Problems with my new computer

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barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
Hi there ... I've just received my nice new computer with the following spec:

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
AMD A4-3400 Dual Core APU (2.7GHz) & Radeon™ HD 6410D Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® F1A55-M LK R2.0: FM1 A-SERIES, SATA 3.0GB/s, Windows 8 Ready!
Memory (RAM)
2GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (1 x 2GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series Graphics
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

Unfortunately, I can't get it to boot into any version of Ubuntu later than 10.04. I actually want to use 13.04. I can boot Mint from Jan 2011 but not the latest version of Mint. I can't see any helpful messages but the freeze occurs when the live-CD gets to ythe point at which a cursor would appear and all I get is a black screen. Secure boot is turned off.

I'm really really stuck. Any thoughts?
 
B

barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
Thanks guys .... That worked. Haven't delved further yes and I'm going to bed. Will install and play in the morning. At least I know it's the graphics adaptor that's the problem. Really grateful to you for this.
 
Toxophilix

Toxophilix

Bright Spark
That's good news.

Btw, you may find, once you've installed the OS, that you have the same problem when you try to log in, and for the same reason. You can get around that by booting again with nomodeset, then once you are in update the graphics driver and reboot. Fwiw, the Cinnamon edition of Mint also has the option to load the Gnome 2 desktop, which got me out of a similar bind with Cinnamon failing to start up (ie, I logged into Gnome 2, updated the driver and could then use Cinnamon itself).
 
B

barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
I had great problems getting into the grub 2 screen - neither the shift nor the down arrow seem to work in Raring. I ended up hacking grub.cfg from a live-DVD and then altering /etc/default/grub to get into it. At least I am into it and can (hopefully) install the proper driver. Thanks again for your help. No doubt the drivers will be in a later build.
 
Toxophilix

Toxophilix

Bright Spark
barrydrake said:
No doubt the drivers will be in a later build.
Click to expand...
Either that or it could at least handle the case that you don't have the drivers better by putting you into a viable fallback session.

Hope that's the end of your issues.

Kind of tempted to download Raring now :p
 
B

barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
Raring is good - and very stable now. I've got graphics drivers that work and a system that boots OK. The grub changes are now in /etc/default/grub so it will keep working OK. Now I have problems with a lan driver. Various links take me to: http://linuxwireless.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/ where I can get source code for the module. I guess there have been some changes in GCC because I get the following errors and I can't find any more information. I'm happy to alter the source, but am so out of date with C that I don't know where to start. If all else fails, I suppose I could pop a PCI lan card in, but I really want to get the built in port working. Any ideas will be welcome.

Here are the error messages:
barry@raring:~$ cd compat-wireless
barry@raring:~/compat-wireless$ ./scripts/driver-select alx
Processing new driver-select request...
Backup exists: Makefile.bk
Backup exists: Makefile.bk
Backup exists: drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/Makefile.bk
Backup exists: drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/Makefile.bk
Backup exists: Makefile.bk
Backup exists: Makefile.bk
Backup exists: drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/Makefile.bk
barry@raring:~/compat-wireless$ make
make -C /lib/modules/3.8.0-4-generic/build M=/home/barry/compat-wireless modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.8.0-4-generic'
CC [M] /home/barry/compat-wireless/compat/main.o
CC [M] /home/barry/compat-wireless/compat/compat_atomic.o
LD [M] /home/barry/compat-wireless/compat/compat.o
CC [M] /home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.o
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c: In function ‘alx_hw_printk’:
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:124:3: error: implicit declaration of function ‘__netdev_printk’ [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c: At top level:
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:1955:22: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘alx_init_adapter_special’
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:2010:22: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘alx_init_adapter’
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:3472:22: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘alx_init’
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:3780:23: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘alx_remove’
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:3903:17: error: ‘alx_init’ undeclared here (not in a function)
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:3904:2: error: implicit declaration of function ‘__devexit_p’ [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:3904:29: error: ‘alx_remove’ undeclared here (not in a function)
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:135:12: warning: ‘alx_validate_mac_addr’ defined but not used [-Wunused-function]
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:210:12: warning: ‘alx_init_hw_callbacks’ defined but not used [-Wunused-function]
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:1698:12: warning: ‘alx_alloc_all_rtx_queue’ defined but not used [-Wunused-function]
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:1757:13: warning: ‘alx_free_all_rtx_queue’ defined but not used [-Wunused-function]
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:1773:12: warning: ‘alx_set_interrupt_param’ defined but not used [-Wunused-function]
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:1824:13: warning: ‘alx_reset_interrupt_param’ defined but not used [-Wunused-function]
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:1914:12: warning: ‘alx_set_interrupt_mode’ defined but not used [-Wunused-function]
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:1941:13: warning: ‘alx_reset_interrupt_mode’ defined but not used [-Wunused-function]
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:2125:12: warning: ‘alx_set_register_info_special’ defined but not used [-Wunused-function]
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:3043:13: warning: ‘alx_timer_routine’ defined but not used [-Wunused-function]
/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.c:3064:13: warning: ‘alx_task_routine’ defined but not used [-Wunused-function]
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make[4]: *** [/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx_main.o] Error 1
make[3]: *** [/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx] Error 2
make[2]: *** [/home/barry/compat-wireless/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros] Error 2
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/barry/compat-wireless] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.8.0-4-generic'
make: *** [modules] Error 2
 
B

barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
Got it up and running. The guys at the development group pointed me to recent work (three days ago), and told me: "You should remove all keywords of ''__devinit' from the previous backported driver." Little bit of work from the online notes, but the result compiles and loads as a new module. Obviously I have the altered code if anyone else wants an easy job of compiling and installing the module! Most grateful for all help received here. I gather by the time Raring is released, this card should be fully supported in the kernel.
 
B

barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
Have everything working well now. I have documented all the steps required at present in case I need to re-install. If anyone wants the LAN driver, I have the modified working version and will happily pass it on when requested. Here are the installation steps:
Installing Ubuntu on pcspecialist with Asus F1 A55-M LK R2.0 motherboard.

Use nomodeset parameter with live-DVD. Hold down-arrow or left shift during grub loader (straight after BIOS screen). Press F6 on grub screen to set.

LAN connector needs a special driver - use a WiFi dongle for a connection for now.

Install Ubuntu, then edit new /boot/grub/grub.cfg to add nomodeset. You may want to comment out "quiet splash"

After booting into the new installation, amend /etc/default/grub to the following:
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 #this line commented out.
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset quiet splash" #this line amended
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

Do 'sudo update-grub'. This should allow proper re-booting even after kernel updates.

Now get the 'additional drivers' utility. The 'software sources' ought to be able to load the proprietary driver but currently doesn't.

In the additional drivers utility, you should see a GRLX graphics driver. Install this.

Now build the LAN driver - currently code needs altering. Should shortly be OK. CD to the code directory - called something like 'compat-drivers' and do './scripts/driver-select alx' then do 'make' and if successful, 'sudo make install'. If successful, do sudo modprobe alx and the driver should work. It should still function after re-boot.
 
Toxophilix

Toxophilix

Bright Spark
Thanks for the info.

I installed it this evening in a VM and might put it on a physical machine tomorrow, so your discoveries could be very useful for me :)
 
B

barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
If you do, let me know if you find a better video driver than the pre-built ones found by the 'Additional Drivers' utility. One of them seems to work perfectly bu shows a rather annoying transparent message on the bottom right of the screen saying 'AMD Unsupported hardware'. I did get a beta from the AMD site, but it came in the form of a binary that was supposed to build and install a driver. I ended up breaking the system completely and after two hours trying to rescue the graphics using the commandline, I gave up and re-installed raring.
 
B

barrydrake

Silver Level Poster
Even more interesting - I have now added Quantal 12.10 as a dual boot. What are apparently the same drivers don't show the error message under quantal. I guess I just have to wait for the drivers to be updated. Incidentally the last Raring updates included a new kernel and I thought I would have to re-compile the LAN driver. I didn't! Maybe this LAN is supported in the latest daily build of Raring. I'll get it next week and see if the live-DVD finds the internet.
 
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