grumpymole

Time to check out Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:14:00 +0000

As this is still Alpha 2, I'll try this out in a Virtualbox machine.

Link to the homepage for this release is here.

Interested in the progress of Ubuntu 10.04?

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:08:00 +0000

Here's a good place to follow what's happening.

It looks like the Lucid Lynx repositories are already open - just in case you were feeling slightly suicidal.

However, at this point there is usually a small flood of updates backed up from Karmic freeze, and then a steady stream of new updates as development progresses. New features generally won't appear until later in the development cycle and things usually go a bit quiet while UDS takes place. Most of the devs are discussing and planning, not coding at this time.

Karmic Koala is that good that I am happy to wait until later before taking the plunge to Lucid Lynx.

But for now - watching others with less impulse control is a good substitute. And you get to see when stuff breaks.

What is the longest living Ubuntu system?

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:12:00 +0000

I was wondering whether the was anyone who has an Ubuntu system that had been upgraded from the first version of Ubuntu (Hoary, I think) all the way to Karmic Koala?

Is that even possible?

What is the longest surviving upgraded-only Ubuntu system that you know of?

Ubuntu Karmic Koala - New Boot Splash Screen

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:50:00 +0000

Alpha 6 has brought another change to the look. You can see a video here.

It looks a little dark.

Ubuntu Karmic Koala gets Ubuntu Software Store

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:25:00 +0000

Just updated my Karmic Koala installation which now includes the Ubuntu Software Store on the System menu.

Here are a few screen captures:

Stolen blog post

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:02:00 +0000

Hmmm. Seems like someone has reproduced one of my posts and passed it off as their own work.

The "author" clearly doesn't want to be contacted because you are not able to leave any comments and there are no contact details.

This blog post shamelessly copies - word-for-word - a 2007 post from this blog. If you are the owner of this blog, please contact me.

Regards

Warren

Ubuntu - Karmic Koala - So it begins...

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:52:00 +0000

If you enjoyed the journey to Jaunty Jackalope, you can follow Karmic Koala from the start.

Ubuntu Jaunty - Codec Helper is more helpful

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:38:00 +0000

This must be a recent change. Having just done a reinstall using Alpha 4, I noticed that the codec helper screen has been re-organised. This layout is much cleaner, clearer, and more helpful.

The previous incarnation (I can't find a screenshot of it now) provided a list of possible packages of which you had to install one or more. The whole thing wasn't as clear as it could be.

This is much better.

Ubuntu - Tryng out Gnome-Do Docky

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:14:00 +0000

For amd64, it required a bit of snooping around. I also changed some of the defaults. The dock was way too high. I should add that I've been a dedicated AWN user for some time now.

Appearance is good. Performance seems quite good. A bit more playing is required.

Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope - New Volume Control Applet

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:12:00 +0000

Recent updates to Jaunty have brought a new volume control applet. Here are a couple of screenshots. More info about the volume control can be found here.

Clicking on the speaker icon brings up the applet (shown above) and clicking on "Volume Control" will open the volume control dialog shown below.

It seems that the initial settings of the new volume control are soft and you may have to go into the Preferences and select PCM and Master (individually) and turn them up all the way.

Any applications that have currently active sound are listed and can be controlled individually.

Ubuntu - AMD64 build of Mozilla Weave

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:34:00 +0000

Thanks to xur17 for an am64 build of Mozilla Weave 0.2.7! Unfortunately, the current versions don't include builds for Ubuntu amd64.

Weave is a useful Mozilla Labs addon for Firefox that allows syncing of bookmarks, password, and more between multiple computers.

Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex - You can Tell Release is Approaching

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:39:00 +0000

Part of running Ubuntu releases from Alpha through to release and then starting all over again, is following the Development forums posts for a particular release and the RSS feed of updates to that release.

In the beginning, the number of updates in my RSS reader is always larger than that of the posts in the forum. But in the last week or two, the number of new posts in the forum at any time is likely to be greater than the number of updated packages. A good sign about the uptake of Ubuntu. In fact, thinking back to earlier releases, I can't remember the Development forum for a release having this much activity as release approaches. It looks like a lot more people are trying out Beta and RC releases than in the past.

Ubuntu: Intrepid Ibex - A quick look at Empathy

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:28:00 +0000

Following the call to test empathy, I thought I'd take a look. Here are some immediate thoughts:

The icons can be improved. Not sure what the red triangle means. I think I know what the green circle means.
To get irc working, you need to install telepathy-idle. Then add a server. Then join a room from the Room menu option. The process could probably be a bit more streamlined. Otherwise, it was relatively easy to work out what to do.
There is an option to manage favourites, but I couldn't work out what that was.
irc chats are nicely presented, but the tabs only say "Conversation". So, you can't tell what is in a tab, except by visiting each one. [edit: You can find out about the channel in the tab via mouse-over.]
I wonder if it will remember the irc channels I have joined after a restart. Maybe that's what the favourites is about?

At first glance, it seems to be a reasonable replacement for pidgin, but I need a bit more convincing that it is better than irssi for IRC.

A clear advantage is that it is very extensible and can support more than just chat and IRC.

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, intrepid, empathy

NetworkManager Applet 0.7 - what's in it

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 07:17:00 +0000

Following up on my previous post showing what the newly landed NetworkManager Applet 0.7 looks like in Intrepid Ibex, here is a list of features and changes that have been included.

Bullet point summary below. (Follow the link above for details.)

Multiple Active Devices (Target: NM 0.7) (DONE)
System-wide Configuration (Target: NM 0.7) (DONE)
wpa_supplicant dbus Control Interface (Target: NM 0.7) (DONE)
Rewritten libnm_glib (Target: NM 0.7) (DONE)
More Wireless/Wired Authentication Methods (Target: NM 0.7) (DONE)
Convert VPN dbus API to use Dicts (DONE)
Clean up the dispatcher-daemon (DONE)
More libnl (DONE)
KILL KILL KILL dhcdbd (DONE)
Add BLOB support to wpa_supplicant D-Bus interface (DONE)
Basic rfkill support (DONE)

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, intrepid, networkmanager, applet

Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex: Visual exploration of NetworkManager Applet 0.7

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:26:00 +0000

NetworkManager Applet 0.7 landed in Intrepid Ibex in the last couple of days. Here are a few screen captures to show what new features are in the applet.

The forums have noted some problems with the initial change over, but my setup didn't skip a beat. I am only using a standard ethernet connection on this machine, so I haven't tried any of the wireless connectivity yet.

I haven't been able to set up a VPN yet. Either I'm missing something, or there are a few edges still to be smoothed.

Many more options now available for configuration, but at the same time - if you want a basic ethernet connection that "just works" - it seems to do that perfectly well.

Plenty of new options to play with.

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, intrepid, networkmanager, applet

How to fix Virtualbox 1.60 not working after kernel upgrade

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:12:00 +0000

If you are running Virtualbox 1.60 (not sure if this applies to the open source version -OSE), you'll need to recompile the vbox kernel drivers after updating the kernel version. You'll know this because, when you try and start a virtual machine, you'll get a window telling you the recompile using

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

This will fail and you see a message telling you to look in

/var/log/vbox-install.log

where you'll find a message to this effect:

/etc/init.d/vboxdrv: 311: /usr/lib/virtualbox/src/build_in_tmp: not found

From a ticket at VirtualBox, there is a helpful way to workaround this. Delete the file /etc/vbox/vbox.cfg that is left over from the install. Now recompile using

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

and you should be good to go.

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, virtualbox, kernel, recompile

Ubuntu Intrepid - flashplugin-nonfree updated

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:56:00 +0000

A few days ago, this update came through the Intrepid updates. It hasn't shown up in Hardy backports or proposed, so it might be time to install Intrepid in Virtualbox and check it out.

I'm a bit gunshy of upgrading my current Hardy flash setup "manually" - for flash, this never seems to end well and is not easily recoverable.

flashplugin-nonfree 10.0.1.218ubuntu1 (source) in ubuntu intrepid
Changelog

flashplugin-nonfree (10.0.1.218ubuntu1) intrepid; urgency=low

* New upstream beta fixes many crashers (most significantly
LP: #192888).
* debian/config:
debian/postinst: Update md5sums, filenames, and paths. Remove
debugging bits (LP: #176226).
* debian/control: Readd versioned dependency for libflashsupport|
libasound2-plugins to play nicely with either PulseAudio config
while preserving OSSv4 users' ability to have audible "shiny"
(LP: #206307, #186726, #183943, #151849).

Ubuntu Hardy - Some more stability for flashplugin-nonfree

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:21:00 +0000

Although the 9.0.124 version has been way more stable and reliable for me (running AMD64), it seems improvements are on their way in the updates:

Changelog

flashplugin-nonfree (9.0.124.0ubuntu2) hardy; urgency=low

 * fix "frequent crashes with flash on youtube"; we fix this by
   demoting libflashsupport from depends: to suggests: (LP: #192888)
   This has positive as well as negative consequences:
    (+) increased stability for firefox and nspluginwrapper
    (-) pulseaudio users reported that this breaks sound if flash
        while other applications are running that use the sound
        device for output.
   Users that installed libflashsupport during hardy cycle should
   uninstall it to increase stability.
   - update debian/control

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, hardy, flashplugin, updates

Ubuntu Hardy Heron - Screenlets

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:53:00 +0000

In the past, I have not been a fan of screenlets. However, recently I learnt how they can be presented in a useful way. By activating the widgets layer in compiz, and then setting the screenlets to act as widgets, you can get them to appear by pressing F9. And disappear with the same key.

Now this is useful. With some carefully chosen screenlets, I can access some valuable information with one key press.

And this is all in repo's. No extra repo's or compiling from source. A few weeks ago, they were crashing regularly, but some recent updates appears to have fixed that.

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, hardy, screenlets

Ubuntu Hardy AMD64 - Flashplugin-nonfree 9.0.124.0 seems more stable

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:06:00 +0000

This upgrade came through earlier today and since then flashplayer in Hardy AMD64 seems a lot more stable.

I am not using any of the workaround posted in forums, just straight Hardy Beta, FF3b5, and flashplugin-nonfree in AMD64.

Technorati Tags: hardy, flashplugin, amd64

Ubuntu Hardy - Liberation Fonts now Fully Hinted?

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:42:00 +0000

A recent update came through for liberation fonts. It wasn't clear, but it looks as if there is now full hinting available. Looks very nice! Might have to add this to my Win XP work laptop as well.

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, hardy, liberation, fonts

Ubuntu Hardy Heron Beta - AMD64 Flashplayer

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:43:00 +0000

When I installed one of the 64bit alpha's of Hardy Heron, I had to follow one on the many threads around to set up links or move files around to get flash installed and working in Firefox. In the end, I fiddled too much and was left with a somewhat functional flash player.

This morning I re-installed the machine using a freshly downloaded Beta.

No more fiddling around. Just install flashplugin-nonfree and it will bring in all the required dependencies and set up everything correctly.

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, hardy, amd64, flash

Ubuntu Hardy - Intel 945 Graphics Driver Needs Some Tweaking

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:09:00 +0000

I have this driver integrated with the motherboard and, although a Hardy install detects it and sets everything up correctly, the current driver doesn't quite give the performance that it should, especially if you have compiz-fusion running. Typically, you will notice that Firefox scrolling is slow and/or jerky.

I have found two things (searching ubuntuforums.org, where else?) that improve things:

Update your /etc/X11/xorg.conf to look like this:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Option "AccelMethod" "exa"
Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
Option "ExaNoComposite" "false"
EndSection

Add the following as a separate line to your /etc/environment file:

INTEL_BATCH = "1"

Note sure how to do this? Both files that need to be edited require root privileges to edit because they are system files. There are many different ways to do the same thing, but this is one of the easier.

Step #1. Always. Make a backup copy of each of the files before editing them. If you get a result you don't like, you can revert to your original settings.
Open a terminal window. Applications --> Accessories --> Terminal.
type gksudo gedit <the filename you want to edit>
Edit and then save.

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, hardy, intel, slow, choppy, exa, greedy

Miro 1.2 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:32:00 +0000

If you haven't tried Miro yet, I would recommend giving it a try. For ease of use and access to lots of free online video media, it's hard to beat. The current version in Hardy repositories is 1.1.2, but 1.2 appears to be a major upgrade. From the Miro blog post:

Miro - Internet TV Blog » Blog Archive » Announcing Miro 1.2 - A Major Update

We’ve just released a major update to Miro, version 1.2.
Grab it now: Download Miro
This version adds lots of tweaks and bug fixes that make Miro
smoother and slicker. It also lays the groundwork for some big
improvements that are coming soon. Version 1.2 is the best Miro yet.
Some of What’s New in Miro 1.2
On Windows and Linux, we updated to XULRunner 1.9, which brings memory and performance improvements.
We’ve added a much-requested preference to set new channels to not auto-download.
New preferences for tweaking number of simultaneous auto-downloads and torrent seeding.
Important re-architecting of the frontend and backend code.
Lots of bug fixes and tweaks.
On OSX, we updated to Perian 1.1.
On Windows, the Miro installer is now much simpler and prettier.
Improved support for Flash in Channel Guide pages.
Improved translations for dozens of languages.
All of what’s new in Miro 1.2

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, miro

Game On Exhibition at ACMI

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Butler) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 04:31:00 +0000

I took my four year-old boy with me to go and see the Game On exhibition about the history of computer gaming at ACMI. It was very impressive.

I would not consider myself a gamer, but this covers almost every game and game console. I had some flashbacks to my first computer experiences with a ZX Spectrum running The Hobbit game. And everything in between up to, and including, the Wii and PS3.

Unfortunately, no photography was allowed inside, otherwise I would have had a lot more pics.

He loved it and played some of the classics, like Space Invaders and Asteroids.