Chakra 2018.12 "Hawking" RC1 released

[AlmAck (Luca Giambonini)]

with the netinstall feature?

unfortunately not, is in our schedule to implement it, will come in the next releases.

with a live system the worst experience ever!

first experience is for some minutes a black screen with the mouse pointer.

I agree, there is something that prevent a snap boot, I’m working on it. On the other side,
when installed is fast as usual. Is a know issue btw.

i think the unusual layout with the dock is the reason for this long delay.

no is not, just lack of time from the developers. Seems easy to put together an ISO, but to create one that works for everybody is not. Small details, here and there, slow down enormously the work.

Layout:

In fact, I also prefer the traditional layout…

I agree about the layout. If I wanted something looking like this of which there are plenty I’d already be using it.

We are a kde distribution, we want to showcase what plasma and the kde sw can do. This is an example.
plenty using it? with kde? please show me some of them!

I’ll move on to something bold enough to keep it’s own identity and not copy something else.

If you mean the kde identity I agree, the current desktop layout does not represent the default kde desktop. “copy something else” maybe yes, but do you know why Win10 and the default plasma layout look so similar?
Chakra does not prevent you to modify the layout, is open, is free and you can change what you want. And I don’t think you install Linux/Chakra every week , it requires 2min to setup you preferred desktop.

I had this problem awhile back https://code.chakralinux.org/chakra/packages/core/issues/73

I think is fixed with the current packages, isn’t it?

[Glyn_Burgess]

I’m in a rut too, but it’s a rut that provides my income so I object to forced changes that cost me time and potentially money. Maybe this is fine for hobbyist Linux users and maybe I’m in a minority but consistency is what earns me money and consistency is what I expect from my operating system.

Regarding KDE distros already adopting this layout - Bluestar is one.

[brikler (tom)]

We are a kde distribution, we want to showcase what plasma and the kde sw can do. This is an example.
plenty using it? with kde? please show me some of them!

such a showcase is a very important thing but users will ask “what is better then the usual? what is the benefit?”
the reason why and the benefit must be communicated.

i would prefer panel/dock on the screen side because it fits better notbook screens imo

[Fred_Talmadge]

No it’s not. It broke awhile back so I reverted back. I’m surprised tho that I’m the only one who has this problem. Everyone else using KDE Connect or what?

[kepszlok]

Woah, i almost mised this release!

Test under Virtualbox 6.0 (generic linux x64 machnie, on w10 x64 host):
-in free mode: live iso fails to load the gui
-in non-free mode: live iso works, installation works. Installed system failes to load the gui.
Calameres’s hungarian translation did contain more than a year old typoos and outdated text.

My opinion:
-that dock is strange. I did not like that, it feels totlay like XFCE…
-crucial packages are missing from the installed system These are:

*midnight commander. It’s tiny but absolutly necessary. Please include it in the final iso.

*vdpau, vaapi related packages. Many desktops distros fails to provide these basic packages by default, withouth any real reason. These packages are required for hw accelerated video playback. Most people did not know how these things works on Linux but that’s normal because these things are just simply works withouth user interaction, if the needed packages are installed.
Namely:
libvdpau-va-driver
libva-mesa-driver
mesa-vdpau

Saddly, both vdpauinfo and vainfo package are only present in ccr. They shoud be part of the core packages…

*mesa-demos package. It contains the glxinfo and glxgears utils. Essential things to have.

[bobby285271 (Bobby Rong)]

I tried the latest ISO and did a installation. It works better than expected. Fcitx finally works out of the box.
After doing some configuration on the latte dock and the top panel, the layout suits my need now! (smaller icons, shorter react time, moving the app menu to the top panel)

---

Some problems/suggestions:

• Slide show in calamares should be updated as many default apps changes (eg the video player). (Also, please show us that which program is removed/added in the final release note of this release)
• The Beginners Guide button should link to the correct url.
  
  
• Consider using elisa as the default music player?
• After entering the passwd in SDDM, it takes a long time to load the plasma desktop. Solved after enabled the testing repo and did an upgrade.
• Not everyone loves latte dock (including me at first). Although it is easy to switch back to the traditional layout (by disabling its autostart), a guide should be provided in a conspicuous place (I will write one tomorrow if possible Done)

[void]

I’m glad there’s a new release.
In the internet era, everyone updates just after installation, but a new release shows to new potential users, that this distro is alive and kicking,

[tetris4 (Neofytos Kolokotronis)]

Oh it’s good to see already such comprehensive feedback!

Here’s my experience on the Live ISO, as unfortunately I did not find the time yet to test an actual installation. I booted the ISO on 2 rather old systems with no major showstopper:

1. 2011 intel+nvidia (hybrid) laptop
2. 2009 intel+nvidia laptop

Issues

• Slow boot and slow Calamares launch (known)
• I got the screen display pop up for some reason (where you choose the screen setup), maybe because of the hybrid graphics?
• Beginners Guide link is broken as @bobby285271 pointed out , I would update it with this one: How to install Chakra

Suggestions:

• The traditional menu (application launcher) seems a bit weird with the new dock, is there an alternative we could consider?
• Switching Dragon player with VLC if possible, as a more powerful video player.

Consider using elisa as the default music player?

It’s true that we need a new solid music app, but is elisa mature enough to replace clementine (which appears to not be actively developed)?

Oh and I love the new lock screen, great work!

[kepszlok]

@tetris4 VLC had strange playback issues this year. I recommend SMPlayer instead of VLC.

[bobby285271 (Bobby Rong)]

The traditional menu (application launcher) seems a bit weird with the new dock,Is there an alternative we could consider?

Maybe move it to the top panel?

Switching Dragon player with VLC if possible, as a more powerful video player.

Or… Juk? The one in the kdemultimedia package group?

[totte]

The Beginners Guide button should link to the correct url.

• Beginners Guide link is broken as @bobby285271 pointed out , I would update it with this one: How to install Chakra

See this issue:

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The Welcome topic is its new equivalent, and the starting point in a series of tutorials put together to give a basic understanding of Chakra. The former MediaWiki installation is no more.

I updated some of the text in the plasmoid to reflect the changes over the past few years, see the following commits:

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[sixsixfive (HJ)]

looks nice, however still to bloated for my taste.

It would be better if there would be a minimal release containing only plasma, octopie and a webbrowser.

Everything else is installed(if needed) in seconds with the package manager. Not to mention that this is a rolling release distro with only a few releases each year so the first thing you do after an install is a complete system update.

PS: e2fsck is outdated so im unable to resize my existing devuan partition(e2fsck 1.42.13 (17-May-2015) /dev/sda6 has unsupported feature(s): metadata_csum e2fsck: Get a newer version of e2fsck!)

[AlmAck (Luca Giambonini)]

such a showcase is a very important thing but users will ask “what is better then the usual? what is the benefit?”
the reason why and the benefit must be communicated.

legit questions!
One of the main reason to propose this layout is to use the “global menu” at the top left of the screen. With this menu we can use simplified windows without compromising the functionality. In the past we used to hide the menu entirely, but this approach is a bit more transparent for the user.
Therefore, to complete that we need a new bottom panel, a simple one that autohide when not used and Latte does the work perfectly (an other things also ).

No it’s not. It broke awhile back so I reverted back. I’m surprised tho that I’m the only one who has this problem. Everyone else using KDE Connect or what?

ok, let’s continue the discussion here:

udev: fragile handling of uevent actions breaks with kernel 4.12+, systemd v237...

Test under Virtualbox 6.0 (generic linux x64 machnie, on w10 x64 host):
-in free mode: live iso fails to load the gui
-in non-free mode: live iso works, installation works. Installed system failes to load the gui.

hmm… on virtualbox I never had problem, but I will check if all modules are loaded correctly.

Calameres’s hungarian translation did contain more than a year old typoos and outdated text.

please open a bug report here with more details. Thank you!

*midnight commander. It’s tiny but absolutly necessary. Please include it in the final iso.

I agree that can be very powerful, but is absolutely necessary for you not for all. A pacman -S mc should be enough

*vdpau, vaapi related packages.

Seem a bit more complicated, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hardware_video_acceleration
Are you sure that installing all this packages (and the ccr one) is enough and they don’t conflicts each other?

After doing some configuration on the latte dock and the top panel, the layout suits my need now! (smaller icons, shorter react time, moving the app menu to the top panel)

Good thanks for your feedback. I agree with you that the “application launcher” in the dock is a bit weird, I will try to move it in the top as you did.
I will open some issues in gitlab with your advices.
Thank you for the guide!

The traditional menu (application launcher) seems a bit weird with the new dock, is there an alternative we could consider?

I will move it at the top as per bobby285271’s suggestion. Other suggestions are welcome.

It would be better if there would be a minimal release containing only plasma, octopie and a webbrowser.

A network installer was planned to provide a minimal release, but so far we haven0t the time to prepare it, sorry. Is in our todo list though.

PS: e2fsck is outdated so im unable to resize my existing devuan partition(e2fsck 1.42.13 (17-May-2015) /dev/sda6 has unsupported feature(s): metadata_csum e2fsck: Get a newer version of e2fsck!)

done in [testing]

[kepszlok]

*vdpau, vaapi related packages.

Seem a bit more complicated, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hardware_video_acceleration
Are you sure that installing all this packages (and the ccr one) is enough and they don’t conflicts each other?

In my desktop with a Radeon RX570, there where no other steps required.
I just installed these packages:
libva-mesa-driver
mesa-vdpau
libva-vdpau-driver
vdpauinfo (ccr)
libva-utils (ccr)

And both vaapi and vdpau works fine, any good video player can use them. For Intel graphics, libva-intel-driver package needed but it can be installed with the others, they did not conflict at all. The package intel-media-driver may needed for newer Intel chips, but we did not have that package.

nouveau users may need the nouveau-fw package, but we did not have that. But Nvidia driver users have the needed nvidia-utils package installed with the main nvidia driver.

So yes, installing these packages are enough. Then VLC, SMplayer and MVP will be able to use the proper hw acceleration by default.

*midnight commander. It’s tiny but absolutly necessary. Please include it in the final iso.

I agree that can be very powerful, but is absolutely necessary for you not for all. A pacman -S mc should be enough

If you have working internet connection. In a perfect world…

Calameres’s hungarian translation did contain more than a year old typoos and outdated text.

please open a bug report here with more details. Thank you!

I will do it tomorow.

[brikler (tom)]

Then VLC, SMplayer and MVP will be able to use the proper hw acceleration by default.

thy can use hardware acceleration but is not the default option

it is a good idea to prepare the installation for “native” hardware acceleration. but before the hardware detection must be remastered.

[kepszlok]

Then VLC, SMplayer and MVP will be able to use the proper hw acceleration by default.

thy can use hardware acceleration but is not the default option

it is a good idea to prepare the installation for “native” hardware acceleration. but before the hardware detection must be remastered.

Not in SMPlayer and MPV, that’s true. But it’s enabled by default in VLC.
Also in Kodi, both va-api and vdpau are enabled by default.

Btw, changeing the hw detection does not realy needed. Most of the work can be done by changing mesa-vdpau and libva-mesa-driver packages from optional to needed dependency of the mesa package. The same can be done with the libva-… packages.
I did not see a reason of why these packages are optional. Leaving them out did not add to someone’s system any benefit at all.

[brikler (tom)]

Btw, changeing the hw detection does not realy needed

the hw detection script removes unneeded drivers but perhaps it is better placed in a extra script

[AlmAck (Luca Giambonini)]

Switching Dragon player with VLC if possible, as a more powerful video player.

Or… Juk? The one in the kdemultimedia package group?

And… what if we switch back to amarok?
or… elisa is not so bad, and seems also stable on my pc.

[bobby285271 (Bobby Rong)]

Is amarok actively developed? Or it just has a long release cycle?

https://download.kde.org/stable/amarok/

[AlmAck (Luca Giambonini)]

hmm… is not an intensive development, but is still alive
https://cgit.kde.org/amarok.git/log/

EDIT:
smplayer with the breeze skin look nice:

EDIT2:
moved the kickoff menu:

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added basic vdpau packages @kepszlok

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