Downloaded the beta ISO's and attempted an install. Bravo, the weird penguin is gone! Bravo, the touchpad action works correctly. (2005 never worked right on my Sony T, I always ended up tabbing/entering to move along.)

But I have a big problem. I am using XP Pro and was setting up as before for a grub dual-boot. After setting up my partitions for 2006, the write data operation fails to the HD, complaining it can't write the main windows c drive mnt. I went back and tried reinstalling 2005 and it works fine. Maybe 2006 as a beta can't handle dual-boot yet? Any ideas?

No ideas, but why don't you just use 2005 to make the partition you need to daul boot and then cancel the installation and install 2006 to install in the newly partitioned space. I use my 10.1 mini-install cd to partition for wndows, and linux use.

Duh! I should of thought of that... But I do hope it gets fixed before going official. I don't think people want two different distro versions on hand for an install.

I have just tried it myself and it looks like its a good distro so far. I have not noticed any major contributions from Conectiva and Lycoris in this release, hopefully we will see something as the testing period continues.

I like the fact that Mandriva is committed to making the next version of their distro but I feel that they should focus on keeping up with the ones they have now; 10.1, Corporate, and LE2005. They should make sure to solve all problems peeps may encounter and as well put security in mind. They do a good job now, but if 2006 is already @ beta 1 then it won't be long for that release, a little to fast in my point of view. By doing that they will be doing exactly what the chief programmer @ BSD said, linux writers are just releasing stuff fast without really solving anything.

They have already slowed down their release cycle. They use to release very often and most of the software was bleeding edge. I think if they concentrate too much on old releases and don't bring out new distros, then they will lose quite a lot of those users that like to have the latest and greatest packages.

New package releases are fine, but distro writers should focus on one project and work on it to make it very good so then they have a good template to make a transition to the next version with upgraded packages. Thats why the 9.0 series of Mandrake are considered to be one of the best. 10.0 was good, security wise and package wise, 10.1/10.2 have seen more problems with basic things like mounting a USB drive, something that wasn't much of an issue in 10.0.

I don't agree with you regarding the 9.x series. I think its one of the buggiest release series I have ever seen in a major Linux distro. All those problems with rpm, disappering menus etc. I guess they were going through a tough time financially, so I can forgive them for that.

As for 10.1 and 2005LE, I think the introduction of udev, dbus and hal are responsible for some problems with USB and other devices. The same applies for other distros I use.

reddazz,need your help.
Dual booting is a nightmare for me. I try to follow all and everything in the how-to's, and I have RTFM, both of LILO and GRUB, to no avail.

I have plain 2005LE in hda, LILO in MBR, running fine.
I intend to install plain 2006 in hdb.
What must I do, or write?

Thanks!

xgm, start a new thread, so that myself and others can reply to it.

That I willdo right now!

Thanks!!