All "which distro should I choose?" queries here.

kamikaz

kamikaz

Ambassador of Buzz
[MENTION=94364]chris[/MENTION] I'm pretty sure you are missing out by not updating to latest kernel and oibaf and you can also check xorg edgers , if things go broke you still can revert it ,quite a few people are using it ,I have a 4670myslef and i was on a lookout for the best option and found these info !,
Regarding wastage of menu bar and all that ,that depends on the display manager ,its not a distro specific thing

The only gripe I currently have is none of the media players cannot still have subs on black borders ,during playback ,of videos
Does anyone here know any solution ,I'm yet to find one
 
C

chris

In the zone
Re: All "which distro should I choose?" queries here.

kamikaz said:
[MENTION=94364]chris[/MENTION] I'm pretty sure you are missing out by not updating to latest kernel and oibaf and you can also check xorg edgers , if things go broke you still can revert it ,quite a few people are using it ,I have a 4670myslef and i was on a lookout for the best option and found these info !,
Click to expand...

I don't get reply notification for your post. But i come here to get link to oibaf, going to try it now :)

xorg edgers, do they support AMD.. don't have any updated fglrx driver (i know we are not looking for that), better go with oibaf ppa ?

Running these now

Code: 
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

I will post glmark2 result after doing this. Ubuntu also give latest kernel, i will try it. Hope that won't break anything :)

Edit:

Downloading and installing 140 MB of files

Code: 
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  libllvm3.4:i386
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove it.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  lxc-docker-1.1.2
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  i965-va-driver libedit2:i386 libllvm3.5 libllvm3.5:i386
  linux-headers-3.13.0-35 linux-headers-3.13.0-35-generic lxc-docker-1.2.0
  va-driver-all vdpau-va-driver
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libc-bin libc-dev-bin libc6 libc6:i386 libc6-dbg libc6-dev libc6-i386
  libdrm-dev libdrm-intel1 libdrm-intel1:i386 libdrm-nouveau2
  libdrm-nouveau2:i386 libdrm-radeon1 libdrm-radeon1:i386 libdrm2 libdrm2:i386
  libegl1-mesa libegl1-mesa:i386 libegl1-mesa-drivers
  libegl1-mesa-drivers:i386 libgbm1 libgbm1:i386 libgl1-mesa-dev
  libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-glx:i386
  libglamor0 libglapi-mesa libglapi-mesa:i386 libgles2-mesa libgles2-mesa:i386
  libopenvg1-mesa libopenvg1-mesa:i386 libosmesa6 libosmesa6:i386 libva-dev
  libva-drm1 libva-egl1 libva-glx1 libva-tpi1 libva-wayland1 libva-x11-1
  libva1 libvdpau-dev libvdpau1 libwayland-egl1-mesa libwayland-egl1-mesa:i386
  libxatracker2 linux-firmware linux-headers-generic linux-libc-dev lxc-docker
  mesa-common-dev mesa-utils multiarch-support vainfo xserver-xorg-video-ati
  xserver-xorg-video-glamoregl xserver-xorg-video-intel
  xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-radeon
62 upgraded, 9 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 92.0 MB of archives.
After this operation, 140 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y

- - - Updated - - -

That crashed my system :(

Now i have no Unity side bar or Dash. Atl+Tab not working, if an app go background, getting it back is very diffcult as the switcher itself missing. Some yellow color shows up in my screen when i try to switch tab.

Code: 
$ glxinfo | grep OpenGL
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on AMD REDWOOD
OpenGL core profile version string: 3.3 (Core Profile) Mesa 10.4.0-devel (git-4ca203f 2014-08-28 trusty-oibaf-ppa)
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 3.30
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 10.4.0-devel (git-4ca203f 2014-08-28 trusty-oibaf-ppa)
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL extensions:
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.0 Mesa 10.4.0-devel (git-4ca203f 2014-08-28 trusty-oibaf-ppa)
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.0
OpenGL ES profile extensions:
$ 
$ uname -r
3.13.0-34-generic
$

PPA purge not working

Code: 
$ sudo ppa-purge ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
Updating packages lists
PPA to be removed: oibaf graphics-drivers
Warning:  Could not find package list for PPA: oibaf graphics-drivers
$

*i.imgur.com/qu51HV6l.jpg

That yellow thing, not sure what it is.. it comes up instead of unity dash, top bar, etc... ATL+tab make it change, some times go away completely.

I have AMD catalyst on my PC, i tried to install it as PPA-purge not working, but it also fail to install deb files as some missing dependency. I will try it again.

Any idea how to get it back to normal ?
 
Last edited:
kamikaz

kamikaz

Ambassador of Buzz
Err this is a mess what driver were you on before updating ? Catalyst or open source ? Right now I'm on mobile ,ill try to help you once I get back on to a PC mind you ,I'm no pro ,but you learn a lot when things go wrong ,be patient ,try purging all drivers and thenupdate your kernel ,its easy to fall back if you have kernel issues ,so install the latest one , and second install another display manager beside unity ,like xfce or mate to check whether the drivers are causing problems with them and last install oibaf ..let's make this thing work on your PC !

Update [MENTION=94364]chris[/MENTION] whats the status have you managed to find a fix? what drivers do you have currently installed?
ermm did you restart pc after installing oibaf? try installing the latest kernel something like 3.14 or above the latest stable one is 3.16

you should try oibafs thread in phoronix

*help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/AMD this thread may help , im looking for solutions if i find any ill update here

btw you will be able to remove oibaf ppa by going into synaptic package manager and deleting it from repositories and then do an update and then try to install the catalyst driver as mentioned in the above thread (get it from the amd site , the latest beta , while getting the latest driver make sure it is compatible with system like the XOrg and Kernel ,downgrade if necessary)

Update 2
lol [MENTION=94364]chris[/MENTION] you have posted this around all forums !! havent you ! (or its someone with the exact problem)!! just saw a similar post on phoronix seems the ppa will be updated soon ,this seems like a regression as mentioned here
Updated and Optimized Ubuntu Free Graphics Drivers - Page 130

hope your problem is fixed !
Do try the latest kernel !
 
Last edited:
C

chris

In the zone
Lol, it was me. I got mad :D

After installing, i rebooted, and went to another room. PC never come back.. so i had to cold boot.

Then... it come back with unity dead.

After all the posts, i started reading last part of phoronix thread found that everyone else having this problem and is caused by messa.

I can't get ppa-purge to work. I was using Open Source driver before, had AMD driver downloaded, so i just installed it, had some missing dependency problem, that i fixed by making .deb package, then manually installing as it show what is mising. My first install was automated, that failed.. so i rebooted into failed unity mess.

I was checking my packages found i still have oibf packages, so i manually created .list file in /etc/apt folder. Then ppa-purge worked.

I am still in Catalist beta.

Code: 
$ glxinfo | grep OpenGL
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon HD 5670
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.3.12967 Core Profile Context 14.20
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.40
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 4.4.12967 Compatibility Profile Context 14.20
OpenGL shading language version string: 4.40
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL profile mask: compatibility profile
OpenGL extensions:
$

I need to play some TF2 before switching back to open source driver.

glmark2 scores

Catalyst = 1488
Ubuntu Open souurce = 1306
oibaf buggy ppa = 1248

But it won't tell much as.. too many variable. So going to play TF2 now :)

Previously i have multiple Catalyst (one from ubuntu repo, one from amd site), that caused performance problems.

[ubuntu] Display problem AMD HD 5670

I am not sure if that was cuased by the multiple driver or catalist itself, anyway open source driver solved the problem. Today i don't see any such problem. Let see how games work before switching to Open Source driver.

I want to try latest kernel, but that won't work with catalyst, so first i need to switch to open source, i will do after taking some rest. I don't want to try oibaf again, as they update frequently and i don't want to waste bandwidth and deal with problems like this everyday :D

EDIT 1

Played TF2, i think it plays almost same or better than Open Source driver, Got 150+ FPS most of the time. Lowest i found was ~60 during game end for a small time, that won't affect performance. I read Catalyst have better 3D performance, but Open Source have better 2D. Will better 2D performance help any way as most games are 3D ?

EDIT 2

Now i understand the need for 2D performance. My previous display problem is back (garbled display)... Reverting to Open Source shortly.
 
Last edited:
C

chris

In the zone
Downloading Manjaro XFCE 64-bit to try on a virtual machine. This is rolling release, so you keep getting latest stable software ? I don't want to go with unstable PPA like oibaf deal with problems. If i am using Manjaro, still need oibaf ?
 
kamikaz

kamikaz

Ambassador of Buzz
No oibaf is for Ubuntu, manjaro is based on arch ,but they lag like 2 weeks behind arch main repository(which is quite the bleeding edge) ,so that the system remains stable ,and with almost the latest drivers the thing with arch is they have a superb wiki and before you post anything you should definitely search the wiki,also manjaro community is nice too,you can even switch kernels ,from settings ,its quite different from Ubuntu and if you aren't familiar with arch you might be up for some reading ,xfce comes with steam client BTW
I'm still learning it ,let me know how it goes for you
 
C

chris

In the zone
Thanks for the info. I installed on a remote KVM virtual machine, that was very slow to respond. I will try to setup a local VM, will take some time to download ISO. For now i installed kernal 3.14 on ubuntu. glmark2 show slightly increased score (~10), nothing much.
 
kamikaz

kamikaz

Ambassador of Buzz
hmm [MENTION=94364]chris[/MENTION] check this Gears on Gallium this is a bleeding edge distro based on suse, idont have much info besides that
Direct3D 9 Support Stands A Chance Of Being Added To Mesa - Page 5
this is a thread which talks about gallium nine and Has ppa for gallium based mesa , it helps to improve fps when you are using wine to play the game

Im trying to install similar one on my manjaro linux [MENTION=73844]gameranand[/MENTION] whats your spec mate? things have improved a lot from past..
 
gameranand

gameranand

Living to Play
Intel Core i7 3770K
Asus Maximus V Formula
Corsair Vengeance 2133MHz 4GB *2
Sapphire HD7870 GHz Edition *2 Crossfire Setup
Corsair HX850
Cooler Master Storm Trooper ATX
BenQ G2420HD

Its more than enough to Run DOTA at highest settings AFAIK.
 
kamikaz

kamikaz

Ambassador of Buzz
LOl yeah it is, im not much sure ,how to set that system up..with crossfire and all, all i can say is things have improved a lot [MENTION=73844]gameranand[/MENTION]
check this benchmarks [Phoronix] 20-Way Radeon Comparison With Open-Source Graphics For Steam On Linux Gaming

the default drivers on ubuntu wont necessarily give the best performance imo,perhaps you have to try alternatives
 
gameranand

gameranand

Living to Play
kamikaz said:
LOl yeah it is, im not much sure ,how to set that system up..with crossfire and all, all i can say is things have improved a lot [MENTION=73844]gameranand[/MENTION]
check this benchmarks [Phoronix] 20-Way Radeon Comparison With Open-Source Graphics For Steam On Linux Gaming

the default drivers on ubuntu wont necessarily give the best performance imo,perhaps you have to try alternatives
Click to expand...

I did tried the alternatives.
 
C

chris

In the zone
I am now back to stock ubuntu. I don't want to living in edge for little performance boost. I hope they will back port good stuff to ubuntu.

I remember the days when i watch a youtube video on ubuntu and want to switch to windows due to poor performance, now it is much better.

And.. good news. Borderlands 2 is now available on my Linux Steam Library, expect it to be available very soon :)

*i.imgur.com/VAm58dr.png

Not yet downloaded, i need to get a backup from WIndows, restore on ubuntu, then download rest, i may wait some time until it get ready.
 
abhigeek

abhigeek

I
I'm trying to dual boot windows and ubuntu.
I read guides for dual booting, but none of them are trying to explain the reason behind.

1. In windows there are drive partition, so if windows fails, it doesn't effect another partitions.
But how this is implemented in ubuntu to keep data safe?

2. During installation, in choosing the mount point, which one i should choose?
So, that files i create in ubuntu (via open office etc), will be safe , in case ubuntu crash

3. What is use of swap in linux?... And do i really need of swap? as i have 2 gb ram..

4. What is bootloader? and diff of this in ubuntu and windows.
 
sling-shot

sling-shot

Wise Old Owl
Bootloader is the most basic of user installed software that runs first. It is present in the first sector of your boot partition or hard drive.

Swap is a special partition and is used as an extended part of your RAM. It gets used when RAM is near full. With 2GB of RAM it is possible that you might get to use it if you run memory intensive applications. Keep it at around 1.5 times of your RAM. Unlike Windows Linux also uses this as hibernation / disk sleep storage.

A simple and effective setup for Linux is to have a sufficiently large root or OS partition as all of your installed applications also go here usually (say 50+ GB), a home partition where all of your user data is kept (size depends on your preference at least 20 GB is reasonable) and finally the SWAP partition. You could have any number of other partitions for data storage as you like.

So if you follow the strategy above your data will be quite safe.
 
Chetan1991

Chetan1991

Youngling
I want to setup a linux distro for web development and some android app development.

Which one should I go for? Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / Mint or CentOS 7?

I am taking this step because after a year or more Windows installation becomes slow and erratic even if you manage startup processes, keep it virus free etc.

I would like to have an OS that is stable for some time, compatible with my 4 year old laptop, and doesn't has problems with its ATI mR 5450 GPU. It also needs to have a nice "package management" system to easily allow installation and uninstallation of software.
 
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