Ubuntu 9.04 Upgrade

This morning I upgraded my laptop operating system from Ubuntu 8.10 to 9.04.  All went smoothly and took under 2 hours (less than I feared).  I don't know exactly how long it took because I went out shopping while it was under way (there's confidence for you!) and it was waiting at the "Remove unneeded packages?" screen when I got back. 

I have only noticed one problem following the upgrade and that was the graphics in Blender no longer work.  However, as I no longer use Blender on the laptop, I just uninstalled it.  (Blender is listed as a packge from the "Universe" and so is not officially supported by Canonical Ltd.)

A QuickTime 7 Problem and its Solution

This afternoon, I upgraded from QuickTime 6 to QuickTime 7 on my Windows XP Professional machine.  When I tried to use QuickTime from a user account it gave the following error message:

Error 46: Could not find or load activex control

A little Googling led to a solution suggested by Gerhard Schwoiger ("Ger Ger") here (see under "Apple QuickTime 7.x Annoyances").  I implemented this solution from an administrator account.  This fixed the problem.

Ubuntu 8.10 Network Problem

Yesterday I installed Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on my Thinkpad R50e laptop.  This time I decided to do a complete install rather than just an upgrade because I wanted to get rid of several years of accumulated cruft.  I did remember to first back up the files I wanted to keep, though.  I downloaded the .iso image file from here and following the instructions here, I burnt it to a CD.  I then put the CD into the laptop and rebooted.  The installation was pretty simple and quick (it took only about an hour or so, whereas I remember upgrades taking several hours). There is a good overview of the installation process here.  However, when I booted up the new installation, the wired network connection was not working.  I wasn't even able to ping the ADSL modem router.

A bit of googling (from my other computer) revealed that the problem was probably a bug in NetworkManager 0.7, which is a new package in Ubuntu 8.10.  A work-around was recommended here.  Following this work-around I first disabled NetworkManager from starting up by opening a terminal and entering:

sudo update-rc.d -f NetworkManager remove

I then rebooted the laptop.

Then I opened another terminal and opened the /etc/network/interfaces file in an editor:

sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

This file already contained the lines:

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback

To the end of this file I added these lines:

auto eth0

iface eth0 inet dhcp

I then saved /etc/network/interfaces and exited the editor.

My /etc/resolv.conf file already contained the required line:

nameserver 10.0.0.2

So I rebooted the laptop again and the network connection was working properly: I was able to ping the modem router and connect to the web.

Strange Power Supply Problem

About a month ago our main PC started showing some worrying symptoms.  It would wait about two minutes following power-on before its lights came on and it began start-up.  Once started, the PC would then run normally, and could even be even shut-down and restarted again, without any problems, so long as the power was not switched off at the wall.  It was as if the PC needed to soak up a certain amount of power before it could begin start up.

I recognized this as probable partial failure of the PC's power-supply unit (PSU)  but, as it was only a minor nuisance rather than a catastrophe, I put off doing anything about it for several weeks.  However, recently the delay between power-on and start-up had grown to over ten minutes, so I thought it was time to do something about it. 

I opened up the PC and read the label on the  PSU.  It said: "ATX 12V.  With PFC.  Ball Bearing Fan.  CHIEFTEC Model HPC-360-202.  AC Input: 115V 8A, 230V 5A.  Frequency 50-60Hz.  Max Load 360W."   I also used a ruler to measure the dimensions of the PSU:  height 8.6cm, width 15cm, depth 14cm.

A quick search on the PCWorld web-site revealed that they could supply a suitable replacement: a "JEANTECH ATX 400W Power Supply Unit", of the same dimensions, for £50.  After a quick walk over to their local store (only 2km away),  I was back with the replacement in my hands in just over an hour.

I carefully read the WikiHow page on How to Diagnose and Replace a Failed PC Power Supply.  I didn't have a power supply tester nor an anti-static wrist-band, as recommended in that article, but I was fairly sure it was the power supply, and, after the walk I was too sweaty to generate much static. 

Removing the old PSU and fitting the new one was a bit fiddly, especially unplugging the various cables without breaking anything.  I had to use narrow pliers to remove one particularly awkward plug.  I also made a note of what I had unplugged from where so I knew where the new plugs had to go.  I also took care to tie up any loose cable and plugs, so they don't snag any of the fans.  After everything was done, and before I put the PC cover back on, I powered-up and switched the PC on on.  It started first time.  I checked all the drives and fans were working and then put the cover on.

Ubuntu 8.04 Runescape Problem

Following the upgrade of my laptop to Ubuntu 8.04, Zoe found that Runescape would no longer run on Firefox.

 This thread on Ubuntu Forums suggested that the problem was that  icedtea-gcjwebplugin  was being used to run Java applets instead of the  sun-java6-plugin.  I started the Synaptic package manager and completely removed the icedtea-gcjwebplugin package (the sun-java6-plugin was already installed). 

This fixed the problem; Zoe was able to get into Runescape again.