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2013-03-01

Fuduntu 2013.1 - no install

Fuduntu 2013.1
| Fuduntu got discontinued somewhere at summer 2013. RIP. |
Unlike distros I have tried up to now, Fuduntu uses sha1 checksum and not md5.
Usage in Linux is similar, though: sha1sum yourISOname.iso
Fuduntu, despite how the name sounds, is not Ubuntu. It's a fork of Fedora. So, installation and a lot-lot more is different of the distros observed earlier in this blog.

Installation - and if you happen to try it, read tutorials: what follows here, will be not very helpful and not very whole.
Writing 64-bit Live ISO to USB stick - Unebootin (583) is still good thing to use, and recommended by Fuduntus' devs too. Whole process went smoothly.
And it booted... Strange enough, there is five menu items to click - and not one of them has any identification with Fuduntu...
Well, desktop appeared in usual Live-boot speed. It had Cairo-dock installed - which looks and behaves as sillily as is expected. Compiz - I think was default - no wobbly effects, though, were apparent. Gnome-panel was on top. There was only one icon - 'Install to hard drive' on desktop. DE is classic Gnome - version 2.32, no version 3 pr0n in this distro.
The menu: There were expected things, and also things unseen due to my mostly Ubuntuish experience.
Ailurus, for example, seemed to be a (bit strange) configuration tool. First it threatened me with legal issues and DRMs and washed it hands of everything... quite, err, unpleasant. Things in Ailurus differ from things in also-provided Gnome Configuration Center. Disturbing.
When playing around in desktop, things started to happen. Icons on desktop appeared and dissapeared - finally getting totally lost despite the options 'show' were checked. This Houdini-like behaviour didn't seem to be connected with 'checking' at all.
File Manager closed itself several times. AND, I didn't find File Manager in ANY menu. Through menu editor I found that only place it was (hidden), was 'Others'. Hugely strange, that.
Sound hardware, by default, was chosen wrong. But swapping to the right one worked.
I didn't see neither Steam nor Netflix in menus - apparently I got it wrong when I understood that they are included... Maybe they appear after install only?
Libreoffice was missing some parts.
Whole desktop seemed to fall apart - and I really wanted to try properly installed Fuduntu, so I decided not to be overly alarmed, and started immediate installation.

Installer opened itself maximized over 23" desktop. Quite funny that... having little shit in upper corner and white emptiness everywhere else.
Never mind that - third little shitty menu asked to name the computer for network identification. It also had (far down left corner, sic!) 'network configuration' button - what did absolutely nothing. But naming did - whatever I tried there, whole installer grayed out, froze and had to be force-killed. So I rebooted the ISO again, cleanly, no fingering no menus - and got exactly the same result.
That, unfortunately ended my 'playing with Fuduntu' hopes.
Disappointed, I am.
After reading all nice reviews and things I had irreal impression as if I had downloaded a completely wrong distro. And I have to say kinda thoughtfully - I never had such a bizzare Linux-experience yet. Has to be good for something.

Addon from the next day. Being slightly amused and intriqued of whole affair - and wanting to know what gives: After one more download I stuck 32bit version to USB, booted to Live without problems (except flicker of white artifacts when reaching DE - which didn't occur in 64bit version). Menu was also identical and missing File Manager etc. Installation failure, though, was different - 'exception' error, after what I couldn't get installer to start again. And that did it - classified Fuduntu 2013.1 as 'unusable'. On my hardware conf, that is.

2 comments:

psybernatica said...

Too bad the Fuduntu installer did not work for you. I have installed it to several desktops, laptops and one netbook. Fuduntu is committed to the Gnome-2 DE, and combines it with more current kernel and application versions. Being a fan of Gnome-2, I find myself really liking this distro. The file manager (Nautilus) is launched by selecting any of the items under the "Places" menu. I am not sure if it is unique to Fuduntu, but I have been informed that it has problems with certain USB drives, so that could be the source of your difficulty.

Player with Linux said...

Yeah, I was somehow unhappy too... espcially after reading nice reviews about Fuduntu.
But installing a distro never doesn't seem to be a sure thing - bonus of Linux-life :)
Gnome2, Xfce - I like them too. That's why I tried Fuduntu and not Unity (puke).
But I have to say that those fails with couple of 'nice' distros led me to Debian Sid - and I am having fun. Though, my Grub-master is still Xubuntu, even if in a bit raped shape...
Thanks for commenting.