Fresh Install 12.10 Vs Upgrade to 12.10 from V12.04 Comment

[Guest]

I tripple boot. My main distro is Kubuntu with a “test” distro and Win7. Each has it's own partition on the same drive.

I always backup with Clonezilla because what can't go wrong really does at times.

After reading fresh install vs update, I first took the fresh install method. Everything worked as I needed except for configuring my printers. I have a Brother MFC-295CN and a Brother HL-5370DW. I have never had a problem configuring these two printers. However, be as it may, I could not get the printers to work. I first added the drivers for my Brother MFC-295CN because they are't in the printer database which were obtained directly from Brother's website. Then I tried the Add Printer in the Printers-System Settings. Both printers were recognized but no matter what I tried I could not get the printers to print. At this point I didn't know anything about “localhost:631” (which I read about later) and gave up. Since V12.04 was backed up with Clonezilla, I went back to V12.04.

Installing programs I use daily is never a problem but if I encounter a problem with confuring printers, I will give up after at least 4 hours of trying.

Today I did the sudo do-release-upgrade -d to my V12.04 distro after doing the apt-get update command. It went flawlessly and my printers were intact. Now to research why I had a problem installing the printers.

Since I tripple boot, my grub was messed up (Just had a black screen looking for Grub) so had to use my Boot-Repair disk to reconfigure Grub.
After that, no problem. I have a beautiful upgrded OS that runs fine.

[Unhinged]

Interesting. I do much the same except that my actions and hardware make me less brave. Currently each OS has it's own physical drive. Aside from Win 7 (which I still need on occasion) I run Kubuntu on one and Ubuntu on the other. Without getting too deep, here are a couple of surprises for me.

I can now use my scanner on my Samsung SCX4828 for the first time (using K/Ubuntu software). It could never "Acquire Images" from my hardware before the upgrades (yes, I chanced the "upgrade").

My analog clock widget never appears properly after logging in KDE, but once fixed stays right for the duration of the session. On another video note, the cube rotates smoothly when nothing (applications) is on any of the desktops, but stutters just a bit when I have Kmail on desk1 and Chrome (or anything else) on any other desktop. Nothing to do with Kmail, it's just that I always have that open.

Speaking of Kontact/Kmail et al, it's almost there. Google mail/calendar integration is 80% for me which is good enough to have me switch back from using Evolution. Still some issues, but I can either work around them or ignore them.

Overall I'm happy with Kubuntu's progress.

[Guest]

I first started with Ubuntu in '05 and eventually switched to the KDE desktop. Once I learned how to configure it it is enjoyable to use.

It took me a while to learn how to install scanner software for my Brother MFC-295CN printer. Finally I took a solid look at Brother's website, followed their instructions and was successful.

I tried other distro's recently and was unable to install printers, which is almost the first thing I try with new distro. If I am unsuccessful, I dump the distro. However, I didn't want to dump Kubuntu. I still don't know how to configure my two Brother printers on a fresh install with Kubuntu. I have the Brother MFC-295CN for color work and HL-5370DW for everyday printing in b&w.

At the moment the other linux distro I am experimenting with is Mageia 2. It seems quick and as easy to configure as Kubuntu. Win7 is hardly used but there for the Grand-kids when they need it.

In conclusion, I, too am very happy with Kubuntu. I don't have a problem with the clock but my cube will rotate on its own once in a while. Other distros have too so doesn't bother me.

Happy computing!