[clug] xkbcomp problems (and more)

[Simon Burton]

Hi all,

My friend Arnold is 70 years of age. He recently (6 months ago) started to use computers,
and, most impressively, ditched windows for linux. He is now useing email/mozilla/IM/VOIP(skype)
etc. etc. to talk to his friends around the world. His health has improved greatly
due to this new lease on life. I have became his friend in the course of helping him
with the various problems that come up in maintaining a linux box.
I have new appreciation for the complexity of a linux system, and i think
what Arnold has done is quite heroic really. Because he lives in a semi-remote
location I can't just visit him, but i've taught him what "local address" is
and so I can ssh into his box when he's online and fix/install this and that.
Keep in mind that Arnold can barely type, let alone comprehend and do a 
"ln -s libcrypto.so.0.9.6 libcrypto.so.0; ldconfig".

So, he rings me tonight. His machine is broke again. When he does a "startx" (xdm died
some time ago) he reports problems associated with xkbcomp, and the X server is stopped. 
We did some telephone tinkering, but I really have no idea. He is useing mandrake 10.

I'm upset that Arnold is now thinking of quiting computers all together!
We all know what it's like; I told him to calm down. I won't be able to
visit Arnold for a week or more, so any help much appreciated.

Another possibility: how does one start ppp on the command line, so I could do some
remote tinkering ? Still, even if he went online, I wonder how I could get his local address.

Finally, if anyone else is as impressed as I am by Arno's drive, you can send an
email of support/encouragement to astruz at bigbond dot com.

bye for now,

Simon.

-- 
Simon Burton, B.Sc.
Licensed PO Box 8066
ANU Canberra 2601
Australia
Ph. 61 02 6249 6940
http://arrowtheory.com