Problem with Sansa mp3 player automatic connection in Mandriva

Problem
After an upgrade my Sansa E260 is no longer automatically recognised in Mandriva and looking at the /var/log/messages displays the error:
reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5

Solution
Run as su the following (maybe a couple of times), while the sansa is connected:
sudo rmmod ehci_hcd
sudo modprobe ehci_hcd

Mandriva 2010, Dell Vostro 430, Broadcom Netlink BCM57780 problem

Problem
Just recently installed Mandriva 2010 in a new Dell Vostro 430 and the network card (Broadcom Netlink BCM57780) was not recognized.

Solution
Add the following to the /etc/modprobe.conf file:
sudo vi /etc/modprobe.conf
install tg3 /sbin/modprobe broadcom; /sbin/modprobe/ –ignore-install tg3

ferret installation error

Problem
Trying to install ferret with sudo gem install ferret fails with the following error:

fs_store.c:300: error: format not a string literal and no format arguments
make: *** [fs_store.o] Error 1
rake aborted!
Command failed with status (2): [make…]

Solution
As the installation was not possible by using the gem install command, the next step was to download the ferret.tar.gz file extract it and try and install the plugin manually.
It also failed with the same error message.
After some googling for the error message it seems that newer gcc versions fail for non critical errors which in this case is caused by the make options -Wformat -Werror=format-security
So if you replace the:
-Werror=format-security
with
-Wno-error

in the extracted folder/ext/Makefile

and then follow the original instructions as in:

$ rake ext
$ ruby setup.rb config
$ ruby setup.rb setup
# ruby setup.rb install

It should be installed correctly.

Mandriva – Eclipse – Aptana RadRails

Problem
You want to do a new installation of Aptana RadRails IDE in Mandriva as an eclipse plugin.

Solution

  • Install eclipse first (selecting openjdk when prompted):
    sudo urpmi eclipse
  • According to the instructions here take the following steps:
  • From the Help menu in Eclipse, select Software Updates
  • Select the Available Sotware tab
  • Click the “Add Site..” button.
  • Specify the Location Url update site: http://update.aptana.com/update/studio/3.4/ and click OK
  • Select the checkbox next to the added update site.
  • Click the install button.
  • Complete instruction to install from update site and restart eclipse
  • Go to ‘My Aptana’ page and then the ‘Plugins’ tab on the top
  • Click on Aptana Rad Rails ‘Get It’ link and get through the next sequence of screens select ‘ok’.
  • Restart Eclipse and RadRails should now be installed.

Spree installation error in Mandriva.

Problem
You are trying to install spree from the git source, following the instructions from here, but there are errors like:

gem install activemerchant --version "= 1.4.1"      
ERROR:  While generating documentation for builder-2.1.2
... MESSAGE:   Unhandled special: Special: type=17, text=""
... RDOC args: --ri --op /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/doc/builder-2.1.2/ri --title Builder 
    -- Easy XML Building --main README --line-numbers 
    --quiet lib CHANGES Rakefile README doc/releases/builder-1.2.4.rdoc 
    doc/releases/builder-2.0.0.rdoc doc/releases/builder-2.1.1.

Solution
Make sure you have the following gems installed:

sudo gem install builder haml echoe

and then run:

sudo rake gems:install

Mandriva – Rails 2.3.2 – mysql gem – ‘ERROR: Error installing mysql’

Problem
You are trying to install the mysql gem in Mandriva, but it fails with error messages:

ERROR:  Error installing mysql:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension...
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysclient... no ....

Solution
After searching in google, with solutions about providing different options (– –with-mysql-config, ..etc), even trying different combinations for providing the client library path, the configuration file, or the header file path, was still faced with the same error installing the mysql gem.
As the Mandriva installation was quite new, it turns out to be a couple of missing packages.
So try:

urpmi gcc
urpmi make

and run:

gem install mysql

again.

It should work out ok install the gem and output:

Building native extensions. This could take a while...
Successfully installed mysql-2.7
1 gem installed