Ubuntu 11.04 doesn't work. At all.

Installed ubuntu 11.04 on my laptop and my Multimedia PC. Here's the problem... it sucks.

On my multimedia PC I boot up to the login screen just fine. But when I log in I get nothing. I have a cursor and the wallpaper and that's it. I have tried every option as well. I tried with ubuntu, ubuntu classic, etc, and nothing.

Now the laptop, I can actually boot into the desktop no problem as long as I use the ubuntu classic option, I cannot run unity apparently. BUT it is glacially slow. It takes like 10 minutes to boot up and then the desktop is very sluggish. Also I get a popup saying I don't have the system resources to run unity and so I have to use ubuntu classic.

My conclusions from this nightmare;

Ubuntu 11.04 is the "vista" of ubuntu. I hate to say it but its true. It is absolutely terrible. Even if you can get through all the issues and bugs, the GUI is terrible. ( Yes you can change it but that is not my point.) The bar is not very attractive and positioned oddly. (although it can be moved) The menu is next to useless and is essentially just a search function and from what I hear ( haven't tried this myself) you cannot even run dual monitors.

I'm sticking with ubuntu 10.10 and I recommend others do the same.

Yeah 11.04 need another month or two in the oven. Unity wasn't ready for release, there was talk of switching back to gnome 3.32 a little as a month ago by some of the devs. But the board said no. Ubuntu should have stuck with gnome 3.32 for this guy and either had unity as an option, maybe a separate iso, or just waited for 11.10. I bet 11.10 will fix most of everything.

I think this is rubbish. I have always had steadfast faith in the ubuntu devs. But this shook my confidence.

Apparently 11.04 is 'released'...was just in alpha a few weeks ago. ?

This morning one machine running 10.4 had an Update pop-up offering 11.04, my response was: "naw, don't need a broken GUI right this moment."
:p

I wish I had been so wise.

running in a VM i have had no problems, but it fails to boot on my laptop.

fortunately the Mint devs release theirs a month or so later than ubuntu and they will have a more polished release.

They have been known to release when ready

I'm sticking with ubuntu 10.10 until 11.10 is released.

I updated today to xbuntu 11.04 and have not had a problem...though the watermark mouse wallpaper was deleted in the update which makes me very sad.
RIP





...though if anyone wants to upload the widescreen version somewhere I would be very appreciative 8)

Well xubuntu and kubuntu probably won't be effected much because they use lxde and kde respectfully not unity. But it's actually good that you pointed this out, because I think a lot of people overlook the other DE's that Ubuntu offers.

What strikes me as odd is that its working so good on new hardware, usually its the opposite. I am half and half won't update on old lappy. (In fact I have just bricked it)

Though the new P67 is running fine, with turbostat(Thank you Shel), im-sensors(Thanks Tim) and all those shortcuts Stratus posted(Thank You). This is as modern as its been for the info I need. Now if I can just relearn this new version of Gimp.

I was worried about this. I got a popup to "upgrade" to 11.04 at work, and decided that I should get work done instead of breaking everything. Looks like that was a good idea.

Natty is actually running faster than Maverick did on my super old Linux rig, AppCenter loads and installs things about 2x as fast.

But...screensavers now lock xbuntu up, dunno if it is a problem with 11.04 or just a local incident, have heard of it happening in ubuntu 11.04 so I am thinking that it may be a side effect of the update.

Dave,

I love the Gimp for it's smooth, lightweight operation for an on-the-fly photo edit. I have Photoshop in Wine for more advanced editing, but teh Gimp is teh bomb.

Xubuntu and Kubuntu 11.04 are supposedly working out quite well. Which can be expected because they are using different GUI's. I might try one of them until 10.l10 comes out. Although I hate unity, I think with some work and some customization options, it could be decent. Although I'm not going to update so quickly from now on and my faith in the ubuntu dev's has been shaken, I still have a love for ubuntu.

ihrsetrdr said:

Dave,

I love the Gimp for it's smooth, lightweight operation for an on-the-fly photo edit. I have Photoshop in Wine for more advanced editing, but teh Gimp is teh bomb.

Click to expand...

Yeah Tim, I like it alot. It just this new version in 11.04 has changed so much it's taking me awhile to figure it out.
If the old version is available I might switch back to it.

Every command across the top has been changed to a tool bar icon. It's a little less intuitive. I'll figure it out.

I don't have 11.04 on any machines ATM, but I've read that a classic Gnome desktop can be chosen at the login screen:

http://ubuntuguide.net/ubuntu-11-04-natty-login-to-classic-gnome-2-desktop

It can, but it sucks as well. I can't run any effects using the classic option and it's slow. On one computer that is. On the other one I can't even get a desktop.

Was the Netbook Remix version of Maverick running on Unity when it was released? I remember using that interface and just being appalled at how slow it was. It literally ran like you were using a live boot off of a CD or USB setup when it was on the main HD. I couldn't believe it.

I'm not sure why Canonical is moving away from Gnome as their desktop instead of just putting a more attractive spin on it. I've never thought that Gnome was a major issue other than its aesthetic looks.

My router was screwy when I was trying to update it and I'm so glad it was. For me, I'm sticking with good ol' Maverick for the time being, and using Ubuntu Studio 10.10 for the aesthetic upgrade along with some other fun media features.

Yes the netbook version of maverick used unity. It was originally designed for netbooks lol. They have made it look nicer now that they are using it for the desktop version. I finally got it working on my multimedia pc after three reinstalls.

The unity desktop is ridiculous. If they allowed for you to move it and if the menu wasn't entirely useless and if the top bar didn't act like the mac OS, THEN maybe I could use it. I tried my best to adjust but I couldn't. There are SO many glitches and problems it makes me embarrassed to be using it. I usually brag about never having a problem with linux, but this release is entirely different. The taskbar kept glitching out and turning entirely yellow ( which isn't a color that is in my theme at all) and becoming unusable. The side bar or dock or whatever kept glithing out and hiding even if I had nothing open. When I tried to play some music the media player was just a black block of uselessness. I switched to the gnome desktop again and I'm having less issues ( although it is still slow as all hell) and I'm just going to wait for the updates. I switched my laptop back to 10.10 and now it runs perfectly. I can't believe how terrible 11.04 is. I was actually excited for it.