Linux - Page 5

tuoni · 13th April 2011, 08:52 AM

Originally Posted by Mister Earl

Crud. I think I'm gonna need to divine what the su password is supposed to be. Got this error:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ grub-install /dev/mapper/nvidia_aiachche1
rm: cannot remove `/boot/grub/915resolution.mod': Permission denied

sorry, that should be

sudo grub-install /dev/mapper/nvidia_aiachche1

Mister Earl · 13th April 2011, 08:55 AM

root@ubuntu:~# sudo grub-install /dev/mapper/nvidia_aiachche1
/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: cannot find a device for /boot/grub (is /dev mounted?).

Seems like it really doesn't want to cooperate.

tuoni · 13th April 2011, 09:06 AM

Originally Posted by Mister Earl

root@ubuntu:~# sudo grub-install /dev/mapper/nvidia_aiachche1
/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: cannot find a device for /boot/grub (is /dev mounted?).

Seems like it really doesn't want to cooperate.

What about

sudo grub-install hd0

I'm starting to guess now.

Mister Earl · 13th April 2011, 09:07 AM

Same error. Yeah, I don't blame you. I ran out of ideas long ago. I've got about fifteen tabs open on various sites trying to figure this out, and I'm at the guessing point, too.

tuoni · 13th April 2011, 09:13 AM

And here, dear traveller, is just the start of your fun with *nix.

:grin:

Mister Earl · 13th April 2011, 09:15 AM

Yeah, but if I don't give up and actually get it working, I can almost guarantee it'll be less frustrating then the problems I get from windows.

Mister Earl · 13th April 2011, 09:23 AM

BAH! Most of the guides I'm seeing tell me to "sudo fdisk -l" but I get "Unable to seek on /dev/sda". It always comes down to that. It's like i'm going in circles.

Mister Earl · 13th April 2011, 10:31 AM

Nobody else have any ideas? I registered and posted at the Ubuntu forums. Must not be a lot of people there, nobody is responding. I'm pretty much at the end of my rope.

Xero · 13th April 2011, 11:24 AM

Originally Posted by mikeyx

Havent gamed on linux for a while but at one point half Life and UnReal Tournbament played very well under wine as did some others, one game however blew the hell out of my x server, so hopefully things have improved since then.

Unreal Tournament can be installed natively, there is an installer for it, no need for wine. Installers for all versions up to 2004 version. Not for latest release tho.

The Norseman · 13th April 2011, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by Mister Earl

Nobody else have any ideas? I registered and posted at the Ubuntu forums. Must not be a lot of people there, nobody is responding. I'm pretty much at the end of my rope.

I'm following along here and I don't mean to sound snarky, so apologies!

Maybe you can try another distro other than Ubuntu?

Or maybe unplug a drive so there's no RAID issues complicating matters during install, then, if all goes well, try and do a RAID setup.

Mister Earl · 13th April 2011, 06:45 PM

Got my heart sent on ubuntu for the most part. Getting another distro would require reinstalling windows, then reinstalling drivers, getting another disc burned, then back to square one.

But tonight when I get back to the house, the first thing I'm going to do is figure out how to un-raid things. I'd actually prefer it un-raided. Just gotta find where in the bios to un-raid things.

The Norseman · 13th April 2011, 07:14 PM

Originally Posted by Mister Earl

Got my heart sent on ubuntu for the most part.

http://www.linuxmint.com/oldreleases.php

Code:

Linux Mint ReleasesVersion 	Codename 	Package base 	Status 
10	Julia	Ubuntu Maverick	Supported until April 2012.
9	Isadora	Lucid Lynx	Long term support release (LTS), supported until April 2013.
8	Helena	Ubuntu Karmic	Supported until April 2011.

Quote:

Getting another distro would require reinstalling windows, then reinstalling drivers, getting another disc burned, then back to square one.

Ah, okay.

Quote:

But tonight when I get back to the house, the first thing I'm going to do is figure out how to un-raid things. I'd actually prefer it un-raided. Just gotta find where in the bios to un-raid things.

Hopefully that will solve this dilemma!

Mister Earl · 13th April 2011, 07:22 PM

No kidding. I'm that eager to slough off windows once and for all.

... and running ubuntu from the live CD! Back with Windows, even the desktop would case my internal fan to start humming, though it wouldn't scream away unless I was gaming with something graphic intensive. The live CD for ubuntu? I'm not sure if the fan's even ON. And the case remains quite cool. I like it already!

Mister Earl · 14th April 2011, 12:05 AM

Good news of a sort! I've made much progress! The install works now! I can now boot from the hard disk with no recovery prompt! The last bug preventing me from a HD boot to desktop is the black screen. No problem, I know to use nomodeset. Problem is, I can't get to any kind of options to make that change before it hits the desktop. I kid you not, my m17x blows through that part so fast I can't do it.

So, I'm on live CD again. Can someone walk me through making the change from here? I'd appreciate it!

Mister Earl · 14th April 2011, 12:30 AM

... aaaand, nevermind! I've succeeded. (Held shift!)

So here I am. Booted from the hard disk straight to Ubuntu desktop for the first time EVER. Victory tastes sweet.

But of course, while the battle may be won, the war is not yet over. Time to install drivers!

#EDIT: Bah. Vid drivers not working... I'm running an X server it says. No idea what that means.

The Norseman · 14th April 2011, 12:57 AM

Hey, congrats on your continued success!

The X server is the way Linux presents a graphical interface -- like a webserver, the X server "serves" you the graphical desktop even though it's on the same machine.

If you're trying to install NVidia drivers, you'll first have to quit the X server and do the install on the command line, then restart X.

If you need help with that, tomorrow, I can dig out my directions for ya, or maybe someone else can post it in the interim.

Mister Earl · 14th April 2011, 01:11 AM

Already made progress there hehe. CTRL-ALT-F1 to drop to prompt. F7 to return.

The problem I'm currently on is the system doesn't seem to see my monitor attached to my laptop. It does see my card correctly, and I can get the resolutions I expect. The monitor is my curse right now heh.

Mister Earl · 14th April 2011, 01:33 AM

And now CTRL-ALT-F1 fails to dump me into a prompt. *headdesk*
I get a basic text screen like it should, but it never gives me a prompt. And CTRL-ALT-F7 won't bring up the X server anymore either.

One step forward, two steps back.

Captain_Snort · 14th April 2011, 01:37 AM

Holds on, no need to leave X, you should have a wee alert in the system bar telling you restricted drivers are available, this will install the nvidia drivers for your, maybe wifi as well. No need to drop out of X.

Once you have reconfigured /etc/X11/xorg.conf (the restricted package should do this anyway) you need to restart X, probably easy to reboot.

The /etc directory is analogous to the windows registry, except it is largely in plain language.

Captain_Snort · 14th April 2011, 01:38 AM

Originally Posted by Mister Earl

And now CTRL-ALT-F1 fails to dump me into a prompt. *headdesk*
I get a basic text screen like it should, but it never gives me a prompt. And CTRL-ALT-F7 won't bring up the X server anymore either.

One step forward, two steps back.

from the prompt, try just alt-f7, no need for the ctrl

Mister Earl · 14th April 2011, 11:21 AM

I got the graphics drivers in, and they appear to be working. Two issues remain, however.

The m17x actually has three graphics GPUs. First, the onboard "power saver" chipset, which it is using now. Then, the dual 280Ms in SLI mode that it sees but isn't using, and I can't seen to enable it.

Last issue, if I enable the monitor, both screens go black.

Alan · 14th April 2011, 05:58 PM

Some people from the internet on another forum are ridiculing me for using Linux when I had some trouble with the current Humble Bundle.

Quote:

yeah unless you're one of the like 10 people in the world who have a legitimate professional need to use linux, then what are you even doing. Totally your own fault.

aarglefarg

Mister Earl · 14th April 2011, 06:25 PM

Heh. I've got posts on six different forums looking for help, and since this morning, none of them have any replies.

Alan · 14th April 2011, 08:05 PM

I don't know much about the specific hardware things. I've never had these problems.

Mister Earl · 14th April 2011, 09:53 PM

Hrm. I got some instruction how to fix the graphics end of things, but I need to be able to ctrl-alt-F1 to exit out of X server and get to prompt. But when I do it, it blackscreens on me, though I can alt-F7 to get back to X server. That's the puzzle I work on now.

Lord Emsworth · 15th April 2011, 07:33 AM

Originally Posted by Mister Earl

Hrm. I got some instruction how to fix the graphics end of things, but I need to be able to ctrl-alt-F1 to exit out of X server and get to prompt. But when I do it, it blackscreens on me, though I can alt-F7 to get back to X server. That's the puzzle I work on now.

If all else fails you can try to boot to runlevel 3 immediately. Just append a '3' to your bootoptions. Runelevel 3 is by and large the same as runlevel 5 without X.

Another alternative may be to just log out, and at the login screen ... No idea how precisely this works on Ubuntu. Does Alt+N do anything? I get a console log-in.

Or kill the X server with 2x Crtl+Alt+Backspace. But it'll probably just restart and drop you at the graphical login screen.

ETA: 2x Crtl+Alt+Backspace is something you might wish to try when you get a black screen that you describe anyway. Else Magic SysRq Keys is better that a hard reboot.

Captain_Snort · 15th April 2011, 08:05 AM

Oh this is funny, the whole lab seems to have come down with some virus on the supplied XP computers, IT support is spending ages registry hacking and scanning. Seems to be coming via Yahoo.

Me, sitting on Linux on a VM and Ubuntu laptop, happily working away

Bram Kaandorp · 15th April 2011, 09:19 AM

Originally Posted by Captain_Snort

Oh this is funny, the whole lab seems to have come down with some virus on the supplied XP computers, IT support is spending ages registry hacking and scanning. Seems to be coming via Yahoo.

Me, sitting on Linux on a VM and Ubuntu laptop, happily working away

I am not a very sadistic person, but that's probably one of the scenarios I have silently hoped for when I was at school.

Never happened, so I envy you.

Cheers

psionl0 · 16th April 2011, 01:50 AM

Originally Posted by Mister Earl

Hrm. I got some instruction how to fix the graphics end of things, but I need to be able to ctrl-alt-F1 to exit out of X server and get to prompt. But when I do it, it blackscreens on me, though I can alt-F7 to get back to X server. That's the puzzle I work on now.

If you had taken heed of my earlier advice you would have been enjoying hassle-free linux for a week now.

Alan · 16th April 2011, 03:05 AM

Originally Posted by psionl0

If you had taken heed of my earlier advice you would have been enjoying hassle-free linux for a week now.

I tried to install Slackware just once.

It failed.

Alan · 23rd April 2011, 07:04 AM

I've been using Unity as my primarily shell for the past week, in Ubuntu 11.04's current beta (fully updated). This is a probably boring description of my impressions and some ways it could be improved. I could suggest the changes through launchpad, which I haven't used for that type of thing. I haven't done it yet due to concerns that I would do something wrong.

I like it when a window is maximised because it combines the panel, the menu bar and the title bar into the one bar. This is very good for saving space and I like it when I'm just browsing the internet with one maximised window. Seeing the indicators apparently within the title bar is like the wingpanel idea.

Maximising also makes the launcher (dock) disappear, which is good for saving space but I want to be able to see what I have open. I would like to have the option to not have the launcher autohide to solve this. Or have some other indication in the panel.

When I have multiple windows of the same program open, clicking on the icon for it on the launcher makes all of its windows visible similar to how GNOME Shell does when pointing to the top left, except the only possible interaction with the windows in this mode is selecting the one you want. IIRC, in GNOME Shell you can press buttons on them in this mode. It should be changed to allow that to happen. If I want to close one of them, I need to select it first.

Also, the menus (of the menu bar) are hidden behind the title when a window is maximised unless the cursor is over the title area so it's a bit of guesswork where to point the cursor. It's no longer a beeline to Tools, but an "L" with a change of direction around Help or Bookmarks. But this isn't something I really notice.

When a window is not maximised, the menus are over the name of the program (it looks like "Firefox We[fades out] File Edit"....). that's not the title bar, as each window has its own when minimised. The global menu is of course disassociated from the window when it is not maximised. You have to select a window for that program's menus to show there, which is an annoyance when there are several windows on the screen.

The overlay scrollbar has grown on me. It would be improved if the control would be able to appear not just where the narrow scroll position indicator is, but anywhere along where it can be. It matters because if you click on the controls, it scrolls accordingly and keeps the controls still as it should, but if you move the cursor slightly away, you can't just move it back to where it was a second ago and find the controls appearing again. You have to move to the scroll position marker. Also, some default applications have the old scroll bar. Firefox and Gwibber, at least. It looks unprofessional to have different scroll bars.

Also, I have the Dust Sand theme and my close/minimise/maximise buttons look completely different when maximised.

It's a lot more stable now.

AgeGap · 26th April 2011, 01:59 AM

Just read about Puppy Arcade in a UK mag. It is a multiple game system emulator.

Not yet tried it out but it looks good.

LandR · 26th April 2011, 03:31 AM

My main concern about Unity is how easy it is to multitask.

At any one time I might have a terminal open, a web browser, a text editor, a pdf file etc. Especially if I'm doing development. From what I've seen there is no easy and intuitive way to quickly switch between programs with the mouse like you can with a bar along the bottom which shows all your open apps and folders.

Alan · 26th April 2011, 03:56 AM

Yes. That's a problem with GNOME 3 too. Alt+Tab is probably the best way to switch between different windows.

Maus · 26th April 2011, 08:53 AM

I have Fedora on my laptop which seems to be ok.

I have RHEL5 and RHEL6 on all of my servers except one which runs Ubuntu (which I greatly dislike, sorry). RHEL is pretty slick for Enterprise level computing under VMWare.

Alan · 26th April 2011, 06:46 PM

I hear bad things about Ubuntu servers. I've never run one.

Mister Earl · 26th April 2011, 07:02 PM

Originally Posted by psionl0

If you had taken heed of my earlier advice you would have been enjoying hassle-free linux for a week now.

Slackware, eh? I can always give it a try.

commandlinegamer · 28th April 2011, 01:30 PM

The most recent version has just been released - a truly elite distro -

http://www.slackware.com/announce/13.37.php

roger · 28th April 2011, 02:56 PM

Happy Natty Narwhal day.

Mister Earl · 28th April 2011, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by commandlinegamer

The most recent version has just been released - a truly elite distro -

http://www.slackware.com/announce/13.37.php

Think it'd have trouble seeing the monitor I got plugged in? Ubuntu seemed to want to have nothing to do with it. That, and it's a m17x alienware laptop. Three GPUs. The onboard for low power mode, and dual 280Ms in SLI mode. Getting the SLI and the monitor working was my biggest problem before.

13th April 2011, 08:52 AM	#161
tuoni Thinker Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: England Posts: 228	Originally Posted by Mister Earl Crud. I think I'm gonna need to divine what the su password is supposed to be. Got this error: ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ grub-install /dev/mapper/nvidia_aiachche1 rm: cannot remove `/boot/grub/915resolution.mod': Permission denied sorry, that should be sudo grub-install /dev/mapper/nvidia_aiachche1
	__________________ -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GCS d-(++)? s: a-- C++++$ UL++++ P L-(+++) E- W+++$ !N !o K++ w+++$ !O !M-- !V-- PS+ PE++ Y++>$ PGP+++ t- 5- X++ R* tv- b++ DI++ D++ G+ e++ h++(-) r y+ ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

13th April 2011, 08:55 AM	#162
Mister Earl Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,138	root@ubuntu:~# sudo grub-install /dev/mapper/nvidia_aiachche1 /usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: cannot find a device for /boot/grub (is /dev mounted?). Seems like it really doesn't want to cooperate.
	Last edited by Mister Earl; 13th April 2011 at 09:01 AM.

13th April 2011, 09:06 AM	#163
tuoni Thinker Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: England Posts: 228	Originally Posted by Mister Earl root@ubuntu:~# sudo grub-install /dev/mapper/nvidia_aiachche1 /usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: cannot find a device for /boot/grub (is /dev mounted?). Seems like it really doesn't want to cooperate. What about sudo grub-install hd0 I'm starting to guess now.
	__________________ -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GCS d-(++)? s: a-- C++++$ UL++++ P L-(+++) E- W+++$ !N !o K++ w+++$ !O !M-- !V-- PS+ PE++ Y++>$ PGP+++ t- 5- X++ R* tv- b++ DI++ D++ G+ e++ h++(-) r y+ ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------ Last edited by tuoni; 13th April 2011 at 09:08 AM.

13th April 2011, 09:13 AM	#165
tuoni Thinker Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: England Posts: 228	And here, dear traveller, is just the start of your fun with *nix. :grin:
	__________________ -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GCS d-(++)? s: a-- C++++$ UL++++ P L-(+++) E- W+++$ !N !o K++ w+++$ !O !M-- !V-- PS+ PE++ Y++>$ PGP+++ t- 5- X++ R* tv- b++ DI++ D++ G+ e++ h++(-) r y+ ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

13th April 2011, 01:56 PM	#170
The Norseman I Void Warranties Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: The Treasure Valley Posts: 3,237	Originally Posted by Mister Earl Nobody else have any ideas? I registered and posted at the Ubuntu forums. Must not be a lot of people there, nobody is responding. I'm pretty much at the end of my rope. I'm following along here and I don't mean to sound snarky, so apologies! Maybe you can try another distro other than Ubuntu? Or maybe unplug a drive so there's no RAID issues complicating matters during install, then, if all goes well, try and do a RAID setup.
	__________________ "I have always thought that a wild animal never looks so well as when some obstacle of pronounced durability is between us." "Sticking the flounce is the hardest move in forum gymnastics." -tsig

13th April 2011, 09:07 AM	#164
Mister Earl Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,138	Same error. Yeah, I don't blame you. I ran out of ideas long ago. I've got about fifteen tabs open on various sites trying to figure this out, and I'm at the guessing point, too.

13th April 2011, 09:15 AM	#166
Mister Earl Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,138	Yeah, but if I don't give up and actually get it working, I can almost guarantee it'll be less frustrating then the problems I get from windows.

13th April 2011, 09:23 AM	#167
Mister Earl Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,138	BAH! Most of the guides I'm seeing tell me to "sudo fdisk -l" but I get "Unable to seek on /dev/sda". It always comes down to that. It's like i'm going in circles.

13th April 2011, 10:31 AM	#168
Mister Earl Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,138	Nobody else have any ideas? I registered and posted at the Ubuntu forums. Must not be a lot of people there, nobody is responding. I'm pretty much at the end of my rope.

13th April 2011, 11:24 AM	#169
Xero Thinker Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Western Australia Posts: 178	Originally Posted by mikeyx Havent gamed on linux for a while but at one point half Life and UnReal Tournbament played very well under wine as did some others, one game however blew the hell out of my x server, so hopefully things have improved since then. Unreal Tournament can be installed natively, there is an installer for it, no need for wine. Installers for all versions up to 2004 version. Not for latest release tho.

13th April 2011, 06:45 PM	#171
Mister Earl Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,138	Got my heart sent on ubuntu for the most part. Getting another distro would require reinstalling windows, then reinstalling drivers, getting another disc burned, then back to square one. But tonight when I get back to the house, the first thing I'm going to do is figure out how to un-raid things. I'd actually prefer it un-raided. Just gotta find where in the bios to un-raid things.

13th April 2011, 07:14 PM	#172
The Norseman I Void Warranties Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: The Treasure Valley Posts: 3,237	Originally Posted by Mister Earl Got my heart sent on ubuntu for the most part. http://www.linuxmint.com/oldreleases.php Code: Linux Mint ReleasesVersion Codename Package base Status 10 Julia Ubuntu Maverick Supported until April 2012. 9 Isadora Lucid Lynx Long term support release (LTS), supported until April 2013. 8 Helena Ubuntu Karmic Supported until April 2011. Quote: Getting another distro would require reinstalling windows, then reinstalling drivers, getting another disc burned, then back to square one. Ah, okay. Quote: But tonight when I get back to the house, the first thing I'm going to do is figure out how to un-raid things. I'd actually prefer it un-raided. Just gotta find where in the bios to un-raid things. Hopefully that will solve this dilemma!
	__________________ "I have always thought that a wild animal never looks so well as when some obstacle of pronounced durability is between us." "Sticking the flounce is the hardest move in forum gymnastics." -tsig

13th April 2011, 07:22 PM	#173
Mister Earl Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,138	No kidding. I'm that eager to slough off windows once and for all. ... and running ubuntu from the live CD! Back with Windows, even the desktop would case my internal fan to start humming, though it wouldn't scream away unless I was gaming with something graphic intensive. The live CD for ubuntu? I'm not sure if the fan's even ON. And the case remains quite cool. I like it already!

14th April 2011, 12:05 AM	#174
Mister Earl Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,138	Good news of a sort! I've made much progress! The install works now! I can now boot from the hard disk with no recovery prompt! The last bug preventing me from a HD boot to desktop is the black screen. No problem, I know to use nomodeset. Problem is, I can't get to any kind of options to make that change before it hits the desktop. I kid you not, my m17x blows through that part so fast I can't do it. So, I'm on live CD again. Can someone walk me through making the change from here? I'd appreciate it!

14th April 2011, 12:30 AM	#175
Mister Earl Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,138	... aaaand, nevermind! I've succeeded. (Held shift!) So here I am. Booted from the hard disk straight to Ubuntu desktop for the first time EVER. Victory tastes sweet. But of course, while the battle may be won, the war is not yet over. Time to install drivers! #EDIT: Bah. Vid drivers not working... I'm running an X server it says. No idea what that means.
	Last edited by Mister Earl; 14th April 2011 at 12:31 AM.

14th April 2011, 12:57 AM	#176
The Norseman I Void Warranties Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: The Treasure Valley Posts: 3,237	Hey, congrats on your continued success! The X server is the way Linux presents a graphical interface -- like a webserver, the X server "serves" you the graphical desktop even though it's on the same machine. If you're trying to install NVidia drivers, you'll first have to quit the X server and do the install on the command line, then restart X. If you need help with that, tomorrow, I can dig out my directions for ya, or maybe someone else can post it in the interim.
	__________________ "I have always thought that a wild animal never looks so well as when some obstacle of pronounced durability is between us." "Sticking the flounce is the hardest move in forum gymnastics." -tsig Last edited by The Norseman; 14th April 2011 at 12:59 AM.

14th April 2011, 01:11 AM	#177
Mister Earl Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,138	Already made progress there hehe. CTRL-ALT-F1 to drop to prompt. F7 to return. The problem I'm currently on is the system doesn't seem to see my monitor attached to my laptop. It does see my card correctly, and I can get the resolutions I expect. The monitor is my curse right now heh.

14th April 2011, 01:33 AM	#178
Mister Earl Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,138	And now CTRL-ALT-F1 fails to dump me into a prompt. headdesk I get a basic text screen like it should, but it never gives me a prompt. And CTRL-ALT-F7 won't bring up the X server anymore either. One step forward, two steps back.

14th April 2011, 01:37 AM	#179
Captain_Snort Muse Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Scotland Posts: 668	Holds on, no need to leave X, you should have a wee alert in the system bar telling you restricted drivers are available, this will install the nvidia drivers for your, maybe wifi as well. No need to drop out of X. Once you have reconfigured /etc/X11/xorg.conf (the restricted package should do this anyway) you need to restart X, probably easy to reboot. The /etc directory is analogous to the windows registry, except it is largely in plain language.
	__________________ UKLS - 1984-2003, 2007- Girl 6: Besides, it's like he's an absentee landowner... And, I hate slumlords... ;-)

14th April 2011, 01:38 AM	#180
Captain_Snort Muse Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Scotland Posts: 668	Originally Posted by Mister Earl And now CTRL-ALT-F1 fails to dump me into a prompt. headdesk I get a basic text screen like it should, but it never gives me a prompt. And CTRL-ALT-F7 won't bring up the X server anymore either. One step forward, two steps back. from the prompt, try just alt-f7, no need for the ctrl
	__________________ UKLS - 1984-2003, 2007- Girl 6: Besides, it's like he's an absentee landowner... And, I hate slumlords... ;-)

14th April 2011, 11:21 AM	#181
Mister Earl Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,138	I got the graphics drivers in, and they appear to be working. Two issues remain, however. The m17x actually has three graphics GPUs. First, the onboard "power saver" chipset, which it is using now. Then, the dual 280Ms in SLI mode that it sees but isn't using, and I can't seen to enable it. Last issue, if I enable the monitor, both screens go black.

14th April 2011, 05:58 PM	#182
Alan Illuminator Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 3,652	Some people from the internet on another forum are ridiculing me for using Linux when I had some trouble with the current Humble Bundle. Quote: yeah unless you're one of the like 10 people in the world who have a legitimate professional need to use linux, then what are you even doing. Totally your own fault. aarglefarg

14th April 2011, 06:25 PM	#183
Mister Earl Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,138	Heh. I've got posts on six different forums looking for help, and since this morning, none of them have any replies.

14th April 2011, 08:05 PM	#184
Alan Illuminator Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 3,652	I don't know much about the specific hardware things. I've never had these problems.

14th April 2011, 09:53 PM	#185
Mister Earl Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,138	Hrm. I got some instruction how to fix the graphics end of things, but I need to be able to ctrl-alt-F1 to exit out of X server and get to prompt. But when I do it, it blackscreens on me, though I can alt-F7 to get back to X server. That's the puzzle I work on now.

15th April 2011, 07:33 AM	#186
Lord Emsworth Je ne suis pas une de vos élèves Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Through the Cables and the Underground ... Posts: 2,827	Originally Posted by Mister Earl Hrm. I got some instruction how to fix the graphics end of things, but I need to be able to ctrl-alt-F1 to exit out of X server and get to prompt. But when I do it, it blackscreens on me, though I can alt-F7 to get back to X server. That's the puzzle I work on now. If all else fails you can try to boot to runlevel 3 immediately. Just append a '3' to your bootoptions. Runelevel 3 is by and large the same as runlevel 5 without X. Another alternative may be to just log out, and at the login screen ... No idea how precisely this works on Ubuntu. Does Alt+N do anything? I get a console log-in. Or kill the X server with 2x Crtl+Alt+Backspace. But it'll probably just restart and drop you at the graphical login screen. ETA: 2x Crtl+Alt+Backspace is something you might wish to try when you get a black screen that you describe anyway. Else Magic SysRq Keys is better that a hard reboot.
	Last edited by Lord Emsworth; 15th April 2011 at 07:39 AM.

15th April 2011, 08:05 AM	#187
Captain_Snort Muse Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Scotland Posts: 668	Oh this is funny, the whole lab seems to have come down with some virus on the supplied XP computers, IT support is spending ages registry hacking and scanning. Seems to be coming via Yahoo. Me, sitting on Linux on a VM and Ubuntu laptop, happily working away
	__________________ UKLS - 1984-2003, 2007- Girl 6: Besides, it's like he's an absentee landowner... And, I hate slumlords... ;-)

15th April 2011, 09:19 AM	#188
Bram Kaandorp Master Poster Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Netherlands Posts: 2,240	Originally Posted by Captain_Snort Oh this is funny, the whole lab seems to have come down with some virus on the supplied XP computers, IT support is spending ages registry hacking and scanning. Seems to be coming via Yahoo. Me, sitting on Linux on a VM and Ubuntu laptop, happily working away I am not a very sadistic person, but that's probably one of the scenarios I have silently hoped for when I was at school. Never happened, so I envy you. Cheers

16th April 2011, 01:50 AM	#189
psionl0 Illuminator Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: 31°58'S 115°57'E Posts: 4,788	Originally Posted by Mister Earl Hrm. I got some instruction how to fix the graphics end of things, but I need to be able to ctrl-alt-F1 to exit out of X server and get to prompt. But when I do it, it blackscreens on me, though I can alt-F7 to get back to X server. That's the puzzle I work on now. If you had taken heed of my earlier advice you would have been enjoying hassle-free linux for a week now.

16th April 2011, 03:05 AM	#190
Alan Illuminator Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 3,652	Originally Posted by psionl0 If you had taken heed of my earlier advice you would have been enjoying hassle-free linux for a week now. I tried to install Slackware just once. It failed.

23rd April 2011, 07:04 AM	#191
Alan Illuminator Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 3,652	I've been using Unity as my primarily shell for the past week, in Ubuntu 11.04's current beta (fully updated). This is a probably boring description of my impressions and some ways it could be improved. I could suggest the changes through launchpad, which I haven't used for that type of thing. I haven't done it yet due to concerns that I would do something wrong. I like it when a window is maximised because it combines the panel, the menu bar and the title bar into the one bar. This is very good for saving space and I like it when I'm just browsing the internet with one maximised window. Seeing the indicators apparently within the title bar is like the wingpanel idea. Maximising also makes the launcher (dock) disappear, which is good for saving space but I want to be able to see what I have open. I would like to have the option to not have the launcher autohide to solve this. Or have some other indication in the panel. When I have multiple windows of the same program open, clicking on the icon for it on the launcher makes all of its windows visible similar to how GNOME Shell does when pointing to the top left, except the only possible interaction with the windows in this mode is selecting the one you want. IIRC, in GNOME Shell you can press buttons on them in this mode. It should be changed to allow that to happen. If I want to close one of them, I need to select it first. Also, the menus (of the menu bar) are hidden behind the title when a window is maximised unless the cursor is over the title area so it's a bit of guesswork where to point the cursor. It's no longer a beeline to Tools, but an "L" with a change of direction around Help or Bookmarks. But this isn't something I really notice. When a window is not maximised, the menus are over the name of the program (it looks like "Firefox We[fades out] File Edit"....). that's not the title bar, as each window has its own when minimised. The global menu is of course disassociated from the window when it is not maximised. You have to select a window for that program's menus to show there, which is an annoyance when there are several windows on the screen. The overlay scrollbar has grown on me. It would be improved if the control would be able to appear not just where the narrow scroll position indicator is, but anywhere along where it can be. It matters because if you click on the controls, it scrolls accordingly and keeps the controls still as it should, but if you move the cursor slightly away, you can't just move it back to where it was a second ago and find the controls appearing again. You have to move to the scroll position marker. Also, some default applications have the old scroll bar. Firefox and Gwibber, at least. It looks unprofessional to have different scroll bars. Also, I have the Dust Sand theme and my close/minimise/maximise buttons look completely different when maximised. It's a lot more stable now.
	Last edited by Alan; 23rd April 2011 at 07:06 AM.

26th April 2011, 01:59 AM	#192
AgeGap Master Poster Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: St.Helens, UK Posts: 2,386	Puppy Arcade 10 Just read about Puppy Arcade in a UK mag. It is a multiple game system emulator. Not yet tried it out but it looks good.

26th April 2011, 03:31 AM	#193
LandR Graduate Poster Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 1,028	My main concern about Unity is how easy it is to multitask. At any one time I might have a terminal open, a web browser, a text editor, a pdf file etc. Especially if I'm doing development. From what I've seen there is no easy and intuitive way to quickly switch between programs with the mouse like you can with a bar along the bottom which shows all your open apps and folders.
LandR Graduate Poster Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 1,028

26th April 2011, 03:56 AM	#194
Alan Illuminator Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 3,652	Yes. That's a problem with GNOME 3 too. Alt+Tab is probably the best way to switch between different windows.

26th April 2011, 08:53 AM	#195
Maus Thinker Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: I live in Central Missouri. Posts: 215	I have Fedora on my laptop which seems to be ok. I have RHEL5 and RHEL6 on all of my servers except one which runs Ubuntu (which I greatly dislike, sorry). RHEL is pretty slick for Enterprise level computing under VMWare.