Hi, how are you?

Well, overall, this new install of Jaunty is like driving a new car. The old cpu that Freegeek let me swap off must have really raped those installs of Jaunty. And Movie Player, Mplayer, Smplayer, and VLC Player are all playing videos full screen (I do have to download, convert to Mp4, and save first).
Thanks for the directions.

The screen was getting dark and the system hanging unresponsively after I'd done a lot of add-ons and activated the NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version 96) (recommended).

First, I updated the video driver that came with the install. I don't remember what all it was, but here's what I did to do the update:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/xorg-edgers/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main;
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 8844C542, followed by sudo apt-get update and then sudo apt-get dist-upgrade to update and then install the new packages.

I wanted (last night) to tell you about that, so I went to system>admin>hardware drivers to get the info. When I got there, “Sally” [Val (my old cpu)'s sister – i.e., my current computer] informed me of the immediate availability of NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version 96) (recommended), and even offered to enable it “Johnny-on-the-spot.” So naturally, I said “okay.”

So, anyway, after I uninstalled four add-ons (principally, the Google tool bar) and NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version 96) (recommended), things started started looking good again.

I noticed a couple of hours ago that I had stuff going on on both desktops, and I think that that was crowding my RAM. And sometimes, I have two browsers going at the same time (easier to keep track of several things going on at the same time). I'm thinking that since I only have 256 MB of RAM, I should limit myself to only one browser and one desktop.

Seems like I read somewhere about how a computer can temporarily use a “patch” of the hard drive for RAM to help out when a computer has a low amount of RAM. Is that “swapping?” How can I get my computer to do that?

Well, Mr. Alfred, I've gotten some rather pontifical replies from some folks (and I do appreciate everyone's consideration), but you're the one who has consistently been here for me. Thank you very much. You've probably got a lot of Karma going on. I hope you'll continue to mentor me. Your quantitative breadth knowledge here and timely responses are deeply appreciated.

Randall

The aforementioned plug-ins should allow you to view videos right within your browser (if this is desired). With w32codecs you should be able to play most video files (avi, mpg, wmv) without needing to convert.
This, certainly, I don't know. It might be an idea to start a new thread on this question.
You're welcome. Glad to have helped.

I don't think the codecs is the problem. I think it's more like a driver bug.


The H
open source
security
In association with heise online
2 May 2009, 11:31

Ubuntu 9.04 and Intel graphics

by Dr. Oliver Diedrich

For Linux users who don't need absolute top-notch 3D performance, Intel is considered the preferred graphics solution, not least because the company develops its drivers as open source within the framework of the X.org project. However Intel’s drivers are currently in a state of some disarray.
Ubuntu 9.04 has arrived and includes the latest software and a whole series of interesting new features, including a much faster boot process. My enthusiasm for the new release is, none-the-less, a little muted, and all because of a single driver: the driver for Intel graphics chips. As the Ubuntu development team freely admits in its release notes, under Ubuntu 9.04 the Intel driver has "performance regressions". In plain English this means that graphics on Intel chips are slower in the new release and that on some chips the X Server may even freeze – though there is at least a workaround for the latter problem.

The problem can manifest itself through various symptoms. Ubuntu users have reported that Flash videos in full-screen mode are jerky, 3D games run unacceptably slow, the desktop is barely usable with 3D effects activated and, in extreme cases, even moving a window can be so slow that the computer becomes almost unusable. We have also observed some of these effects in tests on various Intel graphics chips.
. . . . .
I assume that the workaround mentioned herein-above will go there in this response (no, I guess not). There's another one:

The Perfect Desktop - Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) | HowtoForge ...[/I]
This tutorial shows how you can set up an Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) .....
the freezes can be worked around by upgrading to a 2.6.29 or higher kernel. ... by installing the 64studio kernel, as described in the UbuntuStudio post. ...
http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfec...op-ubuntu-9.04 - Cached
Yes, Jaunty is a very nice
Submitted by Pedro Saraiva (not registered) on Tue, 2009-04-28 23:55.
. . . . . . . . . . . . :
Yes, Jaunty is a very nice desktop.
However for the first time, I'm getting problems with an Ubuntu distribution.
The major one is really serious, as my desktop completely freezes, and the freezes appear to be random, where only the mouse cursor can be moved. If this doesn't get fixed soon, I have to find another distro.
Other annoying bugs, are:
Burning in Brazero is slow, and incapable of burning video dvds.
Writing files to USB pen drives is slow.
reply | view as pdf
Re: Yes, Jaunty is a very nice
Submitted by Carlo (not registered) on Sun, 2009-05-31 21:34.
I have an ATI Radeon Xpress 200M and was experiencing freezes. The custom package described in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...49/comments/21 worked for me to fix the freezes.
reply | view as pdf
Re: Yes, Jaunty is a very nice
Submitted by till (registered user) on Tue, 2009-05-05 09:40.
I've read about these problems. As far as I know it is a problem with the Intel graphics drivers as they are overhauled at the moment. Ubuntu really should not have delivered the new drivers when they are not finished yet.
reply | view as pdf
Re: Re: Yes, Jaunty is a very nice
Submitted by Carlo (not registered) on Sat, 2009-06-06 18:52.
Apparently the freezes can be worked around by upgrading to a 2.6.29 or higher kernel.
In standard Ubuntu, a mainline kernel can be installed.
I run the 'realtime' kernel, and fixed things by installing the 64studio kernel, as described in the UbuntuStudio post.
reply | view as pdf

. . . . . . . . . . . ..
and again:
* > Ubuntu > “linux” package

Bug #302452 reported by Brion Swanson on 2008-11-26 (Activity log)
Bug #302452:

This report is public
jaunty and intrepid shutdown/restart hang on "acpid: exiting"
. . . . .
I think it better to get someone's opinion before newbie me rushes right off with intentions of fixing something. Plus, I've noticed that advice given one place may seem dauntingly complicated while the same advice given some place else seems so simple that even I can (and did) implement it. I guess that, sometimes, it's just a matter of how it's written and how much is assumed that the intended audiance knows (about how to do things).

As always, I'm grateful for you all's patience and forbearance with an over ambitious moron.