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2008.1 Notes

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   Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring Release Notes

   Contents

        * 1 Introduction
        * 2 General information about new features and major changes
        * 3 Deprecation
             + 3.1 kernel-multimedia removed
        * 4 Changes to supported hardware and drivers
             + 4.1 NTFS partitions writeable by default
             + 4.2 Support status for common hardware
                  o 4.2.1 NVIDIA graphics cards
                  o 4.2.2 ATI graphics cards
                  o 4.2.3 HDA-based sound devices
                  o 4.2.4 Wireless networking hardware
             + 4.3 Nouveau open source driver for NVIDIA cards
             + 4.4 Multimedia keyboard support
             + 4.5 Easy synchronization support
        * 5 Changes regarding installation
             + 5.1 UUID-based partition mounting
        * 6 Changes regarding software packages
             + 6.1 KDE integration of time-based background image
             + 6.2 PulseAudio sound server used by default
             + 6.3 Testing KDE 4
             + 6.4 AppArmor
             + 6.5 Codeina multimedia codec installation system
        * 7 Changes regarding Mandriva tools
             + 7.1 Enhancements to Mandriva software management tools
             + 7.2 New package information system for RPMdrake and urpmi
             + 7.3 Mandriva Online
             + 7.4 New LAMP metapackage
             + 7.5 Windows Vista support in migration wizard

 Introduction

   This page contains important information the Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring
   (2008.1) release.

   The following topics are covered:
     * General information about new features and major changes
     * Changes to the Mandriva installer and upgrade instructions for
       Mandriva Linux 2008 users
     * Changes to supported hardware and drivers
     * Changes regarding software packages
     * Other technical information for experienced users

   Please also refer to Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring Errata - the Errata for
   the 2008 Spring release. The Errata page contains information on known
   bugs and problems in the release and instructions on fixing, avoiding
   or working around them.

   Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring is not yet released. These release notes
   currently cover the pre-releases of Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring. The
   current pre-release is Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring RC 2.

 General information about new features and major changes

   Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring includes (or will include) the following
   versions of the major distribution components: kernel 2.6.24, X.org
   7.3, KDE 3.5.9 and 4.0, GNOME 2.22, Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.12,
   OpenOffice.org 2.4.

   Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring will be available in several different
   editions:
     * the One edition will be an installable live CD integrating the
       latest proprietary drivers, available free of charge
     * the Powerpack edition will include support, services, a wider range
       of packages, and many third-party proprietary applications like
       LinDVD, Scilab and 03 Spaces
     * the Free edition will be a pure free / open source software
       edition, without any of the non-free packages bundled with other
       editions, available as a free download

   For more information on the editions in which the latest Mandriva Linux
   2008 Spring pre-release is available, see the specific page.

   For more information on the various editions, see Choosing the Mandriva
   Linux edition that's right for you.

   Additional information is also available online:
     * List of Compatible/Certified Computers and The detailed Mandriva
       Hardware Database
     * The Mandriva Club
     * The Mandriva User Forums
     * The Mandriva Wiki

 Deprecation

 kernel-multimedia removed

   The kernel-multimedia alternative kernel is no longer available with
   Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring. It was previously an alternative kernel
   along the same lines as kernel-tmb, incorporating experimental or
   bleeding-edge changes that were not appropriate for the official
   kernel. Despite its name, it has not been specifically targeted towards
   multimedia use for some time. Its maintainer is now unable to commit
   the necessary amount of time to maintaining it, so it has been removed.

   kernel-tmb will continue in its role as the main alternative kernel for
   Mandriva, the venue for experimental changes that are too dangerous to
   include directly in the official kernel. It contains most of the
   features kernel-multimedia had, including support for the reiser4
   filesystem. The major exception is realtime support, which kernel-tmb
   does not have. A realtime kernel is available - kernel-rt - but please
   note that it is a completely unchanged build of the upstream kernel-rt
   branch, with no Mandriva patches or customization, so it does lack
   considerable functionality compared to the official Mandriva kernel.

 Changes to supported hardware and drivers

 NTFS partitions writeable by default

   Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring uses the NTFS-3G system for mounting NTFS
   partitions by default. This allows full write access to these
   partitions, rather than the read-only support through the ntfs driver
   that was provided by default in past releases.

 Support status for common hardware

   This section provides information on the status of support for
   particularly common hardware in Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring.

 NVIDIA graphics cards

   All NVIDIA graphics cards available at the time of Mandriva Linux 2008
   Spring's release are supported. The NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT is not
   currently supported by the NVIDIA proprietary driver, and thus there is
   no support for 3D acceleration on this card. All other NVIDIA cards
   have 3D acceleration support via the nvidia proprietary driver which is
   available in the One and Powerpack editions, and in the public non-free
   repository. Free software support is provided by the nv driver, which
   offers full support for basic 2D operations for all NVIDIA cards.

 ATI graphics cards

   All ATI graphics cards available at the time of Mandriva Linux 2008
   Spring's release are supported. Support for pre-Radeon X1xxx series
   cards (r400 and lower cores) has not changed since the release of
   Mandriva Linux 2008. 3D acceleration support for Radeon X1xxx, X2xxx
   and X3xxx series cards (and equivalent Mobility and
   motherboard-integrated chips; r500 and r600 cores) is provided via the
   fglrx proprietary driver which is available in the One and Powerpack
   editions, and in the public non-free repository. Free software support
   for these cards is now provided by the radeonhd driver, which offers
   full support for basic 2D operations for these cards. The Radeon HD
   3870 X2 card is not supported by the proprietary fglrx driver, so no 3D
   acceleration is available on this card. This card will use the radeonhd
   driver for basic 2D support on all editions of Mandriva Linux 2008
   Spring. The Radeon HD 3200 onboard chipset is not supported by any of
   the native proprietary or open source drivers in Mandriva Linux 2008
   Spring. It will use the vesa generic driver for basic (unaccelerated)
   2D support on all editions of Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring.

   Please note that Mandriva's graphics card detection system considers
   all cards which use the same set of drivers and driver options as a
   single group, and your card will be detected as a member of one of
   these large groups: the graphics configuration tool will not display
   the exact name of your card, but a wider and more generic group name.
   This does not indicate that sub-optimal support is being provided for
   your card, but simply that your card uses the same driver and options
   as all the other cards in that group. An effort has been made to make
   these group names as accurate as possible, but due to ATI's usage of
   different numbering schemes for its three different product lines -
   desktop, mobile, and integrated chips - it is not always possible to
   make the category name exactly fit all the hardware that belongs in it.
   If you have a mobile or integrated ATI chipset it is possible that it
   may appear to be detected in the 'wrong' group (for instance, the
   integrated Radeon 1100 and Radeon 1200 chipsets are detected in the
   Radeon 9500 to Radeon X1050 group). The group detected is usually in
   fact correct for your hardware, and if your hardware appears to be
   working correctly, you should not attempt to change the group.

 HDA-based sound devices

   Many recently built systems include integrated sound based on the HDA
   codec, supported in Linux by the snd-intel-hda driver, a part of the
   ALSA project. Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring includes the latest available
   version of ALSA along with several dozen patches to provide or improve
   support for specific implementations of the HDA codec. We hope this
   will make the 2008 Spring release compatible with the widest possible
   range of these integrated sound chipsets.

 Wireless networking hardware

   Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring includes the latest version of a wide range
   of wireless drivers, to provide native support for as many devices as
   possible. In addition, a bug from the last few releases which prevented
   the Mandriva graphical network configuration tool from properly
   configuring the ndiswrapper driver has been corrected. If your wireless
   device does not work with the native drivers available in Mandriva
   Linux 2008 Spring and you must use ndiswrapper for it to work, you can
   now configure this entirely through the Mandriva graphical network
   configuration tools.

 Nouveau open source driver for NVIDIA cards

   Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring includes the experimental nouveau open
   source driver for NVIDIA cards. This driver provides advances in
   functionality and hardware support over the nv open source driver, but
   is not yet considered stable and does not provide 3D acceleration. If
   you wish to experiment with this driver, please follow these
   instructions.
     * Configure the official Mandriva software repositories: see here for
       instructions.
     * Install the kernel-devel package appropriate to the kernel you are
       running. The Mandriva kernel is available in various 'flavors':
       desktop, desktop586, laptop and server. You can find out which one
       you are running with the uname -r command. You should install the
       package kernel-flavor-devel-latest, where flavor is the kernel
       flavor you are using.
     * Install the x11-driver-video-nouveau and dkms-drm-experimental
       packages.
     * Edit the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change the Driver line in the
       Device section to read:

   Driver "nouveau"

     * Optionally, add this line to the same section to enable
       experimental RandR 1.2 support:

   Option "Randr12" "true"

     * Run this commands as root:

update-alternatives --set gl_conf /etc/ld.so.conf.d/GL/standard.conf
ldconfig

     * Restart your system, or just X (log out of your desktop and then,
       at the login screen, hit ctrl-alt-backspace).

 Multimedia keyboard support

   Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring should support basic multimedia keyboard
   functions without any configuration. If you have a multimedia keyboard
   but the extended keys do not appear to do anything, please follow this
   procedure to discover where the problem lies and file a bug report so
   it can be fixed.

   Use the Mandriva keyboard configuration tool (available in the Mandriva
   Control Center, or directly as drakkeyboard and set the layout to
   "105-key (Intl) PC" (in the Generic category), and see if the keys work
   now. If they do, you do not need to do anything further.

   If not, open a console, and run the command xev. A window will open up.
   Whenever you move the mouse, click a mouse button, or press a key while
   this window has focus, lots of information will be printed on the
   console. Press some 'normal' keys first, to get a feel for the output.
   You will see that, along with lots of other information, a keycode and
   keysym will be printed for each key you press. The keysym includes both
   a code (e.g. 0x77) and the actual key - so if you press the 'h' key,
   the keysym will be shown as:
(keysym 0x68, h)

   Now try pressing the multimedia keys on your keyboard, and see what
   keysym they return. If the keysym is incorrect - the second part does
   not seem like a proper description of what the key should do - this is
   the problem. File a bug at Bugzilla, setting the RPM package as
   xkeyboard-config. Include the model name of your keyboard (or laptop,
   if you are using a laptop), and for each incorrect key, include the
   keycode, the keysym, and what the key ought to do.

 Easy synchronization support

   Mandriva Linux 2008.1 introduces easy support for synchronizing many
   mobile devices with the KDE and GNOME desktops, particularly Windows
   Mobile 5, 6 and 6.1 PDAs and smartphones, Blackberry smartphones, and
   many Nokia phones. Changes to implement this support include the
   introduction of several new packages, including the KitchenSync
   synchronization application, bug fixes, and the addition of
   metapackages (task packages) for each class of device. For full
   documentation on this new feature, see this page.

 Changes regarding installation

 UUID-based partition mounting

   The Mandriva installers now default to configuring mount points based
   on the UUID of a partition, rather than its device node (hda1, sdc3
   etc). As a device's or partition's UUID should never change, this will
   avoid problems seen in the past when device nodes could change if
   another disk was added to or removed from the system or if a change in
   the kernel led to the naming scheme for device nodes provided by a
   particular piece of hardware being changed. If you prefer the older
   system, you can disable the use of UUID mounts by the installer by
   using the
use_uuid=0

   kernel parameter at the installer's boot menu. For unattended installs,
   add this line:
uuid_by_default => 0,

   to auto_install.cfg.pl.

 Changes regarding software packages

 KDE integration of time-based background image

   A new feature has been developped for KDE where the background changes
   gradually depending on the time of day. To activate this feature, you
   need an XML file describing which background image has to be displayed
   at which time of the day. The format is the same than for the
   corresponding Gnome feature. This feature is enabled by default in
   Mandriva Linux 2008.1 and it uses the new 2008 Spring theme.

 PulseAudio sound server used by default

   The release comes with the PulseAudio sound server installed and
   enabled by default in all new installations and upgrades performed via
   the official installer. PulseAudio's benefits include much improved
   handling of multiple sound cards, the ability to control the audio
   outputs of different applications separately, and advanced network
   capabilities. We have worked hard to ensure that the widest possible
   range of applications works correctly with PulseAudio. However, it is
   possible that some users may wish to disable it. Some of the known
   drawbacks of using PulseAudio are:
     * PulseAudio uses a higher quality but more CPU-intensive resampling
       algorithm than ALSA. If your sound hardware is incapable of playing
       certain sampling rates natively, PulseAudio will resample the audio
       before sending it to the card. Resampling is also necessary when
       you are playing two audio streams with different sampling rates at
       once (for instance, playing a CD - 44.1KHz - and a DVD - usually
       48KHz). When resampling is needed, PulseAudio will use around two
       to three times as much CPU power as ALSA would in the same
       situation. On most reasonably modern systems this will not be
       noticeable, but on older systems in can represent a significant
       percentage of available CPU power.
     * PulseAudio is not really compatible with the JACK server used for
       professional audio applications. If you need to use JACK, you
       should disable PulseAudio first.
     * There may still be some applications that do not work correctly
       with PulseAudio, despite out efforts to minimize the likelihood of
       this.

   The final release of Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring will make it easy to
   disable PulseAudio via Mandriva's sound hardware configuration tool,
   draksound. This is not available in the current Mandriva Linux 2008
   Spring pre-release. To disable PulseAudio in the current pre-release,
   remove the following packages from your system:
     * libalsa-plugins-pulseaudio
     * pulseaudio-module-x11

 Testing KDE 4

   To test the current state of KDE 4 in Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring, first
   set up the official Mandriva package repositories following these
   instructions. Then install the task-kde4 or task-kde4-minimal package.
   The next time you go to the graphical login screen, KDE 4 will be
   available as one of the choices of desktop to enter.

 AppArmor

   AppArmor is no longer a kernel module: instead, it is built in to the
   kernel. To enable it, you can pass the apparmor=1 parameter to the
   kernel command line. Kernel parameters can be added with the drakboot
   utility, Mandriva's boot configuration tool, available from the
   Mandriva Control Center; by editing the bootloader configuration file -
   /boot/grub/menu.lst for GRUB or /etc/lilo.conf for LILO - manually; or
   by entering the kernel parameter after selecting the desired kernel on
   the boot menu screen.

 Codeina multimedia codec installation system

   Codeina framework has been introduced to provide and install codecs for
   playing multimedia files in formats for which a codec is not already
   available on the system. This will make it much easier to play back a
   range of formats in Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring.

 Changes regarding Mandriva tools

 Enhancements to Mandriva software management tools

   Improvements have been made to the interface of the RPMdrake graphical
   software management tool. The search interface has been reorganized to
   provide more capabilities while being easier to understand and use.
   Packages can once more be sorted by size, and the flat list view has
   been re-introduced. The tool is now more friendly to low-resolution
   devices (such as the Eee): the package pane can be resized, and the
   large grey banner at the top of the tool is not displayed at lower
   resolutions.

 New package information system for RPMdrake and urpmi

   A completely new package meta-information system has been introduced.
   This is the system by which urpmi and RPMdrake can provide, and perform
   queries based on, extended information about packages: their
   descriptions, file lists, changelogs and more.

   In previous Mandriva Linux releases, two hdlist files were provided for
   each repository. One - the synthesis hdlist file - provided only the
   minimum information needed about each package for urpmi and RPMdrake to
   be able to list and install packages correctly. It did not contain
   package descriptions, file lists or changelogs. The other - the full
   hdlist file - provided all this information in a single file, which was
   very large for the larger official repositories.

   When initially adding a repository, it was possible to use either the
   synthesis or full hdlist file. Using the synthesis file would provide
   only minimal information on packages, but it was fast. Using the full
   hdlist file would provide all information about packages, but it was
   slow. Additionally, adding repositories via the Mandriva graphical
   tools automatically used the synthesis hdlist file, resulting in only
   minimal information being available on the packages in these
   repositories. The system also made it quite difficult to switch between
   the two options.

   The new system in Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring remedies all these
   defects. The full hdlist files have been removed from the official
   repositories, and only the synthesis hdlist files remain. The synthesis
   hdlist file will always be used when initially adding a repository,
   making the operation fast. The extended information for each repository
   has been split up into several separate files in the XML format. urpmi
   and RPMdrake are able to automatically retrieve these files on demand:
   when you attempt to display, or query, the changelog for a package, the
   extended information file containing changelogs for the repository in
   which that package resides will be automatically downloaded, if it is
   not already available. These extended information files are stored,
   once downloaded, on the local system, and will only be re-downloaded if
   they change.

   It is possible to change the downloading behavior for these information
   files in Mandriva's graphical repository configuration tool. You can
   change it so that the extended information files are never downloaded,
   or are only downloaded when you choose to update the package lists.
   This will be useful if you have a very slow connection or a connection
   where you are charged per unit of data transferred (for example, a
   mobile phone data connection).

 Mandriva Online

   Mandriva Online, the applet which notifies you of available updates,
   will now show no icon if the system is up-to-date. This saves space in
   the tray. An icon will be displayed if updates are available or the
   applet is checking for updates, or requires user input of any kind. The
   applet also now waits several minutes after you log in to begin the
   first check for updates so that the system is not stressed with
   additional processes when the session starts. It also uses the new
   libnotify infrastructure to draw its notifications, making them more
   attractive and in line with notifications from other applications.

 New LAMP metapackage

   A metapackage (task package) has been added to this release to allow
   easy installation of a complete set of LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP
   / Perl / Python) packages, making it simpler than ever to set up a
   typical web server on a Mandriva Linux system. This package and all its
   dependencies are present on the Free edition of this pre-release.

 Windows Vista support in migration wizard

   The transfugdrake tool and its migration-assistant backend now support
   migration of Windows Vista documents and settings.