Jamie's Random Musings
Various thoughts and adventures, including but not limited to Linux, Windows XP and Widows Vista, and assorted bits of hardware new and old.
Monday 22 September 2008, 2:04 PM
Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex Alpha 6 - Good News for Laptop Users
I mentioned last week that the Network Manager / Mobile Broadband was very close to working with my Sierra Wireless AirCard 880. With this new alpha release, it's no longer "very close", it works just fine. When I insert the AirCard a new entry shows up in the Network Manager menu, and when I click on Mobile Broadband the AirCard connects and I get 2+ Mbps download and 256+ Kbps upload speeds. Very impressive - and let me just say again, this is "out of the box", with no configuration, adjustment, definition or fine-turning necessary.
I still have two relatively minor problems with this alpha. First, it does not automatically detect and adjust the screen resolution when my S6510 is connected to its port replicator, which has an external Acer LCD display on it. This seems a bit odd to me, because Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) does this with no problem. It obviously sees that something is connected to the external display, because the screen resolution changes from 1280x800, which is automatically sets up for the laptop display, to 1024x768.
Second, the Alpha-6 release now includes Firefox 3.0.2 beta, which doesn't work with the Citrix ICA Client. More specifically, it appears to me that the actual problem is with the Juniper Networks Host Checker, which is used by the ICA Client. Whichever it is, I was able to get around the problem by downloading and installing Firefox 3.0.1. I assume this problem will be solved by the time Ubuntu 8.10 and Firefox 3.0.2 get to final release.
The final release for Intrepid Ibex is planned for the end of October.
jw 22/9/2008
PreviousComments on this post
The biggest gripe that I have with Ubuntu is the problem with setting up multiple displays (with and without multiple videocards). Winblows works very well at this :-S
Hi, thanks for reading and commenting.
I basically agree with you, and I have mentioned this several times previously, not only with Ubuntu but with every other Linux distribution that I have tried. You are absolutely right, Windows does this very well - but it is something that has developed and improved over quite a few years, so hopefully it will continue to get better on Linux as well.
Do you know of a Linux distribution that handles multiple displays reasonably well? I'd love to try it if you do!
jw 23/9/2008
All distributions I've tried seem to be lacking in this, however for general video configuration I found PCLINUXOS was the best for me. But PCLINUXOS is too far behind with their updates :(
Ubuntu and XP remain as my main desktops.
New installs of xorg use xrandr not Xinerama anymore. My desktop has 4 monitors and is 5120x1024. Xrandr has a nasty size limit of about half that size so I could not use Gutsy or Hardy on my desktop system, Hydra. I was forced to use Mandriva 2008.0 that came with an older version of Xorg and Xinerama. I hope Ibex and the new Xorg has fixed this problem.
When Ibex comes out I will be installing it on my new Dell XPS M1730 system faster then you can say, "I'm a PC and I am very frustrated."
Good-bye Vista, hello Ibex. :)
Thanks for your review of Ibex on laptops.
Hi, Thanks for reading and commenting. I actually made a bit more progress with this today, which I hadn't had time to write up yet. I found that by removing the "clone" attribute in the screen resolution dialog, I could select the correct resolution for the external monitor (1280x1024). I could then close the laptop, use only the external display, and it worked exactly as I wanted it.
It has been interesting to watch the Ibex Alphas get better and better on my laptops. I think that by the time it is released at the end of next month, it is going to be very solid, and they are going to have achieved their stated goal of making it much better for mobile use.
jw 25/9/2008
