SOLVED New Kernel - New Problems; grub,cfg; display size, restart button.

[PJJ]

This morning I installed the latest updates to 10.04, Alpha 3. The installation was working flawlessly and reliably last night. So well in fact that I considered using it as my main system from now on out (data on separate partitions/drives).

No more. After the upgrade the following new issues were present:

1. Grub did not find and list as start-up option a second hard drive and its partitions;
2. The 'Leave' button on the K-Menu did not get me to a restart or shutoff. CLI required to shut off.
3. Display is set to 800x600 resolution and can not be adjusted via System Settings.

Update-grub command fixed the first problem (on a fresh start in recovery mode).
A command line 'shutdown -r now' will get you out of the system, but is an inconvenience.
I have not yet solved the problem with the display resolution. May have to install nvidia driver and use nvidia-settings to adjust the resolution.

With the exception of the grub problem, all other problems are repeats of issues that occurred before and were fixed.
How come "updates" that are meant to improve an OS always have a few retrograde improvements added?

Does anyone else find these problems as well?

[vista killer]

Re: New Kernel - New Problems; grub,cfg; display size and restart button.

What gpu you have? Have you try to reinstall your video driver?

[PJJ]

Re: New Kernel - New Problems; grub,cfg; display size and restart button.

Update:

I re-installed envy-ng, used it on the command line and first installed the nvidia driver 173. It is the recommended driver but it did not give a proper result; resolution stuck on 640x800.

Removed nvidia driver and installed nvidia 96 driver. Now I can adjust resolution size properly. Problem remains that I can not save the screen configuration file.

I corrected grub manually. It works now properly but it did need my help.

Writing this from 9.10. Now comes the real test - back to 10-04.

[dibl]

Re: New Kernel - New Problems; grub,cfg; display size and restart button.

Problem remains that I can not save the screen configuration file.

Alt-F2 "kdesudo nvidia-settings"

Adjust the screen resolution, then click "Save to X Configuration File" button on the bottom right of the panel. This will overwrite the "screen" stanza in /etc/X11/xorg.conf with your chosen screen size.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: New Kernel - New Problems; grub,cfg; display size and restart button.

So I guess this means, I am not having all of the fun with video on Lucid?

OK, here is what I have learned so far:

If plymouth is installed, it is dragging in nouveau libraries that will whack the NVIDIA driver. You can remove the nouveau-firmware package and reboot, but then the real fun starts, as the video display goes dead, and I mean dead, power shutdown, not even a black screen.

Here is what I had to do:

When booting, highlight the menu item, hit 'e', and then manually remove the splash option if it is there, and enter the 'nomodeset' option. Then hit CTRL-X. This will bring you to the usual graphics failure menu, from which you can get to the console. You can then reinstall your NVIDIA driver (sorry, I don't know about the envy-ng thing, I use the driver downloaded from NVIDIA's website). You will then have to edit the /etc/default/grub file, and add the nomodeset option to the CMDLINE setting like this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset"

and then sudo update-grub.

This is going to give you the cruddy looking 80x32 or whatever it is console, but at least the system will boot into a useable video driver.

The alternative is to go with nouveau, which I tried. It does work, and the mode setting also works, and so does plymouth, but alas, no acceleration, which renders it useless for gaming, or if you like kde's compositing features. I wound up removing plymouth.

Hopefully this will all straighten out eventually. But as the OP said, it worked beautifully last night, and I too was contemplating switching from karmic. No longer.

[dibl]

Re: New Kernel - New Problems; grub,cfg; display size and restart button.

I did not touch Plymouth -- I just ripped out nouveau, and installed the downloaded Nvidia driver. There was no drama -- it installed correctly and runs my Samsung CRT in 1600x1200 with no issues. See screenshot above.

I did decide to skip the Compiz setup, when I found the Desktop Effects "cube" effect seems to get me what I need -- a mouse-wheel rotation so I can change desktops with one hand.

[PJJ]

SOLVED New Kernel - New Problems; grub,cfg; display size, restart button.

Thanks for the hint, Dibl.
I already tried that. Unfortunately my nvidia-settings is less than cooperative. It goes through the steps, even changes the resolution but stubbornly refuses to safe the new config file by claiming it cannot parse - well, something. It's a well known bug. the new settings stay around but at reboot time everythig reverts back to the old settings.

This time I beat it by copying the contents of my config file from 9.10 (where everything nvidia works) into the xorg.conf file of the 10-04 installation. Had to overcome the 'hal' bug that does not want to recognize my second hard drive and its partitions. Beat the system anyway.

Everything is fine now, ended up with a 1280x?? resolution. Yet, it was adjustable.

I consider the issues solved on my computer.

Problem remains that I can not save the screen configuration file.

Alt-F2 "kdesudo nvidia-settings"

Adjust the screen resolution, then click "Save to X Configuration File" button on the bottom right of the panel. This will overwrite the "screen" stanza in /etc/X11/xorg.conf with your chosen screen size.

[PJJ]

Re: New Kernel - New Problems; grub,cfg; display size and restart button.

Guess this time I lucked out. I had removed the nouveau driver a while ago just because I found clear step by step removal instructions. But I could not get envy-ng to install. Synaptic and Aptitude could not find it and I could not read the list of repositories because the nvidia driver gave me a 640x800(?) screen with super mini fonts. Useless.

That's my reason for just copying the text of the config file from one OS version to the other. Sometimes it helps not to be an expert and to do some improvisations.

Next project: Find and install envy-ng.

So I guess this means, I am not having all of the fun with video on Lucid?

OK, here is what I have learned so far:

. . . You can remove the nouveau-firmware package and reboot. . .