sounder 8 install report

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Thu, Sep 09, 2004 at 05:57:15PM +1000, Jamie Wilkinson wrote:

> Powerbook IV (1Ghz G4)
> 
> After backing up my old data to an external firewire disk, booted off of
> a CD of the sounder 8 ISO.  At the boot prompt, pressed enter for a
> "normal" install.
> 
> I didn't take many notes from this part of the install, but I remember
> being impressed that there was nothing to do.  I said yes to "erase
> entire disk", and said to use eth1 (the airport device) as the network
> device of choice.  We have two APs in our house, one has a broadcast
> ESSID but a WEP key, the other is open access but not routed.  The
> installer probably did nothing, /etc/network/interfaces said
> 'wireless-essid any'.
> 
> X configuration Just Worked.  No questions.  I was really impressed :)
> Top work to you all.

Excellent!  Thanks for the report.

> The gdm screen had 'ubuntu debugging artwork' on it.  Same for the
> splash screen after logging in.

Yes, these are placeholders until we incorporate fancier artwork.

> First impressions after logging in:
> 
> * There are these ugly b/w icons, starting with the gnome foot next to
>   Applications, mixed in with colour icons (wireless meter, battstat
>   applet) and some really high density icons (Take Screenshot,
>   Rhythmbox) so the general feel of the panel and menus is that it's
>   brashly assembled, there is no cohesion, (and just because I want to
>   use the word dissonant here) the three types of icons feel
>   very dissonant.  I'd really like to see convergence on the simple
>   coloured icons such as the wireless meter, Terminal Server client,
>   About Ubuntu, and a move away from Take Screenshot and those dense
>   ones.

Same story as above.

> * The background doesn't fit across the widescreen of the powerbook.  I
>   go to turn it off, and discover there's a widescreen version of the
>   same image in the backgrounds already.  Is it possible to set that
>   based on the X server config?

I'm not sure offhand whether this can be easily automated.   Sebastien, do
you know?

> * The XKB error message appeared (actually, 8 or more appeared) but they
>   were all masking a /dev/pmu error message, and the /dev/pmu error
>   dialog had input focus so I couldn't shut any of them down until i'd
>   moved the XKB dialogs out of the way.  (The XKB dialogs have since
>   gone after upgrading packages, but the /dev/pmu permissions
>   error is still there)

apt-get upgrade will take care of that.

> * What, no zsh!?  Have to set up wireless, install from the archive, no
>   biggie.  It'd be nice if it was on the CD though...

I'd prefer to reserve space on the CD for things which might be needed in
order to get on the network; things like zsh are not inconvenient to
download, as you know.

> * Ok time to test out this volume manager everyone's talking about.
>   Plugged in the external firewire disk... nothing.  Check dmesg,
>   not even the kernel knows about the new device :(
>
> * Open Computer folder (from icon on desktop), open "CD ROM 1" (whose
>   icon is a rectangle?  WTF?)  get a Mount Error dialog.  Expand "Show
>   more details" and get "mount: special device /dev/hdc does not exist"
>   :(

OK, after writing some debugging suggestions here, I see you found the
problem below, so deleted. :-)

> * The external disk also has a USB connector, so try that instead.
>   dmesg shows the kernel recognising the new mass storage device.
>   There's a single partition, fs is ext3, however:
> 
> FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
> VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda1.
> udf: registering filesystem
> UDF-fs: No partition found (1)
> Unable to identify CD-ROM format.
> VFS: Can't find a Minix or Minix V2 filesystem on device sda1.
> HFS+-fs: unable to find HFS+ superblock
> VFS: Can't find a HFS filesystem on dev sda1.
> EXT3-fs: Unrecognized mount option "uid=1000" or missing value
> ReiserFS: sda1: warning: unknown mount option "uid=1000"
> XFS: unknown mount option [uid].
> jfs: Unrecognized mount option "uid=1000"  or missing value

File this as a bug against pmount.  "EXT3-fs: Unrecognized mount option
"uid=1000" or missing value" is the noteworthy bit.

> * Notice a /dead.letter containing some messages from debconf... one of
>   them mentions udev and rebooting, so I reboot.  Kind of hard to find
>   though.

Can you send a copy of the message about udev, and a copy of
/var/log/base-config.log?

> * pushed sounder 8 cd back in, brings up nautilus cdrom0 window.  no
>   icon on desktop though.

Long story, but that's intentional.

> * monospace 8 is a much better font for the terminal, now I can fit 4 of
>   them on the same screen.

It'll be too small for many screens; I think the default is reasonable.

> * /var/log/mail.log full of fatal: open database /etc/aliases.db: No
>   such file or directory.  run newaliases at install time?  set root
>   alias to first user?

File bug against postfix, please.

> * procmail installed, but mailbox_command is not set :(

Likewise; I think that's supposed to work.

> * sudo password prompt annoying

Fixed for new installs; sudo visudo and remove the 'timeout' setting.

> In general, I'm impressed with the ease of everything so far, but the look
> and feel needs a lot more polish (I guess mainly because there's these
> high-contrast icons which claim to be the Human icon theme.  James
> Gregory's install from sounder 7 has a much nicer icon theme, imho).

Polish will be the theme of the Hoary release. :-)

The icon and artwork issues will be addressed for the Warty release, though.
Work is ongoing.

-- 
 - mdz