VL 7.0 Light Beta 1 feedback and bug reports.

[nightflier]

We appreciate your comments. Thank you for being a part of this creative process.

[scififry]

Now this was a nice surprise at Christmas eve 

First tried to install on my Duron 697MHz 384MB RAM, the classical way from a CD. Keyboard selection at the beginning of the installation works fine.
But when the "Searching for Vector Linux install media" screen comes up, the installer seems to crash on that box. Then I tried to boot the CD from the second drive, a CD writer, but the same thing happened.

Because that computer didn't work, I tried another one. My oldy Pentium 2  350MHz with 320MB of RAM. The installer worked instantly. The recommendation for computers as slow as this one was to choose Minimal, but I wanted IceWM and this fancy automatic stuff so I chose Medium; the installation took about an hour.
After the installation had finished, the installer came up with the usual configuration dialogues, such as Linux TUI keyboard and LiLO. These steps worked without any problems; I installed LiLO onto a floppy to not change my existing VL 6.0 Light setup.
But then it didn't work to configure all the other things such as the root password, users, hostname, alsa and all the X configuration. It said "Hmm let's see what happens after reboot"; so I rebooted. It booted into TUI mode, so I logged in as root (without any pw) and set everything I couldn't set up within the installer up in vasm. I set up X with the Auto option to run without an Xorg.conf.

I logged in as the user I created in TUI mode and did a startx. X  started, but I only had 1024x768 (I usually have 1280x1024) and my monitor's beam thickness adjustation didn't work. The keyboard under X was the right one, accordingly to the TUI one.
Then I used the classical VXconf to set X up. The VXconf video drivers work very fine, but the keyboard layout setup doesn't work anymore.

Overall this Beta release is very good and very fast (even faster than Light 6.0) and the selection of apps is really good. Thanks!

[roarde]

Same problems with installer, though I was not so tenacious as to continue through a reboot.

Similar problems with anything after STD RC 3.4. Change is probably somewhere in initrd, haven't had a chance to chase it down yet.

If anyone gets a clean, easy install on real hardware using a CD, please post machine's spec here. Mine are in the signature.

[Pita]

where is it?

I think somebody should do some housekeeping and cleanup
...>Distro development

[retired1af]

where is it?

I think somebody should do some housekeeping and cleanup
...>Distro development

In the Distro Announcements where they always reside. >.<

http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=15565.0

[amo_en.ch]

Congrats for a very nice looking distro.

Long post but I'll give you all the details.

My specs:

Processor   : 2x AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+
Memory      : 3366MB (168MB used)
VGA compatible controller   : nVidia Corporation G86 [GeForce 8500 GT]
Resolution   : 1024x768 pixels
Bridge      : nVidia Corporation CK804 Ethernet Controller
USB Controller   : nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller
FireWire (IEEE 1394)      : VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306/7/8 [Fire II
Multimedia audio controller   : VIA Technologies Inc. ICE1712 [Envy24] PCI Multi-Channel I/O Controller

Installed 4 times, first two to see if it worked, 3 & 4 to create this post.

Install 1 & 3: tried to change X keyboard and received msg

Cannot find X11 keymap list

No way back and installer reported config finished Hmmmmm!! so I aborted install.

Present install:

Chose IceWM Light.
LILO in MBR, FB 1024x768x64k, no problems.
NIC was NOT detected (first time this has happened to me)
Sound OK.
Used VXCONF with 24bit True color, 1024x768, no problems.
Selected init 4 with default services, no problems.

Final xconfig after reboot offered a VERY limited set of choices for keyboard,
was forced to choose US and edit xorg.conf afterwards.

No problems with login for root and 1 user.

For all my NIC is not detected, it is working without configuration with DHCP and module forcedeth?

Will play with distro today and post again if more problems crop up but for the moment things are looking good  :-)

[Lyn]

Same problems with installer, though I was not so tenacious as to continue through a reboot.

Similar problems with anything after STD RC 3.4. Change is probably somewhere in initrd, haven't had a chance to chase it down yet.

If anyone gets a clean, easy install on real hardware using a CD, please post machine's spec here. Mine are in the signature.

Will install on my pentium 3 machine with the I810 onboard video with shared memory... that should be fun.

[Lyn]

OK first my specs
Compaq Deskpro computer
Pentium III processor running at 933 MHz
320 MB  of 100MHz ram
Intergrated i810 graphics with shared memory

The install went ok no issues there, other than keyboard, when I selected a UK layout and tried it it still showed USA key set up, but when in the desktop the keyboard showed UK settings.

Installed a few things, like xscreensaver, that was interesting, clearly the system chokes on the more graphic intensive screensavers, a few freezes and one lock up there.

Otherwise very nice.  I went for the IceWM set up with the mods.  No issues there at all.  I have to say though a little more work needs to be done with the look and feel of JWM - reviewers get very het up over such things, would be nice to have a common look and feel for the window managers (if possible). 

Interesting choice of Sylpheed rather than Claws... I have used both - prefer Claws Mail, any reason for the choice?  of course anything you want is just a few clicks away via gslapt.

[nightflier]

I appreciate the feedback. 

With dependencies, claws-mail is three times the size of sylpheed. Not a dealbreaker if there is a revolt over it though.

I went for max performance with JWM. Which means no bells or whistles (icons, wallpaper, quick launchers). Personally I find it to be a useful option.

Screensavers are banned from all my systems. One day I was doing a few things when the CPU fan started spinning up. I investigated and sure enough, something was sucking down the cycles. Found it was a virtual machine where a screensaver had kicked in. Those things are energy wasters.

[Herpy]

A made a quick vid taking a sneek peek into it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG-fQvf5Amk&feature=youtu.be

[Lyn]

I appreciate the feedback. 

With dependencies, claws-mail is three times the size of sylpheed. Not a dealbreaker if there is a revolt over it though.

I suspected as much, that is fine, sylpheed is a good choice.

I went for max performance with JWM. Which means no bells or whistles (icons, wallpaper, quick launchers). Personally I find it to be a useful option.

Makes perfect sense.  Maybe in the release notes we should make this clear - otherwise there will be complaints.  Selling it as a minimalist option is a good idea.

Screensavers are banned from all my systems. One day I was doing a few things when the CPU fan started spinning up. I investigated and sure enough, something was sucking down the cycles. Found it was a virtual machine where a screensaver had kicked in. Those things are energy wasters.

Agreed but its a good way of checking the performance of my graphics card...

Incidentally one of the areas that is a bit lacking is any office aps, could we look at including something like Ted?  Its is a text processor, giving a number of options including saving as RTF, so more capabilites than leafpad but less than Abiword.  Likewise maybe a small spreadsheet ap?

[nightflier]

Since we're not going for a small ISO size, it would make sense to include Abiword and Gnumeric in the "medium" and "full" install options. Ted would be more appropriate for the "light" option. Anyone have suggestion for lightweight spreadsheet?

[hata_ph]

Installed B1 and it work...but when installation time do notice a lot of modprobe error but it happen very fast...

[Lyn]

Since we're not going for a small ISO size, it would make sense to include Abiword and Gnumeric in the "medium" and "full" install options. Ted would be more appropriate for the "light" option. Anyone have suggestion for lightweight spreadsheet?

We used one back in VL 4, don't remember what it was - alternatively we could use SIAG

[Pita]

Even so md5sum of burned CD showed correct sum installation failed.
This download was very,very slow and checking with installpkg .../*.txz
gave most files as corrupted.
Downloaded once more with faster Int. connection and installed with vinstall-iso-ng.
That run well up to the end of installing when it said "installing
VLconf". There it sat for a long time showing the red bar at 99 %. I then went out
to walk the dog and when i came back it asked the lilo bid. After that all went smooth.

Now:
xmms and LXMusic will notplay a music CD. I did not bother to fiddle around.

VLC played instantly.

Unusual for VL-LIGHT in configuring the printing this version did not find my
Epson printer with /usb://Unknown/

I added it with system-config-printer and Epson-LQ300-24pin is printing.

Being a fluxbox fan I will change to that soonest. I remember that used to be
the choice desktop for LIGHT. Why the change?