Mageia 2 Beta 2 first impressions

[wilcal]

I've a clean install to Vbox using:

Mageia-2-beta2-i586-DVD.iso

I had to struggle a little to settle
down the rpm update process. Had to

rm -f /var/lib/rpm/__db*
rm -f /var/lib/rpm/.rpm.lock
rpm --rebuilddb

once, then I was able to update and
start to install packages. Updates
and installs from my local repo went
well.

[verg]

This bug has returned: viewtopic.php?p=11552#p11552

There are No IDE cdroms in beta 2

[wobo]

x86_64 dvd on a laptop (i3, 4Gb RAM, Atheros wifi, nvidia graphics), DE selection: KDE

Only few things, minor and major:

- [minor] in first screens (ncurses) before the graphic installer the lines are displayed as special characters, probably a charset issue - https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4894
- [minor] a translation of the ads during package installation according to the language selection would be a "nice to have"
- [minor] bootloader setup does not recognize Ubuntu already present on the same harddisk (Mageia 1 grub recognized it)

- [major] setting up wifi during installation (from the summary screen) does not work - long standing error, see https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1452
- [major] caused by the previous bug no updates are possible during installation

After reboot:
- at first reboot system hangs after "Starting cpufre1 (via systemctl): [ok]" - as there is no tty12 available (or any other) I can not tell which task is stopping the process. Have to restart the machine with Ctrl+Alt+Del! At second try the startup process went through to kdm without failure. All reboots after this worked ok.
- [minor] selecting the Activity Manager display shows no background graphic nor picture, just a black background - can be changed easily but should be avoided.

- [success] after reboot wifi is available, sound working, major apps working
- [success] device manager recognizes USB keys & harddisk, data dvd, music cd, etc.
- [success] using data dvd and windows 7 partitions via dolphin (and MC) works out-of-the-box

Remark: After setting up package media the known bug with rpmdrake set in. After erasing the lock files (2 of them) and the old __db files AND rebuilding the rpm database AND updating rpmdrake (via urpmi) the error is gone and rpmdrake is working ok - known bug, fixed by rpmdrake update.

[wobo]

Additional remark:
During installation the free nouveau graphic driver is installed and works ok. After setting up package media (including non-free and tainted) the installation of the proprietary nvidia driver fails. Details:
- I open MCC -> Hardware -> Configure graphics server and click on the graphic card (selection is correct), then on OK. Normally there should be a message box telling me that there is a proprietary driver available. This message box is not displayed, the process ends as if everything is ok.

- started from a konsole window (XFdrake) the error message reads:

"The program 'XFdrake' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was: 'BadWIndow'.
(Details: serial 21486 error_code 3 request _code 153 minor_code 3)"

- Now I go to tty2, login and open XFdrake on the CLI. This time the message about the proprietary driver is shown and the usual procedure (installing devel and dkms packages, building the module) works as expected. After reboot the nvidia splash comes up and the performance matches the proprietary driver.

[jkerr82508]

Using lxde on rather ancient hardware, all the essentials have worked well, so far. I seem to have avoided the rpmdb bug. I set up the sources using MCC/Configure Sources, closed MCC and then ran urpmi --auto-update, which updated rpmdrake. I have since used rpmdrake to install several packages, without incident.

Jim

[wilcal]

I have a successful install of:

Mageia-2-beta2-x86_64-DVD.iso

on my SandyBridge Video editing system.
After the rpm workout wrinkle updates
and packages install is proceeding
smoothly.

I also noticed that the installer recognized
my Nvidia 400 series video board and made
the necessary installs for that.

[wilcal]

I've had a successful install of

task-gnome

on a

Mageia-2-beta2-x86_64-DVD.iso

install. So the 64-bit installer
recognized the Nvidia series 400
video board made the necessary
installs and Gnome 3 came up in
it's full GUI mode.

[jaywalker]

[Copied from previous thread with same title]

by jaywalker » 16 Mar 2012, 01:47
This was a very useful and interesting thread for Beta 1 so shall we go again?

The first thing I noticed is that Bug 484 which was opened to find a less frightening message than "Preparing Bootloader - This may take a while" is still not resolved. Lots of very good alternatives have been discussed, but nobody has taken the plunge yet with any of them.

The other "no change" happens soon after if you configure your network in the summary screen. The "Testing Network" message is displayed for up to 2 minutes with no reassurance that it hasn't crashed. Then it still tells you lies about the configuration having failed. This "bug" has been a feature of the Mandriva installer for as long as I can remember.

The Bootloader configuration screen tells me it will install on sdc (even though I know it will really be sdb when I reboot. There doesn't seem to be any way to say "Call it sdc now if you like but make sure it is sdb when I need it". Ah well, it doesn;t seem to matter that the /boot/grub/device.map is wrong; it boots just fine anyway.

The summary screen Sound configuration taunts you with an option you cannot uncheck - there is no way you can use this screen to disable pulseaudio, so why not delete it?

Other than that the installation went smoothly enough - 6 or 7 minutes and about 1.2 GBytes of packages.

First boot - always an exciting time. This was a clean install but I kept my home directory and its configuration files, Good news first: task-lxde now includes lxdm for the login so no kdm/gdm and associated baggage. Sadly though, xrandr is still not included or available in the installation packages list for selecting (Bug 4649) but at least it is now in the iso! Nevertheless, my twin screen setup script fails, but will urpmi fail again too?

Yep, though we do at least get a different error to look at;

Code: Select all

[root@Tupperware richard]# urpmi xrandr
Please insert the medium named "core media"
Use of uninitialized value in subroutine entry at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.14.1/x86_64-linux-thread-multi/Net/DBus/Binding/Connection.pm line 257.

mount: mount point /media/cdrom does not exist
failed to mount /org/freedesktop/UDisks/devices/sr0: org.freedesktop.UDisks.Error.Failed: Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 1: helper failed with:
mount: mount point /media/cdrom does not exist


but at least we know what to do about it now thanks to all of the bugs open on mount/unmout issues (Bug 4645 for example). This can be "fixed" by a simple

Code: Select all

[root@Tupperware richard]# urpme udisks-1.0.4-4.mga2
To satisfy dependencies, the following 2 packages will be removed (680KB):
  perl-Hal-Cdroms-0.04-2.mga2.noarch
   (due to missing udisks)
  udisks-1.0.4-4.mga2.x86_64
Remove 2 packages? (y/N) y
removing perl-Hal-Cdroms-0.04-2.mga2.noarch udisks-1.0.4-4.mga2.x86_64
removing package perl-Hal-Cdroms-0.04-2.mga2.noarch
removing package udisks-1.0.4-4.mga2.x86_64
writing /var/lib/rpm/installed-through-deps.list


You will have to mount the disc first (using a file manager icon for example), but urpmi will now be quite happy to use it.

So with xrandr installed and my desktop layout fixed it was time to get the audio working again, but now it is time for bed again....

[martinw]

x86_64 dvd on a laptop (i7, 8Gb RAM, Broadcom wifi, ATI/Intel hybrid graphics ( ), DE selection: GNOME Classic

Installation:
- strange characters instead of lines in first screens (like wobo)
- testing the wired ethernet connection fails, although it works subsequently
(does this ever work? - it never has for me, except when I do a network install)

First boot:
- stops after printing "Starting cpufreq (via systemctl): [ok]" (like wobo)
(ctrl-alt-del to force a reboot, and all is OK on the next boot)

WiFi:
- default driver loaded is b43, which doesn't work with my card (BCM43225)
- wl driver no longer works at all (used to work in alpha2, continuous disconnects/reconnects in alpha3)
- once the above modules are blacklisted, and the necessary kernel firmware installed, the brcmsmac driver works

Graphics:
- Intel integrated graphics works
- ATI graphics needs radeon-firmware installed. Once this is done (and after a reboot), the fan speed goes up to maximum and lots of heat is produced

Whilst investigating the last point, I got a kernel panic. With only a "soft" power button and a non-removable battery, I now have to wait for the battery to run flat

[martinw]

- ATI graphics needs radeon-firmware installed. Once this is done (and after a reboot), the fan speed goes up to maximum and lots of heat is produced

Update: the only cure I found for this was to install the proprietary fglrx driver. A pleasant surprise - this now supports hybrid graphics. Even more surprising, the idle power is lower when using the discrete ATI graphics than when using the integrated Intel graphics. Idle power for my laptop is now down to 20W - still a way to go to reach the 13W seen in Windows, but much better than the 30W seen before installing the radeon firmware.

[smoreau]

Testing MGA2 BETA2 on desktop i7 2600
KDE
Things are improving
No hangs at boot as for beta1
Sound OK
But,
Unable to detect the USB Scanner Epson perfection 24000 photo
Seems related to
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3698
And always this messages during boot :
failed to start legacy module
failed to start LSB : update the intel /AMD cpu microcode see 'systemctl status microcode_ctl.service for details'

What does that mean ?
I observed these messages on all installs from MGA2 alpha1 whatever the machine (laptop or desktop)

[wobo]

failed to start LSB : update the intel /AMD cpu microcode see 'systemctl status microcode_ctl.service for details'
What does that mean ?
I observed these messages on all installs from MGA2 alpha1 whatever the machine (laptop or desktop)

Same here - as I am more pragmatic than technical I never mentioned it because it does not seem to break anything.

[Ken-Bergen]

Unable to detect the USB Scanner Epson perfection 24000 photo
Seems related to
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3698

Are you saying that it was detected in earlier versions?
My Epson Perfection 3170 Photo has never worked in any version of Linux that I've tried without the iscan drivers from avasys.

[smoreau]

Unable to detect the USB Scanner Epson perfection 24000 photo
Seems related to
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3698

Are you saying that it was detected in earlier versions?
My Epson Perfection 3170 Photo has never worked in any version of Linux that I've tried without the iscan drivers from avasys.

Yes my scanner works perfectly on MGA1, its only the device which is not found.

[wilcal]

Unable to detect the USB Scanner Epson perfection 24000 photo

Maybe somewhat related to:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1966&p=14764#p14764

The USB Printer/Scanner setup is very complex right now. Maybe your
scanner can work just needs to be installed in some difficult way.

[smoreau]

This not related to that point. It is apparently a gtk problem :
See the following message on xscanimage (same for xsane)
[serge@Saturne ~]$ xscanimage
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
[xscanimage] No scanners were identified. If you were expecting something
different, check that the scanner is plugged in, turned on and
detected by sane-find-scanner (if appropriate). Please read
the documentation which came with this software (README, FAQ,
manpages).
[serge@Saturne ~]$ sane-find-scanner
# sane-find-scanner will now attempt to detect your scanner. If the
# result is different from what you expected, first make sure your
# scanner is powered up and properly connected to your computer.
# No SCSI scanners found. If you expected something different, make sure that
# you have loaded a kernel SCSI driver for your SCSI adapter.

found USB scanner (vendor=0x03f0 [HP], product=0xc202 [Photosmart 8200 series])
at libusb:001:006
found USB scanner (vendor=0x04b8 [EPSON], product=0x011b [EPSON Scanner]) at
libusb:001:007

However I dont know how to solve the problem.

[pmithrandir]

O use mageia as a main system on my computer.
It works nicely since the new version of KDE.
I specially like the task bar with icons.
I have 2 screens, and was able to have 2 panel with such icons.
KDE works really fine, seems much faster than previous versions.

Moreover, it's much more stable with dual display.

[wilcal]

KDE works really fine, seems much faster than previous versions.

This version of KDE on M2 is REALLY GOOD. Couple
that with the same system install with Gnome and
Mageia may have a real winner here.

[doktor5000]

This not related to that point. It is apparently a gtk problem :
See the following message on xscanimage (same for xsane)
[serge@Saturne ~]$ xscanimage
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"

This one is irrelevant, it's about the sound output and you see that quite often for more Gnome tools.
This is no GTK or Gnome problem.

[smoreau]

Your are probably right, since I tried to use skanlite, and this kde program is also unable to detect my USB Scanner.

[Myself]

Typed a load of error problems but your website refreshed my page and lost the lot before i published. Thanks for wasting my time!!!

Seriously there are so many problems that it is just such a waste of time.

Biggest problem is that Grub cannot evens see Ubuntu on the same drive.

Basic errors with updating as rpm crashes - who are the programmersa nd testers?

No video , no audio - volume set to Mute!!!! Check the basics before releaseing, please.

There are so many better distributions, even in Beta, that I am not wasting anymore of my time with Mageia.

Fuzzy fonts!

Cannot find panel settings.

Slow install and start-up!!!

I have used other Mandriva derived distributions which are better.

Bye

[pmithrandir]

Ok, for a beta there was this rpm issue, but otherwise, i think he is a bit harsh on mageia.

Come back when the real release is going to be announced. It should be much more stable.

Regarding the control panel, i don't know how you did to miss it, it's directly accessible on the main page on KDE.
The name is : Mageia Control Center.

[wobo]

Come back when the real release is going to be announced. It should be much more stable.

All problems he listed are either solved (I guess he did not even update his installation) or listed in the Errata or known as bugs which have to be fixed before final.
As he is obviously neither experienced enough nor willing to deal with a Beta he should not use a Beta. That's all.

[pmithrandir]

he got the

Basic errors with updating as rpm crashes - who are the programmersa nd testers?

that prevent any updates. When you are not familiar with rpm database, it's impossible to find your way out of that.

I think he is like a lot, not impressed anymore by "beta" tag. After all gmail was beta for years... (thanks google)

But i agree with him on one point, it's not in a beta mode that you update RPM version in a distribution where everything is based on that. The core package should be freezed in alpha, and beta should be there for user experience and software bugs.

[wobo]

The core package should be freezed in alpha, and beta should be there for user experience and software bugs.

Yes, that's correct in general. But there are exceptions if there are good reasons.
IMHO RC is the true "freeze except for fixes of release critical bugs".