SOHO 5.8, 5.9 and 6 annoying differences Q&A

[imsohappy]

Hi all; I'm new to this 'community' stuff so if I've missed something please don't get all bitchy!

Firstly: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU For creating what is in my personal opinion the best version of linux out there. Finally; a Linux which installs properly, has a good sense of humour, has a proper root user, allows you to compile, comes with applications you can use out of the box, has a GREAT file manager (more on this later  ), etc, etc...

Sadly, after using Vector 5.8 extensively on my TARGA Traveller 8126WS (from LIDL no less - came with XP but of course I never used that on it!), and after having the best linux experience of my life, you guys decided to scrap everything I loved about 5.8 in 5.9! - The file manager changed, window manager.. everything. I installed 5.9 in eager anticipation and realised that the user experience had been completely taken away and, of course, I reinstalled 5.8.

The problem I have currently is that 5.8 is brilliant but on my new laptop (and this is a DELL inspiron 1525) the video mode is limited to 800x600 (not as bad as some!). This is to do with the kernel vga drivers (I cannot remember the exact details but I did track the problem back to source. It turned out to be too much hassle to fix - I am rather busy with work!). Anyways I installed 5.9 on my new laptop hoping for everything 5.8 gave me and more... It didn't happen. The video modes worked great and I think (I can't remember) I got the full support of resolutions, but that was the end of the good points. The whole experience for me personally had been taken away.

Now we move on to version 6. THANK YOU. You've once again done what I'd hoped for; a fantastic distribution which works better than all the competition...

.. There are however still some points preventing me from using it and spending money on your deluxe version. These are:

• The graphical installer; when partitioning the drive, the 'next' button doesn't enable (you have to quit or something)
• The desktop won't allow you to freely create files or directories (like a normal directory will) any more. Vector 5.8 did; I don't know about 5.9, but this is needed! You also cannot use the mouse to click and drag over the icons on the desktop to select them - again a big thing for me.
• One of the reasons I didn't use 5.9 was because the file manager had been ruined from 5.8. I use alot of protocols in the file manager at the 'address bar' like 'smb', 'ftp', 'sftp', etc. These NEED to work for me - I use them all the time. Konquerer in 5.8 does a brilliant job, but 5.9 and 6 have now lost this feature? WHY?!

These are little points but to actually solve them it will take a couple of days of my time; I simply can't afford this time at the moment.

If a solution exists and I've missed it - GREAT! - please tell me and I'll do it.

If not; please fix these problems or let me know what I need to do to ensure that future versions will
cater for me. I simply don't want to have to use any other distribution - I know them all backwards
and I wish I didn't!

Many thanks; and keep up the good work!

[GrannyGeek]

>> Konquerer in 5.8 does a brilliant job, but 5.9 and 6 have now lost this feature? WHY?! >>

If you were using Konqueror in 5.8, that means you were using 5.8 SOHO. SOHO is based on KDE. VL 5.9 and 6 are NOT based on KDE and neither was VL 5.8 Standard. In 5.8, 5.9 and 6 Standard, the default desktop is XFce. XFce's graphical file manager is Thunar, which is both different from and lighter than Konqueror.

The desktop icons in XFce do not work like they do in KDE.

I think all your "problems" may stem from the fact that you were using KDE in 5.8 SOHO and there is no KDE in VL6 (or 5.9). You can add KDE to VL6 Standard if you want. The files are in the repo. Someone who has actually installed KDE as their desktop environment for VL6 Standard should probably be the one to give you additional help with this if you need it. I happen to have a STRONG dislike for KDE as a desktop, but I do like some programs that run under KDE, such as Amarok and K3B. So I always install kdebase and kdelibs in Standard, which give me what I want from KDE without what is to me the whole mess.<g> But if you long for KDE, by all means install it with Gslapt.

There will be a VL6 SOHO, but it's in early development.
--GrannyGeek

[rbistolfi]

For running kde in 6.0 you need the kdelibs-3.5.10 and kdebase-3.5.10 packages, the rest of the packages are optional.

You can look at the whole list of kde packages here: http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/veclinux-6.0/extra/kde/
Use gslapt to install what you want though.

[imsohappy]

Great answers; thank you.

I must say I like the look of Thunar but it would appear that it's not finished yet so perhaps in the future when it's as fully featured as Konquerer, I can do the full switch.

I'm going to try and get KDE installed on my version 6 here and see what happens!

Thanks again.

[lagagnon]

I must say I like the look of Thunar but it would appear that it's not finished yet so perhaps in the future when it's as fully featured as Konquerer, I can do the full switch.

Thunar is finished. It was designed for the xfce desktop environment, a much lighterweight, less resource intensive DE than KDE is, so it will unlikely ever be as fully featured as Konqueror. You will note that running and loading KDE will take longer and use much more RAM than when using xfce. Horses for courses.

[Joe1962]

As others have implied, VectorLinux comes in 2 "flavours", Standard and SOHO (the latter comes with KDE built-in). The current succesor to your 5.8 SOHO (until 6.0 SOHO comes out) is 5.9.1 SOHO, which you can download here:
http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/veclinux-5.9/iso-release/VL5.9.1-SOHO.iso

[imsohappy]

I wanted to add to this thread because I wanted to share some feedback.

Firstly. Vector 6 rules (not the 64 bit!).

I got it all working; set up KDE and you were right about the file manager differences. All back to working a little like XP (which is the least
I would expect from any OS - I'm not a windows fan - hence using linux... it's complicated) and of course it is working alot better than
XP functionally because every file format just works and the hex editor RULES!

I'm a bit of a rare PC user because I actually need to have access to just about everything on my machine so the hex editor was a
real bonus, not to mentin in-build PDF support, in-build flash, in-build MP3, FLAC, etc, etc. It is my silver lining. Thanks guys.

Anyways... Thanks for the good replies and not taking it all too personally which can happen alot on these forums.

rbistolfi: Great advice and worked like a charm!

Got a Quad core now and wondering what to do! Oh, well...

[Murdock]

Cool. SOLVED
In only 26 weeks !