Three days on Raring Ringtail 64-bit

After three days with Ubuntu 13.04 64-bit my laptop is running fine. A few glitches, mostly with Files, there seems to be a problem with Compiz, but otherwise this version is stable.

I'm liking the new look and features. I especially like that natural scrolling is integrated and more pervasive.

I only used Ubuntu Tweak to make the Panel transparent. What can I say I like a transparent dock. Except for the panel and wallpaper everything else is stock Ubuntu. And yes, I like Unity.

Right now I have the launcher hidden. I'm trying to use the super key more. I'm impressed by how quickly and accurately programs are found with only two key entries.

I've noticed that my laptop's fan does not run as often and that the laptop does not seem to get as hot as it did before. I'm wondering if this is because of the new Intel graphic drivers. Prior to 13.04 my graphic driver was listed as unidentified. I know that this is normal for Intel drivers but now the graphic driver is listed as Intel Ironlake Mobile. I like that my laptop is running cooler and that the fan is not running in high gear so often.

Adventures with Raring Ringtail

My adventure with installing Ubuntu Raring Ringtail 13.04 continues.

I have a two year old System76 Lemur Ultra-Thin laptop. It’s 64 bit with an Intel® Core™ i3 CPU U 330 @ 1.20GHz × 4, an Intel® Ironlake Mobile graphics chip and 4 gigs of ram. I’ve been running the past couple versions of 64 bit Ubuntu and wanted to try Raring Ringtail. I have two hard drives which I swap out when I want to experiment so if a trial doesn’t work I just go back to my main disk.

I downloaded a daily build of the 64-bit PC version of Ubuntu 13.04. I Used UNetBootin to put the 64-bit PC ISO on a USB stick and booted my computer. I selected Try instead of going right to Install.  I got a strange message about the kernel*, which I ignored because the boot continued to the Raring desktop. I checked a few functions and when everything seemed to work I ran the installer. The installation proceeded normally. My camera didn’t work for my user picture but otherwise the installation went like any other Ubuntu install. When the installation completed I restarted my computer. After the BIOS screen, nothing... just some message about a bad kernel* or no boot media, I don’t remember exactly. I tried a few random keyboard entries to no effect and then gave up.

I tried a few more daily builds but got the same result. I then tried the 32-bit PC (intel x86) image. This installation went fine. Still no camera but the installation completed and I could boot into 13.04 on restart.

I spent a few days using the 32 bit version. I really liked the new look and features. Raring ran quickly and smoothly. A few glitches but hey, it’s beta. I was happily using Raring Ringtail till a few days ago when the update hung trying to install the linux-image-3.8.0-15-generic. I got some good tips from the Ubuntu Community on G+, however some suggestions came too late as I had already borked my computer trying to update the kernel myself.

I then got the crazy idea to try the 64-bit Mac version of 13.04. I don’t have a Mac but what the heck I thought. To my surprise the Mac version worked. It installed AND booted into the Raring Ringtail desktop.

I spent some time setting up my desktop. I installed the Chrome web browser and I installed some other programs from the Ubuntu Software center. The performance was OK but the experience was a bit flaky. Different programs froze and crashed. Files was especially problematic and crashed often. The craziest thing was a problem with my root password. My password worked with the software center to install a program but would not work to open a program that needed permission to run. For example, my password worked to install UNetBootin but would not work when I tried to open UNetBootin. I spent a long time redoing my password, undoing my password, even deleting my password, all to avail.

Time to start over.

I thought I’d try the 64-bit PC version again and see if the kernel* problem was fixed. Swapped my hard drive. Downloaded the latest 64-bit PC daily build image and put it on a USB stick. Re-swapped the hard drive and restarted my laptop.

During the installation I now had the option to update my version of Raring Ringtail 13.04. Hmmm, what to do. Would the update fix or retain the problems I had with the Mac version? What would the update do about the kernel* issue I had with the 64-bit PC version? I chose the update route. The installation proceeded, without the option to take my picture, but without incident to the end.

Once the install was done I restarted my computer and viola, the Raring desktop was there just the way I had set it up with the Mac version. The previously installed programs were also there with the exception of Chrome. Though when I reinstalled Chrome I found that my home page and extensions were retained, yea.

So far the 64-bit PC version is very stable (I’m writing this with it). No random program freezes yet. UNetBootin still won’t accept my password and won’t open. Something to work on later. But otherwise 64-bit PC Raring Ringtail is working fine now and I’m looking forward to playing with it.

*Side note: I’m wondering why the 64-bit PC installer has a different unbkern file than the 32-bit version and the 64-bit Mac version. The 64-bit PC version has an unbkern folder where as the other two have an unbkern file. I wonder if this has something to do with why I could not boot after installing the 64-bit PC version. I will have to do a fresh install another day to see what happens with the latest daily build of the 64-bit PC image. Right now I will just keep exploring Raring Ringtail 64-bit.