Posts Tagged ‘Ubuntu 7.10’

Ubuntu 8.04 upgrade snafu

2 Comments
Posted 18 Mar 2008 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

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.

I started the upgrade process by starting the update manager from a terminal (using update-manager -d command). The upgrade took around 20-30 minutes. I was twice prompted during the upgrade to select either the latest version or the package maintainer’s version (I think one was for Samba. I don’t remember the other one). I selected the package maintainer’s version (though I wanted to go with the default option which was current or new version, don’t remember the exact wordings). After the upgrade was done, I rebooted the system as Ubuntu requested me.

When I rebooted the system, my laptop’s touchpad was not working, but the keyboard was working. I entered the username and password and pressed enter. The system just hung. It didn’t login. I tried 2-3 times rebooting, but it didn’t work. I then downloaded the Ubuntu 8.04 ISO image through my desktop and burnt it to a CD. I then rebooted the laptop and installed Ubuntu 8.04 alpha 6 from the CD. I formatted the boot, root and swap partitions and left the home partition untouched. I was prompted only once this time, for Samba. I selected the default option. The installation was done, rebooted my system and voilą!!! I could login and got my system back. All my preferences were left untouched, my Firefox bookmarks was there since I left the home directory untouched.

The overall experience was mixed. I’m not sure if the installation would have gone smooth if I had gone with the default option when prompted, during the upgrade. If you are not a technical person, then this upgrade snafu would raise your blood pressure since you are left with a non workable system. It would still be an issue if you want to install through the CD as I did, if you don’t have a separate partition for your home directory and you haven’t backed up your files (I did a backup before I started this experiment). I would still rate the upgrade from one version of Ubuntu to a newer version much superior than the upgrade from Window XP to Windows Vista. This might not be the case with everyone. Caution: Always back up your files before you upgrade.

Update: I forgot to write that Ubuntu 8.04 detected my wifi card without any problem, but the issue is, the light that shows if my wireless connection is on and is working, is not working. The light stays off even when my wireless is working fine. There is no problem with the light since it works when I boot into Windows and it worked fine until Hardy upgrade. I hope they fix this before the final release.

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Maxtor OneTouch4 with Ubuntu Linux

16 Comments
Posted 24 Dec 2007 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

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’.

I thought I would format the hard drive, so I backed up the Maxtor software from the external hard drive using Windows OS. I tried to format the drive in Ubuntu using QTParted and GParted (2 Linux based partition editors). QTParted didn’t even recognize the drive. GParted did recognize the drive, but the options in the right click context menu were completely grayed out except unmount. I then formatted the OneTouch4 with Partition Magic (Windows based partition editor) as NTFS. I could then access the drive, copy/paste files etc from my Ubuntu system. What a pain Maxtor is/was!!!

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Dell’s Ubuntu 7.10 offering

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Posted 20 Dec 2007 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

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.

  • Dell is offering LinDVD software with every Ubuntu system for DVD playback. It’s a proprietary software and the cost is included in the system price.
  • Normal Compiz Fusion effects are enabled by default.
  • Dell is installing and enabling the NVIDIA 3-D OpenGL driver by default on systems purchased with NVIDIA video cards.
  • Dell now puts a DVD ISO image on the desktop. Users can burn that to DVD and use as a restore disc. Dell already offers reinstallation partitions on the hard drive.
  • Adobe flash player is installed by default.
  • New hardware support including Integrated laptop webcams w/ digital microphone, NVIDIA video cards on laptops, including suspend/hibernate support, Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 on the Inspiron 530, Support for the Dell 1720 and 1720dn printers
  • APT repository for updating BIOS from Ubuntu.

Source: Direct2Dell.

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Issues with Skype video in Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

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Posted 14 Nov 2007 — by Arun
Category Technology

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.

Issue 1: Skype detected my laptop’s (Acer Travelmate 8204) inbuilt webcam (Logitech orbicam), but the video didn’t work. The test screen was showing a blank video window. I’m not sure if it’s due to the webcam model or the video card (ATI Radeon Mobility X1600). There are some issues related to ATI’s Linux driver. I have listed the known problems with Skype beta 2 below (after Issue 2).

Issue 2: As I wrote earlier, Skype detected my desktop webcam (Logitech Quickcam) and the test video was good. I then initiated a video chat with my parents yesterday. The video started fine and the quality was pretty good initially (close to Windows), but then the video got quite darker. They could see only the table light, outline of my face etc. Everything else was dark. I then stopped my webcam and restarted it. The video again started fine and went dark after a minute or two. It doesn’t go blank, but it gets too dark. I have NVidia GeForce FX 5600 card in my desktop.

Here are the list of issues that are fixed and would be available in the next release:

  •  Using uvc webcam driver with new Logitech cameras can cause a split video effect which does not recover until you restart video.
  • Using uvc webcam driver with ATi fglrx graphics card driver results in a memory leak and potential crash currently.
  • v4l webcams (including gspca) causes a crash when changing to low-quality mode (160×120) when there is no camera support.
  • v4l webcams that only capture in 352×288 are not supported.

Here are the list of issues that are being worked on currently:

  • There is a noticable flickering effect if you focus in/out of the call window during a video call.
  • V4L (1) cameras can sometimes crash upon conclusion of the call.
  • Drivers which don’t support capturing at 320×240 cause Skype video feature to not function (V4L) or display many broken lines in the wrong resolution (V4L2).

Here are other known (outstanding) issues:

  • Full-screen mode stretches out of aspect on widescreen monitors.
  • iSight camera doesn’t work due to currently unsupported UYVY image format.
  • Syntek/stv680/quickcam_messenger cameras don’t work due to currently unsupported RGB image format.
  • Using a display driver with only a single Xv port means you can only see video in one direction currently.
  • Using a display driver with no Xv support will not work at all.
  • ATi fglrx driver versions before 8.42.3 may crash your X server and lock up video during the call.
  • ATi fglrx driver version 8.42.3 may crash your X server and lock up video at the beginning of the call.

Source: Skype Forum.

Skype

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USB not working with Virtualbox in Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

16 Comments
Posted 26 Oct 2007 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

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).

Open a terminal and type

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh

Go to the lines as shown below:

#
# Magic to make /proc/bus/usb work
#
#mkdir -p /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs
#domount usbfs «» /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs -obusmode=0700,devmode=0600,listmode=0644
#ln -s .usbfs/devices /dev/bus/usb/devices
#mount –rbind /dev/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb

Uncomment the last 4 lines and make it look like below:

#
# Magic to make /proc/bus/usb work
#
mkdir -p /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs
domount usbfs «» /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs -obusmode=0700,devmode=0600,listmode=0644
ln -s .usbfs/devices /dev/bus/usb/devices
mount –rbind /dev/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb

Close and restart virtualbox. You should see the USB options in the settings. You can add the devices you want. I have edited and added this information to the Virtualbox installation tips I wrote few months back.

If you are wondering what is the difference between Virtualbox and Virtualbox OSE, they are both same except the closed source one carries some enterprise features. Here is the list of features that are there in the closed source version, but absent in open source one:

  • Remote Display Protocol (RDP) Server

This component implements a complete RDP server on top of the virtual hardware and allows users to connect to a virtual machine remotely using any RDP compatible client.

  • USB support

VirtualBox implements a virtual USB controller and supports passing through USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 devices to virtual machines.

  • USB over RDP

This is a combination of the RDP server and USB support allowing users to make USB devices available to virtual machines running remotely.

  • iSCSI initiator

VirtualBox contains a builtin iSCSI initiator making it possible to use iSCSI targets as virtual disks without the guest requiring support for iSCSI.

What I initially suspected (USB not supported in OSE edition) seems to be true and may not work even after you follow the steps given above.

Source: Virtualbox

Virtualbox13

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Laptop webcam works with AMSN in Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon

7 Comments
Posted 30 Jul 2007 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

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.

The good news is, AMSN detected my built in webcam automatically and the video chat worked fine. AMSN in Ubuntu Feisty Fawn didn’t detect the built in webcam in my laptop. It did detect the external webcam in my desktop. I’m not sure if the fix was in AMSN or Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon. The video chat with my parents worked fine.

The audio doesn’t work by default in AMSN. To get the audio setup appear in the preferences, you have to install the package libsnack2. Open a terminal and type
sudo apt-get install libsnack2

Once done, Open the preference box in AMSN, go to Others tab and you’ll see the video setup option at the bottom. The setup will guide you through audio and video tuning similar to audio and video tuning wizard in MSN. I couldn’t get my built in mic to work with Skype or AMSN in Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon. It was working fine in Feisty. The new beta version of Skype offers 6 options under the mic setting and I’m not sure which one to select. The default one is not working.

The UI of AMSN also underwent a change in Gutsy. I’m not sure if they changed the default theme, but it looks good to the eyes now. It’s much more fancier and neat. Once I get the mic to work, I’m all set.

Amsngutsy1

(New chat window)

Amsngutsy2

(Video window. I Captured the video at the wrong moment, when the video was refreshing)

Amsngutsy3

(AMSN Main window)

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