[HugoD]

Sir, Just upgraded from Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10 and back again.
9.04 detected my USB modem (E160) and printer (HP Deskjet F380) without problems, Firefox works without problem. In 9.10, modem not detected, printer missing, Firefox pages occupy half screen, tabs can't be closed except by restarting. So, back to what works!
I'm not a computer whizz, just making a living. Why can't someone in Ubuntu think up an automatic download to the software bods - just press a key on suspected problems and off it goes - probably lots like me who know nothing about poking around inside operating systems. I just want make a living - I'm not a computer engineer or software writer. Computers are a tool, not a destination!
Please help,
HugoD

[Lordandmaker]

Originally Posted by HugoD

Sir, Just upgraded from Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10 and back again.
I'm not a computer whizz, just making a living. Why can't someone in Ubuntu think up an automatic download to the software bods - just press a key on suspected problems and off it goes

Because if the computer knew what was wrong it'd be able to fix it.

[HugoD]

Nice to see such a fast response - pity it wasn't more constructive. Next time I won't bother to ask

[Lordandmaker]

What were you wanting? You asked why there was no automatic means of fixing these issues, and I told you.

EDIT:
Actually, I think I misread your question, so apologies for the above. I read it as if you were asking why there wasn't a "fix this problem" button, but now it looks like you're after a 'send an error report to someone who knows what to do with it". If the latter is correct:

Ubuntu 9.10 has a reasonably sophisticated bugreporting daemon which notices crashes and prompts you to let people know about them. I *think* 9.04 had a less sophisticated version of the same thing, 7.10 was certainly on the way there.

You can do it more manually by running

ubuntu-bug <packagename>

where <packagename> is the name of the package that installed the software that's having the trouble (normally the same as the software name) or even more manually at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu.

[HugoD]

Sir,
Apologies on my abrupt response to your reply. I didn't realise that you had misunderstood my input -- I'll try to be more clear in the future.
In the meantime I'm going to stick with 9.04 - its easier than going back to XP!
Again, apologies.
HughD

[Lordandmaker]

Well, no, it's quite understandable. If you'd just ignored me I'd likely not have felt the need to go back and re-read it.

But, yeah, a lot of people seem to be getting on with 9.04 better than 9.10. There were several quite fundamental changes which have broken a few things.

I'd appreciate it if you could file a bug report on the ubuntu launchpad site to make sure the developers are aware of the issue. If there's already one filed for your hardware, you can mark yourself as being affected, too. The more people affected by a problem, the greater the priority afforded to it, in the main.