Fallback Mode - Uninstall other DE's

[boswbr25]

Hi,

I know this general topic has been brought up in other places but I have another question that I haven't found an answer to so I wanted to start a new topic. I am using an older computer and when I installed Linux Mint 12 the overview is unavailable. From consulting the forum, it appears this is because I have too old of a "graphics card" (integrated in CPU). Anyways, I have two questions that I'm hoping someone could help with.

1. Would anyone be able to tell me if the following hardware is unable to support "Overview" and will result in me being booted to Fallback mode.

From Benchmark:
VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 65x/M650/740 PCI/AGP VGA Display Adapter (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
-Computer-
Processor : Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.40GHz
Memory : 993MB (308MB used)
-Display-
Resolution : 1440x900 pixels
OpenGL Renderer: Software Rasterizer

~ $ inxi -Gxc 0
Graphics: Card: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 65x/M650/740 PCI/AGP VGA Display Adapter bus-ID: 01:00.0
X.Org 1.10.4 drivers sis unloaded: fbdev,vesa Resolution 1440x900@60.0hz
GLX Renderer Rasterizer GLX Version 2.1 Mesa 7.11 Direct Rendering Yes

Hope this is enough information on the system. Additionally, just in case it matters, I am dual-booting with Archbang and have its bootloader on the HD and Mint's on a partition.

2. If I don't have support for the "Overview" and therefore anything but Fallback mode, does anyone know what I could do to uninstall the Gnome 3 and Cinnamon that I was trying? I just would like to clear up as much space as possible if I have no use for the packages.

Thanks in advance!

[viking777]

It may be worth waiting for a while:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features ... _rendering

Target release date is May 8th.

Of course whether other distro makers will follow suit I don't know. You could always dual boot Mint and Fedora, I do.

[zerozero]

viking,
i believe that 60% is there for some time now (unfortunately i would say)

Code: Select all

Current status

    Targeted release: Fedora 17
    Last updated: 2012-01-13
    Percentage of completion: 60%


been playing with 17-alpha (in live mode only for now and looks very good- again)

[viking777]

Ok thanks for the clarification. I guess it will all depend on how patient boswbr25 wants to be then.

[boswbr25]

So just to be sure I am getting this right and it sounds awesome. When Fedora 17 is released in full, it is supposed to have this new feature included? Will that mean, if it works, I can use the package/code (not sure how it would work) to fix the problem I'm having in Mint 12 or will I need to try using Fedora instead to get it working?

Either way, I'm thinking that I could just reinstall Mint 12 at that time and then use the fix to have Overview at that time, if that is what your saying. Otherwise, I would probably install Fedora to try it out. Anyways, I wouldn't be worried about having to install again so if I could I would like to set up Mint with the "Fallback Mode" as my default desktop and get rid of the others. It seems like it is taking really long to boot comparded to other distros I have had installed with lighter weight desktops and I'm wondering if the fact that it tries to use Gnome 3 and then has to switch to Fallback mode is the reason.

Prior to setting up dual-boot, Archbang was loading in approx 17 secs and now after adding Mint it is at about 22 secs. This seems like a reasonable increase to me since there is an additional OS. But Mint is a totally different story as it takes a minimum of 50 secs to boot now. That just seems really long to me but I'm not sure if it is something to do with Grub being on a partition or if it is due to Gnome 3 trying to load and also cinnamon pulling up as an option.

[viking777]

I kind of think that you would have to install Fedora to get this feature (a feature that should have been there from the start imho). They look like they are going to be the first to implement it but I am sure others will want to follow, I just don't know when.

You talk about removing Mint to try Fedora and then reinstalling Mint if you don't like Fedora. I would strongly advise that if you want to do that you invest a little bit of time in getting to know qt4-fsarchiver which will make that process 1000% easier and quicker. See this link:
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=93455

As for boot up times, I would be delighted if my LMDE would boot in 50 seconds, it is taking 75-90 for me - but it is too good to get rid of. I have never thought of it having anything to do with multi-booting (I have 5 distros right now) but you could be right.

[zerozero]

boswbr25,
the problem (so to say, sorry ) is that SiS card, in this mailing-list someone said about it

The only thing that I can advise you is:
- Contact SiS yourself about this
- Advertise the fact that SiS based machines aren't suitable for Linux
desktop usage
- If you have a desktop machine, buy a supported card to put in it.

but it seems that fedora (again) doesn't think exactly like that and adding to that link that viking gave above you can see here work being done (and with 100% completion atm) to support that (and other) drivers

[boswbr25]

Thanks for the info! I really don't mind not having it but I'll definitely remember to give Fedora 17 a try when it is released.