Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope - Review

[Mrkvonic]

Hi all,

I've written a very long, extensive review of Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope, the latest Ubuntu edition slated for release in about two weeks, including live CD session experience and installation, and covering topics like Wireless, Bluetooth, Samba sharing, new EXT4 filesystem, MP3 codecs, Flash Player, web camera, new applications, games, third party programs like Skype, Picasa, Java, Real Player, Google Earth, and more.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ubuntu-9-4.html


I believe you won't be disappointed.

Comments and suggestions are most welcome.

Regards,
Mrk

[lodore]

nice review as always.
im gonna try the live cd when it becomes final.
ive tryed the beta in virtualbox and seems decent.
im also trying fedora 11 beta in virtualbox.
im undecided on what im gonna use this time round as a dualboot.
currently using fedora 10.
btw if you do a fedora 11 reivew you may want to look at autoten (http://dnmouse.org/autoten.html)

[Mrkvonic]

I'm writing Fedora article as we speak; autoten seems like a nice thing. Thanks!
Mrk

[Eice]

For a moment I actually thought Jaunty had RealPlayer as part of its default install. Thank god that's not the case.

Lack of video card drivers sounds worrying. Hmm.

[Ocky]

Nice comprehensive review and appreciated like all the others. :)

Lesson I have learnt is not to despair if something doesn't work either
with live cd or after initial install to HD. I had absolutely no wireless
with Intrepid, both using live cd and after install. However updating
after install pulled in the required driver.

Regards.

[Eice]

-{ Quote: "Nice comprehensive review and appreciated like all the others. :)

Lesson I have learnt is not to despair if something doesn't work either
with live cd or after initial install to HD. I had absolutely no wireless
with Intrepid, both using live cd and after install. However updating
after install pulled in the required driver.

Regards." }-
I assume you updated using a wired connection. Not all of us have access to that. :(

[Sputnik]

Thanks mate, will definitly read it when I find some time.

[Ocky]

-{ Quote: "I assume you updated using a wired connection. Not all of us have access to that. :(" }-
Right you are - ADSL wired router + wap. Sorry, but at least some will have
access to a wired connection. :)

[lodore]

-{ Quote: "I'm writing Fedora article as we speak; autoten seems like a nice thing. Thanks!
Mrk" }-
your welcome.
btw the icon in the menu doesnt work but if you run it from the desktop icon it works.
it also works if you type autoten in to the deskbar.

to get codecs to install simply install rpm fusion first then open up for example rythumbox and it will then come up with a do you want to install the plugins like ubuntu does.
if you dont install rpm fusion first you will get the do you want to buy codecs dialog instead.

[Mrkvonic]

I have it differently. No prompt to install codecs at all. Added repos manually and installed them. It was like you say on Cambridge, but it looks different on Leonidas.

But we're offtopic here :) Wait a week and we'll discuss it.

Mrk

[Kerodo]

Nice review Mrk, I am looking forward to installing it on my 2nd HD here along side Debian. I always manually install the ATI drivers from the ATI site myself, after having some probs with the ones offered by Ubuntu in the past. Hopefully the ones off the ATI site will work well with 9.04.

[Arup]

Almost all Ubuntu users with high end nvidia or ati cards install drivers from the manufacturer's site rather than repos to get better performance. Its a beta and by the time Ubuntu releases it, lots of issues would be weeded out.

[Longboard]

-{ Quote: "Furthermore, there's a new desktop theme, called New Wave, which sorts dark gray colors and sharp looks, feeling crisp and modern. " }-
Heh heh: catching up to Wolvix.
I haven't tried this release yet: some disappointing aspects in your review, particularly by your comparisons with earlier releases.
As ever nice work, appreciate it.

[sukarof]

Thanks for the review Mrk.

How is it generally when you update an existing Ubuntu to a new version, is it safe or is a clean install prefered?
I really wouldnt want all the configurations I have done to disappear..
I cant even remember all the configurations/tweaks I have done, so it would not be nice to have to do it all again :)

[Arup]

Updates are usually issueless unless you have installed and added your own repos and debs. Also configuring Ubuntu with your own settings can get into some incompatibilities, otherwise stock Ubuntu updates fine. I keep my data on a separate drive or partition and clean install newer versions personally.

[Mrkvonic]

-{ Quote: "Thanks for the review Mrk.

How is it generally when you update an existing Ubuntu to a new version, is it safe or is a clean install prefered?
I really wouldnt want all the configurations I have done to disappear..
I cant even remember all the configurations/tweaks I have done, so it would not be nice to have to do it all again :)" }-

I don't usually upgrade, because my configurations are rather complex. It would be interesting to see whether such an attempt would succeed :) I might try it, just for the sport.

Mrk

[incursari]

I tried the Live CD.. nice.

[lewmur]

-{ Quote: "Thanks for the review Mrk.

How is it generally when you update an existing Ubuntu to a new version, is it safe or is a clean install prefered?
I really wouldnt want all the configurations I have done to disappear..
I cant even remember all the configurations/tweaks I have done, so it would not be nice to have to do it all again :)" }-
This doesn't save all of the configuration tweaks but it helps. Put your /home folder on a separate partition. Then when you do a fresh install don't format that partition. Also, if you multi-boot distros, you can have the same /home for all of them.

I assume when you are asking about upgrading, you are talking about when the final is released. I'd, personally, never upgrade to a beta. I just test them in Vbox.

[Ocky]

I see Jaunty uses ext4 file system. I would be interested to know whether
imaging programs like CloneZilla or Remastersys will be happy with ext4.
(Remastersys site states "Hardy and newer Ubuntu versions")
Regards.

[lodore]

how do I get ubuntu to show verbose boot?

[Arup]

-{ Quote: "how do I get ubuntu to show verbose boot?" }-


Hitting esc should do it or you can install SUM from http://web.telia.com/~u88005282/sum/index.html to make it permanent.

[cheater87]

Will the Ubuntu auto update to this version???

[aigle]

I just hate the theme/ look/ appearance and all brown look of Ubuntu. Not apppealing to me at all.

New Wave theme look much acceptable. I know you can have many themes availavle on net bit IMO most of them are either cheepish looking or a poor copy of vista/ Mac styles etc.

[Riverrun]

Thanks for the review, Mrkvonic. Just a week to go now and though Ibex is working fine I suppose I'll go ahead and update anyhow.

BTW, I see that your PCLOS review got 500 + Diggs!

It goes to show, there are lots of people using Linux these days.

[Lamehand]

Nice review Mrk.

I've tried the live-cd, had the same trouble as with 8.10, no wired connection.
Apparently this is a bug in NetworkManager.
I couldn't set a fixed IP, it wouldn't "stick".

Did anybody else have this trouble?

The rest was oke and worked flawless on my machine.

Lamehand

[Arup]

About the network bug, I had posted this as a solution at the Ubuntu forum, I discovered the workaround when I started using 8.10. All you do is delete existing detected connections namely autoeth0 1 etc. and setup a new account, click on the system tab as well, give a new name, give your static IP, DNS etc. and save, it will ask for password, make that persistent and network manager works out fine.

[Mrkvonic]

Another option is to use wicd instead or manually edit the interfaces config file.
Mrk

[Lamehand]

I found this one on the ubuntu forums, it did the trick for me;

1) sudo update-rc.d -f NetworkManager remove (remove NetworkManager links)

2)reboot

3)ifconfig eth0 10.0.0.10
route add default gw 10.0.0.2 (gateway)

4)echo "10.0.0.2" >> /etc/resolv.conf
If you want to start the NetworkManager again, this could be used;
5)sudo update-rc.d NetworkManager defaults

Instead of step 3 one could use; sudo dhclient eth0

I hadn't seen your solution Arup, i wil try that out as well, thanks.

Lamehand

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,

The solution given on the forums assumes a lot:

1. that you use 10.x.x.x subnet as your private ip
2. that you use private ip a.k.a. have a router
3. that your dns and gateway are identical

Might not be applicable for all.

Like I said, you can manually edit the configuration files ... but this requires knowing what to do.

If you have the bug - not all do - then try wicd; I've even written a little tutorial, but since it's one of 40+ in the pipe, I'll upload it in a few days/weeks.

If you have questions how to setup wicd, do ask, I'll try to be as helpful as possible ...

Cheers,
Mrk

[Lamehand]

Hi Mrk

I have exectly that setup as discribed in the solution, but i've tried it by manually editing the config files aswell, that worked also.

I will look into wicd

greetz
Lamehand

[lewmur]

-{ Quote: "Nice review Mrk.

I've tried the live-cd, had the same trouble as with 8.10, no wired connection.
Apparently this is a bug in NetworkManager.
I couldn't set a fixed IP, it wouldn't "stick".

Did anybody else have this trouble?

The rest was oke and worked flawless on my machine.

Lamehand" }-
Of course you can't save a static IP with a LiveCD. Where is it going to save the change when it can't write to the CD? Even if you use'd a re-writeable CD, LiveCDs can't write changes to them.

[Lamehand]

Doesn't it keep the changes you've made for the duration of the livecd session stored in ram?

Lamehand

[Arup]

-{ Quote: "Doesn't it keep the changes you've made for the duration of the livecd session stored in ram?

Lamehand" }-


Live CD loads config in RAM and doesn't write anything to disk.

[cheater87]

WICD does not work for me. :( I can get it to "connect" but I can't get online.

[Lamehand]

I've installed 8.10 in a virtual machine just to test wicd.

1)download 'wicd_1.5.9_all.deb' from http://wicd.sourceforge.net
2)remove NetworkManager with the packet manager from 8.10.
3)Install wicd with GDebi
4)reboot.

After this network-connection was/is in working order, problem solved for the time being.

greetz
Lamehand

[Riverrun]

Took the plunge and installed the Beta and so far so good.

Got a fast torrent and downloaded the lot in 70 minutes.

I'm installing the updates now.

Partition manager worked a treat and I've got a nice, new home partition.

Was always afraid to experiment with the partitions in previous versions of Ubuntu.

Is it my imagination or has the default font rendering really improved?



Looks like a winner!

[Riverrun]

Gave six Gb. to /, three Gb. to the Swap which is a little excessive considering that I've only got one Gb. ram and the rest went to /home.

[Riverrun]

I'm really impressed with JJ. It's got to be the best Ubuntu release that I've tried and I've had them all since FF.

It runs really well, I've got ext 4 in / and ext 3 in my home folder.

Not only does it run well but it looks great also.

Well done Ubuntu developers!

[Kerodo]

Installed the daily build tonight and am impressed. This one is very fast. I boot to the login prompt in 15 seconds here. Nothing I've used before has been this fast, in either Win or Linux. Shutdown is super fast too. Also everything else seems quick/fast, app loading, file copy, all of it. Very nice overall, as expected. :thumb:

[chronomatic]

To the guy having network problems, you might have to edit /etc/network/interfaces manually if network manager is not properly "managing" dhcp.

Look here (https://help.ubuntu.com/8.10/serverguide/C/network-configuration.html) for what to do.

NOTE: this is probably only a viable solution if you are NAT'ed behind a router OR if your ISP gives you a static IP. Otherwise you would have to reconfigure each time your IP changes.

[Riverrun]

-{ Quote: "Installed the daily build tonight and am impressed. This one is very fast. I boot to the login prompt in 15 seconds here. Nothing I've used before has been this fast, in either Win or Linux. Shutdown is super fast too. Also everything else seems quick/fast, app loading, file copy, all of it. Very nice overall, as expected. :thumb:" }-


Kerodo, just wondering if you're using Ext 4 on your /home partition and if so is working well for you?

[Arup]

I have ext4 for my home and other partitions, works out quite well, no issues at all.

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "Kerodo, just wondering if you're using Ext 4 on your /home partition and if so is working well for you?" }-
Nope, not using ext4 here yet. I will probably reinstall everything after final release, and then decide which I want for good. I'm still a bit undecided.

[Riverrun]

Hmm, might give it a bash in my home partition as well and go the whole hog including the postage.

ty

[Lamehand]

@chronomatic

I guess you mean me?

I solved the problems with installing wicd, i've dropped NetworkManager from this machine, i couldn't create a static IP with it.
I've been running with wicd for a couple of days now, with a static IP, and the troubles seem to be over.

I am not sure, but i think it has something to do with NetworkManager, it started giving trouble (for me) in ubuntu 8.10.
Anyway thanks for the suggestion.

greetings