Initial ubuntu impressions and suggestions

[Adam Greenblatt]

Hi,
    I'm a programmer who has been using some variant or other of Linux
for about a decade (pre linux kernel 1.0).  My wife, who teaches 8th
grade science, wants to salvage several old (~300 Mhz Pentium II &
PowerPC 603 class) machines for use in her classroom.  I thought it
would be fun to try out Ubuntu 4.10.  On the whole, I was extremely
impressed: I think Linux is finally getting to the point where it can be
a viable os for non-programmers.  Here are some detailed comments that I
hope will help you to make the next release of Ubuntu even better.
Apologies if I'm sending this to the wrong place: feel free to redirect
me to a more appropriate venue.  For that matter, I confess to not
having read all the messages in this forum; no doubt many of these
issues have already been raised and resolved.

Here is an overview of the motley ensemble of machines I installed
Ubuntu on:

Machine #1: sulfur
Machine Type: Compaq Armada 1750 laptop
Processor: Pentium II (Deschutes) 266 Mhz
Ram: 160MiB
Disk: 30GB

lspci output:

   0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host  
bridge (AGP disabled) (rev 02)
   0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
   0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
   0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
   0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
   0000:00:08.0 VGA compatible controller: Chips and Technologies F65555  
HiQVPro (rev a8)
   0000:00:11.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1220 (rev 02)
   0000:00:11.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1220 (rev 02)
   0000:01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip  
21142/43 (rev 41)

lspnp output:

   01 PNP0401 ECP printer port
   02 PNP0501 16550A-compatible COM port
   03 PNP0511 Generic IRDA-compatible device
   04 PNP0700 PC standard floppy disk controller
   05 ESS0006 multimedia controller: audio
   06 CPQb0ac multimedia controller: audio
   07 PNP0c01 System board
   08 PNP0c04 Math coprocessor
   09 PNP0000 AT programmable interrupt controller
   0a PNP0100 AT system timer
   0b PNP0200 AT DMA controller
   0c PNP0800 AT-style speaker sound
   0d PNP0b00 AT real-time clock
   0e PNP0303 IBM enhanced keyboard (101/102-key, PS/2 mouse support)
   0f PNP0f13 PS/2 port for PS/2-style mice
   10 PNP0a03 PCI bus
   11 CPQb05b communications device: RS-232
   12 PNP0c02 Motherboard resources
   13 PNP0e03 Intel 82365-compatible CardBus controller

lsusb output:

   Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0d3d:0001 Tangtop Technology Co., Ltd
   Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Here are some problems specific to sulfur:

1) During boot, I get the following error messages:

   synaptics reset failed
   synaptics reset failed
   synaptics reset failed
   Unable to query Synaptics hardware.

The Synaptics touchpad on the machine works just fine, as do the
full-size external keyboard and mouse that are connected via usb.  If
the error messages are in fact harmless, they should be hidden.

2) Sound doesn't work.  I know sound works using alsa 1.0.6 on kernel
2.4.27 using the snd-es18xx module.  I tried modprobe manually to no
avail.  If I look through the modprobe -c output, I see the following
suspicious line:

   alias pnp:cESS1869dESS1869dESS0006* snd_es18xx

Here are the contents of /sys/devices/pnp0/00:06/id:

   CPQb0ac
   ESS1869

I'm just guessing, but maybe modprobe is thrown off by the CPQb0ac line
that precedes the ESS1869 line?

3) The default X windows resolution was set to 800x600 at 24bpp, which
looks terrible on the machine's 1024x768 flat panel display.  I
explicitly selected 1024x768 as the only allowable resolution during
setup.  Since the hardware can't do 1024x768 at 24bpp, it fell back to
800x600 at 24bpp.  Perhaps it should try falling back to the user's
chosen resolution at lower color depths before it tries lower
resolutions at the default color depth?  In any case, this was easy for
me to fix (by changing the DefaultDepth option in the "Screen" section
of /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 from 24 to 16), but would be frustrating for a
novice user.

4) gnome-terminal glitches the display (chops off the top pixel in each
line of text) when scrolling text from the bottom of the screen upwards.

5) If I boot Ubuntu, then reboot with 'sudo reboot', the internal fan
stops working properly and the machine eventually overheats and shuts
down (gracefully).  Turning the machine off and on again fixes
everything.

Machine #2: topaz
Machine Type: Emachines 633ids desktop
Processor: Celeron (Coppermine) 633 Mhz
Ram: 192MiB
Disk: 15GB

lspci output:

   0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82810 GMCH [Graphics Memory  
Controller Hub] (rev 03)
   0000:00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82810 CGC [Chipset  
Graphics Controller] (rev 03)
   0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801AA PCI Bridge (rev 02)
   0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801AA ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)
   0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801AA IDE (rev 02)
   0000:00:1f.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801AA USB (rev 02)
   0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801AA AC'97  
Audio (rev 02)
   0000:01:0d.0 Serial controller: 5610 56K FaxModem 56K FaxModem Model  
5610 (rev 01)
   0000:01:0e.0 Ethernet controller: Lite-On Communications Inc LNE100TX  
(rev 21)

Here are some problems specific to topaz:

1) During boot, I get the following error messages:

   PCI: Address space collision on region 7 of bridge 0000:00:1f.0  
[1000:107f]

   modprobe: FATAL: error inserting pciehp  
(/lib/modules/2.6.8.1-3-386/kernel/drivers/pci/hotplug/pciehp.ko):  
Operation not permitted

   modprobe: FATAL: error inserting shpchg  
(/lib/modules/2.6.8.1-3-386/kernel/drivers/pci/hotplug/pciehp.ko):  
Operation not permitted

I have no idea about the first one; perhaps the later two are related to
the fact that acpi isn't enabled on this machine?  On a related note, with
acpi disabled, the machine doesn't actually switch off when shut down; it
must be manually power cycled.  The acpi stuff claims that the bios is
pre-2000 and hence too old to work.  But I had no trouble with the  
soft-power
off working using apm instead of acpi.

2) This time, X came up with 1024x768 at 24bpp as requested, but at only
60Hz.  Again, editing /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 was required to fix the  
problem;
something a novice wouldn't be comfortable with.  (In this case, the  
monitor
that I was using didn't support DDC, so it was using a generic default
with a maximum horizontal refresh rate of 48kHz; hence the 60Hz limit at
1024x768.  Admittedly, most modern monitors support DDC, so this wouldn't
be a problem for most users.  Perhaps if a DDC link is not detected, it
could prompt the user for the info?  That's probably getting too technical
for your target audience, though...)

3) A couple of times, the server has scrambled the display (the result
looks like fine-grained multi-colored static).  CTRL-ALT-Backspace restarts
the X server and everything is back to normal.  Unfortunately, I can't
reproduce this reliably.

Machine #3: jade
Machine Type: Emachines 366id desktop
Processor: Celeron (Mendocino) 366 Mhz
Ram: 128MiB
Disk: 10GB

lspci output:

   0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440LX/EX - 82443LX/EX Host bridge  
(rev 03)
   0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440LX/EX - 82443LX/EX AGP bridge  
(rev 03)
   0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
   0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
   0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
   0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
   0000:00:0b.0 Multimedia audio controller: Cirrus Logic CS 4614/22/24  
[CrystalClear SoundFusion Audio Accelerator] (rev 01)
   0000:00:12.0 Ethernet controller: Lite-On Communications Inc LNE100TX  
(rev 20)
   0000:00:13.0 Communication controller: Conexant HSF 56k Data/Fax Modem  
(rev 01)
   0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro  
AGP 1X/2X (rev 5c)

Here are some problems specific to jade:

1) Same modprobe problems as topaz above, and same loss of soft-power-off
functionality.

2) Same X server refresh rate & resolution issues as topaz above.

Here are some generic problems and issues I noticed:

1) sshd was disabled by default.  While I can certainly appreciate the
need to keep the install as simple, secure and question-free as possible
(and you've done an execellent job!), maybe one more install question
might be ok?  (Something like "Do you want to allow other people to
access this computer via the internet?"  I dunno.)

2) I've never used Gnome before, and it has been quite a while since
I've played with Debian.  But then, most Ubuntu users probably won't be
familiar with these either: they'll be coming from a Windows or Mac
background.  Perhaps there could be a "Getting started with Ubuntu"
document readily viewable from the Applications menu?  It could give
examples of how to:

   Share files with Microsoft Windows users.
   Join a Microsoft workgroup / domain
   Access files on other Ubuntu machines.
   Add a new user to this machine.
   Setup a printer.
   Install and upgrade software.
   Add support for additional languages / keyboard layouts to this machine.
   Change the timezone when travelling
   Play an .mp3 file
   Watch a dvd
   etc., etc.

The Gnome life-presever icon doesn't really address those issues; it
seems targeted more towards someone who is looking for more detailed
info on a specific application in the Gnome suite.

4) Maybe some of the housekeeping tasks (like updating the locate
database, etc.) that are currently handled by cron jobs could be run
once in the background after the initial install is complete.  That way
they'd be up to date and ready to go from the start.  The downside, of
course, is that the machine would appear slow at first.

5) I tried double-clicking on an .mp3 file in nautilus, and it started up
totem, which in turn failed to play the song with an uninformative message
of the form: "Totem could not play 'file:///home/...file.mp'.  Failed to
open; reason unknown."  It logs a more useful error message:

   ** (totem:7012): WARNING **: don't know how to handle audio/mpeg,  
mpegversion=(int)1, layer=(int)3

elsewhere, but I didn't discover that until later.  This all works fine
with a plain .wav file.  While I understand that licensing issues may
prevent you from decoding mp3s in the default install, shouldn't it fail
more gracefully?

6) I set up these machines with topaz as an nis and nfs server, and the
other machines as clients.  (That way, students can log into any machine
with the same userid and password, and have access to all of their
files.)  The supplied adduser script does the "make -C /var/yp" _before_
adding the new user, and not afterwards.  So if I do:

   adduser test1
   adduser test2

on topaz, the client machines will only recognize test1, not test2.
Seems like a bug in /usr/sbin/adduser to me...

7) I'd never set up nis/nfs before; and it was something of a pain to
actually get it working.  Do you have an ubuntu-specific tutorial on how
to do this?  Or should I just write one while I still remember the
details?

If there is any additional information that would help you track down
any of these bugs, please don't hesitate to email me.  I congratulate
you on an excellent release.
    Adam Greenblatt <agreenbl at aol.com>