On Sat, 11 Jan 2003 12:03:39 -0800 Ben Reser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Ben, I've been using UNIX systems since the 70s, MINIX when Linus announced Linux, and Linux exclusively since RH4.1 -- My post was not intended to get help or condescending responses; it was intended to shed light on some complacency that's been creeping in. Mandrake has been putting out great distros; but there have been some problems creeping in. > On Fri, Jan 10, 2003 at 11:02:35AM -0500, Pierre Fortin wrote: > > 1**. ohphone was not compiled properly -- this is *important* in that > > it is used to support *my* users who are scattered hundreds of miles > > away -- > To have any possibility to get this fixed it'd have to get reported. > That's what MandrakeExpert is for. If people provide clear instructions > on what is broken. And others can replicate it, then it will get fixed > and it will have an update produced for it. I don't think ohphone is > all that highly used of an application (I could be wrong). Which > probably has something to do with why the issues haven't come to life. > But just saying "It doesn't work," is not helpful. Provide details. > What are the error messages you are getting etc... I suppose these threads don't count: http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/archives/cooker/2002-11/msg00604.php http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/archives/cooker/2002-11/msg00810.php http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/archives/cooker/2002-11/msg02166.php [FSCK!!!! Now Klipper's "Actions Enabled" just got magically turned back on! :^P ] > > 2. after a few weeks on 9.0, the system became so unstable and flaky > > (many reboots required) that hardware problems were seriously > > considered as the cause. "fix" was to delete ~/.kde and reboot. > > I'd suspect this is a KDE issue, not a Mandrake issue. Yes Mandrake > ships KDE. But it is a huge piece of software. There is no way they > can hope to fix every bug in it. I have ultimately quit using KDE > because I found it to be unstable. That's not Mandrake's fault, it's > the KDE developers fault. But when my favorite distro hangs the entire system... so much so, that I initially suspected bad hardware... who do I report this to? Is it a Linux problem or is it a KDE problem simply because something in .kde triggered the real bug(s)..? Unless I nail down the problem to some small subset of .kde, all I usually get is "I think...", "try this...", "not my problem...", etc... > > 3a. remote support was initially complicated by unannounced shorewall > > default installation that did not consider ssh important, drove me > > nuts until I found it. > > IIRC the installer asks you what you want to have open. But at any rate > I think shoerwall closing ssh is a *GOOD* idea. Most desktop users will > not need to ssh into their box. Those that do can easily open it. I did a fresh 9.0 install on a friend's new WalMart system, and I don't recall being asked -- I would have noticed that, unless it was obscured. > > 3b. shorewall complicated switching between LAN and modem access to > > 'net > > How? Details? Statements like this are useless to us. Maybe if you had a laptop and switched between LAN and modem, you'd understand. Besides, are you one of the "fixers"? If not, why are you stating "useless to *us*"? Too many "helpers" are getting in the way IMO. Oh yeah... on the subject of modems.... WalMart PCs require a special script to find the modem I/O & IRQ, yet that was not included in 9.0... Try finding that out (after you've installed 9.0 over the crappy pre-installed 8.2) when you can't use the modem... if I hadn't had my laptop handy, the user would likely have returned the unit and a new computer user would have gone elsewhere. > > 5. Installation of LinModem support was more troublesome than in 8.2 > > -- while not delivered in a Mandrake distro, at least ensuring that a > > new distro does not make installation of LinModem s/w more difficult > > is important to winning new users. > > Harder how? Details again? Back to what I asked: don't make it harder! In 8.2, linmodem installation was simply a matter of downloading the code and running the script (that's all I'm suggesting be checked before release). In 9.0, even though I asked for a development install/upgrade, not all the -devel files were installed... yet another issue that would turn a new user away from Mdk. > > 6. CD filesystem got confused (displaying "??????" for each filename > > and permission denied) requiring a reboot (there's that fscking word > > again) > > Yes this is supermount for you. Why is it no one seems to get the irony here? It's superMOUNT --- once a filesystem is MOUNTed, what does the MOUNT s/w have to do with actually ACCESSing the filesystem? Or is supermount just a pile of spaghetti code? > > 7. Sound stopped working (lsof showed several apps accessing sound) -- > > rebooted to fix. > > You rebooted? All you had to do was kill the sound apps, more than > likely. I'm amazed that you know of lsof but not the kill command. Look... I can piss around killing apps, restarting others, determining the right things to do; but by then, I've missed the broadcast! You have NO idea how much I *HATE* rebooting; but I weigh my actions vs what I'm trying to do. Don't you? > > Note that Linux is touted as a no-reboot-required OS... I have had to > > reboot 9.0 so many times that it feels like I must have accidentally > > installed W9x... :^P > > No it's touted as an OS that requires less reboots. But some of the > reboots you've described above were not necessary. You simply rebooted > because you didn't know how to fix them. "didn't know how"... Hmmm... try replicating the code changes I made to start an install that looked like this: http://pfortin.com/Linux/live_install.html Hint: no added code Enjoy, Pierre
