Random Thoughts

It's been a while since I've posted so this is an amalgamation of things that have been happening.  First of all, I now have a MacBook Air and the adjustment has been minimal.  All my Linux desktops have sort of been modified to have a quasi-OSX like setup with the arrangement of the close, minimize, maximize buttons.  At worst case, the terminal gives me back that Linux touch and gives me a lot of power back when OSX's UI fails me.

I love the touchpad gestures.  It's probably the most unique aspect of OSX.  Taking the cool computing ideas from Linux and giving it that Apple take on things gives me a good perspective on what can be done to make desktop computing more efficient.  That being said, I just really don't like the regressions that happened.

Getting my PS/2 keyboard with the USB converter to get recognized in OSX is mindbogglingly difficult.  I scoured multiple websites screaming at me the words: "No, it doesn't work." But I refused to believe.  It turns out that the solution is to turn off my MacBook and plug the keyboard in while the device is turned off.  Why?  I don't know.  If the keyboard is supported, why on earth would you want to make it harder to support such devices?

The USB ports are way too few and the Mini DisplayPort (Thunderbolt) really blows here.  Suddenly, I can't use the extra monitor sitting here and I have to buy some fangled adapter to get it going (It's on the way...).  Lastly, the SSD drive is way too small, but that's to be expected.

Despite all of this, I am at peace with the Mac.  It's a nice device and gives me more experience as far as using other computing environments.  All that being said though, my next laptop will definitely go back to Linux.

Next stop, I reformatted my HP laptop that was running Linux Mint.  To be honest, I had been very disappointed with Linux Mint's performance here.  By the time I reformatted it, it had slowed down to a crawl on boot and on GDM login.  It has never ever happened before in any Linux desktop I've used and I have gone through quite a bit.  I tried to analyze the boot sequence and the GDM login process but to no avail.  It was just pitiful to see Linux perform this bad.

I installed Linux Mint 17.3 and that was a mindboggling choice.  The boot was as bad as when I had the bloated Linux Mint 17.1 install.  I was willing to forego that to see what the desktop had in favour.  Secretly, I hoped it would just simply disappear.  When I setup fglrx, I noticed that running amdconfig wouldn't detect any proper supported GPU (Mine is Radeon HD 7670M) which prompted me to look for the xorg version.

Linux Mint 17.3 runs on xorg 1.17.1 which seems to be .1 version above the latest fglrx version from AMD's site.  So I figured I should just ditch this.  I went back and reinstalled Linux Mint 17.1 on the HP Laptop.  I also installed fglrx and not fglrx-updates (which didn't work the last time I tried it).  After running amdconfig, I am treated with the same error which boggled my mind.  I checked xorg and the version was 1.15.  So, NOW, I'm really confused!

I rebooted anyway and fglrx seemed to load right.  I installed cairo-dock and the rest of my usual setup and everything seems set.  For some reason, Linux Mint 17.1 boots up faster than Linux Mint 17.3.  As long as it doesn't bog down, I can live with this.

Speaking of fglrx, I was also reading up if amdgpu and amdgpu-pro will have support on my Radeon GPU.  I think 7670M is still Southern Islands and that support 'should' be coming in the future.  Cross fingers!

FGLRX Issues and Linux Mint

After installing Linux Mint 17.1 on my HP laptop, I noticed that the fglrx-updates package doesn't detect my AMD display drivers.  That's very disappointing but there's no release notes for the Catalyst driver yet (15.3?).  So, I'm not certain if AMD is supposed to drop support for the 7xxM series.  To install fglrx, I had to use the regular fglrx release from Linux Mint.

Then, of course, the Ubuntu fglrx issue dual monitor hit me hard with the flickering desktop.  Sheesh.  From my additional research however, I've found this blurb from the Arch Linux article.

When using a PowerXpress laptop in AMD-only mode (ie, setting the discrete card to render everything) you sometimes run into issues with artifacting/duplicating between displays. This is a known issue, and seems to effect 7xxxM series cards.
The artifacting disappears when you transform one of the monitors by either rotating or scaling. So you can use xrandr to fix this

So, I used the xrandr command they supplied and massaged it to my own case and came up with this:

xrandr --output LVDS1 --primary --mode 1366x768 --pos 0x0 --scale 1.0001x1.0001 --output VGA1 --right-of LVDS1 --scale 1x1 --mode 1024x768

This is not quite what I was hoping for as the second screen seems to display one half of my first monitor display.  After playing around with xrandr, I found the command that would fix it here.

xrandr --output LVDS1 --primary --mode 1366x768 --pos 0x0 --output VGA1 --right-of LVDS1 --scale 1.0001x1.0001 --mode 1024x768

The other caveat on Linux Mint seems to be the installation of the bcm4313 drivers, but that's easy to resolve.

Fglrx on Ubuntu 12.10

After my excursion with the wifi, I went to AMD's site and downloaded Catalyst 14.9 for Linux.  I also had to do more apt-getting for fglrx.

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential cdbs dh-make dkms execstack dh-modaliases linux-headers-generic fakeroot xserver-xorg-dev lib32gcc1

Then follow the steps here.

Fedora Core 20 and Virtualbox

I liked Fedora Core 20's interface.  I think it's right up there with Ubuntu's unity.  Unfortunately, it seems as my HP laptop cannot really run what I need to run from my backed up Virtualbox install.  So, I will be purging this and installing Ubuntu 12.10 which was the last Ubuntu release that was very problem free on this laptop.  Anyway, this blog post details the issues I came across while getting my backed up Virtualbox image to work.  More after the jump!

Upgrading to Ubuntu 13.10

Keeping this brief, I ran into an error with upgrading Ubuntu.  "Could not calculate the upgrade" or some other mumbo jumbo.  So I look into just what the hell is happening on this upgrade and came across with this askubuntu article.  Basically, it told me to look at the logs which was very helpful.

$ grep Broken /var/log/dist-upgrade/apt.log

This showed me that the custom xorg-xserver-video-intel package I installed for fglrx is causing the breakage.  I did apt-get remove to delete the package and re-ran the upgrade.  It seems to be pushing through now.

Open Source Radeon Drivers and Power Management

Just a quick note here.  I switched to the open source drivers for the multiple monitors but along with that, my battery life had been slashed by one half.  I used to get approximately 4 hours of life from the fglrx driver and now I have barely 2 hours.  Sad, but the big desktop is more important to me at the moment.

Done! Goodbye fglrx!

In short, I've given up on AMD's drivers.  I waited as long as I could but there is just no improvement.  The notes here details on how I got rid of the fglrx and switched to open source.

Basically, I followed the instructions from this article for removing.  I did not however perform the steps to reinstall the open source drivers from there.  I ran the software sources application and clicked on the open source drivers, applying the changes and letting it reinstall the packages.  Then, I deleted xorg.conf and rebooted.

Voila!  Multiple monitors are back!

I'm ditching fglrx

After months and months of using this piece of sh*t driver.  I've decided that when I do get a bulk of time to sort this out.  I'm going to switch back to the open source drivers.  Having a big desktop is more important than the power saving stupidity I'll suffer from with the open source radeon drivers.

Revisiting fglrx and multi-monitor setup on Ubuntu 13.04

I really hate that multi-monitor is broken for muxless AMD/Intel hybrid laptops on 13.04.  I've gotten all the way to the latest 13.11 beta and the problems remain.  However, I did uncover some interesting things.

The desktop display options have always been conspicuously absent on amdcccle.  It seems to have been caused by the RandR 1.2 extensions being enabled.  According to this link and this link, it seems I have to disable RandR from xorg and amd's own config file.  One day, I will get to try it on my own.

1. Edit /etc/ati/amdpcsdb and add EnableRandR12=Sfalse on the [AMDPCSROOT/SYSTEM/DDX] section.
2. Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add Option "EnableRandR12" "false" on "Device" section.

Public Service Announcement: Do not upgrade FGLRX to 13.9 STABLE

I've been on the fence on upgrading to 13.9 after reading that it's possibly based on an older driver.  Right now, there seems to be a clear sign that that is indeed the case.  Hang on till October, 2013 for the new driver release.  I hope they actually FIX the dual screen issues though managing code for 2 different graphics manufacturers (muxless hybrids) is quite a tall order.

Downgrading from 13.04 to 12.10?

Generally, 13.04 is fine for my nVIDIA desktop, but on my HP laptop, I'm very unhappy with it.  The lack of a dual head setup is seriously killing me (Thank you, AMD...) and after the recent updates, my touchpad click button is now playing tricks on me.  What do I do?  Do I downgrade to 12.10?  Will the next Ubuntu release fix all of these issues?  Hmmm...

I intentionally upgraded my PC first and give 13.04 a week on that machine to make sure everything was spiffy.  This grace period was for me to decide whether or not to upgrade my work laptop.  I see now that I should probably not be upgrade happy with my work laptop but that will mean I will get stuck with the same problem I had before, which is getting stuck on old releases forever.

It's been a rough week...

FGLRX Post install do's...

This is a good precaution to do because updating your packages can inadvertently cause you to download bad versions of the fglrx drivers.

$ sudo apt-mark hold fglrx fglrx-amdcccle fglrx-dev

AMD FGLRX 13.8 BETA Driver

So, I updated my drivers to 13.8 Beta today using this guide.  The install is no different from Quantal but it's just to make sure I don't make any foolish errors.  I also took the liberty to remove the xserver-xorg-video-intel package that was used by a hack.  As it turns out, there is progress.  Now fglrx will load up without having to use bogus outdated intel video drivers.  The bad news?  Using an external monitor still does not work.  It is clearly a regression with fglrx drivers with 13.04.  That's just how it is with AMD, I suppose.

Progress on the fglrx dual monitor issue

Here's a nice little progress.  I think the root cause of my dual screen woes is the solution to get fglrx working in the first place!!!  This is some spectacular failure on AMD's part, but what else is new with AMD with Linux?

AMD did put out 13.8 beta drivers.  Hopefully, I can ditch the stupid solution and get my 2 screens back!

Worth looking into is the seemingly "Official" bug on launchpad.  Someone posted a possible workaround by disabling SNA acceleration.  Certainly worth a try.  I hate apt-marking outdated packages.

Section "Device"
      Identifier "intel"
      Driver "intel"
      Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
EndSection

Progress on the fglrx dual monitor issue

So, I've been poking around and I'm noticing that xrandr is printing out some very funny things in 13.04.

On 12.10, this is what xrandr tells me:

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2390 x 768, maximum 8192 x 8192
LVDS1 connected 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 309mm x 174mm
VGA1 connected 1024x768+1366+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 267mm x 200mm

On 13.04, notice the difference in resolution:

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2390 x 777, maximum 8192 x 8192
LVDS1 connected 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 309mm x 174mm

VGA1 connected 1024x768+1366+9 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 267mm x 200mm

So, this is why the screen seems pushed to the side and is causing the whole misalignment of my desktop.  There must be a way to set xrandr to how it was in 12.10.  I have to keep looking.

I've tried to reconfigure xrandr:
xrandr --output LVDS1 --mode 1366x768 --pos 0x0 --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --pos 0x0 --right-of LVDS1

This gives me the correct xrandr configuration on 12.10:
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2390 x 768, maximum 8192 x 8192
LVDS1 connected 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 309mm x 174mm
VGA1 connected 1024x768+1366+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 267mm x 200mm

But this did not fix my error.  The screen would go off just the same.  This feels like a regression on xrandr and/or fglrx.

Unsurprising Failure of being with AMD

Today, I upgraded my HP Pavilion G4-2123TX from 12.10 to 13.04.  I was very leery of the AMD hardware and I expected problems.  Well, I got them alright!

First off, the AMD drivers bombed HARD.  No amount of reinstall and reconfigure would help.  I would two helpful links that helped me get through this (here and here).  It is annoying to see AMD hardware fail so hard at simply working but such is the life of AMD owners.

Next problem was the wifi.  No matter what I did, I could not get my wifi to work with my security even though everything worked perfectly fine on the old 12.10 install.  I changed my security to WPA/TKIP from WPA2/AES and that seemed to help quite a bit (which messed with the wifi connectivity of my phone.  Ah, c'est la vie.)

Lastly, dual monitor is broken in my laptop.  Broken.  Bad.  Still no solution in sight yet.

Random Thoughts

I discovered that Cheese crashes on my HP laptop.  The good news is that guvc works just fine.  I'm happy with it so bye bye, Cheese!

I just got the AMD Catalyst 13.4 stable.  Unlike the beta releases, the fglrx deb packages have the version numbers, so that's a good thing!

Ubuntu 13.04 upgrade prompts is showing up now.  I'll keep waiting till they get their issues sorted.

Catalyst beta drivers update

Hell yeah!  AMD's 13.2 beta 6 drivers work.  Finally!

Finally some answers...

I've been, on occasion, scouring the net for answers on my AMD hardware on Ubuntu.  Support has been incredibly awful but I wasn't surprised.

lspci describes my hardware as: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Thames XT/GL [Radeon HD 7600M Series]

This provided me with an interesting article that seems to explain a possible solution to this problem.  Essentially, it looks like you need to install the latest beta driver from AMD to get things pseudo working.  Specifically, the post mentions that the 13.2 Beta 3 version works on the laptop.  Ubuntu distributes the 12.6 Catalyst which is virtually unusable here.

One has to wonder when Ubuntu plans to put the aforementioned driver in the repository.

Update:
An additional article that discusses this on Ubuntu.

Here is the launchpad link for Ubuntu's fglrx stuff.

Ubuntu 12.10 and FGLRX

Regarding the AMD crap driver on Ubuntu, this write up seems like a good one to keep handy on this blog.  I am going to wait for some dkms deb packages to arrive because there's no way I'm doing those custom driver installs now.  Still, the article is a good resource to have.