Tuesday, 15 May 2007

Is Ubuntu not for ati mobility beings???

I decided to test the Desktop LiveCd of the most popular linux distribution (according with Distrowatch.com) http://distrowatch.com/

Yes... I tested the Ubuntu Live Cd of the versions 6 (Dapper Drake) and 7.04 (Feisty Fawn).

According to its site (http://www.ubuntu.com/products/WhatIsUbuntu) ubuntu is a linux for human beings and a "linux-based operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers"...The graphical installer enables you to get up and running quickly and easily...

So I expected to insert the cd, boot from it and just use it.

But as usual I found some problems with these "easy to use" distributions.

My equipment is a Notebook Presario 1500US with a Pentium 4 2.4GHz and an Ati mobility Radeon 7500 32MB a 4-year-old equipment.

I was able to boot and use version 6 (Dapper Drake) but the screen was a little moved up and when I tried to change the resolutions/refresh rate I saw something very strange :

Resolution : 1280x1024
Refresh Rate : -19569 Hz


What??? A 19569 negative Hertz??? what!? My notebook is displaying characters more faster than the speed of light?? or I'm traveling in Warp 10??? One second for the laptop is -1 seconds to me...

I would like to show my notebook to Heinrich Rudolf Hertz but unfortunately that is impossible... roughly 1 Hertz can be defined as 1 cycle per second. So what is a negative hertz? are they the cycles that don't happen in a second? or maybe because the time scale for the notebook is different than mine...

Am I reaching the time dilatation of the Einstein Theory? For Einstein it was the relative motion which caused both observers to see the other's clocks as having slowed down.I'm sitting in a chair It has a small wheel and I admit that sometimes I use it to move in the room, but reaching the speed of light with these small wheels???

In a fast movement I shutdown the X server because I was afraid that I couldn't return to my time (year 2007 BC).

So I inserted the Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Desktop live Cd and I chose the "Start or install Ubuntu" option.These time the screen went worse, I only saw a garbled display.

Here is the image :


I reset and choose the "Start Ubuntu in safe graphics mode" and I got this funny output :
Later I boot again and pressed "F4" and chose a different resolution... I always got the same garbled display.Later still I used the crtl-alt-f2 and ran the "sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" command. Unfortunately I tested a few configurations without success.
(update : I finally made it work. Here is the guide :
)
Really I don't want to download another cd (the alternate cd that has a console installation) burn it, test it and spend four or five hours trying to get the ATI driver to work, because this is "an Easy to setup distribution" if I have to spend four or five hours trying to install a so called "Easy to install distribution" then that make not sense to me.

I can install a new slackware in less time (A so called difficult to install distribution).

So. Is ubuntu not for ati mobility beings??? or maybe I'm not a human being.

Anyway, now I could boot the Dapper Drake with a -19569 Hz frequency and I'm reaching the limits of the reality and the universe...

I'm travelling at the speed of light!!! join me, don't be afraid : "No one can face the infinity without feeling vertigo"

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