System76 systems "unique"??

[smarmytime]

The webcam on what is broken? It has worked fine from day one on my PanP7, which has been through 10.10, 11.04, and 11.10.

As far as the fingerprint reader, it's really unfair to make a suggestion that Ubuntu doesn't work on your computer just because an obscure peripheral doesn't work. As well, I read (somewhere in this forum) that System76 has been working with Canonical to get the fingerprint reader back up and running for 12.04. That doesn't mean it's going to happen, but they're, at very least, making the effort - hardly nothing.

[ctsdownloads]

I agree. Not every Ubuntu update is going to be butter smooth. We know this from running other OS'. Stuff happens, revert and test.

Yes, Cheese is crap. Instead, Google "Photobooth For Ubuntu Linux" and follow my guide. It's not the cam that is the problem, it's the fact that Cheese is buggy. But there is a decent alternative with greater control and provides a decent experience.

[ranjan_mg]

OK, if not every ubuntu release works on their laptops, then they should say that clearly on the website. After all, when you buy a laptop here, you would expect it to work well atleast for a couple of years, and do not expect to break in 6 months. System76 should not mislead and deceive unsuspecting buyers with comments like below. (See system76 comment in the beginning of the thread.)

" In addition to this, we provide a better out-of-box Ubuntu experience than any other OEM, and provide full hardware and software support for current and future versions of Ubuntu." is plain wrong and deceiving when it comes to future versions of Ubuntu.


And as far as cheese alternatives goes, there is almost none. GUVCView works, but it I don't like its twin view UI. (Two windows like gimp) and cheese has better webcam effects like mac photobooth.
And I do want to support linux vendors, which is why I came here in the first place. But again, I want new users to make informed decisions when they buy laptop from system76 (or any other vendor).

[rg4w]

Rebranding means stickers and OS only, no custom BIOS, additional firmware and System76 driver offered. Just saying...

What's so broken with either Ubuntu and/or Clevo that Ubuntu needs custom BIOS to run on their mobos?

[isantop]

OK, if not every ubuntu release works on their laptops, then they should say that clearly on the website. After all, when you buy a laptop here, you would expect it to work well atleast for a couple of years, and do not expect to break in 6 months. System76 should not mislead and deceive unsuspecting buyers with comments like below. (See system76 comment in the beginning of the thread.)

" In addition to this, we provide a better out-of-box Ubuntu experience than any other OEM, and provide full hardware and software support for current and future versions of Ubuntu." is plain wrong and deceiving when it comes to future versions of Ubuntu.


And as far as cheese alternatives goes, there is almost none. GUVCView works, but it I don't like its twin view UI. (Two windows like gimp) and cheese has better webcam effects like mac photobooth.
And I do want to support linux vendors, which is why I came here in the first place. But again, I want new users to make informed decisions when they buy laptop from system76 (or any other vendor).

We do provide support for future versions of Ubuntu. That's specifically what the System76 Driver is developed to do. It's a simple patching utility that allows us to provide an easy fix in the even that a system needs to be reinstalled.

In fact, systems tend to get better and better supported with each new release of Ubuntu. What isn't working on your laptop? Which laptop do you have? Have you tried installing/running the System76 Driver?

As for Cheese, it is unfortunate, but we don't have any Cheese developers here to work on it. It's not an issue that 's specific to System76; it affects any system using Cheese. We may be able to patch it, but that wouldn't solve the problem, only work around it.

[ctsdownloads]

What's so broken with either Ubuntu and/or Clevo that Ubuntu needs custom BIOS to run on their mobos?

Having visited the bios of my own system I found nothing that seemed "broken". In reality, I have a PC that has always worked perfectly with Ubuntu, among other distros. I see branding...that's the bulk of it.

[ranjan_mg]

We do provide support for future versions of Ubuntu. That's specifically what the System76 Driver is developed to do. It's a simple patching utility that allows us to provide an easy fix in the even that a system needs to be reinstalled.

In fact, systems tend to get better and better supported with each new release of Ubuntu. What isn't working on your laptop? Which laptop do you have? Have you tried installing/running the System76 Driver?

As for Cheese, it is unfortunate, but we don't have any Cheese developers here to work on it. It's not an issue that 's specific to System76; it affects any system using Cheese. We may be able to patch it, but that wouldn't solve the problem, only work around it.

I reported a few issues in this thread
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1919468
System76 currently haS no plans to fix any of these.(It is kernel issue or whatever, but end users don't care, they want a working system) System76 also mention that they don't have the system (panp6) I bought 2 years ago. So, how are you going to support if there are issues reported by a future version of Ubuntu by users running this system ?

[isantop]

{i]We[/i] don't have plans to fix the kernel issues because we would be stepping on the toes of the kernel developers who have much better expertise dealing with the code, and have a much lower chance of breaking other things in the process.

Have you contacted us about the bluetooth issue? It sounds like a hardware issue to me, and we can probably get you a replacement bluetooth adapter.

As for diagnosing issues, we don't have a complete PanP6, but we have all of the same hardware as a PanP6 through a combination of other systems (PanP7, PanP5, PanP4n, specifically). So if something isn't working in the PanP6, we can find the equivalent hardware as what's causing the problem, and test on that. This allows us to replicate the problem if it's a bug, or rule it out as a one-off issue with an extremely high degree of certainty.

[ctsdownloads]

I reported a few issues in this thread
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1919468
System76 currently haS no plans to fix any of these.(It is kernel issue or whatever, but end users don't care, they want a working system) System76 also mention that they don't have the system (panp6) I bought 2 years ago. So, how are you going to support if there are issues reported by a future version of Ubuntu by users running this system ?

I hear ya, those Ubuntu updates can be hit and miss sometimes. This is why I tend to test a new release before installing it. This is also true of the 3.0 kernel, which has a number of minor issues going for it.

The good news is you have some viable choices. The first choice and the one I'd opt for, is to avoid the problem kernel. Consider 11.04, perhaps? Even easier, see if an older kernel is available in the repos instead?

Another more daring (non-recommended) option, is to try this:
https://launchpad.net/~kernel-ppa/+archive/pre-proposed

Before you touch this however, realize that this is experimental and you should expect it to result as such. These are not mainstream updates and may make things worse or better, from a kernel perspective. Me, I take the roll back approach. The bugs will be worked out, it just may not happen immediately.

Example: Flash 11.1.x -- completely broke PulseAudio's ability to control the microphone. After doing some testing with pavucontrol and later, found a confirmed Adobe bug. So, I tried installing the beta release of Flash 11.2 -- dropped it into my ./Mozilla plugins folder -- fixed it right up. It's life, sometimes you just have to work around this sort of thing. Good luck

[samalex]

The way I look a it if someone runs older hardware, say 1-2 years old or more, and needs a stable system, DON'T upgrade every 6 months... stick with what works. My PanP5 is about 3 years old and though I did move from the pre-installed 9.04 to 10.04 LTS I don't plan on reinstalling again until 12.04 LTS comes out next month, especially now that LTS Desktop comes with 5 years of support instead of 3 years. And both 9.04 and 10.04 LTS worked perfectly on my system as I expect 12.04 will do as well.

From my experience the three versions between each LTS version are more or less beta where Canonical tests new technologies, and it's simply impossible for S76 or any Linux vendor to guarantee every update will work on every iteration of their hardware, S76 included. Though I'd like to think S76 would have some suggestions if 12.04 completely choked on my PanP5, I'm sure it'll run like a champ