Dapper installation experiences

[ricnmar]

Hey all,

I have tried the upgrade over the network two times - one worked and one sort of failed...

The install that failed actually completed, but then after restarting, the NIC would no longer allow traffic in or out - I chalked it up to a glitch in the download since I know there was tons of traffic. I ended up reinstalling 5.10 and it works well. I will try again after the traffic lowers a little.

The upgrade that worked really is pretty! It seems to boot up smoother too. The NIC works great too!! It is a different PC and different NIC. I can't wait to get 6.06 on the rest of my computers!

I am just wondering what others are seeing.

ricnmar

[Father Dale]

Re: Dapper installation experiences

The upgrade went without a hitch on my desktop. I decided to do a clean install on the laptop, though, which turned out to be a hideous mistake.
o Installer crashed twice, and I had to start over.
o The Live CD thing is heinously slow -- I need the install option at boot, rather than a 10 minute detour into a live thing I don't want
o When attempting to activate the wireless, machine hangs and must be shut down ungracefully.
o After the machine booted for the first time I had to turn on networking manually.
o TVTime lost it's mind and had to be re-configured
o Where is automount of Windoze parts? Mandrake was doing that by version 7 or so....

These are all changes for the worse since 5.10. Not impressed.

[Fenyx]

Re: Dapper installation experiences

My upgrade experience was a disaster. Firstly, it wanted me to remove 205 packages, most of which are KDE or KDE-related packages. Then it threw me into the command-line after a restart, because the 205 KDE packages were removed. I reinstalled kubuntu-desktop so I could get them back. After which, it revealed an X problem. X insists of configuring wacom settings in xorg.conf, even if I don't have one. All in all, in took me around 14 hours to download, fully upgrade, and fix any broken stuff. That's using a 256kbps DSL connection. Lucky for me, by this I know my way around the CLI quite a bit.

Needless to say, my first ever Linux dist-upgrade has been traumatic. I've had high expectations about the "ease" of Linux upgrades, and maybe I expected too much. Or possibly because I had some packages installed that were not in the repositories, but were taken from reliable KDE sources. I don't know. I just hope that 6 months from now, when Edgy comes, I won't have to go through hell again. (That is, IF I stay with Kubuntu that long...)

[vinodis]

Re: Dapper installation experiences

my upgradation yesterday was not soo good.
the graphics has slowed down. the windows drag delay.
the sound is lost. the DVD playback is choppy. overall i never felt comfortable with the upgraded system. so i did a fresh install of dapper. But i have to wait for the Automatix/EasyUbuntu CD to get all my favorite applications installed back in Dapper. Waiting.. Waiting..

[gregwalton]

Re: Dapper installation experiences

I don't want to sound too negative - Kubuntu is free and still less of a pain than Windoze - but the installation experience for me has taken a few steps backwards. The upgrade, following the published instructions, didn't work - it went through most of it but told me that something hadn't worked, but didn't go so far as to tell me *what* hadn't worked.

Networking, Amarok, mp3s and DVD playing had all died. I hadn't had Breezy very long and those were the only bits I wanted to keep so I thought I'd just do a full install. This is where it looks like a step backwards.

The "live" version booted up just fine but then when I went to Install the "new and improved" partitioning didn't really let me manually partition! Instead of using the nice clean space I had created for it it took over my XP storage extended partitions and screwed them up - without ever asking my permission!

When I installed Breezy it kinda did as it was told and made some sensible suggestions. Dapper install didn't do as it was told and messed up stuff I was trying to keep it away from - without asking for confirmation first. Not impressed!

I can easily fix all this and I will definitely install Dapper - it looks good from the "live" version - but for my particular situation (tribooting with two copies of XP plus a couple of data partitions) installing seems to be more graphical but less helpful. Disappointing when I have been raving about kubuntu so much to my friends recently.

Greg

[Fenyx]

Re: Dapper installation experiences

@vinodis: in the meantime, while waiting for Automatix/EasyUbuntu, why not try to learn how to install those packages yourself? It could be a good learning experience, and since it's a fresh install, there aren't that many things to lose It will also be a good learning experience, even if you make some mistakes.

@gregwalton: what ISO did you use? The Beta/Flights, Release Candidate, or Official Release? When I used the RC version, I was able to edit/format my partitions. Strange that it didn't work out for you. Btw, I was also tri-booting when I installed Dapper (just a test install): XP, Breezy, and Dapper.

Regarding amaroK and MP3s, amaroK needs some new dependencies in order to play them in Dapper. Also, GStreamer is now broken in Dapper, so we're stuck with Xine. Just install the libxine-extracodecs package from multiverse, and you're set to go with MP3s. DVD's I'm not sure how, since I don't have one.

[gregwalton]

Re: Dapper installation experiences

@gregwalton: what ISO did you use? The Beta/Flights, Release Candidate, or Official Release? When I used the RC version, I was able to edit/format my partitions. Strange that it didn't work out for you. Btw, I was also tri-booting when I installed Dapper (just a test install): XP, Breezy, and Dapper.

I used the Official Release. It's installed fine now but only after losing the NTFS storage partitions which were after the free space I had cleared to install Dapper into. Maybe it just assumes that you want to install at the end of the disk space and that there will be nothing after it. This is not what I wanted because the end/inside tracks of a disk run at about half the speed of the start/outside tracks. Just an unsafe assumption by the installer.

Everything is OK now - everything was backed up (of course!)

[Fenyx]

Re: Dapper installation experiences

Hmm... that is strange behavior indeed. If I remember correctly, the Desktop CD installer would ask you if you want to edit the partition table manually or just let the installer decide. If you choose to edit the partition manually, you will then be given a dialog box that resembles QtParted's interface. You can edit your partition table there. Pressing next will give you a table where you can set up which partition will be mounted to which mount point. The installer will also inform you of which partitions it will format/reformat, for example it reformated by hdb5 and hdb2 (swap) partitions.

I'm just making a wild guess here, but probably you touched/clicked something on the NTFS partition during the manual partition table editing, making the installer think that you want that partition formatted, too. (Remember there's an option on the text based installer where you can direct the installer no to touch certain partitions, a.k.a. the skulls and smiling face icons). I'll try to check that when I get a chance to run the Desktop CD again.

[robataka]

Re: Dapper installation experiences

So far I have mixed experience.  On m IBM Thinkpad, everything works like a charm.
On my wife's Averatec 3200 Series laptop, it hangs.  Even the live CD hangs.....I haven't
had a linux hang in ages, and most of the times I have it was end-luser error which I
was eventually able to solve.

It appears to be network driver issue that hangs the pc.  Requires a hardboot.......
Still looking around for some answers...may have to downgrade to breezy which worked without
a hitch....

[robataka]

Re: Dapper installation experiences:Averatec Update

I booted using the previous kernel and had no problems.  Clearly a kernel problem.
I'll try and get the errors posted....

[IMQ]

Re: Dapper installation experiences

Guys and gals,

Could you be more specific when relating your experience upgrading from older versions, say Hoary or Breezy? Were your systems consisted of pure Kubuntu repositories or were they also mixed with unofficial repositories?

I am curious just what causes the unsuccessful upgrade. I might try to dig up the Breezy CD, do a clean install. Then do the upgrade according the instruction to see ii it works. I just want to give *buntu a fair review. After all, if the systems have some unofficially supported packages, they can cause the system to fail.

My own experience with upgrading any systems, where there is a mixed of unofficial repositories, is that the upgrade eventually failed due to some dependencies which could not be resolved. I had this problems with Debian in the past when having unofficially supported packages installed.

Anyway, just curious.

[ricnmar]

Re: Dapper installation experiences

I had some more trouble with installing fresh from a CD than I thought. I would get partition errors if I tried to let the default partitioner run, and if I manually partitioned, I would get to 92% done and hang. Even the mouse would lock up... yuck!

So, I went through the upgrade again. I started with a fresh install of Ubuntu Breezy 510 Badger from a shipit install CD. Then I ran: gksudo "update-manager -d" and all went well. It did not detect the ATI Rage 128 videocard that I have, but I had video and reconfigured X and that is OK now. It all took some time though...

Now I am about to add the Kubuntu desktop package to complete the setup. I guess I will be able to boot into KDE or GNOME then, GNOME is OK, but KDE 3.5 is too good to miss!!

ricnmar

[gregwalton]

Re: Dapper installation experiences

I would like to put my own "problems" into perspective: loading Dapper and most of the apps I'll ever need still only took a fraction of the time and effort it takes to load Windoze - and it was free!

A lot of the time I felt was wasted was down to unfamiliarity. The learning curve is actually surprisingly shallow but simple things like just learning a new system of naming for disk partitions take effort (especially when grub uses a different system again! What's that about?)

After a couple of attempts and a bit of restoring from backups it is all up and running - I just need to get it to play DVDs and mp3s now...

[vinodis]

Re: Dapper installation experiences

@vinodis: in the meantime, while waiting for Automatix/EasyUbuntu, why not try to learn how to install those packages yourself? It could be a good learning experience, and since it's a fresh install, there aren't that many things to lose It will also be a good learning experience, even if you make some mistakes.

Yes Jucato .. i was doing the same. i now installed GNOME along with Kubuntu. Now I find myself using GNOME more as it feels more polished and the brown theme I like.
I come back to KDE sometimes. I learned and did the following:- 1) enabled DMA
2) installed java 3) installed netbeans 4) created a separate home partition.
etc.. etc.. I have downloaded Helix Player, RealPlayer , graveman, and Opera today. Hope to get the Mp3's working today.

[reyfer]

Re: Dapper installation experiences

Wow, so many bad experiences, so I think mine is an exception? I was using breezy, and while I was waiting for the official release announcement, I decided to do a fresh install using the Dapper beta 2 cd I downloaded some days before. Despite what others said on this and Ubuntu's forums, the install went smoooothly for me, no partition problems (I'm dual booting with XP), and after it was installed, I did the dist-upgrade, and have not had any serious problem so far. Automatix installed quickly, and now I have also my Amarok 1.4 working great. As a matter of fact, I have not touched XP since making this install, but then again, it might be an exception.

Anyway, I just want to say THANKS to the Ubuntu and Kubuntu teams, I'm Windoze free FINALLY