Mandriva 2011 codenamed Hydrogen is out

I just copy this as announced on Mandriva blog:

Hooray! As promised earlier, we are happy to announce that Mandriva 2011 is out. You can download ISO images from here.

When downloading an iso-image, perhaps you will want to read the Release Notes.

We prepared a small manual of how to upgrade to the new release for users of the Mandriva Desktop 2010.2.

If you have never tried Mandriva, take a look at the Mandriva 2011 Tour.

Happy upgrading :)

My Mandriva desktop

Sorry for not posting anything for a rather long time. I have been using Mandriva Cooker 2011 for about 2 months now since I bought my new ASUS laptop from someone with half the current market price. :) With RPM5, ROSA, and many exciting features of KDE 4 in Cooker, I didn't want to miss the chance to test and have fun with them.

Here is the screenshots of my desktop with urpmi and 3D effects in action.


Please click on the image to see bigger picture.

What's coming in Mandriva 2011

After the wonderful news that Mandriva would be continuing as usual despite financial difficulties and an exodus of developers comes the technical specifications and other tidbits for Mandriva 2011. There are quite a few exciting changes ahead, many of which prove that Mandriva is still a cutting edge distribution.

With 2011, Mandriva will be switching to RPM5. This news was announced by Per Øyvind Karlsen last week and is the first item in the list. RPM5 is actually a fork of RPM with the main goals of supporting XAR, an XML based archiving format, and featuring an integrated dependency resolver. This move has been in the works for quite some time but Mandriva 2011 will be the first release fully committed. Per Øyvind Karlsen said RPM5, "is the only sensible choice." Relatedly, their software center is scheduled a face-lift for a "more modern and simple to use interface."

Mandriva 2011 will be using the Galbraith Latency patch whether the kernel that will be used has it or not - meaning they will backport it if necessary. This latency patch, first brought to wide attention by Phoronix.com, is said to help speed up desktop processes especially in the areas of graphic and video rendering.

It is listed that Mandriva would be adopting systemd for the boot process. Several other distributions started out trying to move to systemd, but so far, they have changed their minds due to difficulties associated with such a major subsystem replacement. But Mandriva is going to give it the ole college try for 2011. The advantages of systemd are faster boots for some setups because of parallel, early background, and dependency booting of processes.

Like several other distributions have done, most of Mandriva's configuration tools will be integrated into the KDE Control Center (System Settings) in 2011.

All the logins and desktops are getting new a new look and improved resource consumption. No further details on any of these items are given at this time, but it's always exciting to see what the new releases will look like.

The installer is supposed to be simplified in order to be more new user-friendly. Desktop selection and installation summary steps will be removed, meaning those will personal preferences or cranky hardware will have to wait until after the install.

During this cycle, Cooker will no longer be frozen before release and instead continue to be developed in parallel. The release code will be branched off and Cooker will proceed as a rolling release.

Finally, something originally asked for over three years ago is finally being implemented. A new user Welcome application will be added in order to help new and migrating users to acclimate to Mandriva. Again, no further details what will exactly be included, but one can speculate it will give links to online resources such as forums and documentation; perhaps a tour of the desktop, menu, and applications; and maybe offer to install popular applications, codecs, and drivers.

And unfortunately, there are still no plans posted about a 64-bit One release. One has the advantage of being shipped with proprietary codecs and drivers that aren't available in the other versions, so a 64-bit version would be extremely handy.

Of course, there are lots of other highly technical deep code improvements ahead as well. But just looking at the items that users will notice easily, Mandriva 2011 certainly sounds very exciting. A release candidate is scheduled for April 25 and final is planned for May 30.

Source

Mandriva Linux Spring 2010 released

Mandriva Linux 2010.1 aka Mandriva Linux Spring 2010 code named Farman released. For more information please check out Mandriva's Blog and website especially the new features in this release. You can download it here. Please also read the errata page for know bugs and other issues.

Have fun with this latest Mandriva offering.

Mandriva 2010 Spring RC released

The Mandriva developers have announced the arrival of a release candidate (RC) for Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring (2010.1). This is to be the last development release for Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring and the final version is scheduled for release on the 3rd of June, 2010.

Building on the previous beta releases, the RC is based on the 2.6.33.4 Linux kernel and features the latest GNOME 2.30.1 and KDE 4.4.3 desktops. A number of changes have been implemented in the Nautilus file manager in anticipation of the GNOME 3.0 release with the GNOME Shell. Built-in desktop applications include version 3.2 of OpenOffice.org, Firefox 3.6.3, the Chromium web browser and version 1.92 of the Transmission BitTorrent client. Other changes include use of the Nouveau driver for NVIDIA graphics hardware and improvements to the Mandriva tools, such as data encryption, parental control and network profiles.

As with all development releases, use in production environments and on mission critical systems is not advised. Users testing the release are encouraged to provide feedback and report any bugs that they encounter. It's not for the faint of heart.

More info can be read here: http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/2010.1_RC

Current Mandriva situation

These last days, numerous rumors have been spread about Mandriva’s situation. Out of respect for our clients and community, we want to clear the situation.

Mandriva has always been involved in investment and aquisition processes. Over the past years, Mandriva bought Edge-IT, Conectiva and Linbox FAS. Today, Mandriva is in takeover talks with various investors. These discussions concerning new investments in Mandriva are not new, they have happened all throughout the life of the company, and there are still going on today. We want to stress out the fact that Mandriva has not been bought by anybody.

Like many other companies, Mandriva has been impacted by the economic slow-down and took advantage of this period to develop and improve its products: an operating system dedicated to a uniquely ergonomic server (MES5.1), the most reliable free machine-management software on the market (Pulse2), Mandriva Smart Desktop to simplify the use of office desktops, education-dedicated distribution. Mandriva is also involved in many research projects, and is constantly working with the community to increase the efficiency and ease-of-use of its distribution.

We are beginning to harvest the results of this development work with hundreds of thousands of PCs using the Mandriva OS sold in South America, Asia and rapid sales of Pulse2 and MES5 in Europe. So it is unsurprising that Mandriva has once again attracted the interest of industry decision-makers.

Arnaud Laprévote
Mandriva’s CEO

Source

Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring Beta 2 available

Second Beta release of mandriva Linux is available for test now. Download the DVD iso for your architecture. You can also dump it on USB key as an installation media. This second beta release comes with many updates and improvements on major softwares. Mandriva tools have also been updated and propose new functionalities:

• data encryption: you want to protect your data. Encrypt your home directory or your system: it’s as easy as clic!
• parental control: many bug fixes, you can now control not only network access but also applications
• network profiles: add your network services in your network profiles.
• Mandriva Directory Server: this new release proposes new functionnalities to help you manage a LDAP directory (userquota module, massive users import, OpenSSH LDAP public keys management..)

More details on this Beta2 release can be read here. See here for download mirror.

Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring Beta 1 available

First beta of Mandriva 2010 Spring Beta 1 released. Mandriva Spring final will be out on June 6th as planned by Mandriva Team. For those who want to test it, you can download it from your nearest mirror. For those who use Cooker like me, you don't need to download because you may get the upadates via drakrpm.

This release includes GNOME 2.30 (released on April 1st) and a preview edition of GNOME-Shell, which will be part of GNOME 3 (which is planned for release on september 2010). Of course, KDE 4.4.2 is also available, as well as various updates for many programs in the distribution.

As usual all your feedbacks are really important to help in improving global quality of distribution. You can report improvements proposals and/or bugs in Mandriva Bugzilla.

KDE 4.4 is ready for Mandriva

Run one of these to add KDE-4.4.0 repo (depending on your OS of course):

32 bits:

urpmi.addmedia kde-4.4.0 ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/stable/4.4.0/Mandriva/2010.0/i586

64 bits:

urpmi.addmedia kde-4.4.0 ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/stable/4.4.0/Mandriva/2010.0/x86_64

After adding the KDE 4.4. repository you will need to update, download and install all of KDE 4.4 packages. You can do all of this in one command, but, I, for safety, prefer to do it in two steps. First, update the repositories and download all the packages before installing them to make sure that the installation is possible:

urpmi --auto-update --auto-select --test

When all packages finish downloading and you see a message at the end saying that the installation is possible, you can run the same command without the --test parameter to now actually perform the installation:

urpmi --auto-update --auto-select

After the package installation finishes, logout and log back in, that's it !! you will have a brand new, shiny, awesome and rocking KDE 4.4 desktop :D

Enjoy!!

Credit goes to Juan Luis Baptiste for the info.

Mandriva Linux 2010 released

Announced on Nov 4th 2009, the release of Mandriva 2010. It is available in three editions : One, Powerpack and Free, for architectures i586 and x86-64. One and Free can be downloaded for free from official Mandriva mirrors and via BitTorrent.

To know what this edition has to offer, read here.

What really attracts me is this:

Mandriva Linux 2010 includes Go-OO branch of the popular OpenOffice.org. That means more features, like SVG support, 3D transitions, VBA support, KDE 4 integration and Includes useful extensions.

So for those who *really* need these features of Go-OO, should consider use this edition of Mandriva Linux.

Have fun!

Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring released

Mandriva has announced the launch of the final version of Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring (codename Pauillac). This new version comes with a host of improvements and changes, as always. Fun fact: this is the first release reported to us by Anne Nicolas instead of Adam Williamson. For those that keep score.

The Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring comes in the flavour of your choice, KDE, GNOME or LXDE, in more than 70 languages. There's the Free edition (100% open source software) in 2 DVDs for 32 and 64 architecture and the One edition (installable live CD, available in KDE and GNOME versions). Major updates includes KDE 4.2.2, GNOME 2.26, Xorg server 1.6, Linux kernel 2.6.29, Xfce 4.6, Qt Creator 1, Tcl/Tk 8.6, syslinux 3.75, and much more.

Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring comes with an improvement in boot time. The tools of Mandriva Control Center have also been optimised. Network center now supports advanced network configuration together with additional pre-configured Internet providers, integration with new network devices and support for different wireless regulatory domains. msev, the Mandriva security framework, has been also redesigned.

The ext4 file system is now supported in the stable version and proposed during installation. Last update of syslinux comes with the HDT module (Hardware Detection Tool), which brings you a way to detect all your hardware before booting your system.

You can take the 2009 Spring tour, read the Release notes and Errata, and of course, download.

Source

Mandriva Linux 2009 released

Mandriva has released its latest desktop edition which comes in 4 edition: One, Free, PowerPack and Mandriva Flash.

Mandriva One comes in CD and suitable for those who want to start using Mandriva Linux in no time. You can boot in to live CD and start working. It has the option to install to hard disk. This edition comes with proprietary softwares.

Mandriva Free is the free edition. It doesn't contain proprietary softwares. You can add those later though if you add the relevant repositories.

Mandriva Powerpack is a commercial pack containing proprietary packages such as flash plugin, nvidia, nvidia, ati, mp3 codec etc.

Mandriva Flash is a USB disk version of Mandriva. It now uses 8GB USB drive instead of 4GB in previous version. You have to order it from Mandriva Store.

More info on this release

I have been using Mandriva Linux for almost 7 years now and in my opinion it is one of the best distributions out there.

Upgrading Mandriva 2008 to Mandriva 2008.1 aka Mandriva Spring

Screenshot of KDE 4 on Mandriva Spring 2008

Here are the steps to upgrade mandriva 2008 to 2008.1 via online repos.

1) Back up the current urpmi.cfg
2) Change the repos mentioned in urpmi.cfg from 2008.0 to 2008.1
3) Run urpmi.update -a to verify repos
4) urpmi --auto-update -v

If there are problems with dependencies, remove the old versions (notably KDE4 as in my experience, yours maybe with different packages). Then in some cases you have to run this command:

5) urpmi --auto-select

Relax and sit back while watching the packages being upgraded. For my system, almost 1600 packages upgraded. Lastly, you will be instructed to reboot the system because of kernel and dbus upgrade. So far the new system is running smoothly without problem.

reference: Mandriva Forum

Setting up wireless with Mandriva 2007

I rarely install Linux on laptop. It was great to have one and saw how Linux distros progressed in this area. Since last week, I have been a responsible person for one of my office's laptop. I tried installing Fedora Core 6 on it. It was no good. After a couple of minutes, it started to become slower like something was going on in the background. It was so annoying. I tried upgrading the kernel and all the latest updates using yum but to no avail. Of course your mileage may vary.

Mandriva 2007

With Mandriva 2007, I was in luck. I got the DVD from LinuxForYou magazine. I am no stranger with Mandriva. I have been using it for 5 years and one of servers I managed using it. As any desktop-oriented distros, Mandriva is one of the user-friendliest distros out there. It is good and will be better in the future.

Wireless

My laptop is Intel-based. What i mean here is the wireless, CPU and VGA chipsets are from Intel. My wireless is ipw3945. No driver for this chipset I could found in the DVD. After googling, the driver is here. This is the kernel module (driver) for the wireless chipset. Hence, I activated it with modprobe : modprobe ipw3945. It created a device called eth1 (eth0 was reserved for wired connection).

Connecting to AP
Open Mandriva Control Center and go to Network And Internet:
Click on the Wireless connection.


As you see in the diagram below, the AP signal was detected and shown. The button Disconnect should be Connect before you connect your laptop to the AP.


If the connection is successful, then you can connect to your network and internet. Contact your network administrator if you have problem. Good luck.

urpmi made easy - Step by step

Ok. to make easier for newbie, a step by step guide is preferable or a series of commands will make their life wonderful :). Here the shortcut for my previous post. You have to be root to run these commands.

urpmi.removemedia -a
urpmi.addmedia --update updates http://ftp.kddlabs.co.jp/Linux/distributions/Mandrake/official/updates/x86_64/2006.0/main_updates/ with media_info/hdlist.cz
urpmi.addmedia main http://ftp.kddlabs.co.jp/Linux/distributions/Mandrake/official/2006.0/x86_64/media/main with media_info/hdlist.cz
urpmi.addmedia contrib http://ftp.kddlabs.co.jp/Linux/distributions/Mandrake/official/2006.0/x86_64/media/contrib with media_info/hdlist.cz

Please notice any error produced. The server may experience busy traffic or it may be down. You should run the particular command once again. This time you have to choose another server. After all commands run successfully, you can install and update packages through internet by issuing :

urpmi name_of_package

That's all there is to it.