Mandrake Releases 8.2 Beta 375
joestar writes: "As seen at Mandrake's website, Mandrake Linux 8.2 Beta seems to be available for download at different places. The new features include the ability to install a Mandrake as small as 65Mb on the HD, and encrypted file-system support. I guess it's the good time to report all bugs we don't want to see in the final version. Very promising release, worth a look at!"
Noooo .... (Score:4, Offtopic)
KDE 3.0? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:KDE 3.0? (Score:2)
Re:KDE 3.0? (Score:4, Troll)
Remember, Mandrake was originally known as being "RedHat with KDE added." I think that Mandrake will continue the trend of linking it's release numbers to KDE releases.
I think that providing a Mandrake 8.2 without KDE 3.0 is a good move for Mandrake. This allows them to produce a fully mature 8.X release that will be (hopefully) free of the majority of the bugs found in 8.0 and 8.1
Once mandrake releases 9.0 with KDE 3.0, I'm sure the bug cycle will be back up.
Re:KDE 3.0? (Score:2)
Don't expect a beta preview iso to contain every new package that the final will have.
Wonderful (Score:4, Interesting)
My mother actually read the handbook that came along with Mandrake 8.1, when i came home one day she asked me for an account. All i can say is that Mandrake definately has quality, i can't wait to see 8.2 in the stores
Re:Wonderful (Score:3, Funny)
No (Score:5, Funny)
No, it's time for you to report all the bugs that shouldn't be in my final version. Now get back to work testing my future software.
Re:No (Score:2)
Re:No (Score:2)
Just to make absolute sure everything works for you in the final...
I like their attitude (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know if they just made the whole "accidental release" story up or not, but either way their attitude is pretty funny about this. Apparently they didn't mean for people to get their hands on it, but now that it's out there they are helping everyone download it, giving out the specs, and encouraging bug reports. Sounds like a good development team.
Advantages of Mandrake? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Advantages of Mandrake? (Score:4, Informative)
This of course can be pretty trying at times for more advanced Linux users. Mandrake defaults an install without telnet, ssh, or ftp servers, and a High Security firewall. Mandrake is geared more towards a workstation machine, so if you are looking to run a server you will have some work to do after the install.
Re:Advantages of Mandrake? (Score:2, Insightful)
It's easy to get ssh up (I had it installed from the start on Mandrake 7.2-8.1). Just do an Expert Mode install (which is the install that any self-respecting advanced Linux user would do). Select the proper class of packages (network computer server for ssh, for instance) and individual package selection. I think telnet has to be explicitly selected, but who in their right mind uses telnet in lieu of ssh?
This is a Good Thing. The average newbie shouldn't be running ftp or telnet because it's a service through which they can easily be h4x0red. If their machine gets h4x0red, they blame it on Linux, especially if it was through a service that was activated by default.
Re:Advantages of Mandrake? (Score:2, Funny)
I do, all the time:
[olc@hex olc]$Trying 128.119.175.6...
Connected to supai.oit.zumass.edu.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 supai.oit.zumass.edu -- Server ESMTP (PMDF V5.2-32 #38130)
helo hex.zoomass.edu
250 supai.oit.zumass.edu OK, hex.cs.umass.edu [128.119.243.169].
mail from:
250 2.5.0 Address Ok.
rcpt to:
250 2.1.5 security@oit.zumass.edu OK.
rset
250 2.5.0 Ok.
quit
221 2.3.0 Bye received. Goodbye.
Connection closed by foreign host.
This is a cut'n'paste -- adulterated slightly from an xterm I used not 15 minutes before skimming this thread. I couldn't remember whether our upstream had a "security" address as well as the standard "abuse". VRFY is disabled, so...
I suppose I could use nc, but old habits die hard.
Installing and enabling the telnet server, now, *that* is in a category with behaviors such as dancing about on a hilltop during a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armor and shouting "All the gods are idiots!"
Re:Advantages of Mandrake? (Score:2)
[olc@hex olc]$
Picky, picky, picky.
He meant telnetd.
even simpler. (Score:2)
Re:Advantages of Mandrake? (Score:2)
Re:Advantages of Mandrake? (Score:2)
Re:Advantages of Mandrake? (Score:2)
And if you decide to install a server, you actually have to press on a button labeled 'install me a server' (not exactly, but close) during instalation. Supose that's too complicated. Or amybe not complicated enough, so it's trying on more advanced users.
Well... It's hard to make everyone happy...
Re:Advantages of Mandrake? (Score:3, Informative)
Not to mention that it is also easy to keep updated with the Software manager - it will keep you updated on various security rpm updates. RH has something like this, but you have to be a paid user to use it.
No. For single computer, the RedHat software update service is free. However, for several your point is valid.
Re:Advantages of Mandrake? (Score:2)
Red Hat Network completely toasted my Red Hat 7.0 system .. Has it improved recently?
At least for my RH 7.1 system it has worked quite nicely, with no trouble that I can trace back to it. However, I admit that one person is a rather meaningless statistical sample, so don't make your future decisions about usage of RHN update service with only my positive comment as data. ;)
Re:Ease of install- the test (Score:2, Interesting)
Now that's an easy install!
Hmm (Score:2)
I may come back to Mandrake with this release. Left for Debian unstable and have enjoyed it immensely, but wouldn't mind going back on occasion (not to mention recommending it to newbie friends) if they had a sturdier release. 8.1 was such a mess quality-wise I had to leave 'em.
Re:Advantages of Mandrake? (Score:2)
urpmi solves rpm hell. And it lets you install security fixes in a controlled, working way. CLI or GUI is your choice.
Linux By The Pound? (Score:5, Funny)
"I'm feeling saucy. I'll try 456MB of Linux today."
"Oh, I better take it easy. Only 95MB of Linux for me."
It just struck me as really funny for some reason.
Re:Linux By The Pound? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Linux By The Pound? (Score:3)
I loved the option, but unfortunately hordes of trolls who couldn't understand the concept of 'more important' and 'less important' software killed it.
On the other hand, 'minimal install' + rpmdrake will do for me.
Minimal? (Score:2)
Re:Minimal? (Score:2, Informative)
go to Mandrake's site [linux-mandrake.com] when they are done being
Re:Minimal? (Score:2)
At install, deselect all the packages, I believe by choosing minimal install or basesystem.
Then in package selection, select snf_en.
That package defines some other packages and you should be fine.
Encrypted filesystems (Score:3, Informative)
Well. Have you, like I, had an ex-girlfriend who got all her personal files check out (and copied I'm sure) by "friends" who did that when she was in the bathroom/cooking/on the phone etc
That's why you have them. I archive lots of stuff that really are personal - I don't want others to be able to lay their hands on them. I have my computer on 24/7 and I want to be able to have friends stay there if they need to - even use my Internet connection - and still have my personal data safe.
Encrypted filesystems are great, all that's needed is to make them simpler to use - what's the point in having them if you mount them at boot and leave them open thereafter?
Re:Encrypted filesystems (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Encrypted filesystems (Score:2)
Re:Encrypted filesystems (Score:3, Informative)
To set up a second X session, assuming you are using a graphical boot manager (like gdm, kdm, xdm, etc.), just run the following:
X
Then you can hit ctrl-alt-F7 and ctrl-alt-F8 to switch between the two X sessions.
List of features of the first ML8.2 beta (Score:5, Interesting)
Obviously, these new tools need a lot of testing. In particular, scannerdrake has only been on the little number of scanners we got in the lab...
Of course you will also find all the newest versions of famous packages:
Re:supermount and kernel 2.4.17 (Score:2)
Other distros (AFAIK) aren't interested, because there is no point in putting supermount on a server.
On the contrary, it's not only unnessesary, but even dangerous. On the desktop, enabling the supermount is cool (when it works), but you know how much interest RH and co. have in desktop...
Re:Concerning urpmi on 8.1 (Score:2)
the entry to update is missing
(one of K)
Means you need to specify a source.
You can use urpmi.update -a. Which will update all sources.
Or choose urpmi.update K. That source seems to be your only one so that should do just the same as -a.
old news (Score:2)
Re:old news (Score:2)
Those were 'alpha' images, or 'cooker snapshots'. We did quite a lot of in-house bugfixing on these before releasing the beta.
comments on what I saw. (Score:3, Troll)
The fact that it really looks like XP frightens me. The fact that it notes that you can help your friends setup Linux from remotely also frightens me.
While this may not come as a default setting (as it best not) what happens if someone who is not all that saavy (isn't that what Mandrake is designed for?) turns it on and next thing you know we have some large security issues.
I like the fact that it has the option to install it minimally only taking up 65mb but you would lose all the fancy dancy shit wouldn't you? Isn't that what Mandrake is? All the bells and whistles?
It comes w/2.4.17, XFree 4.2 (which is very nice), and some other excellent utils.
Sounds nice.
Re:comments on what I saw. (Score:2)
There's nothing to complain about.
Re:comments on what I saw. (Score:2)
FYI, mandrake installs with no servers per default, and few mouse clicks are enough for any newbie to get a reasonable firewall.
The fact that something CAN be done, does not mean that it will be done on default instalation. Furthermore, the fact that some functionality can be made with a few mouse clicks, does not mean that this particular function is less secure than before. Usually it's even the contrary.
Re:comments on what I saw. (Score:2)
Mandrake is about making the best possible distribution. We ship for the newbies, on a desktop, but we ship for the experts, and for servers as well.
A 65M version is obviously 'bare bones' one, and you need to know what to do with it. 'Gimme a lot of eye candy' install version is for newbies.
RedHat (Score:2)
Re:RedHat (Score:4, Interesting)
I would imagine so. In fact, I'd go so far as to speculate that the next version of RedHat is not going to be 7.3 but rather 8.0 (yikes!).
If you take a look in the rawhide directory on your favourite mirror of the RedHat ftp, you'll see packages for KDE3 cvs builds, gcc3.1, and lots of other big changes that could break compatibility in not-so-surprising ways.
Many of the packages in there aren't simple installs on a 7.2 system anymore; the dependencies amongst them are too much. Either they require tens of core rawhide packages (i.e. a new glibc) to be installed, or in the case of the core packages, current 7.2 packages show incompatibilities.
Of course I may be completely wrong and the next RedHat *will* be 7.3 and all compatibility issues will be resolved by then (hey, rawhide *is* very beta!), but I wouldn't be surprised...
Re:RedHat (Score:2, Interesting)
65 megs (Score:4, Troll)
All I need to do is recompile the whole distribution without Pentium opcodes
Re:65 megs (Score:2)
Re:65 megs (Score:2)
Ditto. I've got some 486 laptops I'd like to put Linux on. I guess I can always use Debian now that I've got cable at home.
Which GCC? (Score:2)
Why do I say 2.96 is buggy? Even when disabling strict aliasing optimisation (-fno-strict-aliasing), it produces broken code for quakeforge even though code compiled using gcc 3.0 (with -fstrict-aliasing) does work properly.
Re:Which GCC? (Score:2)
Re:Which GCC? (Score:2)
Requested Feature: Streaming Media Server (Score:2)
Briefing in 4 little words (Score:2)
Re:Briefing in 4 little words (Score:2)
Re:Briefing in 4 little words (Score:2)
I recomment that everyone thinking of linux at least has a look at it before deciding for definate that linux is the right thing for them
Mandrake is evolving too slowly (Score:5, Interesting)
While I use Mandrake and have purchased every standard version that they ever released, I really feel that Mandrake is being left behind in the useability department by the likes of SuSE and many of the upcoming newbiew friendly distros like Redmond Linux. The real nit that I have with Mandrake is total lack of cohesion between the Drake Applications. Many of these applications really pioneered new functionality for the linux desktop, but they haven't grown together like applications from KDE, Gnome, Ximian, etc. They all function/look/act differently.
Why hasn't someone inside of Mandrake taken pieces from the KDE and Gnome design standards and attempted to apply some uniformity between the applications that Mandrakes designs? It simply boggles the mind that tools like RPMDrake can be so poorly designed.
And what about ICONS!!!! The Mandrake icons and the menu system itself are both totally unprofessional. Can Mandrake afford to pay an icon designer who knows how to make icons in more than two shades of blue?
So what do we attribute the stagnification of Mandrake to? Is Mandrake's development model too open? No one within Mandrake has the guts or the brains to stand up and say: "No, we shouldn't be designed 20 applications that all look and function differently. There is a reason why KDE and Gnome came into existence." Then again, perhaps it is just the bureacratic chaos and momentum that surrounds Mandrake.
Re:Mandrake is evolving too slowly (Score:3, Funny)
They do employ a professional designer, who has more than enough experience designing playrooms for four year old children in over thirty different child care centers, thank you very much...
8.0 vs 8.1 (Score:4, Interesting)
8.0 was the PERFECT distro for a newbie like myself. It spared me the pain of having to configure my DSL and allowed me to immediately post questions and get responses from Linux help sites, like LinuxNewbie [linuxnewbie.org] to get the answers I needed to my important questions. Although they are exlusive to Mandrake, I was quite impressed with the GUI tools, which, although I should really use the command-line equivalents, were of great help to me just starting out.
8.1 seemed even better than 8.0, but I later found out that it wouldn't automount my CD-ROM or floppy, and I couldn't use my CD-Writer at all. I tried all kinds of tricks, but nothing seemed to resolve the problem. Reluctantly, I switched back to 8.0, which I'm still using.
Now I'm debating whether to try out 8.2, or go for a more "pure" Linux distro, like Slackware. I feel as though I've hit a dead end as far as learning Linux goes. I have an old PC on hand, which will really help me to experiment.
I think even if I decide to switch to Slackware, I want to try Mandrake 8.2, for purely sentimental reasons
Re:8.0 vs 8.1 (Score:3, Informative)
This is a known problem, and is fixed in an update available either through the MandrakeUpdate tool, or in the updates dir of your favourite mirror site.
Beware, though, that if you do what I did and use the update tool to upgrade your kernel, you *will* have to fix some dangling symlinks in
Cheers,
Tim
great installer idea (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, but.... (Score:2)
.
Re:great installer idea (Score:2)
And how are we suppoesd to track folks who download updates from 3-rd party ftp servers?
Re:great installer idea (Score:2)
mandrake only likes some hardware (Score:2, Informative)
and my favorite part is that all of their manuals assume that x will run with the default install settings. all of the trouble shooting tips involve clicking a button on the desktop. so that's all pretty useless when all you have is a command prompt. i was lucky that when i tried to install 8.1, i was not afraid to do a lot of tweaking to the xf86config and hardware settings. then mandrake would attempt to "fix" my changes. so now there is no more mandrake for me. (switched to SuSE - their install is also super easy)
Re:mandrake only likes some hardware (Score:4, Informative)
Moreover, proving that your assertion is false is very simple: there is a copy of our manual on linux-mandrake server... There is also a troubleshooting article on MandrakeForum, for those who are too lazy to RTFM:
http://mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1354&l
I love MDK (Score:2, Interesting)
checking whether make sets ${MAKE}... (cached) yes
checking for c++... c++
checking whether the C++ compiler (c++ -O2 ) works... no
configure: error: installation or configuration problem: C++ compiler cannot create executables.
[root@set kvirc]#
All compiler libraries, devel packages, etc. are installed. I hope this is fixed in this beta.
P.S. On this same machine it compiled perfectly fine until I installed this release...
Re:I love MDK (Score:2)
db3-3.1.17-1mdk
db2-2.4.14-3mdk
libdb3.2-3.2.9-2mdk
db1-1.85-6mdk
db3-utils-3.2.9-2mdk
libdb3.3-3.3.11-5mdk
libdb-devel-3.3.11-5mdk
db2-devel-2.4.14-2mdk
db1-devel
db1-tools
and so on... maybe try seeing if you have those, or drop a bug report to cooker.
For me, my gnome is a bit messed up (i did a bunch of weird things with libpng and now png's don't display), so I want to try this!!
Distro versioning (Score:2)
Re:Distro versioning (Score:3, Insightful)
Imagine providing support where the number of revisions in common use is comparable to the days that have passed with updates to the codebase.
Why distro numbers? (Score:2)
* tech support - it makes life a lot easier if a user quotes a distro number, which can then instantly correlate to a list of known problems. This can cut out a number of problems before resorting to finding out upgraded package versions etc.
* keeping mirrors up to date - it would be a real pain if you downloaded 600MB of Mandrake and found it was so old that the update had to download approximately the same amount again
* marketing - selling new versions keeps Mandrake in business. Windows98 didn't launch with the marketing slogan "Pick up a 2nd hand Win95 and do a Windows Update"
Phillip.
distribution upgrades (Score:2)
On the up, upgrading a unix box is much easier than windows. Just keep
Re: (Score:2)
*Yawn* but the crypto idea is cool (Score:3, Informative)
nVidia? (Score:2)
Re:How do I respond to this? (Score:4, Informative)
the site appears to be well on it's way to a slashdotting.
Here's the important info.
The look and feel of 'Mandrake Control Center' has been reworked with 'better ergonomy' in mind. If you do not like it, or do not find it clear, or such - say it now.
Several new features are available during the installation:
The ability to download and install updates after the packages installation.
Minimal installation mode, which installs nothing but the basic system. This installation mode leaves you with a functional linux installation taking only 65 MB on your HD.
Encrypted filesystem support.
In addition , there is a new rescue mode, with a help menu to automatically mount your old system, rewrite lilo and more.
New tools have been addded to the 'drakxtools' family:
Drakbackup helps you keep your data safe, and restore them if something goes wrong.
Scannerdrake helps you configure the scanner.
rfbdrake lets you easily perform a remote control of an X session. Helping your friends get started with linux has never been easier.
New file sharing function makes it simple to export local files.
Obviously, these new tools need a lot of testing. In particular, scannerdrake has only been on the little number of scanners we got in the lab...
Other tools have been reworked (bugfixes, ergonomy, additional functionality):
Diskdrake got support for encripted and network file systems
urpmi and its graphical interface, rpmdrake got a face lift: New 'synthesis file', is almost 100 times smaller than hdlist, which makes urpmi.update -a (reloading the urpmi/rpmdrake database) a pleasurable experience - even with a slow modem connection! Rpmdrake will also work faster, and handle 'exceptional' situations better than in ML 8.1.
MandrakeOnline got now the updates warning feature, i.e. it will warn you whenever you have to upgrade some package.
Finally, 'msec', is more powerfull than ever. Use with care: in paranoid mode, msec will let you happily secure your box from yourself now (been there, done that).
Of course you will also find all the newest versions of famous packages:
kernel 2.4.17, celebrating the comeback of kernel-secure, and a more robust supermount.
XFree86 4.2, with support for many video cards only supported in 3.3.6 version until now.
glibc 2.2.4
Window Maker 0.8
apache 1.3.22
evolution 1.01
kde 2.2.2
galeon 1.0
mozilla 0.9.7
Re:How do I respond to this? (Score:2, Funny)
I guess this counts as a crapflood - my previous post as AC must have counted as a troll.
Honestly, I want an intelligent discussion (see posting history). But if this is the subject material then hell, what's a boy to do but troll?
Re:How do I respond to this? (Score:2)
[sacrasm]After all, it's not RedHat, or Debian, or Slackware (one of the good distros). [/sarcasm]
All kidding aside, this article is also good for a good "my distro is better than yours" flamewar, a nice discussion about how Mandrake has come along way and how the 8.2beta shows it, how a 65mb install really is a good thing. C'mon, if it didn't mean anything to you, why post?
And as for not allowing any comments on an announcement, how else would you see other people's (often insightful) reactions to the announcement?
Re:How do I respond to this? (Score:2)
Re:How do I respond to this? (Score:2)
Re:Encrypted File Support (Score:4, Informative)
The only PITA is that you have to compile a kernel without loopback built in the kernel or compiled as a module, but you don't have to patch the kernel or anything.
More research nix (Score:2)
Re:Encrypted File Support (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, indeed. They must be kernel patch-happy over at Mandrake because they do in fact have XFS available as of Mandrake 8.1. I'm using it on my computers now. Works great, as far as I can tell.
Before I switched to Mandrake 8.1, I was using RedHat 7.1 with the XFS install program from SGI. The thing I like about Mandrake is that XFS is already included. My XFS partition moved over to the new installation with no trouble.
Plus, they compile Samba with XFS support - so you can manipulate the ACLs from NT/2000/XP machines. (To do that with Red Hat, I had to recompile. No big deal, but I like having it taken care of.)
Re:Encrypted File Support (Score:2)
Don't know about Reiser, I got annoyed by it last year, and decided to skip it completely this time.
JFS was included in 8.1, but we discouradged the use because of some problems we've seen during the beta testing. Should be fine in 8.2 though.
Re:Do any distribution use ALSA as default? (Score:2)
Re:Do any distribution use ALSA as default? (Score:3, Informative)
Not true. ESD is the Enlightenment sound daemon, therefore it only starts when Enlightenment does. Running esd under arts (kde's sound server) is as easy as typing artsdsp esd -trust. Pretty easy actually.
Re:Not true either (Score:2)
Re:65Megs! (Score:3, Informative)
Obviously that's with no X, but that still includes apache + mysql + some other useful things. Manually tearing out
Re:What about LVM? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What about LVM? (Score:2)
It is not offered as an obvious option, but if you know LVM, you should be able to set it up.
Re:What about LVM? (Score:2)
I've installed 8.0 with LVM way back, to see what's that about. Haven't tested in 8.1, but It would REALLY surprise me if it weren't there.
Re:What about LVM? (Score:2)
Re:mandrake woes (Score:2)
Re:Screenshots? (Score:2, Informative)
MandrakeForum [mandrakeforum.com] has much of the same info (and hasn't been hammered yet).
First beta of Mandrake Linux 8.2 escaped! [mandrakeforum.com]
And how I am supposed to report bug for this 8.2 beta 1? [mandrakeforum.com]
Re: "two ways to do it" (Score:2, Insightful)
It's a choice between patience or pleasure, and both have their virtues.
As for your way of upgrading...it doesn't make sense. "It's called downloading stuff, compiling it yourself...". If you're going to go to that extent, why bother with Mandrake? Just go to www.linuxfromscratch.com and forget about Mandrake.
Your second option simply doesn't make sense at all: buy a cheap CD...okay, and then...? How does that solve the fact that Mandrake doesn't make it easy to upgrade from point-releases? In fact, how do either of your choices make it easier?
Re: "two ways to do it" (Score:2)
Re:Ironic.. (Score:2)
drakxtools aren't bound to any GUI, and can be run on a terminal just as well as under X. X interface uses GTK+ because that's convenient for developers.
Re:Do It will install on my old laptop? (Score:2)
Re:gcc? (Score:2)
The ppc version comes with 2.95 instead of 2.96.
Through
Btw, please read up on gcc2.96 [bero.org].
That should teach you complaining about 2.96.