Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex is the next version of the operating system on the webbook, it should be released at the end of this month and I have been testing it out. Right now it would not be a good idea to upgrade. The screen goes black and fixing it is an interesting challenge. The external VGA port works fine so you can plug in a monitor, but getting the LCD panel up and running required me to compile the latest OpenChrome drivers and make a little change to one of the source files. I am still talking to the OpenChrome folk about improving the fix, but right now, don’t be in a hurry to upgrade!
Hello Alan,
Intrepid Ibex? Sounds almost as appealing as Warty Warthog! I read somewhere that Hardy Heron was going to be supported for at least 18 months. Is that correct? I have only just bought my webbook with HH on it, after all! It’s a bit early even to start thinking about upgrading and I have absolutely no idea what that might entail.
Glad to hear that the Ubuntu Linux webbook is still being supported by the powers that be, though! The thought of it being strangled in its cradle by the Microsoft mob was hard to bear…
By the way, a post on PRINTING with the webbook would be very welcome. The info on the Geek Squad Wiki is a bit rudimentary and I am rather foxed by the extensive Ubuntu documentation about printers: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Printers
I don’t own a printer a present and I want to buy a relatively cheap and compact one to go with my webbook. One possibility would be HP DJ 1470. Do I take it from the following page that it will work well with Ubuntu? http://hplipopensource.com/hplipweb/models/deskjet/deskjet_d1400_series.html
And more importantly, will it work EASILY with the webbook?
Your advice would be much appreciated.
@Alison, Hardy Heron is a long term support (LTS) release and will be supported for three years, so there is no rush to leave the Heron. This post was just a gentle warning for those tempted to upgrade to the shiny new release. The one after Intrepid Ibex will be the Jaunty Jackalope!
http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=HP-D1470
“In ubuntu this printer was detected automatically and was working in seconds.”
well that sounds very promising, let me know how you get on with it.
Alison – I use HPLIP for my printer, not a Deskjet but a HP Photosmart All-in One. It works a treat. Download, install on the WebBook , then straight into printing & scanning over Wi-Fi with no set up hassles at all.
Speaking of updates…
The carelessly applied auto-update kernel update came to pass and, as you prophesised, the Via drivers/compiz combination black screened. Thank you Alan for your earlier instructions on recovering the backed up xorg.cof file, which worked perfectly.
So now I am without compiz again. Any news on the release of the graphics drivers? or hints on getting the earlier version to work on the new kernel, Linux 2.6.24-21-generic, I believe, (or a guide on how to downgrade the kernel, as you do give good guide).
@Nearly Legal, I will try and get Via to compile a new driver for the new kernel. When you switch on the webbook just after the bios you can go to the grub menu and boot from one of the earlier kernels.
Hi
I upgraded to Intrepid a few weeks ago on my webbook. I did add a comment as to how it went on an earlier page of yours.
Basically, the new network manager now works extremely well, better in my opinion than wader, ie my 3 modem now works, wheras with wader there is no plugin for it yet, its a e160g Huawei device.
The sounds doesnt work though, which is odd, and obviously no openchrome graphics. The via 2d driver does seem a bit more stable than in hardy. All in all ok, but you need to know what youre doing as alan says,so dont rush to upgrade – and yes sorting out the openchrome graphics in hardy and upgrading to Intrepid did break X, it took a while to get it ok again.
@Julian,
Intrepid has a newer low level driver for the Huawei devices which works better with the E160G all round, either with Wader or with Network Manager 0.7. Half the time on Hardy it didn’t present any serial ports for the dialer to communicate with. I think Wader will do a few more tricks to get round some of the bugs in the UK networks and dongles than Network Manager, but the wader-core API is being changed to match the ModemManager API so that Network Manager can manage wader-core.
As for the lack of plugin, the E160 has the same USB vendor ID and product ID as the E220 and E270, try lsusb to see how it is recognised. The plugin is called by ID and loads just fine, the problem in Hardy was that it was not reliably creating /dev/ttyUSB0 etc for it to communicate with, it did occasionally work just fine.
Thanks for the update – I never got into that much detail with it. Of course using gnome-ppp or wvdial also worked, but werent the most elegant solutions.
Did you have any idea why the sound isn’t working in Intrepid ? In fact it did make a quiet squawk, but nothing like it should have been.
Well, 8.10 came out at midnight, and by 0030, I was on Update Manager.
I’m pleased to say that it was a complete success (save for me overwriting the config files I customised from advice on here).
In fact, I was pleasantly surprised – whenever windows comes out you have to pay for a new disc, load it at boot, pray your data stays intact, and wait around for a while. And get a crappier system at the end.
With Ubuntu, you click Update Manager, click ‘Upgrade’, enter your password, and let it download all of the files. You confirm one or two things, whilst watching a very informative status screen. Then, without any worries about the safety of my data, I restarted to get a much improved system.
Thanks, guys!
Regards,
Matt Dinnery,
Webmaster,
Medical Admissions – Getting you in…
http://www.medicaladmissions.co.uk
Is the 8.10 worth the upgrade? Everyehere i’ve read around the net says it’s still a beta version, surley not after such a while of being out?
It’s definitely not a beta, and is the full final release.
I’ve got it on my webbook with no problems at all!