Forum - First try feedback (French user)

stqn
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First try feedback (French user)
« Thread Started on Apr 27, 2011, 7:44pm »

Hello,

I've just tried SalineOS and would like to give you my impressions.

First the good ones:
- installing from USB was easy as I could simply use dd (unetbootin is a pain.)
- the installer was very quick.
- the default theme with compositing etc. looks good. I think it's a decent blend between "cute" and "professionnal". (Maybe it would be better with a non-bold font though...)
- the OS was not blazingly fast, but almost

However I had a few problems:
- the French keymap was automatically selected for me at install time (after I selected French language), but this setting wasn't kept on the final install, which caused some problems when entering my password... I had to type it in qwerty.
- wireless wasn't working (Realtek RTL8187B chip) so I couldn't install or update anything.
- "tapping" on the touchpad didn't work; I had to press the LMB below the touchpad.
- the Parole media player could only play sound and didn't show any picture with all the videos I tried.
- OpenOffice is in English.
- sleep seemed to work fine, but hibernation... when I pressed the power button to switch the computer back on, it simply booted to an empty desktop as usual. Not sure if that is normal as I never used hibernation under Linux before.

I am in fact looking for a stable and easy to use distribution to install on someone else's laptop (I'm using Arch Linux with Xfce 4.8 on my main desktop.) In that respect, there are a few more points of concern:
- the installer is a bit too technical for complete noobs (especially the gparted step.)
- I didn't see an option/icon/menu entry to use the proprietary nVidia driver (for a GeForce 8400M G.) Windows refresh with the default nouveau driver seemed a bit slow and there was tearing.
- SalineOS seems to be a one man operation...? Will it still be updated one year from now? Three years?

Now if I am the one installing the PC I could probably install the nVidia driver and maybe even make hibernation work... But I'd rather install something that the laptop's owner could reinstall by herself should the need arise.

That's it. I hope that wasn't too boring

.

« Last Edit: Apr 27, 2011, 7:49pm by stqn »

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Anthony Nordquist
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Re: First try feedback (French user)
« Reply #1 on Apr 27, 2011, 8:06pm »

Apr 27, 2011, 7:44pm, stqn wrote:

Hello,

I've just tried SalineOS and would like to give you my impressions.

First the good ones:
- installing from USB was easy as I could simply use dd (unetbootin is a pain.)
- the installer was very quick.
- the default theme with compositing etc. looks good. I think it's a decent blend between "cute" and "professionnal". (Maybe it would be better with a non-bold font though...)
- the OS was not blazingly fast, but almost

However I had a few problems:
- the French keymap was automatically selected for me at install time (after I selected French language), but this setting wasn't kept on the final install, which caused some problems when entering my password... I had to type it in qwerty.
- wireless wasn't working (Realtek RTL8187B chip) so I couldn't install or update anything.
- "tapping" on the touchpad didn't work; I had to press the LMB below the touchpad.
- the Parole media player could only play sound and didn't show any picture with all the videos I tried.
- OpenOffice is in English.
- sleep seemed to work fine, but hibernation... when I pressed the power button to switch the computer back on, it simply booted to an empty desktop as usual. Not sure if that is normal as I never used hibernation under Linux before.

I am in fact looking for a stable and easy to use distribution to install on someone else's laptop (I'm using Arch Linux with Xfce 4.8 on my main desktop.) In that respect, there are a few more points of concern:
- the installer is a bit too technical for complete noobs (especially the gparted step.)
- I didn't see an option/icon/menu entry to use the proprietary nVidia driver (for a GeForce 8400M G.) Windows refresh with the default nouveau driver seemed a bit slow and there was tearing.
- SalineOS seems to be a one man operation...? Will it still be updated one year from now? Three years?

Now if I am the one installing the PC I could probably install the nVidia driver and maybe even make hibernation work... But I'd rather install something that the laptop's owner could reinstall by herself should the need arise.

That's it. I hope that wasn't too boring

.

The fact that Azerty layouts don't work outside of X is a known issue, I am looking into it. Instructions for installing graphics drivers using sgfxi are in the user manual, and a more automated script for installing the drivers without leaving X is currently being tested in the Personal Server Edition (Will make its way to the main in the next build). The installer has undergone a lot of changes recently but they haven't finished being tested. These include an erase and use entire disk option (No need to use GParted if used) and the option to install the restricted multimedia codecs, currently this is handled by a script that requires the user to manually run (Instructions are in the user manual).

Quick question, did you install the extra language packages when the installer asked you? Some of these are needed for OpenOffice.org, if you did then this is likely a bug and I will look into it.

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stqn
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Re: First try feedback (French user)
« Reply #2 on Apr 27, 2011, 8:18pm »

Apr 27, 2011, 8:06pm, Anthony Nordquist wrote:

Quick question, did you install the extra language packages when the installer asked you?

I remember at one point the installer asked if I wanted to download something, but since there was no network... I said no.

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Anthony Nordquist
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Re: First try feedback (French user)
« Reply #3 on Apr 27, 2011, 8:23pm »

This explains why OpenOffice.org was in English only. Including all the language packages for OpenOffice.org on the disks would add about 400 megabytes of size to the ISO's.

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caraibes
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Re: First try feedback (French user)
« Reply #4 on Apr 28, 2011, 7:15am »

Apr 27, 2011, 8:06pm, Anthony Nordquist wrote:

The fact that Azerty layouts don't work outside of X is a known issue, I am looking into it.

Unified keyboard settings
In this new release, the settings for the keyboard have been unified so that both the console and the Xorg server use the same settings. The keyboard settings are now defined in the /etc/default/keyboard configuration file which overrides the keyboard defined in Xorg's configuration file.
The console-setup package now handles the keyboard for both environments as well as the font configuration for the console. You can reconfigure the keyboard layout and related settings by executing dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration or by manually editing the /etc/default/keyboard configuration file.
(see: http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/ch-whats-new.en.html )

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Anthony Nordquist
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Re: First try feedback (French user)
« Reply #5 on Apr 28, 2011, 12:27pm »

Yea, I think I figured out how to code this into the installer too. I should have a package ready tonight, but I need someone with an Azerty layout to volunteer to test it for me

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stqn
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Re: First try feedback (French user)
« Reply #6 on Apr 28, 2011, 12:29pm »

It turned out getting wifi to work was only a matter of typing "modprobe rtl8187" in a root terminal and entering "wlan0" in wicd's GUI (the field was empty.)

I also managed to install nvidia's blob with sgfxi, and the "restricted multimedia codecs" (easier.)

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