At Work With Linux: Ubuntu 11.10 and a Problem Explained, Somewhat

-

You're looking at the Software Center, working again. I complained about its not working and spewing out an error message. I blamed it on Ubuntu, and I was probably wrong to do that. It turns out it's not a problem with Ubuntu but in this particular case the environment in which it's run.

My instanced of Ubuntu 11.10 is running as a VMware virtual machine. This particular screenshot of Software Center running is after cold starting the instance. You can either shut down a VM or you can just put it to sleep, then restart the VM where you left off. And that's the key to the malfunction.

I was hoping that another upgrade might have restored Software Center. To complete the installation I restarted Ubuntu and after the reboot found Software Center was indeed working again. I put the VM to sleep, then came back to it later in the day and discovered that Software Center was back to it's original failure mode. And then the lightbulb came on.

I shut down the VM, then restarted it. Software Center worked. I did that a number of consecutive times, and Software Center started correctly each and every time. But every time I put the VM to sleep and then restarted it from sleep mode, Software Center always failed to launch.

At this point I don't know if I'll file a bug report or not. My way of running Ubuntu 11.10 is, shall we say, non-standard. But I'm curious if Ubuntu would illustrate the same behavior if it was installed on a tablet and went through the same style of sleep mode. On wake-up, would Software Center fail on in the same way, for the same reason? I supposed I could dig deeper for a full explanation and a solution, but right now the quirk is logged along with a simple solution: reboot after using Software Center in a VMware VM. It's not what I would call a show stopper, and I've got bigger problems and little time.

Now, on to other things...

Comments

  1. RickDecember 04, 2011

    Thanks for this explanation! Having the exact same issue running Ubuntu 11.10 with VmwareFusion on the Mac.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All comments are checked. Comment SPAM will be blocked and deleted.

Popular posts from this blog

A Decade Long Religious Con Job

-
Image
I rarely write inflammatory (what some might call trolling) titles to a post, but this building you see before you deserves it. I've been seeing this building next to I-4 just east of Altamonte/436 and Crane's Roost for nearly 12 years, and never knew who owned it. Today on a trip up to Lake Mary with my wife I saw it yet again. That's when I told her I wanted to stop by on the way back and poke around the property, and photograph any parts of it if I could. What I discovered was this still unfinished eighteen story (I counted) white elephant, overgrown with weeds and yet still under slow-motion construction. It looks impressive with its exterior glass curtain walls, but that impression is quickly lost when you see the unfinished lower stories and look inside to the unfinished interior spaces. A quick check via Google leads to an article written in 2010 by the Orlando Sentinel about the Majesty Tower. Based on what I read in the article it's owned by SuperChannel ...
Read more

Ten Reasons to Ignore Ten Reasons to Dump Windows and Use Linux

-
There is a tradition amongst the hard-core Linux aficionados to extol Linux's various virtues as a list of 10 or more reasons to substitute (as in "dump") an existing Windows installation with Linux. There's no reason to point them all out; a simple Google search (" 10 reasons to use Linux ") will provide you with such lists stretching back through the years, as well as hours of entertainment. One very recent list caught my eye over the weekend, published by PCWorld. Their article, " Ten Reasons to Dump Windows and Use Linux ", seems to have hit a nerve with me. Normally I just ignore such journalistic pap, since the majority of it comes courtesy of one ill-informed blog or another (such as this one). But in this instance a "real" publication put some time and journalistic "credibility" into this list, which places it in front of a wider audience than the typical blog poist (again, such as this one). So let's consider al...
Read more

Former Eclipse user re-evaluates Eclipse 3.3M5

-
Image
I've been using NetBeans for a while now, starting with version 4.2 in beta. One of NetBeans' key selling points (in my not-so-humble-opinion) is Java GUI building with Matisse . That feature continues to be quite powerful and unrivaled, especially for a free-as-in-beer IDE. I even wrote a lovely paean to the wonders of NetBeans and why I moved away away from Eclipse to NetBeans . Now, it looks like I may have to eat some of those tastefully written words. What you're looking at above is a complete Ruby on Rails project hosted and running within Eclipse 3.3 Milestone 5 on Windows XP. Milestone 5 was released this past Friday, February 9th. I installed it Saturday, and then went on a plugin hunt to fill out additional features and capabilities. Why did I decide to re-install Eclipse, especially a milestone? So that I could get a complete integrated development and test capability in one convenient package for Ruby on Rails. Like a lot of other folks I've been playing ...
Read more