install/run problems with Debian 7.1.0
Hello!
I recently switched to Debian 6.x from another distribution for my "business" pc's operating system and am very pleased with it. I had been using Mandriva 2010.0 with a few upgrades from source, but the leadership of Mandriva, KDE (v. 4) and Gnome (v. 3) have disappointed me.
DESKTOP PREFERENCES: I really liked the Gnome 2 desktop and would quit Gnome altogether if they don't bring back the panel functions and layout of version 2. Get the date and time out of the center of the panel and let users put icons there. I hope that you will continue to include Gnome 2 (or it's fork) in your future releases. Likewise, I was very pleased with KDE 3 and very much dislike the cycle-wasting useless bloat of KDE 4, and like LXDE as an excellent light alternative.
PROBLEM 1: The partitioning code of the installer doesn't do Linux Volume Manager setup right. The setup should first allow partitions of a disk to be created or added as part of a Linux volume, and then the volume should appear as a disk space to be partitioned. The SECOND STEP CANNOT OCCUR the way your software is presently written. After the desired partitions are assigned to a Linux volume, the partitioning software complains that the root partition does not exist. Of course not! It is supposed to be in the Linux volume that is being created. If the Linux volume were then shown as a disk space to be partitioned, THEN I could put the root partition and other partitions in that Linux volume which spans the two disks I would assign to the Linux volume. See how Mandriva does it in v. 2010.0, first assigning physical partitions to a Linux volume and then showing the Linux volume as a space to create partitions like /, /swap and /home in. This is what your
partitioner should do, so Linux volumes can be created without grief.
PROBLEM 2: Your hardware setup is generally very good, but recent changes in video detection and setup by Linux developers mess up in handling older video cards/chips and monitors. As a result, Debian 7.1.0 has a correct-resolution correct-refresh setup for my monitor for installation, but sets my video improperly for regular use. I think the video refresh is set too high. It produces some "snow" on my CRT monitor and just doesn't look right, and there doesn't seem to be any graphic tool in Gnome 3 to change these settings. Some code in the installation to let the user select the desired screen video settings would be nice. If that isn't available, upgrading to Debian 7 isn't such a good idea. You can do the right video settings---the installation display proves it. Just leave it as is if it's satisfactory.
PROBLEM 3: The boot code should set up the firewall according to user choices during installation, and then should run automatically, with an administrative tool to change those settings if desired. The following is a minor inconvenience to me, and there may even be a good reason why you do it this way. The firewall I've been using is Firestarter, nice and simple, but required to be run manually by a regular user after logging in and entering the root password. A user who starts Firestarter (and has automatic rights to run other root-only programs) can't simply log out, but must re-enter the root password to log out or shut down. This is silly. On a multi-user system, a person should be free to log out, and if there's only a single regular user who started Firestarter as root, that user should be free to shut down the whole system.
John Tellefson
Salina, KS USA
mailto:debian-boot@lists.debian.org
http://www.mozilla.org Firefox browser, Thunderbird email, Seamonkey all-in-one, Sunbird calendar and more. Free open-source software for Windows, Linux, Mac OS and other systems
Reply to: