Ubuntu is a Linux distribution that is popular for its ease of use and wide range of applications. Ubuntu’s latest release, Gutsy Gibbon, offers a number of improvements over the Feisty Fawn release. One of the most significant changes is the addition of support for hardware acceleration. This means that applications running on Gutsy Gibbon will be faster than those running on earlier versions of Ubuntu. Hardware acceleration can be enabled by installing the nvidia-drivers package. Another improvement is the addition of support for multiple monitors. This means that users can now have multiple applications open simultaneously on separate monitors. To enable this feature, users need to install the xorg-server package and configure it using the xorg configuration file. Overall, Gutsy Gibbon offers a number of improvements over Feisty Fawn and makes Ubuntu more user friendly and efficient. ..
Features
Built-in support for cool graphics effects. (compiz-fusion) Display configuration utility that supports multiple monitors. Built-in desktop search. Better printing support, along with a PDF printer. Fast User Switching, similar to Windows. New Gnome and Xorg, with an easier theme tool. Lots of new stuff under the hood.
Upgrade
Use the Alt+F2 key combination to bring up the Run Application dialog, where you’ll want to enter the following command:
You should be able to omit the -c switch now that Gutsy has been released, but I’ve not personally tested.
If all goes well you should see “New distribution release ‘7.10’ is available” and an Upgrade button, which you’ll want to click.
You’ll get a bunch of different dialogs asking you to confirm that you really want to, and do you accept the release notes, etc. Just click through all of them until you finally see the upgrading dialog.
You’ll most likely be prompted that support for some applications has ended. This isn’t necessarily important, since most of you probably frequented the Ubuntu Forums for any support you needed.
Now you’ll be asked yet again if you want to start the upgrade, and you’ll find out that it’s gonna take a long time to both download and install all the updates.
Note: I tried this upgrade a couple of times, and once I was prompted in the terminal window to hit the enter key, so you may want to keep an eye on that just in case.
Now you’ll be prompted to remove obsolete packages, and given a list of packages to remove. Typically it’s fine to remove the items, but you might want to check the list just in case, or skip the step if you aren’t sure. You can always clean them up with apt later.
Now you should finally be done, and be prompted to reboot your computer.
Once you restart, you can open up System Monitor in the administration tools section, and you should see “Release 7.10 (gutsy)” in this dialog, indicating that the upgrade was successful.
The greatest improvement in Gutsy has to be the addition of a new Screen and Graphics Preferences dialog in the administration tools, where you can actually set the resolution of multiple screens. No more xorg.conf, hopefully.
Notes
If you’ve enabled applications that require a kernel module, such as vmware server or vmware tools, you’ll probably be forced to reinstall them. If you used Automatix to install graphics drivers or other applications that interact with the kernel, you might end up with some problems, judging from the last edgy -> feisty upgrade. Graphics drivers might require reinstallation, although I haven’t tested this on my nvidia machine yet. Backup all your files, especially your user directory.
So go forth, and enjoy Gutsy!
Update:
