going hoary

Well, I guess this is the best place to chart my progress with the latest version of Ubuntu

Ive just downloaded the latest version (as of 11 Dec 04) of hoary and installed it. The first thing that is worth noticing is that if you already have Warty installed, you DONT get the chance to upgrade it. I guess at this stage of the build, that isnt too suprising. I wonder if they will provide an upgrade path once they release it? I guess we will have to wait and see.

The installer is pretty much identical to the Warty one (no x-based gui yet). As such the install proceeds without a hitch. So what can I expect from this version? Well Ive heard it will use xorg instead of XF86.

The install seemed to go ok, except that the final section where it downloads the latest updates failed, dropping me to a non-x logon. I logged on and didn an apt-get update/upgrade, rebooted and still no joy. I mean I had linux working but X refused to start.

Still I guess it is an early release

preview disc install

Ive now downloaded the preview disc, that was released today, and Ive now done another install.

Install
Here is how it went

• Booted from CDROM - Wow no zebra stripes ! Now replaced with a LOGO !
• Pressed enter to kick it off
• Asked for Language - chose English (default)
• Asked for Location - chose UK (not default ;-)
• It came up with the message about finding the CDROM (hmm, still think thats a message that will confuse)
• Followed by a message about loading components of the installer
• Then it checks for network hardware, finds 2 NICs and asks me to choose one
• Next Im prompted for a hostname and then its onto -
  
• Disk Partitioning, I select the default (only destroy first disk)
• Then it double checks that I want to do this (default is no, so I choose yes)
• Next its starts "installing the base system" and "copying remaining packages to disc" followed by "installing Grub" and "Finishing installing"
• Now the CDROM is ejected and a message about the end of the first part of the install is displayed - hit continue and it reboots
• Up boots the machine, lots of "starting xyz" messages, then a Welcome box
• I hit enter and it asks for a time zone
• After this its time to setup the default user (Fullname, username and password x2)

Different
Ahah - the next bit is different, I dont remember this.

• I get a message about Apt, asking if it should download updates from the internet - sure, why not (nice to be asked though)
• Considering the CD was released today, there was only one package that needed downloading. As time goes on this will increase, obviously
• Now the somewhat lengthy "unpacking" procedure - lots of messages scrolling up the screen
  
• Followed by the equally lengthy "setting things up" procedure - again with the scrolling messages. (I wonder where they go ....[stares into middle distance]..... whoops drifted off there for a bit).
  

Interlude
I do wonder if there is any value in displaying these messages, especially considering the target audience. Maybe the Fedora approach of displaying a pretty picture with some vague messages that let you know that "stuff IS happening" would be better and perhaps suggesting that now would be a good time for some light housework?

• Ah, finally a message thanking me for my choice of distro - hit ok

Notes
Interestingly I was never asked to put the cdrom back into the machine, this is different from earlier versions.

• Oh, a new GDM graphic and Im being prompted for the username. I login...
• A new splash logo and finally Im into a nice, uncluttered and quite minimalist desktop. The debug icon set has now gone back to a standard Gnome icon set.

Looks like the answer to "do we have icons on the desktop for computer etc?" question was resolved with a firm NO !

Its very nice, very tidy a very clean desktop - its almost got that new car smell infact.
Everything seems to be in the right place and just seems to work, it feels very solid.

The SSH Test
A quick check reveals that SSH isnt installed, but I expected that. Lets use Synaptic to fetch it (that is, after all, what a new user would do). I run Synaptic and search for "SSH", and place a tick next to it and "apply". It now asks for the CDROM. I didnt expect it but I do so and hit ok. It tells me its done its thing and to hit OK. Well that was painless, apart from needing the CDROM. Is it running, well I wouldnt expect so, but hang on it is !

IP6
Thats odd because I did a "netstat -na | grep ":22" (see, old habits and all that) and it only seemed to mention something listening on tcp6 :::22 - which I ignored.

I connect in remotely (from 192.168.2.120 (Fedora) to 192.168.2.28 (Ubuntu)) and do the netstat query again - hey its listing my remote box as connected but with IP6 addresses -

tcp6 0 0 ::ffff:192.168.2.28:22 ::ffff:192.168.2.:42045 ESTABLISHED

Yes I did type that in correctly. Its missed the last octet (last ip4 octet) of the source machine off. Maybe thats how it should be? You know I really should start to gen up on IP6, especially when you consider my job . [blush]

Software
The default Web browser is Firefox 0.9.3
(most plugins are not working but java is working)
The default Mail reader is Evolution 2.0.0 (including exchange connector button)
The office product is OpenOffice 1.1.2
Desktop is Gnome V2.8.0

preview disc out now

Wow, Ubuntu have now released a "preview" disc on their official website - you can get it here

The pace these guys are working at is quite astounding, you get a sense of real passion when you meet them and this is backed up by their prolific output

I going to go and get mine now.

Ssh! or maybe not

How strange, one of the first things I want to be able to do, once a box is installed is remotely manage it. SSH is the prefered way, so imagine my suprise to find it not installed!

Once I realised that its called SSH on debian and not SSHD as it is in Redhat, then I could type the old apt-get install ssh and away we went, kinda.

Why kinda? Well, then you have to know how to start the service. Now there is no way a new user would know "/etc/init.d/ssh start" and whats more to the point how do I make it start at boot?

You may laugh, but on a redhat box we have a services utility and you click the service and it starts and you place a tick next to it and it will start every time. No such tool in Ubuntu, such a shame. Here is a shot of the service config tool in redhat

Maybe this tool is there, but I couldnt find it. So how do you get a service to start at boot (if you dont have the luxury of a tickbox) ? Well you need to use "update-rc.d" apparently or to be more precise type "update-rc.d -f ssh defaults" - how could I have been so silly not to know this !!

take three

Having downloaded the latest version and burnt it to a CDRW, its was time to do a third install.

While the end result of the previous install was a solid, working distro, there were a couple of minor tweaks that needed to be made to the install procedure. Happily I can report that they have now addressed these. I mean Im sure that they have changed quite a bit more under the hood too.

Once this version is installed, the most noticable thing is that all the artwork has changed. To be honest, I prefered the previous artwork but that is still available.

So as I say the install process is much better now, here (briefly) is the process

• Boots from CD and gives you the Zebra logo, you press enter
• It asks you which language you prefer
• Then what region of the world you are in
• it then goes away and detects hardware, looking for the CDROM (I can see this confusing people as its just booted from it)
• Then it tells you its loading components
• Next it asks you to select the network card you wish to use (remember there are two in my box); I select one and press enter
• Next its the big one - disk partitioning. I have three disks and only want to touch the first one - that was the default answer, so I hit enter
• Next it asks if you are really sure (defualt answer is no). I select yes and press enter
• Now it spends 5-10 mins copying packages to the disk
• Next it asks you to remove the CDROM. The wording of this dialog box is vastly improved. After removing the CDROM and hitting enter, it reboots
• As it boots, it welcomes you and asks you to press enter
• Next it asks you to select a time zone
• Then it asks you to set up your user account by providing a fullname, username and password (twice)
• The next part involves downloading up-to-date packages from the net, unpacking them and setting them up - THIS takes a long time (not the downloading as I have a 1.5mb net connection, but the unpacking and setting up takes quite a while.
• Finall it thanks you for chosing Ubuntu and asks you to press enter. Where upon it starts X for the first time and invites you to logon via GDM

So, once you log on, you have the wonderfull Debian system, complete with VERY up-to-date packages and, as I mentioned above, the new trial artwork. This is quite nice but if they are going to go with it, then there are a lot of menu item icons that need to be created.

As I mentioned in a previous entry where you had to manually select the sources for Apt., you still do but atleast there are entries in there now that just need uncommenting out.

Well thats about it for now as Ive only spend 30 or so mins with the latest version. When Ive spent more time with this version I shall post more about it.

version 8 out, another install looms

Yey ! I just noticed that version 8 of the sounder disk is out, if only Id checked the roadmap before I did that last install :-)

Anyway, Ive kicked off the download (remotely from work - I love ssh`ing to home) and hope to be installing V8 very soon, not tonight though as its geek club

Watch this space

time for a second install

Due to a network error (more about this at the bottom of this post) and plus I guess Im supposed to be testing the whole process, including the install; Ive decided to re-install. This time I might even make some notes :-)

This is pretty much the sequence of events

• Nice zebra pattern and requested to hit enter to continue, which I did
• It asks which country Im in. It defaults to USA so I choose uk
• (Now it shows me a message that tells me its "detecting hardward to find cdrom", then loads the rest of the ubuntu installer)
• detects network stuff, I have 2 nics, so I chose one
• next it asks for the hostname
• disk partitioning - I have 3 hard disks in this machine and want to install on the first and leave the others alone - this was the default choice so I hit enter
  
• it then double checks that you are sure
  
• (next it runs away and installs what it calls the base system)
• 5 mins later it tells me its finished and pops out the CDrom (and asks me to hit enter)
• (It then quickly (5 seconds) confugures some stuff and reboots)
• black grub screen (only the first time, all further boots have the snazzy logo)
• (Boots - lots of messages (some scary) then more input required)
• Welcome (hit enter)
• time zone (choses london as a defualt - nice)
• asks me to chose a logon name, fullname and password (twice)
• (apt-config) next there is a not very user firendly message about the cdrom - luckily I know it just wants me to put the cdrom back in - I do and hit enter
• next it adds a new package (mdetect) and then starts quite a long process of configuring all its packages, which includes downloading all the latest versions via my net connection. The long part of the process isnt the download (I have 1.5meg broadband) its the setting up and registering part. I guess there is no getting around this but its not very pretty.
• After all that is done, pressing enter fires up X and gdm and I log into a fully ready to run desktop, with pretty much all I need. Superb
• Fimally I do an update and pull down all the latest updates (see below)
  

Issues to be looked at
I think that there are a couple of small issues that need to be looked at though.
During this test Im trying to be as much of a clueless end user as possible; its not very hard :-) There are a couple of things that Ive had to do that a new user wouldnt know how to.

1. Change the root password with Sudo - "sudo passwd root"
2. Manually add the sources into /etc/apt/sources.list

Whats this network error you were babbling on about?
My fault totally, I had a second DHCP server on my network for some testing I was doing and the ubuntu box must have got its initial information from this. Now while I did spot this and take care of it, I hadnt noticed that it had filled in the DNS servers in /etc/resolv.conf.

I was getting name resolution problems and so I naturally looked inside /etc/resolv.conf and found the wrong name servers. I did expect a refresh of the DHCP address to also fix this but it didnt. The fix was simple, just type in the correct name servers in but I thought Id do a fresh install, so that I could make some notes about the insall process.

my first install

So how was my first time? Mind your own business! Instead I shall tell you about my first install of Ubuntu.

Machine: 750mghz Athlon with 256 megs of Ram, an ATI (if I remember correctly) graphics card and two network cards (one 3 com and one DLink).

Now this was a couple of weeks ago, so Im a little fuzzy about the exact details but here you go. Well I popped my freshly burnt CDROM into the drive and booted. To be honest, it all went very smoothly, with one exception. So I wont bother you with the boring stuff but instead I will tell you about the issue I had installing - it wasnt a huge problem.

During the install, you get asked questions in a nice friendly way and the default choice in always the correct one. However, while I was installing, it detected that I had two network cards and decided to try and download the latest versions of everything. Now at the time I didnt have this machine on the network, I was going to install first and then connect it and update it. This proved not to be an option - which I was quite supprised by. When the installer failed to get an IP address, it threw up an error box with an option to go back and try again. As far as I can remember there was no option to "just use whats on the CDROM". I remember thinking that this was a shame, but Im sure they will change this behavior.

How did I get passed this, well I connected it to my LAN and told it to try again. After that, it was all plain sailing - resulting in me having a nice, usable desktop with all the standard things installed that I needed. Excellent.

So my first impressions are very favourable. Now they intend to release with Gnome 2.8, as soon as its released and so I intend to wipe my system and try installing from scratch again as soon as they do that.



The mailing list for Ubuntu is very busy and there is a lot of work being done by the staff. Im amazed at how prolific they are. I update my current install every few days and the number of packages that have changed never ceases to amaze me - god knows how big their programming team must be.

Would I recomend Ubuntu? You bet I would ! Im actually thinking of replacing all my redhat machines with it at some point. I hope this doesnt mean Im growing up <shudder>

the beginning

Well, as some of you know, Ive decided to help beta test a new distro based on Debian. Few will disagree that Debian is the choice of distro for the more decerning geek. Its probably not the first ditro a newbie, say, would use however.

So why dont I run Debian as my OS? Well there are a number of reasons.

1. I didnt/dont like the installer - I found I couldnt get a complete and working desktop up and running in a reasonable amount of time. I would end up wiping it and doing a knoppix hard disk install, which for some reason I always think of as cheating. Redhat on the other hand would quickly and simply have a fully featured desktop up in no time.

2. I find that debian is always a bit behind on the latest technologies. Those Debian types seem to value stability over bleeding edge and you certainly can blame them on important boxes, such as servers. For me, my desktop machine is where I want to play with the latest and greatest. I always think of Debian as a grown ups OS, very sensible and mature and reliable. The kind of OS my parents would approve of if I bought it home to meet em :-)

3. I really do think that you get used to the first thing that you try and thats another reason I stuck with Redhat. Ive gotten kind of used to all the entertainment those RPMs give me.

So why trial a Debian distro? Well I try and keep an open mind of this kind of thing and from time to time I will install SUSE or Mandrake, have a fiddle and decide I like Redhat much better and that I was right all along.

The guys behind Ubuntu promise the best of all worlds. They are baseing their distro on Debian (lots of packages available and oodles of stability). They are completely redoing the installer, making it much more user friendly and with a lot more sensible defaults - you can only admire this goal. Plus they are going to have the latest and greatest in there and have anounced a very frequent release of updates. It just sounded too good to miss.

I watched them do a laptop install during a talk they were giving at a local LUG, and I was sold on it. The rest is history (all be it quite recent history)