Ubuntu’s latest release, version 8.10, named the “Intrepid Ibex”, is coming—tomorrow. This is wonderful, because there are a great number of improvements, particularly in the 64-bit version. There is one problem lingering with Pidgin sometimes spinning a CPU and crashing, and PulseAudio is still a bit finicky, but I am very happy with this coming release.

So, what to do after installing it? Here’s a few things:

1. Install ubuntu-restricted-extras. This will give you MP3, Flash, and Java support.
2. Install Banshee. It’s a hell of a media player, and very enjoyable to use.
3. Optionally upgrade to OpenOffice 3 using the Intrepid PPA. However, the major feature that everyone will likely want from OpenOffice 3 is already included in Intrepid’s OpenOffice 2.4—Office 2007 file support (read-only).
4. If you are able to use compiz, install the Emerald window decorator. It’s lovely.
5. Not sure if you could do this pre-Intrepid, but you can install the smbfs package and say (as a regular user) mount.cifs //SERVER/SHARENAME /path/to/dir -o user=USER to mount a Samba or Windows share in your home directory. If you don’t need a password, be sure to make -o user=USER into -o user=USER,guest

which will drop the request for a password by mount.cifs. You can also put such filesystems in the global filesystem mounting database, /etc/fstab.

Also, if you have the desire to see your fonts get really good looking, add the following to ~/.fonts.conf:

<?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd"> <fontconfig> <!-- Set the DPI --> <match target="pattern"> <edit name="dpi" mode="assign"> <double>89</double> </edit> </match> <match target="font"> <edit name="autohint" mode="assign"> <bool>true</bool> </edit> </match> <!-- Configure default monospace font. --> <alias> <family>monospace</family> <prefer> <family>Monaco</family> <family>Courier New</family> </prefer> </alias> </fontconfig>

This will add use of the auto-hinter so that you can have fonts that look better. You can tweak the file in other ways, too, telling the font system to not antialias monospace fonts, for example.

Some notable things that didn’t make it into Intrepid: OOo 3, stable ext4, and Mono 2.0. You can get all of these by installing them from PPAs, or directly (ext4 comes with the 2.6.28-rcX kernels, which you can use by building from upstream if you do not depend on any Ubuntu-provided drivers, and if you use NVIDIA, I have a post here that talks about how to re-enable the NVIDIA driver for 2.6.28 series kernels. Mono 2.0 is available in a PPA. If you want to play with MonoDevelop SVN, you’ll need to have Mono 2.0 installed somehow. You can do so in your home directory (without affecting your system) by installing the build-dependencies and then using a script that I wrote and put up here.

I am really happy with GNOME in this release, too. It’s a great release, though I am looking forward to what Jaunty has in store for us, really. I really am a neophyte when it comes to software, and I like to live on the bleeding edge. I don’t know why, but I guess that’s just the way that I am… Maybe someday I’ll stop doing that. For now, though, I like watching the development of things pretty close to real-time.

… or does the latest build of Windows 7 resemble KDE 3 just a bit? from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Windows7Desktop.png Just to be more specific… it looks a lot like PCLinuxOS 2007!       

Ubuntu 8.10 is so close that I can taste it. I know that in the past, I had given the new version a bad rap for not adding enough new features, but now that the release candidate is here, I can say that Ubuntu 8.10 is certainly going to be one fine release.  I’ll sum up the release as soon as I can get my hands on it.

      

I just read this article on infoshop.org about the failings of Chomsky and Zinn because they support the anybody-but-bush movement and those like him (in this case, McCain). Mikey Z feels there is essentially no difference between the two candidates, thus voting for either of them is no only bad, but borderline criminal (I'm left to infer that Mikey's criminal is a crime against humanity, not specifically a law on the books type criminal). Thus he states the support of Zinn and Chomsky are hypocritical to the views they preach. He states that, at the very least, they should support voting for McKinney or Nader. And states:
"The classic (read: absurd) reply to that question is: “Because Nader or McKinney can’t win.”" excuse would be used.

This brings us to one of the flaws in his argument. To show that it would be fathomable for them to win if everyone that wanted to vote for them did so, then it would have to be shown that the number of people who don't vote for them for that reason plus the number of people who do vote for them exceeds the number of people who actually support Obama or McCain. In short, the number isn't anywhere near that large as the third parties rally very little support regardless of how many supporters vote for them.

Next, he states that the high profile supporters of Kerry in 2004 prove the democrats pretty much "impotent." And that the poor and the working people are not listening to Chomsky. Granted he ignores the fact that if they are not reading a high profile speaker for their cause then they are probably not reading a lower profile anarchist blog either. And he implies a sense of urgency due to the atrocities occurring around the world. Now I agree there are many atrocities and I agree with his sense of urgency. But it is his lack of understanding of the audience that he sees in Chomsky but not in himself that bothers me. It is something I have mentioned before. The current enemy is less the government than the people. The people are under educated and insist on viewing things far more short term than long term. And his option seems to be that we need to revolt against this corrupt empire. Yet who are "we?" Because it certainly isn't even 10% of the country that would support an overthrow of the American Government. It certainly isn't even the small number that supports Nader, as most of them still care the vote.

So what is my point? It's quite clear that I am not a fan of this government. I feel it is failing to evolve to fit the times. It is not serving the people. It is becoming a business that abuses the people and its resources. However, I'm not so foolish to think that a revolution led by a small few with no support from the community will fix it. I, like Zinn and Chomsky, think that if we can at least buy some time, we can make room for change. Personally, I feel that educating the general public in that narrow window of opportunity will be far more useful to bring down a corrupt government whether it be by a change of elected officials or a new government or a new form of control altogether, rather than small attacks that are at best only misunderstood by the general public and at worst criminal.

I just read this article on infoshop.org about the failings of Chomsky and Zinn because they support the anybody-but-bush movement and those like him (in this case, McCain). Mikey Z feels there is essentially no difference between the two candidates, thus voting for either of them is no only bad, but borderline criminal (I'm left to infer that Mikey's criminal is a crime against humanity, not specifically a law on the books type criminal). Thus he states the support of Zinn and Chomsky are hypocritical to the views they preach. He states that, at the very least, they should support voting for McKinney or Nader. And states:
"The classic (read: absurd) reply to that question is: ???Because Nader or McKinney can???t win.???" excuse would be used.

This brings us to one of the flaws in his argument. To show that it would be fathomable for them to win if everyone that wanted to vote for them did so, then it would have to be shown that the number of people who don't vote for them for that reason plus the number of people who do vote for them exceeds the number of people who actually support Obama or McCain. In short, the number isn't anywhere near that large as the third parties rally very little support regardless of how many supporters vote for them.

Next, he states that the high profile supporters of Kerry in 2004 prove the democrats pretty much "impotent." And that the poor and the working people are not listening to Chomsky. Granted he ignores the fact that if they are not reading a high profile speaker for their cause then they are probably not reading a lower profile anarchist blog either. And he implies a sense of urgency due to the atrocities occurring around the world. Now I agree there are many atrocities and I agree with his sense of urgency. But it is his lack of understanding of the audience that he sees in Chomsky but not in himself that bothers me. It is something I have mentioned before. The current enemy is less the government than the people. The people are under educated and insist on viewing things far more short term than long term. And his option seems to be that we need to revolt against this corrupt empire. Yet who are "we?" Because it certainly isn't even 10% of the country that would support an overthrow of the American Government. It certainly isn't even the small number that supports Nader, as most of them still care the vote.

So what is my point? It's quite clear that I am not a fan of this government. I feel it is failing to evolve to fit the times. It is not serving the people. It is becoming a business that abuses the people and its resources. However, I'm not so foolish to think that a revolution led by a small few with no support from the community will fix it. I, like Zinn and Chomsky, think that if we can at least buy some time, we can make room for change. Personally, I feel that educating the general public in that narrow window of opportunity will be far more useful to bring down a corrupt government whether it be by a change of elected officials or a new government or a new form of control altogether, rather than small attacks that are at best only misunderstood by the general public and at worst criminal.

So, there are a few things on my wish list and I’ve been asked a couple of times already, so, here goes:

500 GB HD, for use in my server system so that we have a second drive in the server and a way to do easy backups of the other drive.

Mitsumi 7-in-1 Floppy Drive and Card Reader, which has a FDC and internal USB connection. My current floppy drive is deaded, and this would be a good replacement. (Yes, I still use floppy disks.)

Ubuntu Hoodie, because it’s damn cool. I believe I am a medium.

Ubuntu “jacket”, because it’s warmer than the hoodie, for those ice stormy days here or when I am up north.

Ubuntu mug, a-yup. Variety in the coffee cups is always good.

Linux shirt, for obvious reasons.

Pro Web 2.0 Application Development with GWT, because I need a book on GWT.

Ender In Exile, the soon-to-be-released sequel to Ender’s Game. Just learned about this today, thanks to Amazon’s suggestions.

UNIX license plate.

Anything else from my Amazon Wishlist, ‘cuz I want those items.

So, there are a few things on my wish list and I’ve been asked a couple of times already, so, here goes:

500 GB HD, for use in my server system so that we have a second drive in the server and a way to do easy backups of the other drive.

Mitsumi 7-in-1 Floppy Drive and Card Reader, which has a FDC and internal USB connection. My current floppy drive is deaded, and this would be a good replacement. (Yes, I still use floppy disks.)

Ubuntu Hoodie, because it’s damn cool. I believe I am a medium.

Ubuntu “jacket”, because it’s warmer than the hoodie, for those ice stormy days here or when I am up north.

Ubuntu mug, a-yup. Variety in the coffee cups is always good.

Linux shirt, for obvious reasons.

Pro Web 2.0 Application Development with GWT, because I need a book on GWT.

Ender In Exile, the soon-to-be-released sequel to Ender???s Game. Just learned about this today, thanks to Amazon???s suggestions.

UNIX license plate.

Anything else from my Amazon Wishlist, ‘cuz I want those items.

So, there are a few things on my wish list and I’ve been asked a couple of times already, so, here goes:

500 GB HD, for use in my server system so that we have a second drive in the server and a way to do easy backups of the other drive.

Mitsumi 7-in-1 Floppy Drive and Card Reader, which has a FDC and internal USB connection. My current floppy drive is deaded, and this would be a good replacement. (Yes, I still use floppy disks.)

Ubuntu Hoodie, because it’s damn cool. I believe I am a medium.

Ubuntu “jacket”, because it’s warmer than the hoodie, for those ice stormy days here or when I am up north.

Ubuntu mug, a-yup. Variety in the coffee cups is always good.

Linux shirt, for obvious reasons.

Pro Web 2.0 Application Development with GWT, because I need a book on GWT.

Ender In Exile, the soon-to-be-released sequel to Ender???s Game. Just learned about this today, thanks to Amazon???s suggestions.

UNIX license plate.

Anything else from my Amazon Wishlist, ‘cuz I want those items.

The timestamp resolution is cool, the fractional part isn’t all zeroes anymore (see a file not yet touched and a file touched with touch after my upgrade):

File: `workspace' Size: 4096 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 directory Device: 806h/2054d Inode: 3228229 Links: 4 Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x) Uid: ( 1000/ mbt) Gid: ( 1000/ mbt) Access: 2008-10-23 13:42:23.000000000 -0400 Modify: 2008-10-23 13:42:22.000000000 -0400 Change: 2008-10-23 13:42:22.000000000 -0400 File: `yellowdog-6.0-DVD_20080207.iso' Size: 3983831040 Blocks: 7788528 IO Block: 4096 regular file Device: 806h/2054d Inode: 1573509 Links: 1 Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 1000/ mbt) Gid: ( 1000/ mbt) Access: 2008-10-25 05:45:11.375116110 -0400 Modify: 2008-10-25 05:45:11.375116110 -0400 Change: 2008-10-25 05:45:11.375116110 -0400

And:

Saturday, 2008-Oct-25 at 05:45:12 - mbt@zest - Linux v2.6.28
Ubuntu Intrepid:[1-25/9412-0]:~> mount | grep home
/dev/sda6 on /home type ext4 (rw,relatime)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/mbt/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=mbt)

Works for me. Will play more with it tomorrow.

And no, I didn’t package it (the kernel) up… to build it, just follow the instructions that come with the kernel, and then on Ubuntu, run update-initramfs and update-grub. If you use the NVIDIA driver 177.80, see my previous post for a change that needs to be made to /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/177.80/source/nvacpi.c and the kernel tree to make it build on the next reboot after upgrading your kernel.

The timestamp resolution is cool, the fractional part isn’t all zeroes anymore (see a file not yet touched and a file touched with touch after my upgrade):

File: `workspace' Size: 4096 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 directory Device: 806h/2054d Inode: 3228229 Links: 4 Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x) Uid: ( 1000/ mbt) Gid: ( 1000/ mbt) Access: 2008-10-23 13:42:23.000000000 -0400 Modify: 2008-10-23 13:42:22.000000000 -0400 Change: 2008-10-23 13:42:22.000000000 -0400 File: `yellowdog-6.0-DVD_20080207.iso' Size: 3983831040 Blocks: 7788528 IO Block: 4096 regular file Device: 806h/2054d Inode: 1573509 Links: 1 Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 1000/ mbt) Gid: ( 1000/ mbt) Access: 2008-10-25 05:45:11.375116110 -0400 Modify: 2008-10-25 05:45:11.375116110 -0400 Change: 2008-10-25 05:45:11.375116110 -0400

And:

Saturday, 2008-Oct-25 at 05:45:12 - mbt@zest - Linux v2.6.28
Ubuntu Intrepid:[1-25/9412-0]:~> mount | grep home
/dev/sda6 on /home type ext4 (rw,relatime)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/mbt/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=mbt)

Works for me. Will play more with it tomorrow.

And no, I didn’t package it (the kernel) up… to build it, just follow the instructions that come with the kernel, and then on Ubuntu, run update-initramfs and update-grub. If you use the NVIDIA driver 177.80, see my previous post for a change that needs to be made to /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/177.80/source/nvacpi.c and the kernel tree to make it build on the next reboot after upgrading your kernel.

The timestamp resolution is cool, the fractional part isn’t all zeroes anymore (see a file not yet touched and a file touched with touch after my upgrade):

File: `workspace' Size: 4096 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 directory Device: 806h/2054d Inode: 3228229 Links: 4 Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x) Uid: ( 1000/ mbt) Gid: ( 1000/ mbt) Access: 2008-10-23 13:42:23.000000000 -0400 Modify: 2008-10-23 13:42:22.000000000 -0400 Change: 2008-10-23 13:42:22.000000000 -0400 File: `yellowdog-6.0-DVD_20080207.iso' Size: 3983831040 Blocks: 7788528 IO Block: 4096 regular file Device: 806h/2054d Inode: 1573509 Links: 1 Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 1000/ mbt) Gid: ( 1000/ mbt) Access: 2008-10-25 05:45:11.375116110 -0400 Modify: 2008-10-25 05:45:11.375116110 -0400 Change: 2008-10-25 05:45:11.375116110 -0400

And:

Saturday, 2008-Oct-25 at 05:45:12 - mbt@zest - Linux v2.6.28
Ubuntu Intrepid:[1-25/9412-0]:~> mount | grep home
/dev/sda6 on /home type ext4 (rw,relatime)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/mbt/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=mbt)

Works for me. Will play more with it tomorrow.

And no, I didn’t package it (the kernel) up… to build it, just follow the instructions that come with the kernel, and then on Ubuntu, run update-initramfs and update-grub. If you use the NVIDIA driver 177.80, see my previous post for a change that needs to be made to /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/177.80/source/nvacpi.c and the kernel tree to make it build on the next reboot after upgrading your kernel.

Quick note: If you want to use Linux 2.6.28 and the NVIDIA 177.80 driver, you must:

cd /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/source/include/asm-x86 cp -r ../../arch/x86/include/asm/* .

ALSO, because of a change in the kernel (with good reason, really), one line in the source segment of the NVIDIA driver must be changed to compile with 2.6.28. In nvacpi.c, go to line 160, modify:

1.    // assign driver data structure ptr to this device
2.     acpi_driver_data(device) = pNvAcpiObject;

To:

1.    // assign driver data structure ptr to this device
2.     void *addd = acpi_driver_data(device);
3.     addd = pNvAcpiObject;

Why it was written the way it was in the first place, I will never know. Just because a function-like thing is a macro does not mean you should use it as an lvalue… if it looks like a function, treat it like a function. That will make life easier for people that read the code in the first place.

Now, build your NVIDIA driver and have graphical happiness.

Quick note: If you want to use Linux 2.6.28 and the NVIDIA 177.80 driver, you must:

cd /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/source/include/asm-x86 cp -r ../../arch/x86/include/asm/* .

ALSO, because of a change in the kernel (with good reason, really), one line in the source segment of the NVIDIA driver must be changed to compile with 2.6.28. In nvacpi.c, go to line 160, modify:

1.    // assign driver data structure ptr to this device
2.     acpi_driver_data(device) = pNvAcpiObject;

To:

1.    // assign driver data structure ptr to this device
2.     void *addd = acpi_driver_data(device);
3.     addd = pNvAcpiObject;

Why it was written the way it was in the first place, I will never know. Just because a function-like thing is a macro does not mean you should use it as an lvalue… if it looks like a function, treat it like a function. That will make life easier for people that read the code in the first place.

Now, build your NVIDIA driver and have graphical happiness.

I am now RSSing my blog on FeedBurner!  See the link on the right side of my page to subscribe!

      

I am now RSSing my blog on FeedBurner!?? See the link on the right side of my page to subscribe!

      

I am now RSSing my blog on FeedBurner!?? See the link on the right side of my page to subscribe!

      

So I, the leader and contact for the Ubuntu US Georgia Team, and Nick Ali have been doing some video podcasts for the last couple of months.

Some things we covered this episode (no cigars this time!):

• Our opinions of the 8.10 wallpapers
• More Powered by Ubuntu stickers
• Cool AUV using Ubuntu Server 8.04
• Dell pushing Ubuntu out there
• etc, etc.

There are feeds for the video, Miro, ogg, mp3, iTunes audio, and iTunes video. Subscribe with twitter and identi.ca to be notified of new releases.

Feel free to leave comments and feedback on the site!

So I, the leader and contact for the Ubuntu US Georgia Team, and Nick Ali have been doing some video podcasts for the last couple of months.

Some things we covered this episode (no cigars this time!):

• Our opinions of the 8.10 wallpapers
• More Powered by Ubuntu stickers
• Cool AUV using Ubuntu Server 8.04
• Dell pushing Ubuntu out there
• etc, etc.

There are feeds for the video, Miro, ogg, mp3, iTunes audio, and iTunes video. Subscribe with twitter and identi.ca to be notified of new releases.

Feel free to leave comments and feedback on the site!

So I, the leader and contact for the Ubuntu US Georgia Team, and Nick Ali have been doing some video podcasts for the last couple of months.

Some things we covered this episode (no cigars this time!):

• Our opinions of the 8.10 wallpapers
• More Powered by Ubuntu stickers
• Cool AUV using Ubuntu Server 8.04
• Dell pushing Ubuntu out there
• etc, etc.

There are feeds for the video, Miro, ogg, mp3, iTunes audio, and iTunes video. Subscribe with twitter and identi.ca to be notified of new releases.

Feel free to leave comments and feedback on the site!

So Josh Chase, the leader and contact for the Ubuntu US Georgia Team, and I have been doing some video podcasts for the last couple of months.

Some things we covered this episode (no cigars this time!):

• Our opinions of the 8.10 wallpapers
• More Powered by Ubuntu stickers
• Cool AUV using Ubuntu Server 8.04
• Dell pushing Ubuntu out there
• etc, etc.

There are feeds for the video, Miro, ogg, mp3, iTunes audio, and iTunes video. Subscribe with twitter and identi.ca to be notified of new releases.

Feel free to leave comments and feedback on the site!

Update: Mackenzie pointed out that episode 10 wasn’t showing up in Miro. Its fixed now. Thanks Mackenzie!