Stuart Turner

Sigh, I thought last week that it would be a good idea to upgrade Mandriva 2007 to Mandriva 2008. I use Mandriva on my desktop and Ubuntu on my laptop. I have become increasingly frustrated with Mandriva over the last few years as upgrades have always been a little problematic whereas Ubuntu has been flawless.

Having said that, my last Ubuntu upgrade brought up horrendous error messages and I thought I was going to have to re-build, however given a re-boot everything seemed ok. The 3D stuff even worked once I'd installed the Compiz display manager.

However, that was Ubuntu and this is Mandriva. So here's what happened: Went to the mandriva website and bought the powerpack, yes folks, payed money! Got an email from Paypal saying that everything was fine and waited for the download email from Mandriva. Got that, went to the download site and ... your right it didn't work.

Contacted customer support 5 times via email and didn't hear anything, so opened a case with Paypal. Whilst I was waiting I did a search on Google and noticed that a number of other people had been having the same problem. So I dropped a note on the Mandriva forum and within an hour a chap dropped me a note and gave me a link to a download area.

Hooray! Burned the DVD and started the upgrade process ... ran the installer, clicked upgrade and everything ran ok.

Logged in and initially everything looked fine. However, I started to notice some wierd things like I couldn't su to root and mysql didn't work, and apache wouldn't start etc, etc.

Here's what I discovered:

• The installer creates a whole load of rpmnew files if it finds files that are different to the ones that you already have, sometimes it doesn't matter, however it did matter for a number of items!
• Every time I tried to do a "su root", I got the message "Invalid Password" without being prompted to enter anything. Hey, you gotta give me a chance to get it wrong! What fixed it was this: I ssh'd as root, then went to the /etc/pam.d folder and copied over the .rpmnew files to the existing files. Voila, "su root" worked! Phew!
• Apache not working. I started going down a path of trying to figure out what was wrong, then I uninstalled the apache rpm and re-installed. Came up a treat.
• MySQL - had been disabled to start at boot, so went to control center and enabled.
• Dansguardian - again rpmnew problem, copied the files over in /etc/dansguardian.
• nvidia video drivers - gave up - it took me long enough to get them working for 2007, I simply couldn't be bothered to spend any more time. I don't do graphic intense stuff anyway.
• 3D effects - work, however none of the windows have borders - can't be doing with that so disabled. They work fine in Ubuntu so can play there.
• Amarok - before the upgrade Amarok had suddenly stopped being able to write to my Creative Zen MP3 player (BTW: Ubuntu works fine with Amarok installed), upgrade didn't fix, so thats still a problem!
• The upgrade was painful and to be fair it is reported in several places on the web that upgrading mandriva rather than doing a fresh install can be problematic. I think if I ever do a complete re-install I will move to Ubuntu as it just seems to work.

We have recently bought a Holiday Home, a Willerby Winchester MK2 aka Van, Bach at the Moon and Sixpence Holiday Park near Woodbridge.

The area we were staying fell between two map ranges. I then discovered that you can order a map from the Ordnance Survey where you select the central point and scale. (Type OS Select in the product search) I've ordered one - you can even customise the image on the front and text. Very cool and relatively inexpensive at 16.99 per map.

I am doing the BUPA Great North Run this year in aid of ChildLine. Click here if you would like to make a donation ...

Thanks!

Stuart

Write up of our recent trip to Cornwall.

Getting there - Friday

We decided to split the journey in to two halves as we know that it takes a while to get down to Cornwall from Cambridge and the route is generally congested around the M25 and also on the A303 / A30.

Set off at midday on Friday 18th August and planned to stop at the Legacy Rose and Crown in Salisbury.

We always stop as we go round the M25, we usually stop after the A1 services at the London Colney retail park. We find it handy to stop at the Starbucks there and also pick up any groceries we may need during the trip. It's also much more pleasant than the A1 services.

The M25 was playing tricks so we got to Salisbury at about 5:30. The hotel was a bit run-down, acceptable for a stop over, but thats it. I was regretting having booked in advance for the return journey.

For dinner we went to the local Prezzo.

Saturday

Set off from Salisbury and arrived at Trebudannon Barn in good time. First of all spent an hour looking around the wonderful Salisbury Cathedral.

On the way down, stopped at a lovely farm cafe / vineyard in Monkton just outside Honiton. It's called Black Down Hills Vineyard and Winery. Well worth a stop, great food, coffee and much better than the little chef's!

We went to St Columb Major Carnival in the evening and had a home made meal.

Sunday

Went to Sunday lunch at Viners restaurant - very nice was probably the best restaurant we went to, on a par with Fistral Blue.

Went to Perranporth Beach after lunch for some body boarding.

Monday

Went to Fistral Beach for a surfing lesson.

Went to Fifteen Restaurant for late lunch. Was ok - very expensive and the food was mediocre for the price.

Tuesday

Went to St. Ives for a look round the shops. Ate at the Mermaid restaurant for lunch. Food was again ok - cheap and cheerful - not as special as it is in the evening where it has nice lights etc. Also went to the Tate St. Ives.

Got to St. Ives via the park and ride on the St. Ives Branch line.

Wednesday

Went to Fire at Magwan Porth for a coffeee on the way to Rick Stein's Bistro in Padstow. Fire was great, we returned there a couple of times. Rick's place was over priced and I found the food too over flavoured with olive oil etc.

Did the Camel trail from Padstow to Weybridge which was very easy - flat and a good ten miles for the family to enjoy. Lots of great scenery along the way.

Stopped at the Falcon in St Mawgan on the way back from Padstow. Lovely pub, great ale - had some tinners from the St Austel brewery.

The kids were having a nose around the barn next to us and discovered a small car company that make performance road cars! Its called Adrenaline Motor Sport.

Thursday

Went to Tintagel castle after visitng the Old Post Office.

Tintagel is very beautiful setting. Castle isn't up to much, but it does leave you wondering why someone built a castle in such a difficult place!

Then went on to Port Issac which is anotehr wonderful historic fishing village. Had some cup cakes in the cup cake cafe.

Stopped at Fire for a drink and then ended up at the Falcon for a meal on the way back. They also had the local Morris Dancers there - very entertaining.

Friday

Friday was our day at the beach. We decided to go back to Fistral bay in Newquay. Started off with a look round Newquay. Bought a new skateboard and some clothes! Also got some lovely Cornish Pasties from "Morris Cornish Pasties" - apparently the best there is. I had the Chicken Balti - very traditional!

Great day on the beach, well lifeguarded as usual. Bit windy, although the kids loved it and spent hours in the sand.

Went to Fistral Blue for dinner. Beautiful setting, food not as good as Viners, however the setting made up for it. great cocktail bar for a drink and the most wionderfull view, even if the weather is cloudy. What we also noticed is that its probably better to go body-boarding / surfing when the tide is coming in.

We then went to the fun fair at Newquay to round things off. The rest of the family got dizzy on the Waltzer as I watched on. I went on the Dodgems, Mouse Trap and Ghost Train!

Saturday

Packed up at the Barn, said our goodbyes to everyone, including Jemima, who we discovered was really a Jeremy!

Had planned to stop off at Salisbury on the way back, unfortuantely at the same Legacy Rose and Crown Hotel. Its in a beautiful part of the City, however it sucks!

Went for dinenr at LXIX Bistro. Was ok, probably won't return.

Sunday

Drove back to Cambridge. Picked our dog up from the kennels in Abington Cambridge.

Whilst on holiday, I was thinking how painful it was to search for a house to buy. I thought all you need is a google map with an overlay of houses for sale.

Trick is post code to geo data is quite expensive - see the Royal Mail website.

However searching a bit more on Google came up with this super web site. Job done!