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Our Blogs Open Sauce - A GNU perspective Was it Automatix or bad RAM that killed Ubuntu?
Our Blogs Open Sauce - A GNU perspective Was it Automatix or bad RAM that killed Ubuntu? | Was it Automatix or bad RAM that killed Ubuntu? |
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| Written by Sam Varghese | |
| Friday, 23 November 2007 | |
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Page 2 of 2 When I tried to install the missing packages using the Ubuntu update tool, it wouldn't work. I got an error message from that application saying I should run "apt-get -f install" - Ubuntu's own update application could not resolve the situation. Now apt-get is the command line Debian update application, an extremely powerful and capable piece of software which is quite often one of the main reasons behind the use of Debian. I just love it. But if Automatix claims to make things easier, why it does drive people back to the command line? That seems to run counter to its very raison d'etre. Anyway I ran apt-get -f install as instructed. I then went back to Automatix and tried to install the same packages again. At the end of the process, I got this message: "FATAL ERROR w32dvdcodecs An apt-based error occurred and installation was unsuccessful." And I can't use the Ubuntu updater to install updates either. That leaves me in limbo. It was disappointing in the extreme. I shut down the PC as I was going out for a while. When I got back and switched it on, I found that the screen resolution had changed to 800 x 600. Now I just can't explain this. I did nothing which could have affected the resolution - and though I often have complaints about screen resolutions when using some of my other PCs, on this particular box, Ubuntu set up things with the native resolution (1680 x 1050) without any tweaking. After setting the resolution back to what it had been, I went to the Automatix website and started looking around. And finally I located this confession , written by the chief developer, Jared B. "I did also want to answer a common question asked on the Ubuntu Forums. That question is whether or not Automatix breaks systems. Automatix can break systems in some situations. When Automatix is coded and tested we only develop it with the Ubuntu repos and Automatix repo in mind. Most of the breakages occur when Automatix is used along with other third-party repos and installation scripts. Because there are so many third-party repos and installation scripts out there, it is impossible for us to code Automatix to be compatible with all of them. However, with our new community collaboration idea planned for the Gutsy release, compatibility with third party repos and installation scripts should improve. So to answer the question, Automatix is safe as long as you only use the Ubuntu repos and the Automatix repo. Using Automatix with other third-party repos and installation scripts may work sometimes, but greatly increases the chances for something to go wrong." It's a pity that he didn't offer this insight on the first page of the website - rather than trying to gain mileage by quoting endorsements from the New York Times (yes, the same paper that believed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in 2003) and informing people that Michael Dell, the chief executive of Dell Computers, uses Automatix on his home PC. Michael Dell and his uncle can use it. That doesn't help prospective users one bit.
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