2008/11/9 Chakat Sandwalker <sandwalker(a)gmail.com>:

The only thing I can think of is that there isn't enough video memory, or the video card is too old; I had similar problems when trying to install an earlier version of Ubuntu on a machine with a 32MB Riva TNT card -- it would get as far as starting to load the GDM, then crash to black/brown.

I've noticed that the newer versions of Ubuntu have problems with older compters. IIRC, 7.10 was fine on some but not 8.04. One the other hand, I've found a few problems with 8.10 - first thing I noticed was that I was unable to set a fixed IP address for my wired network. Got around that by reserving a fixed IP address in the router/modem's DHCP settings. Second thing I noticed is that the microphone no longer works. Haven't managed to sort that one out yet. It looks like a visit to the next workshop will be on the cards. Third little problem is rather puzzling. Not because I haven't found a why to fix it, but why on earth has it been changed! I found the printable area for my (t)rusty old Deskjet (and my newer 3 in one) had been reduced. For some inexplicable reason, the top margin is set to about 15mm. Out with the editor and changing the ppd file fixes that, but a lot of people are going to be frustrated when their printout is clipped for no good reason. Both my ppd files are at odds with the printer specified printable area. On the positive side, and not related to 8.10, I just love how CUPS acts as a printer server. My Windows ME is still running (though I think it has one foot in the grave!) and there's no way I could use the new HP 3 in one on that computer. Solution - connect the 3 in one to the computer running Ubuntu, and on the ME system, describe the printer as an Apple printer. Hurrah for Postscript! Michael

I've been using 8.10 since the second beta came out (I'd bought a new laptop, and I didn't want to wait two weeks for the final version to be released before I could install it), and it seems to be having some odd issues. The first one is that Synaptic and related programs, such as the Update Manager, stop responding when being started for the first time -- Synaptic will load, but then stop responding before it can load the list of packages. I have to force it to quit (either by clicking its Close button, or killing the process). Starting Synaptic again will then proceed normally. When the Update Manager is used, and 'Install' is clicked, the download progress dialog is displayed, but is blank and appears to have stopped responding. Again, clicking its Close button or killing the process and trying again works. This hasn't happened on the other computer I installed 8.10 on -- in fact, the other computer started with Alpha 4. It's just my laptop having issues. The second oddity I have is that the first time I click on the Bookmarks menu in Firefox on my laptop, it always brings up the 'save bookmark' dialog. It's getting to be quite a nuisance. When headphones are plugged into the headphone jack, the main speakers aren't muted -- both them and the headphones play sound. I'm not sure if this is a quirk of my hardware or not. Perhaps I'll come to the next workshop to have it looked at. And now my wireless isn't working -- it was when I installed 8.10 (after I blacklisted the ath_pci driver to force it to use the ath5k driver), but now it won't even show up as an interface. If anyone has any clues about these, I'd appreciate some help, otherwise I'll wait for the next workshop. Sandy