Fesity Fawn

[BIGEE1212]

Hey guys,

Running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Herd 5 right now. So far, everything has been stable, except VLC media player. Codecs are much easier to get becuase ubuntu now guides you how to get them. In the system menu, desktop effects is listed for an easier setup on beryl.

So far so good, I highly reccommend this distro out when the final version is out if gnome is their thing. Otherwise for KDE, i would stick with PClinuxos (kubuntu feisty fawn didnt work for me).

The only thing i didn't like was the new wallpaper... a little different from edgy's but the curves aren't as visible, just a minor problem tho

[ChrisLilley]

Running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Herd 5 right now. So far, everything has been stable, except VLC media player. Codecs are much easier to get becuase ubuntu now guides you how to get them. In the system menu, desktop effects is listed for an easier setup on beryl.

So far so good, I highly reccommend this distro out when the final version is out if gnome is their thing. Otherwise for KDE, i would stick with PClinuxos (kubuntu feisty fawn didnt work for me).

Yes - i just tried KUbuntu Herd 5 and, although the live cd booted fine, the system would not boot after install. it would just hang on startup.

Living dangerously, I just burned a CD of a daily build ;-)

[ChrisLilley]

Well the daily build for Kubuntu installed like a charm, recognised my video card right away, so now I'm happily running the development branch of Kubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.4 which is due for release on 19 April :headbang:

[BIGEE1212]

sweet! well i took feisty off becuase of a few minor annoyances that are scheduled to be fixed. i will definately upgrade from edgy to feisty once the final version is out. good luck keeping that thing stable

[bigtrouble77]

I have to upgrade my laptop today. I had very few problems with feisty on my desktop so I was going to give that a shot. I'm still running (what started out as) the dapper beta on my laptop so I figured Feisty may work out just as well.

BIGEE, what issues are you having? I think I just might hold off on the eye candy till after the final release.

[martinje]

Why upgrade to Fiesty when Edgy with Berryl is great! Im so in love with this setup that I hardly ever use Windows. I still have to use it to talk to the wife with web cam (I am in Atlanta and shes in Austin still) and to use my USB GPS receiver with the software.

[ChrisLilley]

Why upgrade to Fiesty when Edgy with Berryl is great! Im so in love with this setup that I hardly ever use Windows. I still have to use it to talk to the wife with web cam (I am in Atlanta and shes in Austin still) and to use my USB GPS receiver with the software.

Because I want to have the latest SVG editing apps (especially Karbon14, Kivo) for when I am talking to the developers. Conversations go badly if they start "well of course you are using an old version".

Actually I want KDE4 as well asap. Tried a snapshot, but it broke my Edgy (Konqueror would no longer start). Need to evaluate KSVG2.

[BIGEE1212]

I have to upgrade my laptop today. I had very few problems with feisty on my desktop so I was going to give that a shot. I'm still running (what started out as) the dapper beta on my laptop so I figured Feisty may work out just as well.

BIGEE, what issues are you having? I think I just might hold off on the eye candy till after the final release.

Well, I was having enough problems to move back to edgy. :D

But, the beta version just released (after herd 5), and from what ive read its pretty stable.

[bigtrouble77]

I've been using Feisty for a week now and I have to say it's been phenominal. I can't believe how much Beryl has matured since the last time I used it. It's been perfectly stable so far. Actually, the whole system has been perfectly stable. I've had several huge updates and nothing has broken yet.

Compared to Dapper this is a HUGE improvement. I don;t know how, but all the codecs are working in 64bit Totem. I had stability issues with totem in dapper, but everything is fine in Feisty.

I had to do a little work to get vmware working. Opera has a small issue with displaying downloads, but it appears to be an opera bug (I'll have to snag the beta). Other than that, no issues.

My next fun thing to tackle is going to be the kernel level virtualization and maybe getting one of the low latency kernels working for ardour.

Best distro release I've used so far.

[spotdog14]

I agree i have been using Edgy on two laptops and almost every day as just a live CD on my work computer. Feisty is pretty awesome, i really like the improvements in the wireless networking, and overall ease of use. But i have had quite a few problems with it, including getting the damn thing to install in the first place....

the first time i installed it, it needed the cd to start...wtf! lol but i got it ironed out.

[Djembe]

hmmm... I've got some problems with the Feisty Beta so far. network-manager is giving me grief. My home wireless connection is WEP encrypted, and it doesn't want to let me connect to it. It detects fine, my router sees "wireless PC connected", but it doesn't ever send the encryption key so I can't get an IP address assigned and can't do anything online or get updates or packages from synaptic, etc. :mad: Also, I can't seem to enable the 3D graphic drivers for my video card. I click on "enable" in the restricted module area, the warning comes up "Ubuntu may run best with software we don't support", etc., click "enable anyway" or whatever the "yes" button is, the pop-up window goes away, and... absolutely nothing happens. I tried it a few times, and it's really annoying! I've got good and bad regarding the touchpad driver- it's much easier to move and click compared to Dapper, but the scroll function seems to be disabled. I'm hoping they can fix these issues before the final release is out.

[abf]

i must say ubuntu 7.04 is one thing I WONT be trying out. Quite frankly, although I think ubuntu is a great project, its not a distro for me. It is much slower than many other distros...and i am just not in the mood to wait 10 seconds for firefox to open. In other words...i'll be sticking to PCLOS2007 till i get bored....then we'll see.

[ChrisLilley]

hAlso, I can't seem to enable the 3D graphic drivers for my video card. I click on "enable" in the restricted module area, the warning comes up "Ubuntu may run best with software we don't support", etc., click "enable anyway" or whatever the "yes" button is, the pop-up window goes away, and... absolutely nothing happens.

NVIDIA or ATI?

Enabling the restricted modules, by itself, does nothing. You also need to install one of them :) and then, for NVIDIA at least, there are commands to type to enable the driver:

sudo nvidia-xconfig

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto

also, you might look at Envy
http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html

[ChrisLilley]

i must say ubuntu 7.04 is one thing I WONT be trying out. Quite frankly, although I think ubuntu is a great project, its not a distro for me. It is much slower than many other distros...and i am just not in the mood to wait 10 seconds for firefox to open. In other words...i'll be sticking to PCLOS2007 till i get bored....then we'll see.

Any thoughts on what makes it slow? Or what makes PCLOS2007 faster?

[ChrisLilley]

http://nvidia.limitless.lupine.me.uk/img/kittens-640.jpg

sorry that was just too funny

[abf]

build and optimizations as far as i can tell.... i386 vs i586.... some other stuff that texstar does to his packages to make things smoother flowing and faster. also pclos seems to be just better put together...everything is integrated very closely and the default artwork is very good too to create that feeling of unity. all i can say is that while ubuntu takes 50 seconds to boot up, pclos does it in 27sec.

[seablade]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jars of Clay
Rescue me from hanging on this line
I won't give up on giving you the chance to blow my mind
But the eleventh hour quickly passed me by
I'll find you when I think I'm out of time


Heh interesting, didn't realise there was another Jarhead hanging around here, good to know;)

Nothing useful to add.

Seablade

[BIGEE1212]

Any thoughts on what makes it slow? Or what makes PCLOS2007 faster?

I somewhat agree with abf, while I am a ubuntu user, it is much slower compared to pclinuxos or some other distros for that matter. The kernel has improved in ubuntu, automatically uses SMP kernel when i install edgy instead of me having to search synaptic for the right linux-image.
I think ubuntu is slow becuase its built to work on i386 architecture. However, pclinuxos is built upon i586 architecture.

Ubuntu still has some work to do, but ill still use it :thumbup:

Edit: just realized abf pointed out the i386 vs i586...

[ChrisLilley]

I think ubuntu is slow becuase its built to work on i386 architecture. However, pclinuxos is built upon i586 architecture.

Ubuntu still has some work to do, but ill still use it :thumbup:

Edit: just realized abf pointed out the i386 vs i586...

In edgy, I had the option of -i386 and -generic kernels. I understood -generic to be different to 386, therefore. I also see that 'generic' replaced a bunch of other kernels, like amd ones and i686 ones.

Does the code in the kernels, plus the state of gcc, mean that there is significant benefit from recompiling (say, for a Core 2)?

[bigtrouble77]

I'm using the amd64 kernel and my machine screams. Honestly, the only ubuntu distros I had performance problems with were Hoary and Breezy. Dapper, Edgy and Feisty have all been really impressive. I also don't think boot time is a good indicator of performance. It appears that Ubuntu tries to load tons of modules that fail (I get a ton of boot errors) so that may have something to do with it. So the longer boot time may be at the cost of hardware compatibility.

I've made a few tweaks on my Feisty machine so that booting takes about 30 seconds. I have many services loading like apache, mysql, postfix, etc.

[Djembe]

well, I got the big issues to work for me in Feisty- Restricted module mahager didn't work because it needed to be updated (along with 150 other things!! :wow) but of course I didn't know that as I couldn't get online with my wireless card. I ended up plugging in via an ethernet cord, which downloaded the updates and allowed me to set up the Nvidia driver and Beryl. Had to edit my xorg.conf to get the correct screen resolution and refresh rate, but that wasn't bad. I finally was able to get wireless working after I read up on keyrings and what they do. Basically, I had to fist create a keyring with the WEP code on it, then add my home network in. It had me set a keyring password (nt my WEP key, but my login password), and then it worked! :w00t: :dance2:

So now my problems with the Feisty Beta are much less serious. THe one I'm working on now is that my touchpad driver isn't being recognized (even though Synaptic Package Manager says it's installed), and I can't use scroll or click-drag functions.

edit: :w00t: synaptic touchpad works now! I had manually added in the synaptic touchpad settings in xorg.conf, but I just realized that there is a list of all input devices and the touchpad wasn't on it. d'oh! So I added the touchpad to the list and now it's working nicely! After tweaking some settings, it's almost as good as it is in Windows. I don't have any scrolling problems at all (I did with Dapper).

[BIGEE1212]

1 week to go til feisty goes official.
hope everyone has a clean install and everything works!
although i know abf probably won't try it after he has found his love for pclinuxos :D

[abf]

i am actually considering giving ubuntu a shot again since you guys do claim it got faster since the switch from the i386 to default kernel.....i'll also try that prelinking and other junk...but like i said...its just a try. if all hell breaks loose, back to pclos i go!

[ChrisLilley]

1 week to go til feisty goes official.
hope everyone has a clean install and everything works!
although i know abf probably won't try it after he has found his love for pclinuxos :D

The triumph
A couple of days ago, I noticed that the upgrades that were being downloaded by the update manager included updates to the nonfree kernel stuff and the nvidia modules. So yesterday, I had another go (nvidia-new module) and got the nvidia driver, 97.55 working!

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder3) Mon Feb 26 23:38:46 PST 2007

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf(5) manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen" 0 0
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:ralt_switch"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Identifier "stylus"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Identifier "eraser"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Identifier "cursor"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
HorizSync 28.0 - 96.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 60.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "nVidia Corporation G71 [Quadro FX 2500M]"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "nVidia Corporation G71 [Quadro FX 2500M]"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "RenderAccel" "True"
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "True"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection


Flushed by success I installed Beryl 0.2.1 too, and soon has rotating desktops, water ripple cursors and flaming windows to amuse myself with.

I had rebooted a couple of times and it was all working well. I hadn't gone as far as setting Beryl to auto-load on startup, though.

The tragedy
Update manager downloaded a bunch of other updates last night. I admit that I payed no atttention to what they were.
I rebooted and ... oops. Won't boot. The kubuntu logo appears, with a progress bar sitting at the very start and not moving. Then there is a pause fr a while, Finally I get a text screen which says:

BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-3ubuntu3) built in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands

/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
(initramfs) _

What is a busybox and how bad is this?

[seablade]

Hmm well it boots.

Unfortunatly I would need more info to tell what exactly is going on. Busybox is generally a series of software, often times used for a base to a system.

http://busybox.net/about.html

What is odd to me about this is the fact that you are in the ASH shell. I didn't even realise that Ubuntu used that.

During bootup you should be able to hit ESC to see what is going on, and even possibly start an interactive startup, do that and see if you can tell what is failing. Also check dmesg.

Seablade

PS Betting that if ABF switches he goes through 5 distros before settling on one again;)

[Colin Dean]

*buntu uses busybox in its initramfs. Initramfs is a very, very small Linux system that mounts certain drivers and other utilities--basically makes sure the hardware is turned on and functional--before booting the rest of the system after switching to the main part of the operating system. Busybox provides the necessary tools for this process without the bloat of using coreutils or comparable, full-size packages.

I've really oversimplified this. If y'all want a more technical explanation, I'll post again with my best understanding of it.

[ChrisLilley]

Hmm well it boots.
No, it halts part way and doesn't complete booting.

Unfortunatly I would need more info to tell what exactly is going on. Busybox is generally a series of software, often times used for a base to a system.

http://busybox.net/about.html

What is odd to me about this is the fact that you are in the ASH shell. I didn't even realise that Ubuntu used that.
I believe that the busybox in this case is an error recovery console, that is only available during boot.

Apparently there was an error in initramfstools, whatever that is.

The wonders of :google: turned up some other folks with a similar error, something to do with the PATA driver (disks are SATA but the DVD-ROM is PATA?). Not sure it was the same, actually.

Having pondered various ways to recover from this - kubuntu disk does not seem to have a recovery option - I realized that one of the older kernels still listed in the grub menu might boot. It did. I was then able to use the adept updater to download new updates, which included a new kernel, which does not have this error.

So I am back up and running again, have re-enabled NVIDIA driver and Beryl.

[ChrisLilley]

*buntu uses busybox in its initramfs. Initramfs is a very, very small Linux system that mounts certain drivers and other utilities--basically makes sure the hardware is turned on and functional--before booting the rest of the system after switching to the main part of the operating system. Busybox provides the necessary tools for this process without the bloat of using coreutils or comparable, full-size packages.

I've really oversimplified this. If y'all want a more technical explanation, I'll post again with my best understanding of it.

Actually if you have the time, I would be interested. Is it like a microkernel?

[BIGEE1212]

It's OUT!
just burned the iso, gonna install now.
good luck to everyone else installing feisty!

[abf]

talk about SLOW! updating my desktop from what started life as a 6.06.... and its d/ling @ .8kb...w00t!

[ChrisLilley]

It's OUT!
just burned the iso, gonna install now.
good luck to everyone else installing feisty!

For those of us who have been running betas and updating daily, is there any benefit to a clean install up the release version? Last two days I have been told there are no updates available. So I assume its all the same versions.

[Djembe]

Why not? I've got a Beryl bug (Emerald themes don't work) after I uninstalled and reinstalled it, so I'm going to do a clean install of the official release and hope that fixes it. Currently at 46% downloaded at 425 Kbps. Oh, and for something to amuse yourselves with: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/107648

[TwilightVampire]

Attempting download now....at 24kbps....

Hopefully my laptop will find this one more friendly than the previous betas. I didnt have a screen, AT ALL. No terminal drop, I'm not sure if X started, my screen just turned off. I even plugged in an external monitor to make sure it wasnt looking at my DVI as a primary monitor.

[seablade]

This is what Bittorrent is for;)

Seablade

Who isn't downloading right now sorry;)

[TwilightVampire]

That was with bittorrent :(

[bigtrouble77]

I've been running Feisty for over a month now... Only had one issue in that time (Network Manager didn't work with a Static IP- currently fixed). I can't believe with all the major updates nothing seriously broke... Some people seemed to have major kernel issues, so maybe that didn't affect amd64 users.

[Djembe]

well, everything except undervolting (The latest kernel release doesn't seem to want to compile correctly. :confused: ) is currently working fine in the release version of Ubuntu Feisty (speedstep still doesn't work when using the generic kernel and plugged in, but that's what the 386 kernel is for). For anybody who's interested, I put a screenshot in the April Desktops thread in Off Topic.

Some people seemed to have major kernel issues, so maybe that didn't affect amd64 users.I think they figured out that the main issue was improper recognition of SATA hard drives. And regardless, the issue was fixed in less than 48 hours, as I recall.

[TwilightVampire]

As expected, my laptop has zero video in Fesity. Any attempts to boot and and my monitor shuts off right before it starts X.

[seablade]

So when X starts do a CTRL+ALT+F2 to switch to a console to troubleshoot. I might think it might be switching to an external port by default on accident.

Seablade

[TwilightVampire]

I already made sure it wasnt using my DVI. I'll drop to console and see what happens. Thank you ATI.....

[BIGEE1212]

a lot of stuff works really well in feisty, i had to manually install the beta nvidia driver, it couldn't do it automatically through the restricted hardware thing. also, the automatic ntfs configuration tool didn't work.... mintdisk worked amazing in Linux mint bianca, ubuntu should've gotten something like that. but i just edited /etc/fstab manually.

overall, feels better than edgy. highly recommended.

[abf]

the nvidia driver through the restricted module manager failed for me... i had to do it through automatix. its marginally faster than my crippled dapper gone 1/2-way edgy thing i had going on that desktop for a while.

[ChrisLilley]

also, the automatic ntfs configuration tool didn't work.... mintdisk worked amazing in Linux mint bianca, ubuntu should've gotten something like that. but i just edited /etc/fstab manually.

I had installed the auto ntfs config also, and it doesn't work. Also, my system no longer seems to auto-mount external NTFS USB drives. i don't know if thats related.

A pointer to details on the manual fixup would be appreciated. Does it still need a restricted kernel module for NTFS write?

[BIGEE1212]

well it was quite easy... what i would do is first is remove the automatic configuration tool. then remove ntfs-3g. then go to your /etc/fstab file and delete anything that contains the windows partition... (for me is was /dev/sda1) it might be different for you... reboot..

then it's pretty easy from here on out b/c everything is wiped out. just do it as you would in edgy:

sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g

sudo mkdir /media/windows
sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak
gksudo gedit /etc/fstab

then put this at the end of the file:

/dev/hda1 /media/windows ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0
Note: you may need to change /dev/hda1.

then reboot.... this worked for me.

[BIGEE1212]

also, i think its probably the auto configuration tool that is messing with your external drive. try doing what i said in the above post and see what happens :)

[philby]

Well I've been running Festy for about one week now thought I'd give it a try after the interesting reviews - All I can say for me and the Dell 9400 it was installed on there were no issues, all hardware supported, and once the restricted driver for the Nvidia card was up and running Beryl was installed and I had a play with wine.

Over all I'm actually rather impressed, I'm just an average bloke with no axe to grind for anyone but after a few teething problems an some questions on the Ubuntu forums I think it's actually pretty darn good - The only thing I really want to get going is IK8Fan gui which is in Ubuntu but I can't get it going and I know the card is up around 65 - 70 deg when it should be closer to 50 just because I can't control the darn fans.

[ChrisLilley]

The only thing I really want to get going is IK8Fan gui which is in Ubuntu but I can't get it going and I know the card is up around 65 - 70 deg when it should be closer to 50 just because I can't control the darn fans.

I find too that my M90 runs hotter under Kubuntu than under XP, where I am using i8kfangui. Supposedly code from i8k is in the Linux kernel nowadays. I hadn't seen the 'gui' part, will take a look.

[YankeeDeuce]

http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6180419.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

At the end of May, the No. 2 PC maker will begin selling some consumer-focused laptop and desktop models with Ubuntu's new "Feisty Fawn" version of Linux installed, Dell spokesman Kent Cook said. The company plans to announce the Linux move Tuesday on its IdeaStorm Web site, launched in February to gather feedback directly from customers about what they want.

When buying the Dell systems, customers will have the option to purchase support from Ubuntu backer Canonical, said Jane Silber, the start-up's director of operations.

Companies have been trying for years to make a go of Linux on PCs--Dell even invested in one company, Eazel--but generally, they've had little success, even though they offered lower prices, polished graphical interfaces and necessary software such as Microsoft Office competitor OpenOffice.org.

"I don't think this is going to be a knock-the-ball-out-of-the-park home run," said IDC analyst Al Gillen, who still doesn't see a major Linux draw for most Windows PC users. But the move is notable for the fact that it's Dell making it: "Dell typically doesn't do stuff if they don't think they're going to get enough volume to justify it," Gillen said.

Dell, suffering market share losses to top PC seller Hewlett-Packard, is trying reinvigorate its direct ties with customers, an approach that long has been the company's hallmark. Linux-based PCs was an "overwhelming" request from the IdeaStorm site, Cook said.

"We heard loud and clear from customers that they wanted this," Cook said. And of those who wanted Linux, "80 percent came back and said Ubuntu," Cook said.

[philby]

I find too that my M90 runs hotter under Kubuntu than under XP, where I am using i8kfangui. Supposedly code from i8k is in the Linux kernel nowadays. I hadn't seen the 'gui' part, will take a look.

I found it under the synaptic manager but can't find it after its been installed - thats one of my pet dislikes, not knowing where the hell the program that I have installed has disappeared to - its there somewhere but where????? In MS its under program files and in the taskbar in Ubuntu it "may" be in the task bar, or it may not then you need to go <Alt>F2 and try to run it but if you don't know what its called how the hell do you find it!!!!

But for a beginner I am persisting, which for Ubuntu is a good thing, if its to hard then I'll just dump it like I did for SUSE simply because I like to "do" things not fight with an OS trying to figure out how the darn thing works.

For me once Beryl is integrated into the OS and this petty hate is resolved or I figure out how to actually use it then hell I will start to favour it over Vista. While I have only tested the Beta & RC versions of Vista I found a number of things I disliked about it, which have been handled better with Ubuntu like the password popup. Within Vista it was a real major pain and the first thing I disabled, yet within Ubuntu its only popping up when you are actually entering into an area of concern.

The only other issue which need to be addressed is for a better Virtual interface outside of wine, which installed office 2000 fine but seems clunky and probably won't let me run games - I might give this a try with a few like FEAR or BF2142.

Overall is Ubuntu there yet - IMO no, but it's pretty darn close!!!!!

[abf]

you cannot run games with WINE.... you need CEDEGA for that task. why in the bloody hell would you use msoffice2k when you can use openoffice which already comes pre-installed? to find a program or file you can always do a beagle search.

that said... i am happy to see feisty is slightly faster than dapper and edgy, but boot time is ungodly long.

[BIGEE1212]

^^agreed, boot time is much longer for me that edgy....

can't find a fix. but at least it runs quicker

[seablade]

you cannot run games with WINE.... you need CEDEGA for that task. why in the bloody hell would you use msoffice2k when you can use openoffice which already comes pre-installed? to find a program or file you can always do a beagle search.

that said... i am happy to see feisty is slightly faster than dapper and edgy, but boot time is ungodly long.

I am going to claim, BS, on this one ABF, and you know it.

You can most certainly run games on WINE. In fact one of the things a recent Phoronix post did was compare gaming native, vs wine, vs Cedega.

It may be a bit more difficult to setup, but it is most certainly possible.

Seablade

PS well under 60 second boot(Actually I think I may be under 30 seconds) I love it. But I am not running Ubuntu either;)

[bigtrouble77]

It may be a bit more difficult to setup, but it is most certainly possible.

Have you tried Cedega lately? It's gotten really polished. With the new profile system there's no more searching endlessly in forums for the magical combination of settings to get a particular game working. It's possible to successfully use wine for many apps, but it's still a pain in the ass.

As far as systems running hot goes... It's not a problem for all machines. My desktop and laptop (both with high end graphics cards) idle at 40*C. I found that beagle is a massive hog... It often cranks my machine up to 2.4ghz for 10 minute bursts.

[philby]

you cannot run games with WINE.... you need CEDEGA for that task. why in the bloody hell would you use msoffice2k when you can use openoffice which already comes pre-installed? to find a program or file you can always do a beagle search.

that said... i am happy to see feisty is slightly faster than dapper and edgy, but boot time is ungodly long.

Simple I have some complex VB code with my Excel files which is not compatable with openoffice. And I'm used to Office and hate change!!!!!

The comments on boot times are true, mine kinda stops for about 15 sec then races off to finish but compared to XP/Vista its not really that much different and I have not played with Edgy so can't comment.

[ninjapirate350]

I ended up removing Feisty because I was having too much trouble getting my external hard drive to work and it has a generic kernel that seems to run extremly slow on my computer. I'll probably go back to pclinuxos in time but I'm back on XP till further notice.

[seablade]

Have you tried Cedega lately? It's gotten really polished. With the new profile system there's no more searching endlessly in forums for the magical combination of settings to get a particular game working. It's possible to successfully use wine for many apps, but it's still a pain in the ass.


And that only proves my point actually.

I happen to have Cedega on my machine at the moment, unfortunatly the game I need to be able to run in it doesn't run in it yet, but they are working on it. It is funny, I got farther using WINE than I did using Cedega last I tried.

Cedega and Wine are essentially two different codebases now though. Whether or not it is more difficult to run games in Wine, it is certainly possible, and I even find Wine to be better in some circumstances once it is set up right.

So my point stands, it is more than possible to run games in Wine. Some people prefer this route for a couple of reasons, one you aren't paying anything for it(Though hopefully you might consider donating to them) and two it is completely open source. To many folks that still makes a difference.

Seablade

[abf]

haven't ran wine in quite a while actually. i have no purpose, all my apps are native linux apps, even games (ET mainly @ this point)

[ChrisLilley]

haven't ran wine in quite a while actually. i have no purpose, all my apps are native linux apps, even games (ET mainly @ this point)

Have you had a look at Beyond the Red Line (http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/) (Battlestar Galactica fighter sim)? OpenGL, Linux client available. Playable demo only right now, still in development.

[seablade]

Actually I have a total of one thing recently I have done that required windows, and that was applying to work on a windows game by building a level in a different game and submitting it. If I get that I will have a dual boot setup until Cedega supports the game.

Other than that almost all my applications are in Linux I prefer, so it works well for me. Heck even on my Mac there is only a few applications that aren't linux native I use.

Seablade

[bigtrouble77]

Actually I have a total of one thing recently I have done that required windows, and that was applying to work on a windows game by building a level in a different game and submitting it.
Seablade playing Windows games while I'm studying for the RHCE exam? The apocalypse must be near.

[seablade]

You know, for some reason I find it very funny that you are getting certified before I even bother ever glancing at that stuff. Sheesh I think I feel old or something;) One of these days I should actually glance at that stuff and see how likely I would be to pass it. Its kinda like my A+ cert, its one of those things where I just don't feel a need to be certified to explain what I already do.

And I will have you know I never finished the game;) I had 3 weeks to build a level, and played through the first third of the game to get a feel for it before I began. Unfortunatly that lost me a week of build time and I didn't finish the level anywhere close to where I wanted it, so I doubt I got the job. Here is to hoping I can reapply in a while.

Seablade

[seablade]

dang it have I been here 3 years already? I am old dang it....

Seablade

[bigtrouble77]

You know, for some reason I find it very funny that you are getting certified before I even bother ever glancing at that stuff.
The good news for me has been that everything I've been studying I've already encountered. It's just a matter of being able to troubleshoot without cheat sheets that's worrying me. Since the exam is mostly hands on (no multiple choice) it's going to be very intense. I have to start using Vi now, I have to build RH Enterprise from source and learn tons of other crap really well. I think this exam would be difficult for most seasoned Linux admins.

I actually used to work in the game industry about 8 years ago (30 is starting to feel old). I did freelance work on Civ III which sadly didn't make it into the final product. I created building animations for various structures. Near the end firaxis had some budgetary cuts and my work was part of it. The game industry is so difficult to break into so I had to ultimately give it up. I came really close to working on Medal of Honor with 2015 studios. I was just about ready to move out to oaklahoma, but things fell though.

BTW, Ubuntu Feisty kicks ass. ;-)

[seablade]

The game industry is so difficult to break into so I had to ultimately give it up.


One reason I am really trying to hit it off with this company. Obviously my primary work is not in graphics or level design, but sound design, but I will do whatever I need to when I need to. But this company is nice cause I will be able to work from home and write my own hours as long as I get my work turned in on time... kinda like my current work in theater. They don't pay at all until the product is shipped, would be a turn off(MAJOR) if I wasn't as familiar with the company as I am, and am willing to take a risk on something they know will be a second job for me and are cool with it because even when they do pay, it isn't enough to live off of.

But if I can get in doing level design work first off and move up to sound design etc later on, I will be very happy. Even if it takes a while;)

Seablade

Obviously I have a very decent amount of respect for this company to be willing to work this;)

[BIGEE1212]

well, its been 6 days since ive booted into feisty... I've been using some windows programs that i needed for the past week... and i have no intention of booting into linux. is something wrong with me :/

i dunno feisty just feels different from edgy, it actually seems a little more bloated... maybe its just me... but tomorrow im gonna install ubuntu hoary for the heck of it to see ubuntu's "roots" hehe

[abf]

well....i decided to see what all the fus about wine has been recently and installed the game Roller Coaster Tycoon... old school games like this are so fun :) works good, c'ept no sound

[bigtrouble77]

i dunno feisty just feels different from edgy, it actually seems a little more bloated... maybe its just me... but tomorrow im gonna install ubuntu hoary for the heck of it to see ubuntu's "roots" hehe
I hope you're not serious. Hoary is terrible compared to current releases. Soooo many performance issues. Good luck getting DMA working.

[philby]

Well reinstalled Festy after stuffing it up, and got the fan control to work, so now my 9400 stays cool - Had to reinstall Beryl but its all good again. System is working better than before, will be mucking around with a few apps but still impressed.

[seablade]

well....i decided to see what all the fus about wine has been recently and installed the game Roller Coaster Tycoon... old school games like this are so fun :) works good, c'ept no sound

Funny you should mention that...

Sound is actually a MAJOR issue being addressed by Google SoC projects. And he is working fast from what I can see on the Wine Newsletter. Give it till the end of summer when he is done and see if that doesn't fix it. In the meantime I would bet you are probably running it with OSS sound which was the default at one point.

Seablade

[abf]

actually i tried both alsa and oss. under oss there is just no sound from the wine apps. if wine runs with alsa, there is no sound from wine still, and there is no sound from any other apps as well (aka..if i have amarok in the background, it will stay quiet, and then eventually crash)

[seablade]

Yep, wait for the ALSA changes to go in later this summer.

Also sounds like they depend on DMix to be setup correctly right now.

Seablade

[bobertfishbone]

I'm holding out for Ubuntu Studio, personally. Should be any day now!

[BIGEE1212]

^^ studio is out

tried the live cd..
nothing special... just some specific programs and a black theme... sorta like edubuntu or ubuntu christian edition..
my suggestion wait until you can install it through your gnome environment...

i think the command will be ilke
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-desktop

not in the repos yet tho

[abf]

i installed feisty amd64 on my lappy. the speed difference between it and the i386 version is quite obvious actually... boot time, program start time, and general performance. Still not quite as fast as PCLOS2007 or ELIVE... but certainly quicker than regular ubuntu. i am NOT going to be installing beryl, and i am NOT going to run fglrx drivers. if anything, i'll throw in xubuntu-desktop to make it go easier on the ram.... maybe even go all the way to fluxbox. we'll see.

[bigtrouble77]

i installed feisty amd64 on my lappy. the speed difference between it and the i386 version is quite obvious actually
Maybe that's why no one believed me that Ubuntu is actually pretty fast. I've been running the 64bit vresion since Breezy. Once I couldn't notice a difference in performance between Ubuntu and Gentoo I dropped Gentoo.

[abf]

well..i can still see the diff between ubuntu and pclos. i just ran some tweaks (preload, disable ipv6, parallel init scripts).... and boot time is @ 48.5 seconds, vs pclos @ 32sec. besides boot time, actual application start time/performance is not that much worse.

[BIGEE1212]

^^ you're right, ubuntu is just too slow....

when i was on PCLOS everything was pretty good, but the repos sucked and im not a huge kde fan..
so im going to wait until final and install gnome under pclos hopefully everything will be better than ubuntu....
or maybe they'll even release a gnome version O_o

[abf]

something tells me you might like ARCH... it has its faults, but also a good system and a minimal install lets you "build to order" a distro your way. pretty damn fast too.

[YankeeDeuce]

when i was on PCLOS everything was pretty good, but the repos sucked and im not a huge kde fan..

:yeahthat:

[BIGEE1212]

did this command to remove those black boxes when you minimize and maximize, but now it sorta made black boxes appear whenever i drag a window... anyone know how to reverse it

gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/metacity/general/reduced_resources true


SOLVED... disregard

[Colin Dean]

*buntu uses busybox in its initramfs. Initramfs is a very, very small Linux system that mounts certain drivers and other utilities--basically makes sure the hardware is turned on and functional--before booting the rest of the system after switching to the main part of the operating system. Busybox provides the necessary tools for this process without the bloat of using coreutils or comparable, full-size packages.

I've really oversimplified this. If y'all want a more technical explanation, I'll post again with my best understanding of it.

Sorry it's taken me a while to get around to this explanation.

You can think of it like this:

The bootloader (GRUB or LILO) loads the kernel into RAM. In a way, the bootloader tells the kernel to load a file that contains a very, very basic Linux filesystem. This filesystem contains busybox, uclibc, and a few other things. It's more used to run fsck and other utilities on the hard drives before they're mounted.

[abf]

well....out with ubuntu and in with... mandriva 2007.1 :confused: its not quite up to pclos spec i must say, but generally speaking its a well put together decent distro. probably the best mandriva since 10. i am gonna use it a while and see how it goes.

[BIGEE1212]

^^ heard it was pretty good. let us know how it goes.