From dierdorf at io.com Wed Oct 1 09:21:56 2008 From: dierdorf at io.com (John Dierdorf) Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2008 09:21:56 -0500 Subject: [Linux SIG] Warning for Ubuntu Intrepid Alpha Message-ID: <200810010921.57131.dierdorf@io.com> The Alpha builds of Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) and the betas of several other cutting-edge versions of Linux will DESTROY an Intel e1000e Gigabit Ethernet chip. (Literally; since these are usually soldered in, it means getting a new motherboard!) It is NOT an Ubuntu-specific problem. OpenSUSE-111-beta, Red Hat Enterprise SLE-11-beta,, Mandriva, and other beta distributions using the new Linux 2.6.27 kernel are reporting the problem. It LOOKS LIKE it is a problem with the Intel driver for the e1000e, but it's possible that it is some sort of weird interaction with other components of 2.6.27. The Intel e1000 (no 'e' on the end) is NOT affected by this. In any case, if you are using a gigabit Intel card with Linux, my advice is DO NOT UPGRADE to ANY new version of Linux (particularly a beta) until this has been nailed down and fixed. All the "stable" releases, such as Ubuntu Hardy, etc. are OK -- it seems to be strictly a 2.6.27 issue. (Hardy is using 2.6.21, for example.) Thus, there is no reason to avoid normal adept/aptitude/apt-get/synaptic updates of your running system. To find out if your hardware uses this Intel chip, try the commands lspci | grep 8256[67] /sbin/lsmod | grep e1000e If neither command shows a match, you are not using the affected hardware or driver. -- dierdorf at io.com http://www.io.com/~dierdorf From dierdorf at io.com Fri Oct 3 05:37:58 2008 From: dierdorf at io.com (John Dierdorf) Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2008 05:37:58 -0500 Subject: [Linux SIG] Intrepid Ibex Beta Message-ID: <200810030537.58354.dierdorf@io.com> I have the ISO files for Ubuntu and Kubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) beta, just released this morning. If anybody would like me to burn a copy so they can play around, let me know. Either way, I'll be demonstrating it at the next LBSIG meeting (which is WEEK FROM TUESDAY (the 14th), not next Tuesday (the 7th)). ===Admit it, you thought I was going to forget that second closing parenthesis, didn't you? Us Programmers are in tune with the balance of nature and never ever make that mistake. :) As of today, the Kernel and Device Driver wizards still haven't figured out the problem with the Intel Gigabit chip I mentioned in a previous message, so these betas have the simplest possible work-around: they probe for the problem hardware and if found, refuse to install Ubuntu at all. They promise that the final release of 8.10 (scheduled for October 30), will have the bug fixed. You can also upgrade 8.04 to the 8.10 beta via the package managers -- see the Ubuntu or Kubuntu web pages for details. -- dierdorf at io.com http://www.io.com/~dierdorf From dierdorf at io.com Mon Oct 13 09:01:06 2008 From: dierdorf at io.com (John Dierdorf) Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:01:06 -0500 Subject: [Linux SIG] October Meeting of LBSIG Message-ID: <200810130901.06396.dierdorf@io.com> This month's meeting of the Linux Beginners SIG will be Tuesday the 14th at the usual place and time -- 8109 Greenslope Drive, 6 PM gabfest and 7 PM presentation. Coffee and carbs on demand. Several interesting things for this month: 1. I have the Beta of Ubuntu 6.10 (Intrepid Ibex) installed on my laptop. I'm not sure it's ready for prime time (which possibly is why the call it a beta), but maybe I just haven't figured everything out yet. 2. I have the brand-new OpenOffice 3.0 downloaded and installed, so that is available for demonstration, too. OO3.0 allegedly will import MSOffice2007 files. I don't have any such things to my knowledge, so I'd appreciate it if some benighted soul who has to use it would bring a few files (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) to try out. 3. The Ubuntu beta includes new versions of some programs, in particular Gimp 2.6. There are significant changes, so I'll probably spend some time on that. 4. I actually had the guts to repartition my laptop hard drive to provide an extra partition to install the 6.10 beta. In other words, I shrank a 150GB partition containing 8.04 (Hardy) to 80 GB and then used the open space to install the beta. It worked and I now have a dual-boot Hardy/IntrepidBeta system. I'll talk about safeguards and a few things to do afterward. 5. If you'd rather, we can all watch the Texas-Oklahoma game over again. Fast-forwarding through commercials and halftime cuts the game to an hour and a half, so it could fit... :) See you Tuesday. -- dierdorf at io.com http://www.io.com/~dierdorf