Serious problem with 12.04 i386.

[lnxusr]

There is something seriously wrong with the i386 version of Kubuntu 12.04, and I have no idea how to even begin a bug report on it, so I'll begin here and report my experiences with it. Allot of this is from memory, so forgive me if I forget something.

My system:

Ausus M5A97 Motherboard
AMD Phenom X6 1090T processor
8 GB DDR3 RAM
Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 based graphics card with 1GB DDR3 RAM.

It all started a week or so, I believe, after 12.04 was released, when I did a system upgrade from 11.10. Phonon is totally hosed on this setup. VLC sound is scratch, at best, and any attempt to adjust volume during any sound being played will, at first, create an echo effect, then, if I keep adjusting it, the system will freeze.

After fighting with that for a few days, I went back to 11.10, which works like a charm. Today, I decided to give the amd64 version a try. After base install, sound works great, VLC works great and there seemed to be no problems at all. That is, until I tried to run Eclipse. Eclipse dosen't seem to like openjdk, at least not on my system. Trying to install the official java was fruitless, Eclipse kept crashing, and I need eclipse now so trouble shooting java is not an option at this time.

I then decided, since there were no problems with the amd64 build, Nvidia drivers installed automatically, sound was working without scratchiness and/or echo-hangups and dragging windows across the screen was snappy, I would go with a clean install of the i386 build. Same sources, right? It had to be a problem with the upgrade form 11.10, right? Well, no. A fresh install of the i386 build results in the same problems as an upgrade from 11.10 did with the added issue of not installing the Nvidia drivers. Also, after installing the Nvidia drivers, video does not seem to be accelerated. Dragging anything across the desktop results in choppy movement.

Needless to say, I am not happy with 12.04, especially the i386 build. I'm off right now to try the amd64 build again starting from scratch in installing Eclipse and its plugins I use. I'm hoping the problem with that was that I was using my restored home directory with some i386 plugins or something....

Don't know. We'll see how that goes before reverting back to 11.10. Hopefully if it comes to that, 12.10 will be better behaved.

[oshunluvr]

Well, no-offence intended; but your post doesn't really have any usable trouble-shooting or details at all about what is wrong.

If you're looking to resolve your issues, you'll have to take a totally different approach than re-installing and re-installing and then re-installing again.

I am curious as to why - if your machine is 64bit and 64bit is working better - you feel the need to go backwards to 32 bit.

It seems likely you're better off staying with 11.10.

[vw72]

If you are reusing your home directory, try creating a new user and see if your problems still exist. Sometimes configuration problems occur when upgrading because of changes in the applications.

[lnxusr]

Well, no-offence intended; but your post doesn't really have any usable trouble-shooting or details at all about what is wrong.

No offense taken @oshunluvr. This was pretty much just me ranting on about the 12.04 i386 build's inability to detect and properly install the Nvidia drivers and handle the sound, like the amd64 build did. I still don't understand why the 64-bit build will install and run flawlessly, where the 32-bit build will fail on sound and graphics integration, both out of the box and on an upgrade from 11.10.

If you're looking to resolve your issues, you'll have to take a totally different approach than re-installing and re-installing and then re-installing again.

I was moving from 32-bit upgrade from 11.10 to a fresh install of the 64-bit build, which was giving me the Eclipse problems. I then went to a fresh install of 32-bit 12.04, which has the sound an graphics problems mentioned above, which the upgrade had as well. This really isn't as bad as it sounds. I have two main partitions I use for upgrading purposes. This is first time I've ever use the system upgrade to move up a version. I usually do a fresh install every time. All this, other than the upgrade, which messed up my 11.10 partition, is done without touching my good partition. After the failed upgrade attempt, I did have to do a clean install of 11.10, but, again, with my home directory on a separate partition, no loss of anything but time there.

I am curious as to why - if your machine is 64bit and 64bit is working better - you feel the need to go backwards to 32 bit.

I went back to the 32-bit build because Eclipse wasn't working with OpenJDK, and installing sun's java didn't help. I though it was a problem between running a 64-bit OS and there not being, as far as I know, a 64-bit build of Sun's java. I'd completely forgotten about the plugins being installed in my home directory and being 32-bit. After the reinstall, I reinstalled the Eclipse plugins and it't working fine. I wish I would have though of that before. I would have saved myself quite a bit of time, and the ranting above.

It seems likely you're better off staying with 11.10.

Yeah, that's where my laptop and media center are going to be for a while. The laptop may eventually get upgraded, but the media center is fine on 11.10 for a while.

[lnxusr]

The sound and graphics problems exist on a fresh install of the 33-bit build, before I restore my home directory. 64-bit works like a charm out of the box.

[vw72]

With regards to your nvidia problem, the nvidia drivers that shipped with 12.04 had a regression for some nvidia cards/chipsets that caused them to be extremely slow with OpenGL. Switching KDE to use raster graphics worked around it but didn't actually solve the problem. However, since 12.04 has been released, nvidia has released new drivers that actually fix the problem. The 64bit driver that worked was probably a different build number than the 32 bit version, that had the problem. Kubuntu doesn't build the drivers themself, they just package what nvidia gives them.

As for the sound issue, I'm at a loss. However, with 8GB or ram, you probably should be using the 64bit anyway, so as to get full use of it.

Not really offering you any suggestions, just trying to explain the source of the video differences.

[oshunluvr]

Well, at least you're back to something usable. Fantastic that you use the multiple partition install method. I always have three "install" partitions - one to use, one for backup, one for testing/new installs. This keeps me from totally trashing my pc and leaving it unusable. I have never even attempted an upgrade install. I prefer to do a clean new install and work out the bugs before I make it my "daily driver."

Another thing I've started doing over the last couple of years is leaving /home within the install. I realize this runs counter to most advice but it totally avoids config overlap issues and prevents trashing the setups of my other installs. What I do instead is have a large data partition where I keep my Docs, Pics, Email, Virtual machines, etc. I then link to the data partition folders from each of my /homes. This seems to be the surest way to success for me. I do separate automated backups of the data and each of the three /homes thus keeping everything safe.

Should you try 12.04 again - post back with issues and we'll help you out (hopefully ).