Friday, October 2, 2009

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala Beta is Released

Ubuntu 9.10 entered beta yesterday. We have installed it and and are enjoying the improvements Karmic is bringing to the Mini 9. While I don't encourage everyone to download and install the beta, I do ask anyone willing to deal with a cranky system and software occasionally breaking to join us in beta testing Karmic.

You can download the Karmic beta image here.

The only problem I have encountered with Karmic is with the Driver Manager. It will not properly install the proprietary Broadcom STA driver for the wireless networking card. No worries, it's an easy fix.

Screenshot-Hardware Drivers
- When you click activate, Driver Manager will either freeze up or just look like it has installed driver properly.

- First connect to the internet via a wired connection.
- Then go to Synaptic Package Manager (System>Adminstration>Synaptic Package Manager)
- Click the Reload button in the upper left corner of Synaptic to refresh your repository index.
- Then reinstall the bcmwl-kernel-source package

Screenshot-Synaptic Package Manager
- Click to enlarge

OR: after connecting to the internet via a wired connection in a terminal type:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get --reinstall install bcmwl-kernel-source

If you have any issues with Karmic, don't forget to file a bug on Launchpad!


Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover?
Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.

28 comments:

Unknown said...

The first time I downloaded the beta it wouldn't even boot, I had to re-download it.(torrent) Then I ran into this same problem, thanks for the info. Hopefully it will be completely resolved before the final release. Still not a big fan of the new launcher and all the extra clicking and scrolling required.

redDEAD said...

Did you check your download against the MD5SUMS?

http://releases.ubuntu.com/karmic/MD5SUMS

phil said...

You got a typo there.

> Then reinstall the BCWMWL-kernel-source package

just mentionig...

Phil

redDEAD said...

phil,

There are a lot of them here, keep up the good work and point them out.

Steve B. said...

I really like Karmic. I've been running 9.10 on my mini since the alpha6 release and it's a real improvement over 9.04 and earlier. Everything seems to be working right out of the box now including skype. I like the cleaner looking icons in the panel. I did need a wired connection to upload the broadcom drivers but they did install without having to relaod via terminal. Boot time is faster and connection to my wireless network is way faster. Firefox 3.53 is also performing better under 9.10 with acceptable video. The only annoying thing I've noticed since the Beta release is while listening to radio with Rhythmbox I'd lose playback and it would appear to hang up while buffering. Could have been my connection or maybe I should reload the broadcom drivers?

Unknown said...

I'm did a check with Ktorrent, not sure if it's the same as a md5 checksum, I put it on a usb drive, so I didn't use K3B. Either way I probably would have had to re-download anyway.

SigmaBeta said...

You got a typo there.

>just mentionig...

Just mentioning...

Sigma

Anonymous said...

Have you raised the issue on launchpad? If so what is the bug number?

Dan H said...

I did not have this problem. I installed the Broadcom STA driver from the Hardwire Drivers window, and it installed just fine. It was a bit slow downloading, and seemed to get stuck at some point, but after a few minutes all was well. After a reboot it connected just fine.

Francis said...

I do love Karmic also.

But there is a regression with management of the batery. In Jaunty you have the time remaining of the batery while in karmic you don't have it.

It's realy anoying to not know the time you still have.

Perhaps a problem with DeviceKit-power ? I've posted a bug in launchpad. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpi/+bug/437668

zmjjmz said...

You got a typo, it should be bcmwl, not bcwml.

Malkavian said...

Thank you for that, Sir!

Mike said...

I'm in the process of rolling back to 9.04. I installed 9.10 beta on Friday and was experiencing issues with compiz and the input devices (keyboard, touchpad). Hmm, with everyone else having luck, I may try it again.

Jim Rorie said...

Reported at:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/jockey/+bug/443185

redDEAD said...

Thanks for reporting that bug, it was on the top of my todo list.

Mike said...

Also, For A90 uses like myself the following line needs to be added /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf to fix the sound.

options snd-hda-intel model=dell

Unknown said...

there is a little error in the code:
sudo apt-get --reinstall install bcwml-kernel-source

Instead, it is:
sudo apt-get --reinstall install bcmwl-kernel-source

;-)

O-p

EffE said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Altazor said...

another issue, i downloaded andinstalled the beta, everything worked"out of the box" but with latest updates karmic doensn't seem to recognize the battery on my mini9... did it happen to anyone else?

johnell said...

might wanna correct this

redDEAD said...

I hate that I suffer from computer dyslexia. If it's on a printed page, I'm gold. The moment I'm reading a screen, it kicks in.

But you should really be blaming pHreak.

Blogger is a Stinking Heap of Pig Dung said...

So, how do I get 9.10 to do the higher screen resolution? :/

-d

Steven Waltke said...

I installed NBR 9.10 Beta last night on my mini 9, and I have noticed that a few apps like FireFox don't have the minimize and close windows controls on the top right hand side. Is this a bug or am I missing something?

Phil said...

Hi there,

despite the fact that the fix works for me, I have to do it over and over again. Everytime I suspend or power-off the mini, the STA-Broadband-drvier gets lost. Sometimes, activating will do. Sometimes, though, I have to do the reinstalling process. Any hints anybody? This is really getting on my nerves, and the display driver seems not to be working too well, either.

Phil

selmankocael said...

I do it, never has changed.
what can I do?

Bruce Kelly said...

First off, thanks for all the help you offer on this site.
I (my wife) got our Mini 9 from Dell with a 4gig SSD. I've never used Linux before and managed to choke the mini with updates. Rather than dealing with Dell for hours on the phone I decided to load the new version of Ubuntu NRM. After some hiccups it loaded and seemed to be working fine except no wireless detected. I went through this fix which immediately worked. Only problem now is when I rebooted I now get a warning that one of my hard disks is going to fail and the message reads that "Disk is being use outside design parameters".

That sounds rather dire. Anyone else having this problem and what do I need to do?

Thanks again

Andre Alforque said...

Hey Bruce -- that seems to be a common error message for all Mini 9 users (and others using SSD hard drives). It's nothing to worry about as far as I know; just check the box that says to not alert you about problems with the HD. Best of luck!

And thanks for this post; got my wireless up and running.

Some help from another Blog/ Forum yielded (what I think is) the best way to get Flash player:

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

I've got UNR 9.10 up and running in a round-about way (download ISO, burn CD, run on desktop, create bootable USB, boot USB on netbook, install). Is there a quick-and-dirty ISO-> bootable USB out there, I wonder?

RicSenior said...

When I tried 9.10 on my mini 9 last week, I had problems with suspend/resume and the menu was really very very slow. Is anyone else having these problems?