My #1 Reason to Love OpenMandriva Lx

I want to start this post with a disclaimer: I am aware that all Linux distros have their pros and cons, and my purpose is not to berate any OS choice readers have made.  I simply want to share with you what happened to me recently, as I upgraded to OpenMandriva Lx 4.3.  This experience reminded me why, after all these years, I still love OpenMandriva.

A second point I'd like to clarify is that I am not discussing benchmarks, compilers, package managers or any other technical matters here.  To be honest, they go beyond my understanding: I am a non-technical Linux user.

I was running the rolling version of OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 and I realized that a major upgrade was available.  So, I decided to upgrade and here is where my story starts.

After a whooping number of packages had upgraded in a process that took like 45 minutes (I do not have a very fast connection), I booted into a soundless system: the computer said that there was no sound. I did not panic and visited the OpenMandriva forums.  There, I found a post that I should have read BEFORE attempting the upgrade.  In it, ben79 described all the steps to have a successful upgrade.

Of course, I had not followed any of the steps, so my system was operational, but erratic. And, although I could enable the sound easily following the post instructions, I decided to roll back and start over.

So, I put my old OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 back in, upgraded following the steps and this time I booted into a far better system.  I corrected the sound issue by installing the pulseaudio package from the repository and then started to configure the system.

That's where, inadvertently, I messed up again.  When I tried to configure the printer, I put a third party package and later discovered that cups refused to work.  Regardless of what I tried, the system would say that there was a bad descriptor and it was impossible to have the printer to work.

This problem took me to the OpenMandriva forums once again, where I posted my situation to the best of my abilities without expecting prompt help.  But I was wrong, the reply came fast as lightning from ben79, who did all his best to point me into what had gone wrong and, after trying several approaches with no success, I decided to start from scratch by rolling back again to version 4.2.

With a professional, friendly and polite demeanor, ben79 suggested me to use the rolling snapshot and pointed me to it, which definitely was going to save a lot of time.  Indeed, in a matter of 20 minutes after the download, I booted OpenMandriva Lx 4.3 with sound and with no printer problems!

You see, this is the number 1 reason why I still love OpenMandriva: its community members!  I thank all developers for their work and community for their eagerness to help others.  And thank you very much to you, ben79, for your politeness, patience, and willingness to help me!

  

Some Issues and Challenges

The excessive amount of work has kept me away from my blog, that's true.  However, the fact that my Linux distros have been performing beyond my expectations has also, in a way, stopped me from writing here.  

I mean... There's very little to write about when nothing breaks.

But then I noticed several problems:

1.  Insync and OpenMandriva Lx:

The upgrade to OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 removed my Insync client on my laptop.  I do not know what the problem was (a Python issue, maybe?).  I have not been able to make it come back.

2.  Insync and PCLinuxOS:

The update I applied yesterday produced the same problem with Insync that I had in OpenMandriva.  So, my laptop cannot sync files with Insync in PCLinuxOS, either. 

3.  Mesa updates and sound problems in Mageia 8:

This is something I have seen before in my desktops.  Four Mesa-related packages ask me to uninstall Steam, which I do not want to do, so I've been postponing such updates for a long time.

Then I noticed that VLC stopped working and that my repo database in MCC was acting weird, refusing to install certain tainted packages.  This led to mute audio in videos played with SMplayer, Mplayer, and Kplayer.

I decided to experiment with these because I need the audio in the desktop to work, so I installed the four Mesa-related files and, sure enough, Mageia got rid of Steam.

My year with Fedora helped me there.  Instead of using MCC, I opened Konsole and used DNF following these instructions from the Mageia Wiki:

 

• If nonfree or tainted repositories are desired, they can be activated using dnf config-manager as shown with this example for 64 bit system (replace x86_64 with i586 for 32 bit):
  

dnf config-manager --set-enabled mageia-x86_64-nonfree updates-x86_64-nonfree
dnf config-manager --set-enabled mageia-x86_64-tainted updates-x86_64-tainted

• 32-bit repositories are turned off by default on 64-bit x86. If you need them:
  

dnf config-manager --set-enabled mageia-i586 updates-i586

With that, after running dnf-update, I could get steam, vlc, ffmpeg, and other packages back.  This repaired the problem with video sound, but VLC is still not operational.

I'll try to fix this.  When I get some time.

 

 

It's Been 10 +1 Years Now!

Yesterday, Megatotoro gave me a present.  It was a funny T-shirt that I really liked:

Today, while I was wearing it, I realized that tomorrow is the anniversary of my blog.

So, after 11 years, I am still a Linux user.

Who would have thought?

My walk started almost by accident, with a modest Asus Eee PC with Xandros preinstalled (The legendary MiniMe!)  I never thought that such a humble machine with change the way I use computers in such a profound way.  

I was re-reading the first entry that I posted on this blog and a bitter-sweet wave of memories made me smile.  

So much has changed since then!

I listed there some programs that I do not use anymore... Frozen Bubble, for example.  How come I do not have that game any longer?  THAT cute game was the deciding factor in ditching Windows!

But the world changes and so do people.  New games come (Steam powered, he-he) and even the distros that I started using are different now.  Everything changes.

Yet, I am glad that I can rely on my Linux computers, just in the same way like the day I quit Windows.  Linux  has truly made my work easier and less worrisome... (Boy!  I've been online without an antivirus for 11 years!)

I should make the anniversary picture to decorate this entry.  Yes, I should. Something with a cake and clapping hands.  A celebration picture! (Or I could...)

HAPPY 11TH ANNIVERSARY, MANDRIVA LINUX CHRONICLES!!!

 

 

Two Nice Discoveries on PCLinuxOS 2021

Today I bought a wireless mouse.  Truth be told, I did it because, long ago, I had read that Linux had problems running such devices and I wanted to experiment.

I had booted my laptop with PCLinuxOS and, in my ignorance, I got ready to struggle with Bluetooth to configure it.  I placed the batteries and plugged in the USB connector.  That was all it took for PCLinuxOS to start using the device correctly, he, he.  No struggle whatsoever. 

Then I remembered that I could no longer type in Japanese using PCLinuxOS because iBus simply would not be displayed in the task bar (even after a correct installation of all the packages).  So, I decided to tinker a bit to see if I could get Japanese IME to function once again.

All I did was to go to the PCLOS control center, System, Manage localization and, once there, select iBus after choosing the language.  A message asked me to restart the session, so I logged out and back in.

But the iBus icon was not in the task bar.  I looked in the menu and found "run iBus," so I ran it.  Still, no icon in the task bar.

Then, I tried to type something in the menu search space and this was my input:

PCLINUXOSはやっぱり日本語を書くことができますよ。(Of course PCLINUXOS can write in Japanese.)

The problem was that, since there was no iBus icon showing, I could not disable the Japanese IME... until I found that, in the UIM configuration, the keys to toggle iBus are meta+space:

So, that was it.

I can now type in Japanese using PCLinuxOS again... Funny that I could have done it all this time, but I just did not know how to.

One is always learning!

A Week with Mageia 8: Two Success Stories

Mageia 8 was released not long ago and I installed it as soon as it was out.  However, I took a week to work with it and see how it plays with the other distros in my laptop.

I have a multi-boot system in which I always keep  4+ distros.  Before this new install, I had PCLinuxOS, OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 (my latest install), Elive 3, MX Linux (Patio Feo), and Mageia 7.  I logically wanted to upgrade Mageia 7 to 8.

Historically, this set up has meant several grub 2- related headaches: if I installed OpenMandriva after Mageia, Mageia would boot very slowly.  If, on the other hand, Mageia controlled the grub post installation, OpenMandriva would get a kernel panic.  As I lack technical knowledge, I could never fix those problems myself.

This time, I passed on the live version and decided to install the complete release, which I nostalgically call the PowerPack.  If I recall correctly, one cannot upgrade from a live version, so I chose "install" instead of "upgrade," which wipes out the root partition.  Still, I kept /home intact.  With this distro image, the install takes more time, but it was not bad. A plus is that the process has remained pretty much consistent all these years and this makes the installation a familiar path.

When everything was done, I rebooted and Mageia 8 took over grub control.  I booted this new release and all was working great: internet connection, desktop effects, sound, and screen edges. My personal settings were preserved, so I installed my preferred programs and the system was ready. Even Steam games were kept and working.

I restarted the laptop to see if Mageia gave the other distros a problem at boot.  Nothing!  All started normally!

So, the Mageia 8 install in the laptop was a major success.  But I had one more trial: I needed to repeat the process in my daughter's desktop, which also ran Mageia 7 live version.

This attempt implied two major risks.  The first one was that, unlike the laptop, my daughter's desktop has UEFI, which complicates matters and the system language must be Spanish.  Second, my daughter was delighted with Mageia 7 since she discovered two weeks ago that she can actually plug in the PlayStation 4 controller and play her favorite Steam games with it.  

After jumping a couple UEFI loops, the installation process was completed without any major hassle. As with the laptop, I replaced the live install with the full version keeping /home and the system was working perfectly when I finally booted it.

I reinstalled the missing programs, tested everything, including Spanish translations, and all was perfect.  Then I tested Steam with the controller and, to my dispair, the buttons were not working, the sound was muted, and only the pad was recognized.  My daughter was not happy at all.

I tried to recalibrate the controller without any luck... And when I was giving up, the Mageia update alert showed me some updates that the system wanted to install.

I installed them and called it quits. I turned off the machine feeling defeated.

Today, I mustered some courage and, plugging the controller in, I started my daughter's PC and Steam to try again (with very low expectations, to be completely honest).

But behold!  The controller was working perfectly!!

I can say with all confidence that Mageia 8 is a wonderful release.  These two success stories with two different systems provide evidence of how hard the Mageia developers and community have worked to release a product of high quality that can satisfy multiple needs for different people.

Great job, Mageia team!!

OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 "Argon": First Impressions after Install

Today is my second day using the newly released OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 Argon in my desktop computer and I'd like to start by saying that this is NOT a technical review. 

 

Please do not misinterpret me.  I do not mean that I under appreciate the hard work of the OpenMandriva developers and community in making sure that everything under the hood of this distro functions smoothly; it's quite the opposite.  I, for one, truly value their commitment and effort.  However, I cannot pretend to grasp the technicalities.  I am one of those users who do not understand what "Qt Framework 5.15.2, LLVM/clang 11.0.1, systemd 247, Java 15, Calamares 3.2.35, binutils 2.36.1, gcc 10.2." imply on the system.

My perspective is, then, one of a non-technical user and this is what I have seen so far:

1.  Installation

After booting the live usb on a computer with secure boot and UEFI, I ran the installation process, which I found considerably faster this time.  I believe that the whole process took less than 15 minutes from start to end and it was very straight forward (well, providing that I have some experience installing other distros and OpenMandriva Lx in the past).  The only weird thing was that, when the installation was complete, despite I clicked on "restart the system," nothing happened and I had to reboot the computer manually.

2.   Configuration

I chose to wipe out the root partition and keep the home partition.  In the past, this has given me some problems but this time was different.  Argon kept my desktop settings (wallpaper, effects, panel configurations, etc. with the obvious omission of the programs that were not installed) to the point that I doubting if I had booted to 4.2 or if I was still using 4.1.   Had not been for the Falkon icon pinned to the task bar, I would have assumed it was 4.1 even though I saw 4.2 in the splash screen.  

After I installed my personal use programs (Firefox, Steam, Insync, WINE), I was pleased to see that everything was preserved: bookmarks, games, and synchronized files.  This means that my computer was practically the same after less than an hour.

3.  Responsiveness

The system is working faster than before.  However, I did notice two issues:  the wired connection would come to a halt and the print screen key was not working.

I launched the network configuration and browsed over the tabs without knowing what I was doing.  Yet, I found that, under general configuration, the priority of the connection was set to -100.  I changed it to 3 and the issue was fixed.  

Regarding the print screen key, the situation is that the key assignation for that key points to "launch screen capture tool" and this instruction does not seem to call KDE Spectacle.  I reassigned that to "launch spectacle" and it took care of the problem.

There were some problems getting some Steam games to run.  Those are Windows games but I tweaked some WINE settings and managed to get Tomb Raider IV to function.  I did not have luck with Crayon Physics Deluxe.  Even so, the rest of the programs that I run with WINE are fine.   Bendy and the Ink Machine runs fine out of the box.

Conclusion

From my humble perspective as a non-technical user, I find OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 a solid release and I am extremely pleased with its practically seamless transition and usability.  It is going  to stay as the OS of my production desktop computer for sure.

Kudos to everyone who made it possible and BIG THANKS!!

 

Getting Ready to Deploy OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 "Argon"

 Yesterday, the release of OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 was announced.

I already downloaded the .ISO and right now I am putting it into a USB drive (with ROSA Image Writer, which makes the task very easy).

Unfortunately, I do not have time to install it now, so I will do that later today.

The RC was very good.  I hope that the last release is great.

Test driving Mageia 8 RC

After learning that the Mageia 8 RC is available, I downloaded the live .iso and gave it a quick run.

I must say that, as a user that has been on the Mageia ship since the release of Mageia 1 back in 2010, one of the features that I appreciate from the project is its consistency and visual stability.  

Please do not get me wrong: of course I appreciate innovation!  However, non-technical users of Linux tend to get puzzled after becoming familiar with a distro just to find that developers, in subsequent releases, change the UI so much that they feel alienated by the OS.

Most of the changes in Mageia happen under the hood, so the UI has remained pretty stable from the beginning.  In fact, upon booting Mageia 8 RC, my untrained eye sees no big difference other than the updated wallpaper: Mageia just feels familiar and keeps the consistent Mandriva PowerPack UI (license, country, language, etc).   This is great as I will not feel lost when I decide to install it.

The booting is a bit faster and, soon enough, one is greeted by the Mageia Welcome window. 

I had my usb gaming headset plugged in and it worked out of the box.  I next tried the effects and everything is working fine.

Net_applet picks the wired connection without any hassle and it sees my wireless connections, so I choose one to connect.  Although the icon does not update and indicates that I have no connection, I am online.  In fact, I am posting this entry from the live Mageia RC usb drive.

So, that is the only thing that I was able to see.  No lags, no crashes whatsoever.

This looks like a solid release.  In fact, this RC really feels and behaves like a final release.

Kudos to the Mageia team for their effort!

 

 

 

Mageia 8 is closer and closer!

Yesterday, I was saddened by the official announcement of the death of PicarOS, the best distro for children.

Today, I read that the RC of Mageia 8 is ready for testing.

This is good. 

I am going to download it and give it a test drive.... Perhaps I will use my daughter's new Windows 10 laptop, hehe.

If my ZaReason Strata dies, I guess I will have to buy a laptop with Windows and dual-boot.  I need to practice...

 

 

PicarOS and MiniNo are dead!

Today I read the sad news that MiniNo and PicarOS are officially discontinued.  This is a great loss as PicarOS was, by far, the best children-oriented distro I ever used.

I will never forget my daughter's reaction the first time I booted a laptop with PicarOS and how much she enjoyed using this computer!

Bye, MiniNo!  Bye, bye, PicarOS!

First Distro Testing of 2021: OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 Argon RC

Yesterday, I read the DistroWatch announcement that OpenMandriva 4.2 RC had been released, so I decided to download it to give it a quick glimpse.

All the technicalities are found here.  To a non-technical Linux user like me, they do not say much, except for the upgraded versions of the programs I use, like Firefox, LibreOffice, etc.

I really want to see how this new release looks on my desktop, so I used the Rosa Image writer to create the live USB and ran it.  This is what I found:

1.  It does not have any problem to boot with my nagging UEFI PC.  That's great! 

 

 Notice the "rolling" text...

2.  OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 RC boots fast.  The DE was ready in the live session in around 30 seconds.  Is this what the zstandard does? The description reads "zstandard - new real-time compression algorithm, providing high compression ratios implemented in our kernel, provides faster boot- new real-time compression algorithm, providing high compression ratios implemented in our kernel, provides faster boot."  I remember the old days of Mandriva, when I had Mandriva InstantOn, which booted the computer in 30 seconds or less.

3.  Everything is working: sound, effects, USB headset, and even the WebCam (with VLC)

4.  It comes with the OM Feeling-like user interface changer, so that different users can quickly turn the DE into something that resembles Ubuntu, Windows 7, Windows 10, or Mac OS.  

 

5. You must install Firefox and GIMP because they do not come with the live version.  But Kdenlive has been upgraded to version 20.12.0!

All in all, this seems very promising!  Great job!!

UPDATE:  I also booted the live USB on my laptop and everything is running smoothly (including the wi-fi and the webcam via Kamoso).