Ubuntu 9.10 "stable" release on virtualbox

[mzsade]

So out of curiosity, i installed this on virtualbox. To a non-expert like me, nothing much seems to have changed. Still could not play flash videos, "Install missing plug-ins", "Failed", later gdebi could not open the manually downloaded adobe flash plug-in .deb package. Update manager crashed, would not open. Now i know that i am hardly qualified to comment on the release, but what exactly was all the fuss about? There was nothing about it that made me go "Wow" like it did when i first installed Mint, except for a faster boot time, (yes, i could sense the speed even on the virtual machine), and if it had been an actual install, the benefit of the latest Nvidia drivers by default. So am i switching back to Ubuntu? Yeah, right! Not that i am not grateful for their kernel. I am sure that there are many like me who have come from Ubuntu to Mint, but i doubt if there is anyone who has gone in the reverse direction. If ever i decided to switch it would be to Crunchbang, worked very well even on virtualbox.

[exploder]

My experience with Ubuntu / Kubuntu 9.10 was horrible until days before the final release. I got Kubuntu set up with multimedia playback in minutes and haven't had a single problem with it. You will not have to fight to get flash working in Mint 8.

[Losgann]

I installed Ubuntu 9.10 on my spare (read: for distro-hopping ) hard drive on Thurdsday evening and have been playing around with it yesterday and today. Overall I like it, but honestly I don't think it's a spectacular improvement over 9.04. I mean, it's good, but it's not "WOW!". Like exploder, I had no problem getting multimedia working — one package in Synaptic (ubuntu-restricted-extras) for flash, MP3s, DVDs, etc. That was actually quite nice. And I've found a bunch of nice new stuff in the repositories, for example the skiki-colors themes and gnome-colors icons (which I had to download and install manually before), newer versions of the LXDE component apps, and so on. Wireless worked out of the box, but then it did on 9.04 as well.

The one thing in 9.10 so far which I'm really not sure I like is the new GRUB 2. According to the pages on it in the Ubuntu wiki, it has a lot of improved functionality over what they are now calling "Legacy GRUB", but configuring it, editing the options, etc. is a lot more difficult. There are now files spread across two or three directories you have to mess with in place of the single, simple menu.lst of GRUB. The worst thing — this is the one aspect of 9.10 that is really bugging me so far — is that it now takes twice as long (some 12 seconds or so, compared with 5 or 6 for the old GRUB) to actually get to the GRUB menu when booting up. Any decrease in boot time (as in from GRUB to besktop) that they are touting is completely negated by the increase in time it takes to get to the GRUB menu in the first place. This is the one thing I'd really like to see fixed.

[exploder]

The worst thing — this is the one aspect of 9.10 that is really bugging me so far — is that it now takes twice as long (some 12 seconds or so, compared with 5 or 6 for the old GRUB) to actually get to the GRUB menu when booting up. Any decrease in boot time (as in from GRUB to besktop) that they are touting is completely negated by the increase in time it takes to get to the GRUB menu in the first place. This is the one thing I'd really like to see fixed.

Improvements to this are already in the works for 10.04 and there is a call for testers already. The whole thing about Grub 2 is that it was known a few years ago that legacy Grub was depreciated and no further development was going to be focused on it. No one was jumping on Grub 2 until now and now we are seeing where work needs to be done.

Windows 7 has raised the bar for Linux to put more focus on boot times because of how fast it boots and the improvements they made to the boot experience. Windows is using something similar to Plymouth and it looks much better than a progress bar. We push them and they push us for improvements, that's competition.

On a system with a single hard drive and one operating system 9.10 boots very quick. More work needs done on Grub 2 and XSplash but the LTS release should see some serious refinements because of Ubuntu's desire to enter the enterprise market and be profitable. Keep your fingers crossed that quality standards start to go up because of the push to enter the enterprise market.

[mmesantos1]

Running 9.10 Final Release and is running well. Boot is working great. I am looking forward to Mint 8. I can't wait to see how they improve upon this great release of Ubuntu.

[exploder]

Running 9.10 Final Release and is running well. Boot is working great. I am looking forward to Mint 8. I can't wait to see how they improve upon this great release of Ubuntu.

Same here! I am running Kubuntu 9.10 and it is running problem free. Clem has started internally testing Mint 8 and I am really anxious to test it out when he feels it is ready. I know there are a lot of improvements to look forward to.

[mmesantos1]

Running 9.10 Final Release and is running well. Boot is working great. I am looking forward to Mint 8. I can't wait to see how they improve upon this great release of Ubuntu.

Same here! I am running Kubuntu 9.10 and it is running problem free. Clem has started internally testing Mint 8 and I am really anxious to test it out when he feels it is ready. I know there are a lot of improvements to look forward to.

Did they do a good job on Kubuntu, I have not run it for this version? I am glad to here you are not having any Video issues, I know you stated during beta testing you were having issues with your Intel Video.

[nelamvr6]

I installed Karmic just to check it out, I never could get wireless working.

It did seem to boot faster, but I also noticed that it took longer for the Grub screen to appear.

All in all it wasn't nearly attractive enough to lure me away from Mint.

I'm hoping that the Mint team can get the kinks worked out before Helena is released...

[midas]

I am running Kubuntu 9.10 (32 bits) too, installed on the harddisk of my laptop. It is VERY snappy and it runs light. Probably it has something to do with the underlying technique (qt) which runs probably leaner than gtk on the moment. I will wait for PCLOS 2010 (KDE4) and Mint 8 (KDE) ofcourse....in meantime living with Kubuntu is no punishment at all

[exploder]

I will wait for PCLOS 2010 (KDE4) and Mint 8 (KDE) ofcourse....in meantime living with Kubuntu is no punishment at all

I wouldn't hold my breath on PCLinuxOS 2010.... They announced the possibility of a beta for July and it is October 31st and still nothing.

[nadir]

i ran ubuntu-gnome from a live and was quite impressed (i got a wee bit problems with graphics on intel for a while now): much faster than im used to from ubuntu and pretty stable. So i installed it on an external hard-drive to take a further look.
OMG. I ended up with a black screen announcing "Grub" and thats it.
So i booted into the live back and tried # grub -> gave me an "command not found". I googled here and there without result for "grub2 rescue", while the grub methods doesnt seem to work no more.
To make it short: i ended up re-installing grub2 onto my hard-disk installation. Ubuntu doesnt boot from there: i chrooted into it and installed a second grub2 on the external to boot ubuntu from it.

That took me the whole evening (yesterday), while setting up ubuntu due to my needs (flash, look and feel and that) took me about 10 minutes. lol.

I like it (so far) and am waiting for the next release of mint now (to replace it )

[exploder]

nadir, on the good side, you have a more in depth knowledge of Grub 2. As Grub 2 gets used in more distros we will see improvements to it. There has been a lot of discussion about Grub 2 and how it was going to effect us.

[nadir]

thanks for the headsup.
if someone would know a similar way like this one:
http://linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php/How ... th_Live_CD
for grub2 it would be great (as karmic comes with grub2 i dont think this is a way to offtopic-request).
as you say it (docus/threads/experiences/etc) should be better during the next weeks.

the few fiddles i had with grub2 i sometimes had success with removing and re-installing it (sometimes several times). Well: when getting nervous one never knows what exactly one has done

greetings

[exploder]

I came across this today.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275

The guide looks pretty complete and it is written to be easy to understand.

[nadir]

I came across this today.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275

The guide looks pretty complete and it is written to be easy to understand.

, thank you.
bookmark is set (the way it is explained there from a live is similar/the same i did it yesterday, but it took me quite long to find such info. now i got them in my browser).
greetings

[exploder]

nadir, I am glad you found that guide useful. Until Grub 2 matures a little, many of us are going to be referring to that guide.

[mzsade]

Thank you exploder, that's covers almost everything. I am so going to miss the simplicity of gksu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst, and adding the noapic option for the "MP BIOS bug" is not going to be that easy either, is it?.

[exploder]

mzsade, it will get easy once we are all used to Grub 2 and I am sure development will continue to make it easier to work with.

[Pierre]

The one thing in 9.10 so far which I'm really not sure I like is the new GRUB 2.

Does that mean that Mint 8 / Helena will have Grub 2 ?.

[mzsade]

Does that mean that Mint 8 / Helena will have Grub 2 ?.

Unless Clem openly proclaims that enough is enough and decides to part ways with Ubuntu, it sure does.