MEPIS Community Forum

I'm sure this has been debated before many times, but it didn't show up in my search. So forgive me for bringing it up again.

Anyway, I am looking at a new computer and it is likely to have the lasted AMD Llana APU. So I started wondering if Mepis would run on such new equipment since Mepis was released before the CPU was. I'm sure the updates are all in the community repo to get it to run, but I don't want to waste all day trying to get a new system to run. So I wondered if I may end up back at PCLinusOS or someone with more recent updates. So then I got to wondering if the community has ever considered assembling a community update release.

With programs like remastersys out there, it seems like it would be easy to do a community remaster. Basically it would be Mepis with the latest kernel, KDE updates and other updates that would help to keep the release more up to date. Maybe some new artwork to help differentiate it from Warrens official release. I guess in the end, it would sort of be the Mepis Community Testing Edition since some of the packages would have to come from Debian Testing. Would this be a possibility or is there are a lot more to making a community remaster than this?

In many instances to have the latest and greatest rather than the stability of Mepis you just have to choose. There have been some 'hobbiest' versions of Mepis put out over the years. But no follow up. And none that I can remember changed any core libraries. I wouldn't expect any more than the things that are in the Community Repositories. Which derive from requests for updated programs and are restricted to what can be built from the core libraries that are available with Mepis. I don't think that any core libraries from Testing are going to be used. Mepis is based on Stable libraries.

Yeah, I appreciate the stability of being based on Debian Stable. That is why I chose Mepis. I also like that the community Repos give you the latest software updates. Kind of the best of both worlds the way I see it.

I guess its just a lack of understanding on my part. I thought a release could be made with an updated kernel and drivers and maybe some backported packages from the community and still be based on Stable. I thought this would be a relatively strait forward way to improve hardware compatibility for new hardware. If I had the time and the knowledge I would play with it myself, but I have neither. Time of course being the biggest problem as I could gain the knowledge.

If it is a complicated situation, there is no need to pursue it and ruin a nice distro. I just thought it would be something to keep Mepis up to date and maybe draw in some new users.

Fargo, look here,
http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php? ... ing_script
as for using remastersys, I would recommend you do not, as it makes to many changes.
Is it hard to do, not really, just follow the recommendations for adding and removing apps,
and first time round do not attempt to change the kernel.

And I will not mention that Antix uses testing,

I would definitely be interested in this as well. I am currently running M11 with KDE 4.6.5 and many CR packages, but it would be great to have an updated kernel as well as it all be on an ISO so I can install from it.

Thanks for the link. That sounds like there is a way to do what I was wanting the community to do. I suppose if I can't get Mepis to install on the newer hardware I could do an update on an old PC and make a new iso from the info in the link you provided. But since I don't have experience doing this, I thought it might be an easy thing for the community to do. Especially since they would know better which updates will improve compatibility and which would just break the OS. I have a feeling that I could spend days messing with trying to do a remaster myself and never get it to work. Most likely if Mepis didn't install on my new PC, I would just look for a more current release that worked. But thats not really a concern right now since I haven't even purchased yet. I just thought it would be a good idea to see a community release with some updates. I think the updates that Benny described above would be a nice setup.

Fargo, the new cpu should run with no problems, but be selective with regards to which graphics card you use,
For me Mepis wants all the video drivers removing for one thing, as 95% of Nvidia cards are now able to use the open source nouveau driver with no problems, and that includes older cards like FX 5200
it also wants reconfiguring to use the Debian default upgrade path for Kernels, then people would not have to jump through hoops to upgrade.
Debian KDE 4.6.5, is a Heinz 57 KDE, it contains a mix of KDE 4.4, 4.6.5, 4.7 beta1, 4.7 RC1 and 4.7.1. Parts of kdebindings are not packaged.
http://wiki.debian.org/KDE
If you want to try and do a remaster, pm me and I will give you help, no problem, like I said it is not hard to do.

Danum
The graphics is what has me concerned about the new cpu. As I mentioned I am looking at boards with AMDs new Llano processor. This is a new direction in that the graphics are built into the CPU (They call it an APU now). There is no more onboard graphics chips since its part of the APU. (Which I believe are derived from the AMD owned ATI Radeon). Since its just a home office machine I don't need a seperate graphics card so I planned on using the on processor graphics. I have considered building a system with the older technology, but for the basic system I am looking at It will only cost me about another $100 to just get the newest technology right way and at the same time I gain gigabit LAN and USB 3.0. So I am looking into the AMD FM1 boards that run the new A4 Llano processor. Its kind of an interesting idea. Check them out.


Oh and thanks for the offer to help with the remaster. I won't get to it until work slows down this winter, but if I need some help I will let you know.

I just did, if it were me I would tend to stay away for a while, the long and the short of it is you are after a home office m/c not a gamers m/c,
plus they have not even released the processor for desktops yet.
gigabit LAN and USB 3.0. are about the norm in any current motherboard and have been for a while,

I'll take your advice and look into other boards. I wanted to get something with USB 3 and gigabit lan and most that I saw did not have it. But I will look again if you think the Llano boards are not what I need for an entry level home office. Thanks for the info. Any boards you recommend?