PCLINUX OS 2010 - Beta 1

The new beta for PCLINUX OS 2010 is now out.  I downloaded the ISO image and burned a DVD (next time I will burn a CD so that all the machines at home can use it).  The prior versions had a problem with my Dell Inspiron 530 desktop, but, this time the machine booted up without a problem.  I am running off the live CD and it seems to be rock solid at this time even though it is a beta version. 

I launched Firefox and went over to Runescape to see how it works.  The Java runtime was not installed by default, but, after adding it via Synaptic the site loaded and I could run the game without a problem.  I have not really tried the HD mode as I don't know if the video card driver from ATI is loaded.  Using safe mode runs and I don't have any lagg issues. 

I will be trying this out for the week and if I don't encounter any problems I will be backing up the three desktops and install this.  I prefer using this distro as it is fairly solid and it is easier to support the machines with one distro rather than with the two I am running now (Mandriva is on the Dell as that works).

I launced the scanner software (XSANE) without any problems and it auto-detected the scanner.  I didn't load DIGIKAM, but, it is on the list of programs that can be installed.  Like all other distros it has a problem with my TV card, but, that is not a major issue for me as I very rarely watch TV while on the machine.

Updating my machine

For the last couple of months I have been looking at the various distros that are out there and how they work on my machine here.  The one I really wanted updated was PCLINUXOS so that all of the machines at home run with the same distro.  The 2009.2 version still won't boot on my machine so I had to look elsewhere.  My current distro was Mint 5.

Mandriva just came out with their latest and I downloaded and burned the ISO and gave it a shot.  It looks very nice visually and it detected most of my hardware without a problem.  The only two things were my palm pilot and the TV card which it didn't detect (like every other distro so far).  I then downloaded Mint 7 KDE and gave it a shot.  It was as visually appealing to me as Mandriva and had the same issues with the palm pilot and TV card.  The area it was ahead was that Java was installed automatically (I have to install that on Mandriva) and the ATI card driver was there for me.  I opted to keep with Mint so far and I upgraded to version 7.

One of the bonuses of this is now I have two more CDs that I can then pass out to friends and family when they have more problems with windows. 

It will take a bit of time to get used to KDE 4, but, so far it has not caused me any problems.  Firefox with Java still plays Runescape in HD mode without a problem.  Digikam works fine along with Thunderbird and XSANE.

When I get some time I will try to dig and see if I can get the palm pilot to work.  I thought I saw something about 'VISOR'.  If that doesn't work I really want to get my TV card to work.  I have a lot of home videos I would like to hook up to the input and make into MPG files and have them transferred to DVD for the family.

Update 2009/11/08:

I have moved off of Mint over to Mandriva.  I have been using Mint for a day and I have noticed a few things that make it a bit less usable for me.

1. Runescape log in flickers wildy and it cannot be stopped unless I take HD mode off.
2. The shutdown function at times (about 50%) does not work and the system locks.
3. I cannot access system services to manually define what I want to run.  This is a critical one for me as I want complete control over what is running.  Mandriva allows me to do this.

The first two items may be something that I did when I configured the system, but, so far Mandriva is not doing those things and I will use that for now.

In Mandriva it didn't auto-detect my printer (SAMSUNG ML-2010), but, after going to WWW.SAMSUNG.COM I found the driver, downloaded it and installed.  It wasn't as smooth as Mint, but, it worked and I now have a printer.

New hardware

Two weeks ago I went out and purchased a new machine for my work at home. I needed a machine that could handle the workload on digital editing and needed the hardware to do this. I also wanted a machine that could handle the new graphics mode of Runescape which I play on a regular basis at home.

I ended up buying the Dell Inspiron 530. It has 3 gigabytes of memory, dual core processors and 500 gigabytes of disk space and a Hauppauge WinTv tuner. The only thing is that it came with Vista and I really don't want that on my machine. Before wiping the hard drive I loaded the PCLinusOS 2007 live CD into the machine and rebooted. The first indication that I had problems was the message 'No IDE channel' and the machine refused to boot with the CD. I went to the forums and read about the problems other people were having and tried all of the command line options, but, no luck in booting the machine is PCLinuxOS 2007.

I then tried to run a number of other live CDs that I have with various amounts of success:

1. Mandriva 2008. It boots, but no Java and no ATI drivers. The tuner didn't work and the Palm M130 didn't show up on the USB bus.
2. Mint. It has Java and the ATI drivers. No tuner recognition and the Palm M130 didn't show up also.
3. Knoppix. It has Java and Firefox, but, no ATI drivers.

I tried a few other variants of PCLinuxOS, but, they either didn't recognize the SATA DVD drive, or, when installed didn't boot because of the SATA hard drive. I also tried a number of other Live CD distros, but, they either didn't boot or didn't have the same out-of-box experience I am accustomed to that PCLinuxOS delivers. They are all good distros, but, don't fit my needs:

1. Kanotix
2. Granular
   
3. Vector
4. Ultima
5. Ubuntu, Kubunt, Xubuntu.
6. Simple Mepis
7. Fedora
8. Vector
9. Sabayon
10. Berry

I ended up partitioning my machine and making it a dual-boot machine and installing Mint on the machine for now. I choose it as it is close enough to the look-and-feel of PCLinuxOS 2007 and it works with the hardware. The only thing I don't have for now is the TV tuner and the Palm M130 sync, but, those are minor issues for now. I can probably hack my way through those issues and the issues with the above distros have, but, I prefer PCLinuxOS. Mint is quite nice and auto detected everything else on my new system without a problem and the software update mechanism (adept) is almost as slick as the package manager in PCLinuxOS.

Today the PCLInuxOS development team announced PCLinuxOS 2009 Beta 1 and I am downloading that at this time and I will be giving it a try later on. No matter what I will be keeping dual-boot as there are some games that my daughter wants to play and they don't support Linux (yet).

The one lesson I learned is that when getting new hardware use the Live CD first and see how it works on the machine before doing the installation and totally hosing the system.

New PCLinuxOS Version

Texstar at PCLinuxOS has released V0.93 of the distribution that I run here at home for my machine/server. I have downloaded the ISO image of this and I will be burning the CD in the next few days.

I will be playing with the live CD before installing to see how it works on the system. I have no doubts that it is as solid as V0.92, but, I think it would be prudent to test first as this is my main machine.

There are other versions available if you don't want to download and check out the complete version. You can go to PCLinuxOS to get more information on this excellent distribution.


In a related topic Mandriva has released a beta version of Mandriva Linux 2007. My wife and daughter are using that distribution on their machines as they like the selection of games. You can go to Mandriva for the news release.