I'm running the PowerPack-version of Mandriva 2006 on 7 different computers, all clean-installed (root-partition wiped clean first). I've ran into serious trouble, that I didn't have in Mandriva 2005 LE.


MSI 865PE Neo2-V motherboard cannot be used (SOLVED with SuSe 10, remains with Mandriva 2006)
Mandriva 2005 LE did not install without the "noauto"-option (installer locked up before it even got to the graphical phase) when a computer had this mobo (2 computers of mine have it, both have same problems). Mandriva 2006 does not install AT ALL to the computers using this mobo. The installer locks up almost immediately, after pressing enter from the first screen. I've tried all the choices, alternative kernels, "noauto", "text", etc. I managed to update these computers by leaving the kernel to the Mandriva 2005 LE-default one. Mandriva 2006 kernel simply does NOT run on these computers. It locks up to a phase where it says "Probing PCI bus", etc. The BIOS-version on both mobos is the latest. I have NO PCI-cards at all on these computers and also tried disabling the onboard SATA-, sound- and network-controllers. Also no IRQ-conflicts.

CD-/DVD-ROM discs cannot be used anymore (SOLVED)
This hit me with a big surprise. All of these computers have completely different CD- and DVD-drives, from different manufacturers, but none of them read CD- or DVD-discs anymore! I can't read ANY disc, not self-burnt (tried CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW) or a bought one! This is a MAJOR problem. It could be related to supermount, but on the other hand... even when first unmounting the supermount and then mounting the disc "normally", it still doesn't work. Does not give any error, this is from the shell output (there's a disc in drive having files on it):
From "mount"-command:
HP LaserJet 1150 not printing anymore
The printer only blinks the "error"-light from now on. I have the HP-services running and started before CUPS, but the printing does not work. Point. Tried pretty much everything. Other printers work.

Strange clock-problems (SOLVED)
Some people have reported that time goes "faster" in Mandriva 2006. Well, I have another clock-related problem: the system seems to give only "20" as the time, always. Eg. if I start "xclock -digital", it only shows "20" and nothing else. Also my Skype-USB-phone (w/ SkypeMate-software) shows only "20" on it's display now, while it used to be showing the computer time. "date"-command and KDE show the correct time, though... it seems to be just some programs messing it up.

Quickcam Messenger- and PWC-drivers not compiling anymore (SOLVED)
OK, this might be fixed when Mandriva 2006 becomes more common (= publicly available to non-club members). Probably related to the new GCC4.

Serious USB-problems (SOLVED)
I just recently discovered this. "lsusb" does not work at all and many USB-devices do not get recognized (eg. my Skype-USB-softphone, all digicameras and some printers). It looks like if the whole USB would not even be in use, though USB-mouse works. This happens on one update-installed computer.

X.org 6.9 taking nearly 100 % of CPU-time (SOLVED)
After the computer has been on for a few days, X-server starts to consume all the CPU-power, slowing the computer unusable and finally (in some cases) even crashing it. This happens on all of the computers and is not video card-specific (they have different hardware). It even happens, when there are no programs actually running on the computer and Kat-service (like all other KDE-services) is disabled. Quick fix for this is to not leave the computer in graphical mode when it's not being used, or "service dm restart" occasionally.


If anyone knows any way to solve even one of these problems, I'd be very grateful to know. Has anyone else had the same trouble?

Well Mandriva hasn't used supermount for CD/DVD drives since before 10.1. It seems strange they'd add it back in for 2006. I asked about this on the cooker mailing list not long ago:

Thank you for your post, tkedwards. It helped me finding out how the CD-/DVD-mounting works in Mandriva. The problem was with HAL Daemon and gnome-volume-manager, yet it was still trying to mount the drive, also causing supermount to fail.

1 problem out of 5 solved, thanks again.

I can confirm this problem. Even though I didn't notice it until you mentioned it. The KDE clock is showing the correct time.

seems that i had better stick to mandriva 2005.

Well, I ran into serious USB-issues, when I started to get more familiar with Mandriva 2006. Added it to the end of the first post...

I'm considering a move to SuSe 10 now. Already tried Kubuntu, but it didn't work (gave "99 99 99", etc. on the first boot and the instructions I found from Google did not help, so I'm going to have to erase it).

There are many aspects that I'm happy with Mandriva 2006, but overally with all of its bugs, it's a HUGE disappointment. I'm going to have to choose another distro or revert to Mandriva 2005 LE, which worked perfectly. The main problem, why I will have to do this, is this motherboard problem with MSI 865PE Neo2-V.

Well, SuSe 10 does not work either. Exactly same message appears just before the lockup at boot! And on both of these computers running MSI 865PE-motherboard. But it works on the other computers running some other mobo, just like Mandriva 2006.

Has anyone had problems with this motherboard and Linux-kernel 2.6.12?

mandriva sucks!

How helpful and informative you are, keep up the good work

Hi,

I just did a network install of Mandriva 2006 Official (Free edition) from a public mirror.
I am noticing similar printing problems with this release. I have a HP laserjet1300. When I send a print job to it all the front panel LED's come on but nothing prints. After power cycling the printer the print job is lost. When I attempt another print job the same thing happens.

I also notice that the kded process seems to go nuts - it consumes a lot of CPU - not sure what this is.

After doing the network install I had to wipe out the urpmi database because I could not successfully install new packages - I got complains about key problems etc. In any case the urpmi database pointed to current instead of 2006.0 which means that when the next release rolled around urpmi would use it instead of 2006.0.

Commands used:
urpmi --clean
urpmi.removemedia -a
urpmi.addmedia main ftp://ftp.ale.org/pub/mirrors/mandra...586/media/main with media_info/hdlist.cz
urpmi.addmedia contrib ftp://ftp.ale.org/pub/mirrors/mandra.../media/contrib with media_info/hdlist.cz

/etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg after network install:

Main\ (ftp1) ftp://ftp.ale.org//pub/mirrors/mandr...586/media/main {
hdlist: hdlist.Main (ftp1).cz
with_hdlist: ../../media/media_info/hdlist_main.cz
key-ids: 26752624
}

Contrib\ (ftp3) ftp://ftp.ale.org//pub/mirrors/mandr.../media/contrib {
hdlist: hdlist.Contrib (ftp3).cz
with_hdlist: ../../media/media_info/hdlist_contrib.cz
key-ids: 26752624
}

/etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg after fixes:

main ftp://ftp.ale.org/pub/mirrors/mandra...586/media/main {
hdlist: hdlist.main.cz
with_hdlist: media_info/hdlist.cz
}

contrib ftp://ftp.ale.org/pub/mirrors/mandra.../media/contrib {
hdlist: hdlist.contrib.cz
with_hdlist: media_info/hdlist.cz
}

update_source http://ftp.ale.org/pub/mirrors/mandr...0/main_updates {
hdlist: hdlist.update_source.cz
key-ids: 22458a98
list: list.update_source
synthesis
update
with_hdlist: media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz
}

IIRC that's kat - the desktop search thing for KDE (similar to beagle in GNOME).

Does installing software work properly now that you've fixed it?

Hi,

After making the changes to urpmi installing and updating software worked properly.
Even after doing updates etc I notice problems with printing and problems with the X server. I am using an Nvidia graphics card with the stock nv driver so that may cause some of the problems with Xorg 6.9 as noted in the Mandriva 2006.0 errata.

As to the printing problem I see complaints from the usblp driver. Interestingly enough printing seemed to work better when I was not running Kde.

Thanks for the info on kded

Found out the USB-problems only occur, if Mandriva is updated instead of a clean install. So that one solved --> with clean install.

So, the remaining, VERY critical problems are:
- The MSI-motherboard unusable
- Many HP LaserJet-printers unusable (other printers I've used, seem to work)

Also found a new problem: X.org 6.9 taking all the CPU-power after a few days of uptime. Added it to the first post.

Hi make,

Can't help you with the MSI motherboard but your printer problem and your xorg problem both seem to be listed in the Mandriva 2006 errata. Go to this link and have a look to see if the solution they give helps you,

http://qa.mandriva.com/twiki/bin/vie...inux2006Errata

Just scroll down the page and you will see your problems listed,

Hope this helps, cheers

Thank you for your post! X.org-problem solved by deleting /etc/logrotate.d/acpid.

The printer-problem is not the one described at the link you gave, I'm experiencing a different kind of problem.