Nix Distro Tinkering

[Pic0o]

I've been dealing with my Video Driver not kicking in upon boot, but if I kill gdm and load back up, it seems to work, granted with a driver reinstall. My xorg.conf looks fine so I dunno, as I am on the .24 Kernel with my updated 8.04 install.

[Pic0o]

I was able to ghost my current Nix setup and I have it on the new drive. I am grabbing and running SuperGrub to get my MBR all rocked out for nix again. Wish some luck on boot from the new drive, as I have it in the same IDE spot, so to save from misbound locations to the disc.

 

Edit:

After Re-ghost, drive mounted in Read-Only mode. Since I used the upgrade to 8.04 option from 7.10, it killed some 3rd party packages and fucked up my encodes, so I'm just rolling back to 7.10, as I have the 8.gimped install on the original drive still.

Edited January 8, 2009 by Pic0o

[Pic0o]

I stumbled on Ghost 4 Linux or g4l and it did all I was looking for. This app supports sending Ghost images to an FTP server, so it's quite handy. My only woe, is that it seems like you cannot write an image file to another drive or partition locally as it tries to write said image on the source drive.

 

I'm going to go FTP to avoid this issue, as my success was doing a Drive Copy, but in doing so, I still have the gimpy partition table on the new drive (like the source drive). Besides that, drive copy was 100% Win. ;) Doing an FTP Image dump so I can just restore my Boot Nix Partition and be living w/ a happy Partition table on the new drive.

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On the previous post, I did a Partition Copy (forgot how) and all was well.

 

For my Nvidia Driver Issues, where I only would get my Resolution out of 'Low-Graphics' mode upon boot, I am trying this guide, as I had the Restricted Modules installed.

 

I bypassed the low graphics by going to Console, stopping GDM and reinstalling my Video Driver. This works fine, until reboot, and hopefully the purge of the linux-restricted-modules fixes my issue @ reboot too. :P

[Pic0o]

I'm still working on getting my Nvidia driver loading @ Boot time, and in my /var/log/Xorg.0.log, I found some issues w/ the EDID ranges. I was Nvidia Xorg Info on tweaking my xorg.conf to hopefully fix the issue.

 

If still an issue, I'll load the edid.bin I got from the Nvidia Driver.

Option "CustomEDID" "CRT-0:/tmp/edid1.bin; DFP-0:/tmp/edid2.bin"

 

No dice on the above, but I found the wonky issue in my .log:

Failed to initialize GLX extension (Compatible NVIDIA X driver not found)

Refs look good in my config, just chasin this shit down.

 

As I suspected, it's an issue with the newer drivers, as my office rig, running 173.xx or so drivers patched to latest, with no issues. Installing some older drivers now. I originally had some color issues, thus prompting me to ever bother updating my drivers.

 

If you are working via ssh to get your drivers working again, hold dear the command of rcconf. Run that, Uncheck gdm from startup then reboot, as the damn 'Low Graphics Mode' seems to gimp your GDM session from being killed, until you get a click to continue. Turn GDM back on, once you think your issue is resolved, reboot again.

 

When using Nvidia official driver, have your --uninstall suffix ready. :lol: Also @ Nvidia forums, embrace a pretty shitty layout for Linux, since all the support stuff is in one forum. Search Calamity.

 

I am on Kernel 2.6.24-22-generic. I see there are Nvidia Drivers 180.29 from Feb 10th, trying those, then if still having a problem, I'm going back to 173.14.12 drivers.

 

Yay, I was able to reboot, and with the 173.14.12 Drivers, my Video works on Boot again. I ran the dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg command, then installed the above driver. (once I got home and was on local console) I'm not positive the reconfigure was necessary.

 

Rebooted after, and my shit works on start now.

Edited February 14, 2009 by Pic0o
Fixed

[Pic0o]

Kat has a working Nix boot, but she has seen the issue of Keys being stuck as 'pressed down'. I did see an ACPI error on her bootup, so maybe if her BIOS config matches to mine she may be ok.

 

Looking around for a little more info, will update as I find a more.

[Pic0o]

Well, I just took a drive with Ubuntu 7.10 on it from about a year of inactivity, that was installed and last running on an AMD Duron 800 MHz. :lol: I am happy to see the simplicity that was watching this drive load up. No BSOD, no driver issues, just Rocking.

 

The current setup is a 2.40 GHz Intel P4. Obviously a dramatic hardware change, since the only like components are Case, and PSU.

 

:viking:

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I just got my Nix Boot rocking on the New P4 Hardware. I did encounter some Lockups on boot, when X tried to load the X Server, so I once again used dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg. Once I did that I was able to load X again, then I reinstalled my Nvidia drivers.

 

Do note, since I am running on Intel Hardware now, the Nvidia 180.22 Drivers (same download I had an issue with on my AMD Hardware) Did work. I guess the Linux driver issues I was having are related to AMD setups. My prior AMD board has a nForce2 Chipset, FYI.

[Pic0o]

Check some Ubuntu shortcuts to busting shit out quicker.

 

The 'openoffice -nodefault -nologo' is handy and I will apply that tonight. Some other handy info @ the link.

[Butter]

I don't know what the shit is up with nvidia drivers. They're a bitch to get working manually. I installed mine via Envy and I've been using it for at least a year now. It's a piece of shit but in a hilarious way. It fucking blows cock when it comes to rendering the UI of gnome and KDE but plays WoW and Max Payne like a dream (ogl lolololol).

 

But yeah these drivers drive me crazy.

[Pic0o]

I'm downloading Ubuntu 9.04 for a new Live Disc. I will wait before upgrading my main boots to latest, so packages can catch up.

[Pic0o]

Fun fact I noticed:

 

If you hook a different monitor to you PC, then afterwards, hook your 1st monitor back up, Ubuntu / Xserver will retain your Resolution for that specific Monitor.

 

Windows XP does not achieve this task. Another Pro to Ubuntu heads on the move, or in my case, people who boot on a 2nd monitor, as their Primary LCD is used for games, pretty often. :)

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I just ran into a need to rebuild a package, as the main one was gimped in the core listing. For this, I got to learn about .Debdiff files. Good processes to know for doing a dependency check and rebuild. :yar:

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I have Ubuntu 8.10 on my laptop and I just tried to use my AT&T broadband card, with easy success!

 

I just plugged in the card, followed a 4 step wizard, and was online. Honestly, it's easier than the Windows install. :P

[Pic0o]

Still tinkering around with Linux. Since I built a new Game PC though, my main time in linux is much lower. I do have an install for my new rig to play on, and want to try these linux benchmarks.

 

Steam for Linux is great as an option, but I had almost nothing to try on it. Hopefully Left 4 Dead or something is available to play on Linux, so I can get a relative performance feel from the Windows 7 boot.