Yum update from Fedora 14 -> 15 WARNING! [OT]

[Mark Eggers]

On Tue, 31 May 2011 18:19:07 +0200, Alexander Volovics wrote:

> On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 10:15:57AM -0400, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> 
>> >> Your understanding is, on the whole, correct.  However, you can
>> >> always use akmod-nvidia instead.  If there's not a kmod for the
>> >> current kernel, akmod builds it on the fly at boot.  It's not a
>> >> panacea by any means, but for most of us, it's much better than
>> >> having to remember to re-install the binary blob every time there's
>> >> a kernel update.

It's actually a little worse than that, although no longer strictly 
necessary. I reinstall every time there's a new X server, screen saver 
update, or new GL libraries. Yes, it's somewhat of a pain, but see below.

>> >The real question is, is the nvidia blob still necessary?  In F15, the
>> >nouveau driver has 3D acceleration enabled by default.  Performance
>> >might not be all the way to the nvidia drivers, but GNOME Shell runs
>> >in standard mode with the default nouveau driver.  That should at
>> >least tide you over until the nvidia packages catch up.
>  

My first impression of Gnome 3 was pretty unpleasant. I'll try it for a 
week in Fedora 15, but right now it doesn't seem to fit my use cases or 
work flow (see below).

>> I don't use nvidia's blob, but nouveau's stability is still not
>> consistent. Maybe about 10% of the time X locks up when I open gthumb.
>> If I ssh in and kill X, Gnome will whine and go into fallback mode. I
>> must reboot to regain hardware acceleration. It's not a big deal to me,
>> especially as compared to the rest of the issues with gnome 3, but I
>> can see how some might prefer to stick with nvidia.
>  
> It might not be a big deal but the lock ups, though not very frequent,
> sometimes occur at very inopportune moments. Also irritating is the
> snails pace at which graphical actions happen.
> 
> But I am not complaining since the situation, in my case at least, is
> even more irritating with regard to nvidia. I have tried with both 
> kmod-nvidia and akmod-nvidia and done everything according to the book
> but I really wonder if the installation scripts from rpmfusion are 100%
> adapted to fed 15. The installation just can't get rid of the nouveau
> modules so you just boot up to the 'desktop' but mouse and keyboard
> can't activate anything.
> 
> I even tried some contortions with respect to initram, etc. but to no
> avail.
> 
> A couple of years ago I had no problems with rpmfusion kmod-nvidia's
> 
> Alexander

I've tried Gnome 3 a couple of times from within Fedora 14. To be fair, 
it's hard to give Gnome 3 a fair chance in Fedora 14, so I will use it 
exclusively for a week once I upgrade to Fedora 15.

However, I'm a software pack rat. I use lots of different applications, 
and I experiment with more. Finding software in a pile of icons seemed 
difficult, and taking my hand off the mouse to type slows down the 
interaction. Maybe there are ways to organize favorites that I can live 
with. I don't know, so I'll have to experiment.

For the record, I had a similar issue with KDE 4 and it's menu 
organization by description first, then application name. I find 
applications by category / name, but I guess many people find 
applications by description.

Given the above, I've been working more comfortably in KDE 4 for casual 
work, and WindowMaker for heads-down work. Given the recent improvement 
in KDE's performance, I've been spending more and more time in KDE and 
I'm beginning to enjoy its eye candy.

And there's the rub. The KDE / desktop effects / NVidia combination has a 
history of challenges. I've spent a reasonable amount of time reading the 
NVidia forums to find the configuration necessary for stability and 
performance. I have options enabled on driver loading and in xorg.conf 
that improve performance and stability. I also overclock the 7600GS, 
since it and my 2.6 GHz P4 need all the help they can get.

Right now the nouveau driver doesn't offer me the flexibility I need in 
order to get the performance I would like from KDE. I would like to 
contribute, but I'm already contributing (mostly answering questions and 
writing documentation) on other projects. There are unfortunately so many 
hours in a day. Besides the 7600 is an old card, and I can't imagine that 
there is a lot of interest in improving the driver for it.

As for kmod and akmod, I've not really tried them. Other than packaging / 
convenience, I've not seen a compelling reason to use them. Also, as 
Alexander mentioned above, there seem to be edge cases where kmod or akmod 
installations are problematic. I've seen postings on various forums 
indicating this as well. While less convenient, I've never had a problem 
installing the binary blob from NVidia (aside from a few SELinux issues 
which I have a script for).

LXDE plus compiz seem to be another possible choice. I'll investigate 
that as well when I move to Fedora 15.

. . . . just my two cents.

/mde/