I stand corrected!

[barnac1e]

While I only dabbled briefly with Mageia 1, I kept up with news of Cauldron and even checked out an early beta of it. It looked promising but something about the KDE interface and panel bugged me, and I had not ever thought about even changing that altogether to how I wanted it to look (Mageia has the classic menu with no options of noticeably changing it, and I like the Kickoff style). And I had a couple of issues with wireless not working but later found out that is due to the RFKill feature and so by this time yesterday installing and setting up the /etc/rc.local script, I knew how to fix that issue.

So I gave Cauldron another shot yesterday and got the live CD. I even made sure to meticulously configure Grub legacy because I must use Grub2 (I have a custom GUID Partition Table scheme, instead of msdos) which Mageia does not have natively. Otherwise, as like previously, I would have gotten kernel panics and such after installing Mageia due to deprecated vga settings Grub2 would try to pass to the kernel. So I indeed got that figured out too and Grub2 booted it just fine. And after installing it okay, fixing RFKill okay, and the updates going amazingly smooth, and after a little roundabout tweaking in KDE, I have the panel and launcher I desire. And finally I was most impressed with how the Suspend/Resume worked on my Asus K53e laptop, because Mageia is the only other distro besides Debian that has gotten it right out-of-the-box without me adding custom scripts. My only critique might be that had I not been an intermediate Linux user, the RFKill feature and maybe Grub2 issues might have and still may frustrate a newbie coming to Mageia so maybe work on fixing these few things in the next release. But again, this last part is a personal preference mostly and very minor.

[*RFKill, for anyone wondering, stands for Radio-Frequency kill, so that if you take a laptop on an airplane and use it for offline instances, it will not allow wireless to work by default. You must go to a terminal as root each time after a new boot and type:

Code: Select all

#rfkill unblock all

Otherwise, someone and perhaps potential new users may have wondered why their wireless wasn't working right and assume that drivers weren't picked up by Cauldron right away even though the settings were right and move to another distro. Only ethernet doesn't appy to RFKill. Mageia is not the only distro this is in, but its become common now in new kernels. It's not an easy thing to get used to and fix so I don't know why the kernel developers implement it without fair warning, really. I had to dig around in Google for the final answer and fix.]

So I had made a few comments somewhere in some review comments section that I was disappointed of Cauldron initially (because of those issues mentioned in the first paragraph) but since getting all this and a successful install still from Mageia yesterday, and without even one bug or hitch or cough, I'm impressed! So I stand corrected Mageia guys. You've done gone! Even PCLinuxOS, and Mageia 2011 could not compare in recent times. It shall remain as a dual boot alongside my Ubuntu 11.04 permanently.

If anyone or moderator reading this knows how, please do forward this to the developers for me so they can see it. Or maybe they will. I am posting in the General section because it is a general comment but may be more beneficial seen somewhere else?

Thanks.

[isadora]

Thanks barnac1e for your great contribution.

I have just posted a new message pointing developers to this topic.
Topic can be found in following news-group:

news://news.gmane.org/gmane.linux.mageia.devel

Further on, i think you posted this topic in the right place, no problem.

[doktor5000]

Normally rfkill depends on the behavior of hardware switches/buttons for wireless on your laptop, and how the manufacturer implemented it.
And they should not be blocked by default. For that matter, as a workaround you can just put the unblock command in your /etc/rc.d/rc.local so it will get executed at every boot.

For grub2, this is currently under heavy testing, which is what cauldron is used for. The switch to grub2 and polishing is by no means complete yet.
But you should know that if you're using cauldron, please read the second paragraph of https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Cauldron

[barnac1e]

Thanks barnac1e for your great contribution.

I have just posted a new message pointing developers to this topic.
Topic can be found in following news-group:

news://news.gmane.org/gmane.linux.mageia.devel

Further on, i think you posted this topic in the right place, no problem.

Your welcome and thank you too.

Normally rfkill depends on the behavior of hardware switches/buttons for wireless on your laptop, and how the manufacturer implemented it.
And they should not be blocked by default. For that matter, as a workaround you can just put the unblock command in your /etc/rc.d/rc.local so it will get executed at every boot.

For grub2, this is currently under heavy testing, which is what cauldron is used for. The switch to grub2 and polishing is by no means complete yet.
But you should know that if you're using cauldron, please read the second paragraph of https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Cauldron

Regarding RFKill, You may be correct, but I have seen it mostly in the current Debian Unstable branches, as well Slackware current so it looks like its soon to go mainstream in the kernels from what I gather. Trust me when I tell you Its popping up more freqeuntly because I've been about the worst distro-hopper anyone can be for the last year . You are correct about the rc.local file but it's actually /etc/rc.local or at least that's where I put mine and it worked.

Yes Grub2 is in development but RedHat is doing a fine job with it. OpenSuse and Fedora are both using it in their new releases and I'd just like to have seen it in Mageia too, but I'm sure next time it will be. Actually in fact the upcoming Frugalware now only uses it. I guess its most important for the power users like me to have it. Grub legacy is still fine too for a casual user to use, but the thing to remember is Intel, for example, is strongly promoting manufacturers using its processors now in laptops, to include the option in the BIOS to enable UEFI feature-that's someday going to replace the BIOS altogether. The thing is that if you choose to use that feature, you must convert your partition to a GPT table to then use it. And only Grub2 right now will boot a GPT natively in the MBR. If you dual boot a 2nd distro using Grub legacy, such as the Mageia install, you must specify to use Grub legacy only at the root partition. Then when the install completes and you reboot, I just go into the distro with the Grub 2, run the Grub2-makeconfig command as it is using the RPM Grub2, or "update-grub" for the Debian Grub2, it picks up the Grub legacy and knows how to handle it. If its not done like that, you would have to chain-load the two Grubs and that gets complicated.

[doktor5000]

Normally rfkill depends on the behavior of hardware switches/buttons for wireless on your laptop, and how the manufacturer implemented it.
And they should not be blocked by default. For that matter, as a workaround you can just put the unblock command in your /etc/rc.d/rc.local so it will get executed at every boot.

Regarding RFKill, You may be correct, but I have seen it mostly in the current Debian Unstable branches, as well Slackware current so it looks like its soon to go mainstream in the kernels from what I gather. Trust me when I tell you Its popping up more freqeuntly because I've been about the worst distro-hopper anyone can be for the last year . You are correct about the rc.local file but it's actually /etc/rc.local or at least that's where I put mine and it worked.

Sorry, i'm not sure what you mean. rfkill is "mainstream" since quite some time already, actually since 2009, and it's available in all distros as it is needed for some adapters/implementations.

And /etc/rc.local is only a symlink, so you put it inside the file /etc/rc.d/rc.local which is what i told you

[andre999]

Grub 1.97 patched as used in Mageia (and Mandriva before) supports GPT partition tables.
Personally I've been using GPT for at least 2 years with grub 1.97 patched of mdv/mga.

However at least at first, the drak* tools didn't fully support GPT, so I had to format partitions using a rescue disk (systemrescueCD). (That could well be fixed by now - haven't tested lately.)
But there was never any problem accessing partitions on GPT formatted disks.

[barnac1e]

Grub 1.97 patched as used in Mageia (and Mandriva before) supports GPT partition tables.
Personally I've been using GPT for at least 2 years with grub 1.97 patched of mdv/mga.

You must be referring to the DVD having the Grub 1.97? I have yet to see an option in the bootloader settings for a Grub 1.97, specifically on the Live CDs. Additionally, the default bootloader never lists my other operating system by default, which tells me that the package os-prober is not present, which is always included where any Grub 2 is included. And if I let the Grub install itself as it wants to on the /dev/sda, when it reboots, only Mageia is listed in the Grub screen, and not the other systems.

But if there is a Grub 1.97, please let me know where or how to have it installed from Drak. Also, where is Gdisk? This is another essential for a GPT partition table that I have trouble always finding.

[doktor5000]

Well, i think Andre means grub 0.97 (grub legacy) which is still the default for Mageia.

[barnac1e]

Well, i think Andre means grub 0.97 (grub legacy) which is still the default for Mageia.

I see. Looking back at what he was saying, yes, he's right that the Mageia Grub supports GPT. But is he referring to a GPT BIOS, or a GPT UEFI, or both? I know what he's saying. But if someone dual-boots with an OS with Grub 2, Mageia cannot handle the superior bootloader. So unless the user knows how to handle the update to the Grub2, and where to put the Mageia Grub, it can pose some problems. I just think given as of today, and given all of the other RPM based distros, Mandriva, Mageia and certainly PCLinuxOS is behind somewhat. Fedora, for example has officially announced that for Fedora 18, they are ceasing all further development on Grub legacy. Suse is getting there quickly too. And its all coming from Red Hat who I'd say is quite an official source for knowing what is needed in the near future for Linux to keep up with technological advances, so to speak.

[doktor5000]

But is he referring to a GPT BIOS, or a GPT UEFI, or both? I know what he's saying. But if someone dual-boots with an OS with Grub 2, Mageia cannot handle the superior bootloader. So unless the user knows how to handle the update to the Grub2, and where to put the Mageia Grub, it can pose some problems.

For the first part, seems you don't know what GPT means. GPT is short for GUID partition table, let's say that this is the successor to MBR-style partitioning and its shortcomings and disadvantages. This has nothing to do with BIOS/EFI, or at least not related to linux, as grub2 can directly boot from a GPT-partitioned disk, without UEFI.

For the second part, this is actually partly a problem with grub2, which has been fixed upstream by a Mageia developer, at least for *buntu, from what i know.

[barnac1e]

For the first part, seems you don't know what GPT means. GPT is short for GUID partition table, let's say that this is the successor to MBR-style partitioning and its shortcomings and disadvantages. This has nothing to do with BIOS/EFI, or at least not related to linux, as grub2 can directly boot from a GPT-partitioned disk, without UEFI.

Please tell me you are NOT one of Mageia's developers. Yes, I knew what GPT meant. And I also know that Macs run on them as well. But it sounds like you are the one who does not know about a GPT on a Linux system, because there is only two ways a GPT can be used in Linux. One is the EFI/UEFI but there is also the BIOS boot GPT. So I am assuming if you are running a GPT and you are not EFI, then you are a BIOS Boot GPT, which is what I am using also. I could do the EFI but the times I've tried it I saw no difference much. You can see the Arch Wiki that confirms exactly what I am saying (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GPT
). The following is the specifics I've been talking about the whoie time that you overlooked or don't realize I was talking about:

Bootloader Support
UEFI systems

All UEFI Bootloaders support GPT disks since GPT is a part of UEFI Specification and thus mandatory for UEFI boot. See UEFI_Bootloaders for more info.

BIOS systems

GRUB(2) requires a 2 MiB "BIOS Boot Partition" (EF02 type code in gdisk and bios_grub flag in GNU Parted) in BIOS systems to embed its core.img file due to lack of post-MBR embed gap in GPT disks. Runtime GPT support in GRUB(2) is provided by the part_gpt module. See GRUB#GPT_specific_instructions for more information.

Syslinux requires the /boot partition to be marked as "Legacy BIOS Bootable" GPT attribute (legacy_boot flag in GNU Parted) to identify the partition containing the syslinux boot files by its MBR boot code gptmbr.bin . See Syslinux#GUID_Partition_Table_aka_GPT for more information.

GRUB Legacy, present in the official repositories as grub and in AUR as grub-gfx, does not support GPT disks. Fedora's heavily patched GRUB Legacy fork grub-legacy-fedora-git contains GPT patches from Intel (tested in Fedora, not tested in Archlinux).

Note: Fedora developers have mentioned that after the release of Fedora 17, grub-legacy-fedora development will stop. Fedora already uses GRUB(2) as its default BIOS bootloader since F16. Users are recommended to switch to GRUB(2) or Syslinux instead.

For the second part, this is actually partly a problem with grub2, which has been fixed upstream by a Mageia developer, at least for *buntu, from what i know.

I haven't heard of that, it may be true or may not be, but it's not for Ubuntu, that's for sure. Their Grub2 is somewhat different than Red Hat's. And why did you asterisk out (*) the U in Ubuntu? I hope you have no problem with them which would be unfortunate.

[doktor5000]

Uhmm, where does anything i've written contradict with what you posted?
Also "Please tell me you are NOT one of Mageia's developers" sounds quite offensive. You sure will make up many new friends with such an attitude.
You know, it's not THEM developers, or THOSE packagers, remember we are one community. And yes i'm a member of the packaging team.

FWIW *buntu is a common generalization of all the Ubuntu flavors. And i don't have a problem with Ubunutu.
And even if that would be the case, why would that be unfortunate? I don't HAVE to like all other linux distros ...

[barnac1e]

Uhmm, where does anything i've written contradict with what you posted?
Also "Please tell me you are NOT one of Mageia's developers" sounds quite offensive. You sure will make up many new friends with such an attitude.
You know, it's not THEM developers, or THOSE packagers, remember we are one community. And yes i'm a member of the packaging team.

You're right, doktor5000, and I apologize for that last posting.

For the first part, seems you don't know what GPT means.

It was just the above quoted part of your comment sent up a defensive flag, is all, because I guess I take pride in Linux in general on such a personal level. And that first sentence is as far as I got in that first paragraph, so I had wrongly assumed you were implying I was ignorant about what I was talking about, and had I finished the paragraph, I may have seen not. Plus I had mentioned I would consider volunteering for QA perhaps, in another thread so I didn't want to be perceive as such as I thought somehow it could adversely affect that. I do recall not being in a great mood that evening for other reasons, and so I am truly not a rude person as a rule. So I am sorry. Accept my apology?

FWIW *buntu is a common generalization of all the Ubuntu flavors.

Again, I'm sorry because I had not known that was such a generalization of the Ubuntu flavors, so I again I put my foot in my mouth. Please forgive that comment too, okay?

I know where that response came from though, which was back in early May, I had come to these forums looking for an update on the soon-to-be released Beta of Mageia at that time. And so in a thread, someone asked "Any timeline for that release date?" And so that question was answered. Further down in that same thread though someone posted a general "thanks for your hard work" response, which was fine, but then also added something like "I can't wait for Cauldron cause Ubuntu sucks."

And personally, I see there is a lot of competition within Linux among differenct distributions, especially of a different package management manager sorts that exists (rpms vs. the .debs vs. the tar.xz, etc, if you get my drift, and I will say the worst of it comes from Slackware users it seems, or so that's the impression I get from time to time in other forums.) And while in general I suppose that's fine, I guess it bugs me when someone says any specific Linux distro sucks, but especially one like Ubuntu, because whether anyone admits it or not, they (Canonical) have some world-class developers working on Ubuntu and so it is that not only do I use it alongside others on my PC, but I feel any distro should be respected because developers put so much hard work and time into them, including yourself then as you mentioned,especially considering they do it because they enjoy it, not for profit. That's admirable at a minimum. So I get defensive on such issues there too.So, perhaps the third time is a charm but will you forgive my response to you there to?

Take care.

[doktor5000]

You don't need to apologize, and i don't need to forgive something which did not happen. No hard feelings here.
Generally i only do factual posts, and leave most of the emotions out the door when i enter forums,
otherwise i'd drown in all those discussions and stuff which is not related to support.

Actually *buntu only sucks as they got that classical separation between root and user totally wrong, IMHO.
But who am i to say something like that, while using sudo passwordless myself

[barnac1e]

Thanks. Sounds good.

[pete910]

But who am i to say something like that, while using sudo passwordless myself

Am disappointed in you Sir!

Our esteemed Mageia helper has had a bad bang to the head/Drunk too much German beer/been on *buntu forum too long or has caught cold and under medication.

Normal operation/service will resume shortly ......( I Hope!)



Pete.

[doktor5000]

But who am i to say something like that, while using sudo passwordless myself

Our esteemed Mageia helper has had a bad bang to the head/Drunk too much German beer/been on *buntu forum too long or has caught cold and under medication.

Nope, as this is my personal workstation, which is only used by me, i tweak it so that it's more comfortable for me, but i don't advertise that or propose it to others. And i'm using that since even before *buntu became popular.