Sabayon 5.0/64 Journal

Contents 1 Install 2 Reboot 3 Boot2 3.1 Massive Upgrade One 4 One Thousand repetitive reboots later 5 My Life with Sabayon 5.1 Cool 5.2 Not So Cool 5.3 ShowStoppers

Install

• Text install went 'fine' if rude, featureless compared to text install from debian or slackware
  • The Partitionner is really lame, less clear/consive/explanative than others
• Grub doesn't announce other OS, but do register them.
• Network Config a bit short, only machine name is enabled if you don't go dhcp. Leaves you with .unknowndomain stupid name.
• There is no eject of disc, no auto-reboot of installer - you reboot from your session. Don't forget to get the disc out :)

Reboot

• Still Grub 1, good.
• Boots in init 3; no gdm line --changed to 5 in /etc/inittab, removed =nox option from /boot/grub/menu.lst But init3 dosn't seem to be milti/noX anyway. Argh.
• All TTYs are there, even in runlevel 5, in graphic mode: faster, non-flicker switch
• ssh server up and running
• No vnc, but gconfedotor is there.
• Sound works, but keeps on trying to choose intrenal hdmi digital output. Which doesn't really put actual volts in the loudspeakers, of course.
• Main user UID to 1000; when set to 500, disappear from User Management GUI (same in debian) --solved: change 1000 to 499 in /etc/login.defs

(see http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-347762.html)

• bluetooth still as buggy.

Boot2

• boot console framebuffer OK; not convinced by background image though. Sabayon 4 looked better.
• gdm ok now
• fckin' package manager forces full upgrades but reckon it's best to update itself first. HOW?? did 'Equo install entropy sulfur' and ended up with full auto update.
• 3G as bad as usual, needs to unplug all the time, unlike debian. But works.
• equo is the CLI interface to package management in Sabayon; colors are over-the-top.
• You can of course use emerge, the original Gentoo tool,... If you are a man enough.
• mp3 OK; player uses Totem. Yikes.

Massive Upgrade One

[Machine now to Current version]

• New config files resides in bthe folder of the old config under the name ._cfg00*<configfilename>
• Equo option -3 aka Merge on by one doesn't show diffs; would only show diffs if you select the number from the filelist.
• Once you are into the 'Overwrite Yes/No' process, there is no turning back.
• Diffs shows with - and + signs next to it; blue is suppressed, green is new, black is unchanged.

[Time to reboot]

One Thousand repetitive reboots later

• Compiz kills my gnome panel, refuses to put it at bottom; put it back on top when rebooted. [removed from startup]
• 40 secs to wait from log/password to desktop. 35 without.
• Compiz Start kills GnomeDo. [removed from startup]
• Still old 31 kernel after 'world' upgrade.
• LOTS of udev warnings; given my experience with Debian, it smells baaaad. And, looking into /etc/udev/rules.d/52*, I don't have this hardware anyway (tascam something).
• WICD was forced in the systems, complains hasn't got access to wireless cards. I don't want WICD. [removed from startup]

My Life with Sabayon

Do I trust, or to what extend, such a small project for a general laptop use, including real-life work? I dunno yet, really: the smallness may give extra attention, closeness to the project leaders... Or not.

Cool

• A Repos database update (unmodded repos from italy, none added) weights a reasonable 1Meg - cool.
• mplayer included.
• hw shortcuts FN+ works for screen.
• config files update protection - use cfg-update to review them; albeit not as sudo, again.
• I updated everything in 2 strokes; big downloads but no issues; just patience with freaking 3G connection.
• All kernel sources are there after equo install linux-sabayon and linux-sabayon-sources. Kool.
• e16 is there, as enlightenment-1.0.1 in section x11-wm
• suspend resume OK
• Log helper: emerge sabayonlive-tools then #sabutil menu

Not So Cool

• hw shortcuts FN+ doesn't work for sound.
• xterm white background kills me eyes
• Lots of 404-not-found when using equo
• totem is the default music player - stupid.
• the colors in equo are, uh, an acquired taste. Not my taste, though. --do equo --nocolor or something :)
• you never quite know where you are with the gentoo stuff underlying; doesn't make clear what to use, and what update state you are.

ShowStoppers

• Diff viewer system in equo conf update totally garbled when using it through sudo, unreadable text!!
• gnome panel keeps going back on top of the screen at each reboot; can't just assign it to 'bottom' (have to tick 'expand', select 'bottom', un-tick expand again)
• Unwanted sda1 still is only one-click away from danger!
• Boot process messes with password to unlock wallet on wifi connection; ugly, confusing since it's entangled with GnomeDo with no visible text.