Downgrade Firefox to 3.0.x for Karmic Koala

Update 12/23/2009: Firefox + Flash more stable now.

You need to install the following (via apt-get or the gui version from ubunut):

• flashplugin-nonfree (the usual flash plug-in)
• nspluginwrapper
  
• flashplugin-nonfree-extrasound

Apparently I was the only one that did not the get the memo about installing the above. Now firefox is about 10 times more stable. Please also note, this is 32bit karmic koala (according to some forums 64bit has other issues). Kudos to this article, though it’s for hardy, it fixed my issues in karmic.

After an upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala / 32bit) Firefox 3.5 has been a nightmare. Like most people I have come to expect 99.99% uptime for my browser, so Firefox crashing every hour is just not acceptable. I’ve tried:

• flashplugin directly from adobe (thinking it’s a flash problem, but crash continues on pages with no flash)
• start a new profile
• disable all extensions

I’m not sure who to blame, ubuntu or firefox, but the state that Firefox is in is really a downer for anyone using Ubuntu.

I’ve decided to downgrade to firefox 3.0.x. However, it can not be done via apt-get. So, here is a brief instruction on how to donwgrade manually:

1. Download firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html
2. Extract the files and store it some where (to keep it simple, I put in in ~/home/bin/firefox)
3. (not sure if this step is necessary, but I did it just for good measure) I renamed ~/.mozilla to some other name as a backup before launching firefox 3.0
4. Run the firefox script in the folder, /your_path/firefox/firefox
5. To get all the plugins to work (e.g. flash, mplayer…etc): cp /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/*.* your_path/firefox/plugins

So far it seems a bit more stable. You can continue to keep you firefox-3.5. However, I would avoid firing it up, since it might upgrade your profile.

Comments and suggestions are welcomed.

your_path/

switch pitcher vs. switch batter

Yes, switch pitcher exists.

Ubuntu Hardy

I had a raving review for Ubuntu (gusty) when I first move to it from fedora. Everything worked out-of-the-box. However, I recently upgraded to Ubuntu hardy, and I had to go back to do some manual tweaking (which I thought I left behind in my fedora days).

If you computer goes blank and hangs on exit (shutdown, logoff, hibernate), and you are using an intel driver (if you used to use i810 or 915resolutions), here is a brief howto for the non-technical folks:

1. sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
2. Change the line Driver “intel” to Driver “i810″. You can just comment it in case you want to change it back later.
3. sudo yum install 915resolution

If you want hibernation, you need add the following file into your /etc/pm/sleep.d/ directory.

4. sudo echo ‘/etc/init.d/915resolution start’ > /etc/pm/sleep.d/915resolution.sh
5. sudo chmod a+x /etc/pm/sleep.d/915resolution.sh
6. restart (or logout and login)

Ubuntu (7.10 gutsy) on Inspiron 700m

So my notebook computer running Fedora 7 crashed today. It was mostly due to my own stupidity. I mounted the HD in between hibernation. When I rebooted, instead of discarding the system state image, I try to reload it again, which affectively ruin the file system.

I figure it’s time I give Ubuntu another try. So, I downloaded 7.10 gutsy and popped into my computer. Installation is via a live CD interface. To my pleasant surprise, everything works out of the box. Let me say this again:

EVERYTHING WORKS OUT OF THE BOX

It recognized the wide screen (915resolution), wifi, and hibernation works. For this particular notebook, this is the first time, a linux installation actually went smoother then a XP installation (for XP I actually still have to download some drivers from dell). Kudos to the ubuntu community….

Tuxonice + Fedora = Hangs on Atomic Retore

After using Tuxonice (formerly swsuspend2) with Fedora for a couple years, a recent routine “yum update” caused it to stop working. It suspends to disc fine, but gets stuck on atomic restore. I was not about to wade the various kernel modules trying to figure out which one is the culprit (I’m not sure how to do that, and am afraid I might break something in the process).

I tried the suspend-to-disc that came with the distro, but it is just not stable enough (I even tried out the quirks). I looked all over the internet trying to find an answer (no one seems to be having the same problem). Finally, on this page, I found the answer: stop and restart Network Manger.

Edit /etc/hibernate/common.conf and add the line:

RestartServices NetworkManager NetworkManagerDispatcher

I’m surprise that this is not a more common problem for people. Hope this helps and saves you some trouble.

See Matthias Hensler’s website get software suspend on your machine. See my previous post on my experience in getting Fedora 7 to work on a Dell Inspiron 700m.

Hawaii

Hawaii

Married Life

Ira Sachs’ new film Married Life, staring Pierce Brosnan, Rachel McAdams, Patricia Clarkson and Chris Cooper, will come out early 2008. It will be shown on 9/12/07 at the Toronto Film Festival, and screen in late Auguest at the New York Film Festival.

A well told dark comedy that explores the things we do for the people we love, and also how little we know about the people we love. The tone and pace of the film reminded me of Woody Allen’s Match Point.

Richard Zapping Himself

The things we do to amuse ourselves. The racket he’s touching is a mosquito zapper. It gives a nice popping sound and spark of light when you touch it.

 

Trader Joe’s Coming to Queens

According to Forest Hill 72, Trader Joe’s is coming to Queens.

90-30 Metropolitan Ave. Forest Hills, NY 11375

Google Mail – Recent Mode

There is a little-documented way of accessing Google’s email service using the POP protocol (both for Gmail and Google Hosted Apps). It’s called recent mode. To use it, append recent: to your login ID.

Normally, Google breaks the POP3 protocol. When you access email the regular way, “leave message on server” is ignored (this is the option that can be set in almost all pop3 email client, e.g. Outlook)…