Vector 6.0 beta2 feedback and bug reports

[lagagnon]

VL 6.0 Beta 2.10 (RC1)
==============

First of all my apologies for not doing any VL6 testing until yesterday. Here are my findings so far:

Installer
=====

1) initial loading of init.gz takes much longer than previous versions - I assume this is all for the graphics installer?
2) immediately after loading init.gz the VL splash screen comes up but flashes three times before the graphical installer is loaded. Is this flashing necessary? - it could be off-putting for many newbs.
3) Partition Screen - Help window. There are 3 typos: "considear" and "ammount" (twice)
4) Create User Accounts Screen: bad English: "Enter password for twice for accuracy"

First Boot-Up
========
-on first boot the "Congratulations" text screen. Here the text is really badly formatted and is all over the place. Very unprofessional looking. Just needs reformatting.

VXCONF
=====
-the select colour bits screen formatting of text is also messed up.
-the nVidia screen: there is an extra period (".") where it should not be.
-NVidia installer does not work with my nVidia GeForce FX-5200 card. It worked fine in VL5.9 SOHO. I get a nVidia error saying card not supported and thenlater a nVidia unable to load kernel module. I assume we are now using a newer nVidia driver that is incompatible??? Any others here have a problem?

dmesg
====
-there are a whole mess of the following messages near the bottom of dmesg: "bootsplash: status on console 0 changed ....looking for picture.....". Is this normal? Otherwise no problems concerning dmesg.

xfce Desktop
========
1) the black toolbar very nice but cannot really see the workspace launcher properly because of black on black and grey.
2) why do we need Hp device manager and wicd applets on the toolbar?
3) the quit button really does not look like a quit button to me...but that is just MHO.
4) why must we use kdesu to launch root applications. It requires loading all those big KDE libraries for one silly little application. Would not gksu work just as well?

xfce Menu and apps
============
1) freemem applet does not work
2) why are there both mousepad and leafpad on the system? - they are identical anyways.
3) is there not a more user friendly pdf reader (but NOT acrobat) that xpdf, ie epdf  (or does it require too many Gnome apps)?
4) are 3 multimedia players really necessary?
5) slaptget-update-notifier not working from menu
6) vcpufreq raises an "out of bounds" error. My CPU is not supported but I did not get this error in SOHO 5.9.
7) xfce4 TaskManager occurs twice in System Menu.

Other
====
-none of the three large browsers are set up properly to read or launch a PDF reader properly. This is a no-no for newbs. They have no idea where to find xpdf.

keep up the great work!

Larry

[lagagnon]

more comments on VL6.0 B2.10 (RC1)
=======================

- using xfce: immediately after desktop launches the mouse cursor wheel showing activity rotates for about 10-15 seconds, without apparent disk activity. This is unfortunately reminiscent of MS Windows where the desktop is never ready until the hourglasss stops spinning. What is this? Why? I do not recall this activity on VL5.9 standard xfce.

- GDM Sessions: 3 and 4 (OpenBox-Gnome and OpenBox-KDE) both throw .xsession -errors
- GDM Session 5 (OpenBox) - works but the menu is mostly invalid. Needs a bunch of menu updating.

[toothandnail]

2.10 - installed twice to my IBM T42 laptop.

Both installs were selective. First time through, I imported user details from the user I had with the last beta. Result is that neither the real name or the selected login photo are used. Real name is blank, login photo uses a default image.

After completing user setup, clicked next to go to the network config. At which point I got this:

Code:

This applicatoin has raised an unexpected error and must abort.
[-1] Bad index mdlNetConf.?.*

When I clicked OK, the installer died. I waited until all the hard drive activity stopped, then rebooted. Install completed normally from that point on.

Second time through, I wiped the user details and created a new user. When I clicked Next to continue with the network config, I got the same error and the installer crashed again. Waited for the hard drive activity to stop, rebooted. This time, after going through the final stages of setup, the machine locked solid instead of going to the GUI login. Sat with a few minor blips on the hard drive. In the end, I had to power cycle the machine - nothing else would let me out. When I restarted, the system was unable to start X - it seems that /etc/X11/xorg.conf must have been open and got scrambled when I had to power down. I cheated - pulled an xorg.conf from a backup and copied it in, was then able to start X.

Before I go back and try a third install, a few quick observations. First, Vcpufreq still doesn't work from the toolbar launcher. Since I'd seen it on the CD before install, I went and looked. All I could find was /usr/bin/vcpufreq.gambas. Changing the launcher execute command from 'vcpufreq' to 'vcpufrq.gambas' has got it working.

I'd also have to ask why not gksu? The current root password dialog is horribly slow the first time its called, can't see the need for all the baggage associated with kdesu.

The new theme looks pretty good (I like the splash screen and the login dialog looks much better as well). Not sure how practical it is - the dark toolbar really doesn't offer enough contrast. Still, I'll live with it for a while, see how it goes.

Sound. On my machine, the wrong device is being selected - instead of Intel ICH4, it is showing 'default', which doesn't work. Also, volume settings are strange - the master is set to 50%+, but PCM is at zero, which also doesn't work.

The version of Xdialog installed is still the one built without the Xdialog-2.3.1-gtk2.patch.

I can't currently test the network - not in a location where I can connect the laptop. That will have to wait until tomorrow. Modules for both my wired and wireless interfaces are loaded, so that is reasonably promising.

  I guess I'll go install it for a third time.....

paul.

[toothandnail]

2.10 third time....

This time I used the text mode installer, just to see if any of the lockups I've seen would be repeated. Not a trace - install went straight through, even down to things like finding the login picture I selected in the GUI install (which was not displayed after a GUI install). The only problem I had with the text install is the fact that it seems to skip the network section completely, so there is no opportunity to set machine/domain names.

Setting machine and domain names after the install using VasmCC is broken. It modifies /etc/HOSTNAME, but doesn't touch /etc/hosts, so errors will be generated the next time X is started.

Volume control is broken - we seem to be back to reverting to a default state - master at 54%, PCM at somewhat less, no attempt to save whatever volume level the user may have set. I've reverted to using an /etc/rc.d/rc.alsa pulled from the backup of an earlier beta, which does correctly save user set volume levels.

I'm getting a 'part wait' mouse cursor for a considerable time after the desktop comes up. No idea what the system is doing, but its annoying to say the least. Much too reminiscent of Windows behavior.

Vcpufeq is installed, but does not work on a reboot - running /sbin/vcpufreq-load manually gets the following error:

Code:

./vcpufreq-load: /usr/bin/gbx: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

Further checking - its right, there is no /usr/bin/gbx.

The Alt-F2 run dialog is still broken.

paul.

[vincent2]

pls. do add support to usb video cam  when releasing RC!

[uelsk8s]

pls. do add support to usb video cam  when releasing RC!

All my usb video cams work, we will need more info to ensure that yours does as well.

[vincent2]

Bonjour!

details of the webcam:
1.
dmesg | grep video

pci 0000:01:00.0: Boot video device
Linux video capture interface: v2.00
uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device USB Web Camera (1c4f:3000)
uvcvideo: Failed to query (135) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -32 (exp. 26).
usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo

2.
 cat /proc/bus/usb/devices
.......................
T:  Bus=03 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=01 Cnt=02 Dev#=  3 Spd=12  MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 1.10 Cls=ef(unk. ) Sub=02 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1c4f ProdID=3000 Rev= 1.00
S:  Manufacturer=SiGma Micro
S:  Product=USB Web Camera
C:* #Ifs= 2 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=250mA
A:  FirstIf#= 0 IfCount= 2 Cls=0e(video) Sub=03 Prot=00
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=0e(video) Sub=01 Prot=00 Driver=uvcvideo
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   8 Ivl=32ms
I:* If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=0e(video) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=uvcvideo
I:  If#= 1 Alt= 1 #EPs= 1 Cls=0e(video) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=uvcvideo
E:  Ad=88(I) Atr=01(Isoc) MxPS= 604 Ivl=1ms
I:  If#= 1 Alt= 2 #EPs= 1 Cls=0e(video) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=uvcvideo
E:  Ad=88(I) Atr=01(Isoc) MxPS= 956 Ivl=1ms
I:  If#= 1 Alt= 3 #EPs= 1 Cls=0e(video) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=uvcvideo
E:  Ad=88(I) Atr=01(Isoc) MxPS= 588 Ivl=1ms
I:  If#= 1 Alt= 4 #EPs= 1 Cls=0e(video) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=uvcvideo
E:  Ad=88(I) Atr=01(Isoc) MxPS= 688 Ivl=1ms
............................


3.

I tested webcam  with ffmpeg command, here's output:

# ffmpeg -f video4linux2 -s 320x240 -i /dev/video0 -f audio_device -ac 2 -i /dev/dsp1 -f mp4 Filename.mp4

FFmpeg version SVN-r13024, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
  configuration: --prefix=/usr --arch=i586 --cpu=i686 --mandir=/usr/man --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-pthreads --target-os=linux --enable-shared --disable-static --enable-gpl --enable-liba52 --enable-libfaac --enable-libfaad --enable-libx264
  libavutil version: 49.6.0
  libavcodec version: 51.56.0
  libavformat version: 52.13.0
  libavdevice version: 52.0.0
  built on May  1 2008 19:29:46, gcc: 4.2.3
[video4linux2 @ 0xb7fbbe14]Missing/Wrong width, height or framerate
/dev/video0: Error while opening file

[ethyl]

-NVidia installer does not work with my nVidia GeForce FX-5200 card. It worked fine in VL5.9 SOHO. I get a nVidia error saying card not supported and thenlater a nVidia unable to load kernel module. I assume we are now using a newer nVidia driver that is incompatible??? Any others here have a problem?

It's an old card, you'll have to use the legacy driver 173.14.12 with it. I have to use it with my FX5500 too. There is just one small problem with it. It doesn't support kernel 2.6.27.7 so you'll have to patch. I have the patch on my disk, no idea where did I get it from though... But it works. This will probably put a lot of newbs off.

cheers eth

[uelsk8s]

vincent2,
according to a bit of googling

The webcam audio interface must be initialised before the video interface.  Linux will by default initialise the video interface first, so you need to remove the uvcvideo.ko module from the /lib/modules subdirectory where it gets loaded automatically, and load it manually after plugging the webcam.

[toothandnail]

More 2.10: T42

There seems to be a problem with mime info. I'm not sure how to check this, but there was nothing associated with .avi files, .html files open in mousepad, nothing associated with .pdf files. I'll see what others I can find.

I'm also seeing sound problems. I've got the volume maxed out, and got the volume in VLC at 98% and can barely hear the movie I was trying to watch. Same .avi plays in 5.9 with more than adequate volume. It also played in at least one of the earlier betas without this problem.

PIII 1.2GHz machine.

I installed b2.10 on the old test box. Probably not the best idea, but I used the GUI install. It failed just after the user configuration stage again. By reducing the default colour depth to 16 instead of 24, I've managed to get a working (though I'm not sure if 'usable' would be the word I would apply) X display. Won't go to the monitor's native 1280x1024, but works in 1024x768. In reduced colour mode, the default theme is much too dark.

The video card I've got in the machine turns out to be an ATI Rage II. I suspect it doesn't have much memory, which doesn't help. I'll see if I can find a slightly better AGP card for in, see if that improves things. When I tried to reboot after the GUI installer crashed, I ended up with 'out of range' errors again, and had to reset the machine.

On the old machine, VL-hot has been set up, whereas on the laptop, HAL was setup. Is this an intentional idea, or an error? Just asking because the GUI install doesn't have a selection for either, so I was a bit suprised when the old machine came up with VL-hot.

Using the GUI installer, I didn't get the opportunity to select startup services. As a result, ACPI wasn't enabled and the machine would not shut down completely. When I check the Services option in VasmCC, there didn't seem to be anything to allow me to enable ACPI, so I ended up having to manually make /etc/rc.d/rc.acpi executable. Once that was done, the old machine shuts down completely instead of hanging at the end of shutdown.

Also on the old machine, the network was not enabled when I restarted after the first reboot. I had to go to VasmCC > Network and enable DHCP to get the network running.

More later....

paul.