I started with FC7 test3, and now with test4. One thing I have to say that is very positive, is that everything important to me (almost) works.
Booting appears much faster than before. Yumex (Duke University) is very much improved, and I was, through some hard recoding, able to download and install the codecs I required to hear or visualize the files I receive in my emails. Yumex restarts are also much improved. I would like to see these changes retrofitted to FC6.
Problems I identified with PHP and MYSQL administration were very competently addressed and in very reasonable timeframe.
I am frustrated though, with a few things. As a volunteer test person, I see progress being stalled, and also no progress made with a few bug(lets) that I have discovered and posted to the Bugzilla site. There is no acknowledgment other than the bugzilla number, and there is no indication of when the problem will be or will ever be addressed.
So, what are my frustrations.
a) XEN on my system boots, until the logon screen is presented, then there is a hard lockup.
What is my configuration.... Both with FC7 and FC6. Is it a x windows problem or a other? My driver is the i810. My configuration isL
1 gig drive, intel d930 dual core processor, 1 drive dedicated to FC6 and a second drive dedicated to FC7. I switch between the two via the intel bios option. Intel mother board d945gnt manufactured mid 2006. The driver is supposed to be the i810. I can also use the x windows driver "intel" with some better XEN results (dies after logon with the latter).
But for either release, there is a lockup for XEN. This problem has manifested itself since last November 2006. I guess that my alternative is to switch to another distribution, where XEN works,
b) There were standard sessions in FC6 that are not in FC7, and I am frustrated that this shortcoming, posted early in FC7 test3 life, still has not made it into FC7 test4. In particular, bootmanager is one of the more important ones.
c) The new gnome facility to permit switching between users, crashes after a cycle or two, forcing a reboot. I can live without the option. I will raise the bugzilla error report shortly after I complete this email.
d) Yesterday I posted a new bug. My flashdrive (sandisk) works just great with fc6 and fc7 but my usb hard drive (ext3 format) fails to work with fc7, but it works with fc6. I cannot use the usb port to do backups to the drive.
e) Beagle, until recently, gave constant segment errors, and floods the error logs. I have stopped beagle since it is useless. I also noted that before disabling beagle-helper, that beagle-helper took about 0.5 gig of memory, and and did not release the memory until I killed the task. It is very unsociable.
f) Microphone input does not work and the only way to discover that is testing with skype or Ekiga. Something needs to be added here for a future release to be able to test the microphone software. By the way, using the UBUNTU live DVD, and Ekiga, I could use the microphone input jack, so I am confident it is not a hardware problem.
g) Why call for individuals (I am a desktop user) to help test, but then to ignore the reported bugs. Someone should coordinate the creation of and ad-hoc testing team, and represent them to the Fedora developers/ maintainers. It would go a long way to creating loyalty, particularly for new feature testing by geeks like me.
I could understand if developers are in overload mode, as I presume they are, or that the problem is very difficult to duplicate, but I have an email address, I have a spare drive, and I want to help. The problem with Fedora and end-users, is that there is no closing of the loop. In industry, for example, if one reports a bug, there is an acknowledgment, and usually there is a date by which the problem will be addressed.
I guess I am having a bad day, due to the penultimate paragraph. I would just like to see some progress regarding the bugs I posted.
Linear Mode
