Mandriva 2010 - First impressions :)

I am surprised theres no thread for 2010!

Anyways here are my first impressions; I have AOD150 with the 3-cell battery. I used Gnome one.

1. Install went smooth n quick.....about 6 minutes...mandriva installs faster than any distro imho
2. Ethernet, camera working.
3. Couldn't test wireless or SD card reader coz I've no sd cards or wifi around me
4. Downloaded skype 2.1 static from Skype website. Installed fine and works flawlessly
5. ALL Fn combo keys work! Didn't try sleep/hibernate though. Changing brightness, volume, muting/unmuting - all show OSD

Haven't tried the moblin stuff from mandriva yet as I feel it just changes the UI on mandriva.

Hope everything goes fine for all of you too!

 

Just gave Mandriva 2010.0 a try on my AAO 110L (8GByte SSD, 512MB RAM).
Installation went smoothly. There was no choice about file system so it installed with ext4 and 700MB swap. Hardware recognition was ok. Camera, mic and left card reader worked out of the box. For right card reader I had to apply the pciehp patch to /etc/rc.d/rc.local. Passing "pciehp.pciehp_force=1" as a kernel parameter at boot time did not work for me.
I got skype to work after killing pulse audio. Also VMware player 3.0 works after installing the devel kernel packages.
KDE runs very smoothly and responsive.
The only problem I found is the very poor 3D performance compared to Kunbuntu 9.10 or Suse 11.2. Supertuxkart and other games are hardly playable.

 

How did you install, USB or CD? If USB, how did you get it to work. I did it with my usb CD drive because I could not get Mandriva seeds to recognize my usb drives nor could I get a bootable stick from unetbootin. I need to get this bootable from usb stick.

Other than that, I like it. Everything there and seems to be working, both right and left USB ports and card readers are working on mine without tweaking. But I am trying to setup a triple boot with Linpus/Win7/Mandriva 2010 and am struggling with it. I could get the dual boot for Mandriva and Linpus, Mandriva and Win7, Linpus and Win7, but I just can't tie all 3 at once.

Sorry, anyways, yeah this new distro is good.

 

My solution to multibooting is to keep a separate boot partition (I've labelled it Boot) and manually edit Boot/grub/menu.lst as needed. It's crude, but this way I don't have to install the bootloader (and have it potentially mess my system up to the point where nothing boots) whenever I install a new distro.

 

Great; that is what I would like to do; in another thread which you posted on the usb stick I asked already: How to do that: what kind of editing do I have to do get it working: I have a samsung USB harddrive which gave three partitions: a backup 8GB partition for my SSD; another 8GB partition, which I want to use for Mandriva; a third partition keeps my data - pictures etc.
So a little how to, dear RockDoctor ,would help
Thanks

 

I started out with the default WinXP and the restore partition on my AOA150. Installed Fedora into two partitions; a 250MB partition for /boot (labelled "Boot"), and an 8GB partiton for everything else (labelled "Fedora", I then copied the contents of "Boot" to the /boot directory of the "Fedora" partition.

Here's an example stanza in menu.lst:
title Goddard LXDE i686 Nouveau (sda5)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz ro root=/dev/sda5
initrd /initrd

root (hd0,4) tells the boot loader where to look for the rest of what it needs to boot the system. (hd0,4) is the way my bootloader (grub-0.97) identifies the 5th partition on the first hard drive. Not sure how the system will identify your usb drive; it may depend on whether or not you boot from it or from your SSD.

kernel /vmlinuz ro root=/dev/sda5 tells the boot loader where to find the Linux kernel - the file named vmlinuz in the root of the partition identified by (hd0,4), and which partiton to use as the root of the filesystem - in this case /dev/sda5. /vmlinuz is a link to the current kernel that I update manually whenever I upgrade the kernel.

initrd /initrd is the initial ramdisk needed to complete the boot process - the file named initrd in the root of the partition identified by (hd0,4). /initrd is a link to the current initial ramdisk that I update manually whenever I upgrade the kernel.

Now, when I install another distro, I don't install a boot loader - I just give it its own partition. However, I do have to edit /grub/menu.lst in the "Boot" partition to create the appropriate stanza. If you're using grub2 as your bootloader, the first hard drive is hd1 rather than hd0, and there are helper scripts you should use to edit the configuration file.

 

This is great help, Rockdoctor. I hope that I will be able to follow all the instructions since I am not very experienced with Linux.
Once I have success I will report on it.
For the moment many thanks for your help.

 

So, I went a slightly different way:
1. I created a USB live stick from the One-Genom iso file and started it ;
2. made from there an installation on free space of my USB disk from Samsung;
3. then I booted from there and did all the updates and changes I wanted to see in software and appearence.

So, great success

I made a few tests and it seems everything is working fine (SD card recognition; playing mp3, mail, firefox, bluetooth) but one: I want to use twinkle as softphone but the micro is not working even with the newest version of pulseaudio.


However this is not my current problem:
My question is: Can I transfer the mandriva version, which I have now created on my Samsung USB drive, to my SSD and by doing this overwriting my present Fedora 11 installation, which I can any time restore from my backup..
eg is the command dd the right one?
However, once done so is the booting still intact which means by pressing the power button the netbook starts automatically from the SSD?

 

Glad everything is working.

dd has its uses, but I don't think this is one of them. If your SSD already has a separate boot partition set up (so that Fedora 11 is not on the same partition as /boot), I recommend using fsarchiver first to archive the Mandriva installation on the Samsung USB, then to unarchive it to the SSD. You'll need to tweak your menu.lst file, but it should work. If you don't have a separate boot partition on the SSD, just do a fresh install of Mandriva, then copy the contents of your home directory on the Samsung drive to the SSD (I'd just use tar for this).

 

Yes I have a boot partition on my SSD
I tried to archive and got the following:

Code:

[root@localhost winfried]# fsarchiver -A savefs /media/M-backup/MANDRIVA.fsa /dev/sdb5 /dev/sdb7
oper_save.c#975,filesystem_mount_partition(): partition [/dev/sdb5] has to be mounted with options [user_xattr,acl] in order to preserve all its attributes. you can use mount with option remount to do that.
oper_save.c#982,filesystem_mount_partition(): fsarchiver cannot continue, you can use option '-a' to ignore the mount options (xattr or acl may not be preserved)
removed /media/M-backup/MANDRIVA.fsa

Well, I tried also without the option -A and I tried the option -a; in both cases I got the reply that I should mount sdb5 as read only. However, how can I do that when I work with the system on sdb5?

I assume you meant the menu.lst in directory grub on the ssd or?

I tried to look into that menu.lst with gedit but I was told that I don't have the right permissions.
However, I understand that grub.conf, which is there as well has the same information; isn't it

At present it is

Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda2
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=0
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i586)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i586 ro root=/dev/sda2 rhgb quiet elevator=noop
	initrd /initrd-2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i586.img
title Fedora (2.6.30.10-105.2.4.fc11.i586)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.30.10-105.2.4.fc11.i586 ro root=/dev/sda2 rhgb quiet elevator=noop
	initrd /initrd-2.6.30.10-105.2.4.fc11.i586.img
title Fedora (2.6.30.10-105.fc11.i586)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.30.10-105.fc11.i586 ro root=/dev/sda2 rhgb quiet elevator=noop
	initrd /initrd-2.6.30.10-105.fc11.i586.img

For completeness I looked also in directory grub on the sdb5 and found that I can reach menu.lst there with gedit
I got the following:

Code:

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=2295272e-c84e-4fd2-90a6-52cef6680b83 resume=UUID=c1d37381-aede-4da7-b5f4-2d2e07eabcdb splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=2295272e-c84e-4fd2-90a6-52cef6680b83 resume=UUID=c1d37381-aede-4da7-b5f4-2d2e07eabcdb
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=2295272e-c84e-4fd2-90a6-52cef6680b83 failsafe
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Fedora (Leonidas)
root (hd1,0)
configfile /grub/menu.lst

title desktop586 2.6.31.5-1mnb
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.5-desktop586-1mnb BOOT_IMAGE=desktop586_2.6.31.5-1mnb root=UUID=2295272e-c84e-4fd2-90a6-52cef6680b83 resume=UUID=c1d37381-aede-4da7-b5f4-2d2e07eabcdb splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd-2.6.31.5-desktop586-1mnb.img

title desktop586 2.6.31.13-1mnb
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.13-desktop586-1mnb BOOT_IMAGE=desktop586_2.6.31.13-1mnb root=UUID=2295272e-c84e-4fd2-90a6-52cef6680b83 resume=UUID=c1d37381-aede-4da7-b5f4-2d2e07eabcdb splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd-2.6.31.13-desktop586-1mnb.img

I assume that after I successfully dearchive sdb5 to SSD that I have to bring in the content of the listing above concerning SDB5 or 7 into grub on my SSD boot partition?
Do I need to form partitions be fore I do the de-archiving equivalent to sdb5 and sdb7; I also would like to have a swap partition, which I don't have at present. I have Gparted to do the necessary
What do I have to change (I assume that you mean that with tweak) ; is there any tutorial for such changes?

SorryI don't want to bother you too much as newbee in this business. If you could refer me to a guidebook I would be more than happy to learn from there.
Thanks anyway for you reacting to my questions before since it helped me a lot to reach so far.

 

Fsarchive likes to work on an unmounted partition. I've never tried it on a mounted partition. You could install it in Fedora 11 on your SSD, then unmount the Mandriva partition and run fsarchive on it.

My bad - /boot/grub/menu.lst and /boot/grub/grub.conf. In Fedora, menu.lst is a symlink to grub.conf; some distros only have menu.lst. You need to be root to edit it.

If I'm understanding your question, the sequence of events is more-or-less as follows:
1. Boot Fedora 11 and install fsarchiver on the Fedora 11 partition
2. Boot your Mandriva installation on the USB hard drive and install fsarchiver on it.
3. Reboot Fedora 11.
4. Unmount your Mandriva partition and run fsarchive it. Be sure to store the archive someplace you can get at it!

Do not reformat or repartition your SSD until you
a) have a good fsarchive of your Mandriva installation
b) double-check that you've got a restorable image of the SSD in case something doesn't work as intended

5. Reboot your Mandriva installation on the USB hard drive.
6. Adjust the partitions on the SSD to your liking, (but don't mess with the boot partition)
7. Unarchive your Mandriva to the appropriate partition on the SSD.
8. Tweak /boot/grub/grub.conf on the SSD as appropriate to point to the appropriate vmlinuz and initrd files on the SSD
9. Mount the SSD partition containing your new Mandriva install and edit its /etc/fstab file to use your swap partition
10. Reboot (from the SSD) into Mandriva and experience the success

 

However, for the following actions I have problems:
When I am in Mandriva booted from the USB hard drive I have the SSD under media as "disk" . How do I "8. Tweak /boot/grub/grub.conf on the SSD as appropriate to point to the appropriate vmlinuz and initrd files on the SSD"
Is tweak a programme?
Anyway I do not find /boot/grub
I got the following:

Code:

[root@localhost /]# ls
bin/   dev/  home/    lib/   lost+found/  mnt/  proc/  sbin/  tmp/  var/
boot/  etc/  initrd/  live/  media/       opt/  root/  sys/   usr/
[root@localhost /]# cd media
[root@localhost media]# cd disk
[root@localhost disk]# ls
config-2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i586
config-2.6.30.10-105.2.4.fc11.i586
config-2.6.30.10-105.fc11.i586
efi/
elf-memtest86+-4.00
grub/  [color=#FF4000]Is this the correct directory?[/color]
initrd-2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i586.img
initrd-2.6.30.10-105.2.4.fc11.i586.img
initrd-2.6.30.10-105.fc11.i586.img
lost+found/
memtest86+-4.00
System.map-2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i586
System.map-2.6.30.10-105.2.4.fc11.i586
System.map-2.6.30.10-105.fc11.i586
vmlinuz-2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i586*
vmlinuz-2.6.30.10-105.2.4.fc11.i586*
vmlinuz-2.6.30.10-105.fc11.i586*
[root@localhost disk]# 

in waiting

 

When booted from the USB drive, if the SSD is referred to as /media/disk, then the grub.conf (or menu.lst) file that needs to be modified is /media/disk/boot/grub.conf (or /media/disk/boot/menu.lst). Post the contents of that file, and we can look at the changes that need to be made so that it should work when you boot of the SSD.

 

Here my grub.conf on the boot partition sda1.

Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda2
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=0
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i586)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i586 ro root=/dev/sda2 rhgb quiet elevator=noop
	initrd /initrd-2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i586.img
title Fedora (2.6.30.10-105.2.4.fc11.i586)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.30.10-105.2.4.fc11.i586 ro root=/dev/sda2 rhgb quiet elevator=noop
	initrd /initrd-2.6.30.10-105.2.4.fc11.i586.img
title Fedora (2.6.30.10-105.fc11.i586)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.30.10-105.fc11.i586 ro root=/dev/sda2 rhgb quiet elevator=noop
	initrd /initrd-2.6.30.10-105.fc11.i586.img

I assume that you need as well the menu.lst from the USB hard drive; here it is

Code:

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=2295272e-c84e-4fd2-90a6-52cef6680b83 resume=UUID=c1d37381-aede-4da7-b5f4-2d2e07eabcdb splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=2295272e-c84e-4fd2-90a6-52cef6680b83 resume=UUID=c1d37381-aede-4da7-b5f4-2d2e07eabcdb
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=2295272e-c84e-4fd2-90a6-52cef6680b83 failsafe
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

I made on SSD the partitions
sda2 as extended partition with logical partitions sda5 with the mandriva system files; sda6 SWAP and sda7 for home

I tried also to produce out of the two texts above a grub.conf: here it is

Code:

# grub.conf generated by winfried
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda5
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0
title linux
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=2295272e-c84e-4fd2-90a6-52cef6680b83 resume=UUID=c1d37381-aede-4da7-b5f4-2d2e07eabcdb splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=2295272e-c84e-4fd2-90a6-52cef6680b83 resume=UUID=c1d37381-aede-4da7-b5f4-2d2e07eabcdb
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=2295272e-c84e-4fd2-90a6-52cef6680b83 failsafe
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

However I got error: file not found

I used also the command blkid to obtain the UUIDs:

Code:

[root@localhost winfried]# blkid 
/dev/sdb5: UUID="2295272e-c84e-4fd2-90a6-52cef6680b83" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sdb6: UUID="c1d37381-aede-4da7-b5f4-2d2e07eabcdb" TYPE="swap" 
/dev/sda1: UUID="5dd97e6c-a4cb-4440-ae06-691e6da84f7a" TYPE="ext3" 
/dev/sda5: UUID="2295272e-c84e-4fd2-90a6-52cef6680b83" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda6: LABEL="SWAP" UUID="541f95b8-8d6f-4374-9e20-ea9e45f28fe3" TYPE="swap" 
/dev/sda7: LABEL="Data" UUID="20d1ce8b-2299-48cf-a834-61b9d84965f0" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="Fedora11" UUID="50FB-4E38" TYPE="vfat" 
/dev/sdb3: LABEL="M-backup" UUID="0be156ff-e52f-4b9d-8f6f-188a001dea1e" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sdb4: LABEL="JWGDATA" UUID="bc3d082f-6cff-4531-8629-3ad546aa3120" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sdb7: UUID="20d1ce8b-2299-48cf-a834-61b9d84965f0" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/mmcblk0p1: UUID="6207-CB1F" TYPE="vfat" 

By the way, when I dearchived the mandriva archive to the SSD partitions sda5 and sda7 I could not see them anymore on the file browser
I tried to unmount sda5, which Gparted marked as mounted. However a message occured, that umount failed.
Normally sda5 and sda7 should show up also under /media but they did not; only the SSD boot partition shows up.

Is it possible, that there is a conflict between the USB stick and the SSD, since the mountpoints and the UUIDs are the same for sda5,7 and sdb5,7 ?

 

[quoteIs it possible, that there is a conflict between the USB stick and the SSD, since the mountpoints and the UUIDs are the same for sda5,7 and sdb5,7 ?[/quote]
Possible. You could switch to device references (root=/dev/sda5 for the Mandriva partition, ) instead of using the UUID in the grub.conf file on your SSD.

I'm on my desktop PC right now, and I see that every stanza in my grub.conf file is similar to the following:

Code:

title Goddard LXDE x86_64 Nouveau (sda11)
  root (hd0,10)
  kernel /vmlinuz ro root=/dev/sda11  
  initrd /initrd

Note the root(hd0,10) line.

 

Thank you very much but it does not work; when I boot from the SSD I get as result : file not found error 15.
When I boot again from the USB drive I still have the problem, that I can not find the SSD, on which I dearchived the mandriva system. I see only the boot partition but not the rest of the SSD. I assume it is hidden behind root and home on the USB harddrive.
I assume the reason is that sdb5,7 and sda5,7 are mounted on the same mountpoint / and home.
I tried to introduce mount points in media. with the help of the computer configuration system of mandriva that worked fine just after the dearchiving.
However, when I rebooted after the failing boot from the SSD again from the USB hard drive they disappeared
I tried to mount and I got:

and umount says

I am puzzeled
When I try with Gparted to create a fresh SSD that is deleting sda5,sda6 ans sda7 I can delete sda6 and 7 but not 5

I am only able to delete sda5 with the help of cfdisk. More than strange
Maybe I should stop here and start with a fresh installation on the SSD. However, on the other hand it would be nice to follow the path we are trying since some weeks. I am eager to have success.

 

I just installed Mandriva 2010.1 on my desktop PC, but have used the same procedure on my Aspire One. Most of my computers (including my desktop PC and my Aspire One) have their own boot partitions with grub installed in the MBR of /dev/sda. This is my attempt to document the procedure I used to install Mandriva:

1. Download the iso file, mandriva-linux-one-2010-spring-rc2-GNOME-europe-americas-cdrom-i586.iso
2. Install the iso file onto a 1GB flash drive:
dd if=mandriva-linux-one-2010-spring-rc2-GNOME-europe-americas-cdrom-i586.iso of=/dev/sdg bs=4M
3. Boot the 1GB flash drive, enable wifi, configure display, play with it. I decided it's worth installing, so I continued...
4. Decided to install onto Mandriva into /dev/sda12, an existing partition I use to test new distros. I chose a custom partitioning scheme, formatting only /dev/sda12. I set up mount points for some of my existing Linux partitions in /mnt so that they would be mounted automatically. The basic installation process was appropriately uneventful.
5. When asked to install the bootloader, I installed it to the Mandriva partition, /dev/sda12
6. When I boot my PC from the HDD, I see the grub.conf file in the boot partition. That grub.conf file has a stanza I select to transfer control to Mandriva's bootloader on /dev/sda12. The boot partition's stanza look like this:
title Test (sda12)
rootnoverify (hd0,11)
chainloader +1
I use the same username for myself on all of my distros, and I ensure that I always have the same uid and gid. If the either the uid (as seen in /etc/passwd) and/or the gid (as seen in /etc/group) is incorrect; I edit those files as needed. I then
cd /home
chown -R <myuser>:<mygroup> <myuser>
to clean up file ownership. As this point, as myuser on Mandriva, I have access to all of myuser's files on any of the other partitions on my HDD. I just copy or symlink to what I need, and I'm good to go.

 

Thanks for this how to; in the meantime I played a little bit with mandriva on my samsung USB drive and I became sufficiantly convinced to load it permantly to my SSD. However I gave up to use the already installed version and started from the livestick.
All went well I needed with all the updates and one failing installation about 5 hours. Now its my production OS.

So, your how to is for my next installation; I have now Fedora13 on my samsung USB drive as well and will compare features.

With mandriva on the SSD I have the impression: it is by far slower than fedora11, which was my production OS, during the start up process.
However firefox is much faster.