Ubuntu is great, but Intrepid was giving me too many issues...

I have a new Compaq laptop with an Atheros wifi card. I've been an Ubuntu user for about 2 years now, and love it, but for my new Compaq, not only did wireless not work "out-of-box" (Madwifi had to be manually compiled), but I was also suffering from Kernel Panics (computer would freeze with blinking caps-lock), which seems to be a very common issue with version 8.04+ for some reason.

I tried OpenSuse, but still preferred Ubuntu, even with the random Kernel Panics, but yesterday I installed Fedora 10 for the first time, and its great!!! Not only does my AR242x card work out of the box, but so far I have not had any freeze issues. I will keep this post updated with any issues I have, but since I could not find a solution for my Ubuntu freezes (Kernel Panics), I would recommend anyone with the same issue to give Fedora a try. I'm very impressed, even though I will try Ubuntu again once these bugs are fixed.

Sorry to hear that Intrepid is not working very well with your new Compaq laptop. I've read good things about Fedora 10, and the fact that your new Compaq laptop works out of the box with Fedora 10 shows that Linux support for your system is there.

I'm impressed with your loyalty to Ubuntu in that you want to give Intrepid another try later on after it matures some more. Have you considered posting a bug report over on launchpad.net? It might help speed up the maturing process.

Darrell

Darrell Lawrence said: Sorry to hear that Intrepid is not working very well with your new Compaq laptop. I've read good things about Fedora 10, and the fact that your new Compaq laptop works out of the box with Fedora 10 shows that Linux support for your system is there.

I'm impressed with your loyalty to Ubuntu in that you want to give Intrepid another try later on after it matures some more. Have you considered posting a bug report over on launchpad.net? It might help speed up the maturing process.

Darrell

I believe that both the Atheros issue and the kernel panics have already been reported. The Atheros issue is not a big deal, since you can simply compile Madwifi. But the kernel panics seem to big a very common issue. Before I switched to Fedora, I researched this forum like crazy, but no one has a solution. I'm sticking with Fedora, unless I find any major issues. So far its awesome. I also downloaded CentOS today, which is also based on Red Hat. I'm planning on installing that on my old desktop.

honda882000 said: I have a new Compaq laptop with an Atheros wifi card. I've been an Ubuntu user for about 2 years now, and love it, but for my new Compaq, not only did wireless not work "out-of-box" (Madwifi had to be manually compiled), but I was also suffering from Kernel Panics (computer would freeze with blinking caps-lock), which seems to be a very common issue with version 8.04+ for some reason.

I tried OpenSuse, but still preferred Ubuntu, even with the random Kernel Panics, but yesterday I installed Fedora 10 for the first time, and its great!!! Not only does my AR242x card work out of the box, but so far I have not had any freeze issues. I will keep this post updated with any issues I have, but since I could not find a solution for my Ubuntu freezes (Kernel Panics), I would recommend anyone with the same issue to give Fedora a try. I'm very impressed, even though I will try Ubuntu again once these bugs are fixed.

This has always saddened me about posts like this. I mean, don't get me wrong: I'm glad everything is working for you and that you're pleased.

It just makes me sad that a lot of people are thrilled when something simply works; not that it necessarily works well, or that it works better than they thought...just that it works.

I'm hoping the next evolution of the Buntus (U, K, and X) really focus on hardware compatibility and true out-of-the-box functionality.

Of course, I have no problems at all with OOTB stuff; I run the Kubuntu 8.10 CD, and ta da! A hundred or so updates and one proprietary driver later, and I'm good to go (except for Compiz with ATI...but Compiz is still broken, and will likely never be fixed).

But I can sympathize. I remember having to manually edit xorg.conf just to get a *picture*, much less the correct resolution. Things have come a decent amount along since then...but I can't wait until these "I can't install it!" threads are a distant memory.

Good luck with Fedora. I'm downloading Fedora 10 right now to test in VirtualBox. :)

Cheers!

After various attempts over the last 8 years with various linux flavors, I definitely quit the Windows world and run only Ubuntu (Gutsy) for more than a year now. Since I have only one decent PC, and because I don't believe that a second "play-PC" under Linux would give me enough everyday experience, I use Ubuntu for my one-man-company's production: email (Thunderbird) web (Firefox) Office (Openoffice) scanning / printing / fax (HP-CUPS) and invoicing.

Invoicing, for the moment, has to run under Virtualbox and XP until a national tax-office-validated version of a Linux compatible package exists.

Lucky for me, I was a tech-support on Novell and MS NT / W2000 etc. before, so I am used to pulling myself out of troubles, but the total freezes i experienced after an attempted online update to 8.04LTS have made me wary and I continue using 7.10 after reinstall.

A good point: I have experienced that the Ubuntu forums *always* gave me the solution for my problems, quite the contrary on M$ paid support sites. Also, my long-forgotten (only 3 day) basic Unix training 10 years ago, made a crash-return in my mind when several problems had to be solved all in console mode - fit again, but still a Unix newbie.

My plans: I'm slowly preparing for a clean reinstallation with Intrepid, but still hearing about freezes makes me hesitate. Again, some of us have to use Ubuntu *every day* for *serious work* if we want to develop some real-life competence, which is what I try to do.

For the moment, I have not switched any of the PC's of my "simple Windows user"-type clients to Ubuntu, just because I will have major difficulies explaining when they might have issues with Ubuntu after updates.. (they already have these under XP and Vista, so where's the Linux "advantage" to the "dumb" user?)

Last not least, the local computer shops all sell PC's with Windows preinstalled, they aren't allowed to do otherwise. this is sad!

Hopefully, the future will see Linux everywhere, but trouble-after-update issues do a lot of damage to it's overall reputation.

Dear Linux developers: keep up the good work! - I'll try to do mine.

jrock612 said: I remember having to manually edit xorg.conf just to get a *picture*, much less the correct resolution. Things have come a decent amount along since then...but I can't wait until these "I can't install it!" threads are a distant memory.

Well, I think there will always be problems for *somebody, somewhere* as long as people are taking computers and hardware designed for Operating System A and trying to use it with Operating System B. It's just the nature of the thing; square pegs and round holes, for instance. You can cram most of them in, but some are bound to not fit.

Probably the best way to be problem-free (if such a state exists) is to order your PC with Ubuntu pre-installed. It's more common now to find PC's sold with Ubuntu, and a lot cheaper!

As for modifying xorg...think of what you learned by doing that! You modified system files, customized the system to *your* computer, yourself!

How awesome is that?! :)

I think hardware detection and support are areas that Ubuntu really has to improve on. I have had similar issues (especially with laptops) where Ubuntu would not work properly with my wireless devices when other distros just work out of the box.

ibutho said: I think hardware detection and support are areas that Ubuntu really has to improve on. I have had similar issues (especially with laptops) where Ubuntu would not work properly with my wireless devices when other distros just work out of the box.

Ditto. I see many people in the forums here banging their heads against a wall trying to get their ATI card working, or their wireless cards working.

Sadly the problem is more complicated than just telling the Ubuntu dev's to get with it. Otherwise I suspect it would be fixed by now. :P

Ah well, we'll just make the best of what we have for now, I guess. :)