aRTee

I got the fix from the compiz-fusion forums:

the latest Intel drivers use EXA by default, so you have to change that to XAA in your xorg.conf. Put

Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"

Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "true"

in the Device section of your xorg.conf

All is well now!

Addendum: I also noticed that scrolling (konqueror on webpages and such) takes an enormous load and is still slow...

With kwin this is all fine...

Ok, my initial report was not clear enough - but indeed I did use the video plugin, and video indeed does work.

The load is just unacceptably high.

BTW with xshm it's actually more like a slow motion playback thing - but the cpu load stays below 100%... ?!?

AdamW, could you have a look if you see the same - I know you have an Intel based system as well, do you have a system with 945 or 965 (x3100) graphics?

Edit: the videoplugin is working, I can reduce the size of the playback window and then zoom in, and it will scale nicely.

Did you get mplayer from plf or mandriva mirrors/repositories? The plf version (it’s got plf in the rpm name, whereas the mandriva version has mdv version in the rpm name - just check in the software installer which one you have) has more codecs afaik.

You can also use the command 'mount' without any options.

I did some benchmarking, read my 2008.0 review.

Bottomline: depends on what you do with your machine, in most cases the machine is waiting for you, so you'll never notice. With a stopwatch in hand you may be able to tell the difference, it's not always the 64 bit that wins the race though.

I just run 64 bit whenever I can out of spite, since windows users can't (unless they accept much worse hardware compatibility issues then Linux users have lately) - except for Vista users, but then anyone worth his salt knows Vista's a dud anyway - 32 bit Linux will outshine Vista in 32 or 64 bit on the same hardware anyway...

Has anyone else experienced problems with video playback on Mandriva 2008.1 Spring?

On my Intel T7200 Core 2 Duo laptop with gma945 graphics, which works great with 2008.0 incl compiz-fusion, etcetc, I have the following issues:

- video playback stalls after half a second or less when using pulse audio

- with alsa the video will play, but cpu load on one core will go up to and beyond 90%, with the CPU frequency going up to the max (1992 MHz), the second cpu will jump between various frequencies, rarely be at the lowest

- full screen or otherwise scaled video windows look ugly like you've never seen before

- after issuing 'kwin --replace &' suddenly video plays back fine (except for some tearing that seems inherent to these open source friendly and linux-well-supported but otherwise crappy graphics - I'll happily buy a nice amd/ati combo as soon as the ati hardware is fully supported including 3d/aiglx and such)

(related to tearing - I seem unable to configure the hardware to use my modelines with 50 and 60 Hz vertical refresh, which did work with the older driver unless I'm mistaken - but this is just an aside)

BTW with 2008.0 the same video will have one cpu up to 15% loaded (gkrellm) at 996 MHz. Yes, that's a whopping factor 10 more cpu power (5 times higher load with 2x higher clock frequency).

I tried with X11/xv, X11/xshm, opengl all on aiglx vs kwin with xv, gmplayer and xine. And vlc for kicks. Same thing everywhere....

I did find some comments on the web that hinted at similar issues, but I saw also that for instance AdamW who has an Intel based system as well mentioned he has no issues with video at all...

Any feedback is appreciated, even if it's just to say: "me too"...

Perhaps I'm late to the party, but in any case...

I have finally taken the time to investigate this issue, I normally mount with nfs so don't see the problem, I noticed it first last November...

It seems the issue comes up with kernels from 2.6.21 onwards and only on amd64 / x86-64 / em64t systems.

See also: http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=145123

The workaround that works ok for me, as from the above bug report:

start konqueror from a console like this:

KDE_FORK_SLAVES=true konqueror

and then it works fine.

Note that various people have mentioned that you can't actually set that environment value globally since it will give problems in other kde components such as kmail.

I just tried restarting acpid, didn't help...

My motherboard has been using the latest bios that became available some years ago, ASUS stopped making new ones.

But since I can suspend and resume successfully once, I think that that should be ok.

You did give me another idea / place to start on debugging this: turning off as much as possible, then seeing if it works.

But: I'm using kpowersave - suspend to disk and I have no idea (yet) how to do the same on the commandline - I just tried

echo "disk" > /sys/power/state

but that didn't work, so the command that kpowersave uses is something else I guess...

As the title says, I managed to get suspend to disk working on my (older) desktop. BUT it only works once...

I had to modify the file /etc/suspend.conf, turn off lircd and lircmd, and make sure the system uses nvidia_agp instead of the via type, otherwise no problem, a successful suspend and wakeup looks like this:

Mar  1 23:54:33 zurich kernel: swsusp: Marking nosave pages: 000000000009f000 - 0000000
000100000
Mar  1 23:54:33 zurich kernel: swsusp: Basic memory bitmaps created
Mar  1 23:55:45 zurich kernel: Stopping tasks ... done.
Mar  1 23:55:45 zurich kernel: bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on
Mar  1 23:55:45 zurich kernel: Shrinking memory... done (12563 pages freed)
Mar  1 23:55:45 zurich kernel: Freed 50252 kbytes in 0.21 seconds (239.29 MB/s)
Mar  1 23:55:45 zurich kernel: Suspending console(s)

Whereas if I tell the system to suspend again, it does this:

Mar  2 00:06:55 zurich kernel: swsusp: Marking nosave pages: 000000000009f000 - 0000000000100000
Mar  2 00:06:55 zurich kernel: swsusp: Basic memory bitmaps created
Mar  2 13:23:19 zurich syslogd 1.4.2: restart.

Naturally, that last line is the first thing after rebooting.

Any idea where I can check what's wrong in my setup?

Obviously, the problem is with something inside Linux, the BIOS etc should be fine, or the first successful suspend wouldn't have worked...

From what I have seen and read, I have this personal fear that KDE4 is going to turn out to be yet another piece of worthless eye candy just like compiz et al.

You call compiz worthless?

Why?

It's not, you know.

Some effects make my desktop much more usable.

Some effects make my desktop more fun to use.

It motivates many people to give Linux a try.

It stopped people from saying that Linux looks crappy.

Etc...

As I sit at my desk here I am surrounded by 5 hardware items that don't work, either properly, or at all, with Linux (any version)

Did you contact the device manufacturers?

Will you avoid those manufacturers who don't support Linux?

Will you recommend Linux friendly manufacturers to your friends, family and colleagues?

If you don't, why would you expect your situation ever to improve?

and I am using a laptop that will either shut down 1 time out of 6 (Mandriva) or will not shut down at all (any other distro) and yet I have this awful feeling that vast amounts of human resources are going to be ploughed into plasmoids (whatever the hell they are) and the rest, whilst such utter basics as I have just described, have gone, or will go, unaddressed for ever.

What makes you think the people working on Plasmoids would be working on making your devices work better with Linux if they weren't working on Plasmoids?

What makes you think the people working on Linux (the kernel and modules) are not putting in all required efforts to make things work just like that, as best they can?

I believe they do, and any mildly popular hardware today that has been on the market for over a year and doesn't have proper Linux drivers/compatibility, lacks those drivers/ compatibility due to shortcomings on the side of the manufacturers.

Vote with your dollar/euro/pound/rupiah/whatever.

If Linux is to gain the credibility it deserves then it needs people to continue to improve on the basics, not to go off on wild and useless flights of fancy in some daft effort to emulate Windows (that is all that compiz was anyhow).

First, Linux has lots and lots of credibility, second, compiz is no effort to emulate windows (perhaps the windows that will come after windows 7, but ah well), and thirdly, apparently compiz-like eyecandy is coming to a mobile phone near you very soon, if the MWC in Barcelona is anything to go by.

You don't like *bling*? Well, others do, and it sells (or at least, manufacturers think so).

For the sake of Linux I really do hope that I am proved wrong in this and KDE4 does turn out to contain something useful, but widgets and kicker menus don't do it for me, and as a personal preference, Krusader is so vastly superior to any other file manager on offer there is very little point in trying to compete with it, just install it by default.

Merely being SVG based is good enough for me. Check the screenies in my mdv 2008 review of kde4. Awesome.

That being said, I had a look at current kde4 and yeah, it's not really there yet, from a user point of view.

As I understood long ago, kde 4.0 would be the point where all developers of kde based software should join the fun, and 4.1 where users should join in. Patience.

(BTW Krusader? I'll have bash any day, but for graphical file management, konq does fine.)

Welcome and thanks for the information.

I read the everex machines come with this stripped Ubuntu?

How does that work? Easy for grannies?

Do you know what's wrong with video that G-earth and compiz don't work?

Is it possible to add another video card to get good accelleration?

Howdy!

Hate to break it to you, but ...

Mandriva is French!

;)

Enjoy Linux,

aRTee

Many if not all points of the start post have been addressed, but this point inbetween got to me...

Not to mention the 'desktop' for GNU/Linux is an after-thought. As such it is still in its infancy to that of the other op/sys you compare it to.

Why is the desktop of Linux an after-thought?

It is most certainly not, imho and in the opinion of Linus, for instance.

Truth is, the Linux desktop was never far behind in any way, and always has been far ahead in some ways, of the competition.

Which is because the UNIX desktop was already ahead on some respect.

If you say the desktop is an afterthought, I take that to mean that the developers don't find the desktop important and don't put any effort in it.

To the contrary of that point of view, I can say that I used FVWM in ~1996 and it was way ahead of MSWindows in the following aspects:

window management (MSWin is still not truly usable imnsho)

copy-paste

virtual desktops/one large desktop (virtual) 9x the size of the screen (or which size one configured)

The things that lagged and still lag somewhat are the programs and hardware drivers, but that's not the business of the Linux developers.

So the Linux desktop is not tacked on just because that's somewhat practical, it's always been more or less as good as the competition.

Depending on your needs, Linux may not be suitable for you, but that's as much the fault of your needs as it is of Linux... ;)

rm42, I agree that they wouldn't likely (mpaa isn't as mad as riaa yet) sue end users. Distributions including libdvdcss however...

RVDowning,

:D

The problem I see is that most people, even in tech circles and such, are not aware enough.

I realise that Joe Average will never pay attention unless getting the advice, and he won't come to my site to fetch it,...

But Joe Average asks Geoff Guru about his purchasing recommendations.

I know around me people ask me about what to buy, or at least ask my opinion about hardware (computer hardware, but also other stuff, like digital cameras and such), and the people at my place of work are almost all electronics engineers...

I am sure Geoff Gurus everywhere make out a tiny percentage of the population, but they have much more influence.

My point: most Geoff Gurus don't yet realise the value of hardware with open source drivers...

Which explains why I put so much into one article: every section has its own link, so from now on I can just point to that section...

On the off chance you really want to know how I feel about open source drivers: Great! They are the ones that work!

;)

Thanks for your kind words John, glad you found it worth the read.

I agree on the whole uncertainty about libdvdcss, it's not legal but perhaps not illegal....

So no commercial enterprise will include libdvdcss, because it would make them vulnerable to attack, as neddie said.

Considering the kind of money the MPAA lobbyists have, they get to have the best laws that money can buy.

It seems that in the US legal system, anything remains shady until it has been tested in court, because all laws are just words on paper until a judge has spoken out about it.

These are the grounds on which detractors keep saying that the GPL has not been tested in a US court, and then try to FUD against it.

So the point is: would a judge consider the use of libdvdcss for viewing dvds on Linux legal or not, or in other words, would the judge consider that the DMCA should be interpreted to really limit the use of purchased items in the way that it's doing today, the way it's worded?

This is not clear.

So it is perhaps a bit far fetched to say that Mandriva Powerpack is the only solution (of the big distributions, I think Linspire also has something) for worldwide legal dvd playback, but it is at least the only unquestionable solution.

What really sucks in this whole thing is the US legal system, where such things are not clear until tested in court (meaning: the party with the deepest pockets can usually have their way, since they can attack and drag out as they wish), instead of a system with common sense, where they'd just say: look, that person bought that disc, they should be able to get to the content.

BTW Ubuntu has an interesting way of dealing with libdvdcss; there's a script that will download the source and compile it for you. The source is protected in the US under freedom of speech, so it can be published on a server without fear of repercussions.

Oh, and another interesting page is this: http://en.opensuse.org/XINE

Unfortunately there is, to our knowledge, no legal DVD player for Linux currently sold by anyone.

Well, that's true, but only because you have to buy Mandriva Powerpack, you can't just buy Lindvd. I'm sure Novell could just as Mandriva did though...

rm42,

thanks for the kind words. And the link. And for joining here just to mention it. I will read your review as soon as I have some time.

BTW did you actually finish reading mine? You know, you may still be the first!

I've had very very few comments, I'm supposing it's because everyone fell asleep or gave up or so.

Is your name related to THHGTTG?

arctic,

just an aside note: ubuntu manages too...

BTW Whoever put this as a sticky, thanks!

Why a flash video for kickoff, when 2008.0 has it, just right click the kmenu and choose kickoff menu...

And there's lancelot (if I recall correctly), the kde4 implementation of the old kde menu.

I read quite a bit by now, and it seems that many people are really convinced that the kickoff style menu is the better one, basing on usability studies by Novell.

There seem to be videos of these studies as well, so you can have a look.

What I don't get, why this sliding thing, why not the regular openup style?

For browsing at least, kickoff bites the dust compared to kmenu.

When it comes to having direct access to the few apps that are used regularly: that's why you can put those programs on the panel, just drag the icon.

In any case, for me it's quite moot, I launch most apps from the cli, and since cf I can put kicker and my external taskbar onto a widget layer, so I normally don't even see them. More screen space for me!

Hi Zac,

now you just need to use your system.

Well, you may want to check that you have the update repositories configured (mcc/mandriva control center => software manager) and make sure you update once in a while.

That is about it.

BTW you don't have to update all of your system if:

you have no services running that can be connected to from the outside

and

you make sure you get the updates for your webbrowser

Another thing to take care of is your backup solution.

Currently I use rsync with a 500GB external drive. I have to get another one, and then encrypt it, so I can bring one to work (encrypted: so no one can get to the data), to make sure that I have a real backup.

Backups that are physically at the same location are not backups, by definition.

But basically, that's it, after setting up Linux, it keeps running; from my server (internet, firewall, download, music server):

$ uptime

22:53:20 up 303 days, 22:22, 1 user, load average: 0.93, 0.74, 0.65

I had it up for 650 days before that, but then we moved house... it actually still runs Mdv 2005LE.

Runs 2 vncserver sessions and then some.

Needs no handholding, needs only some power and fresh air, keeps going... Linux, frack yeah!

{BBI}Nexus{BBI}, thanks. Only just noticed some formatting issues as well.

arctic, openSUSE managed to get my bootloader info from another installation (had only Mandriva 2007.0, 2007.1 and 2008 systems installed), and even grabbed user info, meaning I didn't have to create my user accounts, it took even the shadow passwd file, so same passwords.

Thanks for the GNOME version mistake.

I'll update the review for these few typos and formatting issues I've found so far.

So few replies - is everyone else still reading, or worse, still downloading?

I've just uploaded my Mandriva 2008.0 review, first review I do in 2 years...

Give it a read here: Mandriva 2008.0 review.

One question: it got a bit long (not in the tooth I hope), should I split it over 2 or even more pages? Total page download with screenshots is over 3MB... (All full size screenies together: 38MB)

Any comments, corrections, flames or praise, please leave them in this topic.

I hope you'll enjoy the read,

aRTee

You could delete the empty ntfs partition, create a ext3 partition in its place, then copy all contents of your /home there, and then mount it as your /home, after which you can delete your current /home and use the free space to increase the size of your /

On the other hand, 7GB should be enough for /

What I would recommend is that you free up your current /home as I just described, and then use that partition for a future linux installation (2008.1, something else, whatever)...

For the xkill, if windows are still there but the process is dead, on KDE you can also hit ctrl-alt-esc. Note that this doesn't work (for me) with KDE + Compiz-Fusion.

Does your 3d accelleration work? This could explain why the lock screen didn't work the first time; you may want to try with a blank-screen screensaver..?

For the resolution setting, we'd need your /etc/X11/xorg.conf and your /var/log/Xorg.0.log files to see what the system is doing.

lavaeolus,

I wasn't aware of that, thanks for the info.

How do you get those temps then, if not with lm_sensors and hddtemp?

{BBI}Nexus{BBI},

seems I missed out on search+replace of that one instance of 2007.1...

Thanks for noting.

To run, ran, run to that other topic...

Surely an install from a live One CD is a "true" system installation, it requires configuration and option-choosing along the way. It might be a little bit simplified but it's essentially the same. Obviously the package selection is smaller from a CD than from a DVD but it's not "merely a copy".

Not entirely so. On my 2007.1 One KDE 'installation', on my intel system with intel graphics, on boot, it loaded both the proprietary drivers for ATI _and_ Nvidia cards. There were some other things going wrong as well, services not being properly configured and such.

The main disadvantage is that the cd has only few language packs, and yes, for many that is a problem.

What interests me more, however, is after the install. Have you managed to get digikam talking to your digital cameras with 2008? (I haven't). And any other bugs / quirks / problems you've experienced?

Well, for bugs and quirks you have to wait for my review - as for DigiKam, I never use it to talk to my cameras, I always use a card reader.

(I just uploaded my config page as well by the way.)

But I have not seen any big issue so far. Beats openSUSE by a long shot on the same (novell certified) hardware - see my review.