Posts Tagged ‘fglrx’

Ubuntu 9.04 and Kubuntu 9.04 beta released

8 Comments
Posted 27 Mar 2009 — by Arun
Category Announcement, Ubuntu

Ubuntu team has released the beta version of Ubuntu 9.04. If you are planning to install Ubuntu 9.04 beta, please read the known issues section below before proceeding. Here are some of the new features in Ubuntu 9.04:

  • Ubuntu 9.04 Beta includes the latest GNOME 2.26 desktop environment.
  • Improved handling of multiple monitors with an updated gnome-display-properties.
  • The latest X.Org server, version 1.6.
  • The -ati driver has received numerous fixes and performance improvements. It now uses the EXA acceleration method by default. 2D acceleration support for the newest R6xx/R7xx family of cards is also available. 3D support is available up to R5xx cards for -ati. An updated -fglrx proprietary driver is available for R6xx/R7xx users who need 3D support.
  • New style for notifications and an option to set the notification preferences.
  • A number of improvements to the Ubuntu start-up process bring significantly improved boot performance to Ubuntu 9.04.
  • Ubuntu 9.04 Beta includes the 2.6.28-11.37 kernel based on 2.6.28.8.
  • Ubuntu 9.04 Beta supports the option of installing the new ext4 file system. ext3 will remain the default filesystem.
  • Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition makes it easy to experiment with cloud computing. Eucalyptus, an open source technology which is included in Ubuntu as a technology preview, enables you to use your own servers to deploy, experiment and test your own private cloud that matches the Amazon EC2 API.
  • The dovecot-postfix package in Ubuntu 9.04 Beta provides an easy-to-deploy mail server stack, with support for SMTP, POP3, and IMAP with TLS and SASL.

Here are the list of know issues in Ubuntu 9.04 beta.

  • A bug in an Ubuntu-specific patch to X server logging code will cause X sessions to crash after they have been running for longer than a day. Users encountering this bug should upgrade to the latest version of the xserver-xorg-core package, which will be available immediately after the beta release.
  • Some users of Intel i8×5 video chipsets are unable to load X, getting an error message of “Fatal server error: Couldn’t bind memory for BO front buffer”. As a workaround, use the VESA driver by logging into a text console, running “sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf”, and adding the line Driver "vesa" to the Device section.
  • Users of Intel video chipsets have reported performance regressions in Ubuntu 8.10 compared with previous releases. Although these performance issues have not been resolved by default in Ubuntu 9.04, a new experimental acceleration architecture option, DRI2/UXA, is available for Intel graphics users. Testing has found this provides significant performance improvements for many users, but has also shown risk of severe stability problems, thus it’s not available to the general public.
  • Ctrl-Alt-Backspace is now disabled, to reduce issues experienced by users who accidentally trigger the key combo. Users who do want this function can enable it in their xorg.conf, or via the command dontzap --disable.
  • Ubuntu 8.10 systems installed from the desktop CD mistakenly had the lilo package installed as well as grub, although grub was used for booting. If you use the recommended Update Manager upgrade method, then the lilo package will be removed if it does not appear to be used.
  • On the timezone map in the desktop CD installer, the markers for cities are displaced from their correct locations. Users should be aware of this issue when selecting their timezone.
  • If any filesystems are mounted when starting the desktop CD installer, then a dialog labelled “Unmount partitions that are in use?” will be presented. Unfortunately, the buttons on this dialog box are poorly named: “Continue” attempts to unmount filesystems and then repeats, which will often just display the same dialog box again, while “Go Back” ignores this condition and continues.
  • On desktop installations from USB disks, such as typical Ubuntu Netbook Remix installations, the installer displays a warning about the fact that the installation medium itself (often /dev/sdb) is mounted. This warning is unnecessary, because the fact that it is mounted is completely normal, and does not interfere with the user’s ability to install the system to devices other than the USB disk itself.
  • In some cases, the “Prepare Disk Space” screen in the desktop installer displays obviously incorrect partition sizes in its graphical disk previews. This is only an error in the preview and does not reflect a problem with the partitioning changes that will actually be applied.
  • When installing to a system with another OS previously installed, the migration assistant will offer to migrate settings and documents even when the entire disk is being overwritten.
  • Users who were running eCryptfs on the Jaunty Alpha milestones are advised to re-encrypt any encrypted files. An upstream 2.6.28 kernel bug caused random kernel memory to be written to eCryptfs encrypted file headers. The fix has been applied and deployed to Ubuntu users in the Jaunty Beta kernel. Ubuntu eCryptfs users running this kernel should re-encrypt each encrypted file using /usr/bin/ecryptfs-rewrite-file.
  • Users of Compaq Smart Array controllers will be unable to remove existing LVM volumes using the partitioner in the installer.
  • The mdadm package in Ubuntu 9.04 Beta will fail to assemble RAID10 arrays on boot. Other types of RAID are not affected.
  • Booting degraded RAID may fail in virtual-machine setups where the host is running with cpu frequency scaling enabled, due to a non-deterministic race condition.
  • Upgrading a desktop system using an ATI video chipset with the fglrx binary-only driver may result in a warning that the driver needs to be replaced. There is a bug in the driver replacement logic, so if you see this prompt, please cancel the upgrade until this is fixed, which will happen immediately after the beta release.

Kubuntu team has released the beta version of Kubuntu 9.04. Here are the new features in Kubuntu 9.04:

  • Kubuntu 9.04 Beta includes KDE 4.2.1
  • Kubuntu 9.04 ships with latest Qt, version 4.5, which brings a faster desktop experience as well as new features.
  • Kubuntu Jaunty now includes a new software manager: KPackageKit.
  • Quassel is a new IRC client that is now the default for Kubuntu Jaunty.
  • Jaunty Jackalope now comes with the recently-released Amarok 2.0.2.
  • The new plasma-widget-network-manager replaces the old KNetworkManager applet.
  • KTorrent has been updated to version 3.2.
  • Kdebluetooth has been updated and is back in action, fixing the major bluetooth issues that plauged Kubuntu 8.10.

Known issues in Kubuntu 9.04:

  • Kmail sieve functionality is buggy and causes CPU hang. You shouldn’t use it at the moment.


















Source: Ubuntu release note, Kubuntu release note.

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Outstanding issues in Ubuntu 8.10

2 Comments
Posted 30 Oct 2008 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

If you are planning to install or upgrade to the newly released Ubuntu 8.10, please go through this list of outstanding issues at the time of the release. Make sure your upgrade won’t hit one of the bugs listed and if it might, then make sure there is a workaround before you proceed.

Losing keyboard and mouse control when changing screen brightness with fn + arrow in laptops under intrepid
If you press Fn + Arrow keys to adjust brightness, most of mouse and keyboard keys stop working. Check bug 285323.

Hard disks potentially not shown when installing in Live CD mode
If a user browses a hard disk in Live CD mode before choosing to install, Ubiquity will not allow installation onto this disk because disks cannot be partitioned if they have busy (mounted) partitions. To use a mounted disk for installation, first unmount the drive before attempting to install.

Slow start to “Select and install software” step in text-mode installer
The “Select and install software” step in the text-mode install CD may appear to hang at a low single-digit percentage. This is particularly the case for netboot installations, where there will be no progress bar updates at all while downloading packages. This is due to a fault in the interaction between the installer and apt-get, which was diagnosed too late to fix for Ubuntu 8.10: bug 290234.

MID image requires a network for successful installation
When trying to install the Ubuntu MID (Mobile Internet Device) image without a network, the installer displays a pop-up dialog in a loop near the end of the installation while scanning the archive. The only way to break this loop is to connect to a network (bug 288320).

Recommended packages installed by default
In accordance with the Debian Policy Manual, the package management system now installs packages listed in the Recommends: field of other installed packages as well as Depends: by default. If you want to avoid this for specific packages, use apt-get –no-install-recommends; if you want to make this permanent, set APT::Install-Recommends ”false”; in /etc/apt/apt.conf. Be aware that this may result in missing features in
some programs.

Password limitation with ecryptfs
Users of the alternate/server installation who choose a password containing a “%” or a “-” will end up with an encrypted ~/Private directory that will not mount on reboot and subsequent logins. To fix this, affected users will need to do the following in the newly installed system:
1. Update ecryptfs-utils to at least version 53-1ubuntu12 (as soon as it becomes available as a package update)
2.Run: $ ecryptfs-setup-private –force
For more information on the bug and solution approach see bug #290445.

nVidia “legacy” video support
The 71 and 96 series of proprietary nVidia drivers, as provided by the nvidia-glx-legacy and nvidia-glx packages in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, are not compatible with the X.Org included in Ubuntu 8.10. Users with the nVidia TNT, TNT2, TNT Ultra, GeForce, GeForce2, GeForce3, and GeForce4 chipsets are affected and will be transitioned on upgrade to the free nv driver instead. This driver does not support 3D acceleration.

Users of other nVidia chipsets that are supported by the 173 or 177 driver series will be transitioned to the nvidia-glx-173 or nvidia-glx-177 package instead. However, unlike drivers 96 and 71, drivers 173 and 177 are only compatible with CPUs that support SSE (e.g. Intel Pentium III, AMD Athlon XP or higher). Systems with older CPUs will also be transitioned to the nv driver on upgrade.

ATI “fglrx” video support
The ATI video driver in 8.10 drops support for video cards with r300 based chips (the Radeon 9500 – X600 Series of cards). If you have such a card, please use “Hardware Drivers” at System/Administration to disable it before the upgrade. Please see bug 284408 for more information

X.Org Input Devices
The X.Org configuration file (/etc/X11/xorg.conf) still has InputDevice entries for the mouse and keyboard, but they are ignored now because input-hotplug is used. The keyboard settings now come from /etc/default/console-setup; to change them please use sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup. After that, HAL and X need to be restarted .

Toshiba laptop hotkey support
The tlsup kernel driver included in Linux 2.6.27 for support for Toshiba laptops is not compatible with the X.Org 1.5 event model, as a result of which hotkeys on these laptops are not usable with Ubuntu 8.10. This will be addressed in a post-release kernel update to reintroduce the toshiba_acpi driver.

Boot failures on systems with Intel D945 motherboards
Users have reported slower than normal detection of SATA hard drives on systems with Intel D945 motherboards in Ubuntu 8.10. This may cause the system to drop to a busybox initramfs shell on boot with a “Gave up waiting for root device.” error. Wait a minute or two and then exit the initramfs shell by typing ‘exit’. Booting should proceed normally. If it doesn’t, wait a bit longer and try again. Once the system boots, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and add rootdelay=90 to the kernel stanza for your current kernel. (Bug 290153).

System lock-ups with Intel 4965 wireless
The version of the iwlagn wireless driver for Intel 4965 wireless chipsets included in Linux kernel version 2.6.27 causes kernel panics when used with 802.11n or 802.11g networks. Users affected by this issue can install the linux-backports-modules-intrepid package, to install a newer version of this driver that corrects the bug. (Because the known fix requires a new version of the driver, it is not expected to be possible to include this fix in the main kernel package.)

Cannot reactivate Intel 3945/4965 wireless if booting with killswitch enabled
On laptops with Intel 3945 or Intel 4965 wireless chipsets and a killswitch for the wireless antenna, starting the system with the killswitch enabled (i.e., with wireless disabled) will prevent re-enabling the wireless by toggling the killswitch. As a workaround, users should boot the system with the killswitch disabled. A future kernel update is expected to address this issue.

Atheros ath5k wireless driver not enabled by default
The version of the ath5k driver for Atheros wireless devices included in Linux 2.6.27 interferes with the use of the madwifi driver for some wireless devices and as a result has been disabled by default. Many Atheros chipsets will work correctly with the madwifi driver, but some newer chipsets may not, and the madwifi driver may not work with WPA authentication. If you have an Atheros device that does not work with madwifi, you will want to install the linux-backports-modules-intrepid-generic package, which includes an updated version of the ath5k driver. While not installed by default, this linux-backports-modules-intrepid-generic package is included on the Ubuntu 8.10 CD and DVD images for ease of installation.

iSCSI boot order
File systems hosted on iSCSI targets may not be mounted automatically at boot time, even if they have an entry in /etc/fstab, if a bridged or bonded Ethernet interface is required to reach the iSCSI target. As a work-around, you would have to restart the open-iscsi service and manually mount the file system in question after system boot, once the required network interface have been brought up. Systems equipped with a plain Ethernet interface are not affected. See bug 227848.

Cannot mount more than one iSCSI target
Mounting multiple iSCSI targets at the same time is currently not supported. Systems configured to use more than one iSCSI targets should not be upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10.
For more information on the bug and solution approach see bug 289470.

Wireless doesn’t work after suspend with ath_pci driver
Wireless devices that use the ath_pci kernel driver, such as the Atheros AR5212 wireless card, will be unable to connect to the network after using suspend and resume. To work around this issue, users can create a file /etc/pm/config.d/madwifi containing the single line:
SUSPEND_MODULES=ath_pci
This will cause the module to be unloaded before suspend and reloaded on resume.

Kubuntu Bluetooth support
Bluetooth is not supported in Kubuntu 8.10 because KDE does not yet support the bluez 4.x stack required for compatibility with the kernel used in 8.10. A fix for this is being evaluated as a post-release update. (Bug 280997)

KNetworkManager cannot manage connections with static IPs
KNetworkManager in Kubuntu 8.10 sometimes fails with network connections that require static IP address configuration (bug 280762). Connections which use DHCP for IP address configuration are not affected by this problem.

Only US wireless channels enabled by default on Intel 3945
The iwl3945 wireless driver defaults to the US regulatory domain for wireless, so wireless networks on channels forbidden by US regulations but permitted by European or Japanese regulations will not work out of the box. This affects IEEE 802.11b/g channels 12 (Europe and Japan), 13 (Europe and Japan), and 14 (Japan only), as well as all 802.11a channels. (Some other wireless drivers may be affected; this is the only one we are sure of so far.)
To work around this, add the following line to the /etc/modprobe.d/options file if you use this driver and need to use European wireless channels:
options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=EU
Alternatively, add the following line if you use this driver and need to use Japanese wireless channels:
options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=JP

CD eject problems
After ejecting a CD tray containing a disc, the tray will be immediately retracted, making it difficult to remove the disc (bug 283316). This can be worked around by pressing the eject button again before the disc is fully mounted, after which it will stay open. We expect to fix this in a post-release update.

Hangs with desktop effects on Intel 830MG and 845G video cards
There is a bug in the Intel video driver for the older intel 830 and 845 integrated video cards that are used on laptops like the IBM R30. Desktop effects with compiz will not work on those chips and will freeze the system. For new installations, please install using the safe graphics mode (press F4 in the startup screen) on these systems and disable desktop effects via System -> Preferences -> Appearance, clicking on “Visual effects” and choosing “None”.

I haven’t listed all the bugs. For more information, please check Ubuntu release note.

Source: Ubuntu.

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ATI driver with new XOrg support released

2 Comments
Posted 15 Oct 2008 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

ATI released ATI Catalyst 8.10 (fglrx) driver today with support for XOrg 7.4, which is part of Ubuntu 8.10. The release note is not yet available and the driver page doesn’t show 7.4 under package includes, but threads in Ubuntu forums say it includes the new XOrg and Wikipedia also says it includes Ubuntu 8.10 support. I’ll give it a try sometime this week to see how it works.

(Wikipedia entry)

(ATI entry)

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Ubuntu and Kubuntu 8.10 beta released

2 Comments
Posted 03 Oct 2008 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

Ubuntu team has released the first beta of Ubuntu 8.10 code named Intrepid Ibex. There are couple of issues I’m having with Ubuntu 8.10.
The 1st one is the ATI proprietary driver fglrx which is not compatible with the new Xorg, so Ubuntu will default you to open source driver which is quite slow in my system. Using GMail in Firefox is also terribly slow. I’m not sure if it’s due to the driver issue or Firefox issue or installation issue on my laptop.
The 2nd one is webcam. Ubuntu 8.10 detected my webcam as usb camera (It’s a built in webcam). Ubuntu 8.04 and previous version correctly detected it as Logitech Quickcam and the video worked fine on AMSN, Skype etc. The video doesn’t work with AMSN in Ubuntu 8.10 and with Skype, I get only green color with my face outline. I’m not sure if it’s a known bug.
The reason why I’m still with 8.10 is the wireless network. It’s works much better and detects and connects to the network much better. Again there is an issue here. Network manager doesn’t store the key. You have to enter the key each time.

The beta version also adds support for digital contents from BBC in Totem. To enable it, start Totem  Applications -> Sound & Video -> Movie Player), enable the plugin (Edit -> Plugins -> BBC content viewer) and select “BBC” from the drop-down labelled “Playlist”. The feed is fetched from a staging server at the moment so there may be a delay while it is downloaded.

Here are some issues published by Ubuntu with 8.10:

  • The fglrx and two of the older nvidia binary drivers are not available for X.Org 7.4 yet, so users of these drivers will be automatically switched to the corresponding open source drivers.
  • A problem that could result in corruption of the firmware on Intel GigE ethernet hardware has led to the disabling of the e1000e driver in the Linux kernel included in Ubuntu 8.10 Beta. Ethernet devices that use this driver cannot be used with Ubuntu 8.10 Beta; support for this hardware will be re-enabled in daily builds immediately after Beta and this issue will be resolved for the Ubuntu 8.10 final release.
  • Clicking on links in GNOME programs, such as evolution, will not launch firefox automatically due to a bug in a wrapper script used by the firefox-3.0 package. As a workaround, users can launch firefox manually and copy and paste links into the location bar.
  • NetworkManager 0.7 as included in Ubuntu 8.10 Beta is not compatible with static network configuration in /etc/network/interfaces. New installations are not affected by this issue because NetworkManager will manage all interfaces by default. Users upgrading from previous Ubuntu releases can work around this issue by disabling NetworkManager at startup.

Kubuntu also released their 1st beta version of Kubuntu 8.10. Here are some new features in Kubuntu.

  • Intrepid Ibex Beta brings with it KDE 4.1.2.
  • Intrepid Ibex comes with an all-new KDE 4 version of the Adept Package manager, Adept 3.0.
  • Desktop effects enabled by default.
  • The all new update-notifier-kde serves as an update-notifier and an apport crash notifier for Intrepid Ibex.
  • In Intrepid Ibex beta, KMix now supports the multimedia-button functionality that various keyboards offer.

Source: Ubuntu, Kubuntu.

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Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 5 upgrade

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Posted 24 Sep 2008 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

I upgraded my Ubuntu installation in my laptop Acer Travelmate 8204 from Ubuntu 8.04 to Ubuntu 8.10. It’s an upgrade and not a fresh installation. I had both Ubuntu and Kubuntu 8.04 installed in my laptop and I set Kubuntu as default and was using that for the past few weeks to test KDE 4.1. I didn’t want to download the complete ISO file of the alpha version to upgrade, but I couldn’t find an option in Kubuntu to do a pre-release upgrade. I used update-manager -d in a Kubuntu terminal and it started the Ubuntu upgrade manager. I proceded with the upgrade.

After the upgrade was done, I restarted the system. I got an error that kdm was not loaded, so I was not getting the login screen. I then logged on to command line and reconfigured my system to use gdm. I still couldn’t login to Kubuntu using GDM. I then chose Ubuntu as default and logged into Ubuntu. When I checked Synaptic, kdm was not installed. The upgrade screwed it up. I then completely uninstalled Kubuntu and am using Ubuntu 8.10 now.

The good thing about Ubuntu 8.10 is, my wireless card light is on now. Though the wireless worked, the light never came on after I moved to Ubuntu 8.04. The light now works good and even the wireless card works pretty good. With Ubuntu 8.04, I had to be near the router to conenct before I take my laptop to another place, but now I could connect from anywhere in my house. That’s a big improvement and a good one too. The only bug now is, Ubuntu does not store the key, so you have to enter the key each time. I hope this gets fixed soon.

Another major issue with the new Ubuntu (actually the new xorg) is the ATI driver support. The new Xorg is not supported by current version of fglrx driver. I have to use the open source ATI driver. Though it’s not slow for normal use, Firefox is painfully slow when I access my gmail account. I’m not sure if it’s the driver issue or Firefox. I hope ATI supports the new Xorg before the final release of Ubuntu 8.10.The system is slow if I use Compiz.

I’m going to stick with Ubuntu alpha version for now just because the wireless works better. I hope the rest of the bugs are fixed when it moves to beta.

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Issues with Skype video in Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

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Posted 14 Nov 2007 — by Arun
Category Technology

I wrote earlier about Skype 2.0 beta with Webcam support for Linux detected my webcam. I also wrote that I have to chat with someone to see if it works. There are 2 issues here.

Issue 1: Skype detected my laptop’s (Acer Travelmate 8204) inbuilt webcam (Logitech orbicam), but the video didn’t work. The test screen was showing a blank video window. I’m not sure if it’s due to the webcam model or the video card (ATI Radeon Mobility X1600). There are some issues related to ATI’s Linux driver. I have listed the known problems with Skype beta 2 below (after Issue 2).

Issue 2: As I wrote earlier, Skype detected my desktop webcam (Logitech Quickcam) and the test video was good. I then initiated a video chat with my parents yesterday. The video started fine and the quality was pretty good initially (close to Windows), but then the video got quite darker. They could see only the table light, outline of my face etc. Everything else was dark. I then stopped my webcam and restarted it. The video again started fine and went dark after a minute or two. It doesn’t go blank, but it gets too dark. I have NVidia GeForce FX 5600 card in my desktop.

Here are the list of issues that are fixed and would be available in the next release:

  •  Using uvc webcam driver with new Logitech cameras can cause a split video effect which does not recover until you restart video.
  • Using uvc webcam driver with ATi fglrx graphics card driver results in a memory leak and potential crash currently.
  • v4l webcams (including gspca) causes a crash when changing to low-quality mode (160×120) when there is no camera support.
  • v4l webcams that only capture in 352×288 are not supported.

Here are the list of issues that are being worked on currently:

  • There is a noticable flickering effect if you focus in/out of the call window during a video call.
  • V4L (1) cameras can sometimes crash upon conclusion of the call.
  • Drivers which don’t support capturing at 320×240 cause Skype video feature to not function (V4L) or display many broken lines in the wrong resolution (V4L2).

Here are other known (outstanding) issues:

  • Full-screen mode stretches out of aspect on widescreen monitors.
  • iSight camera doesn’t work due to currently unsupported UYVY image format.
  • Syntek/stv680/quickcam_messenger cameras don’t work due to currently unsupported RGB image format.
  • Using a display driver with only a single Xv port means you can only see video in one direction currently.
  • Using a display driver with no Xv support will not work at all.
  • ATi fglrx driver versions before 8.42.3 may crash your X server and lock up video during the call.
  • ATi fglrx driver version 8.42.3 may crash your X server and lock up video at the beginning of the call.

Source: Skype Forum.

Skype

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