TOPIC: LUBUNTU
Ubuntu upgrades: do a clean installation or use Update Manager?
9th April 2009Part of some recent "fooling" brought on by the investigation of what turned out to be a duff DVD writer was a fresh installation of Ubuntu 8.10 on my main home PC. It might have brought on a certain amount of upheaval, but it was nowhere near as severe as that following the same sort of thing with a Windows system. While a few hours was all that was needed, whether it is better to perform just an upgrade every time a new Ubuntu release is unleashed on the world or to go for a complete virgin installation instead. With Ubuntu 9.04 in the offing, that question takes on a more immediate significance than it otherwise might do.
Various tricks make the whole reinstallation idea more palatable. For instance, many years of Windows usage have taught me the benefits of separating system and user files. The result is that my home directory lives on a different disk to my operating system files. Add to that the experience of being able to reuse that home drive across different Linux distros, and even swapping from one distro to another becomes feasible. From various changes to my secondary machine, I can vouch that this works for Ubuntu, Fedora and Debian; the latter is what currently powers the said PC. Though you might have to use superuser powers to attend to ownership and access issues, the portability is certainly there, and it applies to anything kept on other disks too.
Naturally, there's always the possibility of losing programs that you have had installed, but losing the clutter can be liberating too. However, assembling a script made up of one or more apt-get install commands can allow you to get many things back at a stroke. For example, I have a test web server (Apache/MySQL/PHP/Perl) set up, so this would be how I'd get everything back in place before beginning further configuration. It might be no bad idea to back up your collection of software sources, either; I have yet to add all the ones that I have been using back into Synaptic. Then there are closed source packages such as VirtualBox (yes, I know that there is an open-source edition) and Adobe Reader. After reinstating the former, all my virtual machines were available for me to use again, without further ado. Restoring the latter allowed me to grab version 9.1 (probably more secure anyway) and it inveigles itself into Firefox now too so the number of times that I need to go through the download shuffle before seeing the contents of a PDF are much reduced, though not eliminated by the Windows-like ability to see a PDF loaded in a browser tab. Moving from software to hardware for a moment, it looks like any bespoke actions such as my activating an Epson Perfection 4490 Photo scanner need to be repeated, but that was all that I had to do. Getting things back into order is not so bad, even if you have to allow a modicum of time for this.
What I have discussed so far are what might be categorised as the common or garden aspects of a clean installation, yet I have seen some behaviours that make me wonder if the usual Ubuntu upgrade path is sufficiently complete in its refresh of your system. The counterpoint to all of this is that I may not have been looking for some of these things before now. That may apply to my noticing that DSLR support seems to be better with my Canon and Pentax cameras both being picked up and mounted for me as soon as they are connected to a PC, the caveat being that they are themselves powered on for this to happen. Another surprise that may be new is that the BBC iPlayer's Listen Again works without further work from the user, a very useful development. It obviously wasn't that way before I carried out the invasive means. My previous tweaking might have prevented the in situ upgrade from doing its thing, but I do see the point of not upsetting people's systems with an overly aggressive update process, even if it means that some advances do not make themselves known.
So what's my answer regarding which way to go once Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope appears? For the sake of avoiding initial disruption, I'd be inclined to go down the Update Manager route first, while reserving the right to do a fresh installation later on. All in all, I am left with the gut feeling is that the jury is still out on this one.
Whither Fedora?
10th January 2009There is a reason why things have got a little quieter on this blog: my main inspiration for many posts that make their way on here, Ubuntu, is just working away without much complaint. Since BBC iPlayer isn't working so well for me at the moment, I need to have a look at my setup. Otherwise, everything is continuing quietly. In some respects, that's no bad thing and allows me to spend my time doing other things like engaging in hill walking, photography and other such things. While I suppose that the calm is also a reflection of the fact that Ubuntu has matured, there is a sense that some changes may be on the horizon. For one thing, there are the opinions of a certain Mark Shuttleworth, though the competition is progressing too.
That latter point brings me to Linux Format's recently published verdict that Fedora has overtaken Ubuntu. I do have a machine with Fedora that performs what I ask of it without any trouble. However, I have never been on it trying all the sorts of things that I ask of Ubuntu, so my impressions are not in-depth ones. Going deeper into the subject mightn't be such a bad use of a few hours. What I am not planning to do is convert my main Ubuntu machine to Fedora. I moved from Windows because of constant upheavals and I have no intention to bring those upon me without good reason, something that's just not there at the moment.
Speaking of upheavals, one thought that is entering my mind is that of upgrading that main machine. Since its last rebuild was over three years ago, computer technology has moved on a bit since then, with dual and quad-core CPU's from Intel and AMD coming into the fray. Of course, the cost of all of this needs to be considered too, which is never more true than in these troubled economic times. If you asked me about the prospect of a system upgrade a few weeks ago, I would have ruled it out of hand.
What has got me wondering is my continued used of virtualisation and the resources that it needs. Mad notions like running more than one VM at once will put any CPU or memory through their paces. Another attractive idea would be getting a new and bigger screen, particularly with what you can get for around £100 these days. However, my 17" Iiyama is doing well enough to consign this one to the wish list for now. None of the changes that I have described are imminent, even if I have noticed how fast I am filling disks up with digital images to make an expansion of hard disk capacity a higher priority.
If I ever get to do a full system rebuild with a new CPU, memory and motherboard (I am not so sure about graphics since I am no gamer), the idea of moving into the world of 64-bit computing comes about. Since the maximum amount of memory usable by 32-bit software is 4 GB, 64-bit software is a must if I decide to go beyond this limit. That all sounds very fine, aside from the possibility of problems arising with support for legacy hardware. It sounds like another bridge to be assessed before its crossing, even if two upheavals can be made into one.
Besides system breakages, the sort of hardware and software changes over which I have been musing here are optional and can be done in my own time. That's probably just as well in a downturn like we are experiencing now. Being careful with money becomes more important at times like these, which means that it's fortunate that free software not only offers freedom of choice and usage but also a way to leave the closed commercial software acquisition treadmill with all of its cost implications, leaving money for much more important things.
A first look at Ubuntu 8.10
20th July 2008I must admit that my curiosity got the better of me when screenshots of Ubuntu's 8.10, otherwise known as Intrepid Ibex, started to make their appearance. Since it is only at alpha2 stage, it's definitely a no-no for production systems. However, it does run surprisingly smoothly even at this stage. Yes, I have seen rough edges and the biggest of them all has made me install it onto my spare PC; there is certainly a tendency for systems to hang when you try running 8.10 in virtual machines, my preferred method for these kinds of explorations. Try it in VirtualBox and kernel panic messages ensue while you can log in on VMware Workstation only for the desktop never to load. While those could be major deficiencies for some, they have both been reported, with the former being seen by many and the latter being flagged by my own self.
Because I was using a version with the alternate installer, the usual slickness that we expect of Ubuntu installations wasn't apparent. Though I am sure that will change in time for the final release, I didn't find it too taxing to get things going with this means. Despite current changes, I expect a more familiar interface will return during later development cycles, certainly well before the final version is released. Because I was installing over the top of a previous Ubuntu installation, I didn't want to lose everything, but I needed to leave it to wipe out the previous root system partition for it to continue without freezing. Since my home directory resides on a separate partition, the transition occurred smoothly, with settings like desktop backgrounds being automatically detected without any complications. One thing that might annoy some is that all this takes manual intervention; you don't get the sort of non-destructive and seamless upgrade capability that openSUSE 11 gives.
What you get when the installation is completed is a Linux desktop that won't look too different from what we are used to using. The update introduces the New Human theme, featuring elegant chocolate-coloured elements that replace the previous default orange-brown colour scheme. They need to sort out a bug (another of my reports) where black text is being displayed on dark backgrounds on the default display of dropdown menus in Firefox and maybe look into why changing the level of enhancements from Compiz Fusion messes up the display of the workspace switcher in the task bar, but it's fine apart from this.
Otherwise, it's a case of steady as she goes with OpenOffice 2.4, Firefox 3 and so on. That may change as time goes on, with OpenOffice 3 looming on the horizon. For some, all this continuity is all well and good, but I could foresee comments front some parts that nothing dramatic is happening, and that Ubuntu cannot afford to stand still with the advances of Fedora, openSUSE, Mandriva and so on. Saying that, I like the continuity because it doesn't mean that my apple cart is going to get overthrown now and again. Indeed, you could say that the whole Linux distribution market has matured very nicely with evolution being the order of the day and I suppose that Ubuntu needs to be seen to be evolving more than perhaps it has been doing.
In summary, it's early days for Intrepid Ibex, yet it works well even at this stage. In fact, it is running sufficiently so that I am writing this very post in a Firefox session running on the thing. It'll be interesting to see how it goes from here and if any more pleasant surprises are visited upon us. After the "safety first" approach of Hardy Heron, I suppose that Canonical can feel a little more adventurous, so we'll see what comes. Meanwhile, Here are a few screenshots below for your perusal: