Jump to content

First impressions of Mandriva 2008.1


oldwierdal
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi! I'm an old fart disquised as the new kid on the block. I've been using Linux since 2003, jumping first into Red Hat 9, then Fedora, and most recently, CentOS 5.2. During that time I also played around with Debian and the Debian derivatives, but always returned to rpm-based Linux.

Fedora began to be a chore for me, with their really aggressive release cycle. So I moved to CentOS. That was much more relaxed. But just a bit too relaxed. Sort of reminded me of Perry Como. Those of you under 30 probably don't have a clue there.

I tried openSUSE 10, and gave it up. I again tried openSUSE 11.1. Better, but still no seegar.

Yesterday, and for a while this morning, I installed and configured Mandriva 2008.1. Wow! I'm really impressed. Not only did the installer correctly identify and configure all my hardware, but it also installed my HP Photosmart C4240 automatically! I had been prepared to do some wrestling with drivers for this, that, and the other. I had all my ducks in a row, ready for the task. Not really disappointed, I didn't have to do much of anything.

Something which has been lacking in nearly all the Fedora/Red Hat products is help documentation on board. All of the community forums are always ready and willing to help, but I have always thought it would be great to have the help documentation on board in a user/reader friendly format, rather than having to wade through man-pages, or googling on line for written documentation for some things.

With my new toy, Mandriva 2008.1, it looks like almost all that I might be looking for is right here for documentation. Great!

OK! Now for the other shoe! Mandriva 2008 is great/ However, I was disappointed that I didn't find my favorite little editor, nano, as part of the standard install. I was able to find it by googling, and got it installed, but every distribution I've tried from day one had nano. Personally, I think it is every bit as versatile and powerful as vi and vim, and for me it is far easier to use than either of them.

Also, I wish sudo were included as a standard option. With sudo, and proper use of it, the risk of accidentally forgetting you've gone into su mode, and destroying your box is almost gone. Obviously, nothing is ever completely 'sailor-proof.' But sudo sure improves the odds for safety.

I just have two remaining anomolies to fix;

The first is rpmbuild. It's crying about a missing dependancy;

$ sudo rpm -ivfh rpm-build*.rpm

error: Failed dependencies:

patch is needed by rpm-build-4.4.2.3-1mde2008.1.i586

elfutils is needed by rpm-build-4.4.2.3-1mde2008.1.i586

rpm = 1:4.4.2.3-1mde2008.1 is needed by rpm-build-4.4.2.3-1mde2008.1.i586

So, I'll need to wade through that.

The next is VMware Workstation 5. The rpm installs, but, $ /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl chokes.

 

I'll keep working on those problems, and post back for help if I can't get past them.

Meanwhile, I'll just close with KUDO's to the writers and developers for fine work.

 

owa

 

 

[moved from Installing Mandriva by spinynorman - welcome aboard :)]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome aboard.

 

Although nano is not included as a "default editor", it can be installed with two clicks, once you have set up the software mirrors in the MCC (Mandriva Control Center). Or, if you prefer the cli, use "urpmi nano".

 

I can understand where you come from. Fedora was also a bit too aggressive for me. I started with Red Hat 7.2 and used all Red Hat/Fedora versions till Fedora 8, but Fedora became too much of a risk for me and my everyday work (kernel-upgrades that left a system unable to boot were one of the nastier problems). CentOS is great and I do consider switching back to it, as it is a real workhorse.

 

Mandriva is a really great distro, but - much like Fedora - a bleeding edge distro that does not offer the long-time support of CentOS or Debian stable and cannot offer the stability of both. You can't have everything, so it comes down to finding the best compromise for oneself. ;)

 

About rpmbuild: Do you have all mirrors configured correctly and updated the system?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a matter of fact, I'm installing rpmbuild even as we speak. I found and installed nano with google.

I did open up the options a bit on the media sources, and urpmi found all that it needed after that.

The problem with VMware probably needs another of their patchanyanyany fixes. With VirtualBox, I find I use VMware less and less. The only reason I even bother with it is that I paid hard cash for it, and it d*** well better work!

 

Thanks for the reply. Also, thanks for putting this in a more appropriate forum. I should have known better.

 

owa

Link to comment
Share on other sites

patch is needed by rpm-build-4.4.2.3-1mde2008.1.i586

elfutils is needed by rpm-build-4.4.2.3-1mde2008.1.i586

rpm = 1:4.4.2.3-1mde2008.1 is needed by rpm-build-4.4.2.3-1mde2008.1.i586

This is not the official Mandriva package. Official Mandriva packages use the mdv or mnb (for the core packages only) letters. looks like you used Google to find Mandriva packages, as you wrote, but didn't find the official ones. You can add them with a few clicks with MCC.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, with all the media sources opened up, the only 'rpmbuild' packages I could find were these, which I installed yeaterday;

$ rpm -qa | grep rpmbuild

rpmbuildupdate-0.8.1-1mdv2008.0

java-rpmbuild-1.7.4-2.0.3mdv2008.1

I have not had a chance to try rpmbuild since installing these, so I don't know if I have the right packages or not.

New to the Mandriva way of doing things, I haven't figured out good search commands, yet. If you have a good command line 'urpmi' search command, I'm all ears, so to speak. Else, I'll muddle around and find a good one and post back the results.

Or, perhaps, these packages are really what I need. As I said, I'm not a virgin with Linux, just with Mandriva.

 

To reply to the post previous to this, I guess it's just my German stubbornness that makes me keep installing VMware Workstation 5.(lotsa revisions, but still old, and less than 6) Dumb, really, to spend much time wrestling with it, as I rarely use it, in preference to VirtualBox. Really, dumb, but I still have a working installation of Win4LinPro which I've been able to force-feed into several upgrades of Fedora/Centos 5. Completely uncouth, and brutal, but I just copy the installation from my previous system, and poke and prod, copy and modify, till I get it to work with a full-blown installation of WinXP Home Edition. I only use it for the annual tax prep self mutilation because I can't yet get either TurboTax or TaxCut to work on Wine. Yet..

I refuse to spend the money to upgrade to VMware Workstation 6. My wife says I have a pocket full of buffalo poop, cause I squeeze my nickels so tight. What she means by that, I'm not really sure.

 

Anyway, thanks for the responses, all.

 

owa :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The package you're looking for in the official repos is rpm-build .

 

Why are you looking for it, though, out of curiosity? Are you interesting in creating your own packages?

 

Edit: I think you would benefit a lot from reading this:

 

http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Basic_tas...moving_software

 

It tells you a lot about the Mandriva package repositories and package management tools. I think you will understand a lot better how to do package management tasks on Mandriva after reading it. :)

Edited by adamw
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found the package I was looking for this morning, but thanks anyway. And I tested it and it works just dandy.

Occasionally, I have build custom packages, though not so much in recent months. And, occasionally I will build a custom kernel from vanilla source. So, even though I don't get into that so much any more, I wanted to have it installed just in case I ever wanted to. The desire to get into rpm-building stemmed from the over-exuberance of Fedora releasing things that weren't really ready to release, even considering that this is part of the plan. It left users finding creative ways to fix things that suddenly stopped working after an update. (note that I said update, not upgrade.) And, I had to build my own kernels in the early days of Win4Lin. The latest, and last, I guess, version builds its own kqemu module with every new kernel on first boot, thus eliminating the need for users to build their own every few months.

 

Thanks for the link. I'm learning as I go. And, I must say that I continue to be very favorably impressed.

 

owa

 

p.s. I really did know what Becky meant about the nickels. Just my wierd humor.

 

owa

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest McGregor

Hi, Everyone! To tell the truth I'm a dummy. I've been having Linux for a couple of months. I've downloaded different distros searching for a suitable one. When I saw Mandriva2008.1 for the first time, it conquered me - I was really amazed! I'm still amazed! I think Mandriva is the best for dummies - it's so easy to use! Of course there're troubles, but that's normal.

Later on I'm planning to install one more Linux distro ( instead of my WindowsXP ) - perhaps Fedora or Ubuntu for "Unix experiments", and Mandriva will be used as "a resort center".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

perhaps Fedora or Ubuntu for "Unix experiments", and Mandriva will be used as "a resort center".

Fedora is just bleeding too much- even for experienced Linux users. Ubuntu is fine for noobs, but (IMHO) has nothing to offer on top of Mandriva. Actually it used to be very promising some one and a half year ago, but they have gone a long way towards the "dumb" lane.

If you want to test a bleeding edge distro (like Fedora) but without having to fix many broken things all the time, give Debian Sid (Sidux), ArchLinux or Frugalware a spin. All of them are more stable than Fedora.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fedora is just bleeding too much- even for experienced Linux users.

Perhaps, because Red Hat was my first exposure to Linux, and I just got used to it, but regardless, I kept returning to Red Hat, then Fedora, after each experiment with any of the Debian based distributions. But, as I said, Fedora really got to be annoying. I have been using CentOS 5 for almost 2 years, now, and I really like the stability and functionality. But, it is in a very long release cycle because of its nature, and did seem to be a bit old. Nothing wrong with old. I'm old. I just wanted to look around for something which might fall somewhere between a 53 chevy and a souped up hot rod.

I rediscovered Mandriva, and I really like what I've seen so far. I'll drive this for a while and see if it might be something I can stay with.

 

owa

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...