Today I'll write about Kubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). I've installed the Beta version on my Sony Vaio VGN-SR290 with ATI Radeon HD 3400.
Now, after one painful day everything is working. I want to share my experience and hope it can save you some time when you decide to install it.
Installation
The installation was the easiest part. I download the ISO and created a bootable USB Disk using unetbootin. Everything worked as expected. I just want to mention the long time that it took to analyze my hard disk. It might have happened because I have nine partitions.
First Boot
When I booted, the X didn't come. So, I needed to use my six years of Linux experience. I logged in and installed the ATI proprietary drivers using text mode.
sudo apt-get install fglrx-driver fglrx-amdcccle
After rebooting the X came. I ran amdcccle and I was able to configure my dual head without any extra effort. Much better than 9.04 (I spent two days configuring my dual head).
I executed an apt-get dist-upgrade, one more reboot and everything was working. Everything? Not necessarily.
Recognizing my 4GB of RAM
Well, when I bought my computer I spent some extra money for more memory. Obviously, I want to use all of them. But Kubuntu does only see 3.2GB. Too bad!
I thought that it would be easy to solve this issue. I would just have to install linux-serve package as I had done with 9.04. I was totally wrong. At least in the beta version the linux-server is not there. I googled a little and found an alternative solution: Install the x64 version.
Too bad, again. I work with some old tools that does not run on 64bits environment. Thinking a little bit an I decide to compile my own kernel enabling 64GB of RAM.
Why Ubuntu developers don't compile the kernel with this flag? Do they think that it is possible to run this new version on old computers? I really don't understand.
Anyway, after about one hour and half I was rebooting my Kubuntu with my custom kernel. And it is recognizing my 4GB. Kubuntu 9.10 4GB RAM Limitation 0wn3d.
Other Softwares
I installed my favorite softwares (emacs, inkscape, firefox, latex, g++,...) everything seems to be working fine.
VMWare Server 2.0
The pain hadn't been relieved, yet. I had to install VMWare Server 2.0. Don't ask me why I need this on my laptop. The fact is that I do.
I got the tar.gz packet and uncompressed it. I installed, but VMWare modules didn't compile. It seems that they are not compatible with kernel 2.6.31.
But I didn't give up. I google a little bit and found an amazing patch here. It was not a straightforward process. I had to change the shell script a little bit. I needed to change the checksum values and I disabled the vmblock. Also, I edited the patch and removed everything that was related with vmblock.
I executed expecting that it wouldn't work since the patch was for VMware Workstation 6.5.2. However, it worked and I was able to compile VMWare modules.
Now that my VMWare server was installed, it was time to test my Virtual Machines. I booted my Windows 2000. The windows came right away. But I had some problem with the mouse pointer.
It flickered and I was not able to used it when the resolution was greater then 640x480.
Google is my friend. I hunted a solution. I'd need to set the environment variable VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK to forced. Thus, I edited my /etc/profile and wrote:
export VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=false
And now it was working perfectly.
My impressions
Perhaps I'm not an human being since I have a PC with 4GB of RAM and want to use a 32 bits version.
Also configuring VMWare Server was painful.
Hardware compatibility
9 of 10.
Differently from previous versions I haven't have any hardware issue. The CAM is working fine, skype is working fine. And I have dual head with Composite, that is, 3D effects.
Neither is the finger scanner working nor brightness control functions. The finger scanner problem is due to Sony that doesn't provide the device specification.
Conclusion
My final grade is 8. I could use all the resources that I've been using with previous versions. Also, it took me one day less to configure and run everything.
References
VMware install fails w/ kernel Linux 2.6.31 on 11.2 factory
Workstation: Losing focus (mounse ungrabs) outside area of 640 x 480 (vga resolution)
Update
[One day later]
I did an upgrade and everything was broken. X didn't start. I tried to configure it and when it came kwin was having problem.
I reinstalled fglrx-driver and X came. But VMWare was not working anymore.
I decide to stop testing the Beta version and use Kubuntu 9.04.
I did a clean installation of 9.04 and, this time, it took me just four hours to configure everything.
Now that my Kubuntu 9.04 is working again I'll be using it for some more months. I'll keep my eye open for VMWare updates, too. I'll wait until it becomes stable. I'll give another chance to Karmic Koala by December.
Randolym hit your article when trying to look up KDE4.3's memory usage as a desktop.
ReplyDeleteAll I could do was face palm.
All your issues seem to originate from choosing 32 bit. First getting a special kernel that usage the BIG Memory Extension code (of which causes performance overhead) this could of easily messed up kernel/X.org/fglrx combo, especially considering fglrx and the fact Ubuntu's kernel is so specially designed you need experience recompiling it.
You would of faired better had you just went with 64 bit then gotten the 64 bit flash installed. ( Easiest solution is to grab flashplugin-nonfree https://launchpad.net/~stemp/+archive/ppa and make sure nspluginwrapper DOES NOT get installed add OverrideGPUValidation=true into /etc/adobe/mms.cfg and this will get you the full force Flash Player under 64 bit hardware accelerated and all )
As far as other things go they seem to just work, example OpenJDK is complete enough to handle Java in 64 bit etc.
Personally everything else I've done to my desktop is tweaking. Ex: Xubuntu with kde's kwin replace xfce4-settings-helper with xbindkeys due to xfce4 settings helper resetting workspace names for some reason. and xbindkeys being desktop independant. Making KDE4/Qt4 Apps blend into GTK+/Xfce, Kwin is using the Nitrogen theme as I could blend that into Xfce so window management is seemless. Had to use Kwin's simple window management config to allow Xfce's desktop to appear in all workspaces (since Kwin is designed for KDE4's more advanced Plasma Desktop). Since your a KDE user you know the pluses of Kwin4, OpenGL compositing like Compiz without ugly work arounds (faster better code), Simple and nicely design window management, configurable in near all the ways that it can be useful.
Well, I don't use just Flash and Java and a browser. I use some proprietary CAD tools that obligate me to use 32 bits kernel. Otherwise, I would choose 64 bits version as I've written on my post.
ReplyDeleteAlso, even thought I tweaked my Linux box in the past, I'm not having too much time for it. Otherwise I'd have chosen Gentoo.