Linux For EveryOne

 

The Beginning

This tutorial shows how you can set up a Slackware 12 GNU/Linux desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktop.

Unlike some other Linux distributions Slackware users find themselves at the command line quite often. One Slacker who maintains an online Slackware Desktop Enhancement Guide wrote that the “pros and cons of Slackware could be summarized in one word: minimalism.” He went on to discuss the duality of minimalism by noting that although “Minimalism certainly means stability” it also means that Slackware “can be exasperating for some people because the end-user must configure many features with manual editing rather than the more familiar point-and-click.”

You may be asking yourself if Slackware is the right distribution for you. When it comes to Linux you have a huge selection of distributions to choose from. Some like Zenwalk Linux and Vector Linux are based on Slackware but provide a more user friendly point-and-click environment for the new Linux user. Another distro named Ark Linux is designed to be easy to install and learn for users without prior Linux (or computer) experience. There’s also a website that tries to match people with a Linux distribution suitable for them at Linux Distribution Chooser.

To follow this tutorial you should be familiar with navigating the file system with a file manager. And, willing to type commands at the prompt. If you’re not already familiar with using the command line please click here to read an excellent introduction to it.

When installing an Operating System it’s sometimes necessary to know what hardware is installed on the PC. Before beginning this tutorial spend a few minutes and get the name of the hardware installed on your system including the network card, sound card, video card, monitor, and the monitor’s horizontal scan range (HorizSync) and vertical scan range (VertRefresh). If you’re running Windows you may want to audit your systems hardware with Belarc Advisor or the Device Manger. If you’re running Linux you may want to use HardInfo. Please note that I won’t be going through every software installation step by step.

This tutorial comes with no guarantees that it will work for you. These are simply the steps I take to setup Slackware 12 on my desktop computer.

Please backup ALL of your personal data before starting.

Slackware 12 lets you choose between multiple desktop environments (KDE, Xfce, Fluxbox, Blackbox, Window Maker, fvwm2 Fvwm, twm). For this tutorial we will use KDE.

Installing The Base System

Download Slackware 12 and burn it onto a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM.

For this tutorial I downloaded the Slackware 12.0 DVD ISO (everything).

Use the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM you created and boot your computer from it. From here on I will use the term DVD to refer to both the CD-ROM and DVD-ROM.

At the boot prompt press Enter:

If you’re using a US keyboard press Enter. If not type 1 and press Enter:

Select your keyboard map using the UP and DOWN arrow keys.

The OK and Cancel buttons can be selected with the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys.

Highlight a keyboard map. Select OK and press Enter:

Test your new keyboard layout.

If it works, enter 1 on a line by itself and press Enter:

Welcome to the Slackware Linux installation disk:

During setup root does not have a password. Type root and press Enter:

Once you login you will be at the Linux command line:

Before setup begins the hard disk needs to be partitioned. For simplicity’s sake I will create two partitions. One big partition that will be our root partition. The root partition is also known as /. We will also create a 512 megabyte swap partition. Of course, the partitioning scheme is completely up to you - if you like, you can create more than just one big partition. For example, you might want a swap partition, a root partition and a home partition. By partitioning like that you can reinstall the OS without losing your home directory.

Just so you know I’m writing this tutorial on more than one computer so some screenshots may show IDE and others may show SATA. At the moment I am installing on an IBM compatible PC. I have an IDE hard disk and will create a partion on /dev/hda. IDE drives are given names /dev/hda to /dev/hdd. For example, if you have one IDE drive attached to the first IDE controller then it will be named /dev/hda. If you have a second IDE drive on the same drive controller it will be named /dev/hdb. If you have a third drive it will be attached to the second controller and be named /dev/hdc. As you can guess the fourth drive on the second controller is /dev/hdd

After the drive is partitioned it will have a number appended to its name. For example, the second partition on the first drive will be /dev/hda2.

SATA and SCSI drives follow a similar pattern but are represented by sd instead of hd. The second partition of the first SATA drive is named /dev/sda2.

You can partition your disk with either fdisk or cfdisk. For this tutorial I used fdisk.

If you have an IDE drive type

fdisk /dev/hda

and press Enter:

If you have a SATA drive type

fdisk /dev/sda

and press Enter:

Type m to see what commands are available:

To see your current partion table type p

As you can see there are no partitions on my IDE hard disk:

Warning: IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU BACK UP ANY INFORMATION YOU WANT TO SAVE BEFORE DESTROYING THE PARTITION IT LIVES ON.

Create the swap partition. Type n and press Enter:

Type p to create a primary partition and press Enter:

Type 1 to create partition number 1 on /dev/hda and press Enter:

The default is fine so press Enter:

Type +512M and press Enter:

To make this partion a swap partion type t and press Enter:

Type L or l (usually case is important in Linux…but not in this case) to see the available codes:

The code for Linux swap is 82:

Type 82 and press Enter:

The setup program indicates it’s a swap partion:

To create the root partition type n and press Enter:

Type p to create another primary partition:

Type 2 to create partition number two:

Press Enter to accept the default value for the First cylinder.

Then, press Enter again to accept the Last cylinders default value:

Type p and press Enter to view the newly created partition table. You can see that the swap partition is named /dev/hda1 and the root partition is named /dev/hda2:

Make the root (/dev/hda2) partition bootable by typing a and pressing Enter.

Then type 2 to select the root partition and press Enter:

To confirm that partion 2 is now bootable type p and press Enter.

The * indicates that /dev/hda2 is a bootable partition:

To save the changes type w and fdisk exits:

At the root prompt type setup and press Enter:

Select ‘ADDSWAP’ and press Enter:

Options with a [*] are turned on and off with the SPACEBAR.

Press Enter to setup up the swap partition:

Select No to check for bad blocks.

After the swap space has been configured press Enter:

Press Enter to set up the root partition:

Press Enter to do a Quick format:

Press Enter to select ext3:

Press Enter when done:

If you have any FAT or NTFS partitions the setup routine will give you the opportunity to add those partitions to /etc/fstab. You can add them now or later.

If you don’t have any FAT or NTFS partitions you will not see the two screenshots below:

Press Enter to install from your DVD:

Press Enter to scan for your media:

Accept the defaults shown below. If you want to add International language support for KDE use the DOWN arrow key and press the SPACEBAR to select KDEI.

Press Enter:

Accept the default for a full installation and press Enter:

The software installation begins:

Creating a USB boot stick has never worked on my PC. You can try though. I select Skip and then press Enter:

Select a modem and press Enter:

Press Enter to install LILO automatically:

Press Enter unless you need to append extra parameters to the kernel. I’ve never had to add extra parameters:

Press Enter to install LILO to the Master Boot Record.

Select your mouse and press Enter:

Select Yes and press Enter:

You can reconfigure your network at anytime by running the netconfig program at the command line.

The following describes how to set up your computer to use DHCP. You may have a different network configuration. To setup your network now press Enter.

Enter a hostname (it can be anything you want) and press Enter:

Type a domain name and press Enter:

I use a DHCP server and select it and press Enter:

Press Enter or add a DHCP hostname if necessary:

If the settings are correct press Enter:

Press Enter:

I selected No and pressed Enter:

Select the correct setting for your hardware clock and press Enter:

Select your Timezone and press Enter:

For this tutorial we’re using KDE. You can always select a another window manager after the tutorial with the command, xwmconfig.

Select KDE and press Enter.

All new Linux passwords are confirmed by typing them twice.

Press Enter to set a root password:

Press Enter to complete setup:

Using the DOWN arrow select EXIT and press Enter:

Reboot your computer:

After rebooting press Enter at the boot prompt:

At the login prompt type root and press Enter. Then type the password you created for the root account and press Enter:

Post Installation Configuration

In this section we will create your user account for every day computing. Then we’ll enable basic security, setup audio, create the locate database, start X, and personalize KDE.

adduser:

Generally people don’t run root as their main account. So we’re going to create a new user for everyday use. When you need root access you will be able to use the su command. It’s risky using the root account as your daily account because it’s very easy to run a command and accidentally break your system.

In the terminal we create your new user account by running

adduser

Enter a login name for your new user and press Enter:

Accept the default for User ID and press Enter:

Accept the default for Initial group and press Enter:

Important! Do not accept the default value for Additional groups.

Add the following group names to Additional groups:

cdrom, audio, video, plugdev, scanner

Additional groups will now look like the screenshot below. Press Enter to continue:

Accept the default Home directory by pressing Enter:

Accept the default Shell and press Enter:

Press Enter for Expiry date:

If all the information below is correct press Enter:

Slackware creates the new account:

Additional information can be added or press Enter to accept the defaults:

Create a password for your new user. Again, you will need to enter it twice. That completes the Account setup:

To confirm your new account is working correctly logout as root and login with your new username and password. In Slackware 12 notice how the prompt changes from # to $ signifying we’re not logged in as root anymore.

Basic Security Configuration:

Type su at the command line and press Enter:

su

Type the password for root and press Enter:

It is beyond the scope of this tutorial and my knowledge to talk about security in depth. Please refer to other sources for more information such as LinuxSecurity.com, the CERT Coordination Center, and look at nmap since it’s already installed on your system. With that in mind I include the steps below that I take to secure my PC. I use a hardware firewall with NAT and I setup tcpwrappers. I don’t use a software firewall but later you will have the opportunity to install a software firewall named Guarddog. You may be interested in doing a free Internet security checkup at ShieldsUP! after setting up your security.

Change your directory to the /etc directory.

cd /etc

If you haven’t used tab completion before it’s good to know because it speeds up your typing. Hit the Tab key after entering a few letters of a file name or command and tab completion will automatically fill in the rest.

Before working with a configuration file I always create a backup. To create a backup use the copy command named cp.

The three files that we are going to edit are located in /etc. They are hosts.deny, hosts.allow and inetd.conf.

Make a copy of hosts.allow and press Enter.

cp hosts.allow hosts.allow.BAK

Make a copy of hosts.deny and press Enter.

cp hosts.deny hosts.deny.BAK

Make a copy of inetd.conf and press Enter.

cp inetd.conf inetd.conf.BAK

Now that we have backups of those files we’re ready to edit them. I usually use the vi editor and many of the screenshots are taken while using vi. Pico is less esoteric and may be easier for you to use.

The hosts.deny file shown below is how it should look after you edit it. Edit hosts.deny by adding the text ALL : ALL and then save the file and exit.

To use pico to edit the hosts.deny file simply type

pico hosts.deny

# hosts.deny    This file describes the names of the hosts which are

#               *not* allowed to use the local INET services, as decided

#               by the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.

#

# Version:      @(#)/etc/hosts.deny     1.00    05/28/93

#

# Author:       Fred

ALL : ALL

# End of hosts.deny.

By adding ALL : ALL you deny access to everyone. We will poke holes in hosts.deny by editing hosts.allow next.

To use pico to edit the hosts.allow file simply type,

pico hosts.allow

The edited hosts.allow is shown below:

#

# hosts.allow   This file describes the names of the hosts which are

#               allowed to use the local INET services, as decided by

#               the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.

#

# Version:      @(#)/etc/hosts.allow    1.00    05/28/93

#

# Author:

#

#

ALL : 127.0.0.1

ALL : 192.168.1.

# End of hosts.allow.

By adding the line ALL : 127.0.0.1 we are allowing this machine (a.k.a. localhost) access to the services on this machine.

By adding the line ALL : 192.168.1. we allow access from all machines in our LAN.

The dot following 192.168.1. isn’t a typo. It represents the numbers 0-254.

The # is a comment and means to ignore all text that follows on the same line.

Lastly, we will edit inetd.conf and place a # in front of everything except auth:

Type

pico inetd.conf

Place a # in front of time, time and comsat:

Leave the Ident service as is. Don’t place a # in front of auth. Save the file and exit:

Audio Configuration:

alsaconf is a simple shell script which tries to detect the sound cards on your system and then writes a suitable configuration file for ALSA.

Type,

alsaconf

and press Enter:

ALSA searches for your sound cards:

If you’re not sure which card to choose refer back to your hardware notes.

Select your card and press Enter:

Select Yes and press Enter:

Press Enter:

After the sound driver is configured the program exits:

Now use alsamixer to configure the levels.

Type

alsamixer

and press Enter:

Configure your settings with the LEFT, RIGHT, UP, and DOWN arrow keys. Press the escape key when finished:

To store your settings type

alsactl store

and press Enter:

Your sound card should now be configured for your system. Your sound card can be reconfigured at any time by rerunning the above commands when when logged in as root.

Create the searchable database of the filesystem:

To search for files you can use the following commands; which, whereis, find, and slocate. Before using slocate for the first time we’ll need to create its database named slocate.db.

Change your current directory to /var/lib/slocate.

cd /var/lib/slocate/

If you type ls you’ll see that there is no slocated.db file.

We will create the slocate.db file by typing the following command and pressing Enter:

updatedb

This may take several minutes to run. When the update is complete the program exits and you’re returned to the command prompt. If you type ls again you’ll see that slocate.db was created:

Start X:

Slackware 12 uses the X Window System from X.Org. X provides the graphical user interface for Linux. X can be difficult to configure and troubleshooting X is beyond the scope of this tutorial. If you have a problem starting X please visit http://www.slackware.com/config/x.php for configuration assistance. As long as you have a VESA compatible graphics card then X should start. If you have an ATI or NVIDIA graphics card please see the vendor specific documentation so that you may use their drivers.

Don’t Start X as root. If you’re at the root prompt type exit and press Enter:

Type startx and press Enter:

The KDE Personalizer Wizard:

Choose your country and language and click Next:

Click Next:

Set the level of detail and click Next:

Select a theme and click Next:

Click Finish:

Here is your new KDE desktop

Now the base system is ready to be used.

Mandriva Linux has a history of inconsistency; one release will be superb, and the next one will be so bug-ridden and feature-weak that it’s unusable. The only commonality among all releases are the excellent system configuration tools, which have continued to evolve over the years to match an increasing level of complexity in the desktop software stack. True to form, Mandriva 2008.0 is an excellent release, following the terrible 2007.1, and the just as excellent 2007.0. Some of the important things that were dropped from the previous release (Cedega, LinDVD) are back, and some of the problems (huge K menu button, cluttered menus) have been mitigated.

Mandriva Linux overview

This section is for people who aren’t familiar with Mandriva Linux. If you just want to find out what’s new in this version and how well it works, skip down to the next section.

Mandriva PowerPack edition is unique among desktop Linux distributions in that it doesn’t try to remove the technical complexity from the operating environment — it isn’t “dumbed down.” It’s the perfect balance between automation and control; this is especially welcome in a desktop Linux realm where distributors are increasingly focusing on eliminating control in favor of automation in an attempt to appeal to low-knowledge users. The installation utility is easy to use and understand, but it doesn’t skip over things like network administration, drive partitioning and formatting, and user accounts. It’s more or less designed to be installed in two stages: the initial install where most of the basic desktop programs are chosen, and the post-install configuration, where you add expanded distribution sources and open up a wider selection of applications.

In the distant past, Mandriva (known then as Mandrake) was a frequent choice for people new to Linux because it had a wide array of configuration tools and generally worked well on desktop computers, whereas the most common alternatives — Debian, Slackware, and Red Hat — were much more difficult to install, configure and use. That tradition still holds true today (for Mandriva, anyway), but other distributions like Ubuntu, Linspire, and SUSE have taken over the title of being the preferred “starter distro” of the masses. Mandriva, meanwhile, has found its niche as the operating system of choice for experienced Linux and Windows users who want a highly configurable operating system that doesn’t take a lot of work to install or maintain.

Mandriva’s default interface has traditionally been KDE, and that’s still where the company’s focus is, though GNOME is available and works very well too. Other window managers are also available, or you can freeball it and work entirely from the terminal. Thousands of software packages are available on both the installation media (which traditionally came on three CDs, but a single DVD has become the preferred media) for two architectures (x86 and AMD64/EM64T), encompassing every software program of significance in the Linux and BSD worlds. Packages are easy to add, remove, and update through the Mandriva “Drak” configuration tools.

Commercial editions of Mandriva are obtained either as one-time purchases of boxed or download editions, or as part of a yearly subscription, which offers two releases. Previously this service was known as the Mandriva Club, and members got the release ISOs before other customers, had access to special package repositories for proprietary software, got a discount at the Mandriva online store, and also had upgraded support options. As of the 2008.0 release, the Club is no more; community support services are now free to all Mandriva users, no early ISO releases are available, and there are no longer separate Club repositories.

There have been many different Mandriva editions over the years: Discovery, Free, Flash, One, Move, PowerPack, and PowerPack+. The only ones still being released are PowerPack, Free, One, and Flash. PowerPack is the standard desktop edition, with many proprietary extras; Free is the same thing without the extras, and it’s available at no charge; One is a single live CD that can be installed to your hard drive if you choose; Flash is designed to run entirely from a USB flash drive. There are also Corporate Desktop and Corporate Server products, but they are entirely separate from the consumer distros.

What’s new in version 2008.0

As usual, the desktop environments and application software were upgraded to their latest releases (or release candidates, in some cases) — GNOME 2.20, KDE 3.5.7 (with an option to install a KDE4 preview), Xfce 4.4.1, and the Linux kernel 2.6.22. The only major enhancements in 2008.0 are:

• LinDVD, the only “legal” DVD video player for Linux
• Cedega, a framework for playing Windows games in Linux
• Fluendo, a collection of proprietary multimedia codecs
• The Mandriva Club has been replaced with a straight 2-release annual subscription, and other Club benefits have been folded into normal Mandriva community services
• Discovery/LX and PowerPack+ are discontinued; there is now only Mandriva PowerPack, One, and Flash
• The Liberation font package from Red Hat

If reading the above list seems like deja vu, then you’re familiar with the recent release history of Mandriva Linux. Version 2007.0 included LinDVD and Cedega, but both were removed from 2007.1. Though I do not have official confirmation from Mandriva, I suspect that these things were removed due to license fee issues. The act of eliminating the Mandriva Club in favor of a straight subscription service may be related to this issue — because it used a package repository to distribute this software, Mandriva probably caught hell from TransGaming and Corel for not being able to track exactly how many Cedega and LinDVD copies were distributed to individual users. This means that Mandriva could not accurately gauge license fee payments to these companies, and that’s probably why they both pulled out of the subsequent 2007.1 release. Taking out the proprietary Club-only repository and including Cedega and LinDVD packages with every PowerPack sale makes license royalty tracking much more manageable, so here we have TransGaming and Corel back on board for 2008.0, with Fluendo completing the Windows content compatibility trifecta.

Update: According to Mandriva representative Adam Williamson, the above theory is not correct: “In actual fact, the commercial repository will still be available for Powerpack subscribers. The change was purely to make it more clear that Mandriva is an open distro with an open community. The whole ‘Club’ concept was perpetuating the old ‘Mandriva is closed,’ ‘you have to pay for Mandriva’ etc. ideas. The change is simply to emphasize that all of the community aspects of Mandriva are open and free, and the Powerpack download service is simply that. I wasn’t involved in negotiations with the Cedega and LinDVD folks, but AFAIK the issues for 2007.1 were just boring business (i.e. we wanted a lower price, they wanted a higher one :>) and technical issues.”

Putting it to the test

Since I use Mandriva PowerPack on my primary workstation, the first thing I tested was upgradability. This has always been fairly smooth with Mandriva, especially compared to nearly any other operating system, including the proprietary commercial ones. The only trouble I ran into was with ACPI, which was offered as a default boot option in the installer. Foolishly I assumed that Linux kernel development had advanced sufficiently to support ACPI on my 3-year-old Sun Java w2100z AMD64 workstation. Enabling ACPI caused horrific performance problems that took a while to track down and fix. So while the base system and desktop software packages upgraded cleanly in about 45 minutes, I was left to resolve some issues on my own.

One of the post-upgrade performance issues was related to a facet of desktop computing that I hate with a vicious passion: search. For some reason, a huge part of the desktop software industry is obsessed with the concept of “desktop search.” Apparently there are millions of people out there who are constantly misplacing important files on their computers. I am not one of them, and the Beagle search daemon is nothing to me but a resource hog. While it was running, system resource usage shot up to above 1 in the top output, and showed no sign of diminishing, even after 45 minutes of idle usage. I tried disabling Beagle through DrakConf, but that didn’t stop it, even after a restart. The only thing I could do was remove the Beagle packages from Rpmdrake and kill the current beagled process. After this, and disabling ACPI in the GRUB configuration, I was finally back to an acceptable level of desktop performance.

Obtaining installation media for PowerPack edition is just as frustrating as it’s always been. Even people who have subscriptions can’t get a speedy download. BitTorrent, even on the day of the release, took more than 24 hours to download the x86 DVD, and another half a day to get the AMD64 edition. Just finding the address for the torrent is a challenge; it’s hidden behind another link, so the default action could be to try to download the torrent with your Web browser, depending on how you have it configured. I’d much rather have a straight torrent link so that I can copy it, then paste it into my preferred BitTorrent client. The upgrade process is much like it’s always been, but the installation procedure is quite different if you are performing a new install. I would consider the changes to the installer an overall improvement, though I think the process of adding extra software repositories should be either automatic (since virtually everyone will want to add them), or be a little more intuitive so that users know what’s going on and why adding more repos is necessary.

The post-install configuration screen that used to set up Club repositories is even less useful now than ever before. I went through some of its steps, only to find that it spontaneously switched from English to French, forcing me to cancel it most of the way through the process.

The K menu has been reduced in size, now saying “Menu” instead of “Mandriva,” which opens up a little more space in the menu bar. It’s still not enough, though — the desktop switcher needs to go down to two (or none — do people really use multiple desktops all that frequently?) from four, and the session and logout buttons should be removed entirely. The panel hide handle could also be removed — I don’t think a lot of people hide the KDE panel on a regular basis — to open up some space for running programs. It’s difficult to task-switch when your menu bar doesn’t have enough space to show the names and icons of the programs you’re running.

GNOME is, thankfully, mostly untouched — it’s primarily the default GNOME layout with an attractive Mandriva theme. Both KDE and GNOME have had their menu systems worked over, but I’m not sure that the new menu layout is entirely sensible. Not that the old one was all that great, but the new layout has problems of its own. The categories are more appropriate, but there are more icons in each category now — so many that most of them need to use a “more” submenu to show the rest of the selections. Of all of the default programs installed in a standard KDE or GNOME environment in Mandriva, I use perhaps 20% of them at all, ever, and about 10% of them on a regular basis. Nearly all of the programs I use regularly have quicklaunch icons on my top panel in GNOME, so the only time I need to use the menu is when I have to run one of the seldom-used 10%. There must be a better way to arrange this, and beyond that, I bet a good percentage of the default installed programs are rarely or never used by a majority of Mandriva users.

One unusual addition to both the GNOME and KDE menus is a direct link to Rpmdrake named “Install & Remove Software.” When I first saw this, I was terrified that Mandriva might be trying to dumb itself down to the level of Ubuntu. As it turns out, it’s just another way to get to Rpmdrake, and makes it easier for people new to Mandriva to figure out how to add new programs.

The Mandriva Club is no more. A lot of people had difficulty understanding what the Club was all about, and fully taking advantage of all it had to offer. The new subscription model is easier to understand and serves a more straightforward purpose, but it still does not offer the kind of services that subscribers deserve. Namely, it does not have premium download servers, nor does it have optimally reliable (private) package repository mirrors. Whether you download the Free edition or pay for PowerPack, you are at the mercy of free mirrors with limited bandwidth, and BitTorrent with too few high-speed seeds.

Desktop effects — Metisse and Compiz Fusion — are just as horrible in Mandriva 2008.0 as they were in previous releases and in all other Linux distros that they rear their ugly heads in. Use either of these desktop effects systems if you wish to ensure unpredictable operation, corruption of the GNOME panels, system lockups, crashing of the window manager, and/or failure to start the desktop environment. They do not and never have worked properly, and I’m glad to see that users must go to Drakconf to enable them, as opposed to enabling them by default. These resource hogging, 3D game killing, system stability destroying monstrosities should never be in the default install of any operating system.

Avoid the KDE4 preview — it’s so bug-ridden and non-functional that I have to wonder how the Mandriva developers could have possibly thought that it would make a good optional package for 2008.0.

Cedega 6.0.2 is available through the Mandriva package repositories, but is not installed by default. If you want to be able to update Cedega with the latest game engine, you need to email Mandriva through the support system to obtain a product key. This seems unnecessarily inconvenient to me — I don’t understand why Mandriva can’t email a product key to customers and subscribers automatically.

Conclusions and developer recommendations

Like I usually say when Mandriva is at the apex of its release cycle, this is desktop Linux as it should be. It’s as advanced and complex as you need it to be, and as automatic as most people would like it to be. Unlike nearly every other desktop-oriented OS, with Mandriva I never run into incidents where the automatic parts of the system interfere with my intentions for desktop operation. Nothing is hidden from view; the developers aren’t worried that I might stupidly screw up my system by making important configuration changes, and so they provide tools that are powerful enough to control nearly any facet of the system, and don’t attempt to override manual command line customizations.

The reincorporation of LinDVD and Cedega, and the new addition of the Fluendo multimedia codecs is a huge step forward for Mandriva as a desktop operating system. For the first time ever, the default install is ready and able to play virtually any audio or video file on any medium, with the sole exception of DRM-encumbered files that cannot play without a special proprietary playback application or a separate license file. This is a huge advantage over other operating systems, which require users to download browser plugins, (sometimes illegal) codec packages, and unencumbered multimedia players, all of which generally require the establishment of unsanctioned proprietary software repositories in their package managers. In its default condition, Mandriva PowerPack 2008.0 is able to work with more multimedia content than OS X 10.4 and Windows Vista. It’s what Linux users and disgruntled Apple and Microsoft users have been secretly requesting for years.

So 2008.0, despite its little flaws here and there (and ignoring KDE4, Compiz Fusion, and Metisse), is an excellent release, but it does not prove Mandriva’s consistency. For as good as 2008.0 is, 2007.1 was a real stinker. And for as good as 2007.0 was, 2006 was a dud. You cannot confidently upgrade Mandriva Linux from one version to the next, knowing that you will get all of the same services, features, extras, and release quality that you are accustomed to. Each new release is a gamble. This, among other things, has to change if Mandriva expects to see a wider userbase in the future. Here’s exactly what I’d like to see in 2008.1:

Better release testing. In every Mandriva review I’ve written over the past year or two, I list “better release testing” as the top issue that needs to be addressed. In this case, the stupid bugs that should have been found and corrected are the French switchover in the post-install configuration utility, ACPI problems for upgraders, and the tendency of Beagle to usurp system resources without warning (or any way to reasonably disable it in GNOME). This is only what I found after a few days of testing on two machines. What would I have found if I’d had more hardware and time to test with? The same things that the release engineers should have found and fixed during beta testing — that’s what.

Premium download options for subscribers and paying customers. Whether you buy a single copy or pay for a year’s subscription, you should be entitled to fast ISO downloads. openSUSE and Ubuntu are free of charge, and they offer insanely fast download links. Why can’t Mandriva, with people paying money for PowerPack edition, offer the same?

Mirrors that work. Mandriva’s package repository mirrors get overloaded, are improperly seeded, or are out of sync after every new release. Mandriva doesn’t provide its own package repositories — you have to rely on other servers around the world to get the software you paid for. I don’t know if Mandriva pays for these mirrors or not; if so, then it needs to find other, more reliable service providers. If Mandriva is not paying for these mirrors, then what on earth is it doing with subscription and sales income? What are Mandriva’s customers paying for, if not reliable package mirrors? Granted, this is not as bad as it was with 2007.1, but it’s still not as good as it should be. Again I’ll point to the general reliability of openSUSE’s repository mirrors. PowerPack users deserve dedicated, fast, up-to-date, flawless package repositories. Leave the crappy third-party mirrors for the Free edition users.

Handheld device support. I can’t connect my (modern, USB-equipped) PocketPC or Palm handheld devices to Mandriva. It’s not a big problem for me because I use my Palm Z22 for task tracking and appointments, and my workstation for email and contacts. I should be able to synchronize the two devices without any trouble, though. I’d like to see a standard, operational program for this task — not a handful of potentially available applications that either don’t work or work unpredictably.

Forget about the fancy special effects. XGL, AIGLX, Compiz Fusion, and Metisse are a total waste of time for developers and users alike. These technologies are not — and may never be — stable enough to rely on for everyday desktop computing, and serve no useful purpose. They ruin functionality with 3D games and screen savers, cause crashes and performance issues, require video drivers that may not work correctly, and in general do not make anyone’s life easier. Get rid of them until they’re proven to be as reliable as Kwin and Metacity and other standard parts of the graphical environment.

If these issues are at least partially addressed without removing any necessary desktop features (as was done in 2007.1) or taking any risks on including unstable software, then Mandriva can begin to build a reputation for consistency of release quality, which it has never enjoyed in the past.

Linus Torvalds has announced the immediate availability of the first release candidate of Linux kernel 2.6.24 series: “This may count as one of the biggest -rc releases ever. It’s humongous. Usually the compressed -rc1 diffs are in the 3-5MB range, with occasional smaller ones, and the occasional ones that top 6M, but this one is *eleven* megs
The “hot stuff” in this release are the x86 merge, the scatter-gather changes to the block layer, some VM changes and some VFS layer changes. And, as usual, there are new drivers (for dvb, wired and wireless network, mmc etc.), a fair amount or architecture stuff, new filesystems, networking improvements and much more.

“So there’s just lots of new stuff. The diffstat is ten thousand lines long, and weighing in at comfortably over half a megabyte it is way over the limits of this - or any sane - mailing list. The shortlog is barely shorter, weighing in at “just” 8461 lines and almost 400k. The full changelog (which I’m still producing for y’all, since people told me they actually care last time I asked) is 4 megs.” - stated Linus Torvalds in the release announcement.

For a full change-log with all the new features, drivers and improvements, please click here. Beware though - it’s 4 MB long!

The Linux Kernel is the essential part of all Linux Distributions, responsible for resource allocation, low-level hardware interfaces, security, simple communications, and basic file system management.

Linux is a clone of the Unix operating system, initially written from scratch by Linus Torvalds, assisted by a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims to achieve POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.

You can get the 2.6.24 RC1 patch from here.