14.04 is slower on brand new laptop than 5 year old laptop

[otisklt]

While the ubuntu documentation is not that old... you should consider using the AMD instructions: http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-arti...ler-Notes.aspx

And for by distro instructions this wiki is pretty good: http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Categoryistributions

[millusions]

ok. so go back to square one

1. sudo apt-get install fglrx

2. after installation run aticonfig --initial (something i didnt mention before because i've never had to do this in kubuntu)

3. reboot

4. if still black screen go to Ctrl-alt F1 , run lsmod | grep fglrx = this should show module loaded

5. if 4 is ok. then it's an X config issue, hopefully aticonfig --initial sorted it out

[vinnywright]

I think you could try booting into recovery mode and then chose the fail safe graphics option to get you into a GUI and then fix your driver problem.

or wile looking at the grub boot screen and with your normal boot line highlighted press e to edit it ,,,,,,,,use the arow keys to get the curser to the end of the "kernel" line and right after quiet splash add vga=vesa nomodset ,,,,,,then press ctrl+x to boot it .

VINNY

[Snowhog]

When you are at your black screen, does Ctrl+Alt+F1 take you to a tty for logging in?

[Stosskraft]

I ve read Snoghog's suggestion but it seems a bit complicated for a casual user as myself. I am worried I am going to make it worse trying some of those suggestions.

[millusions]

not sure...

hmmm.. mainly concerned now to get it back to working condition.. intially


the link Snowhog posted is a great read...

basically, it's not a straight forward install by the looks of it, have to wiggle it a bit.....

is there a /etc/X11/xorg.conf ?

normally after installing fglrx you can see it loaded with:

lsmod |grep fglrx


have a read of Snowhog's suggestion, it's the best bet

[Stosskraft]

It seemed to compile fine, just when I rebooted the screen was blank. Any idea how to trace what happned?

[Snowhog]

Please review BinaryDriverHowto/AMD

[millusions]

really? did it compile succesfully?


press ALT-CTRL F1

sudo apt-get purge fglrx

to reverse last step....

[Stosskraft]

I did that terminal command and rebootex. The kubuntu logo comes up really big then nothinh... just a black sceen no desktop

Pressed esc during the boot and some red fails came up but it disappearex tok quickly for me to note them down.

Now i am staringat a blank screen and using my phone to write this.

[millusions]

should be fine with;

sudo apt-get install fglrx


i try to avoid driver manager with ati cards, found apt does a better job and more informative output

[Stosskraft]

This is my card:

P-Pavilion-17-Notebook-PC:~$ lspci | grep VGA
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Richland [Radeon HD 8610G]

[millusions]

having had a quick look at dmesg, you have a discreet Ati card in the laptop? is that right?

to install the proprietary Ati driver drop to konsole

sudo apt-get install fglrx

to install it,
at the end of that it will compile the fglrx module for your kernel, just confirm that it says something like
fglrx modules successfully compiled etc.

reboot,

that could possibly fix your problem

[Stosskraft]

Hey guys thank you for the input. I am not exactly sure what is slowing down the system, I have turned down most of the effects. I am just comparing it to my 5 year old laptop that I replaced with this new (much more powerful one).

Under the driver Manager it is showing 3 options:
1. Using driver for AMD graphics accelerator for fglrx
2. Using driver for AMD graphics accelerator for fglrx-updates
3. Using X.Org X server -- AMD/ATI display driver wrapper from Xserver-xorg-video-ati (recommended driver)

There are no errors on boot up.

For example just writing this answer, I had firefox open on one desktop and the driver manager open the other. To switch between the 2 virtual desktops lagged the system quite a bit and it froze for a second. Doesnt seem right with a quad core, 16g RAM brand new laptop.

Ideas for a non-techie?

[millusions]

i would bet one of my fingers that it's not AMD, not literally, and i dont think any distro is better or worse with AMD.

as suggsted before, examine dmesg and try to figure out what it means, at least some of it, so you can see if anything is wrong. (i had a quick look, couldnt see anything screaming with errors)

how/what video driver?

and it locks up?


one other thing, when it's booting and showing the kubuntu logo, press escape and see if there are any red [failed] during boot