8.1 question?

[zacatlan]

Hi,

A friend of mine just showed me the MCE video. I am amazed.

He also said that to achieve all the features shown would take a lot of effort but that a relatively simple system is quite achievable. He also commented that I might wish to wait until the 8.1 version is out.

With the understanding that it is a community project and that it will be ready only when it is ready and not before.

Is there a ballpark ETA? Even if there is no target ETA, Does anyone remembers how long it took to go from the first alpha to a release candidate?

I ask this question because I recently bought hardware to build a W#$%$## MCE and for what I have researched the motherboard does not work very well with 7.1 but works well on 8.1.

Thus, I want to evaluate waiting vs. buying a new one.

I would appreciate any help as I have very little Linux experience and would like to face the least amount of hassles.

Thanks

Zacatlan.

[tschak909]

Hello, I am one of the core developers.

Unfortunately, we can't tell you when a final of 8.10 will be released. We have released three alphas, thus far, which are testing the viability of our completely new community based build system. We have had a lot of regressions due to a combination of porting to Ubuntu 8.10, and by taking over virtually all build and development tasks from Pluto.

The alpha releases are only intended to be used by those people who are capable of handling systems still in development on their own, and are intended to aid in the debugging of problems still inherent in our current build.

We are working as hard as we can, and need more developer help.

We plan to go into feature freeze during the first quarter of February, to prepare for beta releases.

In short, it will be released, when it's ready to release.

[zacatlan]

Thank you SO much!

I completely understand that alpha versions are for developers and won't go anywhere near the alpha version.

I also understand the bit of being ready when its ready. I'm sure you all guys have day jobs as well.

I am happy to wait three or four months for a Beta but would consider buying a different motherboard if it was longer than that.

My friend is running the same motherboard  on ubuntu 8.1 without problems so I'll probably wait.

Thank you for your help!

Z

[colinjones]

If you already have the hardware, just install it.. what have you got to loose?! If it doesn't work, blow it away In the meantime you will get experience, and you never know, you may be able to fix up any problems with updated drivers...

[zacatlan]

Thank you,

I will try but the forums indicate there are problems (I did my research before posting  )

The motherboard is an ASUS P5N7A-VM. 4GB ram and Pentium E5200. My friend says he tried with no luck that couldn't even pass the partitioner as the screen went black little after hitting enter on "Install".

He also commented trying to install through the alternate cd with no luck either as on rebooting the machine the nic wouldn't work, and the "x-screen" (whatever that is) didn't install, etc.

He then installed 8.1 with no trouble and has been using it as his desktop since. (he used his old desktop mobo for the core).

Thanks.

Z

[zacatlan]

By the way... (and I know it is a bit off topic)

I do want to enhance my linux skills but have failed to find a book that will be a middle ground between the really basic GUI and all out "assumed to be guru" type.

Does anyone knows a good book/guide/video to learn how to install from source/compile/debug , etc.

Thanks

Z

[colinjones]

Thank you,

I will try but the forums indicate there are problems (I did my research before posting  )

The motherboard is an ASUS P5N7A-VM. 4GB ram and Pentium E5200. My friend says he tried with no luck that couldn't even pass the partitioner as the screen went black little after hitting enter on "Install".

He also commented trying to install through the alternate cd with no luck either as on rebooting the machine the nic wouldn't work, and the "x-screen" (whatever that is) didn't install, etc.

He then installed 8.1 with no trouble and has been using it as his desktop since. (he used his old desktop mobo for the core).

Thanks.

Z

I suggest you search for "black" or "blank" screen in the wiki and on the forums. Its a common problem, which often has a simple solution - certainly a problem that early in the install is unlikely to be outright hardware incompatibility.

[totallymaxed]

Thank you,

I will try but the forums indicate there are problems (I did my research before posting  )

The motherboard is an ASUS P5N7A-VM. 4GB ram and Pentium E5200. My friend says he tried with no luck that couldn't even pass the partitioner as the screen went black little after hitting enter on "Install".

He also commented trying to install through the alternate cd with no luck either as on rebooting the machine the nic wouldn't work, and the "x-screen" (whatever that is) didn't install, etc.

He then installed 8.1 with no trouble and has been using it as his desktop since. (he used his old desktop mobo for the core).

Thanks.

Z

The ASUS P5N7A-VM works fine as an MD or a Hybrid Core but does need new NIC drivers added to initramfs etc to make it LAN boot.

Your right 8.10 works out of the box on this Mobo :-)

All the best

Andrew

[cirion]

My friend says he tried with no luck that couldn't even pass the partitioner as the screen went black little after hitting enter on "Install".

Are you running the 64bit DVD?

That happens on my Core with the 64bit DVD. Using the 32bit DVD I do have picture.
If you know the sequence, you can install it blindly...

[skeptic]

We plan to go into feature freeze during the first quarter of February, to prepare for beta releases.

In short, it will be released, when it's ready to release.

Actually, this is great info for us users.  It gives us an idea when the main focus will switch from new features to release prep and bug fixing.

[Afkpuz]

If you want linux experience, start by install ubuntu 8.10 and messing around with it.  Spend time on the ubuntu forums (ubuntuforums.org) and they will help you there.  Also, try installing mythtv on top of ubuntu.  linuxmce has mythtv rolled into it, so learning in the stable ubuntu envirmonment will help.  Finally, I've made some videos on youtube that are designed to help newbies get off the ground with this project.  check here.  i'm also willing to make more videos for those of you with questions

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=pandaman123213&aq=f

[zacatlan]

Thank you so much.

I have been using Ubuntu and kubuntu as my home machines for a while (I still can't convince my COO to dump XP).

I think I'm OK with the GUI my problems start with the terminal. I can follow cook books but if something happens.... I don't know what to do.
That is where I have failed to find useful material that assumes a beginner terminal user attempting the next step. I have found plenty of books explaining the GUI of ubuntu (which you don't need if you are used to xp or vista). Then you have the all out books assuming terminal knowledge...

Now back to the cook books.  Tried LMCE 7.1 i386 last night had the same problem. Then I figured out that my HDD is IDE and that the card also manages SATA. I disabled the SATA and it worked.... almost. Installation went through but it stopped (went to a cursor) after a line telling me something about nvidia package not previously selected. Left it for a couple of hours (went out with the mrs) and when I came back  it was in terminal with a message saying it had timed out.

I can reboot on recovery mode and get to terminal. I assumed it was the nvidia drivers, downloaded them tried to install but the process stops (error) in line 2 "<HTML>" .

Any ideas?
 
BTW I'm using an old CRT monitor not messing with the tv yet!.

[colinjones]

You need to confirm first that you are using the DVD install not the 3 CDs

[Afkpuz]

I'll put in my 2 bits to say that I have alot of trouble using the dvd install.  I think what happens is the dvd installer sets alot of thing to default that shouldn't be default, or something similar.  Even though the cd install takes about 2 hours, I get alot more mileage out of it.

[zacatlan]

Sorry, forgot to include that in my description.

Yes the DVD.

I'll try the cd's tonight.