Switch from Fedora to Manjaro

Lately I had several accidents with my Linux/NetBSD partitions. Because of this I decided to try Fedora Linux 20 beta at first, Crux Linux later and finally Manjaro.

Fedora Linux was my main distribution since 2005. I bought my first AMD64 in 2004 and slowly switched to 64 bit systems. Fedora Linux was one of the earliest and well maintained 64 bit distributions at that time. Though I was using Windows at time more often than not, open source systems like Linux and NetBSD took more and more of my time every year. Currently I rarely use Windows. My main operating system is Linux (Fedora was until now) and the second one is NetBSD.

Fedora is quite good project with very big user base (even Linus Torvalds use it if I am not wrong) and constant stable releases about every 6 months. It means that you can find lots of information on it, software repositories are regularly updated and they have full of software. What is more, I am a GNOME user (even after GNOME3 was released) and Fedora is one of the strongest GNOME supporters. So it was a natural choice for me. Unfortunately, I had a feeling that every new release was going into different direction than I wanted to in last 4-5 releases. Distribution was focusing on users without technical knowledge and it oversimplified various user cases. I consider myself a power user and I didn't liked that at all. Starting from new installer, "Windows like" software update process, various configuration utilities and UX decisions, upgrade process to new software manager (in 20 beta release), everything became just unpleasant for me. Some of them are not distribution related though. I remember that the first Gnome 3 version were terrible to use. Currently they fixed a lot of issues and it became quite pleasant one. Some configuration changed because of Linux itself (or some of its subsystems and services). However, the feeling that I can't control anything became very widespread in every aspect of Fedora daily usage.

After I tried 20 beta for a several weeks and I accidentally deleted it. So I saw it as an opportunity to try some other distributions. Crux was the first on the list as it retains more older BSD style configuration and init scripts, absolutely archaic and simple (no, it doesn't mean user friendly) installation process, ports system (similar to pkgsrc in NetBSD) and they finally switched to x86_64 architecture since 3.0 release. It is probably the Linux I would like to use the most right now. Unfortunately, I was looking for Linux distribution which you can use easily on the desktop. Crux ports repositories were very poor (I think even NetBSD may have more software in theirs), user base is small so you can't find almost any information (Crux is meant for users who like to spend hours on something for themselves) and community is not that friendly (though it may be just a first impression). Finally no official way to install Gnome3 (it is probably because of quite strong systemd requirement but I am not sure. I hate systemd but Linux distributions increasingly uses it.). MATE and Cinnamon also are missing. I tried Enlightenment and it is quite good but I just missed a lot of software for daily usage and couldn't find alternatives for them in Crux (probably I could try to switch to KDE4 but I decided to go elsewhere).

Other distributions were Arch and Gentoo on my list. However, I ended up on Manjaro Linux (I downloaded it on 0.8.8 release day). It is based on Arch Linux but has different goals and their own repositories. Goals are defined to be user-friendly, desktop-oriented operating system. And its popularity grows at rapid rate (see distrowatch). Installation process is not my favorite (it boots into live cd and you start install process manually) but it is easy, intuitive to use, partition manager is more pleasant and understandable than Fedora one, and does everything as it should. The dumbest thing that when you choose region you can only select the official language from that region (for example, if you choose Lithuania, you have Lithuanian language in the list only). I needed to change it to US after installation. It uses XFCE or openbox WMs by default (depending on ISO you downloaded) but GNOME installation is very easy using pacman (Manjaro and Arch uses systemd by default currently). Repositories are quite ok. You will find a lot of software in Manjaro repositories, plus you can use Arch user repositories (AUR) too. I missed some packages (fossil, dxx-rebirth) but I was also surprised to find some too (simutrans game one of them). What is more, this distribution repositories is not strictly bounded to open source software (you can find flash plugin right away for example). Application aren't categorized on GNOME menu but I hope that it will be possible to do so. More or less I had fully usable system in several hours maybe even faster. Package manager is very good and simple to use. It is rolling-release distribution so upgrade or software update process should be easy too (pacman). Software seems to bleeding-edge. I always liked that in Fedora so do I in Manjaro too. So currently I am quite happy with this distribution, its custom tools, software repository, flexibility, simplicity and user community. Of course, it is difficult to say that it will become my main distribution for years but certainly I'll stick with for some time.

It is always difficult to make such decisions for me but sometimes you just need to go the different path. Fedora served me very well for almost 10 years but right now it doesn't fit into my vision anymore.

Update before the end of 2013

I didn't write any blog updates this year except CPU collection updates but actually it was a calm year. If you look at my plans for this year only a small part of them were implemented into reality. Nevertheless I think it is a right time to write one new blog post.

I didn't updated my NAS server. Jetway JNF76 based computer still serves this purpose. However one of the Hitachi 3TB hard disk drives died and it was replaced with Seagate ST3000DM001 3TB model. I bought the system in the of 2009 so it had served for three years already (hard disk drivers had been changed from 1.5TB to 3TB once).


VIA VT-310DP and Microway Streamer PC164 were standing still this year. I installed several new versions of NetBSD on VT-310DP but that's all. Unfortunately I didn't used NetBSD that much. I haven't reached my goal to participate in this OS community more actively this year.

Fedora was updated to 19 version only about a month ago (after I read about "new" way to update distribution using FedUp). Unfortunately Fedora partition broke for unknown reason one or two weeks after upgrade. Any recovery was unsuccessful (probably the saddest thing about this that I lost my Descent 2 campaign progress). I saw that Fedora 20 beta was realeased two days ago, so I will install it probably.

I haven't tried any other alternative OSes in 2013.

I slowly update my CPU collection photo gallery but I won't write about all of them. Though I still have to make photos of some interesting chips and I will write about them here once I would be ready.

I attended at FOSDEM'13. It was held at the beginning of 2013. Unfortunately, I wasn't very satisfied. Firstly, most rooms were just quite small classes. If the topic was "popular" one you needed to be where much earlier before the beginning. Otherwise the classes quickly were becoming overloaded and you couldn't to enter them anymore (my tight plan to visit selected presentations was totally ruined). Secondly most presentations were quite boring or too simple. If you was interested in the topic before the conference you wouldn't find anything new. Some presentations were more interesting but they still lacked deeper technical discussions I was looking for. Finally, Brussels weather was terrible at that time and food selection was limited to hotdogs and hamburgers. The town is very pricey by itself. So I won't attend at FOSDEM'14 but I'll look at other conferences in the future.


The biggest change in my hardware and user experience was the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone. My dream to buy this QNX based BB10 platform was realized sooner than I thought. It was my first smartphone so I couldn't compare it to Android or IOS or Windows Phone devices. However I can write about my experience with it as a new user. I bought it in July about 6 month after its release and I updated to 10.1 release just after purchase. Q10 model have been already available too. Major applications I used was facebook, endomondo, email for g. gmail and cb10. I also used skype, waze and several games to lesser extent. Some of them received numerous updates (facebook, gmail), the others don't received any (endomondo). OS usage is very easy. You need to learn some slides on the screen and you are ready to go. Everything works smoothly, multitasking is great. Blackberry hub feature (all your messages like sms, facebook, bbm, whatsup are gathered in one place) is very good too. Facebook received numerous updates but features just caught up this other major OSes. Application for gmail wasn't free and it is web based by I satisfied with it. It gets updated constantly too. Skype is android port but works very well. It received one but big update with totally renewed interface. I made one long call from Germany using hostel wifi. No issues at all. Endomondo is android port too. It worked great until 10.2 OS release. Voice countdown broke for unknown reason but still everything else is ok (gps accuracy, voiced checkpoints and so on). 10.2 release received interesting features to OS too but I won't describe them. You will find them in other sources. The major problem with this phone that it reboots quite constantly from small falls or higher pressure. I would say that this phone is great but this issue is really annoying and the value of the phone becomes a little bit smaller. Overall I am happy with it and my next phone can be BB10 too if they will be alive until then :).

VIA CPUs still dominates in my house. Second desktop computer, NAS server and VT-310DP test board are based on Nano X2, Nano and Eden-N (Nehemiah) CPUs accordingly. Though this situation won't change for the next year (I will leave for one year) but I can't go against the line for very long too. S3 graphics is more or less dead. They have never released chrome 6xx line except the integrated one in VX11 chipset. Drivers are outdated and I am not sure if Windows 8 is supported by 5xx line (no official download). Centaur technology (CPU design division at VIA) doesn't have any roadmap. The last update was VIA QuadCore which consisted of two updated Nano X2 cores on one chip (like early Intel dual core CPUs). So they didn't make any major architecture updates from 2008. If I am not wrong VIA Embedded switched their business focus to enterprise and embedded worlds with complete solutions and less to consumer users. They also increased their focus on ARM based systems. Intel and AMD made lots of steps to increase power efficiency and performance. They also created numerous CPUs for the small form factor and mobile markets where VIA targeted with their CPUs earlier. So Nano CPUs doesn't have any advantages anymore (even padlock encryption features can be replaced by AES instructions in lots of cases). Probably they lost competition in x86 space and it is natural to see that the company strategy changes. S3 graphics is sold to HTC and has no visible activity, Centaur is quiet too, VIA Embedded is announcing more and more ARM products, retail sales are shrinking. My second desktop computer is based EPIA-M900. Performance is too slow even for simple everyday tasks like browsing, office or image processing. SSD helps a little bit but not too much. I probably will replace it with some AMD APU based system sometime next year. I don't know about NAS server because I still want to change it to some real NAS system to simplify administration and lower power usage (it may be based on various platforms, x86 including) but it might not happen next year. Major computer still use Sandy Bridge-E Xeon CPU. Ivy Bridge-E just appeared but I'll wait for more diversity and cheaper prices. VT-310DP is ok as testing board but I would like to change it to 64 bit CPU based system too. So there is a possibility that this motherboard will go to rest with my other old hardware even next year (or maybe it will serve as secondary test system :)).

That's all for this year update. I will probably spend my next year abroad so I don't think that this blog will be updated soon. However I will continue to write it after I will return.

Some new photos in my cpu collection gallery

I have finally added some new CPU photos to my CPUCollection gallery. It is still not the full collection but I am closing the gap before new great chips will arrive next month.

The noticeable ones this time are:

Intel Itanium 9350 SLBMX. The fastest Tukwila model with "enormous" 185W TDP.

Unknown but very beautiful and unusual IBM chip

IBM POWER6 dual core CPU operating at 4.7GHz

Sun UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara CPU) 8 cores, 1.2GHz

Motorola MC88100RC33. Quite rare example from Motorola 88100 family.

I also uploaded photos of these CPUs too:

Sun UltraSPARC IIIi 1600MHz (the fastest UltraSPARC IIIi family CPU)
IBM PowerPC PPC604e30BCG333E
Intel NG80960JD50 on CISCO CPU board

2013 and up

Happy new year everyone. I am not the most active blogger in the world but I still don't plan to be silent this year too. As usual this blog will be focused on activities with my own hardware and software. I hope some information will be useful for my blog readers too.

There are some plans this year which I can divide into several categories and probably the most of blog posts will be around these topics.

Hardware:

• I plan to change my NAS server which uses Jetway JNF76 mainboard into real NAS device. I think device will fall into the cheap NAS category (something like ZyXEL NSA325). The main point of the change is easier management. I don't have time and motivation to configure Linux to my all needs. NAS devices usually have simple web interface for most cases I need (power management, more versatile back-up, torrent, RAID). They use much less power too.
• My main desktop computer should be the same sandy bridge-ep platform I had bought last year. I have already upgraded memory to 16GB (4x4GB quad channel). I am not sure what I'll upgrade in it (maybe nothing) but the strongest candidates are GPU (to R4xxx series) and hard drive (to SSD).
• Microway Streamer PC164 has memory problems once again with new RAM sticks. Though I can install and boot NetBSD still. This system is almost unused. I just try to install the newer NetBSD version from time to time. Another DEC Alpha motherboard is unused too and I don't plan even to boot it in near future.
•  VIA VT-310DP is still good and healthy. And I use it often as my main testing platform. NetBSD support is greatly improved on it. 6 branch (probably will end up into 6.1 release) and current branch (7.0) doesn't have any problems at all. The fix for the freeze on second CPU detection was pulled up to 5, 6 branches (6.0 and 5.2 official releases has this fix). There are ACPI problems with SATA and USB devices on all official releases but current and 6 branches have already applied patches that addressed those problems too.
• VIA EPIA-M900 should remain the main desktop platform for my other family members. HDD was upgraded to Kingston V+200 120GB SSD last year. It greatly improved loading times of Windows and some applications (Starcraft II especially). CPU is the biggest bottleneck right now. I don't plan any big upgrades (I would like to have some small changes but there are difficult to implement). Maybe I'll write one more review on usage advantages and shortcomings some day.
• There is a possibility that I'll get some netbook (which are declared dead :D) or small laptop.

Software (operating systems):

• My main setup is Fedora Linux and NetBSD. Fedora plans to release 18 version soon. I'll upgrade as soon as possible of course. NetBSD released a major release (6.0) and some minors (6.0.1 and 5.2) last year. I expect that this year won't be major releases but 6.1 (with some new features and bug/security fixes) can be released. 6 release is ok for me so I probably won't need to switch to current branch I needed before 6 branch had appeared. I currently use 6.0.1 with patched kernel to support my integrated broadcom NIC (I applied patch from current branch into 6.0.1 source code). VT-310DP will use current branch.
• Haiku OS released Alpha 4.1. I still haven't tried it but I expect to do this (or newer build) sometime this year.
• Syllable development quite stalled right now (or very slow). It even was forked into Pyro OS because of this however no actual releases have been done yet by this forked project. I haven't used Syllable for years but I plan to look into it some time this year depending on situation.
• I hope to try DragonFly BSD just for curiosity at first.

Other activities:

• I will attend at FOSDEM'13. This is the first such conference for me but I hope to enjoy it.
• There are lots of great new CPUs in my CPU collection which I haven't placed to photo gallery yet. They will end up there eventually. I hope to spend some to provide more information on them but the result won't be noticeable this year I think. I am not sure how many new ones I'll buy this year but my focus switched to more rear ones so quantity won't be big.
• I dream to buy QNX based Blackberry 10 platform mobile phone (devices are planned to release on 31 January). 
•  I plan more actively to participate in NetBSD community.