Working Workarounds
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This page last updated on July 6, 2008.
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[edit] old sound cards
The driver package for old sound cards does not autodetect cards.
The driver package can be installed with:
apt-get install kernel-drivers-sound-isa kernel-sound-oss
but it won't immediately work because the developers decided not to implement probing for ISA cards (a complicated process that isn't needed by most users anymore - virtually everything is PCI or USB these days). Also, it has to be done by command-prompt, Kynaptic won't install them for some reason. Anyhow:
If you know or find out the module name for your sound card, there is an easy workaround. A great many of them, definitely including the ESS AudioDrives, are in the 'sb' module, which stands for SoundBlaster. For any of these cards, you can add:
modprobe --force sb
to your /etc/rc.local . Then you can go into your KDE Control Center and start up the sound system, in OSS mode.
If you have a non-sb ISA soundcard, you may want to try running alsaconf.
[edit] Older AMD Duron/Athlon (K7) CPUs
If you have an older AMD Duron or Athlon (K7) CPU, it might not have SSE, just 3DNow; and there is a detection issue. The following helps with this.
[edit] X configuration
Right now, X configuration may have to changed manually.
For newer monitors, the existing tools will work automatically and very well; to do your changing, just go to the KDE control panel, Peripherals section, Display area. For older ones, it will often work, but not always. The beginnings of manual configuration documentation can be had here:
http://wiki.arklinux.org/index.php/General_Hardware#Older_Monitors
Configurators don't exist very much.
According to the X.org web site, there are two special configurators included in the X.org distribution, xorgcfg and xorgconfig. However, neither of these are available at this time in Ark. There is a configurator which can be retrieved in packaging, kxconfig, but this does not work.
There is only a partial workaround.
SUSE 9.3 has xorgcfg which will run in -textmode, and SUSE 10.2 has text-only xorgconfig which runs fine. You can download this working xorgconfig binary here. But the problem is, neither helps very much: to use either, one must have the vertical and horizontal scan numbers for the monitor in question.
So there is not much of an easy way out for this one, unless the old (1998-era) Windows default scan numbers can be identified. Those should work as a good default. Otherwise, we have to hunt through the huge list of old monitors and scan numbers, for each monitor. Perhaps that list can be posted here in the future.
If you accidentally hose your X configuration, do Control-Alt-F1 to get a text-mode login prompt, log in as root or arklinux or other privileged user, and run '/usr/sbin/xrescue'.
[edit] gftp-text and/or libreadline.so.4
If you try gftp-text binaries in a vanilla install of Ark, you will see the following:
[arklinux@localhost ~]$ gftp-text gftp-text: error while loading shared libraries: libreadline.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory [arklinux@localhost ~]$
The cause is:
The gftp guys linked their binaries against an outdated version of the readline library. Ark Linux includes the current version.
The real fix is:
Get the source and recompile it on Ark Linux or another distribution that uses current libraries - or use a different ftp client.
A workaround is:
[arklinux@localhost ~]$ su - Password: [root@localhost arklinux]# cd /usr/lib [root@localhost lib]# ln -s libreadline.so.5 libreadline.so.4 [root@localhost lib]#
This workaround is permanent; the problem should not come back, unless truly weird things are done additionally :)
It is generally wrong to symlink *.so.X to *.so.Y because people change their sonames for a reason: *.so.X and *.so.Y are generally not binary compatible, so applications should always be rebuilt after "soname upgrade". In the case of libreadline.so.4 to libreadline.so.5, the binary interface has changed only for some not very commonly used functions, so this workaround will actually work for most applications.
[edit] 2007.1 Does Not Connect To The Internet
As many users have noticed, 2007.1 does not seem to connect to the Internet on it's own. Currently the only workaround is to add a line to rc.local.
As root, edit the file /etc/rc.local and add:
dhclient eth0
to it, where eth0 is your ethernet card as identified by Ark. Make sure you still have a blank line at the end of rc.local, or you will cripple your system. Reboot to have it connect you to the Internet at boot, or to connect without rebooting, open a root terminal and type:
dhclient eth0
again, where eth0 is your ethernet card as identified by Ark.
Note: As of our 2008.1 release (our dockyard-devel test release at the time this note was added), this workaround should no longer be necessary to connect to the Internet via Ethernet.
[edit] Battery Icon In System Tray Doesn't Always Show Or Update
On laptops, there is a battery meter in the system tray.
If you're using 2007.1, however, it will not show up. To fix this, run follow the directions at Upgrading to 2008.1 Without A CD to upgrade your system to dockyard. Next, click Kmenu>System>KDE Control Center. go down to Power Control and select Laptop Battery. Click Start Battery Monitor to get the battery meter to show.
For dockyard and dockyard-devel users, the battery meter does not always update to show when a battery or plug is inserted or taken out. Simply rebooting the computer or pressing CTRL+ALT+Backspace to restart KDE should fix this. Note on restarting KDE: You will lose any and all unsaved work!
[edit] On some computers, 2008.1 appears to shut down then freezes
On some computers in 2008.1, when you click Turn Off as a normal user, Ark shuts down, but does not power off your computer automatically (considering your computer supports being powered off by the OS (Operating System)). However, when you issue the poweroff command as the root user, Ark not only shuts down, but also powers off your computer. This does not seem to be a problem on some computers; for most users, 2008.1 seems to power off the computer when told to do so as a normal user. If you are one of the many who's computer does successfully power off when told to do so as a normal user, the following workaround is not necessary.
- Go to KMenu -> KDE Control Center OR KMenu -> Run Command... -> type: kcontrol and click Run.
- Once in KDE Control Center, navigate to System Administration -> Login Manager -> click on the Shutdown tab.
- Once you're on the Shutdown tab, click Administrator Mode (you will not be able to do anything here otherwise).
- Change the Halt: text box from /sbin/halt to /sbin/poweroff.
- Click Apply, then click OK. This will close KDE Control Center.
- Attempt to shut down as a normal user.
- If it does not successfully turn off, or does not appear to shut down at all, follow this workaround to see if you made a mistake somewhere.
