VectorLinux 7.0 CORE ALPHA 2

[toothandnail]

  Having seen the announcement on Distrowatch, I found and downloaded the new iso. Burned, and installed. This time, no problems during the install. All went as it should.

I had a problem during the first boot. I hijacked an existing Grub entry and modified it to suit the new kernel etc. I left in the 'vga=870' that I normally do, which sets the framebuffer to 12800x800. With that in place, the system would get to the point where newer kernels autoload the framebuffer, then locked up. Removing the 'vga=' fixed that and I was able to successfully boot.

I then hit another problem, which may have been my own fault - I couldn't log in as the user I'd created during the install. Maybe I didn't enter a password, though I thought I did. Anyhow, I logged in as root and used Vasm to reset the user password and was then able to log in as a normal user. I'm wondering a bit, if only because of the next problem, if there is something strange in the character set.

Final problem - I fired up wicd to log into the network. Selected the correct SSID, entered the WPA passphrase and tried to log in. No go - after a bit of activity, I got a 'bad password' error. So I went and checked that the pass phrase was correct. I checked it multiple times, tried both upper and lower case for the alphabetic parts of the pass phrase. And every time I attempted to connect, I got the 'bad password' error. I have checked and rechecked, and I'm absolutely convinced that I have it correctly entered. But it doesn't work

I'm at a loss on this one. I'm currently entering this from VL6.0, using the same wireless SSID, and the same pass phrase. Which works fine in VL6.0, but for unknown reasons, doesn't work under VL7.0 alpha 1.

I'll try again later with a wired connection, but there is something distinctly strange about the response to the pass phrase under VL7.0.

Paul.

[vector]

Well looks like distrowatch and ToothandNail stole my thunder but I'll introduce VectorLinux-CORE-7-alpha 2 just the same. Many changes since alpha 1:
added openjpeg, swig and slim
updated guile, librsvg, lcms, poppler and poppler-data
Biggest news is a brand new shiny kernel that about half the size that we used in the Vector 6 series. This is 2.6.33.4 with tuxonice and bootsplash patches. This release also updated libdrm and the intel video driver to the latest version available for better across the board intel video support. Again this just has xfce4 and fluxbox as the window managers and it defaults to using xfce4 from the slim login manager. Hopefully everyone will give this a try and let us developers know what you find in the way of bugs. We have already discovered a strange one that may be kernel related. Seems the installer is not passing the correct password information to the install. So during the install skip making a user and add after installation with vasm and even tho you may have done a root password it most likely will be empty after install so you will have to update that too. Now go download and let us know what you think!

http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/veclinux-7.0/iso-test/VL7.0-CORE-ALPHA-2.iso

Cheers!
Vec

[stretchedthin]

I can confirm all of toothandnail's observations...

I also had trouble at first boot.  For me when presented with the blank screen I took a guess the vxconf was running but I just couldn't see it. So I hit the enter key for times as I normally would at this stage in the set-up and once vxconf finished I had a picture again. Nice log-in screen by the way.

Just as toothandnail described my user password given during the set-up was useless.  I had to change the password with vasm to get that going.

wicd was also a no go for me for wireless (bad password).  I did some comparing with the set-up in vl6.0 and saw that there is a directory /var/run/wpa_supplicant that is not in VL7.0.  Not sure if that has anything to do with it.

I do have a couple notes of my own however,
1. Text in terminal is not being rendered well. Letters appear with chunks missing.
2. Type su in the terminal and presto your root. No need to type a password just 'su' and your there.
3. Ctrl Alt Backspace borks the system. Either the screen never comes back or it is frozen. Changing runlevels with init 3 has a similar result.
4. Mousepad can only use the find function once.  In order to find something else you need to close Mousepad and then open it again then type into the find dialog the new word.
5, Pressing Ctrl+Alt+f4/5/etc does nothing but make the curser disappear.  Does not appear to change runlevel.

That's it for now.
Ken

[toothandnail]

Well looks like distrowatch and ToothandNail stole my thunder but I'll introduce VectorLinux-CORE-7-alpha 2 just the same. Many changes since alpha 1:

Sorry about that. I was at home and had some time to spare when I saw the Distrowatch announcment. Couldn't resist....

added openjpeg, swig and slim
updated guile, librsvg, lcms, poppler and poppler-data
Biggest news is a brand new shiny kernel that about half the size that we used in the Vector 6 series. This is 2.6.33.4 with tuxonice and bootsplash patches. This release also updated libdrm and the intel video driver to the latest version available for better across the board intel video support. Again this just has xfce4 and fluxbox as the window managers and it defaults to using xfce4 from the slim login manager. Hopefully everyone will give this a try and let us developers know what you find in the way of bugs. We have already discovered a strange one that may be kernel related. Seems the installer is not passing the correct password information to the install. So during the install skip making a user and add after installation with vasm and even tho you may have done a root password it most likely will be empty after install so you will have to update that too. Now go download and let us know what you think!

Right. I've now replaced both wcid and wpa_suplicant with your alternative versions. The wpa_suplicant has done the trick - I'm entering this from the alpha, with a wireless (WPA encrypted) connection. Thanks!

Other quick observations - I've got two 'home' icons on the desktop, but only one works - the other just opens the .desktop file. Same is happening with other items - the link to the forum is simply opening the .desktop file as well.

Unlike stretchedthin, I'm able to get to any of the virtual consoles without problems. Having set the root password again, I'm now getting a proper password prompt when using 'su' from terminal.

So far, for an early alpha, it looks pretty good. I will undoubtably find other problems, but the initial impression is good. Nice to have an up-to-date Xfce - I was never able to get the newer version to work with my hardware under 6.0.

I guess I should go and see if I can build some of my favourite packages. Especially some of the growing number that will no longer build under VL 6.0.

And see about getting some language packs working, given that Firefox didn't notice my interesting spelling of 'growing'...

On that subject, is there any news on the updated sbbuilder?

Paul.

[stretchedthin]

 -Found the wpa_supplicant .txz that toothandnail spoke of and it did the trick for me as well.

 -Setting the root password through vasm also fixed the su terminal problem here.

 -I'm still having trouble with the virtual consules, but I'm going to try installing on a second machine today and   see if that problem is specific to this machine.

 -Tried making a boot usb with unetbootin, but while the installer starts fine it says it can not find install media. Seems like this installer is not looking anywhere but the cd drive for install info.

 -The following needs to be renamed for vl70.../var/log/packages/vlconfig2-6.0-noarch-6vl60, makes for some poorly named packages for anyone using sbbuilder.

 

[toothandnail]

-Found the wpa_supplicant .txz that toothandnail spoke of and it did the trick for me as well.

Strange problem that one. I'm glad to see the back of it....

-I'm still having trouble with the virtual consules, but I'm going to try installing on a second machine today and   see if that problem is specific to this machine.

Is the problem machine have Intel graphics? So far, the new drivers look pretty good on this one, though the problem with using 'vga=' in menu.lst is a bit odd.

-The following needs to be renamed for vl70.../var/log/packages/vlconfig2-6.0-noarch-6vl60, makes for some poorly named packages for anyone using sbbuilder.

I hacked the copy of /var/log/packages/vlconfig to fix that problem. Haven't got sbbuilder to run yet though - it missing all sorts of things, haven't had time to track down what extras are needed. At the moment, I'm using hand-rolled SlackBuilds, so the packages may not be fit for general consumption. What did you need to do to get sbbuilder running?

Paul.


 



[/quote]

[stretchedthin]

Is the problem machine have Intel graphics? So far, the new drivers look pretty good on this one, though the problem with using 'vga=' in menu.lst is a bit odd.

Yes it does.  I have not tried making the change to menu.1st, since I set up with lilo.  What would be the thing to look for and change there?

I hacked the copy of /var/log/packages/vlconfig to fix that problem. Haven't got sbbuilder to run yet though - it missing all sorts of things, haven't had time to track down what extras are needed. At the moment, I'm using hand-rolled SlackBuilds, so the packages may not be fit for general consumption. What did you need to do to get sbbuilder running?

I've hacked mine as well, just though I'd mention it.  As far as sbbuilder I did a bit of a cheat.  On my VL6.0 machine I ran a generic type=normal, type=python, type=cmake, etc and then copied over the resulting Slackbuilds to a directory "generic Slackbuilds" on the VL7.0 machine.  Then when I download a souce file I want to work on I just create the name, version# ,src directories when selecting the download location. After I've got the source I just copy over an appropiate generic slackbuild from the directory, edit the name, program name and version.  Works fairly well.

ps. In each generic slackbuild file I edited each occurence of .tlz to txz.

[toothandnail]

Is the problem machine have Intel graphics? So far, the new drivers look pretty good on this one, though the problem with using 'vga=' in menu.lst is a bit odd.

Yes it does.  I have not tried making the change to menu.1st, since I set up with lilo.  What would be the thing to look for and change there?

Its a long time since I last looked at Lilo, but I think it should be an append, still in the form 'vga='. Slackware always used to recommend 'vga=791', which would give 1024x768.

I hacked the copy of /var/log/packages/vlconfig to fix that problem. Haven't got sbbuilder to run yet though - it missing all sorts of things, haven't had time to track down what extras are needed. At the moment, I'm using hand-rolled SlackBuilds, so the packages may not be fit for general consumption. What did you need to do to get sbbuilder running?

I've hacked mine as well, just though I'd mention it.  As far as sbbuilder I did a bit of a cheat.  On my VL6.0 machine I ran a generic type=normal, type=python, type=cmake, etc and then copied over the resulting Slackbuilds to a directory "generic Slackbuilds" on the VL7.0 machine.  Then when I download a souce file I want to work on I just create the name, version# ,src directories when selecting the download location. After I've got the source I just copy over an appropiate generic slackbuild from the directory, edit the name, program name and version.  Works fairly well.

Thanks - a good idea. So far, I've been using mainly recycled SlackBuilds, getting some of my 'must have' software up. But there are a few things I'm going to need to go back to basics with, so that sounds like the way to get things working.

Maybe we should make a bit of space for new packages, save reinventing the wheel.

ps. In each generic slackbuild file I edited each occurence of .tlz to txz.

Same here.

This development is becoming more and more urgent. Tonight alone I have hit two packages that will no longer build under VL6.0, one of them an important one. Looks like there will be no more Seamonkey builds for VL6.0, at least unless I can work out a repackaging of the prebuilt executables. Seamonkey now needs glibc 2.10 or greater - VL6.0 is stuck at 2.7. That makes something like 10 packages that I use a lot which can no longer be updated under 6.0.

Paul.

[stretchedthin]

I had built Gimp 2.7.1 on the previous alpha. I installed all the txz's for Gimp and it's dependencies except for poppler which this version now includes, onto this version (alpha 2).

I now get a error while Gimp is starting, (however it still starts)...
/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/file-pdf: error while loading shared libraries: libpoppler-glib.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

(gimp-2.7:1088): LibGimpBase-WARNING **: gimp-2.7: gimp_wire_read(): error

When I install poppler-0.14.0, which I had also built on the previous version the error goes away.

[vector]

Well that kernel had problems lets try this one went smooth for me no problems with passwords etc.
http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/veclinux-7.0/iso-test/VL7.0-CORE-ALPHA-2.1.iso
and the delta:
http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/veclinux-7.0/iso-test/VL7.0-CORE-ALPHA-2.isotoVL7.0-CORE-ALPHA-2.1.iso.delta
Thought I would catch you early before you fell in love................lol

Cheers,
Vec

[toothandnail]

Well that kernel had problems lets try this one went smooth for me no problems with passwords etc.
http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/veclinux-7.0/iso-test/VL7.0-CORE-ALPHA-2.1.iso
and the delta:
http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/veclinux-7.0/iso-test/VL7.0-CORE-ALPHA-2.isotoVL7.0-CORE-ALPHA-2.1.iso.delta
Thought I would catch you early before you fell in love................lol

  This is revenge, isn't it?

Install was fine. I've not yet tired reinstating my 'vga=' into menu.lst, but boot is fine and the system seems to be running as it should. No trouble getting the WPA passphrase accepted this time round.

A couple of minor issues with Vasm:

Super > Filesystem menu > Mount  - the text says 'Mount partitions on boot time'  I guess that should be 'at boot time'?

Super > Services > Srvset - there are some strange errors - README is a appearing as a service, as is functions. There doesn't seem to be a service for wcid either.

Is there any place to put preliminary packages for VL7.0? I've got several built (including Seamonkey 2.0.6, which I can't build under VL 6.0 anymore).

Paul

[stretchedthin]

Installed alpha 2.1, but on a different machine this time.  This one with ati graphics.  This kernel seems to behave as it should during the install and there is no problem with user or root settings and passwords.

I did encounter one glitch and that was when I had a usb wireless keyboard connected during the install the keyboard was no longer detected or just did not respond at the resolution selection screen before the graphical installer is launched.  This was fixed simply by switching to a ps2 keyboard.

Also I did have a package fail to build because cmake was to old 2.6.2.  I check for the latest cmake and it is now 2.8.2

Toothandnail how much can we put in our vectorcontib folder?  Perhaps we could share packages there.  I would like to get my hands on your seamonkey build.  I need seamonkey to complete my build of Miro.

[toothandnail]

Toothandnail how much can we put in our vectorcontib folder?  Perhaps we could share packages there.  I would like to get my hands on your seamonkey build.  I need seamonkey to complete my build of Miro.

Space in the contribs area is limited. I don't know what the limit is, but there is already quite a lot of data in there - just had a look, du is giving me a figure of 5.9 GB. So I think it would be doubtful that there is much capacity free there.

Maybe Robert can comment - could we create a 'testing' tree in the vectorlinux-7.0 area? I can move files from the contribs area to that area as new packages are produced. That would also provide a few new packages for iso inclusion.

Paul.

[retired1af]

How much space do we need? I have a dedicated server that I can set up an FTP account for us to use to store files.

[toothandnail]

How much space do we need? I have a dedicated server that I can set up an FTP account for us to use to store files.

Short term at least, probably not a great deal. Maybe 6 - 8 GB? That might be a viable alternative if there is some reason not to build a testing tree in the same area as the test isos. I don't know what course Robert will want to follow.

Sounds like a good offer. Thanks.

I used to put some files up on my own personal web space, but since changing ISPs, I no longer have any personal web space. Once I get the hosting reselling set up, that will probably change, but at present I've not got anywhere I can put files.

Paul.