Another Karmic 9.10 success

[Snowhog]

Tonight, I installed Karmic 9.10. Did so from the LiveCD 'Final' that I downloaded shortly after the final was announced.

This, for me, is significant. Why? I had previously, a few months ago, upgraded a fully working Jaunty 9.04 to Karmic 9.10. It was terrible! I had no compositing. The system was sluggish. It just wasn't a pleasant experience, and I had to blow it off and reinstall, and reconfigure my Jaunty. What a surprise tonight!

I thought, "Let me try the LiveCD and see." Even running from the LiveCD, everything (that I tried) just worked. More importantly (to me), the compositing was functional and, the speed of Karmic, even running off of the LiveCD was impressive. It was quick and responsive. I knew that Karmic comes with Grub 2, and you have no choice but to use it, and as I was already dual-booting using Grub legacy, I had my concerns. Questions were posted, and answers were provided. Thanks to Qqmike, Vinnywright, and others, my concerns were eased, and I installed Karmic. With some more questions asked, answers provided, and three changes/trials to my Grub legacy menu.lst file, I was able to get Grub legacy to 'chainload' to Karmic's Grub 2.

I added the Medibuntu repository and gpg key, the required packages from Medibuntu so I could play commercial encrypted DVDs - libdvdcss2 (tested - yes, they play!) and w32codecs for the rest (tested Amarok and my Sansa e280 SanDisk - worked like a charm).

So far, I am very happy. A far cry from my 'upgrade Jaunty > Karmic' fiasco. I was led to believe that my Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) and Intels driver support for it were not compatible with Karmic. As I have made no hardware changes to my Toshiba laptop, and the LiveCD worked, and the install from it worked, makes me believe that the problem was with the upgrade from Jaunty to Karmic, and the fact that Jaunty was utilizing a xorg.conf file (and associated xserver-xorg). The upgrade, instead of utilizing HAL, as a fresh install of Karmic utilizes, kept pieces of xserver and xorg.conf, which conflicted with HAL. That's a guess of course, but ...

So now, I can enjoy Karmic with the rest. I'll wait comfortably until Lucid is 'Final' before I even think about giving it a try. I like fully working systems.

Happily triple-booting as of December 31, 2009. Happy New Year to me!!

Added: WICD installed and working. Life is good. 8)

[verndog]

Re: Another Karmic 9.10 success

...
So now, I can enjoy Karmic with the rest. I'll wait comfortably until Lucid is 'Final' before I even think about giving it a try. I like fully working systems.

I noticed a few weeks back you were running stable releases. Very good idea. I also have stable release installed. Ubuntu, on the other hand, I took part in the testing of karmic and now lucid. Not much problems. Nothing that wasn't fixed in short order.
Kubuntu is a different story. And I think I know the answer. Not only is testing updates, but kde itself is in a testing mode. My Ubuntu Lucid runs amost perfectly, Kubuntu Lucid has several issues. All of which is related to kde. Now knowing all that much about kde, I have to wade my way through it, bug reports and all.

Kubuntu Karmic, on the other hand is flawless.

[MoonRise]

Re: Another Karmic 9.10 success

It is flawless if you do a fresh install. I agree with Snowhog on that. This laptop I had to do a fresh install to get half way decent Desktop Effects plus a few minor annoyances I recently fixed. But all in all flawless from a fresh install. Two updates I recently did on systems I do have @ work I eventually had to do a freash install. The upgrade option evidently has an issue and I just don't know what.

Snowhog... Congrats! I now how it has been. Trust me. I know what you've been though getting KK working. It is great. Glad I was able to fix my other issue, as I really do love KK and hated the thought of backing down to JJ.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Another Karmic 9.10 success

For most, if not all, distros that I have tried or used, a fresh install has always been more reliable than an upgrade across version numbers. That's why, when I upgraded from 9.04 to 9.10, I chose the fresh install route. I used the Gold ISO for Jaunty when I moved most of my dependent users to Jaunty, and when Karmic came out I used the GOld ISO for the remainder of my dependent users. Every install was perfect, "out of the box".

When LL goes GOLD next April I will replace all my KK installations with LL and do the same for any dependents who ask for the change. But, for most of them, "if it isn't broken don't fix it" applies. They are running a fast, stable and secure OS. It does everything they want. Why change them?

In fact, the night before last, one of my first "dependents" called to say that their HP 3600 laser printer stopped printing, so they bought another one but it wouldn't print. Yesterday I drove 15 miles to their house and discovered that their USB cable was defective. I also noticed that they were STILL running the SuSE 9.0 I installed on their box in the Winter of 2003 or the Spring of 2004, I can't remember exactly when. They home school their 5 kids and the kids are on the computer every day. "No problems?", I asked. They seemed surprised by the question. They said they've never had any problems with SuSE.

[askrieger]

Re: Another Karmic 9.10 success

Personally, I normally alternate upgrades and fresh installs between my laptop and my desktop. As a consequence of a variety of strange circumstances, though, they are both running Karmic installed from a downloaded copy of the Alternate CD at this time. I'll have to flip a coin to see which one to upgrade and which to re-install. I use the Alternate CD because I have no need to try out *buntu in a live CD environment. What would I compare it with? I don't run windoze.

[verndog]

Re: Another Karmic 9.10 success

... I use the Alternate CD because I have no need to try out *buntu in a live CD environment. What would I compare it with? I don't run windoze.

I only compare it to itself. I find that if the LiveCD works or doesn't work so goes the install. Somewhere in the early stages of Ubuntu Karmic I had issues with my Intel video driver. The system would lock up. "nomodeset" was at the time, the only solution.

After a few weeks and shortly exchanging emails with one of Intel's developers it got fix. Right about the time he requested I send a bunch of log files.

The fix entailed to update both the kernel and the Intel video driver at the same time. After that fix both my install and the LiveCD worked. From then on, I haven't had any issues with my Intel video. Hopefully it stays that way.

[askrieger]

Re: Another Karmic 9.10 success

I find that if the LiveCD works or doesn't work so goes the install.

Good point! I hadn't thought of that. I have had various upgrade problems over the years, that I have attributed to changes in configuration files, but, I must admit, it never occurred to me to try out the LiveCD first. The great thing about these forums is that even an old dog can learn new tricks.

[MoonRise]

Re: Another Karmic 9.10 success

I actually still have to use nomodeset for my Intel based lappy. All in all as I said, KK works great!

[verndog]

Re: Another Karmic 9.10 success

I actually still have to use nomodeset for my Intel based lappy. All in all as I said, KK works great!

I've seen several posts on Intel GMA not working. This has me a tad bit worried. When they get GMA fixed is that going to then break my i865 chip, and then if they again fix i865 will that break GMA. Round and round we go.

I would try to find that Intel dev that I spoke of, and complain to him. If I find his email I will report back here.

I was using that hack of using an older Intel driver until they got i865 fixed. Are aware of that link? Again, when I find it, I will report. Video drivers seems to be the weakest area for Linux.

Edit: I found the "Reverting Intel Driver". It was for jaunty but may work for you. Easy to try. There is at least one GMA that it made a difference for.

[Snowhog]

Re: Another Karmic 9.10 success

Just activated Strigi after following the excellent How To Enable Nepomuk/Strigi Desktop Search in Kubuntu 9.10/KDE4.3. Previously used this HOWTO in Jaunty, and it worked there as well.

[MoonRise]

Re: Another Karmic 9.10 success

Just to update why I still have to use NOMODESET. If not used I get VERY LARGE TEXT SYNDROME.

[MoonRise]

Re: Another Karmic 9.10 success

After the last round of updates I have to say my laptop is very happy (well, I am anyway ) Everything seems to work. Even my Desktop Fade Effect when logging out. As I said, I still have to use NOMODESET because of the large text syndrome, but that is the only thing screwy on that system. It is really nice to have KK. It is sooooo much better than anything I've use in a long time. I even do my remote networking task with Kubuntu now with the aid of WINE. I do say I'm 100% productive with my KK system!

[GreyGeek]

Re: Another Karmic 9.10 success

My wife's Acer Aspire 3004Li had Kubuntu Jaunty installed. I haven' touched it since I put Jaunty on it when it was beta. This evening I plugged in the $18 LogiCam with ear bud and microphone in order to set her up to run Skype.

I noticed a gear wheel in the system tray. I clicked on it and KPackageKit showed me 53 patches and a dozen security updates. I installed them but got an error with kerberos, which I ignored because it isn't used on my wife's system. The gear box came back immediately. I clicked on it and got a message about an update to Kubuntu 9.10 being available. I'm between a rock and a hard place ... do the upgrade or a fresh install. I prefer the fresh install because updating can lead to lots of problems and trying to solve them can often take more time than just bitting the bullet and doing a fresh install from a LiveCD. But, either way, now seemed to be as good a time as any. So, having read several msgs about folks having problems upgrading their Jaunty to Karmic over the web, I decided to try it out and see what problems I could get myself into.

I started the process and was told it would take 1 hour and 20 minutes. This is with a 12 Mb/sec bandwidth!! The download rate was 66 Kb/s. An hour later the dialog said there was 1 hour and 12 minutes remaining. My wife and I continued to work on our latest puzzle and time flew by. The process took somewhere between 2 and 3 hours. I happened to come in about 1 minute before the clean up finished.

I rebooted and Karmic Koala came up without a problem! I switched back to wicd, installed Skype, plugged in the Logicam, ear bud and mic, and called my relative 50 miles west of here. Everything worked perfectly.

The internet update from Jaunty to Karmic on the Acer Aspire 3004Li went without a hitch. Installing from a 9.10 LiveCD would have taken about 30 minutes. Reinstalling the software, codecs, etc..., that would be required would have taken another hour, if that. So, an Internet upgrade would have taken me twice as long as a fresh install, EXCEPT that with the Internet upgrade I didn't have to do anything except click a couple buttons and then enjoy an evening with my wife working on one of our hobbies, putting together a puzzle! 8) Had I chosen to do a manual install it would have taken considerably more of my time.

[Snowhog]

Re: Another Karmic 9.10 success

I have been booting into Karmic 9.10 as my primary OS exclusively now. Activated the backports and upgraded to KDE 4.3.4 yesterday (January 15, 2010). Today, I added the grub2-splashimages package. Saved my current wallpaper image as a .tga image (640x480 size) and copied it over to the /usr/share/images/grub directory. Modified /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme to reflect this image and changed the text colors, and viola, I have a nice Grub2 bootsplash. I'm really liking Karmic 9.10, KDE 4.3.4, and Grub 2. 8)

[GreyGeek]

Re: Another Karmic 9.10 success

I've been putting the LL Live Daily verson on an 8GB USB stick and booting it on this notebook to test it out. The 1/16/10 version is reasonably good. One annoying bug is that you cannot set the time from either the panel or the systemsettings. The other is that my video "canary", Stellarium, isn't doing too well on LL. No stars show on the screen, the configuration screens overlap and cannot be dismissed, and the left side of the "L" menu does not appear when you move the mouse over the lower left corner. Everything else that I've tried seems to be working OK. Occasionally a plasmoid will crash be it resets itself without apparent interruption. KDE 4.4 is very fast.

Although 9.10 works very well on this machine I want to move to KDE 4.4 and my plan is to install 10.4 when it goes gold. 10.4 is an LTS release so I plan to stay with it at least two years, if not longer.