My previous post was devoted to my attempts to run Chakra Linux on my laptop in Live mode. Neither CD nor Unetbootin'ed flash drive worked. I almost lost my temper, but then decided to look for an answer to my doubts on Chakra Linux's official web page. Are developers aware that Unetbootin does not work with their system?
Seems like they are. Because they offer alternative method. If I had little bit of thought myself, I could guess it. Because this is a method of direct copying of iso image to USB: command dd. It is the method recommended by Chakra Linux's wiki. Did it work?
Yes! It worked!
Finally I am in Chakra Linux 2011.04 boot menu.
First of all, Chakra Linux allows you to chose language. British English is in the list, as well as many others. Although, it is not obvious that so many languages are supported, because list does not have scroll bar.
Next screen allows to choose system version to boot, for example with or without restricted drivers. I know my WiFi card Broadcom 4311 requires closed-source driver, that's why I tried option with restricted drivers, and it did not load at all. Later I tried normal boot option... and it worked! Strange and confusing. Maybe "restricted drivers" only refer to video card drivers?
OK, I am finally in Chakra Linux's desktop. My WiFi card was recognised and activated automatically (automagically). Wow! Honestly, I have not seen such behaviour for ages now! That was very nice surprise from Chakra Linux! I only had to select my home network and enter pass key. And I am online!
Graphical and office tools are only represented by Document viewer. There is even no link to office installer, not talking about office itself.
Internet tools selection is not rich in Chakra Linux either. Yes, there is IRC client. But no, there is no mail client. Rekonq is the only browser. It is not the most functional browser in the world, but it does its job. The issue though is that it crashed several times while I was running Chakra Linux.
There is graphical tool in Chakra to connect network folders. I managed to connect my external network drive using it. But when I attempted to start MP3 file from there, Dolphin decided to copy file to /var/tmp first. And even after copying, nothing happened. I was baffled what does all that mean at all.
Fortunately, old good mount command worked OK for mounting network folder. All Russian-named folders were in place, I could easily navigate through them. Click on MP3 file started SMPlayer, but it did not play. Error probably because libraries for MP3 playback are not included - this information was available in SMPlayer's log.
Youtube videos are also not available in Chakra Linux out of the box. Adobe Flash plugin is not included.
Of course, I wanted to make my own screenshot of Chakra Linux. But that proved impossible. Chakra Linux does not have any tool for screenshots taking included. There is official page in Wiki suggesting 3 different methods of taking screenshots, but neither of them worked in Live mode.
Final chord which I heard from Chakra Linux was not very nice too. I faced same issue with unmounting network folder after shutting down network itself, like in Ubuntu 11.04. It means that system waits for reply from network device while network is not functioning. It makes my Ubuntu system to shutdown for 5 minutes. I did not check how much time it takes in Chakra and used Power button.
What is my general feeling of Chakra Linux? Honestly, I expected more from famous and long-existing distributive. More in terms of included software. More stability. Just more... Yes, there are couple of nice findings in Chakra which make this system almost unique (at least among those which I saw), but they are not so important for me to think about switching to Chakra Linux.
Useful links:
Review from PrashanthFinally I am in Chakra Linux 2011.04 boot menu.
First of all, Chakra Linux allows you to chose language. British English is in the list, as well as many others. Although, it is not obvious that so many languages are supported, because list does not have scroll bar.
Next screen allows to choose system version to boot, for example with or without restricted drivers. I know my WiFi card Broadcom 4311 requires closed-source driver, that's why I tried option with restricted drivers, and it did not load at all. Later I tried normal boot option... and it worked! Strange and confusing. Maybe "restricted drivers" only refer to video card drivers?
OK, I am finally in Chakra Linux's desktop. My WiFi card was recognised and activated automatically (automagically). Wow! Honestly, I have not seen such behaviour for ages now! That was very nice surprise from Chakra Linux! I only had to select my home network and enter pass key. And I am online!
Another nice surprise waited for me just around the cornet. Adding Russian keyboard layout was easier than on any other KDE-based distributions I have seen so far. I don't know why, but Chakra Linux has slightly different keyboard layout configuration utility compared to Kubuntu or, say, Pardus.
What does Chakra Linux give you out of the box in terms of software? To be honest, not much at all.Graphical and office tools are only represented by Document viewer. There is even no link to office installer, not talking about office itself.
Internet tools selection is not rich in Chakra Linux either. Yes, there is IRC client. But no, there is no mail client. Rekonq is the only browser. It is not the most functional browser in the world, but it does its job. The issue though is that it crashed several times while I was running Chakra Linux.
Desktop Globe application is also available in Chakra Linux out of the box. If I was a developer, I would rather use iso space to something more useful. Another issue with Desktop Globe is that it also crashed (closed) when I started zoom in for London.
It was kind of mystery for me. I open application, start using it or switch to another application. And then it crashes or closes. Are crashes here because of Live run? Maybe, maybe not. Log in dmesg says that applications were killed due to memory restrictions. That is very strange, because no one Tux behaved himself so bad on my laptop so far.
Chakra Linux is based on Arch Linux. It is second system in my list which is based on Arch. First one was CTK Arch. I had an issue there for some time until I understood that CTK Arch uses commande xsu instead of usual sudo. I expected Chakra Linux to do the same. But in reality command sudo works well in Chakra.There is graphical tool in Chakra to connect network folders. I managed to connect my external network drive using it. But when I attempted to start MP3 file from there, Dolphin decided to copy file to /var/tmp first. And even after copying, nothing happened. I was baffled what does all that mean at all.
Fortunately, old good mount command worked OK for mounting network folder. All Russian-named folders were in place, I could easily navigate through them. Click on MP3 file started SMPlayer, but it did not play. Error probably because libraries for MP3 playback are not included - this information was available in SMPlayer's log.
Youtube videos are also not available in Chakra Linux out of the box. Adobe Flash plugin is not included.
Final chord which I heard from Chakra Linux was not very nice too. I faced same issue with unmounting network folder after shutting down network itself, like in Ubuntu 11.04. It means that system waits for reply from network device while network is not functioning. It makes my Ubuntu system to shutdown for 5 minutes. I did not check how much time it takes in Chakra and used Power button.
What is my general feeling of Chakra Linux? Honestly, I expected more from famous and long-existing distributive. More in terms of included software. More stability. Just more... Yes, there are couple of nice findings in Chakra which make this system almost unique (at least among those which I saw), but they are not so important for me to think about switching to Chakra Linux.
Useful links:
Review from Martik
Official page
Wiki
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