Just as a note, i've also been having problems with my touchpad since installing Ubuntu 9.10.
With 9.04 i was able to get my disable touchpad hotkey working with minimal configuration ( i think i had to install gsynaptics), but in this version of Ubuntu it is not nearly as simple.
Apparently the change in hardware manager and lack of a global variable within Ubuntu. Several people have come up with fixes which usually involve some sort of a shell script, but i haven't been bothered actually implementing one. It would be good to see a fix actually committed to Karmic for this, but personally i don't have the experience with Ubuntu packaging and operating system structure to even know where to start with developing a solution.
Might possibly be a good idea for a project in the future.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Problems with Ubuntu + Skype
I recently upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala from 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope (a blog post in itself), and reinstalled all of my applications from scratch. As part of this process i had to download and install Skype for Linux.
This has always been a sore point for me as far as Linux is concerned. The version of Skype i used previously was deemed the "latest stable" version, but i constantly has problems. One example was with multiple conversation windows being spawned for a single conversation; i would say "hi" so someone, and their response would somehow be directed to another Skype window which i would also have to open. Another common occurrence was false status updates; a friend would come online, but Skype would still show them offline until i send them a message, at which time it finally updates their status.
This was all for a "stable" version.
About this time i found out a new beta version was being tested. I installed it, and then uninstalled it about 10 minutes later. The program which has been delivered to me was completely unacceptable by open source beta standards, let alone commercial standards. There were obvious glitches with text not updating, and many of the problems i had with the previous version still remained.
Most recently, when i updated to version 2.1.0.47, i found that overall Skype has improved slightly for Linux. Very slightly.
This version eliminates many of the bugs found in previous versions, although development seems to move at the same speed as a river of bricks; my guess is there is one poor Linux developer slaving away behind the scenes to iron out all the many wrinkles and creases in the current application, while trying to keep the features up to date with Skype for Windows.
the one major bug i can find is that since installing this new version of skype under Ubuntu 9.04 every now and then my input devices are paralysed: i can only type text into certain windows, and with limited success. Sometimes alt-tab works, somtimes not. About the only way i've found of seemingly solving the problem is switching between the ctrl-alt-f1 terminal and gnome desktop repeatedly until i regain control over the desktop. Even if the restart-gdm shortcut was still active in Ubuntu i wouldn't want to be restarting it every 10 minutes.
I'm not even entirely sure if this is a problem with Skype, but i suspect it is because of the history i have with Skype, and because focusing the Skype chat window usually seems to set off this bug.
I would be interested to know if anyone else has had similar experiences with Ubuntu 9.10/Skype, and if anyone knows a more permanent fix?
This has always been a sore point for me as far as Linux is concerned. The version of Skype i used previously was deemed the "latest stable" version, but i constantly has problems. One example was with multiple conversation windows being spawned for a single conversation; i would say "hi" so someone, and their response would somehow be directed to another Skype window which i would also have to open. Another common occurrence was false status updates; a friend would come online, but Skype would still show them offline until i send them a message, at which time it finally updates their status.
This was all for a "stable" version.
About this time i found out a new beta version was being tested. I installed it, and then uninstalled it about 10 minutes later. The program which has been delivered to me was completely unacceptable by open source beta standards, let alone commercial standards. There were obvious glitches with text not updating, and many of the problems i had with the previous version still remained.
Most recently, when i updated to version 2.1.0.47, i found that overall Skype has improved slightly for Linux. Very slightly.
This version eliminates many of the bugs found in previous versions, although development seems to move at the same speed as a river of bricks; my guess is there is one poor Linux developer slaving away behind the scenes to iron out all the many wrinkles and creases in the current application, while trying to keep the features up to date with Skype for Windows.
the one major bug i can find is that since installing this new version of skype under Ubuntu 9.04 every now and then my input devices are paralysed: i can only type text into certain windows, and with limited success. Sometimes alt-tab works, somtimes not. About the only way i've found of seemingly solving the problem is switching between the ctrl-alt-f1 terminal and gnome desktop repeatedly until i regain control over the desktop. Even if the restart-gdm shortcut was still active in Ubuntu i wouldn't want to be restarting it every 10 minutes.
I'm not even entirely sure if this is a problem with Skype, but i suspect it is because of the history i have with Skype, and because focusing the Skype chat window usually seems to set off this bug.
I would be interested to know if anyone else has had similar experiences with Ubuntu 9.10/Skype, and if anyone knows a more permanent fix?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)