Ubuntu 11.10 Finds Fix for Nvidia issues from Ubuntu 11.04

I just ran the update to Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot on an Dell Precision 360 workstation.  I found much to my pleasant surprise that the closed source Nvidia driver now seems to be working properly.  With the previous version of Ubuntu (11.04) the Jockey-GTK program was not recognizing the availability of the closed source Nvidia drivers.  But now they are installed and working well.


Ubuntu 11.10 includes a 2D version of the Unity desktop, and I have been test driving it on my desktop system.  The Compiz version is a little slower, so I have been sticking to the 2D version for now.  Since this is still a beta release, I get an occasionally program crash. Since there are still many updates coming down the pike, this is to be expected.  Overall, I have been please with this latest version of Ubuntu!

Covert a Business from Linux to Windows

I love to read stories about how small businesses convert to Linux from Windows. There are many paths to follow when converting Linux but there is always one common thread. The first is to take it slow and have the patience to work with individual users to make sure that they become more comfortable with working with the new operating system. In addition, if it is a business that make heavy use of applications, you should always try to find the open source equivalent of those applications to run within Windows first.  This will  make users comfortable with the open source applications before the big switch.

Here is a link to an interesting article about the conversion of Windows to Linux. Hey, and they are using Ubuntu too!

Dell Inspiron 5150 Laptop working great with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx

I installed the Release Candidate of  Ubuntu 10.04  LTS Lucid Lynx on my old Dell Inspiron 5150 Laptop.  I have had this laptop for about 7 years, maybe even longer than that.  So far it appears that everything that worked in Ubuntu 9.10 still works the same under  Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx. I was a little afraid that they may drop support for older hardware or something, but they did not seem to in the case if this old Dell Inspiron laptop.  You never know...


The one thing that is is different with this laptop is that the internal sound card stopped working several months ago.  This is a hardware issue as it just suddenly stopped working.  I guess the transmitter or the reciever is worn out.  We used this computer extensively as a dekstop, so I guess it just gave up.

Rummaging through my junk drawer, I found an old PCMIA wireless card that fit in the slot, and Ubuntu recognized it immediately via the restricted drivers tool.  That was a nice suprise!

I also went out and purchased 2GB of laptop memory and installed it for an upgrade from the 512MB it was carrying.

So, everything still works on this old Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop, wireless, headphones, and speakers.  I will keep this old computer around for a few more years. With the long term support offered by Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, why not?  This laptop still works as a good internet surfer.

Upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

I decided to hit the old upgrade button and went from Ubuntu 9.04 to Ubuntu 10.04 Beta. On my machine it was not a smooth transition. If you are using the proprietary Nvidia drivers it would behoove you to uninstall them before you do the upgrade, then reboot to revert to the open source video driver. Then do the upgrade. There is a bug in the current Beta release that will cause the upgrade to fail.

You probably should do this before any upgrade. Anyway, being in a hurry, I neglected to uninstall the proprietary driver and my upgrade stopped in midstream. To get around it, I rebooted and entered into the failsafe graphics mode, reinstalled the proprietary Nvidia driver, rebooted, and the computer seems to be playing nice now. The bug seems to have been reported numerous times on LaunchPad, and will likely get fixed soon.

Other than that, everything seems to be working fine. It will take a while to get used to the buttons on the left side of the screen.

There is a new chat client widget (gwibber) in the notification bar that seems pretty handy. There is a whole bunch of other changes that I still have to look into. It looks like the Software Center has been re-organized, and the Ubuntu One Music Store is also something new. I like it so far...

How to Upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx is out in Alpha, and if if you are brave enough, you can take it out for a spin. Remember that this is an Alpha release, so it will be full of bugs. Or you may get lucky and everything will work great!

Instead of downloading the CD image for Lucid Lynx, you can upgrade via the update manager.

Here is how to upgrade to the new version of an Ubuntu operating system, even if it is an Alpha or Beta testing:

Disclaimer: Alpha and Beta releases may not work, so do this with caution!

1. Hit Alt-F2 to bring up a command line.
2. Check the 'Run in Terminal' Box.
3. Type sudo update-manager -d in the box
4. Follow the prompts to upgrade.

It is as easy as that. It take some time to download the packages, and complete the install, depending on how fast your computer is. If you encounter any problems, be sure to submit a bug report to help with the development process of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx.

Swapping drives in Ubuntu Not A Problem

I recently got my hands on a decent computer to upgrade an "old beast" that I had Ubuntu installed on. The hardware between the "old beast" and my "decent computer" were a little different. Both were Dells, but they had different video cards. The processors, were of the same type, both Intel. However, the hard drive on the "old beast" was much larger than the one that came with the decent machine.

I was in a lazy mood, and did not want to back up all of the data I had on the "old beast." I decided to try the quick and dirty route of taking the hard drive out of the "old beast" and installing it on the newer "decent" machine.

Totally different video cards, and when the newer machine booted, it came up using the vesa driver. I then added the new driver using the Add/Remove tool, and viola! My new machine is up and running with the "old beast's" hard drive.

Ubuntu never ceases to amaze me in its portability!

Ubuntu 8.10 Install

Tonight I was able to get the latest version of Ubuntu downloaded (Version 8.10). I was a little surprised I was able to get it since I assumed the servers were would be swamped on the first day. The download was a little slower than usual, but I was able to get it!

I installed it on a test machine, and right away I noticed the snazzy new wallpaper. A lot of people complain about the ubu-brown themes that ubuntu uses, but the elephant skin-like backgrounds will always be my favorite.

The install went pretty much the same as 8.04. One change was that there is now a graphic that shows your before and after disk partitions. This was a helpful feature, especially if you plan on dual booting. Do people still do that? Virtual Desktops like the one provided by VMware pretty much negate the need for dual booting anways. Anyway, so far so good with the new 8.10. Things are working great as expected.

My test system for this install was a Compaq Presario SR1010Z with 512 MB RAM and a AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+ chugging at 1.8 Ghz, and a nVidia 128 MB GeForce FX 5200 video card. This machine is quite speedy and performs very well with Ubuntu.