I decided to try the new Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala), the last version I tested was the 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon).

The installation process is fast and responsive, the new operating system introduces many improvements (which have been widely covered on the web) among which I’ve mostly enjoyed the new simplified Ubuntu Software Center and the new useful “Connect to Server” feature (available within the “places” menu) which provides immediate support to different protocols including FTP and SSH. The only problem I encountered was a slow Internet navigation..

First, using an old laptop I had to manually install the firmware of an old built-in wireless card, a BCM4306, operation simply accomplished through one straightforward bash command:

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

Once got the possibility of connecting my laptop to the wireless, I noticed the navigation on the Internet (using the browser Firefox 3.5.5) was very slow. It was easy to suspect the just installed firmware but using an ethernet cable or otherwise using other applications than the browser the connection seemed to go pretty well. Eventually I found out, obviously looking up the web, that the problem was related to the use of the IPv6 protocol by the browser, even though I had explicitly specified to ignore such protocol in the configuration of the wireless connection..

Below the solution (very simple) I followed, it might probably be useful for someone:

1. Open Firefox and type about: config in the navigation bar
2. Check for network.dns.disableIPv6 variable and change its value to true (you should find false)

Therefore it seems Ubuntu still have performance problems with the IPv6 protocol, I wonder why this setting has not been shipped as default by the software provider (Canonical) ..

Tags: Karmic Koala | Slow Internet | Ubuntu 9.10 | Wireless