Cinnamon on LMDE

Recently the Linux Mint team released 1199 updates for LMDE. Well one of these updates was the upstream release of Gnome 3.2. I really did not care for it at all and I can see why a lot of users don't. If it were a tablet only desktop I might have a different opinion.

So at the first chance, like less than two minutes, the command line was opened and sudo apt-get install cinnamon was entered. A minute or so later I logged out and logged in and the Cinnamon desktop was available.

It really wasn't what I expected but it was better than the one inch icons of Gnome 3.2 default. On my hardware I had to turn off some of the Compiz effects but to me that is a non-issue. Call me old-fashioned but I hardly ever see the desktop anyway and clear window headers are just harder on my eyes. But that is always the beauty of Linux is we have choices. Give it a try you may just like it and it is available for other Mint versions too.

Update The Linux Kernel

One of the cool features of Linux is how the updates work. I'm going to talk about updates with Ubuntu but the same is true, methods might differ, for about all distros. I have the Update Manager set to notify when updates are available. The other night a kernel update was available to install version 2.6.31-20 generic. Throwing caution to the wind, I installed the kernel update with the Update Manager. In my setup I am using Grub as a boot manager and I have the added option of choosing more than one kernel to boot into. Windows will never give you that option after a service pack install ever. This is one aspect where Linux and Windows differ greatly.

A kernel update is a major update since it is the core of the operating system. If I were to do this in Windows it would be considered a service pack update and not easily reversed if something goes wrong. In Linux you can remove a kernel update as easily as installing it.
Service packs can be removed in Windows but it is time intensive and may leave the system unstable. Removing any unneeded kernel in Ubuntu is very easy using Synaptic Package Manager. A quick search for the Linux header or kernel and you will be able to mark the appropriate files for removal. Synaptic will do the rest including updating Grub. This can also be accomplished on the command line using apt-get remove but you will have to know the name of the packages you want to remove.

This is one of the key differences in Linux as opposed to Windows, that will keep me using Linux for a long long time.

Linux Unified Kernel: Linux Unified Kernel, Operating system, Kernel (computing), Application binary interface, Application software, Device driver, ... Windows, Linux, Architecture of Windows NT

Ubuntu Update Gone Bad?

Ubuntu, like most other distros, prompts you to install system updates. You can control the schedule using the Update Manager and set it for daily, every two days, per week or every two weeks. I prefer the weekly updates. There are other options as well but I will not be highlighting them at this time. Typically the defaults on most options will work for most users but they are fairly straightforward and do not need much explanation. Most of the time updates will install just fine. However once in a while the internet or your computer just doesn't cooperate. The update then gets hung and maybe the system will not even boot fully. It is times like this that a little knowledge of the command line will be very beneficial. If possible boot to the prompt and issue these commands:

sudo apt-get update 
(password)
apt-get upgrade -u

This will perform the rest of the update just as you were using the gui's Update Manager. It will be important to note that wireless users may or may not be connected, so it might be wise to connect via a cable if possible. Running the unfinished upgrade this way just may prevent a needless re-install of the OS. But you have /Home on a separate partition anyway, right?

Karmic Koala Installed For Two Weeks

I have now had Karmic Koala installed for about two weeks. I first did the install via 9.04's Update Manager and it was not a very pleasant experience. Perhaps the Ubuntu servers were still being hit hard but the install lasted for more than 7 hours. Ugh! I couldn't quit though since I had no idea what had started and what it would do. So I toughed it out and let it run. Everything worked pretty good except for the video. Screen re-draws were slow and played video almost impossible. I ran it for two days like this until I decided to go ahead and do a clean install. Wow what a difference. Video is sharp and snappy and played video runs as good as it ever has.



Overall I am quite happy with the new install. The boot time is very snappy and faster than 9.04. Watch this video of comparison boot times between Karmic Koala, Jaunty Jackalope, Vista and Windows 7. The test was done on all the same hardware and new installs conducted by the folks a Linux Format.

Inline Upgrade To 9.10 Painfully Slow

Yesterday evening I started the upgrade process from Update Manager. What a mistake. It took over seven hours to finish. I let it go not knowing if anything would break if I canceled it. It was the downloading that took so long to complete. I think the servers are still getting hit hard and they must have set limits on each connection. Today I downloaded the ISO as a Torrent and it was done in less than ten minutes. So far so good for the upgrade except for the video. I have an ATI 320 IGP Radeon and the screen refreshing is a bit slow. Today I installed the Xorg fglrx driver and it seems to help. I have not tried to run video yet but normal screen redraws are better so I expect some improvement in video too. This has always been somewhat of a drawback for this laptop anyway. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. I am going to create a USB flash drive with the USB Startup tool and see if the video has better performance. I wonder if the in-place upgrade has anything to do with the poor performance n video. I didn't have these issues in version 9.04.