Kubuntu
Last week I installed Kubuntu on my home pc. Last month, (K)Ubuntu version 5.10 “The Breezy Badger” was released.
The installation was without much trouble. The only problem I have is with my Abit Hotrod IDE controller. Because my harddisks are connected to that instead of the onboard controller, they are /dev/hde and /dev/hdg. I have had these problems before with other distributions, and back then I had to download a bootfloppy-image with the correct support for this controller, before I could even start the installation.
None of that now, luckily. I booted from the cd, it detected my disks, installed everything, no problem.
However, when I got to the part where I had to install the bootmanager, GRUB, all I got was errors.
It couldn’t install GRUB on hd4 (/dev/hde), nor on hd0 (/dev/hda), nor on any other harddisk. I tried all kinds of parameters, but got some sort of write error, or “Can’t find device” (or similar).
I remebered that Lilo could also not be installed on /dev/hde, because it could only boot from the first four devices. All desperate, I got out a floppy and installed GRUB on there. Strangely enough, however, when I booted, I got the GRUB bootmenu! And everything booted just the way it should! So, the installation had worked after all.
The only weird thing I have, and I still have no idea what to do about it, is that I have a very long (and very annoying) delay during booting. When previously I got the NT bootmenu, now I get a 30-second delay before the message “GRUB Loading stage1.5″ appears. Next, another 30-second delay, and after that I finally get the bootmenu. From then on, everything works fine… Does anyone have an idea how this happens? And how to solve it?
All in all, Kubuntu works fine, it has an easy installation, easy maintanance and package managing (through the great and almighty apt, of couse), and comes with very good and up-to-date applications.
If you’re interested, download one of the live- or install-cd-images of Kubuntu or Ubuntu, or have a set of free Ubuntu-cds be delivered at your home, completely free of charge!
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Can I say something about a certain operating system here that “just works” or will that make me a zealot?
Yeah, yeah, I know…
But do you think that that certain operating system also “just works” on my home pc? I don’t…
Me neither. You could try to install one of the x86 OS X-installers floating around, but I really wouldn’t recommend that… Ubuntu *does* rock by the way.
After reading your enthusiastic post about kubuntu i installed it onto my computer. I’m using it as I’m writing this. (Very handy, a spell checker in the webbrowser!)
Kubuntu installed right away, I had not much troubles, and Kubuntu is working like a charm now, and in 64 bit!
An issue is the hardware support. It did recognize my Via VT8237 raid controller, but saw the raid as two separate disks. Furthermore it doesn’t recognize my two external USB NTFS drives, still have to look into it. And I can’t get my soundblaster Live into digital mode somehow. And dual monitor isn’t working yet. But that is the fun of linux, tinkering the system until it works… And my favorite application, tc, is included as well!