Adventures in Switching to Linux

Ubuntu 8.04 has been out for a day and a half now so I figured it was time to upgrade. I've documented my previous attempts at upgrading to 8.04 Alpha 4 on my laptop but that did not go so well. The upgrade failed and once I finally was able to get the upgrade to work, things like my lame Broadcom wireless card no longer worked. I've since installed a Beta and upgraded to the final on my laptop and it is working better than ever. Compiz now works on it and the wireless that used to have problems when connecting to WPA access points now works as expected.

So I had high hopes for my desktop. It already worked pretty well. My only 2 issues with it are no Compiz (but I can live without that) and my dual monitors are setup as 2 separate sessions instead of "Big Desktop". That means I can't move windows between them and if some application like Firefox is running in one window it can not run in the other. I imagine I could fix that with enough work though.

So here is how the upgrade went.

First, to start the upgrade you just have to run the update manger with the -d option (update-manager -d). Last time I tried this I ran it from a terminal window but since then I have learned about Alt + F2 to open the GNOME "Run Application" box. (Screen shot below taken after the fact.)


My first attempt resulted in my not having enough disk space.


After deleting/moving a bunch of files, I was off again.


It took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to download the 1,333 packages to upgrade, 40 minutes to install them all and another 3 minutes to cleanup. There were a few dialogs along the way. I had to decide what to do with my Samba "smb.conf" file (I kept the old one) and what to do with my Grub config file "menu.lst" (I overwrote it). I then was asked if I wanted to remove the 57 obsolete packages and I decided sure.


When I rebooted though, my mouse did not work. It looks like I am going to have to figure out how to make my MX1000 work in Linux again. Fortunately I had just commented out the old config so I switched my comments and wala, I have a mostly working mouse. The video was also super slow (but Compiz was enabled). I opened up the restricted drivers manager and the proprietary ATI drivers were enabled but not in use. Strange.


This is where everything went downhill fast. I disabled the driver (it was uninstalled) and then re-enabled it (it was reinstalled) and restarted. It has been so many configuration changes and restarts now, I don't even remember what didn't work. I think the first time it worked as before the upgrade except I didn't have window borders. Booting in safe mode sort of worked. I tried some other settings that failed and got a message that I needed to install "get-edid" but after a quick sudo apt-get install read-edid all I fixed was there was no error listed in the same exact screen as before. At some point too, I installed the xserver-xgl but that just caused other problems so I removed it. My favorite problem of them all though was when I got it sort of working, the screen saver would lock up the primary screen and nothing but a Ctrl + Alt + Delete would fix it.

So now I have a semi working setup, I think, based on my old config. Here is is for when I screw things up again, I will have a backup online:

/etc/X11/xorg.conf with Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron and an ATI Radeon X300

# xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "ServerLayout"

# Uncomment if you have a wacom tablet
# InputDevice     "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
# InputDevice     "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
# InputDevice     "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
Identifier "Default Layout"
screen 0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]" 0 0
screen "aticonfig-Screen[1]" rightof "aticonfig-Screen[0]"
Inputdevice "Generic Keyboard"
Inputdevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load  "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver  "kbd"
Option  "CoreKeyboard"
Option  "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option  "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option  "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver  "mouse"
Option  "CorePointer"
Option  "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option  "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option  "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option  "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "stylus"
Driver  "wacom"
Option  "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option  "Type" "stylus"
Option  "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "eraser"
Driver  "wacom"
Option  "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option  "Type" "eraser"
Option  "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "cursor"
Driver  "wacom"
Option  "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option  "Type" "cursor"
Option  "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Horizsync 30.0 - 70.0
Vertrefresh 50.0 - 160.0
Option  "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
Option  "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option  "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option  "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[1]"
Option  "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option  "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option  "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies Inc RV370 5B60 [Radeon X300 (PCIE)]"
Driver  "fglrx"
Busid  "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Driver  "fglrx"
Busid  "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[1]"
Driver  "fglrx"
Busid  "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device  "ATI Technologies Inc RV370 5B60 [Radeon X300 (PCIE)]"
Monitor  "Generic Monitor"
Defaultdepth 24
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]"
Device  "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Monitor  "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
Defaultdepth 24
SubSection "Display"
 Viewport 0 0
 Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[1]"
Device  "aticonfig-Device[1]"
Monitor  "aticonfig-Monitor[1]"
Defaultdepth 24
SubSection "Display"
 Viewport 0 0
 Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option  "Composite" "0"
EndSection