Mandriva 2011 - A deeper look

Mandriva right now is facing difficult times, again. This was the first Linux distribution I ever tried back in the times when it was called Mandrake Linux. 


I felt like giving a review of the latest 2011 version. Since I'm a subscriber I downloaded the power pack. Check out the differences here between the free version and the PowerPack version. But resuming, PowerPack edition automatically installs FlashPlayer, Nvidia drivers, basically proprietary software. But you can use the free edition and have the same software, you'll just have to install it after you install the distribution.


I actually enjoyed Mandriva back in the days, it defaults (even though it's optional) with a nice KDE4 interface, detected all my hardware on my Acer 6930g. 


The positive things I found about this distribution are:  

• Easy to use. No big knowledge is required to install and get it working.
• Centralized configuration center through Mandriva Control Center. 
• It works fine and you can personalize it as you want to. It's easy and trouble free. At least for me.
• Installation is sort of a wizard step by step, friendly and once again, easy.
• It's an old distribution based on Mandrake and have a nice support through online community (check out their #mandriva channel on irc.freenode.net). 
• RPM based, which makes it easy to install software, compatible literally with any rpm sources. Uses URPMI to manage the software and updates. Pretty easy to use actually. I got a hold of it pretty fast.
• Overall a good friendly experience. 
• Good documentation which is installed by default and a onlike wiki.

The cons that I found on this distribution are:

• It could use some polishing under the hood. As in, it's a little bit bloated.
• Some things take a second turn to make it work. it's not un-usual to try and configure something like a wifi or video card, and at first will return a couple of errors, and works fine at the second try. Persistence and patience are somewhat required. But don't give up at first, sometimes you have to put some extra-effort. 
• It's not a challenge for a geek who's looking for a clean-slick Linux distribution.
• First time I installed it, even though the nvidia drivers were installed and working, startx did not start automatically. I had to jump to another terminal using ALT+F1, to run kdm and then I would have my interface, but I believe this does not happen in all systems and so far I wasn't able to figure out what went wrong.

Some tips & tweaks to make Mandriva 2011 a better experience;

• Disable cdrom and enable online repositories:

Go to Mandriva Control Center, Software Management, Configure Media sources for Install and Update. Disable the CD/DVD-ROM Sources and Click on "Add" -> Full Set of Sources. This will download a list of mirrors available. Once it's done, it will have a few enable by default, this will do the job. You can also enable "Testing" but with the advice that you should stick with stable software. Use at your responsibility. Add them and it should update the software list available. Update your system after it. 

• Install VLC Player. Open Install & Remove software, search for "vlc" and install it. 
• To Install a Nvidia driver, open the Install & remove software and install the following packages:

1 - dkms-nvidia-current-280.13
2. nvidia-current-doc-html-280.13
3. x11-driver-video-nvidia-current-280.13

Open a terminal, enter root mode (su - [enter] and [enter password]) type nvidia-xconfig - this will automatically configure your xorg configuration file to use the Nvidia driver module. Reboot and you should see right before the splash screen a neat Nvidia logo. And it's done :-)

• Install Adobe Flash Player, usefull on a number websites if you want flash plugin. Open a terminal, enter root mode (su - [enter] - [enter root password]) and type: 

urpmi.addmedia --distrib ftp://ftp.mandriva.ru/mandriva/official/2010.0/x86_64
urpmi.addmedia --distrib ftp://ftp.mandriva.ru/plf/cfg/2010.0/x86_64
urpmi flash-player-plugin

And it's done, flash is installed on your system and should be compatible with the installed browsers.

• If your VGA is ATI, go to their website and download the specific RPM for your system. Install it and should be it. 

The rest of the tips & tricks are highly dependable on each user. So I'm not going to write my "personal" tips, but I can give you a hint of what to do next.

Browse through Mandriva Control Center, configure the things the way you want them. Go through Installed software (on software center) and uninstall what you don't want on your system. Be carefull though, some software might remove dependencies which other applications use. Pay attention to anything that wants to remove kdelibs. if these are removed, some other applications might not work. 

Try to use one application for each task you want. Like, don't go on configuring your email accounts on every Email application you find unless you're looking for one to use. The software you don't use, uninstall it. 

My overall experience with Mandriva Linux was actually nice. There's almost no learning curve, everything is just there and ready for you. It can take you a while to configure it the way you want to. You can install development packages and you can still compile sources by hand for a higher performance. 

Some screenshots of the 2011 edition :-)

Have fun, and don't forget to always backup your system :P

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