Why upgrade to Intrepid?

[kjjjjshab]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

Yeah, I saw the news on ath9k in 2.6.27-rc3 (i think)... but I would have thought that at least bg would function... or is that not how it works?

[dibl]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

I'm no expert, but I would not expect Atheros to release a driver that only partially works (as opposed to Open Source devs, who might to that to get some functionality).

But I'm just guessing.

[kjjjjshab]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

I'm no expert, but I would not expect Atheros to release a driver that only partially works (as opposed to Open Source devs, who might to that to get some functionality).

But I'm just guessing.

the n is only draft n, which is why i hoped that would not be true.

Edit (rather than waste another post on OT): I had hoped ath5k would work because internally my dlink was perhaps a couple of separate radios on one package, and then it would make sense to support the bg on my dlink since it would be the same hardware as many other wireless cards... and they could easily worry about the n later.

[dibl]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

Right, but folks are writing and releasing drivers for Draft n.

What I meant was, I would not expect Atheros to announce a driver release for their new chip, but it only provides a-b-g functionality. If their chip offers Draft n capability, I would expect their driver to support that. And of course, if the final n spec changes from Draft n, then all bets for previously released hardware and software are out the window.

[Bongo5HH]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

Kev, run

lspci

and let's see the make and model of the integrated wireless chip. For example if it is an Atheros, there is a new ath5k driver for it.

Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

Think this will work now? HH says I need the firmware.

Kev

[kjjjjshab]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

Tad more on topic... has anyone noticed if ubuntu ever changes the kernel version for a release? Is it possible that II will have a 2.6.27 kernel someday or will the entire cycle be 2.6.26-xx?

[claydoh]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

Kev, run

lspci

and let's see the make and model of the integrated wireless chip. For example if it is an Atheros, there is a new ath5k driver for it.

Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

Think this will work now? HH says I need the firmware.

Kev

Yes, you can get the firmware easily if you can hook up to the internet with a wired connection. The package b43-fwcutter will download and install the firmware for you (not sure if it will allow you to use a firmware file you already have).
or you can use ndiswarapper and use the windows drivers if you have them available. Luckily you can use either the windows driver (via ndiswrapper) or the linux driver (and getting the firmware. For my cheapo 4318, the linux driver was easier to get going.

However, in the end, as I am a sucker sometimes, I ditched the wireless-g pc card card on my laptop and installed the Compaq w200 usb-based wireless-b card that attaches to the lid as I get much much further range with it. It just means I have to use an ooold almost abandoned driver for it and manually build it every week or so (only takes literally a minute or 2) plus if I have to set it up manually (via a super-simple script) as the driver in compination with network-manager, wicd, etc, causes the desktop to lock up . But i can sit outside on my deck and still get a good connection, which at the moment is more important

[Bongo5HH]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

I tried to use the firmware that it automatically downloads - who knew?? - in Hardy and though it pretended like it would work it did not actually connect to (or even detect) any wireless networks. I think I'll install II on my Laptop and see what happens.

Kev

[dibl]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

Tad more on topic... has anyone noticed if ubuntu ever changes the kernel version for a release? Is it possible that II will have a 2.6.27 kernel someday or will the entire cycle be 2.6.26-xx?

Historically, *buntu has released new kernels within a given version -- but not usually more than one or two after the official release. Since II is on 2.6.26-5 now, I would not be shocked if they go to a 2.6.27 kernel before the next version.

[starbetrayer]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

cause you need to upgrade your software just because of security

[Bongo5HH]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

It's installing on the laptop as I type this. Unfortunately for me, this is going to be a production environment.. alpha OS + work that MUST be completed isn't always the best way to go. But at least I'm going to form an honest opinion of the OS right? hehehe

Kev

[claydoh]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

I agree, for similar reasons
I got my laptop (birthday present) on the day my desktop pc (Hardy) died. I decided to try intrepid on the lappy, it installed and ran pretty good for an alpha (1) so I started messing around in it. That night my pc bit the dust, but instead of grabbing a hardy cd, I decided to keep Intrepid and see how long I can go. Its been a month and 2 days so far as my main, only, production, and play machine.......

[KeithZG]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

I'm still not sold on the replacement of the old Kicker; can you drag it to new locations yet? I switch screens all the time between my 4:3 display and my 16:9 (often because of watching fullscreen video in one or the other) and it's actually a serious regression for me to have to right-click into a menu and change it up instead of just click-drag. That's honestly the main reason I'm still using KDE 3.5 on my desktop PC (well, that and the fact that KDE 4, to this day, crashes like a mutha-f**ker all the time, heh, but YMMV and mine certainly has on my 64-bit install...)

Looking at most of the selling points for Intrepid, though . . . it's all stuff I did trivially myself ages ago (for example, I was using the ntfs-3g driver basically since 5.10 IIRC, so even before I had any of the computers I current use I was mounting windows partitions all the time without any issues). Of course, I love early adoption so I'll think about throwing my laptop into the fight as soon as I get the space on it to actually install KDE4, heh.

Sorry, to be clear, the changes with using .kde instead of .kde4 now, will that mean one cannot easily have a simultaneously installed 3.5 and 4? I'm a bit of an environment nut, I have as many options installed on this laptop as it has space basically and when I was running KDE4 on it even recently there were some serious crashing and audio issues so it'd be nice to have a backup to fall into (other than GNOME or Fluxbox or FVWM or Openbox or all the others I also have installed, haha).

[Bongo5HH]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

well the II install on my laptop did NOT go well... black screen at end of install... reboot gave me cool blue lines of sparkles on the screen (seem to match up with shades on the screen).. adept would not run... thankfully apt-get worked.. fixed the video problem on first reboot.. but it came back on the next reboot. System very unstable...

So now I've got gOS installed on it. Gonna try that for a couple of days. The look is kinda rough for me...

Kev

[dibl]

Re: Why upgrade to Intrepid?

Adept is non-functional on II, at the moment. You may need to run kate from the command line.

But I just rebooted mine after it had run trouble-free for several days. But of course I only figured out how to get the Nvidia driver to install last week .... :P