Lucid will not work on my system

[jwhibdon]

I guess I am stuck with Ubuntu Lucid. Kubuntu Lucid just simply will not work on my system. Ubuntu works just fine running Nvidia 195 driver. I can even install most of KDE but if I try to install KDM it crashes and I can't even get into Ubuntu and have to reinstall. I can install Digikam, K3B, and Amarok which installs a large part of KDE and it keeps working. I have tried it with the Nvidia 190 Driver it works but the 195 Drives appears faster maybe not just my thought. The 185 Driver will not work even in Ubuntu.

I am thinking about switching to a ATI Card and see if I have better luck. Any bets on that. It would just screw up everything else I have running.

Not related but I hate Grub2. I can not figure it out and every time I install a new version it screws up my default boot into Kubuntu 9.10 and I can never figure out how to change it back. This appears like something that need a lot of help it should be the simplest thing to do and be clear to everyone. LOL Never happen someone wants to keep us newbes in the dark.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Lucid will not work on my system

I guess I am stuck with Ubuntu Lucid. Kubuntu Lucid just simply will not work on my system. Ubuntu works just fine running Nvidia 195 driver. I can even install most of KDE but if I try to install KDM it crashes and I can't even get into Ubuntu and have to reinstall. I can install Digikam, K3B, and Amarok which installs a large part of KDE and it keeps working. I have tried it with the Nvidia 190 Driver it works but the 195 Drives appears faster maybe not just my thought. The 185 Driver will not work even in Ubuntu.

On a friends 5 year old Toshiba the Nividia 185 worked well but the 190 didn't, so I locked the 185 driver.

I am thinking about switching to a ATI Card and see if I have better luck. Any bets on that. It would just screw up everything else I have running.

It depends on which ATI driver you might need. If it is older than the 9800 series, IIRC, you might have to look into some old archives.

Not related but I hate Grub2. I can not figure it out and every time I install a new version it screws up my default boot into Kubuntu 9.10 and I can never figure out how to change it back. This appears like something that need a lot of help it should be the simplest thing to do and be clear to everyone. LOL Never happen someone wants to keep us newbes in the dark.

I don't like it either. It is DEFINITELY more complicated to configure than grub. Editing menu.list to set the default boot is a LOT easier than in Grub2. For example, it's not easy to control the sequence of the listings of the kernels in /boot/grub so one has to edit /etc/default/grub and set "GRUB_DEFAULT=" to the menu entry line count of the desired kernel or OS. How do you determine that? By counting the lines, starting with 1, which begin with "menuentry" in /boot/grub/grub.cfg until you get to the line which lists the kernel you want as the default kernel. That count is saved in /etc/default/grup and then update-grub2 is run. Quite frankly, that is too complicated and far from intuitive. It wouldn't be so bad if there were a decent GUI grub2 editor in systemsettings which presented all those modifiable parameters so one could check a few boxes and click "Apply".

Part of the problem is that Grub2 doesn't work well with itself. On this Sony VAIO laptop I used to have VISTA in the first 140GB and Kubuntu 9.04 Jaunty in the remaining 40GB. The boot flag was put on the second partition and Grub2 on that location took over the boot menu responsibilities. When I later blew away VISTA and replaced it with KK 9.10, Grub2 was installed in the 140Gb partition but the Grub2 in the 40Gb partition still controls the boot.

However, these are just periods of inconvenience as booting is switched from grub to grub2. The good GUI interface will come and the dual grub2 installations, with one being defective or useless, will disappear.

A similar situation has arisen with the video drivers. It used to be that an xorg.conf file was awlays generated and one could edit it to tweak or fix the video display. Now, HAL doesn't create xorg.conf by default and a LOT of folks do not know what to do if HAL can't recognize or mis-configures the video and the user ends up with a console or a black screen which doesn't work, instead of the KDE4 desktop. Not many know to do "X --configure" (IF that is the command, my memory fades in and out at times) so getting a working video a problem some folks need help in solving. Also, while Linux works well on older machines and laptops, changes and advances in video chips have generated a lot of new drivers, some still buggy, while at the same time support for older chips is fading away as they are no longer included in the iso or repositories. Then the users of older machines are faced with manually installing old video drivers from vendors (IF the vendors continue to make the drivers available for download).

So, there is no conspiracy to "keep newbies in the dark". The PC market (boxes, laptops, notebooks and netbooks, along with printers, scanners, cameras and peripheral devices of all kinds) is in a state of rapid flux, something over which Linux developers have no control. Their development, support and maintenance load is likewise increasing an an unbelievable pace. It amazes me that Kubuntu and the other distros achieve such capabilities that they rival or exceed the best that proprietary houses pay to have developed. Part of the reason is the Linux users are also testers and do their part in reporting bugs, dislikes or wishes to the bugzillas around the web. Few developers visit forums like this to find bug reports. It just isn't practical for them. They have families, jobs, responsibilities and need free time too. That's why we send our reports to bugzillas, so they can look in one place to obtain the data they need, and the suggestions, to make improvements in those parts of Linux that they work on.

Ya gotta love each and every one of them for their selfless sacrifices and contributions to FOSS.

[Untitled]

Re: Lucid will not work on my system

I am thinking about switching to a ATI Card and see if I have better luck. Any bets on that. It would just screw up everything else I have running.

Just be aware that the proprietary ATI drivers are not yet available for Lucid. The open source radeon driver is available but it has some limitations on newer cards.