Documentation needs
Submitted by eldiener on Tue, 12/21/2004 - 00:13.
Documentation
Posts: 35
Posts: 35
By far the biggest need in??MEPIS??is better documentation.??It runs beautifully but it is still far behind Windows in its documentation capabilities. The biggest documentation needs are:
- An index for the documentation
- A search which allows one to search all topics.
If MEPIS had these capabilities, and more complete system documentation which would tell the user how to change any aspect of the system itself, it would be a tremendous winner. As is it is a wonderfully running OS, but figuring out how to accomplish many tasks is still a chore. Putting that knowledge into the hands of users is the biggest challenge face by MEPIS.
Better (more intuitive and concise) applets
Posts: 120
Not everything can be corrected with documentation...
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Launch "KMIX" FROM "K" menu
Default volume settings for sound utilities are enormously high - during first boot the sound is just deafening! However, the volume control applet "kmix" is not started by default, neither in root nor in user accounts. Even more, it is absent in "K" menu among the programs that can be launched by user.
What is even more disheartening, the "File" menu of the applet does not have the item "Save volume settings as new default", which it used to have in previous versions of "Kmix".
Attempt to launch "kmix" from user account just fails. The message is "Device /dev/dsp is unaccessible - permission denied. Kmix will use /dev/dev0 as output" - which means total silence!
--Just fix this and no tons of documentation will be needed.--
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How to TEST SOUND?
Sound configuration applet in "KControl" does not have the "TestSound" button any more (it used to have this button in the 2003-10 distro). I could not find any substitute.
I could write about this "Sound configuration" for a couple of pages, but here suffice it to say that such an ugly piece of software could be designed only by sadists, who have fun when innocent users feel themselves like dumb stupid idiots. BTW, there are no means for volume control in the applet and you CANNOT start the "kmix"volume controller from there.
---In my view, NO amount of documentation will make up for this mess---
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Permissions on SOUND device /dev/dsp
Sound device cannot be opened by users! Actually there is provision for 8 sound devices, from /dev/dsp0 to /dev/dsp7. They are all created by root and have "rw" permissions for root and for his group.
However, when a user account is created, it is absolutely uncertain that this user will ever be a member of root group. As it happens by default, users are all members of "100" group, so as such they are DENIED access to the sound device.
One of 2 things need to be done in the distro. Either /dev/dsp* must be accessible to all users, or users must be offered a chance to become members of the root group.
---Do it right from the start, and no documentation will be needed---
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BNK (Dr.Cobalt-60)