Ubuntu 9.04 Reaches End-of-Life on October 23, 2010

As noted by Ubuntu Fridge, Ubuntu released the final version of Jaunty Jackalope (Ubuntu 9.04) almost 18 months ago, on April 23, 2009. As this was not an LTS (long term support) release, Ubuntu committed to ongoing security and critical fixes for 18 months. The support period is now ending.
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In order to upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04, it is necessary to first upgrade via Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic). Upgrades to version 10.04 LTS (Lucid) and beyond are only supported in multiple steps via an upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10, then to Ubuntu 10.04. Both Ubuntu 9.10 and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS continue to be actively supported.

Technorati Tags: Linux, Ubuntu, upgrade, Jaunty Jackalope

Themes for Ubuntu

A couple of weeks ago, while I was in Salt Lake City helping out at the UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) depot that has just started up there, Ubuntu Geek ran a beautifully detailed article on the new repository of Zgegblog themes for Jaunty and Intrepid. I won’t quote much of the article, except to say how to get these themes into your sources.list and onto your computer.

First for the sources.list. This will require you to open up System > Administration > Software Sources, go to the Third-Party Software tag, click on add and add the line

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bisigi/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main (or Intrepid if that is your version).

The following command will add the GPG key to let your computer know the repository is signed and safe for your use:

sudo apt-key adv –recv-keys –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 1781bd45c4c3275a34bb6aec6e871c4a881574de

Then, once you update, you can type sudo aptitude install zgegblog-themes. (They can also be installed separately.)

Even though I am running Karmic, I installed these themes without a hitch. Here is my favorite of the group, Balanzan.

Karmic Koala also has a group of new themes, available right in the repository. These are based on the brave (blue), wine, noble (purple), wise (green), dust and human themes. There are wallpapers to go with them. Here is the shiki-brave theme with the arc-brave wallpaper:

To install these themes, type in your terminal or Alt+F2 window,

sudo aptitude install shiki-human-theme shiki-brave-theme shiki-noble-theme shiki-wine-theme shiki-dust-theme shiki-wise-theme arc-human arc-noble arc-wise arc-dust arc-wine arc-brave

How to Restore Ctrl+Alt+Backspace

In older versions of Ubuntu, Ctrl+Alt+Backspace ended the present x session and brought a person back to the login screen. This was very useful when an unfortunate piece of software froze the screen. Unfortunately, it sometimes led to data loss when files were shut down so suddenly. In the past two versions of Ubuntu, it has been turned off.

Since it is only used when the available alternative is to go for the power button, I feel that it should be turned back on. I have recently found out about a way to do so. It involves installing the software “dontzap” from the Ubuntu repository:

sudo aptitude install dontzap.

Then, in your terminal or from the Alt+F2 run line, type sudo dontzap –disable.

If for some reason you find you wish to put an end to the ability to use Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, you can then type:

sudo dontzap –enable.

Personally, I’m a zapper. It can be too hard to remember Alt+SysReq+REISUB, and that string does not always work.

Jaunty Jackalope Was Launched April 23

Ubuntu 9.04, Jaunty Jackalope, was released yesterday. The release was right on schedule. If you have not already updated, Update Manager should prompt you to update as soon as you have all of your updates for Intrepid taken care of. (You can only update to Jaunty directly from Intrepid.)

If you need or want to get Jaunty on CD, here are your options.

1) The Get Ubuntu page contains a download link that points you to sources by region, and lets you get the type of Ubuntu you want. The default for computer architecture, 32bit, works best for most computers.

2) You can request a free CD from Canonical. They state that delivery typically takes 6 to 10 weeks. I don’t recall it being that long in my experience, but it was long enough that I will be burning my own CD this time.

3) You can buy a CD or DVD. The Buy on CD option links you to the Canonical Shop or Amazon.com.

Jaunty Release Candidate

The Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) release candidate is now available. It is almost ready for general use. The page that announced the release candidate has a list of download sites for ISOs and torrents.

If you want to do an update, on the other hand, press Alt + F2 and type in “update manager -d” (without the quotes) into the command box. Once you are done with any other updates, the Update Manager will tell you New distribution release ‘9.04’ is available. Then you can click Upgrade and follow the instructions.

The final release of Jaunty is scheduled for April 23. Just a reminder if you choose not to update before the final release is available:

Make sure that your Software Sources package is set to download from the best available server for your location. This is done by going to System > Administration > Software Sources, On the Ubuntu Software tab, go to the line that says Download from: and choose Other. Then choose Select best server.

This is advised because, the last time I saw the figures, there were about 8 million of us Ubuntu users. Some will be using the last long-term support (LTS) version, 8.04, admittedly. Most of us will be wanting to upgrade to Jaunty if we have not already done so. I got caught in the mad rush to upgrade from Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) to Hardy Heron (8,04) and could not download the updates for 3 days because I was using the USA main server. I advise seeing if another server will work for you, and looking at ways to avoid the stampede.

New Stuff in Jaunty

Jaunty Jackalope – coming out in final release April 23, presuming the schedule holds – has two very fine new packages for people who want to clean up unnecessary junk that may be lying around in their computers.

Computer Janitor comes with the default Ubuntu setup.  You get there by going to System > Administration > Computer Janitor.  It allows you to clean up “cruft” – obsolete files or files that have no repository connection. It learns quickly. If you have a file you got from Getdeb or another source, and not from a repository, you only have to tell it once not to delete the file. After that, it assumes that you don’t want the file deleted (unless you change your mind).

Here is a screenshot of Computer Janitor:

Bleachbit allows you to remove stuff like cookies and form-filling information that you may want to remove if, for instance, you are sharing your computer. Even if you are not sharing your computer, you may want to clean up your caches so they don’t get too large. Bleachbit takes care of cleaning up after packages as diverse as Adobe Reader, Firefox, and even system cache files.

Here is a screenshot of Bleachbit:

In order to fetch Bleachbit from the Ubuntu repository, you need to use Alt + F2, then type sudo apt-get install bleachbit. Of course, if you prefer, you can use Add/Remove or the Synaptic Package Manager.

I hope you find them as useful as I already have!

The Jaunty Jackalope Beta

Ubuntu 9.04, Jaunty Jackalope, was released in beta form on schedule, today, March 26. Here is a list of sites from which to download the beta. I myself am downloading a torrent file, further down the page. If you wish to update your computer via update-manager, you need to issue the command update-manager -d, either from the terminal or after typing Alt + F2.

I have blogged before on things that are new about Jaunty, so I won’t go through the whole list again. The beta should be stable enough to test, if you’ve been holding off because of the dreaded word alpha. 😀

Happy testing!

New Artwork for Jaunty

Jaunty Jackalope Alpha 6 has gained two new wallpapers and three new themes. The wallpapers are automatically added to your wallpaper selection once you update. The themes can be added by Alt + F2, then
sudo apt-get install gnome-themes-ubuntu.

The first two screenshots are with the new Ubuntu wallpaper. Here is the new Dust theme:

Here is the new NewWave theme:

The third screenshot shows the Simple wallpaper with the Dust Sand theme.

If I weren’t such a fan of blue, I would give the Dust Sand theme a great deal of consideration. If I find must-have wallpaper that goes with it, who knows?

What To Do If Your System Is Frozen

This topic came to my mind two days ago when I switched back to Jaunty Jackalope. I had dutifully typed in update-manager -d and gone through the steps to get Jaunty, complete with the Nvidia graphics driver 180 (which has replaced 177) up and running. Bingo! My system froze. I could move the cursor, but nothing was responding to the clicks. What to do?

As a well-versed geekette, I knew that hitting the power button should be the last resort. (If the system is writing to disk when the power button is pushed, the files will be messed up.) Thankfully, I had memorized the following sequence: REISUB. As in, holding down ALT + SysRq (Print Screen) and then typing REISUB.

What this sequence does is to allow you safely to reboot your system. I even found a definition of each letter in the sequence:

R Switch the keyboard from raw mode to XLATE mode (let the commands get through)
E Send the SIGTERM signal to all processes except init (terminate things nicely if possible)
I Send the SIGKILL signal to all processes except init (OK, processes must DIE now)
S Sync all mounted filesystems (make sure they’re not messed up)
U Remount all mounted filesystems in read-only mode
B Immediately reboot the system, without unmounting partitions or syncing.

(If you just want to shut down the computer, incidentally, the sequence is REISUO.)

I found, while trying to get enough information to submit a bug report to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/, that my computer was not as dead in the water as I first feared. I still had the same problems after I rebooted, but I found that making use of the underscored letters on the commands at the top or bottom of applications would let me do far more than reboot.

For instance, in Firefox, there is a row starting File Edit View etc. The first letter of each is underscored, to let you know that ALT + that letter will run that command (here, pulling down a menu). Given that Firefox was one of the places where my computer had frozen, being able to get to the part of the menu that would let me CTL + Q (quit) was very much appreciated.

Happy Ubuntuing!

P.S. In my last post, I wrote that you would need the human icon set in order to benefit from Notify OSD’s beautiful, clean notification system. That was the information I had at the time. I use another set that is paired with the Clearlooks theme, and I have had no trouble.

NotifyOSD

Jaunty Jackalope uses a new notification server,Notify OSD, to present notification bubbles. Notify OSD takes the place of notification-daemon.

These notification bubbles will float on top of all other windows, on the right top corner of the monitor screen. Notify OSD allows click-through; hovering over a bubble makes it transparent and you can click anything underneath. This means you won’t accidentally click on something inside the bubble, or have to close it before you work on anything underneath it.

Because Notify OSD bubbles cannot be clicked on or contain buttons that can be clicked on, Notify OSD presents any notification that would need such an action as an alert box instead of a bubble.

With Notify OSD, because the bubbles cannot be closed manually, every bubble closes by itself after a timeout. The timeout is based on the length of the text in the bubble.

Right now, to be sure of using the notification icons, you need to use the Human icon-theme. Hopefully, symlinks or updated icons for other icon thmes will soon be installed.