Hi
I've experienced several problems with Drakx in the past.
Now (as per today) it got to the point that I cannot use the graphical install
anymore.
So I figured it's time for an overview of problems I encountered... :-)
My system:
DELL dimension XPS D233
Pentium 2, 233
STB 3D graphics, containing an S3Virge DX or GX chip.
Latest Cooker, downloaded it 22:30 Amsterdam time, January 8.
BTW, I use wget to get the latest Cooker, then make a boot floppy and
install from disk.
1. I always had this problem, also with Mandrake 9.0...
The graphical install is displayed a bit garbled.
For example, the background at the top of the page
(supposed to be gray?) looks like when you look at a color
TV close up. You see big pixels, RGB.
Text is barely readable.
This could be a fault of the applied X-windows graphics driver?
I could live with this problem, and my friends did not encounter it (using
more modern hardware), so I never thougt it worth mentioning up to now.
2. Using the latest Cooker install from disk as described above.
I now cannot install _at all_ using the drakx.
It gets to the stage (in stage_2) that it starts X.
Then it draws the top of the page (which looks like described above,
showing Welcome to Mandrake Cooker or something like that)
and then bombs concluding with the message: the system can be safely rebooted.
I managed to write down some messages (from the alt-F4 window):
trying to load I810fb module with xress (800)
insmodding module failed
trying with FBDEV
trying with VGA16
meanwhile in the main window, drakx starts complaining about fonts that are
not configured, fontconfig that is not installed properly, displays that are
not available etc.
At the moment I see no way of installing Cooker without damaging
my file system - see problems 3.
3. I try to install anyway using the text-based install.
Unfortunately drakx does not accept both text-based and expert as
options, so now I am stuck in the normal mode.
I select upgrade option (BTW what happened to upgrade packages only?
Is this now gone? I liked that because it skips unnessesary
installation steps)
Packages are installed fine.
However then it FORCES me to install the boot loader, either on the
boot sector or on the partition. Both options fail, because I have a name
in the GRUB menu that ends with a space! ("Mandrake Cooker ")
So now I cannot go further.
First question? Why o why does Drakx force me to install a boot loader
when I select upgrade an existing system? It should at least offer me the
possibility to skip this step.
It is very unfortunate that drakx at no place includes a cancel
installation option, so now I have to reset the computer,
forcing me to repair two filesystems, reboot
and now I can using the new version of Cooker.
This part I like! :-)
By the way I really like the way things are going, draktools are improving
tremendously etc, so don't take this as negative critique!
I hope this helps.
I'm sorry for the length of this email.
Just ask if I need to provide more information / do experiments.
I did not see anything about these problems on the mailing list.
(apart from being forced to install a boot loader)
Am I the only one experiencing problems with the graphical setup?
John
4.
