Mandrake Linux 8.2 is out!
by Tim Newell · in General Discussion · 03/18/2002 (10:10 pm) · 100 replies
If your looking for a good newbie linux distribution then I recommend Mandrake 8.2. Im currently trying to pull it down off an ftp...at the moment its been slashdotted so all the ftps are very busy.
-Tim aka Spock
-Tim aka Spock
#3
You can see a features list here
-Tim aka Spock
03/19/2002 (12:22 pm)
From their website:Quote:Encrypted filesystem, "Enterprise" kernel, completely redesigned Mandrake Control Center, Hot-plug of devices, 65 Mb minimal install, Rfbdrake, latest KDE and GNOME versions, task-oriented menus, completely rewritten MSec (Mandrake Security Levels)...
You can see a features list here
-Tim aka Spock
#4
03/19/2002 (3:09 pm)
Uh-oh, two debian torque users now. Now I really have to figure out why torque doesn't run on debian. :)
#5
Does it have anything to do with SDL? If so, I know the solution.
03/19/2002 (4:29 pm)
Torque doens't run on debian?Does it have anything to do with SDL? If so, I know the solution.
#6
03/19/2002 (5:39 pm)
What are the differences between the two ? I am not a linux user, and I am curious as to which one of these is the most popular.
#7
Debian is the sole remaining non-commercial Linux distro, as far as I know. Its maintained by a team of volunteers throughout the world. Mandrake is a commercial product and is geared for desktop use and for newcomers to linux. Mandrake is a nice distro but people who've been around the linux block a few times may prefer something else like Debian. I use Red Hat. :) Ultimately the choice of linux distro will not matter for Torque use, the fact that it doesn't work on Debian is just a current bug.
03/19/2002 (5:57 pm)
Torque crashes on startup on debian sid/woody (not 2.2), if it is dynamically linked. Not really sure what causes it, perhaps a bug in the dynamic loader but there might be some bad voodoo in torque.Debian is the sole remaining non-commercial Linux distro, as far as I know. Its maintained by a team of volunteers throughout the world. Mandrake is a commercial product and is geared for desktop use and for newcomers to linux. Mandrake is a nice distro but people who've been around the linux block a few times may prefer something else like Debian. I use Red Hat. :) Ultimately the choice of linux distro will not matter for Torque use, the fact that it doesn't work on Debian is just a current bug.
#8
Also The Kdevelop team screwed up torque development. In the lastest version of Kdevelop (the one that comes with mandrake 8.2) torque does not compile with it. It gives some strange error when it should be issuing a simple make command.
-Tim aka Spock
03/19/2002 (6:23 pm)
Torque doesn't work on Mandrake 8.2 either. After I finally got it installed and went to try out torque on it, it gives me a segmentation fault imediately and exits. running with -console prints nothing so its bailing out very early. Is this due to the 2.4.18 kernel or something else? Also The Kdevelop team screwed up torque development. In the lastest version of Kdevelop (the one that comes with mandrake 8.2) torque does not compile with it. It gives some strange error when it should be issuing a simple make command.
-Tim aka Spock
#9
03/19/2002 (6:43 pm)
Great. Today seems to be my day for bugs. I doubt that 2.4.18 would cause an immediate crash, although I haven't tried it yet. One simple test would be to put a dPrintf in main() in x86unixwindow to see if it is getting called. If its crashing before main, looks like we've got another case of the "debian/torque" disease. Ugh.
#10
As far as Debian being the only non-commercial distribution out there, that's not really true. There are a whole bunch of non-commercial distros that just aren't very popular. However, Debian is by far the most popular, and it sticks to certain principles which are set forth in its mission statement. check it out [url = http://www.debian.org] here[/url].
Anywho, Mandrake is an excellent beginner's intermediate distro. It tries to be very user-friendly, and it's really getting there now. It also likes to use some of the newest and coolest features. You will mostly likely have your latest hardware supported by Mandrake. They also sponsor a lot of opensource development projects (like KDE).
Debian is composed completely of volunteers. All the packages in the distribution are handled by maintainers. If there is no maintainer for a package, the package gets dropped. Debian seems to focus on always having a stable release, hence the stable tree doesn't always have the latest and greatest features. The whole thing is pretty cool, and it's impressive that it functions so well. I would say debian is more geared and intermediate to advanced users.
By far the coolest feature (and the reason I use it on my main machine) is the package management. One drawback of the rpm (redhat package management), which Mandrake uses is that it doesn't handle dependencies between packages too well. Debian seems to do an excellent job with their apt package manager.
All I have to do to update my machine to the latest packages is::
apt-get update; apt-get upgrade.
Anywho, I like both distros.
Tim:
You should list this problem you are having. Mandrake is using KDE3 beta 2 (I believe), so they are still working out the bugs. you can bother some of the developers on #kde on irc.openprojects.net. They're sometimes helpful.
03/19/2002 (6:50 pm)
I had some bad problems with the sdl that comes with debian. I had to download the source and compile those. If you want more info on that bug, (I don't know if it's related), the maintainer sent me this link: [url = http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2001/debian-devel-200110/msg00353.html] here [/url]As far as Debian being the only non-commercial distribution out there, that's not really true. There are a whole bunch of non-commercial distros that just aren't very popular. However, Debian is by far the most popular, and it sticks to certain principles which are set forth in its mission statement. check it out [url = http://www.debian.org] here[/url].
Anywho, Mandrake is an excellent beginner's intermediate distro. It tries to be very user-friendly, and it's really getting there now. It also likes to use some of the newest and coolest features. You will mostly likely have your latest hardware supported by Mandrake. They also sponsor a lot of opensource development projects (like KDE).
Debian is composed completely of volunteers. All the packages in the distribution are handled by maintainers. If there is no maintainer for a package, the package gets dropped. Debian seems to focus on always having a stable release, hence the stable tree doesn't always have the latest and greatest features. The whole thing is pretty cool, and it's impressive that it functions so well. I would say debian is more geared and intermediate to advanced users.
By far the coolest feature (and the reason I use it on my main machine) is the package management. One drawback of the rpm (redhat package management), which Mandrake uses is that it doesn't handle dependencies between packages too well. Debian seems to do an excellent job with their apt package manager.
All I have to do to update my machine to the latest packages is::
apt-get update; apt-get upgrade.
Anywho, I like both distros.
Tim:
You should list this problem you are having. Mandrake is using KDE3 beta 2 (I believe), so they are still working out the bugs. you can bother some of the developers on #kde on irc.openprojects.net. They're sometimes helpful.
#11
Tim, it might be a few days before I can look into the mdk 8.2 problem. The download servers are hammered right now (too bad being a member of the "mandrake club" doesn't get you priority download access for the iso images).
On one hand I hope the mdk problem is the same as the debian problem, so that fixing it cures both. On the other hand I hope its not, since its a tough bug. :)
03/19/2002 (8:38 pm)
Yacine, you are correct, debian isn't the only non commercial distribution, its just "the big one". Brain fart on my part there. Anyway I don't think the debian torque problems are related to SDL, since even the dedicated server crashes.Tim, it might be a few days before I can look into the mdk 8.2 problem. The download servers are hammered right now (too bad being a member of the "mandrake club" doesn't get you priority download access for the iso images).
On one hand I hope the mdk problem is the same as the debian problem, so that fixing it cures both. On the other hand I hope its not, since its a tough bug. :)
#12
In a couple weeks I'll be free from school, and I will finally purchase Torque because I'll have time to play with it. If you want I can test it out for you on debian, and Mandrake.
03/19/2002 (9:16 pm)
Hehe, no worries.In a couple weeks I'll be free from school, and I will finally purchase Torque because I'll have time to play with it. If you want I can test it out for you on debian, and Mandrake.
#13
I'll try out that print statement and see if that happens and post it here. I got so mad at it today I almost reformed that harddrive into a fat32 partition.
Edit: I just tried getting back into linux and it wont start xfree86 complaining about the nvidia driver....it pushed me over the edge... You may be able to test this before I do. I've lost all faith in linux being an alternative to windows. Linux should have the BSD demon as a mascot cause I feel like a demon is inside my computer screwing everything up.
-Tim aka Spock
03/19/2002 (9:58 pm)
You can choose to use KDE 3.0 but I had KDE 2.2 installed....I use gnome anyway..only reason I have KDE installed is for KDevelop (since it needs KDE's libs).I'll try out that print statement and see if that happens and post it here. I got so mad at it today I almost reformed that harddrive into a fat32 partition.
Edit: I just tried getting back into linux and it wont start xfree86 complaining about the nvidia driver....it pushed me over the edge... You may be able to test this before I do. I've lost all faith in linux being an alternative to windows. Linux should have the BSD demon as a mascot cause I feel like a demon is inside my computer screwing everything up.
-Tim aka Spock
#14
03/19/2002 (10:41 pm)
Ah, another happy user. :) Sounds like you've had a bad day. I'll check it out when the download servers get a little less busy.
#15
If you don't want to post your nvidia problem (I don't mind at all if you want to, btw), you can try the #nvidia channel on irc.openproject.net. There's usually a good bunch of knowledgeable people hanging out there.
By the way, you guys should check out it the Linux Gamer's FAQ. Sorry if you already know about this. Somewhere in there there's a bunch of stuff on the nvidia card. There's this small script (nv_check.sh) which can run some checks on your nvidia driver install. Also, you might want to check the nvidia website. New drivers came out last week. Last time I checked, they had about 12 different versions for different versions of a mandrake install. pretty cool.
As for the iso, I am having such a hard time downloading it. All the servers are packed, or don't have the iso.
03/19/2002 (11:39 pm)
Oh no. We're losing him. Tim, don't give up. What error message are you getting with the nvidia driver? the new Mandrake actually comes with the new nvidia drivers now, right?If you don't want to post your nvidia problem (I don't mind at all if you want to, btw), you can try the #nvidia channel on irc.openproject.net. There's usually a good bunch of knowledgeable people hanging out there.
By the way, you guys should check out it the Linux Gamer's FAQ. Sorry if you already know about this. Somewhere in there there's a bunch of stuff on the nvidia card. There's this small script (nv_check.sh) which can run some checks on your nvidia driver install. Also, you might want to check the nvidia website. New drivers came out last week. Last time I checked, they had about 12 different versions for different versions of a mandrake install. pretty cool.
As for the iso, I am having such a hard time downloading it. All the servers are packed, or don't have the iso.
#16
I guess I got lucky downloading the ISO....I stayed at mandrakes website and kept going back to refresh the downloads so different FTPs would show up..I finally found one that wasnt busy.
Edit: I put a dPrintf at the very beginning of main() and it never printed. Would it help any if I gave you the out put of a strace?
-Tim aka Spock
03/20/2002 (1:23 am)
I sat down watched a late night movie..the movie was so strange and made no sense at all but it cleared my head. I looked on the net and someone else had the same error as me and someone told them that they had not installed the Kernel. I thought right away this can't be my problem cause I installed it. Then I got to thinking and went and downloaded the install docs for the driver and took another look (I didnt follow them this last time cause I have installed those drivers enough to do it by memory) after looking my suspicion was true. I did a "make" on the drivers and it aparantly made them work until I rebooted my pc. I went back and did a "make install" and now it is working again. I havent rebooted yet to see if that was the problem but Im almost positive it is. Now to test out those other problems...I guess I got lucky downloading the ISO....I stayed at mandrakes website and kept going back to refresh the downloads so different FTPs would show up..I finally found one that wasnt busy.
Edit: I put a dPrintf at the very beginning of main() and it never printed. Would it help any if I gave you the out put of a strace?
-Tim aka Spock
#17
03/20/2002 (3:26 pm)
Don't bother with the strace. Sounds like the same bug as debian. I'll check it out when the mandrake mirrors free up a bit.
#18
-Tim aka Spock
03/20/2002 (3:55 pm)
This is really one of the only serious bugs left, that I know of anyway, I wish I knew more about linux programming I would help you.-Tim aka Spock
#19
If you want to do this send me an email: jmquigs@bigfoot.com
03/21/2002 (11:33 am)
Tim, do you have dedicated internet access? Can I pull down the ISOs from your server overnight? I'm in San Francisco. Its just an idea, I can just wait instead, but I would like to look in to this soon.If you want to do this send me an email: jmquigs@bigfoot.com
#20
-Tim aka Spock
03/21/2002 (12:33 pm)
I would say yes except I no longer have the isos as I deleted them for space. You still have not found a useable ftp?-Tim aka Spock
Torque Owner Yacine Salmi
If you also enjoy Mandrake please try and purchase their distribution. They are currently running very short on cash. If you want them to keep producing good distros, go out and buy a copy to support them, or if you can't afford that, try and donate something like $10 on their website. You can even specify to what project you want your donation to go to.