I was curious if those who upgraded from an earlier version of Mandrake had more problems with 9.2 than those who did a fresh install.

I beta tested the update for 9.2. I didn't have any problems with the RC2 or the Final

I did a manual install of rpms over a period of several days. It generally went well. I don't have the right background splash while it is booting up and I don't know how to fix this. I tried several things.

I tried to join mandrake club by credit card and seem to have not got a response from several email queries about this. I plan to download the ISO images when I get a chance. I wanted to make sure Mandrake gets some compensation for their efforts. I am using 9.2 daily with no problems. I think it is a good product generally. I found one bug in the kernel source that I fixed and sent a note to the mandrake QC folks. It was already fixed in the latest kernel that 9.2 has. I am running 2.4.22-21mdkcustom compiled for a 686 processor. I configed out a bunch of the extras I did not need so that I have a smaller kernel that fits on a floppy so I have a rescue boot disk.

I would like to bump KDE up to the latest release. I suspect that it is available through Mandrake club compiled for 586. I did not want to try to use RH available packages.

For the time being I am pleased with the system.

I only had some minor probs with the menues in windowmaker and again probs exiting or rebooting from windowmaker. Otherwise it seems to be working fine. I do however miss some programs that used to be in the distro.

Watch out for one thing in the powerpack! It says on the mdk homepage that the pack includes win4lin, crossover office + plugin, vmware aso. On the bottom of the page it says that it's those trial versions.... I almost bought the powerpack for crossover and I would have been pissed off if I realised that afterwards.

check out my post --------- mdk9.2 problems and a easy fix --------- for my mdk 9.2 installation experience

I did a clean install with KDE on the desktop and there where issues. Freezing sometimes, pretty slow for the system I have.

Then yesterday I re-installed it with Gnome and it's much faster. The menu issues is still there, but that's an easy fix. Everything else is running fine.

I did a upgrade first then a fresh install. Both sucked. Missing apps etc. I did the menu update thing, don't work.

I also couldn't install the NVIDIA drivers since the kernel sources were not there and not on the CDs wither.

After about two or three weeks, I gave it a chance, I went back to 9.1. Been working more on Gentoo lately.

The fonts were better and it looked better otherwise. I'm waiting on 10.X myself.

Later

I voted other.

I just installed 9.2 this afternoon. It's running good so far. Seems about the same as 9.1, though probably a bit faster... etc.

Upgrade didn't work for me. The installer hung near the end of the upgrade, had to finally give up and hit the reset button and it wouldn't boot up after that.

Fresh install works pretty well, except for sound not working anymore and problems setting up the contrib mirror in urpmi.

I did a fresh install, with KDE all the optioninal crap included. Installed the gaming options with all those options.. and multemedia and all the options.

I installed and it ran pretty horrbly.. did a reinstall.. and everything seems great and runs well expect for a few minor issues that i can live with (one of them being screen savers not showing up under KDE.. <plug> see my post "Mandrake 9.2 no screen savers" </plug>)

thanks:trey

I've used the upgrade 3 or 4 times now 9 to 9.1 and 9.1 to 9.2 and they all worked but slowly - probably because the upgrade has to check all the stuff you already have on board.

The only failure I have had is when I upgraded 9 to 9.1 to 9.2 straight - it didn't like that!

Hi,

I never do upgrades... Why? Well, although I am sure many people worked hard to have this process run smoothly, experience dictates that a clean install is always preferable, unless you have too many "stuff" on the current system and you dont want or cannot perform data/programs backups...

I did a clean install for Mdk 9.2 and everything ran just fine during ...... the installation!

However, many problems were encountered afterward... Some I knew because they were already documented on LinuxQuestions' Mandrake forum, like the empty menu (for me it happened after a first Mandrake update... funny don't you think!), almost (2 or 3, I don't remember) no screensavers under KDE, the whole KDE menuing system been slugish vs the mouse, the missing source Kernel, the master and PCM volumes initially set to zero after the installation, the fact that the product ship with KDE 3.1.3 instead of 3.1.4, the fact that the product ship with OpenOffice 1.1.0 RC4 instead of the final 1.1.0 version, not having the kernel version 2.4.22-21mdk as it was said to be available, .... I could go on and on here!

Now, do not get me wrong here. Many of these problems were (or will soon be) resolved. As for not having the latest versions, it is not mandatory in itself. However, with all of these problems, it is not the way to go when you want people to adopt the Mandrake-Linux distro and even more so if you want them to pay for it or to become a club member. Please note that I am absolutely not blaming MandrakeSoft for the simple reason that it is not that easy to manage such a big and complexe project, with so many contributors (designers, programmers, translators, testers, ...).

The best functionalities that Mandrake-Linux has is its Configuration and Package Management systems and its overall distro packaging. Those are very important qualities in a product, not to say the most important ones.

As for me, I am using the Gnome 2.4 interface because it has less problems than KDE and also because it is a bit faster, it is more simple and clean and it has less "bells & whistles" annoying me...

I am also testing/trying Fedora Core 1 and I must say that I am quite impressed by the quality of this distro. Yes, Fedora has its problems too, but a bit less... The major advantage of Fedora is that being in fact a Red Had kind of project, it is a lot more easy to find RPM packages than it is for the other distros... This is a very important factor to take into consideration.

Agreed. I never do upgrades. Not even with windows.

--ArmedGeek

My personal pains with Mandrake 9.2 doing UPGRADE and fresh install:

1) Could not get sound
2) My radeon 9700 Pro would not get 3d accelaration nor OpenGL support = no games
3) java in Firebird was no go for me

I reinstalled back Mandrake 9.1 and slowly I'm getting back my perfect system. I love Mandrake 9.1.

I would recommend to people sticking with Mandrake 9.1 if everything works the way you like it. Don't be tempted to think, like myself, "Ah, 9.2 must be better!"

If it ain't broke, don't fix it (nor upgrade it!).

That's my two cents.

I installed, 9.2rc2 and tried that for a while. clean install, with no problems during the installation. Nvidia drivers installed ok, my conexant winmodem installed ok with a source rpm I had. I can't remember many specific problems, but as I recall, it wasn't a pleasent experience. Probably right out of the box it was ok, but I couldnt get my printer working. Ahh I remember the problems now, RPMdrake didnt pick up the rpms I had downloaded and tried to install. It kept complaining that something was wrong(I cant remember). Back to the Printer, I couldn't find an option to select Lprng in Printerdrake as an alternate spooler instead of cups. My cheapo Lexmark works better it seems with LPRng, and the lexmark foomatic kit. Could have been something i missed, but i saw no option to change the printing system as in the old printer drake. I also didnt like the fact that kde was 3.1.3. I use kdesu, and filemanager superuser-mode, and 3.1.3 doesnt keep the password. This is probably better for security, but not for convienence. In fact, the menu option which was in apps, file tools, for filemanager su mode isn't even there anymore. Perhaps its moved.

At any rate, I downloaded all the rpms for the final 9.2 before the iso's were readily available, got all the updates, and most all of contrib, and plf. I tried upgrading to the latest 9.2 but things didnt get any better. I went back to 9.1 with tex's plf's, and the contrib rpms. This system absolutely rocked.

This is a bit off topic now, but in the meantime, I tried Fedora. I couldnt get my nvidia drivers working, even after the "export cc=gcc32", and my modem drivers wouldnt compile. Other than those issues, really biggies imho, it was ok. I tried slack 9.1 (notice the pattern here: distros with kde 3.1.4), It installed fine, nvidia drivers worked, modem drivers worked. but I havent a clue how to set up the printer, and I really didn't find it to be faster than Mandrake 9.1. In fact, Id say it felt slower. I know hard core slackers would probably beg to differ, but that was my experience. I'll probably download the 9.2 iso's tomrorrow from school, and I might try 9.2 again. Or I might stick with 9.1. I can install 9.1 and about 1.3GB of contrib, tex, and plf in 2 or 3 hours tops and have a screaming machine no problems at all.