I'm running the Ubuntu 10.04 beta

Hi Steven,

"I've heard/read that the ability to turn off kernel mode setting might either be changing or going away in future kernels"

You've heard correctly. The ubuntu beta uses the 2.9.1 intel driver, the last version in which nomodeset is an option. I've tried v 2.10 with various (ealrly) 2.6.32 kernels on both Arch and Debian squeeze with partial success on my laptop (gma4500).Video output on the console didn't work on boot requiring the use of an external monitor to log in. From there enabling LVDS works and things are reasonably back to normal. Still, one failed resume when out on the road and you've got to find another monitor to 'fix' things, hence not really a practical solution.

There are of course always more recent 2.6.32's and 2.6.33 is out already, perhaps I'll finally get it all working when I've built up some more patience to deal with video driver quirks.

Already nomodeset doesn't work.

i915.modeset=0 still works.

What do I do when that stops working? LVDS - what is that?

I used Aptitude to add some packages today, and for some reason it removed one of my old kernels.

No more Aptitude until I figure this out - I need to keep at least one good, old kernel (or good ol' kernel) so I can boot the computer if a newer kernel renders circa-2002 Intel video unusable.

I know Xorg has been hating on Intel video of a certain age for 2 years, but total regression? How could they?

Um... I seem to remember a regression where pretty much all Intel graphics chipsets were useless. Ubuntu had it in 9.04 and Mandriva had it in 2009.1. Thankfully other distros avoided it by either offering older Intel drivers that worked (even if it meant an older version of X.org) or else offering beta code that fixed a significant portion of the problems. Then there was Slackware 13, which shipped with four different Intel drivers in the hope that at least one would work.

I have an Intel 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE on a mature HP Pavilion desktop. I'm running Arch linux on it. I had to back off X.org server, Intel video drivers, DRI, libgl and maybe Mesa as well.

Without older Intel drivers, X would cause the video and keyboard to lock up in at least 2 different ways, one a black screen, and one where the mouse-pointer moved onscreen, but nothing else worked.

Arch is one of those "rolling release" distros, so I had to set the package manager to not upgrade a whole raft of things.

I never really needed any of those 3D graphics effects, but now they're not even available for i830m video. ... They worked in Ubuntu 8.04, but no more.

Quoting: I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. I needed to get the laptop back into usable shape, and I did that by installing Ubuntu 10.04 LTS beta 2.

Naturally this leads the reader to expect some kind of "But oh noes!!" conclusion, and is compelled to read more. Nicely done!

Based on the Beta2 - I'm running it on a VM (it's also currently the only way I can view Flash Videos, and ABC iView, as for some reason flash hangs my browser on Karmic) - I'd say !0.04 is going to be a good solid release.

The left side buttons are a bit of an onnoyance, minor, but by selecting a "legacy" Theme you can move the window buttons back to the right. Multiple panes in Nautilus are now the default, so I don't have to locate the PPA repository and instal the multi pane version. The colour scheme is, as one has come to expect of Ubuntu, horrible, but that's easy to change.

It's still got that horrible F-Spot, but that's not a biggie either, and there's even a script http://www.webupd8.org/2010/04/what-to-do-after-installing-u... for doing post install configuration available, which installs Gimp and Tweak and a bunch of stuff I like to ad, including the media Codecs, whcih is really nice.

I keep trying to click on the right side of the window. I think the Mac does this better by making the buttons red, yellow and green on a silver background. Red on a black background just isn't as eye-catching.

It's annoying, to be sure, but not a deal-breaker.

tracyanne, I installed gthumb, and version 2.11 has many improvements, especially in the IPTC metadata that GIMP and Krita cheerfully delete.

I'll deep-six F-Spot soon enough.

> It's still got that horrible F-Spot, but that's not a biggie either, and there's even a script [HYPERLINK@www.webupd8.org] for doing post install configuration available

Why don't you suggest replacing f-spot with gthumb to Andrew for the script?

I honestly hope you're right, tracyanne, and that this release is truly solid. It's been quite a while since Ubuntu has had one I could truly describe that way. For me, 7.04 (Edgy Eft) was the last one.

Is it just my installation of 10.04 or do you also find that slideshow has disappeared from gThumb?

This is the main reason I have gThumb on there. I basically replace f-spot with digikam (even if using Gnome).

I downloaded a copy of Ubuntu 10.04 and promptly set it on fire. Mad cackling ensued.

There was a big Ubuntu Lucid update today ... and they switched up the button order AGAIN: http://www.insidesocal.com/click/2010/04/ubuntu-1004-beta---...

I hope I'm right too caitlyn, although to be fair I haven't had any of the problems you've written about on any of my hardware, except for some issues with suspend and hibernate that I was able to get fixed by going back to the factory and they changed the BIOS, then everything worked fine.

Whoops!

Came here completely by accident, having misread the threadline.

I'm not in the market for such a thing, but I have single friends who might appreciate a few leads.