kubuntu jaunty Network manager plasma applet gets a major overhaul

At last ubuntu guys updated to the nm plasma applet to SVN version which fixed some most annoying bugs which made me use gnome nm applet for some time. One was the applet not remembering saved settings which caused it ask for wire less settings if it gets disconnected.

This is fixed and still some issues remain which is it cannot be used for vpnc connections the settings just won't work, its not even saving anything. Other than that it's pretty much OK to be used in desktop.

End of woes with X and intel graphics?

In my last post I talked about issues I faced with X and my intel graphics. I wished that was the end of story, but not. There was 2 other issues I discovered.
X crash on laptop lid close
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=22383 and
X crash on kde 4 log out.
http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20867

Fortunately the laptop lid close one has been fixed and there is a work around for kde 4 log out issue.
For users of ubuntu jaunty latest intel driver package xorg-xserver-video-intel from xorg-edgers PPA has fix for the laptop lid issue.

For laptop lid issue edit /etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc and add
TerminateServer=true under [X-*-Core]

This option will make kdm to restart X server instead of reusing it.

My X adventure with kubuntu jaunty.

As many of us might know, ubuntu januty has serious X related problems because of bugs in xorg intel driver and some in kernel itself. As one of the early adopters of jaunty from the aplha stages itself, I was among early set of users who experienced the full fury of this bug. X server just locks up, though we can move mouse nothing works, but we can ssh to the box and use it.

This is the bug I reported for this issue
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/359392

The bug report says all what is the issue and work around.
Jaunty is shipped with kernel 2.6.28 and xserver-xorg-video-intel based on 2.6

The X infrastructure is in a flux because of architectural changes and that was the root cause of all issues. Read this article to know what changed
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/the_new_xorg_features

I even tried compiling the x server from scratch using instruction from here
http://wiki.x.org/wiki/Development/git
But it was too bleeding edge and freezes on alt-tab switch. ( May be I didn't digg enough to fix that). I was already mad at ubuntu and was planning to switch to Arch or Fedora 11. But al distros has the issues as the problem is with mainstream. Atleast the distros could have chosen to stick with stable old code.

So the solution to these problems requires newer kernel 2.6.30 and latest xserver-xorg-video-intel 2.7.99.* which is still under development though stable enough for use.

You can get the latest kernel for ubuntu from here
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

To get the latest x server and xserver-xorg-video-intel we need to enable this ppa
https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa

Then do an upgrade and enjoy. But beware after installing the packages from the xorg-edgers PPA only acceleration method available will be UXA and support for EXA and XXA have been dropped in favour of UXA.

If you want a little bit more excitement you can enable KMS ( kernel mode setting). KMS shifts the job of identifying and setting up graphics mode from X server to linux kernel. Follow instructions here for enabling kms and learn more about it.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/KernelModeSetting

I have been using this set for 2 days and enabled KMS today morning and performance has been great.