So, I started up my copy of Kubuntu, running under VirtualBox. For ages it’s been saying that there are no updates available for it, which is odd, so I ran it manually. This time I found a version update available – updating to 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex). So I ran it.

Now, in the past when I’ve tried to do updates of the OS it’s failed. This time it worked. Until I rebooted. Then the GUI failed and everything was command line <sigh>

Rather than try and fix this I thought it best simply to do another install. I downloaded the latest 8.10 ISO, but grabbed the 64-bit version instead. The latest version of VirtualBox will allow you to run 64-bit guests on a 32-bit host.

However, I do seem to keep getting a “Incomplete language support” error box. Running the requested installation doesn’t seem to fix it. Or generally do anything. On top of that I seem to have got in an infinite loop of installing updates – they appear to download and install but are then pending again. Hmmm. I also built the 32-bit version at the same time (as you do) and that too had the same issues.

On the plus side, KDE is looking nice, with desktop gadgets (which I turned off) and lots of neat graphical touches. Although I am, for one, not a fan of “style over substance”, whether it’s Linux or the latest Apple product. If Linux is going to make it to the populace, it’s going to have to do better than this.

In fact, in the end I stopped using the 64-bit version and moved over to the 32-bit copy I had. I’m not going to blame Kubuntu in this case – it was slow and buggy, but I suspect this is down to the Beta nature of the 64-bit support in VirtualBox. Oh well, it was definately worth a try.