Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

I've downloaded the beta of Precise Pangolion i386 (because it was designated for Intel chips whereas the 64bit was pointed to Athlons) and plan to install it and play with it through development.

Bti Locker encryption is not running, although it wastes 100MB of HD space IN FRONT of the OS. And after I boot into the LiveCD I will make a copy of Win7's MBR before I install it. Any other suggestions?

I wish they'd switch to the more generic x86-64 notation. "amd64" will run on 64-bit Intel processors just fine.

The Windows installer pre-creates that 100MB partition in case you decide you want to enable BitLocker at some point in the future. That was a lesson learned from Vista. Back then, people had all kinds of issues trying to resize partitions post-install so that BitLocker would work. The presence of this extra 100 MB partition shouldn't affect the usual procedure for installing Ubuntu in dual-boot fashion.

OK, I'll abort the installation of the i386 and switch to the 64bit.

I have a quick question which the 100MB partition has provoked.
My HD has three partitions.
/dev/sda1
/dev/sda2 *
/dev/sd3
and the unallocated partition on which I plan to install Kubutu. The install app is offering me all three choices as the destination for the boot loader. I suspect that I should select /dev/sda2, which is flagged as bootable. Correct?

I've never stuck Kubuntu on a Win7 box with bit locker before. Usually, with XP, the offering was /dev/sda, and grub was put where it was supposed to be. I don't want to assume, hence the question.

[buzzmandt]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

I wish they'd switch to the more generic x86-64 notation. "amd64" will run on 64-bit Intel processors just fine.

+1

[Snowhog]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

Yeah, but it'll never happen. "He who discovers the comet, gets to name the comet."

History of AMD64

AMD64 was created as an alternative to the radically different IA-64 architecture, which was designed by Intel and Hewlett Packard. Originally announced in 1999[6] with a full specification in August 2000,[7] the architecture was positioned by AMD from the beginning as an evolutionary way to add 64-bit computing capabilities to the existing x86 architecture, as opposed to Intel's approach of creating an entirely new 64-bit architecture with IA-64.
The first AMD64-based processor, the Opteron, was released in April 2003.

[SteveRiley]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

OK, I'll abort the installation of the i386 and switch to the 64bit.

I have a quick question which the 100MB partition has provoked.
My HD has three partitions.h
/dev/sda1
/dev/sda2 *
/dev/sd3
and the unallocated partition on which I plan to install Kubutu. The install app is offering me all three choices as the destination for the boot loader. I suspect that I should select /dev/sda2, which is flagged as bootable. Correct?

I've never stuck Kubuntu on a Win7 box with bit locker before. Usually, with XP, the offering was /dev/sda, and grub was put where it was supposed to be. I don't want to assume, hence the question.

Since you aren't actually running BitLocker, we don't have to worry so much about preserving everything as-is. Your choice is essentially between two options:

* Allowing GRUB to take over the boot process
* Letting Windows retain control, and hand-editing its MBR with a third-party utility

This article, while written for 11.04, still applies. I like it because it's well-illustrated and it explains the side-effects of each of the above choices. The author prefers the latter because he reports that certain Windows upgrades will overwrite GRUB if you go with the former.

Personally, I'm not a fan of dual-booting because it has always felt somewhat brittle to me. Maybe you could convert your existing Windows installation to a VM using VMware's free converter, wipe the hard drive clean and install Kubuntu by itself, then run Windows inside VMware Player?

[Snowhog]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

Back when had Windows Vista installed (wow, that was a way back) and I was venturing into Linux, I used EasyBCD by NeoSmart Technologies. I believe it is one of the best boot-manager replacements for Windows there is.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

Thanks, Steve. I read that article while researching the problem. As I've understood it, one uses /dev/sda when you want grub to present the boot options, and /dev/sdaN* (the partition marked with the boot flag) when you want Windows boot menu to do it. The only time I've encountered the Windows boot menu was when I installed WUBI on my wife's Acer Aspire One AD0521.

The two brittle things I've experienced are 1) running a WUBI installation that updates the kernel, which forces a rewrite of grub. Guaranteed lockout of your Kubuntu installation, and 2) using Windows boot menu, which usually involves using a third party tool like EasyBCD, which I've used in the past on XP dual boots. It frequently gives problems if you try to remove it.

That's why I prefer a grub boot controlling two distinct partitions. I got chicken and chose /dev/sda instead of /dev/sda2. I am now looking at a new Kubuntu 12.04 Beta 1-2-2012 build! 8)

[SteveRiley]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

Back when had Windows Vista installed (wow, that was a way back) and I was venturing into Linux, I used EasyBCD by NeoSmart Technologies. I believe it is one of the best boot-manager replacements for Windows there is.

Yup, that's the one. BCDedit, the tool that comes with Windows, appears intentionally designed to break your brain!

As I've understood it, one uses /dev/sda when you want grub to present the boot options, and /dev/sdaN* (the partition marked with the boot flag) when you want Windows boot menu to do it... That's why I prefer a grub boot controlling two distinct partitions. I got chicken and chose /dev/sda instead of /dev/sda2. I am now looking at a new Kubuntu 12.04 Beta 1-2-2012 build! 8)

Indeed. I would have chosen this route as well if I had to dual-boot. Congratulations on your new install!

[GreyGeek]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

Accelerated video setup automatically and all I had to do to get the wifi going was supply a password. Sound works great!

Precise is full of bugs but when something crashes it immediately reloads itself. KMail is a little flacky yet, but useable. I really like the HTML feature. Blink and Skype don't have releases built for precise yet, but I "signed up" to help debug it. This Acer is running great and running cool. The previous heating problem apparently was due to the LiveUSB stick corrutpion.

When I am running Win7 the fan runs ALL the time. SpeedFan looks like it could save some battery life. Precise kicks the fan in and out automatically. The LiveUSB corruption must of turned the fan off.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

I've noticed that like previous Kubuntu releases, this one comes with KWallet preinstalled and nosey, just like Windows UAC. I used Muon to purge KWallet, but that did NOT remove the daemon, kwalletd, which is called by the KDE daemon. I will need to edit a script in either init or init.d to remove the call to kwalletd and then delete the file from my system.

I've found that Muon is not, IMO, ready for prime time... but getting close. Meanwhile, I use apt-get and I've installed Synaptic. I am going to use Synaptic to install and then uninstall KWallet, to see if it is Muon or some other reason why uninstalling with purge does not kill the kwalletd daemon.

Also, I've found that KMail in Precise crashes frequently, usually while closing. It's probably the fault of kwallet, which keeps asking me for a password even though I purged it with Muon.

[SteveRiley]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

Why is KWallet the target of such scorn? It's generally invisible to me. I don't set a master password on it and therefore it stays out of my way.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

Even when you don't set a password kwalletd runs anyway. I generally dislike daemons that I don't use wasting my resources.


I've been working all afternoon installing apps to bring Precise up to the usability of my Lucid install. I ran into some roadblocks, which is common for a Beta release.

Googleearth and Skype won't install without installing the ia32 mulitarch, which involves installing about 150 32bit files (including qt3 stuff ?) and then one has to install the ia32lib file. I haven't taken the step to do that. The problem is discussed here for Skype but it will be the same for Googleearth and other 32 bit apps.

I'm running 12.04 and I managed to install skype. First you'll have to download the 64-bit package from skype's download page. Then open Synaptic and install the package libpam-winbind. Then install ia32-libs-multiarch:i386, then install ia32-libs. Then you will be able to install Skype without dependency issues, but since the software center isn't working, run "cd Downloads"(assuming the skype package is located in the downloads folder) in terminal, and then run "sudo dpkg -i skype-ubuntu_2.2.0.35-1_amd64.deb". You seem to have a lot more dependency issues then I had though, so this might not work for you

I have installed a TON of files today and haven't had a chance to run any of them except KMymoney, which worked great. I have yet to configure PostgreSQL, which I prefer over MySQL, but the QtSDK installed nicely.

All in all, for a Beta, Precise is coming along nicely.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.


https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...er/+bug/902722


AND, apparently it is a problem with Oneiric, as well:
http://www.mail-archive.com/desktop-.../msg55774.html

[woodsmoke]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

As to Kwallet.

I had "problems" with it 5-6 years ago and chose to not use it.

When I went to "Akonadi"/Kontact I decided to use Kwallet and have had zero problems with it.

woodsmoke

[SteveRiley]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

Even when you don't set a password kwalletd runs anyway. I generally dislike daemons that I don't use wasting my resources.

Ah, okie. I actually find it handy for what it does: store secrets.

I have yet to configure PostgreSQL, which I prefer over MySQL, but the QtSDK installed nicely.

I'd like to learn more about your preference for PostreSQL. Is it leaner/faster/prettier than MySQL?

[GreyGeek]

Re: Precise Pangolion pretty pithy preview.

I'd like to learn more about your preference for PostreSQL. Is it leaner/faster/prettier than MySQL?

The comparisons between MySQL and PostgreSQL have been an ongoing debate for a decade or more. A recent and reasonable discussion is here .

Personally, I tried them both early on and PostgreSQL won my support because, at the time, MySQL had only stubs for major SQL functions, and, PostgreSQL was ACID compliant when MySQL was not. The admin tool to use for PostgreSQL is PGAdmin3. They are both in the repository. I just installed PostgreSQL 9.1 on my Precise partition last night. I set it up to run locally, not as a remote server, which is how I ran it at work on the Linux server in my office while I developed software using Qt4 against our Oracle databases. In my own experience I've found PostgreSQL to be between 90-95% compatible with Oracle's SQL syntax, which is why I used it for development purposes. In fact, development in Qt on Linux is about 2 to 3 times faster than developing the same source code on XP using MSVSC++6.0 with the Qt extension. I'd put compiler defines in my code to detect which OS the code was being run on and based on that I had other compiler defines which picked the proper syntax to create SQL queries. My code was made bullet proof on Linux against PostgreSQL and the deployed binary ran on XPs against Oracle. And, on larger databases PostgreSQL equals or exceeds Oracle's speed, in my experience. Support for PostgreSQL is equal to or better than Oracle's. The primary source of support are the internet forums devoted to it. My son, the former Oracle admin at the State dept, used free internet support forums and found their advice to be equal to or better than Oracles, and considerably faster. But, that was a couple years ago. He now supervises the team he used to work in. (brag, brag, brag.... )

There are lots of excellent accounting software package (client, client-server, web based) available on the web:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/postbooks/
http://www.moreofit.com/similar-to/w...ke_Sql-ledger/