Ubuntu 8.04 serious issues?
I have been trying to use the latest version of Ubuntu, version 8.04, and I have come into a few serious issues. I know it is still in beta form but if these errors are not corrected there is no way I can fully switch over on my laptop. First off there are few new things that I like, for one Wubi integration just makes too much sense not to do and the installation takes under 30min and is a real joy to do. Also on of the things I really like is the new sense of polish I see throughout the system, its still not pretty but it has more of a continuous fell about it.
Ok now to the biggest issue I faced.
My laptop has a Dell 1390 wlan wireless card that up to 7.10 was a hassle to get running but with the integration of the new restricted drivers I was able to get it to run with two clicks and a reboot, but not so much now. Ubuntu still finds the card and installs the drivers, I think, but before it lets me click the “use” checkbox it tells I need to restart, which I did but it keeps telling me to restart, a never ending loop of restarts is never fun to run into. The only I did with Ubuntu was install it via Wubi which may lay my problems because the wireless light was already one during the installation and first run, unlike with 7.10 in which the light didn’t come on until after I installed the drivers. I will be testing this issue later in the day with Kubuntu and will update this post if anything is different.
Hopefully this issue will be fixed before its released this later this month.
Tags: Kubuntu, linux, Linux Mint, Ubuntu
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It may be fixed, but only if someone else is having the same problem and has reported it. I would recommend going to the Ubuntu forums and posting about this, either someone will have had the same issue and will know a fix, or you should be able to get some help.
Luckily the amount of hardware Linux supports out of the box is massive now. The great thing about it is that you can just put in the CD and your hardware will be there. There are no driver CDs necessary. My laptop, my work laptop and my wife’s computer are all fully supported with no extras. That’s quite nice compared to installing, then installing drivers, then hundreds of windows updates. Most annoying is when you can’t use the Internet to get the drivers as there is no ethernet card driver. That really is a pain! On my laptop under Ubuntu 6.10, I had no wireless (till I looked up how to do it on the Ubuntu forums) but at least ethernet still worked!
In my opinion, it’s just due to the way Windows has been sold with most computers in the past. This is now changing, but it meant that hardware manufacturers didn’t need to care about supporting anything other than Windows. Like I said though, this has changed drastically! Computers are for sale without Windows and nvidia, ATI etc make products that work under Linux, as if they didn’t, they wouldn’t sell as many products. Money is what it’s all about anyway.
Anyway, I’m ranting… the short answer is to go on the Ubuntu forums and check out what the status of support for your hardware is. From the sounds of it, it is now supported, just a glitch that needs ironing out. At least you can get it fixed. Just imagine going to Microsoft’s forums and asking this. Oh wait, you can’t!