Netrunner anyone?

[MidnightCowboy]

I'm sticking this in here initially as much for the video review on their Facebook page as anything else

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Netrunner/204871479549544

Coming from where I do, I have no problem understanding the accent but I guess a few others here will find it fun Maybe we should get this guy to produce some stuff for us here?

This looks to be a really good concept though which they describe as....

"Its core is Ubuntu with an optimized KDE front-end".

http://www.netrunner-os.com/

I'm sufficiently intrigued to download the ISO so I'll have a look at this later and share what I find.

I agree with the reviewer that this will appeal to a lot of former KDE fans who never really got over the transition from 3.5. The extra default codecs and drivers are also a nice touch, but will it recognize MC's two network connections?

[MidnightCowboy]

Well, not much joy with this one unfortunately. Network manager is a real mess, on my system at any rate. Still the same old problem of connecting to auto eth0 and then not showing this connection anywhere so I can disable it and set one for DSL which is what I need. Trying to do so superimposes the text in the network manager leaving a nice blur, and this is after Plasma has recovered from a crash.

Strike one off the list!

[starbuck]

Hello MC,

Thanks for trying out Netrunner.
Since we like to help everyone to get this up and running on their system, would you like to give us some more information, what exactly prevented you from using your network connections as expected?
Maybe we can help you fix this and also use this for future versions.
Best greetings, Starbuck.

[MidnightCowboy]

Thanks for responding which is always appreciated.

I have to say this situation is common to several distros I've tried recently but all of the suggested fixes are beyond the abilities of many average Linux users, including me.

I have the most common Intel wireless card and 3G modem being used in Brazil.
When I fire up the live CD it connects automatically to eth0 but nothing is shown in the network settings. All I end up with is a perpetual "setting network address" message. Entering the data to create the DSL connection I need makes no difference.

Distros using the older version of KDE network manager like Mandriva, Mageia and PCLinuxOS do not have this problem. Pardus does for a while and then throws a wobbly. They above all were conscious of this problem and ported at least part of the Gnome network manager (as I believe it) so I'm guessing that when their revision 1 is released on 1st July it might now be fully stable.

Netrunner also does not recognize my 3G modem which again is common to other distros although many more now do including Bodhi, Ubuntu, Mint, Zorin, Fedora (KDE) and Pardus.

IMO if Linux is ever going to make further inroads into the Windows user base it needs to connect to the internet when folks switch it on without them having to resort to extra packages and terminal use. Every Gnome distro I've tried enables my DSL connection to be configured without issue, so why is this so hard for KDE?
I appreciate that 3G modem drivers are a different issue, but this is Sony, not some backstreet Korean piece of kit no one has ever heard of

IMO things like codecs, flash, sound problems and other stuff are often reported as issues across various distros, and although annoying they are fixable, but only if folks are able to get online to do it.

[starbuck]

Hello MC,

I agree that connecting the user to the net is the highest priority, as everything else could eventually be fixed then.
So you mentioned Fedora being able to get you online, so do you use an old version or what is the difference in their solution then?

Also, we think of providing gnome nm-applet for the time kdenetworkmanager is still not 100% working instead, so I think that should help you get online right after default installation, look for it with 3.2 release (hopefully) this month

Maybe you try it out manually if you have a possibility to install it under netrunner 3.1 and report if its a solid and stable solution and we can use your feedback to get us on the right track.
Thanks, starbuck.

[MidnightCowboy]

Fedora 15 still exhibits the eth0 is connected but where is it? syndrome, thus preventing me from setting up my cable connection, but it does recognize my 3G modem.

Unfortunately I don't have the capacity to make a full install to test out Netrunner but I will look at it again after the next release.

Thanks again for taking the trouble to post here

[MidnightCowboy]

It's always nice to see folks react to feedback and Netrunner Linux appears to have done just that.

3.2 has just been released and instead of no connection I now get two because it recognizes both my DSL and broadband G3 modem straight off. This is because the KNetwork Manager has been replaced with Gnome - good move

I threw everything at the live CD for an hour including loading extra themes and icon sets. Everything works perfectly except I could not attain synced sound/video from my movies folder with either VLC or the other installed player. Possibly this is a codec issue, might be different with a full install, or fixed with a system update?

The only other issue which is so minor but nevertheless to me very annoying is their launch button logo. This is one of the few distros I've seen that actually does KDE well, in fact really well, then they go and spoil it all with a totally bland and poorly crafted launch icon. Something this good should stand out much more than this and deserves better treatment.

[wdhpr]

Originally Posted by MC

It's always nice to see folks react to feedback and Netrunner Linux appears to have done just that.

Real good to see
I think this kind of support is key to the development of a better distro.

[Jojoyee]

Originally Posted by MidnightCowboy

...Everything works perfectly except I could not attain synced sound/video from my movies folder with either VLC or the other installed player.

Happened to me too when using Mint or Ubuntu unless the movies folder is located inside the same system partition.

If the folder is outside the system partition, making the partition containing the folder auto mounted upon system start up should help if I didn't misunderstand your case.

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Jojoyee

Happened to me too when using Mint or Ubuntu unless the movies folder is located inside the same system partition.

If the folder is outside the system partition, making the partition containing the folder auto mounted upon system start up should help if I didn't misunderstand your case.

Thanks Jojo. My movies are installed on an external drive and I've never had this problem with Mint, Ubuntu or anything else. I must admit I didn't try saving one to a system folder during the live session and then trying it from there.

If the site is quiet this weekend I might get a chance to look into this more closely.