Never mind: Kubuntu Linux not quite ready for prime time
It seems I spoke too soon when it came to the new version of Kubuntu and its Wubi installer. Sad to say, it suffers from the same problem that every other Linux distro I’ve used has: While it’s wonderfully polished in many areas, in too many it’s still clunky.
Here’s what happened.
I had Kubuntu running happily, and installed and configured Firefox, Thunderbird, and a few other things. Then I began to tweak the desktop — colors, styles, etc.
One of the options I had was to turn on desktop effects (the little animations and other niceties that can add some sparkle). I usually end up turning them off to get the speed boost, but I like to see them.
Evidently, though, my hardware (graphics or otherwise) couldn’t handle one of the effects I turned on. The screen went blank — and stayed there. Then a cursor appeared, along with some gray rectangles that were obviously the various dialog boxes I had open. But that was it; my screen was gone.
I rebooted. Still black. And then I realized I was stuck. There was no option for “Safe Mode” as in Windows that I could use to restore my settings.
I tried Ctrl-Alt-F2, which let me log in again, and I selected the Kubuntu equivalent of Safe Mode, but that only gave me a command prompt. I can navigate and edit in Unix, but I don’t know enough to know what to do.
I switched back to Windows and Googled whatever I could think of. I found references to the xorg.conf file. So I went back to the Kubuntu command prompt and tried editing that. No joy. I deleted it. I ran a command to rebuild it. Nada.
In other words, my Kubuntu installation was kaput because I chose a wrong graphics setting. Grr.
But wait, there’s more
So it was back to Windows, where I uninstalled Kubuntu. (Remember, in my previous post, I mentioned that one of the beauties of Kubuntu with Wubi is that you can uninstall it like any Windows app.) Then I went to reinstall it, and the installation was different.
It did its thing for a while, then popped out the CD and gave me a dialog asking if I wanted to reboot now to continue the process. But it didn’t tell me whether or not to remove the disk. (I did, which turned out to be the right choice. Maybe.)
On reboot, it began finishing up the installation, which was what I expected. Then it started Kubuntu… with the same blank screen that had caused me to give up the first install. Augh!
I restarted, and Grub loaded. (Grub is, essentially, a small utility that lets you choose which operating system to run, if you have more than one loaded.) But Grub gave me five choices: Three Ubuntu and two (identical) Windows.
I almost hit one of the Ubuntus, but then I realized that I was in the middle of, technically, the installation of a Windows app. So I chose one of the Windowses.
It gave me an odd error about the partition, but then started up. But then it gave me a Windows boot-choice screen: Windows or Kubuntu (but only one of each). I chose Kubuntu — and moments later was greeted by that misconfigured, unconfigurable blank screen with the cursor. The one I thought I had removed.
Say what you want about Windows, but sometimes — especially dealing with a new operating system — a little handholding is a good idea. In this case, a chance to start in some sort of basic mode that would let me fix my settings so I could see my screen. I’m sure there’s a way to do it from the command line, but I don’t have a clue what that is. (And, I suspect, neither would any of the Windows users that Canonical (Ubuntu’s parent company) wants to attract.)
So I ended up reinstalling the entire thing, only to end up with a system that thinks it has, I dunno, three or four operating systems on it and still doesn’t work properly.
Tonight I’ll give it one last shot. I’ll try to remove Kubuntu again, and I’ll pore over the system looking for leftover files. If that doesn’t work, I’ll put it down to Linux still not being quite ready for prime time.
gnomic says:
You have hit my critique of Linux on the nose. the term is “O/S resiliance” which refers to how easy it is to recover from something - anything and everything - that isn’t expected. Number one with a bullet is the fact that if you blow the xconfig which is how linux configures its graphics, you are dumped into command mode IF YOU ARE LUCKY. Otherwise, you are stuck unless you know the secrets of linux, and we are not all geeks (well, you and me, but not everyone.)
Linus isn’t ready for the big leagues. Unless and until linux overcomes its geek-orientation, it will never be ready for the desktop and will not be a serious competitor to Windows and Mac.
Too bad. I’d switch today if it was.