I don't like to be a distro critic, but I have been using fedora 10 for something over a year, and various distributions of Linux including Debian for about 1.5 years (correlates with the release of Microsoft Vista, eh? ;-), and I am disappointed with a number of problems I am having with Ubuntu 9.10.

First, there is a flaky problem with display mode setting in which logging in (via gdm) fails and Ubuntu (Xorg?/gdm) seem to have problems with setting the display mode. I've done a bit of research into this problem online and have tinkered with trying to reset the Xorg.conf file, restarting X, studying the Xorg.*.log files in /var/log, etc. I run my machine through a KVM switch, and sometimes when I am successful at logging in, my display modes are limited to 800x600 or less.

Ubuntu 9.10 is gorgeous looking. Smooth. I love Firefox 3.5 on my 10 year old Dell Optiplex, but these problems are aggravating.

Second, the screensaver/lock screen doesn't seem to be working. I can go away from the machine for hours and it never goes into screen lock even though I have selected that option. Neither does the manual "lock screen" panel applet or even the "logout applet". This is important, because I am hoping to do my taxes with Turbotax Online in Linux this year... One of my Microsoft-free goals.

Third, the Software Center doesn't always seem to work. I search for a package (e.g., Grsync) and find it, click on the "Install" button, and nothing happens. Fortunately, I know enough CLI to go to a terminal and get Grsync with an "apt-get install grsync" which does work... preparations for backing up this system in order to install fedora 11 on the system instead.

Fourth, the wireless network manager is flaky... it doesn't start automatically all of the time, sometimes seems to just quit, and then I can't restart or reconnect with an: Alt-F2 => nm-applet --sm-disable

I am excited about Linux and am glad that Ubuntu has been so successful in attracting many people to Linux. I hope that some of these problems will be solved.

I also had problems with network-manager in 9.10. What I did was to install wicd. Using wicd got me online straight away, whereas
network-manager did not even find my wireless card.
Note that installing wicd will remove network-manager.

For the display problem, what graphics card are you using? Have you tried booting without the KVM switch?

I have been using Ubuntu Linux for over a year and I love it and have been recommending it to everyone I know. I can't stop talking about how wonderful, problem free and easy Ubuntu is, before 9.10 that is.

I am also having problems with the screen saver. Sometimes when I turn on my machine and walk away, the monitor will shut down instead of going into screen saver mode. I am not able to view most videos nor see some of the pictures on websites. You tube just shows a blank black screen. I wasn't able to view any of the Christmas graphics or e-cards I received. Copying and pasting some of the widgits is also a problem.

I had no problems before this upgrade and I am really frustrated. I am constantly reporting problems and the responses I get advise to un-install this flash something and add that one... I am not familiar with all the commands to add this, delete that and all that other computer tech stuff. If I knew how, I would delete 9.10 and go back to the previous version.

Hopefully, all these problems will be fixed and I can enjoy my computer the way I used to before this upgrade.

I have abandoned Ubuntu 9.10 for now and installed fedora 11 on the machine in question. I remember that I had some sort of problems with fedora 11 4-6 months ago and decided to keep my machines in fedora 10... they play DVDs, and run pretty smoothly on most basic stuff... fedora 11 with Firefox 3.5 seems to be working for now on this Optiplex machine...

I think I might have overwritten the Windows partition when I installed it. Hallelujah! Die Windows. Die.

The machine/graphics card in question is a Dell Optiplex GX110 with integrated Intel graphics... about 10-12 year old system.

Thanks for the tip on wicd, Tommcd... that might come in helpful for other Ubuntu 9.10 users.


Happy New Year!!! Let's make it a Linux year (again)!

So this was an upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04?
Unfortunately, upgrading to a new version of Ubuntu is very often not a trouble free experience. I believe a lot of these problems are related to 3rd party repositories that people have added to their system (like all those PPA repositories that so many people are compelled to add to their sources.list).
Anyway, if you are having a lot of problems after doing a dist-upgrade, the best option would likely be a clean install of Ubuntu 9.10.
I always do clean installs with Ubuntu instead of upgrades.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for that. I was wondering if I should just reinstall Ubuntu 9.04, I may just go ahead and do that. I won't be doing any more upgrades. Thank you again.

Have a Happy and Healthy New Year.

One question please...I don't have a disk for Ubuntu 9.10. Would it be advisable to download it from the website or should I somehow get a disk to do the reinstall?

Thank you.

My impression is that, in general, Linux distributions/versions have been intended to and are best installed "clean".

If you are knowledgeable enough, you can create a separate "home"/data partition before you install Linux, and then when you clean install a new version, you can have the installation ignore your home/data partition, so your data is unaffected. I have not been successful with this... something with the Logical Volume Manager (? LVM) used by fedora always seems to mess me up. You also have to decide how large to make the partitions, ( root, boot, home) etc. It gets a bit tricky.

It is fairly easy to backup your home partition to an external hard drive (ntfs format if you are trying to share with a Windows installation, or ext3 or ext4 filesystem format for Linux) using "rsync" at the command line, or "Grsync" from the desktop. Then you can restore your home partition data using the same tools after your installation.

In order to do a "clean" install, you should download the ISO installation file from the Ubuntu sites... I usually use bit torrent, and then burn it to a CD or DVD for booting and installing. If you have a newer machine (past ? 5 years or so) which can boot from a DVD drive, then downloading the installation DVD file (~ 4 Gb) will save you some time with downloading some of the standard applications, later. If your machine will only boot from a CD, then you have to make sure that download the installation CD file (~700 Mb). You can also request a copy of the installation disks from Ubuntu by mail, but I am not sure if they will provide you copies of older versions (such as 9.04).

GnomeBaker (in the Gnome desktop) is a good disk burning utility. Go to "Tools-> burn ISO CD/DVD" to burn the bootable disk from your file.

How did you install your current version of Linux?

The fastest way would be to download the iso and burn it to disc. Be sure to check the md5sums of the downloaded iso. The best way to burn an iso image in Ubuntu in my experience is to simply right-click on the iso file and choose "write to disc". Choose the slowest possible speed. Then when you boot the CD first choose the option "check CD for defects" and let that run. If the CD passes, then it is ok to install.
Purchasing an Ubuntu CD is also an option. OSDic.com is pretty cheap:
http://www.osdisc.com/cgi-bin/view.c...te=distrowatch
The Ship-It CD mailing service from Canonical will take several weeks to arrive since these are sent out free by volunteers.

For partitioning, a 10GB root partition, 1GB swap, and the rest for home should be sufficient. Ubuntu does not use LVM by default, so you don't have to worry about that. Surprisingly, I have seen a few people around here recently who somehow managed to fill a 10GB root partition to the point that they could no longer install anything else. My root partition for Ubuntu has never grown larger that ~3.5GB, unless I have installed some big games like Quake4 or Doom3, since these games are about 2GB by themselves. Games like Nexuiz or Sauerbraten can also be pretty big.
So... If you plan on installing tons of software and lots of 3D games then a 15GB-20GB root partition would be advisable if you have the space. If your hard drive space is limited I would go with 10GB. You could even get by with less if you needed to.
I have been using Ubuntu for 4.5 years and I have never come close to filling a 10GB root partition. Also games like Doom3 or Quake4 or Nexuiz or Sauerbraten can be run from your home partition so they don't fill up root.

Write back if you need more help.

1 members found this post helpful.

I didn't see your response until after I downloaded Ubuntu 9.10.
I was able to download the updated version, copy it onto cd and install it. Now everything works fine. I am now putting things back in order. I don't have a ton of games and other downloads so I should not have any problems.

From now on, I will not automatically click on the upgrade. I will copy it to disk and then install it just as you suggested.

I really appreciate your help. Thank you again.

Glad you got things sorted out. I have always thought that a clean install of Ubuntu was the best option for a fast and trouble free upgrade. If you have a separate home partition then all your data is safe, as long as you are careful to choose the option not to format your home partition when you set a mount point for home during the install.
I can do a clean install of Ubuntu in 15-20 minutes. It then takes me about another hour, at the most, to download the updates, install the software I use, and set things up the way I like them. I don't consider this to be a problem at all. After you have installed Ubuntu a few times and you know what you want, it becomes a quick and easy part of routine system administration.

I have always upgraded with Ubuntu ... from 7.04 (I think) upwards. Sometimes it has been rocky although I've generally managed to sort the problems eventually.

I noticed that during the 9.04 -> 9.10 upgrade that several of the non-standard repositories were disabled during the upgrade. However, almost all of my upgrade woes came from having version 2.4 of the x-server driver for intel graphics, rather than the standard one. I'd installed this as a patch during the 9.04 upgrade. With 9.10 it caused flickering screen, screen freezes/blanks/white-outs, and logon issues. Going to the proper driver solved everything (and even made suspend work!) So I agree that a clean install might be a good option. I've always steered clear thinking it would be a pain to re-install everything (I have a LAMP server setup and do most of my web development on my Ubuntu machine nowadays). But now that I've re-partitioned and isolated my home partition from root, it would be slightly easier to go for a clean install.

However, my screen-saver still just does 'blank' randomly! It's the only fault in 9.10 I can't fix right now.

Do persist with 9.10 ... it is not only slicker visually, but feels faster than 9.04. Screen mode switching is one area that has really speeded up, and nice wide tty modes are a boon.

Since I installed 9.10 from the disk, things have been working fine. There are a few glitches, but I still love Linux and I wouldn't go back to Windows for anything. I want to thank you again for all the help.

Hi!

I'm real new at this stuff, so please be kind. I'm wanting to run Ubuntu to have the ability to run digital ham radio modes, Digipan, BPSK-64, etc.

I have for use an 8 gig IDE hard drive that has some distro of Linux on it, but I don't remember which one.

My computer is an old, 1.2 gig (iWILL)/1gig of P-133 RAM. I'm not a "gamer", well, Solitaire or that Chinese tile game, so I wouldn't need a lot of drive space to save my "contacts".

Since I only have the one computer with WIN 2000 Pro on the "C" drive (40 gig), how do I go about this? I have a 52x32x52 cd drive. Unfortunately, my DSL provider is HELLSouth(AT&T)and they are slower than snail snot. ANY ideas as how to go about doing this?

Thanks in advance,
Respectfully submitted,

Don/KA5LQJ

So you want to dual boot Windows 2000 and Ubuntu, is that correct?
Here are 2 excellent websites to help you get started:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/
http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/
The specs of your machine (1.2GHz CPU and 1GB of memory) are enough to run Ubuntu. It won't be fast, but performance should be acceptable. Just stay away from compiz and all the 3D eye candy "wobbly windows" stuff.
Write back if you need more help.