Hardy.Heron.28.days.and.counting

Canonical is set to release the next version of the popular desktop Linux distro, Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) next month. Being an Ubuntu fan since 5.04 this is a welcome thing for me specifically because Hardy Heron is the latest Ubuntu release that comes with LTS (Long-term support), the previous being Dapper Drake (6.04) and thats 3 releases ago (roughly a year and half). This means that we get to enjoy another release that has stability in mind, good news for those who want to switch. I have downloaded the beta release and installed in on my office desktop via wubi, I will be evaluating it for a couple of days and explore the new features and if it proves to be top notch (which I seriously think it is), I will be upgrading my notebook to use it as well. Note that this is beta release guys, so unless you're ready to solve possible annoying bugs wait till the stable version is released.

*I haven't been able to update this blog as much as I want to but I will definitely be keeping it up to date in the coming days. Too many bloggable events so little time :)

the.good.the.bad.the.ugly

Finally ATI released a new fglrx driver (8.42.3) that supports AIGLX. The good news, We no longer have to setup an separate XGL session just to have our fill of Compiz eye-candy. The bad news, its too slow when you compared it with previous driver releases. And the ugly part? Compiz runs quite well but some applications like Firefox is really slow when scrolling. I also got a few artifacts when I rotate the cube (which btw does not exist if I use XGL instead) . VLC and Totem had problems with fullscreen (you'll have to switch the output to X11). Ah yes the pains of upgrading...But if you can live with those problems then do the upgrade. I on the other hand have downgraded back to 8.40.4-1 it doesn't have AIGLX support but it was fast and responsive. I'm happy that ATI finally listened to what the community wanted but I'll just have to wait for ATI to fix the bug.

*UPDATE:
ATI released v7.11, and notice that fglrx drivers are now following Catalyst version numbers, I wonder why they didn't follow that numbering in the first place. Anyway I've upgraded to v7.11(8.43.3 internally) and it offered a little performance improvement over v8.42.3 but not enough to outperform v8.40.4-1 (XGL) however it 'seems' to be more stable (at least it didn't randomly conk out on me) but just like v8.42.3 it broke hibernate/suspend on my Gutsy install, still had problems with full screen video output, and still has artifacts when the desktop cube is rotated. The release notes indicate that the kernel module is now working on kernel version 2.6.23 (that at least is good news) but I haven' tested that yet.

monkeying.around.with.gutsy.and.fglrx

Val posted a followup on a promise a made in a previous blog, and here it is.
If you happen to own an ATI Radeon card, you might notice that Gutsy Gibbon's (Ubuntu 7.10) default setup makes use of ATI's restricted drivers, this will actually allow you to have a working desktop but note that it won't allow beryl/compiz to run. Being a desktop effect junkie, I find this unacceptable and as soon as I got the basic apps installed I started poking my way into configurations to find the best way to set things up. In the course of searching for a solution however, I managed to render my Ubuntu desktop useless a few times before finally finding the right mix. I also tried using envy but at that time the only fix I see for Envy on Gutsy was to replace the Linux Mint line into 'Gutsy' and cross one's fingers that it works...I crossed mine and it didn't :)

I hope to spare you guys the trouble of experimenting...so here goes.

first things first, make sure we are updated!:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install module-assistant build-essential
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)


download the official driver from ATI's site (ati.amd.com)

next step involves generating our own packages from the official driver

sh ati-driver-installer-8.40.4-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/gutsy

Install .deb packages

sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_8.40.4-1*.deb
sudo dplg -i fglrx-kernel-source_8.40.4-1*.deb

Remove old fglrx debs from /usr/src/...if any:

sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb

Compile the kernel module:

sudo module-assistant prepare
sudo module-assistant update
sudo module-assistant build fglrx
sudo module-assistant install fglrx
sudo depmod -a

*note that you will have to do this every time the kernel is updated

Configure the driver:

sudo aticonfig --initial

according to the official wiki, you can replace the string "ati" with "fglrx" in the "Device" section. This way you won't lose your old "Screen and "Monitor" settings. Afterwards you can use aticonfig for setting overlay.

sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv

reboot and run fglrxinfo in the terminal to confirm installation.

*Note: Ubuntu's linux-restricted-modules includes the fglrx module from an old driver version. We need to blacklist his module to ensure that the new kernel module is used.

sudo nano /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

Edit the DISABLED_MODULES section to include fglrx:

DISABLED_MODULES="fglrx"
You should be able to install and configure compiz-fusion easily after this, just don't forget to recompile the modules once you update the kernel. Btw some of the niftier improvements I've noticed with Gutsy is that it practically fixed the wireless issues I had with Feisty Fawn (7.04), network manager is working A-OK with my ralink card, another one is the screen tearing/flickering I experienced since my Dapper Drake days, where my screen tears/flickers on screen updates (window updates/object refresh) this time the refresh is handled well by the OS update. Lastly, Gutsy's XGL will automatically start the next time you log in after it is installed (no need to setup an XGL session).