http://unity-linux.org/

alpha 2

This was before the Mandriva repository transition.

passwd
unity-installer
reboot

smart-setup
smart update && smart-upgrade
smart install \
  task-x11
  task-x11-extras \
  acpi \
  smart-gui \
  unity-control \
  ` # `

smart install ati
smart install openbox lxpanel
smart install gdm   # I'd rather use smart
drakx11
startx
mcc   # bugged, doesn't start

configure your computer
setup graphical server
- auto-start
setup dsplay manager
- login manager
  - this only understands gdm, boo

I had issues using unetbootin, I dunno.
did I fuck up the bootloader, or is it not properly working for adding...
ACPI warning/error
failed to reboot, I did a SysRq-REISUB
first bootup wanted to check a big partition, and there was no facility to skip... Argh.
smart-setup fucks up the console upon exit.
smart install unity-control complained about a missing webkit...
drakx11 - I couldn't figure out video. It would just hang my computer when testing - SysRq-REISUB
- removed ati, didn't help...
- couldn't reinstall ati, claimed name or service not known on a package.
- tried all kinds of video changes, and nothing fucking works.

todo: copy xorg.conf from my working setup!

needed fglrx (the proprietary ati) smart install ati worked this time...

failed to load module fglrxdrm
- seems independant of the xorg.conf... I don't understand.

keeps trying to fsck one of my partitions, and claims it's mounted when it's clean and is not mounted.

drakx11 also locks up my working Unity install
ssd is ext2? maybe that's what got fucked up? mounting it ext4, works, maybe fsck made it ext2?
unity0control missing webkit is known and still unfixed. sigh.
without running drakx121, gdm boots up beautifully! Logging in, X works!
aterm is a nice light terminal
su works again, yay!
install pulseaudio?
- yes, I would later do this and it works perfectly.
ati proprietary drivers just hang
- installing them fucks the system?
aticonfig --initial
somehow wow healed. Nope, shit ftp.
wow audio is a mystery.
Restored my wow Config.wtf, fixed this.

At one point I had a big issue auto-detecting newly-attached devices. Checking my BIOS and setting "AHCI mode" solved that.

2011-07-07 unity-i586-20110119 alpha success

Downloaded ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/unity/isos/Alpha-2011/unity-i586-20110119.iso
Downloaded ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/unity/isos/Alpha-2011/unity-i586-20110119.md5
md5sum -c unity-i586-20110119.md5
used unetbootin to put the iso on an sd card
booted on sd
installed

wget dl.dropbox.com/u/2984955/safe_upgrade.sh
chmod 755 ./safe_upgrade.sh
./safe_upgrade.sh

Gave me some errors. I think the same as before:

Quote:rpmdb: unrecognized name-value pair: set_create_dir
error: db4 error(22) from dbenv->open: Invalid argument

rebooted, the greeter was crashing like before.
went to a console
smart update (found no new packages)
smart upgrade - worked, but paused and started thrashing my hdd in the 'preparing' stage, on libdrm2. This took minutes and then continued as usual and at a normal speed.
near the end of that smart upgrade, my screen flickered, the upgrade continued for a few packages and then my screen went blank with a cursor at the top-left. There was lots of hdd activity and I just waited for it to stop.
my keyboard was locked (no numlock use), but I did a SysRq-r and could use it again.
Did a SysRq-s to sync, it just flashed my HDD once, so everything was already written to disk.
SysRq-reisub to reboot.
booted into a normal login screen this time
didn't log in, went to the console for a smart upgrade. It caught some unfinished upgrades.
rebooted
smart update && smart upgrade workd and found no new packages to process.

Everything looks healthy!

[unfortunately the video drivers were using some sort of fallback and were slow, so stuff like WoW/Wine wouldn't work.. this is still to be troubleshooted]

2011-07-07 - using an alpha

Alpha-2011/unity-i586-20110119.iso

did the same explosion
reboot, greeter crashing
smart update found no new packages
smart upgrade started thrading my hdd in 'preparing'
libdrm2 took minutes, then continued as usual.
near the end, my screen flickered then was cleared, with the cursor at the top-left. Lots of hdd activity. I waited for it to stop.
keyboard locked, but SysRq-r let me use numlock. I couldn't do anything else.
did SysRq-reisub to reboot
booted into a login screen this time
console > smart upgrade caught some unfinished upgrades
rebooted

2011-07-07

unetbootin, usb, cli 2010.2

has no hint on how to login, or what password to use, or the install procedure.
- I remembered that it is a script called unity-installer
gorgeous text installer
after the copy it exploded mkinitrd failed

unetbootin, usb, cli 2010.2 64bit

unetbootin silently screwed up, the USB was not bootable!
reformatted the USB and retried
tried the unetbootin 'copy to ram'
black screen for a while, but it worked.
previous version I used didn't catch the resolution of my new video card, but this one does.
Unity installer - after clicking 'next', gives me a blank grey screen for a long while.
Grey stripe at the bottom toolbar, maybe because the time/date is taking two lines.
nasty xterm font, bold is better but too 'tall'.
the delay is probably 'Computing the size of the Microsoft Windows(r) partition' because it delays a fucking long time again. Why is it calculating? What's it doing?
LILO install fails, still.
Grub doesn't pick up on my /dev/sda whole disk = one partition.
/usr/share/lxpanel/images has pclinuxos-experience.png
lxpanel still has old segfault issues.
I screwed with locales and broke the install so horribly that I couldn't log in as root to re-install them. Luckily I had a term still looged in.
installed 'audit'
so it looked like the setup is fucked now. Reinstalling.

i586 via unetbootin

it's doing everything as ext2 if done from empty partitions.
fucking still bails when exiting various sub-menus/sections of the installer.
hung trying to reboot. I hope the post-install worked.
.. seems to have worked.
rsync not installed by default. Eww, that would be horrible for system-restoration.
cfdisk not installed by default. Seriously? Needed to install util-linux-ng
scsiadd needed an install from source. Compiled without a problem.
- I found a nice script which also works, most of the time. It's unfortunately not good enough to replace the proper program though.
wine is GREAT. Holy fucking shit hot damn.
- has an ugly cursor issue. setting 'hardware cursor' makes it look good, but it's slow and also has the linux mouse pointer overtop [edit: this issue is described in greater detail in Improving World of Warcraft performance on Linux.
needs nano syntax highlighting
disable pc speaker [done]
root zsh stuff / other root stuff -- can use gksu
check other ~ stuff which should also be moved.
- [I have no clue what this means]

smart was fucked, so reinstalled
1600x1200x8 still not right.. it must be this video card
shift-numlock does mousekeys. I wish I knew that.. who in the hell put that in, with no message saying when it's turned on and how to turn it off?
On bootup: "The greeter application appears to be crashing. Attempting to use a different one."

.. reinstalled
1280x1024x8 -> better, but not perfect
update, upgrade -> eventually died during the install
attempted an upgrade from the cli. also confirmed that the list of desired upgrades was included
says "aborted" after xinitrc
exited x and retried smart upgrade, seems to hang on 'computing transaction'
.. gave up
[I'd later learn that this freeze is "normal" and it will eventually complete, although with the system is a semi-hung state]

reinstalled
"copy to ram" explodes!

Older

Probably 2010-rc1 or thereabouts.

Grub has no help
media check is missing from the CD
LILO is still in the installer. It fails to download and use it, and the entire install script aborts. Very bad.
- Still in 2010.1
After booting up from a fresh install, the user setup has some bad engrish: "password should resist to basic attacks".
Video corruption in the firefox scroll bars.
- Not seen in 2010.1
Most man pages are fucked.