Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty - Feedback

As always, when you upgrade your system to the latest version, some things work better, others worse.

Here's a list of things that I found (in general, I recommend installing Jaunty):

• wallpaper-tray disappeared
  Hm, well, not exactly, it just changed to be an integrated panel applet, so just add it with Add to panel... on your top-panel.
• OpenOffice 3.x is so much faster now!
  But, all my installed extensions disappeared and I have to reinstall all of them.
  Moreover I got the error "Could not create Java implementation loader" when installing some extensions. To solve this problem just install the "openoffice.org-java-common" package.
• At the moment there are no hardware drivers for your video card, so 3D animations will likely not work at the beginning.
  Update on 12/5/2009: compiz still is unstable, on two of my laptops, moreover, I can't create a dual-monitor setup with more than 2048x2048 like before.
  
• mail-notification suddenly opens sticky message boxes for each e-mail arrived. It doesn't use Ubuntu's new notification mechanism.
  You can enable avant-window-managers notification area, so that problem is gone, but also the mentioned notification mechanism which is more beautiful.
• Synaptic now offers to show you a screenshot of an application before you install it, but there aren't so much available yet.
• Video playback of totem got a big boost! Now I can play HDTV movies on my laptop which wasn't possible before without stuttering.
  

Install Ubuntu from Alternate CD

Just figured out a quicker way to update our Ubuntu sytem, instead of using the automatic update system (which can take hours to download almost a Giga of packets, caused by saturation of update servers, especially the first days after a new Ubuntu version has been launched).

It is also very interesting when you have to update several systems, in my case three.

You don't have to burn any CD!

Install instructions

1. Download the alternate CD ISO image (assume you store it in your home directory).
   You could use the Torrent, which downloads so much quicker.
2. Next we'll mount that ISO image, and launch the upgrade process so that it uses almost all packages from the CD.

sudo -s
mount -o loop -t iso9660 ~/ubuntu-9.04-alternate-i386.iso /media/cdrom0
sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade

Maybe, you'll still have to download some packages, depending on how much additional software you installed on your system, but at least the most of them you just downloaded with more speed (a big file, instead of hundreds of small packages).

Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)

The latest version of this magnificent operating system just arrived today.

You can download CD images from their Ubuntu Releases site.

Upgrading through the integrated updater, will come soon.

Ubuntu 8.10

Yesterday the latest Ubuntu version was released.

Just upgrade your existing Ubuntu system or see the download and upgrade instructions in one of these sites:

• http://www.ubuntulinux.org
• http://www.ubuntu.com

VirtualBox 2.0

VirtualBox 2.0 has arrived!

What's new in version 2.0:

• 64-bit OS guest support (only on 64-bit hosts, as one might expect)
• New-version notifier
• Guest property information interface
• Framework for collecting performance and resource usage data (metrics)
• Added SATA asynchronous IO (NCQ: Native Command Queuing) when accessing raw disks/partitions (major performance gain)
• and of course, bug fixes.

Even better, on Ubuntu Hardy it can be installed from a package repository now.

The complete install instructions for Ubuntu can be found in my special tutorial about VirtualBox.

VirtualBox

innotek (now SUN)s VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware (including Linux and Windows).
There exists an Open Source edition, but it is less powerful.


See my full article about this software, solutions for problems on Ubuntu systems etc.

Ubuntu .:. Sound Preferences

What to do when Ubuntu doesn't seem to work with your laptops sound buttons, nor doesn't seem to store your settings.

The Problem:

So we installed Ubuntu and our headphones or speakers seem to explode when the desktops entering sound is played for the first time.

We change the volume with the sound buttons to a lower value, but when we shutdown the system the next start our speakers explode again.

Read my solution here.

Wubi

Wubi is an unofficial Ubuntu installer for Windows users that will bring you into the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other application. If you heard about Linux and Ubuntu, if you wanted to try them but you were afraid, this is for you.

Advantages

• It does not require you to modify the partitions of your PC, or to use a different bootloader.
• Just run the installer, no need to burn a CD.
  (Wubi will download the selected ISO that you selected. You can choose between Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, UbuntuStudio. You could later burn the ISO onto a CD if you want.)
  
• Wubi keeps most of the files in one folder, and If you do not like, you can simply uninstall it.

On my laptop, I started by using Ubuntu from a LiveCD (very slow on startup and not very handy). Then I installed it on an external USB drive (much faster and very useful as you work directly with partitions).
Having Ubuntu installed into a 10 Gb file in your Windows system is handy if you don't want to carry your external USB drive all the time.
Of course, it is a bit slower than using it from a partition, but if you make sure that the file is defragmented than it is very usable.

Tips & Tricks

Upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10

If you installed Ubuntu 7.04 with Wubi and you want to upgrade to 7.10, don't upgrade the system with Ubuntu's update-manager as it will leave you with an unusable system. Read more about the correct procedure.

Instead, you should use the latest Alpha version of the Wubi installer and make sure that you check your Windows NTFS filesystem to avoid an error during the installation process.

chkdsk /r

Can't find kernel after automatic update

Sometimes the Linux kernel is updated, which includes a change of the grub boot loader.
Unfortunately, this update fails to put the correct path to the new kernel file in the boot loaders menu configuration.

In such a case, when booting into grub you get an error saying that the vmlinuz-2.6.xx-xx-generic can't be found.

We have to edit by hand the file C:\ubuntu\disks\boot\grub\menu.lst file.
Search all entries like

root        (hd0,1)/ubuntu/disks

and change them to

root        (hd0,1)/ubuntu/disks/boot

To do this we have two options:

1. Launch Windows and edit the file with your favorite text editor.
   Then restart the system and launch the Wubi Ubuntu system.
2. When booting Wubi, press the Escape key so you can see grub's boot menu.
   
   • Press 'e' above the first entry.
   • Search the line that reads as mentioned above.
   • Press 'e' again.
   • Add /boot at the end of the line.
   • Press 'Esc' two times, then 'b' which should boot into your Wubi system.
   • Once started you can edit the file with

     gedit /host/ubuntu/disks/boot/grub/menu.lst