Ubuntu 9.04 Rant

[Roman79]

Ok so it seems like every couple years I venture from the safe haven that is windows and try Linux. Normally after a week or so I get bored / frustrated and go back to windows, and the cycle starts again.

Anyway, I installed Ubuntu a couple days ago and I really like it. Other than web/email it does the two other things I need a PC to do:

- serve media to my PS3
- Play WoW

I installed PS3 Media server and it detected my PS3 first try, no messing around, it just worked!

I installed WINE, then launched the WoW executable from my Vista partition and it worked! In fact it runs even smoother than it does from Vista. I was dumbfounded!

So where is the rant you ask? Well not everything works and requires a little "search for the fix", which I accept.

What bothers me is that sometimes things stop working for no logical (at least to a windows guy) reason. No manner of tweaking settings or reinstalling seems to fix them.
The PS3 Media Server stopped detecting my PS3, I restarted everything, PS3 checked out, and reinstalled/reconfigured the software multiple times. Then out of the blue after about the 3rd reboot without changing anything, it started working again.

Firefox seems to crash frequently and consistently when I click on some links, until I reboot, then it either works perfectly or crashes some more.

I few minutes ago when I rebooted my laptop screen was suddenly at the lowest brightness setting and was not adjustable, while my 2nd monitor was completely normal. Rebooted again and it was fine.

Every time I reboot it's like X-mas morning

Is this happening to anyone else? Or does Ubuntu run flawlessly for most people?

 

[Boomslang]

Is there anything common between the links that you click on that cause firefox to crash? Perhaps you should file a bug report, especially if the behavior is reproducible.

Two things you could do in the meantime is make sure your software is all up to date, and run a memtest.

You could also try burning some fresh media and trying a reinstall in case you got some stale bits somewhere.

 

[simonw]

Is this happening to anyone else? Or does Ubuntu run flawlessly for most people?

Sorry to hear you are having troubles. Personally, I've been using Ubuntu 8.10 followed by 9.04 for the past year and it has been pain free for me, and no crashes with Firefox. You could try the Ubuntu Forums, they are generally quite helpful.

 

[Roscowgo]

Ok so it seems like every couple years I venture from the safe haven that is windows and try Linux. Normally after a week or so I get bored / frustrated and go back to windows, and the cycle starts again.

Anyway, I installed Ubuntu a couple days ago and I really like it. Other than web/email it does the two other things I need a PC to do:

- serve media to my PS3
- Play WoW

I installed PS3 Media server and it detected my PS3 first try, no messing around, it just worked!

I installed WINE, then launched the WoW executable from my Vista partition and it worked! In fact it runs even smoother than it does from Vista. I was dumbfounded!

So where is the rant you ask? Well not everything works and requires a little "search for the fix", which I accept.

What bothers me is that sometimes things stop working for no logical (at least to a windows guy) reason. No manner of tweaking settings or reinstalling seems to fix them.
The PS3 Media Server stopped detecting my PS3, I restarted everything, PS3 checked out, and reinstalled/reconfigured the software multiple times. Then out of the blue after about the 3rd reboot without changing anything, it started working again.

Firefox seems to crash frequently and consistently when I click on some links, until I reboot, then it either works perfectly or crashes some more.

I few minutes ago when I rebooted my laptop screen was suddenly at the lowest brightness setting and was not adjustable, while my 2nd monitor was completely normal. Rebooted again and it was fine.

Every time I reboot it's like X-mas morning

Is this happening to anyone else? Or does Ubuntu run flawlessly for most people?

I don't serve to a ps3 or run wow anymore, but I've not been having any trouble out of FF at all. What links are killing you off?

 

[Jerome36]

Every now and then I would have a crash in FireFox. The worst for me though, was GAIM. I started using Ubuntu at version 5.x, if I remember correctly, and early on I was using GAIM (I have since switched). That program crashed very frequnently, and basically the program would just close. No messages, no warnings. All the chat windows would just vanish.

I haven't had any problems with 9.04, but I haven't been using it as much as I did in the past, with earlier versions.

 

[illuminate]

I've been using Ubuntu since 6.#. The only issue i've ever had where something would just "break" was my sound. Sometimes it would work great, other times it would just fail. Eversince i stopped using my USB sound card, i havent had any issues with sound at all.

About firefox, my friend has been having a similar issue, and there has been some talk on ubuntu forums about it. Seems to be a case-to-case thing, and not whole-issue thing

 

[tacosareveryyummy]

I ALWAYS get random bugs whenever I try Ubuntu.

With version 7 I couldn't for the life of me get a supported wireless card to work properly.
With 8 the back light on my laptop would flash randomly. Wireless still wouldn't work on my desktop even after purchasing a new, also supported wireless card. Sound was broken as well.
With 9 the nvidia drivers would not work. Even after a second complete reinstall. And this was on a 260 gtx with the latest drivers. At least the wireless worked out of the box this time.

I just stick with Archlinux.

 

[InorganicMatter]

Is this happening to anyone else? Or does Ubuntu run flawlessly for most people?

No, you're not the only one. All Linux systems have the "I changed nothing but it stopped working" quirk, but Ubuntu has it about 1000000x worse than other distros. The last straw on my last Linux escapade (Mint) was installing the NVIDIA binary driver, and having it work perfectly for a week, but then having it break upon rebooting, even though I changed positively NOTHING AT ALL.

I'm back to Windows 7 for my desktop use. I love my Linux server to death, but after 10+ years of this crap, it's obvious to me that Linux is never going to succeed on the desktop.

 

[synaptical]

Those problems don't sound typical of linux. Configuration for linux is usually "set it and forget it," unless maybe you updated or reinstalled some program and it overwrote your configs, which itself is pretty rare I think.

Intermittent problems are usually hardware, while software problems are usually consistent. The fact that most of your glitches are coming and going would make me suspect hardware issues first - bad memory (memtest as boomslang said is a good idea), failing psu, etc.

FF isn't linux, so I would just file a bug report with the FF devs about those problems.

If worse comes to worse, maybe try another distro (agree with tacos about arch linux).

GL, it's worth it in the long run so I hope you stick with it.

 

[alan2308]

I had the exact same deal with Firefox recently, it turned out to be a bad stick of RAM. I didn't suspect hardware at first, because it was only Firefox that had any noticeable problems.

 

[Roman79]

Thanks for all the replies!

I was really frustrated when I posted that, and after a lot of research I've come to the conclusion that I was just very unlucky and had several known bugs affecting me at the same time.

The FF crashing seemed to be a known flash issue; after I disabled it and found a new 64 bit version it hasn't crashed since. I'm not sure what was causing my quirky display issues after reboot, but I think I've mostly fixed it.

I didn't think of a hardware issue as my laptop works fine in Vista, however maybe I'll run a memtest later just to be sure.

Anyway I'm pretty pleased with how it works now. I think when my new SSD comes in the mail Ubuntu might get first dibs.

 

[Jabroni31169]

I had 9.04 installed but it twas a bit too buggy for my taste. Nothing but LTS for me here on out.

 

[/dev/null]

I have it on multiple boxes with no real issues exept in the Karmic alpha on my netbook That is to be expected, however....

 

[DooKey]

I'm dual booting it with Win 7 Ultimate. No probs at all.

 

[Mackintire]

I'm dual booting it with Win 7 Ultimate. No probs at all.

I 'm the same as you.

 

[the_b_man]

I've had it go both ways. I've seen Ubuntu go onto machines and support *everything* out of box, it required less driver-getting than Windows (ie. none at all). And I've had it be a total disaster. The thing with desktop Linux is when it works, it's very beginner-friendly, but when there's a non-trivial problem, it is often much more work than Windows to fix. I had a dual monitor setup with Ubuntu, where the 2nd monitor was just mirroring the first, and behaving erratically in various ways. I ended up having to edit a configuration file (xorg.conf) because the setup dialog that wrote to that file didn't have the options I needed to change. It took a nice chunk of my afternoon. The UI only takes you half way; and I would say this of all Linux distros (not that I've used them all of course) - not all of the required options are available in the UI. Hence why the argument that Linux is "not for beginners" sometimes holds true. And other times it's a dream, but that's because you're not hitting any corner cases.

 

[Satyrist]

After dealing with multiple issues concerning the laptop I tend to use as a testing ground for distros (Acer Aspire 4530) and having multiple issues with plenty of them, even after configuring things according to tutorials online, Ubuntu has more than a few issues with this laptop, latest one included.

After jumping from distro to distro, one that I found that actually worked very well was one that was not that well known: Pardus.

Pardus is an independent distro, hailing from Turkey of all places. Everything pretty much worked out of the box, with no show-stopper bugs to go along with it. It's only i686 ATM, and no liveCD offerings either. I've got it currently dual-booting with Win7 Home Premium x64, with no issues.

Ubuntu is generally based off of Debian unstable...There's generally a price to be paid for going with cutting edge software, and it appears to be more prevalent there. The long term releases are generally a bit better about it, but that's likely because they have the longer support cycle.

The past few Ubuntu releases have not particularly impressed me, generally with regards to the number of fairly severe bugs that got through...They're beginning to look like they're taking the M$ approach to releases: "release everything on the reported release date, finished or not."

 

[techie81]

Amazingly, 9.04 works great out of the box and even had my wireless working with no issues. That was a first.

 

[JimmiG]

Normally after a week or so I get bored / frustrated and go back to windows, and the cycle starts again.

It's usually the boredom for me. The challenge with Linux is getting everything to work properly. Once it does, there's really no reason for me to boot into Linux since all the programs I use on a daily basis are already installed in Windows...

Now that Ubuntu seems to be working great on my system out of the box, I have no reason to touch it at all

 

[djBon2112]

I have to give you credit, at least you're not screaming about how much Ubuntu sucks because some random piece of prealpha software doesn't work!

What bothers me is that sometimes things stop working for no logical (at least to a windows guy) reason. No manner of tweaking settings or reinstalling seems to fix them.

There's usually a good reason (a conflict, probably, or something not configured right) for a problem, it's just hard to find!

The PS3 Media Server stopped detecting my PS3, I restarted everything, PS3 checked out, and reinstalled/reconfigured the software multiple times. Then out of the blue after about the 3rd reboot without changing anything, it started working again.

No idea, because I've never used this software. I'd check on the developer site and see if anyone else has had this issue.

Firefox seems to crash frequently and consistently when I click on some links, until I reboot, then it either works perfectly or crashes some more.

Firefox on Linux basically sucks. The devs have spent so much time focusing on Windows that Linux support has fallen by the wayside, resulting in poor performance and constant crashes.

I recommend checking out an alternative. Swiftfox is good, it's a Linux-specific compile of the Firefox source optimized for certain processors. Another is Iceweasel, which is the Debian rebranding of Firefox. Swiftweasel is a combination of the two.

I few minutes ago when I rebooted my laptop screen was suddenly at the lowest brightness setting and was not adjustable, while my 2nd monitor was completely normal. Rebooted again and it was fine.

Could have been a fluke with regards to the battery control: Ubuntu booted thinking it was on battery power when it wasn't, and when the daemon actually started this messed it up. My laptop has done this on a few occasions, it's just an annoyance you kinda have to live with if you want to use Ubuntu on a laptop (where it has always been a little more flaky than on a desktop).

Is this happening to anyone else? Or does Ubuntu run flawlessly for most people?

"Flawlessly" isn't a word that should be used around Linux, because everyone's definition of "flawless" is different. One of your major issue is with an app I've never used before, so for me it is "flawless"; for you it isn't. Same goes with someone using a desktop vs. your (or my) laptop. It all boils down to the fact that it's volunteer devs, running on limited hardware (their own) trying to make it work; sometimes there are just issues they don't know about, or can't reasonably fix.

But, from my own perspective (since I don't mind a bit of messing with config files and such), yes, Ubuntu 9.04 has always run flawlessly on my laptop.

 

[Malakai]

I find the OP's issue only crops up in largely prebuilt linux distro's like Ubuntu and such.

Its things like this, ie unexplained bugs/freezes/ect that got me using Gentoo over the likes of Ubuntu, Redhat, Mandriva, ect. Ubuntu is such a large complex install from the first time you boot in, its nearly impossible for a new or novice user to figure out what the problem is (my guess on your random freeze issue, btw, would be an improperly configured kernel).

Now with gentoo, you have a hand in configuring the entire system from step 1. So when something starts to go wrong, you know where the problem began (ie after booting into your new custom kernel, or after installing Xorg, or a certain desktop environment, ect). This makes it much much easier to pinpoint the problem and use a forum or google to find a fix or advise.

Even though a Gentoo install (or arch linux, if you dont want to compile software for your box yourself, which IMO is not the issue it used to be with quad core CPUs and massive amounts of RAM we run nowadays).is much more complex and time consuming, once its done you have a good feel for the layout of the OS and file system and where configuration files are and such. So it takes longer to install, but you learn a lot and will have an easier time fixing problems down the road.

So yeah I suggest trying a more advanced "from scratch" linux distro if you want to learn more about linux and have an easier time fixing problems.

 

[djBon2112]

So yeah I suggest trying a more advanced "from scratch" linux distro if you want to learn more about linux and have an easier time fixing problems.

Problem is, "from scratch" distros are horrible for new users, since they tend to assume a bit of knowledge beforehand. And the OP doesn't sound like a Linux guru, or he wouldn't be having these issues

 

[Malakai]

I basically learned linux from gentoo. Used other distros several times, and problems would always crop up, or a piece of my hardware would not work, and I could never figure it out.

But as I said, with gentoo its a step by step process, it took lots of reading and googling/searching the gentoo forums at each step, but once I was done I had a fully working system with all my hardware (even my tv card, which at the time, didnt work in any other distro I ever tried) working perfectly. Since then I learned lots and lots about linux, but even now, when I install a full use distro, its harder to fix problems than a from scratch distro.
For instance compiling and configuring a fresh kernel. Its quite a chore and kinda complicated to do in most distros, but very very simple on gentoo.

But hey go whatever way you like. Im just sharing my experience.

 

[djBon2112]

I basically learned linux from gentoo. Used other distros several times, and problems would always crop up, or a piece of my hardware would not work, and I could never figure it out.

But as I said, with gentoo its a step by step process, it took lots of reading and googling/searching the gentoo forums at each step, but once I was done I had a fully working system with all my hardware (even my tv card, which at the time, didnt work in any other distro I ever tried) working perfectly. Since then I learned lots and lots about linux, but even now, when I install a full use distro, its harder to fix problems than a from scratch distro.
For instance compiling and configuring a fresh kernel. Its quite a chore and kinda complicated to do in most distros, but very very simple on gentoo.

But hey go whatever way you like. Im just sharing my experience.

Fair enough. I'm installing Arch for the first time right now, and it's considerably easier than I thought.

 

[Malakai]

Fair enough. I'm installing Arch for the first time right now, and it's considerably easier than I thought.

Gentoo is the same way. And I mean the no-gui command line install.
The gentoo installation handbook makes it easy. You follow exact step by step instructions. The handbook has detailed instructions for a variety of different hardware methods. Even compiling your first kernel is easy. The handbook includes exactly the options you need to enable for gentoo to function properly, all you need to do is research which kernel modules your particular hardware needs.
There are separate guides for getting sound, video, and all kinds of other hardware working after the initial install as well; on top of detailed instructions for getting X and your desktop environment/window managers installed and functional.

And as I said before, the beauty of it all is that when a problem does crop up, you know exactly what step in the install you are at, so it is very easy to figure out what the problem is. And after years of installing gentoo on a variety of hardware, I was always able to find a solution on the gentoo forums. Ubuntu has great forums as well, but the gentoo forums are really something special when it comes to tracking down a problem and fixing it. The howto section of gentoo forums is a gem in itself, with howto's to do almost anything with gentoo.

Also keep in mind, installing gentoo is much simpler now than it was years ago when I did it. It all boils down to: setting up network, configuring your hard disk partition layout, unpacking the base system, chrooting into that base system from the install cd, configuring and compiling the kernel, some final touch ups, then rebooting onto your new kernel/base system. From there you compile and configure Xorg, your desktop environment, make sure alsa + your sound card/chipset works, setting to boot into your desktop environment at startup, and viola! All set. Then you can update the core (very little to do, as gentoo frequently releases fresh "stage3 tarballs", which is the base system you extract and chroot into), and then all you have left is to install all the software you want. Which is exceedingly simple in gentoo, moreso than any other distro. Just type emerge package-name, wait 1-10 minutes for it to compile, and your all set. Arch and debian also install software in a similar way, just without compiling the software from scratch. Faster, but you dont get the optimization for your specific CPU that gentoo gives you.

Since arch is just a binary gentoo clone, it should be much the same way. Though my favorite aspect of gentoo was that you get to customize each software build from scratch with only the features you want (USE flags enable/disable features in programs at compile time, and CFLAGS are compile time optimizations for your specific CPU family), which Arch does not have. But in exchange you get to save a lot of time compiling. Again, however, with a fast quad core box and lots of ram and parallel compiling, compile times are NOTHING like they used to be on single core or even dual core boxes. With 4 cores compiling 4 simultaneous threads, compile time on even large pieces of software is down to minutes.

I intend to try arch next just to see what its like. I also like ubuntu for any box but my main, as the install is retardedly simple and fast, it gives you lots of software to start with, and usually "just works". But when something doesn't work, or if I want to dump the default extremely bloated kernel for a slim fast one I make myself, it is much more complex a task then in a from scratch distro. Also, no prebuilt distro boots like gentoo. I could go from cold power on to being in my desktop environment running programs long before Ubuntu even starts loading Gnome.

In ubuntu's defense, they say one of their primary goals for 9.10 is getting their boot time down. But considering the "enable all drivers/have a massive kernel" approach ubuntu takes (which is necessary for what ubuntu is, an OS that works fine on whatever box you install it) a long boot time is to be expected. If you want to trim it down, you need to go in and compile a custom kernel with just what you need. I had trouble doing this though, where in gentoo updating/compiling a new kernel is so amazingly easy anyone can learn to do it. Its much more complex a task in ubuntu.

 

[Neutrino]

Darn it malakai why does your post need to make so much sense, now i have to try gentoo! I always thought is was funny that gentoo fanatics would waste all that time compiling stuff, but that level of optimization and control is too compelling...i have to try it!

Btw would it install/compile ok in a Virtual machine like virtualbox so i can practice a few virtual installs before the real deal?

 

[chrispycrunch]

The latest ubuntu seems more user friendly: play a video or music file w/o a codec, and ubuntu searches for it.

I installed Mint after reading about this recommendation on this board. Mint is nice. It's very easy to install and to use.

 

[goalong]

try running firefox from a terminal. when it crashes you will have a nice note in that terminal telling you more about what happened. don't close the terminal before you close the application you started from it, unless you want to kill the app

 

[ClariorHincHonos]

Ok so it seems like every couple years I venture from the safe haven that is windows and try Linux. Normally after a week or so I get bored / frustrated and go back to windows, and the cycle starts again.

Anyway, I installed Ubuntu a couple days ago and I really like it. Other than web/email it does the two other things I need a PC to do:

- serve media to my PS3
- Play WoW

I installed PS3 Media server and it detected my PS3 first try, no messing around, it just worked!

I installed WINE, then launched the WoW executable from my Vista partition and it worked! In fact it runs even smoother than it does from Vista. I was dumbfounded!

So where is the rant you ask? Well not everything works and requires a little "search for the fix", which I accept.

What bothers me is that sometimes things stop working for no logical (at least to a windows guy) reason. No manner of tweaking settings or reinstalling seems to fix them.
The PS3 Media Server stopped detecting my PS3, I restarted everything, PS3 checked out, and reinstalled/reconfigured the software multiple times. Then out of the blue after about the 3rd reboot without changing anything, it started working again.

Firefox seems to crash frequently and consistently when I click on some links, until I reboot, then it either works perfectly or crashes some more.

I few minutes ago when I rebooted my laptop screen was suddenly at the lowest brightness setting and was not adjustable, while my 2nd monitor was completely normal. Rebooted again and it was fine.

Every time I reboot it's like X-mas morning

Is this happening to anyone else? Or does Ubuntu run flawlessly for most people?

Are you installing updates each boot? Ubuntu updates quite often, and can change major system files.