Ubuntu 6.06 criticisms from a programmer

In comp.os.linux.misc CBFalconer :

Strange, [ALT][F1] works for me (KDE).

Mounted == Installed? Perhaps Ubuntu is more targeted to desktop users then people who want to compile stuff?

[..]

Yeah, it can be irritating if you just can't access the internet...

What did you expect?

[..]

Get better internet access, even installing patches can be a nightmare on dial-up these days. Quite a few sites expect you to have broadband just for surfing, likely because the "designer" just tested their stuff on LAN and have no clue...

[..]

--
Michael Heiming (X-PGP-Sig > GPG-Key ID: EDD27B94)
mail: echo zvpunry@urvzvat.qr | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
#bofh excuse 288: Hard drive sleeping. Let it wake up on
it's own...

List of GNOME shortcuts:

Also see System->Preferences->Keyboard Shortcuts

Ubuntu is a consumer-oriented distro and on top of that needs to squeeze as much functionality as possible onto the LiveCD. Users don't generally need build tools so they're left off the default install to leave room on the CD for applications. The build-essentials package will install gcc, make, gdb, etc. Whatever else you need is easily installed via Synaptic.

I agree here. Linux and OSS documentation tends to be poorly organized and poorly written. Also it would help to have a single unified documentation system instead of manpages, the 'info' system, the miscellaneous documentation in /usr/share/doc, the GNOME help system, the KDE help system, and of course google.

However this is all easily overcome with the purchase of a good book. Also the Ubuntu support site is really excellent.

Sounds like a touchpad problem. Whatever OEM moron decided that "tap-to-click" should be the default behavior on touchpads shut be drawn, quartered, hung, shot, and electrocuted.

Anyway this problem can be fixed by turning off tap-to-click. How you do that depends on which version of Ubuntu you have (6.06 or the 6.10 beta) and the maker of your touchpad electronics. Usually that'll be Alps or Synaptics. A google search for "Ubuntu tap-to-click" and the manufacturer name should turn up plenty of solutions. You might also want to investigate tpclient because it lets you manipulate other settings (like something called 'palm detection') that may help with accidental mouse movements.

What sorts of things? Ubuntu works fine for me without a network connection.

Better hurry or you next laptop will come with Vista. :o)

You can also operate GNOME from the keyboard. If that doesn't give you the control you seek, you can install other window managers. For the ultimate no-mouse window manager, Look up ratpoison in Synaptic.

You're definitely a prime candidate for ratpoison.

IMO GNOME and KDE are both terminally bloated. I much prefer leaner window managers, except on my current laptop which is fast enough not to have to worry about it. For more responsiveness you might install xfce, icewm, or ratpoison. They're free, give them all a try and see which one you like.

BTW if you like xfce, xubuntu is just ubuntu with xfce as its default window manager.

I was looking for ECC myself. However the few laptops that had it cost a whole lot more than it was worth to me. To be honest, I haven't really missed it.

Try the DVD instead of the cd, it comes with a whole lot more applications. Also I've long since lost the URL but someone used to sell Ubuntu plus the current package archives on 4 DVD's. Maybe someone here knows the URL.

BTW you might also check out

They sometimes have better prices and more up-to-date discs than cheapbytes.

Have you played around with virtual machines yet? VMWare Server

is free and works beautifully with Ubuntu as the host. As guests, it will run Windows, Linux, and the BSD's. And unlike dual booting, you can run your host OS and any guest OS's all at once on the very same machine.

As far as which distro, I'd say Debian if you want something more technical than Ubuntu. One of the things I like about Ubuntu is that it's based on Debian. That gives me Debian as a technical OS and Ubuntu as the very same thing but with some user-friendly wrappers.

Huh? All window operations are available via keyboard. Look for keyboard shortcuts in your preferences.

never was. "sudo apt-get install build-essential"

What is "mounted" meaning here?

Why are the man pages obsolete?

I cant imagine installing any form of linux without a wireless/broadband net connection at least for initial update. But you could always dowload the packages on another machine and burn to cd/dvd.

Silly. You could dual partition for free.

You can gnome too.

Huh? So you dont use the windows gui?

They do. Was there some HW issue?

No : you sending it back prevents you "investigating" them.

Why doesnt it cut it?

Dual partitions effectively hide the other OS if you dont mount the windows partition in the fstab. There is zero physical impediment other than reduced hard disk space.

--
Obey all traffic laws.

Remember I only have this week-end to look for and decide these things, due to the return policy.

That seems to work. Much better.

Because they say they are. From "man dd" on another system (same content):

SEE ALSO The full documentation for dd is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and dd programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info dd

should give you access to the complete manual.

... snip ...

I don't even have a broadband system available to me here, and even if it was why should I pay for it, when for 99% of the time 50 odd k is good enough for me. Besides, I like being disconnected from the web - it is a great relief to know that no script-kiddies can possibly get at me.

Do you want to accede to Microsoft snooping in your system and give them license to destroy anything they don't like? No thanks.

I don't use mice at every opportunity. Any such use often results in my fingers being on the wrong home keys.

Only after delays. When running from the CD the delays are excessive.

If I don't send it back I lose the opportunity.

... snip ...

It doesn't cut it because of the delays in interminable booting/rebooting etc.

--
Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net)
   Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.

But you concur there is no lack of keyboard alternatives as you stated?

I dont see any mention of them being obsolete. In fact I use manual-entry in emacs for all my c library browsing. Possibly more cursory :-;

Get connected once in a while - plug into someones router using an rj45

- Linux changes a lot unless you choose to stay "stable". And you know Linux is pretty safe - especially when you sit behind a gateway/router.

Err no. But if you're offline anyway ..... besides there is a lot of SW for Windows not available for Ubuntu - but all to their own.

My point is that these key bindings are available and Windows is not better at it.

Never experienced it. I have run from a live CD once and there were no input delays that I recall. I cant see this being the thinkpad's issue regardless.

There are no delays of note. You can set up grub timeout after 1 second and default to your Linux installation.

If 1 second once a day is important to you then fair enough ...

I especially love the way the Gnome Help System (yelp) _rebuilds_ the help file each time you call it.

That delay is just the thing you want while trying to see if there's anything useful there (usually not).

It should build the damned file _once_, the first time you call it up, and then _rebuild_ it on demand (eg, after an upgrade).

(Then again, maybe, in spite of appearances, it's _not_ rebuilding the thing each time, in which case it should get whatever Nobel there is for slow programs.)

--
.sigzip:*

You can even custom-map 'em; I've got set to give me a terminal, for bail-out (soft-kill, sorta) purposes.

--
.sigzip:*

... snip ...

The advice I have received so far encourages me to keep this machine. It is not yet resolved. I have found out how to install gcc and friends, and how to locate the keyboard alternatives. I am not worried about how to do bash scripting. The next crucial factors for me are:

1. How to get rid of the infernal touch pad sensitivity problem. A google search was not immediately productive, but at least I am convinced it can be done.

1. How to set up for dial up network access. Here I haven't the foggiest.

I took a quick look at ratpoison, and it seems to overdo it from my viewpoint.

Thanks to Micheal Heiming, arachnid, Hadron Quark. An important item was:

"sudo apt-get install build-essential"

which I am recording here so I have someplace to find the fundamental command in future. :-)

Incidentally I bought this machine on the used market because it has serial and parallel ports. I expect this to be especially valuable in the embedded field. Blinding speed and gaming displays are not in the least necessary.

--
Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net)
   Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.

If only you had said 'embedded' in the first place. Different world. Bill Baka

... snip ...

Yes, thanks to the following link from arachnid:

... snip ...

It's not the delay in starting a boot, but in shutting down one OS and actually rebooting the other. In the long term I envision dial up Internet access, with the high speed network used purely for inter-machine access.

--
Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net)
   Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.

With all due respect this is a self imposed delay and has nothing to do with partitioning. If you don't want the delay - simple don't boot into windows.

I would always keep the windows for one prime reason - it Linux screws up for some reason, maybe an update, you have another option for getting on line and googling a solution. This is invaluable.

One thing I would strongly recommend is for you to read up on putting your /home on a seperate partition - reinstalls then see your old user data. Absolutely invaluable.

--
/*
 * Oops. The kernel tried to access some bad page. We'll have to
 * terminate things with extreme prejudice.
*/
die_if_kernel("Oops", regs, error_code);
(From linux/arch/i386/mm/fault.c)

Looks like the touchpad is something called a "UltraNav" and a websearch turns up several links that say that's a Synaptics. So assuming IBM didn't do any weird customizations, here are some links that may help you:

The best formula I've found for google searches is to type in "Ubuntu", "Dapper", and then some keywords for whatever I want to do. So to get the above links I typed in "Ubuntu Dapper dial-up". If you don't get results, omit Dapper and you may get instructions for an earlier version of Ubuntu. That'll usually work.

For the next version of Ubuntu you'll want to use "Edgy" instead of "Dapper".

Here's a link worth saving:

It's a long list of "How to install...." links.

They don't call it "ratpoison" for nothing! :o)

With Linux you should always keep notes on every change you make. It's necessary sometimes to undo something, and sometimes to repeat it again on a later install. Nothing is more aggravating than wanting to do something that was successful before but not being able to remember how you did it, and then having to spend the rest of the day figuring it out all over again.

I always keep a file called "system.txt" in my home directory where I record my system changes and various notes. I don't try to make it pretty as that would deter noting every little thing down. The closest I come to organization is a line of dashes between each note, then a single line describing what the note is about.

Many people prefer to keep a physical notebook instead, but personally I like being able to copy-and-paste URLs, short scripts and config files, and instructions off of web-pages.

*snip*

Dont forget the resources at :

And apologies if this is the second time I have posted this link - nntp server issues.

Interestingly enough I ordered a Thinkpad X30 on friday and hope to get it tomorrow :) Thinkpads are great pieces of HW. And at the price for yesterdays bosses throwaways they are wonderfully cheap bits of HW for running a Linux distro.

I'm not sure how you got there, but I certainly have gcc and make on my system. I generally find mgdiff preferable to diff - it's basically a gui-diff.

I find the gd pad is always in the way. My advice - get a cheap mini-mouse and turn the damned pad off.

To each his/her own. I run mine with a wireless connection. You will probably need some network access to install everything you would want.

Did scientific software support and development, and never did get much used to keyboard shortcuts. But you should be able to set them. How about trying KDE - Kubuntu is what I usually run.

Agreed - and hardly anyone does that.

What 7 day return period? Do you mean that's all you can stand? If so, how did you ever get used to the keyboard shortcuts that you use?

One of the selling points of ubuntu is that it only requires one CD. For folks with network connections, this is probably an advantage. There are certainly other distros that come on DVDs - SUSE, Debian, . . .

Thanks for that link = will check it next time on line. I am starting to lean towards keeping this machine (a T30). My two major problems remain:

1. Suppressing the touchpad sensitivity.
2. (later) getting the modem internet link alive.

--
Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net)
   Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.

As you will discover, few things are immediately straightforward with Linux. The information will be there somewhere. I suspect there are loads of modem howto's out there. There is another post in the thread detailing stuff about the onboard touchpad - otherwise you can be sure that judicious use of google will sort you out.

Here's a little present - I will need it myself soon.

--
Beeping is cute, if you are in the office ;)
		-- Alan Cox

Others have pointed out that Gnome has a variety of keyboard shortcuts. It's also possible to modify them to suit yourself. An alternative idea would be to use a different window manager - there is a whole range available, including window managers that are designed to be used entirely without a mouse.

These are often not part of the basic installation of desktop linux systems, but all (including Ubuntu) have them readily available.

Personally, I've never liked info - most programs have documentation in html format. You might have to download it from their website (or use it live on the site).

Can't help you there, other than to sympathise (I've seen similar trouble on a laptop running XP). The newest version of Ubuntu (in beta now) is apparently better with laptops, especially for things like suspend and faster boots.

If you don't have broadband, then obviously that's your choice - although I find it hard to see how it's possible to work as a developer without access to broadband on a regular basis.

If you are thinking about security, then dial-up links are at risk just like broadband. A windows machine without at least a software firewall will be a zombie after about half an hour of dial-up connection, just as surely as if you have a broadband connection - the low bandwidth of a dial-up link gives you almost no protection. And since a hardware firewall for a broadband link costs something like $30, you are very much more secure using broadband and a hardware firewall than using dial-up. While you are using linux, that doesn't much matter. Keep your root password secure, disable services that are not in use (IIRC, Ubuntu does not enable any network-available services out of the box), and you are several orders of magnitude more secure than Windows + software firewall. There is no reason not to add a hardware firewall as well - it makes the network more modular, and makes it easier to add other machines to the setup.

If you like 4dos, you can get a lot done with bash. Use the virtual terminals (Alt+F1-6, or Ctrl+Alt+F1-6 from X, with terminal 7 as X, is the usual setup).

Ubuntu has the best CD availability policy of any distribution - not only do they let you download for free (like many other distributions), but they will send you a CD for free. If you get the DVD version, it contains a lot of other stuff (like gcc) that is not installed by default, but you can install it from the CD/DVD rather than downloading.

One of the best places to get a linux distribution is with a magazine - your local newsagent should probably have a selection of linux magazines, and at any given time there is likely to be a copy of Ubuntu on at least one of them.

That said, linux life is a lot more fun if you have a good broadband connection, and can get new or upgraded software as and when you want.

A little altavista search should help you there. There is a modem scan utility which identifies the modem and tells you what packages you need - I forget the name because I've not needed it for some time. There is also an old linmodem howto at

Off topic, and perhaps a settled argument already. But I really hate the way that distributions have gotten rid of useful man pages and replaced them with info databases instead. Worst are the man pages that say "I refuse to give you information, so use info instead". I'd prefer to have both around thank you, info for full reference, tutorial, etc, and man for quick reference. I use emacs, so using info is easy, but I've got coworkers who have to use the broken command line info program who gripe.

Man pages are not obsolete, that just came from the attitude of "if it's not new, it must not good" people.

-- Darin Johnson