MEPIS Community Forum

First impressions...

Very resource hungry compared to any other linux distro I can remember using.

I tried to install it in a VM under VirtualBox, and had to increase the default Video Memory and RAM allocated to get the Live CD to boot (otherwise, it just kept reading from the .iso without ever finishing loading the desktop).

I finally ended up with 512MB and 32MB of Video memory allowing bootup, with it "settling in" using just over 300MB of RAM from a Live .iso in VirtualBox (more than twice what Mepis 8.5 uses running Live that way, as the latest 8.5 USB release is only taking 133MB after you get to the desktop running Live in VirtualBox). After installation to a Virtual Disk in VirtualBox, it still took almost 300MB of memory (288MB, even though it was using some of swap partition created for it), before trying to load any other apps, and that was with a small screen size.

So, that limits it's usefulness on borderline machines compared to most other Linux distros (I can't recall trying a Linux distro that takes this much memory to run in Virtualbox a long time, and I "test drive" a *lot* of new Linux distros). Even Linux Mint with it's custom menu system is "leaner".

BTW, I would suggest having VirtualBox guest extensions preinstalled. You even get that by default now installing Squeeze from the Beta 2 Network installer. ;-)

Thanks Rich. At least it's not just me. Sounds like a KDE thing to me then.

Yes I believe that to be the case.

okay... initial impression...

not good

I tried the 64bit edition on a computer with a RadeonHD 4850 graphics chipset, something that is supposed to be well supported with default X.org drivers... and I got a black screen instead of a Desktop on the boot options no X.org-Conf file, the Classic Mepis X.org Conf, and the VESA X.org Conf.

On the No X.org-Conf and Classic Mepis X.org Conf boot options I was able to get a display by:

• hitting control-alt-F1
• logging in as root
• entering the command: dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
• entering the command: startx

On the VESA X.org Conf I got told that there were no screens available after trying to force a startx

After getting a GUI I ran through the install. On the first install I got a couple of partition error messages, with the Mepis installer saying it could not access a partition.

So, I rebooted, tried again, and this time the installer seemed to work... or at least I think it did. I can't tell because the GRUB file created by the installer lacks some pretty critical information:



I booted up another computer with an identical existing Mepis 8.5 / Windows NT6 installation and copied the relevant boot data, creating a menu 1st file with:



and that's as far as I've gotten so far...

Exact same 64 bit experience on my 2 desktops (1 ATI and 1 nVidia)
iso md5 checked out and DVD-RW was verified during k3b burn

That looks like the same problem as with alpha 1.

Might be related to the source which wireman used when he made the timezone mods to the mepis installer package.

I think Warren might have made changes to the mepis installer that fixed the grub install problems which were found during alpha1, but those fixes might not have been in the source that wireman was working with.

I had the same experience on my ThinkPad, except mine was so twitchy I could hardly zero in on whatever it was I was aiming at.

Try decaf.

.
Whiner.