Upgrading to Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy
This week I went through a process of upgrading to Gutsy, the new release of Ubuntu that is due for final release tomorrow. I was previously running on feisty so I used the update manager to update my installation. I believe from tomorrow Feisty users will see a new update button on the update manager dialog that wil enable them to upgrade. I updated to the beta version, I’m deliberately not going to say how I did it here because we are so close to release.
Suffice to say that the update went really smooth.
All I needed to do after the update completed (a process taking about 1.5 hours-ish). was re-install nero, VMWare Workstation and the compiz-fusion settings manager.
All my 3D bling worked a treat, though it was all set to defaults so i had to go into the ‘Advanced Desktop Effects Settings’ manager which looks unsurprisingly exactly the same as the compiz-fusion config settings manager. everything else just worked for me.
I did decide, however, to do a completely clean install using the Release Candidate CD after I managed to fudge up my networking.
I had planned a fresh install anyhow when gutsy came out, mainly because I had converted my laptop to a completely Linux based machine and not bothered to re-jig the partitions.
Install off the RC CD was smooth as expected, partition management was the same as under feisty.
Once completed, I didn’t have any 3D bling though despite it being turned on by default. I traced this down simply to the restricted driver not being turned on for my ATI card. I enabled the restricted driver and re-booted, then all I needed was to install the xgl server using: $ sudo apt-get install xserver-xgl log out then back in ensuring you log into the standard Gnome session, then you can go into the appearance settings, turn on cus bestom appearance and adjust the settings to suit you.
Both the upgrade and the clean install processes worked really well for me and i have to say the Ubuntu crew over at canonical have done an awesome job.
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October 23, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Hello,
I recently discovered your blog in search of some help with my HP Pavilion DV5157eu laptop.
I see that you have installed Gutsy Gibon and I wanted to know how did you got the wireless to work? I did a clean install but I cant get the wireless to work.
Hope you can give me some advice.
Thx
Tokke
October 24, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Hi Tokke,
To get the Wireless working I opened the Restricted driver manager and enabled the driver for the wireless card. you get an option when you do this to download the drivers from the internet. this is the option i chose. i rebooted after the install completed and then ensured the wireless was running by clicking on the network icon (top right by default) you should see a list of the available networks, click the one you need and input the security details if the security dialog pops up. I had to ensure I chose the right options from the dropdown boxes that appear in the dialog if you don’t have a secured wireless network 9and you really should0 you probably won’t need to do anything here.
After putting in all the relevant details the network Icon should change to two dots and an animated blue circle of arrows. The bottom dot will turn green to signify the request is being made and then when the server responds 9may take a little time) the top one will also go green and hopefully the whole thing will change to a set of bars showing network strength.
if you still have trouble, drop another comment and I’ll try and help you troubleshoot.
hope this helps.
October 26, 2007 at 6:11 am
Thx Shaun, it works like a charm.
Instead of downloading the drivers I was extracting them from the windows driver and that didn’t work.
It works now but the maximum speed is 24mbs while it should be 54mbs.
Do you have other problems with Gutsy and your portable? I have a lot of issues: black screen when booting, a lot of firefox crashes, mousepointer that freezes a few seconds from time to time, …
Think I’m going back to Feisty t’ill there is better support with Gutsy.
P.S.: Love your site
November 2, 2007 at 9:32 am
Hey Tokke,
Glad that worked out for you.
Gutsy does have a couple of issues, it’s a shame really because Ubuntu is a really nice distro.
The blank screen issue you are seeing is a known issue, I had a quick blast through the forums when I first saw this and found that installing the startup manager (search for startup manager in the synaptic package manager) allowed me to get round the missing boot splash issue.
I still get a problem with a blank screen when Ubuntu does the periodic scan of the mount point after so many boots. This is a little disconcerting as it happens on boot and I had a horible feeling my machine had just gone pop.
One other issue I see, and it’s something I’m still trying to figure out, is that the screen saver never kicks in, I get a screen flicker at the point where it tries to kick in but never actually get the screensaver. I think this is linked to the annoying monitor shutdown – this is where Ubuntu obviously has a problem managing the hardware a bit as I can’t stop it blanking the monitor despite setting up the power management correctly. Not too much of a problem unless you are watching a movie I suppose.
I do get lower speeds with my wireless also, under Sabayon I got full speed. I think this is down to the drivers but I am guessing.
Interestingly, when I upgraded my feisty install I didn’t see any of these issues, it was only when I did the complete clean install that they appeared. I have a friend at work who is also on Gutsy and he upgraded – none of these issues appear.
The community site is a very good site for us Ubuntu users http://ubuntuforums.org/ you may get some more help there on the other issues, I’ve not seen these myself.
Thanks for the comments about the site, I’ve recently applied the new theme and redesigned the header so it’s nice to have some positive comments :0)