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Re: [News] Debian Lenny Derivative Mepis 8.0 Works Great

On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:05:46 +0000, Roy Schestowitz wrote:


> Which front end do you use for twinview? it's very simple in Mandriva
> (out of the box even).

Hello Roy. 
 
I installed with both monitors connected. They are different brands and 
different resolutions. The primary is AOC and 1680x1050 and the secondary 
is Proview at 1440x900 and both are wide screen.
The primary came up fine but the secondary was scrambled.
I used the Mepis X-Windows Assistant which is a really nice tool that 
lists the various items in the configuration file. You can select nvidia 
new, nvidia legacy, nv xorg (default) or vesa xorg or even ATI.

The twinview option is listed if you select either of the nvidia tabs.

Here are the problems I encountered with this tool:

1. I have no clue if my nvidia card is a new or legacy model.
I went to the Nvidia site and it is not listed as a legacy model so I 
chose the new setting.
I got dumped to the command prompt on reboot.
I have been using Linux for a few years so I know how to fix this which I 
did and went back and chose legacy this time.
New users will be confused with this.

The monitor was "unknown" and I wasn't sure if the settings were correct.
Also the drop down boxes are only for the secondary monitor which is 
confusing. My monitor was not in the listing so I moved onward to more 
familiar ground.

I downloaded the nvidia-settings program which I am familiar with and 
both monitors were identified and set up almost perfectly. The exception 
being that "absolute mode" was selected. At first I was very confused 
because there was far too much overlap of screens. If I had a window box 
in the middle of my primary monitor, part of that box was shown on the 
secondary monitor. I could not get windows on a single monitor only 
unless I moved them to the very edge of the screen.
I unchecked the "absolute " setting and it worked perfectly.

I read the Wikii and Mepis forums and it seems X is a sore spot, but I 
got it working so I am happy.

> As for the printer, Windows users typically (almost always unless it has
> changed) require download or just installation of drivers, which can be
> complicated at times. Many printers and scanners work out of the box in
> Linux (all those that I've ever used anyway).

This printer is a red headed step child in the HP line.
Apparently it requires firmware to be downloaded and gets very confused 
when the process does not go correctly.
My shared printer, another HP on a Linux PC got picked up and configured 
perfectly at install time. I didn't have to do a thing which is the first 
time I have ever seen Linux do this. I was quite surprised and impressed.

Other than that, Mepis is very nice and like the reviews say it is quite 
fast.
Compared to Opensuse it's like an Olympic runner vs a weekend jogger.
I have not benchmarked anything so I am speaking of boot up time and 
opening and closing applications. Pushing data through the system might 
give completely different results, I don't know.

My only real complaint is that there are too many confusing 
administration tools. 
There is control center, mepis setting, settings, utilities menu and such.
All of these tools should be in once place and the overlap should be 
eliminated, at least for a default installation in my opinion.
 
> 
> - --
>                 ~~ Best of wishes
> 
> Roy S. Schestowitz      |    "I regularly SSH to God's brain and reboot"
> http://Schestowitz.com  |  RHAT GNU/Linux   |     PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
>  05:00:01 up 21 days, 18 min,  2 users,  load average: 1.52, 1.78, 1.72
>       http://iuron.com - help build a non-profit search engine
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