Mageia forum

I've been using version 1 on this old Tosh Tecra since it was launched and on the whole I've been very happy with it. But when version 2 became available I thought I'd give it a whirl. It works but:
1) It's much slower to boot than version1. I guess that's expected, is it?
2) I can't really get used to the new desktop. It looks slick and sexy but to be honest I'm not sure what I'm doing with it. What's the grey bar for at the top of the screen for instnace? It doesn't appear to hold menues or open apps. Where's my file manager etc. So basically is there a simple instruction manual anywhere on how to use this desktop efficiently (I guess this one is KDE rather than Gnome or something) I suppose going back to my old desktop is not possible without down-versioning.
3) I seem to have developed a computer crash sometimes when my browser accesses a page with Flash.iplayer, Vimeo etc. I think this happened with version 1 but if it did it happened very infrequently. It's a complete crash. Nothing gets me out of it bar the holding down of the off key for 5 secs
4) This is weird and may be nothing to do with version or even Magiea, but I think it started when I up-versioned. I use a web-based version of Groupwise for my emails. Now the text editor underlines every word I type as a spelling mistake almost as if it's set to the wrong language,but I'm sure it's not.Has anyone every heard of this before?

So guys. Would it be a cop-out if I cut my losses and went back to Mageia 1.? What do you think?

Thanks

Col

ColinWhite wrote:So guys. Would it be a cop-out if I cut my losses and went back to Mageia 1.? What do you think?

Thanks

Col

I'm using Mageia 1 as some things just don't work right for me in 2.

I'm also using Mandriva 2008.1 on one system as nothing newer does what I want on that system.
So it's not a cop-out but using what works for you.

Thanks Ken,
I upgraded from v.1 to v.2 rather than a complete re-install. In doing so it went from Gnome to KDE. I don't think I was given the choice so I presumed that Mageia as a whole had gone from from Gnome to KDE. But I've just looked on their download site and it appears that I can, in fact, choose a Gnome version of version 2. I might give that a whirl before cutting back to version 1.
Thanks again. It's bedy time here for me in the UK.
Take care

Col
ps. Are you Canadian? Where from? We have family in Vancouver and Seattle

ColinWhite wrote:Thanks Ken,
I upgraded from v.1 to v.2 rather than a complete re-install. In doing so it went from Gnome to KDE. I don't think I was given the choice so I presumed that Mageia as a whole had gone from from Gnome to KDE. But I've just looked on their download site and it appears that I can, in fact, choose a Gnome version of version 2. I might give that a whirl before cutting back to version 1.
Thanks again. It's bedy time here for me in the UK.
Take care

Col
ps. Are you Canadian? Where from? We have family in Vancouver and Seattle

If you were using Gnome that shouldn't have happened. A bug report would be in order.

If your not using auto-login then you should be able to choose the Desktop you want from the log-in manager as Gnome did not get deleted.

Great. I'll try that tomorrow. Thanks for all

ColinWhite wrote:But I've just looked on their download site and it appears that I can, in fact, choose a Gnome version of version 2.

Just a hint: this reads as if you are pointing at the Gnome LiveCD - LiveCDs can not be used to upgrade an existing Mageia 1 ! If you want to upgrade from a local medium you should use the full DVD. Better way is just switching the update path to the new version and do an update via urpmi.

The desktop you are describing is the new Gnome desktop. A good place to learn your way there is at the Gnome website: http://library.gnome.org/users/

IMHO In your case you may be better off with a fresh install.

If you don't like the new GNOME 3 desktop, switch to fallback mode, and it will be almost indistinguishable from the old GNOME 2 desktop. To do this, either select the "GNOME Classic" session at the login screen (do this after selecting your user name but before entering your password), or, when you are logged in, bring up the System Settings tool, select Details (in the System group), and set Forced Fallback mode to ON in the Graphics tab.

The one big difference is that to make any change to the panels, you need to hold down the Alt key when clicking the centre or right mouse buttons.

To get more control over your desktop appearance, install the gnome-tweak-tool package, which will give you a new Advanced Settings option in the Tools menu. If you want to take screenshots, install the gnome-screenshot package.

ColinWhite wrote:1) It's much slower to boot than version1. I guess that's expected, is it?

No this is not expected, seems a result from an upgrade. That's why i always to fresh default installations,
and afterwards i just copy my data back, gives the least problems and is the most clean way IMHO.

ColinWhite wrote:I upgraded from v.1 to v.2 rather than a complete re-install. In doing so it went from Gnome to KDE.

Try again by adding a fresh default GNOME installation from the DVD, and compare it's boot times against your current installation

Right chaps! Thanks for all your helpful advice. It's going to a brand spanking new install of 32kb Gnome torrent (rather than the KDE torrent I think)