The most obvious change is that Mandriva now includes KDE4 as default, this means you get a new style desktop, a new file manager (dolphin) and desktop widgets (plasmoids).

Mandriva Installation

Mandriva 2009 KDE4 desktop

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Recently I have been keen to try the Virtualbox Seamless desktop mode, which allows you to run a virtual machine and have it integrate with your host OS’s window manager.

After installing it, removing the default Guest additions on Mandriva 2008.1, and using the updated GA, I was unable to select any screen resolution higher than 1024×768. I’ve found lots of forum posts asking about how to fix this problem of Virtual box limiting the max res, but not many answers (apart from checking xorg.conf).

The answer lies here in the 1.6.4 changelog

Linux additions: accept every user-defined guest video mode in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

After updating my host machine (windows) and the guest additions to 1.6.4, I am able to select 1280×1024.

If this doesn’t work for you, make sure you have the latest Guest additions installed.

How to: Hauppauge HVR 1300 on Linux.

If you want to view TV under Linux (DVB or analog), I can verify that the Hapuuauge HVR 1300 is compatible! (digital works fine, however I do not have analog sound working yet)

I bought the card because i don’t get very good reception on digital mux 68 (E4, ITV, channel 4) so also need analog.

My first attempt was to follow this guide and use the latest V4L modules, however I had problems with the V4L sources and the vanilla Mandriva 2008.0 kernel (2.6.22). So I decided to use a later kernel and compiled 2.6.24.4 from source, making sure the Video 4 linux and DVB modules were included when compiling.

Another valuable resource was Bernard GODARD’s blog, he listed the modules that you need to load in order to get the card operating.

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