Arun's Blog

I normally start using the new versions of Ubuntu when it enters the last part of the alpha stage. I always did a clean install until now. I was going to upgrade when Ubuntu released the 5th alpha version of Ubuntu 8.04, but I changed my mind when I saw the list of open issues. Some of the major issues were resolved when Ubuntu released the final alpha version. I thought I would do an upgrade from Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon to Ubuntu 8.04 instead of doing a clean install of Ubuntu 8.04. I wanted to see how smooth Ubuntu upgrade goes from an end user point of view.

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I got the Maxtor OneTouch4 500 GB external hard drive during the Thanksgiving deal. Maxtor uses it's own software to access/backup files from/to the external drive. I used Windows OS to setup the hard drive the first time. Maxtor installed it's desktop software and I backed up my files using it's software. I then booted into Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon. Ubuntu 7.10 recognized the external hard drive, but when I tried to access the files, I got a message similar to 'cannot access the drive or you do not have permission to access the folder'.

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You might have heard the news that Dell is offering DVD video playback in their Ubuntu systems. Dell has released more information on what they are offering for Ubuntu 7.10.

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I wrote earlier about Skype 2.0 beta with Webcam support for Linux detected my webcam. I also wrote that I have to chat with someone to see if it works. There are 2 issues here.

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I first installed Virtualbox OSE (Open Source Edition) from Ubuntu repo. I didn't see any option to load USB devices in the settings. The OSE version was 1.5 whereas the current Virtualbox version is 1.5.2. I thought, may be the OSE edition doesn't support USB devices, so I removed the OSE edition and installed Virtualbox from Virtualbox.org. Even that didn't show any option to load USB devices. I then found out from Virtualbox site that Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon removed support for /proc/bus/usb. If you have the same issue, this is what you have to do to fix it (Thanks to Virtualbox for the tip).

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I did a fresh install of Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 3 on my laptop on Saturday. It has ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics card. I had problem with the Live CD as usual. The X server didn't work. I had to use the safe graphics mode in Live CD to get it to work. I then installed Ubuntu from the Live CD. The installation went fine, but Ubuntu didn't install the proprietary driver for ATI card by default. I had to manually install and reconfigure my xserver. ATI support really sucks in Linux. Gutsy is slightly buggy, but it didn't prevent me from doing the regular work.

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