My First 12 Days with Mageia 10: How to enable repos with dnf5

Well, 12 days have passed since I migrated all of my desktop, laptop, and portable work system to Mageia 10.

I have not used the work system for real work up to this point (as I am on vacations), but the tests have been successful so far. I have everything ready to start.

However, I ran into an interesting situation: using dnf to update packages. Sometimes, I prefer to launch Konsole and use the command dnf update the system as it is generally faster.

Of course, in previous Mageia releases, one had to enable the repos before with these commands as root:

 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

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

But now Mageia 10 is using dnf5, so the syntax has changed (as the documentation details): 

 dnf config-manager setopt mageia-x86_64-nonfree.enabled=1 updates-x86_64-nonfree.enabled=1

  dnf config-manager setopt mageia-x86_64-tainted.enabled=1 updates-x86_64-tainted.enabled=1

The first problem was that the dnf plugins are not installed, so the command config-manager is not operational. One has to type this before to install the dnf plugins to be able to use config-manager:

                dnf5 install 'dnf5-command(config-manager)'

Once installed, the two commands to enable the nonfree and tainted repos work.

Enabling the i586 repos was a trickier process. I tried this with no success:

   dnf config-manager setopt mageia-i586.enabled=1 updates-i586.enabled=1

After reading the Mageia 10 release notes carefully, I found out what the problem was:

        32 Bit Support 

We increase hardware requirements for 32bit systems, you will require a CPU with SSE2 features. You will find that extension for the packages and the part for architecture in the name of the ISO images have changed from i586 to i686.

So, to add the repos correctly, one has to write:

   dnf config-manager setopt mageia-i686.enabled=1 updates-i686.enabled=1

   dnf config-manager setopt mageia-i686-tainted.enabled=1 updates-i686-tainted.enabled=1

   dnf config-manager setopt mageia-i686-nonfree.enabled=1 updates-i686-nonfree.enabled=1

One can verify that the repos are enabled with:

  dnf repolist

To run the updates, one types:

  dnf update

With those steps, one can update the packages with the terminal and dnf.

    
 

 

New Adventures: Zen Browser and Mageia 10

Recently, I have been trying to take some time to come back to blogging, an activity that I really enjoyed and let me record all my learning in the world of FLOSS.

So, these are the new experiences I had:

1. Zen Browser

I do not remember how, probably it was thanks to a Reddit post, but I came across Zen Browser. Or maybe it was a YouTube video? In any case, the author, a long time Firefox user, described a new browser that was very strange at first, but that that author ended loving.

Since Firefox has always been my browser of choice, I grew curious about this new software that was, in fact, very unusual: its features did not seem to make a lot of sense to me (just as the author described when first using the browser). Tabs arranged in a vertical fashion? Multiple spaces? Design whose main purpose was not to be intrusive but that did not sacrifice functionality? Privacy-oriented?

I have to admit that I could not resist and visited the Zen Browser site to download this new way to surf the Web. I got the Linux version, decompressed it, and gave it a try.  True, the design was attractive, but the idea of the spaces to organize the vertical tabs was not resonating with me... until I remembered experiencing something similar the first time I used the four desktops in Mandriva, back in 2009. The idea of switching workspaces seemed confusing to me. Yes, the Compiz cube was cool, but what was the point of having your windows scattered in four different isolated spaces? 

Then it dawned on me.

And then, the four workspaces became completely essential for my productivity.

This was exactly the same experience when KDE introduced activities. First, bewilderment sprinkled with anger, then disbelief, and finally understanding and total acceptance. 

Thus, I created two spaces in Zen to test them... and I loved the concept! 

I loved it even more when I discovered that it is based on Firefox and, therefore, not only do I get to import my bookmarks into the new browser, but I can also sync it using my Mozilla account!

The installation in my portable Mageia 9 desktop was easy: I only unzipped the file and then ran this command as root as a normal user from the folder where I unzipped the tarball: curl -fsSL https://github.com/zen-browser/updates-server/raw/refs/heads/main/install.sh | $SHELL 

Somehow, that was it. I got Zen in my menu and pinned it to Favorites.

However, when I tried to replicate the process in Mageia 10, I never got the menu entry. So, I had to follow the indications in the Bluebird Documentation page: 

1. I went to  /usr/share/applications

2. I opened kwrite, opened a new file, and pasted this info (substituting <your-name> by my home folder: 

[Desktop Entry]

Name=Zen Browser

Exec=/home/<your-name>/zen/zen

Terminal=false

Type=Application

Icon=/home/<your-name>/zen/browser/chrome/icons/default/default128.png

Categories=Network;WebBrowser;

StartupNotify=true

And that was it!  I am actually writing this from home, using Zen Browser on my new Mageia 10 desktop install.

Which takes me to my second adventure... 

 2.  Mageia 10

After a long wait, and according to DistroWatch.com, my favorite distro released version 10. After all this time, I have not had any major issue with Mageia 9, which explains, however partially, why I have not blogged regularly. Yet, I wanted to see the new Mageia...only that I wanted to be careful.  That's why I decided to install the new release to a USB drive. 

After downloading the classic install ISO, creating a USB with it, I tried to put this 10th version into a pen drive but, alas! I have become rusty! 

Yes, I made a n00b mistake: Instead of placing the GRUB2 in the EFI partition of the USB drive, I inadvertently put it into the EFI partition of my home desktop computer. So, when I attempted to boot from the pen drive, all I got was a black screen with a J and a blinking cursor next to it.

Of course, I thought that the problem was limited to a dysfunctional USB install. After removing the pen drive, I booted the desktop. To my horror, I saw the splash of Mageia 10 replacing the splash of my Mageia 9 computer! 

And then... NOTHING!

Realizing that I had ruined two machines in one install, I plugged the pen drive again and restarted the desktop. My idea was to change the booting device, but I was not quick enough and the wayward machine booted from its EFI partition...this time into my renewed desktop environment (Luckily, I did not format the /home partition!).  

In addition to the stupid mistake with GRUB2, I had also installed the / partition into the pen drive and created a two-factor verification computer... Good grief!

I had to reinstall my / partition and fix the GRUB2.   

And that's how I forcefully migrated my home computer to Mageia 10. 

Concerning performance, everything seems to be working, just as expected. While several technical reviews claim Mageia 10 is a lackluster release, I am grateful EVERYTHING WORKS.

Those of us who do not belong to the bleeding-edge, dangerously-living, excited-to-tinker tribe are happy with a distro that looks renewed but keeps thing in place, maybe a bit too familiar, but reliable when work demands keep piling up, hehe.

 

And another year flies by! 16 anniversary?

 

The Linux landscape has changed a lot since I started this humble blog to record my experiences with GNU/Linux and FLOSS in general.

Today, I visited Distrowatch and CachyOS is distro #1. Ubuntu, which used to be the top dog back then, is #10.

Linux Mint and MX Linux, distros that once held the top position, are now #2 and #3, respectively.

Mageia, my main distro, is #51! I am using Mageia 9, which was released in August 2023. I can see that they have been busy this year as they released Alpha 1 and Beta 1 and there will be another general extraordinary assembly this coming May 7 because the required quorum was not reached to vote the constitution changes. I hope everything goes well this time. 

OpenMandriva sits at #94. They have been releasing more frequently (both Rock and ROME are now in version 6!). Unfortunately, when my pentaboot laptop died, I had to stop using that distro along with Manjaro and Elive.

Elive, by the way, released a new version at the end of March this year. I might try it, who knows? I really liked the last version of that OS... Thanatermesis really produces art with the OS. 

But where do I put it? Can I run it smoothly from a USB drive to work with it? 

The thing is that I do not want to buy a new laptop to run new distros. The prices they are charging are ridiculous for the specs that they offer.

I do not want to deal with the TPM chip nonsense, to be honest.

And then there is the age verification debacle and the controversy with LibreOffice!

-------------------------------

Even so, I can say I am happy I have been working all this time with Linux: MX Linux in classrooms and Mageia in my work and home offices.

That is good!

 

 

 

Happy Belated 15th Anniversary!

Wow!  Another year flew by! 

Yes, I have not been very active posting on this blog for some time now. In fact, the last post was precisely on the 14th anniversary of this humble space.

These are the major changes since last year:

1.  My ZaReason Strata laptop is dying

The system I purchased from the now gone ZaReason company in 2014 is finally on its last breath. The battery malfunctioned six years ago and there is no replacement, so I had to keep it connected to a backup battery to be able to use the machine.  However, because its speakers started producing strange noises, I have not used this machine since 2022. 

When I tried to use it last month, it would not start at all. I thought it was finally out, but then changed the power brick and the laptop booted normally. Manjararo, OpenMandriva Lx, Mageia, Elive, and MX Linux are still there, fully operational.

However, the lid is showing signs of wear and the cables of the screen are now showing in between the broken hinges.

Well, it is, after all, an 11-year old laptop. 

I remember how, during the pandemic of 2020, the ZaReason people issued a statement concerning their closing of operations. Those were troubled times and, the message, with an apology to clients, made me very sad.

Yet, your product is still here... Battered after a long time, but working.

No, ZaReason people. You did not disappoint me. 

2.  UEFI mayhem and portable Linux machines

Last year, I wrote:

In the university where I work, they did a suspicious full 180 turn and switched to Microsoft products.  However, that has not stopped me from using Linux for my work every day: I always use USB drives, which I made portable Linux machines, to stream my virtual lessons and teach in class as well.

As the classroom computers have low specs, MX Linux is my distro of choice.  In my office computer, I generally use Mageia 9.  If fact, I am synchronizing my portable Mageia machines right now following this old post here.

Well, turns out that, at the beginning of this year, the university decided to replace all HDDs for SSDs. This created a problem for me since all my portable Linux machines booted using legacy mode.

I had to reinstall all systems into the USB drives from the physical computer at the university office to make sure that no UEFI or secure boot setting prevented me from booting the devices.

It was a somewhat slow process, but everything worked. So, I am still doing all of my job from those portable machines.

3. The new laptops 

I had to find a Windows 11 laptop for my daughter since she needs Windows and office for a high school class.  I decided to get second-hand laptops and, thus, I bought an HP slimbook for her and an HP ZBook for me.

I dual-booted hers with Mageia 9 and wiped Windows from mine entirely to also boot Mageia 9. The two laptops work great, but I miss the wired internet connection.  I am posting this from the ZBook with Mageia.

----------------------------------------

So, this is what has been going on.

I wish I could have more time to post, but family and work responsibilities keep me busier and busier every year.

 

My Linux journey has not ended!

 

 

14 Years?! Happy anniversary, Mandriva Chronicles!

 Yes, today is the 14th anniversary of this humble blog, which I created to register my experiences as a Linux user.

What has changed since last year?

1.  Stability and fewer posts

Well, the Linux distros I use have become so stable that I rarely face a challenge.  This has reduced my post quantity.

Plus, where I work, they have decided to keep people extremely busy, so free time is rare.

2.  Portable Linux machines: always reliable!

In the university where I work, they did a suspicious full 180 turn and switched to Microsoft products.  However, that has not stopped me from using Linux for my work every day: I always use USB drives, which I made portable Linux machines, to stream my virtual lessons and teach in class as well.

As the classroom computers have low specs, MX Linux is my distro of choice.  In my office computer, I generally use Mageia 9.  If fact, I am synchronizing my portable Mageia machines right now following this old post here.

3. The new exam notification system  

This week, they sent an email about a new oral exam notification system.  The funny thing was that they said that it only worked on a Windows computer and urged us NOT TO USE MACs.  Many of my colleagues are Mac users, so I grew curious and decided to test it from my Linux station.  It worked perfectly!

I then replied informing them that the system ran flawlessly from Linux, he,he.

4.  My laptop distros

I upgraded most of the distros and my old ZaReason Strata runs Mageia 9, OpenMandriva Lx 5.0 ROME, Manjaro 23.1, MX Linux, and Elive 3.

I do not use this machine often because the battery is dead and I could never get a replacement.  So, I must keep it plugged to UPS all the time.  

5.  A nephew's migration

My sister in law's son called me once because he installed Linux Mint to a laptop and ran into a problem.  I tried to help him to the best of my abilities and the piece of advice I gave them worked: he could solve his first Linux challenge.

6.  My wife's English course

My wife took an English course and she was very worried because all the software was Microsoft's.  Or so they said.

However, the platform was Moodle and she could work from my Mageia desktop.  Las Monday was her final exam. Everything went fine because Firefox played the audios for the listening exam without a problem.

And that's that.  My productivity has not been affected because of the stability of Linux this year.  So, I am focusing on my health, my daughter's high school matters, and my family in general.

All is good!

And the Magic is Ready!

Two weeks ago, DistroWatch reported that Mageia 9 had been released.

Back then, I was swamped with work and, even when the Mageia notifier displayed the announcement a week later, I could not perform the upgrade.

Well, that, and the fact that I normally prefer to do clean installs.

However, I do not have the time I need to perform a clean install right now, so I decided, rather adventurously, to do the upgrade.

Yes, this can mean that, if something goes terribly wrong, I might actually end up doing the clean install to fix the problem, which defeats the purpose.  And there are things that can go wrong: the printer-scanner, Steam, my personal configurations...

The notifier told me that I needed 9GB or so of space. I found that rather excessive, but, since I had space, I proceeded.  The upgrade took like 3 hours to complete and the notifer told me that everything was ready and I needed to reboot.

So, I rebooted expecting, well, the worst.

After a while (there was a new kernel, so I counted that as normal), the splash screen showed.  It was a bit different.

Then the login screen looked a bit nicer.  My icon was there, by the way.  It was not removed.

I logged in and the KDE animated cat that I had installed was still there and I landed into my old desktop wallpaper, with the neon icon theme and everything seemed the same.

Oh, but I noted that the machine was more responsive.

I printed.  It went fine.

I sync'ed my documents.  All normal.

My Firefox bookmarks were kept.

And the Steam games worked fine.

I, scratching my head, was dumbfounded.  This felt like my same old machine, but with a renewed vitality.  The upgrade was perfect.

The magic was performed.

 THANK YOU, MAGEIA DEVELOPERS AND COMMUNITY!

 

 

Artificial intelligence, education, and the forgotten 13th anniversary of this blog

Maybe it's just me... Who knows.  The thing is that I feel that my workload this year is going through the roof in a nice tower that reminds me of those gigantic toothpicks piercing the landscape, all in the name of cellular signal and communication.

Yet, even 5G seems like a foggy dream of a distant past.  The new technological wave that everyone is surfing is AI.

So, in addition to my normal work activities and my family responsibilities, I have been interacting with the chatbots in www.poe.com.  Hey, if they are going to steal my job eventually, at least I want to meet my replacement!

I have devoted a significant amount of time to talk to Sage, GPT-4, Claude-plus, Claude-instant, Dragonfly, ChatGPT, and NeevaAI.  Somehow, I am beginning to sense their different "personalities" as I read their outputs, be it to simple or more sophisticated questions.

I have even "created" my own bots to see if they are capable of providing a distinct response, something that makes them unique.  

In any event, I have been so busy with all of this that I missed the 13th anniversary of this blog!

And then I got this poem:

 

 

BoingoPlus (yes, it IS a JoJo reference!) is the chatbot that my brother created in www.poe.com.  This bot answers with riddles and poetry. I must say that I really liked the poem that BoingoPLUS wrote.

 

For fun, I even made a simple YouTube video about this experience.

I believe that the pretty-much-undisturbed educational world in which we grew up is changing abruptly.  It's like Pangea dividing.

And I am afraid that, as is usually the case, people in the education sector are not paying enough attention. I hope we do not miss this second opportunity to shift our Victorian-inherited teaching practices (and evaluation!) to something that is more humane and congruent with the realities of the Information Age... 

-------

P.S:

I ran this blog post through the chatbots to see how they analyzed it.  

"The world has changed, Johnny.  You wouldn't believe how much the world has changed"  (Jake Tremont, Dad, 1989)

 

Using dd to clone my portable Mageia Linux desktop

Since I returned to the office in 2022 after the remote work mandate was lifted, I have been using portable Linux desktops that I made.

These are convenient USB drives with persistence that I boot and so I can circumvent the restrictions (not to mention the spying) in the Windows desktop.

Anticipating that the USB drive can eventually fail, I have made several copiesÑ I have two MX Linux machines and two Mageia machines.

Even though I synchronize document files using FreeFileSync, I need to make absolutely sure that all the settings of OBS studio are updated, and since I keep changing the configuration for the didactic live streams, the best solution is to clone the USB drive machine I have been using to the backup USB drive machine from time to time.

Doing so is very easy.  First, I plug the source USB and open the Mageia Control Center just to make sure which is the source device (I need this machine in dev/sdb).  After that, I plug the other USB drive, which is the backup.  This is the target USB (the system must identify the target device as /dev/sdc). 

Then I open Konsole in Mageia and type su and my password to be able to type this command:

dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sdc bs=1M status=progress

The status=progress part lets you see how things are going while dd is doing the copy, otherwise the command line gives no feedback and, since the process takes a long time, one might think that nothing is happening.

 

First 2023 post: OpenMandriva Lx ROME 23.01 is here!

Two days ago, Distrowatch published the announcement that OpenMandriva is making its debut into the world of rolling distros with its ROME (Rolling OpenMandriva Edition, I presume) release. 

I had upgraded the system not long ago, but I wanted to make sure that I am using this release, so I followed ben79's most detailed walkthrough here.  Big thanks, ben79!!!

Everything worked perfectly and my system is stable as a rock.

I checked with uname -a and kernel 6.1.2 is running, so everything is updated and working.  So far, no disruption whatsoever.

AWESOME!!

Full laptop upgrade

 Finally, with some free time at last, I decided to perform a full upgrade of 4 of the distros that I have in my laptop.

Manjaro Ruah becomes now Manjaro 22 (Sikaris).  This was taken care of by Octopi without any problem.

Mageia 8 had not big deal upgrading some packages.

MX Linux also had like 76 packages to upgrade and everything went smoothly.

OpenMandriva ROME 22.11 is the most challenging distro for me to upgrade now.  I used to mess up the upgrade by not reading the forum post before, but I learned my lesson.  So, I visited this post here, where rugyada kindly reminds one of the commands to do the upgrade correctly: sudo dnf clean all ; sudo dnf --best --allowerasing distro-sync

With that, the process went fine until Konsole asked me what to do with a file.  From previous experiences, I learned that some files must be kept: /etc/shadow, /etc/passwd, /etc/gshadow, and /etc/group.

However, this file was not any of those, so I examined its contents with "d".  To return to the process,  I typed "q" and then "y".

OpenMandriva is working great.  In fact, it is the only distro that is running the Steam game Zen Bound 2 without a compatibility layer.

Now, I am ready to work on my personal projects!




Missing package in Mageia 8

I attempted to update my Mageia desktop yesterday and, although almost everything went well, I got this error message telling me that imagemagick could not update because "nothing provided lib64raw20".

I tried with DNF, but I could only get the i586 version.

So, I located the file here: https://pkgs.org/download/lib64raw20

Everything seems back to normal now.

Happy 12th Anniversary, MandrivaChronicles!

On May 2, 2010, I started this humble blog as my personal project to record what I was learning regarding Linux.

Back then, I never thought of the many changes that would occur in the world, in the Linux landscape, and in me as a person.

Due to COVID-19, my ever-increasing workload has kept me away from posting.  Also, health issues in the family and my daughter's return to to in-person school classes required my attention.  All this has kept me away from here.

It is time to pause, then, and revisit the blog.

This is a quick summary of the major events:

1.  The university where I work decided to roll back and ditch LibreOffice to favor MS Office.  This is sad, but expected, mainly because the personnel's recalcitrance to use LibreOffice.  Interestingly, this same recalcitrance was at place when we were required to telework using Zoom, a paradigm change that many professors hated.  Now the complaint is that, after investing more than two years in Zoom, they will have to learn how to use MS Teams.  This feels full Samsara...

2.  My country has been under intense cyberattacks.  The generalized security-uninterested attitude in which people use their Windows computers has finally came back to bite them.  Now we see the "recommendations from experts to protect yourself against cybercriminals"...

3.  My telework comes to end tomorrow.  The Windows office computer is going to be watched closely.  The institution will  operate on the assumption that the university is a target and that our computers are vulnerable.  I guess that is correct.  The good news?  They offered both my brother and I to install Linux to our workstations.  I must admit that cheered me up!

4.   After the migration from Windows 10 to Windows 11, my daughter's laptop was fine.  Then another batch of updates came and broke it.  Good job, Microsoft!  I had to fix it and it took me two days to have the system operational again.

5.  I have been working all this time from a desktop with Mageia and a laptop with Mageia, Openmandriva Lx, PCLinuxOS, Elive, and MX Linux.  I switch OSs and computers to disrupt my patterns of work.  It's good brain exercise, hehe!

6.  Mental health-wise, I have kept a consistent exercise routine that includes jogging, body weight movements, and QiGong meditation.  This has been beneficial both for my body and mind.

7.  This last week, I created a USB stick with MX Linux to plug it to the office computer and work from there.  I will cover the process tomorrow.

Overall, I feel satisfied and calm with everything.  Let us see what this new stage brings!

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!