This is my report on installing Linux-Mandrake 7.0b BETA on my computer
*Hardware*
-Abit BP6 with dual 366Mhz celeron
-128 megs of RAM
-2 Quantum HD
9.1G, Win'98 already installed
13G, target drive
-Viewsonic 17PS with G400 Matrox
-OKIDATA OL400e printer
-UMAX Astra 1220S with bundled SCSI card
*General comments*
I don't know why this is called BETA... It's too buggy to be a beta.
I believe that the testing process would be much better if Mandrake
provided a printable evaluation form with point by point walkthrough.
Once the tester has written down the various comments and bugs with the
various options selected (or a copy of an install log?), he could then
input it in a equivalent web form to input the bug reports.
*Attempt #1*
I first tried with the French language install. First of all, it would
be nice to have a "French (Quebec)" instead of just a "French (France)"
selecting automatically the keyboard Canadien (Qu�bec). I also wonder
if the official keyboard is available in KDE?
http://w3.olf.gouv.qc.ca/banque/technolinguistique/claviernorm.htm
"� quelle utilisation destinez-vous cette machine?"
Multiple and more choices would be nice!
The help at the bottom of the screen does not always follow the dialog
at the screen. I think every dialog should have it's own help.
No support for my logitech mouse with the wheel.
"Questions diverses"
The "niveau de s�curit�" Welcome to crakers should be changed to
something french (Gruy�re?)
On the help panel at the bottom of the screen, last line, "D�marrage"
is screwed up.
"Partionnement"
10 gig for /home? 243Meg for 128 meg of ram? Isn't that crazy? where's
/usr/local and /etc? Aren't they the poster child for partionning?
Clicking quickly at randoms on the partitions froze the computer...
*Attempt #2*
It would be nice if HPT366 would be supported directly.
Chinese Big5 doesn't work at all (every text tags on the screen
disappear!!)
This time, I went for english.
"What usage do you want?"
No explanations as what each usage does
"Developement" should be Development!
"Various questions"
Didn't find my 128 megs RAM (didn't notice this the first time around:
why can Windows detect it and not Linux?)
Choose auto-partionning, even if I think the values are crazy.
The "Going to install 726Mb, choose the size you want to install" is
cryptic and useless.
"Choose the package you want to install"
Clicking and selecting cause whole parts of the tree to disappear!!
"Installing..."
I think the install could be better, it would be nice to have the
description of package scrolling at least or have an highlight of the
various features, some screenshots.
The install time estimate went from 30mn to 28, 35 and finally 37. It
would be nice to fudge the estimate so that it is more conservative.
While installing, I had a look at the consoles:
Console 1: the same error repeated over and over: [date] GDK-LOG **:
file gdkwindow.c: line 1233 (gdk-window-set-background): assertion
`window!=NULL` failed at /usr/bin/perl-install/install_steps_gtk.pm
line 369, <get_file> chunck 3677
Console 7: Again an error repeating: Please check that your local
settings: LANGUAGE="en_us:en" LC_ALL="en" LANG="en" are supported and
installed on your system. Perl warning: falling back to the standard
locale ("C")
"Cryptography install"
The top mirror I first tried didn't have a single package (Norway).
The only thing display was the welcome.msg but the install didn't seem
to realize this. It should display an error message instead and get
back to the mirror selection screen.
The next mirror worked fine but it would be nice to have a dowload
progress report!!
Once everything seemed to be done, I got an error message: An error
occured /^ libstdc++-\d/: nested *?+ in regexp
"Clock"
"Is your hardware clock set to GMT?" It would be nice to show the
current time kept by the hardware clock - I have no idea if it's GMT!
"What type of printer do you have"
Where's the option "not on list", I have an Okidata OL-400e. Printer
support is quite limited!!
"Enter user"
"Error: the password is too simple..." Ok fine, but what are the
specs?
"Choose resolution and color depth"
The max. available is 800x600 32 bits??!!!
"At boot"
"FS type supermount not supported by kernel"
That's when I realized that I had only a single processor kernel!! Why
wasn't it detected?
Error message once booted: INIT: Id "x" respawing too fast: disabled
for 5 minutes.
Logging at the console, trying startx, the xserver starts but only to
display a blue screen. Shutting down the X server, I then looked for
KDE:
rpm -qa | grep kde
3 files: kdesupport, kdevelop, kdelibs... Hmmmm
That's when I rebooted in Win98...
=====
Ricky Ng-Adam Capitaine du projet S.O.N.I.A.
Montr�al (Qu�bec) [�cole de Technologie Sup�rieure]
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