Slashdot Mirror


Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Beta Released

vivaoporto writes "The Beta version of the popular Linux distribution, Ubuntu 7.04, was released today. Codenamed Feisty Fawn, the CD images can be downloaded from the Canonical Servers, and the final version is due to be released next month. Get it while it's hot! Read more about it on the official wiki."

80 of 429 comments (clear)

  1. download speeds... by crazyjeremy · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm at 130KB/s before this news goes public... I wonder how for it will go down after the story hits the front page...

    1. Re:download speeds... by smaddox · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, if you used bittorrent, it would go up =P (after enough ppl had parts downloaded.

    2. Re:download speeds... by maswan · · Score: 5, Informative

      Perhaps you should try making everybody use mirrors?

      Here's the list from the announcement:

          Europe:

              http://se.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Sweden)
              http://es.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Spain)
              http://nl.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (The Netherlands)
              http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/linux/ubuntu/7.04 (The Netherlands)
              http://ie.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Ireland)
              http://it.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Italy)
              http://pl.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Poland)
              http://de.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Germany)
              http://bg.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Bulgaria)

          Australia:

              http://au.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04

          Africa:

              http://za.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (South Africa)

          Rest of the world:

              http://releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Great Britain)

    3. Re:download speeds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      How about now? Please keep us up to date. It's riveting.

  2. How does this compare by Tim_F · · Score: 2, Funny

    How does this compare to the amazing OpenSUSE 10.2?

    1. Re:How does this compare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Basically it's about 3.18 less.

      I'm hoping SuSe gets turned all the way up to 11. That'd rock!

    2. Re:How does this compare by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 2, Informative

      You can giggle all you want, but OpenSUSE is the ONLY distro that I have ever used that I didn't have to hack at various config files for 2 hours to make dual monitors work. Get back to me when Ubuntu can do dual monitors out of the box.


      Get an nVidia-based card and use the nVidia proprietary drivers. Once you install them, setting up dual monitors is as easy as adding one line to xorg.conf, or turning it on with nvidia-xconfig
    3. Re:How does this compare by fforw · · Score: 2, Informative

      if you do that on a laptop (Dell Latitude D820 in my case) you might also want to install wmctrl to get back your gnome panels when you come home from work and it puts them on the no longer existing other monitor.. (I'd really like to know why the window coordinates are doubled for the gnome panels..)

      --
      while (!asleep()) sheep++
  3. Damnit... by Stormwatch · · Score: 4, Funny

    And I still haven't managed to give away all those 6.06 CDs I got from ShipIt!

    1. Re:Damnit... by an.echte.trilingue · · Score: 5, Informative

      And I still haven't managed to give away all those 6.06 CDs I got from ShipIt! That's OK because

      A) 6.06 is the long term support (LTS) release, meaning that it will be good for a couple years to come

      B) After the last upgrade fiasco, the Ubuntu devs are putting special care to make sure the update tool works this time, so people can just install 6.06 and then use the update manager to update to 7.04 if they decide they want it.

      C) They won't ship CDs of another release until the next LTS release, so there won't be any 7.04 CDs either.
      --
      weirdest thing I ever saw: scientology advertising on slashdot.
    2. Re:Damnit... by Markrian · · Score: 5, Informative

      Just to clarify, the upgrade process cannot skip interim releases. That is, to upgrade from 6.06 to 7.04, the recommended and supported path is to go from 6.06 -> 6.10 -> 7.04. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes

    3. Re:Damnit... by an.echte.trilingue · · Score: 5, Informative

      B) After the last upgrade fiasco, the Ubuntu devs are putting special care to make sure the update tool works this time
      Great, can they fix what they broke during my last upgrade? I haven't been able to get to my /home directory in months. At least I recovered from the upgrade before that; with the help of a Unix guru. Considering that I've had major problems with Ubuntu upgrades (one from Breezy to Dapper, the other a minor upgrade), I don't trust them at all. I see your thread: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=36143 3

      That is why I always suggest people not to upgrade unless they have a specific reason to; if what you have works the way you want it to, run with it.

      My best recommendation would to do a new install. That would (obviously) be faster than trying to fix the set up as it is now. If I were you, I would put the entire OS including /home (maybe partition so that you have 9gig to /, 1 gig swap, 10 gig /home) on your first drive (20 gig should be more than enough), and then during the install/partitioning step just mount the other HD in /media/storage and keep all your big files (movies and such) there. I'm on the Ubuntuforums if I can help you more just drop me a private message. It might take me a couple days but I'll answer.

      --
      weirdest thing I ever saw: scientology advertising on slashdot.
    4. Re:Damnit... by cronius · · Score: 2, Informative

      I was wondering: Can you actually sell ubuntu CDs that you download?

      I know how the GPL works, but in the case of Redhat, you have e.g. CentOS which is their enterprise product stripped away for trademarked logos and stuff in order to be able to redistribute it. So I was wondering if perhaps the same would go for selling downloaded ubuntu CDs, that you're not allowed if you don't strip away that kind of content first?

      (That's probably a tough question, I'll take guessing and hearsay a plenty.)

      --
      Life is Reality
    5. Re:Damnit... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You guys are scaring me. I'm in the process of putting a system together for UbuntuStudio (when it comes out) and now I'm hearing you saying stuff's broken. What's up with that?

      I'm dedicated to making an earnest effort with Linux for professional audio/video production. I don't want to be hearing about typos in config files and such.

      Look, I can still use the case, mobo, drives and memory I've gotten for this UbuntuStudio project for something else. Will someone here please tell me if I'm wasting my time or not? I don't expect installing and configuring Linux to be as easy as OSX, but I need to know whether this thing is ready for prime time, or at least ready to use as a secondary platform for audio.

      Is there anyplace I can find all these little problems I'm going to have to deal with to get Ubuntu to work? Or will these things even matter? I would like dual-monitor support, by the way. Do I stay or do I go?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    6. Re:Damnit... by fimbulvetr · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's simply that the move from dapper->edgy was painful. Ubuntu made it _clear_ before hand that edgy was an "edgy" release. There were going to be lots of changes and no guarantees for some things. Edgy made a lot of progress, but it's "new" school. Upstart, UUIDs for fstab, etc, were huge changes.
      If you do a fresh install of feisty, you'll be just fine. Dualmonitor support takes a little (I mean a little) file editing if you have nvidia.

    7. Re:Damnit... by the-amazing-blob · · Score: 2

      But windows certainly isn't updated as often. Think of it more as XP original to SP2.

    8. Re:Damnit... by evilviper · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Can you actually sell ubuntu CDs that you download?

      You can sell GPL'd binaries, so long as you provide source code as well.

      That can mean you wait for someone to ask, then you ship them a CD of the source code for $2, or you can make it easy and just include source code on the CD, or on another separate CD along with the binary CD.

      Distros usually make it easy, by providing ISOs or packages of the source code for download. Fortunately for you, Ubuntu is no different: ftp://ftp.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/dapper/main/sour ce/

      <RANT>
      IMHO, Open Source on Windows isn't going to get much traction because of this... The GPL requires you provide source with your binaries, but most GPL'd Windows projects don't provide a source package... only binaries, and you have to go upstream, or look around for CVS/SVN instructions to create your own snapshot. Whether it's ClamWin, Cygwin, cdrdao, or most anything else, you've got lots of work to do to find the source code.
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  4. I've been waiting for this one by rnmartinez · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I must admit that Windows Vista almost got me. Its not even the eye candy, its just the thought of looking at something different from XP. I can't wait to go from 6.10 to 7.04, I've really enjoyed ubuntu since I siwtched to it from Debian. I hope that wireless and 3D is a bit easier in this release. I also heard that there is an applet that helps install media codecs, that should really come in handy too (Although I think easybuntu does this too)

    1. Re:I've been waiting for this one by fl!ptop · · Score: 5, Informative
      for restricted formats, this link is invaluable check out

      Restricted Formats
      for a neat wireless/lan/modem managment tool look here

      DebianAdmin.com
      --
      When you recognize love in another and realize how precious it is, everything else seems so insignificant.
  5. new name, please! by fakeid · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's hard enough for me accept the name "Ubuntu", let alone their release names. I wonder if they could have a contest to actually make the version names somehow worse. I'm sure I would get a lot of street cred with the other IT guys when I tell them I run "Feisty Fawn". I'll have to make sure to wear my neckerchief...

    1. Re:new name, please! by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 3, Informative

      When most people refer to an Ubuntu release, they elide the noun. People running 6.10 usually refer to it as simply Edgy, not Edgy Eft. The previous release is commonly called Dapper, not Dapper Drake. So you can just call this one Feisty, or Ubuntu 7.04 if you prefer.

    2. Re:new name, please! by Stanistani · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's okay - the next release is 'Grungy Gerbil' - much more street cred.

    3. Re:new name, please! by AP2k · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just wait till the release after the next: Ubuntu Hungry Hippo

    4. Re:new name, please! by chebucto · · Score: 2, Interesting

      How about calling it 'Version 7', and forgoing the use of a code-name for a publicly-developed project? Though, I must say 'Feisty Fawn' is better than some of the other zany names they've used. Hoary Hedgehog and Dapper Drake are especially lame.

      --
      The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
    5. Re:new name, please! by ArcherB · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's hard enough for me accept the name "Ubuntu", let alone their release names. I wonder if they could have a contest to actually make the version names somehow worse. I'm sure I would get a lot of street cred with the other IT guys when I tell them I run "Feisty Fawn". I'll have to make sure to wear my neckerchief...

      Are you running the "Stoned Beaver" "Out of Detox" or "Feisty Dunnart" kernel?

      (in other words, code names suck, but there is no way around them)

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    6. Re:new name, please! by Daffy+Duck · · Score: 2, Informative

      Nope. Ellipsis is from Greek elleipsis. Elide is from Latin laedere.

  6. still a long way to go by eobanb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    still a long way to go in terms of usability. A friend of mine recently installed 6.10 for the first time. He's basically never used Linux before. I briefly explained how to use Synaptic. He got the hang of things for a while, but then he interrupted a dpkg process when Synaptic was running by hitting the power button. I have no idea why he did this, but you probably know what happened...he tried to run Synaptic later on and it said 'you have to run dpkg update -a to fix these errors!' or something along those lines. Big mistake number one: it told the user to type in commands at the shell. Big mistake number two: it didn't tell him to use sudo.

    He was immediately stuck. He even figured out how to access the shell, but he didn't understand why it kept saying that he needed superuser privileges to continue. The problem with these kinds of things is that if even one little glitch happens like this, the user gets stuck and then usually gives up and goes back to Windows. It has to be perfect. It has to be flawless. Or else it won't attract brand new users.

    --

    Take off every sig. For great justice.

    1. Re:still a long way to go by LiENUS · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Windows has those same issues, ever gotten the error message about the registry size being too small? How long do you think it takes a user to figure that one out on their own? Plus Ubuntu has great user support on irc.freenode.net in #ubuntu.

    2. Re:still a long way to go by Oriumpor · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Cause a user never has had a corrupt office install and had to call on their sixpack of beer a fix friend to hack their registry and reinstall office.

      Shit happens, but yeah there should be an automated system to solve package issues. The brilliant bit is, you can submit a feature request to the ubuntu team and it might actually get implimented.

    3. Re:still a long way to go by stim · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Its not really a long way to go. Ubuntu has already gotten way more usable and intuitive than Windows is or ever will be (try walking a noob though a registry edit). The thing is there is a double standard when it comes to linux, and that is that it needs to be perfect. Linux is and always be a work in progress, allways changing to incorporate the newest and greatest thing. This will always leave some little quarks in some of the process. It probably should have just put sudo in front in the error message, but do we in IT really have such a strong desire to completely phase ourselves out of end user support? In other words, GET YOUR HANDS OUT MY POCKETS!

      --
      Browse at -1 to keep an eye out for abuses.
    4. Re:still a long way to go by Knara · · Score: 4, Funny

      Er... yeah, cuz Windows *never* gives cryptic error messages.

    5. Re:still a long way to go by Chandon+Seldon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It has to be perfect. It has to be flawless.

      That better not be true, because it's impossible. But we know that it it isn't true - Mac OS X and Windows Vista are far from flawless, and yet people still manage to muddle their way through using those systems. In fact, lots of people manage to use Ubuntu right now even with a couple of bugs.

      The fact that it neither recovers in that situation nor gives the "correct" command to recover is legitimately a serious problem - I hope you filed a bug on it - but it shouldn't seriously prevent anyone from being able to use the system. Pasting any chunk of the error message into google gives the answer, as does asking anyone who knows anything about Ubuntu directly.

      Switching to any different operating system will be non-trivial, unless someone else is administering it. There's no way around that, however much people trying to switch to various Linux distros demand that it not be so. Ubuntu is well beyond the point where anyone can easily use it if they are willing to slog through the difficulties of learning the basics of a new system - and no new system can ever be significantly better than that.

      --
      -- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
    6. Re:still a long way to go by Danse · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Cause a user never has had a corrupt office install and had to call on their sixpack of beer a fix friend to hack their registry and reinstall office.

      The thing is, everyone knows someone who's pretty good with Windows and can help them with their problems. Five minutes with Google usually does the trick. How many people know a linux geek to help them with that? Probably not nearly as many. So, linux remains a daunting prospect for people who don't know who they can turn to for help.
      --
      It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
    7. Re:still a long way to go by FishWithAHammer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The difference is that Windows fixed that problem. XP and later have no registry size limit.

      And here's a tip that really should be a clue-batting, but I'm feeling nice: telling end users to use IRC for help is the dumbest fucking thing you can do. And for the record--with a few exceptions, the people in #ubuntu are dumb as a box of rocks. Completely useless for almost any questions. (This is not a slight against the half-dozen helpful people on the channel--just the 400+ who suck.)

      --
      "You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
    8. Re:still a long way to go by mhall119 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Congratulations, you've just invented Synaptic.

      --
      http://www.mhall119.com
    9. Re:still a long way to go by shadowrat · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Really? what is grandma doing that the default install and automatic updates of Ubuntu are not sufficient for her?

      She needs the latest Xorg code? She wants to be on the bleeding edge of compositing managers? She's just dying to try out some new bayesian spam filters in her Postfix install? She hates postfix and called you because she's having a bitch of a time installing Qmail? She can't quite get Wow running under wine?

      I have a dapper install at home and aside from xorg.conf or smb.conf, i find the built in GUI tool fine for everything. If your grandma is calling you for scripts to help her access windows shares on other machines, Linux just might be for her. Otherwise, Office, email, web browsing, it's all right there and easily configured through GUI menus

    10. Re:still a long way to go by Have+Brain+Will+Rent · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're both right. It needs to be better and it can't be perfect.

      Here's my take on the particular situation the OP brought up.

      1. telling the user about the problem
      1A. it can detect the problem well enough to tell the user what needs to be done... so why doesn't it just ask if it is ok to do that and then do it itself so the user doesn't have to figure out how to type in a command.
      1B. if 1A is too much work then at least tell the user "you will need to type this in a window; you get the window by...."

      2. telling the user about privilege
      2A. It should, tell the user his account doesn't have the privilege necessary...
      2B. It should tell the user in words a newbie is most likely to understand, not "you need to be superuser" or something similar but "you will need administrator privileges to do this; here is how you can get them for the purpose of running this command". Administrator is a plain English word whose plain English meaning is exactly right for this context.

      I know, it is a PITA to explain every last thing to newbies, but if you aren't willing to put the effort in to do that then you will never win over new users... they will hit something like this, throw their hands up in the air and go back to something more familiar - whatever that is. That's human nature, it isn't going to change, you have two choices: get used to it and work around it or give up. That's all there is to it.

      --
      The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny - Aesop
    11. Re:still a long way to go by TheMeuge · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Really? Cause 5 minutes on Google is what it took me to fix EVERY major issue with Ubuntu I've had thus far, and I have no Linux geek to turn to for help...

    12. Re:still a long way to go by ArsonSmith · · Score: 2, Funny

      Unbuntu to powerful for your old one?

      --
      Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
    13. Re:still a long way to go by Pausanias · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem is that he told the newbie to use Synaptic at all. Synaptic is not the right tool for newbies. This is the mistake experts make when trying to "help" their friends learn Linux: they tell their friends how to do things the complicated way, and then when their friends can't figure it out, they conclude that linux isn't ready for prime time.

      The proper way for a newbie to install software is Add/Remove programs right off the ubuntu menu... just like in fracking Windows, for Pete's sake.

    14. Re:still a long way to go by Danse · · Score: 2, Informative

      Really? Cause 5 minutes on Google is what it took me to fix EVERY major issue with Ubuntu I've had thus far, and I have no Linux geek to turn to for help...

      5 minutes for you. My mom wouldn't even begin to know what to search for. I'm talking about the friend that knows how to fix stuff. He could find the answer pretty quick and know what to look for in the hits so that he doesn't end up in some ad portal hell.
      --
      It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
    15. Re:still a long way to go by Bogtha · · Score: 3, Interesting

      he tried to run Synaptic later on and it said 'you have to run dpkg update -a to fix these errors!' or something along those lines. Big mistake number one: it told the user to type in commands at the shell. Big mistake number two: it didn't tell him to use sudo.

      The thing is, everyone knows someone who's pretty good with Windows and can help them with their problems. Five minutes with Google usually does the trick.

      When I put dpkg superuser Ubuntu into Google and hit "I'm feeling lucky", it took me straight to a page where somebody had exactly the same problem and was shown exactly what to do, with a link to a tutorial as well.

      How is "five minutes with Google" not enough in the Ubuntu case?

      --
      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    16. Re:still a long way to go by xtracto · · Score: 2, Interesting

      1A. it can detect the problem well enough to tell the user what needs to be done... so why doesn't it just ask if it is ok to do that and then do it itself so the user doesn't have to figure out how to type in a command

      That is something I have always wondered about Synaptic and the dpkg -i ??'xxasdf issue, he tells *me* to do it, and it is the first thing to try... why dont it just *do it*... it is not for security reasons (it already has the gksudo credentials)! just fucking do it!, if it does not fix the problem then throw the error message and be done with it.

      Oh, and the other think I do not like is that the error messages are usually "hidden" in some text file. It would be better if there was some kind of big red screen telling the user there was an error and not die silently (and write something the logfile, or worst yet, coredump).

      I like Ubuntu, I use it in a secondary machine I got from the thrash... granted I almost dont use it (I tried installing in my notebook but not all the hardware worked), I will give version 7 a try but I am sure there will be some issue (with Linux there is always an issue).

      By the way, why is it 7.04 ? why not just 7? that, and as other people already said, what with the gay naming? it is okay if developers want to name it as they want while they are doing it, but I hard a hard time remembering the name of the 6 release, and then it was not 6 but 6.06 !!!! it is difficult to find help to some specific issues (specially for newbies) if you have such weird and inconsistent names...

      --
      Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
    17. Re:still a long way to go by happy*nix · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yea, I know what you mean. I had to reload a PC from scratch for a gut who accidently kicked the power on his PC during a SP2 update.

      WTF!
      Ubuntu is not perfect. No argument here.

      If you want to screw up your computer (HPUX, AIX, MacOSX, Windows*,Linux, Palm, your Cell phone) kill the power when its updating itself. No a guarenteed foobar, but still a dumb idea.

      --
      Gone to my happy place.
  7. Newbie Question by pinkocommie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm installing Ubuntu (Kubuntu actually, a KDE fan) for the first time, looking to migrate from SUSE. I got a copy of 6.10 and thought I'd use that and then do an in place upgrade to 7.04 next month (from what I read online it was a matter of issuing a single command). What do you guys recommend? A straight up 7.04 beta or 6.10 followed by the upgrade? I'm somewhat of a newbie with ~nix (but with relatively standard hardware). Thanks

    1. Re:Newbie Question by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Informative

      I did an upgrade from edgy to feisty while it was very much still a moving target, days prior to the beta release and there's been packages flapping every which way - and the upgrade STILL appears to have worked with the possible exception of gnome-network-manager. I'm fairly confident that by official release time they will have it pretty well worked out. But the beta is working so well for me right now that I would just go ahead and go to the beta right away.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Newbie Question by voislav98 · · Score: 3, Informative

      You should try MEPIS instead of Kubuntu, it's also based on Ubuntu and uses a lot of Ubuntu packages but it's much better (as far as KDE environment goes). It's now in the release candidate stage for 6.5, so the new version should be out any day. It also has Beryl, codecs and video drivers installed by out of the box, no need for Automatix and such.

  8. Re:Are you Experienced ? by pembo13 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I don't know about Ubuntu, but I assume the following applies to it as well: with popular distros like Fedora, all you need to is enter the irc chatroom (irc://freenode/fedora) from any machine with internet access (it need not be the one you're installing Linux on) and ask your questions, clearly , but politely, and you're likely to get as much hand holding as is possible (limited to things like time of day since many people sleep)

    --
    "Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
  9. Beta People by LiENUS · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please, If you are new to linux don't run the beta version, Use 6.10 its much better and more supported. The beta is not intended for mainstream use. In the #ubuntu channel on freenode there have been people coming in asking questions about Feisty Fawn for months. Those people belong in #ubuntu+1. The beta releases are not supported by the mainstream support, don't install this and expect to be fully supported.

    1. Re:Beta People by Chandon+Seldon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Installing any operating system for the first time is a "project". It not an especially difficult project for a system like Ubuntu, but it's definitely not a trivial task to undertake. Computer experience makes it a bit easier, but there will still be points where you have to think a bit to figure out what to do next.

      --
      -- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
  10. Kubuntu 7.04 beta also released by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
  11. Some thoughts on Feisty by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Informative

    I did a dist-upgrade from edgy to feisty about three days ago. Nothing has gone downhill and things have only gotten better. I have had a few problems, though I write them off as transitional issues. After all, it was pre-beta software.

    My biggest problem has been with the nvidia kernel module. For those who don't know, you can make sure this is installed properly by doing:

    sudo aptitude install linux-restricted-modules-`uname -r` nvidia-glx

    This is all well and good but for some reason the nvidia kernel module was just randomly disappearing! No joke. I ended up using module-assistant (sudo it) to build my own nvidia module, which worked great, and got everything working again.

    There is a new restricted module manager which explicitly informs you that you are using restricted modules, which may not be supported. The system may have made it easy for you to install binary drivers, but it makes damned sure that you know you're using them and what the downside is.

    The network-manager gains zeroconf support in this release, but there's still no WPA options in the network-manager. I thought that was coming in this release? I have network-manager-gnome installed, but it doesn't look anything like this. So I don't know WTF is going on. And I'm in the middle of installing a bunch of packages so I can't find out at this moment, either. The default driver may not support WPA, I wouldn't know, but my network-manager applet still is a pale ghost of what I'm seeing in screenshots.

    In general, what most beta users of Feisty are going to notice in comparison to Edgy is graphical. Various theme elements have changed slightly. The biggest change, of course, is the official inclusion of binary drivers, which is much easier to get working. You won't need envy to get those nvidia drivers working any more (assuming you were unable or unwilling to do the install manually, envy seems to have been the most common way to install 'em.) Envy, of course, does not support Feisty.

    Early adopters will note that EasyUbuntu and Automatix both still lack Feisty support. Way to test and be ahead of the curve, guys. But of course that's not Ubuntu's fault.

    This is a lot less painless than my last experience, attempting to upgrade a somewhat tweaked dapper to edgy. This system is no less tweaked, but the dist-upgrade went fine.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:Some thoughts on Feisty by Rutulian · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The network-manager gains zeroconf support in this release, but there's still no WPA options in the network-manager. I thought that was coming in this release? I have network-manager-gnome installed, but it doesn't look anything like this.

      Hmmm, not sure what you mean by this because zeroconf isn't related to network-manager as far as I know. Anyway, your network-manager applet should look just like your screenshot. Are you sure you are running the applet? Type nm-applet at the terminal. Ubuntu ships another wireless applet with the same icon, but it isn't the network-manager applet. So make sure you are actually running the network-manager applet. And WPA configuration has been there for at least a year, so you should be able to see it unless there are driver issues with your wireless card.

    2. Re:Some thoughts on Feisty by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Informative

      For some reason it wasn't showing up. I executed the following command:

      sudo apt-get --reinstall install network-manager network-manager-gnome

      Then I rebooted, then it appeared. I'm not sure if just running nm-applet would have been enough, or if I needed to do what I did, but it worked :P

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  12. Been running it by AxXium · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've been running it for some time now as I've signed up as a tester some time back. I must say in the past I was a big Ubuntu hater as I am part of another Linux distro's admin staff. However, I gave it a spin and must admit, as far as polish, ease of use, stability and the latest software goes, Ubuntu is by far the ultimate "free as in beer" ditro in my book. My previous biased opinion was quickly shattered. In retrospect I wish I have tried Edgy.

    1. Re:Been running it by AxXium · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because unfortunately we sometimes get all excited and tend to want to be number one at DistroWatch http://distrowatch.com/ Then one day you group up and realize we are all on the same team. However, a little friendly competition makes us all strive to be better at what we do, so looking back I don't regret pushing myself harder as I tried to get us over Ubuntu.

  13. Re:Running Herd4 on AMD 64 by MooseMuffin · · Score: 3, Informative

    I wouldn't run the 64 bit version of any OS unless you really had a reason. Theres no 64 bit flash for any platform, no wine and plenty of other misc problems. Unless you have a good reason (> 4gb ram) then you're only going to run into headaches.

  14. mobo RAID support? by postmortem · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Today, more and more people opt in for using home RAID arrays, primarily from free chipset controllers that implement RAID 0,1, (5) capabilities in software. It is free performance upgrade for anybody with more than one hard drive.

    For long time, no Linux distro would support this 'winRAID'. Then dmraid project was created at RedHat, and soon after, Fedora Core 5,6, SUSE 10.2, and RHEL 5 have installer support for it.

    Last I've heard that future Ubuntu releases will contain support for dmraid... does anybody can verify that is the case, that is Ubuntu 7.04 can be installed on RAID0 device created on onboard RAID controller?

  15. Ubuntu Torrents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
  16. Ubuntu is now automatically prelinked by sygin · · Score: 5, Informative

    This Ubuntu release 7.04 boots faster and is snappier than the previous 6.10. It no longer requires prelinking to increase speed.

    From the ubuntu forums:

    "UPDATE 1/2/07: Prelink is no longer necessary in Feisty. Feisty uses a new linking mechanism called DT_GNU_HASH which dramatically speeds up the linking process without the need for continuously running the prelink program."

    Another great improvement is hardware (esp. wireless and graphics) support.

    Now thats progress, each release faster and better than the last.

    --
    Don't make your problems my problems!
  17. Re:DD by mastershake_phd · · Score: 2, Funny

    my guess is that it will start with a 'G'

    Gnarly Gnome, Gestating Grinch, Glad Gestapo, Gooey Goonie, Garish German, Garnished Goat, Global Geese....

  18. Rejected Names by Billosaur · · Score: 3, Funny

    Somnolent Squirrel

    Crank Cardinal

    Lecherous Lemming

    Aromatic Alpaca

    --
    GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
  19. The "G" version... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Next release will be "Gaping Goatse". It will give an entirely new meaning to "Open Source"...

  20. I've gone from Breezy to Dapper to Edgy to Feisty by khasim · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The updates are NOT always perfect.

    If you've used EasyUbuntu or something like that, you may have problems.

    If you're not sure of your comfort level with fixing something like that (or if you depend upon a wireless NIC for connectivity) then you should just go with a clean install.

    People with more experience will be able to identify possible problems BEFORE upgrading and also be able to handle them AFTER the upgrade.

    I've had no problems but then I use an old NIC and I have a decent amount of Linux experience.

    Recently there has been an issue where "hda" suddenly became "sda" and caused some issues for people. Ubuntu changed the way the IDE systems were labeled to make things easier in the future. I noticed when my USB drive changed. This could be a problem for someone with less experience.

  21. mod parent up by Billly+Gates · · Score: 2, Insightful

    We can do a great service for Canicals servers and there mirrors if we bit torrent.

    Also because I am downloading this torrent and more people would mean better transfer rates. :-)

  22. Re:Are you Experienced ? by wile_e_wonka · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm quite new to Linux, but decided to try out Ubuntu. I'm using Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy). I dual boot, and have been for about a year now because I have to use Windows mainly, for school.

    I found the ubuntu forums to be very helpful, and I also found the ubuntu guide (www.ubuntuguide.org) to be extremely helpful for the basic things that a new user would run into.

    As noted in these comments, you will need to get to know the console (command line) more so than needed in Windows. However, I have now found that I prefer it for many things. The other thing you'll need to get used to is not having root user privileges for everything you do, meaning if you want to do something not mundane (and sometimes even mundane things), you'll need to give yourself root privileges for that action (which in ubuntu is most easily done by typing "sudo" in the console before your command).

    I feel like I've become real familiar with how everything works by trying to add fancy things to the user interface (like a rotating cube desktop). Working on those fancy things, which is sometimes difficult (but easier now than it used to be) gave me the understanding I need such that doing all the basic stuff is now absolutely no problem. The forums and Ubuntu guide got me there.

    I will note, though, it is not like windows. It can't be--you just can't have it be as secure as Ubuntu and as easy to use as Windows (I'm sure that's why Windows is so hole-ridden; it was all in the name of useability). On the other hand, Linux really is a lot easier to use than it used to be, has good support, and can do things Windows can't (I really think my rotating cube desktop is awesome).

  23. This is a true story by 9gezegen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Two weeks ago, one of my friends called me. His in-laws were visiting them. Since they are Turkish, they will stay like 6 months with their daughter in US. In order to pass time, they often visit the local library to use internet and read Turkish newspapers.

    Now my friend found an old computer from his company (Pentium III, 750 Mhz, 20GB harddisk) that had Windows 2000 and thought that could save his in-laws a trip to the library. He connected it to his brand new cable connection (without any router). I had warned him earlier that he should at least install a firewall before connecting it to the internet. Of course he didn't listen me and it was the next day after the first run that he called me. Guess what, the computer started showing spam messages (I think that was the messanger bug), so he run an old antivirus program all day and couldn't find anything (the program never finished actually).

    Now, he was wondering how he can fix the problem. I said either use a free anti virus or let me install linux. Since he wanted to test drive Linux he opted for it. So we made a deal, his in-laws were going to prepare delicious Turkish food, and meanwhile I was going to install Kubuntu 6.10.

    At the beginning, the boot started fine. However, as soon as X11 started the screen went dark. I waited 15 minutes or so since that was the first time I was using Kubuntu 6.10 installer and I thought the machine was doing something. But it turned out that I had downloaded live cd (which had the installer). So spent an hour or so trying a few times, and trying install without going to the live system. I should have read little more, since apparently live cd doesn't have the regular installation options I was expecting to see (they had another CD for that). Anyway, after an hour or so, I had my euroka moment when I pressed Cltr-Alt-F1. Wholla, text console was there. Now, at least I knew machine was up but X11 had problems. So I changed X11 configuration on the live system to vesa and X started working. With the main bottleneck solved, I quickly started installation. The installer was kind enough to ask even if I want to create a partition for windows and let it stay there. My friend just said remove everything, so I just go and selected a few options and the machine was ready in 10 minutes or so. However, when it booted the next time from the hard-drive, it was again X11 with problems so I just modified xconfig file to switch it back to vesa driver. Now, I had a working machine with 800x600 resolution. A quick internet search showed me that the Matrox G250 driver that comes with the driver had a bug. So ubuntu forums had a discussion where somebody recompiled bug-free debian driver for matrox. After installing that, I had 1600x1200 resolution without any problem. Next hour spent on eye-candies. I installed firefox, created bookmarks to the Turkish newspapers, created some bookmarks to in-laws mail providers etc, added some weather and add blocking extensions. I also changed to KDE and Firefox themes to noia (to their dismay, since initially they wanted to have familiar XP interface which my heart didn't let me do it. I complained so much that they let me use Noia :)).

    Anyway, to make the long story short, the only think they wanted out-of box was Internet Explorer since some sites explicitly required it and Acrobat Reader. It didn't took very long to install IE (thanks to IEs4Linux) and Adobe already had acroread ready. My friend's wife needed an office program, so the obvious choice was OpenOffice. The final step was the installation of Flash. I also showed them how to use Adept so that they can install whatever they want very easily, and just added a button to kill firefox or IE , in case they had problems.

    Since then they are very happy with their system. My main concern which was running KDE on Pentium 3 750Mhz machine with 256MB ram was unfounded. The system is very responsive. I was wondering how long it would stay without crashing, and asked them to let the compute

  24. This will be awesome because... by purpleraison · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I just installed one of the betas on my old Toshiba Satellite laptop, and everything works perfectly for me. In fact an odd finding is that I get BETTER reception with my wi-fi card than when it was running Windows XP.

    My feelings on the current releases of Ubuntu is that it is getting VERY close to making Linux a potential alternative for average Windows users. The only shortcoming that still exists is that installing applications that are not distributed through Ubuntu is still confusing for 'normal' folks (ie. people who have no background with Linux). It would be nice if Linux would adapt a single universal installer for all Linux apps -- that would bring Linux a lot of people.

    Anyways, keep your eyes on this release -- it is nice :D

    --
    I am open source, and Linux baby!
  25. Re:Running Herd4 on AMD 64 by Compholio · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...no wine...
    While I'll admit that support needs to get better, you can still run Wine on 64-bit. For Ubuntu this means you need to download the ".deb" file for the Wine release and install the package like this:

    sudo dpkg --force-architecture -i wine*.deb
  26. Re:Running Herd4 on AMD 64 by ceeam · · Score: 2, Insightful

    For the most "unnerdy" of users, maybe not, but there _is_ one big reason to do it - "market share". If nobody uses x64 OSs then what incentive is there for software to be ported/released? It's like advising users to stick with MSIE because some sites may not work. And of course - eventually - we will move to x64 and will be able to drop compatibility i386 runtimes from our systems. Let's hope that it takes less than 13 years that i386 adoption took.

  27. Re:Will my hardware work? by HighBit · · Score: 2, Informative

    Firstly, restricted drivers have always been a part of ubuntu, and when those are installed, it should "just work"; if not, it is a bug. This is perhaps better than Windows, as you need no trip to nividia.com

    Secondly, yes, you can forego the restricted package, download the nvidia driver, and run the install script. This is what I do, and it always works without hassle. I just hit enter a few times and I'm done.

    But really it comes down to what you want to do. If you want to run Windows because it will "just work" and/or you can make it "just work" within your comfort zone, that's fine. If you want to run Linux because it will "just work" and/or you can make it "just work", that's also fine. Some people choose the first, some the second. The better choice is the one that makes you happiest, isn't it?

  28. Re:EFI support? by bnenning · · Score: 2, Informative

    I was able to install Edgy on my MBP with only slight trickery as described here. The LiveCD booted with no problems at all. The only shortcoming is no wireless; trying to use ndiswrapper produced kernel panics on boot.

    --
    How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
  29. Re:Running Herd4 on AMD 64 by kbahey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Your reasons are valid mainly for the desktop.

    However, on the server they don't apply.

    I have been running 64-bit on an AMD server without any problems (apart from a trivial quirk in PHP's PEAR/PECL which has an easy workaround [just add ini_set('memory_size', 16MB) in some script]).

  30. Re:Will my hardware work? by /dev/trash · · Score: 2, Funny

    I hear it would be easier to buy weed if it weren't illegal.

  31. Re:Will my hardware work? by grcumb · · Score: 2, Informative

    If not, just stop. I don't care WHY not. I don't care about whining about the genetic licensing purity of an operating system. If it doesn't work, completely, out of the box, then this is of no use at all. OK, I'll even give it a pass on the "out of the box" thing and say this. It's gotta work with no more than 1 trip to NVidia.com to get the latest driver package. Which is all it takes to get working under Windows. I hold every operating system to that VERY LOW standard. It's a low bar to meet. Ubuntu has yet to meet it.

    Why are you complaining about Ubuntu when your complaint is with the hardware manufacturer? If you want a usable computer out of the box, then install the VESA driver and be content. But if that's not good enough, and you want all the state of the art features that modern graphics adapters support, then go to the people who write the drivers and demand it.

    You may not care WHY not, but you should at least take the time to understand that issues like this are not of Ubuntu's making. This is not about software purity; this is about the intransigence of the people who make the hardware. There are valid historical reasons for that intransigence, but until YOU start aiming your complaints at the people who can actually affect the situation, then you should stick to Windows.

    --
    Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  32. Re:yup, working hardware is crucial by Chandon+Seldon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As for windows? Started up at 640x480, and, get this, DIDN'T HAVE DRIVERS FOR MY ETHERNET CARD. Microsoft is really going to have to work on this shit if they're going to make any progress in the desktop arena. If they can't get this right, just stop, I don't want to here your whiny MS-zealot crap, I don't have time for it.

    Thank you. That's basically the whole story right there. If we're going to compare install experiences for operating systems, Ubuntu crushes Windows into the ground all day long.

    --
    -- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
  33. Re:Not that you shouldn't try Linux but...... by Idaho · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Have you ever checked out StyleXP for Windows XP?


    NOOOOO, not that spyware-infested piece of crap!

    Also, why would you even want to pay for such things when it should be part of the OS (whether the OS itself is for free or not).

    Another reason why I prefer Linux...at least in Linux you don't have to download adware/spyware-infested crap in order to do some simple theme or style changes in my desktop environment.
    --
    Every expression is true, for a given value of 'true'
  34. Re:Running Herd4 on AMD 64 by Nasarius · · Score: 2, Insightful

    1) x64 is a Microsoft marketing term. The architecture is x86-64, or AMD64. 2) Things are already moving in the right direction; more and more software is being compiled and released for both 32-bit and 64-bit. This isn't going to be another IPv6. And if you're using only FOSS, you should be able to put together a pure 64-bit system without too much trouble. But for desktop users that may need binary-only drivers, video codecs, etc, there's no sense in going 64-bit just for the hell of it.

    --
    LOAD "SIG",8,1
  35. Re:Not that you shouldn't try Linux but...... by Nemetroid · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, you can patch XP's theme managing file (uxtheme). It isn't bundled with the OS, but all the patcher does is remove the barrier that says only MS certified themes can be used. Sure, it's nowhere near the versatility of Gnome (or KDE I presume), but you aren't restricted to the themes Windows comes with.

  36. Re:Running Herd4 on AMD 64 by Eythian · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yes, apparently 32-bit Ubuntu works just fine on x86-64. Personally, I use 64-bit and nspluginwrapper to make 32-bit flash work in the 64-bit browser. It's a bit of a hack, and not totally stable, but definitely works well enough. The one thing that is quite tricky is getting the w32codecs working in 64-bit, you need to install a 32-bit mplayer to work with them.