TinyMe-2010-Acorn-Beta-2 issues & comments

[brucedp]

[Comments are IMHO. I realize this distro is beta and
will be buggy.]

First. my thanks to the TinyMe team for providing an
older-PC distro. I have used older versions of TinyMe with
success. But those did not find the Intel video
chipset embedded in my Gateway 500s (Essex) PC.
*See this PC's specs at the bottom.

The 500s booted the CD I burned from the
TinyMe-2010-Acorn-Beta-2.i586.iso file. The 500s' Intel
video chipset was found with no problem.

Splash tried to come up, but defaulted to text in the
highest resolution (teeny-tiny characters). 800x600
resolution would have been smarter as old PC usually
have old monitors that do not handle very high
resolutions.

The splash log on (welcome) screen came up with only a
logon ability (no shutdown/reboot ability if the PC is
hosed). I found the user/passwords for root ( root/root )
using a different PC. Most distros login automatically
when running in 'live' mode.

The distro is pretty skinny/slim; there are barely enough
applications/programs/tools to configure the OS. I
assume the distro was designed this way so the user
could install only what they wanted after the network
is configured. I installed the OS on the hard drive and
rebooted.

The OS was fast (almost as fast as Puppy which can run
in RAM). The eye candy is nice but I would rather
have it default as off with an option to install it later.

I configured the network with my static IP. I am glad the
TinyMe team know that not all users have a DHCP connection
on boot up. There wasn't a modem dialer app (like kppp),
though so it looks like the TinyMe team assumes
old-PC users won't be using cheap-n-slow dial-up ISPs
during this great-recession. My network changes
are not seen on the fly so I had to (cleanly) reboot.

I logged into my ISP (username/password) using the
distro's small/light Midori web browser. The session then
crashed, and the OS brought me back to the splash log on
screen. Once logged on, that session seemed to work OK
again, but why did it crash? Was Midori too light and not
not robust enough like Firefox? Or was it the x-server
settings which the OS set to much too high a resolution
setting by default?

Being logged in and my ISP up and running, I closed the
Midori browser to minimize crashing issues. When I
used the configure the system app and clicked on
x-server the OS crashed again, forcing me to re-log on
again.

This time around, I tried the package manager. The
package-manager tried to connect to several repository
sites, one unsuccessfully after another. The app could
not be closed, and took forever to stop trying to
connect to a repository. BTW there was no obvious way
to use the package-manager app to check what the
repositories are configure for (like synaptic has).

At that point, I gave up on the package manager. But I
did try to modify the menu.lst file to adjust the
grub boot menu. Thankfully this distro is not using the
new-and-not-improved grub2 which I find to be a big pain
compared to the old grub. The file manager has ABWord
linked to text files so ABWord came up when I tried to
open /boot/grub/menu.lst  .

All went well except ABWord defaults to saving files in
it's ABWord format. So, always remember to hit-ABWORD-on-
the-head and change the file be saved to be a 'text' file.

I like the idea of installing a fast light distro onto a
PC and then install only the apps you really want and use.
That makes so much more sense than installing a bloated
distro from DVD and then having to clean it up to what
you really wanted.

The small iso file size of the distro does not mean much
to me. What gets installed or how much disc space the
distro uses once installed. The smallest (old) CD size
is 640Mb. So as long as that size blank CD can be used,
I really do not care how small the iso file is. It would
good to have an install CD that had more files than
what gets installed. Thus the install would be just
what is needed, and the CD could also be used as a
driver/app file repository if needed.


My Review of TinyMe-2010-Acorn-Beta-2.i586.iso
Pros: Fast, a more robust Linux distro than Puppy
Cons: Needs work/ this beta is not ready for release.
     Need: a robust web browser (i.e. Firefox)
     Need: a dial up app as part of the CD install
     Need: a way to adjust the repositories URLs on
            the package-manager app
This TinyMe distro did not fit my needs.

The Gateway 500s (Essex class) I installed on:
Processor: 2GHz Pentium 4
Memory: 512Mb DDR
Video: 64Mb Intel 845G Integrated
Hard drive: 20Gb EIDE (PATA)
Partitions:
sda1 14Gb NTFS W2k
sda2 1GB swap
sda3 4.3Gb ext3 Linux TinyMe 2010 beta2

[KDulcimer]

Thank you for an excellent and honest, yet non-bashing review! :-)

Just as a note, Smart's GUI does offer a method to configure the repositories. Go to Edit--> Channels to set up which sections of the Unity, PLF, and TinyMe repos should be enabled. Go to Edit--> Mirrors to set up which mirrors Smart should be allowed to use. It's the mirrors option which you're probably wanting.

[quote author=brucedp link=topic=849.msg3484#msg3484 date=1264036793]
Splash tried to come up, but defaulted to text in the
highest resolution (teeny-tiny characters). 800x600
resolution would have been smarter as old PC usually
have old monitors that do not handle very high
resolutions.
[/quote]

The default resolution *should* be 800x600. I'm not sure why it might be coming up at another resolution, but I'll double-check my mklivecd options and see if there isn't something I can do about that.

[quote author=brucedp link=topic=849.msg3484#msg3484 date=1264036793]
The splash log on (welcome) screen came up with only a
logon ability (no shutdown/reboot ability if the PC is
hosed). I found the user/passwords for root ( root/root )
using a different PC. Most distros login automatically
when running in 'live' mode.
[/quote]

There is an issue with Beta 2 where you were supposed to be shown the login options. TinyMe's login manager has the unique feature in that you can perform certain actions by typing that action in as the username and then giving the root password. You can shutdown, reboot, and hibernate this way.

[quote author=brucedp link=topic=849.msg3484#msg3484 date=1264036793]
The distro is pretty skinny/slim; there are barely enough
applications/programs/tools to configure the OS. I
assume the distro was designed this way so the user
could install only what they wanted after the network
is configured. I installed the OS on the hard drive and
rebooted.
[/quote]

I don't have TinyCC ready yet. When I do it'll make an appearance in the repos.

[quote author=brucedp link=topic=849.msg3484#msg3484 date=1264036793]
The OS was fast (almost as fast as Puppy which can run
in RAM). The eye candy is nice but I would rather
have it default as off with an option to install it later.
[/quote]

You mean the system monitor? Some people like it, some don't. I happen to like it, so I put it in there.

[quote author=brucedp link=topic=849.msg3484#msg3484 date=1264036793]
I configured the network with my static IP. I am glad the
TinyMe team know that not all users have a DHCP connection
on boot up.
[/quote]

Don't thank me, thank Mandriva. They're the ones who came up with those tools.

[quote author=brucedp link=topic=849.msg3484#msg3484 date=1264036793]
There wasn't a modem dialer app (like kppp),
though so it looks like the TinyMe team assumes
old-PC users won't be using cheap-n-slow dial-up ISPs
during this great-recession. My network changes
are not seen on the fly so I had to (cleanly) reboot.
[/quote]

Thanks, I'll look into adding gnome-ppp.

[quote author=brucedp link=topic=849.msg3484#msg3484 date=1264036793]
I logged into my ISP (username/password) using the
distro's small/light Midori web browser. The session then
crashed, and the OS brought me back to the splash log on
screen. Once logged on, that session seemed to work OK
again, but why did it crash? Was Midori too light and not
not robust enough like Firefox? Or was it the x-server
settings which the OS set to much too high a resolution
setting by default?
[/quote]

I've had a couple of other reports about Midori crashing on the LiveCD and I haven't looked into it yet. It's on my todo list. ;-)

I would probably never put Firefox on a TinyMe release. To see why, read this: http://tinymelinux.com/doku.php/faq#why-...de-firefox

That FAQ was written for TinyMe 2008 and so it's focused on Opera and doesn't even mention Midori, but the reasoning is still much the same.

[quote author=brucedp link=topic=849.msg3484#msg3484 date=1264036793]
Being logged in and my ISP up and running, I closed the
Midori browser to minimize crashing issues. When I
used the configure the system app and clicked on
x-server the OS crashed again, forcing me to re-log on
again.

At that point, I gave up on the package manager. But I
did try to modify the menu.lst file to adjust the
grub boot menu. Thankfully this distro is not using the
new-and-not-improved grub2 which I find to be a big pain
compared to the old grub. The file manager has ABWord
linked to text files so ABWord came up when I tried to
open /boot/grub/menu.lst.
[/quote]

Hmm. I will look into setting up some mimetypes for MP-5. Thanks, a very useful report!

[quote author=brucedp link=topic=849.msg3484#msg3484 date=1264036793]
All went well except ABWord defaults to saving files in
it's ABWord format. So, always remember to hit-ABWORD-on-
the-head and change the file be saved to be a 'text' file.

I like the idea of installing a fast light distro onto a
PC and then install only the apps you really want and use.
That makes so much more sense than installing a bloated
distro from DVD and then having to clean it up to what
you really wanted.
[/quote]

Thanks, I like that idea too. ;-)

[quote author=brucedp link=topic=849.msg3484#msg3484 date=1264036793]
The small iso file size of the distro does not mean much
to me. What gets installed or how much disc space the
distro uses once installed. The smallest (old) CD size
is 640Mb. So as long as that size blank CD can be used,
I really do not care how small the iso file is. It would
good to have an install CD that had more files than
what gets installed. Thus the install would be just
what is needed, and the CD could also be used as a
driver/app file repository if needed.
[/quote]

To me, you really have to push yourself hard to keep the bloat out. That's why I set the ISO size at 200MB. 200MB allows for a package manager, a very small DE, and some very select applications.

I believe I'm able to maintain the 200MB ISO right now mainly because of:

A. LZMA compression (using the same compression method as the 2008 releases, TinyMe would be closer to 240MB)
B. Exchanging Midori for Opera (Midori adds a few hundred KB to a bare install; Opera would add roughly 30MB)

Also, as I state on the FAQ page I linked to above, I'm trying to keep TinyMe in competition with distros like Puppy. At the time I wrote that, Puppy's ISO were roughly 70MB. They've now grown to just over 100MB.