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RedWillow
LXF regular
Joined: Thu May 29, 2008 2:05 pm
Posts: 716
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 Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:23 pm Post subject: I don't think much of this. |
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I thought I'd try out this distro called Vista that I've heard about. It looks pretty enough - except for ghastly font rendering - and their version of Compiz seems to be limited for some reason. Transparency effects were nice, but for the life of me I couldn't work out how to enable wobbly windows, desktop raindrops or rotating cubes.
A desktop without wobbly windows or raindrops?! It doesn't bear thinking about. 
So - on to web browsing. But this was where the first real shock came. No Firefox installed by default. Yes, that's right: NO FIREFOX. Whoever heard of a distro that didn't come with Firefox?  Even if they call it Iceweasel. And worse – I couldn't find a package manager to install it either. But more of that later. So I had to ask a Vista-savvy friend to help. Apparently, you have to search the internet and download and install stuff yourself. Imagine that! What a way to get software! He had this file with an .exe extension that he used. "Is that some sort of fancy .deb package?" I asked, but he just gave me a funny look.
Anyway, once installed Firefox worked well enough, until I tried to view a Youtube video. This was what the Youtube site told me. No, really.
| Quote: | | Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player. |
"Silly me," I thought. "I haven't installed ubuntu-restricted-extras yet. That has Adobe flash, Java and all the codecs I need. That'll sort it."
But could I find Synaptic? No. Or any package manager? No. So, thinking this might not be a Debian based distro as I'd thought, I went hunting for a terminal. I found it eventually. Funny looking terminal. Funny looking prompt. Look what happened:
| Quote: | Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001]
Copyright <c> 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Users\RedWillow>yum install flashplugin-nonfree
'yum' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
C:\Users\RedWillow> |
And I couldn't even copy and paste from the terminal. I had to type that little lot by hand. What's going to happen when someone posts a question on a forum and someone else posts, "Open a terminal and post the output of..."? No, it won't do.
I give up. I mean, really. What a carry on. This is far too difficult for newbies. I've been playing with different OSs for years now, and I couldn't get my head around it.
It'll never catch on.
I'm going back to Ubuntu.  |
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lok1950
LXF regular
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 6:31 am
Posts: 959
Location: Ottawa
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| Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:48 pm Post subject: RE: I don |
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I did not bother to pay the M$ tax on my new box but i might break down at later date and get XP not that Vista thing as my local shop still has XP pro(oem) available a bit more expensive that Vista Home Premium but at least i don't have to fight it  to do what i want.
Enjoy the Choice  |
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Marrea
LXF regular
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2005 10:32 pm
Posts: 1846
Location: Chilterns, West Hertfordshire
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| Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:58 pm Post subject: |
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You’ve forgotten to mention one of the other funny things about the Vista distro: the way it actually opens programs when you click on their menu entries. I mean, how weird is that?
No siree, what we want is a distro which doesn’t open programs when you click on their menu entries. Then we can have all the fun of trying to find out why. On to the command line, thus:
| Code: | $ gmplayer
mplayer: error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory |
Hmm, I think to myself, I have come across these “so” files before. I seem to remember they are hidden away in something called a rpm package. So where would I find the offending libGL.so.1? Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? You simply bung on mesa- at the front, take off so.1 at the end and replace with -7.2-0.15.fc10.i386. Nice ‘n’ easy.
But hang on. I’ve already got mesa-libGL-7.2-0.15.fc10.i386 installed, so why can’t mplayer find libGL.so.1 which is allegedly contained within it, I wonder.
Let’s think. As every schoolboy knows, libGL.so.1 is simply a symbolic link to the actual file libGL.so.1.2, so if you don’t have a link you need to create (re-create?) one. Fantastic! A quick
| Code: | | ln -s /usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2 /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 |
and we should be good to go.
Er, no. Not so fast my little friend.
| Code: | $ gmplayer
mplayer: error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory |
Back it comes again like a stuck gramophone needle. 
So I have a look at /usr/lib in my file browser and see “broken link” alongside libGL.so.1. Why’s that, I wonder. Hey, lookey here. Here’s the answer. Begorrah, I don’t seem to have a libGL.so.1.2. 
Wee hee. Time for a spot of package integrity verification methinks. And what does this reveal?
| Code: | missing /usr/lib/libGL.so.1
missing /usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2 |
Missing? What does it mean, missing? How can that be? I reckon there can be only one reason – mesa-libGL-7.2-0.15.fc10.i386 must be corrupt. Okey dokey, no sweat. In the strange W***ows distros there is an uninstalling and reinstalling technique. Let’s try that. Mmm, my GUI package manager won’t let me uninstall mesa-GL without taking with it another 20 or so other packages, some of which look pretty important to me and I would rather hang on to them.
Pause for thought. Righty ho, command line to the rescue with the “nodeps” option. One press of Enter later and mesa-libGL’s gone. Just like that. Yipee!
Reinstall mesa-libGL, check the package integrity again. Nothing appears on the next line in the console. Must be OK this time. Fingers crossed.
Woo hoo! MPlayer opens at last. No errors.
Well, no, I lie. I did actually have a cryptic message on the console about not being able to “connect to socket” (what socket might that be?) and telling me I wouldn’t be able to use my remote control. Well, as I don’t have a remote control for my computer I don’t think I will lose any sleep over that.
So there you are.
| RedWillow wrote: | | What a carry on. This is far too difficult for newbies. |
Yes indeed. When you can have all this fun just to open a video player in Fedora, who on earth would want to use the Vista or XP distros?  |
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lok1950
LXF regular
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 6:31 am
Posts: 959
Location: Ottawa
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| Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 7:13 pm Post subject: |
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You wouldn't be using one of those closed source drivers Marrea they can play hell with those links
Enjoy the Choice |
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wyliecoyoteuk
LXF regular
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2005 11:41 pm
Posts: 3369
Location: Birmingham, UK
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| Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 7:16 pm Post subject: |
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How about another "feature" when you try and log in, you get a black screen with an arrow that you can move, but nothing else.
Happened to one of my salesmen yesterday.
Turns out it was because the event log was full!
Had to use the CLI to disable event logging.
Quaint, doesn't it have a proper log rotation?
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RedWillow
LXF regular
Joined: Thu May 29, 2008 2:05 pm
Posts: 716
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| Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 7:55 pm Post subject: |
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| wyliecoyoteuk wrote: | | How about another "feature" when you try and log in, you get a black screen with an arrow that you can move, but nothing else. |
I'm confused. (Nothing new there then.) Is this with Vista, Fedora or Ubuntu?
| Marrea wrote: | | You’ve forgotten to mention one of the other funny things about the Vista distro: |
And here's another funny thing about the Vista distro. Resize the Vista partition with the Ubuntu partitioner when you're setting up a multiboot, and you ensure that thereafter you will only ever use Ubuntu.  |
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wyliecoyoteuk
LXF regular
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2005 11:41 pm
Posts: 3369
Location: Birmingham, UK
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| Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:09 pm Post subject: |
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Vista
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RedWillow
LXF regular
Joined: Thu May 29, 2008 2:05 pm
Posts: 716
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| Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Bless you! |
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wyliecoyoteuk
LXF regular
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2005 11:41 pm
Posts: 3369
Location: Birmingham, UK
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| Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:15 pm Post subject: |
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Say, I just noticed your avatar is a nice shade of blue- you don't happen to run fast or anything?
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RedWillow
LXF regular
Joined: Thu May 29, 2008 2:05 pm
Posts: 716
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| Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:27 pm Post subject: |
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| No, I prefer chocolate biscuits. |
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Marrea
LXF regular
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2005 10:32 pm
Posts: 1846
Location: Chilterns, West Hertfordshire
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| Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:29 pm Post subject: |
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| lok1950 wrote: | | You wouldn't be using one of those closed source drivers Marrea they can play hell with those links |
Not on that particular machine, no. It has an ATI card and I always have to stick to the radeon driver. Installing a proprietary driver simply means I either have no X or if I do manage to get a GUI, things tend to lock up. This has happened with successive versions of Fedora. So I don't bother any more and stay with the open source.
However on my other machine, which has an nvidia card, Fedora runs great with the proprietary driver. And, incidentally, libGL is all present and correct there. |
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Marrea
LXF regular
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2005 10:32 pm
Posts: 1846
Location: Chilterns, West Hertfordshire
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| Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:36 pm Post subject: |
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| RedWillow wrote: |
I'm confused. (Nothing new there then.) Is this with Vista, Fedora or Ubuntu? |
If you knew wylie as I know wylie, you wouldn't have to ask. A complete no-brainer. 
| Quote: |
And here's another funny thing about the Vista distro. Resize the Vista partition with the Ubuntu partitioner when you're setting up a multiboot, and you ensure that thereafter you will only ever use Ubuntu. |
Ah, but I never resize my Windows partitions with Linux partitioners. |
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majortomgb
Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:50 am
Posts: 35
Location: Lancashire
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| Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:40 am Post subject: |
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| I found that the best option was to put my Vista partition on another computer and then sell it. |
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Dutch_Master
LXF regular
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:49 am
Posts: 2358
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| Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 1:25 am Post subject: |
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Let's explore the hidden meaning of the word vista. Disecting it causes a problem, as it has an odd number of letters. That means there are 2 logical possibilities: 2+3 and 3+2 letters, i.e. vi+sta and vis+ta. In case of the former, the first letter group, vi, is assumed to be well known, even to Emacs users, and represent the larger world of text editors and wordprocessing tools available for Linux. The 2nd part, sta, is the singular form of the Dutch word for standing, staan. In this context, vista means Vi stands. Well, it does, but many prefer Emacs and personally I like Nano a lot. So I doubt this is the proper meaning of the word vista.
The 2nd option, vis+ta, offers a more clearer explaination: vis is the Dutch word for fish, and we happen to have an (unfortunately) well known character bearing that name who is synonimus with everything evil (computer-) users can throw at Linux. Ta is a well known acronym, meaning 'thanks anyway' as in 'no thanks'. So vista really means: "Users? No thanks"
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jjmac
LXF regular
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2005 2:32 am
Posts: 1996
Location: Sydney, Australia
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| Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 4:30 am Post subject: |
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lok1950 wrote:
>>
You wouldn't be using one of those closed source drivers Marrea they can play hell with those links
>>
Marrea can be pretty funny, which i think was the point
And to follow with that ...
[jmd:13:20]$ ls /usr/lib/*libGL.so*
0 /usr/lib/libGL.so@ 0 /usr/lib/libGL.so.1@ 420 /usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2
[jmd:13:21]$ file /usr/lib/libGL.so.1
/usr/lib/libGL.so.1: symbolic link to `libGL.so.1.2'
[jmd:13:21]$ dpkg -S /usr/lib/libGL.so
libgl1-mesa-dev: /usr/lib/libGL.so
[jmd:13:21]$ dpkg -S /usr/lib/libGL.so.1
libgl1-mesa-glx: /usr/lib/libGL.so.1
[jmd:13:22]$ dpkg -S /usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2
libgl1-mesa-glx: /usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2
Now, don't you all just wish you were doing deb ...
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Pause for thought. Righty ho, command line to the rescue with the “nodeps”
>>
Brilliant ... of course !
jm
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