Ubuntu 12.04 Unity 2D Stuck Issue

[+longgonebn Subscriber²]

So I have started a thread over on the Ubuntu forums but it does not seem to be going anywhere. I thought I'd try and post here and see what happens.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2106308 is the thread.

Basically, twice now, I have rebooted and came into Unity 2D mode. The first time seemed like it could have been something I did, so I re-installed. Though this time I didn't do anything that could have caused this, and yet it still happened. No matter what I do, logging out and choosing something else, the only thing that works is Gnome Classic (no effects), and Unity 2D.

Please read the thread fully to get the conversation. There is a lot of info over there.

[Karl L.]

After reading your other thread, it definitely sounds like your problem is related to the proprietary AMD graphics drivers. fglrx has never worked well in my experience; I recommend that you try the open-source driver instead. (I realize that someone in the other thread pointed that out as well, but I'm not sure you configured it properly.) Try the instructions I posted here.

Edit: You may also want to read through this thread. It appears to be unrelated to your problem based on the first post, but it devolved into Mindovermaster and I discussing how to get his Radeon HD graphics card working in Ubuntu. I recommend that you read the whole thread, but pay special attention to this post in particular.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

I second his motion. Use the open source Radeon drivers. :) Worked better for my 5770 and 6870 than the fglrx drivers.

[+longgonebn Subscriber²]

Is different versions of Ubuntu that different?

I know awhile ago I was running Ubuntu 11.04 I believe on the exact same system, and never had issues. Now this keeps happening for no reason? Kinda crazy.

Will read through all that and post back.

**So I went through it, and it's hard to see what is relevant to me and whats not since it's not exactly related. Obviously it's video related, be it hardware or software. It makes sense it's software since I am pretty sure the last time I used Windows it ran all ok.

So ok, it's the new 13.1 AMD drivers that just give up after awhile. Why is Ubuntu 12.04 so much different (in that respect) then 11.04. Kinda annoying.

The main reason I installed the proprietary drivers is because since Steam came to Linux, I wanted to try and play some games, like Skyrim under Wine, and with the open source it's not possible.

Of course I don't really play that many games anymore, and care all that much, playing HD videos is what I mainly do. It's just kinda annoying.

So, how do I go about COMPLETELY removing all of the 13.1 drivers I installed, and putting back the opensource? Every time I have done this before, tried, I end up being stuck outside Ubuntu on a black screen or console mode.

[Growled Member]

I've always had better luck with the open source drivers myself.

[Karl L.]

So, how do I go about COMPLETELY removing all of the 13.1 drivers I installed, and putting back the opensource? Every time I have done this before, tried, I end up being stuck outside Ubuntu on a black screen or console mode.

The very first post I linked to has explicit instructions for how to do this.

Follow the instructions below to remove fglrx and revert to radeon.

# Remove the proprietary AMD graphics driver.
sudo apt-get purge $(dpkg --get-selections | awk '{if($1 ~ /fglrx/) print $1}')

# Backup and remove your X configuration file (if one exists).
[ -e /etc/X11/xorg.conf ] && sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.fglrx.0

# Install the necessary packages necessary to get full graphical acceleration.
# Some (or all) of these packages may already be installed.
sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental libgl1-mesa-glx linux-firmware-nonfree xserver-xorg-video-radeon

# Reboot to apply changes.
sudo reboot
[/CODE]

[size=4]Is different versions of Ubuntu that different?

I know awhile ago I was running Ubuntu 11.04 I believe on the exact same system, and never had issues. Now this keeps happening for no reason? Kinda crazy.[/size]

Newer versions of Ubuntu ship with newer versions of virtually every package on the system. Sometimes those newer versions add new features, sometimes they fix bugs, sometimes they depreciate or remove outdated functionality, and sometimes, unfortunately, they introduce new bugs. With regard to your graphics driver problem, the issue is most likely the result of Ubuntu 12.04 shipping with a newer version of X which the proprietary AMD graphics driver was not properly tested against.

[size=4]So ok, it's the new 13.1 AMD drivers that just give up after awhile. Why is Ubuntu 12.04 so much different (in that respect) then 11.04. Kinda annoying.[/size]

[size=4]The main reason I installed the proprietary drivers is because since Steam came to Linux, I wanted to try and play some games, like Skyrim under Wine, and with the open source it's not possi[font=Segoe UI, Segoe, Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif][color=#282828]ble.[/color][/font][/size]

[size=4][font=Segoe UI, Segoe, Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif][color=#282828]Of course I don't really play that many games anymore, and care all that much, playing HD videos is what I mainly do. It's just kinda annoying.[/color][/font][/size]

If you were getting poor framerates with the open-source [i]radeon[/i] driver, its most likely because you didn't have the proper firmware and/or MESA 3D libraries installed. Although the driver is open-source, it requires binary firmware to use some of the advanced features of the graphics card. Due to potential legal problems with its distribution, the firmware is not installed by default. The instructions I quoted above involve installing both of the aforementioned components.

[+longgonebn Subscriber²]

Thanks, I will give that a try.

I was just not sure if those instructions linked were general or to his setup.

[+longgonebn Subscriber²]

When I put in the first code this is what I got.

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  linux-headers-3.2.0-29 libgnutls-openssl27 linux-headers-3.2.0-29-generic
  libpython3.2 libc6-i386 lib32gcc1 libntlm0
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Is that normal?

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

That means they are already installed, bman.

[+longgonebn Subscriber²]

I am confused.

I want to remove the AMD 13.1 Drivers, to reinstall the open source ones.

Was that not suppose to remove everything, so I can do the next steps.?

[+longgonebn Subscriber²]

Just waiting on confirmation,

Should I continue and do the next steps, or do what it says and apt-get autoremove?

[cybertimber2008]

The packages that were left are ok to leave alone.

Linux-headers = Linux kernel source, etc. Nothing ATI was left, so continue on.

[+longgonebn Subscriber²]

Yes but at the end it says

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Shouldn't something have been removed, I was trying to remove the drivers...

[+longgonebn Subscriber²]

So I went ahead and did the rest of the steps anyway, and rebooted and nothing has changed.

So to me seemed like nothing was removed or changed from that command, I can even still see the AMD Control Center in my menu, so....?

[Karl L.]

Apparently nothing was removed because the proprietary AMD graphics drivers were not installed in the first place. If you followed the remainder of the steps and you are still stuck in Unity 2D, you must have another problem. At this point, the contents of your /var/log/Xorg.0.log would probably help more than anything else. (Also, running sudo apt-get autoremove is a safe operation. It will remove any packages that were installed as dependencies to packages which are no longer installed.)

[+longgonebn Subscriber²]

In the screenshot I provided, and is still showing the same thing now, AMD drivers are still installed...

[Karl L.]

Based on that screenshot, you don't have the proprietary Radeon HD graphics drivers installed, only the open-source one. That's exactly what you want. However, if you're still stuck in Unity 2D, that's obviously not your problem. If you post your /var/log/Xorg.0.log I might be able to help you more, otherwise I don't have enough information to help you troubleshoot your problem.

[+longgonebn Subscriber²]

That makes no sense.

Before the problem, 13.1 was installed and working. Plus the fact that the AMD Control Centre is still there.

Anyways, I have attached the log file.

Xorg.0.log.zip

[Karl L.]

Your Xorg log highlighted something odd: although APT indicates that the proprietary AMD graphics driver is not installed, it is in use on your system. Did you install the driver directly from the binary blob on AMD's website at any point?

Also, fglrx is falling back to 2D acceleration only. That's why you can't load anything but Unity 2D and GNOME Fallback. The relevant lines from your log are the following:

[    47.871] (II) Loading extension DRI2
[    47.871] (==) Matched fglrx as autoconfigured driver 0

[    47.871] (II) LoadModule: "fglrx"
[    47.871] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.so
[    47.885] (II) Module fglrx: vendor="FireGL - AMD Technologies Inc."
[    47.885]     compiled for 1.4.99.906, module version = 9.1.11
[    47.885]     Module class: X.Org Video Driver

[    47.903] (**) fglrx(0): NoAccel = NO
[    47.903] (**) fglrx(0): AMD 2D Acceleration Architecture enabled
[    47.903] (--) fglrx(0): Chipset: "ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series " (Chipset = 0x6899)
[/CODE]

For manual removal of [i]fglrx[/i], try the following:

[CODE]
sudo rm -rf /usr/src/fglrx*
sudo rm -rf /usr/src/modules/fglrx
[/CODE]

[+longgonebn Subscriber²]

Once I do those commands, then what? I installed it from there website, the .run file you download, thats how I installed them.

I'm sorry, still quite new to linux and all that. I don't want to be stuck outside Ubuntu again lol

[Karl L.]

After you get the driver uninstalled, you need to reboot.

Also, as a rule of thumb, NEVER install software outside of the repository! There are exceptions to this rule, of course, but you should have a very good reason for installing something directly. If you need newer versions of software or something that is not in the repository, use an Ubuntu PPA with the package. If there is none available, try to at least find a deb of the software. Ignoring the repository negates one of the biggest advantages of using Ubuntu.

[+longgonebn Subscriber²]

Wouldn't removing the fglrx mean I have no video drivers and then be stuck in console mode?

Do I not need to do that, then re-install something.

[Karl L.]

You won't be stuck in console mode because there is still a graphics driver, just not the proprietary driver. fglrx is the name of the proprietary graphics driver. radeon is the name of the open-source graphics driver. The proprietary driver is a module produced by AMD while the open-source driver is built into the Linux kernel. The only way you could break the open-source driver and force X to revert to the basic vesa driver would be if you removed all the radeon driver support packages. (Namely, libdrm-radeon1 radeontool xserver-xorg-video-radeon libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx) According to the Aptitude output you posted already, you have not done that, and I did not instruct you to do that before or since. So, your display should still come up.

[+longgonebn Subscriber²]

Alright, so I did those commands and rebooted, still stuck in 2D.

So I guess I am out of luck. My system just does not want to work.

Is the AMD control centre still suppose to be there? Also, when I click on it (admin) asks for password, I enter it and then nothing happens, doesn't open.

**

Let me ask you this, if I wipe the system again, and do a fresh install. If I leave the open-source drivers as they are, you don't think this will happen again, you think it is caused by the AMD drivers?

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Ubuntu doesn't load the open-source drivers, Radeon, by default. You NEED to install them manually.