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Mandrake Releases 8.2 Beta
joestar writes: "As seen at Mandrake's website, Mandrake Linux 8.2 Beta seems to be available for download at different places. The new features include the ability to install a Mandrake as small as 65Mb on the HD, and encrypted file-system support. I guess it's the good time to report all bugs we don't want to see in the final version. Very promising release, worth a look at!"
option 1 is the best...
the site appears to be well on it's way to a slashdotting.
Here's the important info.
The look and feel of 'Mandrake Control Center' has been reworked with 'better ergonomy' in mind. If you do not like it, or do not find it clear, or such - say it now.
Several new features are available during the installation:
The ability to download and install updates after the packages installation.
Minimal installation mode, which installs nothing but the basic system. This installation mode leaves you with a functional linux installation taking only 65 MB on your HD.
Encrypted filesystem support.
In addition , there is a new rescue mode, with a help menu to automatically mount your old system, rewrite lilo and more.
New tools have been addded to the 'drakxtools' family:
Drakbackup helps you keep your data safe, and restore them if something goes wrong.
Scannerdrake helps you configure the scanner.
rfbdrake lets you easily perform a remote control of an X session. Helping your friends get started with linux has never been easier.
New file sharing function makes it simple to export local files.
Obviously, these new tools need a lot of testing. In particular, scannerdrake has only been on the little number of scanners we got in the lab...
Other tools have been reworked (bugfixes, ergonomy, additional functionality):
Diskdrake got support for encripted and network file systems
urpmi and its graphical interface, rpmdrake got a face lift: New 'synthesis file', is almost 100 times smaller than hdlist, which makes urpmi.update -a (reloading the urpmi/rpmdrake database) a pleasurable experience - even with a slow modem connection! Rpmdrake will also work faster, and handle 'exceptional' situations better than in ML 8.1.
MandrakeOnline got now the updates warning feature, i.e. it will warn you whenever you have to upgrade some package.
Finally, 'msec', is more powerfull than ever. Use with care: in paranoid mode, msec will let you happily secure your box from yourself now (been there, done that).
Of course you will also find all the newest versions of famous packages:
kernel 2.4.17, celebrating the comeback of kernel-secure, and a more robust supermount.
XFree86 4.2, with support for many video cards only supported in 3.3.6 version until now.
glibc 2.2.4
Window Maker 0.8
apache 1.3.22
evolution 1.01
kde 2.2.2
galeon 1.0
mozilla 0.9.7
Well. Have you, like I, had an ex-girlfriend who got all her personal files check out (and copied I'm sure) by "friends" who did that when she was in the bathroom/cooking/on the phone etc
That's why you have them. I archive lots of stuff that really are personal - I don't want others to be able to lay their hands on them. I have my computer on 24/7 and I want to be able to have friends stay there if they need to - even use my Internet connection - and still have my personal data safe.
Encrypted filesystems are great, all that's needed is to make them simpler to use - what's the point in having them if you mount them at boot and leave them open thereafter?
it's in my head
Ease of install, and massive autoconfiguration. Mandrake is probably the most newbie friendly linux distro available. During the install you answer questions that are easy to understand (similar to a windows install process), and Mandrake just does the rest from there. I have had Mandrake install drivers for several sound cards, network cards, and video cards that I could not get RedHat or slackware to recognize. It also has one of the slickest installs I have seen.
This of course can be pretty trying at times for more advanced Linux users. Mandrake defaults an install without telnet, ssh, or ftp servers, and a High Security firewall. Mandrake is geared more towards a workstation machine, so if you are looking to run a server you will have some work to do after the install.
Linux User #296508 Get Counted!
With the loop-aes kernel version-independant module, it's not hard to add encrypted loopback to any Linux.
The only PITA is that you have to compile a kernel without loopback built in the kernel or compiled as a module, but you don't have to patch the kernel or anything.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Unlike 99% of the other operating systems out there, Mandrake 8.2 actually included updates as part of the install process. When Joe User goes to install 8.2 six months from now after X number of holes have been found, it'll automatically bring the system up to the current patch level _before_ bringing the entire system online.
i have talked to people who had wonderful esperiences with mandrake, but i am not one of them. they do not answer their phone. it takes them a month to send you something you order online. they do not respond to email.
and my favorite part is that all of their manuals assume that x will run with the default install settings. all of the trouble shooting tips involve clicking a button on the desktop. so that's all pretty useless when all you have is a command prompt. i was lucky that when i tried to install 8.1, i was not afraid to do a lot of tweaking to the xf86config and hardware settings. then mandrake would attempt to "fix" my changes. so now there is no more mandrake for me. (switched to SuSE - their install is also super easy)
you probably shouldn't have read this.
2.96 has gotten a bad rap. I can't comment on that particular issue, but in most of the cases where people have complained about gcc 2.96 being buggy, it has actually been buggy code (that just happens to compile ok with another version of gcc). Check this out for details: http://www.bero.org/gcc296.html
Mandrake makes something called "Single Network Firewall". The latest one has a 2.2.19 kernel. I don't know when/if they plan to update it. As the name suggests, it is a firewall/router only dist of Mandrake. If I remember correclty the latest version is 7.2 and the ISO image is about 350 MB.
/.ed today and search for "Single Network Firewall" and you should find it.
go to Mandrake's site when they are done being
"the fax machine is nothing but a waffle iron with a phone attached to it." - Grandpa Simpson
I think most distros will install in a small footprint if you're careful and know what you're installing. I haven't tried Mandrake in a while so I can't comment there, but it's pretty easy to shoe-horn a RedHat 7.x release into about 80 megs.
/usr/share/doc will also save a surprising amount of disk space. With a bit of tweaking, it should be no problem to get *any* distro to run (and be useful!) in ~50 megs. Of course that depends on what your definition of "useful" is...
Obviously that's with no X, but that still includes apache + mysql + some other useful things. Manually tearing out
It's only software!
The problem with this is that esd is started only when GNOME/KDE start.
Not true. ESD is the Enlightenment sound daemon, therefore it only starts when Enlightenment does. Running esd under arts (kde's sound server) is as easy as typing artsdsp esd -trust. Pretty easy actually.
MandrakeForum has much of the same info (and hasn't been hammered yet).
First beta of Mandrake Linux 8.2 escaped!
And how I am supposed to report bug for this 8.2 beta 1?
Not to mention that it is also easy to keep updated with the Software manager - it will keep you updated on various security rpm updates. RH has something like this, but you have to be a paid user to use it.
No. For single computer, the RedHat software update service is free. However, for several your point is valid.
Everyone who makes generalizations should be shot.
I later found out that it wouldn't automount my CD-ROM or floppy
/boot and rerun lilo in order to have a bootable system. To be fair, the details of the update said not to use the tool, but to download the package, but the page it directed you to said to use the tool, so I did... :-)
This is a known problem, and is fixed in an update available either through the MandrakeUpdate tool, or in the updates dir of your favourite mirror site.
Beware, though, that if you do what I did and use the update tool to upgrade your kernel, you *will* have to fix some dangling symlinks in
Cheers,
Tim
It's official. Most of you are morons.
So.. other than XFree86 4.2, I've been using everything 'new' included in MDK 8.2 for about 1-2 months now. (using Debian testing/unstable). On the other hand, I'd have to give the Mandrake people a thumbs up for the increasingly rich-featured installer. Allowing newbies to set up crypto filesystems with no effort is a great idea.
Yes, indeed. They must be kernel patch-happy over at Mandrake because they do in fact have XFS available as of Mandrake 8.1. I'm using it on my computers now. Works great, as far as I can tell.
Before I switched to Mandrake 8.1, I was using RedHat 7.1 with the XFS install program from SGI. The thing I like about Mandrake is that XFS is already included. My XFS partition moved over to the new installation with no trouble.
Plus, they compile Samba with XFS support - so you can manipulate the ACLs from NT/2000/XP machines. (To do that with Red Hat, I had to recompile. No big deal, but I like having it taken care of.)