Well, being the linux nerd that I am, I thought I should throw in my very own review of the upcoming Ubuntu Dapper Drake, scheduled for release around june 2006.
Ubuntu itself is an about two year old distribution with released based on a regular base – six months, to be exact. What’s so exciting about is the fact that it doesn’t overwhelm the user with every application he could possibly imagine. Instead, only one application for one need is installed. Due to this “limitation”, the distribution comes in on just one cd. Also, whenever I read a review about Ubuntu, everyone is praising the perfect configuration it makes during initialisation. No more fiddling around with difficult config files, just install this baby and it will work! I thought I give it a try…
With Dapper Drake, the live CD and the normal distribution are merged together: you boot the live cd and install the distribution directly out of it.
The test subject is an ASUS A6VA notebook (Pentium M 1,73 GHz, ATI Mobility Radeon X700, Centrino Technology, Intel HDA sound). So, after inserting the cd, firing up the notebook, awaiting the obligatory booting sequence, happened…
…nothing.
The screen stayed black. Just like every Ubuntu release I’ve tried so far. And I’m wondering, how in the hell is it so damn difficult to make this one little adjustment to the x.org config file to properly adjust the monitor layout? I mean, I can even see that Ubuntu recognizes my computer as a notebook, so the obvious choice would be to display the graphic output on the LCD (and not an external monitor). Sure, I WOULD know where to adjust it, but after all, the team behind Ubuntu states that it is made for everyone – not only linux nerds. No normal person would ever know where to make the required changes.
So, let’s do a resumee:
- Ubuntu 4.10 – never tried
- Ubuntu 5.04 – wouldn’t recognize even half of my hardware (although this is due to the fairly old kernel)
- Ubuntu 5.10 – lockup on boot, due to a faulty module for Intel HDA sound. Almost no chance to bypass this
- Ubuntu 6.06 – black screen, like all the others
Or is it just my notebook? I don’t know, but for me, Ubuntu is not a choice anymore – see you on the next release, I wonder what failure it will produce then…
Just so you know, I installed Ubuntu on my system with absolutely no trouble, 15 minute installation, instant gratification. But the previous version (Hoary Hedgehog) didn’t work at all. Didn’t recognize my monitor and wouldn’t display anything. . .so I figured that was fixed since Breezy did just fine
yes the problems with X are so irritating
Well, Dapper Drake is Beta software, and it might work in the final release. But given the fact that the same happened in every release makes me think about it. After all, ASUS is a well known company and I guess the A6VA notebook is known as well.
And don’t forget that they made some progress: at least, the current release boots, where as Breezy Badger fucked up royally during initialisation of snd-hda-intel.
Hi!
I have the same notebook as you. The same blank screen after live came up. I had some problems with the sound under debian sarge (it solved now. thanx a lot for your help!) and I was happy with the login sound of the live ubuntu, but this blank screen…
5.10 hanged for me too at boot.
What did you change in the xorg.conf?
I tried some things, but still blank.
YOu shoudl try ubuntu anyway , the issue of the blck screen is solve using the safe graphical mode then you can install the ati driver and have a really good instalation isnot that hard :)
@PeetAir: In the Device section for the graphics device add
Option “MonitorLayout” “LVDS,auto”
@Orlando: Indeed I did, but to be honest, I still like to build everything from base by myself, which is why I stick to Debian. Although I recently moved to Etch, on which I’ll write a summary as well.