1. Full screen mode tends to take up both my monitors and results in a weird 2000×1000 sort of resolution. That would probably work fine if both my monitors were the same size but they are not (laptop and LCD).
2. Lack of resolutions – my main monitor runs at 1680×1050 which is missing from the resolution list. I’m sure I could edit a text file somewhere but it’s 2010 and I don’t want to do that :)

I went looking for a replacement and found Remmina – which bills itself as the GTK+ Remote Desktop Client.

Remmina supports: RDP, VNC, NX, XDMCP and SSH.

My two main issues are solved with Remmina…

1. Full screen mode in Remmina can do several things. It can scale to your space or it can provide scroll bars. But both those issues are moot since…
2. I can define my own screen resolutions!  I defined 1680×1050 and now my RDP session takes up the full screen and I can simple switch to another workspace if I need to work on my local desktop.

• No backup (rsync is sooo easy but really, what could go wrong?)
• Started the upgrade right about the time a huge thunderstorm was overhead (computers love lightening!)
• Forgot once again to backup my xorg.conf file (just in case)

The upgrade took about an hour.  Soon it rebooted my system and of course my monitors were all a mess.  Seems the NVidia drivers either didn’t get upgrade or got hosed.  Sigh.   Then I go to hit the Ubuntu forums (a great resource) and they are down for maintenance or something.  Ooops.

But I did find one post on the web that suggested trying Envy to load the latest NVidia drivers. I did that and things still weren’t right so I loaded up the package manager, uninstalled EVERYTHING NVidia related and tried Envy again.  This time I got nvidia-settings to run and from there it was just a simple matter of setting things up again and tweaking my xorg.conf file.   The only other thing that didn’t work was my sound for some reason but a quick search on the web and I found a few suggestions and after fiddling a bit I got it working as well.

I didn’t really have time afterwards to dig around and find out what’s new with the latest release but will hopefully have time to do that tonight after the TACFUG meeting!   Overall I’ve been very happy with Ubuntu but I do wish they could spend some time fixing the monitor setup issues.  That has been an issue during the last 2-3 upgrades.

I originally messed with Ubuntu’s native screen controls but they were having no effect. After a bit of digging I discovered if you are using the ‘restricted’ NVIDIA drivers (which I was) there is another application for tweaking settings – nvidia-settings. This was a bit confusing. Which one to use? (Ubuntu should check to see if the NVIDIA drivers are installed and if so disable the native screen tools.) The NVIDIA application provided a nice dialog – both screens were showing – but at incorrect resolutions. I tweaked a few things – saved, restarted my session. Nothing happened. The CRT was working but my Dell widescreen was doing nothing. I tried a few more things and got frustrated so I hit the Ubuntu forums. Lots of threads on there about running dual head but no real silver bullet solutions. One suggestion did mention running the settings application as sudo. I tried that and things started to work. After a bit more experimentation I got the following modes to work.

Twinview – this is a NVIDIA setting. It basically takes your current desktop and ‘stretches’ it across both monitors. This would probably work OK if both monitors were the same size and resolution but since mine were different – it was a bit odd to work with. I could also not ‘contain’ my applications to one screen. If I maximized a window – it would stretch across both monitors. Not ideal.

Next I turned off Twinview and enabled Xinerama.

Xinerama is an extension to the X Window System which enables multi-headed X: applications and window managers which use two (or more) physical displays as one large virtual display.

This worked but oddly enough some applications (like terminal and Gnome Do) would not start. After tinkering a bit I discovered the fancy new compositing window manager Compiz wasn’t running. Why? I have no idea. But overall this was the most “Windows” like setup. I could drag running applications between screens but if I maximized an application it would contain itself to one monitor. But without Compiz running the system was unusable. If I can get Compiz running in this mode I’ll be happy.

Finally I removed the Xinerama setting and just set configured two X sessions. This gave me two independent desktops. I had two taskbars, two desktops and while I could drag and drop icons and files between the two screens I could not open an application on one desktop and move it to the other. This works and is what I’m using now but obviously it is not ideal.

I’m going to tinker with the ‘restricted’ NVIDIA drivers a bit more. If I can’t make any progress I may try the drivers from the NVIDIA site itself and see if anything improves. The other alternative is to figure out why Compiz isn’t running and fix that.

I’ve been so happy running Ubuntu it is a shame that getting this setup is so difficult. While I’m happy tweaking things I could easily see others hitting this roadblock and giving up. Hopefully the Ubuntu team will make some progress on tightening up the integration between native Ubuntu apps, restricted drivers and Compiz.

At work (on Windows) I use Find And Run Robot and have gotten really used to launching applications (and a lot of other neat functionality) with the keyboard. I’ve been missing the same thing on Gnome at home but tonight stumbled upon Gnome Do it’s still fairly immature but so far I’ve not had any issues with it and it will launch apps, find my bookmarks, and with a few plugins will search my Tomboy notes as well as skim though my MP3 collection in Rhythmbox. Very slick!!! Installation was just a matter of adding a new repository and doing an apt-get install. The author has a blog where you can read a bit more about the project.

If you haven’t tried Ubuntu yet give it a shot! I’ve been using Ubuntu now for more than a year now and could never go back to Windows. I would switch at work as well but I’m stuck with running Powerbuilder though I could probably get by with a VM install for that.

Gutsy Gibbon is certainly easier to install and set up than Windows Vista, and it’s very close to matching Mac OS X when it comes to making things “just work” out of the box. Wi-Fi, printing, my digital camera and even my iPod all worked immediately after installation — no drivers or other software required. ~Wired

No Microsoft headaches and no Apple ‘upgrade fee’ every year or so… it’s free!

On the web:

• Wired

I’ve also enabled the new flashy Compiz window effects but am not that impressed. And it doesn’t appear the help works so I have no idea how to do anything with it – I have to dig around a bit and see if I can find some docs. Performance seems about the same – my CPU meter barely moves :)

Some of the preferences are a bit improved – but some things like the Deskbar applet seem to have taken a step back. I’ve always been a Gnome fan but am looking forward to KDE4.0 as well – might switch for awhile and try out the alternatives. I love Linux :)

One place I got stuck was during the CF install it asked me the location for my Apache binaries. I had no idea and the examples the installer suggested were all for Red Hat related systems.

A quick Google turned up this handy reference: Distros Default Layout on the Apache wiki.

Debian, Ubuntu (Apache 2):

ServerRoot :: /etc/apache2
DocumentRoot :: /var/www
Apache Config Files :: /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
Default VHost Config :: /etc/apache2/sites-available/default, /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default
Module Locations :: /etc/apache2/mods-available, /etc/apache2/mods-enabled
ErrorLog :: /var/log/apache2/error.log
AccessLog :: /var/log/apache2/access.log
cgi-bin :: /usr/lib/cgi-bin
binaries (apachectl) :: /usr/sbin
start/stop :: /etc/init.d/apache2 (start|stop|graceful|configtest)

What was really funny is before starting I did a quick Google on “ubuntu coldfusion” and one of the top links was a post here I had made some time ago called ColdFusion Install on Ubuntu which had some useful links – though most of those dealt with ColdFusion 7.

Update: Great ColdFusion 8 / Ubuntu installation guide on Adrian J. Moreno iknowkungfoo site.

http://www.iknowkungfoo.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/6/6/The-ACME-Guide-64bit-Ubuntu-804-Edition-Part-1

…it includes almost all the features from the first Windows version of Google Desktop Search plus the Quick Search Box…

So it is missing some features (no Sidebar) but it’s a start. I need to dig around more and see if it’s running on top of Wine or what… would also be nice if it integrated in the Gnome Deskbar.

Today there is supposed to be an announcement that Dell has picked Ubuntu for it’s distribution! This is great news and it will be interesting to see now that Dell has committed to offering Linux if the public opens their wallets and purchases systems with Linux vs. Windows. I also haven’t heard anything regarding support – will Dell provide support? Will Canonical (the backers behind Ubuntu)? This may also open the door for Canonical to push server versions of Ubuntu as well…

There is also a Slashdot post about this today.

Unfortunately Mozy isn’t available for Linux (Windows and Mac only).

Today Information Week has an interesting article: Ubuntu Linux Vs. Windows Vista: The Battle For Your Desktop comparing the two popular desktops. It’s a good comparison and I’d suggest reading it if you are considering moving to either Vista or Ubuntu.

One page 7 of the article they compare the backup utilities of both and they come to an interesting conclusion:

A tie, but only because both platforms fall short in some ways. Vista’s roster of backup features aren’t available in every SKU of the product; Ubuntu doesn’t have anything like Vista’s shadow copy system and its user-friendly backup tools are pretty rudimentary.

I’ve been using rsync to backup my data to another physical hard drive in my box as well as to another computer on my home network. It’s quick and really fast. Next I need to investigate doing an additional backup somewhere off-site.

I originally saw the Information Week article mentioned on Slashdot and will be monitoring that to watch the comments. Always entertaining!

Update:

For a more humorous ‘review’ check this out: Operating System Showdown
Ubuntu Vs. Vista