Ubuntu….painful experience
Posted on: July 15, 2008
- In: Geek | Linux
- 9 Comments
OK, I am an Ubuntu fan boy….no hang on I am a Linux fan boy period. But something happened today which fair broke my heart.
Having spent the weekend backing up my files and websites because well, it was time frankly, I decided to update my Ubuntu server to the latest release. I clicked on the handy-dandy “update” balloon and just clicked the button.
Left it for 1/2 an hour, I figured it was time well spent to read my bible and go to the Doctors.
Came back to find my Ubuntu server sitting in the corner of the room, rocking back wards and for wards, completely unresponsive to key press or mouse move. This did not feel good, I got that sort of sinking feeling that truly only a Spurs fan can feel having gone 2 nil up in the first half against Arsenal.
After much furious clicking of mouse and hitting keyboard I bowed to the inevitable and rebooted. And lo! Verily it rebooted…..sort of. It got to the point where it tried to start X-Server and it fell over…”I’m sorry Dave, I can’t do that”. It was what i call the Henman, it got far enough to make you think that it might just be possible but it failed at the critical point and left you feeling let down but impressed at the plucky attempt that was made.
No problem thought I, my trusty Webmin will allow me to back up my databases and grab a copy of the stuff I worked on last night. But no….apparently “The server was taking to long to respond”.
Great, just darned great. I am a great believer in “One chance only” for OS’s – that was it for Ubuntu!
So, I cracked open the Knoppix CD, vented my anger, grabbed my files onto usb and then unveiled the glory that IS Fedora Core 9.
Behold, I give you Fedora as my new server. I’m sorry Ubuntu, it’s me not you, I am just not ready for such effort, and you did let me down.
So, FC is doing it’s think….and next….Netbeans for some Java lovin’. 🙂
Been playing with Elgg Classic so am gonna wang that on there for Leap of Faith engine and maybe Pligg for podobo…we’ll see.
But now, whilst FC is laying down some bits and bytes on my hard drive I am gonna read up on Colossians 3.12-17 for house group tomorrow.
Am listening to Paul Washer…the guy preaches how it should be done…Spurgeon would be pleased.
9 Responses to "Ubuntu….painful experience"
July 16, 2008 at 8:34 am
A bit of a harsh comment – did you actually read my post?
For the record I have been using Ubuntu (and other flavours of Linux) for at least 6 years and the whole point was to vent my frustration at what was a complete nightmare that cropped out of something that should have been so simple. I reserve the right to rant about something that does not work and when Ubuntu has been running wonderfully on my machine for the past year but then kills it on an upgrade well, like ANY person would be, I was annoyed.
I didn’t have the luxury of time to spend mooching through the (very helpful) forums on Ubuntu to try to figure out why it stopped working so I went for the least time consuming and painful option, rebuild.
This is by no means a wandering/wild thought and whilst I accept it may be of no use to you or anyone else that reads it, it is of use to me 🙂 I do not blame Ubuntu for my mistakes (whatever you think they might be) and as I said before, Ubuntu has been running happily for a while now on my hardware.
If I want to get everything played and running right as you put it then I would still use Linux, asking me to buy a Mac because you think I am not up to it is like asking me to perform a Voodoo ritual – it ain’t gonna happen. I love Ubuntu, I have it dual booted on my Windoze laptop, it works great but in this case on my server it failed.
For the record, you asked me to “grow up” – thanks, I thought 36 was pretty grown up but I feel so young now. Friend, simply calling me retarded because YOU did not like my post….well, how ironic is that?
But all that aside, thanks for dropping by and commenting.
Have a great day
Shrewdy
July 16, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Shaun, maybe you have noticed this about Ubuntu too, what works in one release seems to not work in the next release. A good example of this was the BCM wireless networking. It worked wonderfully in 7.10 but sure crapped out in 8.04.
I think Ubuntu has some serious quality issues that must be addressed, and addressed soon if they wish to keep all their fan-bois. I used Ubuntu for sometime myself on my desktop and a limited time on my Dell notebook. But after the wireless issue in 8.04 I switched to Kubuntu 8.04 because wireless worked almost right out of the install, I just had to install the restricted driver.
Funny, that works in Kubuntu but not in Ubuntu.
Great article, and how are you enjoying Fedora as your server now? Will we be seeing a full review?
July 16, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I caught this post in my Ubuntu News google alerts and was disappointed to hear about your experience. I myself have had similar experiences with Ubuntu Server, and the desktop. I have been using Linux since 1997 and have had many trying times that make me distro hop. Though it is important to submit bugs, and do what you can to contribute back to the community to make the software better, there is still a need for peace of mind.
Don’t get me wrong, I love ubuntu, but I haven’t been able to commit for the server as I run several, some dedicated production and others for development. I still run Centos right now because it is the most stable platform for running webservers than anything else aside from debian. So I completely understand your frustrations. The only thing I don’t understand is why you would rely on Fedora for your server since they use such bleeding edge packages, I think you might run into a similar problem in another year or so? In any case, I hope this distribution works out for your server.
July 16, 2008 at 5:48 pm
@ Dak
Wireless is something I have always had a problem with but I think it’s just me lol! I am in the curious situation where I used a wired Linux connection and wireless windoze connection. TBH though, it’s me being lazy. I play with Linux all day on the VoIP side of things so at home, I just want it to work or, not spend too much time making it fly like the bird we know it is 🙂
Ubuntu has a massive following but being good is not good enough nowadays for Linux.
I love Ubuntu and I will go back to it but right now I need to lick my Linux wounds and hang with the kids on the FC block for a bit, if only to make me sure that I wanna go back to the Ubuntu ‘hood.
I can’t say I have ever tried Kubuntu…all I want in my Linux development server is a LAMP environ, with Tomcat/Netbeans, a bit of Postgresql and a nice GUI because sometimes you just wanna look at pretty windows. Back in the day when I played with SC Openserver and AIX I loved the command line but now, heck I just want to be able to do something without having to core dump my brain in order to find the arcane switch options for formatting a device or compiling a driver…sigh. Maybe I am getting lazy in my old age lol.
You know, I might do a review of FC 9….that is if I can get the GUI to work….
July 16, 2008 at 5:58 pm
@ Linuxcrypt
I am disappointed at my problem and to be honest in the cold light of day perhaps I should have simply switched it off and looked at it the next day but I just was not ready to be so….well….let down frankly. It was like the most hurtful thing my Ubuntu has ever done to me, well apart from the wireless issue as mentioned before.
Lord knows anyone who knows me will tell you I am a simple man, (my wife will tell you I am very simple but that is another story.!) so having to mash my way through forums and very helpful Linux people just did not appeal. I can say that every Linux person on the *nix boards has always been helpful to me (apart from the elitist geeks but that is a post for another day) and my local LUG of which I am a long time lurker are great but sometimes, you know, you just say “sod it” and roll with another distro just for yucks and the revenge factor lol.
I wonder how many windows users would LOVE to do that….lucky we have Linux eh?
I use CentOS for the VoIP thing (Trixbox base) and I love it, but I guess I have always had a place in my heart for Fedora/Red Hat since way back, Ubuntu is something I love and will use again…soon I imagine…depends how I am feeling but Ubuntu, Fedora and maybe Suse if I am feeling really European and adventurous are my distros of choice.
But you know, all joking aside…I feel the urge to find my “Real Ale” t-shirt, my courderouys and my sandals and just crack open a good command line….maybe I need more Red Bull & Skittles….now, where did I put FC9 disc 5….
July 17, 2008 at 3:28 pm
And here we go again. Yet another case which shows how poorly tested Ubuntu is and how poor Ubuntu QA is. They really need to make release cycle much longer, because 6 months is NOT enough to make system stable. They also need to stop using latest software versions because those are usually wery buggy. If they don’t make those changes then things will only get worse when distro grows. Personally I always recommend people to use Debian stable both on desktop and on server instead of Ubuntu which is based on Debian’s development version.
July 17, 2008 at 8:58 pm
@miksuh
Hmmm….Debian y’say……now where did I put that stack of cdr’s…
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Shrewd Mammal 
July 16, 2008 at 5:18 am
Whats the problem with ubuntu,grow up post some real news and real problem dont just trash blogs,you retarded.if you have guinuine problem come upto the ubuntu community.just wandering/wild thoughts of no use.why people like to blame ubuntu for your mistakes,when buying hardware etc.if you want to get everything played and running then buy a MAC.