Upgrade to Gutsy or stay with Feisty???

[dkaddict]

I have a dilemma and need help to decide whether to upgrade my system from Feisty to Gutsy? I first installed Ubuntu on my notebook about 3 years ago and at the time I had a few obstacles with configuring my graphics. I have Via onboard graphics and have always used the Openchrome drivers. I recently found out that Via had actually released drivers that work for Ubuntu Feisty and Gutsy. So, I went and tried the Feisty driver but it failed because I have an upgraded kernel. I tried the Gutsy upgrade before but had problems with the graphics straight away so I decided to stick with Feisty because it all worked well, except for direct-rendering, which I can live without.

My questions are to anyone who has managed to get the Via driver working in Gutsy? And, is the proper Via driver now included with the Gutsy upgrade? If I upgrade to Gutsy, I will have a default kernel so the driver will at least install if it doesn't ship with the upgrade (I can't think why it can't be included if it isn't). I am not too keen on doing a clean Feisty install just to get compiz working.

It would be nice to give Gutsy a try so please let us know if I will be wasting my time and heading for a clean Feisty install after hours of messing around as that's what happened last time. For a 4 year old box, my notebook is running really well because I deleted Windows and have used Ubuntu since I bought it so it makes no sense buying a new one just so I can use a release after 7.04!

Cheers up front for any replies folks! I hope someone can give me something positive so I can have Gutsy! Surely Gutsy will work on my box?

[Partyboi2]

Another thing to consider is that feisty is nearly at the end of life. (sometime this month)

[tommcd]

This guy says the openchrome driver for Intrepid Ibex works well:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=844095&highlight=openchrome
Ubuntu has packages for Hardy and Intrepid:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?suite=default&section=all&arch=any&searchon=names&keywords=openchrome
Since Fiesty is nearing end of life, perhaps you could try Hardy since it is a LTS release, or just wait till Intrepid comes out at the end of the month.

[dkaddict]

Yeah thanks for the advice. I had no idea that Feisty was about to die??? I tried upgrading to Gutsy yesterday but my machine died half way through the upgrade so I ended up having to do a clean Feisty install. Lucky I had separate partitions or I would have been in trouble. Anyway, the Via driver that ships for Feisty installed in about 10 seconds and works fine. I had to alter the default screen resolution in my xorg.conf so it looks like the code I pasted below.


# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf(5) manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "freetype"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "dri"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
#Option "NoAccel"
BoardName "via"
VendorName "VIA Tech"
Driver "via"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-51
VertRefresh 43-60
ModeLine "848x480" 47.4 848 888 976 1104 480 481 484 505
ModeLine "1440x1050" 184.5 1440 1544 1704 1968 1050 1051 1054 1103
ModeLine "1280x768" 118.5 1280 1368 1504 1728 768 769 772 807
ModeLine "1440x1050" 160.0 1440 1536 1696 1952 1050 1051 1054 1096
ModeLine "1280x768" 103.0 1280 1360 1496 1712 768 769 772 802
ModeLine "1024x512" 53.3 1024 1072 1176 1328 512 513 516 535
ModeLine "856x480" 41.3 856 888 976 1096 480 481 484 502
ModeLine "848x480" 41.0 848 880 968 1088 480 481 484 502
ModeLine "720x576" 42.6 720 760 832 944 576 577 580 602
ModeLine "720x480" 34.9 720 752 824 928 480 481 484 502
ModeLine "1920x1080" 172.9 1920 2043 2249 2578 1080 1081 1084 1118
ModeLine "1440x1050" 126.2 1440 1536 1688 1936 1050 1051 1054 1087
ModeLine "1440x900" 106.47 1440 1520 1672 1904 900 901 904 932 -HSync +Vsync
ModeLine "1366x768" 85.86 1366 1440 1584 1800 768 769 772 795 -HSync +Vsync
ModeLine "1360x768" 85.50 1360 1392 1712 1744 768 783 791 807 +HSync +Vsync
ModeLine "1280x768" 80.1 1280 1344 1480 1680 768 769 772 795
ModeLine "1280x720" 74.6 1280 1341 1474 1688 720 721 724 746
ModeLine "1024x512" 41.3 1024 1056 1160 1296 512 513 516 531
ModeLine "856x480" 31.7 856 872 960 1064 480 481 484 497
ModeLine "848x480" 31.5 848 864 952 1056 480 481 484 497
ModeLine "800x480" 29.58 800 816 896 992 480 481 484 497
ModeLine "720x576" 32.7 720 744 816 912 576 577 580 597
ModeLine "720x480" 26.7 720 736 808 896 480 481 484 497
#Refresh Rate 60Hz
Identifier "MonitorGeneric Video Card"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic Video Card"
Monitor "MonitorGeneric Video Card"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1280x800"
Depth 1
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1024x768"
Depth 4
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1024x768"
Depth 8
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1024x768"
Depth 15
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1024x768"
Depth 16
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1280x800"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
Group 0
EndSection

The desktop effects work but not very well. I haven't tried using compiz yet as I haven't got a clue how it all works yet? If the desktop effects are anything to go on, I don't think I will use it? I have enabled compositing in metacity though because I would like to use the Avant Window Navigator app!

Thanks again for the advice. This driver seems to do the job as well as Openchrome so I will be downloading Gutsy and doing a fresh install this time. My notebook can't handle the upgrade process, getting too old.

dk

[Sef]

Another thing to consider is that feisty is nearly at the end of life. (sometime this month)


It ends Sunday 19 October 2008.


Thanks again for the advice. This driver seems to do the job as well as Openchrome so I will be downloading Gutsy and doing a fresh install this time. My notebook can't handle the upgrade process, getting too old.

Gutsy's support ends in 6 months.