Sorry, but looks like I'm going back to 10.0

[cage47]

Well I've given Mandriva 2006 two weeks of good regular-day use. Granted at first I was impressed with the distro I've gotta say now there are some annoyances that make me want to revert to 10.0.

 

I was first glad to see Firefox and Thunderbird included in the distro. I had to use downloaded rpms to get it in 10.0. But I was dismayed to see mozilla dropped. Though Firefox and Thunderbird are my default browser/mail agent, I still keep mozilla around for the web page editor. There is nothing that beats it in linux for wysiwyg editing. Quanta is good for code but Mozilla still tops. But I was also glad to see java runtime included as well as flash. I'm going to pull these rpms off for my revert install. I tried to use Mozilla's rpm from 10.0 but it gave dependency errors that I couldn't fix without trashing the system. I got it working with a tar.gz install but not my favorite.

 

Now one thing I wanted to see I did in 2006. Better management of devices, especially usb. I saw what a mess kde made of usb in 10.1. And was glad to see how 2006 was an improvement. This is one of the few things holding me up from doing a revert. I didn't like how unplugging a usb device with konqueror still open would lock up kde and require a ctrl-shift-backspace to get out.

 

But now I find that KDE hangs if left to timeout. It should just be a simple power setting but I can't find anything that will fix it. This didn't happen in 10.0. And I've tried all mcc power settings and in kde control also.

 

I have an older ATI Rage 128 that has 3d acceleration that works descent with 10.0 out of the box. In 2006 the 3d acceleration is dog slow. I especially notice it in wine. But even chromium is useless in 2006. It worked good in 10.0. I couldn't test with tuxracer. It's gone. In 10.0 it works great. In 2006, if I use one of my old rpms it doesn't work at all. Only resized my screen.

 

I also wasn't keen about how mandriva set default for a kdm theme when one wasn't installed. This kept me from seeing my installed users in the login screen. I had to edit the kdm startup script to fix this. Not what I like.

 

And it might be related to the 3d accel, but memory management seems to have taken a step back. Or there are more things sucking ram. My system can dog down if I have OOo, Firefox, thunderbird and gnucash on at the same time. This I need when working on the family budget. In 10.0 this was handled with no problem. And again another distro goes by with fewer screensavers. I used to love the old pyro. But it's gone. Even the space wind from 10.0 is missing. And the fireworks one only fills half the screen.

 

As far as other programs, All my basics are still there and work fine. Except kscd. It chops off the first two seconds of all songs. But I can use grip to play cd's so I know the cd is fine. I'm not crazy about amorak. I always delete it from the install. And menudrake's performace isn't what it should be this time. Minor tweaks that might be intentional really rub me wrong. If there is a single entry in a menu item, the menu item is deleted and the entry is moved up into the previous menu. Like I put PRBoom in the action menu in games. But when you click on games instead of seeing the action directory next PRBOOM is there by itself. Nothing I can do aside from putting another program in that directory will change that. That might be a feature but I like the old way. And honestly, the way I set up my system, I really don't see much difference from kde in 10.0 and in 2006.

 

Sure the boot up time is faster. But compared to 10.0 it's not a major concern if I revert. a few seconds won't hurt to make sure the system won't lock up if I let it sit.

 

I've put 10.0 back on my backup computer. I'm testing to see if I can get certain programs installed ok. The first is OOo. I really want the new version. But it's proving problematic. I'm going to have to look in to that more. If I can get the new OOo to install 10.0 is definitely going back on the big box.

 

And one personal gripe. My old Doom PRBOOM rpm will load work, gets sound, but the music won't play. Did in 10.0.

 

Now while I can get the programs running fine the system is good, though sometimes it runs slow, And I can setup my faxing as easy as in 10.0. BIG plus. That would have been an instant show stopper there if I couldn't.

 

2006 was a good distro. And for a new convert it might be fine but for me, who has used Mandy for quite some time, I'll stick with the old tried and true.

[Ixthusdan]

I have found over the years that rpm's are not generally useful from one version to the next, particularly in a heavy gui like kde. I would not expect to be able to use any "old" rpm's. Installing them could create issues all by themselves. This is a great time to compile something, either with a tarball source or otherwise. I have also noticed that Mandriva tools all have updates and anyone would be advised to install those types of updates.

 

I think there are still issues with Mandriva's xorg stuff, and there are always issues wth ATI. That is not any linux fault, but the lack of support coming from ATI on linux.

[cage47]

As far as packages I agree to a certain point. This is one place I still miss my Debian install. Finding packages and adding stuff I don't have is easy. I can get around most rpm dependency hangups by just downloading said missing rpm. But this time I can't. I tried to get OOo from 2006 to install into 10.0. No go. First it needs libSLPport. This depends on libstdc++ and then it needs freetype2. It goes fine until freetype2. The one installed with 10.0 is a dependency to too many of my required progs. So I can't remove the older one. And the new one won't install over it. And without it OOo from 2006 won't install.

 

I've read a few posts on the problems with the nvidia and ati drivers in 2006. What I didn't realize is that the xorg libs are experimental. Not the stable branch. This is a major problem for me. I want bleeding edge only to a point. This makes the system unreliable for my main box. And the issues it has with memory/cpu usage are prevalent on my system too. Between these two issues I'm definitely going back to 10.0 tomorrow. I'm going to pull certain files off the 2006 disks as upgrades.

 

But back on the rpms. In one case what you said isn't 100% true. I'm an old holdout for WordPerfect. I still install WP8 into any system I have (linux or windows). And I saved three backwards compat rpms from my old Mandy 7.0 cd (which I still have). I can still install them, even in 2006, and can get WP8 working, and printing fine with one small tweak. But my old xgalaga rpms don't work right so there. But anyway. Looks like 2006 is destined for the storage bin like 10.1.

[Ixthusdan]

Well, there is nothing wrong with staying on a system that you have tuned to do exactly what you like. Lots of people aren't like me, and just upgrade for the pure joy of headaches! :lol:

 

The rpm's could work if they were complied against libraries that have not changed much. In the gui environment, though, that just isn't true. Just like windows, kde is changing alot, including the libraries.

[arctic]

There is an old saying: stick to what works for you.

 

If 10.0 works better for you than 2006, then use 10.0. ;) I am however a bit in a mes. Too many systems and versions work for me. :D

[aRTee]

tuxracer is not gone, it's called ppracer...

 

Quanta beats anything, but to each his own:

Mozilla is available in contrib, so set up your urpmi and install it.

 

So that should at least help a bit.

 

I'm guessing your opengl issues might be related to the problematic version of xorg that comes with mdv06; my ati rage on my lappy works ok, but it's not the same chip that you have. There should be an update for this at some point.

 

Check your system load if it gets slow, use the command top or whichever kde or other graphical tool (I only use top on the command line for such stuff..).

If it's mhonarc or kded sucking up cpu cycles, deinstall kat:

urpme kat

[cage47]

Yep. Arctic, I live by that rule.

 

Artee. I've read up on it and checked the erata page. Mine is a similar problem but it's not actually related to the acpi. It isn't activated in my system. And there's no entry to remove from logrotate. But yes my system load is high. And if I let it sit for a while and I open System Guard the memory usage is all 888888888. Actually everything is. cpu load, memory usage. I check it in 10.0 and it's never anywhere near this. It only took 3 hours to get my 10.0 system set back up. I wasn't able to use hardly anything out of 2006, except acrobat, the java runtime and flash player. But for all that was not working the only thing now I have to keep an eye on is how I plug in my usb items. As long as I close whatever program is using it first there's no problem. My system speed is back and my 3d accell is fine. my screensaver works good again and tux racer is usable (a good test). I might download the updates and try it on the backup computer again but for now 2006 isn't stable enough. But if they can fix these problems I can hold out hope.

[michaelcole]

But yes my system load is high. And if I let it sit for a while and I open System Guard the memory usage is all 888888888.

 

Is it reading the information at all..

I have only seen this when the KDE SYS guard has no information.

 

have a look at kat.. it maybe using all of your resources.. when Idle..

 

From experience it starts in your home directory and if you are like me just too many files to catalog in one chunk i think..

 

I broke it down into the directories i really wanted Kat'ed not the entire HOME directory..

[scarecrow]

If you like that much Mozilla Composer, then you will fall in love with NVU, which factly is Composer Enhanced... :D

[Guest mark62]

I have used Mandrake for years and I use the latest version from CD ever 1 or 2 years. I have never gone back to an older version, but this time I'm going back to my HD that has my good working 2005LE. The 2006 version is trouble in many ways; and this is after using up 20 hours of my time. I signed up on this forum only to inform others of this. Good bye.

[Ixthusdan]

Mark62, you may want to share your concerns with an official Mandriva forum. We are just users helping users, and have no official connection with Mandriva. (Aside from having permission to use their logo)

 

Except for Paul, who makes the big bucks for working here. :lol: We all donate the money everybody pays us to Paul as homage. You had to pay to sign up, didn't ya?

[cage47]

Michael, I thought that to and I disabled KAT altogether. It might be nice for some but it's unnecessary for me. But System Guard, it will work fine when the system is fine but when it gets stuck that's what reads. And then when I ctrl-alt-backspace and the system comes back up it works fine.

 

Scarecrow. I heard that composer was also going to be spun off. SO this is it? if so I'm going to get that either from my 2006 rpms or download it.

 

Mark I'm picky. My system has to work just right. I'll try new systems but if it isn't to my liking I revert. Did it with 9.0. Went back to 8.2. Did it with 8.1. Went back to 8.0. Did it with 10.1, went back to 10.0. And doing it again. now if they fix the slowdown problem and the xorg problem I might try it again. But if not I'll wait for 2007. I'll just keep upgrading my programs instead of the system.

[solarian]

You might want to try out 2005LE (10.2), it's very stable and well done,

actually for me it's the most stable Mandrake/iva ever used. And it has better USB support than 10.0 or 10.1

[aRTee]

kat cannot be disabled, allthough it looks like it can.

 

The only way to solve it is this:

urpme kat

 

nothing else will do, but that does the job fine.

 

mark62,

if you're not going to tell what went wrong, you might as well tell nothing at all.

 

It's fine if Mdv doesn't work for you, and it's great if you want to get that off your chest, but for all we know, you just wasted your 20 hours because you missed something essential. Maybe you're clueless. Maybe you're not. Maybe Mdv 2006 is really crap. Maybe I have it working on 3 systems and it works fine, minus some small things. Well, not maybe - it's a fact. Some colleagues of mine are using it, I'm getting very positive feedback, most of them love it.

Ah well...

[cage47]

OK here's the latest. I've got 10.0 back in the system for now. I've got a spare partition that I used for storage. I emptied it and used it to do a test install of 2006 again. Thi s time one of the first things was to remove kat from the install (actually during the install). I've noticed a definite increase in system performance. And I've not run into the problem of kde locking up after sitting. Now I still have the problem with music in prboom. And kscd still cuts off the first couple seconds of songs. I can get around kscd by using grip instead. And prboom. Well I can deal without music. Now I see that nvu might actually solve my need for mozilla. I'm going to look into it. But I need to see how wine performs first. I have to install it and give it a shot. If wine's performance is improved I'm going to attempt putting 2006 back on the main drive. We'll see. Also to free up resources I'm going to remove clamav. If I feel I need it and it doesn't make much difference I might put it back later. So going now to get wine up and running.

 

Also I've got the powerpack and I'm going to try the updated ati driver it has provided. Going to look into that one. Anyway I'll update after that.