First time Lubuntu user!

[Yuvanesh]

Hey all,

This is my first installation of lubuntu, decided to build my own pc(first time too). After some time researching decided to go with lubuntu. Hoping you guys will be kind enough to help me .

system specs

amd a6-5400k cpu
gigabyte f2a75m-d3h
4gb ram
120gb ssd(primary)
3TB HDD(storage & media)1) After doing a clean install, the first problem i had was the graphics. Open source drivers caused tearing and lag, so i switched to proprietary drivers. There is still some minor lag when i drag a window around the screen. Is there any solution, or is this normal?

2) When i click on "sytem profiler & benchmark" 2 grey windows open and i have to close the smaller window 3 times before i can see system profile. Also the benchmark doesn't work? Picture attached.

3) I installed lm-sensors, but my temperature is shown incorrectly. I tried uninstalling/reinstalling but still the same.

it8728-isa-0228Adapter: ISA adapter
in0: +1.44 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +3.06 V)
in1: +1.49 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +3.06 V)
in2: +2.02 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +3.06 V)
in3: +1.99 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +3.06 V)
in4: +2.05 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +3.06 V)
in5: +2.22 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +3.06 V)
in6: +2.22 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +3.06 V)
3VSB: +3.34 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +6.12 V)
Vbat: +3.07 V
fan1: 1161 RPM (min = 0 RPM)
fan2: 362 RPM (min = 10 RPM)
fan3: 1138 RPM (min = 10 RPM)
fan4: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM)
fan5: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM)
temp1: +23.0°C (low = +127.0°C, high = +127.0°C) sensor = thermistor
temp2: -8.0°C (low = +127.0°C, high = +127.0°C) sensor = thermistor
temp3: +19.0°C (low = +0.0°C, high = +70.0°C) sensor = Intel PECI
intrusion0: ALARM


k10temp-pci-00c3
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1: +5.1°C (high = +70.0°C)
(crit = +80.0°C, hyst = +79.0°C)

4) how do i uninstall the default games , sudo apt-get remove "game name" ?

Any additional advice or recommendations would be much appreciated. I am really excited to be using linux, and i hope that in time i can minimize my usage of windows . Thank you for your time in advance.

regards
nesh

[nerdtron]

Why Lubuntu on that powerful machine? Xubuntu or KDE or any desktop environment would run fast on that machine.

4. Does Lubuntu have synaptic or Ubuntu Software center installed? If so, you just search the game in question and you'll see if it is installed or not. You can click uninstall if you no longer want it.

[Yuvanesh]

Great question, my initial plan was to install ubuntu as my main os, lubuntu and other linux os to try and learn more about the the linux world. I first tried ubuntu, but regardless of which drivers i used, open source of fglrx i had very bad screen tearing and lag. Secondly i wanted something lighter because i plan to run this pc 24/7 as pseudo Nas and for XBMC, and other server based applications. Anyway i quite prefer lubuntu , i find the unity desktop environment overwhelming. Too many features that i do not need for this pc.

[vasa1]

...
4) how do i uninstall the default games , sudo apt-get remove "game name" ?
...

sudo apt-get purge ace-of-penguins worked for me. You may see a warning that "lubuntu-desktop" will be removed as well. According to http://www.mail-archive.com/lubuntu-.../msg03490.html, that shouldn't be a problem: lubuntu-desktop is a metapackage and not your actual desktop.

Sorry, can't help about the others!

[Yuvanesh]

Thanks vasa1, i did that and it worked great for me

[DuckHook]

Hi Yuvanesh and welcome to Lubuntu and the forums!

Good to see another explorer discovering this great OS.

Although you have graciously posted some of your system info (good instincts!), please also post the graphics info for those of us unfamiliar with your motherboard. An easy way to do this is to post results of:

lspci -vk | grep -iA10 vga

To answer your questions in the order asked:

1. This depends on your video subsystem, your amount of VRAM, your colour depth/resolution, the effects (esp 3D) that you have turned on and facts about your driver (like the version). Example: even a new video chip with decent VRAM will not perform optimally with a driver that is too old or not optimized for that chip. Also, lots of active desktop/windows effects will slow everything down (which is what most people complain about with Unity), but since you are running Lubuntu--I assume using its default config--this is unlikely to be the problem. Impossible to tell in your case without more info.

2. I've never used this app so can't help much here. Will look into it further. It looks interesting. But please don't hold your breath as it will be a case of the blind leading the blind.

3. lm-sensors will sometimes return loopy readings for some sensors, though I've never seen readings quite as wonky as yours. Coretemp readings seem to be missing, but that may only be available on Intel CPUs. I don't know anything about AMD. Perhaps an AMD user could help here. At any rate, it appears that you only have motherboard info being reported, with temp1 to temp3 as likely various regions of the MB, and some of these clearly out to lunch (i.e. -8°C, and even 19°C). I wouldn't worry about this, as I have had a CPUTIN reading of 117°C for months, which initially panicked me, until it became clear that it was flaky data (any temp really that high would have burned out the MB in weeks if not days). A bigger mystery is your second group of readings which I am wildly guessing to be your video adapter. Again, a 5.1°C temp is just flaky data, since no component could be running that low unless you are cooling your system with liquid nitrogen.

While my own knowledge of lm-sensors is severely limited, here is what I do know: lm-sensors searches for chips that report raw sensor data about the system. In raw form, this data is often quirky and must be processed by lm-sensors before it generates sensible numbers. Some raw data may be multiples of their real value. Other data may need to be offset by a certain integer value to return a proper result. lm-sensors is aware of the foibles in most sensor chips and will process the raw data properly using its default configuration, which can be found in /etc/sensors.conf or /etc/sensors3.conf. However some CPU/MB combos require a custom config file which can be placed in the /etc/sensors.d directory. Some of these custom config files have been pregenerated by other users and kindly contributed to the community at this site. Unfortunately, I could not find any config file for my MB, and a quick look shows that your MB is not represented either. I suppose that a hardware guru could decipher what values are being returned for your MB and generate a custom config file, but that task is far beyond my abilities.

I don't know of any alternate sensor apps, but others may.

4. Others have given good answers as to how to purge unwanted apps, so no further comments from me.

[Yuvanesh]

Thanks for the in-depth explanation duckhook! Below is the graphics info

00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Trinity [Radeon HD 7540D] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Trinity [Radeon HD 7540D]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 51
Memory at c0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
I/O ports at f000 [size=256]
Memory at feb00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: fglrx_pci


00:01.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Trinity HDMI Audio Controller
--
Flags: bus master, VGA palette snoop, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=64
Memory behind bridge: fea00000-feafffff


00:14.5 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] FCH USB OHCI Controller (rev 11) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device 5004
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 18
Memory at feb4c000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd


00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 0

I read a post on another part of the forum, just as you said, some changes have to be made to lm-sensors to get it working on certain systems. Unfortunately still new to this! Not too urgent though, since this was a new build i wanted to monitor temperatures as i use applications. Thanks again , for some reason people using linux seem to be more cheerful then *cough cough* folks.

[Bucky Ball]

I don't see that you've mentioned which release you are using, unless I've missed it. Which one? 12.04, 13.04? Not 13.10 by any chance?

[Yuvanesh]

Sorry, lubuntu 13.04
*I see that you live in AU

[DuckHook]

You don't actually have a dedicated graphics card. The 7540D is a graphics subsystem integrated into your CPU without dedicated VRAM. This makes it a rather underpowered graphics performer and is likely the cause of your lagging when you drag windows around on your desktop. Downloading, compiling and installing the latest graphics driver from AMD might squeeze out a smidgeon more performance, but unless you know how to recover, the process is fraught with pitfalls and can hose your display. It's probably not worth the risk for the relatively limited reward. I suspect that the graphics performance you currently have is about the maximum performance you are likely to get.

If you like, a relatively trouble free way to try optimizing settings is through AMD's Catalyst control centre. It should already be installed on your system when you installed the proprietary driver. If not, then:

sudo apt-get install fglrx-amdcccle

You must open the administrator version of Catalyst on your menu. Or you can:

gksudo amdcccle

It is very important to use gksudo and not just sudo for all graphics programs. Navigate to "3D>More Settings" and set the performance bar closer to "performance" rather than "quality". You will have to experiment to see what setting gives you the best compromise between acceptable performance vs quality. Next, navigate to "Display Options>Tear Free" and enable Tear Free Desktop to see if this helps your lag/tearing issues. If no noticeable difference, then it is best to disable it. I'm afraid that your graphics system is too underpowered for GPU-intensive tasks like 3D gaming, but it should handle videos and 2D stuff tolerably well. NAS should be fine as will be most server functions. XBMC will depend on whether you are running as client or server. You may wish to invest in a dedicated graphics card if you find your current setup too limiting.

To get snapshot of current GPU clock rate, load and temperature, try:

aticonfig --odgc --odgt

or for ongoing updates, do:

watch aticonfig --odgc --odgt

These commands may not return any results for an integrated chip, so don't be surprised if they don't work for you. If they do, then at least you have a temp reading without lm-sensors.

...people using linux seem to be more cheerful...

This is the case on this forum for sure, but then, it's a help forum and tends to attract a certain type of responder. Glad you are enjoying your ride so far.