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I will not be testing, trying, or otherwise running Ubuntu 11.10

Posted by Steven_Rosenber on · 16 comments
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I don't have anything against Ubuntu 11.10, or the Unity interface. I might even like it. I'm getting so used to the way my Android phone works that I'm open to new desktop paradigms/metaphors.

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Comments (16)

gus3 ·
I know I could make a crack about NT...

UbuNTu...

but I'm not sure people would get it.
herzeleid ·
The wonderful difference is the amount of choice that Linux provides. Sure, I'm looking at the latest unity in ubuntu 10.10 beta, and it's definitely getting better, but still not my cup of tea. Maybe it will get there some day, but I won't hold my breath. In the meantime, even remaining within the ubuntu ecosystem I can run xubuntu, lubuntu, kubuntu, or variants like bodhi.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually going to take another look at kde 4 soon.
skelband ·
@herzeleid: "...take another look at kde 4 soon."

Me too, actually.
Fettoosh ·
Quoting:I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually going to take another look at kde 4 soon


I am currently running Kubuntu 11.04 and it works pretty good. But may I recommend Chakra ?

http://chakra-project.org/get/release_notes.php?release=stab...

It is pretty good Distro that used to be based on Arch. It comes with latest KDE 4.7 and Liunux Kernel 3.0.3. It is very fast and so far after 3 weeks of testing, it has been ver solid. You can download it from here : http://chakra-project.org/get/

Tried various USB creators but didn't work for me, It is much easier to create a boot-able USB for testing by using dd and as follows.

Use K Partition Manager or Gparted to create a ext2 file system on flash drive (1GB is sufficient)

[Edited] Make sure device is flagged as bootable.

sudo dd if=/path/to/the/downloaded/iso of=/path/to/the/USB/device

e,g, sudo dd if=/MyHome/FOSS-SW/ISOs/chakra-2011.09-edn-i686.iso of=/dev/sdb

Good luck.



skelband ·
Cool, will give it a try this weekend. :D
jdixon ·
> But I will...

Freedom and choice are wonderful things, aren't they?
Fettoosh ·
Quoting:UbuNTu...


I know, NT means Not There.

Right?
techiem2 ·
Fettoosh: dd does a raw write of the iso image directly to the device, so creating a partition is pointless as the partition table (and mbr, and everything else) will be overwritten by the iso data.
Fettoosh ·
Quoting: dd does a raw write of the iso image directly to the device, so creating a partition is pointless as the partition table (and mbr, and everything else) will be overwritten by the iso data.


True, but when I initially tied it, it failed. It could have been the way the ISO file was created, or the device was originally structured, it might have been fat fs formatted (which doesn't work), or because the drive wasn't flagged as bootable. I am not sure why, it has been few weeks already, but I will try it again and see if it works without creating new table.

That is the step I missed in my procedure above, which is important and I already corrected.

Grishnakh ·
Anyone know if Kubuntu 11.10 will have KDE4.7? Chakra sounds interesting, but the thing I like about Ubuntu and Debian-derived distros is the giant repositories. Years ago, I used openSUSE, but sucked having to compile stuff manually all the time. With Kubuntu, I haven't had to do that in ages, even for the most obscure FOSS programs. I can read about some program on a forum, or a LinuxToday article or whatever, go type "sudo apt-get install program", and try it out. With SUSE, only the more popular stuff was in their repos.

Only 1-2 months left for Kubuntu 11.10... Hopefully they won't catch anything from the Ubuntu people and try to dumb down their KDE version somehow.
lcafiero ·
Fettoosh wrote:[Edited] Make sure device is flagged as bootable.

sudo dd if=/path/to/the/downloaded/iso of=/path/to/the/USB/device

e,g, sudo dd if=/MyHome/FOSS-SW/ISOs/chakra-2011.09-edn-i686.iso of=/dev/sdb


Question to those who know way more about this than I do (which is probably everyone): Doesn't this need a block size value to go with it? I don't know for sure, but I've been making live USB sticks using the Fedora guide, and it always ends up with a bs=8M

For example:

[lcafiero@localhost Downloads]# sudo dd if=chakra-2011.09-edn-i686.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=8M

(Emphasis is mine)

The reason I ask was because it same up in a #! forum about the block size -- someone said that if you don't include a block size it will copy onto the USB stick very slowly.
Fettoosh ·
Quoting:Anyone know if Kubuntu 11.10 will have KDE4.7?


According to this , I would say definitely.

Quoting:but the thing I like about Ubuntu and Debian-derived distros is the giant repositories.


Same here, but I use Kubuntu instead for KDE 4 and for Debian Apt/Aptitude. I believe it is the best most streamlined package manager. In KDE 4.7, Kubuntu will have Muon Package Manager, which is a much better manager than KPackManager.

Quoting:Hopefully they won't catch anything from the Ubuntu people and try to dumb down their KDE version somehow


I don't believe The KDE Plasma Desktop is going to change as Gnome did simply because of the KDE Plasma Workspaces concept, See Here . It is very flexible and extensible it allows for multiple interfaces to coexist. At any time, and depended on the device being used at the time, the user is able to switch, back and forth, between interfaces on the fly and without having to reboot or re-login.

Therefore, there is no good reason to change the Desktop Interface at all. Also, There is a new interface being worked on and optimized for Mobile & tablets called Plasma Active . Many of the optimization will be backtracked to other interfaces.

Fettoosh ·
Quoting:someone said that if you don't include a block size it will copy onto the USB stick very slowly


If the block size (bs/ibs/obs) is not specified, it is defaults to 512 Bytes. This would be definitely slower than 8Mbytes, but not necessarily slow since it depends on the devices being copied from and to.

When dealing with flash USB drives, it is going to be slower any way. If between hard drives, I would say it is better to use 8Mbytes.

vainrveenr ·
Quoting:[Edited] Make sure device is flagged as bootable.

sudo dd if=/path/to/the/downloaded/iso of=/path/to/the/USB/device

e,g, sudo dd if=/MyHome/FOSS-SW/ISOs/chakra-2011.09-edn-i686.iso of=/dev/sdb


If one wishes to avoid issues with KDE 4.7x, one can also download the parent archlinux-2011.08.19-core-i686.iso via the appropriate http://www.archlinux.org/download/ link.

Then the appropriate Arch substitution similar to the above example could be
Quoting:sudo dd if=/MyHome/FOSS-SW/ISOs/archlinux-2011.08.19-core-i686.iso of=/dev/sdb


Further instructions in the appropriate 'Pre-Installation' and 'Installing Arch Linux' sections of https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_Arch_Linux_Install_Guide#Pre-Installation and https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_Arch_Linux_Install_Guide#Installing_Arch_Linux respectively.

Note the suggestion to use "bs=4M to speed up the dd process" as per the below:
Quoting:Arch USB images Overwrite the USB drive

Beginning from release 2010.05, all iso files can be directly written to usb media. Download them from your local mirror. To install, first ensure the USB device is unmounted and then issue the following command:

$ dd if=archlinux.iso of=/dev/sd[x]

where archlinux.iso is the path to the iso file and /dev/sd[x] is your USB device. Note: You can also add bs=4M to speed up the dd process.. Warning: This will irrevocably destroy all data on /dev/sdx. Warning: Make sure to use /dev/sdx and NOT /dev/sdx1. This is a very common error!
(from https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_Installation_Media )



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Fettoosh ·
Quoting:Anyone know if Kubuntu 11.10 will have KDE4.7? ...Hopefully they won't catch anything from the Ubuntu people and try to dumb down their KDE version somehow


Affirmation from KDE team
Quoting: http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2011/09/more-on-active-strategy.h...

What we learn about using QML in Plasma Active will eventually impact future releases of Plasma Desktop. We're already using components in both directions (from Active to Desktop and vice versa), and this is something we want to expand and continue.

However, we do not believe in the "one interface that runs on both your desktop and your tablet". We believe in code reuse, in component-reuse (and, where beneficial, drop-in-replacement), compatibility and interoperability; but we also believe that a tablet interface and a desktop interface are not, and should not, be the same thing. The use cases and form factors are just too different.

We have no plans of bastardizing Plasma Desktop into a watered-down attempt at a tablet interface that also sort-of-makes-sense on a laptop. We feel this only produces interfaces that perform OK but not great on either kind of device. We want interfaces that work great on each sort of device. This is why we designed Plasma to be so flexible: we can afford to have different interfaces, and trivially keep them compatible with each other, without pouring gigantic amounts of resources on it.

So those who are concerned that we're going to do something nasty to the desktop interface: breath easy. We will continue to improve and work on new ideas on the desktop, as we did with Folder View and Activities, but we're also respectful of how people (including us) use our laptops and desktops.


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