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It requires improvements. If you want to improve it, simply log in and click on the Edit tab.

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Note:
This page was created in order to write an official troubleshooting manual, but it can be useful as such

Presentation
Sometimes, the official documentation embedded in the ISO image is the only one accessible to the user:

  • if a problem prevents the internet connection.
  • if neither forum nor wiki exist in the user language whereas official documentation does.

From this assessment, docteam decided to add a troubleshooting section in the official documentation because it is always to hand. The goal of this page is:

  1. first, to define the troubleshooting section summary
  2. then, to collect information
  3. and to manage the collaborative work. It's impossible to write troubleshooting documentation about hardware or software you don't have, so we will need the help of a lot of people. That is the reason why a wiki page was chosen instead of a Calenco one, more people have access to the wiki.

Note to the writers

  • The target user of this troubleshooting section is a non-expert user, who can't ask for help on the internet or can't find help in his own language, we start with important problems (Boot, Display, Network...)
  • Warn the doc-discuss mailing list about what you want to do, to prevent useless work.
  • If people who don't speak English want to help, they just have to find somebody (both intermediary and correspondent) to translate this page into their language, then to translate their work back into English. Warn the doc-discuss mailing list.
  • Don't bother with the wiki syntax as this page will be transferred in Calenco.

Where to find material?


Contents

TROUBLESHOOTING MANUAL (planning stage)

Preliminaries

Check first you strictly followed the points detailed in the section "Downloading and Checking Media" at the start of this manual. Then check the following: [to proofreaders, we are talking about the Mageia Installer Manual which will contain this addon]

The way you burn or dump the media

Avoid the use of Double Layer and Re-writing media, as these are less safe, and avoid using high burning speeds.

Note: Unetbootin should not be used to copy the ISO image to a USB drive (see below).

To dump a Mageia installation ISO on a USB stick, you may try one of several tools:

  • From a Mageia system
  • * IsoDumper, available since Mageia 3 inside repo.
  • From Ubuntu
  • * You can use the application "Disks" with the action "Restore an image" and select the .iso file
  • From Mint
  • * Use MintStick, which is similar to Isodumper
  • From any Linux system
  • * Simply copy the ISO to the USB stick with "dd" (see example below).
  • From Microsoft Windows:
  • * Rufus. You must use the "ISO Image" option.
  • * Win32 Disk Imager, for recent versions of Windows. You will need to change to "all files" when you attempt to open the .iso since it only allows .img by default.
  • * WinImage works fine on systems with restrictions, such as Microsoft Windows 7 Starter.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

  • Processor: any AMD, Intel or VIA processor;
  • Memory (RAM): 512MB minimum, 2GB recommended, even more to enjoy the 3D display features
  • Storage (HDD or SSD): 5GB for a minimal installation, 20GB for a casual setup; This includes a few GB for user files. If you need more then you should take that in account too. Custom installations on less space are possible but this requires intermediate Linux knowledge.
  • Graphic card: any AMD/ATI, Intel, Matrox, Nvidia, SiS or VIA graphic card;
  • Sound card: any AC97, HDA or Sound Blaster sound card.

Which firmware do you use?

Check in your motherboard documentation whether it is equipped with BIOS or UEFI firmware. UEFI is compulsory if you have Windows8 64bit (or later). Legacy means BIOS firmware, CSM means you have UEFI firmware but it is configured to emulate a BIOS one.

Which graphic card or embedded GPU do you have ?

Check your documentation. You can have

  • a standalone ATI/AMD graphic card
  • a standalone NVidia graphic card
  • a graphic processor (Intel HD Graphics) embedded with the Intel CPU, it is called IGP for Integrated Graphics Processors.
  • a graphic processor (Radeon HD) embedded with the AMD CPU, it is called APU for Accelerated Processing Unit
  • a hybrid system with both a NVidia graphic card + IGP, you may be interested in Bumblebee

Secure Boot and Fast Boot

If you have Windows 8 and later already installed:

  • disable Secure Boot. See your motherboard documentation to find out how to enter the firmware set-up.
  • disable Fast Startup (aka Fast Boot). In Windows, open the Menu -> Control Panel (icons view) -> Power Options -> Choose what the power buttons do -> Change settings that are currently unavailable uncheck "Turn on fast startup" under "Shutdown settings".
Note:
 Actually, if you have a dual boot with Windows 8 and later, Mageia won't boot if Windows hasn't been correctly halted or if Fast Boot is enabled AND the Windows partitions are mounted in fstab. The system boots if the Windows partitions are not mounted at start, but only when the user asks for them.

Cannot mount NTFS partition even though Secure Boot and Fast Boot are disabled in Windows

Even though you have Secure Boot and Fast Boot disabled in Windows, Mageia is still unable to mount your Windows partition because it thinks Windows is hibernated and, as a consequence, you can't access the Windows data.
It seems for whatever reason you still have a hibernation file (hiberfil.sys) on the Windows partition. You can try to disable it as follows:

  1. Open a command prompt as an administrator: Menu -> All programs -> Windows system -> right click on Command Prompt -> Run as administrator
  2. Then Click on "Yes" in the dialog box and type:
powercfg /h off

Troubleshooting

We are going to consider problems according to the stage at which they happen:

  1. during installation
  2. during boot between power on and screen display (most often at the first boot after installation)
  3. during boot between screen display and desktop display
  4. during a Mageia session

If you don't know how to do some of the suggested configurations, see the Mageia HOWTOs below.

Installation Problems

Obtaining information on the problem

Traditional Installer

If you are using the traditional Installer (not a Live version) you can read the installation report in /root/drakx/report.bug.xz
An easy way for doing this is to switch to console 2 (by pressing "Ctrl-Alt-F2") during installation, put a floppy in the floppy drive or plug in a USB key/stick and type:

bug

then press Enter. It will put report.bug on the floppy/key.

Note:
If the bug command fails, try again with e.g (if your USB-key is on /dev/sdb): 
 bug /dev/sdb1

Adjust the command if needed. You can find, by first running 

 dmesg

whether your USB key is on e.g. "/dev/sdb", "/dev/sdc" or "/dev/sdd", etc.

Note:
Before partitions are mounted for installation, the content is instead in /tmp/ddebug.log So if the install does not get past the partitioning stage, this is the file to get. You must manually mount a media and copy that file over.
Note:
For traditional installer upgrades, the /root/drakx/report.bug.xz is of the original install, not of the upgrade. Read /root/drakx/report.bug instead.
Live Installer

For bugs related to installing from a live CD/DVD after having booted it in Live mode, as root (we remind you there is no password in Live mode) do:

# journalctl -a

Before rebooting after install
Press space bar to display next page. Ctrl C to quit.

Guess and try

Do you need a kernel option?

Hardware detection may fail and lead to the installation failure. If the involved hardware is not compulsory, just unplug it, you will install it later from a working Mageia. If that is impossible, perhaps due to X drivers, ACPI or such, then see How to add kernel options below. If you think any of those options may apply, you can try them with no risk.

New try of installation

Now, you can redo the installation following the Installer help, particularly:

  • with UEFI, check at the mounting stage that ESP is correctly mounted on /boot/efi
  • at the last screen, called Summary, check every thing is OK, no red button. [Give the "buttons" that can wait and the ones that must be solved]

Boot Problems

Boot problems between power on and screen display

Generalities

At any moment, if the screen doesn't appear:

Grub problems

The Grub menu should appear but doesn't - instead, another OS starts directly or nothing starts. Check first there is no CD/DVD in the drive, and no USB memory stick plugged into the computer or any hub, and then check your firmware (BIOS or UEFI) to see if the boot order is right, with Mageia listed first.

You can only access the firmware setup at the very beginning of the boot. The key to strike is quickly indicated at the bottom or the top of the screen depending on your firmware manufacturer; it may say "Press (some key or another) to enter Setup". The most common keys to try are: "Del", "Esc", "F2,", "F1" "Ctrl-Esc" or "Ctrl-Alt-Esc". Another good thing to try is to Google "BIOS Setup Key (computer name)".

Dragon-head.png Here be dragons!
Be very careful when modifying the BIOS. Don't change anything other than the boot sequence.

If you aren't sure about what you have done, you can exit the BIOS without changes and then try again. Always note any changes you have made. If you get into a real muddle, most firmwares have an option to load the "default" settings. This will, at least, make your machine bootable again.

.

You get a grub prompt (Grub 2)

Assuming nothing is actually broken in the Grub 2 installation you can boot manually from the Grub 2 prompt as follows:

(You can practice this by hitting 'c' at the Grub 2 menu to get a prompt)

First find the partition containing your system root:

grub> search.file /etc/mageia-release

This will output the 'drive,partition' pairs containing that file e.g.

hd3,gpt4

Using the one you wish to boot do:

grub> root=hd3,gpt4 grub> linux /boot/vmlinuz grub> initrd /boot/initrd.img grub> boot

If that fails you may actually have some Grub 2 corruption.

Try using some Grub 2 commands to see whether Grub 2 is actually getting hardware info from the bios, for example 'ls' which should list all drives.

lsmod should list all loaded Grub 2 modules.

If you suspect that a module that should be loaded is missing then insmod <modulename> should load it assuming that the file system where it is stored can be read by Grub 2.

The Grub 2 command line also has auto-completion using the tab key which is useful.


HP and UEFI firmware

On some HP machines, the BIOS will automatically boot Windows even after you have installed another boot manager. To boot Mageia, you will need to interrupt the boot process (by pressing the appropriate key for your machine - usually one of Esc, Del, F2, or F10) and selecting a different EFI boot image (you may have to try the options one by one to find the right one). Once you have booted Mageia, you should be able to fix this by executing the following command in a terminal:

# mv /boot/EFI/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi /boot/EFI/EFI/Microsoft/bootmgfw.efi

If you are using the grub2 boot manager, you will probably need to rerun the boot system configuration (update-grub) to let it find the new location of the Windows boot image. If you are using the rEFInd boot manager, it will automatically detect the new location.

Windows starts directly (UEFI)

The system uses the wrong boot manager, the first one installed by Windows, not the second one installed by Mageia. To change that, start Windows and open a command prompt as an administrator: Menu -> All programs -> Windows system -> right click on Command Prompt -> Run as administrator
Then Click on "Yes" in the dialog box and type:

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\mageia\grubx64.efi

Or you can also try to enter your firmware setup and swap the boot order, check your documentation to do that.

Kernel problems

You may also meet problems with ACPI or hardware detection, see How to add kernel options below and try.

Redo the install

Redoing your installation with the "upgrade" option may solve problems and is very quick.
You can also just redo the Grub installation/configuration. Boot on a Classical ISO (not Live) and choose Rescue -> Re-install Boot Loader. It will make a new detection of all the bootable partitions and re-configure Grub. [to be checked with Grub 2]

Rescue.jpg

Boot problems between screen display and desktop display

Obtaining information on the problem

See Tools and logs for diagnostics

Driver problems

Try another graphic driver, see How to change a wrong graphic driver or, for another type of driver, take the instructions for a graphic driver as an example.

Display issues

See Display problems

Update your packages

From this stage, it is possible in a console to set an Internet connection and to update using drakconf, see How to manage the packages using a console below.

Redo the install

Redoing your installation with the "update" option may solve problems.

Problems during a Mageia session

Display problems

Obtaining information on the problem

If the X server crashes at startup, open a console (Alt+Ctrl+F2) and see for information /var/log/Xorg.0.log (before restarting X), or /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old (after reconfiguring and restarting X)

Note:
Gnome doesn't create /var/log/Xorg.0.log but redirects it into the journal

If you don't have Xorg logs there, then try (as root): journalctl -b -e /bin/Xorg
As long as the graphic mode is usable, try using the MCC (MCC/Hardware/Configure graphics) and the DE tools, for example KDE settings if you use KDE.
To know what your graphic card is, enter in a console: lspci -nn|grep -i vga (no need to be root).
In a console, see Tools and logs for diagnostics.

About the graphic parameters

If the display is too bad to use the graphic mode (MCC), see How to change a wrong graphic driver, you can change the driver using the command line, using this guide as a model. You can also disable the 3D effects and change the resolution and the screen driver.
There are three main graphic card manufacturers:

  • NVidia, its open source drivers are called nouveau
  • AMD, its proprietary drivers are called Catalyst and the open source ones radeon or ati (aka fglrx). Same drivers for the APU(= PCU + GPU)
  • Intel, well known for its IGP (= PCU + GPU) with HD Graphics embeded, the driver to use is i810 and later.

When display problems arise, it is often a good idea to modify some parameters to find out which one is bad, beginning with the recently modified ones if any:

  • swap between the free driver and the proprietary one,
  • downgrade to the universal Vesa driver,
  • disable the 3D effects,
  • lower the resolution - VGA and HDMI are limited to 1920x1080 px, for a higher resolution DVI is mandatory.
  • set the screen to "Plug and play" instead of the manufacturer reference.

Once the display is recovered, you know which parameter is the bad one. If it is a hardware problem, find another device to test. If it is a software problem, try to uninstall/re-install the package or to update your system. See How to update my system if needed.

Specific issues with some graphic cards

[ To be written, ATI/AMD, NVidia, Intel, ...]

Bumblebee

Bumblebee aims to provide support for NVIDIA Optimus laptops for GNU/Linux distributions. Using Bumblebee, you can use your NVIDIA card for rendering graphics which will be displayed using the Intel chipset. When your laptop is configured to use Bumblebee, your system starts using the Intel chipset and works by default as if there was no NVIDIA card. You can then start applications via Bumblebee using either the optirun or primusrun commands as described in a later section.

Is your computer Optimus enabled?

Open a terminal window and type the command lspci . If you see two video cards in the output like:

$ lspci | grep VGA 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK208M [GeForce GT 730M] (rev ff)

And one is a Intel “Integrated Graphics Controller” and the other is a “NVIDIA Corporation” chip, then you probably have an optimus notebook. To further verify, as root look for the /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch file. If it exists, then you have an optimus PC. If its missing, then you do not.

Installation

The Bumblebee package is available directly in Mageia's repositories since Mageia 5.
Due to the availability of various NVIDIA drivers, bumblebee comes in a variety of subpackages preconfigured for each situation:

  • bumblebee-nouveau configures the support for the open source nouveau driver
  • bumblebee-nvidia configures the support for the nonfree nvidia-current driver, compatible with recent NVIDIA cards. The Nonfree Release repositories must be enabled for this alternative to be offered.
  • another flavour will soon be added to Nonfree Updates for older NVIDIA cards.

To install Bumblebee, simply run the command with root rights urpmi bumblebee, and select the flavour that fits your needs, as described above. A reboot is then needed in order for the Bumblebee daemon to start, and for the bbswitch module to be loaded by the kernel.

Usage

To run your application with the discrete NVIDIA card run in the terminal optirun [options] <application> [application parameters]. for example optirun firefox

For a list of options for optirun run optirun --help. Alternatively, you can use the primusrun command primusrun [options] <application> [application parameters]

In Mageia, both commands will use by default the "primus" bridge and therefore offer similar performances. optirun offers more options to play with, and can also use the "VirtualGL" bridge with optirun -b virtualgl <application>

VirtualGL is the default bridge of the Bumblebee project, but this default value has been changed in Mageia as primus is known to offer better compatibility (e.g. with Steam games) and performance. Feel free to experiment with both solutions for each application. Note that the VirtualGL libraries are only recommended by the Bumblebee package, so you might not have them installed if you told urpmi not to install recommended packages.

Testing

To confirm that you are properly accessing the NVIDIA card using Bumblebee, you can use glxinfo (from the glxinfo package) or glxspheres64 (from the virtualgl package - note that on 32bit systems, the command is glxspheres):

$ optirun glxinfo|grep OpenGL
$ optirun glxspheres64

The terminal output of these commands should give the name of your NVIDIA card and the OpenGL version that it supports.

Networking problems

About wired network

To set up the network in graphic mode, see Network center -> Set up a new network interface (LAN, ISDN, ADSL, ...) in the MCC help manual joined in this distribution documentation. To set it up in a console, see How to set up my Internet connection.

Troubleshooting

Useful commands to know

  • journalctl -b |grep -i net
  • dmesg -> that could show some issues with involved kernel modules.
  • ip route show -> displays the contents of the kernel's routing tables
  • lspcidrake -v
  • ifconfig
  • systemctl status network

How to collect information, some help here: Tools and logs for diagnostics

About wireless network

To configure a wireless network, see Network center -> Set up a new network interface (LAN, ISDN, ADSL, ...) in the MCC help manual provided in the distribution documentation.

Troubleshooting
Ndiswrapper

You have followed the above instructions, Mageia recognised your Wifi-card, but the installation failed. You can try another step to solve this. This solution uses Ndiswrapper, which is a method that consists of installing and activating the Windows XP driver. This is useful when your network hardware is not well supported by Linux, which is probably why it's not on the list of supported cards!

Warning!
Ndiswrappper allows the use of Windows XP drivers, and XP only, for Linux

Prerequisites:

  • You will need the Windows driver for your card, either on a CD, on your hard disk or other media. You can probably also find it on the Internet, although it is best to download them from the manufacturer's web site and not via a general search for drivers.
  • Place the driver in an accessible place, for example on your desktop.
  1. After Step 3 in the original procedure, select "Use a Windows driver (with ndiswrapper)", and then "Next". The system will perhaps install some packages it needs.
  2. Navigate to the directory where you stored the driver and select the_driver_for_my_card.inf.
    You have to choose the file with the ".inf" extension.
  3. You can continue with the above steps 5 to 12 to finalise the installation.

Some more help and many drivers can be found here : Sourceforge

Most common drivers

It may happen that Mageia fails to chose the right driver. If a first try failed, install the following drivers that seem to match your hardware.

Manufacturer driver
Broadcom dkms-broadcom-wl
Intel iwlwifi-3945-ucode
iwlwifi-4965-ucode
iwlwifi-agn-ucode
ipw2100-firmware
ipw2200-firmware
Ralink ralink-firmware
rtlwifi-firmware
Atheros madwifi-source
Every kernel-firmware
kernel-firmware-nonfree
I have no access point in the list

If at step 5, the list is void and you have the message "non listed - edit manually", we give you another solution: You can install the package "kernel-firmware-nonfree" via MCC and restart your computer.

rfkill

rfkill is a tool to block/unblock all radio connections, check that yours are authorized. In a console, enter:

$ rfkill list

Wireless011.png Wireless016.png

If there is a line with "Soft blocked: yes" then in the console under root, enter:

# rfkill unblock all

If there is a line with "Hard blocked: yes" then find the wireless button/switch on your laptop and enable it. You can see such a switch on the picture below.

Wireless017.png

Other problems

If the wireless adapter isn't detected, or if you encounter other problems, you can find help in the following information:

Hardware information

$ inxi -n

This command output for a PCI card:

# lspcidrake | grep -i net

This command output for a USB card:

# lsusb

The installed driver
To know if a driver is installed, you can use this command in a console: # rpm -qa|grep piece_of_the_driver_name

Example:

Wireless015.png

Structured troubleshooting for wireless issues
Overview

This section tries to describe how to go from zero to wireless in some more-or-less easy steps and in a structured manner, from the ground up, from bottom to top.

For a high-level overview, the basic steps are always as follows:

  1. get your device properly recognised/initialised (driver & firmware)
  2. make sure your device is unblocked via rfkill (soft block) or hardware switch on laptop (hard blocked)
  3. be able to see wireless networks, and be able to connect to wireless networks (unencrypted for testing)
  4. connect and authenticate to wireless network (WPA/WPA2) and stay connected
  5. get your IP address configuration correct
Steps in detail
step 1. Driver/firmware installation
  • 1.1 Check which physical device and chipset your have, and what is seen by the kernel
$ lspcidrake -v

-v for verbosity is important! Otherwise information about vendor, product and device ID is omitted. This information is used to know which wireless chipset you have, and gather specific information about that chipset and required firmware.

  • 1.2 Does your chipset require firmware to work? Is the firmware installed on your box? and is it already correctly loaded ?

This is actually two-fold; one part you can investigate yourself at http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers and use this table:

List of firmware packages, and what repo they are contained in
Repository Firmware
Core Release kernel-firmware
Core 32 bits release zd1211-firmware
Non-free 32 bits release ipw2100-firmware
ipw2200-firmware
kernel-firmware-nonfree (most common firmware including Atheros, Broadcom, Intel IWL)
ralink-firmware (RaLink)
rtlwifi-firmware (Realtek)
  • 1.3 Check which firmware is loaded (might output some more information than just firmware). Enter with root rights (Ctrl C to quit):
# journalctl -ab | grep -iE "fw|firmware|iwl|wifi|wire|80211"
step 2. Check if the device is blocked with the commands rfkill list all, rfkill list wlan or rfkill list wlan

See rfkill for more details

In some cases you might also see your wireless device listed multiple times, and one is blocked and the other one is not. Those issues are mostly laptop-specific, when the wireless switch is implemented as a softbutton and this softbutton implementation requires a specific kernel module to be loaded. Often the case with some Asus, Acer, HP or Toshiba laptops. See https://forums.mageia.org/en/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5845 for an example.

step 3. Check if your device is usable and can see networks
# iwconfig

This command above, shows if your wireless device is initialised, usable and its name (on the left).

Those commands below, search for wireless networks that can be seen by your wireless chipset. Replace wlan0 by your wireless device name.

# iwlist wlan0 scan

or

# iw dev wlan0 scan
step 4. Check if you can connect to your network

Rule of thumb: Only use one network manager. Mageia by default comes with the inhouse net_applet and the integration in Mageia Control Center via drakconnect and draknetcenter . Also see http://doc.mageia.org/mcc/4/en/content/mcc-network.html for an overview. An alternative to net_applet would be NetworkManager, which comes by default e.g. with GNOME. Since Mageia 4 those tools should not be blocking each other, but should run smoothly in parallel.

$ ps -ef | grep -v grep | grep -i net

Should only show one out of net_applet or NetworkManager

For ways to switch between both have a look at the related forum thread: https://forums.mageia.org/en/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=5782

step 5 .Check your IP addressing configuration
# ifconfig -a

shows your wireless interface IP address.

# netstat -rn

This command allows you to ping your router/gateway, if this doesn't work, check your wireless connection details

$ ping -c10 8.8.8.8

With this command, you should be able to ping internet hosts (first by IP address to rule out name resolution issues). If this is working, you have internet connection. If next step doesn't work, you only need to fix DNS.

$ ping -c10 google.com
Warning!
For these two last commands, make sure your router is configured to answer to the ping command
Example
1. Driver/firmware installation

WirelessTrouble1.png

My chipset is iwl 3945 ...

WirelessTrouble1b.png

... and its firmware is loaded. (Ctrl C to quit and space bar to display next page).

2. Check if the device is blocked with the command rfkill list

See rfkill for more details

3. Check if your device is usable and can see networks

WirelessTrouble3.png

Yes, it is

Wireless018.png

No, it is not

WirelessTrouble3b.png

Several networks are seen

4. Check if you can connect to your network

WirelessTrouble4.png

My file manager is net_applet and it is loaded

5. Check up IP addressing configuration

WirelessTrouble5a.png

I can see my IP address ...

WirelessTrouble5b.png

... my gateway address (red circled), and the ping is working (0% packet loss).

known issues with specific drivers

Issues related to specific Internet applications

General information

Theses packages are mandatory for multimedia: task-codec-audio, task-codec-video.
How to check plugin version in firefox: enter about:plugins in adress bar. You can also see the version and supported MIME types. At http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/ you can check for firefox if you have the latest version of the plugin.

Flash

Adobe no longer supports Flash Player after December 31, 2020 and blocked Flash content from running in Flash Player beginning January 12, 2021. All major internet browsers disabled the possibility to activate the Flash Player browser plugin.

Skype

To install Skype, please visit: https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Skype_with_video

Alternatives to Skype

Are present in the Mageia 5 repositories:

  • Ekiga - Internet fone (voip)
  • Linphone - Internet fone (voip)
  • Mumble - Mumble - is an open source voice communication application that features a customizable in game overlay, application skins, conversation recording, and advanced voice activity detection.
  • kopete has the option to communicate by voice and webcam.
Known issues with Skype
  • Skype has no sound: Please check that you are using PulseAudio
  • If Skype crashes, it can help starting it with this command in a terminal: /usr/bin/skypeforlinux.
  • Also a broken or old user profile could be the reason. Please try the following as user to fix this: mv ~/.config/skypeforlinux ~/.config/skypeforlinux.org. Then try to start Skype again in a terminal, and see what error it gives.

Mageia HOWTOs (mostly for newcomers)

How to access to the command line

The different ways to reach the command line in the different situations:

  • If the computer doesn't start at all: boot on a CD/DVD/USB stick where is a Classical Iso (not Live) and on the first menu choose: Rescue System -> Go to console
  • If the computer starts until the Grub menu and nothing more, choose in this menu:
  • * with grub Legacy: Boot Mageia ... (safe mode)
  • * with Grub2 Advanced options for ... and then failsafe
  • During install: Alt Ctrl F2 to have a console, Alt Ctrl F1 to come back
  • During boot: ESC to read information, Alt Ctrl F2 to have a console, Alt Ctrl F1 to come back
  • During a session:
  • * Alt Ctrl F2 to have a console, Alt Ctrl F1 to come back
  • * In graphic mode, it may vary according to the DE, it is something like: Menu -> tools -> (c/k)onsole

Tools and logs for diagnostics

During installation

  • with the Traditional Installer: Read /root/drakx/report.bug.xz or ddebug.log
  • with the Live Installer: enter journalctl -a in a console with root rights

During boot or during a session

[to be sorted]
Here are some commands to help you:

  • lspcidrake -v to list the hardware
  • cat /proc/cpuinfo to see the cpu features
  • free -m to know the memory load
  • journalctl -a to read the logs
  • The graphic applications errors are generally in the files /home/<user>/.Xsession-errors or /home/<user>/.xsession-errors

All these commands need Root rights:

  • lsusb (with Root rights) to list the usb devices
  • lsmod a list of modules that have automatically loaded in response to kernel devices detection
  • modinfo modulenamefromlsmod will list details of a module
  • dmesg this lists recent kernel and system messages, including failure to load or identify a bit of hardware.
  • ethtool a command to list lots of info about network
  • ethtool -I eth0 will list the version and details of your nic.
  • ethtool -S eth0 will list just about every counter related to an Ethernet card.
  • dmidecode equivalent to MS system info gives lots of info about your hardware.
  • rpm –qa will list all packages on a system, pipe it through grep to reduce this to relevant packages.
  • ifconfig -a lists the tcpip settings set on your network cards.
  • lshw meaning list hardware. You have to install the lshw package.

Since Mageia 3 you will have a new tool called inxi (you have to install the package), here are the main commands :

  • inxi -F to have generalities
  • inxi -n to provide the network card only
  • inxi -uo the mounted and unmountend partitions only
  • inxi -xG the graphic card
  • inxi -t m5 to have a snapshot of your 5 biggest memory users
  • inxi -t c5 to have a snapshot of your 5 biggest CPU users

Also have a look in the files or directories:

  • /etc/sysconfig where many config files live, relating to network services etc,
  • /etc/X11/xorg.conf, it is the config file for the Xdisplay server,
  • /var/log/Xorg.0.log (before restarting X), or /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old (after reconfiguring and restarting X). It is the logs about X server. You can focus on the error messages with the command: cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log , since all the line about errors start with EE.
Note:
Gnome doesn't create /var/log/Xorg.0.log but redirects it into the journal

Keep in mind you have also much information in the Mageia Control Center and using your DE utilities (e.g. KDE settings for KDE users)

How to print the command output in a file
For a report for example, you may need to have the command output in a file instead of the screen. Just follow the command name by "> output.txt" and the file output.txt is created to receive the command output.
Examples:

  • $ systemctl -a > output.txt
  • # ifconfig -a > output2.txt

The file name is free and the file is created either in /home/<user> or in /root according of who launched the command, user or root.

Magics keys

Here is a extract from Wikipedia:
A common use of the magic SysRq key is to perform a safe reboot of a Linux computer which has otherwise locked up. This can prevent a fsck being required on reboot and gives some programs a chance to save emergency backups of unsaved work. The word "BUSIER" read backwards, is often used to remember the following Sysrq-keys sequence: 

unRaw      (take control of keyboard back from X),
 tErminate (send SIGTERM to all processes, allowing them to terminate gracefully),
 kIll      (send SIGKILL to all processes, forcing them to terminate immediately),
  Sync     (flush data to disk),
  Unmount  (remount all filesystems read-only),
reBoot.
  1. Hold down the Alt and SysRq (Print Screen) keys.
  2. While holding those down, type the following keys in order, several seconds apart: REISUB
  3. Computer should reboot.

In practice, each command may require a few seconds to complete, especially if feedback is unavailable from the screen due to a freeze or display corruption.

I lost my root password

In the bootloader menu press "F3 Kernel option" then select "Default" and then append init=/bin/sh at the end of the line and it should boot to a command prompt.

KO-grub-boot2.png

Set a new root password there by entering the command "passwd"

How to start an application with a new by default configuration

In case of problems with an application, you can delete its configuration file stored in the folder /home/<user>. A new configuration file with default parameters will be created. For example if you have problems with your KDE configuration, delete the file /home/<user>.kde4. Note the dot (.) before the file name, it means it is a hidden file, think to enable the hidden files display in your file manager.

How to add kernel options

Presentation

Kernel options (also called kernel parameters) are used to supply the kernel with information about hardware parameters that the kernel would not be able to determine on its own, or to avoid/override the values that the kernel would otherwise detect.
These options may be temporarily given at the boot step (starting a session or an installation), they last until the next reboot, or permanently by configuring the boot loader (Grub Legacy or Grub2). When advised to try using a particular kernel boot option, it is usually a good idea to first add the parameter temporarily for testing. Once you have determined that adding the parameter has the desired effect, you can then add it permanently. Directions for both methods are below.

Kernel boot parameters are text strings:

  • case-sensitive
  • sometimes just a simple word ("splash" or "noapic")
  • sometimes have an = sign with various possible values ("acpi_backlight=vendor")
  • sometimes include punctuation ("i8042.noloop")
Warning!
Always enter kernel boot parameters exactly as advised. Errors in spelling or formatting or invalid values will not result in any error message, they will simply have no effect.

Main available options

Option Impact Notes
vga=xxx Set your framebuffer resolution to VESA mode xxx. Example vga=768. See here for other values.
acpi=off OR noacpi This parameter disables the whole ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) system. This may prove very useful, for example, if your computer does not support ACPI or if you think the ACPI implementation might cause some problems (for instance random reboots or system lockups). ACPI is a standard for the power management. It can save energy by stopping unused devices, this was the method used before APM.
apm=off OR noapm Disable the Advanced Power Management.
acpi=force Activates the ACPI system even if your computer BIOS date is older than 2000. This parameter overrides acpi=off and can also be used with current hardware if the ACPI support is not activated despite apm=off.
pci=noacpi OR acpi=noirq These parameters disable the PCI IRQ routing
pci=acpi This parameter activates the PCI IRQ routing
acpi_irq_balance ACPI is allowed to use PIC interrupts to minimize the common use of IRQs.
acpi_irq_nobalance ACPI is not allowed to use PIC interrupts.
acpi=oldboot Deactivates the ACPI system almost completely; only the components required for the boot process will be used.
acpi=ht Deactivates the ACPI system almost completely; only the components required for hyper threading will be used.
acpi.power_nocheck=1 OR acpi_osi=Linux Disable the check of power state. Option two modifies the list of supported OS interface strings (changes the OS compatibility reported to the BIOS). Necessary on some broken BIOSes to make temperature/fan control work.
noapic Disable the "Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC)". There are two components in the Intel APIC system, the local APIC (LAPIC) and the I/O APIC. The latter one routes the interrupts it receives from peripheral buses to one or more local APICs that are in the processor. It is really useful for multi-processor systems. Some computers have problems with the APIC system which can cause freezes or incorrect device detection (error message "spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7"). In this case, disable APIC and/or Local APIC.
nolapic Disable the "local APIC".
irqpoll Changes the way the kernel handles interrupt calls (set it to polling). Can be useful in case of hardware interrupt issues
rd.blacklist=(name of driver) Try to prevent X from using a given driver. Here is a combination that works for some dual-GPU (Nvidia Optimus) configurations: rd.blacklist=nouveau rd.blacklist=nvidia xdriver=intel
xdriver=(name of driver) Try to force the usage of a given driver. Example: xdriver=nouveau (open source driver for NVIDIA). Other drivers: intel, nvidia (NVIDIA proprietary driver), fglrx (ATI/AMD proprietary driver), radeon (open source driver for ATI/AMD).
xdriver=vesa : use the BIOS's VESA implementation. With UEFI, there is no VESA, there's EFIFB instead.
mem=xxxM Set the available memory to xxx MB Example: mem=256M would specify 256MB of RAM.
systemd.unit=multi-user.target For ThinkPad R50e to reach a working Live DE when the machine boots into a frozen light black screen. May be valid with computer with intel 915.
init=/bin/sh Opens a root shell for administrative actions Example: Change a lost root password with the passwd command.
init=/sbin/init/ Disable Plymouth
Remove the "splash=silent" or "splash" and "quiet" arguments if they appear. Boot in verbose mode

How to modify the kernel options

If you need to add multiple parameters separate them with SPACE but do not add spaces before or after any = signs or punctuation in the parameters themselves.

Warning!
Grub uses a UK keyboard layout, mainly qwerty with the = sign on the ´ key and / on the - key.
Temporary options to the installer
With Grub Legacy boot loader
  • Boot on the media you want to install your Mageia from. Once the "GNU GRUB" menu appears, like below (Mageia 4):

KO-grub-install1.png

  • Press F6 then select Default and press ENTER. The edit mode will look something like this:

KO-grub-install2.png

  • Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the end of the line called "Boot Options", press SPACE to add a blank space (after install) then carefully type in the kernel boot parameter(s) that you need to add and press ENTER
With Grub 2 boot Loader
  • Boot on the media you want to install your Mageia from. Once the "GNU GRUB" menu appears, like below (Mageia 5):

KO-grub2-installer1.png

  • Select "Start Mageia 5 Install" and then press the e key to enter edit mode. The edit mode screen will look something like this:

KO-grub2-installer2.png

  • Use the down arrow key to move the cursor to the line beginning with the word "linux", then press the END key to move the cursor to the end of that line, in the red circle. Normally this will be just after the word "quiet".
  • Press SPACE to add a blank space (after "quiet") then carefully type in the kernel boot parameter(s) that you need to add.
  • Then press ESC to escape without saving or Ctrl x or F10 to boot with the new list of kernel parameters.
Temporary options to the boot loader
With Grub Legacy boot loader
  • That is the default bootloader. Start your computer as usual and once the "GNU GRUB" menu appears, like below (Mageia 4):

KO-grub-boot1.png

  • Press F3 then select Default and press ENTER. The edit mode will look something like this:

KO-grub-boot2.png

  • Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the end of the line called "Boot Options", press SPACE to add a blank space (after vga=788) then carefully type in the kernel boot parameter(s) that you need to add and press ENTER. In the screenshot above, the parameters init=/bin/sh has been added.
Warning!
If you do chainloading, you have to set the options in the last bootloader in the chain (in the previous boot loaders, the line "Boot Options" is empty)
With Grub 2 boot Loader
  • Start your computer as usual and once the "GNU GRUB" menu appears, like below (Mageia 5):

KO-grub2-boot1.png

  • Choose the kernel you want and then press the e key to enter edit mode. The edit mode screen will look something like this:

KO-grub2-boot2.png

  • Use the down arrow key to move the cursor to the line beginning with the word "linux", then press the END key to move the cursor to the end of that line, in the red circle. Normally this will be just after the words "splash quiet".
  • Press SPACE to add a blank space (after "quiet") then carefully type in the kernel boot parameter(s) that you need to add.
  • Then press ESC to escape without saving or Ctrl x or F10 to boot with the new list of kernel parameters.
How to permanently modify the kernel options
With Grub Legacy boot loader
  • Log in to the system and start a terminal window.
  • In the terminal window at the $ prompt, enter the command su - and the password to have root rights
  • Then enter:
# kwrite /boot/grub/menu.lst

You can replace kwrite by any other preferred text editor.

  • Find the kernel you want to add a/some parameter(s) to and then move the cursor to the end of the line beginning with "kernel...", after "vga=788", see the red circle in the screenshot, then press SPACE to add a blank space, then carefully type in the kernel boot parameter(s) that you need to add.

KO-grub-permanently.png

  • Save and quit kwrite
With Grub 2 boot Loader
  • Do as above to open the file /etc/default/grub in kwrite or another text editor
  • Find the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=" splash quiet resume....." and move the cursor to the end of it, see the red circle in the screenshot, then press SPACE to add a blank space, then carefully type in the kernel boot parameter(s) that you need to add.

KO-grub2-permanently.png

  • Save and quit kwrite
  • Run update-grub (or update-grub2 which does the same)

How to change a wrong graphic driver

You can take this as an example to change another driver, but, most often, when it isn't a graphic driver, you can do it in graphic mode.

Whoever did the mistake, if the graphic driver isn't correct, Mageia boot freezes and this kind of screen below doesn't progress any more, or sometimes the screen stay totally black except the blinking cursor.

GraphicDriver1.JPG

Open a console (tty) typing simultaneously the keys Alt+Ctrl+F3

GraphicDriver2.JPG

As login, enter root, then the password (it isn't displayed)

GraphicDriver3.JPG

Once connected as root -there is the # symbol- enter the command drakconf, the command line equivalent to the Mageia Control Center, and then press Enter

GraphicDriver4.JPG

Here, use the key TAB to go from the list to OK, to Cancel, then to the list again. Inside the list, chose the item Display with the arrows keys up and down.

GraphicDriver5.jpg

Display is highlighted, type TAB to select OK and press Enter

GraphicDriver6.jpg

Now, using the same keys as previously, select the item Graphic Card and press Enter

GraphicDriver7.jpg

Select the right driver in the list. If you don't know it, choose the generic driver Xorg/Vesa

GraphicDriver8.jpg

Don't change anything in this screen, it will always be possible to set the options later in the graphic mode.

GraphicDriver9.jpg

The chosen driver is now visible, if necessary, set alike the right configuration for the monitor.

GraphicDriver10.jpg

When done, press TAB to select the button Quit and press Enter.

GraphicDriver11.jpg

Select Yes and press Enter.

GraphicDriver12.jpg

Just press Enter.

GraphicDriver13.jpg

When back at the prompt, enter the command shutdown now to shut the session.

GraphicDriver14.JPG

From now, the PC will start with the new driver and it will be possible to continue the neat configuration in graphic mode with the Mageia Control Center.

How to set up my Internet connection

You need first to have a console, see How to access to the command line above.

The automatic way

Then if not already done, configure an Internet connection, for that:

  • enter the command drakconf and press Enter,
  • is this menu GraphicDriver5.jpg use the key TAB to go from the list to OK, to Cancel, then to the list again,
  • inside the list, chose the item Network & Internet with the arrows keys up and down, Network & Internet is highlighted, type TAB to select OK and press Enter
  • using the same keys as previously, select the item Wired (Ethernet) preferably, Wireless (Wi-fi) otherwise and select Next
  • in every following screen, choose either the default value or the Automatic option
  • if you chosed Wireless (Wi-fi), in the Wireless settings, you have to enter the Network name (ESSID) the Encryption mode and the Encryption mode
  • in case of problems with the Internet connection, you may try The manual way here after.

The manual way

It may happen that the automatic way doesn't work, due for example to DHCP problems (nothing to do with Mageia). Start like in the automatic way, but at the question Please select your connection protocol choose Manual configuration instead of Automatic IP (BOOTP/DHCP). Then you need to have some information:

  • IP address: it looks like 192.168.x.y; x and y are to be chosen according to your private network, check your router/modem documentation, x is probably 0 and y is probably a number between 1 and 10, if you don't know, try 192.168.0.2.
  • Netmask is 255.255.255.0
  • Gateway: it is your router IP address, given by your provider. It is often 192.168.0.0 or 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.0.254.
  • DNS servers : They are given by your provider, if you don't know them, use the Google public DNS servers that are 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

How to manage the packages using a console

The list of all available Mageia repositories (aka mirrors) can be seen at http://mirrors.mageia.org/

How to update my system

If the repositories are already configured, just enter with root rights, the command :

  • urpmi --auto-update --auto

If you need to configure or re-configure everything, enter the commands:

  • urpmi.removemedia -a
  • urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist 'http://mirrors.mageia.org/api/mageia.6.<arch>.list' replacing <arch> by either x86_64 or i586.
  • urpmi --replacefiles --auto-update --auto -download -all --test this command will download all the packages and test them for more safety, if everything seems OK,
  • urpmi --replacefiles --auto-update --auto -download -all

This above method use mirrorlist. It is a mechanism which takes a list of all available Mageia mirrors (aka repositories) and, using geolocation, tries to automatically choose those mirrors first which are near you current location and give the fastest reponses. This may not work always that well, as some mirrors sync not that often. To configure your repos from one particular mirror and not use mirrorlist, use the following commands to add a complete set of repositories from one specific mirror (in the example ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de is used). The other commands don't change.

How to rebuild the rpm data-base

If you get an error message like:

A fatal error occured: Couldn't open RPM DB () at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.16.3/Rpmdrake/open_db.pm line 74 ..

or if you have problems to update your packages, you probably have to rebuild your rpm data-base. Open a console with root rights and enter the commands:

# rm -f /var/lib/rpm/__db*
# rpm --rebuilddb

Other useful commands

  • List of all configured repositories : urpmq --list-media
  • List of active configured repositories : urpmq --list-media active
  • List history of installed packages since the installation of Mageia: rpm -qa --last
  • List of installed packages having "foo" in their name: rpm -qa
  • list of all configured repos and their URLs: urpmq --list-url
  • To print the full URL to any given packages: urpmi --sources packagename
  • Tell urpmi to be verbose, useful in case of package installation/update errors to see the underlying dependency solver and why it really fails or does not what you expect it to do: urpmi --debug
  • To query the URL on mirror for a given package name: urpmq --sources <packagename>

How to modify a file in command line

If you need to modify a file in a console, say config.conf, you can use the command vi.

$ vi path/to/config.conf

if config.conf doesn't exist, it is created.
Enter in this order:

  • i -> insertion mode,
  • arrow keys -> to move in the text,
  • do the modifications,
  • esc -> end of the insertion mode
  •  : -> command mode, appears at the bottom of the screen
  • wq -> save and quit (or q! to quit without save)

Grub2-efi

Grub2-efi is installed by default when installing Mageia 5 and over in UEFI mode. This page explains how to carry out a Grub2-efi post installation configuration and/or customization. Don't follow this page if you are using Grub Legacy or Grub2 in MBR mode.

Grub2-efi structure

When installing Mageia, the installer did the following things:

  • it looked for an EFI System Partition (ESP), created it if not already existing, and mounted it in /boot/EFI,
  • it installed Grub2-efi, that means:
  • * it wrote the file /boot/EFI/EFI/mageia/grubx64.efi in the ESP,
  • * it wrote the configuration scripts in the /etc/grud.d folder and the configuration file /etc/default/grub,
  • * it executed the scripts to create the main configuration file /boot/grub2/grub.cfg. This file is read each time Grub2-efi is executed and can be re-written with the command grub2-mkconfig ,
  • it created an entry in the non-volatile RAM on the mother board, this entry is placed first in the boot order and points to /boot/EFI/EFI/mageia/grubx64.efi.

In case of problems with the /boot/EFI/EFI/mageia/grubx64.efi file or the /boot/grub2 folder, they can be rewritten with the grub2-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/EFI --bootloader-id=mageia --recheck command. "--efi-directory" specifies the mount-point of the ESP. "--bootloader-id" specifies the folder name where grubx64.efi is copied, it is also the name of the new entry the command creates in the non-volatile RAM, you can write what you want.
See Interacting with the UEFI firmware for more information about managing the entries in the non-volatile RAM.

The ESP

ESP (for EFI System Partition) is a small partition of about 100 to 300 MB that contains the boot loader programs for all installed operating systems. It is part of the UEFI specification and OS independant. During an UEFI installation, the Mageia installer detects it automatically (or creates it if any), it is generally /dev/sda and mounts it on /boot/EFI.
Here is the ESP on the computer used in this page:
Grub2-15.png
You can see in the ESP and more precisely in /boot/EFI/EFI there is three folders called /boot/EFI/EFI/mageia, /boot/EFI/EFI/Microsoft and /boot/EFI/EFI/ubuntu. They have been created each one by their matching installer. If Mageia had been installed a second time, it would still have only one folder called /boot/EFI/EFI/mageia for both.

Grub configuration

Principle

Each time you start your computer, grub2.efi is executed, it acts according to its configuration file called grub.cfg situated in /boot/grub2/. This file isn't intended to be modified by hand, but if you are able and want to do it, then do so. grub.cfg is written in Grub's built-in scripting language, which has a syntax quite similar to that of GNU Bash and other Bourne shell derivatives.
For the others, a tool called grub2-mkconfig can do it quite well. It uses a bunch of scripts stored in /etc/grub.d and a configuration file called /etc/default/grub. This file contains the grub2.efi menu settings that are read by the scripts and written into grub.cfg. It is the customization part of the grub2.efi. This means that if you want to change the grub2.efi menu, you will have to edit existing scripts or create new ones, then update the menu.

The configuration scripts

Let's have a look to the /etc/grub.d folder:

  • 00_header, is the script that loads GRUB settings from /etc/default/grub, including timeout, default boot entry, and others.
  • 10_linux, loads the menu entries for the installed distribution.
  • 20_linux_xen,
  • 20_ppc_terminfo,
  • 30_os-prober, is the script that will scan the hard disks for other operating systems and add them to the boot menu.
  • 40_custom, is a template that you can use to create additional entries to be added to the boot menu.
  • 41_custom
  • 90_persistent
  • 93_memtest, loads the memtest utility.

Have you noticed the numbering in the script names? It defines precedence. This means that 10_linux will be executed before 30_os-prober and therefore placed higher in the boot menu order.
Like the /boot/grub2/grub.cfg file, they are not intended to be edited, save for 40_custom and 41_custom. You need to be very careful when working with these scripts. Scripts are meant to be executed. This means that they have the execute bit turned on. If you want to disable a script, don't delete it, turn the execute bit off and it will not run,

You can place as many files as you want into the /etc/grub.d directory, all the executable shell scripts will be read in their numbering order.

The configuration files

The main configuration file is /etc/default/grub, it is parsed by the 00_header script
Grub2-2.png

  • GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER= allows or not OS_PROBER to probe all the OSes installed on the hard disks to automatically create a menu with each detected one .
  • GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= allows to add options to the kernel.
  • GRUB_THEME= specifies the default theme.
  • GRUB_TIMEOUT= specifies the default timeout. Setting to -1 will make grub2 wait indefinitely until you manually select an entry and hit Enter.

You can also dispose of another configuration file /boot/grub2/custom.cfg

Naming convention

It differs from grub-legacy.

  • it names hard disks hd and floppies fd, and counts them from 0, hd0 for sda, hd1 for sdb, ...
  • it names partitions gpt and counts them from 1, gpt1 for the first one, gpt2 for the second, ...

example: sdb4 is named hd1,gpt4
If there is a path after the drive and partition, use the brackets, example: (hd0,gpt4)/boot/grub2

Grub-customizer

Grub-customizer in a graphical tool to manage the main grub2 settings. It is present in the Mageia repositories.
On the first tab, you can recognize your menu. It is possible here to modify the entries titles, to create or remove entries and to change their order.
The second tab is obvious, except the check box "look for other operating systems", if checked the 30_os-prober script is enabled. The "advanced settings" button allows to set the options of the /etc/default file.
The last tab deals with the resolution and themes. The "advanced settings" button is the same than above.

For more information see https://launchpad.net/grub-customizer

Interacting with the UEFI firmware

Don't mix up the boot loader (grub2-efi in our case) installed by the operating system and the UEFI boot manager that is part of the UEFI software shipped with you mother board. Each time you install a new operating system it creates an entry in the UEFI boot manager that launch its boot loader. grub2-efi is independent of the boot manager, but in case of problem with a boot loader, you can ask the boot manager to boot another operating system, using another bootloader.

From Mageia

With the efibootmgr -v command, you can see your UEFI entries:
Grub2-16.png
BootCurrents tells which entry is the current one and and Timeout tells how long to wait before using the default entry that means the first one in BootOrder.
Boot0002 is the boot entry produced by the mageia installation, Boot0004 by the Ubuntu installation and Boot0001 by the Windows one.
Suppose you are having problems with grub2-efi that freezes before it reaches the menu. You can then try to boot the fail-safe mode and change the boot order using this command:

# efibootmgr -o 4,2

and the Ubuntu entry will be used first, that mean the boot loader installed with the Ubuntu installation.

From Windows

To set an entry to be the default one, start Windows and open a command prompt as an administrator: Menu -> All programs -> Windows system -> right click on Command Prompt -> Run as administrator
Then Click on "Yes" in the dialog box and type:

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\<id>\grubx64.efi

specifies the folder name where grubx64.efi is copied, for example "mageia" or "ubuntu", see The ESP.

Mageia 6 errata

[Full recopy of the erratas ?]

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