Broken Iceweasel 3.0 arrives in Debian Lenny
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Steven_Rosenber Jul 11, 2008 4:22 PM EDT |
I just updated my Lenny install, and Iceweasel 3.0 replaced 2.0.0.14. ... After a lot of teeth-gnashing and rending of garments on Planet Debian (http://planet.debian.net) by Debian developers on how screwed up Firefox/Iceweasel 3.0 was in Sid, I was plenty surprised to see 3.0 rc2 makes its way into Lenny so quickly. I know Lenny is Testing, but ... First of all, the new package changes Iceweasel's home page from the standard Iceweasel html file on the hard drive to the development page for Mozilla's Gran Paradiso, which is some kind of code name for Firefox. ... And now when I launch Iceweasel 3.0, it defaults to "work offline" mode every time. I had this same problem in Lenny with the Epiphany browser and finally fixed it with a hack in gconf that I got from the bug report. Before I did the fix, I waited awhile to see if the Debian people were going to fix it themselves ... they didn't. I did the same with the sound modules in the new Lenny kernel. From 2.6.22 to 2.6.24, I lost sound for my ESS 1988/Allegro chip. Supposedly the Debian Project didn't like using a binary blob in the kernel and picked that very blob to make a statement of sorts. Again, I tired of waiting and used info in the bug report to get said blob from the ALSA Project and compiled it and installed it myself ... But will they leave Iceweasel 3.0 broken? I haven't found a bug report yet, but I'll be keeping my eye out for it. Or maybe they'll just fix it. Over the past few months, basically I've been able to hack together a working configuration from tips in bug reports. But what about people trying to use Debian who either don't know or don't want to know about fixing their installation with tips gleaned from bug reports? |
| azerthoth Jul 11, 2008 4:32 PM EDT |
Steven, are you getting a clue as to why I left Debian? |
| Steven_Rosenber Jul 11, 2008 4:48 PM EDT |
I neglected to emphasize that my sound chip's binary blob is in all likelihood not the only blob in the kernel. We're not talking about OpenBSD here, which does not allow such blobs at all, but doesn't allow some but not others. And when its developers want support for a device, they pester the hardware maker for specs in order to write a driver, or in severe cases reverse-engineer it without the specs. I'd like to find the Debian discussion where they decided to remove sound support for this specific chip. I'll have to hunt it down. I have been testing Sidux, which is built on Debian Sid, and there my sound chip worked, so I can't figure the whole thing out. Whether or not I want to be running something like Sidux is another matter ... I'm still testing it. My hope, for this specific laptop anyway, is to find a distro in which everything works and ride it out for awhile. I'd hoped that Lenny would be it, and I've tried many others, but thus far Ubuntu has worked the best. |
| azerthoth Jul 11, 2008 5:09 PM EDT |
Steven, there is a new version of Sabayon you could try. If your unwilling to download a DVD .iso there is also a mini version which fits on CD that uses the XFCE desktop. If you start looking for it your looking for the version called POD (we have no idea what it means, ask lxnay). There is a review on the newswire which hasnt come through yet. I know I always go on about Sabayon, but it really has come into it's own in this release. btw I dont recommend the mini to new users at this point, it has been out long enough that we have yet to identify all the oddities or how to fix them. We know some exist, I really suggest the DVD for Sabayon 3.5 |
| herzeleid Jul 11, 2008 6:57 PM EDT |
hmm - FF 3 as shipped for ubuntu 8.04 works a treat! |
| Steven_Rosenber Jul 11, 2008 7:22 PM EDT |
Yes, FF3 is great in Ubuntu. I don't know enough about the Debian process to know what's common practice, but I imagine that Lenny users will be feeling a little pain in this regard for at least a month. Lenny is supposed to go stable in September. This doesn't give me a feeling of overwhelming confidence. I understand that FF3 needs to be part of Lenny and that there will be a package freeze at some point in the process, but the window of time is short at this point, and Iceweasel/FF is a very critical package, I did a little looking around, and this may have something to do with Network Manager. It's the same sort of problem I had with Epiphany. Two relevant bug reports: Debian: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=483167 Mozilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=424626 |
| Sander_Marechal Jul 12, 2008 2:21 AM EDT |
Quoting:After a lot of teeth-gnashing and rending of garments on Planet Debian by Debian developers on how screwed up Firefox/Iceweasel 3.0 was in Sid, I was plenty surprised to see 3.0 rc2 makes its way into Lenny so quickly. I know Lenny is Testing, but ... I think you're assuming too much from Debian. Perhaps you don't quite grasp how Debian works? Experimetal: Not to be included in the next stable Unstable: It builds. That's about it. Testing: - It builds - All it's dependencies build and are in Testing - It's been in Unstable for 10 days and nobody filed a bug serious enough that it should stay there That's it. That's all "Testing" means. Don't be lured in by "It's supposed to be quite stable by now". Debian makes no such guarantee. The only reason why Lenny appears to be quite stable is because most if it's packages have been in Lenny for so long that most of the big bugs have been shaken out. FF3 is a new package. It will have loads of bugs. But unless someone files a bug when it's in the 10 days Unstable grace period that is serious enough to stop the package from getting into Testing, it will go into testing. It's an automated process. You shouldn't be keeping an eye on bug reports. You should be filing bug reports. |
| rijelkentaurus Jul 12, 2008 4:54 AM EDT |
Thanks, Sander, for that reminder...far too many people grumble about Debian testing/unstable. Stable is stable and it will work fine, the rest is a gamble. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. If you want a more stable unstable, you want Sidux. Griping about Lenny, IMO, is like griping about the performance of the latest Mandriva 2009 Alpha release. |
| TxtEdMacs Jul 12, 2008 6:16 AM EDT |
S_M, My compliments on the wisdom your terse words: Quoting:You shouldn't be [just reading] bug reports. You should be filing bug reports. * words in the square brackets are my insertion. |
| Bob_Robertson Jul 12, 2008 10:00 AM EDT |
This is very interesting to me, running Unstable, because the FF2 to FF3 (Ok, Iceweasel 3) change happened and I didn't even notice. Everything that I do with it is working just fine. I only discovered the change when I wanted to print a page as PDF, and found that it wasn't calling KDEprint any more, and "print to PDF" was now working fine so it doesn't need to. |
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