| Sabayon Linux 3.4f - Work Of A WiFi Genius. |
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| Written by Administrator | |||||
| Wednesday, 03 October 2007 | |||||
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Live CD and Live DVD of Sabayon Linux 3.4-x86_64
Well, another version of Sabayon Linux which is based on the unstable branch of Gentoo Linux is up for grabs. For this review, I succeeded in getting a quick download of the SabayonLinux-x86_64-3.4f.iso (Live DVD) and the very recent but long-awaited SabayonLinux-x86_64-3.4.miniEdition.iso (Live CD) from one of the download mirrors. For your information, the size of the iso image of the Live DVD version has grown from just slightly over 3Gb in version 3.0 to more than 4Gb in this new version. Each of the Live DVD and Live CD have a base of Kernel 2.6.22, KDE 3.5.7, X.Org 7.2, gcc 4.1.2, and Fluxbox 1.0_r3 under their hoods. The Live DVD also has the GNOME 2.18.0 desktop.
Sabayon Linux is a gaming-centric Linux distro emphasizing on artistic elements. Even the look of the Sabayon Linux website will tell you that. Before I begin my review of SabayonLinux-x86_6-3.4f and also SabayonLinux-x86_64-3.4.miniEdition, I would like to inform you that Sabayon Linux as of this version, still lacks a new-user-friendly package management system. I hope that Sabayon Linux users who are passionate about Sabayon Linux but lack the time to learn the beautiful source-based portage package management will benefit from the arrival of the binary-based Equo/Entropy package management system which is still in the early stages of development. Otherwise Sabayon Linux 3.4 will charm you with its high quality open source games, dramatic arts, and superior WiFi support.
The Same Test Machine That Was Used For Version 3.3
I used the same Compaq Presario V3222AU notebook which I used to test the SabayonLinux 3.3 x86_64 and the corresponding miniEdition a few months ago.
Boot Options Of The Live DVD
-Start Sabayon Linux 3.4f. -Start Without Music. -Anonymous Internet Browsing. -Start Graphical Installation. -Start Text Installation. -XsistenCe (Persistent Home). -Play With Sauerbraten. -Play With Savage.
Boot option of the Live DVD (SabayonLinux-x86_64-3.4f).
Boot Options Of The Live CD.
-Start Sabayon Linux 3.4 miniEd. -Start Graphical Installation. -Start Text Installation. -Start in safe mode. -Start in Console mode. -Debug mode. -Memory test. -Boot from first hard disk.
Boot options of the Live CD (SabayonLinux-x86_64-3.4.miniEdition).
The boot options remain very similar to the options available on the Live DVD of the previous 3.3 version of Sabayon Linux -x86_64-3.3. There is a new option called XsistenCe (Persistent Home) on the new Live DVD replacing the "Start In Safe Mode" option. The "Play With Coldwar(demo)" option has been replaced by "Play With Savage" option in the new Live DVD.
The boot options on the new Live CD are very similar to the previous 3.3b.miniEdition. However, there is no more "Anonymous Internet Browsing" option on the new Live CD. The new option on the Live CD is "Boot from first hard disk".
Booting time of the Live DVD and Live CD
A new and more dramatic "red wine-ish"-themed boot splash is implemented on both the Live DVD and Live CD of Sabayon Linux 3.4. Just press Alt+F1 to get the verbose mode. You'll hear nice background music(different from version 3.3) while booting up my notebook. This time, the gaming-themed music is much more crisp and very dramatic. The theme music has a softer volume as compared to the loud-volume theme music in Sabayon Linux version 3.3. Like the previous version of the Live CD, the new Live CD also has no accompanying music during bootup. More dramatic boot splash for the new Live CD and Live DVD.
According to the Sabayon Linux developer, lxnay, the Live boot time should be faster on the Live DVD and Live CD of Sabayon Linux 3.4. Yes, it's true. I found out that the Live DVD has a faster boot up time than the Live DVD of the previous 3.3 version. The Live CD is also faster than the Live CD of the previous 3.3b miniEdition.
The new Live DVD took 2 minutes 15 seconds to reach the Accelerator manager from the boot option screen. Then another 1 minute 55 seconds to reach a fully loaded KDE. The Live DVD of the 3.3 version took 4 minutes 10 seconds and 1 minute 35 seconds respectively.
The new Live CD took 2 minutes 6 seconds to reach the Accelerator manager and another 1 minute 30 seconds to reach a fully loaded KDE desktop environment. However, the Live CD of the previous 3.3b miniEdition took 3 minutes 28 seconds and 59 seconds respectively.
Took a few seconds to autologin. Less hassle! In the previous version you need to press Enter.
KDE splash.
The KDE Desktop On The Live DVD And Live CD
I will only look at the KDE desktop environment as this is primarily a KDE-based Linux distribution. Icons appearing on the KDE desktop of the Live DVD were TORCS, Warsow, Savage:Battle For Newerth, Battle For Wesnoth, Danger From The Deep, Second Life, Sauerbraten, FlightGear, Update Installer, GParted, Virtual Machine Manager, Nexuiz, Donate Funds To The Project, Picasa, Google Earth, Get Live Help and Install On Disk.
KDE desktop on the Live DVD.
KDE desktop on the Live CD.
All the games were playable! There were only 3 icons for games in version 3.3, namely Battle For Wesnoth, Sauerbraten and Cold War Demo. I thoroughly enjoyed the increased number of premium open source games on the new Live DVD despite my preference for martial arts games.
The KDE desktop from the Live DVD is beautiful and artistic and it has all of the 17 icons arranged properly. There is no problem with the arrangement of the 6 icons on the Live CD either. In Sabayon Linux 3.3 there were only 10 icons on the KDE desktop. Like version 3.3, there were also 3 virtual desktops and similar applets on the desktop panels. The icon theme used for the Live DVD is Nuvola and the Live CD,the Crystal SVG icon theme. The fonts used on the Live DVD and Live CD are that of the DejaVu Sans type.
GNOME desktop on the Live DVD.
Multimedia, Browser Plugins, And Ntfs-3g
Sabayon Linux 3.4 comes with the out-of-the-box ability to play among others, MP3,original DVD, MPEG, DIVX files, etc. I had problems playing Quicktime video and Real media with SMplayer(Qt front-end of Mplayer) in the Live CD. There is no RealPlayer on the Live CD.
However, I didn't face any problems playing these video formats on the Live DVD, as I could choose RealPlayer 10 and other media players like VLC, Totem, or Kaffeine.
The Java plugin on Konqueror worked well but I had difficulty running the Logmein Java applet using Firefox (no problems on the 32 bit though). I had to downgrade the latest Flash-plugin (version 9.0.60_beta082207) on the Live CD because of problems that occured when visiting certain sites. However, there were no issues when I used the Macromedia Flash-plugin (version 9.0.31.0) on the Live DVD.
With ntfs-3g, the ntfs partition on my notebook could be mounted and opened in read/write mode by just clicking the System Menu applet on the desktop panel->Storage Media when running the Live DVD or Live CD. Of course, you can also access the ntfs partition through the Kickoff menu->Computer tab.
Screen and Graphic card
Download the latest Nvidia driver.
Then delete the # sign and you shall get 3D eye candy.
I had to restart the x server and choose "No Acceleration" from the Acceleration manager. Then I installed the latest Nvidia driver version 100.14.19-r10 via the emerge utility. The Nvidia driver bundled with the Live DVD was 100.14.11-r11 and the one on the Live CD was of 100.14.19-r10 version. The Live CD and the Live DVD share the same ATI driver version 8.40.4-r11. The 915 resolution version 0.5.3 was also bundled with the Live CD and Live DVD.
Installation on Compaq Presario V3222AU
The new Live DVD needed 52 minutes to install Sabayon Linux -x86_64-3.4f while it only took 39 minutes to install the previous version of Live DVD of Sabayon LInux-x86_64-3.3. I attributed this to the bigger size of packages to be installed, especially the increased number of premium open source games. The new Live CD took (Sabayon Linux -x86_64-3.4.miniEdition) 13 minutes 40 seconds to complete the installation while the previous version of the Live CD took 14 minutes 27 seconds. Tiny difference!
Anaconda lets you select the desktop environment of your choice.
New ability of Anaconda on the Live DVD:- you can select the categories of packages that you wish to install or omit.
During installation to the hard disk, I chose ext4 for the filesystem of my root partition. In order to have ext4, I needed to created a 100MB /boot partition with either ext2 or ext3 filesystem. Anaconda allowed me to install either KDE, GNOME, Fluxbox, or Core environment as the default Desktop environment while the miniEdition only allowed KDE, Fluxbox and Core environment. In the previous edition of Sabayon Linux, there was no choice of Core environment.
If you need to select what to install and what not, the new Sabayon Linux 3.4 Live DVD will allow you to do just that. You cannot do that with the Live CD. Categories of packages that you can omit or install are:- GNOME Desktop, KDE Desktop, Advanced 3D Games, Basic Free Games, Multimedia Applications, Office Applications, and Internet Applications.
To give you more control of the system that will be installed, the Live CD and Live DVD allows you to either enable or disable services like Samba, CUPS, NFS, and SSH. If you wish to make your desktop very secure, just disable all of the above services. Making sure that there are no open ports on Sabayon Linux desktop is a very good new step by the developers.
Grub had no problem detecting Windows Vista and booting it. Postinstallation, all those icons were still available on the KDE desktop except for the Install On Disk and Update Installer icons. Even my documents which were created while I was on the Live DVD and Live CD mode were still on the KDE desktop when I first logged into the newly installed Sabayon Linux.
Short Boot up time (after installation)
It took the new Live DVD version of Sabayon Linux -x86_64-3.4f 56 seconds to boot up from the hard disk of my Compaq Presario notebook while it was 64 seconds for previous 3.3 version of the Live DVD. The boot up time was just 51 seconds for the new Live CD version and it took a much longer time, 88 seconds, for the previous Live CD version.
Excellent network adapter support
Sabayon Linux 3.3's Live CD and Live DVD supported my ipw3945 wlan chipset with WPA-PSK capability out-of-the-box but could only support my Dell 1390 wlan adapter with Broadcom's bcm4311 chipset and the Ralink RT2500 wlan pci up to WEP encryption protocol. In fact, the 64 bit Live CD and Live DVD of the previous version of Sabayon Linux 3.3 didn't get almost all of my test wlan adapters working out-of-the-box.
Bcm4312 wlan chipset handled gracefully.
However in Sabayon Linux -x86_64-3.4f (the Live DVD) and Sabayon Linux-x86_64-3.4.miniEdition (the Live CD), it was a whole different wifi scenario. Below are the wlan adapters supported by the new Live DVD and Live CD out-of-the-box even when WPA-PSK was needed. There were no problem with WEP encryption protocol either:-
-ipw3945 miniPCI wlan adapter on my Dell Inspiron 640m notebook. -bcm4311 miniPCI wlan adapter on my Compaq V3222AU notebook. -bcm4312 miniPCI wlan adapter on my Dell Inspiron 640m notebook. -Belkin Wireless G USB Network Adapter with Zydas firmware. -D-Link USB wlan adapter model DWL-G122 with RaLink rt73 chipset. -RaLink RT2500 PCI wlan adapter was also supported. -Netgear WG511T pcmcia wlan adapter with Atheros chipset -D-Link PCMCIA wlan adapter with RaLink RT2561/RT61 chipset. -3COM OfficeConnect Wireless XJACK PC Card with Atheros chipset. -Prolink Wireless 802.11g USB2.0 wlan adapter with rt73 chipset.
For your information, these wlan adapters are also supported by the new 32 bit Live CD and Live DVD. However the support for the ipw2100 was logically omitted from the 64 bit version the Live CD and Live DVD. By the way, the ipw2100 wlan chipset is fully supported by the new 32 bit Live CD and Live DVD. (Note:- The supreme wifi support was not available on the earlier revision of Sabayon Linux 3.4).
For your information, ndiswrapper 1.47 has also been bundled with Sabayon Linux-x86_64-3.4f Live DVD and Sabayon Linux -x86_64 3.4.miniEdition Live CD. If you need to extract files from the Microsoft .cab file, Cabextract has also been bundled with this new version Sabayon Linux.
Applications on Kickoff menu of the 64-bit Live DVD
DEVELOPMENT
GAMES -Five or More, Four-in-a-Row, Gnometris, Klotski, Tetravex, Tali, Same GNOME, Mines, Iagno, KGoldrunner, KBounce, KFoulEggs, Kolf, Nibbles, Robots, KSnakeRace, KSpaceDuel, KAsteroids, KSirtet, KSmileTris, KTron, Chess, Kenolaba, KBackgammon , KBlackBox, Mahjongg, KMahjongg, KReversi, Shisen-Sho, KWin4, Blackjack, Lieutenant Skat, Patience, KPoker, KBattleship, Klickety, SameGame. Konquest, KMines, Savage Battle For Newerth, Savage Editor, Savage Graveyard Mod, KSokoban, KAtomic, Battle For Wesnoth, KJumpingCube, Kolor Lines, Potato Guy, Kodo, AMOR, KTeaTime, and KWorldClock.
GRAPHICS -DjView, OpenOffice.org Draw, GIMP, Gwenview, showFoto, Inkscape, Panorama stitcher, digiKam, F-Spot, Picasa, Picasa Media Detector, X-Sane, Document Viewer, KDVI, KFaxView, KView, KolourPaint, KPDF. KPovModeler, KGhostView, Kooka, KSnapshot. KcolorChooser, KColourEdit, KFax, KIconEdit, and KRuler.
INTERNET -Google Earth, Azureus, Downloader for X, FileZilla, KFTPGrabber, Get Live Help, Pidgin, Konversation, KMLDonkey, Knetscan, LogJam, Firefox, KNetworkManager, NX Client for Linux, NX Connection Wizard, NX Session Administrator, Skype, OpenVPN, OpenOffice.org Writer/Web, Wireshark, aMule, KTorrent, KGet, Kopete, WPA_Supplicant Administration GUI, KPPP, KSirc, KMail, KNetAttach, Akregator, NmapFE, Terminal Server Client, -Konqueror. KPPPLogview, KNewsTicker, Dictionary, and KWifiManager.
MULTIMEDIA -SMPlayer, soundKonverter, Amarok, K3b, Sound Juicer CD EXtractor, CD Player, KsCD, KAudioCreator, Democracy TV, dvd::rip, Elisa Media Center, LaCie Light- Scribe Labeler 4L, LightScribe SimpleLabeler, Manencode, Kaffeine, Noatun, Real- Player 10, Totem Movie Player, JuK, Recording Level Monitor, KRec, Manslide, KMix, Sound Recorder, k9copy, MPlayer, TVtime Television Viewer, VLC media player, Volume Control, Volume Monitor, X-Sane, aRts Builder, Kaboodle, KMid and aRts Control Tool.
OFFICE -Kontact, KAddressBook, OpenOffice.org Base, Evolution, Invest Chart , OpenOffice.org. KOrganizer, OpenOffice.org Impress, OpenOffice.org Calc, and OpenOffice.org Writer.
SETTINGS -Login Photo, Printing, Services, Shared Folders, Time and Date, Users and Groups, Acceleration Manager, kbluetooth, CompizConfig Settings Manager, Compiz Settings Manager,Search & Indexing, Emerald Theme Manager, GTK Styles and Fonts, Java Control Panel 1.5, Java Control Panel for Sun JDK 1.6, Keyring Manager. Login Window, Network, PalmOS Devices, Printers, SCIM Input Method Setup, Screensaver, User Profile Editor, Volume Control, Configure the Panel, Desktop Settings Wizard, Menu Editor, Menu Updating Tool, and Wallet Management Tool.
SYSTEM -Archive Manage, Configuration Editor, Network Tools, New Login in a Nested Window, New Login, GParted, Root Terminal, System Log, System Monitor, Terminal, Keyring Manager, KlamAV, ATI Catalyst Control Center, Avahi SSH Server Browser, Avahi VNC Server Browser, Avahi Zeroconf Browser, kpower- save, Bluetooth File Sharing, Kbluelock, kbluemon, Kinputwizard, Compiz Fusion Icon, Disk Usage Analyzer, Innotek Virtualbox, LaCie LightScribe Labeler 4L, LightScribe SimpleLabeler, Login Window, Manage Printing, Network, NVIDIA X Server Settings, Portato(Gtk), User Profile Editor, Virtual Machine Manager, Wine-Doors, Yakuake, K3bSetup, Krfb, KInfoCenter, KSysGuard, KRandRTray, NmapFE, KCron, Konsole, KUser, File Manager-Super User Mode, KwikDisk, Terminal Program-Super User Mode, and KDiskFree.
UTILITIES Network Tools, Character Map, Calculator, Dictionary, Archive Manager, KMouse- tool, KMag, KMouth, KSayIt, kttsmgr, Klipper, KPager, SuperKaramba, KNotes, KCalc, KTip, Kate, KEdit, Kwrite, Gedit, Ark, KHexEdit, KPalmDOC, KdeprintFax, KFloppy, Kandy, KPilot, KJobViewer, KGpg, KDE Groupware Wizard, KJots, KArm, KAlarm, KSig, KitchenSync, KTnef, Avahi SSH Server Browser, Avahi VNC Server Browser, Avahi Zeroconf Browser, Search and Index, Kerry Beagle, File Size Viewer, HP Device Manager, Kiso, Tomboy Notes, Root Terminal, Search, skim, Take Screenshot, KCharSelect, KTimer, KFontView, and and KRegExpEditor.
In order to reduce the degree of applications redundancy that existed on the Live DVD of Sabayon Linux 3.3, quite a number of programs did not make its way to the new Live DVD version of Sabayon Linux. For example, Kdevelop, Cervisia, Blender, Edutainment softwares, Postscript viewer, Twinkle, Thunderbird, Seamonkey, Ralink RT2500 Config, Wengophone, Opera, Epiphany, Gnumeric, Gnucash, XChat, WxCas, Audacious, Codeine, Beep Media Player, Streamtuner, Smb4k and many other applications were omitted.
Applications on the Kmenu of the 64-bit Live CD
There were no games at all on the Kmenu of the Live CD of the Sabayon Linux 3.4.miniEdition. However, the Live CD came with Qt Designer, Assistant, Linguist, KPDF, Ksnapshot, KColorChooser, KColorEdit, KIconEdit, Konversation, KnetworkManager, KTorrent, WPA_Supplicant Administration GUI, Kopete, KPPP, Konqueror, KPPPLogView, Dictionary, SMPlayer, Amarok, K3b, KMix, aRts Builder, aRts Control Tool, Kbluetooth, Acceleration Manager, Compiz Config Settings Manager, Printers, CUPS, Emerald Theme Manager, Kbluelock, Kbluemon, Portato, KInputwizard, Kuser, KRandRTray, Compiz Fusion Icon, GParted, Konsole, etc.
(note:- The types of applications in this new miniEdition of Sabayon Linux 3.4 is very similar to that of Sabayon Linux 3.3b miniEdition. Codeine was the default media player for the 3.3b miniEdition instead of SMPlayer. There was no KTorrent on the 3.3b miniEdition of Sabayon Linux)
Hardware Compatibility
There was no compatibility problem with my Logitech wireless mouse and wireless keyboard. My all-in-one HP Officet 4355 was detected and after some simple configuration steps, it was up and running. The Live CD of Sabayon Linux -x86_64-3.4.miniEdition and the Live DVD of Sabayon Linux-x86_64-3.4f easily handled my new hard disk-based Sony camcorder. There was no problem with the 2 Bluetooth adapters that I plugged into the USB port of my Compaq Presario V3222AU notebook.
Accessing my Nokia phone via the bluetooth adapter.
Package Management
Now, Portato is the choice of front-end to the portage system. In version 3.3 of Sabayon Linux, it was Kuroo. I had no problem in syncing using this gtk application. Took about 75 minutes to sync. Portato also looks and feels much more intuitive. After syncing and after having emerged the up-to-date portage package, I installed ppracer for my daughter to play.
Syncing.
By the way, the Sabayon Linux forum recommends fresh install as a better way to upgrade your existing Sabayon Linux to a newer one. Of course, after you have backup your /home directory. I hope the upcoming alpha-quality Equa/Entropy binary-based package management will ease the process of upgrading Sabayon Linux from an existing version to a newer one.
Bipolar Experience
As a notebook user, it feels so nice to have a working wifi when Linux is running on your notebook. In my case, I would feel euphoric (not ecstatic) whenever, I could make the WiFi adapter work without using ndiswrapper (please don't get me wrong, Ndiswrapper is a great tool which has contributed a lot to Linux wlan!). My bipolar experience started when suspend-to-ram worked only partially and suspend-to-disk did not work at all! More so when it didn't work on my other two notebooks (Dell Inspiron 640m and Dell Inspiron 600m).
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the x86_64 version of Sabayon Linux 3.4 is the best bleeding-edge 64-bit Linux desktop at the moment. Excellent hardware support, especially the wlan adapters. You will definitely like this Linux distribution if you prefer a bleeding-edge 64-bit Linux distro which has everything working out-of-the-box. No hassle! The cons for huge adoption are still the beautiful portage management system and the slow live boot. Lastly, I believe that Sabayon Linux will progress by leaps and bounds in the next 2 years provided that the developers i) can find good sponsorship, ii) emergence of a user-friendly package management system which can work hand-in-hand with the beautiful portage, and iii) reduction of the live boot time.
Thank you for reading my review.
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By Michael Shee Choon Beng.
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