12.10 + CCC13.1 + Two Radeon Cards = Bad Day

[BigBubbaX]

Oph, here we go -_-

So, this week started with me 'upgrading' to Windows 8
It took about two days for me to realize that it was complete crap, and gave me a sick pit in my stomach whenever I tried to use the clunky interface and totally jacked default 'apps'.

So, I'm a college student, I only really use Windows to run Linux VMs anyway, why keep wasting money? It's time to make the jump and use LINUX to run my Linux VMs

Today I downloaded 12.10 (x64) from the Ubuntu website, shutdown Windows 8 for the last time, and installed over the entire hdd.

Went well, came out smiling, but only one of my two screens was recognized. I kinda expected this, because I have two Radeon cards in my computer, one 6950 (which only has support for one VGA screen off of DVI) and one 5500 (to run my other VGA screen).

So, I go to CCCHTML.com and follow the directions for the Quantal Install (that's what 12.10 is, right?)

Once catalyst 13.1 (fgirx) was installed, my second screen remained blank until I ran:

sudo amdconfig --initial -f --adapter=all

At which point it turned grey (after restart).

(here I installed the awesome WM, because I wanna play around until I find a WM that I like for a dual screen desktop, sorry Unity)

Then I had the bright idea to turn on xinerama in CCC, and poof! I had a second screen!
Kinda. Unity's now broken, and once I log in, none of the task bars display, and I can't do anything but ctrl-alt-del to log out or ctrl-alt-t to open a terminal.

Eventually I lucked upon the amdconfig line to turn off xinerama from bash, and am now back at one (kinda glitchy) screen and one grey screen.

I suppose I did something obviously dumb, like install a new AMD driver (almost always stupid, idk why AMD releases them) or whatnot. Drivers in Linux is totally new to me, to my chagrin (think VMs) and I'm at a loss...

I'd appreciate any input or advice, thanks!

[BigBubbaX]

Okay, if I have the time today, I'm going to go ahead and wipe the disk and reinstall Ubuntu again, and then wait for directions from someone.

I really don't want to chicken out and install Windows 7, but I need this computer for class x.x

Extra information, if it's helpful:
Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 rev1.1 | AMD 8150 4.2GHz | Antec Kuhler-h2o-620 | 16Gb Corsair Vengeance - 1333MHz | Corsair HX850W PSU
Sapphire Radeon 6950 | Radeon HD 5500 Series | SeaGate Momentus XT 500GB (main) | SeaGate Barracuda 1TB (storage) | F9 BIOS

[Yellow Pasque]

Why not install both Windows7 and Ubuntu? Then you can use Windows7 immediately and work on this issue in your spare time.

Divide up the 500GB drive between Windows and Ubuntu, and use an NTFS partition on the 1GB drive for data that you want to share (music/media) between both OS's.

It's handy to have two OS's, and as long as you have a valid Windows license and enough disk space, there's no harm in running Windows (and no, most Linux enthusiasts won't care that you have a Windows install even if you are worried about that kind of egotistical bullcrap).

[BigBubbaX]

Truecrypt does not support multi-booting between OSes, unfortunately it's a must for me.
Additionally, although I know I've purchased a license to Win7, I don't have a boot DVD at college with me, and I'm generally sick of the entire Windows OS.

Update since this morning:
-Reinstalled Ubuntu. Check.
-Updated (200 some odd things). Check.
-Reboot. Check.
-Blank orange screen on startup. Crap.
-I can 'log in' by typing my password at the blank screen and hitting enter. Then the screen dims to black, and re-loads to a brighter orange.
-shutdown the computer (manually)
-Take out the nicer 6950 card and put the ancient 5500 one in the 1st PCIe slot.
-attach both monitors to the 5500.
-Golden, everything works now, except I don't have access to my decent graphics card...

My laptop is working, so I'm off the pressure for writing papers and such, but I still would like Ubuntu on this desktop, and would really like Ubuntu and both of my gpus...

Thanks for the suggestion though!