Easy way to port Synaptic to Mageia?

[Nick_Djinn]

Hello. I am not really a Linux guru. Im more of an advanced point and click user with some experience copying and pasting commands....I can use aptitude and some simple commands...Recently tried using portage and entropy, which was also rather nice.

However, despite my lack of skills, I am trying to throw together a SMALL distro that is intended just for me and my co-workers in an activist project. Its not intended to be released for general use, so we can put up with some things that general users wouldnt. It needs to be stable, but most importantly user friendly.


Top priority is installing Synaptic or some other package manager. Second is either installing the proprietary Nvidia and ATI drivers by default, or having a tool to auto-install them. Does Mageia have this?


In my opinion, I have a summary of what I think would make the perfect distro...

Mandriva/Mageia hardware support
Ubuntu Driver management
Debian package management OR using Synaptic for RPMs like PCLOS and Black Panther, only in x64
Non-Free proprietary software (when needed) like Mint and Pinguy, by default
A real time low latency kernel like Ubuntu Studio
Setting up Jack instead of Pulse Audio for low latency audio
Extra Multi-Media repositories
Extra Hacker repositories (White Hat and 'Hactivist', for ethical if anti-corporate purposes)
Built in file sharing, P2P and TOR



I was pretty impressed with PCLOS which was based on Mandrake/Mandriva, but there is no 64bit support yet, and being centered around one guy it seems a little flimsy as far as reliability unless he gets some more help or financing. However, Synaptic drastically improved my experience over the sluggish feeling native RPM tools.


I have been trying to get away from Ubuntu, which did have everything I needed but has become unstable. I also dont like the direction they are moving politically.

I tried moving back to Debian, but its too unpolished and not user friendly for anything but servers or a base for a better distro.


One thing I really like about Mageia is the democratic community model. You basically rebelled against a big corporation and are continuing the work you did because you believe in what you created. I respect that.



I have some friends who can help me with some technical stuff who know a lot more than I do, but I am the one with the most time to work on this.


So first question.......What kind of work would be required to get Synaptic working in this RPM distro?

[dubigrasu]

From what I know Synaptic has no future for RPM based distros. It is based on apt4rpm and the latest release is from 2005. Tex kept it alive with some efforts, but even they (PCLinuxOS) are planning to ditch it in favor of YUM/YUMEX.

So to answer to the question "What kind of work would be required to get Synaptic working in this RPM distro?" my guess is that it would take a lot of not worthing work.
Besides, as one that kept running for years PCLinuxOS I found Rpmdrake to be superior (but not faster).

"Ubuntu Driver management"...what is so great about it? Can you give some details?

"installing the proprietary Nvidia and ATI drivers by default, or having a tool to auto-install them"...
Just go the control center, you'll have them install in no time, the same for non-free drivers.

"A real time low latency kernel"...I don't think we have that yet, there was one RT kernel for Mandriva so maybe we'll get one too.

I was pretty impressed with PCLOS which was based on Mandrake/Mandriva, but there is no 64bit support yet, and being centered around one guy it seems a little flimsy as far as reliability unless he gets some more help or financing.

I think PCLinuxOS is there to stay, 64 bit support is coming soon I believe (Tex is working furiously at that, maybe to stop these constant complains about missing 64 bit support)
Even centered around one guy (a brilliant one I might say) PCLinuxOS kept running (despite its detractors) while distros rise and fell around it, so I wouldn't worry about that.
Think of Patrick Volkerding and Slackware or Warren and Mepis.

[doktor5000]

Well, that comparison is not so good. When i used synaptic last time on Xubuntu,
i'd say it's no way more user friendly than rpmdrake, f.ex. Default search
results were not alphabetically sorted, installing stuff was weirdly different.

AFAIK synaptic can work with RPM-based distros, just look at fedora:
http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/gitweb/?p=synaptic.git

[dubigrasu]

I don't think there is a bigger defender of Synaptic on RPM than PCLinuxOS/Tex.
I'm pretty sure he tried every possibility/option available to keep Synaptic alive because everybody was so happy with it.
If even Tex is switching to yum then I'm confident Synaptic doesn't (no longer) worth the effort.

[Nick_Djinn]

What are some alternative options for 'package manager' managers?

Also, what would happen if you started off with a Mageia system but used ubuntu/debian repositories instead of Mandriva ones?

Alternately, do you think Portage or Entropy could handle RPMs for Mageia?


Third, are there any third party repos for Multi-Media, proprietary software, music recording, or 'white hat' hacking?


Fourth, are there any tools for remastering Mageia, like RemasterSys, AptonCD, or anything else that allows you to recompile a disk for your own use?


Think Yast could be ported to Mageia? I understand there are legal issues, but if its for personal use would there be any barrier to installing it and then using it?

Any other options that you have seen working?

[doktor5000]

First you should make up your mind what you really want and what you really need.

You can't use debian/*buntu repositories with a Mageia base system, also why would you want to,
if you exchange everything that's good on Mageia with something maybe inferior from another distro?
Portage (Entropy too?) is a source-based system, you can't easily use that with a package-based distro.

And porting Yast to Mageia? What for? Then also please port suseconfig and all the other dumb
tools, that help you setup something, but don't allow for manual finetuning or changing afterwards.

What you want is called "Eierlegende Wollmilchsau" in german,
in english that means an all-in-one device suitable for every purpose.

[dubigrasu]

I don't get it.
You want Ubuntu/Debian repositories instead of Mageia's,
Ubuntu/PCLinuxOS/Gentoo's package manager instead of Mageia's
Suse's Yast instead of Mageia's control center.

Then what is the point of coming to Mageia in the first place?

What is wrong with Mageia's repositories/package manager/control center?

I have to ask sorry, but have you even tried Mageia?

[Nick_Djinn]

Maybe there isnt a distro out there that has everything done right. Is trying to get the best of the best necessarily bad? Why not?

I didnt say I necessarily want Ubuntu repositories. I am curious about the logistics about how these trans-managers are compatible or not with other distros, to what extent they are locked into a type of package. I asked that question to help me understand how things work, not because I have any great need to use debian repositories.....They do have some of the best repositories though, and some good package management tools. However, Ubuntu is unstable and Debian lacks the user friendliness found in either Ubuntu or Mandriva.....most people understand "user friendly" in terms of being noob friendly with a more shallow learning curve, ie, not needing to learn to use the command line to get their video cards working. Only uber geeks over complicate that question.


In my opinion, Mageias package management is not one of its strengths.....Sorry. I didnt come here to offend anyone, but as far as that one thing its not my top pick. Its not terrible, but its not as responsive as synaptic. I am leaving Ubuntu because I dont like the direction they are taking on other issues, not because I dont like their package management.....However, Mandriva has some of the best hardware support and its more stable than Ubuntu and equally user friendly if not for many users finding apt more intuitive....Its subjective and a matter of preference, but Synaptic seems to be more popular, and I see why....Unfortunately, using Synaptic either comes with the baggage of Cononical, the lack of features with Debian, or extreme difficulty if PCLOS is walking away from it due to logistics.


Why not just use Mageia? Because out of the box, especially as a live session, it simply wont do what I need it to do. Nothing in existence currently has everything we need.


Linux is all about experimenting, mixing and matching modular packages and hacking them until they work, right?



Anyway....Lets say I stick with Mageias package management and driver management for now...

1. What remastering tools are best for this distro?
2. What additional repos exist for proprietary software and codecs? Is there a Mandriva for hackers or something like Ubuntu studio based on this distro?
3. Do you have something like "Startup Disk Creator"?