Well, at least in the area of configuration, maintenance, and release management, the current version shows its dark roots. Before anyone speaks up, I’ll say that I’m generally happy with using FC5 and RedHat Enterprise on our servers at work, but someone had recommended Ubuntu server as a possible base OS for virtualizing my personal machine with VMWare Server.

It installed correctly, but wouldn’t boot. The solution I located required the following steps:

1. boot from the install CD
2. discover the command-line option for booting in rescue mode
3. guess the partition name to mount as / for rescue
4. open a root shell
5. manually add a nameserver to /etc/resolv.conf
6. type apt-get install linux-686
7. say yes to all the dependencies this requires
8. watch and wait
9. reboot

“Fixed in next release,” supposedly, but between that early-warning sign and some of the obvious eccentricities I tripped over, I don’t think I’ll bother with it.