Karmic Koala

[RJM62]

A/K/A Ubuntu 9.10

I finally got around to installing the RC of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). I played with it at my buddy's shop during the week and liked it, but I just got around to installing it on one of my own machines.

The install went smoothly, as Ubuntu installs usually do. But it took me almost two hours to configure the blasted X-server. It came down to a stupid error on my own part, of course (a mismatched identifier in /etc/X11/xorg.conf).

The problem is that the monitor on that desk doesn't report itself correctly, so I have to manually enter the frequency, refresh rate, resolution, and modelines in xorg.conf. I've done it dozens of times; but this time, the nVidia driver changed the identifier for the video card in the Device section, and I didn't notice until I had edited and saved the file and restarted X a couple of dozen times. So it was basically ignoring my changes and dropping everything to safe levels.

The other problem was that even after I noticed and fixed the error, It required a full reboot before the X-server took the new settings. I don't know why; just killing and restarting X usually does it. It might have had something to to with the proprietary nVidia driver. I read somewhere that the new nVidia divers for Unix are still a little buggy.

Because it took me so long to get the blasted X-server configured, I really haven't had time to do much with the system. But one thing I noticed in the course of all the restarts is that it's wicked fast. I don't remember the last time I saw a PC boot so quickly. That machine isn't particularly powerful, either. It has an Athlon 64 3600+ (single-core) processor, and I think a gig of RAM.

I'm downloading a couple of gigs worth of apps on it now; I figure I'll get some sleep and fart around with it tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get some decent screenshots.

-Rich

 

[RJM62]

Well, I finished up the Karmic configuration a few minutes ago. Other than the initial hassles with the monitor, everything went smoothly. All of the apps downloaded and installed while I was snoring, with no errors or exceptions. My concerns about the 3D acceleration were unfounded, as
FlightGear installed uneventfully and works just fine, as do other 3D games such as TuxRacer (an old Linux 3D staple).

The rest of the configuration was easy. Ubuntu found my HP CLJ 3600n network printer and pointed me to a proprietary driver for it, which downloaded and installed perfectly. The printer and scanner drivers for my Brother MFC490CW network multifunction device had to be downloaded from the Brother Web site and installed from the terminal, but they also installed just fine.

Samba doesn't come installed by default, but once I installed it configuration was a breeze. Previous Ubuntu versions had some issues where Windows would trouble accessing the Samba shares. They seem to have been fixed in Karmic.

One thing that's new for Karmic is the Ubuntu Software Center, which really does exactly the same thing as the Synaptic Package Manager, but it does it more nicely. Synaptic is somewhat of a chore to use unless you know what you're looking for. The Ubuntu Software Center is designed for newbies and ordinary people (non-geek types) and is laid out by software categories. Very nice addition, in my opinion; but the real test will be when my mother comes to visit and I ask her to install some software that seems interesting to her.

So in short, despite a rocky start caused by the monitor's failure to identify itself and my repeatedly overlooking a single word in a single line of code, everything is now working just fine. Subjectively, Karmic seems a lot faster than previous Ubuntu releases, and is a lot more polished.

Attached are some screenshots for your enjoyment.