Feisty Fawn Hands-On

So I decided to reformat my computer this weekend. I was really tired of Windows being slow, and I was itching to install Feisty Herd 5. I already had the .iso downloaded, so I burned it, partitioned the hard drive using GParted, and got going. Of course Windows was first, as I still have to keep it around for school programs that don't have Linux equivalents. But I can tell you now that if I can ever get those apps working in Feisty (the final release), I'll say goodbye to Windows forever.

Let's start off with the install. In true Ubuntu form, the LiveCD is easy to use, and the system is easy to install; not much has changed here. One thing that does suck - resolution was not set immediately like Dapper and Edgy. I was stuck at 1024x768 until I got my graphics drivers installed and configured (more on that later). After the installation was done, I booted into the new OS. Wireless was immediately detected, and unlike Dapper and Edgy, network manager is installed by default, making switching between networks very simple. I was able to get connected to my home network with no hassle, and upon returning to school, the same was true with the wired network.

Unfortunately, updates hit you as soon as you install the OS. Unlike the usual minimal updates with Ubuntu systems, there are a whopping 350+ updates to download and install upon starting Feisty. That adds up to over 220MB of downloads. If you have a slow connection, this will take you hours. For some reason, my school's network was running like a snail tonight, so I experienced this first hand. In addition, graphics drivers are not installed by default as was the original plan for Feisty. This is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your stance on proprietary software, but it's there nonetheless.

That being said, installing your graphics drivers has rarely been easier (at least with nVidia cards... I haven't tried ATi as I don't have an ATi card). This is attributed to the new package system. The universe and multiverse repositories are enabled by default in Feisty, so you can easily install the nVidia binary drivers through Synaptic. What's even better is that Synaptic is now streamed through the "Add/Remove Software" application available on the "Applications" drop-down menu. All you do is click the box in the top right of the window and select "All Available Applications," search for nvidia, and select the drivers. In the details pane, it tells you all you have to do to enable the drivers is type

Code:

sudo nvidia-glx-config enable

but unfortunately that's not the case. If you try restarting X (Ctrl+Alt+Backspace) doing just that, you'll find yourself with a broken X server. In addition, you need to type the following in a terminal:

Code:

sudo nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals

This should get the nVidia drivers working (version 96.xx... not sure what the actual version is). Be aware that the latest nVidia drivers for Linux are actually 97.55, but I doubt there's any huge gain in performance that would justify installing them from scratch.

That being said, installing the drivers still didn't give me the right resolution, though it finally gave a refresh rate (which had previously read 0Hz). To get it working, I had to manually edit xorg.conf. That's kind of a pain, but hopefully it will be resolved by the final release. Still, given the ease of installing the drivers, I'll gladly overlook this right now.

Working with the system is equally simple. There is a generic kernel included just as Edgy, which will give you dual-core support (as well as 686 for Intel users) without downloading any extra kernel. You can easily enable "Desktop Effects," which seems to be a subset of Beryl, giving you animated motions, a thumbnail preview style Alt+Tab feature, and an Expose type feature which will automatically show all open windows simply by moving the mouse to the top right corner of the screen. It's not full-out Beryl, evident by the lack of transparent windows options and Emerald theme manager. But it's simple, pleasing, and built-in. I personally don't find it to be as overwhelming as Beryl, and find it to be much more... subdued. It doesn't hinder performance, but it gives you that "cool" factor.

One thing I kind of miss from Herd 4 is the Control Center. The Preferences and Administration sub-menus are back. It's not that the Control Center is amazing, but it was different, and I was looking forward to testing it out further. This may be linked to the fact that Gnome v2.18 is not included in Herd 5; rather it's back to 2.17.92. I don't know if 2.18 is still planned for the final release, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if it were.

As far as stability goes, I haven't had too many problems so far. Suspend and Hibernate don't work right; when resuming, X has to be restarted. Not sure what the problem is, but I haven't had particularly good luck with these features in the past, so it's not something that shocks me. Although Hibernate worked fine before most of the time, so I'll miss the fact that it never works now; again, something that I hope will be addressed by the final release. There are also a few problems with the "Desktop Effects" (Compiz) that cause glitches now and again. But overall, it's a very solid system, and I like where it's going. My favorite feature is the improved "Add/Remove Software" application that is streamed through Synaptic. I'll continue using the system for a while and report on any major issues I have here, so if you're interested, check back from time to time.

EDIT: Something I forgot to mention is the way Synaptic gives you the option to install software/codecs as they arise. For instance, I decided to pop in a DVD to see what that was like. MPlayer immediately opened, and then a Synaptic window opened saying that I needed a certain set of codecs (and had them selected, all I had to do was click Apply to download and install them). Upon clicking Apply, a dialog box popped up telling me that these codecs were non-free (proprietary) and would be illegal in certain countries and asked if I wanted to continue (hopefully satisfying the die-hard GNU followers out there to some extent). This also occured when I attempted to view some videos online. This is amazing, and indeed better than anything even Windows can offer. Very useful feature. Ubuntu is on its way to a mainstream OS if you ask me.

 

Thanks for the update, notebook_ftw. I just bought a new HDD this weekend and installed Edgy (and Windows) again... I didn't have the guts/patience to try out Feisty, but from what you say, it sounds promising. That "subset of Beryl" sounds really nice especially, since I didn't use a lot of the features of Beryl due to hindering performance... but the features you mention are the ones that I used often (esp. Expose and the alt-tab eye candy)

I sure hope the kernel with Feisty has addressed the bug that's evident in the 2.6.17-2.6.20 kernels that make my hard drive click... it's a shame Dapper won't run properly on my system.

 

Great! Thanks for this first look at Feisty, notebook_ftw!

 

Well, Feisty is using kernel 2.6.20 currently. It's the kernel installed by default with Herd 5. So I don't know if it will solve your problem or not.

 

nice preview. any screenshots?

 

Sounds nice. I may try this out on my old Celery box soon. Thanks a lot

 

Hopefully later this week. Not much has changed in general appearance, so I'd rather do a video demonstration if possible. But I'll see what I can do. Like last week, this next week is looking to be highly busy once again.

 

ah ok. take your time. i was just wondering thats all.

 

That "subset" of Beryl is actually Compiz, and in actuality it's more like Beryl is a "subset" of Compiz Beryl is a recently created fork of Compiz and tends to provide more "bleeding edge" features, but they still largely share the same basic code. I too found Compiz to be more stable than Beryl, and the only gripe I have is that the "snapping windows" function can't be enabled w/o also enabling the "wobbly windows" which I have no use for. In Beryl these two functions were separate.

 

Yes, I did realize upon further reading through ubuntuforums that it was actually Compiz. I was also aware that Beryl was a fork of Compiz, and that was one problem I had with it. I tend to prefer more stable things than the "bleeding edge." Of course, this is ironic considering I've beta tested two operating systems in the past year, but it is still largely true. Once I get a stable OS running, I like the integrated software to be as stable as possible as well, which is why I'm glad they went with Compiz instead of Beryl.

 

As promised, here are some screens from Ubuntu 7.04. Enjoy.

 

Thanks for the screenshots, notebook_ftw. If it's not too much trouble, can you take a screenshot or a short video of some of the new eyecandy that's built-in? I'd love to see it in action.

 

just out of curiosity, what does it take to run the built in eye candy in Feisty? I currently run Edgy on an Inspiron 8600 with a Geforce FX Go5200 w/ 32 mb dedicated, would that be enough to run the eye candy?

I also have a dv2000t, but that doesn't have linux on it yet. :]

 

Seeing as how Beryl can run on a Geforce 3 (or so I've read), and that it also runs fine on my integrated graphics card, I'm sure the built-in eyecandy isn't too demanding. Your current system should handle it without a sweat.

 

Yeah I agree the Go5200 shouldnt have any problems with running the eye candy, Beryl runs fairly decently on my 852/855 graphics controller(aka Intel very very Extreme 2 ). So, the 5200 should be able to handle it pretty easily.

 

Thanks for the quick responses! It'd good knowing that my 3 year old Dell can still handle the latest operating systems. :]

 

I've got some videos that I'll upload to Google Video at some point. I think everyone in my school's IT department left for spring break and now the network is incredibly slow. The connection keeps timing out every time I try to upload a video. As soon as I get a more stable connection I'll upload them though.

One thing I should note: in previous versions of Ubuntu you could use the terminal command sudo apt-get install kde or sudo apt-get install kubuntu-deskotp to get Kubuntu running alongside Ubuntu (allowing you to use either Gnome or KDE). Well, that didn't work so well when I tried to do it this time. There was some kind of error fetching some files from the server, and the kernel I had just upgraded to was consequently screwed. This means I have to boot into the previous kernel now or I get a broken X.

 

Well, it's a testing version, so bugs are bound to occur.

 

Indeed. Compiz isn't without it's bugs at this point either to be honest. A lot of times, I'll open an app, and it won't come up. It'll be in the taskbar, but I'll never see the window, forcing me to close it and start it again. In addition, windows have this annoying habit of sticking to the sides of the screen or making themselves larger than my screen. I really don't use it right now; I hope it gets better by the final release (which is only a month away ). Other than Compiz and a few buggy applications though, it seems to be a fairly stable system. Apps crash occasionally, but the OS never really goes unstable requiring me to restart X or the computer.

 

The more I use this OS, the more I love it. I fired up my computer today after I got home from work, and found there were 100 updates waiting for me, amounting to about 95MB to download. My connection is still slow, but it went pretty quickly, so I'm not complaining. But what the updates held was the awesome part.

First of all, a bunch of my system files were updated. Typical stuff. But in addition, the Kubuntu files were also updated and reconfigured, and something else that took me by surprise... the nVidia drivers! That's right. My nVidia drivers were updated to the highest supported version (not the latest 97.55, but rather 96.31). For the fist time in my life, I have had graphics drivers updated for me... I'm still in awe of this. Because of these updates, my system's newest kernel was restored, and I can now boot into KDE. Therefore, Ubuntu fixed itself. I'm still amazed, as I've never had this happen to me or be so smooth with any Operating System. If things continue this way, Feisty Fawn should be an interesting development indeed.

I have to go work on a car now, but hopefully I'll be back later to give some Kubuntu impressions.

 

Wow, I didn't know they were introducing that into Feisty. I wonder if it works for AMD drivers too. Might download the disk this afternoon and give it a whirl.

 

Note: Suspend to RAM now works, although it looks a little jarring, and makes me nervous that it's not going to work. I haven't tried Hibernate since the last update. I'll report back this weekend when I have more time.

By the way, can anyone tell me how I can see my entire hard drive (and all partitions) in KDE. In Gnome I would just go Places>Computer, but I can't seem to find that stuff in KDE. I'm not used to KDE just yet.

 

EDIT: Slow connection owns me.

 

I don't know how/if KDE does the "device" thing such as Places>Computer, because of the GNOME "Virtual FileSystem". The computer:/// and network:/// locations are what enable that sort of stuff in GNOME.

 

I uploaded two videos to Google video, but they're still in processing stage. They're also really bad quality for some reason. They're not huge video files nor were they taken at low resolutions (they look fine on my computer). It may be because I used ogg format, though not sure.

UPDATE: The latest Ubuntu update has also updated Gnome to v2.18, which was released today. Not much really changed (nor is the Control Center back), but Compiz (Desktop Effects) seem a lot more stable. I haven't had any problems so far, which is much better than before. I actually didn't use it before due to its instability.

 

You should be able to see all drives from the taskbar, there's a little computer icon, then you can click "Media" or whatever it is. At least that's how it is on 6.10

 

On the default KDE desktop, I think its the Igloo icon you click, then go to Storag Media. Konquerors default start page should also have a link to Storage Media.

 

I have a question regarding upgrading the Herd 5. I just burned the herd 5 iso on a cd. What i want to know is, when they have the Beta available next week, will the Herd5 install upgrade to iso through upgrade service?

 

You should be able to, yes.

 

Haha Too late! I already installed the Feisty and now its doing the 519 files update lol...it says im gonna finish in about 3 hours! It was kinda wierd that the updates were already showing without any network..So i am speculating that the updates packages were copied from the cd and feisty just needed to install them...

 

Let us know how you go with it. Good or bad experiences, please post them up.

 

@anyone on Herd4/5 -

Does Rhythmbox now rip cds AND/OR display album art? Do tell!

 

uhhh... it does both in Edgy... ?

 

No, it doesn't rip CDs. You can display album art, but isn't default. I'm most interested to see if it rips cds.

 

weird... I could've sworn I ripped a few CDs with it...

well, whatever the case is, I just hope it doesn't take a dump at the end of the burning processs any more.

 

It allows you to rip CDs, but you have to go though SoundJuicer. So, it's not a complete, contained music environment.

LOL.

 

I think cd ripping is still handled by sound juicer.

 

I really wish they'd intergrate the ripping so I wouldn't have to compile tarballs of Banshee and then use Banshee which is so buggy anyway.

 

Well, you may be happy to know that Banshee is available through Synaptic in Feisty. Therefore it installs flawlessly in about 30 seconds depending on your connection.

 

Oh, Banshee has always been available through the repos...it's just that it's always an old version. The newest Banshee now (0.2.0, I believe) is never on synaptic. That's why tarballs need to be compiled.

 

Ah, got ya. Don't follow it that much... but now that I check, the version that's in Synaptic is 0.12. Ah well...

Anyhow, I have a video of Feisty uploaded to Google video, but it's really bad quality for some reason. In fact, all the Feisty videos on Google are bad quality. I can't host it on my photobucket either since it's a .ogg file. Does anyone know where I can host this video for you guys to see in a good quality? It's about 35MB.

You can find the Google video here, but you won't be able to see much.

EDIT: Just finished another Feisty update (it looks like they come every day right now). Aside from a kernel update and a few other things that seem to be stability/new application updates, there's a new feature that's quite interesting. Ubuntu seems to be starting to use it's leverage to spread the word of FOSS. Upon rebooting my computer, a dialog pops up saying something about unsupported drivers being required to make the system run correctly. When I clicked the system tray, the attached screenshot is what I found. Interesting indeed...

 

yeah... I heard about that somewhere...

the check boxes seem a little hokey, but it is definitely an excellent idea.

feisty is shaping up to be truly awesome.

 

@notebook_ftw -

The BEST place to upload videos online at high quality now is Brightcove. Try it out and then go "wow."

 

So is it safe to say that Feisty Fawn will be the best Ubuntu yet? Cause Edgy is worst than Dapper IMO.

I'm going to try out the eyecandy on my Desktop which has Nvidia. My notebook has a crappy ATI which I never had any luck with.

Concerning Quote below: Its about time they implement that. I say two or three versions after Feisty might really have MS concerned

 

Has the fonts in Open Office improved? My Edgy installation never had proper font rendering in the OO toolbars despite recompiling the ones from OO directly. An improvement to Ubuntu's OO fonts is all that is needed to make me switch instantly.

 

@LivefromNYC - I'd imagine M$ would be worried about that, for sure. But what can they do??

Eventually, people will see the reality of how free OS software can be.

 

I'm not sure what you mean, but here is a screenshot from OpenOffice 2.2 Writer. Hope it helps some.

 

Not seeing the "wow." It doesn't let me upload .ogg files either.

 

Dude...why are you uploading audio files to a video website??

 

I've seen .ogg video files! ( Theora).