Solve Graphic Driver Errors & Unity 3D Display Issues in Ubuntu 11.10 11:56 AM

Graphic card compatibility issues with Ubuntu are very annoyingly frequent during installation. I've been a sufferer of the same recently when my graphic card drivers crashed and Unity 3D failed to render correctly, Instead it reverted to Unity 2D version which pretty much sucks. Here are some insights into Unity panel issues w.r.t the non-availability or incompatibility of your graphic driver.

Test if unity is supported  :
Type in terminal

/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p 

You need to get an output saying Unity is Supported : Yes. If you don't, there are things that need to be answered which of course will be, in the below steps.

How do you know if Unity 3D is running :
In the terminal, type in

echo "$DESKTOP_SESSION"

If the output of the above command is Ubuntu, Unity 3D is enabled and running.
If the output of the above command is Ubuntu-2D, Unity is running in 2D mode.

PS: Make sure you are logged into Ubuntu and not into Ubuntu 2D. Verify this prior to login.


Test if Graphic card is detected :
In the unity dash, search for system Info. The System info will show you Processor, Memory, Graphics and other details. If the graphics details displayed is empty, it means that either the graphic card installed is not recognized or you might not have installed a graphic driver at all.

Moving On :
There are three ways of looking at any issue relating to graphic driver installation.

1) Install default binaries provided by Ubuntu (FGLRX drivers) (or)
2) Install Open source drivers to get the graphic card detected & running (or)
3) You either install the ATI binaries from the official ATI site.

You must stick to only one among the above three aproaches, out of which the Second option to install third party open source drivers is the best in my opinion. Here I've explained the first two approaches in detail.

Prior to taking any of the above approach, run this command to install dependencies :

sudo apt-get install build-essential cdbs fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++6 dkms libqtgui4 wget execstack libelfg0 dh-modaliases

1) Install FGLRX drivers provided by Ubuntu (I don't recommend)
To install the FGLRX drivers, search the Unity dash for Additional Drivers, Click on the appropriate FGLRX driver suggested and activate it.

2) Install Open source Graphic Drivers (Recommended)

The below command will remove all traces of Ubuntu's default fglrx drivers (if installed).

sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx fglrx_* fglrx-amdcccle* fglrx-dev*

Remove the existing xorg.conf 

sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Reinstall the xorg.conf

sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-core libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:amd64 libgl1-mesa-dri:amd64

Configure xorg

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Reboot the system

sudo reboot

The above series of commands are most important, necessary and typically are the installation steps involved in using open source Graphic drivers to detect your graphic card.

PS: These open source drivers worked spot on with my Dell system with an AMD Radeon™ HD 6470M - 1GB (For ICC) video card. And should hopefully do the job for you too :)

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Installing Tweetdeck on Ubuntu 11.04 7:41 AM

Now, I must gladly admit that I've fallen in love with Natty Narwhal. With Ubuntu, It has always been a love-hate relationship. I lost track of the number of times I've installed and uninstalled Ubuntu for the fact that it has always been a pain to cope with the messy linux commands to get things running. But with Natty Narwhal, things seem to be different. The unity launch pad is one unique thing about the Natty release, enabling ease of use to some extent for Linux illiterates like me. Trust me, you would be startled to know how easily I've installed Tweetdeck on Ubuntu 11.04 without the need to run any conventional $sudo apt-get install commands from the terminal.

Installing Adobe AIR

Unlike the former versions of Ubuntu you don't have to download the debian/rpm packages and run terminal commands to install AIR, Rather you will find this cute icon on the unity interface named 'Applications'. You can click on it and search for Adobe AIR in the search box, the 'Adobe Air' option would show up under the 'Available Apps To Download' column. And hereupon you will be redirected to the Ubuntu-Software-Center which is typically a simple GUI to help the user with the installation process.

PS: I wonder if the latest Adobe AIR for Linux is totally compatible with Ubuntu 11.04 64 bit version because I've found some glitches while trying to install AIR for a 64 bit version. That which I am not sure though. You might want to recheck the process if you are using a 64 bit version. Nevertheless it worked perfectly fine for the 32 bit version.


Installing Tweetdeck

After you are sure that AIR is installed correctly (cross check in the installed software menu items list within the Ubuntu Software Center), you can download Tweetdeck which typically comes in with an .air extension. All you need to do now is to try and open the tweetdeck.air installer with Adobe air. By default Ubuntu would open up the .air file as a package and show up the contents within it. To change this you can right click on the file and select properties, change the 'Opens with' option to Ubuntu-Software-Center. Now close the window and double click the tweetdeck.air file again which will now open up with the Ubuntu-Software-Center which will automatically open up the downloaded .air file with Adobe AIR and install it.

And that's it. You are done with installing Tweetdeck on your Ubuntu 11.04 without the need to touch upon the pain-in-the-ass sudo apt-get install commands from the terminal. :)

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