M17X and Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx!

So, here we are 3-4 days after the new distro was released.
The deal is to make everything work smooth including the CF!
Let the mayhem begin!

The installation (including manual partitioning) took 14min (SATA 7.2k RPM HDD and i5-520M CPU)
Boot time is about 20sec, Shutdown is about 1sec, lol. Blazingly fast.

OS and Drivers Installation

.....

Drivers

Video (ATI 4870CF) - System-> Administration -> Hardware Drivers -> Activate the FGLRX proprietary driver and reboot.

Wireless - System-> Administration -> Hardware Drivers -> Activate the STA proprietary driver and reboot.




Software Installation:

SKYPE:

1) Download the 64-bit version from here: www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-ubuntu-64
2) Run from terminal: sudo apt-get install libqt4-dbus libqt4-network libqt4-xml
3) Double-click on the package downloaded from (1) and install it
4) Applications->Internet->Skype->Enjoy!



reserved for Ubuntu.......

 

I wonder if the latest drivers from ATI will play
or we will have to use the open source

 

Dunno yet. Just installed it. Looks and feels very promising, - light, stylish and smooth.
First issues:
1) Wireless not working even after installing the STA restricted driver.
2) No sound (backport-modules didn't help)
3) Some glitches with the touchpad and the usb mouse.

 

If the wifi is not playing then I will delay the installation, too many cables to unplug and move it all the way to the router and connect it to the ethernet and then bring the external disk, etc...
If you find a way to make it work let me know

 

I was hoping for some suggestions
In the Hardware Drivers it says: This driver is activated but is not currently in use.
I installed backport-modules (including the wireless) prior activating the STA driver.
Then removed the backport wireless package. Do you think reinstalling the STA again might help?

 

LOL, ok I will take a look but not within those next 4 days...

 

Just for completeness. Ubuntu Lucid Lynx works fine for the M15x. No propriety drivers need to be installed besides graphics card.


For your problem with the wireless drivers, try removing/activating again + reboot. If that doesnt work, use apt-get to install instead and see if that helps.

 

Thanks, I had to remove the linux-backport-modules-wireless package and then to re-activate the STA and reboot. Now the wireless is working!
Also activating the FGLRX proprietary driver worked very well so far. CF is enabled and working smooth. Will do more tests but already there's an improvement over Karmic, - no lagging in Compiz when rotating the cube.
Will update the first post.

 

Lucid is definitely better than Karmic, especially with that crazy boot speed.

Did you get Anti Aliasing to work on compiz? No matter what I change in catalyst, compiz doesnt use AA which is not a deal breaker, but since the card is running at full power all the time, I might as well have AA.

I cant wait for the ati driver to support overdrive for my ATI

 

Aikimox did you download the latest drivers from ATI and try to install them?

 

No, I didn't try the latest ATI drivers.
Also I didn't get AA to work on compiz, will try it later on.

The major concern for now is the absence of sound...

 

What sound card does the M17x have? For me sound works out of the box

 

Man, wish I knew more about linux. Total n00b here I might d/l it and tinker around on a differant HDD. Hmm got a 40GB intel SSD laying around...

 

@DR650SE

Go for it. Linux is pretty straightforward if you know computers. I would recc. getting a linux for dummies book (may be one specific for ths distro you want) and read about the theory of how the os is designed. *nix has a different philosophy than Windows and you have to understand files and threads from the 'nix way of thinking to really get it.

Ubuntu or SuSE (OpenSUSE version) would be the ones to try - lots of help out there in Google-land....

 

Sounds good. I think I'll install to another HDD> I have nothing to lose. I downloaded Ubuntu 9.10 a few days ago and use it to do secure wipes on my SSDs. It booted off a thumbdrive and worked with pretty much everything I had, the webcam light came on, sound, ect. At least on my Inspiron 1720. Looked a lot like Apple. At least back in the day.

 

aplay -l:

card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1

lspci -v:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 06)
Subsystem: Dell Device 043a
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 35
Memory at f0e20000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

Give the newest version a try, it's worth it.

 

Will be updating the first post every now and then, you're welcome to correct/suggest/etc



Edit: So far 2 hard lockups during normal operation, no load. Same was with Karmic.

 

what is normal operation? I was running Karmic and now Lucid and have never had any lockups during the following:

* running several VM's and doing heavy load on these
* Doing programming - e.g. Eclipse/emacs/gcc/latex ...
* Browsing webbie
* watching movies...

@ DR650SE:
Also, I would highly recommend trying either the liveCD or installing ubuntu on a pen drive or even wubi.

 

The normal operation, sorry, is just a web browsing.
Both lockups were random.

 

Update

At least one lockup happened when changing the screen brightness and is probably related to the video driver.

Downloading the 10.4 driver.
Can someone explain why does it say on the AMD Linux drivers page:

32-Bit packages must be installed for 64-Bit Linux drivers to install or work.

What does it mean?

 

I think that it requires the 32bit packages also in order to be properly installed. If I remember correctly, those packages are in the 64bit version, during installation the installer will ask if you want them to be installed.
I have to test it to be sure

 

Well it didn't ask and installed...and I just had another lockup while typing this message, hehe... But I tried changing the brightness again a few seconds before the freeze. Will be monitoring this issue more closely.

Looks like there's no difference in performance between the new and the Ubuntu driver. Similar gears scores with both single (12k) and CF(10k) configs. I know, the scores look low,
and it seems that it has something to do with the glxgears itself. Will run Nexuiz and see what's with the performance.

 

CrossFireX Enabled:

Lightsmark:
lightsmark [Resolution: 1920 x 1200]
Expected Trial Run Count: 3
Started Run 1 @ 03:45:18
Started Run 2 @ 03:47:20
Started Run 3 @ 03:49:23
Started Run 4 @ 03:51:25
Started Run 5 @ 03:53:27
Started Run 6 @ 03:55:30

Test Results:
190.84
216.93
218.13
194.68
225.91
222.11

Average: 211.43 Frames Per Second

BTW, looks like only 1 card is heating up.

 

Or run it in a VM.

LiveCD is cool but they can be slow - depending what you're doing.

 

Single GPU :

Lightsmark:
lightsmark [Resolution: 1920 x 1200]
Estimated Test Run-Time: 13 Minutes
Expected Trial Run Count: 3
Started Run 1 @ 04:03:19
Started Run 2 @ 04:05:24
Started Run 3 @ 04:07:26
Started Run 4 @ 04:09:28
Started Run 5 @ 04:11:30
Started Run 6 @ 04:13:32

Test Results:
189.31
210.54
221.25
216.30
223.30
211.69

Average: 212.06 Frames Per Second

No difference. So the CF isn't working as usual.
Still, I see an improvement in performance, no lag and stutter.

 

Aikimox those FPS are with the open source drivers or the ATI ones?

 

Those are the (latest?) 10.4 drivers from AMD.
I got the same results with the open source drivers.

 

I'd probably blame the CF. Can you try to turn it off? What does dmesg say?

 

i'm using M17x-R1 and i'm getting low FPS in games, well namely Left4Dead 2 since that's the only steam game i have installed under my ubuntu partition. i'm using wine to run steam and then steam to run L4D2. everything is really choppy though and i think it's probably the graphics drivers. any ideas?

edit: i have 2x 260Ms and i'm using the NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version current) [Recommended] from the System-->Administration-->Hardware Drivers

edit2: i just loaded up COD: MW1 and it, too, is laggy. both of these games run perfectly smooth at max settings on windows

 

also, has anyone had any luck with SLI?

 

I would try to avoid the backports as much as possible. Avoid seven fatal mistakes (Easy Linux tips project)

 

@f4ding
that's a good tip, helpful link

 

Thanks! Will make the changes later, low on time....

 

Sorry for no feedback lately, guys, I'm too busy to even load Ubuntu right now. Will fix that as soon as I have more time.
Stay tuned.

 

the r1 and the A04 don't play nice with the 10.04... I had to go back to A03 in order to install Ububtu. I am on my phone right now so more about it later

 

I'm having problems with stupid nvidia powermizer thinging so I'm on Windows most of the time now. I think I'll wait until nvidia fix this before I go back. If they ever will. If not, I might put this on eBay and move on.

 

Unfortunately, I have to switch to W7 till my programming project is done.
Will be back as soon as I can.

 

lucid lynx install on the m17 oposed to the previous version

but any atemp to instal ati drivers brick the system

 

What if you install through the Hardware Drivers? I have a very decent performance (way better than with 280M), CF doesn't work though.

 

the one through hardware drive get me some video ou but i need to plugin my hdtv through HDMI cause all other display port get disabeled

while the one provided by ati just brick the system (i can move around and ear sound but no way to get a video output

 

I thought I should post a benchmark run with the unigine v1.0.1
Phoronix Global - official_1_stamatisx Testing
the scores are very low...
it makes me wonder if the crossfire is running properly because those FPS are more like a single GPU

Also a few screenshots from other runs
ImageShack Album - 13 images