pt1
not sure why, but PLF respositories don’t have any pcsx packages. i’ve chosen pcsx-reloaded (pcsxr) to build because i couldn’t get the other well known fork to compile – pcsx-df.

pcsxr builds quite easily…the single problem i encountered was that by default this version still builds with an OSS sound plugin. to build with ALSA support use “–enable-alsa” during the configure process.

and pcsxr ran fine..not sure if it’s the default video plugin or not, but i don’t remember playstation1 graphics being so bad. could be though i guess..
i’ll do some research.

pt2
needed to change my hostname in mandriva recently. and just changing it in /etc/hosts didn’t do the job. so i googled. the hostname must also be edited in /etc/sysconfig/network: HOSTNAME=
found that info here: http://www.brunolinux.com/05-Configuring_Your_System/Changing_Hostname.html

pt3
the advancements of kernel mode-setting and plymouth are obviously pretty cool. i am practical though and like to see what’s going on during the boot process. to re-enable non-graphical booting, edit the grub configuration file and add “splash=verbose”