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Seven Essential Tips For Using Ubuntu Feisty Fawn
Ed Albro writes "Matthew Newton, a columnist at PC World, has a great article up on seven things you'll want to change as soon as you start using Feisty Fawn. Some are as simple as making sure the Alt key works right, another gives you step-by-step instructions for turning on the impressive Beryl interface. 'I could spend a whole 'nother column telling you about all the great packages that are not installed by default, but for now I'll just leave you with this bonus tip: If you're running Ubuntu on a laptop and your Wi-Fi card is not detected or supported, try installing the Ndisgtk package (listed as such in Synaptic, but as 'Wireless Windows Drivers' in Add/Remove Applications). Then select the new System, Administration, Windows Wireless Drivers entry in Ubuntu's menu bar.'"
Don't get me wrong: I'm glad Ubuntu is getting the publicity. What bothers me the most about this article, though, is that he suggests that one of the first things you should do is install Automatix
Automatix is simple, and easy to use. It'll automatically install a lot of important stuff -- but it does so in a bad way. Overwriting files, removing dependencies, messing up the ubuntu-desktop metapackage -- name a brute-force method to deal a low blow to your package management system, and Automatix does it in ways that make developers cringe.
This is not usually a problem initially, but eventually you end up paying the piper; when it's time to update to the next version, things break, and it's Automatix's fault. A large portion of problems people experienced moving from Dapper to Edgy were caused by Automatix; Automatix refused to support those problems, and claimed it was our fault. I don't have a problem with Automatix existing, but until they take responsibility for the problems they cause, I'm not going to go recommending it to users. It does more harm than good.
Nice to see tips for the newbies to help them set up the system in the way they like best,
but I feel that the system just after installation is already really usable and reliable.
If you are not an expert and you start to turn on Beryl and to play with Synaptic...
I believe that a lot of people will be going back to windows because their system has become
unusable.
Once you're ready to take off, you will discover by yourself these great features.
Just my idea.
marco
there is a show stopper bug in either the kernel or driver for the ata2 interface.
o urce-2.6.20/+bug/107271
it's confirmed now that on many laptops the kernel has to restart the ata2 interface intermittently and thereby lock up your system for up to 30 seconds at a time essentially rendering your laptop useless.
stay on lts or edgy for the time being until this bug is fixed:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-s
"Wanna play with my Fiesty Fawn?" should never be used as a pick-up line.
from what i've heard, keeping a CD in the cdrom resolves this.
If you're running Ubuntu on a laptop and your Wi-Fi card is not detected or supported, try installing the Ndisgtk package (listed as such in Synaptic, but as 'Wireless Windows Drivers' in Add/Remove Applications). Sucks be to you if your only connectivity is Wireless...
Get your own free personal location tracker
Susano! Wake Up! LINNNUUUXXX is ready!
Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
Linux needs to mature faster than the jerks coming up with the names
Why? It's grown up nicely with me since 1995. Your whole post is predicated on the idea that the original developers of FOSS just want to make money off it. Usually they don't; they do it for fun, because they love computers, to help out their fellow man, the list goes on and in some cases probably includes making money. But not usually in my experience.
Companies that repackage it all and want to make money may want to spend some time studying branding and marketing but the GNU people aren't trying to sell you anything. They give it to you, no charge, including the blessing to make your own money off it if you choose/can succeed. If you think you can sell GNU software under some fancy name then I will be happy to give your distro a try when it's released. I like to try them all! But you can also be sure I will go back to using my Sarges and Etches and my Drakes and Fawns if your distro ends up sucking, even if you do come up with a clever name.
Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
So the article is basically "How to install a bunch of shit that wasn't installed by default for good reasons". Not a good idea.
Binary drivers that are completely unsupportable.
A package manager that conflict with the default one.
3D whiz-bang eye candy that's unstable, and requires yet more binary drivers to get 3D.
Magic.
Definately not good to apt-get dist-upgrade.... my home machine's IDE drives suddenly got referenced as scsis, all sorts of heck broke loose and there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
My work machine I followed the process of using the update manager, and all is well.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
How long is your list for vista/xp?
Xp:
Step 1: Pray you have SP2 to enable firewall.
Step 2: Install 80+ updates. Reboot at least 4 times, probably one crash at least.
Step 3: Install all drivers for all hardware.
Step 4: Download and install A/V software. Suffer 10% performance penalty until the end of time.
Step 5: Download and install browser.
Step 6: Download and install decent text editor.
Step 7: Download and install cd burning software.
Step 8: Download and install dvd playing software.
Step 9: Download and install video software.
Step 10: Download and install music playing software.
Step 11: Disable tons of services in mmc services panel.
Jesus, we're not even close to done. All of these take quite a bit more time than the 7 steps outlined above, and nowhere near as stable...
The right-hand alt key is not configured... does anyone actually use the right-hand keys (alt, windows, menu context, ctrl, and shift)? I have never ever used that part of the keyboard.
I actually like the name. It's playful and disarming.
Though my favorite is still Fedora Core 6's code name, "Zod".
"Kneel before Zod!"
"Oh my god!" "Zod."
Best villain ever, I still say.
And gluing a penny to the top of your PC lets you use imported software.
It's true! Try it!
Here is the official guide from ubuntu.com: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading
First make sure your computer is fully up to date (with Edgy). Then follow these instructions:
1. Open System -> Administration -> Update Manager
2. A button on the top of the window will appear, informing you of the availability of the new release
3. Click Upgrade
4. Follow the on-screen instructions
That page also has a link on how to upgrade manually from a command-line, but it's not recommended.
Okay you may have a point with some of the tweaks. The right alt key should work like the left but that is a preference and familiarity from Windows, but did you even read the article? What did the guy have to install to make his right alt key work? Oh right, nothing. He had to go into the preferences and set it. It's like control panel except...it's not. I also don't get it, people like you complain when the Linux desktop environment is a complete mirror image of windows or you complain that it isn't exactly like windows down to the last Icon? Which is it? I am sure the right-alt key won't make or break the experience.
Also by your logic Windows isn't ready for the desktop either, which is debated (especially by linux fanboys) but do you call having to go get the driver CD for many different pieces of hardware and installing anti-virus convenient? I think it's just habit and people like you just accept it because you are used to it. I mean Windows is on a hell of a lot more PCs than Linux is (Desktops). You guys hold Linux to this level that is unattainable and I don't think Linux will be for you for a very long time.
Turn based strategy game that runs over XMPP. Phalanx
How do I use APT to upgrade from my Edgy install to Feisty?
Assuming you mean apt-get or aptitude: preferably not at all. Read http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading
If you insist, click the link at the bottom of the page.
Nitpick: APT is the Advanced Packaging Tool, and you always use it automatically when upgrading a Debian-based system, even when you don't use apt-get/aptitude but update-manager, as recommended at the above link.
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
Step 0 (nil?): If you are installing on a Serial ATA/SCSI drive, grab an old 3.5" Floppy drive out of a box in the garage and install it in 'cause setup is only going look for a floppy drive at A: (Or you can slipstream them into your own installer CD. Of course, you would need a functioning OS for that.) I think drive letters are great!!!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
the nvidia-glx-new package supports the 8xxx cards. There's a long story behind why it's called new, and it's all right here:
e stricted-modules-2.6.20/+bug/96430
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-r
Don't blame launchpad for the funkiness, they had to work around nvidia's move of de-supporting a huge amount of cards that are still currently very popular.
What are the new features of the latest version of Ubuntu aside from the 3D desktop toggling? I haven't read much about it, and wondered if there were any breakthrough tools or features.
"Please, shut up. Just when I think you can't say anything more stupid, you speak again." -Archie Bunker.
Save yourself sanity. Don't use devices that only have windows drivers running through NDISwrapper. You'll get only a tiny fraction of the functionality, it'll break all the time. My experience has been that devices with in-kernel drivers are worth whatever premium. Always get the intel wireless on your laptop.
... just image how terrible it is when you are using another OS's buggy binary-only driver. You have that mental image. Now add demons pouring acid down your throat. You're approaching the reality of NDISwrapper. I think half-broken internet access is worse than no access. You just get tempted to believe that you can really get whatever from the net, only to find that when you count on connectivity, it breaks.
NDIS is the lowest level of hardware "support" in Linux. If Stallman warns about binary blobs or nonfree drivers because you don't know what the code is and the drivers stop working after the company stops maintaining them
Who is this PC World joker, anyway?
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
Parent is not off-topic, and has a point. Using code words rather than version numbers is seriously problematic
when identifying to a new user whether or not they are using the newest version, and to whether or not the packages
they are installing are obsolete.
My personal complaint is the lack of contiguity between releases. I'd really like it if I could install from an old system disk and update it to current without getting "Your system is obsolete" during an update...
Non sequitur: Your facts are uncoordinated.
Or you could call it Ubuntu 7 - The free one.
There's a new note in that thread that there's a work around available at the end of this thread
After installing the VMware tools the scroll wheel on most mice will become disabled. To fix this:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf (Or with what ever text editor you wish.)
1. sudo -i (To become root.)
2. nano
3. In the Section "InputDevice" for your mouse change the line under "Protocol" that says, "ps/2" to "ImPS/2".
4. Restart X. (ctrl-alt-backspace, reboot, etc)
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
If you don't have SP2, forget it. Turn off your computer, get your golf clubs or your tennis racket, or whatever, and go play outside. You can't use a computer nowadays with XP without SP2.
Step 3 - Most installations don't really need new drivers. With few exceptions
Correction: most *Linux* installations don't need new drivers. Most Microsoft installation needs new drivers, so those are what you call "few exceptions", I suppose. Any hardware that came after the Windows version you have installed needs a CD with the driver. Considering that Microsoft only releases a new version of Windows every few years, it's a practical certainty that you'll need to insert a few driver CDs in every Windows system you install from scratch.
All in all, from your comments I conclude that you have never installed either Ubuntu or any other Linux distro. You think all the bother one has to go through to install Windows is perfectly normal, or "the nature of the beast" as you put it. Well, it just doesn't need to be so.
The difference between Linux fanboys and Windows fanboys is that almost everyone has or had in the past a Windows computer, but not everyone has a Linux system. The Linux developers know all the quirks in a Windows installation and they try to do something better when they create their own solutions for Linux. The Windows people think it's so nice when XP reboots automatically instead of showing a blue screen, because they have never seen a system like Linux where a device driver crashing doesn't bring the whole system down. They think it's so easy to go to CompUSA, buy a software, get home, insert the CD and click in "D:\setup.exe" because they have never seen something like synaptic or adept where you can install any application from the 20000+ that are available online by a single click of the mouse. The Windows experts, or "power users", feel so proud about their detailed knowledge of whatever binary data they have to edit in the registry because they have never felt the pleasure of editing text files in the
I used to be a Windows expert, I knew it intimately, down to the "undocumented" functions. I wrote many applications for Windows, I debugged many Windows systems, even to the point of running a disassembler on some device drivers to find why they were crashing. Today I have fully shifted to Ubuntu, although I still use and maintain a Windows computer for some games. I know of no one that ever learned Linux to the point that I learned Windows that has shifted back to a Microsoft system.
People who know Windows a lot and something of Linux may prefer Windows, and vice-versa, but if you really know intimately both systems, to the point of being able to write a device driver, as I have done for both Linux and Windows, you'll never, ever, shift from Linux to Windows.
UUIDs are less likely to get changed than the /dev/hd* or /dev/sd* letters. These are sometimes assigned randomly, depending on how your system is set up, or get shuffled in interesting and non-intuitive ways when partitions are changed. My real-life example: I had an IDE controller PCI card in my system. What would happen is that it would sometimes take hda->hdd, leaving my real boot drive as hde, and other times it would take hde->hdh. If I had known about UUIDs, I could have just accepted the changing device names and not worried what they were.
Linux Mint. An Ubuntu based distro that uses French female release names. The latest release is Bianca and the next one will be Casandra. So you can tell you parents it's Mint Linux, Bianca, as opposed to Ubuntu, Feisty Fawn. Also, the blue/green theme it uses out of the box looks nicer than the orange/brown of Ubuntu.
http://linuxmint.com//
I believe he meant 6.10, as that's the behavior to expect from 6.10. The card just doesn't work at all 7.04. The thing that kills me is that the best fix seems to be to download ndiswrapper. I can't download squat because the only available network connection is dead in the water. (Some users have reported a workaround, but it doesn't work for everyone. I tried, and it doesn't work for me.)
I disagree with using 'Automatix'. If you just installed the package ubuntu-restricted-extras you would of achieved the same result (flash, mp3, sun java6, dvd etc support).
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Hey Dude, there's this company called Dell. They did steps 1-10 before they shipped me the box.
But then there's the box I made myself. I'll respond to your FUD point by point there...
> How long is your list for vista/xp?
>
> Xp:
>
> Step 1: Pray you have SP2 to enable firewall.
You don't have the budget for a router while you get SPs and ZoneAlarm (or equivalent) installed?
> Step 2: Install 80+ updates. Reboot at least 4 times, probably one crash at least.
Not actually that bad --and nothing like this with a slipstreamed install. Where are you getting these ancient install disks?
> Step 3: Install all drivers for all hardware.
Plug-n-play simplicity itself --Windows handled it.
> Step 4: Download and install A/V software. Suffer 10% performance penalty until the end of time.
True. WMP is, in fact, inadequate. It's a little annoying to find and install all my favorite software (steps 4-10), but it's not as if I'm going to use/keep all the apps that ship with any distro either.
> Step 5: Download and install browser.
> Step 6: Download and install decent text editor.
> Step 7: Download and install cd burning software.
> Step 8: Download and install dvd playing software.
> Step 9: Download and install video software.
> Step 10: Download and install music playing software.
> Step 11: Disable tons of services in mmc services panel.
Agreed, step 11 sucks and belies a crap security model. But... It's also the flip side of having to enable tons of services.
Look... No OS is perfect, but it's so annoying the way Windoze, Apple, or Linux fanboys act like their shit don't stink. Please. Like everything else, there are pros and cons, with tradeoffs to be made with any OS. It may make you feel better to vent, but we've already heard it. We already know the million ways that Microsoft sucks. Save it for your blog or journal.
Yeah, because it's so hard to figure out the proper versioning sequence of Dapper Drake, Edgy Eft, and Feisty Fawn...
"Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar
and then hope it doesn't break, lock up your system or outright die because all the mirrors are overloaded. Even on the fastest DSL right now, an upgrade is probably going to take hours. It might be a really good idea to wait a few days before trying this.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Step 1 - You either have SP2 or you don't. If you don't, install whatever version you have and download the update (that'll also cut down the number of reboots on step 2). If you're worried about viruses, download a freeware AV package before you do the update.
Are you insane? If you don't have SP2 and you are not in a secure network, then you are infected before you have finished a download. 12 minutes in 2005.
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
ATi refuses to release basic specs for some cards (e.g., my X1300), so the free ati driver cannot support them. Just choose the proprietary ATi driver.
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
The procedure's a bit different, but (assuming you stuck with the default KDE), then yes, it's essentially the same thing with Kubuntu; run K -> System -> Adept Manager, enable edgy-updates, update everything, then restart Adept Manager and a version upgrade will be offered.
Wow. That's fantastic. I used to use Linux in various incarnations as my main desktop OS. I root for it every day to continue improving. And it has improved, in so many ways. But it seems to be approaching true polish and usability on an asymptotic curve rather than a more linear progression. When even what are widely considered the best, most usable and user friendly distributions of Linux continue to be shipped out with bad showstopper bugs in full release versions, and basic usability features like automatic determination of your video card and monitor specs are still unreliable, it isn't there yet. Fail.
I still see an awful lot of terminal commands in that article and in the wiki links for fixing problems. I can
And what the hell is the deal with X11 anyway? Is it really that difficult to build in some fallback safe video modes for unidentified cards or screwed up config files, or to do whatever else is necessary to make sure that the user will ALWAYS be able to get back into his GUI desktop without expert help? That's a rhetorical question, the answer is no. It isn't that difficult to build in some simple fault tolerance in places where inexperienced users often get bitten, trapped and frustrated. How exactly is the user supposed to go search the wiki online for help fixing X11 when he only has one computer available and he can't figure out how to get X11 to start? Come on people. I should not be reading recent articles from users of the most recent and popular distros that talk about getting stuck at the command line. Fail.
I don't know, maybe I'm just crazy or something, but in my opinion this stuff should be top priority for anyone building a distro aimed at non-geeks. Even geeks appreciate a system that's simple to tweak or fix with a few clicks, if the number of migrations from Linux to OS X is any indicator (count me in that group). I'm waiting for the day when a Linux distro can hold a candle to OS X, but in terms of usability it really seems like there has been only marginal improvement over the last few years. So many prerequisite desktop features still have the feeling of being hacked together out of spare parts. The individual components may be coming from standards but the overall system still has no feeling of coherence. If anyone else actually wants to see a Year of the Linux Desktop someday these simple issues have got to be addressed or it will be a loooong time coming.
Note that I have made statements here about my feelings, impressions, and opinions, so don't try to argue with me as if we're talking about factual data. If there were a distro out there that could change my mind I would have already heard about it and tried it out by now. Yes, I continue to test drive recent releases periodically, and no, they haven't changed my mind at all. "Desktop Linux" simply isn't anywhere near the level of usability and coherence it will take to actually threaten Windows or Mac OS X and begin to dominate the home computing world. Developers are aiming way too low.
Your post only has four periods. One is in "7.04" and three form an ellipsis. Do you see the problem with that?
Xp:
Step 1: With the network turned off, right click on My Computer, check the property sheet for SP2.
Step 2: Without SP2, install SP2 from the CD I have for that purpose and restart.
Step 3: Install and run Autopatcher (or any of the competition)from that same CD.
Step 4: Install Anti-virus software from that same CD.
Step 5: Restart.
Step 6: Install Firefox browser and plugins like AdBlock and NoScript from that same CD.
Step 7: Install drivers for printers/scanners.
Step 8: Install whatever personally chosen optional programs the user requires to make the computer useful to them.
I had to pad the list to clear more than 7 steps to a secure Windows. But then, so did you with a bunch of optional crap some of which is technically unnecessary as burning software, text editors and media playing software are already included with the OS itself. I would require that an image editing program like Photoshop or PSP be installed. I'd also like Exact Audio Copy and Nero, plus Cygwin. But that's me. Other people may have other needs.
Notice too that if SP2 were already there (It was released in 2004 after all), it would be 6 steps. I have never had to install drivers for anything other than a smart device like a scanner since Win2k. Even relative oddities like USB network adaptors have always just worked. Sometimes the manufacturers' install will give you more functionality, but basic operation is straightforward.
Notmysig