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Mandrake 7.2 Beta (Ulysses) Released
dclatfel writes "Just wanted to let everyone know that the latest beta of
Mandrake for Intel is up - 7.2 Beta - and it's called
Ulysses. (Now where is that Golden Fleece?)" They've got notes regarding it as well - KDE 2 Beta 4, and Gnome 1.2, as well as XFree86 4.01 as the default X server.
First, it's questionable that Debian isn't doing right. It releases very stable and its unstable is fairly uptodate.
If a package is being too slowly maintained, any maintner can offer to NMU it or take over the packaging. As for X, according to Branden Robinson, the only he's the maintainer is because he's the only one who wanted the trouble. If you want X4, then download the debs (see www.debian.org/~branden) and help bug-test them.
Frankly, considering how beta I've heard XFree86 4 is, I'm surprised by the number of distributions shipping it.
Isn't that the idea behind Storm?
"What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is"
Vidi, Vici, Veni
That depends. -mcpu=blah will produce code optimized for blah but that will run on any i386. -march=blah, on the other hand, will produce code that only runs on blah. I believe Mandrake uses the latter (and other optimizations, like -ffast-math and -funroll-all-loops).
No. You can do either. -mcpu produces the above behavior, but march produces code that will only run on that processor. Mandrake uses the latter.
Don't use the font server. XFree 4 can support everything natively --- just set the fontpath yourself in the config file.
My experience with 2.2.17 can be summed up as following:
do_try_to_free_pages failed()
do_try_to_free_pages failed()
do_try_to_free_pages failed()
do_try_to_free_pages failed()
do_try_to_free_pages failed()
do_try_to_free_pages failed()
*Kill random app*
do_try_to_free_pages failed()
do_try_to_free_pages failed()
do_try_to_free_pages failed()
do_try_to_free_pages failed()
do_try_to_free_pages failed()
do_try_to_free_pages failed()
*Kill random app*
Rinse, lather, repeat.
Mandrake and Redhat are no longer related. Mandrake just happens to be the most current of all the linux distributions I've seen. Most of the beta testing is done by people who set up cron jobs to download the source and compile every night I'd imagine. :)
suse supports it too since 6.4, but I havent tried it...
//rdj
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
Exactly how much extra performance do those optimizations offer? From a multimedia software performance POV? I've heard that non-Pentium optimized code runs only about 70% as fast as Pentium optimized code on the Pentium. Also, I know that the i686 architecture has several quirks and speed-ups, and I don't know if most Linux distros really take full advantage of my system. Does compiling for i386 exact a peformance hit on Pentiums, and if so, why the hell do it?
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
This could be offtopic, but seeing this kind of progress in Mandrake makes me wonder what Debian isn't doing right?
While I don't particularly like the high level of tweaking performed by Mandrake, I have to give them one thing: they're right on the bleeding edge of technology, plowing through new barriers and actually *releasing* their distro.
This would be a huge challenge for the Debian swarm to pull off, even with their new proposed release scheme. It seems to me Debian gets too bogged down in bureaucracy, hindering their ability to actually get things released.
Perhaps some form of competition within the Debian group could be in order. If a package is being too slowly maintained, someone else could get the chance to pick up the pace?
Meanwhile, (ho hum) I guess we virtual community freaks will just keep on manually installing our own XFree86 4.01 until Debian gets into this millenium -- or ultimately break down and start using Mandrake.
My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!
I just hope that the install goes well here. I've tried to install Mandrake 7.1 on 6 systems multiple times -- it worked twice. It has major SCSI problems. The guys at mandrake were no help, they basically "bolfed" it. But I sure do love it when it installs well!
Mike Roberto
- GAIM: MicroBerto
Berto
I've had the best results starting with the medium security level, and turning off the unnecessary services by hand. (At the very least, 'shell' and 'login' services were disabled heh.) Paranoid and High aren't really meant for interactive use, but if you're going to run a server you don't want just anyone logging into your system and running whatever anyway.
I find if you choose the packages properly, MDK is a very secure distribution and quite stable. New versions of software tend to fix security issues, and being a security nut (sometimes a bit overboard) myself I prefer starting with a more recent set of tools.
GPL: Free as in will
> Does compiling for i386 exact a peformance hit on Pentiums, and if so, why the hell do it?
Basically, compiling a program for i386 won't DECREASE the performance on the Pentium (vs the i386); but the same executable will be able to run on a Pentium and on a 80386. (that's the advantage of compiling for i386). Now, the downside: when compiling for i386 instead of Pentiums, you don't use the new instructions of the Pentium chips (that are not present on i386). These new instructions (which can optimize some part of you code by allowing your compiler to use some new assembly instructions) will make the code faster since they have been optimized in the hardware.
Mario.
*sigh* And yet MORE fud.
Mandrake is *not* Redhat simply because it uses rpms. That's like saying Corel is Debian because it uses debs.
Really? I bet I can teach a totaly newbie to install updated EAX drivers faster than you can teach them to install ALSA! I bet I teach that same person to install the Windows Detonator3 drivers much faster than you can teach them to dl the RPMS, bull with the .so files, and edit XF86Config to get them working. I can install my scanner faster in Windows (just put in the disc when it asks) Of course they're both about as easy to USE, but that's because KDE is so similar to Windows. The problem comes when you don't have an IT staff behind you to help you do things like add hardware or reconfigure something. It is pretty easy to walk someone through an install of DSL and NAT on Windows. Would you really want to do the same on Linux? As far as I can tell, going from dialup to DSL requires a little bit of CLI, and NAT absolutely requires CLI.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
7.1 has offers different levels of security on install (which changes things like directory permissions, among others)
I believe the security options are similar to:
a) Welcome Crackers
b) Low Security
c) Medium Security
d) High Security
e) Paranoid
With my Mandrake 7.0 install, I chose 'Paranoid' because, well, I'm extremely paranoid about security.
This caused no end of trouble for me because of the ultra-restrictive directory permissions it slapped on everything. For months (as a nonprivileged user) I ran into programs I couldn't run, global application config files I couldn't read, and devices I couldn't access. I finally got most everything straightened out, but I still run into an occasional glitch because of the settings.
Things may have improved since 7.0, but I would caution you that this may happen if you choose 'paranoid'. I'm choosing 'high' when I install 7.2.
Otherwise, I've found it to be quite stable, and yes, a bit bloated.
I would describe Mandrake as a heavily tweaked desktop distribution that installs the latest bleeding-edge versions of just about everything, including lots of applications you never knew existed.
I would never run Mandrake on a server. Bleeding edge + tons of unnecessary packages = security risk, IMO.
--
hang on... information wants to be free, right? the price of freedom is eternal vigilance? Does this imply that the price of information is eternal vigilance?
Window upgrade: $99
Mandrake 7.2 download: Eternal Vigilance
I think I'll wait till boxing day when it's marked down to "casual observation"
2 1337 4 u!
Somebody got their mythology wrong. Ulysses is the Roman name for Odysseus, the protagonist of the Odyssey, who had an epic journey around the Mediterranean after the Trojan War. The Golden Fleece was the object of Jason and the Argonauts.
Switch the . and the @ to email me.
I would definitely recommend Mandrake to anyone new to Linux. Sure, it isn't the most stable distribution, but compared to Windows, it's a rock. The installation is beautiful - and newbies feel comfortable with it. I've tried several distros (RedHat/Mandrake/Storm/Debian) and Mandrakes is the easiest to use by far. It's not the quickest, but it will get it up and going.
.debs - you just can't go wrong. No downloading RPMs to find you need *another* rpm. Debian's package management is definitely the easiest to master for the newbie.
My beef with it is the update system. It's confusing - and they often include things that can crump a system - like the kernel updates (rpms) that could munge a ReiserFS system. These kinds of things are not good - especially when the end user is a novice and expects these updates to work. Of course, updating a kernel by an rpm isn't the wisest thing to do, but newbies don't necessarilly know that.
What I would *love* to see a distro do is use Mandrake's installer with Debian's package management. I just installed Debian - and while the install wasn't terribly complicated - there were several annoyances that a newbie wouldn't be able to overcome - things like pnp configuration (automagic under mandrake) - X configuration (not as slick as Mandrakes - and I've had to modify some config files by hand) - and sound configuration. These are all relatively small obsticals for someone familiar with linux, but they are show-killers for newbies.
But - apt-get. Oh man, what a program! This is the killer app of Debian. Something isn't working? You see the error message - packageX is missing. Please install before running ProgramY. With apt-get and the
Hopefully, someone will mix the LM installer with the Debian package management - and _THAT_ will be the killer distro...
Linux - Because Mommy taught me to Share.
I recently tried out 2.4.0-test7 with the patch for Reiserfs 3.6.14, and it seemed to work fine.
I'll download the iso for 7.2 tomorrow and see what is there. In the meantime, if anybody knows what is really in 7.2 beta 1, please let us know. Like, which kernel 2.4.0-testX, is it really? And, which version of Reiserfs is supplied? For some benchmarks, test5 seems to be a temporary high water mark.
Isn't the whole idea of a distro to be a tailor made version of linux. If you want to run Linux on a i486 as a router then don't use Mandrake. Considering that the majority of people running Linux are running it on i686's, Mandrake has made a decision to capitilize on that. Distributions of Linux don't have to be flexible becuase there are 80 zillion of them. Just pick the right one for your needs.
The Information Revolution will be fought on the command line.