Tech – Jane Talks Tech!

Don’t upgrade to Ubuntu 13.10 (yet)

I installed Ubuntu 13.10 on my HP dv7 3080us laptop. This laptop’s a few years old but it’s (still) a beast. Ever since I installed this version of Ubuntu, I’ve run into problem after problem. For the first time in a long while, I’ve come to regret upgrading to a new Ubuntu version. The main problems I’ve run into:

Suspending my laptop causes it to crash [this almost never happened with 13.04]
Sometimes, locking my laptop causes it to crash
Crashes more frequently on cpu-intensive tasks like compiling than 13.04 did

As a developer, this is pretty freaking inconvenient. I’m not sure how this release got out of the gate but I sure hope that Canonical knows that no matter how pretty they make Ubuntu, it will turn off users if we can’t use it! As always, I’m dutifully submitting crash reports and even volunteering for further bug triage if necessary. Hopefully there is someone at then end of that line listening.

In summary, stick with 13.04. I wish I did. 🙁

Sending Files via Bluetooth in Ubuntu 13.04

GNOME bluetooth on Ubuntu 13.04 (and up) doesn’t work. I’ve paired my laptop with several devices and I’ve been unable to send/receive files for a long while. I never bothered with troubleshooting because I could also connect said devices to my laptop with my USB cable. Why fix this now? Space is at a premium now so I needed this problem to go away. The solution according to the linked LaunchPad page? install Blueman.

So, if clicking that link didn’t do anything for you, here are some ways to install software on Ubuntu:

Use the Ubuntu Software Center and type “blueman”. into the search box (top right). It should be the first link.
Go hardcore and use the CLI (command line interface): sudo apt-get install blueman
Attempt to fix GNOME bluetooth yourself. 🙂

And you’re done. Oddly enough, after installing Blueman, certain GNOME bluetooth functions started working e.g. sending files from PC to device. And as I write this, Blueman just choked on a 513kb PDF file which GNOME bluetooth sent just fine so don’t uninstall GNOME bluetooth just yet.

Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) is out!

After over a year in hibernation, I will attempt to jumpstart my blogging habit again. I’ll begin by rambling about Ubuntu and the latest release of Ubuntu which I recently upgraded to.

I now use Ubuntu as my main operating system and have done so for over a year. I’ve grown to love Unity and the increasing stability of this free operating system. One of my biggest annoyances about being on Ubuntu was the seeming fragility of the upgrade tool and for the longest time, an upgrade meant wiping my computer and installing a fresh copy.

I have been able to successfully upgrade my notebook from 12.04 to 12.10 and from 12.10 to 13.04 using the upgrade tool. Visually, 13.04 hasn’t changed much but a lot of changes were made under the hood. Importantly, don’t upgrade just yet if you rely on Chrome or Skype for your day job unless you understand the workarounds in the release notes.