CptKrf
10-27-2004, 12:30 AM
The new Sarge installer is vastly improved from the previous Debian version that came over on the Mayflower - that is, it doesn't ask questions like "Are the transistors on your nic made of silicon or germanium?":-)
However, once you wade throught the bits and bytes and get Woody installed, you have an almost flawless system whereas Sarge has quite a few defugalities, especially withing KDE. Several of the menu options -abiword, kppp, kuser and so forth do nothing when clicked unless you are root. Running them from a console window shows that they are trying to access areas that are forbidden, although the average user should be able to access them. Bunches of stuff in /usr/bin have root/root as permissions and are totally locked out of user use.
Every time on a new install, when apt-getting KDE, it blows up with about 300 k of stuff left and suggests that you do an apt-get update, even though it just did one. If you apt-get update twice(??) more, the rest of KDE will install and work. However, about 1/3 of the time, XFree86 is missing when you try startx.
Of course, the above is easily fixed, but don't understand why the problem is there. Sarge is supposed to be fairly stable, although not labeled actually "Stable" on the Debian site.
Two problems that I have not run down yet is that sometimes clicking on any icon will do nothing for many seconds - just the little bouncing icon cursor, up and down. Eventually, the program will start. Another symptom is that the bouncing cursor will continue to bounce for about 30 seconds after the program (like Firefox) loads and is being used.
The other is that if the above happens when you try to open a console window, the little bouncing curson acts like the eraser in a draw program. It will clean anything off the screen that it is moved over, including the task bar!
And other stuff not bad enough to make me drop down a notch, but it sure seems like too many problems for something that is supposed to be released in stable soon.
Other sarge users - what have you seen?
CptKrf
However, once you wade throught the bits and bytes and get Woody installed, you have an almost flawless system whereas Sarge has quite a few defugalities, especially withing KDE. Several of the menu options -abiword, kppp, kuser and so forth do nothing when clicked unless you are root. Running them from a console window shows that they are trying to access areas that are forbidden, although the average user should be able to access them. Bunches of stuff in /usr/bin have root/root as permissions and are totally locked out of user use.
Every time on a new install, when apt-getting KDE, it blows up with about 300 k of stuff left and suggests that you do an apt-get update, even though it just did one. If you apt-get update twice(??) more, the rest of KDE will install and work. However, about 1/3 of the time, XFree86 is missing when you try startx.
Of course, the above is easily fixed, but don't understand why the problem is there. Sarge is supposed to be fairly stable, although not labeled actually "Stable" on the Debian site.
Two problems that I have not run down yet is that sometimes clicking on any icon will do nothing for many seconds - just the little bouncing icon cursor, up and down. Eventually, the program will start. Another symptom is that the bouncing cursor will continue to bounce for about 30 seconds after the program (like Firefox) loads and is being used.
The other is that if the above happens when you try to open a console window, the little bouncing curson acts like the eraser in a draw program. It will clean anything off the screen that it is moved over, including the task bar!
And other stuff not bad enough to make me drop down a notch, but it sure seems like too many problems for something that is supposed to be released in stable soon.
Other sarge users - what have you seen?
CptKrf