Ubuntu 9.04 Released

Soldato
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Had a bit of an issue with the ATI drivers after the install and completely botched the whole thing, so had to re-install it almost immediately, but now it's up and running it's ace.

I'm trying to get into Linux and I downloaded and installed 9.04 last night and broke it within half an hour. I grabbed the latest ATI drivers for my card, installed them, rebooted and bang - major graphics corruption to the point where it was unusable. Did you experience the same thing? And what did you do differently the second time?

I logged in via the CLI and edited the appropriate line in the xorg.conf file from the ati driver to "vesa" as the Ubuntu forums suggested but this didn't work. Has anyone got any ideas? I'm really wet behind the ears when it comes to Linux so any suggestion would probably help.

I may well end up reinstalling, but I'd rather try and fix it and learn something rather than picking up the bluntest tool in the toolbox if you know what I mean.

Cheers.
 
Soldato
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I've installed 9.04 on my old celeron laptop (8.10 was working fine) and it does seem to be having a couple of problems, Firefox seems to be crashing all the time and my sister reported that it froze and the screen went blue!

Anyone having any problems like this?
 
Associate
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ATI Drivers for Jaunty = s*** on this... :(

Hi all Ubuntu users,

Once again ATI graphics card owners are pwn'd by s*** ATI drivers for Linux.

Heck I had the Nvidia proprietary GPU driver (for a 9500M laptop GPU) running HL2 in Wine @Full HD resolution and full HDR DX9.0c (!!) with the 9.04 beta (64-bit) release. :cool::cool::cool::cool:

Now I try to install the proprietary ATI GPU drivers on 9.04 RC (64-bit) using Envy for my (desktop) PCIe X1950 Pro (512Mb) card. On rebooting the screen is corrupted when the X-Server tries to start and the system freezes. :mad::mad::mad::mad:

Hmmm... subtle contrast in "stability" there or what!! :rolleyes:

Basically this is just the final nail in ATI's coffin as far as I am concerned. I've already had to put up with the s*** proprietary drivers that can only run HL2 in DX8 mode on Ubuntu 8.04/8.10. I won't be buying any more ATI cards until a full (working) 3D Open Source driver is released... Following the recent(ish) decision by AMD/ATI to document their hardware API - to allow this.

Bob
 
Soldato
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On rebooting the screen is corrupted when the X-Server tries to start and the system freezes.
Bad install, aye. Usually this is because the kernel module was not updated correctly. Most often caused by running the 'installer' with X still running.
I've posted a foolproof guide on how to ensure a clean install on here in recent months. Dig it out.

It is tragic that running the installer sometimes flat out fails. It happens with Nvidia sometimes so it's not all roses there either.

As noted though, Nvidia's performance is generally better. So when looking at a new card for Linux Nvidia is probably a better bet.

Firefox seems to be crashing all the time and my sister reported that it froze and the screen went blue!
Hard to believe really unless her background colour is set to blue!
Firefox locking the machine is far from normal. Something is badly borked there.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
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Various
I'm trying to get into Linux and I downloaded and installed 9.04 last night and broke it within half an hour. I grabbed the latest ATI drivers for my card, installed them, rebooted and bang - major graphics corruption to the point where it was unusable. Did you experience the same thing? And what did you do differently the second time?

I logged in via the CLI and edited the appropriate line in the xorg.conf file from the ati driver to "vesa" as the Ubuntu forums suggested but this didn't work. Has anyone got any ideas? I'm really wet behind the ears when it comes to Linux so any suggestion would probably help.

I may well end up reinstalling, but I'd rather try and fix it and learn something rather than picking up the bluntest tool in the toolbox if you know what I mean.

Cheers.

The first time I went through Synaptic, while the second time I installed CCC via the ATI website...hope this helps, I'm not really that much of an expert user though I'm afraid!

I'm experiencing a new problem though if anyone can help; very occasionally, having just booted, the whole thing crashes immediately after displaying my desktop. Absolutely nothing works at all, and I have to hard reset. No idea of how to start diagnosing this problem!
 
Soldato
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I actually undid my mess by running an uninstaller I found in the ati folder. This allowed me to "get to my desktop". Not sure why I was instructed to edit my xorg.conf file because it seemed to make little difference. I kept checking in the days after 9.04 was released and it seems loads of people have had the same problem with the ati drivers so I'm glad its not just me. I only wanted them so I could enable the special desktop effects - I've got a 4850 there doing diddly squat!

Another problem I have is wireless. I have a BT wireless adapter which uses the broadcom chipset which are somewhat notorious apparantly. I don't think I've ever got this to work in any distro and I've had it years. I'm tempted to buy another ethernet powerline adapter so I never have to deal with it again.

Last but not least I tried installing Ubuntu on my works laptop (dual boot) but all it does is drop me into this "BusyBox" thing. No idea what that is and couldn't tinker further as it was cracking on home time.

Alas, I'm still willing to keep plugging away. I'm sure once things are set up it will be rock solid. I'm detmined to become a half decent linux admin.
 
Soldato
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Hope it's quicker than 8.10, I reverted to 8.04 on my desktop after discovering 8.10 was slower at FaH amongst other things.

There is some weirdness with 8.10, at least on the Live CD. www.betfair.com has been regularly stalling for no apparent reason. :mad:

I fire up the ancient 7.10 Live CD and all is perfect.

I wonder what changed. :confused:
 
Soldato
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9.04 is too unstable when using ext4. Someone broke it just before beta.
Apart from that it's better than 8.10 by a long way.

I still use 8.04 personally. It has the least quirks. Additionally, I've changed so much stuff that switching would be an annoyance I don't want right now. :D
 
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Which download should I get I find it a bit ambiguous- I have an Intel Quad 9450 ( which of course is 64bit)This one?:
64-bit PC (AMD64) desktop CD
" Choose this to take full advantage of computers based on the AMD64 or EM64T architecture (e.g., Athlon64, Opteron, EM64T Xeon, Core 2). If you have a non-64-bit processor made by AMD, or if you need full support for 32-bit code, use the Intel x86 images instead."
 
Associate
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Ive been playing around with the latest ubuntu for a few days now.

For a machine that just needs to use winword/excel 2007 and browse the net it is perfect.

My home pc and my parents pc will be getting this. goodbye malware.
 
Associate
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That link is great thanks for that!! I have used Linux on and off for a few years but it's really helpful to have some of the more obscure applications all together on one link!! (I always seem to spend a lot of time using BASH for things - it's just so powerful.) :cool:

As for leading to a bloated install - that is only the case if those programs all have stupid auto-start crapware like most comercial Windows applications. (I.e. HD space = OK, RAM space/CPU usage = bad). You only install what you need out of the list anyway.

Bob
 
Soldato
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Any pointers on how to run DVDs? I've downloaded all the relevant codecs, but it's hugely temperamental in Totem; last night I tried to play a movie and it shut off my display output, and I had to hard reboot the PC. It's the only niggle stopping me running Ubuntu 24/7 now :(
 
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