VectorLinux5.9-rc3 bugs/annoyances

[rbistolfi]

I used mbrfix instead many times. The author didn't lose much time looking for a name, but the tool never failed to me. http://www.sysint.no/nedlasting/mbrfix.htm

Thanks! That looks like what I need. My caution still applies, though, so I'll check into it very carefully once VL goes Gold. Your experience certainly gives me hope.
--GrannyGeek

Your caution is well applied. The syntax is weird but pretty easy. I found nice the backup mbr feature  .

[caitlyn]

I installed RC3 this evening.

The good... I accidentally interrupted the install during the configuration portion after the files are all copied to disk.  On reboot it resumed at the beginning of that configuration section.  Very nice.

The bad...  X configuration -- same bug as I reported in RC2.

The ugly -- grub -- still as broken as I reported in RC2.  If this can't be fixed it shouldn't be left in unless you want lots of criticism from users.

-Caitlyn

[Pita]

at is not started on boot.

I copied the file 'at' to init.d did a reboot and at is not on. I have to do it manually: at start.

Is init.d not read when booting? I am using runlevel 2.

[GrannyGeek]

I tried to run jpilot on the Turion laptop tonight. I had the exact same results as on the Athlon desktop. So either the method that worked on earlier releases needs to be modified or jpilot has some problems with the newer kernel or the other new stuff.

Is anyone else using Jpilot with RC3?
--GrannyGeek

[uelsk8s]

at is not started on boot.

I copied the file 'at' to init.d did a reboot and at is not on. I have to do it manually: at start.

Is init.d not read when booting? I am using runlevel 2.

init.d is not read while booting.
you should make a symlink to at into /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/
if you run vasm > super > service > srvset you can make the symlink there

[DrCR]

I would not dare put anything in the MBR because if anything goes wrong, I don't know how to restore the old MBR. There is no recovery console, so no way to run
fixmbr

Wow, this is one of the few times I feel knowledgeable on this forum. I make backups of my MBR and partition table as part of my backup regimen, more often actually as I'm sure you can imagine after a glance at my specs. I run Grub on the MBR for basically every machine I use.

To make a backup of your MBR and partition table:
dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/sdb1/sdaMBRandPartitionTableBackupFile bs=512 count=1

If you wanted to make a backup of your MBR but not your partition table:
dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/sdb1/sdaMBRBackupFile bs=446 count=1

To restore just do the opposite:
dd if=/mnt/sdb1/sdaMBRandPartitionTableBackupFile of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

Hope this helps. The threads linked in my sig may be of value to you as well. Saikee was my mentor in this sort of thing a while back now. Let me know if you need more input in getting a proper multi-OS config setup. 


Edit: The other day I (for some crazy reason) messed with OSX's diskutil...which destroys the partition table every chance it gets, even just changing a partition type. A reboot confirmed my fears. Fortunately I had created a backup using the above posted dd bs=512 command. I had to use testdisk (on PartedMagic, SystemRescueCD, et al) to recover the Fat32 storage partition I had saved the backup to, but once that was completed a simple MBR restore dd command, and I was back in business. So yes, the process works. The first thing I did after that is email myself that MBR backup file for safer keeping lol.


DrCR

_____________________
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Pending Fusion "bootcamp" VMs pointing to native OS installs

[Pita]

at is not started on boot.

I copied the file 'at' to init.d did a reboot and at is not on. I have to do it manually: at start.

Is init.d not read when booting? I am using runlevel 2.

init.d is not read while booting.
you should make a symlink to at into /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/
if you run vasm > super > service > srvset you can make the symlink there

Thanks! Stupid me, I should know, did in VL5.8

[Pita]

In the jwm menu the command for frozen-bubble reads frozenbubble for which reason it will natuarlly not launch. It should be frozen-bubble.

[GrannyGeek]

To make a backup of your MBR and partition table:
dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/sdb1/sdaMBRandPartitionTableBackupFile bs=512 count=1

If you wanted to make a backup of your MBR but not your partition table:
dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/sdb1/sdaMBRBackupFile bs=446 count=1

To restore just do the opposite:
dd if=/mnt/sdb1/sdaMBRandPartitionTableBackupFile of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

Now for my dumb question. Where do I put the file? I don't have a floppy drive. I'd have to boot with something, wouldn't I? I have a SystemRescue CD that's bootable. If I put the partition table and MBR backup file on a flash drive, could I boot with SystemRescue, mount the flash drive, and run the reverse to restore?
--GrannyGeek

[alec]

Installed it, everything worked out of the box, even the widescreen reso was detected on automatic. Love it from the first sight, everything is perfect.
Need to get cpufreq working, I'm a bit paranoid about the power consumption. And can't wait for 64-bit version!

[caitlyn]

More comments...

The good: 

1. Xfce taskbar weirdness in RC2 appears to be fixed in RC3.  Upgrading to 4.4.2 seems to have been a good idea.  Everything appears to be stable and working.

2. The new menu icon is fine.  I'm pleased to see the ugly prune is gone.

The not so good:
1.  In Thunar clicking on a .zip or .rar archive brings up a message that no suitable archive manager is available.  Other distros do successfully tie Thunar to an archive manager.

2.  VL still doesn't detect that I'm running a Toshiba laptop during install or boot.  I still need to manually add the toshiba module to rc.modules by hand.  No big deal for me but not user friendly for newcomers.

I'll post more as I use it more.

Regards,
Cait

[caitlyn]

And can't wait for 64-bit version!

Me too.  I'm planning on a new computer soon and everything is 64-bit nowadays.  I also do some pretty processor intensive stuff now and again so I may actually see some improved performance moving to native 64-bit.

[GrannyGeek]

I tried to run jpilot on the Turion laptop tonight. I had the exact same results as on the Athlon desktop. So either the method that worked on earlier releases needs to be modified or jpilot has some problems with the newer kernel or the other new stuff.

I tried jpilot on my Celeron desktop. Same result--Clie can't connect, so I can't sync. This time I copied all the relevant /usr/libpisock files from a VL5.8 partition on that computer (after moving the libpisock newer version files to get them out of the way), ran ldconfig, and tried making a connection with the Clie. Same result, so it's not just the newer libpisock. Something else must be going on. When 5.9 goes Final, I'll compile jpilot and see if that will get it going.
--GrannyGeek

[GrannyGeek]

you can add any/all kernel parameters to the cd boot prompt like below or whatever you need.
linux root=/dev/hda6 ro apm=power-off acpi=force

Thanks for the information. I'll give it a try in a few minutes when I turn the laptop on. Of course, I won't know if it has any effect until late tonight, when I turn it off.<g> Will let you know.
--GrannyGeek

Well, I tried all possible combinations on the Turion laptop:
linux root=/dev/hda6 ro apm=power-off
linux root=/dev/hda6 ro acpi=force
linux root=/dev/hda6 ro apm=power-off acpi=force

I got the same results as with
linux root=/dev/hda6 ro

The computer won't power off; I have to press the power button. It does shut off properly in Vista. The good news is that VectorLinux shuts down completely. The computer does not.

The other three computers do complete the power off.
--GrannyGeek

[GrannyGeek]

The Celeron laptop with Intel 852GM graphics has the same problem I noticed in RC2. VASM sets it up with the Intel driver and everything is fine the first time I startx and continues to be fine throughout the session. However, at the next boot, XFce comes up with text and icons for all desktop elements a very light shade of gray, which is almost invisible.

Editing xorg.conf by changing the driver to vesa gets the text and icon colors back. So far, the fix seems to persist through rebooting.
--GrannyGeek