Hybrid graphics on the 3820tg running Ubuntu 11.04 (natty)

My Acer TimeLineX 3820TG has served me pretty well over the last year.  The only complaint I have against the laptop is the fact that it has "hybrid graphics".

The concept is nice -- you use the full powered Radeon HD5650 w 1gb of ram whenever you want performance (and plugged into power) and the integrated Intel GPU whenever you want power savings.

Unfortunately it doesn't play nice with Linux.  Their are no official drivers to support it.

Some of the issues encountered are:

1. very loud fans
2. laptop runs hot 
3. unpredictable suspend 
4. VERY poor battery life
5. computer freezes at bootup (B[lack]SOD)

To fix these issues you'll have to do some tweaking to the configuration of the system. 

The first thing you will want to do is turn off the Radeon GPU. To be honest, there's no real reason to use it under Linux unless you are doing some heavy 3D gaming.  The Intel chipset is fine for normal 3d acceleration (esp., running HD video, running compiz, etc).

In order to fix issues 1-4 you need to use 'switcheroo' to switch to the chipset you want to use (i.e. the intel chipset). 

Switcheroo and Radeon blacklisting

First, open /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf as root (I always use "gksu nautilus" to open the file manager as root and then navigate there). Once you have opened it with a text editor add the following line add the end:

blacklist radeon

Once you have done that, save the file and close the text editor.
Now  open /etc/rc.local (still as root) and add the following lines BEFORE  'exit 0'

modprobe radeon 

 echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

Again, save the file. Now the radeon module will be re-loaded, vgaswitcheroo will be reenabled and the ATI card will be turned off. Cooler, quieter and better battery life.

This should fix the issues, however, if you continue to have the Black Screen of Death on bootup (i.e., the system freezes on start-up) it's likely the known issue with the 2.6.38 kernel (used in natty).

In order to fix it, you can install the patched linux kernels found on this post:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/727620/comments/160

you'll need to know if you are running 32bit or 64bit Linux and choose the appropriate files. For me, I've installed the folliwing on my 64bit system (in this order):

1. linux-headers-2.6.38-11_2.6.38-11.48~lp727620v201108261554_all.deb
2. linux-headers-2.6.38-11-generic_2.6.38-11.48~lp727620v201108261554_amd64.deb
3. linux-image-2.6.38-11-generic_2.6.38-11.48~lp727620v201108261554_amd64.deb

I've used both methods described here and it's done me well. Leave your commennts if you wish to add your experience. 

References: 

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/727620

http://askubuntu.com/questions/39562/radeon-module-boot-problems

All the gnome extensions you'll need...

Again, webupd8.org comes to the rescue.  The single biggest tweak you can do when moving to gnome 3 is to add the webupd8 ppa which contains loads of gnome extensions:

Enter the following in the terminal and then browse using synaptic (assuming you've already installed synaptic):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/gnome3
sudo apt-get update

Add Minimize/Maximize buttons back to gnome shell

Don't ask me how or why (long frutstrating story) but today I had to 'upgrade' to Ubuntu 11.10.

Since I hate Unity I opted to use Gnome Shell instead, esp., because of the extensions.

Since I'm having to hack the living hell out of my desktop I'll be posting all of the tweaks I found.

First tip after installing gnome shell -- add the minimize and maximize buttons back.

From WebUpD8:

As you probably know, Gnome Shell has removed the minimize and maximize buttonsand the windows now only have a close button, but just as it was when the window controls to the left, you can change this.

When Gnome 3.0 will be released, you should be able to add back the minimize and maximize buttons from the "GNOME Plumbing" panel in the Control Center or using "gsettings" (command line tool). Until then, if you use Gnome Shell in Ubuntu 10.10, you can set it to use "minimize, maximize, close" buttons using the following command:

gconftool-2 -s -t string /desktop/gnome/shell/windows/button_layout ":minimize,maximize,close"

And then reload GNOME Shell (press ALT + F2 and type "r" or log out and log back in).

It'll be messy for awhile.

I still need to settle on a template as well as move over the posts from tumblr.

It's a pity the tumblr support sucks so bad (2 weeks of the site being inaccessible).

Anyway, things will be changing here a lot until I'm happy with the setup.

Moving clarifyubuntu.org

Since I'm no longer using Ubuntu and all I'm able to talk about is how awful Unity is, I'll be moving to the clarifylinux domain.

Now to get Blogger to allow me to import a template... Sheesh.

Basic configuration For the Acer TimelineX 3820TG

After upgrading to Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty) there are some things you will need to do. I'll start this with the easy stuff.

1. Fix the screen brightness - unless you apply this, you will not be able to increase/decrease brightness on this computer (thus sucking battery life):

• As root navigate to (you can do this by entering "gksu nautilus") and edit : /etc/default/grub
• Change the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""    to  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_osi=Linux"
• save the file
• and then (in a terminal): sudo update-grub
• reboot

2. To enable vertical scrolling with the trackpad do the following:

• Navigate to /etc/modprobe.d/
• Make a file called psmouse.conf and paste this text into it:

options psmouse proto=imps

• save as root in the folder (you should already be there) /etc/modprobe.d/
• that's it. 

EDIT: I've found a touchpad driver which doesn't require any system tweaking at all. Just install this file:
http://people.canonical.com/~sforshee/alps-touchpad/psmouse-alps-0.9/psmouse-alps-dkms_0.9_all.deb

The source of the driver can be found here.

My next post on this computer will cover the switchable graphics card which will be a little bit more technical. Until we do that, you'll only have about 2.5 hours of battery life.

If you are feeling brave, you can always find this info in the Ubuntu forums. 

[Just] Install Java in Ubuntu

As an end user of Ubuntu (or any other OS for that matter) if I need to install java for an application or because the java plugin in my browser is missing, I don't want to have to choose between 5 different options and then still not have it work exactly.

The reason there are so many types of Java in Linux is that Java istelf is not really open or free. Oracle owns it and they have asserted their intellectual rights to it by suing the pants off of some of the big tech industry players (esp.,  Google). As a result there are other more open options. 

my problem is that these other options don't always work (esp., with proprietary software like Webex).

So if you want to avoid this and just install "Java" enter this line into a terminal:

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts

For more techy info on this go to the UbuntuGeek website where they can give you info closer to fact than I... I'm only confused by the whole Java thing :)

Ubuntu Gnome Remix - Now you can forget about Unity for now...

Over @ Justinstories, there a piece on a new Ubuntu Project (Ubuntu Gnome Remix) which will focus on builds of Ubuntu for user wishing to stick with pure Gnome environment (and still retain the benefits of Ubuntu).
From the article:

Rejoice people as a new ubuntu remix has been started. The project plans to release future versions of ubuntu with vanilla gnome instead of unity. The project is in its very early incubation period. The repository is currently being setup to hold the packages. The current plans include to release a cd .iso on the same date of the ‘controversial’ natty release. This version will include gnome 3.0 instead of gnome 2.32. The fallback mode may be available at a later date.

The project already have a launchpad page and a website setup. Find details on their respective pages and if you are interested and if you can please join the team and lend a helping hand.

PS: The website says the project is being remixed by the team at teampr0xy and surprise! surprise!, the project is not approved or sponsored by ubuntu, canonical or gnome in anyway.



The roadmap
"Supernatural" 0.0.X alpha proof-of-concept release family:


Initial demonstration, with only the minimum parts to make things somewhat work. Scope will only include a main metapackage and gnome-session, and all other parts will be direct from the GNOME3 ppa. Not intended for production machines.

"Supernatural" 0.0.1 first release 4/9/2011
"Cosmic" 0.0.2 bugfix release 4/12/2011

"Raise Your Weapon" 0.1.X Beta release family:

More practical, usable, stable, and complete system. Available both as a cd .iso and upgrade metapackage.

"Raise Your Weapon" 0.1.0 beta 4/20/2011
"Watch it Burn" 0.1.1 bugfix 4/23/2011

"Made of Awesome" 1.0.X Natty full release:

Will include full, stable versions of both GNOME classic and 3. Will include custom branding.

"Made of Awesome" 1.0.0 full 4/28/2011
bugfix 1.0.1 5/01/2011
And more to come...

Android Apps for Ubuntu Users

If your a fan of Ubuntu as well as Android there are a few apps you may be interested in. Here's a couple i'm playing around with right now....

Ubuntu Pocket Reference Ubuntu Pocket Reference is a handy guide to the most useful Ubuntu commands. This app serves as a quick reference guide to the most popular and most useful Ubuntu/Linux commands. Includes useful commands for display, networking, firewalls, system services, and more.

Though the main page fonts are WAY TOO BIG, the command references are actually quite useful. Highly recommended for newcomers to Ubuntu as well as intermediate users.

Ubuntu Countdown 

Keep an eye on the days remaining before the new release of Ubuntu!

Keep an eye on the days remaining before the new Ubuntu release!

Features:
* Two square widgets (1x1 and 2x2)
* Ability to set a custom date
* Built with an eye on battery consumption (widget refresh at most twice a day)
* Light and Dark themes
* Good-looking (thanks to Martín Césare)
* /!\ Changing days left on midnight GMT+0 (approximately)

OK, if you really want to show your true colors (dark geek), then this is what you want. 

Use the Windows key to open the panel in Ubuntu

I've seen this tip in a number of different places.  I think it's useful for someone starting in Linux from Windows. This tutorial is provided by the Ubuntu Sharing blog

[The] Windows key, the Super key between Ctrl and Alt is used for launching Main menu in Windows system and Ubuntu using Alt+F1 instead.
If you’d like Super key as keyboard shortcut to launch Gnome Main menu in Ubuntu, follow this simple tutorial.
1.) Press Alt+F2 to launch “Run Application” box, type in gconf-editor and click Run.

2.) Navigate to apps/metacity/global_keybindings/, in right click to set value of “panel_main_menu” to “Super_L”

installation tip - install your home directory on it's own partition

A user over in lifehacker made this comment to an article about which Linux distribution to pick:

... A useful strategy for a Linux install is to put the Install into a small (20-30GB) partition, then mount the user-space as a separate partition, which can be huge and usable by many different distros. I've never had Linux system needs grow much beyond 5GB, even when my user-space gets into the 2TB range.

I personally have never done this simply because I wanted to make things easier for myself (creating 1 partition seemed easier than spreading things across multiple partitions - more to worry about). However as I've been using Linux for a while now I think this is a useful strategy as well. 


When you install Ubuntu will likely suggest mounting your home partition (the equivalent of the windows user folder which is located in documents & settings in XP or Users in Win7).  I would suggest taking this option.


For Linux techies, this is probably nothing new but for those of us not so techy, it's a pretty good tip.


EDIT: Another user went on to say:

Nicely stated. To help with your selection, partition your HDD to make it easy. 
20GB for the OS i.e. / 2GB for swap The rest for /home and /data - put both of these in different extended partitions. 
Now when it is time to swap the OS, you only need touch the / partition and don't need to risk your /home and /data partitions. This setup has been covered on LH and at the[www.howtogeek.com] already. Using Linux demands a better understanding of partitioning to make your life easier. Avoid this knowledge at your peril. 

Lifehacker asks (and answers) "Why install Linux?"

Kevin Purdy from Lifehacker has written a good piece for the Linux curious. He give the following points for reasons one would want to use Linux:

• It's free
• It works on a wide range of hardware (old and new)
• Highly customizable
• as a (computer systems) learning aid
• Lot's of free and impressive applications

A snippet from the article:

Getting Started with Linux: Why Install Linux?

 Kevin Purdy — Curious about Linux, but not ready to dive in head first without a little background? We're on it. As part of our our Night School series, we'll be detailing, troubleshooting, and taking a deeper swim into the open-source OS this week. Today, we're offering some encouragement for the hesitant.

Why, in this day of razor-thin and elegant Macs, a solid Windows 7 offering, and cloud-connected gadgets would anyone bother to carve up their hard drive and install Linux, the geekiest of the major operating systems? Linux will never be everyone's desktop, but here's why it might be just perfect for you, as a workhorse or a hobby.

In a general sense, the core operating system on your computer is becoming more and more abstract, as more services move onto the web, and as your browser and sites' own code are capable of doing much more of the traditional heavy lifting of daily work. So if you use a computer for browsing, email, IM, and some light app functions, Linux can work just as well for you as any other system.

There are many reasons to switch to Linux, as explained by your fellow readers. Here are some of the strongest cases to consider.

It's Totally Free, for Any System You Have

Let's just come right out and say it—you, or at least a good number of people you know, have installed not-quite-squeaky-clean operating systems on your computers. Maybe it was testing out Boot Camp on a Mac, or upgrading a secondary machine, or just avoiding a sudden $100-plus financial hit. You had to pull a few tricks to get it to work, then forever after had to keep a cautious eye on updates, service packs, and other potential slip-ups. The same dark alley feel often comes with hefty apps like Photoshop or Office.

Linux is free, for one or 8,000 computers, with all future upgrades and potential software included. If you've got hardware you want to use but not the software, Linux is where you can turn to make it usable. Generally, even a newcomer can get Wi-Fi access, a modern browser, and the essential desktop apps running on a system in short order. Beyond those basics, well—that's what this Lifehacker Night School Series will get into!

Hop on over to Lifehacker for the full article.

New Filters for GIMP

As much as I dislike the GIMP, I just installed the G'MIC filters which I read about over on Webupd8 nd I will admit it's nice to see that people are actually trying to make some improvements to GIMP even if it's just some filters.

The G'MIC Sourceforge page offers .deb files for download, but because new G'MIC versions are released very frequently, it's a good idea to use a PPA to stay up to date with the latest versions in Ubuntu. Roberto @ LFFL has created such a PPA so you can easily stay up to date with the latest G'MIC for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx and 10.10 Maverick Meerkat.

Give it a try. It's pretty nice.

Ubuntu for beginners

Just a link today from IT world.
Ubuntu Linux for beginners: Tips for getting started | ITworld

The easiest way to try Ubuntu is to just buy a laptop or PC that already has Ubuntu installed on it. Dell, system76, and ZaReason are all reputable computer vendors who have shipped Ubuntu equipment for years. You won't go wrong with any of these vendors.

If you're not in the market for a new PC, it's easy to give Ubuntu a try on your existing PC. Indeed, you won't have to change a thing on your computer to try it.

First, you'll need to download a copy of the latest version of Ubuntu. Today, that's Ubuntu 10.10. You might be tempted to try a newer version. Don't give in to temptation. The alpha and beta releases of any Linux system are for expert users, not someone who's trying Linux for the first time.

The fastest way to get a copy is to download it from the Ubuntu download page. Not sure which version to get? Just go for the 32-bit. Even if your machine can support a 64-bit operating system, the 32-bit edition will still run just fine on your PC.

Lessons Learned - Don't use Ubuntu in business if the system is not 100% supported

Over the past month, since I received my new laptop (Acer Timelinex 3820tg) I've been on a mission to (almost) completely use Ubuntu for my business needs.  I have:

• Installed Office 2007 (sans Outlook) through PlayOnLinux (a WINE configuration tool)
• Installed Windows XP in a virtual for when I need to VPN into the office network (sadly, the Linux CISCO client doesn't work on the company network) and also for Outlook (seamless mode works nice).
• Set-up all of the network printers from the domain.
• All of my documents are stored in Ubuntu with the VM having access through shared folders. 
• All critical documents added to Dropbox

Everything had been working well, until today. So imagine, there I was with a client, I was sitting in their office with a number of their colleagues connected via webex (enter dark sinister music). Since I had to VPN into my network I had to use the virtual machine for the demo I was going to provide. I opened up my browser, connected to Webex and then the fun started. 

After connecting (in the XP VM), I tried going to the start menu to select an app, it came up with a shortcut dialog -no app, just a damn shortcut dialog telling me where the shortcut lead to. OK. No issue. Just don't touch the start menu. Improvise I kept thinking. So I switched to the PowerPoint I had open and then the webex connection died. Then my whole network went down! I switched back to Ubuntu, same issue - network dead. I could not connect to anything. I was panicking (internally at this point - with a nice cool exterior). I made a few jokes about technology and how it's causing my hair to turn grey. A few chuckles from the crowd.  Then I realized that the whole webex meeting had cancelled itself. 

So to cut it short , I could go on trust me, I made a few frantic calls to the PA and had a new webex session set-up. I then grudgingly (without the customer noticing) rebooted into Windows 7 (which hadn't been set-up with anything other than dropbox and VPN). 

In the end we lost about 30 minutes because of my blunder. Luckily the demo was a success though :)

The lesson learned? Over the past month I have been experiencing multiple tolerable issues with my laptop. I failed to think that those issues could be problematic in a work environment. It was quite stupid of me really. Up until now I had happily been using Ubuntu at home but I never put it through the stress of a corporate environment... and when I decided to do it, I did it on a system I knew wasn't working right. I was being STUPID. 

Somehow Webex is a culprit. How, I do not know. But for now, I will NOT be doing any webex demos from Virtualbox. 

Running Windows & Ubuntu

Probably the most asked question from Windows users is simply "Can I run Ubuntu without uninstalling Windows?" or "Can I try it without screwing up Windows?".

The answer is Yes. You can. And it's really not that difficult.

You have a number of options starting from the simple to the more complex:

Run it from USB (my preference) or from CD - Ubuntu provides what are called "Live CD's". Booting from the disk simply loads Ubuntu into your computers memory. Once you have it running you can do almost everything you could do from a real install. The downside is that you cannot save anything as it will be deleted once you reboot.  Ubuntu officially list a couple of good reasons you may want to go this route:

• checks hardware works as expected
• check the look & feel of the distro

One more advantage is that once you have tested it you can install Ubuntu from the same CD/USB.

Using the Ubuntu Installer (WUBI) from within Windows (not tried this myself) - With this metod, you simply download the Ubuntu installer and run it from within Windows.


Install & Run Ubuntu from a virtual machine (esp., using virtualbox) within Windows. If you have never used virutal machines before, I do not recommend this. This is definitely most tricky of the 3 ways listed here.



Thanks to Psychocat for the tutorial on installing a virtual machine from within windows.

Cross Platform apps for dual boot users

If you are like me you may have to use windows for work (or perhaps just for gaming). I've found that one issue with dual booting is that you occasionally need to run an app that is unfortunately located on the other OS.

After getting frustrated with this scenario I started looking for applications which are available on multiple platforms (esp., Windows & Linux).

The first place to look is a website called "Alternative to".... here they provide a list of apps which have the same if not similar functionality as the one you select. Furthermore they also show which platforms they will run.

My Choices

The first app I install on any OS is dropbox. Dropbox is an online app which provies you with online storage. The free accounts give you 2GB of space but you can get more by prostituting yourself for them (I'm up to 5gb now).

Besides storage there's another reason that I use dropbox. The output from all of the cross-platforms apps goes into my dropbox. This way I have the same data no matter which platform (even on my Android mobile).

Nevernote is a Linux (and Windows) alternative to the Evernote client. For Linux users the main advantage is that you do not have to run the official client through WINE (an application which allows you to run some windows programs under Linux). Though this is cross platform, since the data can be synced online I would recommend that in Windows to use the official windows client. I'm currently investigating a way to sync the nevernote configuration files (including the offline content) with dropbox.

If you use mind mapping  programs you probably already know about XMind.  I have set the program to always open the last diagram which is placed in my dropbox. Any new files are also added to dropbox so that no matter what machine I am on, I have access to the files.

Keepass is a password safe which is available on many platforms. For Linux (and MAC I believe) you can use keepassX. On Android, you can use KeepassDroid.
Again, dropbox comes into play as I sync the keepass database with it. That way, I never have to worry about my passwords.


This is just a *small* sampling of the cross-platform applications available. In my opinion, especially as the desktop OS becomes less relevant, cross-platform applications will be a necessity. People will be need to be able to access the same data with the same apps across all types of devices. We have been promised that the 'cloud' is the solution but I have to disagree with this - it still has a lot of issues (esp., privacy and licensing issues).

I'll continue adding cross-platform app reviews in future posts.

Linux Distribution Test - What's the right fit for you?

I came across this site tonight which takes you through a series of questions to determine the right distribution for you. I thought it might be useful for some readers. Have a look.

Another of these tests sites can be found here.

WIndow Managers - What are they anyway???

Over at lifehacker, they recently wrote a good article on Window Managers for Linux.  If you are new to Linux and are confused by the window managers available, I would recommend reading this article.


Here's a snippet:

What Are Window Managers and Desktop Environments?

While Windows and Mac OS X were designed around a GUI and, for the most part, are fixed to that specific GUI, Linux's GUI is completely separate from the operating system itself. It's split up into a few different parts: atop the command-line operating system is the X window system, which is what draws the GUI onto your screen. On top of that is what's called your window manager, which allows you to (surprise, surprise) manage the windows on your screen: move them around, drag and drop files, scroll up and down, and so on.

You can get a usable GUI with just a window manager, though it's fairly minimal. You usually won't have any panels, taskbars, or a ton of menus to work with, so there's a bit of a learning curve. It may work for low-powered machines, but more often, people use a window manager coupled with a desktop environment, which lets you choose between different taskbars or docks, customize the appearance of your system, and tweak settings through the GUI. Popular examples of desktop environments are GNOME (which comes bundled with a window manager called Metacity, though many others are available) and KDE (which comes with its own, KDE-specific KWin window manager).

Seem overwhelming? It's definitely a different experience than Windows and Mac OS X provide, where you just install the OS and go. What's really cool, though, is that because there are so many different desktop environments, you can fully customize your experience by finding the right one for you. That is, if you have, say, an older machine, you can run a window manager by itself, or find a less less resource-intensive desktop environment. On the other hand, if you want a window manager that gives you lots of eye candy or configurable options, you can do that too.

Jump to the rest of the article

My Goal - Figure out why I am getting this error!!!

Over at the Ubuntu Forums I posted the following:

I have a very strange issue. Whenever I logout of my Gnome session I am taken to a console where I see an error message that keeps repeating (see image herehttp://goo.gl/U2R0y ): The key thing is says is: "atombios stuck executing CB9E". After about 30-45 seconds of watching the text, it goes back into GDM where I can log in normally.
I'm using Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat 64bitMy laptop is an Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820TGThe Video Card (which I suspect the issue is coming from) is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650.
Does anyone have a clue as to what the issue could be? If so, I would appreciate any advice on how to get rid of it.

Unfortunately no one seems to be able to help me so my goal now is to either figure out what is causing the problem, or at the very least to make it go away somehow.