ATI Catalyst for Ubuntu 12.10 - a successful story

If you have a shiny new notebook with ATI hybrid graphic and running Ubuntu 12.10, it is most likely you had trouble with proprietary ATI drivers and you given up and continued with integrated Intel video card while ATI card is still switched on, not used but ... heating your computer.

Not any more. Here is quick info how to install most recent proprietary drivers in no time and make your Ubuntu rolling more smoothly.
First, open terminal and start with next commands:

sudo apt-get remove --purge fgrlx*
(just in case you have tried the official drivers, provided in Ubuntu repos)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

these are not necessary, but recommended, next install all things needed for drivers to run on your machine:

sudo apt-get linux-headers-generic

optionally, for 64 bit systems, install also

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs lib32gcc1 libc6-i386

There is PPA for most recent ATI drivers, just add it to your repository list and install the drivers:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:andrikos
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates xserver-xorg-video-intel
sudo aticonfig --initial --force

Finally, reboot your system and enjoy
To check you are running ATI drivers after reboot, install mesa-utils:

sudo apt-get install mesa-utils
glxinfo | grep -i render

Thats all. This worked for me, let me know if not for you. And dont forget to check the ATI control center in your apps lens. In case you find your computer is too hot, switch temporary to integrated graphics and use discrete graphics card for games only.

EDIT: in case there is watermark showing "for testing use only", follow next link: 


http://askubuntu.com/questions/206558/how-to-remove-the-amd-testing-use-only-watermark-from-ubuntu-12-10

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PyQt4 or QtRuby - memory comparison

Well, this is another Python vs Ruby article, hope it is useful.
Today I have measured memory consumption of QtRuby against PyQt4. quite similar scripts were used in both tests and the results are here:

Python 3.3           - 11,040K  / 19,456K shared memory
Python 2.7.3        - 10,056K  / 19,008K shared memory
Ruby 1.9.3p327  -   9,380K  /  21,660K shared memory

The memory consumption is very similar too. Writing the code in QtRuby is more pleasant though.

and here are the sources:
Python:


import sys
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
from PyQt4.QtGui import *

if __name__ == "__main__":
  app = QApplication(sys.argv)
  widget = QWidget()

  widget.setWindowTitle("Hello QtPython xxxx")
  widget.resize(200,100)

  button = QPushButton("Quit")
  button.clicked.connect(QApplication.quit)

  label = QLabel("Hello Qt in the Python way!")

  layout = QVBoxLayout()
  layout.addWidget(button, 0, Qt.AlignCenter)

  layout.addWidget(label, 0, Qt.AlignCenter)

  widget.setLayout(layout)

  widget.show()
  sys.exit(app.exec_())

Ruby:



require 'Qt4'

Qt::Application.new(ARGV) do
    Qt::Widget.new do

        self.window_title = 'Hello QtRuby v1.0'
        resize(200, 100)

        button = Qt::PushButton.new('Quit') do
            connect(SIGNAL :clicked) { Qt::Application.instance.quit }
        end

        label = Qt::Label.new('<big>Hello Qt in the Ruby way!</big>')

        self.layout = Qt::VBoxLayout.new do
            add_widget(label, 0, Qt::AlignCenter)
            add_widget(button, 0, Qt::AlignRight)
        end

        show
    end

    exec
end

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Firefox 16 has security vulnerability, do not install

Firefox 16 appeared in Ubuntu 12.04 repos as an update two days before, and I installed it like usual. Now, Mozilla have withdrawn it because the security vulnerability. The bug allow the attacker to see your browsing history. For now, Firefox 15.0.1 is considered stable and bug free.

Ubuntu 12.04 users, who already installed Firefox 16 - like me, have to deinstall the buggy Firefox and install the stable (if you have it) or wait for an updated version

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Calligra Suite - a different office suite

Calligra Suite is an office suite, part of KDE community software.  It targets mainly Linux and FreeBSD, though some preliminary support for Mac OS X and Windows exists. I have heard about it long time ago and if I recall well, it is supposed to be descendant to the KOffice. I have tested KOffice before and I did'nt like it. Let me see if Calligra is better.

From their site: Calligra Suite  consists of "comprehensive set of 8 applications which satisfies the office, graphics and management needs". This include word processor, spreadsheet, presentation application, graphics applications for raster and vector graphics, project management and a visual database editor.

Installation of newly Calligra 2.5.2 in Ubuntu is quite easy - Calligra is available in Kubuntu backports for 12.04 and in main repos for 12.10. For Ubuntu 12.04 you have to add the repo

ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports and then install it:

(commands for konsole users)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

sudo apt-get install calligra

Calligra looks different with their big sidebars (panels). Panels just take too much place for a simple task like editing a letter. But if you take a look carefully, you'll see how much power Caligra has. The panels are full with options, buttons for various tasks etc.  Spreadsheet application has option to show function result over selected area in statusbar, but it has not quick button for summing selected area (row or column). Instead it shows the huge dialog with plenty of functions to select.

On top of that, when I tried Kexi - the database editor - it even showed me the MS Ribbon like interface - very strange.

Caligra is integrated office suite - you can insert spreadsheet in your text document. Or you can insert graphics, previously edited with some of graphics tools like Karbon or Krita, included in the suite. But wait.... when I double click to edit it, nothing happened. It looks like the integration level is too low - only tables are editable, graphics are not. I mean, you cannot open Krita editor in your text document to applly a change to your drawing.

Calligra also support wide range of document document formats. I'm pleased to know it can open Visio and MS Works and MS Office 2007/2010 OOXML documents. Lets hope the support is good enough.

Despite that, I found some annoying things. No, not bugs, but yes, the interface is quite unpolished. I need a zoom like one found in Gimp. But I can't find the zoom tool in many applications (it was in menu, but i can not bring it to toolbars).  In Krita when I scroll with mouse, the document zooms. When I unset that option in configuration screen, it still zoom the document with scroll button. Very odd.  The tool icon attached to the mouse pointer is also very ugly, like ones before 20 years or more.

Will I use Calligra ? Of course yes, from time to time - just to see if something has improved. It is not that familiar to me, nor polished, but yes, Calligra is quite ready for work, and if they'll fix the interface, Calligra might become a serious competitor to the LibreOffice, Gimp, Inkscape.

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How to permanently change screen resolution in Ubuntu

Today I tried Kubuntu & Ubuntu 12.10 beta2 in my Virtual Box. Then I went o the friend who has a Mac and I asked him to run Ubuntu on his Mac. Unfortunately he had'nt VirtualBox, but Parallels. When Ubuntu boots it shows that the wrong screen resolution (1920x1080) has been detected,
although the Mac is only 1280x800 (poor one :)

We tried several times to adjust the resolution when an idea came to me. It is too simple to adjust the resolution inside the Ubuntu. Just open terminal and type the next commands:

sudo -i
cd /etc/X11
touch xorg.conf
nano xorg.conf

then in the simple nano editor, write (or just paste) this:

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Monitor         "Configured Monitor"
        Device          "Configured Video Device"

        SubSection "Display"

          Modes "1280x800"

        EndSubSection
EndSection

then save the file using Ctrl+O, then quit Ctrl+x;
Voila - logout and login again and resolution is fixed forever;

Thanks for the great wiki here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution

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Kubuntu 12.10 beta2 is out

The Beta2 release of Kubuntu was released yesterday. The iso file is quite large - about 1GB, so you will not be able to burn it to blank CD, instead a blank DVD should be used.
My favorite way is to write it out to the USB flash dongle using simple command in konsole:

sudo dd if=kubuntu-12.10-beta2-desktop-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdc

where /dev/sdc is the device for my USB flash dongle.

The download location is here:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/quantal/beta-2/

The installer went smoothly in my Virtual Box, though I noticed the window corners are a bit roughly and unpolished. Hope they will fix them, despite they were the same in 12.04.1

After installation desktop run with compositing effects already enabled. BTW Kwin is the most adwanced and smooth window manager I ever seen.

What's new? The first, of course is new newest KDE 4.9. The second is the use of LightDM - not so bad looking. I personally like it more than old KDM, which is somewhat boring.

Next big and long awaited improvement is the ability to navigate with arrow keys after searching in start menu. This feature was missed in 12.04 and now, thanks to the devs and the god, is present in the new 12.10.

Kubuntu 12.10 also sports new Gtk Configuration center for better integration with Gtk application.

It looks a bit unfinished and IMO, it is not a big deal at all. The old one worked fine too.

There is also a ton of new application from the huge SC (KDE Software collection), and most notable is the inclusion of Caligra office suite and OwnCloud client for OwnCloud 4 for opensource file sync and share solution.

I haven't tested Caligra yet, but I'm going to take a look and I'll write soon a small review for it.


Another plus (not specific to Kubuntu only) is the adoption of GCC 4.7 which is promising for better performance - in about 10-15% faster. The kernel was updated too - currently at version 3.5.

Among other cool features and improvements, there is a bug which is not fixed yet. The bug is about KWin and Chromium Browser. When clicking on browser tabbar and the window was previously maximized, the KWin assumes this action as window move and demaximize the window. Very odd.

Thats all, while waiting for the final release lately in October, I'm still running my old Kubuntu 12.04.1 with updated KDE 4.9 as I described here.

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How to install GDM instead of LightDM in your Ubuntu

If you choose to try Gnome in your Ubuntu, or just find out LightDM is not your favorite, then you can change your login manager. Here is how:
in terminal type:
sudo apt-get install gdm

then type your password and wait for the software being installed.

After that, type
sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm

and choose GDM from menu
Thats all.
For the changes to take effect, restart your computer.

If you want your LightDM back, type
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

in console again.

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