My Own Experience

[Princey]

This post isn't aimed at casting a dark shadow over the hard work the developers have put into making Kubuntu what is is. However, there are a few things that have grown on me over the years and I just wanted to share them in no particular order.

I've been running Kubuntu since the day of Warty the Hedgehog. Yes, I've encountered some obstacles but I was always eager to learn, read, re-learn and move on. I still would not call myself an expert in the *nix land but the most recent two releases have left me with a few questions.

1. While KDE 4.2.2 looks great, the performance from machine to machine varies. However, I do need to ask why does Kubuntu 8.10 and 9.04 all of a sudden hate my ATI X1550? Yes, I have used 7.04, 7.10, 8.04 on this same machine but never, have I been so haunted with issues concerning shutdown, reboot and frequent crashes even on a clean install.

2. Is it possible that another *nix variation could run so smoothly on one machine only to have 9.04 crash on install, butt out error messages like the one attached even when CD verification was successful on the very same machine?

3. I know I'm using the 64bit variation, has been since Dapper Drake anyhow and have not run into these show stoppers that I'm getting. Right now, I'm quadraple booting and had it not been for another installation, I'd be without a working install. But are my issues related only to 64 bit? I hope that's not the case.

4. I do want to continue using Kubuntu as my main OS, but right now, sadly, I have had to revert to ArchLinux with kdemod as my working install. Did something go wrong with the last two or can we blame kde 4?


Finally, it's been said here and in other forums that Kubuntu is a foster child of Canonical. I cannot prove/disprove the allegations, but somehow, I feel that Ubuntu gets way more attention in having a polished final product than it does with Kubuntu. I'm not sure part of my experience is due to me having an ATI Raedeon Card x series (x1550) that I keep running into display problems although I never had them prior to 8.10 or it could be an xorg issue, but I'm just wondering if the age old story of Kubuntu provides a watered down version of kde does hold any salt. I'd like to hear others feedback on the issue.


I'm open to suggestions.

[askrieger]

Re: My Own Experience

I doubt that this will make you feel any better, but I too have had a poor experience with KDE4 on my AMD64 box. Everything (that I use) seems to work well in Jaunty on my old Pentium. Meanwhile, I'm "struggling" along with Hardy KDE3 on what's supposed to be my primary computer.

[Princey]

Re: My Own Experience

I doubt that this will make you feel any better, but I too have had a poor experience with KDE4 on my AMD64 box. Everything (that I use) seems to work well in Jaunty on my old Pentium. Meanwhile, I'm "struggling" along with Hardy KDE3 on what's supposed to be my primary computer.

I think you're right. On a separate machine (Laptop) Jaunty works like a charm. But why does Ubuntu (using gnome) feels so smoother on x86_64 than does KDE? I've tried Mandriva Spring on my AMD 64 and I won't even get a screen after booting and running of configurations on the Live CD. To be honest, the Jaunty presented a desktop from the Live CD but kept freezing the USB devices every now and then. I'm yet to see a 64 bit KDE live session work lately. Anyone else care to explain why?

[askrieger]

Re: My Own Experience

kept freezing the USB devices every now and then

That is EXACTLY the problem that I had with Jaunty on AMD64. Unfortunately, the USB device in question was my mouse! I don't think the problem is necessarily related to your display adapter because I'm using an Nvidia GeForce 7300. Of course, we could have different problems.

[Princey]

Re: My Own Experience

Kinda funny, it's my mouse that's freezing up. I have changed different mice, same result. If I use a PS2 mouse, it doesn't although once my external USB hard drive froze, but it's mainly the mouse. I wonder if it doesn't have something to do with xorg.

[askrieger]

Re: My Own Experience

Hmm, do I dare upgrade from Hardy to Jaunty, install a PS/2 mouse, and then give it another day or so to fail? Answer: why not? I've got another machine that's working.

[Princey]

Re: My Own Experience

Please do, let's see if it's something with USB mice or is it something to do with kde 4.2 and AMD 64 machines on a whole.

[askrieger]

Re: My Own Experience

OOPS! This computer doesn't have any PS/2 sockets. I'm checking Launchpad, but no relevant results, so far.

[askrieger]

Re: My Own Experience

Found a possible clue! There is an entry on Launchpad implying a problem with the nVidia Corporation MCP51 rev.3a USB Controller. I checked on my machines, using the command:

lspci|grep USB

The machine that works in Jaunty has an Intel USB controller. The machine that freezes my USB mouse has the nVidia MCP51 rev.3a controller. Apparently, the developers think that this problem was solved in recent kernels. I wish could share that opinion. Please check your machine to see whether you've got the (possibly) evil chip.

[Princey]

Re: My Own Experience

LOL....I was going to mention that I use the nVidia chipset in my last post. A resounding YES, that's the same controller my mobo uses. So, that could very well be the cure. On another note, I'm thinking of reverting back via a clean install to 8.04. Is there a way to update to the latest 3.1 of OO using 8.04?

[askrieger]

Re: My Own Experience

Hardy is still at Openoffice 2.4.1 I suppose you could install 3.1 from source or look for a backport in the Debian repos. What does 3.1 have that 2.4 doesn't ?

[Princey]

Re: My Own Experience

Not much actually, however, there are two key features (one was included in 3.0) that have grown on me. For one, at least, I can open docx documents sent by friends that chase after the latest Microsoft Offering, and the other, because I run a home network where sometimes we work on the same files, that file locking feature is a must. My sister runs Windows and it never alerts her that the files are being in used. I can't always have to run upstairs to see if that's the case or call her. I'll experiment on the weekend to see if I can find it in some backport or I might just have to build it from source. At least, I'm not new to the idea of building from source. I did it a lot when I ran Dapper Drake.

[Princey]

Re: My Own Experience

Askrieger, for some strange reason, since the upgrade to KDE 4.2.2 the mouse issue has disappeared but the nagging black screen when I chose to shut down still persists. For me to get a clean shutdown, I have to use the command line. X-server freezes completely if I chose shut down/restart from the kmenu with a black screen that only my mouse cursor can be seen and remains operable.

[askrieger]

Re: My Own Experience

I'm glad to learn that your mouse problem has gone away. It probably indicates that a developer found and really repaired the glitch while looking for something else. But I'm sorry to learn about the black screen.

Unfortunately, I can't check that on my AMD64/nVidia machine, because I gave it to my wife. Her windoze computer (an ancient Dell) was making horrible noises. It would have needed replacement in a short while anyway. So my AMD64/nVidia machine is now running XP as well as it ran Hardy (prior to the advent of KDE4). My old Intel machine is running a reasonably complete Kubuntu Jaunty with no problems.

[kevinc]

Re: My Own Experience

Interesting ideas you have on the progress of Kubuntu, especially with some of the problems with Jaunty.

My initial response to Jaunty was, "Wow, everything works so well." I was especially impressed by the fact that earlier versions all had problems with my ATi x1300 display, but Jaunty was the first to do everything and I wasn't interested in looking for proprietary drivers after both Hardy and Intrepid did better jobs, although I needed to modify the xorg.conf files to get things working, but with Jaunty - everything did work right out of the box - or, off the freshly burned CD.

Until we got a PPPoE connection, then I started reading posts about uninstalling the Jaunty KDE network manager and doing other things. Two people suggested installing Gnome network manager - and it does work. I think that most people won't need to do that, but as you mention problems with USB and video, and there seems to be many not happy with the package manager, there is room for improvement in Jaunty. Hopefully Karmic will solve all of these. I'm looking forward to downloading the alpha and trying it out.