I have to say I’m pretty annoyed with Ubuntu Linux at the moment. I’ve been wrestling with it all afternoon and evening to try and get it installed and working on an Lenovo / IBM T60 Thinkpad, and thus far it’s been a huge waste of time. After much googling throughout the day and trying many different things out without any success, I finally came across what I think the problem is, so I’m downloading yet /another/ ISO of Ubuntu to install.
Long story short, when trying to install Ubuntu 7.04 or upgrade to 7.04, XWindows is totally broken and won’t start with many ATI video cards, including the ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 which is in the T60. Dealing with XWindows was a deal breaker many years ago when I first tried switching to Linux on the desktop, and I can’t imagine their target audience trying to fix a problem like this.
I’m not so much annoyed that it’s a bug, but rather, it was a bug which did not exist in previous versions of Ubuntu, and was known about before Feisty Fawn was released. While ATI is known to barely even provide Linux drivers, I think the blame primarily goes to Ubuntu as this bug was filed and reproduced before the release date. I was able to install previous versions just fine, but 7.04 would simply not install. Someone didn’t do good regression testing or should have called this bug as a blocker for the release. Shame on you, Ubuntu QA, or whoever allowed this product into the wild without fixing the bug. I even read the release notes before installing this and there was nothing mentioned about this bug. I don’t know enough about the ATI driver fiasco in general, but they definitely share some of the blame in general for being the cause of the bug to begin with.
Ubuntu “Feisty Fawn” 7.04 should not have shipped with such a major bug for a large segment of users.
UPDATE: Looks like this is not the only major bug they shipped with.
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Hello Brandon,
I think this is very much a matter of “your mileage may vary”. I just did a fresh install of 7.04 on an asus w2p with a ATI mobility x1700, followed these instructions:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=414194
(that’s a sticky in the Absolute Beginners forum titled “Installing Ubuntu 7.04: ATI X**** Cards”)
and got everything working within ten minutes. I knew enough to expect having to jump through a few hoops because i had many of the same problems when i installed 6.10
Yes, it’s a pity that it doesn’t work out of the box, but there you are - linux (especially free distributions) does tend to come with a “some tweaking required” disclaimer. I tried a live CD of the latest mandriva version a short time back and that’s the only distro i’ve ever come across that correctly installed and configured fglrx for a widescreen resolution.
/t
Yeah, that very thread was one of the things I tried which didn’t work-out, actually. My workstation has an older ATI card and it has always worked without any problems. Also, I installed 6.06 and 6.10 on the same laptop without any issues, but once I upgraded to 7.04 it would break every time.
I’ve had really good luck with Ubuntu without having to do too much driver tweaking in the past, so I’ve come to rely on that. The simple fact that the Live CD doesn’t even work on my laptop + there being an open, active bug for it before release is poor form though, I think. There are way too many “hey, it’s broken for me” type threads for Feisty Fawn I think related to the same issue.
Now I’m working on the wireless card which is requiring me to compile an experimental branch of madwifi… I wish they’d speced this laptop with an Intel card.
I gotta say that after fighting with my xorg.conf file in 6.10 i *always* keep a backup of known good configs with fglrx and vesa. I’ve considered printing it out and keeping a copy under my pillow.
As for the “Live CD doesn’t even work” - do you mean x doesn’t work, or do you mean the kernel itself won’t boot? (for example, i can’t boot an OpenSuse 10.2 live - kernel panic during startup and that’s all she wrote). As i mentioned above, i’m now amazed when i find a distro that does configure x correctly on my machine, so perhaps i am a bit more forgiving than i should be.
/t
ps: is it really half past four in the morning where you are? What on earth are you doing posting? Go to bed!
I meant that X itself doesn’t work, so basically the normal install CD was useless to me. I ended-up downloading the alternate install ISO and doing the text-based installer.
It’s actually an hour later than what my server says, so yeah, it’s almost 6 AM (and I’ve been up all night). Sometimes it’s just easier for me to get a lot of stuff done over a very long block of time. That said, wireless is working, so I think I’m done for the “night”.
I struggled on my old PC with ATI and when I built my new one I went with NVidia. No problems so far! I upgraded to 7.04 this weekend with no issues.
But I agree - I think Ubuntu needs to take a step backwards and address some of these core issues before worrying about 3D desktops, etc.
I run a T60 with an ATI card and Ubuntu 6.10 right now. I’ve been thinking about upgrading to 7.04, but given what you (and others) are describing, I think I’ll hold off on the upgrade for now. Thanks for the note of caution.
And this is apparently the ‘year of linux’ on the desktop (as beards have been saying for the last 5 years…yawn)
I dread to think how much man hours, effort and productivity get wasted in twiddling and fiddling with half baked linux distros. I’ve personally freed up 10 hours a week by not bothering with linux anymore and sticking with osx.
I feel your pain. I am using the exact setup as you down to the hardware. Ubuntu 7.04 with a Lenovo ThinkPad T60 and same results. I have Ubuntu install on my laptop and getting the 3d acceleration to work is the last thing holding me up form using Linux full time as opposed to windows. Any feedback would help. I tried almost every method posted, from ATI, from forums, automagic way, and manual. It seems I keep getting tripped up on the part where you do :
sudo aticonfig –initial
I keep getting :
Please copy configuration file template to /etc/X11/ please help, will check back or even post to my site www (.) techtronic (.) us go to my blog and you will see the ATI post
PS. You said in your post that ATI barely even provides drivers… to my knowledge, this is the first time ever that ATI has ever release a driver for Linux. I follow all of ATI’s releases pretty closely for Windows and in the release notes for 7.4 came support for Linux, the first time ever I thought, correct me if I am wrong. All other drivers were “unofficial” drivers from different groups. I place all the blame with ATI NOT Ubuntu. Ubuntu cant be held accountable for ATI drivers. There is a huge video performance gain [2D (desktop)] over vanilla 6.10 vs. 7.04, they did their job. BUT they don’t include 3d acceleration, as they should not. MS does the same thing, they give you a base driver that is certified to work with the OS, but no acceleration. Also, nvidia has been releasing Linux drivers for quite some time. ATI is behind in almost every way, same with AMD for that matter. PS. I was at a convention and Lenovo is even dropping ATI for their T series ThinkPads. Goodbye T60’s + ATI… hello T61’s and Nvidia!
Whoever have ATI 9200 series working in 6.06 do NOT upgrade to 7.04. It will not worked and not supported. I am so regretted that i upgraded it and i ended up using vesa which is a dog. I got most of the windows games working in ATI9250 ubuntu 6.06 working nicely and now all trash. frustrating frustrating .. but luckily i don’t pay for it at all.
I have been using ubuntu for 2 years now. It’s time to switch to different distros. Any other recommendation? In between have used suse and red hat for years.
also i agreed with the author. It is a shame that previous release works flawlessly and newer release has so much problem. There is a problem in the software development process here.
I’ve had the same exact problem and I was wondering if you’ve found an official solution to this problem. I’ve tried a number of things and can’t seem to get ubuntu running in my native resolution. If I can at least do that I could tackle the next task of getting Beryl working.
Back with some updates. My ATI 9250 on Ubuntu 7.04 “technically” resolved. I compared the result between using vesa and whatever ati open source i have now aka “radeon”, i am ok with the result. I simply benched it with 3D screen saver (the one with spiders).
I used this link to get the right driver in my box. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI#head-796aa4d6d0477c8ed722acef1878cc5626855ae3
I have tried the link at least 3 times back and forth, installed and uninstalled plenty drivers and finally got it partially working. I do not know what to tell you but certainly not straight forward. Although, the flgrxinfo still showing Mesa instead of radeon but i am fine with the performance.
If you ever got to “out of range signal”, you are close. Just play with /etc/X11/xorg.conf much enough and it should works. I think 7.04 messed up that file so badly by default if you have 2 monitor support card.
This note is to let you know it is possible but painful process comparing to 6.06.
I have tried all these at least 50 times in total of trial and errors.
Couple more problems with 7.04.
so far no sound, gotta figure that one out tomorrow.
My computer still wouldn’t shutdown like 6.06 latest kernel. Sounds like a known issue but no cure.
Well good luck. I don’t have to switch distro now
FWIW, I installed the 7.04 disti on my home PC (Specs - ignore the Omega reference) and it all seemed to work fine. (Even using the partitioner to resize my existing HDD to create a partition for the Ubuntu install). Once logged in to X I could enable the ATI driver from the Restricted Drivers manager and all worked OK.
PS - this is from someone who is a total linux n00b. I’ve never used any flavour of linux before.
Question: Is the latest ATI driver download any different from the ATI restricted driver already shipping with 7.04?
This may benefit the people having problems with ATI cards.
I had a laptop with an ATI Radeon X1400 driver that worked wonderfully under 6.06. Like many people in this thread, I upgraded to 7.04 and the X window system no longer worked.
The solution is to use the proprietary binary drivers provided by ATI. Follow these steps (taken from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=414194). Note that step 2 only applies if you’re installing a new system. If you have upgraded, you will already have a working install (just without graphics).
1. Boot using PC (Intel x86) alternate install CD.
2. Start text mode installer and install Ubuntu.
3. Finish Install and reboot.
4. Update package list and upgrade any packages needed.
Code:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
5. Install fglrx closed source driver for ATI video cards.
Code:
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
6. Update loaded modules.
Code:
sudo depmod -a
7. Configure /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Code:
sudo aticonfig –initial
sudo aticonfig –overlay-type=Xv
8. Reboot
This solved the problem for me immediately.
Hello Brandon!
I completely understand your frustrations… it is crazy what’s happening…
My advice:
Try PCLinuxOS and you won’t go back to UBUNTU/KUBUNTU ever again. It works out of the box, and everything you need is inside repositories. There is a repository called 915resolution and as soon as you install it, your ATI card will work like a charm. Trust me, been there done that.
Best of all, if you like all those bells and whistles, PCLinuxOS comes with Beryl preinstalled, ready to go.
There is no better or easier Linux distro than PCLinuxOS at the moment, just give it a shot. I did and I will never regret that move.
Best regards!
@Hellowiner
Don’t worry, this wasn’t my first experience nor will it be my last. In fact I’m posting this comment from one of the new Dell Ubuntu workstations that I’m still in the process of configuring.
Has anyone here with a t60 tried the 64 bit version of Ubuntu 7.04. X.org has no problem loading with my ati x1400. Also the proper commands are:
aticonfig –initial
aticonfig –overlay-type=Xv
Everyone who has posted here is only using one dash, which can lead to the command not being run correctly.
you should also have /dev/shram configured properly in your /etc/fstab file.
I have had no problem setting this driver up under ubuntu manually w/ a core 2 duo T60ws with the ati x1400.
Good luck.
Hello,
Just dropping by to say that Ubuntu Feisty runs just fine on an ACER Travelmate 8100. The X700 ATI Mobility Radeon is correctly detected at boot (even prior to any installation, right from the Live CD) and it is used at 1650×1050px.
Slightly off-topic, this laptop seems to be a good one for Ubuntu, since LAN, wireless, sound and video are all working out of the box.
Cheers.
I run Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake with an ATI Radeon 7000 video card, and can safely say this: get nVidia.
Unless you feel up to installing the drivers and possibly breaking Xserver, ATI is useless. My applications constantly crash and freeze, and I know it’s all thanks to ATI.
I’m only using Ubuntu 7.10 on my PC and I bought an ATI Radeon EAH2400Pro to play 3d games. After two days of trying different Xorg.conf settings I just gave up. ATI really is the wrong choice if your using linux. I’m going to buy an nvidia card to play 3d games, ATI really should have provided a better driver/installation procedure for ubuntu users.
I bought the ATI card, because they released a new catalyst driver in november 2007 and I wanted to support their effort. But now it seems to me, that this was only a marketing move. Even now three months later in february 2008, there is no way to install the driver through apt-get, ATI doesn’t even mention how to do it on their website. The ATI configuration tool aticonfig doesn’t even restore the original xorg.conf from the backup it creates, when the config tool crashes.
As far as I know ubuntu is one of the most popular linux desktop systems, so I suppose they should put more effort in providing an apt-get based installation solution.
I suggest ATI takes the platform more seriously in the future or else they will just go bankrupt. The card is completely useless on ubuntu and nvidia seems to have a working solution.
Continuing the Discussion