xakepp35's questions

Tried to "upgrade" ubuntu 20.04->22.04, by doing clean install

In partition manager I've killed old / partition (omit that, imagine i wanted dual boot) created new / partition and checked format then i've picked partition which holded old /home selected use ext4 and mount point /home

didnt checked box to format it, to preserve old user data

after reinstall all the data gone - in home there is only new user so basically new installation killed old user home directory, despite it was separate from binaries partition, so old system (if i needed to keep it) wont work well, and i cannot rescue my data!

where are old folders from /home partitions? why its empty, why that happened?

basically i want to setup thing with shared /boot and /home to share userdata and have single bootloader, and have multiple distros(binaries versions) - each one on its own partition.. how to achieve that? what should be my step before adding new Ubuntu version X to PC?

current layour is as follows (know that i need to add /boot):

nvme0n1
│                                                                           
├─nvme0n1p1
│    vfat   FAT32       71EE-5F88                             473,1M     7% /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2
│    ext4   1.0         48f549cb-ecfb-42fa-8ba9-9f4661f06240   28,4G    18% /
├─nvme0n1p3
│                                                                           
├─nvme0n1p4
│    ntfs         System
│                       A2BA28A0BA2872C9                                    
└─nvme0n1p5
     ext4   1.0   shome 6d8dc655-4309-4caa-95a7-56cf2a3b7e30  118,4G     0% /home

I need help. I am on ubuntu 20.04.3 lts, and I have installed amdgpu-pro driver to have opencl support as well. But then after upgrade os offered me to do apt autoremove. I did that and it seems that it removed kernel modules. So after i reboot it will be a big problem.. I did this in the past, had to reinstall os.. now i just forget and accidentally did that again. What to do? Why updater breaks my system?! How to fix it? Why this all is so poorly organized!?? - if its being able to detect that it is active on kurrent kernel.. how it could remove my video driver?

I still not rebooted, how can i fix that? from now on i will not be able to boot any newly generated kernel versions (graphics will flicker and freeze, only older one)

~$ uname -a
Linux apc 5.11.0-41-generic #45~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Nov 10 10:20:10 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
~$ sudo apt autoremove
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  linux-headers-5.11.0-38-generic linux-hwe-5.11-headers-5.11.0-38
  linux-image-5.11.0-38-generic linux-modules-5.11.0-38-generic
  linux-modules-extra-5.11.0-38-generic
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 5 to remove and 12 not upgraded.
After this operation, 403 MB disk space will be freed.
Removing linux-headers-5.11.0-38-generic (5.11.0-38.42~20.04.1) ...
Removing linux-hwe-5.11-headers-5.11.0-38 (5.11.0-38.42~20.04.1) ...
Removing linux-modules-extra-5.11.0-38-generic (5.11.0-38.42~20.04.1) ...
Removing linux-image-5.11.0-38-generic (5.11.0-38.42~20.04.1) ...
/etc/kernel/prerm.d/dkms:
dkms: removing: amdgpu 5.11.19.98-1290604 (5.11.0-38-generic) (x86_64)

-------- Uninstall Beginning --------
Module:  amdgpu
Version: 5.11.19.98-1290604
Kernel:  5.11.0-38-generic (x86_64)
-------------------------------------

Status: Before uninstall, this module version was ACTIVE on this kernel.

amdgpu.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/5.11.0-38-generic/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.


amdttm.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/5.11.0-38-generic/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.


amdkcl.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/5.11.0-38-generic/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.


amd-sched.ko:
 - Uninstallation
 - Deleting from: /lib/modules/5.11.0-38-generic/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
 - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
 - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.

I have ubuntu 20.04.3. What i want is basically small graphical icons and then some sensors values, like cpu and ram usage percentage, cpu and gpu temp, network up/down speeds

What I've tried

• sudo apt install sensors-applet top panel is not right clickable, cannot find a way to do "Add to panel" stuff (probably its for older versions, and newer graphical ui was just broken by bad developers and lacks this feature. Program is also missing in all Applications, no observable way to launch this stuff.
• sudo apt install psensor Is displaying only one icon. Cannot get it to display multiple things in notification bar. Also lacks memory usage percentage and network bandwidth display possibility.
• sudo apt install indicator-multiload can display only unclear graphs or single line of text, which flickers when you have cpu usage 0% then 10% all text after is going back and forth, renders that very bad. Also cant get temperatures.

So many time passed, there should be a modern indicator, its so common task, right? What would you use if you need several icons and sensor values in top panel in regular ubuntu?

Problem: VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED

I have ubuntu 18.04, and I've downloaded and compiled example program, that draws triangle. It does not work, because cannot initialize vulkan context.

For install I've used apt install build-essential libglfw3-dev libvulkan-dev vulkan-utils

vulkaninfo is writing same thing.

Someone said, that I need to blacklist radeon and install amdgpu. It ruined the OS in a mindblowing way:

• I've downloaded, installed ./amdgpu-pro-install -pro -no-32,
• After reboot I got console only. I dont want to use console mode OS for debugging graphics APP! So
• Did rollback: amdgpu-pro-uninstall and reboot again
• After reboot fullscreen refreshes now taking like 5 seconds, I virtually see scanline, and mouse is jerky. OS is still usable, but very unpleasant, unresponsive feeling!

I did that on windows. It involves 4 pretty standart stps, thay you can do in a single, pretty standart way:

• Install win
• Install amd driver (only one driver, from official site, latest version)
• Install vulkan sdk and glfw
• Install free visual studio community, create project, add downloaded source code, press RUN

In result - You WILL SEE TRIANGLE, running at MAX FPS, that your GPU can afford. It is very simple, and with low entry level. Portable across any gpu, that claims to support vulkan. You focus on coding, but not on tweaking poorly designed OS graphics stack!

Now I need to do same in Ubuntu. What steps should I take?

To answer my question - please, try this yourslef first, it's easy. Please, press your [Win] key on Ubuntu (I have 18.04 LTS), and see what happens. (FX would happens, and 7/10 times mine PC would hang, due to HW failure). Then you(if you were me with faulty GPU, or CPU) may think - how can you disable animated effects and transparency (which puts extra load and some day could hang your GPU/CPU/.. whatever it could - too! Because it just shows that it could hang up currently (on my old machine), and I dont manage to examine/replace old HW. It may work, but because of FX it could not!!!

So this thing is LIKELY(not always, but 7 of 10 times) hangs PC up. And I am looking forr solution to disable it, while I can still use the menu.

What does happens when this menu pops up? And how to uncode these FX effects back to simplicity and low power consumption (Effects like transparency/animations and other heavy CPU-GPU rendering interaction, and whatever they coded, but not actually needed for most desktop PCs)?

These effects would hang PC when I am trying to switch language but mistyped and pressed just Win key on the keyboars, so that menu poops up and hangs the PC. Also when I am in need to find newly installed app - this is a trouble! (approximately 7 reboots until I am able to send shortcut or add it to Favs)

PS (Emotional!)

I have pretty old hardware like i7 920 plus R9 390, and some circuits has broken inside old hardware. All works fine, except something. This can be reproduced like pressing win key, when this fancy transparent shit pops up and pulls in installed app icons. This shit would happen when you're trying to press Win+Space combo but somehow human-fail to press simultaneously (often hunam-case)

Sorry for this "bad" word, but it is related to my oppinion that PC may easily dwarf up beautiful interface, yet remaining productive, not wasting cycles for transitions and so on. So I am protagonist of CPU/GPU-heavy effects (FORCED BY OS! are you win or osx!?), like when it comes to push smooth scroll and so on. Ima like crying "HEY you re doing it to every End-User PC!!! Stop spreading cancer! Let user initially select between productivity and beauty of GFX..." But that's probably installer's question, not mine.

There is no problem in other OS. Default expected behavior for standart PC - is that you:

• Set up NumLock initial status in the bios
• It remains same in bootloader
• It remains same at login screen
• It remains same in desktop session, until you intentionally change it.

So here seems to be a problem, in some "malicious" code, that forcefully disables it, during boot. Question is: What exactly disables it? What binary? Or what source file? Can I remove it, at least locally, on my machine, in order to stop Ubuntu from changing NumLock state at boot?

Or maybe that's a tweak, like Troubleshooting features > [V] Force disable num lock at boot, that was occasionally enabled by default?

I've concluded some searches, what I've found is that:

• Official information is outdated. There is no such menu in Ubuntu Settings as per 18.04 LTS.
• A couple of threads, here and there, are also not answering where does the illness seats.
• Installing and using numlockx is a stub. Why do we need disable (initially enabled) NumLock, and then use additional software to re-enable it? Such an advice really sounds like somthing "conceptually wrong".

Can you help to find out, where is the disease source, and how to fight it?

As stated, when playing avi video files with vlc video player (no matter - fullscreen or windowed) after some time (10 to 30 minutes, seems to be somehow tied to screen dim):

• picture on screen freezes
• keyboard hangs
  • cant turn off numlock
  • ctrl+alt+whatever not working
• sometimes I can move mouse, but it cannot interact with ubuntu top panel.
• pressing power button has no effect
• audio remains playing as normal (till the end of movie)

So that's not a kernel hang, and not an app hang... but UI + USB input freeze! THE Only way to continue look movie is to press reset button.

Browsing works well, no Chrome crashes, in-browser youtube could show videos for hours. There is enough memory, less than 20% used. none of 2GB swap used. Movie files are always in RAM (/mnt/tmp/somefile.mkv, on tmpfs), RAM was checked several times, memtest ok, Chrome tabs has NOT crashed even once!

H/W:

• CPU: i7 920
• RAM: 48 gigs ram
• GPU: ATI R9 270 2Gb
• monitor: 2k 75hz IPS panel, attached via DP1.2
• usb 2.0 generic keyboard and mouse

S/W:

uname -a

Linux apc 4.18.0-22-generic #23~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jun 6 08:37:25 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

lsb_release -a

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS
Release:    18.04
Codename:   bionic

vlc --version

VLC media player 3.0.7 Vetinari (revision 3.0.7-0-g86cee31)
VLC version 3.0.7 Vetinari (3.0.7-0-g86cee31)
Compiled by jenkins on e672859d050d (Jun  7 2019 10:27:35)
Compiler: gcc version 5.4.0 20160609 (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.10)

lshw -c video

  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Curacao XT / Trinidad XT [Radeon R7 370 / R9 270X/370X]
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       version: 00
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=amdgpu latency=0
       resources: irq:31 memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:fbd80000-fbdbffff ioport:d000(size=256) memory:c0000-dffff

modinfo amdgpu | grep version

version:        5.0.19.20.7

Steps taken, to reproduce hang:

• dowload Ubuntu 18.04.2 from ubuntu.com
• Erase and Clean install (one partiton, minimal install + upgrades + 3rdparty)
• amdgpu-pro (I need opencl) drivers 19.20 downloaded from their page
• Installed with ./amdgpu-pro-install -y --opencl=pal,legacy
• Reboot
• sudo snap install VLC
• Open avi file (xvid codec)
• 20 minute = screen freeze, UI dead, only sound will remain playing till the end of movie.

Questions

• What could be wrong?
• How to investigate?
• Has someone else encountered same problems with 18.04+vlc+amdgpu ?

Search effort taken

• Found this, but it is related to nvidia hardware

• Found this, but no solution was found

Temporary solution

sudo apt install mplayer mplayer-gui

This works great..

After a day of testing: Nope, it also could hang. Removing the VLC tag. Problem is somewhere in Ubuntu/Xorg/OpenGL/video drivers

Conclusions

I've found it much more convenient to use linux console for software building process, but its wet/unstable UX just've disappointed me, in its everyday/recreational use.

I just wanted to watch a movie! For a couple of days using it (I mean X.Org and ALSA) I alredy had to:

• reinstall OS/gpu drivers couple of times
• encounter dropouts/silence problems with "sound via display port"
• numerous freezes and crashes of popular software

These two technologies, that are barebones of user interaction - are real beta-versions of something, that may be ever human-usable! Random freezes, screen-flashes, sound dropouts... 2019-th? Most user-friendly desktop distro? LOL.. that wood is too raw wet, to become a good easy-to-set fire yet, guys!

I want to install Ubuntu 18.04 for mining purposes. So I need amdgpu-pro OpenCL driver.

First problem is that auto-login does not works after a fresh install. Minimal+third party option gets to login screen, but when I press user it "thinks" for a little and returns back to login screen. So I have to press a "gear" icon every time and select "Ubuntu wayland" everytime. This is unsuitable for unattended/remote operation. I hope this is easily solved.

But the main problem is when I downloaded, unpacked and run amdgpu-pro-install it installed but boot hangs on message "Started User Manager for UID 120".

Such a simple sequence is so buggy nowadays: "ubuntu-driver-miner-go..." Who is responsive and What to do?

PS. "install specialied mining distro" advice would be ignored, or I would ask advisor to pay for it ;-)

I want to install to PC2 all the packages, that were installed by apt install on PC1. That is for Debian, but i think that since Debian and Ubuntu share same package system - the solution would be same. How to do that?