various installation problems (audio + nvidia upgrade + shutdown hanging)

[g.]

Hi,

I'm experiencing several installation problems that seems to be related, even if I'm not sure how or if it is simply a suggestion.

I made a fresh installation of kubuntu 8.10 on my laptop (I have been with 9.04 for a couple of months but found it a little bit to buggy).

- the audio output was working (not the microphone) until I installed skype. I downloaded skype 64bit from medibuntu and installed all the required 32bit packages. Skype is working but the volume is not controlled anymore by Kmix, there is no correlation between the volume level in Kmix and what actually is the volume. Btw, Kmix crashed during one shutdown;

- in case neede, I do a remove a package installed with a deb file? (not using aptitude thus) and I can I be sure to haveing removed all the packages required by skype? (all the 32bit librarie that I do not remember)

- the microphone is not working, I had it working few months ago under 8.10, then not working under 9.04 (I spent really of lot of time and read dozens of posts...) and now not anymore. I guess this is a minor point and I should try to remember the exact configuration that made it work;

- When I installed kubuntu 8.10 I was prompted for the use of the proprietary Nvidia drivers. I accepted and now I have some version 177. It is fine but still very slow in several stuff, I rememebr I had a version 180 before the reinstall, is it possible to force an upgrade of the drivers? how? they are obviously not on the repository.

- What is worst is that the shutdown procedure hangs and I have to make a hard shutdown with the power button. I read some messages (I removed the quiet option in the grub), a "trace" or similar but I'm not able to locate what process actually caused it. where shall I look for? in the /var/log directory I presume.

Thanks in advance for any suggestion.
g.

[lmilano]

Re: various installation problems (audio + nvidia upgrade + shutdown hanging)

- in case neede, I do a remove a package installed with a deb file? (not using aptitude thus) and I can I be sure to haveing removed all the packages required by skype? (all the 32bit librarie that I do not remember)

If I followed you, you want to undo that install. I use Synaptic for that reason, you can look at the History of installations. But I think it only works for the stuff you install via Synaptic.

- What is worst is that the shutdown procedure hangs and I have to make a hard shutdown with the power button. I read some messages (I removed the quiet option in the grub), a "trace" or similar but I'm not able to locate what process actually caused it. where shall I look for? in the /var/log directory I presume.

Yes, /var/log/messages, right after the next login (search for date/time, it's a very large file)

[g.]

Re: various installation problems (audio + nvidia upgrade + shutdown hanging)

thanks for your replies and sorry for the late reply.

well, yes, I use aptitude for the same reason and I'm happy to see that it handles also the packages installed under medibuntu, and thus skype too in case I need to remove it.

I upgraded (back) to 9.04.

currently my sole problem seems to be the microphone.

It hanged a couple of time in shutdown but I have not found anything in /var/log searching with grep or zgrep with the words I remembered were on the screen.

thinks seem to be better now with 9.04...

best,
g.

[lmilano]

Re: various installation problems (audio + nvidia upgrade + shutdown hanging)

Excellent. By the way, I use gtkorphan every once in a while to delete "orphaned" libraries (things not needed anymore, which were installed because they were needed by some software before). This can also be done on the command line with "apt-get autoremove", but gtkorphan gives you a lot control. I think synaptic allows you to do that but it's not very intuitive to use.