VectorLinux Core 7 Alpha4 is up and ready to test

[stretchedthin]

I just ended up installing a later alpha version(Alpha 4.6), which fixed the problem. Thanks a bunch nonetheless.

Speaking of which, I was finally able to install VL7 from CD-RW.
Still 2 cairo docks, though.
Also no luck with wireless.

Does anyone have wireless working in VL7?

Yes it was nice to see the .Xmodmap thing finally put to bed with alpha 4.6.
If you watch the cairo dock thing carefully, at first boot there really is only one cairo doc. It's only with each subsequent boot that you start accumulating  cairo dock's.  If you exit the cairo-docs until there is only one and turn off "Automatically save session on logout", and also uncheck cairo-dock from "Application Autostart" the problem stops.  I'm guessing cairo-doc get's captured as a saved setting and the autostart creates it's duplicate.  If you close with two cairo-docs running the next boot makes a third then forth.
I've had good luck with wireless so far.  I use zd1211rw wireless in two machines.  A Broadcom bcm4318 in the other.  All work fine.

[budulay]

Hm, I think I had 2 docks to start with, but now that you mention it I am not really sure anymore. I close one but the next boot I have 2 again. I'll try your fix the next time I reboot.
EDIT: 2 reboots later - problem solved. Thanks a bunch to stretchedthin.

Another thing, the kernel sources are gone this time, which prevents me from installing NVidia drivers. Downloading source right now
EDIT: Well that sure wasn't fun - now it says that it's missing kernel headers and it's most probably because the source isn't configured... I think I need to do a menuconfig or something on it... But first I need to learn what kernel headers are and how to cook them

Another thing I remembered, during installation space invaders and freecel wouldn't start. Maybe it has something to do with me using a CD-RW(for some mysterious reason previous alphas hated the poor fella).

As for wireless, stretchedthin, could you please explain how you went about setting it up? I am lost since ifplugd is missing. Does VL7 use a different way of getting interfaces working?(I hardly have a clue of what I am talking about here. I am going off this tutorial, which helped me get wireless going in VL6).

[stretchedthin]

Sound Problem with all flavors including latest 4.1.

If I have my USB webcam plugged-in on booting I have no sound.
Sound card cannot be found.

Booting with webcam not plugged I have sound after adjusting sound
levels in alsamixer and enabling controls in xfce4-mixer.

Giving command 'alsactl store' does store the settings, however, on reboot
apparently 'alsactl restore' is not executed and has to be done from the
console after which there is sound.

Whatever is done with sound above alsaconf refuses to detect the sound card.

I have a fix for what ails you...
Choosing your default sound card with asoundrc

This might interest the developers as well, I can easily see a vasmCC application that takes this a step further and allows the user to preselect what should always be choosen as default.  Also .asoundrc settings can be used much more powerfully than what I've shown here.

[stretchedthin]

As for wireless, stretchedthin, could you please explain how you went about setting it up? I am lost since ifplugd is missing. Does VL7 use a different way of getting interfaces working?(I hardly have a clue of what I am talking about here. I am going off this tutorial, which helped me get wireless going in VL6).

I've got it easy.  Both my wireless cards are detected automatically. So I can just use wicd to make the connection.
When you iwconfig as root in the terminal, do you see a wlan0 section in the output? 

[uelsk8s]

Another thing, the kernel sources are gone this time, which prevents me from installing NVidia drivers. Downloading source right now
EDIT: Well that sure wasn't fun - now it says that it's missing kernel headers and it's most probably because the source isn't configured... I think I need to do a menuconfig or something on it... But first I need to learn what kernel headers are and how to cook them

Another thing I remembered, during installation space invaders and freecel wouldn't start. Maybe it has something to do with me using a CD-RW(for some mysterious reason previous alphas hated the poor fella).

As for wireless, stretchedthin, could you please explain how you went about setting it up? I am lost since ifplugd is missing. Does VL7 use a different way of getting interfaces working?(I hardly have a clue of what I am talking about here. I am going off this tutorial, which helped me get wireless going in VL6).

kernel-stripped=src package is on the ISO it is not installing for some reason.
open the cdrom and you should be able to install the pkg from there.

there is a problem with the fonts that freecell and space invaders uses on the initrd, I will get to that as soon as I can.

wireless should be handled by wicd now.

[nightflier]

there is a problem with the fonts that freecell and space invaders uses on the initrd, I will get to that as soon as I can.

Uelsk8s, good to see ya! 

[budulay]

When you iwconfig as root in the terminal, do you see a wlan0 section in the output?

yes, but that's about the only good news..

here's some info:

root:# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     Ralink STA  ESSID:""  Nickname:""
          Mode:Auto  Frequency=2.412 GHz 
          Link Quality=10/100  Signal level:0 dBm  Noise level:-143 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

pan0      no wireless extensions.



root:# ifconfig wlan0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not permitted

root:# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:21:85:51:8f:b9 
          inet addr:169.254.172.158  Bcast:169.254.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:41 Base address:0xe000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback 
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

root:# lsmod | grep rt
rt2800pci               7205  0
rt2800lib              26144  1 rt2800pci
rt2x00pci               4263  1 rt2800pci
rt2x00lib              24981  3 rt2800pci,rt2800lib,rt2x00pci
mac80211              177859  3 rt2800lib,rt2x00pci,rt2x00lib
cfg80211              122308  2 rt2x00lib,mac80211
rtc_cmos                7966  0
rtc_core               11902  1 rtc_cmos
eeprom_93cx6            1036  1 rt2800pci
rt2860sta             496438  0
rtc_lib                 1534  1 rtc_core
led_class               1851  2 rt2x00lib,sdhci
crc_ccitt               1087  2 rt2800lib,rt2860sta

root:# lspci | grep RT
03:00.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2860 Wireless 802.11n PCIe

lspci -k|grep -i network --after-context 3
03:00.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2860
 Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Device e002
 Kernel driver in use: rt2860
 Kernel modules: rt2800pci, rt2860sta

The module that got it working in VL6 is rt2860sta(which was a in the staging tree at the time). That same module is also loaded in VL7. In addition to that module rt2800pci is loaded which is said to be causing trouble for some hardware. Therefore as indicated here, disabling that module could help, which is exactly what I did, but with no result. Then I disabled rt2860sta, leaving only rt2800pci, but still nothing. So basically both, or separately it's a no go either way.
When I say no result I mean I can't get past this:

Code:

ifconfig wlan0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not permitted

It seems to me that this isn't a problem with a module(since it worked before and I verified that it doesn't get interference form other modules).

Also I am guessing that ifplug.d isn't necessary after all..

kernel-stripped=src package is on the ISO it is not installing for some reason.
open the cdrom and you should be able to install the pkg from there.

Is it possible that some other packages are not installing too, or is it just the src?

[stretchedthin]

When you iwconfig as root in the terminal, do you see a wlan0 section in the output?
yes, but that's about the only good news..

@budulay  Can you see your essid, when you click on the wicd icon in the panel and if you can what happens when you try to connect?  Do you see anybody elses essid's from the wicd window?

[budulay]

Wicd says that it can't detect any wireless networks.

I don't quite understand what it means for iwconfig to see the interface but for ifconfig not to. I think it's something along the lines that it's there but when I try to turn it on, it breaks.

[vector]

Wicd says that it can't detect any wireless networks.

I don't quite understand what it means for iwconfig to see the interface but for ifconfig not to. I think it's something along the lines that it's there but when I try to turn it on, it breaks.

I think you are missing a piece of firmware needed for that ralink chip. I repackaged our firmware pkg that now includes firmware for ra2860 so hopefully that will get it going. get the packages here and just install on top of the one that came with the last release:
http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/vec7/firmware-1.1-noarch-3vl70.txz
hope that helps.
Cheers,
Vec

[Pita]

I have the usual printing problem with VL7. I just can't get it to detect my printer
which is a Brother DPC-385C. In cups it does not show under local printers.

This problem was as well with VL6 which I finally "solved" by installing VL-Light
over VL6 since VL-Light does detect my printers. The same holds true for VL6SOHO.

I am now in a jam since I cannot use my office suite applix ware. It does not
open in VL6SOHO where I can print, however, it does open in VL7 where I can't print.

My old VL6-STD is on a HD which is deffective and opening it it freezes the system
after a few minutes.

Would much appreciate guidance on how to get my printers working in VL7.

[Pita]

I have the usual printing problem with VL7. I just can't get it to detect my printer
which is a Brother DPC-385C. In cups it does not show under local printers.

This problem was as well with VL6 which I finally "solved" by installing VL-Light
over VL6 since VL-Light does detect my printers. The same holds true for VL6SOHO.

I am now in a jam since I cannot use my office suite applix ware. It does not
open in VL6SOHO where I can print, however, it does open in VL7 where I can't print.

My old VL6-STD is on a HD which is deffective and opening it it freezes the system
after a few minutes.

Would much appreciate guidance on how to get my printers working in VL7.

Just to double check. I am now in Live CD VL-Light. Trying to add a printer with cups
it shows my Brother as well as my Epson printer to add amoung others whereas
in VL7* it only shows one SCI (??) and 2 HP printers of which one is a fax as local printers.

To me that means something is amiss in VL6-STD and VL7* for detecting printers
on my PC desktop.

[budulay]

Wicd says that it can't detect any wireless networks.

I don't quite understand what it means for iwconfig to see the interface but for ifconfig not to. I think it's something along the lines that it's there but when I try to turn it on, it breaks.

I think you are missing a piece of firmware needed for that ralink chip. I repackaged our firmware pkg that now includes firmware for ra2860 so hopefully that will get it going. get the packages here and just install on top of the one that came with the last release:
http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/vec7/firmware-1.1-noarch-3vl70.txz
hope that helps.
Cheers,
Vec

Writing this from VL7 Alpha 4.6
Thanks a bunch Vec

[Pita]

I have the usual printing problem with VL7. I just can't get it to detect my printer
which is a Brother DPC-385C. In cups it does not show under local printers.

This problem was as well with VL6 which I finally "solved" by installing VL-Light
over VL6 since VL-Light does detect my printers. The same holds true for VL6SOHO.

I am now in a jam since I cannot use my office suite applix ware. It does not
open in VL6SOHO where I can print, however, it does open in VL7 where I can't print.

My old VL6-STD is on a HD which is deffective and opening it it freezes the system
after a few minutes.

Would much appreciate guidance on how to get my printers working in VL7.

Just to double check. I am now in Live CD VL-Light. Trying to add a printer with cups
it shows my Brother as well as my Epson printer to add amoung others whereas
in VL7* it only shows one SCI (??) and 2 HP printers of which one is a fax as local printers.

To me that means something is amiss in VL6-STD and VL7* for detecting printers
on my PC desktop.

Now, in my since long time unaddressed frustration that I cannot print with either VL6-STD and now VL7 and
VL6SOHO does not open my office suite applixware I had again to resort to force majeure as in VL6.
I installed VL6LIGHT on top of VL7*.4.6  and yes, yes my printers started to roar away.

Hallo nightflyer, the creator of the wonderful VL6Light would you know what is is that in VL6LIGHT my printers are
showing and what part I have possibly to copy over to VL7 instead of over-installing all to make that beast print.

[budulay]

It seems that gconf is missing in Alpha 4.6:

Code:

firefox: Depends: gconf >= 2.31.1-i586-1vl60

Paul says that it's there on Alpha 4.1:
http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=12695.msg79680#msg79680