Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring Release Notes

Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring Release Notes

Changes and Updates for the Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring release.

Introduction

This page contains important information the Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring
release, also known as Mandriva Linux 2007.1.

The following topics are covered:
* General information about new features and major changes
* Changes to the Mandriva installer and upgrade instructions for
Mandriva 2007 users
* Changes to supported hardware and drivers
* Changes regarding software packages
* Other technical information for experienced users

This document may be updated. The latest version of these release notes
is available at
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Releases/Mandriva/2007.1/Notes

Please also refer to
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Releases/Mandriva/2007.1/Errata - the Errata for
the 2007 Spring release. The Errata page contains information on known bugs
and problems in the release and instructions on fixing, avoiding or working
around them.

General information about new features and major changes

Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring includes the following versions of the major
distribution components: kernel 2.6.17, X.org 7.2, KDE 3.5.6, GNOME
2.18.0, Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3, OpenOffice.org 2.1. Other major new
features are the introduction of the Beryl 3D-accelerated desktop and
the advanced Metisse window manager, and migration to the pm-utils
suspend / hibernate framework.

Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring is available in several different editions:
* the "One" edition is an installable live CD integrating the latest
proprietary drivers, available free of charge
* the "Free" edition is a pure free / open source software edition,
without any of the non-free packages bundled with other editions;
it is also available as a free download
* the "Discovery", "Powerpack" & "Powerpack+" editions, for beginner
users, power users and SOHO users respectively, include support,
services, a wider range of packages, and many third-party
proprietary applications like Flash, Scilab or 03 Spaces.

For more information on the various editions, see Choosing the
Mandriva Linux edition that's right for you.

Additional information is also available online:
* List of Compatible/Certified Computers and The detailed
Mandriva Hardware Database
* The Mandriva Club
* The Mandriva User Forums
* The Mandriva Wiki
* or at the main Mandriva site

Changes to the Mandriva installer

Floppy disk install images dropped

The old floppy disk install images - (cdrom.img, network.img,
pcmcia.img) - have been discontinued. You must use the CD image
boot.iso, the USB drive image all.img, or directly use
isolinux/alt0 (using tftp for example). For more information on
ways to install Mandriva Linux, please see
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Installing_Mandriva_Linux.

Printer configuration moved to post-install

Configuration of printers is no longer performed during installation.
You will be able to configure your printers (both local and network)
once installation is complete.

Changes to supported hardware and drivers

Supported hardware

In addition to the improved graphics card support discussed above,
support for other devices has been added or improved. Notable changes
include support for:
* All JMicron IDE controllers
* SiS 966 / 968 SATA controllers
* Intel ICH9 SATA controllers
* Many common laptop SD card readers
* Attansic L1 ethernet controller (used on several Asus motherboards)
* UVC-compliant USB video devices (particularly, many webcams)
* Ralink RT2571W/RT2671-based wireless network devices
* Many more monitors

Alternative kernels

For stability purposes, Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring uses the same kernel
series as Mandriva Linux 2007: 2.6.17. Support for some hardware has
been backported from later kernel versions; however, there are still
some pieces of hardware that are supported by later kernels but not by
the official Mandriva kernel (for instance, some integrated sound and
wireless chipsets). If you have a piece of hardware that you believe
may be supported by a later kernel, you may try one of the alternative
kernels available in Mandriva Linux.

Three alternative kernels are available in the contrib section:
kernel-tmb, kernel-linus and kernel-multimedia. In most cases, the
best alternative kernel to use is kernel-tmb. To install it, follow
the instructions on
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Basic_tasks/Installing_and_removing_software
to configure Internet package repositories, and then use the
Mandriva software installation tools to install the appropriate
kernel-tmb -latest package: in most cases this will be
kernel-tmb-desktop-latest (for single processor / single core
systems) or kernel-tmb-desktop-smp-latest (for multiple processor /
multiple core systems). This will automatically install the most
recent version, and will ensure the package is kept up to date in
future. If your system requires drivers to be compiled from source,
either manually or via DKMS, you should install the matching -devel
package: for instance, kernel-tmb-desktop-devel-latest.

After installation, you may reboot your system, and you will see the
new kernel on the boot menu.

These alternative kernels are not officially supported by Mandriva.
They may be unstable or may not support all the features that are
supported by the official kernel. In particular, kernel-linus is a
completely unpatched kernel built directly from the official kernel.org
source code, and is consequently missing many useful additional drivers
and patches contained in the other packages.

Optional support for writing to NTFS drives

The ntfs-3g system for accessing NTFS-formatted drives is available in
Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring. Unlike the methods previously used (and
still used by default) for accessing NTFS-formatted drives, ntfs-3g has
support for writing as well as reading. Please note that, while ntfs-3g
has been in development for some time and has been used by many testers
with great success, we at Mandriva have not extensively tested it and
cannot absolutely guarantee its safety. We would recommend you do not
use ntfs-3g with vital data and keep a backup of any important data
stored on a drive you use with ntfs-3g.

ntfs-3g is available in the contrib section of the Mandriva Linux
2007 Spring repositories. To install it, you must have your system
configured to be able to install packages from Internet
repositories. For information on achieving this, please see
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Basic_tasks/Installing_and_removing_software. You
must install the ntfs-3g and dkms-fuse packages.

To enable ntfs-3g support for removable drives under GNOME, follow
these steps:
* Run the Configuration Editor application (under System /
Configuration / GNOME / Advanced on the menus)
* Open the system folder
* Open the storage folder
* Open the default options folder
* Click on the ntfs folder
* In the right hand pane, double click fstype_override and type
ntfs-3g into the entry box
* Close the Configuration Editor application

Alternatively, you may run the command gconftool-2 --set --type=string
/system/storage/default_options/ntfs/fstype_override ntfs-3g, which
will achieve the same effect.

Enabling ntfs-3g support for system (non-removable) drives is a
more advanced operation and is covered on
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Releases/Mandriva/2007.1/NTFS_writing. It
is not currently possible to use ntfs-3g for removable drives in
KDE.

Changes regarding software packages

Mandriva Tools package split

The drakxtools package was split into drak3d, drakxtools,
drakbackup, draktermserv, drakx-net, drakx-kbd-mouse-x11 and
printerdrake.

New MandrivaUpdate interface

A new, simplified MandrivaUpdate is included in Mandriva Linux 2007
Spring. Users who preferred the Mandriva Linux 2007 system where
updating was handled by rpmdrake can still use this method: the
rpmdrake filters for available updates have been preserved.

drakroam no longer needs administrator rights

The drakroam utility for switching between, and configuring, wireless
networks no longer requires administrator rights; regular users can
access it. This helps organizations who wish to provide users with
wireless access without giving them root access.

Graphics card list cleaned up

The list of graphics cards used by the installer and by the graphics
configuration utility (drakx11) has been radically cleaned up for this
release. The major changes are:

Old cards and chipsets

Most of the card-specific entries have been removed. This mostly
affects cards that are several years old. Entries have been combined
into generic entries covering all cards that use the same driver with
the same option, usually named (Chipset)-based cards (for example,
Trident-based cards). The only card-specific entries that have been
preserved are those for cards which require special options. This
change does not involve any loss of functionality: please do not worry
if the specifically-named entry for your card has been removed in this
release, it is still as well supported as it was before. In almost all
cases, driver auto-detection will be correct: if your card is detected
under one of the generic chipset-based entries, that means it uses that
chipset, and the correct driver will be used. You do not need to adjust
the detection or set the driver manually. If your card is not
auto-detected and not listed by name, you must find out what chipset it
uses. This information will probably be available from the manual for
the graphics card.

NVIDIA cards and chipsets

The entries for NVIDIA cards have been reduced to the smallest amount
necessary to ensure that the correct driver is chosen for the card. 99%
of NVIDIA-based cards will be correctly auto-detected and the correct
driver will be configured. Do not worry that the exact name, series or
chipset of your card is not displayed, this does not mean support is in
any way less than it could be. In the unlikely event that your card is
not auto-detected, select the correct entry for your card based on the
NVIDIA chipset it uses: for instance, if your card uses the GeForce
6600, you would choose the GeForce FX - GeForce 7950 entry, as the
GeForce 6600 came after the FX but before the 7950. If you have a
Quadro card and it is not auto-detected, you must know or find out
which GeForce generation it corresponds to.

ATI cards and chipsets

The entries for ATI Radeon cards, which were previously named according
to the driver used, have been renamed to match the scheme used by other
drivers. They are now named according to the range of chipsets the
entry covers (for instance, ATI Radeon (fglrx) has become ATI Radeon
9500 - X850). 99% of ATI-based cards will be correctly auto-detected
and the correct driver will be configured. Do not worry that the exact
name, series or chipset of your card is not displayed, this does not
mean support is in any way less than it could be. In the unlikely event
that your card is not auto-detected, select the correct entry for your
card based on the ATI chipset it uses: for instance, if your card uses
the Radeon 9200, you would choose the Radeon 9250 and earlier entry, as
the Radeon 9200 came before the Radeon 9250. If you have a FireGL card
and it is not auto-detected, you must know or find out which Radeon
generation it corresponds to.

Intel cards and chipsets

The entries for Intel chips have been reduced to the smallest amount
necessary to ensure that the correct driver is chosen for the card. 99%
of Intel chips will be correctly auto-detected and the correct driver
will be configured. Do not worry that the exact chipset name is not
displayed, this does not mean support is in any way less than it could
be. In the unlikely event that your chipset is not auto-detected,
select the correct entry for your chipset: for instance, if you have an
i915, you would choose the Intel 830 - 965 entry, as the i915 came
after the i830.

Other technical information for experienced users

KDE

New KDE system menu button: how to remove it

Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring introduces a new, Mandriva-branded system
menu button for KDE (the button at bottom left of the screen which
opens the system menus). Some users find it to be too large. Also, some
users who prefer to use a larger panel find it does not look very good
with a larger panel size. If you would like to remove it, edit the
~/.kde/share/config/kickerrc and make the following change: in the
[KMenu] section change the value of KMenuIcon to kmenu. To apply the
new icon immediately restart kicker by running dcop kicker kicker
restart.

This will only make the change for your user. To make the change for
all users, you must edit the system-wide configuration file. For
instructions on editing system configuration files, please see
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Basic_tasks/Editing_configuration_files.
The file can be found in one of the following locations:

/var/lib/mandriva/kde-profiles/free/share/config/kickerrc
/var/lib/mandriva/kde-profiles/one/share/config/kickerrc
/var/lib/mandriva/kde-profiles/discovery/share/config/kickerrc
/var/lib/mandriva/kde-profiles/powerpack/share/config/kickerrc
/var/lib/mandriva/kde-profiles/powerpackplus/share/config/kickerrc

The location depends on the edition of Mandriva Linux you are using.
Make the same change to this file as was recommended earlier.

To change the button, you can make a custom image and save it as
~/.kde/share/icons/customicon.png and use KMenuIcon=customicon.png in
the kickerrc file.

kickerrc allows this kind of entries:

Sample of options:
[KMenu]

KMenuButtonRotate=true

KMenuButtonScale=true

KMenuIcon=mdv_kmenu

ShowText=false

TextRelativeXPos=0

TextRelativeYPos=0

TextFont=DejaVu Sans Mono,6,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0

TextColor=#FFFFFF

UseSidePixmap=true

* Explaining the options
+ KMenuButtonRotate Rotates bitmap if you put the kicker bar in
vertical
+ KMenuButtonScale Scale button to fit kicker. If false, they
will use standard bitmap size ( which can be any type )
+ KMenuIcon Name of the bitmap icon ( HINT: To return original
K, just change for kmenu )
+ ShowText Show text ( what else could it be ? ;-)
+ TextRelativeXPos Relatve position in percent from X axis
+ TextRelativeYPos Relatve position in percent from Y axis
+ TextFont Font used on text ( if you add a huge font, the
system will recalculate size up to be visible over button )
+ TextColor Color of text
+ UseSidePixmap Enable to see the pixmap on sidebar

Due to lack of time, the kicker kcontrol dialog did not include these
options yet, so for now it is necessary to change these by hand.

New KDE theme: how to go back to official KDE theme

In Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring, a new look for KDE has been set up.
Mandriva's theme is stored in /var/lib/mandriva/kde-profiles/. To
revert back to the official KDE theme, you must configure KDE to use
the theme in /usr. To do this, you must edit /etc/kderc to include this
line:
prefixes=/usr

See http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Basic_tasks/Editing_configuration_files
for instructions on editing system configuration files. You can
then log out and back in, and you will have a full default KDE
theme.

As a more user oriented way of doing this, you can go to to kcontrol >
option System Administration > option Mandriva KDE Profile Chooser and
remove all entries ( in Administratior Mode ). This will make the
standard kde config come back. Remember that this allows you to create
you own custom profiles, you just need to copy one of the trees on
/var/lib/mandriva/kde-profiles and add your entry in kderc,
just following the same scheme.

Experimental new Intel graphics driver

Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring includes an optional experimental
version of the driver for Intel graphics chips with some
interesting new capabilities. The default driver is still the
stable, tested version. For information on how to manually install
and test the unsupported, experimental version of the driver,
please see
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Releases/Mandriva/2007.1/Experimental_Intel_driver.