PCLinuxOS 2007 installation

PCLinuxOS 2007 installation
jul 09, 2007

tot install time ~20min
tot personalization so far <2h00

The notebook:
IBM ThinkPad T40
CPU intel pentium M 1300MHz
RAM 512MB
HF fujitsu 100GB
Sound max integrated digital audio from Analog Devices
video: ATI mobility radeon 7500 (32MB shared memory)
modem: agere system AC'97
infrared, LAN, 2 USB 1.1, docking station

BASE INSTALL

partitioning scheme:
hda1 (/winXP not automounted, ntfs) (85GB)
hda2 /boot ext3 (100MB)
hda3 /media/scambio fat32 (2GB)
hda5 /media/important ext3 (1GB)
hda6 / ext3 (11GB)
hda5 swap (1GB)

Keyboard: UK
Time zone: Europe/Rome


after base install: ~2.5GB used space
TV card Dazzle not recognized, wireless PCMCIA Belkin Mimo not recognized

kernel: 2.6.18-8 (i586)

Feeling after first install:
It's very nice and very fast, compared to all other distros I've tested (including different flavours of Ubuntu, Sabayon, Mandriva...). I like the way of organizing the start menu, very clean and essential, even though it might be tricky to find something such as the Beryl manager which is very well hidden in the hyerarchy...
I've loved the search area seen firstly in Sabayon, also present now in Ubuntu, Mint and some others. I'd like to see it here as well. I'll install Kerry, maybe there's some option there to add it in the start menu.
mp3 audio works out of the box.
ntfs can be read with no hassle and fat32 partition can be written --> no need to play around with fstab, first time in my decade-long linux experience.
a very useful menu in ubuntu is the places menu, with all the mounted partitions immediately visible. I prefer this way then going through the places/storage group. the menu way is faster and cleaner. I'd like to see tha same in pclos.
Beryl doesn't start immediatly or doesn't ask to start. that's a pity, for a new user might not know that beryl/compiz does exist and will be left with the impression that pclos does not support all the beautiful desktop effects.
the way sabayon manages this is very nice: at the first boot (also in the live CD) the user is prompt with the question of wich (if any) acceleration is preferred: AIGLX, XGL, nothing. pclos can do the same and ask for beryl, compiz or nothing and suggest where to find the beryl manager application in the menus.

PERSONALIZATION

WiFi: setup through control center/wireless/ndiswrapper.
inf file used: netani.inf from netgear wpnt511 driver
--> network working very fine and fast (WEP-WPA not tested)
No connection status icon found --> added to panel by adding the network applet.
This in turn has started the usual monitor with the link strength and net switch possibility.
In the preferences of this monitor I've selected "start on startup".

Installed through synaptics (in different sessions):
note: no need to change or add respositories, everything works as it is.

1. gramps, kerry, libdvdcss2
2. aspell-it, locales-it, mozilla-firefox-it, mozilla-thunderbird-it, myspell-it_IT, myspell-thes-it_IT, openoffice.org-l10n-it (with OOo upgrade to 2.2.1-1)
3. timidity++, easytag, gcompris, gcompris-sounds-it, rosegarden
4. googleearth, kdegames-suite, ksudoku, skype, wesnoth
5. mercurial
6. lib-dvb

Fonts:
msttcorefonts is not in the repository.
peering through the pclos control panel, I found an "install fonts" application, which includes an "import windows fonts" button. this retrievs the fonts from the existing windows installation (should be mounted). in 10min I have a full set of true type fonts to increase compatibility with microsoft applications.
btw, starting OOo (writer, in my test) takes some time, but not too long. the second time it starts, though, it's really fast, much faster than I've seen in other distributions. I don't know what made the trick, maybe that package openoffice.org-ooqstart that I've seen during the upgrade of OOo

Beryl:
started through the Beryl manager icon hidden in the menus.
beryl works very fine, fast and really really smooth.
I've switched to compiz, but this has some small imperfections, such as the top border of the window is completely transparent.
also, there was no way to switch from compiz to anything else (beryl or kde).
I had to restart the X server (CTRL+backspace) to exit compiz.
porbably the switching among window managers should be more carefully checked by the developers/testers.
another plus for pclos: I've been used to switch off beryl when trying to watch a video or even sometimes when opening OOo document. instead pclos lets me watch video (or dvd) and open documents without switching off beryl and with no apparent performance loss.

DVD play:
with the libdvdcss installed, dvd plays well with the default player, though mplayer gives better results as for rendering and smoothness. mplayer should be the default for DVD play.
I haven't checked, but I believe DMA is automatically enabled on the DVD, for it spins fast and the video is smooth.

TV tuner "Dazzle TV Hybrid Stick":
followed the french howto at http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/pctv_hybrid_pro_stick.
"build-essentials" and "linux-headers" are not present in the repositories.
Nevermind, though: I've seen that gcc is already installed and also the headers. (note: this is very unusual but very welcome. most of the users do not need to compile anything, but it's always annoying that headers and compilers are not installed as default).
I had to install mercurial with synaptics.
dvb-utils and libxine-extracodecs are also not present.
don't know what dvb-utils does, so I've installed lib-dvb, hoping it's the same with a different name. xine codecs seem to be already installed as well.
(note: sudo does not work, I had to use su instead. I'll need to check how to enable sudo).
I've used firmware_v3.
the directory "/lib/firmware/`uname -r` " does not exist in pclos. I've unpacked the file in /lib/firmware/ instead.
after restarting the machine, the modprobe commands did succeed but em2880-dvb. don't know why.
dmesg did show the correct info.
still need to add the modules to modprobe.preload (not to /etc/modules): I want to understand the em2880-dvb first.

TV tuner testing:
the hardware installer in the control panel still did not found anything (maybe I need a reboot with automatic load of the modules at boot?).
tvtime also didn't show anything (but I don't know this software, first-time user...).
kaffeine instead not only did find the TV stick, but also completed the channel scan, found loads of channels and played very well, fast and smooth the dvb channels. (so, what does the -dvb module do?).
to me seems faster and better than the original pinnacle software for winxp bundled to the stick.
overall, it took much lower effort and gave better results the installation on pclos than on winXP (need to get the XP2...).
I didn't succed with sabayon on the same task. I haven't tested ubuntu with the stick, anyway, I was delighted with the results on pclos.

next:
I need to test most of the SW I've installed so far, especially gcompris, rosegarden, wesnoth, skype and OOo/win compatibility.
openwengo is not available in the rep. need to find it.