Ubuntu 8.10 – It’s Great But With A Couple Of Problems
I am in the process of making my desktop computer into a work computer by removing Windows XP and going down the Ubuntu (8.10 Intrepid Ibex) route.
I thought I’d share some of the problems I had just in case some other people find my solutions useful since from my Googling I notice quite a few people have some issues. I think also I made the problem a bit worse because I am using 64-bit on my Core2Duo.
Problem #1 : Can’t get my nVidia GeForce 6600GT to work with the nVidia binary blobs. I was using the latest out of the repositories and then tried the latest from nVidia and all I got was a blank screen and some not very helpful logs. I was getting seriously annoyed after hours of hacking at X configuration files and different nVidia drivers, almost to the point I was going to go out and buy an ATi in the hope open source or at least better drivers would be forthcoming.
Solution #1 : The way I ended up having to solve it was using the Beta 1.80 drivers from nVidia. Definitely not an ideal solution because I have now discovered problem #2.
Problem #2 : Songbird 1.0.0 won’t work. There are two places to get 64-bit debs for Songbird which are both listed here. It won’t start though – bah! On closer investigation glibc is complaining about and invalid free() call. In the callstack you can see the culprit is the nVidia driver. So now I have to ask myself do I want Songbird or a proper nVidia driver, but Firefox does work with no problems for me. There is also a report of the problem at the Songbird customer service site.
Problem #3 : Sound didn’t work for my motherboard. I knew the chip and driver required which was a snd-via82xx (serves me right for using such a cheapskate sound solution). So a quick sudo nano /etc/modules and adding the driver name to the end of the file fixed that problem. It just needed a restart for the kernel to pick up the change.
But, enough about problems, I am very impressed now I have the basic system up and running. The desktop effects are extremely nice and non-intrusive. You need to install the “Advanced Desktop Effects Settings (ccsm)” and “Compiz Fusion Icon” to gain access to the UI for customisation. I did a few minor tweaks mainly to switch off wobbly windows and enable the Expose-a-like “Scale”. In general the user interface all looks great. If you don’t have the graphics card problems I have there is a good set of instructions here on getting the drivers and running Compiz.
I also installed Flash 10 (for x64) and it worked flawlessly. I even managed to watch the Dr Who announcement on the iPlayer Watch BBC One Now option. Flash does eat CPU but it seems to work fine apart from the fullscreen option on iPlayer. And obviously Firefox is as good as ever. I’ve installed Screenlets and used the widget layer available in Compiz for the OSX-like Dashboard.
What I did next was to install Virtualbox 2.1 using the repository method (to override the ones available from Ubuntu). Then I proceeded to install Windows XP that was on this machine in the VM. After finding the right disk installation was faster than when it was actually on the hardware as were reboots. I am really impressed with this. It even activated first time!
Now I have a properly working system I can say that the 12 hours I spent (mostly trying to fix the unfixable) doing this was more than worthwhile because it boots fast, lets me work fast, and is completely controllable. The only hope I have is that there are some mature open-source video drivers (with 3D) out there in the future because then I will know which cards to buy for minimal hair loss. Also I swear the Ubuntu installation takes about ten minutes maximum compared to the unwieldy Windows installation.
And this is why Linux-based distros will never be a general desktop OS because even geeks find it difficult…
Say what you want about Windows but at least it just works.
Talking about “It Just Works”, isn’t Mac *Nix based? And they don’t seem to have these difficulties?
Instead of ramping up the versions numbers and adding “cool” features why not halt production and fix the problems that exist?
Definitely true. It’s part of the reason I never went fully down the Linux route because I failed to get my graphics card(s) or various other hardware to work numerous times.
Without a lot of computing knowledge or buying a specific computer that is fully supported from the get-go you won’t get too far unless you are lucky.
My Mac is a seamless experience which makes going back to Windows painful.
@Graham Reeds
“And this is why Linux-based distros will never be a general desktop OS because even geeks find it difficult…” – What do you mean by “this”? Difficulties caused by some driver which is not related to Linux, but related to nVidia (while ATI drivers from repositories work fine)? Or you can get an empty notebook working with Windows without hacking around? Keep paying to your antivirus provider, they need your support these days, but don’t talk about things you probably haven’t even tried.
@Garry
It’s a shame, but I think you’ve been unlucky. Did you try installing the NVIDIA drivers using EnvyNG?
@Graham
Linux is continuously evolving. It’s hardware support is not perfect, but it is rapidly closing the gap on Windows. In fact, many new devices that are unsupported on XP ARE supported on Linux. Rather than making sweeping statements about something you appear to have no direct experience of, as a friendly little challenge to an open-minded gent, why not try it for yourself?
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
Its free to download. You can try it without installing to your hard disk. I really don’t think you’ll find it difficult to use and unless you are particularly unlucky you will probably find it works far better than Windows.
I would love to hear what you have to say then…
I did not try anything like EnvyNG, but I did try the available drivers from the non-free repositories on Ubuntu and the ones from the nVidia website (which looks like the ones that EnvyNG wraps up nicely). The only one that worked with my card where I didn’t end up with a blank screen and X.Org errors was the beta 180 one. I did find a variety of other posts on the web where people have not been able to get 6600GT cards to work.
Personally, when ATi or Intel has mature open-source drivers I will definitely go there rather than trying hit and miss with binary blobs.
@dim: I mean by “this” the problems that Garry has. If a general Joe in the street spends £300 on a graphics card then he’d expect it to work in whatever operating system he uses.
@Nutsman: It’s been many years since I used a modern Linux. I have a virtualbox running a clone of the RedHat6 server that I have running. I know enough to just about get around. Problem is I like playing Games, something Linux can’t do. And before you start frothing at the mouth and blurting out WINE or VirtualBox you are still using Windows. So much for going “alternative”.
@Garry Bodsworth
Same question again, if you still don’t get. How the driver problem forces you to say “Linux-based distros will never be a general desktop OS”? I had multiple problems with drivers in Windows (for example, with my not-so old Creative sound card in Vista), did I have to say the same about Windows?
“It’s been many years since I used a modern Linux. ” Wow, then you’re definitely a Linux expert to say what you’ve said. Once again, don’t switch, keep paying. Just don’t talk about things you don’t understand.
@Garry
As I said. I think you’ve been unlucky. I have an 8800GT and it works fine. EnvyNG is a very popular way to install the proprietary drivers since it not only chooses the correct driver for your hardware, but runs a script to set up the Xorg config afterwards. Give it a go…
@ Garry
…Haha – “Frothing at the mouth”
“Many years”, you say. Well would you rather stay in the dark than spend a few minutes trying a RECENT DESKTOP linux distro. e.g. Ubuntu or Mint? Instead of hanging around here voicing opinions about stuff you haven’t tried, give it a whirl. Really… I wanna here how you get on. You’ve only your ignorance to lose
I too am a gamer. For which I dual boot into Windows. Incidently, for interest (and though you are wrong that to use WINE is to use Windows, unlike Virtualbox+Windows, I agree with you totally that this it is not an ideal solution) I did try using WINE for my fave flight sim – IL2 – 1946, and though some features of the game didn’t work, the in-game frame-rates were appreciably higher than under Windows. Of course, openGL is supported natively in Linux unlike DirectX. The potential is there for a gaming platform that will outstrip Windows in the near future. Valve are currently porting Steam over to Linux. Major Linux gaming is just around the corner…
Haha!! And I just read that Red Hat 6 was released in April 1999. I’ve only been using Linux for about 3 years and the progress made in those 3 years has been huge. There is simply no comparison between a server edition of Red Hat from 1999/2000 and the desktop Linux distros of today.
Do you listen to Genesis too?
@Garry
I should say thanks for trying Linux, for having the persistence to “solve” your driver issues, and finally for blogging your findings.
From what you have written, you have already discovered there are many immediate things to like about Linux, but some of the really great benefits (openness, ‘customizability’, stability and security) you will undoubtedly appreciate given more time.
Have fun! And let us know how it goes…
I’ve been using Linux in VMs for a while now, which means I never have any hardware headaches. But I was spending more and more time in those VMs, so I decided it was best to go the whole hog.
I only put this information up so other people that encounter the same issue(s) don’t need to mess around for ages.
@Garry
Sorry, I meant @Graham Reeds in my previous post.