[OpenIndiana-discuss] No longer using OI Desktop

[Nikola M]

On 06/ 4/15 10:59 AM, Jonathan Adams wrote:
> Just a note to say that I have stopped using OI on the desktop, and have
> moved to the "backup" system of Ubuntu on the laptop.

Thank you for providing '915resolution' patch.
If that was not done, I would not be here,
testing Hipster and returning bugs, that helps Alp moving Hipster forward.
http://hipster.openindiana.org:8080/

Here is the your patch you shared for 915resolution, that works for me.
(I do pfexec 915resolution 3c 1440 900
before pfexec svcadm disable gdm , pfexec svcadm enable gdm , before 
exiting VT console, to get resolution on intel 945 graphics working right)
https://mega.co.nz/#!LN5QDRgb!7WARV51lX8zP5lJVxpaUwOX5jRLzHZ7pMe_e1JpBC58

> OI Hipster no longer worked well with Firefox provided on the Mozilla
> website (every time a dialog box appeared there was a 50% chance it would
> crash, and a 100% chance if the mouse cursor went near it), and the version
> 24 in the repository didn't run flash at all, so I couldn't use the
I think version 24 did run flash, just it was needed to jump first to 
adobe test site
(http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about) before running flash.

Versions of Thunderbird (31.7) currently in Hipster, does not have 
problems with Crashing in saveAs, and also attaching files and Calendar 
works fine and also Firefox 31.7, but Flash stopped working altogether , 
so FF 31.7 is not pushed in Hipster yet.

> Enterprise Manager from Oracle.  I got around this using Martin Bochnig's
> version for which I was very grateful.

We would be much more gratefull if code was also shared and a ways of 
building that make flash right...

> The Adobe Reader 9.3 core dumped instantly.  I know that evince works well
> as a PDF viewer, but since I work with Electronically signed documents;
> Adobe is the only graphical application that deals with these correctly.  I
> worked around it by not checking any signing of the document.

I don't suppose that legacy Solaris 10 apps will be working on where 
Hipster is going.
If they would work, that would be in Solaris 10 branded zone
or alternative apps that check PDF signatures could be ported, if any.
I also need that functionality sometimes and Adobe PDF viewer worked 
before, haven't test it lately,
but clearly Openindiana/Hipster is not Solaris anymore, but illumos distro
and software needs to be built for it to work or run in legacy 
environments, like Solaris10 zones.

> There is no longer a working Intel graphics driver, although I could get
> around this by removing the driver and running in vesa with the
> 915resolution program.
915resolution It works fine for me, thanks,
As I understand, it is for older intel graphics, but as I understand 
because of X changes in Hipster,
if it works better for newer hardware , so let it be.
Drivers would need porting DRM/KMS on illumos to move forward, anyway.

> I started to play with making the ubuntu partition work better with our
> network and settings, getting sccs, autofs, openldap relication, etc. etc.
> working, and in the process of mounting my zfs root (to access the /etc
> directory of OI) I managed to stop a working BE from booting, meaning that
> I was forced to use a BE after the upgrades that broke all of the above.
I managed to do fresh install of 20141010 Hipster to VirtualBox and then 
zfs send/zfs receive of BE to previously emptied BE on bare metal, 
together with VBox instal user dataset, so one can log in).
that way I effectively got fresh install of Oi, without touching 
numerous OI /dev installs I have.

> Consequently, Ubuntu died on my laptop during an system upgrade where it
> decided to uninstall the Intel graphics and disk drivers (would have been a
> serious win for beadm btw) and rather than trash the computer and all the
> settings I bought a new internal drive to copy all of my files.

Yesterday I managed to totally block Ubuntu LTS from booting, simply by 
putting UUID of swapa partition in it's /etc/fstab... It is not quite 
resilient as OI during upgrade, to make sure you alaways have working 
environement with BE's like OI does.

> My laptop was dual boot on an 80Gb harddisk.  I bought a new 1TB harddisk
> (was wondering about SSD, but felt that if I wanted to run Illumos I'd be
> better with spinning rust because of TRIM) ... I thought about the issues
> as stated above ... and I installed just Ubuntu on it.

Dunno what would be TRIM problems in illumos, if any,
yet I still have OI's on 120GB partition and currently 28 BE's :)
> I feel a little guilty about it, like cheating on your first love, but I
Yeah, if I were not able to set resolution with your 915resolution patch,
my love would also eat a basket till now I suppose ;P

> don't feel guilty about the 25 second boot times (as opposed to 5 mins) or
> the fact that I can run programs without them crashing.  It also allows me
> access to more updated versions of software, and versions not available on
> Solaris (chromium, etc)
As a fact, there were Chromium port to Opensolaris/OI/Solaris but it 
lacked code patches that _were_ released at a later time (and should be 
still available)
Also there were Mozilla Seamonkey build, that I don't know where to find 
ode patches, yet I have binaries somewhere.