Mandriva 2009 RC 1 works!

Just wanted to let you know that I tested Mandriva 2009 RC1 (both gnome and kde), and so far it works great.
The KDE version is not too good for the One, it's very sluggish and I had problems with the internal mic and the SD card. The gnome version, however, is very fast and I was able to solve the intel mic problem.
The install is very simple (live CD), the wifi is detected and works nicely, and pretty much everything else works as in Ubuntu with the respect for hardware support (SD not hot swappable, issues with sound after suspend, more battery used, etc.). But overall, it's a great alternative for those who do not want to bother to make Ubuntu work.

One of the advantages over other Linux distros is that it has a really nice hardware manager, and various nice configuration tools. However, the software repository is not as big as Ubuntu, which means that you will have to install some programs manually.

 

Excellent! Thanks for the information, radu, I have been wondering if buying the aspire one is a wrong discussion, because Eee PC can almost install all kind of distu., if Mandriva works, i will rather install Mandriva, the only thing is want to confirm is if "all" the hard ware works properly(the SD expansion slot?), and will it lower the using time of bettery, it the funtion keys ok? for example, dimmer the screen

 

Ok, I did more tests:
1. Both SD slots work, if the sd card was there at reboot OR at coming back from suspend.
2. Suspend/unsuspend works fine, no trouble detected (Ubuntu killed the sound or the mic, Mandriva Gnome version doesn't).
3. Boot time about 1 minute, but I guess some optimizations can be made.
4. I didn't test the battery life (I have the 6 cell battery and takes along time to discharge it).

 

Oh, and the dim screen function keys work, but I think that maybe be a BIOS thing and might work in whatever distribution/OS.

 

Ok, I did a battery test (6 cell battery, SDD).
With Wifi on, lid closed most of the time (for about 4 hours), listening to BBC radio, the battery lasted for a little over 5 hours. Strangly, the power history didn't show any decrease in power usage when the lid was closed, even though the screen was off..
I'll try to investigate this issue a little more and see if there is a problem with the lid closing detection or something.

 

urks... i installed it, and seems to work out of the box (sd cards only when installed during boot thoug, but think we can live with that)...

during exploration of the system i was curious bout the 3d effects and did activate them.
since then (think that was the only config i altered), the system is busy bout 1 min after boot, so i cant do anything...

could anybody pls post, which file this setting is stored in and which params have to be set to have an deactivated 3d mode? (safe mode (bash) is working)

thx in advance
(id also reinstall it, but it took bout 5 hours(!) on my 8gb-ssd-version -.-)

 

But does it start 1 minute after to boot, or it gets locked up?
Which version did you install? I installed from the live CD (I also have the 8GB SSD), and it took less than half an hour to instal.

 

im at work right now, think it was called one(so i assume live cd)2009rc5

the duration is sadly what i expect as "normal" on my one (think i got the slow ssd, also debian installation needs way more than 2 hours).

it is booting and starting x.
i can "work" normally, wlan working, sd cards working, sound...
bout 1 minute after that i got the blue circles round the mouse pointer and nothing more is working...

i allready tried to install xfce4 to get around the 3d, but had no chance getting it down within this minute (its of course not exactly one minute, bout round about).
its also indipendant from what i am doing or wether i do anything at all.

it did work right after install... the only (afair) major change i did was to activate this 3d-thing (damned curiosity). so i assume, i would only have to find the config file and replace it.

many thx for ur help

 

Ok, just making sure you didn't try the DVD version which is bigger.
The install time is very unusual.. did you install it from CD or USB?

I think there is a boot option to start Mandriva in safe mode, not sure what it does, maybe it doesn't load X? That way you'd have more time to look at the configuration settings and stuff.

 

via usb-cd
ill try usb-stick next time, but as it was also debian (net inst) which took so long, i really think, it is the ssd.

yes, safe mode is working, but im kinda linux noob (but i want to learn, so i do a lot of experiments withs different distries, mods etc), so i dont know:
* which file
* in which path
* where to deactivate 3d
(or simply delete the file, so the defaults shuold be loaded?)

the first 2 are the important ones, the rest shoould be possible to find out by logic ,)

thx in advance

in worst case ill run a reinstall (during the night(!) (im not even sure how long it really took, it was ~4 hours when i went to bed ,/ )

 

I don't know the answer to that either, I guess the best thing to do for now is reinstall.
I also installed mine from USB CD, and i think I have the Intel (slow) SSD, so I am not sure why you have such terrible instal times. How long did it take you to get to the desktop when using the live cd?

 

this is ok, takes bout 1-2 mins, which is a fair time for a live i think


edit: still have 512mb ram

 

Hey Guys!!!

Mandriva just announced a Netbook distribution, are we talking about the same? or this announcement is for something not released yet.

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/22265 ... x-netbooks

 

This is the standard Mandriva 2009, I am not sure about the details regarding the netbook version, I guess it will be available in the future.

 

I been looking, but still no luck, I hope they release it soon, I'm going to try it.