Solving Gnome 3 Fallback problem and Dull graphics in Intel Graphics Chipsets

Hi Guys, I recently installed opensuse 12.1 "Asperagus" in my laptop. During installation I choose Gnome (Gnome 3) as my desktop environment. After the installation I found out that Gnome 3 is starting in Fallback Mode or Classic mode only. This is because opensuse was not detecting my default "intel" graphics correctly and using a generic driver. The consequences of the problem are:

1. I was unable use gnome 3 desktop, instead I was forced to use Gnome 3 's Fallback Mode.
2. Display is dull and I wanted to puke on that.
3. Dispaly is not full screen. As my screen is 1280x800 wide, display got a horizontal margin of 1.5 inches on both sides.

As for the above problems, if last two be solved, I can live with the first problem (As I find Gnome 3 not confortable enough than Gnome 2). I have faced these problems before when I was using Fedora 15 and RHEL 6 (Rhel 6 does not comes with Gnome 3 but problem 2 and 3 were present) and solved those problem quite easily. In Fedora and RHEL, the solution just require two small changes: one in Grub loader's "menu.lst" and other one in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. But in opensuse 12.1 there is no xorg.conf by default. So I googled and searched the forums for a solution for opensuse. I got peices of hints from various places and solved the problem. So I wanted to share to all of those who are using Intel graphics and are facing the same problem. This is how it goes:

1. After installation if you are facing all the three problems then restart your computer.


2. On the boot menu scroll to the "opensuse" or "Failsafe" option using keyboard.


3. There you will find some options near the bottom of the screen like nomodset vga=0317 etc.........


4. Use Backspace to remove all the visible text there and enter "3" (without quotes) and press enter.


5. Your system will open in RunLevel 3 with no GUI, just a black screen and some characters in white.


6. After few seconds a login prompt appears. Here login as "root" with root password. If you don't have or remember the root password, restart the system and use it as the way it allows you to use.(You cannot do any thing without root password).


7. If you loged in as root, execute the following command:
   

   Xorg -configure

   this will generate a file named "xorg.conf.new" in /root/ and contains the configuration of your system including Graphics.


8. Execute the command :
   

   cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf



9. If you are confortable with vi editor then perform the boot menu editing now or leave it for later.


10. Boot Menu Editing

(backup the /boot/grub/menu.lst first as if something goes wrong it can be restored back. Use the command: cp /boot/grub/menu.lst ~/menu.lst.old ).


 a) Login as Root in GUI. Use gedit or vi editor to edit file /boot/grub/menu.lst alternatively use command as :


gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

or


vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

b) In that file search for a word "nomodset" and remove it. (In my case this entry was only available for Failsafe menu and not for normal boot menu.)

c) After the above editing, copy the whole section related to the "Failsafe" menu and paste it below. Change the pasted Title and the "x11Failsafe" option. 
 
d) save the file and restart.


 Start the computer using the newly created Grub menu.

Now most probably your system will will open in Gnome 3 with fullscreen display and better graphics.  

Best of Luck......

Installing Linux side by Side with Windows

One day my friend told me that he is afraid installing Linux because it corrupts the Micro$oft Windows partition of his computer which is his primary operating system.

                     Linux is a awesome OS and shouldn't be treated like this. It happens that generally many Linux installations removes the default operating systems which lies on the boot partition of the hard drive and configure the boot partition according to their need. 

                    There are many ways to use a Linux OS on the same system that is having a windows installation.

And two of them are mostly used and I am giving a brief working detail for them.

They are:

•  Linux on a virtual Machine.

•  Linux on a real machine using dual boot.

• Linux on a Virtual Machine :

For those of who like to try or evaluate Linux, this way is recommended.

A virtual machine (VM) is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or (in most cases) both together.

in other words

A virtual machine (VM) is a software implementation of a computing environment in which an operating system (OS) or program can be installed and run. 

So VM is a software that provide OSes a virtual hardware environment. This virtual environment can be used to install various supported Guest operating systems. A suitable VM software package can provide us a environment to install the Linux without troubling the underlying Host System. VM provides the Guest Os a part of Main Memory(RAM) of the host. So you need to have atleast 2GB of RAM in your system to avoid sluggish operations on both the guest and the host OS.

                   There are many VM packages available on the internet but three of them are most commonly used. They are: vmware, Oracle VirtualBox and Micro$oft's VirtualPC.

The first two of them are better to use for installing Linux. You any VM package you prefer.

I prefer VirtualBox. So I will be describing only about it. Procedure is more or less same for other packages.

1. Download VirtualBox from the link above and Install.
2. Open Virtual Box.
3. Go to Menu -> Machine -> New
4. A wizard will appear. Follow the wizard, provide a name to the virtual Machine, choose the Guest Os to install, provide the amount of memory for guest OS and the size for the virtual harddisk(use dynamically expanding type).
5. Choose the newly created VM and click "Start". Choose in the appeared wizard the CD/DVD drive having the guest OS installation disk or the iso image for the guest OS.
6. Follow the Guest OS installation Wizard to the finish and you are done. Now you can use Linux without bothering the windows partition.

•   Linux on a real machine using dual boot.

  This is the best way to explore linux because linux can use the full power of the machine and there is no other layer between the Linux and the Hardware.
       But this way of installing Linux haunts many new users because during installation there is high probability of corruption or deletion of the Windows (NTFS) or other partitions. There is nothing to fear about, just some care should be taken during installation.

For those of new Linux users who do not have much experience (pretty experience) in installing Linux in Dual Boot environment, I have a trick that always worked for me and I am sure that it'll work for you too.

• This way requires a extra software basically partitioning type like Gparted or similar ones that fully support EXT3,EXT4 partition types on a bootable media (Many Gnome Live CDs/DVDs contains GParted).

• Also all the windows installations must be done before the Linux installation and is done on the "Active" or "Boot"(whatever you call it) partition. Better if it is on C:\

• Dedicate a separate partition for Linux big enough to have room for software installations. Try to dedicate a partition that is last on the partition table (or the last part of the harddrive space or the Last Partition). for example, if your system contains 4 drives namely C:,D:,E:,F: , then try to assign F: for Linux installation because after Linux installation you cannot use this drive in Windows (as Windows only support FAT and NTFS partitions).

Now the steps for installation goes here:

( Note: The following steps is part of a trick which I use frequently(on various computers) on various Linux distros and didn't failed me for a single time but is not used by experts. Use it on your own risk.)

1. Boot your system using a Live CD or any bootable CD that contains GParted or your preferred partition editor.
2. Identify the drive that is dedicated by you for Linux installation. This step is requires your whole attention because by picking a wrong partition you may loose your data. As a hint try to identify the partition check for the exact size of the partition that you decided for your new Linux installation or you can check for partition label if your partition software provides it. Any Linux based partition editor will show the partitions as "sda1","sda2"... and so on instead of as shown in windows as "C:\".....
3. Repartition(if required) and format the partition(dedicated to Linux installation) as EXT3 or EXT4 and reboot the system.
4. Now boot the system using the Linux(any distribution like Ubuntu, Fedora, Opensuse, Redhat  and so on) installation disk and wait for the installation program to start.
5. Provide in the details like keyboard preferences,Language,time zone etc but except for partitioning.
6. In the partitioning phase of the installation, check if the automatic partition scheme is using our EXT3/4 formatted partition(It generally does because the partitioner checks and installs the Linux into already available Linux partition). If not, then use manual partitioning.          Note: Some Linux flavors do not show the details for automatic partitioning but they still use the already available Linux partition. In that case I recommend you to go for auto partitioning but before that take a backup for your important files in your C:\
7. The next following installation phases are "a piece of cake".
8. In the GRUB (boot loader) installation phase, check(if detail is provided) if the installer is creating a menu for Windows. If it does then congratulate yourself for a successful installation and proceed on. 

• Removing Linux from a Windows-Linux dual boot environment.

For removing Linux, start your journey similar to the installation one as:

1. Boot your system using a bootable disk having a partition editor.
2. Set the C:\ partition (recognize it on your own judgement) as the "Active"/"Boot" partition.
3. Delete all the partitions that are of EXT3/4 or ZFS type. If there is a SWAP EXT partition, then first off the swap by using the option "swap off" on that partition.
4. Combine the unpartitioned space in a new partition and format it into NTFS or into EXT if you want to give Linux another go. 
5. Reboot the system and you are done.

(Note: some for some distros the above Linux removal steps may lead you to a problem in which you will be unable to start windows and you will see just a GRUB prompt or a error related to boot loader. Under those circumstances, use a windows installation disk and try to repair the startup. If startup is still not repaired then go for a longer method by installing some other Linux distro.(and if you want can remove this one too.))

Best of Luck for your Linux installation....................................   

New Linux Software

Powered by pkgs.org