My experience with Linux

lukebolger

lukebolger

lukebolger

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Joined
30 Sep 2011
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16
Hi everyone

So i installed Ubuntu 12.10 three weeks ago,

It ran OK on my system, very hard to get the ATI proprietary drivers working, but i managed in the end - Still get a lot of error messages, and crashes. (firefox when watching youtube freezes and has to be FCd)


I tried both mint, ubuntu 12.10, and ubuntu 12.04 on my wifes laptop, It was awful, both were, the cpu was at 30-40% at IDLE!

And now the laptop wont even switch on!

Back to windows 7 for me :/
 
the problem is not unique. I also tried mint 14 cinnamon and although its in beta i had expected some sort of ati support for my now aged 5850 card? but no, on installing the recommended drivers in the recommended way it pretty much broke the whole desktop.

I also installed 12.10 ubuntu with various attempts at getting a stable effective ati driver, im obviously not giving up but i wouldn't be too surprised if the support for graphics other than bogo intel gets broken frequently with distro updates. My experience so far is of far greater performance from a HD2000 laptop chipset than a 5850 ati desktop card :rolleyes:

can you imagine the largest GPU vendor on the most popular distros doesnt work readily for people?? i must be doing something wrong, i hope i am. Im really looking forward to steam on linux and want the performance to emulate using wine or openbox


so another cool story bro :D
 
It depends really in this situation masterluke - in many cases with Ubuntu lately I would blame them, for some reason they removed the linux-generic-headers from their base-install which has caused so many problems with graphics drivers.

I would recommend re-installing from scratch so you don't have to do a bunch of work-rounds, Xubuntu 12.10 comes with the best driver support I have seen for a while to be honest, works every time I use it perfectly.

However, if you want to use Ubuntu I would suggest looking at this.
 
I used to have internet issues ie. the drivers, couldnt get the internet to work same with the speakers but the new version works like a charm :) perhaps it was just a bad day :)
 
Thanks for the info guys, Oxy - by the open source drivers do you mean the ones that come with ubuntu?

Because on my wifes lappy there was no GPU detected and the CPU was doing all the rendering
 
Linux Mint 14 works fine for me, on a desktop with a GTX 260, as did Arch Linux. PEBCAK to me, all part of the Linux learning process - takes a while to become proficient in it.
 
id blame ati's ****** drivers, at least for the firefox and flash crashes, i bought a 7850 a while back, that while a capable card, the *nix drivers are just a disaster, and will most likely only get worse if the latest fglrx beta is anything to go by.
 
lukebolger said:
Thanks for the info guys, Oxy - by the open source drivers do you mean the ones that come with ubuntu?

Because on my wifes lappy there was no GPU detected and the CPU was doing all the rendering
Click to expand...

What chipset does she have in her laptop? If the GPU is too old, or unsupported out of the box, then this is when the CPU does all the rendering as it can't access the GPU capabilities.

Sometimes you will have to install the drivers from ATI and nVidia to get full performance from a chip. This is often way more difficult than it should be, but it is not always Linux at fault. Look at the issues ATI and nVidia have with Windows drivers and that is a user base of 99% of the people who own a computer. In all honesty I think Linux does reasonably well to be officially supported at all.

For your wifes laptop I would maybe suggest installing something which doesn't require a boat load of fancy rendering. I would possibly give Xubuntu a try.

It is frustrating at times, but it can also be very productive (and cheaper) if you can get past the initial hurdles and break old habbits.
 
I've been using 12.04 as an 2nd boot on my aging gaming system, but just can't seem to get TF2 to run in Steam. It keeps complaining about packages not being installed, so you Google it.

I removed all the listed packages, ran the commands etc and then tried to run the ATI installer package. No, it says it's still installed.

Ran some more commands, tried messing around some more, still can't get it to work.

Still no go. Linux is still to awkward for gaming unless Steam can figure out a way to pull it all together and just make it work. Your average user would have seen the first message and stopped, not knowing what to do.

I also tried upgrading to 12.10 a while ago, and ended up with a blank desktop, due to some issu with the drivers for my legacy 4770. Got it working, and then a week later my raid array broke and I lost it all.

I think what I'm trying to say, is I really like Ubuntu/Linux, but it's still not ready for prime time, until they can get things to work simply. If Valve bring out the TV console, it could be treated as an appliance, and will work out of the box as Android does.
 
chronicfathead said:
Your average user would have seen the first message and stopped, not knowing what to do.
Click to expand...


How many times?

Linux is not for your average user, Its not even anywhere near ready for the below average non computer person who cant figure out how to program the microwave, that's what windows or Mac O/S is for. Its free, nobody asks anyone to use it or forces them down the path of opensource. Its experimental and always will be a progressive (yes read things get broke when you update all the time).

It can be immensely frustrating but also really rewarding :) and often all of this comes down to having the right hardware in place which more often than not means no Ati GPU or AMD cpu's

There is literally no accountability for data loss or your time spent configuring Linux but its worth it when all is working right
 
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phill1978 said:
How many times?

Linux is not for your average user, Its not even anywhere near ready for the below average non computer person who cant figure out how to program the microwave, that's what windows or Mac O/S is for. Its free, nobody asks anyone to use it or forces them down the path of opensource. Its experimental and always will be a progressive (yes read things get broke when you update all the time).

It can be immensely frustrating but also really rewarding :) and often all of this comes down to having the right hardware in place which more often than not means no Ati GPU or AMD cpu's

There is literally no accountability for data loss or your time spent configuring Linux but its worth it when all is working right
Click to expand...

Very very true, I would love for more people to use linux and it grow as a platform but its just not going to happen because of how it is and thats never going to chance. Command line is central to linux because not everything has a GUI.

But IMO the kids who install ubuntu, apply a skin, add a dock, and then go about thinking they are linux torvalds and do youtube tutorials on a tutorial they followed damages peoples conception of linux as well. The original forum/blog post that the tutorial was on probably had a discussion with it about problems encountered and other methods to do the same thing and thats information that the user watching the video is not going to get which then leads to "well that didnt work, what a POS".
 
lordhughes said:
Very very true, I would love for more people to use linux and it grow as a platform but its just not going to happen because of how it is and thats never going to chance. Command line is central to linux because not everything has a GUI.

But IMO the kids who install ubuntu, apply a skin, add a dock, and then go about thinking they are linux torvalds and do youtube tutorials on a tutorial they followed damages peoples conception of linux as well. The original forum/blog post that the tutorial was on probably had a discussion with it about problems encountered and other methods to do the same thing and thats information that the user watching the video is not going to get which then leads to "well that didnt work, what a POS".
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong, I am no Linux expert, but I have setup Ubuntu server (no gui) with mediawiki and also use it as a NAS. I am also reading several Ubuntu books and many websites to improve my understanding. People choose Ubuntu because it looks simple and is starting to be more like Windows/Mac OS without being Windows or OSX.

I believe Canonical are trying to make Ubuntu the user friendly Linux distro, which I think they need to do. We need a different options, and I think Windows, Mac OS and Ubuntu will be the best three for your average users, but Canonical still need to improve ease of use.

As you say though, maybe this will never happen.
 
rsatd said:
Your problems started when you tried to use Ubuntu... *can-of-worms*
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This is one of the biggest problems Linux faces. A few years ago for anybody with even a passing interest in Linux, Ubuntu was enthusiastically recommended. Now it seems to be derided. There's just no traction.

Linux is Linux and needs to stop trying to be Windows or OSX because it just can't compete. Many of its strengths lie in it NOT being a mass market desktop OS.

The market share may be small but it's a mature and steady user base that are extremely valuable to the wider tech world. Linux attracts users because of its technical freedom and flexibility and this is fertile ground for open source projects - the fire that keeps the community alive.

What sort of users do prettier interfaces and simple installers attract? Casual ones. Is that really what the Linux community wants? I'm not being a tech snob but the needs of casual users are already being served by massive companies.

We don't need another Windows or OSX. We need Linux to remain Linux.
 
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