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Mandrake 10.1 Community Released

MohammedSameer writes "Mandrakesoft released MandrakeLinux 10.1 Community, As usual it's only available first to the club members The new release features Kernel 2.6.8.1, Xorg-X11 6.7, KDE 3.2.3 with 3.3 as an install option,"

27 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. Does it matter? by poofyhairguy82 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    As usual it's only available first to the club members

    Does this actually matter? How many Madrake Users get their ISO's from Mandrake anyway? Torrents will probably have 10.1 within the day.

    1. Re:Does it matter? by Nos. · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I guess the thing is, if you like Mandrake, then become a club member, not so much to get first dibs on the ISO's, but to support Mandrake itself.
      Personally I don't use Mandrake (nothing against them), but there could be other benefits to being in the club.

  2. Club membership by Zorilla · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My experience has been that you really need to be an enthusiast of this distro to bother installing the Community version of it. For some reason, I ended up with the Comminity version of 10.0 when downloading it via BitTorrent, and boy did it need some work. KDE crashing every ten seconds, weird bugs like the SDL segfault when the wacom tablet module (evdev) was loaded, etc.

    Point being, don't try this out as a stable release. Only try it if you have time to kill and really want to see what Mandrake has done with their release this far. Otherwise, wait for the Official ISOs when they become availible to the public.

    --

    It would be cool if it didn't suck.
  3. Former MDK user... by Chuck+Bucket · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I started with MDK with 6.0 (*after my time with Red Hat 5.0*) and really loved it. After years of playing with it on the desktop and using it for an MP3 FTP server, I got tired of the RPM depenancy hell and I made the jump to Slackware. A few years of playing in Debian and now Gentoo, I feel I've learned a ton more than I did before, and with YUM and apt-rpm I think it may be time to install/try out this latest version on a sandbox for desktop testing.

    I used to enjoy seeing what they 'smoothed out' over the prev release. The MDK Club turned me off as Deno started getting stinky about support for 'non-users' but I understand they're just trying to make a dollar (or euro in their case).

    Regardless, nice to see a major Linux Distro still in the running.

    CCBB

    1. Re:Former MDK user... by opkool · · Score: 3, Insightful

      RPM dependency hell?

      You obviously never used urpmi. Probably, that old Mandrake had no urpmi.

      Think of urpmi as apt-get. And you get GUI and text-based front-ends.

      urpmi is native to Mandrake, and this is a big reason to use Mandrake.

      See http://www.urpmi.org for more information.

      Also, MDK lately comes all compiled with the prelink option, and with i586 optimization.

      Peace!

  4. No longer a fan of 'traditional' distros by tod_miller · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I would like to see a partial distro, a yoper like base, less packages, more configuration.

    Then a hole chunk (SuSE like) impors of packages. All required development for simple confmakemakeinstall's and perhaps simple walk throughs for these common actions. For newbies trying to get onto the bandwagon, this would be a diamond!

    What was the thing you got stuck on at first? write it down, and think how you could solve it for another newbie.

    Out of interest Moore's Law finally buried?

    Ok enough shameless plug, it was for a good cause.

    --
    #hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
  5. acpi support for laptops? by tongue · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ok, I see that improved laptop support is one of the touted features here. My question is, how good is it?

    I just switched back to windows (rather painlessly, thanks to the excellent QtParted and, strangely enough, a windows ME boot disk [for an XP machine--needed to restore the MBR]). I can't tell you how greatly it pains me to do so--as far as i'm concerned, linux is ready for the desktop, and has been for some time. ACPI-based laptops though, are another story. I've been trying for weeks to get my battery life to come close to what's possible under windows, and while the Software suspend project seems to work for a lot of people, i could never get it to work on my laptop (or maybe just my kernel). I've tried various distributions, from suse to xandros to straight debian to knoppix and even the simpler ones such as DSL and none of them allow me to really use my laptop for more than about an hour (give or take a quarter) without plugging in, which is just unacceptable for my purposes.

    So i finally gave up and dropped the linux partitions and reinstalled the boot sector (oh how that final 'fdisk /mbr' pained me!) but at least i can spend three and a half hours at a coffee shop without needing an outlet. cygwin takes the edge off, but its a bit like methadone if you asked me.

    so anyway, for anyone who's tested and/or used the new version of MDK on a recent laptop, what's your experience with the ACPI support? Battery life? Suspend functionality? dare i ask--functional keys? (yes, i know that's not really related to acpi, but mandrake is generally pretty conscientious about things like that, i thought perhaps they might have integrated a solution.)

    1. Re:acpi support for laptops? by chundo · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I've got Mandrake 9.2 running on my Dell Inspiron 8600. Works great. A couple things I had to tweak though:
      • It screwed up the acpi detection on install, so I had to manually add "acpi=on" to my lilo.conf
      • Installed acpid to capture events from my hardware buttons / functional keys. All buttons work for me.
      • Althought suspending to RAM (sleep mode 1) works, it didn't shutoff my screen or backlight before doing so. I had to write a custom script to do that.
      • Suspend to disk doesn't work for me. At all. Didn't spend much time on it though since it's not a big deal for me.
      • Installed cpudynd to manage CPU power consumption. My laptop easily lasts 3-4 hours on one battery, with WiFi.
  6. Also, let's not forget to thank Texstar... by Chuck+Bucket · · Score: 4, Informative

    One of the best resources in the Mandrake community has been an individual called Texstar who ran a Linux news site called www.pclinuxonline.com and also in his spare time created RPM packages for Mandrake systems. Texstar's packages became justly famous and were widely used. Thanks to his efforts, many reallly nice RPMs were made available to the MDK commmunity, and eventually went into 9 and 10 from what I've heard. This kind of 'community support' is what I'm most happy with.

    Thanks Texstar!

    CB@#$

  7. Community vs. Official by Linzer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've been running the development version for a little time now, and AFAICS all show-stopper bugs have been properly squashed by now. It has been running quite smoothly for a few weeks now. However, as parent says: don't use it if you want something rock solid, wait for 10.1 Official. But if you want all the shiny brand new stuff, a streamlined install with an excellent hardware detection, and are not afraid of a few weird things happening now and then, then give it a try!

    --
    Gravitation is a theory, not a fact.
  8. It has the potential to be THE distro for laptop by gsasha · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If their claims hold water, that is...
    1. Centrino wireless support integrated, Wi-Fi roaming.
    2. ACPI support - finally! I'm sick with rebooting the laptop.
    But, good as it sounds, I'm still waiting for the Official.

  9. 2.6 kernel may blow away NTFS. by jlseagull · · Score: 5, Informative

    This problem is common with the 2.6 kernel and has been verified in Mandrake 10.0 Community, Red Hat FC1, Red Hat FC2, and others.

    Read about it here.

    Basically, if you touch the MBR with a 2.6 kernel bootloader, XP or Windows 2000 is gone, and can't be restored. So backup your MBR first by using

    "dd if=(input device) of=/(output dir)/hda-img.mbr bs=512 count=1"

    where if=(input device), should point to your first drive, eg. /dev/hda, and of=(output dir) should point to where you want to save the bootsector as a file. Restore the MBR by reversing the input and output.

    Even if you do this to restore, your Windows partition may still be toast, depending on how much you messed with the partition table.

    --
    'Be always mindful, even when ditch-digging.' --D. T. Suzuki
    1. Re:2.6 kernel may blow away NTFS. by Dot.Com.CEO · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This is most definitely NOT a problem with the 2.6 kernel since things work fine on both gentoo and Suse with a 2.6 kernel. It is most likely a problem with the implementation of grub or lilo in these distros. And, in my opinion, it is totally unacceptable.

      --
      Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
    2. Re:2.6 kernel may blow away NTFS. by egghat · · Score: 3, Informative

      If I understand things correctly, you shouldn't be hit by this bug any more especially with a new distro like the new Mandrake.

      Read more about this here, especially about resolving this when you have been hit (you won't lose any data):

      Fedora Mailing List post

      Bye egghat.

      --
      -- "As a human being I claim the right to be widely inconsistent", John Peel
    3. Re:2.6 kernel may blow away NTFS. by hitmark · · Score: 4, Informative

      oh man, not this old story again.

      what happend was that the bios didnt agree with itself if it should use chf or lba mode to set the gemoetry of the disk. windows relys on the bios info when it creates the partitions. then along comes the linux kernel, pokes the disk directly, finds that the geometry info used to create the partitions is wrong and goes about cleaning up. then windows comes back and finds non of the info it expects and in good old windows fashion trows its virtual arms in the air and gives up. the files are all there, the partitions are all there, its just that the partition table isnt of the type windows expects and therefor windows fails.

      its just like ripping a disk with win2k or later on and stick it into a diffrent computer. on boot you will most likely get a bluescreen with a error as windows rely on its old hardware list to boot drivers, and when said drivers fail there is no fallback. linux on the other hand build the list every time it boots and therefor will not have mutch of a problem with the move.

      complaining that this is a linux error is like complaining that there is something wrong with firefox when you try to access a page designed with ms frontpage. most likley a visit to the w3c validator will show so many error that you will be surprised that it renders at all.

      the problem is that windows have become so mutch a "standard" that when something goes wrong it have to be the odd boy out there is the problem, not the devil in drag down the road.

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
  10. Re:Gentoo by avelldiroll · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Those two are pretty different : Mandrake is designed for the newcommer or someone who want to install a system in less than 30 minutes without being bothered by hardware problems (autodetection wizard). The obtained system is quite rigid and require to enjoy GUI config tools (cause some of them cannot be bypassed). Gentoo is tailored by the user himself which results in a longer installation (can be up to 2 days) process, and a minimum of automatisation (some kind of autodetection but you are encouraged to avoid it), all this in order to get the system you want (ie most of the time faster than any precompiled distros). To compare distros with cars Mandrake would be an easy to drive automatic and Gentoo would be a custom car ...

    --
    *nix is userfriendly ... It's just selective about who is friends are ...
  11. Re:The Club by rusty0101 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It kind of depends upon whether you think supporting Mandrake is a good idea, and whether you think that the OS is worth paying someone to continue working on their favorite distribution.

    I have been a Club member in the past, and probably will be again. Asside from the default USB drivers not supporting the Via USB 2.0 chips, easily fixable by replacing the usb-uhci with huci-ohc (or something like that), I have had no significant problems with the 10.1rc1 package.

    If you think that it is worth purchasing, to the point where you would pick up a copy at your local computer superstore whenever they get around to carrying it, joining the club gets your money to the developers at a much higher percentage of what you spend.

    There are other advantages as well, which you can read on their web page if it really interests you. If not, then the above probably won't be of much interest either.

    -Rusty

    --
    You never know...
  12. I'm about to renew. by biendamon · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'd say club membership is worth it, if you happen to prefer Mandrake as your primary distro. I appreciate the dedicated mirrors for club members quite a bit. Makes patch times much faster.

    I also like the repositories for software that are available to club members. I have yet to find a piece of software out there that someone didn't turn into a Mandrake RPM, and the club mirrors seem to have it all. Sure, you can find them other places, too, but all in all it's nice to have everything in one place.

  13. YUM or apt-rpm? by kundor · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just use urpmi. Once you've setup your servers at http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/ it's a great solution, both the commandline version and the GUI tools.

  14. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  15. Re:Xorg-X11 6.7? by rusty0101 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Because it wasn't released until after the freeze on updates for this release of Mandrake perhaps?

    Just because something has a new version out doesn't mean that people putting together a distribution are going to alter the package contents to add it. Gnome 2.8 is out too. It's not in Mandrake 10.1 either. Why not? Because 2.8 was released yesterday (or this week) the freeze for 10.1 happened several weeks ago, about the time that 10.1Beta1 came out I am pretty sure.

    -Rusty

    --
    You never know...
  16. The issues have been fixed in the kernel by Sits · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is a cooker mailing list post refering to the bug being resolved.

  17. Re:Only available to club members? by Mike+Buddha · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, children, the GPL says you have to release source code to your USERS when you distribute binary code. That's how this isn't a violation of any licenses.

    --
    by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
  18. Mandrake Club by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    The first rule of Mandrake club is that you DO NOT TALK about Mandrake club.

  19. Mod parent down, it's basically spam. by biendamon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The site loadux.com is a pay service ($6.99) not actually associated with Mandrake. In other words, you pay them for something Mandrake will soon be releasing to everyone for free, and Mandrake gets nothing.

    You want the new Mandrake NOW NOW NOW? You've got six choices:

    1) Get a club membership. You get tons of apps prepackaged as Mandrake RPMs and dedicated mirrors, too.

    2) Make a friend with someone who already has a club membership. Nothing wrong with making copies of the CDs.

    3) Learn the art of patience, and wait for the general release.

    4) Download the current Cooker. It's gonna be essentially the same.

    5) Download the sources and compile it yourself. Pain in the butt, but no one ever said the GPL means they have to provide you binaries, only source.

    6) Pay these guys $6.99 to download the images from them. Please note: This option will automatically make you an asshat.

  20. Re:Financial situation? by opkool · · Score: 3, Informative

    See the results for yourself here.

    In short: MandrakeSoft is out of "Chapter 11" (March 30th - 2004: Mandrakesoft Exits Bankruptcy). MandrakeSoft is back making profit. MandrakeSoft shares are back being actively traded.

    Quoting latest report:
    ----
    During the third quarter of 2003/2004, Mandrakesoft produced a consolidated revenue of 1.50 M and a gross margin of 1.25 M, a respective increase of 39.1% and 66.7% compared with the same period of the previous fiscal year. The gross margin is the highest on record, and quarter by quarter there is an acceleration in its rate of growth (Q1 +29.8%, Q2 47.7%, Q3 +66.7%)

    During the quarter, the company registered an operating income of 0.17 M (0.04 per share) compared to an operating loss of 0.47 M during the same period of the previous fiscal year. The net income increased to 0.19M (0.04 per share) compared to a net loss of 0.37 M during the previous fiscal year.
    ----

    So it's all good.

    Peace!

  21. Re:Gentoo by opkool · · Score: 3, Informative

    The obtained system is quite rigid and require to enjoy GUI config tools (cause some of them cannot be bypassed)

    This is a false statement.

    All GUI config tools ("wizzards") can be bypassed... modifying text config files.

    Also, most of GUI config tools have a text-version as well.

    MandrakeLinux is also a good Linux distribution for those Linux old dogs (like myself) that do not need to prove "31337ness". I already have succesfully installed and used LFS and Slackware (last century, when it came in floppies).

    I do not need to endure the pain anymore. My time is more valuable than to missuse it wasting time in a 2-day install and 10-day configure. I just need to use any Linux distribution.

    Peace