Themer

Below is an assortment of comments, ramblings, and problems. Problems are bolded to help people skip over my ramblings if they don't have the time to read it

As said in the title, I formated and installed Ubuntu 8.04, and among all the fixes and upgrades I have become accustomed to with every new version, there have always been a few simple problems. I believe I have solved all but a few.

Networking:
This has always been Ubuntu's biggest fault and difficulty - they have now fixed that. With the network icon thing in the notification area (system tray), you can easily pick a detected network, or enter a custom one. It will notify you of progress with connecting, and all around, it has never been easier, faster, or worked better. Now, some comments about the network monitor specifically:

In previous versions of Ubuntu (7.04 and prior to) and Windows XP, it has always registered the signal strength at ~95-100%. I have also received speed (download and upload) that coincides with this. However in 7.10 I noticed that it was no longer detecting the proper signal strength, reading it at 0%. However, I still received full down/upload speeds. Now, in 8.04, I notice that it (wireless signal strength) varies between ~40 and 75%, and I am lucky to sustain 30Kb/s fopr downloading, and about 5 kb/s for uploading. I know that it's a wireless-only problem because when I use my 50-foot Ethernet cable to connect directly, I get the speed I would expect. Any ideas for fixing this?

Now, I also said I ave a Firefox problem, or I think it is... It seems that not matter how I connect (but Ethernet greatly helps), flash player, specifically on YouTube tends to not work properly. It will play 2 seconds of video, and then stop. I can scroll through the video, and it loads properly, and I can play from wherever, but it will only play for 2 seconds! Once again, this is not a consistent problem, but it is very annoying - any ideas anyone!?

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smolloy

I just installed 8.04 last night, and YouTube works quite well for me. When I first navigated there, it alerted me to the fact that I needed to install extra stuff (flash player + codecs) to watch the videos. I clicked on the install button, chose which version of flash I wanted to install (IMHO you should avoid gnash like the plague, but it's up to you). It installed the player, and then asked for permission to install proprietary codecs, which I agreed to.

After all that, YouTube works fine.

How did you install the player & codecs?

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Themer

Yes, I can watch most videos without a problem, and many other flash games - I am assuming the best one to use would be the "flashplugin-nonfree" (which comes straight from Adobe)?

It is simply the occasional video, more often on wireless it seems, that has the problem. It is not consistent, which begs the question of why one Earth it is happening A) at all, or B) not all the time...

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smolloy

I'm not sure which one is "best", but that sounds like the one I chose. It's a little embarrassing, but I can't quite remember which one I installed -- all I remember is that there were three choices, and I chose the top one!!

Could it be related to your other wireless problem? Have you tried watching YouTube using the wired ethernet instead of the wireless?

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bigtomrodney

With regard to your wireless setup, what type of card do you have? Is it a Broadcom by any chance?

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Themer

Well, I downloaded it right from the Adobe website, not using the plugin finder built into Firefox, but I would bet anything they are indeed the same
I think it might be related - like I said it worked significantly better on Ethernet, but it would still happen occasionally. I think that my ISP may have also just been loaded down the other day, but I know for a fact my wireless is no where near where it should be for signal strength or speed.

I have a PCI express (1 lane - the short ones) Linksys card. It's connected to a Linksys router not more than 20 feet away in a stright line, just through the floor. I'll edit and see if I can find the type of card and router.

Thing is, it worked perfectly on Windows, and all other versions of Ubuntu... (even though Gutsy didn't read the signal strenth corrcetly)

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bigtomrodney

Yeah I was just curious because the included Broadcom open source driver relies on firmware and is still a bit weak. The speed is usually 1-2Mbps and range is often shorter than using ndiswrapper. I have switched broadcom cards to ndiswrapper every time.

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Themer

After further investigation, I believe that this[I]can/[I] indeed be boiled down the the single problem - the weak wireless. After giving a movie a while to play, it did continue, but again in only 2 second segments. It seems that the slow connection is indeed causing this, not flash after all. So 1 of the original problems remain:

What on earth is wrong with the wireless?
It's not like Linux to go back in quality as the versions progress...

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Themer

I just recieved several updates today and it seems to be back working at 100% I don't know if it's just a coincidence, or if they actually noticed a problem and fixed it, but it's working now so I'm happy! I haven't tried any YouTube videos yet, but if that problem was indeed as related as I suspect it is, it should have cleared up too.

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When I find myself burried in errors, Windows Help appears to me; speaking words of wisdom, Reboot!