LinuxElectrons has a mini review of Mandrake Linux 9.2 with many screenshots.
Mandrake Linux 9.2 Review at LinuxElectrons
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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What use is MDK when you don’t have TexStar to help out the community and fix and update the distro via urpmi ?
during installation you can make screenshot with IIRC Alt-F2
I tried 3 times over various versions to install Mandrake. Each time failed somehow. First was 8.0 the next was 8.1 i believe and the last was version 9.1. Somehow during the last install my harddrive was killed and it doesnt work at all now. I took it as a sign. Not trying to spread FUD here, I think it was coincidence, but enough for me to to just stop trying. That same harddrive has seen SuSE and Redhat which after using them, I decided Linux was still not ready for me.
Its always had a nice/clean default interface and excellent configuration tools(Drake).
Am I going to try MDK9.2? Nah im pretty satisfed with Slackware 9.1
I had to justify the new digital camera to my wife…hehe.
I think it’s safe to say that there was something wrong with your hard drive. Not being able to install at all is symptomatic of a serious hardware problem.
Not trying to flame or anything – I just can’t think of any other reasonable explanation.
There’s a lot I like about Mandrake … but last time I installed it (earlier this week) … I just couldn’t understand the package management system. I simply wanted to install the kernel source code so I could install my video card drivers. But after searching for an hour I couldn’t find the kernel source anywhere in the package management system nor by manually searching for them on the CD’s. Whereas with RedHat or Fedora, Add/Remove -> Kernel Development is all it takes. Or a glimpse at the RPM’s on the cd “ls | grep kernel” and there it is –
[root@fedora mnt]# ls cdrom/Fedora/RPMS/ | grep kernel
kernel-doc-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl.i386.rpm
kernel-source-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl.i386.rpm
This is NOT a problem with Mandrkae – this is a problem with my own lack of familiarity and unwillingness to spend a great deal of time learning something new. So chill … no need to flame. I’m blaiming myself, not Mandrake. Relax.
I did like what I saw in Mandrake 9.2rc2 well enough that I’m probably going to buy the DVD distro. (I assume they can fit the kernel source on the DVD.) I’ll play around with it on my spare machine until I’ve learned it well enough to bring it over to the main.
I always look forward to the mandrake releases since along with suse was the first linux i used. I was tried of windows and read about Linux. So I tried out mandrake 6.5 suse 7 and beos 4.5 bought them all in the box. Beos 5 pro i bought later and mandrake 7. Sad about beos it had a lot potential and I really loved it. I have used all the mandrake’s since and currently running mandrake 9.2 rc2. By the way the sources are in install packages just type kernel and its there. Suse is nice too but I do like the way multimedia works in mandrake. 1999 the day i said no mas. Looking forward to suse 9 and mandrake 9.2 and I love freebsd
It should have been a simple question of going to rpmdrake (install software from the configuration center) and make a search on “kernel-source” then install it.
Or, type “urpmi kernel-source” from the command line as root.
That’s it. It may ask to install (automatique) some others packages. Say yes and watch.
I think that mdk don’t show explicitly all the kernel packages in rpmdrake because somebody could srew all his setting if he don’t take care. That’s a good thing, IMO.
Voila
Pascal
I’m sure this isn’t the right place, but I also was confused about package management in Mandrake. I used Mandrake 9.1 for a few weeks, and I tried installing all sorts of stuff. Usually, I found a way to install pretty easily, but I always imagined I could use RPMdrake for installation of local RPMs. I would download an RPM to my home directory, and I tried figuring out how to use RPMdrake to install it, but I never found out how, so I usually ended up using “rpm -i ./package.rpm”. Is there an RPMdrake way to do this?
Anyone know where or when 9.2 will be available for download?
That is pretty simple. Just go to RPMDrake and go to edit/add RPM sources section and add a local source destination like a path to a folder in your home directory. Of course make sure you have your RPM’s in that folder and then add it to you list of sources. It’s really pretty simple. If you want to install more software just add more RPM’s to that folder and then update your source and that it. All this can be done via the comfort of the MDK’s RPMDrake GUI.
To install downloaded packages via RPMdrake, use the software source manager to create a local source. Use the update function whenever you download more packages.
i would also like to know when they plan to release the updated images. On mandrake’s site they said on november 4th that the iso release would be delayed for a ‘few’ days.
you beat me to it.
>> Anyone know where or when 9.2 will be available for download?
Check here! 🙂
http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/mandrake/iso/i586/
For people interested, I wrote a guide with screenshots about using the software installer, here :
http://www.zebulon.org.uk/ICML0.HTML
Where do you got that ISOs Jamil?
They are the corrected ISOs?
Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!
I think that the Download Edition don’t come with kernel sources. You have to download it. However, it is included in Power Pack and Pro Suite.
I installed MDK 9.2 on my parents’ new computer the other night. Yup, I’m moving them away from Windows for good – they already use Moz and OpenOffice on Windows (and not much else), so the switch shouldn’t be a big deal.
Anyway, the installation went without a hitch. Everything was clear, polished, and well-organised, and all the hardware “just worked”. My Dad was watching over my shoulder, and seemed very impressed as well. He’s not at all technical, but he said the Mandrake looked good, and looked familiar and approachable to a Windows XP user.
So, I was very happy with Mandrake 9.2, though I/they haven’t used it in anger yet. I think it will do the job very nicely for them!
They are out!!!!They are out!!!!They are out!!!!
They are out!!!!They are out!!!!They are out!!!!
They are out!!!!They are out!!!!They are out!!!!
on
http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/mandrake/iso/i586/
>For people interested, I wrote a guide with screenshots >about using the software installer, here :
>http://www.zebulon.org.uk/ICML0.HTML
Thanks for taking time and writing such a good paper.
That’s very useful IMHO..
I recently installed Mandrake 9.2 (having been with it since 8.0), but as usual, they have rushed the release and the download iso’s just dont work properly (again). In 9.1, printing didn’t work for two weeks until new foomatic and cups updates were released, this time the menus vanish as soon as you run the (already lengthy) update – as mentioned in the review. I really like Mandrakes easy to use configuration tools and easy setup, but they really need to test the distro before they release it. I have now given up on them and turned to lazy man’s Debian unstable (used a knoppix HD install which did EVERYTHING) and apt-get dist-upgraded to unstable which is already way ahead of Mandrake 9.2 and rock solid stable. Everything just works properly. Mandrake could learn much from Debian!
Wow! That installation guide is awesome, Zeb. Thank you very much 🙂
Now that I see my LG CD-RW listed as not affected by the problem we all know, I’m going to try it. Mandrake 9.1 was my first experience with linux and although I like it, it had way too many problems (such as Mandrake Control Center not doing what I asked it for). Maybe it was my lack of experience ¿?
Just how often do these people break compatability with their older versions?Recently I got a copy of Mandrake 9.1 off Ebay for a couple bucks,and slapped it on a Dell Precision twin 400PII server that I also snagged on Ebay,to build a BeOS box ,this machine had 2- 9 gig scsi’s in it and I had a 40 and an 8 gig IDE hd’s lying around from my defunct BeOS box to jam in there as well(this machine has room for 4 SCSI’s and 2 IDE HD’s)and to make a long story short I now have room to run about as many OS’s as this machine will support,the first one I tried was,naturally,BeOS and other than having to swap out the video card with my old box to get a color display,ran full native support,next came Mandrake 9.1, and it picked up all the hardware perfectly and was very easy to install,even the winTV card and the soundblaster live! that I also cannabilised from the old Be machine,and with the twin 400’s and 512 RAM the performance in linux is actually pretty snappy,nothing like BeOS,of course ,but it sure as hell runs better than the win98 partition,which only utilises one CPU,the only problem is that somewhere in their infinite wisdom,Mandrake has dropped Xpaint from their roster of bundled apps,and I always loved this app to do some lite graphix work because it loads faster and runs better than Gimp,when all you want to do is a few simple things,much like the difference between Artpaint and Refraction in BeOS. No problem,I thought,I just pulled out my old Mandrake 6 CD and looked up the RPM for Xpaint,but the damn thing wouldn’t install.
Also I can’t seem to figure out how to play a DVD here either.the thing that looks like a DVD player app does absolutely nothing upon hitting play when you insert a DVD,although the GUI is just as pretty as the ones for Windoze.
My old copy of StarOffice for Linux installed just fine there tho,but it has an almost Windoze-like installation scheme.
Also another gripe I had that while there were players a-plenty ,there were virtually nothing included for Audio creation or editing,not even Audacity
All this leaves me thinking that while this is a great desktop OS for office and business use with it’s multiple user security and wealth of Office-type apps and such.But for someone that wants to use their computer for entertainment and creativity,and wants to be able to install additional 3rd party software easily,and doesn’t have a bunch of power office chores to do, and wants a good free OS,I would recommend BeOS Max3.0 which while not having all the themes and eye candy Of KDE or Gnome comes with just about as much bundled software,installs just as easy if not easier,plus anything else you can get on BeBits or Beshare will install at a click of the mouse.Plus Linux apps are always being ported to BeOS.
Even these user-friendly versions of still have a long way to go to catch up to BeOS,at least on the end-user side.But they are getting better and maybe BlueEyedOS or Cosmoe will someday give us the best of both worlds.
I have an Intel DotStation Internet Appliance here that runs a Debian based Linux OS that was on it when I bought it from TigerDirect,and I agree with you that Debian is a way better distro by far,but I have always been put off by it,because I have always red that oi is a real bitrch to install,all commandline like freeBSD,which I have never been able to get to run right,ther’s just too much to tell it to do andit doesn’t autodetect anything,and not being a very good typist,and having limited bash skill is not for me,but whats up with this Knoppix install?Is it automatic?
From a GUI?I always see these Knoppix CD’s for sale on Ebay for next to nothing,but I didn’t know you could install Debian from them,just thought it ran Debian from the CD.
this has my me curious
In past versions of Mandrake I have always been stuck recompiling my kernel with tulip.c so that I could use my NIC. Did they finally address that in this new release (9.1 still had not, and I am a <u>paying</u> customer). Red Hat has been including the Tulip driver since the 5.x days since it covers approximately 140 NICs.
I am a big Mandrake fan, but if upgrading is always going to be that painful for me then I know a lot of Noobies will not want to at all.
Does anyone know whether the just-released 9.2 public ISOs include the many patches that were made for the member’s ISOs?? Also, I found OpenOffice 1.1 responsiveness under Mdk 9.2 RC2 noticeably slower than under Fedora Core 1. Did that change under Mdk 9.2-final?? Thanks.
I gave up on Mandrake as soon as TexStar gave up on it as well. Except Texstar hasn’t given up on Mandrake. In fact, he is working on creating a Mandrake live CD.
To everyone who doesn’t know how to install software:
1) Go here http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon/ and set up your urpmi sources.
2) Type urpmi nameofpackage, i.e., urpmi evolution at the command line or go to Mandrake’s control center if you prefer it to do in a GUI.
SeanParsons,
The tulip driver is part of the stock kernel and has been in Mandrake since time immemorial.
To the guy complaining about good sound and video editing. Add your sources above, specifically contrib and plf. Then, do urpmi audacity, urpmi ardour, urpmi broadast2000.
Finally, fire up knode and go to the mandrake newsgroup. It’s a friendly place where everyone is welcome. And the mandrakeforums at http://www.mandrakeusers.org and linuxinstall.org are also great.
Welcome aboard.
One other thing. Obviously you need to be root to install software. Other than that, your rpm commands from SUSE or Red Hat carry over in Mandrake. So you can query the package database to see if a package is installed by doing rpm -q nameofpackage.
You can also installed by doing rpm -Uvh nameofpackage. The nice thing about urpmi is that it does dependency resolution for you so that if you have added the above mentioned repositories, it will automatically download whatever you need.
Give Mandkake 9.2 a try. It’s a joy to use.
You can get at their web site:
http://us.lgservice.com/
(from PCLinuxOnline)
“Choose Product support, then Device driver, CD-ROM and “Emergency download for Physical Dead Drive from Mandrake Linux 9.2″ There is a Dead.gif file explaining the way to reflash the drive.”
So, I guess in a way they are acknowledging that their drive had a problem and make honorable amends…
is there a new kernel 2.6 package out for M 9.2?
…and I’ve had to re-install it a bunch of times because using RPMDrake for anything at all, even updates, completely obliterates the K menu. Every time, without fail. A friend at work has had the exact same problem. I am disappointed Mandrake would release a product with such an obvious and fatal flaw.
I got my system up and running Mandrake 9.2 about 2 weeks ago, by doing a networked install. Who needs isos when you can install via network 🙂
I agree, MDK should fix that, but good heavens, you don’t need to re-install the OS to fix the K Menu!
Get a Konsole if you are in KDE by adding it to the bottom bar (via the menus available with right-click) or log in again in GNOME. All you need to do is re-run menudrake, save config, and exit. Your menus in KDE will return.
Have you figured out what this disappearing thing is due to? I know it happens when you do the initial Updates, but it only seems to happen occasionally after that. Perhaps related to certain software installs?
Anyway, hopefully that trick helps. I’m otherwise enjoying MDK 9.2 a great deal. Installs on my Inspiron 5150 cleanly out of the box, with Nvidia GLX humming along nicely without any fiddling.
Of course, the easiest way for a few packages is to do simply from the command line : urpmi _the_package_
Easy ain’t ?
IMHO, You don’t have to mess with the gui when it’s not necessary. But that just me. I wanted to point it out before somebody cry out again how easy it could be with apt-get.
Learn a little bit urpmi and you’ll adopt it.
Never look back at RH or Suse.
Peace
While we are it, don’t forget to go at:
http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon/index.php
So you can add many sources (for java, DVD, …) easily.
Never had this problem since at least 7.2 ?!?
Maybe you just unselected it during the install. It ask for it and if you have something else to declared.
That’s weird.
@ Mike Rutter
I’m lazy too, that’s why I use mandrake. Just install, go to EasyUrpmi to setup cooker (mandrake “unstable” which has always be “rock stable” for me), then use :
urpmi.update -a
urpmi –auto –auto-select
as often you feel it to be at the bleeding edge. Debian might be way ahead of the others distribution but certainly not mdk with the urpmi. That’s at least a draw if not the other way around. They mixed the good of apt-get with rpm many years ago. I don’t understand why people don’t get it. That’s Suse and RH that should learn and use it too.
Sigh!
I have now given up on them and turned to lazy man’s Debian unstable (used a knoppix HD install which did EVERYTHING) and apt-get dist-upgraded to unstable which is already way ahead of Mandrake 9.2 and rock solid stable. Everything just works properly. Mandrake could learn much from Debian!
@ Joe Gnu
Oupps, didn’t read your post. You answed it all before me. At least, we’re not in contracditions… that’s good.
🙂
@ jason v
About the 2.6 (which is the default on my computer) there is one in the contrib with the supermount & al. Setup urpmi (at easyurpmi) then:
# urpmi kernel-2.6
VoilÃ
or
# urpmi kernel-2.6-source
if you want to compile it yourself.
Enjoy
Are they using the new 2.6 kernel?
I think 9.2 was realced to soon. When ever i shut my laptop lid it freezes, whenever it goes intoscreensaver for about 5 mins it freezes, and when ever i try to shut it down it freezes. I tried to do the auto update and now i can’t install ANYTHING. Im a HUGE fan of mandrake but i think these issues should have been fixed.