Release: MCNLive Delft - final opties

[kris]

A new edition of MCNLive, code name "Delft" is out, a fun release based on Mandriva Spring 2007.1, lacking any office or work-related software packages that would seriously distract your mind. A portable Linux live system for CD or USB drives, with some smart wizards to get the best out of a Live system. Add software, set it up on your pendrive, run it entirely from RAM, write to NTFS partitions, create your own version on-the-fly, switch languages, make all changes persistent.

KDE 3.5.6 with a set of internet, music and video applications, games and more: Opera 9.20, Midnight Commander, K3b, gnomad2. English (default), Dutch, French, Italian pre-installed.
3D desktop - Beryl, Compiz and Metisse - for Intel and ATI cards, with nvidia 2D joy only. Included WIFI drivers. 100% Mandriva 2007.1 compatible. If you really *must*, install it on your hard disk. (My advice for serious work: pick simply the best, the real Mandriva Linux.)

Get your copy, a complete list of installed software and the more technical release notes at
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/man.../mcnlive/Delft/
We hope that you enjoy this new release.

PS. Our forum at mandrivaclub.nl is still pretty broken, my hardware is slowly dying, my network access at home has mysterious issues and spring this year in Holland seems to be summer. Something in the air currently?

--chris

[kris]

Small hints for the 3D desktop effects.

* Lower the configured resolution to get 3D desktop effects

On some boxes MCNLive will start automatically with a pretty high resolution, which is fine without 3D desktop. But prevents Beryl or Metisse to work properly.

Example. An IBM Thinkpad T30. Radeon 9250 (or something like that) video card. Starts into 1400x xxx resolution, looks great :-)

Before yor enable 3D effects, please click on 'Configure Video' (menu--> MCNLive), set your monitor to 1024x768 Flat panel *and* the resolution to 1024x768. Now enable in the same menu 3D desktop. Logout, login back, as user guest, password: guest

* Beryl and Metisse and Compiz - still experimental

Please keep in mind when using the 3D desktop effects that it is still experimental. In some cases you might run into stability issues (read: it will crash, which is not critical on a live system but annoying). Depends on your video card, the available video RAM, a screensaver popping in, too much open embedded flash contents on websites ...

[mzee]

We hope that you enjoy this new release.

Just to say : thank you. Very nice piece of work! Very, very nice!!

[kris]

My thanks to all those gorgeous people from mandrivaclub.nl for suggestions, testing and improvements.

Special thanks to:

PeterM : wallpaper and testing
HighKing & Maurice: the new wizards
Gul Dukat: testing on his hardware farm

And: davo, doelman, mzee, korrel, mr rogers, ogli, RvP, Rockingbilly, Tux Brothers, willie, DogLo ...

... and all this mostly invisible work on the server, the forum etc.

--chris

[Gul Dukat]

My thanks to all those gorgeous people from mandrivaclub.nl for suggestions, testing and improvements.

Special thanks to:

PeterM : wallpaper and testing
HighKing & Maurice: the new wizards
Gul Dukat: testing on his hardware farm

And: davo, doelman, mzee, korrel, mr rogers, ogli, RvP, Rockingbilly, Tux Brothers, willie, DogLo ...

... and all this mostly invisible work on the server, the forum etc.

--chris

And I think I can speak for all the members of this board, when I say, Kris you did a superb job on MCNLive "Delft".
It's really a little gem. Thank you for all your hard work, it really paid off. Thank you.

Dit bericht is bewerkt door Gul Dukat: May 6 2007, 09:14 PM

[kris]

More tips for Delft

It seems for some bluetooth services we missed the package kdebluetooth-pin
Open a terminal, type:

CODE

su
urpmi kdebluetooth-pin

I am sorry for that. We had no bluetooth tester.

Installing Delft to hard disk

Though not recommended it seems that people wish to use Delft for a permanent system on HD.
* When it comes to the step of installing the bootloader, please don't try to manually add another OS. (MS Windows is added by default if discovered.) It will most likely fail. You can do this after you re-booted the first time.
* Please consider after an installation the following tasks. Change the passwords of the user guest and root, create you own user, un-install the package 'draklive-install', check the default services you want to start at boot time (MCC), don't use the wizards in the menu 'MCNLive', they are made for a live system only, check if the security level (standard) fits your needs, add a firewall if you are not in an already secured network ...
* I would like to repeat it here. Consider installing the real Mandriva. The Mandriva free dvd download edition is just wonderful. And if you want to support the distribution, you may want to buy the commercial edition, Mandriva Powerpack.

Enabling the non-free software sources

Delft does not include any closed source drivers on kernel level. In the Mandriva Control Center you can enable the already configured source which contains all non-free drivers, for example for nvidia and ati video cards, and install the (pre-compiled) drivers. 'Delft' comes with the default Mandriva 2007.1 Spring kernel!

What is the wizard ' Create persistent loop' for?

This wizard creates a (big) file on a chosen partition to prepare the feature: make all changes persistent.
* It will ask you where to create this file and how big it should be.
* If you go for an ext3 partition, this partition will get the label MCNLIVE.
* The wizard does not create or erase any partitions.

The bootcode: vesa

* Very few graphical cards might refuse to boot into graphical mode. 'Delft' introduces a cheatcode for this issue. At the initial boot screen hit F1, at the poot prompt type: vesa (not livecd vesa, just: vesa !)
The boot process will write a standard config file for a vesa card and a screen resolution of 1024x768, configure a standard mouse etc.
* This boot code is also meant when booting from the iso file or a real CD with VirtualBox or VMWare.

Hot plugging removable devices - dubbel-click the Devices icon on the desktop

Plug in the device. Wait two seconds. Dubbel-click the icon 'Devices' on the desktop. You'll find them ;-)
I disabled the annoying pop-up windows ...

Available bootcodes for 'Delft':

http://www.mcnlive.org/bootcodes-delft.html

[kris]

Still major forum problems


It is still not possible to register properly on this forum. Sorry for the trouble - just in time for the new MCNLive Delft release. Unfortunately I don't know either when and if it will get solved.

So, you won't see any reactions of MCNLive users here

I will try to post here answers to questions I am getting in my email box. Please don't hesitate to email me, with questions or problems or just to say 'hi':

mcnlive {at} googlemail.com

--chris

[HighKing]

I will try to post here answers to questions I am getting in my email box. Please don't hesitate to email me, with questions or problems or just to say 'hi':

mcnlive {at} googlemail.com

--chris

Sorry to break in like this...
Maybe it's not a bad idea to start a mailing list for MCNLive?
Since MCNLive is an open source product, you can get one for free, at sites like tuxfamily.org or sourceforge.net

This might help people a lot, since they don't need to register to a Dutch forum, but just can send a mail to the list, which all registered users can read (and will read since they get a copy in their mailbox )

Not that the people on this forum aren't capable of answering questions, but it would be much easyer for non-registered users to aks a question, which *could* be answered by someone else but you.
So this would help both the user, as you, not having to answer loads of mail anymore

[kris]

A mailing list is perfect for developers and such, not for a normal user. In my eyes.
We are in the 21th century.

I will ask our friends at mandrivausers.org to create a sub forum for MCNLive.

I don't have the time to care about mailing lists and forum stuff, English buttons, not working links ... and what more. Here at MCNL we just don't have enough man (and woman-) power to care about even the basic stuff
But we are good in a perfect timing to break the forum right before the MCNLive release.

[HighKing]

Well, in my experience, mailing lists are a great way of helping users who 'just wan't to ask a question'. For example, everyone who's registred at the freevo-users list, receives a copy of every question asked to this list.
So, if someone askes a question, everyone registered to this list reads the question, and can come with an answer.

It's just a nice extra on top of a forum on wich you'll have to register first to ask your question.

[kris]

Feel free to set up a mailing list - as long as I don't have to administrate it, block the spam, make sure it is browsable, care about registering users etc.

A forum is -in my experience- the best way to set up a user-community. And there are already good international boards for mandriva users

So that the Dutch and Belgian can stay undisturbed here with their language and their needs and interests.

[HighKing]

Feel free to set up a mailing list - as long as I don't have to administrate it, block the spam, make sure it is browsable, care about registering users etc.

If you at least are willing to register to this list, I sertainly would like to request a list at TuxFamily.org, but if you don't like the idea at all, I think it is best to leave this at what it is (an idea).

[kris]

Go ahead, Michel
I will register.

--chris, busy to learn more about LZMA and cromfs compression for a live linux system - the next MCNLive will rock even more!

[jerome hess]

I have to agree w/ kris, althuogh Lists are GREAT for my job for example, I have a subscription to the fedora list (I ran a server for a while) but the sheer VOLUME of email made it impossible to REALLY extract anything worthwhile. I found myself using me email SEARCH button more than I actually spent time readin it. But thats my 2 krupas!

[davo]

I have to agree w/ kris, althuogh Lists are GREAT for my job for example, I have a subscription to the fedora list (I ran a server for a while) but the sheer VOLUME of email made it impossible to REALLY extract anything worthwhile. I found myself using me email SEARCH button more than I actually spent time readin it. But thats my 2 krupas!

You should definitely account for the community size difference between fedora and mcnlive when you make this reflection... I think the "size" would be at least a bit smaller, to that extent that I expect it to be easier to support and possible to read everything...
On the other hand, I think that this MCNL forum is still the place to be with questions and for updates, ... I agree with kris.

[HighKing]

I'm not saying that all support for MCNLive should be through a list, but it would be a nice extra. You'd have to see this more of a replacement for the support email's Chris gets, and has to answer herself. Not as a replacement for a forum.

If we set up a list for this, everyone that is registered to this list, will receive the questions in his/her mailbox, and has the possibility to answer the question so Chris won't have to bother

If some people from this forum would register, we at least have more then one person to reply at support questions sent by mail, so this would actually save Chris some work.

[PeterM]

Hoi Kris,

Een late reactie door mijn vakantie, maar gefeliciteerd met weer een schitterende MCNLive.
Ziet er weer helemaal toppie uit.