Michael Harper’s Tech & Art Blog

Last night I upgraded my Toshiba Satellite from Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10 with only minor issues. I had an 8.10 CD so I added that as a software source, allowed version upgrades and refreshed my update list. I began the upgrade to 8.10 and waited. I had to download around 1 GB of files for upgrade. I restarted my computer and, because of my previous tinkering with the Alsa sound mixer, was greeted with a banshee-like (mic and speaker feedback) call from my laptop’s speakers during boot-up. I plugged in a pair of headphones and let the boot-up continue.

After I logged-in to Ubuntu, I had to reload my wifi drivers and activate the proprietary ATI Radeon video drivers. My Gnome desktop was reset to default configuration so I had to re-enable the high performance graphics and 3D cube. I tested a few video apps and discovered that there was a problem with the proprietary drivers. It seems that Ubuntu 8.10 doesn’t support what is known as the ATI “FGLRX” driver. It was recommended on ubuntu.com to use the free, open-source driver so I switched over after reading this article. Please note that I only used the info available on that article, not the actual tutorial. To disable the ATI driver, I just clicked on the “Restricted Drivers” bubble when it popped up and clicked on the “Deactivate” button. Turns out, using this free and open-source driver actually works better on my Toshiba Satellite. Before the switch, the 3D modeling app Blender was having issues displaying on my desktop. It would flicker in and out and sometimes the display would distort. Glad I got that fixed. I also continued to tinker with my volume controls and was able to get my internal mic to capture sound. The next step is getting my USB Plantronics headset to work properly. Good luck with your upgrade.

UPDATE:

OpenOffice 3.0 was uninstalled and 2.4 was installed in its place. Go figure.