I hack my way through another Ubuntu 8.04 fix

I expected machetes or chainsaws, and instead it's about computers!

Getting back on the actual topic, I used to believe that LTS meant that problems would actually be fixed. But that is not true, as this insightful comment in a bug report proves:

[url=https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/ source/aumix/ bug/145805]https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/ source/aumix/ bug/145805[/url]

Quoting: Abel Cheung: Since the Gutsy release is already out, aumix for Gutsy has entered a stable "buggy state". Any new package would cause the buggy state to be changed, thus require very careful consideration before deploying, and is rejected so far. Hardy has no such requirement ('freezing buggy state'), thus is free to receive newer packages. The final goal is to make Gutsy "Stably Buggy", not changing buggy state all the time.

So you see, the real goal is to attain a state of "stably buggy."

Gutsy is not an LTS release - but still that seems an odd position to take - unless they are so short on resources that they have to carefully ration their developer time for maximum effect.

tuxchick, I can confirm that it's easy to upset the LTS apple cart.

It hadn't occurred to me until AFTER I wrote the entry that it's entirely possible that when I added libflashsupport to solve my Flash-vs.-Pulse-Audio sound issue, I pushed Flash 9 over the edge.

Now in Flash 10, the problem is not reoccurring. I have no idea if the interaction between flashplugin-nonfree (version 9) and libflashsupport caused the Firefox crashes, or if it was Flash 9 on its own.

I could revert back to Flash 9 from the Hardy repository, remove libflashsupport (and suffer the audio consequences) and see how Firefox runs under Flash, but now that I seem to have NON-crashing Firefox WITH Flash plus working Pulse Audio, my LTS is more stable (with Adobe's Flash 10) than it was with packages from LTS.

From your Gutsy/Hardy quote, it seems like they're able to fix Hardy (the LTS) more readily. That's good to hear.

Now that even Slackware is getting the new Intel-video-hating Xorg, I'm relying on the Ubuntu LTS, Debian Lenny and even CentOS 5.x to keep my circa-2002 Toshiba laptops going.

Quoting:Now that even Slackware is getting the new Intel-video-hating Xorg, I'm relying on the Ubuntu LTS, Debian Lenny and even CentOS 5.x to keep my circa-2002 Toshiba laptops going.

Don't assume that the Intel problems will persist in Slackware 13. The workarounds in Ubuntu and Mandriva are a royal pain to implement but they mostly do work. (Whether they truly solve the problem depends on which Intel graphics chipset you are using and which revision of that chipset.) Patrick Volkerding is a smart guy with a great track record for getting out nearly bug free releases. I'm expecting that he will get the latest fixes in place before release.

Bottom line: I am giving Slackware 13 the benefit of the doubt until I can test the final release. If it's hosed on my netbook with an Intel 945 Express Graphics chipset I will report that but I can't assume that will be the case. Right now I am hoping for the best and trusting in Mr. Volkerding's considerable skills.

I'm running hardy LTS on the desktop at work and it's got flash 10 - I thought the normal update process was responsible for that. I can say that flash 10 plays much better with pulse audio than flash 9 ever did, so obviously the flash coders did some work on the sound-related functions.

@herzeleid

I don't know how you got Flash 10. I thought that even when you get the Flash plugin through the FF browser, it hooks up with the Ubuntu repository, where the Hardy package is this one: http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/flashplugin-nonfree

Flash 10 seems to run better all around.

@herzeleid and @caitlyn

Pulse Audio ... nothing but trouble. Caitlyn, maybe you know for sure, but I think that Pulse Audio will NOT be in Slackware 13. And I await your test re: Intel graphics. Mine is Intel 82830 (from the Intel 830M chipset).

Pulse Audio has actually worked very well for me even on my circa 2002 Toshiba.

When I was having my Pulse-vs.-Flash problems, I actually brought up alsamixer in a terminal ... didn't help, of course.

I've had my share of problems with alsa, also. I have one system that always starts out with sound muted, and on my Mac G4 running Debian, I have to call the alsa settings in rc.local, or it stays mute.