Real quick and easy technique that creates an alphabetical list of all software packages that you have installed on your system.
Open the terminal and type in the following;
dpkg --get-selections > installed-software
This will generate a text file in your Home folder named Installed-Software.
Now if you ever have to redo your computer or build a new one and you want the same software installed all you have to do is make sure the list is in the Home directory, open the terminal and type in the following;
sudo dpkg --set-selections < installed-software
And then this command;
dselect
That's it! Short and sweet.
Enjoy!
TaZMAn
Showing posts with label Install. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Install. Show all posts
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
Hardy Heron Nvidia Driver Problem and Fix
Seems there are some problems with Ubuntu Hardy Heron and certain Nvidia video cards.
Especially the AGP 8X interface cards.
3 Ubuntu users I know have installed Hardy on their systems.
All of them have the GeForce 5200 FX video cards.
2 were unsuccessful with the install of the Nvidia driver and were stuck with 2 resolution options.
They were 800 x 600 and 640 x 480.
The final user installed the Nvidia driver and had full screen resolution and full access to Compiz.
So what were the differences that caused 2 failures and 1 success?
It was the way they installed the driver. The first 2 users installed the Nvidia driver like any user would. They downloaded it and installed it using the restricted driver manager.
The third user installed the driver using a program called Envy.
So why did the Nvidia driver fail to detect the proper resolution for the 5200 when installed via the restricted driver manager?
It's kind of hard to pinpoint but I have some thoughts after doing lot's of research.
The only real difference between all 3 systems is the monitor. I believe that if the monitor is of an older variety it doesn't have the ability to report back it's frequency or resolution settings to the x server and this causes the x server to default to the basic low resolution settings.
But why did Envy work?
Envy is a script written to download the driver (Either ATI or Nvidia) configure the driver based on a standard set of resolution settings then tells x server to use these resolution settings once the driver is installed.
So should you use Envy?
The jury's out on this one. I've read plenty of pro's and con's on using it.
I do know that if you do use Envy you will have to remove the driver you installed with Envy before upgrading Debian or Ubuntu to a newer release.
This however is not required anymore if you use the EnvyNG available for Hardy.
You will have to keep Envy installed if you want upgraded drivers. And even using Envy is not a 100% sure thing.
You can grab Envy through the repositories if you have Universe and Multiverse reositories enabled.
Or go here to their web site;
Envy
So are there any other options?
Yep!
Another way to install the Nvidia driver which seems to work most of the time is to go to Nvidia's web page, download the driver and install it yourself.
Installing the driver requires that you kill the x window (Your Desktop), navigate to the driver through a command line style of interface, run the Nvidia installer then restart the x window.
If you want the gory details on how to install the driver yourself you can get the directions from this Ubuntu forum post;
Install Nvidia Driver
You can try either method. I would suggest taking the long road and install it on you own but that is my choice. If Envy works for you then Great!
But if it doesn't, follow the directions on how to remove the installed drivers then reinstall them on your own.
What really bothers me about this whole driver fiasco is that Hardy is a LTS release.
It's supposed to make things easier for the novice and lure potential users away from Windowz and to the wonderful world of Linux.
But they dropped the ball big time. If anything, this problem will frustrate new users and drive them away.
Hardy should never have been released with this problem present. Damn the release schedule.
Make a solid release with no bugs or very few minor bugs and people won't care if it's a few weeks late.
These 6 month release schedules are a great marketing tool but in reality it's allowing more bugs to be running rampant and causing users many hours, days or weeks of grief!
I hope this post will help Hardy users with Nvidia driver issues get them fixed.
TaZMAn
Especially the AGP 8X interface cards.
3 Ubuntu users I know have installed Hardy on their systems.
All of them have the GeForce 5200 FX video cards.
2 were unsuccessful with the install of the Nvidia driver and were stuck with 2 resolution options.
They were 800 x 600 and 640 x 480.
The final user installed the Nvidia driver and had full screen resolution and full access to Compiz.
So what were the differences that caused 2 failures and 1 success?
It was the way they installed the driver. The first 2 users installed the Nvidia driver like any user would. They downloaded it and installed it using the restricted driver manager.
The third user installed the driver using a program called Envy.
So why did the Nvidia driver fail to detect the proper resolution for the 5200 when installed via the restricted driver manager?
It's kind of hard to pinpoint but I have some thoughts after doing lot's of research.
The only real difference between all 3 systems is the monitor. I believe that if the monitor is of an older variety it doesn't have the ability to report back it's frequency or resolution settings to the x server and this causes the x server to default to the basic low resolution settings.
But why did Envy work?
Envy is a script written to download the driver (Either ATI or Nvidia) configure the driver based on a standard set of resolution settings then tells x server to use these resolution settings once the driver is installed.
So should you use Envy?
The jury's out on this one. I've read plenty of pro's and con's on using it.
I do know that if you do use Envy you will have to remove the driver you installed with Envy before upgrading Debian or Ubuntu to a newer release.
This however is not required anymore if you use the EnvyNG available for Hardy.
You will have to keep Envy installed if you want upgraded drivers. And even using Envy is not a 100% sure thing.
You can grab Envy through the repositories if you have Universe and Multiverse reositories enabled.
Or go here to their web site;
Envy
So are there any other options?
Yep!
Another way to install the Nvidia driver which seems to work most of the time is to go to Nvidia's web page, download the driver and install it yourself.
Installing the driver requires that you kill the x window (Your Desktop), navigate to the driver through a command line style of interface, run the Nvidia installer then restart the x window.
If you want the gory details on how to install the driver yourself you can get the directions from this Ubuntu forum post;
Install Nvidia Driver
You can try either method. I would suggest taking the long road and install it on you own but that is my choice. If Envy works for you then Great!
But if it doesn't, follow the directions on how to remove the installed drivers then reinstall them on your own.
What really bothers me about this whole driver fiasco is that Hardy is a LTS release.
It's supposed to make things easier for the novice and lure potential users away from Windowz and to the wonderful world of Linux.
But they dropped the ball big time. If anything, this problem will frustrate new users and drive them away.
Hardy should never have been released with this problem present. Damn the release schedule.
Make a solid release with no bugs or very few minor bugs and people won't care if it's a few weeks late.
These 6 month release schedules are a great marketing tool but in reality it's allowing more bugs to be running rampant and causing users many hours, days or weeks of grief!
I hope this post will help Hardy users with Nvidia driver issues get them fixed.
TaZMAn
Friday, April 11, 2008
Compile and Install from Source Code
So you found some neat software that isn't in the repositories or doesn't have a .deb package. (See my post on Security about .deb packages.)
The only option is to download the tar file and compile it and install it.
Although this sounds scary it's really not that hard to do.
Here is a step by step how to.
The simplest place to download the tar.gz file is on your desktop.
Let's say the file name is xyz.tar.gz
Note: The extension for the tar file can be one of the following;
.gz .tgz .bz .b2z
Now create a directory in your home folder where you will uncompress the files. (Mine is named “source”)
Open up your terminal and type this in;
cd Desktop
This will navigate you to your desktop where the tar file is located.
Uncompress your tarballs into the folder using the -c option as follows (and replacing “source” with the name of your directory):
If the file was compressed with gzip it will have the tar.gz or the .tgz extension and you need to use the following code.
If the file has the .tgz extension use this;
tar zxvf xyz.tgz -C ~/source
If the file has the .gz extension use this;
tar zxvf xyz.tar.gz -C ~/source
If the file was compressed with bzip it will have the .bz or the .b2z extension and you should use these commands;
For the .bz extension use this;
tar jxvf xyz.bz -C ~/source
For the .b2z extension use this;
tar jxvf xyz.tar.b2z -C ~/source
If you don’t know the compression method that has been used you can use the file command:
file nameoffile
Now type this into the terminal to change back to your home folder;
cd
Now change directories to your uncompressed files by typing this into the terminal;
cd source/xyz
It is also recommended you go to the directory in Nautilus and look for a “README” or “INSTALL” file, because the software might require you to do things in a specific manner. Normally you would compile the source code like this:
./configure
This will run a script to see whether or not all the dependencies are correct and your build environment are right. If you are missing dependencies the script should tell you the ones you are missing and what it needs.
When the configure script is finished (has completed correctly), run this:
make
Make will do the initial compiling of your software. To finish it of and install your software run:
sudo make install
If the compilation doesn’t succeed check the errors and run:
make clean
before you restart. To remove the software if you don’t need/ want/ like it simply run:
sudo make uninstall
You have now learned how to unpack, compile and install / uninstall a program from source code.
See! It was easy!
TaZMAn
The only option is to download the tar file and compile it and install it.
Although this sounds scary it's really not that hard to do.
Here is a step by step how to.
The simplest place to download the tar.gz file is on your desktop.
Let's say the file name is xyz.tar.gz
Note: The extension for the tar file can be one of the following;
.gz .tgz .bz .b2z
Now create a directory in your home folder where you will uncompress the files. (Mine is named “source”)
Open up your terminal and type this in;
cd Desktop
This will navigate you to your desktop where the tar file is located.
Uncompress your tarballs into the folder using the -c option as follows (and replacing “source” with the name of your directory):
If the file was compressed with gzip it will have the tar.gz or the .tgz extension and you need to use the following code.
If the file has the .tgz extension use this;
tar zxvf xyz.tgz -C ~/source
If the file has the .gz extension use this;
tar zxvf xyz.tar.gz -C ~/source
If the file was compressed with bzip it will have the .bz or the .b2z extension and you should use these commands;
For the .bz extension use this;
tar jxvf xyz.bz -C ~/source
For the .b2z extension use this;
tar jxvf xyz.tar.b2z -C ~/source
If you don’t know the compression method that has been used you can use the file command:
file nameoffile
Now type this into the terminal to change back to your home folder;
cd
Now change directories to your uncompressed files by typing this into the terminal;
cd source/xyz
It is also recommended you go to the directory in Nautilus and look for a “README” or “INSTALL” file, because the software might require you to do things in a specific manner. Normally you would compile the source code like this:
./configure
This will run a script to see whether or not all the dependencies are correct and your build environment are right. If you are missing dependencies the script should tell you the ones you are missing and what it needs.
When the configure script is finished (has completed correctly), run this:
make
Make will do the initial compiling of your software. To finish it of and install your software run:
sudo make install
If the compilation doesn’t succeed check the errors and run:
make clean
before you restart. To remove the software if you don’t need/ want/ like it simply run:
sudo make uninstall
You have now learned how to unpack, compile and install / uninstall a program from source code.
See! It was easy!
TaZMAn
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