RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2007
- Messages
- 13,157
- Location
- Upstate New York
- Display Name
Display name:
Geek on the Hill
A/K/A Ubuntu 9.10
I finally got around to installing the RC of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). I played with it at my buddy's shop during the week and liked it, but I just got around to installing it on one of my own machines.
The install went smoothly, as Ubuntu installs usually do. But it took me almost two hours to configure the blasted X-server. It came down to a stupid error on my own part, of course (a mismatched identifier in /etc/X11/xorg.conf).
The problem is that the monitor on that desk doesn't report itself correctly, so I have to manually enter the frequency, refresh rate, resolution, and modelines in xorg.conf. I've done it dozens of times; but this time, the nVidia driver changed the identifier for the video card in the Device section, and I didn't notice until I had edited and saved the file and restarted X a couple of dozen times. So it was basically ignoring my changes and dropping everything to safe levels.
The other problem was that even after I noticed and fixed the error, It required a full reboot before the X-server took the new settings. I don't know why; just killing and restarting X usually does it. It might have had something to to with the proprietary nVidia driver. I read somewhere that the new nVidia divers for Unix are still a little buggy.
Because it took me so long to get the blasted X-server configured, I really haven't had time to do much with the system. But one thing I noticed in the course of all the restarts is that it's wicked fast. I don't remember the last time I saw a PC boot so quickly. That machine isn't particularly powerful, either. It has an Athlon 64 3600+ (single-core) processor, and I think a gig of RAM.
I'm downloading a couple of gigs worth of apps on it now; I figure I'll get some sleep and fart around with it tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get some decent screenshots.
-Rich
I finally got around to installing the RC of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). I played with it at my buddy's shop during the week and liked it, but I just got around to installing it on one of my own machines.
The install went smoothly, as Ubuntu installs usually do. But it took me almost two hours to configure the blasted X-server. It came down to a stupid error on my own part, of course (a mismatched identifier in /etc/X11/xorg.conf).
The problem is that the monitor on that desk doesn't report itself correctly, so I have to manually enter the frequency, refresh rate, resolution, and modelines in xorg.conf. I've done it dozens of times; but this time, the nVidia driver changed the identifier for the video card in the Device section, and I didn't notice until I had edited and saved the file and restarted X a couple of dozen times. So it was basically ignoring my changes and dropping everything to safe levels.
The other problem was that even after I noticed and fixed the error, It required a full reboot before the X-server took the new settings. I don't know why; just killing and restarting X usually does it. It might have had something to to with the proprietary nVidia driver. I read somewhere that the new nVidia divers for Unix are still a little buggy.
Because it took me so long to get the blasted X-server configured, I really haven't had time to do much with the system. But one thing I noticed in the course of all the restarts is that it's wicked fast. I don't remember the last time I saw a PC boot so quickly. That machine isn't particularly powerful, either. It has an Athlon 64 3600+ (single-core) processor, and I think a gig of RAM.
I'm downloading a couple of gigs worth of apps on it now; I figure I'll get some sleep and fart around with it tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get some decent screenshots.
-Rich