alanh
July 14th, 2008, 02:01 PM
I have a Compaq laptop with 3 primary partitions and 1 extended partition. The primary partitions run Windows XP, Gutsy and Hardy. The extended partition has a home partition, a swap partition and a FAT32 partition for sharing files (ie: TB mailboxes) between XP and Ubuntu. The home partition is mounted in both Gutsy and Hardy.
I set up the home partition in Gutsy to enable me to try different/newer versions of Ubuntu with my settings but without losing my "stable, working version". Unfortunately this hasn't been the case. Most of the settings related to the OS has worked flawlessly between Gutsy and Hardy but I've had problems with both Firefox and Thunderbird.
Running Firefox under Hardy worked fine but when I went to run it again in Gutsy my profile seems to have become inaccessible. None of the addons are working - I can see them listed in the addons dialog but can't enable them or access the prefernces - ie: none of the links to the addon are working. I've also had problems with the Flash plugin.
This is not an issue with XP, where I installed FF3 alongside FF2 and both versions work perfectly well with the same profile.
Running Thunderbird in Hardy was a disaster - the Lightning calendar extension causes the layout in the TB window to be highly distorted, to the point that it's unusable. When I try to run it back in Gutsy, I now have the same problem. So Lightning is now unusable in either OS.
Compiz no longer works in Hardy. From searching the forums, I understand that it's disabled by default, if an ATI graphics driver is detected (I have an ATI Radeon video card). I like to use Cairo-Dock, which needs Compiz to function properly (ie: dock transparency).
My problem now is that Firefox and TB are now borked in Gutsy, so I can't go back to my previous settings.
I have a number of options:
Is there any way to repair the Firefox profile so that it works again in Gutsy?
Is there any way to overide Compiz being turned off by default? It was working perfectly fine under Gutsy.
Can I install Firefox 3 in Gutsy? I've installed the version in the backports but it's stuck at beta4, with no real signs of support. Also, the automatic updates have been turned off by default, so it's by no means clear that I would be able to maintain and update it properly.
This lack of support for updated applications means that any given version of Ubuntu is stuck in a "time-warp" with no simple means for upgrading applications to newer versions. This is particularly limiting in a work environment, where stability is all important and upgrading to each newer version may not be desirable.
I had recently started migrating my work desktop from XP to Ubuntu,(one of the luxuries of running your own company) but this is causing me to question whether this is practical.
Sorry this is a very long post.
I set up the home partition in Gutsy to enable me to try different/newer versions of Ubuntu with my settings but without losing my "stable, working version". Unfortunately this hasn't been the case. Most of the settings related to the OS has worked flawlessly between Gutsy and Hardy but I've had problems with both Firefox and Thunderbird.
Running Firefox under Hardy worked fine but when I went to run it again in Gutsy my profile seems to have become inaccessible. None of the addons are working - I can see them listed in the addons dialog but can't enable them or access the prefernces - ie: none of the links to the addon are working. I've also had problems with the Flash plugin.
This is not an issue with XP, where I installed FF3 alongside FF2 and both versions work perfectly well with the same profile.
Running Thunderbird in Hardy was a disaster - the Lightning calendar extension causes the layout in the TB window to be highly distorted, to the point that it's unusable. When I try to run it back in Gutsy, I now have the same problem. So Lightning is now unusable in either OS.
Compiz no longer works in Hardy. From searching the forums, I understand that it's disabled by default, if an ATI graphics driver is detected (I have an ATI Radeon video card). I like to use Cairo-Dock, which needs Compiz to function properly (ie: dock transparency).
My problem now is that Firefox and TB are now borked in Gutsy, so I can't go back to my previous settings.
I have a number of options:
Is there any way to repair the Firefox profile so that it works again in Gutsy?
Is there any way to overide Compiz being turned off by default? It was working perfectly fine under Gutsy.
Can I install Firefox 3 in Gutsy? I've installed the version in the backports but it's stuck at beta4, with no real signs of support. Also, the automatic updates have been turned off by default, so it's by no means clear that I would be able to maintain and update it properly.
This lack of support for updated applications means that any given version of Ubuntu is stuck in a "time-warp" with no simple means for upgrading applications to newer versions. This is particularly limiting in a work environment, where stability is all important and upgrading to each newer version may not be desirable.
I had recently started migrating my work desktop from XP to Ubuntu,(one of the luxuries of running your own company) but this is causing me to question whether this is practical.
Sorry this is a very long post.