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last modified: 2010-02-23 15:57:01
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My life with Ubuntu before Edgy is documented on my page on Warty, Hoary, Breezy and Dapper. This page also holds various interesting miscellaneous links.
Along with some new hardware, I gave the 64-bit branch a chance, trying to squeeze a bit more (or rather 32 bits more) performance out of the stuff we got.
As you can see below, I've switched back to 32-bit Ubuntu again in the meantime --
mainly because of problems such as not having had a Sun-official Firefox-plugin back then,
being stuck with installation/configuration-issues with w32codecs
(though there is a 64-bit package available, as I've learned in the meantime) or similar.
(It might well be that some of the issues I didn't like on the 64-bit architecture
have already been addressed. With my next full re-install,
I might give 64-bit a chance again -- let's see when it's due.)
With Gutsy Gibbon, I switched back from 64-bit to plain 32-bit.
However, before I start, here's a link on the current format used to entries in the fstab -- quite interesting in comparison to the traditional approach: Understanding fstab.
"system-config-printer.py"!
Here's a list of packages I installed additionally:
vim-fullsysutilsgkrellmthunderbird thunderbird-gnome-supportrevelationmsttcorefontscplay vorbis-tools mpg321"sudo cp /usr/share/doc/cplay/examples/cplayrc /etc/" and modify "play" to say "aplay" instead: "NoOffsetPlayer("aplay %s" [...]".sun-java6-jdk sun-java6-plugin (depends: java-common odbcinst1debian1 sun-java6-bin sun-java6-jre unixodbc)flashplugin-nonfree/usr/bin/firefox/usr/lib/firefox
Really really great features are "real transparency" (ALT + mousewheel)
and the zoom (SUPER + mousewheel).
For fine-tuning of desktop effects, install compizconfig-settings-manager
(depends: python-compizconfig) -- also see e.g.
How to set up Compiz Fusion.
Select "System > Advanced Desktop Effects Settings" (or run the command "ccsm").
IMHO nice effects to enable include:
libdvdcss2 w32codecslibxvidcore4 gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-gl gstreamer0.10-pitfdll libquicktime1BTW: A useful command line tool I found is jhead: shows, edits and uses EXIF data of JPEG files.
I used btnx to get all my mouse buttons to work, also see this btnx-thread in ubuntuforums.
Update, 09-04-25: However, note that I'm having some issues on Ubuntu 9.04. Olli Salonen added a note on his webpage about upcoming problems with some distros, referring to a similar tool as an alternative: easystroke. See below for details.
Here's what I did for "btnx":
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential libgtk2.0-0 libgtk2.0-dev libglade2-0 lib
glade2-dev pkg-config
[dependencies: libxml2-dev]
$ wget http://www.ollisalonen.com/btnx/btnx-0.3.2.tar.gz
$ tar -xvvf btnx-0.3.2.tar.gz
$ cd btnx-0.3.2
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ wget http://www.ollisalonen.com/btnx/btnx-config-0.2.1.tar.gz
$ tar -xvvf btnx-config-0.2.1.tar.gz
$ cd btnx-config-0.2.1
$ ./configure --prefix=/opt/btnx-config
$ make
$ sudo make install
- Run "Applications > System Tools > btnx":
detect mouse and mouse-buttons
configure mouse-buttons (such as "Back" to "ALT+Left", etc.)
enable the buttons you want to be handled by btnx
(e.g. all buttons but left, right, wheel up, wheel down, middle button)
save configuration and restart btnx
- Also see "Help" inside "btnx-config", Trouble-Shooting:
"Forward" always triggered an additional event in my configuration.
Here's what helped to fix this - see your file "/etc/X11/xorg.conf":
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
# markus - 07-10-28 ...
#Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "Buttons" "3"
# ... markus - 07-10-28
EndSection
Just some basic information on Hardy this time...
# markus - 08-05-03 - based on btnx-config from 07-10-28 ...
#Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "Buttons" "3"
# ... markus - 08-05-03
# markus - 08-05-16 - fix bad resolution at login-screen ...
#Virtual 1920 1200
#Modes "1680x1050@60" "1920x1200@60" "1600x1024@60" "1440x900@60" [...]
Modes "1680x1050@60"
# ... markus - 08-05-16
gconf-editor, navigate to /system/storage/default_options/vfat/mount_options, and then remove the "usefree" option from the list. Exit gconf-editor, and try hotplugging your drive again.
I basically just ran "update-manager --devel-release"
in an ALT+F2 command-line and followed the onscreen instructions.
cupsd.conf needed to be replaced (since I had obviously modified it before?).cups-pdf, i${language} (e.g. ibritish, ingerman, iogerman, ispell),
libavcodec1d, libavformat1d, libavutil1d, libbind9-30,
libgnome-desktop-2, libgpgmg1,
sysutils
Here are the issues I ran into after upgrading to Intrepid and that I could solve (somehow):
"Updating connection failed: nm-ifupdown-connection.c.82 -
connection update not supported (read-only)..""$ sudo dhclient eth0" fixes the network temporarily."iface eth0 inet dhcp"
and "auto eth0" to /etc/network/interfaces (and rebooted).Access to Java Runtime Environment To use Java programs, you need to install the openjdk-6-jre package whch contains the Java Runtime Environment. If you want to develop Java programs, then install the openjdk-6-jdk package. To work with Java applets in the Firefox browser and compatible browsers on x86 architectures, you need to install the icedtea6-plugin package by hand. The JRE and the Java applet plugin are installed by default in the live session on the Ubuntu DVD, but are not currently installed elsewhere due to space constraints. However, a missing feature in the installer means that these packages will not be installed when installing using the graphical installer on the DVD, so you will need to install them afterwards. http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810#Access%20to%20Java%20Runtime%20EnvironmentAlso note: Officially in main trunk is now "Sun's Java OpenJDK 1.6 - an open source implementation of the Java development kit "
An issue that stayed until I upgraded to Jaunty:
"lshw" to print lots of
information about your computer's hardware. :)
I've been using Ubuntu Linux since their very first release 4.10.
Some the releases I liked more, some less - especially with the past few
releases, the "feeling" was not quite right for me. (There simply
were too many little issues around I didn't really like...)
However, according to my first impression, Canonical has now released
a really great distro again with 9.04 aka "Jaunty Jackalope".
Here's the Ubuntu Linux 9.04 release notes, and here's the link to the recommended Jaunty Upgrade process.
I basically just ran "update-manager --devel-release"
in an ALT+F2 command-line and followed the onscreen instructions.
Sidenote:
Amazingly, the system did not only upgrade without any questions asked.
Moreover, it also survived an accidental reboot in the middle of package-installations:
While I had the PC run the upgrade process mentioned above, another user switched
to their account (leaving mine logged in as usual), not knowing what I was
actually in the middle of. Well, this really seemed to have been bad timing:
With the X-server not working properly anymore (just some horizontal lines),
I rebooted the machine using CTRL+ALT+DEL.
The X-server came up in some 640x480 resolution rescue-mode, giving me the
possibility to run the same "update-manager -d" command as described above.
After another reboot (requested by the Ubuntu system), I had a proper
X-server running again.
I ran "update-manager -d" again as before ... this time it completed
package installations and configurations.
-> really amazing!
libdvdread3, linux-headers-2.6.27-*, linux-*-2.6.24-21-generic,
nvidia-177-kernel-source, nvidia-177-modaliases
"System > Systemverwaltung > Hardware-Treiber" and had a list of
three different NVIDIA-drivers available: 180, 173 and 96.
As was indicated to be recommended by Ubuntu, I "activated" the latest version: 180.
(This definitely installed package "ubuntu-glx-180", possibly did other
stuff as well besides other things...)
0) log out (have X run with GDM login screen), login on CTRL+ATL+F1 command line
1) $ rm ~/.pulse*
2) $ pulseaudio -vv
0) after half a minute or so I cancelled the process with CTRL+C
and rebooted the machine with CTRL+ALT+DEL.
the sound worked just fine afterwards.
... *trying* ...
Hmm, ... well, ... let's not stretch it too far there, eh? ;)
$ gconftool -s --type bool /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch falsePursuing a private little project to cut and author some video DVD, I ran accross kdenlive. While in my opinion it still has some glitches (crashes too often, though crash-recovery seems to be ok; but also I think I'm going to stick to several small projects that I'll somehow combine lateron, since from time to time it seems to mix something up in the project configuration), kdenlive is really a great and easy to use tool for video editing, even for entire novices such as me! :)
However, if you want to render your videos to H.264 or some other codecs (apart from DV, Theora and such), you will have to fix a packaging issue in Ubuntu 9.04 - here's what worked for me to get the missing codecs such as H.264 to be active and usable in the Render-dialog (instead of just being listed but not being selectable):
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/sunab/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/sunab/ppa/ubuntu jaunty mainUse your favorite package management tool to install
libmlt++1_0.3.8-0ubutunu2.
$ sudo apt-get install libavcodec-unstripped-52 libavformat-unstripped-52 libavutil-unstripped-49 libswscale-unstripped-0
libmlt-dev and re-run kdenlive's configuration assistant
as indicated by the kdenlive webpage.
$ sudo apt-get install libmlt-devAnd in kdenlive, run "Settings > Run configuration assistent" ... and restart kdenlive.
Next time you "render" your video in kdenlive, you should have the codecs such as H.264 available to be used.
Due to a hardware-problem, I had to switch my previous mainbord Asus M2NPV-VM for a new one: Asus M3N78-VM.
While basically everything is up and running again, I had to play around a bit
to get X working again, with the downside of system-lockups if 3D-effects are enabled.
This leaves me with a stable but quite basic desktop now without any of that
nice effects-stuff. Here's my current xorg.conf.
Let's see how Ubuntu 9.10 performs...
Also, the new mainboard does not have a parallel port anymore. Thus, I had
to connect my HP DeskJet 5550 printer via USB now. While this works just fine,
every now and then, GNOME's system-config-printer application adds a second
"deskjet-5550" printer, for whatever reason. (Problem is that this new printer
is not the default but it is active, while the default printer is set INactive
afterwards. I fix this each time manually.)
Let's see what Ubuntu 9.10 brings...
A problem which has become quite annoying is that after the boot sequence,
the mouse sometimes does not work. To fix this, I need to reboot the machine
(or unplug and plug the USB-mouse back in again). I tried to re-initialise
the USB system with one or two apps, but could not get it working with
a software-only approach yet.
Let's see what Ubuntu 9.10 has to say about this...