Okay, this is my preliminary report on the new beta. I would appreciate any kind of help on the issues mentioned below, because at some points I'm really at a loss. This is my first experience with Linux, and I'm no good at troubleshooting - I was kind of hoping for a system that would more or less work at least with the basic things, but up to now Mandrake only very partially does.
I've installed Mandrake on my iBook 2 (600 Mhz, internal CD-RW). Installation went quite smooth, though - from a newbie point of view - some things aren't really self-explanatory. For example, I had the choice between German keyboard with or without "death"/Tod keys - what on earth ARE those? One thing that really impressed me was how quick and easy my DSL-connection was established and is now established after every startup. Still, after having installed the whole thing, I'm less than happy with it (I ought to add that I'm not the kind of person who goes and installs an new kernel just like that). The main problem is the keyboard mapping. All the available mappings are for PC. The alt key is not recognized, and neither are the signs it normally produces - meaning I couldn't find out how to type an @-sign. How can it be that a Linux distribution made specifically for PPC doesn't know Mac keyboards? Anyway, I haven't found out how to write an E-mail-Adress up to now :-( Another thing I couldn't find out was how to make my CD-RW drive open. Normally, I use the F12 key to do that. Unfortunately, the drive doesn't react to this. So, can't I read CDs or what? I tried to configure power management, but got the answer that apm kernel drivers aren't installed. Hmmm... so what do I do? My wheel mouse was detected fine, and sound is working. Mozilla wouldn't start up. I used Konqueror, but found that it behaved rather strangely sometimes (the cursor would always jump away from the input line, even if I didn't touch the mouse at all). Anyway, it basically worked. What about Lyx/Latex? Aren't they supposed to be installed? What package do I have to chose in order to get them? I chose the scientific one, office etc. but Lyx/Latex don't seem to have been installed. My printer (lexmark Z42) wasn't detected - I suppose I will have to get a driver. That's all for now :-) All in all, I like Mandrake, but desperately need to get this keyboard problem fixed in order to use it. Johanna
