Calculate Installation Fail, Almost
Last night I was a bit excited to install and give Calculate Linux a real test drive, tonight less so. The install went okay until GRUB failed and I almost threw up my hand declaring the experiment a failure. But I didn't and I'm glad I didn't.
This evening I decided to install Calculate Linux, so I threw in the LiveDVD and rebooted. The installer was interesting, easy to use, but I wonder why it asked which I/O scheduler I wished to use. Okay, I get asking the filesystem choice, but the last I even thought about I/O schedulers I was building a kernel - and I don't recall when exactly that was but I think it started with a 2.4. I tried to select default (one of the choices that sounded safe) but it kept going back to BFQ. The remaining steps proceeded fine until time to install GRUB. That failed with the error couldn't find update-grub.new. Hmm. So, next reboot I get dropped to a grub terminal. Yippie.
Well, after fixing GRUB I think I'm on my way. But no, silly me picked NVIDIA proprietary drivers since they were offered during install. So, boot back to Mint, edit its xorg.conf file for "nouveau" and I think I'm on my way. Actually I was, it booted on into KDE 4.14.8 and auto-configured my non-matching dual monitors fairly close. After rearranging things a bit I found that most of my favorite applications were already installed - except Konqueror. I had to search for Gentoo documentation to remind me how to sync up Portage and eix, but I was able to get Konqueror installed. It took about a minute to compile.
Calculate Linux with KDE 4.14.8
All in all, I'm quite disappointed in the GRUB failure. That could be the end for many prospective users - as would that boot failure because of missing or failing drivers. I thought of giving up myself at each instance. However, the installed system looks great and seems quite fast. I've not moved in permanently yet, but I like it so far, a lot.
Some other interesting posts around the web this evening:
* Secret Maryo Chronicles: a wonderful GNU/Linux game
* Xen Security Advisory: Heap overflow in QEMU PCNET controller