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Nanci Barthelmess’ blog

Posts Tagged ‘Envy’

[UPDATED] Nvidia released beta 96 legacy drivers, and we almost have Compiz back

Posted by BostonPeng on 30 October 2008

[Updated to reflect Alberto Milone's advise on the matter. Please read the entire post, including what Alberto says, before installing the new driver. -Peng]

When I checked my email this morning I saw that Nvidia has released a beta version of their 96.43.09 legacy drivers. After following the instructions that Takahani posted on the Launchpad bug about it I finally have Nvidia drivers working again.

- Download NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.09-pkg1.run (or the other one if you’re running a 64 bit system) to your home folder (/home/simon/ for me)
- switch to pty1 (CTRL+ALT+F1)
- log in
- sudo service kdm stop (will kill X server) (or gdm if you are running gnome)
- sudo sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.09-pkg1.run
- say yes to everything (will compile nvidia kernel module)
- sudo reboot now (reboot now !!)

And that should be enough, login and check that “glxinfo | grep direct” says “YES”

Sure enough, I ran the grep and this is what I got

And yes, despite the fact that my computer still calls itself Icebox-Hardy, that’s with Ubuntu Intrepid running.

I did find that with Compix enabled I was getting white sections where my Screenlets were running, but I was able to get things fixed by following the instructions in this post on the nV News Forums.

I was able to get Compiz running and even use my desktop cube/sphere, but I changed a setting and it broke. Unfortunately I didn’t check things at each step so I don’t know which setting borked things, but Takahani said there’s an override that I can run to get Compiz working properly again, and as soon as I find ut what it is I’ll post it as an update to this post. In the meantime I’m back to Xcompmgr so I can use AWN. It’s getting so bloody close, but still no cigar.

Do you need the Nvidia 71 legacy driver? Good news: Nvidia release a beta for their 71.86.07 driver that you can give a try.

Updated 3:47pm: Alberto Milone, the developer of Envy, strongly recommends waiting until they come out into the -proposed repo, which should be fairly soon. Woops! I hadn’t seen his advice before I installed the new driver. I guess we’ll see what issues need to be dealt with downstream.

Posted in GNU/Linux, Ubuntu | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Peng’s links for Wednesday, 16 July

Posted by BostonPeng on 16 July 2008

  • Ben Collins: Canonical and the Linux kernel. There’s an incorrect belief that Canonical, parent company of the *Ubuntu family of Linux distributions, doesn’t contribute much to the development of the Linux kernel. The truth is that the person who made the claim was looking at some faulty numbers. Ben sets the record straight for us and explains why the numbers were so short in the first place.
  • Alberto Milone: Updates on the NVIDIA drivers in Intrepid. The man behind the Envy video driver setting program (which has saved Nanci’s and my bacon on several occasions) discusses the state of Nvidia drivers as work continues on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex. I do believe that if everyone who has been helped by Envy bought Alberto a beer we’d have to check him into the Betty Ford clinic or something. :)
  • Aaron Toponce: Windows Replaced. While Aaron was on a business trip last week his wife didn’t just get hit by a virus, it turns out some hackers hit her badly with several virii, Trojans and worms, as well as malware, sypware and dialers. Luckily it was just on her Windows XP machine rather than on his Linux boxes. It turns out supporting open source really isn’t the only reason to go with Linux, here’s a home network that benefited by Linux’s improved security as well.
  • Stephan Hermann: Linux Haters Blog ? Windows Lover Blogs ? WTF? I had resisted the urge to post about the battling OS blogs, but Stephan has a great comment about the whole thing. Personally I’m hoping someone will soon ask “What’s next?” and let us all get on to more important things in our lives. Like the names celebrities pick for their kids. And why we should even care.
  • Meg/Cute Overload: Duck Darwin Awards. I try not to post many of the adorable feline pics I see (and I see a lot, believe me *g*) but I had to share this story of humans coming to the aid of a family of baby ducks in a big bad city. Good on ya, mate!

Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, Tech, Ubuntu | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Can we get an assist pls?

Posted by BostonPeng on 10 May 2008

Alberto Milone, the developer of the Envy line of programs foe automating the installation of Nvidia and ATI graphics drivers, is working on the next upgrade for EnvyNG and would like some help from testers. Read the rest of this entry »

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Alberto has Graduated

Posted by Nanci Barthelmess on 20 March 2008

Alberto Milone, the developer of the Envy video driver utility, has completed his thesis and graduated from grad school. Read the rest of this entry »

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I made the move to Hardy after all

Posted by BostonPeng on 16 March 2008

Ubuntu logoIf you’ll recall I upgraded to the Ubuntu Hardy kernel a couple of weeks ago, while still using Ubuntu Gutsy for the most part, and everything was going smoothly so after checking things on the forums and deciding it was safe to go ahead and do a dist-upgrade to Ubuntu Hardy. It definitely didn’t go well, though, and I spent most of the next 18 hours or so trying to get my computer usable again. I finally succeeded by installing from the Hardy Alpha 6 CD I had burned, but there were definitely some issues. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in GNU/Linux, Tech, Ubuntu | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

I started the move toward Ubuntu Hardy. Kind of.

Posted by BostonPeng on 5 March 2008

Last month I wrote that walkerk had written another script for upgrading the Ubuntu Kernel from the Gutsy kernel to the one being used for the development of Ubuntu Hardy, but I wasn’t making that upgrade just yet.

Today I finally downloaded and ran the upgrade script and it’s amazing how simple it was for me. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in GNU/Linux, Tech, Ubuntu | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

A pair of important software updates

Posted by BostonPeng on 2 March 2008

Two pieces of software got updates in the past few days or so and I wanted to make sure our readers knew about them. The first is an upgrade for the Pidgin instant messaging client, and the second is more if a release announcement than an update as EnvyNG is now available for people testing Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in GNU/Linux, Tech, Ubuntu | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Envy gets ready to kill off Legacy and roll out NG

Posted by BostonPeng on 28 February 2008

Sunday I blogged about the upcoming EnvyNG for Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron”, and the developer has rolled out an update to Envy Legacy to get things ready for the release of EnvyNG. Read the rest of this entry »

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Envy and Java updates

Posted by BostonPeng on 24 February 2008

I’ve been meaning to write about some updates for Envy, that uber tool for installing graphics drivers in Linux, but I keep closing Thunderbird before remembering to write. There’s also a new plugin coming for Java, but you’ll need to use Firefox 3 to get the benefits of it. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in GNU/Linux, Mozilla, Tech, Ubuntu | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »