Gutsy Stability Issues

[darthsabbath]

I'm posting this in the community because I'm not really looking for help, more just wanting to discuss the matter as it's sort of disturbing to me.

I've been an Ubuntu user since Warty. I'd used Linux as my primary OS for several years prior, and an alternate OS since 1997. So I know my way around Linux pretty well. Unfortunately, I've been on Vista for the last few months because some software I needed for school was Windows only, and I hate the idea of dual booting.

Now, I'm not a Microsoft hater by any stretch of the imagination. I actually like Vista and am a huge fan of Visual Studio and Office 2007. On the whole, though, I much prefer a Linux OS, and was pleased when the semester was over with, since I could go back to Linux.

So I download Gutsy and give it a whirl, and... wow... it was utterly unusable. The desktop constantly locked up, forcing a hard reboot, several application crashes, and just general instability. This persisted through two clean installs of the OS, so I don't think it was just a bad load. So I reinstalled Vista and am currently using it... for now, at least.

I also don't think it's bad hardware, since Vista works like a peach both before and after the Gutsy install.

Please understand that I'm not trying to troll here. I truly love Ubuntu, and the instability just seems so unusual for my favorite OS. I've been away from the community for awhile, but I've heard that I'm not the only one who's experienced this.

What is everyone's thoughts on Gutsy? If it's been unstable for you, what've you done? Gone back to Feisty? Another Linux? I've been taking a hard look at Zenwalk lately, as well as Xubuntu. Does anyone know if the other *buntu's have had any stability issues?

It may just be a moot point... I'm considering just leaving Vista on my school laptop and setting up my desktop as my Linux machine. I love them both, so I think one machine dedicated to each OS would be the best solution.

Thanks for letting me rant here... I truly hope I've just been unlucky with Gutsy.... I may throw it on my desktop after finals to see how things go.

[khurrum1990]

Hi, I know what u r talking about. I didn't have a good time with Ubuntu 7.10 in this release. I tried Kubuntu 7.10 and it works amazing, there r a very few bugs if any and the system never crashed at all. Ubuntu and Kubuntu 7.04 never worked on my hardware cause they were using an old kernel and Ubuntu repos don't update drivers so at the time I used OpenSuse 10.2. I wanted a debian Linux system so I chose Kubuntu this time. One thing I have noticed that if u want the most bug free Linux distro with excellent stability then its OpenSuse cause even on Kubuntu I noticed while modifying the kicker panel it may crash, amy be the nect KDE 4.0 will fix that. OpenSuse 10.3 is on another machine of mine and I have not encountered any bug on it.

Here is their website:
http://en.opensuse.org

[darthsabbath]

Hi, I know what u r talking about. I didn't have a good time with Ubuntu 7.10 in this release. I tried Kubuntu 7.10 and it works amazing, there r a very few bugs if any and the system never crashed at all. Ubuntu and Kubuntu 7.04 never worked on my hardware cause they were using an old kernel and Ubuntu repos don't update drivers so at the time I used OpenSuse 10.2. I wanted a debian Linux system so I chose Kubuntu this time. One thing I have noticed that if u want the most bug free Linux distro with excellent stability then its OpenSuse cause even on Kubuntu I noticed while modifying the kicker panel it may crash, amy be the nect KDE 4.0 will fix that. OpenSuse 10.3 is on another machine of mine and I have not encountered any bug on it.

Here is their website:
http://en.opensuse.org

I considered Kubuntu, but I've never been a big fan of KDE. GTK+ apps just look nicer IMO, but KDE 4.0 does look interesting. I've noticed over the last few Ubuntu releases I've grown more and more dissatisfied with GNOME, and XFCE looks like a great alternative.

To be honest, I've never really used OpenSuse much. I installed it once, didn't like it, and reformatted pretty quickly. I've always been much more fond of Debian distros.

[khurrum1990]

KDE 4.0 will be awesome. I think u should give Kubuntu or openSUSE a try cause seriously openSUSE package mangement and stuff has improved a lot and it really is very stable. I know many distributions have bugs and I also notice that Ubuntu takes time to fix bugs whereas is in Suse u find a bug and they declare a state of emergency. There is always Mandriva, if u want a debian system then there is Dream Linux, it has XFCE and resembles OS X. Seriously if u want stability then openSUSE in my opinion and experience with it is more stable than Windows and OS X combined.

[khurrum1990]

There is another distro based on Gentoo though. Sabayon Linux, it looks amazing by default, Ubuntu and Kubuntu look ugly. Sabayon Linux also comes with all the drivers so u can actually test ur system on a live cd.

[darthsabbath]

KDE 4.0 will be awesome. I think u should give Kubuntu or openSUSE a try cause seriously openSUSE package mangement and stuff has improved a lot and it really is very stable. I know many distributions have bugs and I also notice that Ubuntu takes time to fix bugs whereas is in Suse u find a bug and they declare a state of emergency. There is always Mandriva, if u want a debian system then there is Dream Linux, it has XFCE and resembles OS X. Seriously if u want stability then openSUSE in my opinion and experience with it is more stable than Windows and OS X combined.

Wow... I just looked up Dreamlinux... I've heard of them before, but never checked out their website. That's a helluva gorgeous desktop. XFCE. Debian based. I may've just found my new distro. :D It's definitely being added to the running between Xubuntu and Zenwalk (I love Slackware too... but vanilla Slackware is more trouble than I'm willing to deal with sometimes LOL) I may give OpenSuse another go... it's Christmas break, I need something to keep me busy, so trying new distros may be just the ticket.

[khurrum1990]

Yeah try openSUSE and Dream Linux both, then decide. I haven't heard about bugs in Dream Linux so it seems good, but I don't know how responsive they r to bug reports like I said if report a bug on suse its like a state of emergency for them.

[GSF1200S]

Its funny, Ive had the exact opposite experience. 6.10 was a little tempermental, although my computer was brand new, and I was brand new. Feisty gave me a few problems, but it seemed better, and now 7.10? Oh man, this one runs sweet! Granted, im using KDEbase, so im not sure but it could be that Kubuntu's fixes have been implemented into the base packages.

But yeah, definitely try out some different distros. I think im going to put OpenSUSE on my second computer just to see what its about- people talking so highly of a novell product surprises me...

[khurrum1990]

Its funny, Ive had the exact opposite experience. 6.10 was a little tempermental, although my computer was brand new, and I was brand new. Feisty gave me a few problems, but it seemed better, and now 7.10? Oh man, this one runs sweet! Granted, im using KDEbase, so im not sure but it could be that Kubuntu's fixes have been implemented into the base packages.

But yeah, definitely try out some different distros. I think im going to put OpenSUSE on my second computer just to see what its about- people talking so highly of a novell product surprises me...
If u think Novell is bad because of the Microsoft deal then u r wrong. I think its actually improved Suse. Like if u use OpenOffice on 10.3 and compare that with Ubuntu or Kubuntu then there is a huge difference in stabilty and there r a few added features in Novell's due to some Microsoft's code and stuff.

I think Kubuntu's bug fixes may have solved ur Ubuntu's bugs as well so that could be a possibility cause on Ubuntu 7.10 I couldn't get the mic working, and there was a bug report on that. What should I do if my mic doesn't work. I tried out Kubuntu and everything works perfect.

[gn2]

Mixed 7.10 experiences.
Core 2 Duo desktop worked perfectly.
Pentium III laptop threw its toys out the pram.

Have gone back to 7.04 as I like to run the same distro and set-up on both.

This thread is worth a look: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=595825

[GSF1200S]

If u think Novell is bad because of the Microsoft deal then u r wrong. I think its actually improved Suse. Like if u use OpenOffice on 10.3 and compare that with Ubuntu or Kubuntu then there is a huge difference in stabilty and there r a few added features in Novell's due to some Microsoft's code and stuff.

I think Kubuntu's bug fixes may have solved ur Ubuntu's bugs as well so that could be a possibility cause on Ubuntu 7.10 I couldn't get the mic working, and there was a bug report on that. What should I do if my mic doesn't work. I tried out Kubuntu and everything works perfect.

I dont count out Ubuntu (Gnome) 7.10 though- ALOT of people have given it alot of praise. I had a lot of problems with Kubuntu 7.04, but it seems theyve really nailed things down quite well...

Nah- it really doesnt matter; I dont like ANYONE making a deal with Microsoft.. but the OS has had high ratings even before that. As long as it doesnt spy on me, im fine.

[khurrum1990]

Don't worry openSUSE won't spy on u. Its completely free and Microsoft has not added there own code themselves, the Novell developers have. Trust me anyone who has used Suse, I know there r many who must have and the majority will respect that distro.

[igknighted]

DreamLinux does look gorgeous, but as of the last time I used it (2.2GL) it was a disaster after install. Adding/removing packages frequently broke it, changing configurations often erased all configurations, and other rather serious annoyances. Hopefully it has improved a bit, as it really is a spectacular looking distro.

[khurrum1990]

DreamLinux does look gorgeous, but as of the last time I used it (2.2GL) it was a disaster after install. Adding/removing packages frequently broke it, changing configurations often erased all configurations, and other rather serious annoyances. Hopefully it has improved a bit, as it really is a spectacular looking distro.
Yeah it looks amazing. I think they have improved it a lot. Its debian as well so even new Ubuntu users will feel at home.

[kripkenstein]

So I download Gutsy and give it a whirl, and... wow... it was utterly unusable. The desktop constantly locked up, forcing a hard reboot, several application crashes, and just general instability. This persisted through two clean installs of the OS, so I don't think it was just a bad load. So I reinstalled Vista and am currently using it... for now, at least.

Well, two issues:

Did Gutsy try to run desktop effects? If so, then the 3D desktop stuff might explain some of the instability. Which brings me to the more general point,
Don't compare 7.10 to Windows. The better comparison is to test an LTS (long term service) release of Ubuntu, the latest of which is 6.06, and was very stable and polished. The next one will be 8.04. In general, non-LTS releases add new and unstable features, like desktop effects and other stuff. Some of us here like a little instability in return for shiny new apps, but for most users that prioritize stability, use LTS releases.

That said, I am running Ubuntu 7.10 here and it is 100% stable. But I don't use desktop effects, tracker indexing, or some of the other fancy new things. In other words, some people, depending on what they run, will get a stable experience on 7.10, and some won't. Again, best to try an LTS release for stability.

[Espreon]

My Gutsy experience was incredible! I have used Ubuntu since Edgy and I have to say that Gutsy had the slickest experience for me.
Edgy was great as well. Feisty was OK, but what infuriated me was that a few weeks after I installed/reinstalled Feisty it would DRASTICALLY take forever to boot up (1:30 minutes) about. In fact I reinstalled Feisty at least 5 times (mostly because I borked the system, the other 2 were to solve the start up problem which quickly returned after 2-4 weeks).

That problem urged me to try a new distro, waiting for Gutsy Beta to come out, I went to Sabayon Linux, I was pretty darn satisfied, I had some problems but I got over them. When Gutsy Beta came out I switched and I am sooooo happy I only had to reinstall 2 times (I reinstall only when I bork the system or if the system gets slow for a weird reason and is unsolvable) and the start up time stayed short and slick, and unlike Feisty, the system does not fsck as often against my will durin start up!

[Incense]

Nah- it really doesnt matter; I dont like ANYONE making a deal with Microsoft.. but the OS has had high ratings even before that. As long as it doesnt spy on me, im fine.

If you are worried they are going to spy on you, you can spy on them. openSUSE source code is on this page.

http://www.novell.com/products/opensuse/source_code.html

On my hardware it feels like kubuntu is a bit more stable then ubuntu is, though really ubuntu is not that bad. Most of my crashes are firefox, or my mucking about with the theme and breaking something on the way. I'd say send in bug reports, and keep trucking on so the next LTS will be rock solid.

[khurrum1990]

Ubuntu and Kubuntu can be the best Linux distros of all time if they take bug reports very seriously for example there is a bug that affects Macbooks and some pc's suspend and hibernate and Ubuntu still hasn't solved it. Its in 32 bit Gutsy kernel 2.6.22-14. Only work around is kernel 2.6.22-12. Think how that effects people who want to use Ubuntu on their Macbooks. The bug is at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.22/+bug/151016
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.22/+bug/136387
Thats the only complain I have with (K)Ubuntu.

[GSF1200S]

If you are worried they are going to spy on you, you can spy on them. openSUSE source code is on this page.

http://www.novell.com/products/opensuse/source_code.html

On my hardware it feels like kubuntu is a bit more stable then ubuntu is, though really ubuntu is not that bad. Most of my crashes are firefox, or my mucking about with the theme and breaking something on the way. I'd say send in bug reports, and keep trucking on so the next LTS will be rock solid.

I cant believe people are having such a good turnaround with Kubuntu! Its really good to hear; I remember thinking it would take a while for Kubuntu to catch up. Ive always thought Gnome to be a little more stable than KDE, if nothing else just for the toning down of features. Im sure some rough times are ahead for all KDE distros with the intro of KDE4- I agree with the supporters that KDE4 will be a step in the right direction and will be more supportive of the development efforts, but I can bet some people are going to lose the faith and that alot of bugs are going to surface. It will prolly be better to stay KDE3.5 on your main machines and submit bug reports for the KDE4 team so they can get on track.

Im sure if Suse was spying, the OS Community would be all over it. Its not really that- I have a deep reservation with anyone who even talks to Microsoft. I see myself, having by some miracle become a distro entrepreneur, telling MS to F themselves if they so much as looked my way. Maybe thats too harsh, and im being too critical... Im going to try it on my second lappie and see what its like. Im so used to apt- its going to be interesting dealing with yast :confused:

[khurrum1990]

I cant believe people are having such a good turnaround with Kubuntu! Its really good to hear; I remember thinking it would take a while for Kubuntu to catch up. Ive always thought Gnome to be a little more stable than KDE, if nothing else just for the toning down of features. Im sure some rough times are ahead for all KDE distros with the intro of KDE4- I agree with the supporters that KDE4 will be a step in the right direction and will be more supportive of the development efforts, but I can bet some people are going to lose the faith and that alot of bugs are going to surface. It will prolly be better to stay KDE3.5 on your main machines and submit bug reports for the KDE4 team so they can get on track.

Im sure if Suse was spying, the OS Community would be all over it. Its not really that- I have a deep reservation with anyone who even talks to Microsoft. I see myself, having by some miracle become a distro entrepreneur, telling MS to F themselves if they so much as looked my way. Maybe thats too harsh, and im being too critical... Im going to try it on my second lappie and see what its like. Im so used to apt- its going to be interesting dealing with yast :confused:
Don't worry if Microsoft spies on users using a Linux distro some hackers would have discovered it, and Novell is trust worthy I think. Yeah u r right Kubuntu has improved a lot though. Lets hope Kubuntu's next release is as good as this.

I also noticed I am able to hibernate my laptop on Kubuntu perfectly but not on Ubuntu, does this have something to do with compiz fusion being a part of Ubuntu cause on Kubuntu I always turn it off before hibernateing but on Ubuntu even if I turn it off, it still messes up.

[toupeiro]

I have to admit, the only indigestion I have about 7.10 is the god foresaken graphical vidconfig tool. I am running 64-bit ubuntu now, ahead of schedule because I had a problem where I made NO changes to my xorg.conf, I simply rebooted after receiving a batch of updates, and I could never read my xorg.conf file successfully again. I tried downgrading the patches, reapplying them, restoring my xorg.conf from 5 different backup archives, reinstalling the driver, using the Open Source driver, NOTHING worked. Its like the system was in some sort of mode to boot to this tool each reboot. I was thoroughly pissed at it. And I didn't really get any working solutions in the help forums.

Now, I am trying to figure out a way, if possible, to rip that tool out of ubuntu, or at least disable it. I don't want this happening again. I use my system for work, and I can't afford some rogue update to render my system graphically unusable. I'm pretty maticulous about what I install on my system, and I know I installed or ran nothing that could have done this. If there are not some severe fixes and work applied to this tool (or at least better documentation on its functionality) in 8.04, it could make me start looking again too. I'm planning to put 8.04 on a laptop and help test it in the upcoming month, with some direct personal focus on this tool. If I wanted black magic tools, that have little to no documentation for self support, I would remain a windows user.

I have also ever so quietly put a couple ubuntu VM's online at work to test their stability with business applications, because I was so impressed with ubuntu's stability up until 7.10. I still love Ubuntu, and moreso the community. I will admit I'm not the fan of some of what 7.10 brought in retrospect, and while I was frustrated to have to spend my day off rebuilding my system, to be fair one bad thing happening to a system that has undergone 3 distro-upgrades is not bad really. I couldn't say that about a MS OS. I truly hope 8.04 is a success, and that your experiences with it are better also.

Sorry for the ramble, and if it was a bit disorganized.

[khurrum1990]

I have to admit, the only indigestion I have about 7.10 is the god foresaken graphical vidconfig tool. I am running 64-bit ubuntu now, ahead of schedule because I had a problem where I made NO changes to my xorg.conf, I simply rebooted after receiving a batch of updates, and I could never read my xorg.conf file successfully again. I tried downgrading the patches, reapplying them, restoring my xorg.conf from 5 different backup archives, reinstalling the driver, using the Open Source driver, NOTHING worked. Its like the system was in some sort of mode to boot to this tool each reboot. I was thoroughly pissed at it. And I didn't really get any working solutions in the help forums.

Now, I am trying to figure out a way, if possible, to rip that tool out of ubuntu, or at least disable it. I don't want this happening again. I use my system for work, and I can't afford some rogue update to render my system graphically unusable. I'm pretty maticulous about what I install on my system, and I know I installed or ran nothing that could have done this. If there are not some severe fixes and work applied to this tool (or at least better documentation on its functionality) in 8.04, it could make me start looking again too. I'm planning to put 8.04 on a laptop and help test it in the upcoming month, with some direct personal focus on this tool. If I wanted black magic tools, that have little to no documentation for self support, I would remain a windows user.

I have also ever so quietly put a couple ubuntu VM's online at work to test their stability with business applications, because I was so impressed with ubuntu's stability up until 7.10. I still love Ubuntu, and moreso the community. I will admit I'm not the fan of some of what 7.10 brought in retrospect, and while I was frustrated to have to spend my day off rebuilding my system, to be fair one bad thing happening to a system that has undergone 3 distro-upgrades is not bad really. I couldn't say that about a MS OS. I truly hope 8.04 is a success, and that your experiences with it are better also.

Sorry for the ramble, and if it was a bit disorganized.
I have no idea what could have destroyed ur system cause most users here using Gutsy 64 bit really liked it, but like u said it has survived 3 distro upgrades. I hope 8.04 is awesome as well.

I have been waiting for a LTS release to come out since I started Ubuntu with 7.04. It would be good not to have to reinstall so often.

[toupeiro]

I have no idea what could have destroyed ur system cause most users here using Gutsy 64 bit really liked it, but like u said it has survived 3 distro upgrades. I hope 8.04 is awesome as well.

I have been waiting for a LTS release to come out since I started Ubuntu with 7.04. It would be good not to have to reinstall so often.

Sorry, what I meant to say was I am using 64-bit now. the crash happened on 32-bit gutsy. So far, 64-bit has been bulletproof *knocks on wood* Oddly enough, I am using the same xorg.conf settings for my screen, video devices and monitor. a.k.a. wasn't a config issue.

[khurrum1990]

Sorry, what I meant to say was I am using 64-bit now. the crash happened on 32-bit gutsy. So far, 64-bit has been bulletproof *knocks on wood* Oddly enough, I am using the same xorg.conf settings for my screen, video devices and monitor. a.k.a. wasn't a config issue.
Yeah no problem. Everyone I know had problems with Ubuntu 32-bit. This time Kubuntu 32-bit is the best out of the 2.

[Incense]

Yeah no problem. Everyone I know had problems with Ubuntu 32-bit. This time Kubuntu 32-bit is the best out of the 2.

I personally suspect that the latest kde build (3.5.8) has something to do with the current state of kubuntu. I was just reading on the kubuntu site the specs for 8.04, and found this little tidbit.


Kaffeine Codec Auto Installation

Codecs (currently libxine1-ffmpeg) will now automatically be installed when opening a file for the first time in Kaffeine. Future implementations will include the automatic installation of the DVD codecs which will allow you to play DVDs with your Kubuntu system.

Not that installing the kubuntu-restricted-extras package is that hard, this is just a nice feature that ubuntu has had for a couple releases.