VL7.1 Light feedback and suggestions.

[nightflier]

Tell us about your experiences with Light. Please specify 32 or 64-bit, and whether you chose to install IceWM or not.

[overthere]

Installed the 32 bit VLL-7.1 to a toshiba satellite a-100

Very nice
simple install, easy connect, basic customizations are easy although unnessessary
here is a screen shot changing wallpaper, theme and adding an app to panel

https://www.dropbox.com/s/znxq1pm49khn8sc/VectorLight7.1.png?dl=0

also added a couple apps via gslapt after update, no problem

turn off tapping answered here, thanks roarde

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Turn synaptics tap-to-click off:

cp /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/

Add:
         Option "MaxTapTime" "0"

to the copy under /etc. Restart X -- I think just logout/login will do.
Or you can issue 'synclient MaxTapTime=0' and leave the automatic part for the next reboot.
Very nice so far

Thanks nightflier, and the rest of the crew..nice work

cheers

[StrayBit]

I've tried 3 times to burn a CD of the 32 bit image - first on Win7 laptop and twice on Dell VL7.1 system.  On the latter two, as it was computing the checksum after burning the image, it was counting up!  Twice, I tried booting the CD on the laptop but it never erased the HP logo.  Md5sum of the Dell iso matches that given in the announcement.  (I don't know how to generate it in Win7.)
Any suggestions?

[retired1af]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11533 

[nightflier]

If your computer will boot from a USB drive, you can use a Linux machine to write the ISO to a flash device:

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dd if=(name_of_iso_file) of=/dev/sdX.. where /dev/sdX points to your flash drive, as in /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc etc.. make sure you get that last letter right, it will erase everything on the drive, no warnings, no questions. You need to use the root account, use command "fdisk -l" to identify the drive.

[StrayBit]

Thanks retired1af.

Unfortunately, I do not want to install Linux to the destination PC, yet.  I need to be able to boot it to transfer several files and a lot of pictures.  Then I'll instal 7.1. 

The destination currently has XP that will not boot.  It only has USB slots, wireless and Ethernet.

[wigums]

grab a live distro, install it to usb stick, boot it, mount your windows partitions and transfer away. for live distros i prefer kali or slax but there are many others. this will allow you to get your files off the xp machine so you can go ahead and install VL 7.1 afterwards

[StrayBit]

Thanks, Wigums.  Slax worked.  Real easy to install.  It took me a while to get used to kde.  I couldn't get it to connect to my other PCs but was able to use the thumb drive to make the transfers.

[roarde]

I've posted an upgraded package for xdgmenumaker (it creates the applications portion of the menu in a default Light install with IceWM). The new version 0.6 adds some new window managers to the output format, and a manpage that gives options for those, and some others -- like JWM -- that were there before, but weren't documented.

So far, it's been tested only on my own 32-bit stock Light/IceWM install. More testing would be appreciated so we can be sure whether to move it to the main repos. It's currently in untested.

Tests on 64-bit are needed. Im not familiar enough with JWM to evaluate it there, so that input would be nice, too.

Thank you.

[Rytz]

Tried installing VL Light 7.1 x64 to my Acer Aspire E5-771-74E7 (laptop).  Installation goes fine but when I get to the login splash, the system freezes. Sometimes I see the vector splash image, other times I see a completely grey screen.  Both situations I get a mouse cursor and then freezing.

Questions:
[1] Why is the installation forced to use ext3?
[2] The release announcement for light says "You may also choose barebone X-windows with just TWM".  How do I do this?  The installation provides a single checkbox for IceWM, but does not mention what "unchecked" installs.

I tried installing with IceWM checked and unchecked.  I see the same splash sometimes in both scenarios.  What are the options for window managers with light?

Just tried Standard and I have the same problem.  Freeze on login splash or grey screen instead of splash with freeze.

If it makes a difference, I'm booting with Grub2 from a separate partition with:
linux /boot/vmlinuz
initrd /boot/initrd.gz

[nightflier]

EXT3 was chosen for the automatic install as it is considered a safe and conservative choice.

Unchecking "IceWM with VL modifications and customizations" blocks the installation of icewm and the supporting programs which create the "Light" environment, as well as most productivity applications. It will leave you with a very basic system that only has TWM for a window manager.
Here is the complete list of those programs:

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faenza-icon-theme
faenza-cupertino
libatasmart
libdaemon
libgnome-keyring
leafpad
sg3_utils
udisks
upower
xarchiver
aumix
gmrun
gtkdialog
libusbx
yad
menu-cache
pnmixer
spacefm
roxterm
pyxdg
cifs-utils
sshfs-fuse
udevil
xdgmenumaker
at-spi2-core
at-spi2-atk
libxkbcommon
gnome-mplayer
pulseaudio
smplayer                                                                                             
smtube
sylpheed
giblib
mtpaint
scrot
chestnut-dialer
abiword
gnumeric
jpilot
PySolFC
pidgin
icewm
icewmvmods

The freezing problem does not appear to be a "Light" specific issue. Please make a separate post in the "Installation & Updates" section.

[macondo]

I had the same problem with a box from a friend of mine. I speculated it was the metadata from previous installations the culprit, I cleaned the hd and then installed again and the problem was gone.
Google for 'man shred' and 'man wipe' . Grml and Puppy Linux have those programs, make sure you clean it, partition by partition and not the whole disk.
i.e.

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# shred -fuvz /dev/sda1
and so forth, after the first partition is cleaned, continue with the next (including the partition where swap is), /dev/sda2, /dev/sda3... 'shred' will destroy crud 3 times and on the fourth it will add zeroes to the partition.

[Rytz]

I had the same problem with a box from a friend of mine. I speculated it was the metadata from previous installations the culprit, I cleaned the hd and then installed again and the problem was gone.
Google for 'man shred' and 'man wipe' . Grml and Puppy Linux have those programs, make sure you clean it, partition by partition and not the whole disk.
i.e.

Code: [Select]

# shred -fuvz /dev/sda1
and so forth, after the first partition is cleaned, continue with the next (including the partition where swap is), /dev/sda2, /dev/sda3... 'shred' will destroy crud 3 times and on the fourth it will add zeroes to the partition.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I'm currently re-installing on a partition number that hasn't been used yet.  If that doesn't work, I'll try shredding the partitions that have had different Linux installations.

I am using an SSD, so perhaps there's something funky with SSD's in that regard.

[nightflier]

No, don't "shred" or "wipe" an SSD. That will shorten its lifespan. Leftover metadata is seldom an issue. Try using gparted and create a new partition table before resorting to the nuke option.

[Rytz]

Figured out that my freeze issue has to do with acceleration on the Intel Broadwell HD5500.  See here for more info:

http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=18791