Upgrading to Ubuntu 8.10 – Intrepid Ibex
Last night I started the upgrade from Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) to Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on my new Dell XPS M1330 laptop. I prefer to do a dist-upgrade rather than a clean install and I am pleased to say that it all went quite smoothly.
The only minor problem I have come across so far is that I lost sound on Youtube videos. The fix was straightforward:
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree-extrasound
Many people have written about the new features in Ubuntu 8.10 so I won’t re-cover that old ground but I will say that nothing in the upgrade broke my installs of Mathematica 6.0.3 and MATLAB 2008b – everything seems to just work and this latest version of Ubuntu feels great.
Mathematica 6.0.3 , MATLAB 2008b and Ubuntu 8.10 ?
i quite a bit envy you having kept the paces of time.
Hi Wayne
Thanks for your comment. To be honest, keeping as up to date as possible is all part of my job. I try to see and find fixes for problems that arise with the latest versions of things so others don’t have to.
Hi, Mike
:) , i suppose i forgot to read your “ABOUT”,Thank you for your mention.
i like your articles, and i will keep as up to date as possible.
I don’t know if anyone noticed this; but it looks like there’s a skull in the wallpaper on ubuntu 8.10. It could be me. It’s a solid version nonetheless, except some small hiccups with synaptics that I experienced.
Hi HP
Looks like a highly stylized goat to me. Maybe you see what you want to see ;)
Mike
:)
I upgraded my XPS M1330 from Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10. I have some issues:
1) Wifi light is blinking (before it did not)
2) Microphone is not working; I set the controsl on in the volume control, but they go back to mute
3) I cannot see videos in Hulu (I can in youtube after installing the flash plug in)
If you have any hint, I will be thankfull!
Nelson
Hi Nelson
I’ve not had problems with the Wifi light but I know that others have. A friend of mine came up with a a solution on a Dell Vostro – maybe it works for the M1330 as well?
http://blog.crossedstreams.com/?p=12
Mike
thanks Mike; actually it’s good to know that the wifi blinking signals network activity; that may be useful some times — I thought that this was rather signaling some malfunctioning, but now I can live with this. Also, your flash tips worked and now I see videos fine. The mic is also in order. Great OS, great computer.
Thanks for the tips!
Nelson
I’ve just updated to Intrepid, and I’m having problems with matlab gui’s. The buttons in the guis come up with black over their text. I’ve tried this in R2008b and R2007b. I didn’t have this problem in Hardy. It’s also with a Dell XPS M1330. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Hi Danny
I have no idea but if you email me some example code that reproduces your problem then I’ll look into it after Christmas. My email address is referenced on the most recent post on walking randomly right now.
The very first thing I would try is to ensure that you have turned off any fancy graphical effects such as compiz. MATLAB doesn’t seem to get on well with that.
Cheers,
Mike
Mike,
Thank you! Starting up metacity seemed to solve the problem, so this seems to implicate compiz. Do you have any advice on quality window managers in lieu of compiz, or should I consider just turning it off when I need it?
I appreciate your help!
Happy New Years!
Danny
Hi Danny
Glad it worked. To be honest I simply leave compiz switched off and just use plain old GNOME. Although the 3D effects look nice they cause problems and, to be honest, the fancy effects start to annoy me after a while.
Happy new year to you too,
Mike