VectorLinux5.9-rc3 bugs/annoyances

[kazuya]

Task bar or panel below for xfce 4 sometimes dissappears when I right click on it.  If i right click on vlmenu icon from task bar to maybe change the icon, the icon disappears.

Right-Click Taskbar  -  -> it dissappears. This is not always the case and keep in mind that I tried installing and removing things like slacke17, superkaramba, icewm, etc from different places.. I removed them all, but issue still persists sometimes..

Most other times, it just works fine...  This OS flies given the bloat I have added to it....  And this is not a complaint..

EDIT: solution i found here:
http://www.vectorlinux.com/forum2/index.php?topic=4817.0

from Blurymind: pres alt+f2 on your keyboard
a little box will pop up
type "xfce4-panel" if you are in xfce and "kicker" (without quotes) if you are in kde.press enter and hope

this thread will be probably moved

From rbistolfi   -  Blury beat me, the problem surely was you non volunteering saved your session, since xfce do that by default. So the problem sticks on future login and even in reboots. 
Be sure to check the "save session" box when logout, so it will be there in the next login. Once the panel is back, I recommend to disable the "save session" thing. It causes more problems than solutions. You can do that from 'Settings' > 'Sessions and startup settings'. Uncheck the logout settings boxes.

I shall use this till the final release. I am impressed. So just mentioning for folks to be aware and see if they replicate same issue. But this would probably solves my problem. I may have caused it when I went into windowmaker and fluxbox.

[BlueMage]

Alrighty, output of lsmod:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
freq_table              4768  0
i915                   23296  0
drm                    74388  1 i915
snd_seq_dummy           3716  0
snd_seq_oss            32128  0
snd_seq_midi_event      7168  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                48720  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          7692  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            38048  0
snd_mixer_oss          15232  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_intel8x0           29980  0
snd_ac97_codec         98084  1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus                2944  1 snd_ac97_codec
eepro100               27664  0
mii                     5504  1 eepro100
snd_pcm                69764  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
i2c_i801                8592  0
serio_raw               6276  0
natsemi                26848  0
snd_timer              19972  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
intel_agp              22164  1
snd                    45796  10 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
agpgart                28108  2 drm,intel_agp
i2c_core               20992  1 i2c_i801
iTCO_wdt                9640  0
soundcore               7008  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          8712  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
shpchp                 30228  0
pci_hotplug            28616  1 shpchp
evdev                   8704  3

From that, it appears intel_agp, drm and i915 are all present.  Will now test i810 driver.

EDIT:  No appreciable difference when using the i810 driver.  Have decided to just use vesa driver at this point.

EDIT2:  Awesome, hundredth post - officially a Vectorite now

[Masta]

EDIT2:  Awesome, hundredth post - officially a Vectorite now Cool

Congratulations!, You now get the secret handshake 

[uelsk8s]

From that, it appears intel_agp, drm and i915 are all present.  Will now test i810 driver.

I think for your hardware you will have better lick using the intel or i810 drivers without the drm and i915 modules.
try dropping to runlevel 2 and removing those modules then starting X with the one of the intel drivers and see if you fair any better

[BlueMage]

No luck unfortunately

Used rmmod to remove the i915 and drm modules, altered xorg.conf driver to intel, startx and I get the same ghost text as earlier.  Drop back to level 2, check lsmod, both i915 and drm are loaded again.

Did the same thing with i810, same results unfortunately.

So for now, setting xorg.conf driver as "vesa" seems to give good results - right resolution, full mouse support and working graphics.

[wcs]

4. When starting in xfce, during the little splash screen, the background is completely blue, although in 5.8 the background (before the desktop image shows up) is black. Not wanting to be picky, but I find it very ugly that it goes from kdm to black, to blue, to black again, and finally to the desktop background image.
I'm not sure what causes that.

Try setting a background image for the login of KDM (see kdmrc) , see if that makes any difference.

I uncommented "UseBackground=False" in kdmrc and that did it. Now there is no blue screen showing up before the Xfce desktop image (and during the splash screen).

[wcs]

Strangely enough, the volume mixer bug now shows up all the time after reboot.
The reason seems to be that I plugged in a USB webcam that also has a microphone. When the camera is plugged in, the volume mixer always goes down to zero automatically. Although this can be fixed by going to properties and then closing, it doesn't survive reboots.

But even crazier, now this is also a problem in 5.8 Standard.

[rjdohnert]

On my two test mobile PC's Vector 5.9 doesnt like them.  One is a Dell Inspiron 2500 and the other is a Gateway Solo 1150.  Wont even make it to the install process.

[rbistolfi]

Strangely enough, the volume mixer bug now shows up all the time after reboot.
The reason seems to be that I plugged in a USB webcam that also has a microphone. When the camera is plugged in, the volume mixer always goes down to zero automatically. Although this can be fixed by going to properties and then closing, it doesn't survive reboots.

But even crazier, now this is also a problem in 5.8 Standard.

I had the same problem When the camera is plugged, it becomes the default soundcard. The howto from The Headeacher solved the problem.

(BTW, thanks the headeacher, I plugged the cam the same day you published the howto, just in time)

[rbistolfi]

On my two test mobile PC's Vector 5.9 doesnt like them.  One is a Dell Inspiron 2500 and the other is a Gateway Solo 1150.  Wont even make it to the install process.

Some more info could be useful. Does the installer hang? Does the install cd boot properly?.

[wcs]

I had the same problem When the camera is plugged, it becomes the default soundcard. The howto from The Headeacher solved the problem.

Great! I'm going to try it. Thank you very much.

[rjdohnert]

On my two test mobile PC's Vector 5.9 doesnt like them.  One is a Dell Inspiron 2500 and the other is a Gateway Solo 1150.  Wont even make it to the install process.

Some more info could be useful. Does the installer hang? Does the install cd boot properly?.

The install CD wont boot properly, on both systems it says "loading linux" when it reaches that point it goes to a black screen and just stops.  That behavior is present in both systems.

[rbistolfi]

Did you check the MD5?
If the md5 matches, you could try some cheatcodes, at my box I have to pass noapic as a kernel parameter. I think pressing F1 or F3 at the prompt gives you a list of 'more used' kernel parameters.
Let us know.

[rjdohnert]

Did you check the MD5?
If the md5 matches, you could try some cheatcodes, at my box I have to pass noapic as a kernel parameter. I think pressing F1 or F3 at the prompt gives you a list of 'more used' kernel parameters.
Let us know.

Pressing F1 brings up a list of boot kernels.  F3 doesnt do anything, when I hit F1 and throw in 'linux noapic' it doesnt do anything.  I tried disabling Power Control in the Bios but that didnt help.

[GrannyGeek]

GrannyGeek,
from what I gather from google you need to blacklist the visor module, and upgrade this http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/Uelsk8s/80-libpisock.rules file
it goes into /etc/udev/rules.d
make sure to take out the othe XX-libpisock.rules file

let us know if it helps

I'm happy to report that after I followed your directions, I can now sync as user. I added
/sbin/modprobe usbserial                                                       
/sbin/modprobe visor                                                           
/bin/mknod /dev/ttyUSB0 c 188 0                                                 
/bin/mknod /dev/ttyUSB1 c 188 1                                                 
/bin/chmod 0666 /dev/ttyUSB?                         

to /etc/rc.d/rc.local and I now have /dev/ttyUSB0 and /dev/ttyUSB1 ready at startup.

However, after a successful sync using jpilot, /dev/ttyUSB0 and /dev/ttyUSB1 disappear and I have to go through all those mknod and chmod commands if I want to sync again.

I've tried your fix on my Turion laptop--haven't had an opportunity to try it on another computer. If I have problems, I'll post a report.

Thanks for the solution!
--GrannyGeek