Re: Unity Desktop Environment nonresponsive with GeForce 7300 LE...

Re: Unity Desktop Environment nonresponsive with GeForce 7300 LE...

---

 

Aw, snap! I thought everything was groovy, but I was wrong. I posted this elsewhere...

 

Sorry, it's not fixed. My mistake, there still seem to be some problems.

I found this in the Debian User Forums:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=65539 "Lost 3D after updating nvidia-glx, linux and X".

Someone advised reinstalling the following packages:

libegl1-mesa_7.10.2-3_i386.deb
libglu1-mesa_7.10.2-3_i386.deb
libegl1-mesa-drivers_7.10.2-3_i386.deb
xserver-xephyr_1.10.2-1_i386.deb
libgl1-mesa-dri_7.10.2-3_i386.deb
xserver-xorg-core_1.10.2-1_i386.deb
libgl1-mesa-glx_7.10.2-3_i386.deb

I reinstalled the Ubuntu amd64 equivalents:

(libegl1-mesa) <- not on my system
libglu1-mesa
(libegl1-mesa-driver) <- not on my system
xserver-xephyr
libgl1-mesa-dri
xserver-xorg-core
libgl1-mesa-glx

Two of these packages, libegl1-mesa and libegl1-mesa-driver, are not installed and don't seem to be needed.

After banging in these packages, Ubuntu boots and loads Unity-2D. I mistook Unity-2D for regular unity, and thought "problem solved". My mistake.

I am currently using nVidia driver 275.09.07, installed from NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-275.09.07.run.

The unity support test now results in a failure and loads unity-2d on my system.

mikey@hatshepsut:~/Downloads$ /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa Project
OpenGL renderer string: Software Rasterizer
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 7.10.2

Not software rendered: no
Not blacklisted: yes
GLX fbconfig: yes
GLX texture from pixmap: no
GL npot or rect textures: yes
GL vertex program: yes
GL fragment program: yes
GL vertex buffer object: yes
GL framebuffer object: yes
GL version is 1.4+: yes

Unity supported: no

Unity DE is now Working as Well As Can Be Expected

 Happy, happy, joy, joy

See the next day's post.

I posted this elsewhere:


[FIXED] Re: Unity Desktop Environment nonresponsive with GeForce 7300 LE...


Short answer: not a nVidia driver problem.


I found a fix, at least for my system, in the Debian User Forums:


http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=65539 "Lost 3D after updating nvidia-glx, linux and X".


Someone advised reinstalling the following packages:

libegl1-mesa_7.10.2-3_i386.deb

libglu1-mesa_7.10.2-3_i386.deb

libegl1-mesa-drivers_7.10.2-3_i386.deb

xserver-xephyr_1.10.2-1_i386.deb

libgl1-mesa-dri_7.10.2-3_i386.deb

xserver-xorg-core_1.10.2-1_i386.deb

libgl1-mesa-glx_7.10.2-3_i386.deb

I reinstalled the Ubuntu amd64 equivalents:

libegl1-mesa <-------- Not installed or needed on my system.

libglu1-mesa

libegl1-mesa-driver <- Not installed or needed on my system.

xserver-xephyr

libgl1-mesa-dri

xserver-xorg-core

libgl1-mesa-glx

Two of these packages, libegl1-mesa and libegl1-mesa-driver, WERE NOT installed on my system after the upgrade to natty (Ubuntu 11.04). I don't know why they weren't installed during the upgrade, or if they were there before the upgrade. They seem to be needed. (No, they are not.)


After banging in these packages, the Unity Desktop Environment works as well as can be expected. (Snarky comments removed.) Of course, I am running the nVidia 275.09.07 drivers instead of the ones in the Ubuntu repository...


A great Father's Day present for me! Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.


I'm not a fan of the Unity DE, but it is nice to have my video working properly again.

My New Lubuntu Desktop

Big news from the home office in beautiful Skokie, IL: I have not been enjoying my Unity desktop environment experience very much. I am not alone is this.  In the past I have fixed other Ubuntu oddities such as the Aubergine barf color scheme and the placing and reordering of the window buttons on the top left, ala OS X. My solution to this whole Unity business is to switch to Lubuntu, which uses  LXDE. I call this the natty quick fix (NQF):

sudo apt get install lubuntu-desktop

Log out, then log in again into Lubuntu. Add other Lubuntu/LXDE packages as desired.

I put the bar up on the top, ala Gnome 2, added the Cairo Dock and found that Gnome-Do still works. I'm a happy, happy camper once again.

I can't complain too much, because you do not have to use Unity or Unity 2D. There are so many desktop environment/window manager options available from the standard repositories. I could even use Gnome 2 while it lasts, without adding a single package. (It's supposed to go away in the next release, but it's still available for now.)  That's a nice thing about Ubuntu: You can customize the heck out of it. There are a lot of other desktop options out there, options that will not kill my current installation. I do not want to reinstall at this time. There's KDE, XFCE4, LXDE, Window Maker, etc., all available for installation from the repository. I chose LXDE. Earlier, I tried it in a virtual machine and had a good experience. Now it's working well for me directly on hardware.

LXDE is supposed to be a lightweight desktop environment. but with all the crap I'm running on it, Conky shows a crapload of memory being used. (It's showing 1.48 GB being used right now, and all I'm doing is editing this blog post.) I'll look into that later. Right now life is too good.

My New Ubuntu Natty Wallpaper II

I felt creative after borking my system's video again. This time I was trying to get Unity working by down-reving  both my Xorg server and the proprietary nVidia video driver. All I I got for my efforts was a screen full of scrambled pixels.

Unity more or less works on my system if I use the open source Nouveau driver. (Other things break... the Nouveau driver 3D stuff is not ready for prime time.) I can also use the nVidia driver with Unity 2D, which is probably being improved even as I write. I'm not real crazy about the Unity desktop environment, 2D or otherwise. It seems to be a great leap backwards. I'm not sure why I don't deep six the whole fricking thing and move on. I must have too much time on my hands.

My New Ubuntu Natty Wallpaper

Dear Mr. Shuttleworth,

 I am having ever so much fun with the new Unity desktop. I felt so inspired by the spirit of unity that I created a new desktop wallpaper for my computer. It truly warms the cockles of my heart to beta test your wonderful software.

Cheers,

Mikey

I have the touch!

The poison touch, that is. The proverbial brown thumb. It's a reverse midas touch kind of power: everything I touch turns to crap.

It's  an awesome and mighty power. I have an uncanny ability to pick losers. Whatever I like, gets the spike. I liked the TV show Firefly. Canceled. FlashForward. Canceled.  My Name is Earl. Canceled. Yikes! No more TV for me.  I decided that I would wait a few years for the reruns to appear, and spend my time reading books and speaking in tongues to computers as a hobby, instead of watching TV. Although Hollywood heaved a very big sigh of relief, it's just too late for some.

Now writers must face my dangerous attentions. John Biggins was dropped by his publisher. He's self publishing on Amazon.com, poor guy. Even Neil Gaiman can't get R.A. Lafferty reprinted. (Good thing R.A. is now a blessed memory... he'd starve otherwise.) Earlier I reviewed Sara Vowell's book, The Wordy Shipmates, for Skokie Public Library's Winter Reading Whatever-a-thon. Hey, just shoot me, OK? I just wanted to win one of the prizes for my sweetie.

So, today I find in the "Buy Our Discarded Books for $1 Snack Zone Copy Center" section of the library... The Wordy Shipmates. The very copy that I checked out earlier this year and reviewed. With the purple X of death on its spine. The book was just published in 2008, and now in 2011 the library's already binning it for a buck. You know,  they still have Erle Stanley Gardiner books printed in 1955 on the shelf, but Sara Vowell gets the axe after three stinking years. I hope she has health insurance.

Screw it. I'm joining the Tea Party. They deserve me. There's just no way I'm going to the OTB, that's for sure.

Snow Day

The big storm has dropped a huge load of snow here in Skokie. I'm not sure I can open the front door -- there's a snowdrift  about 3-4 feet high in front of it. The back has a sliding door, so if I really want to go outside, I can. Earlier I heard children from next door outside, walking and playing with their dog. I started a pot of black beans with smoked turkey wings and sausage in the slow cooker, then did the crossword puzzle and the jumble. Then watched a couple ot TV shows on Hulu. The house smells great from the slowly cooking beans. It's now 12:38 PM; time to hit the showers.

Life is beautiful!