit [enter] wait ...

urpmi.addmedia MIB-experts_64 http://mib.pianetalinux.org/MIB/2010.0/64/experts/ with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz

3. Update media sources (repositories)

sudo urpmi.update -a

4. Best audio device control

sudo urpmi gnome-alsamixer mpg123-pulse

5. Lightweight Music player

sudo urpmi audacious audacious-musepack audacious-plugins audacious-pulse audacious-skins audacious-wavpack libaudacious1 libaudacious2

6. Ear and eye candy

sudo urpmi cairo-dock-compiz-icon compiz compiz-fusion-icon compiz-fusion compiz-fusion-plugins-extra compiz-fusion-plugins-main libcompiz0 pidgin-rhythmbox emerald emerald-themes libemerald0

7. Video Lan Client

sudo urpmi vlc vlc-plugin-pulse vlc-plugin-dvdnav vlc-plugin-theora vlc-plugin-ogg vlc-plugin-flac vlc-plugin-mpc vlc-plugin-schroedinger vlc-plugin-dv vlc-plugin-a52 mozilla-plugin-vlc

8. Gstreamer

sudo urpmi gstreamer0.10-a52dec gstreamer0.10-cdio gstreamer0.10-decoders gstreamer0.10-decoders-audio gstreamer0.10-dirac gstreamer0.10-dts gstreamer0.10-dv gstreamer0.10-faad gstreamer0.10-faac gstreamer0.10-lame gstreamer0.10-metadata gstreamer0.10-mms gstreamer0.10-mpeg gstreamer0.10-mpeg2enc gstreamer0.10-musepack gstreamer0.10-resindvd gstreamer0.10-schroedinger gstreamer0.10-wavpack gstreamer0.10-twolame gstreamer0.10-x264 gstreamer0.10-xing libgstreamermm-get-plugin-defs0.10_0 libgstreamermm0.10_2 gstreamer0.10-xvid

9. Xine

sudo urpmi xine-pulse gxine-mozilla libxine1 xine-faad xine-flac xine-plugins xine-skins xine-ui xine-wavpack

10. MPlayer

sudo urpmi mplayer-gui mplayer-skins mplayer-fonts mplayerplugin smplayer

11. DVD's, and more

sudo urpmi dvd+rw-tools libdvdcss2 libdvdnav4 libdvdread4 faac gstreamer0.10-faac libfaac0 libquicktime-faac faad2 libfaad2_2 xine-faad libquicktime-faad mencoder ffmpeg helixplayer k9copy ogmrip win32-codecs

12. Java

sudo urpmi java-1.6.0-sun-plugin java-1.6.0-sun totem-mozilla mozilla-plugin-vlc wmwebcam webcam_server camorama kmplayer mplayer dkms-squashfs dkms-squashfs-lzma hfsplusutils hfsutils

13. Adobe Flashplayer

sudo urpmi flash-player-plugin

14. Communication Central I still can't get everyone to use Ekiga

sudo urpmi skype

hit [enter] y [enter] wait ...

Now.. it's all done. You might want to restart your browser to activate the new flashplugin. I hope it works for you. Mandriva is the perfect desktop. My next post is in the festive spirit - it deals with candy, with compiz fusion and emerald. I'm no expert but mine works.
Related links:

What is free software and why it exists. Link to the Free Software Foundation

A video by Stephen Fry (Happy Birthday Linux)

Mandriva Media Sources (repositories) explained

The Official Mandriva Wiki::

The Mandriva Linux ftp mirrors for final release versions contain at least:

* main which contains most important programs, supported by Mandriva
* contrib which contains some more optional programs added by contributors, but which do not necessarily get (security) updates
* non-free which contains some programs which are not free

Each media has 4 sub-medias:

* release the packages as of the release day.
* updates the packages updated since the release day for security or bug concerns. Everyone should have this medium, even with a very slow internet connection. When adding an update medium, add the --update switch so urpmi can distinguish it from a regular medium.
* backports some packages of new versions backported from cooker.
* testing which is used to temporary tests of new updates, to allow the bug reporters to validate the corrections.

*Cooker is the future release of Mandriva before it becomes official (new stable version).

The PLF packaging policy (link) and Easy URPMI online tool

The MIB repositories explained at this link