Old Mandrake, New Kubuntu User - Questions

[koosjr]

I am using Mandriva Linux for the past 3 years as a desktop and since I migrated form Windows, I am generally a much happier computer user. The flexibility and control that my Linux box offers me and the no worries about viruses and spyware, is great.

Now, I am a desktop user and have not re-learned all the command line instructions of Linux. I knew them all in DOS. Thus, I do like my eye candy and will not give it up.

I tried downloaded Kubuntu Dapper Linux more than a week ago and installed it on one of my computers. The things that I am really impressed with, are the following:

1. Speed - it is definitely faster than my Mandriva Box.
2. Adept - this software installer works absolutely perfect when downloading and installing. The package manger from Mandriva is not nearly as polished.
3. Open Office 2
4. Generally seems to have very little bugs.
5. Software updater work great.
6. The connection to other computers on the network, with no config, works great.

However, I do have some serious problems as well and I hope that someone can help me out here.

1. I don't like Sudo, but of course that won't change so I will see how I can get around it. I know the arguments, but I find it very convenient to log in on GIU as root user from time to time. I modified my kde files to allow a root login, but was still prevented to change file permissions for directories created in Mandriva. Not nice.

2. I don't like the software installer at all. First of all, when one is using existing partitions, the partition manager decides for itself which partition will be /. By default that partition will be formated. OK, so one can change all that, but it leaves a serious risk that one may forget to untag the format button and have a partion formatted that you wanted to keep.

Secondly, when re-installing Kubuntu, I picked up a problem when a user was created that existed before. When I reboot, KDE could not log in on that user and that is not acceptable. In Mandriva, all the users can be recreated during installation and works perfect when loggin in again. This caused me to install Mandriva again this morning as I cannot have that trouble when re-installing.

3. The USB port did not work for my Palm and Bluetooth Adapter on my Intel Pentium 4 computer, but did work on the other Intel Celeron P3. This is funny, as I never had hardware compatibility problems since moving to Linux.

4. I terribly miss all the configuration tools of Mandriva. For example, I could not find a place to configure SANE.

5. For Webmin installation, I had to set the root password to be able to login.

6. Form some reason, the network does not get the right DNS servers from the router. This is the case in both Mandriva and Kubuntu. In Mandriva I manually entered the DNS servers in Webmin. In Kubuntu I did it in both Webmin and the supplied network config tool, but at the next reboot, the settings are lost.

7. There are many small little functions and menu options in Konqueror that simply is not there in Kubuntu, but in Mandriva. I miss that.

Eish, If I could combine all the things I like in Kubuntu and Mandriva in one system, it would be one kick-ass system for me.

Any comments perhaps?

[kubicle]

Re: Old Mandrake, New Kubuntu User - Questions

Always nice to hear comparisons/reviews with other distributions (both the positives and the negatives)

I'll touch a few of your problems, and hope someone else will pitch in for the rest

1. I don't like Sudo, but of course that won't change so I will see how I can get around it. I know the arguments, but I find it very convenient to log in on GIU as root user from time to time.

- If you give sudo/kdesu a chance, I'm quite sure you'll find out it's a very handy/quick tool to perform root actions (most other distributions use it too in some way or another). Like 'kdesu konqueror' for a file manager with root permissions (much quicker/more convenient than root-logging, IMO)...or 'sudo -i' or 'sudo -s' for a root terminal (works like 'su').
- All that said, if you really want to it's quite simple to enable the standard root account in (k)ubuntu as well.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

I modified my kde files to allow a root login, but was still prevented to change file permissions for directories created in Mandriva. Not nice.

That sounds very odd, is it possible they were mounted read-only?

2. I don't like the software installer at all. First of all, when one is using existing partitions, the partition manager decides for itself which partition will be /. By default that partition will be formated. OK, so one can change all that, but it leaves a serious risk that one may forget to untag the format button and have a partion formatted that you wanted to keep.

Secondly, when re-installing Kubuntu, I picked up a problem when a user was created that existed before. When I reboot, KDE could not log in on that user and that is not acceptable. In Mandriva, all the users can be recreated during installation and works perfect when loggin in again. This caused me to install Mandriva again this morning as I cannot have that trouble when re-installing.

The Desktop installer is fairly new (it came with dapper) and IMHO it's simplified a bit too much (if you need to do something specific)...I still prefer the 'Alternate Install CD' which has a text mode installer that gives you a bit more choices (and is well tested). As far as the Desktop Installer goes, I'm sure the developers would appreciate a bug report if it's performing sub-par on some situations (like recreating users).

7. There are many small little functions and menu options in Konqueror that simply is not there in Kubuntu, but in Mandriva. I miss that.

You can get the default konqueror (or parts of it if you wish) back, I agree that some of the missing functions are quite useful.
You can search the forums for instructions on how to do it...I think it's explained in the faq on www.kubuntu.org as well, though I'm not sure whether it's up-to-date.

[John Bird]

Re: Old Mandrake, New Kubuntu User - Questions

Hi,
I find point 6 a bit odd as I use a hard coded IP addresses but do not use a DNS server and I cannot understand why you are using both. Why not disable your DNS and just hard code or use the DNS server and set auto for DNS no hard code address
6. Form some reason, the network does not get the right DNS servers from the router. This is the case in both Mandriva and Kubuntu. In Mandriva I manually entered the DNS servers in Webmin. In Kubuntu I did it in both Webmin and the supplied network config tool, but at the next reboot, the settings are lost.

Regards John.

[koosjr]

Re: Old Mandrake, New Kubuntu User - Questions

Thanks for the replies.

I have a comment or two:

I modified my kde files to allow a root login, but was still prevented to change file permissions for directories created in Mandriva. Not nice.

That sounds very odd, is it possible they were mounted read-only?

No, the files were not mounted read only, but the old user and group-ID's from Mandriva were retained as well as the permissions set. According to the permissions, group and other access were set to "Forbidden" and Root was not allowed to change the permissions.

When I installed Mandriva again, the same thing happened: The user and group ID's from Kubuntu were retained, but with Mandriva it was possible to change the permissions under Root Login.


Then for John Bird:

If the network is setup to automatically get the DNS servers from the Router, the IP address of the router is retrived which makes internet access to pages slow. So I have to manually deactivate that option and enter the DNS addresses of my service provider manually. I Kubuntu, the network tool does not allow on to deactivate that option. The router do however retrieve the DNS addresses of my service provider correctly. Mandriva 2006 correctly retrieves all the DNS addresses from the router, but have so many other problems that I do not use Mandriva 2006.

However, I stay with Linux. The improvement in Linux Desktops over the past 3 years were so huge that if it improves at this rate, Windows will be in serious, serious trouble soon. In fact, I think they already start getting jittery. The Linux operating system matures incredibly fast. Just look at how nice the first Database version of OpenOffice already is.

The other reason why I stay with Linux, is that I really do not want to spend the fortune on software required for my small business. The standard packages one gets also are real good quality.

I had a hard time learning Linux as I was completely on my own in my town. Nobody here used Linux but things are slowly changing.

[Teppic]

Re: Old Mandrake, New Kubuntu User - Questions

Well, I can provide a hack for you resolv.conf issue.
Boot up, set it to what you want it to be, then make a copy as resolv.conf.working or something, then setup your local rc-script to copy resolv.conf.working over resolv.conf after the network scripts have borked it. Auto-magically un-borked on each boot.

Your file permission issues poked something inside my brain too, doesn't mandrake use UID 500 for the first user, not UID 1000 like normal folks? (ooh, I think RedHat do this too IIRC, perhaps s/normal/some/.....)

[koosjr]

Re: Old Mandrake, New Kubuntu User - Questions

Your file permission issues poked something inside my brain too, doesn't mandrake use UID 500 for the first user, not UID 1000 like normal folks? (ooh, I think RedHat do this too IIRC, perhaps s/normal/some/.....)

Jip, Mandrake uses 500 as the first user ID. Kubuntu uses 1000

[John Bird]

Re: Old Mandrake, New Kubuntu User - Questions

Hello again,
I disable the DNS server on my router and use the alternate install CD to install and set the IP addresses manually when installing and I find everthing works with no problems.

Regards John.

[koosjr]

Re: Old Mandrake, New Kubuntu User - Questions

I don't want to disable the DNS settings on the router. When someone gets here with an XP machine, they can plug in and work. Thus, I want to do it one the desktop.

However, I will download the alternate CD and see what the installer works like.