VectorLinux5.9-rc2 bugs/annoyances

[GrannyGeek]

Probably what will end up happening later is the installer will open Gslapt and you can choose from there, but I have yet to make that work. Also, the packages will *hopefully* get put into the repos soon and you could choose the packages from there. But, for testing purposes, it's nice to be able to test out everything to make sure it works. Don't worry, individual package selection will be in place before a final release.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to test until VL5.9 Final is released. What with installing every new Release Candidate on four computers for testing purposes, I just don't have time for yet more testing.

The NVidia problem is going to bite me on three of the four computers. I have one computer with NVIDIA graphics and that's the only one I've installed the NVIDIA package on. I've unchecked it at installation on the other three.
--GrannyGeek

[GrannyGeek]

I had my 57th birthday a little while ago.

Then you're doing very well! I passed 57 several years ago, but even back then my eyes would have rebelled at the small size. In the years since 57 I've had very fancy eye surgery to repair a macular hole, which was pretty successful except that I have a slight permanent central vision defect in that eye. It later developed a cataract as a side effect of the surgery and I had cataract surgery a few years ago. That was also very successful, but it can't do anything about the central vision defect. My other eye is severely presbyopic, and while glasses help a lot with that, my eyes have such a great difference in vision that glasses can't get them totally in sync.

Even without the DPI settings available in Xfce 4.4.2, DPI can be forced. I just can't remember how to do it...

I recently noticed the "96 DPI" line in xorg.conf and I expect you could modify it for 120 or whatever you wanted. However, it's not just a matter of putting "120" in place of "96" because there are numbers before it and I don't know how they arrive at those for various screen resolutions.  I have two 1024x768s, one 1280x800, and one 1280x1024. I should probably research man pages or xorg.conf documentation.
--GrannyGeek

[GrannyGeek]

I'm writing this from RC2 on my Celeron desktop. When I tried GSlapt today and tried to mark all upgrades, I saw a tooltip that said "Function disabled for VL." Selecting Mark All Upgrades from the menu didn't show them, either.

I haven't noticed other problems in my limited testing except for the ones I've already reported.
--GrannyGeek

[toothandnail]

Then you're doing very well! I passed 57 several years ago, but even back then my eyes would have rebelled at the small size. In the years since 57 I've had very fancy eye surgery to repair a macular hole, which was pretty successful except that I have a slight permanent central vision defect in that eye. It later developed a cataract as a side effect of the surgery and I had cataract surgery a few years ago. That was also very successful, but it can't do anything about the central vision defect. My other eye is severely presbyopic, and while glasses help a lot with that, my eyes have such a great difference in vision that glasses can't get them totally in sync.

I had cataract surgery in both eyes about three years ago. The eye hospital in Oxford is one of the best in the world, so I was lucky to  moved here. Since then, my eye sight has been better than any time since my childhood. If nothing else, I'm no longer long sighted.

I recently noticed the "96 DPI" line in xorg.conf and I expect you could modify it for 120 or whatever you wanted. However, it's not just a matter of putting "120" in place of "96" because there are numbers before it and I don't know how they arrive at those for various screen resolutions.  I have two 1024x768s, one 1280x800, and one 1280x1024. I should probably research man pages or xorg.conf documentation.

  I did a bit of hunting, and found the original article that I used. It should give you enough to calculate the values you need. Have a look here:

http://support.zenwalk.org/index.php?topic=3304.msg18928#msg18928

paul.

[toothandnail]

I'm writing this from RC2 on my Celeron desktop. When I tried GSlapt today and tried to mark all upgrades, I saw a tooltip that said "Function disabled for VL." Selecting Mark All Upgrades from the menu didn't show them, either.

Same here. At least I've not seen any return of the problem with installing more than one file at a time. I just tried installing a couple of extra packages, which completed without errors.

  It would be nice to be able to select updates though...

paul.

[Dweeberkitty]

The warnings on not to build on systems with proprietary video drivers installed have been made many times before this.

Hmmmm... I never saw them. Was there a packager "announcement" thread for these types of warnings? I didn't see it. I guess I'll have to rebuild because my box is actually using the drivers.

[Masta]

Ok, I'm just going to be blunt: I really hate that icon. It doesn't give any branding you would expect from a distro, and it just looks...childish or immature.

Couldn't agree more...

Granted I've only seen a screenie, because I still have not installed this release, but I say the icon gots to go!.. No offence, but it just doesn't say "Look at me... I'm a serious OS".

We got a little creative in the vectorlinux-admin chat, here's my take on things:
http://the.headacher.googlepages.com/Ugly_prune_animation.gif

Ps. So far little issues with 5.9 RC2

[wcs]

Hello, all. Sorry for my absence but I've been incredibly busy.
Just installed the new RC2.

A couple of issues:

When selecting the expert driver install for nvidia, if version 100.14.23 is chosen, the driver is not installed (apparently because the right nvidia-installer file cannot be found). It goes immediately to the end of Xorg configuration, and vesa got automatically selected instead. If any of the other driver versions is selected, everything goes fine. If "latest Nvidia" is selected instead of "expert install", the 100.14.23 driver now installs just fine as well. I replicated this in VASM after installing, and this problem was also present in the first RC1.

Not very important, but still noticeable: The volume control panel in Xfce doesn't seem to work the first time I booted into VL. When the volume is increased, the green bar just shows up momentarily and then disappears (even though sound is working just fine). After a reboot, the green bar now works, but the default control is PCM, not the Front channel. Incidentally, the channels are now labeled as Front, Side, etc... while in VL 5.8, this applet's properties allowed Vol, LineIN, Mic...

Looks like 5.9 is going to be a fantastic release. Thank you to all who contributed to it.

[GrannyGeek]

I had cataract surgery in both eyes about three years ago. The eye hospital in Oxford is one of the best in the world, so I was lucky to  moved here. Since then, my eye sight has been better than any time since my childhood. If nothing else, I'm no longer long sighted.

Cataract surgery can make an amazing difference. The eye from which I had the cataract removed would be almost like it was when I was young were it not for the slight central vision defect. An excellent retina specialist did the macular hole surgery and the outcome was very good, since sometimes this surgery doesn't improve anything or brings just slight improvement.

I did a bit of hunting, and found the original article that I used. It should give you enough to calculate the values you need. Have a look here:

http://support.zenwalk.org/index.php?topic=3304.msg18928#msg18928

Thanks VERY much for that. I'm going to give it a try once we're finished with testing for 5.9.
--GrannyGeek

[GrannyGeek]

WARNING!

If you're using Opera's e-mail client, the beta version of Opera installed with RC2 will convert your e-mail files to a new format that can't be read by the old version of Opera. This is *very* important if you share those e-mail files with Windows or with other computers on a network. If you use the Opera beta and convert the files (which must be converted in order to work with the new version of Opera), you will have to update all Operas with which you share the files, whether Linux or Windows. Opera does warn you it has to convert the files and gives you the opportunity to decline, but it's not crystal-clear that the conversion is one way and your files will no longer be readable in non-beta versions of Opera.

My brain was out to lunch when I got asked about the conversion and I foolishly said "yes," only to find the files unreadable in Opera for Windows (not the beta version). Fortunately, I have those e-mail files on three other computers so it was a simple matter of copying the unconverted files from another computer.

I then uninstalled the beta Opera from RC2 and downloaded and installed Opera 9.24, the current version. The mail files are now readable on all my computers. Crisis averted.

Since Opera is my sole e-mail client, I've decided to hold off on betas until the official new release is out. I wonder if it's wise to include the Opera beta in the new VL, given the consequences across operating systems and computers? Unless someone wants to use a beta version on *all* machines (I wouldn't want to do that), installing the beta Opera will make the files unshareable.
--GrannyGeek

[Pita]

I noticed that when I start mc in xterm it does not show anymore the usual white on blue instead unreadable colors unless bg is set to black and fg to white that is mc -b which I don't like. The same started to happen in VL5.8 and I strongly suspect it is due to aterm which I had installed from Uelsk's making.

I now took the .mc/ini from slackware and all is back to normal meaning mc starts in its standard white on blue in xterm. I uninstalled as well this aterm which caused a few other problems as already reported and reinstalled only the /usr/bin/aterm bit and it behaves normal now. Does not mess with my .bashrc for example.

[Pita]

I lost my sound!

r@~:$ alsamixer

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device

Doing vasm sound it goes through the motion detects my soundcard and asks me if I want to modify modprobe.d/sound as done before I click on yes and there is no more sound.

It ends:
Now ALSA is ready to use.
 For adjustment of volumes, use your favorite mixer.

Have a lot of fun!

Sorry, no sound, no fun.

[lagagnon]

I lost my sound!

Do you mean that at one time with your VL5.9 install you actually did have sound? Or with VL5.9 you have never had sound working with your audio card in that machine? Did you do any upgrades in between installing 5.9 and noticing your sound was not working? Please be more specific so we can help you.

Also please supply output from the following commands:

lspci
lsmod

thanks!

[Colonel Panic]

WARNING!
If you're using Opera's e-mail client, the beta version of Opera installed with RC2 will convert your e-mail files to a new format that can't be read by the old version of Opera. This is *very* important if you share those e-mail files with Windows or with other computers on a network. If you use the Opera beta and convert the files (which must be converted in order to work with the new version of Opera), you will have to update all Operas with which you share the files, whether Linux or Windows. Opera does warn you it has to convert the files and gives you the opportunity to decline, but it's not crystal-clear that the conversion is one way and your files will no longer be readable in non-beta versions of Opera.

Hi, I think this unwelcome feature of the newer version of Opera deserves a new thread. I've stuck with the old version of Opera (9.10) anyway because I don't need or particularly want Speed Dial; its utility is pretty marginal IMO if you don't have broadband.

[easuter]

Today I ran ino something strange: I had to click on the "Quit" button four times until the shutdown pop-up would appear....
Anyone else had the same problem?