Upgraded to Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10)

As you are aware that Ubuntu brings in a new version every six months. Ubuntu released its new version on 28 October 2009. The new version is Ubuntu 9.10 and is also named Karmic Koala. I downloaded the new version within twenty four hours of release. Download was not slow, which I feared due to rush of people to download at the same time. The download was smooth and I burnt the image on to a CD.

After burning the CD, I had to decide whether to upgrade the existing Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) or do a clean install. I considered the pros and cons of a clean install. They are given below:

• Pro:
• Clean install will have ext4 file system. This file system provides speed to the OS. Upgrade will not change existing ext3 file system. To change it to ext4, one needs to tweak a lot manually and there is no guarantee that it will upgrade all apps also to ext4 system
• Clean install have many updated apps in its default installation. There may not be a need to install some apps separately.
• Configurations of some manually installed apps may get corrupted during upgrades. They may not work properly after upgrade. They may as well require new install.
• Cons::
• Drivers of some of PC accessories have to be installed manually and configured again. It is a bit painful.
• All apps that I used, which are not part of default installation of OS, would require to be installed and configured. They are laborious considering the number of apps that I have been using.

Having considered pros and cons, I decided to go for a clean install. I wanted to have ex4 file system and I did not want to go through pains of tweaks in upgrade process.

Having decided the installation process, I started my clean install for a dual boot with existing XP. Here, I encountered a funny problem. When I came to partitioning section, I deleted old partitions of Jaunty Jackalope. I started creating new partitions. The first partition, I created was "/" (root), a primary partition. Then I created "swap". The dialog did not give me option to chose type of partition (primary or logical). After creation of second partition, the system made the balance space as "unusable". I tried many times (without formatting) to create four partitions similar to my early installations. I failed. After some digging in the net, I found that the hard drives are programmed to accept only four primary partitions. The problem was not related to Ubuntu or my lack of knowledge on Ubuntu installations. It is something to do with the setup of hard drives. I could not reconcile to this logic, since I had only two primary partitions other than to be installed one. After some thoughts, I came up with a cheat. I created partitions other than root with selection of "logical" option. The installation allowed me to do this. I created root partition last as primary one. then, the installation went smooth.

After the installation, the first thing I wanted was my network connection to work. As usual, my network adapter was not recognized by system. I added ndiswrapper through Ubuntu software center. I did not require CLI (command ling interface). After installation of ndiswrapper, a menu item named "Windows Wireless Drivers" got added to System>Administration menu. I clicked this menu item. A dialog box appeared and asked me include required inf file. I added this, but the driver did not get installed. I adopted old method of applying the driver through CLI. It worked.

I have a working system now with a capability to connect to the net through a wireless network. I will record my experiences with other activities after installation in my next blog. Now, Ubuntu is really fast. It boots up fast. It closes fast. Even the applications load quickly. I can feel it. It is definitely faster than my other system Windows XP.

Ubuntu 8.10 – Intrepid Ibex

It has been quite long, since I posted my blogs. It is not that I did not have any new experience with my Ubuntu.I had few interesting and some unpleasant experiences. I will recount them here. My last blog was posted when I was using a stable version of Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04). I had three issues that required some digging to resolve them. However, the last issue could not be resolved. All these issues were related to drivers of my PC components.

• Wireless Network connection: I have a wireless router at home and my desktop has a wireless network adapter. There is still no Linux driver for this component due to manufacturer’s restrictions. There is a workaround. By installing ndiswrapper software, one can convert Windows driver file to work in Ubuntu Linux. This is the link that gives instructions on the work around. This work around worked in my PC properly.
• Accelerated graphics card: My PC has GeForce4 MX 440 graphics card. Here too, the generic driver was not enough for the card to work properly. Then, after some research, I found that EnVy software was the solution. I downloaded the software and installed it. After installation, the software took care of installation of suitable driver. The card worked after this action.
• Creative Live Webcam: This webcam also did not work at all. I did a lot of search and found few solutions, but they also did not work. I gave up on this at last. My Ubuntu did not have a working webcam. Please note that this webcam was working properly in Windows XP.

Everything was well with my Hardy Heron. As an inquisitive person, I decided one day to try the developer version of Intrepid Ibex. I set up my Ubuntu to auto-upgrade to latest alpha and beta releases of Intrepid Ibex. Few updates worked fine without any problem. Alas! After few updates (which were happening every other day), one update hanged. I had to power-off my PC. After shut off, my Ubuntu refused to boot at all. I had to either reload stable Hardy Heron or beta version of Intrepid. Since stable version of Intrepid Ibex release was only few weeks away, I decided to wait for the release of stable version.

I downloaded the stable version of Intrepid Ibex, when it became available. The fresh installation was very smooth, partly due to improvements in Intrepid Ibex and partly due to guidance from my earlier blog about Ubuntu installation. The three issues noted above were resolved after installation, but easily.

• Wireless Network connection: The instructions and the required debian packages were saved in a removable device. I was thoughtful to save them for the rainy days. I installed ndiswrapper and the proper driver. Wireless connection started working without much labor.
• Accelerated graphics card: This posed some difficulty. Envy was not available for Intrepid Ibex. I had to include restricted extras package in the repository. Then I had to install nvidia-glx-96 package through synaptic package manager. Now, graphics card is working. I can enjoy the games and advanced desktop effects. It took some effort and time to make this work, but the worth the effort.
• Creative Live Webcam: The happiest experience was with this. I did not do anything. It started working automatically. Developers of Intrepid Ibex have done something for it. Hurrah!

Now, I have a stable Intrepid ibex. I am slowly loading required additional applications. I have first added Google Mail offline as my first additional application. I am a fan of Google, but most of the Google applications do not work in Linux. Gmail offline and Google Earth are the exceptions. My experiences with Ubuntu is becoming more and more enjoyable.