Trials of Kubuntu 15.04

[imrazor]

I'm having a *lot* of trouble getting Kubuntu 15.04 to work smoothly. I'm posting here not looking for specific solutions, but rather trying to get a sense of whether others are having similar problems and to vent a little.

First off, let me explain my usage profile. I'm looking primarily for media consumption (music and videos mostly) and games. I'm not a developer, and have only a passing interest in programming. So why Linux? Firstly, audio quality. I'm not sure of the technical reasons why, but music sounds much better on Linux than Windows. The hardware can be absolutely identical, but if Linux has an audio driver for the sound card, the audio sounds leagues better than on Windows. Secondly, I'm a born tinkerer. Linux really scratches that itch. Finally, I admire the ideals of open source, even if I'm not religious about implementing it. If I were, I'd probably stick to the idealogically pure Debian, and forget about DRM'd games.

So why KDE? For me it's the most usable desktop environment of all the major desktops, KDE 5 is gorgeous, and I love the notification system and the strides that have been made in usability.

But I'm having no end of problems with graphics drivers. Open source and proprietary drivers both have issues, for both nVidia and AMD. Am I alone in this, or are other users having any problems with graphics drivers? Is this something peculiar to 15.04, or could I dodge this bullet by downgrading to 14.10? Ironically, the only hardware I've had no problems with is my ancient Radeon 5750. It runs the fglrx driver, sddm and Plasma 5 with nary a hiccup. Downgrading my graphics card is not a palatable option to get a smoothly functioning OS.

So in conclusion, is anyone else having issues or am I an outlier? Is it because Kubuntu 15.04 is being too "bleeding edge" by pushing KDE 5 Plasma? Should I just give up on the latest release and look to an older distro?

[vinnywright]

I keep 14.04-LTS as my main system(5 OS installs @hear) ,,,,but I do not have trouble with my GTX-860M Nvidia on 15.04 with the 346.59 driver installed from the standard repos.

what are the issues you are having ?

VINNY

[claydoh]

It is likely a little bit of everything. Graphics reliability sometimes is a crap shoot in Linux, and with 15.04, a new kernel, a new init system and a new desktop might gang up on someone.

It is difficult to gage how truly common a situation is, as someone who has minimal or no problems does not rant and rave go to support venues over it.

I have 15.04 exclusively on 3 machines, one PC with Nvidia graphics as a desktop/media center combo. No driver or graphical problems at all, and only the small issues, mostly (for me) very minor annoyances.I run Kodi and Steam just fine, though as it is a lower end card modern "heavy" games do not play well.

[imrazor]

I keep 14.04-LTS as my main system(5 OS installs @hear) ,,,,but I do not have trouble with my GTX-860M Nvidia on 15.04 with the 346.59 driver installed from the standard repos.

what are the issues you are having ?

VINNY

I've posted about them here: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...-NVidia-driver

and here: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...fglrx-and-sddm

One poster says my GTX 670 is a problem child that NVidia hasn't bothered to fix. No replies yet to the AMD problem.

[Teunis]

Yes I have serious problems with the nVidia Quadro 1000M in my Thinkpad W520.
This model used to be an example for good compatibility but that's since 15.04 pretty much out of the window.

I also have 14.10 installed and it suffers none of the video problems I find in 15.04.

The only way to have a half useable system is by using the nVidia 304 driver, anything newer will slow things down and refuse to run certain functions like global shortcuts.
Yet it (304) has problems with Flash.

If it weren't for the 14.* series I'd be quite frustrated.

[SteveRiley]

Teunis, have you tried the Xorg Edgers PPA with 15.04 on your W520?

[Teunis]

Steve, yes since a few weeks I'm running edgers and it hasn't made any difference.

After today's updates I gave the more recent nVidia drivers another try but no improvement.
As about a week ago I can get a very well behaving system after the install of the 352 driver and a hot reboot.
A cold reboot will a couple of minutes after log in cause all sorts of lock ups and slow downs.
Like a shutdown will take several minutes, selecting the network manager takes more than a minute to populate the windows etc.

So things are OK for say the first one or two minutes, I wonder in which log to hunt for clues.

[SteveRiley]

Stuff "works" for a while, and then starts breaking. Time to think about possible causes of degradation over time. First thing that comes to mind is a memory leak. See http://serverfault.com/questions/257...-to-detect-wha for a list of some tools to use.

[Teunis]

It looks like I found part of my problem.


After login to the desktop I always get a pop-up to unlock the SIM card, because I don't usually use the build in 3G system I would typically click the Cancel button (Dutch=Annuleer) without filling in the PIN code.
When I leave this little window opened there will be no problems with the computer's shut down or hot keys.

In the System Monitor it shows up as: kded5, Unlocking of SIM PIN required -- KDE daemon.
Shutting it down by clicking the X on the window frame works without adding problems.

It will originally show to use some 28K of memory but this will over time grow., like 66K after some 15 mins.

[SteveRiley]

It will originally show to use some 28K of memory but this will over time grow., like 66K after some 15 mins.

Classic memory leak!

[jlittle]

Classic memory leak!

A leak of 38 kiB isn't going to cause much trouble in itself; maybe it's a sign of a thread running away consuming graphics resources?

Regards, John Little

[SteveRiley]

That's plausible. Memory leaks are often symptoms of other, more troublesome, problems.

[Teunis]

Yet it seems this leak is not the main cause of my problems, as long as I leave this window open all is well.
The problems start when closing the window via the Cancel button, closing it via the X is usually OK.
I write 'usually' because I've tested it only so many times and see erratic behaviour like sometimes there is no growth of the memory footprint and sometimes clicking the X will cause a short term (<1min.) lock up followed by recovery...