Pisi Linux 1.2 is available!

This confirms Megatotoro's finding:  Pisi Linux is alive! 

At last in DistroWatch!

The kitty shows the famous smile of Korean actor-singer Bi (Rain)

Pentaboot Laptop Changes

My HP Pavilion g4 laptop has undergone some changes.

Let's see...

1.  GRUB2 is now provided by OpenMandriva Lx RC1.  Formerly, I used Mageia's, but it was difficult to get it to see PCLinuxOS, which uses legacy GRUB.

2.  PCLinuxOS has been updated and it now fixed the SCIM IME.  That is simply great!  PCLinuxOS 32 bits is my gaming OS as it gets to play my DESURA and STEAM games perfectly.

3.  Mageia 3 remains the same with some updates.  This is my academic distro and my family OS (it was user accounts for my family)

4.  Pisi Linux 1.0 RC1 replaces Pardus 2011.

5. Mandriva 2011 was replaced by OpenMandriva Lx 2013 RC1 and now this distro was upgraded to RC2. I also tested the Live/installer DVD and the keyboard problem was finally fixed. This seems to be a promising release.

6.  PicarOS, the OS for children based on GalpON MiniNO, was updated to Diego.  At first, the installation lacked sound but I fixed the problem after a while.  All I had to do was disable a sound card that is useless.  To do so, I used the sound tools.

I am now waiting for the new Elive release...

Some changes around here

With my recent installation of OpenMandriva Lx RC1, Mandriva is no longer present in any of my computers. I had to wipe Mandriva 2011 on both my desktop and laptop to make room for the new comer.

It's kind of sad... Mandriva, the distro that made me migrate from Windows, does not exist now.  I made some changes on the blog to reflect that fact.  For example, as I regularly use seven Linux distros, my badge now includes their logos.


This feels kind of exciting, too.  In a way, those changes also show me how much I have learned about Linux since 2009.

This has been a rewarding journey.  Let us see: 

• 2009, I start dual-booting Mandriva and Windows XP.
• 2010, Mandriva, Mepis, Pardus share my HDs; I no longer use Windows.
• 2011 (jan), LibreOffice is released.
• 2011 (jul), PCLinuxOS becomes part of my Linux family.  
• 2011 (sept), Mageia makes its debut and earns a place with the other distros.
• 2012  OpenMandriva Association is born.
• 2013 (feb), PicarOS (GalpON MiniNO) becomes my daughter's favorite distro.
• 2013 (mar), AntiX is added to the distros powering my netbook.
• 2013 (sept), I install Pisi 1.0 RC1 to my laptop.
• 2013 (nov), OpenMandriva Lx RC1 shares a place on my desktop and laptop.

Wow!  Lots of changes...

Pisi 1.0 goes RC!

This entry (in Spanish) confirms that the RC of Pisi Linux 1.0 (Izmir) is here.  Pisi RC comes as a 64 bit distro only.

It includes:

• Kernel 3.10.12
• Firefox 24
• LibreOffice 4.1.1.2
• KDE 4.11.1
• Latest versions of lots of free software packages
• Several languages available (also for installation)

It requires a minimum of 10GB to install it to a VM (VirtualBox).

A clean install is recommended and the repositories are found here.

The final release is closer.  Kudos to the developers and thank you for their tireless effort.  The dream is alive!

Coming Soon: Pisi 1.0 RC!

According to this post by Yoyo (in Spanish), the release candidate of Pisi Linux 1.0 is close.  For those who might not know, Pisi Linux is the fork of Pardus Linux.

This release candidate will bring:

• - Kernel 3.10.x
• - KDE 4.11.1
• - Mesa 9.2
• - Latest bug fixes
• - Updated software
• - More…

I am very excited because of the news.  As the beta 1 of this distro has been performing very well on my laptop computer, I am eager to see what a more polished release will bring. 


For the time being... Congratulations to all the developing team!

My Revised Wish List

In February, I wrote a small list of the releases that I wanted.  It was sort of a wish list of Linux distros.

The first three items have been granted:  Mageia 3 is powering most of the computers at home (I upgraded the Mageia 2 partition on Eimi's desktop PC today), Pardus Anka was released as Pisi GNU/Linux Beta Sueño (which also has a partition on my laptop), and I am typing this entry using OpenMandriva LX beta on my desktop PC, now with sound and the ability to access my other HD partitions.

That means that I'm only missing Mepis and Elive from that original list.

My birthday is pretty close.  Then time seems to fast forward and, in a blink, it will be Christmas and 2013 will have ended.

Allow me to daydream and revise my wish list.  This time, I'll organize it in software and hardware.

A.  Software

1. Mepis. This distro always surprises me with its stability.
2. Elive. I really want to see this distro in action.  It will give me the opportunity to start learning how to use Enlightenment.
3. Voice command running on Linux.  C'mon!  Windows 8.1 Blue is trumpeting this feature as an innovation, when the Linux netbook that I bought in 2009 could do it.  So can my wife's ancient Asus Eee PC 901.   Granted, Mageia 3 now runs Jovie and Kmouth like a champ, but I miss the voice command.  I have tried PerlBox Voice to no avail, so I dream on. 

B.  Hardware

1. The elusive Vivaldi tablet.  I'm waiting for this one eagerly.
2. A new laptop with Linux preinstalled.  I am studying my options here.  (Interestingly, now I have options.  Times change, oh you would not believe how times change, Ballmer!)  I have seen that I can get Suse and Ubuntu machines from Dell and HP.  However, given that Megatotoro had a wonderful experience with ZaReason, I might go for one of their excellent offerings.
3. A Firefox OS phone.  I am one of those rare individuals who have refused to own a mobile phone in this era.  I don't  like them.  Nevertheless, the carrier that starts selling a Firefox OS phone here will get me as a costumer.  I guess I am one of those rare individuals that does care about the OS of the phone, too, and with Mozilla being attacked by protecting individuals instead of advertising companies, I root for Firefox.

So that's my wish list ;-)

UPDATE: Tuxmachines.org reports that there is progress regarding the Vivaldi tablet.   Great!!!

My new installs: Pisi, Mageia 3, and OpenMandriva

Taking full advantage of some bouts of insomnia, I made some progress on my handling of GRUB2 (thank you Megatotoro!).  I also installed Pisi 1.0 Beta v3 to my laptop, upgraded my netbook from Mageia 2 to Mageia 3 (i586), and finally achived to install OpenMandriva LX (alpha?beta?) to my desktop.  Here's a summary of what I have seen so far:

Pisi 1.0 beta v-3 (Sueño) on laptop
For a beta, this new-comer distro is behaving like a champ.  BEsides those problems reported by Megatotoro here, the only issues I have experienced are the failure to launch of VLC and audacious.  Other than that, this beta has been reliable, fast, and stable.

Mageia 3 DVDi586 on netbook
The installation went perfect but, oddly, the firmware for the wireless was not included and I ended up without Wi-fi.  The problem got solved by manually installing the packages.  This was a bit problematic because I forgot that one should not choose to add repos during the install and, therefore, Mageia 3 failed to get software sources.  After a while, I simply added mirrors from MCC and the wi-fi was recognized.  Although the touchpad is a bit crazy, the display problems that I encountered in Mageia 2 (screen edge cube effect) was gone.  Oh, and I also got a perfectly functional iBus Japanese IME!

OpenMandriva LX Alpha (beta?)
This one was a bit tricky to install.  After having failed several times, I read that there were some workarounds.  I followed them and OpenMandriva was soon on one partition of my desktop PC.

There are some issues that I have been trying to fix, such as:

1. No repos (fixed!)
2. No access to my other partitions or to USB drives.
3. Partial sound.   After following the instructions to enable sound, I could not listen to the audio on a video (MP4) I have in /home.  Since I cannot mount a USB drive, I cannot test with other types of video files.  YouTube videos, however, do play after installing the flash package.
4. No effects

I was hoping that updating the distro would help but, after many errors, the Control Center told me that the distro could not presently be updated.

Being an alpha, the issues are understandable.  On the good side, it is responsive (boots really fast as compared to Mandriva 2011), looks nice (especially if you like the ROSA stuff), and has been working without crashing so far.

I'll keep working with these distros to see how they behave.

Random thoughts

Well, thanks to Megatotoro's review of Pisi Linux here (and his output problem), I have been fooling around with my "From-PC-to-TV" output lately.  I finally discovered how to have two different monitors on KDE.  I'll write about it soon.

I need some time to install Pisi myself.  Maybe next weekend.  And I need to learn how to install the newer versions of Firefox on Mageia 3, 64 bits.

The PCLinuxOS update went good.  I only encountered a minor sound problem because my previous sound configuration was invalid in the new KDE 4.10.4.  Yet, it was a matter of changing the position of devices in the hierarchy.  Oh, and the new login screen looks great!  No wonder PCLinuxOS is now ranked #3 on DistroWatch's chart.

Speaking of the chart, OpenMandriva has climbed positions in DistroWatch.com quite rapidly: from #200 it has gone up to #8.

I hope DistroWatch soon includes Pisi, too.

Wheee!  I am still waiting for the new Elive Release...and the Vivaldi tablet...and the Firefox tablet.

And the Jetpack 2 game for Linux.