New to Ubuntu - help with installation, hardware, booting, shutdown issues in 8.04
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New to Ubuntu - help with installation, hardware, booting, shutdown issues in 8.04
Good afternoon,
I hope someone can help me with some frustrating issues - I am a newbie and don't know the first thing about Linux, so I apologize if any of these things are remedial.
First, my computer:
Intel Core 2 Duo 6700 2.67 Ghz, 4 GB RAM
ATI HD3780 (dual GPU)
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty
WD Raptor 74GB SATA HDD
Seagate Barracuda 7200 500GB Ultra ATA/100 HDD
I had been running XP Pro 64 on it, and am attempting to set up a dual-boot with Hardy Heron. I've split the 74GB between NTFS for XP and three Ubuntu partitions (/, /home, swap). The 500GB drive I was planning a smallish partition of NTFS for XP files (and >4GB file support), and a FAT32 partition for shared data.
Unfortunately, when attempting to run 8.04 64-bit edition from the Live CD, I came across multiple errors, so I decided to try to install the 32-bit edition first and get it running, then move to 64-bit if testing shows improvement for the applications/games I want to run. So I installed the 32-bit edition.
The first problem I came across was that after installation was complete, loading the OS consistently takes over 2 full minutes. Given that I installed 8.04 on an older laptop with less than 1 GB of RAM, and it loads in 20-30 seconds, this surprised me. I suspect this has to do with my driver problems (see below). The second problem, possibly related, is that when I go to shut down Ubuntu, it doesn't give me the splash screen with the orange bar I am used to, showing progress, or a console screen stating the progress in text, but rather it locks the CPU with a screen full of orange colored bars. Only a hard reset resolves this issue.
I have no sound at all. I have attempted to install the recently released Creative X-Fi drivers for Linux, but I am having a problem compiling the source. I posted a request for help on Ubuntuforums, but one of the reasons I am writing all this is because the forum I am using has been pretty unhelpful in the past, and this time has been no exception. The text of my post may be found below (which has had no replies, unfortunately)
Quote:
I am attempting to compile and install the new Creative Labs beta driver for my SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty card in Hardy, following the readme, and I am getting the following while running the installer. Can anyone help me figure out what issue I am running into? (I am a newbie, sorry!)
I have updated build-essential, GCC, and G++.
Installation is in progress. Please wait...
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for egrep... grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for an ANSI C-conforming const... yes
checking for inline... inline
checking whether time.h and sys/time.h may both be included... yes
checking whether gcc needs -traditional... no
checking for current directory... /opt/Creative/XFiDrv_Linux_US-1.18/drivers
checking cross compile...
checking for directory with kernel source... /lib/modules/2.6.24-17-generic/build
checking for directory with kernel build...
checking for directory with ALSA include files... /lib/modules/2.6.24-17-generic/build/include
checking for kernel linux/version.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/autoconf.h... yes
checking for kernel version... 2.6.24-17-generic
checking for GCC version... Kernel compiler: Used compiler: gcc (GCC) 4.2.3 (Ubuntu 4.2.3-2ubuntu7)
*** NO PREDEFINED KERNEL COMPILER IS DETECTED
*** Assuming the same compiler is used with the current system compiler.
*** Please make sure that the same compiler version was used for building kernel.
checking for built-in ALSA... no
checking for existing ALSA module... no
checking to modify of kernel linux/kmod.h... no
checking for kernel linux/compiler.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/pm.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/spinlock.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/irq.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/threads.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/rwsem.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/gameport.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/devfs_fs_kernel.h... no
Creating a dummy <linux/devfs_fs_kernel.h>...
checking for kernel linux/highmem.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/workqueue.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/dma-mapping.h... yes
checking for kernel asm/hw_irq.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/device.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/platform_device.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/jiffies.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/compat.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/adb.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/cuda.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/pmu.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/moduleparam.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/syscalls.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/firmware.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/err.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/bitmap.h... yes
checking for kernel linux/mutex.h... yes
checking for kernel module symbol versions... yes
checking for PCI support in kernel... yes
checking for I2C driver in kernel... module
checking for firmware loader... yes
checking for input subsystem in kernel... yes
checking for directory to store kernel modules... /lib/modules/2.6.24-17-generic/kernel/sound
checking for ISA support in kernel... yes
checking for processor type... i586
checking for ISA DMA API... yes
checking for SMP... yes
checking for Video device support in kernel... yes
checking for strlcpy... no
checking for snprintf... no
checking for vsnprintf... no
checking for scnprintf... no
checking for sscanf... no
checking for vmalloc_to_page... no
checking for old kmod... yes
checking for PDE... no
checking for pci_set_consistent_dma_mask... no
checking for pci_dev_present... no
checking for msleep... no
checking for msecs_to_jiffies... no
checking for tty->count is the atomic type... no
checking for video_get_drvdata... no
checking for io_remap_pfn_range... no
checking for new io_remap_page_range... no
checking for kcalloc... no
checking for kstrdup... no
checking for kzalloc... no
checking for create_workqueue with flags... no
checking for saved_config_space in pci_dev... no
checking for register_sound_special_device... no
checking for RTC callback support in kernel... no
checking for HPET support... yes
checking for Procfs support... yes
checking for class_simple... no
checking for old driver suspend/resume callbacks... no
checking for removal of page-reservation for nopage/mmap... no
checking for nested class_device... no
checking for new unlocked/compat_ioctl... no
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile.conf
make: *** [all] Error 2
make: *** [install] Error 2
Installation Unsuccessful
Finally, it won't recognize my video card. I haven't even begun to look for a solution to that, yet.
Can anyone help get me get off the ground here? Is my machine simply unable to handle Ubuntu? Am I asking the wrong questions, or going to the wrong places (Ubuntuforums) for help?
Thank you,
-Brian
Last edited by bilekbp; 05-27-2008 at 10:22 PM.
Reason: Bad formatting
Drivers are a major problem with Linux. Since you have attempted to compile the kernel afresh, I think you can promote yourself out of the noob league.
Secondly, I would suggest that it is less time consuming to try out other distros than to try to make Ubuntu and your hardware to tango.
When booting, there would be a key you can press to reveal the boot messages to show. Usually Esc. Do this so that you can identify which step is taking too long. That will also help identify the bottleneck.
My guess is that the shutdown screen status is a display issue, but probably you should try waiting a bit more to see if it is transient state, with the system recovering and shutting down after some time ( especially since the booting takes too long as well).
Thank you for your suggestion. If my problem is primarily with drivers, will trying another distribution really help? Do you know of somewhere I can go for assistance with the compiler issue above? One way or another, I need to solve that issue to get sound working, I believe.
In my experience, distros differ in their ability to handle hardware. An extreme case : I have a motherboard with Realtek gigabit PCIE lan chip onboard, and none of the distros could configure it properly. They would detect and install drivers, but I could not connect to the net (this is a popular issue with a lot of references on the net). The easiest solution was to put in an older LAN card or use Belenix (Opensolaris) which had no problems with the lan.
Thank you for your suggestion. If my problem is primarily with drivers, will trying another distribution really help? Do you know of somewhere I can go for assistance with the compiler issue above? One way or another, I need to solve that issue to get sound working, I believe.
I am willing to try a different Linux distribution if it can help, especially with the sound drivers, though getting used to Ubuntu has been difficult enough
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