Office Desktop: Outlook is broke :-(

Came into work this morning and Outlook was not coming up so I rebooted the machine.

However, that did not fix the problem. It is still hung up. I have put a 20 minute timer on it to see if it will come up.

Frank kill the process from the task manager and than it opened in a safe mode.

He said that I should update to Office 2007, but office 2007 has so many changes that it is hard to use.

Left it at 2003

Office Desktop: Yahoo Messenger 9.0

I am expanding this blog to put some of the things I am doing with my office desktop.

Need to email Mark about this and see what he thinks.

Here are some nice reviews:

http://www.download.com/Yahoo-Messenger/3000-2150_4-10029188.html

http://www.astahost.com/info.php/yahoo-messenger-9-beta-preliminary-review_t17424.html

http://blogulate.com/content/yahoo-messenger-9-0-released-new-features/

When Linux Locks Up

The following are some key combinations to get around a locked up Linux system:

• Shutdown X11: Ctrl-Alt-Backspace
• Switch from X11 to text login: Ctrl-Alt-F1, F2, F3 (don't do with a dual monitor setup in XP, you will lose one of your monitors :-()

If the above don't work try the following steps to shutdown:

1. Ctrl-Alt-Del and wait 30 seconds for init to shutdown your computer
   
2. If this fails use SAK(?). While holding down Alt-PrintScreen (SysRq key Combo) press the following keys
1. 'S' to sync drives
2. 'U' to unmount drives
3. 'B' to reboot
3. If all this fail, then take your life in yours hands and hit the power switch :-(

Note: You may see some activity when you press the 'S' key and 'U' key, but you may not. Don't give up. Continue to step 3 and hit the reboot key 'B' and wait. Even when I have saw nothing for the sync and unmount commands the boot command has worked.

This was gleaned from the following link: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=221174

Sony VAIO

SONY VAIO AR Series VGN-AR710E/B
$1,149.99
Pentium Dual-core T2330 1.6 GHz
17" - 1550x900
2GB mem (4GB)
200 GB SATA
1000 Ehternet
NVIDIA 8400M GT (256MB)
8.3 lbs

Bit pricey and heavy, but nice machine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117662

Nice Machine

HP dv9820us
4GB Memory
Faster (AMD 64 X2 TL-62 2.10GHz)
250GB drive
17" ?x?
Ethernet ????
Graphics card ????
Express card ????


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834147660

Lap Top III

Acer Aspire AS7520-5823
$999.99 (899.99 w/r)
2 GB (4GB)
NVIDIA GeForce 8400M
AMD Turion 64 X2 (TL-58 1.90GHz)
17" 1440X900
250GB (SATA?)
1000 Ehternet
7.98 lbs


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115438


Acer Aspire AS7720-6844
Nicer NVIDIA card (8400M GS)
A little slower (T5450 1.66GHz)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115441

Laptop II

Aspire AS7520-5757

$649.99
1GB Mem (exp to 4GB)
160 SATA drive
17" - ?x?
NVIDIA GeForce 7000M
1000 GB Ethernet
Linux comp?

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0278965

New Laptop

Here is on that looks OK: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0284371

Pavilion dv9820us
$1049.99 ($999.99 w/ rebate)
Dual-Core
4 GB memory
250 GB SATA
NVIDIA GeoForce Go 7150M
17" - 1440x900
Express Card Slot (used for GB Ethernet)
7.7 lbs
Linux Compatibility?

There is also a dv9810us. Less memory and disk space up front. $100.00 less

VMware Beta with WOW Working

But boy is it slow :-(

Updating to VMware Workstation 6.0.3 Build 80004

It un-installed the 6.0.2 version first. This took about 5 or 10 minutes. It than installed the new.

When I first start the WS (WorkStation) it seem to hang for a long time but that could be the issue where is seems to take the portable forever to come up in Windows. Linux seems to be fine.

When I first started the first VM(virtual machine) under WS it gave me the following warning:

VMware Workstation has measured your CPU speed to be 1147 MHz, but Windows reports that it is 1596 MHz. This may mean that your computer has a power-saving feature that varies the processor speed. As a result, the clock in your virtual machine may run too fast or too slow.

For a workaround, please refer to the VMware knowledge base article at:
http://www.vmware.com/info?id=97


This article says that I need to set the correct speed in the config.ini file for VMWorkstation.

This file does not yet exist so I may have to edit the VMWS preferences to get it.

I also got the message when I started VMWS.

Your host does not have synchronized TSCs. Please read VMware Knowledge Base article 2041.


What is a TSC?

The Microsoft Windows XP product activation feature creates a key based on the virtual hardware in the virtual machine where it is installed. Changes in the virtual machine configuration may require you to reactivate the guest operating system. To minimize those changes, be sure to set the final memory size for the virtual machine and install VMware Tools before you activate Windows XP.
For more information about Windows XP product activation and virtual machines see our Web site at "http://www.vmware.com/info?id=50".


Also need to upgrade the VMWare tools for the VPC.

This took a little time. I wonder how this will affect the VM working with WMWS 6.0.3?

New ATI 1150 Driver for XP Media Center

The Dell monitor at work has the wrong resolution and I cannot reset it with the ATI driver I have. Downloading and installing the newest driver from ATI.
https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/gamesite/8-3-igp_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_sb_gart_enu_59746.exe

Complain about not having .NET 2.0 installed.

The installed is a little weired. Keeps going away and coming back.

Uninstalled stream

Got a GAC security error. Follow the instructions here and uninstalled CCC (?).
http://www.driverheaven.net/mobility-radeon-drivers-support/130763-could-not-load-file-assembly-error-message-launching-ccc.html

OK

Installing the Newest ATI Driver for Linux (cont.)

Following this guide.
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Gutsy_Installation_Guide

Make sure the proper tools are installed.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++5 dkms

Looks good. Only gawk was not installed.

Create the .deb package.

sudo sh ati-driver-installer-8-3-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/gutsy

Looks good.

I think I need to make sure that the old fglrx is un-installed.

I was wrong, the newest drive DOES install DRI.

Disabling old fglrx driver.

gksu gedit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common
DISABLED_MODULES="fglrx"

Looks good.

Make sure that the fglrx is not blacklisted.

gksu gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-restricted

No such file.

Remove old fglrx debs.

sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb

There are none.

Install the new .debs.

sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_8.471-0*.deb fglrx-kernel-source_8.471-0*.deb fglrx-amdcccle_8.471-0*.deb

Problem

/usr/sbin/atieventsd: error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

This may be an issue of not having libGL installed.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4487892

dpkg - l | grep -i libgl

The above command doesn't work. It is missing an action option.

I believe that I want to see if the package is present.

There is no -l option.

The space between the '-' and 'l' was the problem.

This works.

dpkg -l | grep -i libgl

Seems like Mesa is still installed.

The problem is that the permission are not correct on the file.

sudo chmod o+r /usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2

Trying to do the install again.

Failed again.

The privileges did not change :-(

sudo chmod 777 libGL.so.1.2

That finally changed the privileges.

Installing again.

Still failed. Looking for libGL.so.1 file.

I think that the link might be wrong.

Also the other link seems to set back to its original value.

Is it a hard or soft link?

Soft links are in blue. This is in black.

Hard links have not coller. Being root makes not difference.

Blast the link and try to make a new one or perhaps move the link.

OK, try again.

Failed again. Still looking for libGL.so.1 file.

OK, now I am point libGL.so.1 to libGL.so.1.2 file

Try again.

Looks like it work!!!!! :-)

Editing the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file by hand.

There is no 'ati' string. There is a 'fglrx' string.

Time to reboot.








OK

OK

Installing Lightweight Xserver for WOW

Trying to provide a good environment for WOW to run in.
http://stanlearnswow.blogspot.com/2008/03/tyring-to-get-seperate-light-weight-x.html

Perhaps I should do this if I can get WOW at least working under the normal server.

Installing the Newest ATI Driver for Linux

The whole purpose of this is to get WOW working.
http://stanlearnswow.blogspot.com/2008/03/wow-under-linux.html

OK

Installing New ATI Driver

I really need to back things up before I start.

Booting from CD and backing up \ folder.

New Linux ATI Driver

Got the new ATI driver from here: https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8-3-x86.x86_64.run

The number doesn't look right. It says 8-3 and the other says 8.4. However, the release data and the date in the documentation below is Mar 5, 2008.

However, readying the document here: https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/catalyst_83_linux.html

Seems to indicate that it now supports Mesa.

Since it supports the Radeon™ Xpress 1100 series card and mine is an 1150, it is supported.

The following packages must be present to install ATI Catalyst:

1. 
   
2. XOrg 6.7, 6.8, 6.9, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2 or 7.3
3. Linux Kernel 2.6 and above
4. glibc version 2.2 or 2.3
5. POSIX Shared Memory (/dev/shm) support is required for 3D applications

Also the following packages must be present for it to install and work properly.

1. 
   
2. XFree86-Mesa-libGL
3. libstdc++
4. libgcc
5. XFree86-libs
6. fontconfig
7. freetype
8. zlib

OK

Intalling VMware 6.0 in Linux

I found this link which give me some instructions with what to do to get the rpm from VMware into something that can be installed using the package manager.

http://glyphobet.net/blog/?p=10

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential gcc-3.4

I have to have the Ubuntu install disk to do this. Wonderful.

Media change: please insert the disc labeled
'Ubuntu 7.10 _Gutsy Gibbon_ - Release i386 (20071016)'
in the drive '/cdrom/' and press enter

Have to install 'fakeroot' using the Synaptic Package Manager.

Have to install 'alien' using the Synaptic Package Manager.

fakeroot alien VMware-workstation-6.0.*.rpm

Remember to exit package manager before running command.

sudo dpkg -i vmwareworkstation_6.0.*.deb

Edit /etc/vmware/locations as root and add the following three lines:

1. Just after

   answer BINDIR /usr/bin

   add

   answer SBINDIR /usr/sbin

2. Just after

   remove_answer BINDIR
   answer BINDIR /usr/bin

   add

   remove_answer SBINDIR
   answer SBINDIR /usr/sbin

Bad news, there is no locations file.

The other instructions I see are for using the tar file.

yeh!!! I found the locations file in the install folder.

Doing edits and than coping it to the specified location.

Next problem. The locations file already contains the line they are asking me to add.

Also the second part they ask me to add is not present.

Leaving the locations file alone and just copying it to the location mentioned.

sudo cp locations /etc/vmware/

Next problem. The config file is not where it is suppose to be.

Spoke with Steve and there are some problem with converting rpm packages.

He recommends that I use the TAR file.

Cleanup the install.

This was a little painful but I think I have un-installed the package.

First I had to find out what the package was:

sudo dpkg --info vmwareworkstation_6.0.2-59825_i386.deb

Next I had to purge it:

sudo dpkg -p vmwareworkstation

It seems I have done things in the wrong order. I believe that I first need to remove and than purge.

sudo dpkg -r vmwareworkstation

Even doing a remove followed by a purge I still see configuration files.

I am going to do a find and remove by had the files the are still present.

I believe that there are lot of VMware related file in my user directory from when I was playing with VMware before.

Looks like I may already have the TAR file.

I am punting on this for the moment and going back to XP. If I can.

Linux Dual Monitors

Following this Ubuntu HOWTO: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=221174

I am going to use the ATI BigDesktop.

Need to install the restricted ATI driver.

Backing Up

Backed up the new Linux root folder '/' to the external drive and 'backups/hda6.tar'

This doesn't contain all the updates, but that should not be a problem.

Preparing for the dual screen setup.

Looking to the Future

I would like to upgrade my portable.

This look like a good system: Aspire AS7520-5757

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0278965

1. Expands to 4GB of memory.
2. Takes the newer SATA drives.
3. 17" screen
4. NVIDIA video
5. Gigabit Ethernet
6. 4 USB ports
7. weight is 7.41 lbs.
8. Price is 699.99 from more than one place.

This is new, but if I can find this system refurbished in about a year or two the price should drop a lot. Maybe down to around 4 to 5 hundred.

Finally Working

Found the missing driver on the Gateway site while trying to install ALL the recommended Gateway drivers. This has been a real pain.

Still Not Working

I believe I have the right sound file but it will not run.

I have down loaded it 3 times.

Once from here: ftp://ftp.gateway.com/pub/hardware_support/drivers/win_xp/portable/mx6000/

However, it will not start.

It is from New Boundary Technologies file version 5.0.0.0 date create 9/27/06

Sound Driver from Gateway

Daniel M. suggest that I get the sound driver from Gateway.

Found the driver but after a extract and try to run it nothing happens. Nothing. No error message. No error message in the command-line.

The read me is wrong.

Still No Sound

I update to all the most recent MS downloads and still no sound.

No Sound

There is no sound.

I see no clue that there is a problem. However, when I select the Advance Volume Controls option on the top left panel in the 'Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices' I get the following message.

There are no active mixer devices available. To install mixer devices, go to Control Panel, click Printers and other Hardware, and than click Add Hardware.

I only see 3 devices that are not installed.

Not Doing Well

It did not spot that my card driver was missing.

It did not spot that I am missing the ATI graphics card driver.

Both of these things are bad.

OK, let go to MS and see if they can do any better.

I just noticed that Ethernet controller under other devices and everything else under other devices has a question mark. Not cool.

Download the MS update driver and I am now run the 'Express' option.

The update has done nothing to get rid of the question marks.

Running the MS Express update again.

Went directly to the question mark and it has found the driver on the CD.

Marvel Yukon 88#8038 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller.

Found ATI Ratheon card.

Trying to Get the Ethernet Card Working

In an effort to get the Ethernet card working, I am uninstalling the driver and than asking Gateway to do an update.

I think that was a mistake. I should have only uninstalled the driver not the device.

Installing Broadcom Wireless Driver

Downloading from the http://support.gateway.com site.

I am hoping that I can get the wireless connection working and than using Gateways auto-update to update the rest of the missing drivers.

I had to unpack to two separate directories before I finally could run the install packages.

Installed

MIssing Windows Drivers

The network and graphics cards are not working.

Bob S. suggested that I go to the Gateway site and get the most recent drivers.

This is such a big difference between Linux and Windows install. Linux had the drivers and the ones it was missing it downloaded. Everything worked out of the box.

I am still struggling with windows.

Installing Linux

I am finally installing Gutsy 7.10 i386 Ubuntu Linux on the new partitions.

Using GParted in from the live Linux install disk to set up the partitions
Created the 5GB partition on /dev/hd1, which is what I want.

Looking at the sizes of the individual paritions.

Total size of / root with /home is 36 GiB. Subtract 25 for user and that gives me 11 GiB. Making a root of 15 GiB.

Creating Linux partitions in remaining 122.22 GiB.

• Creating a swap of 4 GiB at the end of the current partition. This is because the old that was created for 1 GiB of memory was 2 GiB. I now have 2 GiB of memory so I am creating one for 4 GiB.
  
• Creating a / partition of 15 GiB.
  
• Creating a /home partition of 113 GiB. If completely reinstalling the users will need to be created in the same order.
  
• Creating a /boot partitions of 200 MiB.
• Creating a swap of 4.73 GiB.

Disconnecting the external drive so that its swap wont be used.

/dev/hda2 - ext3 /boot
/dev/hda3 - fat32
/dev/hda1 - NTFS
/dev/hda4 - extended
/dev/hda7 - ext3 /
/dev/hda5 - ext2 /home
/dev/hda6 - swap

The copy of a partition will take 14 hours.

Deleting and remaking.

Yes, this is a few minutes instead of a few hours.

Creating Dos Paritions

Using GParted in Linux to make the partitions the way I want them.

The Gateway windows CD made the whole drive NTFS.

Need to look at my old drive and see what a minimum setup for windows should be.

The drive attaches as /dev/sda[1..5]

Gparted crash updating the devices.

• Shrank the NTFS partition down from 149 to 21 GB than realized that it needs to be bigger so I set it to 25 GiB.
  
• Created and format 5 GB partition in front of that as 32.

Unable to Restore

The Gateway Operating System Disc is insisting on using the recovery disk.

However, with Grub install in old MBR is gone and it is confused.

Using Linux to delete to old recovery partition and hoping that I can then install the way I want and resize the NTFS partion to something smaller.

Trouble Reinstalling Windows - MBR

Using the Gateway recovery disk that came with my computer.

The following window has came up:

MBRInst [options]

• /ini f - get string and settings from INI file f
• /disk n - use physical drive n[1..9]
• /stealth - force installation of the one sector MBR that hides the SmartImage partition in stealth mode
• /stdmbr - force installation of a standard MBR
• /active n - activate partition n [1..4]
• /r - force recovery boot on next system start
• /s - force service boot on next system start
• /u - force user boot on next system start
• /b file - save backup of old MBR to file
• /mbr file - get new mbr from file
• /log f - log all messages to file f
• /q - do not display anything

Options /r, /s and /u are mutally exclusive

Night Mare on New Drive Street

It has been a real challenge installing my current new drive.

• Was unable to copy of the old NTFS partition.
• Grub did now copy over right
• Daniel told me that I have two MS OS stooping on each other so I had to reinstall windows anyway.

Dream Laptop

These are some of the things I would like on a laptop:

It needs to have the same capabilities as my current laptop and the following

• At least 4 GB of memory capacity (current is 2 GB)
  
• SATA drive capable (current is PATA)
  
• eSATA connection (slow PCMCIA card)
  
• 15 inch screen (current is 15.4)
  
• 6.5 lbs or less in weight (current is 6.32 lbs)

Serial Number for Laptop

Trying to get a copy of Ghost Script so that I can ghost my old drive to my new one.

RL000071297020020

Here is the Ghost Script information:

Ghost Solution Suite 2 for Microsoft Windows XP

Additional Information

The Ghost Solution Suite distribution contains two files: the program installer and a license file which is required for registration. To install and register Ghost follow these steps.

1. Extract both files to a folder on your computer
2. Run the Ghost Solution Suite installer
3. Start Ghost Console
4. Select Help->Register Console->Add Symantec License File
5. Browse to the folder you extracted the Ghost distribution zip file to and select the license (.slf) file
6. Click OK

Your copy of Ghost is now registered and ready to use.

Please remember that every time you install Ghost, you are using one license, and every time you put an image on another computer, you are using one license. If you would like to subscribe for more licenses than you already have, you must go back to the Software Distribution web page to request additional licenses.

Files

Back to Commandline

I am back to the command line.

I am not sure what changed, but X11 can not do some change it would like to do and keeps restarting itself over and over again.

I was running with at work with the second high res lcd screen.

I did some new firefox updates and had given root a password.

Steve G. suggested.

I think I need to uninstall fglrx.

Specs for My Laptop

It seems that I forgot to include this information in my blog.

Here is the link to the Gateway site on my machine: http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/Q106/BladeK8F/1013912Rsp2.shtml


MX6448 Notebook Specifications
Part Number: 1013912RGateway MX6448 Notebook

Feature	Description
Processor	AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-50 Operates at 1.6 GHz | 256 KB ×2 L2 Cache HyperTransport™ technology at up to 1600 MHz
LCD Screen	15.4-inch Ultrabright™ WXGA TFT (1280 × 800)
Chipset	ATI RS485M
Memory	1024 MB 533 MHz DDR2 (2 × 512) Expandable to 2 GB Total Slots: 2 DDR2 Slots | Available Slots: 0 DDR2 Slots
Video	ATI Radeon® Xpress 1150 Graphics with up to 128 MB of Shared Video Memory
Audio	High Definition 2 Channel Audio
Hard Drive	120 GB 4200 RPM PATA hard drive
Optical Drive	DVD+/-RW Multi-Format Double Layer (up to 8.5 GB) Write maximum: 8X DVD +/-R, 6X DVD-RW, 8X DVD+RW, 2X DVD-R DL, 2.4X DVD+R DL, 24X CD-R and 16X CD-RW Read maximum: 24X CD-R/RW/ROM, 8X DVD-R/RW/ROM, 4X DVD+/-R DL, RAM
Media Reader	6-in-1 Digital Media Manager Memory Stick® Memory Stick Pro® Multimedia Card™ Secure Digital™ MiniSD (when used with adapter that is supplied with card) RS-MMC (when used with adapter that is supplied with card)
Modem	56K ITU V.92 ready Fax/Modem
Network	Integrated 802.11g Wireless LAN Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
Interfaces	4 - USB 2.0 Ports 1 - VGA External Connector 1 - S-Video Connector 1 - IEEE 1394 port 1 - RJ11 1 - RJ45 Microphone In Headphone / Audio Out 1 - Kensington Lock Slot 1 - AC Adapter Connector
Pointing Device	Integrated Synaptics Touchpad with Vertical Scroll Zone
PCMCIA	1 - Type I or Type II; Card Bus
Battery	6-cell Lithium-ion
Dimensions	1.31 to 1.40-inches H × 14.09-inches W × 10.39-inches D
Weight	6.32 pounds

Getting WoW to Work (cont)

Read an article that suggest that I may not have entered the reload command correctly.

http://appdb.winehq.org/commentview.php?iAppId=1922&iVersionId=9429&iThreadId=29321

Should say: /console reloadui

This does actually reload the user interface; however, it doesn't fix my problem.

Getting WOW to Work

I removed the xserver-glx and set the gxApi to 'OpenGL' and now it work but I get no characters or pictures of characters.

http://appdb.winehq.org/commentview.php?iAppId=1922&iVersionId=9262&iThreadId=27806

With some reading around in the WOW wine stuff I would someone who talk about having similar problems and removing the glx server as I have done and also removing the compiz package.

I am removing the compiz package.

Now for a reboot.

No change :-(

gfxinfo Problems

gfx is not using the driver nor do I have direct rendering.

Trying to uninstall the xserver-glx and seeing if that helps.

WoW is no longer working at all. I believe that it is a Mesa problem.

But unintalling Mesa now will unintall many applications I don't want uninstalled.

Installing from ATI

Install dynamic module kernel support.
These instruction assume that I know a lot that I don't know: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI

sudo apt-get install dkms

Downloading the driver from here: http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/linux/linux-radeon.html

Select the driver from the following page using the linux x85_64=>Integraed/Motherboard=>Radeon Xpress 1250 option: http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

This is a "run" file. I think this is for Redhat.

Build an install package from the downloaded driver.

./ati-driver-installer-8.443.1-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/gutsy

Install the binary drivers.

sudo dpkg -i fglrx-kernel-source_8.443.1-1_amd64.deb
...
Installing initial module
modinfo: could not find module /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/volatile/fglrx.ko
modinfo: could not find module /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/volatile/fglrx.ko
Done.

This is not good. How do I resolve this?

Is this a left over directory link that is just causing problems?

Remove and install again.

Setting up fglrx-kernel-source (8.443.1-1) ...
Adding Module to DKMS build system

Error! DKMS tree already contains: fglrx-8.443.1
You cannot add the same module/version combo more than once.
Doing initial module build

Error! This module/version has already been built on: 2.6.22-14-generic
Directory: /var/lib/dkms/fglrx/8.443.1/2.6.22-14-generic/x86_64
already exists.  Use the dkms remove function before trying to build again.
Installing initial module

Error! This module/version combo is already installed
for kernel: 2.6.22-14-generic (x86_64)
Done.

Install the non-dev XOrg Driver

sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_8.443.1-1_amd64.deb 

Installing the package maintainer version of compiz-manager, atieventsd, atisignature, atiogl.xml, /etc/ati/control

Time to reboot and cross my fingers.

Yea!!!! It seem to have worked!!!!!

stan@stan-laptop:~$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon Xpress Series
OpenGL version string: 2.1.7170 Release

PUB

Installing the Proprietary fglrx Driver (cont)

I think the reason that I could not get to the restricted driver dialogue was because I was running X from my user.

It says that it is installed but when I go to change it is says that there is no xconfig file present.

OK, now I trying it the harder way.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-generic restricted-manager

No change.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx

This installed some more software but I still don't see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

Make sure that fglrx is not in the disabled modules.

$ more /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

There is nothing in the restricted module section so I am OK on that count.

Not installing the fglrx control because it is said to be buggy.

Generating a new set of module dependencies so the fglrx driver starts properly.

$ sudo depmod -a
WARNING: Can't read module /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/volatile/fglrx.ko: No such file or directory

OK, do I need this?

Yes. Found the following under this link (way under :-):http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=588605&page=4

sudo ln -s /lib/modules/fglrx/fglrx.2.6.22-14-generic.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/volatile/fglrx.ko

The file doesn't exists!!!

KO stands for kernel object (see http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Module-HOWTO/linuxversions.html)

Something is wrong because I am no longer getting a new xorg.conf file.

This has been a bust.

Try to install from ATI.

Ubuntu Updates

Wine update from 0.9.52 to 0.9.53.

The following is the comment from the installer:

While Wine is usually thought of as a Microsoft Windows emulator, the Wine developers would prefer that users thought of Wine as a Windows compatibility layer for Linux. Wine does not require MS Windows, but it can use native system dll files in place of its own if they are available.
This package includes a program loader, which allows unmodified Windows binaries to run under compatible hardware.
This package also includes the library that implements the Wine project's free version of the Windows API, allowing successful running of programs ported directly from Windows.
Homepage: http://www.winehq.org/

Seems to have installed fine

Installing the Proprietary fglrx Driver

OK, I cannot use the open source driver.

Tying to use the proprietary fglrx driver.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI

How do I determine that my card is a Radeon card?

System=>Preferences=>Hardware Information

This show that my card to be the following

• On the RS480 PCI Bridge
• An RS485 [Radeon Xpress 1100 IGP]

Also the following will show that information from the command line.

$ lspci | grep VGA

However, the 'Hardware Information' gives a lot more information.

I am going to try to install from the Ubuntu repository first.

Making sure that the generic Linux restricted modules and the restricted KDE manager are installed.

$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-restricted-modules-generic restricted-manager-kde

This demands that I have the CD.

Trying to mount the ISO like I did last time but the mount is not working.

Trying to simply point the /cdrom/ to the wrong location.

That worked. Everything is now installed.

Is the xconfig file back?

No it is still gone.

I cannot open the restricted driver.

Do I need to reboot?

I also seem to have lost the ability to reboot.

Must be because I started X from the command line in my user.

Have rebooted successfully

Verify the Open Source Driver

Testing for the driver.

$ glxinfo | grep vendor

This shows the driver to be SGI which is correct.

$ glxinfo | grep "direct rendering"

Says no for the direct rendering.

$ LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose

Setting this option seems to give no additional information.

Bottom line is that Wow will not work. However, everything else seems to be working OK.

It there a newer version of this driver?

WoW doesn't work :-(

Running WoW doesn't work.

$ wine "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Wow.exe"

Give the following fixme's

• advapi:SetSecurityInfo stub
• powrprof:DllMain (0x7dff0000, 1, (nil)) no fully implemented
• ntdll:NtPowerInformation Unimplemented NtPowerInformation action: 11
• powrprof:DllMain (0x7dff0000, 0, (nil)) no full implemented
• win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null), 0,0x33ed78,0x0000000), stub!

I finishes with the following error:

X Error of failed request: CLXUnsupportedPrivateRequest
Major opcode of failed request: 148 (GLX)
Minor opcode of failed request: 16 (X_GLXVendorPrivate)
Serial number of failed request: 469
Current serial number in output stream: 470

Installing the Open Source Radeon (ATI) Driver

Look like this driver will only give me 2 D support. Cannot be use with WOW for now.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

$ sudo apt-get remove --purge xorg-driver-fglrx

This says that the drive is not installed.

$ glxinfo |grep vendor

This gives back: Error: unable to open display

This is not a good sign.

$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri

This says that the following packages where automatically installed and are no longer requried:

• libfaad2-0
• libavutil1d
• libquicktime1
• libavcodic1d
• libx264-54
• libmms0

It recommends that I use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.

It also talks about processing triggers for libc6 and that the ldconfig deferred processing is now taking place, whatever that means.

$ sudo apt-get autoremove

Says that it is removing the following packages:

• libavcodec1d
• libavutil1d
• libcdaudio1
• libfaad2-0
• libgsm1
• libmjpegtools0c2a
• libmms0
• libquicktime1
• libsoundtouich1c2
• libx264-54

Again says the ldconfig deferred processing now talking place.

Made a copy of the old xorg.conf to xorg.conf.fglrx.

In install instructions says that I should be able to simply remove the xorg.conf file and it should work.

$ sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.moved
$ sudo startx

Complains that I am running the session as a privileged user and that this should be avoided.

Quiting.

$ startx

Yea!!! My screen is back!!!!

Only Commandline

I now have only a command line available to me.

When I run startx it says that it cannot find fglrx. This is correct because I don't want to use fglrx at the point. The problem is that I don't know what is suppose to be used.

The problem seems to be my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. It is still referencing the fglrx driver which is no longer available.

How do I make sure that I have the correct xorg.conf

Open Source ATI Driver (cont)

The /etc/X11/xorg.conf still contains the ATI Proprietary Driver (fglrx).

How do I truly uninstall fglrx?

Booting Linux ISO from HD

Need to make it look as if it is coming from the CD.

stan@stan-laptop:~/tmp/Windows XP with SP2$ sudo mount ./ubuntu-7.10-desktop-amd64.isoD /mnt/xpiso -t iso9660 -o loop=/dev/loop0

stan@stan-laptop:~/tmp$ sudo mount ./ubuntu-7.10-desktop-amd64.iso /mnt/ubuntu_iso -t iso9660 -o loop=/dev/loop0
mount: stolen loop=/dev/loop0
stan@stan-laptop:~/tmp$

Seem to only be able to mount 1 at a time.

stan@stan-laptop:~/tmp$ sudo mount ./ubuntu-7.10-desktop-amd64.iso /mnt/ubuntu_iso -t iso9660 -o loop=/dev/loop0

Point the /cdrom link to point to the mounted drive.

Create a new link and make sure that it looks like the old.

stan@stan-laptop:~/tmp$ sudo ln -s ubuntu-7.10-desktop-amd64.iso /ISO_Link
stan@stan-laptop:~/tmp$ sudo mv /cdrom /cdromold
stan@stan-laptop:~/tmp$ sudo mv /ISO_Link /cdrom

Is the /cdrom link a hard link or a soft link? The /cdrom link is blue and the ones I create are black, but it is definitely a soft link.

It failed but went to the site when it did.


Media change: please insert the disc labeled
'Ubuntu 7.10 _Gutsy Gibbon_ - Release amd64 (20071016.1)'
in the drive '/cdrom/' and press enter

Err cdrom://Ubuntu 7.10 _Gutsy Gibbon_ - Release amd64 (20071016.1) gutsy/main libgl1-mesa-glx 7.0.1-1ubuntu3
Unable to stat the mount point /cdrom/ - stat (2 No such file or directory)
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main libgl1-mesa-glx 7.0.1-1ubuntu3 [176kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main libgl1-mesa-dri 7.0.1-1ubuntu3 [14.

Open Source ATI Driver

I have messed up the graphics on my system. Right now it is so slow that even simple typing is falling behind.

Try to switch back to the open source ATI driver.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

This driver only does 2D support for Xpress type cards.

My card type.

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RS485 [Radeon Xpress 1100 IGP] [1002:5975]


Removing the proprietary driver.

$ sudo apt-get remove --purge xorg-driver-fglrx

Verify that proprietary drive is removed

stan@stan-laptop:~$ glxinfo | grep vendor
server glx vendor string: SGI
client glx vendor string: SGI
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org
stan@stan-laptop:~$

Make sure that the open source drive is installed

sudo apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri

I also need the install CD

Media change: please insert the disc labeled
'Ubuntu 7.10 _Gutsy Gibbon_ - Release amd64 (20071016.1)'
in the drive '/cdrom/' and press enter

Updating ATI Driver

http://combatwombat.7doves.com/index.php/2007/10/31/gutsy_effort_in_new_ati_driver

The above page talks about what to do.

Xgl server setup changed

The Xgl server will now be started automatically next time you login. It is no longer necessary to use any special X session to start Xgl, and such sessions will likely fail to work properly. Please select a regular session from your session manager next time you log in. To disable Xgl autostart for this user, create a file named ~/.config/xserver-xgl/disable

WOW Under Linux!!!

However, it is so slow that I cannot play it, but it runs under Linux.

That was way cool. It work and it ran, just very, very slow.

Able to reset the resolution to a the actual resolution of the screen (1280x800)

Unable to change to use OpenGL.

SET gxApi "opengl"

I get the error "WoW was unable to start up 3D accelration"

SET ffxDeath "0"
SET ffxGlow "0"

This seems to help but things are still really slow.

How ever I jump from WOW to the blog without losing WOW.

It says that my ATI accelerated graphics direver is not in use.

This may be part of my problem.

Perhaps it is not installed.

I don't see it to install or uninstall it.

ATI accelerated graphics driver

Looks like I need to update graphics driver

SET ffx
SET ffxGlow "0"

Configuring Apache2

I need to configure Apache so that is knows where the Gallary PHP stuff is found.

OK, I can see that Apache and PHP are working, what do I need to do to get Gallery working?

How do a get Apache to point to /usr/share/gallery2 folder?

OK, the /etc/gallery2/apache.conf file has what I need. (i.e. it tell apache where to look for the Gallery file.)

#Alias /gallery2 /usr/share/gallery2


Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride Limit Options FileInfo



Now where do I find the Apache file to put the change in?

/etc/apache2/apache2.conf

It looks like the user configuration are suppose to go in httpd.conf

OK, how do I stop and start Apache?

sudo invoke-rc.d apache2 restart

I still don't see the http://localhost/gallary2 directory.

I don't see anything in the error log.

/var/log/apach2/error.log

What is going on?

Is this a privileges problem?

Installing Gallery Continued

Trying to make sure I have PHP5 working.

Using the following link: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/installing-php5-and-apache-on-ubuntu/

Looks like everything is already installed.

Says to look in the /var/www folder.

Yea! That is where everything is.

Now I need to tell Apache where to find this new stuff.

Installing WOW under Ubuntu

Forgot to save what I did before unless I save it under the learning WOW blog.

I did not; however, with a lot of searching I finally found the magic google search string " wow ubuntu gusty wine" that leads me to this wonderful link: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WorldofWarcraft

It seems that I need direct rendering to get WOW to work and I don't have direct rendering with my ATI graphics card. I will definitely look to get a graphic card other than ATI next time I buy a portable PC.

It seems that there is a way around my graphics problem, but it may give me some poor frame rates.

WOW does support OpenGL and I can use an XServer for this.

It looks like I will need to reinstall Wine by rebuilding the most recent code.

This could be some work.

ATI Accelerated Graphics Driver

Looking in the Restricted Drivers Manager I can see that it is not enabled.

Enabling.

Rebooting.

Installing Gallery

Using the Ubuntu install for Gallery.

The version being installed is 2.2.1-3.

Installing apache, mySql, and PHP.

Seems to have removed apache2-mpm-worker when some other packages may have depended upon.

Need to use the following command to restart apache2:

invoke-rd.d apache2 res

Using the network 127.0.1.1

Testing:

Apache is working but I don't see Web Gallery.

How don't see how to start gallery. All the instructions are for after gallery is started.

I was able to get MySQL running but I had to install it by hand.

It would be nice if Ubuntu handled this better.