Problems and Questions

[Ian Heafer]

Hello everyone,

=09I installed Yellowdog2.3 from an ISO over the weekend so I could play =
with it=20
and see what this linux thing is all about.  I'd like to get it to the po=
int=20
where I could do just about everything I could do in 10.2 to if its somet=
hing=20
that I want to keep around.  To do that though I have a few questions tha=
t I=20
hope you guys can help me with.

First, and probably most important:  How to get the GUI to startup when m=
y=20
mouse isn't plugged in.  YDL works great with my USB mouse, but since I'm=
=20
using a laptop (iBook2 from July 2001) I don't always carry my mouse with=
 me. =20
However, if my mouse isn't plugged in at startup, the GUI refuses to load=
=2E =20
Xfree gave me an error about not having a pointing device and though it w=
ent=20
by before I could get a good look at it, there was a mouse related error =
at=20
startup.  My question is how can I get everything working so I can use th=
e=20
trackpad when I don't have my mouse?

Second, how can I enable Japanese text input?  I work as an English teach=
er in=20
Japan and so I use Japanese quite often when creating worksheets and thin=
gs=20
for class.  For me to really be able to "work" in Linux I'll need to be a=
ble=20
to type in Japanese.  The only thing I found in my admitidly brief search=
=20
seemed to imply installing the whole OS in Japanese, which I'd like to av=
oid. =20
I figure that if I can find what I need to input Japanese I'll find some=20
better Japanese fonts too, the one that seems to be installed is ugly.

Third, is there any way to enable CD-Audio?  All my searching brought me =
ways=20
to enable sound.  I have sound, things beep at me and I can listen to MP3=
s=20
but not CDs.  Since my Linux partition is small and pretty full I don't h=
ave=20
the room to put that many MP3s so it would be nice to be able to use the =
CD=20
player program installed.=20

Last, can anyone give me some tips on either how to mount my classic part=
ition=20
or on mounting my USB keychain disk?  I'd like to have easy access to my =
old=20
mail, which is currently in Apple Mail.app format.  I read somewhere that=
 the=20
mailboxes that Mail.app uses are UNIX standard so Kmail or any other clie=
nt=20
could read them if I put them in ~/Mail.  My problem is getting them ther=
e. =20
I know that Linux can't read HFS+ but I thought that regular HFS was okay=
 so=20
I reformatted my classic partition HFS thinking that I could use it as a =
go=20
between drive, but I can't get it to mount.   Next I tried my PocketClip=20
drive (one of those little flashRAM USB drive on a keychain deals) thinki=
ng=20
that maybe I would have better luck with it seeing as it's formatted in=20
MS-DOS format so I can use my files on the windows machines at work.  Lin=
ux=20
seems to see it, but when I try to mount it, I get an error saying that i=
t=20
couldn't figure out the file system format.  This seems odd to me seeing =
as=20
the man for mount says it does understand the MS-DOS file system and that=
s=20
how the drive is formatted according to OSX and Win98.

I'm sorry to go on for so long but I thought it would be best to put all =
my=20
questions out at once.  These are the problems that I've found after poki=
ng=20
around in KDE for a few hours (after finally downloading all the updates =
to=20
make it run right)  I'd appreciate any help you guys could give.

Thanks a lot,

Ian Heafer