 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 752, 26 February 2018 |
Welcome to this year's 9th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Most of us have a lot of data - documents, family photos, movies, e-mail archives and maybe a collection of Linux installation disc images. In order to keep all this data, and preferably backups of it, we need a place to store all of these files. This week we begin with a look at OviOS, a Linux-based storage system which includes support for ZFS volumes. Our Feature Story takes a look at setting up OviOS and exploring its options. In our News section we talk about elementary OS developers working to make disk encryption a safe, default option. We also talk about UBports getting more Ubuntu Phone devices to test and Redcore Linux working to improve their security features. Plus we cover Mageia's reaction to a breach of one of their user databases and link to a tool for testing distributions through a web browser. In our Questions and Answers column we talk about options for off-line upgrades. We then supply a list of the distributions released last week and share the torrents we are seeding. In our Opinion Poll we talk about where people like to find helpful documentation or technical assistance. Finally, we are pleased to welcome the ArchMerge distribution to our database. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (21MB) and MP3 (30MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
OviOS 2.31
OviOS is a Linux-based distribution which is designed to act as a storage appliance. OviOS can be thought of along similar lines as a network attached storage (NAS) device, a box dedicated to holding and sharing files over a network. Where OviOS differs from most NAS solutions is OviOS does not feature a graphical or web-based interface. Everything on OviOS is managed from a command line shell, typically over a secure shell (OpenSSH) connection. The OviOS distribution ships with its own, custom shell which should streamline administration. The central idea behind the project appears to be making file storage and sharing as minimal as possible, without any unnecessary features such as web-based control panels.
OviOS ships with ZFS support, giving us the ability to create multi-disk storage volumes, compress files at the file system level and create snapshots of our data. The distribution currently does not support booting on UEFI-enabled computers and runs on 64-bit x86 machines which support booting in legacy BIOS mode only.
Installing
I download OviOS 2.31 which is available as a 430MB ISO file. Booting from the project's media brings up a text console where we can sign in using one of two accounts. There is a root account and a regular user account called ovios. Both accounts are protected by the password ovios. To run the system installer we need to login as the root user and then run the setup command.
OviOS's system installer runs in a curses text environment and contains just two significant steps. In the first step we are given the option of setting our system clock and selecting our time zone from a list. The second step asks us to select which hard drive will be used to hold the operating system. Once we have selected a disk, the installer creates a partition, formats it with the ext4 file system and copies its files into place. The installer takes over the entire drive, wiping anything else we had on the disk. The installation takes just a few minutes and, when it is over, we can reboot the computer to try out our new copy of OviOS.
Early impressions
Launching our new install of OviOS brings us to a text console. The root and ovios accounts which existed on the installation disc are still in place, protected with the same password. Once we get signed in, we can create new passwords using the passwd command. OviOS is a minimal operating system, using about 1.5GB of disk space and 30MB of RAM with the default configuration. The system includes version 4.9 of the Linux kernel, SysV init, the standard collection of GNU userland tools and the Pacman package manager. Pacman is not configured with any repositories, meaning we cannot, with the default settings, install any new packages or upgrade existing software.
When we sign into OviOS's root account, the custom OviOS command line shell starts up. This shell is minimal and just grants us access to a few dozen commands which deal with storage, networking and sharing files. We can type "?" to see a full list of the available commands or run linuxcmd to switch to a Bash command line shell. A quick overview of key OviOS shell commands can be found in the project's documentation.
Using OviOS shell
I started out by setting up my OviOS system with a static IP address so I could use secure shell to access the server and later backup my files to a known address. Running the netsetup command walks us through configuring the network card with an address, network mask and gateway. However, there is no option in netsetup to choose a DNS server. The netsetup command assumes our gateway will also act as a DNS server, incorrectly in my case. This meant I was unable to connect to remote systems using hostnames (like google.com) at first. I was able to work around this problem by running a Bash shell and adding my real DNS servers to the /etc/resolv.conf file.
Since OviOS takes over an entire disk with its root partition we are left to set up data volumes on our remaining hard drives. From the OviOS shell we can set up new ZFS storage pools using the pool create command. This command basically acts as a wrapper for the zpool command line tool. It takes the names of devices we want to use (such as /dev/sdb), gets us to select the RAID layout of the disks and asks us to provide a name for the pool. Newly created pools are mounted under the /ovios directory.
There is an OviOS shell command called zfs-admin which I had assumed would act as a wrapper for the zfs command. However, I found zfs-admin would only enable and disable the ZFS module, more or less turning ZFS support on/off, and display the status of mounted file systems. A separate shell command, snap, manages ZFS snapshots on our mounted volumes.
Two of the more useful commands in the OviOS shell are options and services. The options command displays (and can alter) variables the system recognizes. For example, there is an option to determine which port the OpenSSH service listens on, another option controls whether we set the system clock using NTP, a third option determines whether we send logs to a remote server. There are several of these options the shell gives us quick access to. The only problem I had with the options command was there were so many options some would scroll off the screen if I was using a local terminal. When logged into the server remotely, I could use my virtual terminal's scroll function to scan through options.
The services command works almost exactly like other distributions' service or systemctl commands. OviOS's services shows us the status of daemons (ie whether they are running or not) and gives us the option of starting or stopping background services. By default, most services are disabled with just OpenSSH running. While using the OpenSSH service to login remotely I found I could sign in as the ovios user, but root logins are blocked. Once we sign in as ovios we can switch over to the root account using the su command. I like this feature as it gives us an extra layer of security against brute force attacks.
While the services, pool and options commands worked fairly well for me, many other built-in shell commands did not. For example, when I tried to create a Samba user to share my files, the OviOS shell reported the volume where I wanted to make my user's home directory did not exist. I confirmed the directory did exist, and tried a few alternative locations, but each time the user creation command failed.
Later, when I tried to create anonymous Samba shares to browse over the network, the OviOS shell gave me the unhelpful error: "DIALOG: command not found" and then the screen was wiped clean.
I ran into a similar problem when I tried to enable the FTP service. The FTP daemon doesn't work because it is configured to share files in the /home/ftp directory, which does not exist. The shared location not even in the same directory tree where storage volumes get mounted. We need to exit the shell and manually adjust the FTP services's configuration to get it working.
The OviOS documentation mentions a command called autosnap which will take scheduled snapshots of a ZFS volume. This seems like a good idea as having regular snapshots will help users avoid accidental data loss. However, the autosnap command is not recognized by the shell. There is a snap command for manually creating file system snapshots and it works in a similar matter to using zfs snapshot from the Bash command line.
Conclusions
I generally like appliance style distributions which focus on doing one thing well and streamlining the process. When I first started using OviOS things looked promising. The distribution has a small ISO, a very simple system installer and a dedicated shell for working with (and sharing) storage volumes. Having ZFS support built into a Linux distribution was another nice touch.
However, once I got OviOS installed I ran into one frustration after another. Many of the custom shell commands presented to the root user simply did not work, or were configured in ways which made it necessary to dig through configuration files to get things working properly. I don't mind doing away with the typical NAS web-based control panel, but the trade-off should be a system where the few controls presented work without fuss and that is not what I got with OviOS. I had to manually tweak DNS settings, manually set up network shares, and manually configure FTP access to use the proper directory.
What I found most odd though was that OviOS's custom shell tended not to simplify administrative tasks. Using the shell's built-in zfs-admin, pool and snap commands are not, in my opinion, easier and more streamlined than using the standard zpool and zfs programs, but OviOS's method provides less documentation.
OviOS's minimalism and easy setup are to be commended, but I think the project trades away too much functionality in its shell. I found most of the time I had to exit the OviOS shell and switch to Bash to get things working and it's not a great sign when the user is working around the provided features rather than using them. I was also concerned that there doesn't appear to be any way to apply security updates to the operating system. The Pacman package manager does not connect to any remote servers and I did not find any documentation on the project's website addressing this issue. The project's website claims, "OviOS Linux excels in its simplicity and packages can be installed or upgraded easily with pacman," but Pacman is disabled with the default setup. The website's FAQ, Documentation, Features and forum do not discuss which, if any, Pacman repositories OviOS can use. This is likely to be a significant security risk for systems which are designed to run network services and share files.
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Visitor supplied rating
OviOS has a visitor supplied average rating of: N/A from 0 review(s).
Have you used OviOS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
elementary OS team plans disk encryption by default, UBports gets more test devices, Redcore team working to harden their distro, Mageia reacts to user database breach, testing distributions in a web browser
The elementary OS team is working with System76 to come up with a better, more user friendly way to protect user data with disk encryption on OEM installs. "The problem in the past has been that, as a desktop Linux OEM, you cannot encrypt the installation before it's in the user's hands because then there is no guarantee that the encryption key is unique to that user. So customers would reinstall the entire OS from scratch immediately after receiving their computer - downloading the latest release of the OS, digging up a USB drive, flashing the drive, rebooting their computer, walking through the installer, and finally rebooting to finally use the computer. That's not ideal." The blog post goes on to discuss ways of enabling secure encryption by default while giving people the ability to opt-out of using encryption. Additional information on elementary OS's upcoming installer changes can be found in another blog post.
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The UBports team, which is continuing the development of Canonical's Ubuntu Touch operating system for mobile devices, has received a gift from Canonical. The UBports developers received a collection of mobile devices which already run Ubuntu Touch which should make it easier for the UBports team to port, improve and support their software on a wider range of devices. A tweet from the UBports team reads: "Look at what we found in the mail today! Ubuntu Legacy devices, fresh from the Canonical vault. We are extremely happy that they gave us this gift. We are going to port, crack and flash the heck out of these devices. Stay tuned!"
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Redcore Linux is a Gentoo-based rolling release distribution featuring the LXQt desktop. The Redcore team is working to improve the security of their distribution, carrying forward the work done by the Gentoo Hardened project. Redcore users will benefit from position independent executables (PIE), stack smash protection (SSP) and address space layout randomization (ASLR), among other security enhancements. "Additionally, we will move the kernel to the hardened patchset for much improved ASLR. And while at it we will bump the toolchain to GCC 7.3.0, Glibc 2.27, and Binutils 2.30 in order to become fully protected against all Spectre/Meltdown variants. Upgrading older installations will be possible. However the process will replace all installed packages and it will take, depending on Internet speed and machine configuration, a few hours." Further details can be found in the project's blog post.
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The Mageia project has reported that someone was able to gain access to their LDAP database and the information the project had on users for the identity.mageia.org website. The information accessed includes names, e-mail addresses and hashed passwords. Mageia has reset the passwords of users of their identity.mageia.org service and are advising anyone who has reused their password on another website to change their password. "The passwords stored by the Mageia LDAP server are hashed and salted, meaning that the full decryption of the password, if they have actually been leaked into a human-usable format, would require significant computing power for safe and complex passwords. Despite the leaked data only appearing to be names and e-mail addresses of identity.mageia.org users, we strongly urge users to be cautious if the password used for their Mageia account is used elsewhere, and we recommend changing passwords wherever else it is used."
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People wanting to get an idea of what a distribution is like without downloading it now have a new tool they can use to test drive operating systems. DistroTest is a website which allows visitors to run Linux distributions in a virtual machine, remotely through a web browser. This allows DistroTest users to try out open source operating systems without downloading the live disc. While performance through the remote desktop session is slow, it allows the visitor to explore the system's desktop, included packages and features. At the moment 54 operating systems are available for testing, plus there are several extra editions with alternative desktop environments.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Performing off-line upgrades
Installing-new-packages-differently asks: Are there any distributions which only let the user perform upgrades when they are off-line?
DistroWatch answers: There may be a few different distributions that will suit your needs, depending on why you want to install upgrades when you are off-line. For instance, if you want to have software updates installed atomically (in a way which avoids corrupting software in case of power outage or hardware failure), then there are several options. NixOS uses the Nix package manager which places upgrades in snapshots and allows the user to instantly switch between snapshots (or "generations") of package versions. The openSUSE distribution, along with FreeBSD and other FreeBSD-based systems, use a file system feature called snapshots to do approximately the same thing. On these operating systems we can take a snapshot of the operating system, saving its state. We can then upgrade it and, if anything goes wrong, simply reboot to restore the snapshot, rescuing the operating system.
The Fedora Workstation distribution has a software manager which, when new upgrades are installed, will reboot the system, taking it off-line, to complete the upgrade. This insures that all services, the kernel and running programs are upgraded to their latest versions and no old software is kicking around in the computer's memory.
If you are looking for improved security, rather than atomic upgrades, and wish to prevent users from changing packages on a running system then you could look at running a regular distribution in read-only mode. If you set up your system carefully, placing /etc and /usr on the root partition with /home and /var on another partition, you could mount your root partition in read-only mode. This would prevent software upgrades. It might also cause some other unexpected side-effects, but it would mean the administrator would need to remount the operating system in read-write mode before upgrades were performed. Though for the purposes of security, it would be easier to limit the access of user accounts on the system so they cannot use the package manager rather than completely locking down the file system. To restrict access I recommend looking into how to configure access-granting tools, such as sudo.
On the other hand, if what you are looking for is the option of installing packages after downloading them, possibly using another computer to perform the download, then most package managers will allow this. Most package managers have an option which will just download new packages without installing them and the new packages will be stored somewhere under either your current directory or the /var directory. You can then copy these files to a USB drive or DVD and install them on other computers which are running the same distribution.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Calculate Linux 17.12.2
Calculate Linux is a Gentoo-based rolling release distribution which is available in several desktop and server editions. The project's latest version, Calculate Linux 17.12.2, features fixes for the Spectre and Meltdown CPU bugs, restores functionality for LXC containers, permits renaming of network interfaces and makes it possible to use a file for swap space in place of a disk partition. "We are pleased to announce the release of Calculate Linux 17.12.2, based on Gentoo 17.0. Therefore, the whole of the packages were rebuilt and some fixes done. Eight flavors are now available for download: Calculate Linux Desktop supplied with the KDE (CLD), Cinnamon (CLDC), Mate (CLDM) or else Xfce (CLDX) environment, Calculate Directory Server (CDS), Calculate Linux Scratch (CLS), Calculate Scratch Server (CSS) an Calculate Container Scratch (CCS). We moved to the new Gentoo 17.0 profile. All binary packages were rebuilt, in the repo as well as on Live DVDs/USBs. All currently available Meltdown and Spectre patches were included. grub.d privileges are safe now. Restore functionality supported for LXC containers file capabilities. Network interfaces can be once again renamed and saved..." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 746
- Total data uploaded: 18.0TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Documentation sources
We all get stuck eventually while trying to use an application or command line program. When this happens there are many helpful resources available to assist us. This week we would like to find out where our readers turn first to get help. Do you automatically turn to the local manual pages, search on-line for whatever comes up first, ask on a forum, or check your favourite wiki?
You can see the results of our previous poll on sources for third-party applications in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Documentation sources
| I use local man(ual) pages: | 511 (27%) |
| I use local info pages: | 21 (1%) |
| I use other local documentation: | 35 (2%) |
| I use a web search: | 964 (52%) |
| I use a wiki: | 157 (8%) |
| I ask for examples on forums: | 51 (3%) |
| I ask for help in IRC chat rooms: | 12 (1%) |
| I use other on-line documentation: | 30 (2%) |
| I ask for help using other on-line resources: | 2 (0%) |
| I use paid technical support: | 9 (0%) |
| I use free technical support: | 2 (0%) |
| Other: | 68 (4%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
New projects added to database
ArchMerge
ArchMerge is a distribution based on Arch Linux. The ArchMerge project features two editions, one includes the Xfce, Openbox and i3 user interfaces. The second edition is a minimal, command line platform. ArchMerge features video tutorials on its website and places a strong focus on learning how to use and customize the operating system.
ArchMerge 6.4.1 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 1.8MB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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Distributions added to waiting list
- Pegasus OS GNU/Linux. Pegasus OS GNU/Linux is a 32-bit, Ubuntu-based distribution featuring the Xfce desktop.
- Delta Linux. Delta Linux is a portable distribution, designed to run as simply as possible by default, aimed both at beginner users, and users that wish to get the most out of limited hardware.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 5 March 2018. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Documentation Sources (by liate on 2018-02-26 01:27:26 GMT from United States)
What documentation I look at tends to vary some based on the program. I tend to start with man pages for command line programs and the web for graphical ones. I only really check other documentation after those fail
2 • Documentation (by Bill S. on 2018-02-26 01:44:44 GMT from United States)
If I am compiling, I look for the Read Me file. Otherwise it's a DuckDuckGo search which may lead to the aps web page or to a wiki.
3 • Documentation Linux Info (by Tux Raider on 2018-02-26 01:54:47 GMT from United States)
first i read the man page in an xterm, and if i need more help i search online for examples posted by other people, it would be cool if some website started collecting and indexing known good examples for various topics like fixing hard to compile source code, complicated command-line operations and things like that, i bet the admin of Linuxquestions.org could collect a bunch since they have the best access to their website
4 • Installers (by Billy Larlad on 2018-02-26 02:04:50 GMT from United States)
I don't know if this was even remotely feasible for Pop_OS or Elementary, but I wish more distros would adopt (and contribute to) one of the cross-platform installers such as calamares. This really just seems like a space where distros continuously re-invent the wheel, often badly.
5 • This and that (by eco2geek on 2018-02-26 02:15:32 GMT from United States)
> ...it's not a great sign when the user is working around the provided features
> rather than using them.
That's a spot-on description about how I feel about GNOME shell. :-) I shall have to borrow it.
DistroTest, although too slow to be usable on my internet connection, is a great concept.
6 • Documentation sources (by Romane on 2018-02-26 03:03:27 GMT from Australia)
I answered other, because there was no entry which said various. I don't have a consistent 'first go-to'
For some things I will turn to the man pages first, for other things I'll head straight for a web search. Other times, I will head for the wiki. Depends on the issue I am facing.
7 • distrotest (by somuchtesting on 2018-02-26 03:08:38 GMT from United States)
DistroTest could have saved me hours and hours of time back in the day! Great idea!
8 • Documentation (by Ron on 2018-02-26 04:21:15 GMT from United States)
I find MAN pages somewhat obfuscated! Therefore I learn more from web searches, forums, etc. Speaking of documentation, as great as Linux is, command line options are helter skelter and ever nonplussing, one area where things could use a rework!
9 • documentation (by RTL on 2018-02-26 08:03:10 GMT from Hungary)
There is no option for multiple.
As others have noted, I also use man pages, when I know the command, but can't remember how to use it exactly (like I always forget how to use chmod), but if I have to use something I haven't seen before, I search on the web.
10 • info/doc sources (by zykoda on 2018-02-26 08:05:00 GMT from United Kingdom)
I voted "other" as there is no entry that is inclusive. Examples of common usage are a great way to better "understand" the notion of the metawares under consideration.
11 • 6 • Documentation sources & 9 •, 10 • (by Someguy on 2018-02-26 08:33:06 GMT from United Kingdom)
If ever there was a case for permitting multiple responses to a questionnaire, then this is one. Hopefully, bamboozled users will access more than one source when trying to solve intractable problems? Whenever I receive those annoying commercial surveys trying to get free marketing intelligence, they offer 'tick as many as relevant' options, so there is a way to implement this on DWW.
12 • man page (by Trihexagonal on 2018-02-26 11:33:22 GMT from United States)
If it's a program I'm using and need to know about flags, parameters, etc. there is no other choice for me than the man page.
It's already at my fingertips and tells me everything I need to know.
13 • documentation sources (by John on 2018-02-26 12:26:57 GMT from Canada)
Should have had an option for "All of the above". The documentation source I pick depends on the situation. For some weird command line thing, I'll try the man pages, or for other issues, I could visit the site and forums, or maybe just head straight to Google... It's a "whatever works" kind of thing.
14 • Documentation preferences (by MikeOh Shark on 2018-02-26 12:44:05 GMT from )
I start with man pages because I will always prefer local sources to remote sources on the Internet. If that fails, I go to web searches.
I hate to say it but I don't think man pages have caught up with the hypertext help that MS had in DOS 6.2 back in the 90's. More examples of common uses and hypertext links to go to the examples page and then either back or to other pages for other commands would be great. I used to keep the DOS help on a zip disk. I wish I could have all the man pages and a hypertext enabled browser on a flash drive for reference.
15 • Opinion Poll (by any user on 2018-02-26 13:06:46 GMT from United States)
I selected other because, I use more than one of the above.
16 • Documentation (by DaveW on 2018-02-26 13:59:26 GMT from United States)
Like several other responders stated, this question needs some kind of multiple choice. I voted web because that's probably where I go first most of the time. However, for command line programs, I usually go to the man page. I also frequently use forums, and even free tech support. A couple of times I tried IRC, but didn't have much success there. Wiki and local documentation get used when there is nothing else.
P.S.: Does it count as web or wiki if a web search points to a wiki?
17 • Documentation poll (by Dxvid on 2018-02-26 14:12:51 GMT from Sweden)
The first thing I do is type "command-name --help" so I voted "other local documentation", I used to do the same in the eighties in DOS "command-name /H". This usually gives a short overview of the most used option and a few examples.
If this doesn't work I usually type "man command-name" or "man configuration-file".
If this doesn't give any good answers I try to find official documentation from the distro.
If this doesn't give good answers I try to find official documentation from the package creator for the specific version.
If this doesn't give good answers I surf the web for answers and usually end up at some forum or stackexchange site which might have 8 year old answers which might not work anymore because of the switch to systemd and change of network tools in many distros.
PS. The question was what we do first, some people want multiple check boxes but the question isn't all options we use, it's the first one we turn to they want to know this time.
18 • Poll and multiple choice (by Jesse on 2018-02-26 14:46:07 GMT from Canada)
Since some people are suggesting the documentation sources poll should be multiple choice because people use multiple sources of documentation, I'd like to remind everyone that the poll asks where you "turn first" for help. This is about where you look first for answers, not all the resources you ever use.
19 • @18 Re Poll and multiple choice (by Rev_Don on 2018-02-26 14:54:54 GMT from United States)
Which resource I would avail myself of first would depend on the situation. Do I have internet access or not. What type of problem am I dealing with. Are there even man pages, wiki, local information, etc. even available that would address the issue. So yes, multiple choice would definitely be appropriate here.
20 • distrotest (by dmacleo on 2018-02-26 14:58:35 GMT from United States)
that looks very interesting thank you for mentioning it
21 • Documentation (by Alessandro di Roma on 2018-02-26 15:23:47 GMT from Italy)
Sometimes man pages are not accurate, so a web search is mandatory.
22 • Documentation (by DaveW on 2018-02-26 15:30:53 GMT from United States)
Yes, the question is where do you turn first. But where I go first depends on what software is involved. Some requires "cmd --help", some a forum search, some tech help, some a web search, some local help. If I'm having a problem with a macro in LibreOffice, I typically hit the F1 key. If I need a specific option for the wget command, I go to the man page. A problem with Linux Mint will require a forum or web search. Other problems require other sources.
So multiple choice is still a requirement here.
23 • where one turns first (by dogma on 2018-02-26 15:34:30 GMT from United States)
I agree that this poll, without multiple choice, is simply misguided.
24 • OviOS (by Sam on 2018-02-26 16:03:57 GMT from United States)
After reading the review of this seemingly disappointing Distro, I noticed:
"Visitor supplied rating
OviOS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9.3/10 from 3 review(s).
Have you used OviOS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page. "
A 9.3/10 rating suggests that we should all take the visitor-supplied distro ratings with a grain of salt. I wonder how many active Devs OviOS has? Anyone want to bet 3?
25 • I voted online search. (by tom joad on 2018-02-26 16:22:56 GMT from United States)
What first just blew me away was the quality of the Linux online help. I started from scratch using linux about 10 or so years ago. I was very easily stumped in those days. Yeah, I had a lot of windows, computer experience under my belt by then. But Linux is a very different animal.
But when Linux stumped me, I would do an online search. That was long before I found Distrowatch too. I found so much online help and good quality help too in my searches. I always, always found a solution.
So...I want to thank everyone out there whose page I have searched for help. You wizards have saved my rear end more than one and will do so in the future.
To you I say; thank you, thank you and thank you!!!
26 • Documentation Sources (by Will Senn on 2018-02-26 16:45:06 GMT from United States)
Should have been a multi-select question :). I use man pages, irc, stack exchange, wiki, mailing lists in that order.
27 • Documentation (by David on 2018-02-26 16:58:12 GMT from United Kingdom)
A lot of software has down-loadable documentation, which few people seem to notice: I have it for things like ImageMagic, GnuCash, Fontforge, and all the LibreOffice programs. Then there are the web-sites of things like Xfce. For really tricky problems I go to the Arch wiki: detailed, up-to-date, and readable (Debian take note!) The other day it helped me with systemd on Xubuntu!
28 • Doc-U-mentate-tion (by Somewhat Reticent on 2018-02-26 17:45:23 GMT from United States)
I find 'local' man pages far more likely to be appropriate to version than online man pages, but sorely lacking in cogent examples usually included in 'local' documentation. Both are often left out of ISOs, but may be included in repository packages (re-install?).
…
Online searching can yield piles of confusion to sift through for hints; wikis are not often up-to-date, and rarely version-comprehensive hypertext.
29 • Poll (by Jordan on 2018-02-26 17:46:40 GMT from United States)
Online search has yielded many bookmarked pages that I now refer to when most issues come up.
It's usually only about getting the command syntax correct, and still now and then finding the right command to begin with.
30 • Read-The-Full-Manual! (by FOSSilizing Dinosaur on 2018-02-26 17:58:19 GMT from United States)
Long Ago, Full Manuals would have educational examples and cross-references (before hypertext!); update pages could be laid over older versions for audit trail. Initiates were expected to study before questions.
…
Next came the GUI and the built-in application-specific Help function, which could lead to a hypertext manual. Such documentation, included in OS or app installation disk, was at least less likely to be lost, and also less likely to be thoroughly studied prior to use - on-the-fly study became the new norm. Community education simply could not cover it all.
31 • off-line upgrades (by pengxuin on 2018-02-26 19:39:13 GMT from New Zealand)
I think the answer as provided to the question posed is mostly regarding updating packages, whereas I read the question as upgrading the system when offline - ie from mint17 to mint18.
There are distros that allow this, without resorting to downloading, then burning an .iso and upgrading that way.
The upgrade script would normally ask if you wish to live upgrade or off-line, and then, if you choose off-line, advise how much space is required for the downloaded packages.
Once sufficient space is confirmed and the user agrees, the upgrade process can be started.
Once the upgrade process is started the internet connection can be severed at any time, and the upgrade would continue when internet availability is restored.
This method is particularly useful if you have slow / intermittent internet connection that would cause the live upgrade to fail.
32 • poll (by a on 2018-02-26 19:40:41 GMT from France)
Yet another poll where the lack of multiple choice answers is a problem. I didn’t vote. Just wanted to say, of course, I never use the atrocious "info" command…
33 • issue specific (by Tim Dowd on 2018-02-26 20:10:14 GMT from United States)
Like others, I had trouble answering the question. My overall strategy is usually "keep searching every possible information source until something works"
That said there are some general answers. I don't feel like man pages are the best first place to look, because they're written to provide a general answer of how to do everything and that's not really a great way to learn to do something. I'd rather search for my specific desired outcome or error message, and that means a forum is the best place to check.
I've found if you have a question anywhere in the Debian family, the Ubuntu forums are the most helpful place to look for answers. There's a lot of info there and the tone is usually polite.
If it's a basic question about the command line, linuxquestions.org usually has a quick and simple discussion.
As far as wikis go, I have to say I love Gentoo's and FreeBSD's. They're really well put together and I feel like great textbooks for teaching the pieces of a functional operating system. When you're at a place where you have specific choices they do a great job of explaining why you'd pick one or the other.
34 • OviOS (by slack on 2018-02-26 19:58:29 GMT from United States)
I've used OviOS Linux and I was very happy with it, as for the most part it was extremely easy to setup iSCSI, NFS and SMB on it.
The SMB issues you ran into are not well documented, but that is because your smb service was not started, I've ran into those issues too. Once you start smb it would work.
I would say though, the big advantage to this distro is HA and replication.
If you get used to it, it is very powerful. Also , in such an environment I envision OviOS working, you won't expose this system to the internet to get automatic updates.
35 • IRC Ponderable (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2018-02-26 21:47:22 GMT from United States)
Would IRC better serve if combined with temporary email addresses or a support-ticket database which could supply bulletin-board, wiki and forum?
36 • DistroTest (by Ray on 2018-02-26 22:52:27 GMT from United States)
No clue what the site is telling me. It's in German! LOL Needless to say... It failed. Guess I'll still be doing it the ol' fashioned way.
37 • Documentation (by Bob on 2018-02-26 22:53:44 GMT from United States)
If I need to know something specific about running something in the terminal, I use "--help". If I need to find out how to fix something that is broken, then I go to the web.
38 • OviOS (by slack on 2018-02-26 23:58:29 GMT from United States)
I've used OviOS Linux and I was very happy with it, as for the most part it was extremely easy to setup iSCSI, NFS and SMB on it.
The SMB issues you ran into are not well documented, but that is because your smb service was not started, I've ran into those issues too. Once you start smb it would work.
I would say though, the big advantage to this distro is HA and replication.
If you get used to it, it is very powerful. Also , in such an environment I envision OviOS working, you won't expose this system to the internet to get automatic updates.
39 • Docs and such (by azuvix on 2018-02-27 02:43:31 GMT from United States)
Where's the "all of the above" option?
Seriously, some projects have superb documentation using only the man pages, others have an extensive info page, others you have to "use the source, Luke", and still others are served just fine by online documentation in all its forms and user support when the documentation isn't sufficiently clear.
I like projects that provide multiple avenues for figuring things out, though I prefer it when IRC is considered the last resort option. Why? Two reasons, really. For one, it doesn't tax anyone's patience. Two, I feel a lot more competent when I can solve a puzzle myself with the useful guideposts left by the experts. My system, my responsibility.
40 • @39 (by azuvix on 2018-02-27 02:51:52 GMT from United States)
Erm... I meant to say "an extensive info file (with, you know, 250 pages or so)"
41 • @18, 23... (by Corentin on 2018-02-27 05:29:47 GMT from France)
No, one choice is quite correct.
If you have no web access, you can just use your smartphone or tablet to make a web search... 😉
42 • Web access (by RTL on 2018-02-27 09:34:41 GMT from Hungary)
"If you have no web access, you can just use your smartphone or tablet to make a web search... 😉"
I don't think you know what web access means. When you don't have web access, you don't have access on smartphone or tablet either.
What if you are on Mars, and you can't make a web search why doesn't the water creating maschine work? Could be a simple permission check error.
43 • Documentation (by hsw on 2018-02-28 04:00:37 GMT from Taiwan)
I usually check man first and if the obvious name does not work I will try apropos searches before using DuckDuckGo to search. I avoid info pages and will try to find the equivalent HTML version.
44 • OviOS review (by ovi on 2018-03-01 02:31:09 GMT from Canada)
Hi guys,
just found you reviewed OviOS, interesting p.o.v, more so as OviOS was never meant to be used by regular home users.
First, to reply to comment 24 (Sam) , there is one dev working on OviOS :)
A second thing is, the project started in an attempt to demonstrate the power of Linux on the storage, compared to Netapp's ONTAP and their filesystem WAFL, and by this I mean enterprise storage, with a heavy focus on iSCSI and NFS (SMB was added way later when samba was working well enough with an DC), and zfs on Linux.
The goal was to showcase the use of Linux on storage at a time when no commercial distro (RHEL or SUSE) was doing it. They still do it pretty badly today when it comes to ease of use.
This found an interest in a few companies who use it even today happily.
So one storage admin would have a better understanding of why there is a vol, snap, lun command (replacing the zfs command) , why autosnap is not needed in the ovios-shell, or why automatic updates are not useful because you'd never expose the storage system to the internet anyway.
FTP is also not "advertised" as working out of the box , it's not yet implemented along with other storage protocols.
SMB works when started, there is a BUG there ,but you know, which distro doesn't have them :)
keep up the good work btw, your reviews are awesome, I read them each and every one of them :)
ovi
45 • Polls (by Hello, this is Lenny on 2018-03-01 05:30:26 GMT from Canada)
What an very odd, seemingly pointless poll...
Developers will continue doing what they do and placing their info where each deems best.
Users will continue to struggle up the greased learning curve using method(s) they already feel comfortable with ...
What's all the hubbub...
As of this writing, 54% of respondents use web searches, with manual pages coming in a distant second at 27%.
So I guess that settles things.
...
BUT Wait ! There's MORE !!!
...
This is the kind of pointless data that is a gold mine to Marketing firms wishing to know where the biggest bang for their buck can be had with regard to ad placement.
I am sure a pretty penny can be made from the sale of such data, make no mistake ! even if it be less than $100 in total.
With 27% of the respondents using manual pages as their primary goto, it would be a shame to see ads being layed into such documents down the road.
And now you see how seemingly meaningless polls can have a darker ulterior motive ...
I'm looking at you, DW ...
(Hears raised voices from the back rooms of distrowatch)
"...and we would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling kids, err...commentators..."
46 • Polls @45 (by Qualsevol Nom on 2018-03-01 13:18:57 GMT from Spain)
Man pages, usually, are NOT clear enough for newbies. In the other side, for experts are NOT necessary.
On my first installation of Arch Linux, I do NOT understand man pages on how to install it.
The content of synopsis in man pages is for Computer Engineers or General Users?
Thanks to youtube videos and / or tutorials with EXAMPLES I learn how to install Arch Linux. (and yes, with a lot of adds).
Shame to devs for create man pages that only understant experts WITHOUT CLEAR EXAMPLES.
47 • @39 about documentation (by RJA on 2018-03-01 16:50:01 GMT from United States)
Gentoo is the best example of superb documentation!
I was able to get a proper installation in not that long, especially for me still being a Linux newbie, several years ago, back in 2010!
But back in 2010, I very quickly became a non-Linux-newbie!
48 • "pointless poll?" (by Jordan on 2018-03-02 22:26:48 GMT from United States)
@45 It seems to be straightforward and to the point. The "point" being whatever the data results show us.
49 • Poll (by Jim on 2018-03-03 11:04:39 GMT from United States)
I am guessing a lot of people use multiple means of documentation. I tend to use favorite Linux sites for tutorials first, then web searches, then forums and last wikis. Hopefully I have the problem solved by the first one or at the least by the last one.
50 • Docs don't exist. (by os2_user on 2018-03-04 23:48:40 GMT from United States)
Information in Linux is its worst area. Sure, some of the newer applications work well enough and are adequately written up. But for basics, Linux keeps the Unix tradition of terse / arcane / out of date / non-existent information. And it's not going to be fixed because no one wants to do ALL the dull work that's been neglected for nearly 50 years now. It's basically "RTFM, newb!" Those who've figured it out think writing basics is not worth their time, and of course, everyone else simply doesn't know!
Three specific examples from PCLinux:
No help anywhere for screen resolution never saved in 2014 and prior versions, always back to default. (Seems fixed in 2017, but next two aren't.)
Tried to "learn" vim just in case of need, but "man" page omits or is wrong on key point of the edit command modes, and though says on screen to "Press F1", it does nothing!
Setting up new 3T drive in GParted, which it wouldn't allow, NO help at all on how, of having to choose EFI GPT type, nothing apposite found on line. Making two 1.5T partitions lasted only until next boot, then was scrambled and unusable. Eventually found command line instructions, which worked -- at least for a while, but that ext4 file system just rotted away, sub-dirs empty, then both superblocks bad!
Number of Comments: 50
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