I think we need a discussion
by David L. Gehrt
These are a few thoughts that have been fermenting in my mind, but I view
this email as only a possible set of discussion topics. Anyway, I feel
better having said this.
I am a long time user of UNIX/Linux distributions: Slackware, RedHat,
Fedora, Suse and Ubuntu. I am of the opinion that Linux may be at or close
to a crossroad moving from a computing genre in which the users and
developers make cooperative decisions on alternative development paths to
one in which changes are imposed by developers. In my view this represents
A move from an open computing environment to a closed (or more closed) one.
For me it is not just that the Gnome2 environment is being replaced with a
new version, it is that this new version, Gnome3, was seemingly developed
without much consideration of how the former version, Gnome2, was being used
and then imposed on users.
If I am off base here I am confident that this forum will point out the nature and extent of the perceived errors.
I have long hoped for a future in which the UNIX/Linux computing environment
would become a more significant player in the desktop world of user
currently stuck with Microsoft Windows. But what seems to be happening is
that the user interfaces (UI) being developed being developed for the Linux
future are trending towards UI in Microsoft Windows.
What this seems to imply is that in the future the mainline Linux UI will be
characterized features imposed, and by lack of flexibility. This lack of
flexibility means that users are presented with a computing environment with
features thought desirable by developers and which provide little or no way
for users to modify their computing environment in ways that meet their
needs and preferences.
I suspect without knowing that this is someones idea of how to turn a profit
by moving Linux to more profitable place on corporate desktops. I am not
directing this criticism solely at the Gnome3 developers or the RedHat role
in the Fedora background. One need only look at the Unity desktop with
which Canonical is trying to replace its version of the Gnome desktop. It
seems to suffer some of the same inflexibility and misfeatures as I see with
Gnome3.
I say a pox on both these developments. At least in Ubuntu you have the
option of selecting the "classical" (Gnome2 or Gnome2 like) desktop on log
in. Having started an experiment with Ubuntu on a laptop to see if Windows
users might find it more usable than Fedora, I have now converted my laptops
to Ubuntu while waiting to see if there is anything left of the flexibility
and utility I used to see in the UNIX/Linux UI. If not, I despair.
As a footnote: I have observed over my decades using and developing
computing environments to replace a manual system or formerly use software
which users had used, any number of developed systems that were unused
because the people using them were not consulted about the new system.
There any number of expensive developments in the Government that have
failed because developers failed to consider the actual job to be supported
by software. The recent failed (or failing) computing system being
developed for the FBI. The beauty of Federal Government computing projects
is that their failures make news. I suspect business entities are more
successful at concealing the failures. he bottom line is that in he absence
of consultation with users s/w developers are not very good at meeting the
needs of users
As a country is the US becoming incompetent? The aforementioned s/w
development failures, NASA sending the Hubble up without checking the
collimation of the telescope first, the poor performance of our schools and
the failure to produce the scientists and engineers we need now. This does
not seem to be an exhaustive list of problems we face.
dlg
David L. Gehrt Land Line: 805.541.2390
1865 Wilding Lane Cell Phone: 805.704.5890
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-3044 Internet: dlg(a)inanity.net
12 years, 7 months
Does the Asus Xonar DG sound card work well in F14?
by Richard Shaw
I'm having issues with my builtin audio. At first I thought it was the
new speakers I bought. I know they're not quite as my Cambridge
Soundworks but the external 5.1 decoder is having issues so I figured
it was time. I hear a high tinny noise and assumed it was the cheap
amplifier but after plugging in some old but nice SGI headphones I
still heard it.
To that end I'm in the market for an inexpensive sound card but don't
want to go too cheap and get something equivalent to my onboard audio.
I found the Asus Xonar DG[1] for a decent price but it uses the
CMI8786 which is supported in alsa 1.0.24 (which I have) OR kernel
2.6.38, which I don't. I'm really hoping the OR is right and it's not
supposed to be an AND.
Interestingly enough this chip doesn't appear to have internal volume
controls so I'll have to rely on PulseAudio.
Anyone have this card working (well)? Even though it's not a big
investment I'd like to know someone has it working.
Richard
12 years, 7 months
Gnome3: don't have anymore the language selection box and the keyboard selection box in gdm
by Eric Doutreleau
Hi
I have just installed fedora15 and therefore move to gnome3.
we have several hundreds of pc in lab environnement where 4000+ users
can log in.
There s a lot of different nationalities among these users and i have
dozens of languages installed.
In fedora 13 people could select ( after typing their login ) selecting:
the WM
The language
the keyboard
Now i have only access to the choose of WM.
Does someone know how i can get back the two other selection box?
Thanks in advance for any help
--
Eric Doutreleau
12 years, 7 months
how to fix rpm database
by Michael Hennebry
yum and rpm have different ideas about wether three packages are installed:
[root@localhost log]# rpm -V 1:tk-8.5.9-2.fc14.i686
1:tix-8.4.3-5.fc13.i686 1:numpy-1.4.1-6.fc14.i686
package 1:tk-8.5.9-2.fc14.i686 is not installed
package 1:tix-8.4.3-5.fc13.i686 is not installed
package 1:numpy-1.4.1-6.fc14.i686 is not installed
[root@localhost log]# yum install 1:tk-8.5.9-2.fc14.i686
1:tix-8.4.3-5.fc13.i686 1:numpy-1.4.1-6.fc14.i686
Loaded plugins: langpacks, presto, refresh-packagekit
Adding en_US to language list
Setting up Install Process
Package 1:tk-8.5.9-2.fc14.i686 already installed and latest version
Package 1:tix-8.4.3-5.fc13.i686 already installed and latest version
Package 1:numpy-1.4.1-6.fc14.i686 already installed and latest version
Nothing to do
[root@localhost log]#
yum reinstall runs, but doesn't help.
What will.
This seems to have happened after I tried to play a
Macromedia Flash data (compressed), version 10 aka
Shockwave Flash file (application/x-shockwave-flash) .
The former came from the file command, the latter from right-clicking.
The first time, right-clicking produced an offer to search for a package.
I clicked on yes .
During the install, I got a "warning" about something aborting.
Now right clicking produces an offer to open
with vnc2swf Screen Recordings Player.
It doesn't work.
A window comes up and disappears without even achieving opacity.
How do I play the file?
--
Michael hennebry(a)web.cs.ndsu.NoDak.edu
"Pessimist: The glass is half empty.
Optimist: The glass is half full.
Engineer: The glass is twice as big as it needs to be."
12 years, 7 months
How to debug X lockup (advice from gurus wanted)
by Roberto Ragusa
Hi,
it sometimes happens to me that X completely locks up, while the
machine is still alive on the network.
This is on F14, untainted kernel, nouveau driver, no 3D used,
KDE desktop on a 32-bit machine with 8GiB RAM and PAE kernel.
It typically happens when something is going to be drawn on
the screen (a window pops up or virtual desktop change).
I would like to open a bug, but I'm not able to attach any kind
of usable log; dmesg says nothing, all I can say is that
the screen remains frozen (including the pointer), the X
server and the kernel keep doing some "SIG ALRM" stuff and
any attempt to access the X server stalls the command (xrandr
or xset, for example), in a Ctrl-C responsive way.
This is happening on different kernel revisions. This laptop
is perfectly stable and it sometimes takes a few weeks to show
the problem (using suspend during the night).
If I do a fresh reboot there is a high probability of a lockup
in a mater of minutes/hours.
Just as if there were lucky and unlucky reboots (important stuff
being placed in memory areas which is easily corrupted?).
Another data point: this laptop sometimes fails to suspend properly
(remains frozen). In any case the last frozen-X event happened
today before any attempt to suspend, so I can not blame the
BIOS and ACPI parts.
Any idea?
--
Roberto Ragusa mail at robertoragusa.it
12 years, 7 months
Brain fart: no format option on a pen drive pop-up menu?
by Fernando Cassia
Surely I'm missing something, but shouldn't there be an uption on the
right-click menu over a pen drive, to format the drive?. Can't find
it.
I go to Computer, select the KINGSTON device, right click, properties,
and I see the following tabs:
Basic, Emblems, Permissions, Open with, Notes
Nowhere is there any option to "format drive".
I know I can probaly just format it from Bash, but I'm curious of what
is the expected way to initiate a drive format from the Gnome GUI....
I'm using an ancient system with Fedora 10 here... uname -a
2.6.27.41-170.2.117.fc10.i686 #1 SMP Thu Dec 10 11:00:29 EST 2009
i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux
FC
PS: The options available on the pop-up menu for the drive object are:
Open
Open with other application
Copy
Rename
Unmount volume
Properties
12 years, 7 months
Sound from KVM guest
by Michael Eager
Hi --
I installed Windows 7 in a KVM virtual machine running on
Fedora 15. The guest is configured with an es1370 sound card.
Windows detected the sound device and installed drivers, but I
don't get any sound.
The same thing happens when configured with an ac97 sound device.
Any suggestions?
--
Michael Eager eager(a)eagercon.com
1960 Park Blvd., Palo Alto, CA 94306 650-325-8077
12 years, 7 months
GNOME 2 on Fedora 15
by Dave Cross
I've tried GNOME 3 for a couple of months and I really don't like it[1].
Is there any way to go back to GNOME 2 on Fedora 15? Can I reuse the
F14 rpms? Or can I rebuild the F14 srpms on my F15 system?
Or perhaps someone else has already done this work and made GNOME 2
available for F15?
Cheers,
Dave...
[1] http://blog.dave.org.uk/2011/08/hating-gnome-3.html
--
Dave Cross :: dave(a)dave.org.uk
http://dave.org.uk/
@davorg
12 years, 7 months
Continued kernel updates for F14?
by Christopher Svanefalk
Hey all,
for those of us who are a little reluctant about moving to Gnome3 just yet,
does anyone know if there are plans to release rpms of kernel versions later
than 2.6.35 for F14?
Best,
Chris
12 years, 7 months
slim (simple login manager)
by John Schmitt
slim started up fine when this machine was running Fedora 14. I installed it from for Fedora 15:
slim-1.3.2-8.fc15.x86_64
It doesn't start any more. I get this in /var/log/slim.log:
slim: unexpected signal 15
sh: /usr/bin/xauth: Permission denied
I'm trying to launch slim by changing my /etc/sysconfig/desktop from:
DESKTOP="KDE"
DISPLAYMANAGER="KDE"
to:
DESKTOP="OPENBOX"
DISPLAYMANAGER=/usr/bin/slim-dynwm
How do I fix this?
John
PS Sorry if this received twice, email mumble mumble
12 years, 7 months
