facti.net

Looks like there is a small change in how name resolution is done in Ubuntu 9.10.   It looks like IPv6 DNS resolution is applied first now, when it is available, and a silent failover to the IPv4 entry occurs when it isn't. 

I noticed this effect when apache was running on the local machine.  Trying to access a Web server on a server that had an IPv6 record of ::1 (don't ask) but a proper IPv4 record.   In the current version of Ubuntu that results in the local Web server being accessed when it is available rather than the IPv4 one.  When it is not available it silently falls over to the IPv4 address.

For example, trying to access a website (http://facti.net for argument's sake;) on the internal network when apache was running on the laptop resulted in firefox connecting to the laptop rather than the Web server on facti.net.  However, if apache was shut down on the laptop then firefox would connect to the facti.net Web server. 

Tried out KDE 4.3.2 on the latest Ubuntu, and what occurs to me is "wow - that's bad".  After the 4.0 release fiasco I thought they could only go uphill, so I was quite disappointed with the latest version. KDE has really gone downhill from 3.5.x.  I think it should be seen as an example of how not to do things. It seems to have focused on eye candy at the expense of usability.

From a user perspective the ideal desktop should let you just get things done.  A good desktop should let you configure things whichever way you like and then be 'invisible'.  Unfortunately KDE does neither.  It now constantly gets in the way.  It hinders rather than facilitates:

• It is difficult to hunt through the menus to find the right application
• It is not intuitive to configure
• You cannot get rid of the foolish cashew without recompiling things

 Sad.  I cannot recommend the latest KDE.

Ubuntu 9.10 has come out and is getting installed on one of my systems.   So far the installation has gone well.  The new home encryption stuff is very nicely automated, at least when using the alternate CD.

Custom Steps

Install using Synaptic package manager

Make sure to use the "Mark packages by task" option in the Edit menu when applicable (e.g. if installing MythTV etc).  It will save a lot of time.

There is a bug in ubuntu 9.04 (and perhaps other versions) when gdm is disabled that makes it difficult to administer the system.  When gdm is disabled (useful when using a headless server, or a virtual server) the policy kit does not allow an admin user to perform admin commands.   Sudo still works, but using the GUI tools fails.

 The answer based on googling seems to be to modify the /etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf file and have a new line added: <return result="yes"/> near the end of the stanza.  However, this allows any user to then make changes, so be careful!  A better short-term solution is to modify the <match user="root"> line to match the admin account one wants to use.

there seems to have been a change in the firefox command line that results in the following error:

 Error: Failed to send command: 500 command not parseable

The -remote option no longer works (at least in the current version of Ubuntu).  This has implications for applications that launch the browser with the '-remote' option (such as the current version of NetBeans, v6.7.1).  Googling did not reveal the easy answer yet, so hopefully this will make it into the collective internet conciousness.  The fix is to simply remove the -remote option and pass the URL as the only parameter.

For Netbeans this means changing the  Arguments configuration from this

-remote "openURL({URL})"

to this

 "{URL}"