I upgraded to Mandrake 7.2 from Mandrake 6.1 on my Linux box. The upgrade took 6 hours (seriously). I began installing it at 11pm, and didn't finish tinkering with it until 6am. I then spent another hour getting rid of things that the installation had done that I didn't like. I hated aurora and grub, it supermounted my drive, and made my computer ludicrusly slow by putting everything in runlevel 5. Aside from all that, WindowMaker wouldn't work with it, and I had to use KDE 2, which I loathe. I eventually switched to fvwm for a little bit, formatted it and reinstalled Mandrake 6.1. Everything about it was horrible. I had to go back and remove aurora and grub, then edit fstab to use the configuration I had with Mandrake 6.1. I also had to change my runlevel back to 3 before it would even run at a tolerable speed. I then replaced the basesystem with the basesystem from my 6.1 cd, and deleted grub. (basesystem 7.2 had grub as a depend) The next day, I reformatted my computer and reinstalled 6.1. I had 7.2 up for 2 or 3 days at most. And to top it all off, they even made Tux look ugly.

i've never scene a linux distro make such a drastic change from just one version. i have mandrake 7.1 on a compaq armada laptop that works better that it ever did with winblows. i install mandrake 7.2 and nothing works right, picks up the wrong video will not pickup the sound (which has never been a problem till 7.2) it did actually pickup my xircom nic but that was it. what the hell is cups, why do you change from something that works. what the hell happened to themes. if i didn't know better i would swear that bill gates is working with mandrake. 7.1 is the best thing that mandrake ever put out, i do not recomend 7.2 to any newbies at all.

I installed in with in 30 minutes with a p2 350. It installed my geforce fine, but when i am in x after about 5 minutes the screen gets all screwed up/ Can't even see the dektop, bunch of lines and colors and noise. Anyone else seen this?

I have been reading through several posts here on Mandrake 7.2 and it's seemingly "Microsoft" approach at a newer, better system. Now please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the point of an update or new release to keep what works and fix what doesn't? I have Mandrake 7.0 and have never had a moment of trouble with it outside of my own inexperience in Linux and a parallel scanner that is not compatible but these are not Mandrake issues. I realize that 7.0 had some small difficulties like IDE CD-RW's (which are infact IDE but emulate SCSI) not being set up correctly. That could have been addressed in this or last release but leave the themes and don't mess with installer cause those were awsome! Any way after reading these posts I am positive I will not upgrade yet because all works on mine now and may not in new release???

P.S.
As to the CD Burner, Mandrake enabled SCSI emulation and set it up fine during install, but made a mistake on all links to it. It worked fine when I changed all the links to it from "hdc" (IDE device) to "scd0" (SCSI device) infact "cdrecord -scanbus" told me what SCSI device it was working under!

Tekjunky

I feel special, the last time I installed Mandrake, I think it was 7.0, it only took me about 20 minutes for a full install. I might try 7.1 or 7.2 just to see what everyone is talking about. So far though Mandrake is the easiest I have seen. The machine I was running it on was only a 500mhz Celeron, 256 MB Ram....blah blah blah....and so on.

I installed 7.1 successfully only after I gave up trying to load the second CD. I like the way it configured my video setup with no problems automatically. I've tried two other distros: An early version of RedHat, and Definite 7.0. I had headaches with install and setup with both. Mandrake 7.1 was the most pleasant, and gave me a beautiful display with no worries right out of the gate. I like the KDE desktop, which is the default, but I plan to use Gnome too, maybe instead, if I like it better. Mandrake comes with both.

I can't get my USB modem or onboard sound recognized, or else I'd dispense with Windows completely. My goal is to be WINTEL FREE by 2002. My computer is a homebuilt with No Intel Inside. We have a 4 PC home LAN and not one Intel system in the place. I'm an AMD fan.

I'm an absolute newbie, and I've found the 7.2 distro a joy to behold. KDE is much nicer looking -- and much more pliable and stable -- than Windows, and the included apps and configuration wizards are perfect for beginners. Konquerer is a great, fast little browser, too.

Other newbies, do yourself a favor and read the installation instructions and options online before you go ahead; it'll make life a lot easier. I installed the full package (1.2GB) in about 20 minutes, and, aside from some serious sweat to get my PCI modem working, everything else on my PIII system was recognized and configured with ease.

I also installed an ISO image of Caldera's OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4 for comparison's sake, and Mandrake blew it away, IMHO.

One more thing: Get your hands on a copy of Partition Magic beforehand. It makes setting up your Linux (Ext2) and swap partitions a snap, and may prevent the uninformed (like myself) from mistakenly hosing your Windows partition during the Mandrake install.

I'm finally freed from Bill Gates' shackles!

I have been useing Mandrake ever since 7.0. Being a newbie this distro really helped move the learning curve along. It took me about a half hour installing all the software available on the discs (I got's a P 700mhz). I don't advise doing this though as it can cause conflicts, choose the packages wisely and then upgrade the hell out of it!!! Kernal 2.4 kicks all forms of ass.

Sisu

I just installed 7.2 as a dual-boot with NT, after I figured out the MBR LILO conflict (am booting from a floppy), I had it installed in 20 minutes. I tried booting Linux from the MBR, it worked fine - until I had to do a repair on the NT installation. The only problems I have had so far is that my printer seems to be not supported (Epson EPL-7000), and my second processor is not recognized.
I am running dual PIII 800's with 256 MB RAM and ATA100, it really flies!!
Am thinking about installing VM Ware after I learn more about Linux (I have a few windoze programs I have to use), and doing away with the NT partition/installation to eliminate the dual-boot hassle.

Where can I get 7.1? I installed 7.2 and I am having a couple problems. I am getting an error in KDE and
I cannot change themes.

Gracias

Well, I got 7.2 installed in a dual boot config with Win98 in just under an hour without a hitch, except that it's not seeing my NetGear FA311 NIC and I haven't yet checked to see if there's an appropriate driver (one that will work!) on the NetGear driver disk; if not, it seems to me that it'd be easier to buy an old NetGear FA310 than to compile and install the NetGeat patch that they have on the website...but, I could be wrong.

I love the ease of installation and the overall spped and accessibility...I've run Red Hat for about a year.

BTW, I just received an update CD (a week after I registered on the Mandrake site) that apparently has Mandrake Live Update on it along with Chinese Internationalization (I can pass on that, thank you) and KDE2.01 (I think)...IMHO the Live Update alone is worth the admission price for Mandrake...if it works as well as everything else in the distro.

I performed a clean install of Mandrake Linux 7.2 Complete. The recommended install was listed as 500mb, but I took the larger 800mb. The install took about 30 minutes. My Ext.2 Linux partition is 2048mb, and the Linux Swap is 271mb. Linux 7.2 performs admirably, but I have noticed that apps do take between 4-6 seconds to load up. In my Windows Me the apps load up in about 3 seconds. (I have a dual boot) Sometimes I hear my hard disk thrashing away when I am hardly doing anything in Linux. Should I increase the Linux Swap partition? I read that KDE 2.1 will be arriving on 2/26/01. The KDE 2.0 Final I have now is a little buggy. Maybe KDE 2.1 will speed things up? I used to use Mandrake Linux 7.1 and really liked it. But, 7.1 did not use CUPS for printing like 7.2 does. I realy like CUPS for printing. A breeze to configure my HP DeskJet 682C printer!
Andy

[Edited by Everest63 on 02-22-2001 at 10:06 AM]

I have not yet tried to install Mandrake, although I have been toying with the idea. But listening to everyone's comments about, I'm beginning to think that maybe it's not worth even trying. What do y'all think?

Wow, it must be very popular subject!

I don't think that Mandrake 7.2 is the finished article just yet, but for newbies it is a great starter into the Linux life. I have noticed a few niggling worries, especially with things which don't wouldn't involve a newbie's tasks, but they are there.

I am not going to change my distro until I get a new disk because I am happy with what Mandrake offers (although I may upgrade!)

Try it, you either like it, or don't! (Or maybe inbetween)

I use Mandrake 7.1 and 7.2, and never had a problem. But I dont know how evryones elses machines compare to mine. The install was about 40 minutes, and that was installing all the apps available on the PowerPack edition.

However, I can sya that for reasons unknown, when I tries a reinstall of the system, it was not able to read the 3rd and 4th disk without crashing. It worked fine before, but I think it may have something to do with the BIOS update I have done. It kinda bugs, since I cant run voice operations right now. Any thoughts?