[PC-BSD Testing] PC-BSD 7 Beta 2 newbie comments

[Mark Daniel]

BETA 2 installed without issue.

Way back at BETA 1 ...

On Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:23:47 +0930 Mark Daniel <mark.daniel at wasd.vsm.com.au>
wrote:
>I have been using PC-BSD as a *desktop* (i.e. not a power-user or developer)
>since Jan'08 after moving from XP (for a range of reasons, none of which were
>experienced instability).
8< snip 8<
>1) I cannot get KTorrent to appear in that system tray.  It is running but
>seems inaccessable.  From the shell:
>
>|[mark at gort /usr/home/mark]$ ktorrent
>|kdevelop (core): [virtual void DDockWindow::addWidget(const QString&,
>QWidget*,bool)]

No problem with BETA 2 (I haven't used it in anger yet but at least it
appears in the task bar and from there I can restore it).

Same with Amarok - now usable.  Listening to John Lee Hooker as I type.

>2) My NVIDIA is performing *much* better using the 177.70 BETA driver.

Ditto with BETA 2 (though I can't shake the *feeling* overall the display is
not quite as responsive).

>3) K3b is causing some grief.  It *eventually* tells me that it cannot find
>any burner.  It's a SATA.  The k3b splash-image also blocks.  I have found
>some k3b instructions for FreeBSD 7.0 involving the short-cut of running as
>root which I have used without success.  For a turn-key environment such as
>PC-BSD such contortions for commodity burner functionality are
>counter-intuitive.
8< snip 8<

I have had the same issues with BETA 2.  I went back to my 1.5.1 PC-BSD boot
to burn the BETA 2 ISO image!  After further Googling (and just repeated
results) I admitted defeat and replaced the SATA Pioneer burner with an ATA
LG burner (basically the same capabilities) - issue resolved (well worked
around anyway).

>4) I attempted to [Install New Widgets] from the Internet.  It presents
>Crystal Monitor and Piconet and reports successful install (and now
>'uninstall') but I cannot see the 'plasmoids' to actually [Add Widget] them
>to the plasma task-bar.

Same-same.  Perhaps a KDE issue?

>5) The Firefox from the PBI has text slider-bar issues.  The [Install
>scrollbar fix] from 'GTK Styles and Fonts' seems to have contributed nothing.
>Of course as no other application tried (including other browsers and Win32
>Firefox) exhibits this, it is perhaps a native Firefox issue.

Same issue.

>All-in-all, remarkably functional for a BETA!  Thanks for something not-L*x.
8< snip 8<

Ditto!

1) Plamsa dashboard seems to take an inordinate amount of time to minimise
(all) open applications.  Not the case with the BETA 1.

2) The screensaver often occupies the top left-hand quarter of the screen
only.  KDE?

3) KDE Info Center provides no information in some panels; e.g. DMA-channels,
PCI, I/O-ports, interrupts.  The memory display shows 0% for total and
physcial memory, 100% swap in use.  dmesg shows: 

  real memory  = 3488481280 (3326 MB)
  avail memory = 3400761344 (3243 MB)

... so far.  Cheers.