Fedora 9 - Issues or just me?

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 924

I downloaded F9 to give it a try. I am running F7 & wanted to try F8 but do to installer issues wasn't able to. I DO like the improvements to the installer. Fedora did a good job fixing that but I have to wonder about the OS & the desktops. I think MY problems lay more with the desktop(s) than anything.

Here is what I mean. I got it to load no problem. I chose KDE as I really never liked Gnome from the start. KDE 3 is great for the way I use computers. Kde 4 started out as a ROYAL PAIN. But I DID finally figured out how to add my shortcut & programs to the desktop & how to get the resolution to lock at what I wanted - this is still an issues at times so not sure if I have it or have a bug. Then I moved on to getting the A/V stuff going as I have in F7 - this all bombed as I have video in flashplayer but no audio. I installed vlc & it acts really weird. One time it will play audio only with a black video screen, then if I play with the skins it will play OK for a while and then when I think I may have it and launch it, it starts to run then quickly totally disappears. I tried installing with gnome & gained a little but also lost a little. & I ended up remembering why I chose KDE to begin with & reinstall with KDE again. This time with more KDE stuff in hopes it would help.

To me, if this is what is being offered as a DESKTOP REPLACEMENT FOR M$, it AIN'T gonna fly. If I being a M$ expert & a linux advanced beginner am having all this, what would a casual M$ user (or a newbie) have?

Why is it that when a "company" gets something good going they think they need to "dick" with it? Why not just enhance the working thing instead of reinventing it from scratch? Now please don't get me wrong. I think F9 is good & probably works if I can get around these issues but why should they be there in the first place.

As my title say "... or is it just me?"

I would appreciate any input that would help, before I go back to F7.

Thanks

ernie · Joined: Dec 16, 2002 Posts: 166

I do not use Fedora, but I believe a part of your trouble may reside with KDE. It has been my experience (since about 1998) that with each major version (2.0.x, and 3.0.x) comes a new set of issues which are usually ironed out by the time the first secondary version (2.1.x, or 3.1.x) arrives. As a result, I try to stick with the senior major version until the first secondary version for the new release arrives. For example, I use KDE 3.5.9 here as my production desktop environment. I also have KDE 4.0.3 installed for testing purposes thanks to my Mandriva Linux 2008.1 (Spring)'s default configuration which puts KDE 3.5.9 under my /usr directory and KDE 4.0.3 under my /opt directory.

My real point here is that your troubles with Fedora 9 may actually be KDE issues. I am not sure that this information is of any help, but at least you will be putting the blame in the correct place.

As a final note, if KDE 3,5,9 is available for Fedora 9, you may want to try installing that and see if things work better for you. If they do, then the trouble is as I suspect with KDE4. If not, you have only spent a bit of time and you then will know that Fedora 7 is better for your system.

HTH,

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 924

THIS IS NOW A MUTE POINT

I am happy to say that I am getting things ironed out. & yes KDE4 was one of the big problems. (haven't tried to go back to 3) But after figuring it out, I kinda like it to a degree. Still prefer it the way it was in 3. Still have some issues I'm not sure about & think I have the audio but it is intermittent at times on certain file. (it may just be the files)

I AM finding that it is me. I just need to figure out how to set things up in this version. It would be nice if the help gave me the info, though. Finding most on the internet.

Thanks for the feedback - at least it confirmed my thoughts on KDE. (BTW: I still prefer it over Gnome, but that's just me - Gnome is OK in it's own right)

I DO have one minor problem that maybe you may have the answer to. (if not, no biggy as I seldom use them) - I looked in the "add-remove" & it shows I have screensavers but when I go to set one up, all that is listed is blank & random. & random is only blank. How do I access the ones I have installed or install in the future?

If I have to associate files/folders which one & please refresh my memory on how.

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 924

UPDATE:

Even though I am finding my way around (like getting screensaver, for what they're worth) I am having lockups & other weird problems & crash reports from the screen saver folder when closed. So I am going to reinstall with Gnome & see what happens. If all goes well, may yum in KDE 3. But at least this will help me pinpoint the area of trouble. If I STILL have lockups & such issues, back to fedora 7 I will go!!!! Mad

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 924

UPDATE 2:

I reinstalled with Gnome & so far all the weird stuff has stopped. I was able to install & set up everything as expected. (of course by now I have my memory burned with what to do & "somewhat how".)

It appears that KDE 4 may have some serious problems. Hope 4.1 resolves them but by then (due in July) I will have gotten used to this setup & probably won't care.

Need to finish the setup & test but it only took me a few hours to set up this time as I wasn't fighting crashes & lockups, not to mention all the weird happenings. Will post results when I get done.

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 924

Got things going pretty well but need someone's help on a minor problem.

After install, F9 would show a drive icon for my secondary HD but I had to be logged in as root to mount it. Switching to my user account, it was still there. If I would go directly to my account it wasn't. Also, (& the point of this post) it was READ ONLY. So I edited the FSTAB file & made a "shortcut" on my desktop to that mount point. All works well & I have full access, but I would like to know, what happened to the drive icon (no longer seen by root or me) & how can I get it to mount that way again & give me full access.

Thanks in advance for any feedback...

Never mind, I fixed it. - changed "/mnt" to "/media" for anyone else that needs to know. - /mnt hides the mount.

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 924

This is getting to look more like a BLOG than questions but I am wondering why I can only get VLC (even though it has BUGS) to work on fedora 9 - tried MPLAYER & it wouldn't play ANYTHING. It would came up but that was it. & YES, I loaded the codex.
So, unless my instructions were wrong I don't know what to make of it. But I'd think even if the codex where in the wrong spot, it should at least play SOMETHING as these were ADD-ON's.

ernie · Joined: Dec 16, 2002 Posts: 166

If your issue is with the codecs, Mplayer will return an error message indicating unsupported media, or no demux available.

What type of media are you attempting to play (movie, music, etc.), in what format (what file extension - if any) and from what source (CD, DVD, file on HD, or streaming media)?

As an example, if you are attempting to play an mpeg4 movie from a DVD, your system must have software to decode mpeg4 video, and also have the software to properly interact with the DVD player. Much of what is needed is proprietary software. I do not use Fedora here, so I do not know if proprietary software is packaged for Fedora (some distributions choose to package only Open Source Software). One of the less obvious packages needed is the dvdcss package. I do not play DVD or any other video on this old machine (too slow) and I do not remember all the packages required. In Mplayer's preferences screen, you should be able to see a list for all available audio drivers in the Audio tab, all available video drivers in the Video tab, and all recognized codecs and demuxers in the Codecs and Demuxers tab. With that information, some one on this forum may be able to help you identify what (if any thing) is missing.

HTH,

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 924

Was trying to play an FLV, WMV & AVI from HD - no errors just wouldn't run, as if no codex were there but I installed the package as per the instructions I had.

Fedora's policy is NO proprietary stuff so I needed to find something to do that - windows stuff especially. - I DO have workarounds in place so just an annoyance for now as I hope the next release of the things I'm having the most trouble with will take care of things.(KDE, flash player & VLC) I just thought it strange that seemingly all the other media just don't seem to work for me. (at least VLC 1/2 works for me - reports BUGS though)

Been playing with fedora since 5, mostly 7, & couldn't get mplayer to work right then either. But then it WAS codex for sure. I just couldn't get them to load right. But the player at least worked. That is why I'm puzzled, even the player acts up this time.(comes up & does nothing)

I pretty much decided to leave well enough alone for now (unless someone comes up with a POSITIVE actual solution) as I'm getting down to "breaking things" adding & removing things. As in removing overlapping dependencies & having to put them back, I do believe.

But if worse comes to worse, I CAN start over. Either from scratch or from a point after installation as I made some images as I went along.(just don't want to "throw away" all the work I've done so far) - also, SOMEWHAT limited on space on this HD so have to watch what I install. One reason I didn't put all those media things on when installing the OS. Another is some didn't work (for me) before anyway.

seaeagle

That's probably one of the main reasons I've stuck with Mandriva for the past 3 years. I have easy access to the PLF repositories which carry the win32codecs rpms for Mandriva. Although you have probably already installed the codecs that are available for Fedora, you might still want to look at the following site in case you missed something:

Installing Win32 Codecs — Fedora Unity Project

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 924

Thanks for the link, seaeagle, but I'm pretty much gonna just leave it until the next versions come out (this month, I think) besides, I would think it is something besides codex 'cause at least ONE of them should work but NOTHING in it does.

The main issue I have with VLC (other than the bugs) is it refuses to play FLV (supposed to - at least it DOES play SOME THINGS) but I just convert them to AVI (under M$) as I use these files there, too.
So for right now more of an annoyance than anything. I guess I've learn from M$ to put up with (even expect) these things.

Once I get KDE, VLC & flash player working right (without bugs) I'll be all set to do what I want with this thing. - I know to treat this as a release candidate or final beta. So I expect glitches but some components of this JUST WEREN'T READY, KDE for one.

seaeagle

If Fedora isn't doing what you need, then you might want to look at Mandriva. Its a lot more user-friendly for those moving from Windows (even a dill like me didn't have many problems setting it up). Unlike Fedora it installs KDE by default, saving on setup time.

And Easy Urpmi makes it very easy to install software from all the various repositories (including the PLF ones for codecs etc).

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 924

Way back when I first got into Linux, I tried different distro. I have a stack of about 60+ live CD's that I've tried including Mandriva. (I think by the old name also - can't remember what it was) & for reasons I'd have to go back through my notes to tell you, I chose Fedora. Plus the class I just took on OS's used Red Hat so more familiar with what it SHOULD do anyway. - I also found to many hoops to jump though to get Mandriva.

I believe that my next choice would be the "PUPPY" stuff followed by Slax & Knoppix. - I DO have another drive with Digipup on it that I use primarily to set up the wireless on my network as I can quickly change the IP settings & not "mess up" my main OS's. Plus, being into Ham Radio, it also has stuff built in for that.

I find it takes a while with ANY NEW OS to get it "just right" anyway so I'm going to give it a while before I make any drastic decision on it. I had to do that with 5 & 7. BTW: is seems pretty peculiar to me that 6 & 8 wouldn't even load on my computer. Don't remember about 6 but 8 was the loader itself. - will see what 10 does - if it acts up, will stick to the odd # ones as changing then is soon enough.

seaeagle

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 924

Sorry, if this sounds like a knock against Fedora, that isn't really my intent. Just want to understand why all the strange, very wide, & intermittent issues that hit this release. & have those at power to do something about it realise it needs to be addressed ASAP or they will lose "followers". I really do feel sorry for those who created this & have to figure this out. It isn't going to be easy...

BUT......

After trying Fedora 9 & reading post in various forums, I HAVE to say that F9 definitely has issues. Bad thing is they seem to very from machine to machine & in some cases can be total opposites - example is the sound, while one person says there system sounds work but non of the others do, another person may have all the other sounds but not the system. And some say they have NO PROBLEMS, while another have NOTHING BUT. - Strange, and will make it very hard to fix.

I know part of my problems were figuring out stuff but there again WHY? After using fedora for so long, why do I have to relearn it in order to use any new releases? To me, if I used it any at all (or any distro for that matter) it should be second nature on any following. And to some degree, across distros.

I still like fedora & hold it as my top choice but unless these issues can be fixed I may have to consider another. - right now the problems I'M having are just annoyances but to try to "sell" someone on Linux, these issues don't cut it. - that's why I am trying to get away from M$, tired of having to "fix" things that shouldn't be broken. Now I realise fedora is a "high beta" or a "release candidate" at best but I've used distros that didn't seem to have ANY issues. - some live - I know, they don't have all the stuff to go wrong but so what, they still worked!

ernie · Joined: Dec 16, 2002 Posts: 166

Linux distributions are no different than any other OS (including MS). Each time a new release is issued, there exists the possibility for new bugs (even on hardware that was perfectly supported in previous releases). With each package update comes the possibility that what fixes one issue will produce one or more new issues. It is a fact of life that human beings are imperfect. All Linux distributions are developed by human beings. It is unlikely that anything developed by human beings will ever be perfect.

I believe there are several facts that set Linux apart from MS Windows:

1. Linux is an Open Source OS. This means that millions of eyes look at the code every day so errors and weaknesses are found and corrected quickly, usually on a time frame measured in days (or a few weeks) rather than months.

2. Open Source Software is about freedom. We are all free to examine the code from which any software we choose to include on our system was created. If a software package does not meet our needs, we are free to alter it (rewrite the code) to meet our needs then release our modified version (provided we identify ourselves and the changes we made to the code) so others may benefit from our efforts.

3. Linux is configurable, from front to back, top to bottom, and start to end. I have complete control over what is included in my system, how it looks and feels, and to a large extent, how it works.

4. Linux was born on the Internet, so security has been included in its design from the beginning rather than as an additional third party add-on feature. Of course Linux security is as configurable as any other part of the OS.

5. We have access to the developer of any software package we choose to install on our Linux system. If we find a problem, we have the ability to send the author(s) bug report(s) defining the problem(s) and any work around(s) we may have figured out.

Fedora is the Red Hat Open Source distribution and is their developmental version. All Fedora releases undergo the same alpha and beta testing to which any other Linux distribution is subjected. The Fedora user community consists of thousands (perhaps millions) of Linux users who participate in the beta testing of each new release. Even with such a broad testing base you can not expect a new release to be error free. There are simply too many possible combinations of hardware on which the system will run, not to mention the number of possible configurations.

Most Linux distributors release updates to fix security issues and bugs as they are found. If you keep your system current with updates, you should soon find that most (if not all) your problems get fixed. I do not use Fedora here. I use Mandriva (since about 1998) and it includes a dock applet which alerts me when an update is available. Following installation, I configured my Software Manager to use a set of Official Mandriva Software Repositories located on an ftp server of my choosing on the Internet. The Update Alert dock applet scans the Updates repository periodically, and pops up a small alert message when new update packages are found. I then run the update function of the Mandriva Software Manager to install the updates by clicking the alert applets dock icon (which is only visible when updates are available) at my convenience. I expect that Fedora includes a similar update function. If you check that your system is current with Software Package Updates, you may find that many of your issues have been corrected already.

If your system is current with Updates, you should check the Fedora bug tracking system to see if others have submitted bug reports for issues you are dealing with, and if not submit bug reports yourself. If you do not tell the development team what is broken, they will not know they need to fix it. If you post your problem here, you tell those who read this forum about your issues. If you post a bug report on the Fedora bug tracking system, you tell the development team about it directly.

HTH,

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 924

Please don't take this the wrong way but I am already aware of everything you said & agree & I've been checking the bug reports thus the post. Just seems a little weird that things are as they are. I must admit, as I said before in the previous post, at least I was able to LOAD this one - had others (fedora & others distros) that wouldn't even get THAT far. & I ain't even gonna get on the M$ soapbox!! But for me, up till now, fedora has been working pretty good & with a little internet searching, I was always able to fix any MAJOR problems & the minor ones I had enough alternatives that it didn't matter. Sorry to say, this time the alternatives helped with the MAJOR & I'm still waiting for a bug fix for the minor.

Come to think of it, fedora isn't the only one having issues as I've heard at least two others are as well, Ubuntu for one... Speaking of Ubuntu, when I tried this I REALLY had problems & issues, 1st, trying to get it to download, then load, then video. When I DID get past all that I found it to be worse than M$ ME & trash it. I know it depends on the machines I try it on but I tried a live distro on two & the install on my one I have fedora on. So at least (for me) F9 is USABLE.