New Failsafe Graphics Mode For Ubuntu

ianare sends us to Ars Technica for news of the Ubuntu Xorg BulletProof-X feature, coming soon to a 7.10 (Gutsy) build near you. "It provides a failsafe mode that will ensure that users never have to manually configure their graphics hardware settings from the command line. If Xorg fails to start,the failsafe mode will initiate with minimalistic settings, low resolution, and a limited number of colors. The failsafe mode also automatically runs Ubuntu's new GTK-based display configuration utility so that users can easily test various display settings and choose a configuration that will work properly with their hardware."

Good!

[aarmenaa]

Being able to get a console and edit xorg.conf will probably always be with us, but it should never be the primary means of configuration for a desktop machine. I see this as a major step forward for Ubuntu in reaching it's target audience. I use many distros, but I generally choose Ubuntu for desktop systems because I really don't have the motivation to do all that by hand just for a lousy desktop. It's also for people like my dad: he can follow instructions and install an OS, but he's not touching a config file.

How is this news?

[boylinux]

Xandros and other distros have had this for years.

Planned for a while...

[d3ik]

I remember Jeff Waugh (Gnome guy, also worked at Canonical) had mentioned at last year's Ohio Linux Fest there had been talk about this for years but everyone was always busy working on other stuff. Glad to see they finally are getting it out.

Re:great!

[Fireflymantis]

Probably where when looking at the CD in windows, the CD gets burned with only one file...

D:\ubuntu-desktop.iso

Re:great!

[JanneM]

i'm sorry, but "incorrectly burned CD's" ? how can someone really incorrectly burn a CD?

Somewhat poorly worded, perhaps, but the parent is right. It's not that unusual for a burned CD, perhaps burned on cheap media using an old burner, to contain errors. If the user doesn't verify the burned CD, and doesn't do the "test media" thing on bootup your installation will fail.

Re:great!

[MindKata]

"done a long time ago"

It is very good news, but I hope this fail safe also works for everyone in the installer. I had a machine which wasn't possible to install Feisty Fawn on it, via the graphical Ubuntu install program. This was due to the default resolution being lower than required, for the window size of the install program. (So it wasn't possible to complete options in the installer windows and so continue with the install, using that program). (It occured with the on board graphics card on a new PC build at work, so the quickest work around was simply to put a better graphics card in which I had to hand and was planning on using it at some point anyway. A software only solution would have taken longer and isn't going to be so easy for non-technical users who just hope to try out Ubuntu. (I would expect it to be unfortunately enough to put off some non-technical users).

So anything they can do to improve the graphical support is very good news. The more Ubuntu users the better. :)

Re:great!

[Lord_Breetai]

This was due to the default resolution being lower than required, for the window size of the install program. (So it wasn't possible to complete options in the installer windows and so continue with the install, using that program).

[alt+leftmousebutton] will allow you to drag the window around as needed from any part of that window. Should have been a tip during install. I found this out by accident.

Re:Nice

[Lorkki]

You might not have heard, but these days the X.Org Foundation [x.org] is the one running the show and making the reference implementation (latest being X11R7.2 [x.org] as of now). If you've used a desktop-oriented distribution of Linux within the last five years, chances are that it came equipped with it as the default choice.

In any case, I'm not exactly sure about what cause would be served by changing the base protocol.

Re:great!

[dbcad7]

I screwed up and posted this on the wrong thread.. Off topic there,,, so some redemption here..

Often, people will download an ISO, click on it in XP which very helpfuly asks "make a CD ?".. which they do.. but they are not making a bootable CD.. all they have done is copy the ISO to the CD.

If you browse a newly created Ubuntu disk.. it will NOT be one file ending in .iso
There should be several directories.. If not it isn't burned correctly.

You need a proper burning program like Nero or Active ISO Burner. You burn FROM an Image, you dont copy the image to CD.

Again If you browse a newly created Ubuntu disk.. it will NOT be one file ending in .iso

Re:Useless

[vga_init]

A Windows user boots Ubuntu on a new laptop, say, and gets a low-res 'safe mode' telling them that there's no specific support for their video hardware ("Ubuntu failed to start the windowing system because it was unable to properly configure your hardware").

Out of the box Xorg supports more video cards than Windows does. It also supports the use of generic drivers for standards compliant cards, such as VESA.

They can't download a driver package and update.

Of course they can. ATI and nVidia, the two biggest graphics card vendors provide Linux driver packages you can download. In fact, Ubuntu has a utility that will do this automatically for you.

They can't use a driver off a CD that came with the machine, because there aren't any.

Generally it's the same with Windows. My last computer, a Compaq, didn't come with any CD. The only option was to create a "restore" CD/DVD which amounted to little more than a disk image. Say I want to install a different version of Windows than what the machine was imaged with, where are the drivers?

None of your arguments against X hold water, and of course if you actually put some thought into it, you'd be able to come up with some simple reasons why failsafe mode is useful. What if your X has the right drivers, but the auto detect failed or something you did borked the configuration? With failsafe mode you can revert back to a correct driver setting and recover your desktop rather quickly and painlessly.

You cite Windows as "the superior way," but don't you even realize that Windows has a graphics safe mode for exactly the same reason as Ubuntu has now? If anything Ubuntu is mimicking something Windows has done for over a decade. If the feature were as useless as you claim, why hasn't Microsoft removed that feature by now, and why do I have so much first hand experience utilizing it at home and work?

Re:Mark Your History Books

[MMC Monster]

The gui is called synaptic. It's so awesome compared to anything on the MSwindows side of things, it's hard to describe to someone who just uses MSWindows. But I'll give it a try:

Synaptic contains a list of repositories. Each repository is a website that has a group of applications for the OS. Synaptic comes with some default repositories and has an easy way for the user to add new ones using a GUI interface (or a text interface).

You run synaptic and it will give you a list of all possible programs to install on the OS. Everything. You click on a program to install. If it requires other applications to be installed, it will warn you that it will also install the other applications.

The magic comes when a new version of any application (ie: Firefox) comes out that you already have installed. The OS knows that there is a new version because the repositories will have a version number higher than the version installed on your system. The OS will put a little star in the corner of the screen. Click on it will bring up synaptic with the option to install the newer version.

Think of it as a Windows Update that does not send information about your system to any website, and which can update any program installed on your system (including OS files and files not distributed by Microsoft), regardless of who makes it. (repositories are available for proprietary products such as Opera and Google Earth).

Re:Mark Your History Books

[MMC Monster]

Another cool thing about using synaptic and repositories: When Ubuntu came out with version 7.04, users of version 6.10 got a notice via synaptic, stating that a new version of the OS was available. If the user chose to upgrade to the new version, the only thing that was changed was the version of the OS listed in the list of repositories in synaptic. Then synaptic just did it's usual business and downloaded all the new files. A single reboot later, and the entire OS and all applications were upgraded. All at once.

Re:I think that is more a problem of perception.

[shaitand]

'The sizes of the repositories are comparable.'

You must live in a special little world of your own. The size of the repositories are nowhere near comparable. Even after you add Apt for RPM and the 3rd party repositories for use with it (and I have had problems with conflicts between those third party repositories) the software selection doesn't compare.

Re:Linux has always had "safe mode".

[aichpvee]

Well I know tons of people who use windows without opening internet explorer. But how many of them can actually remove it from their operating system? I can completely remove the GUI from my Linux without causing any problems unless I want to use a GUI. You should really think that through before using it again, it doesn't really make any sense.

Re:Nice

[Waffle Iron]

I still don't understand why you keep referring to changing the protocol in the first place.

Probably because the original GP post proposed moving from X11 to X12 to fix usability problems, but the '11' actually refers to the version of the low level client-server communications protocol, which has little to do with usability.

Re:Nice

[Anonymous Coward]

I still don't understand why you keep referring to changing the protocol in the first place.

Because the protocol version number is "11", and the name "X11" includes the protocol version number. The X Window System (or just "X" for short) has been stable on version 11 of the protocol for a long time now.

The name "X12" implies a change in the protocol that is so serious that no existing X software will know how to talk to it (because all existing X software is X11 software).

They keep on changing the release revision; we are up to 7.2 now, as in "X11R7.2".

So now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Take in computers that need repair, fix them using my bench and give the tower back to the customer knowing their system would automatically adjust itself to their display and input devices when they went home from win95b on. The fact that I STILL can't do that with Linux/X today is just pathetic.

The X.org guys are in fact working on that. The fact that we can't do it today is just legacy fallout from the poor way that the Xfree86 guys used to run things.

A short (and not polite) summary of the history of X:

-- X invented at a university. Runs quickly through version numbers but stabilises at 11.

-- X not generally available for free for years.

-- Some guys make a free version of X for the 386, and call it "Xfree86".

-- Xfree86 becomes the standard X for free OSes.

-- Xfree86 project management becomes an obvious problem.

-- Talented X developer Keith Packard starts talking to people about ways to improve Xfree86 project management.

-- Xfree86 lead developers accuse Keith Packard of trying to "subvert" Xfree86 management, and kick Keith Packard out of Xfree86. Keith Packard goes to X.org.

-- Xfree86 lead developers go completely insane, and change the licence for X to include onerous new "advertising" requirements.

-- The whole Free Software world, more or less simultaneously, abandons Xfree86, and X.org becomes the new standard X.

-- Xfree86 is now completely irrelevant.

-- X.org guys (including Keith Packard) revamp X to make it easier to work on, revamp dev protocols to make it easier to get things done, and start making cool stuff happen.

Feel free to look up X11, Xfree86, etc. on Wikipedia if you want to know more.

Re:Mark Your History Books

[miro f]

So, can I go to a website and click on a link and download a new package and have it just install by opening it? Can this package open a GUI to allow options to be chosen (things like optional features, like spell check and file associations)?

No?

yes.

Re:oes this work for drivers that need X to be....

[wasabii]

I'm not aware of any such drivers on Ubuntu. Are you talking about the non .deb NVidia provided driver package? You shouldn't be using that. Ubuntu includes drivers.

Re:Linux has always had "safe mode".

[Anonymous Coward]

Everybody using Google uses Linux without a gui (Google is built on Linux). That, and everybody using a linux-based embedded system, such as a wireless access-point or router, or using a VOIP telephone service (they usually use linux), or the so many other places where Linux is used by people where the users don't know that they are using Linux...

There probably are more fully operational Linux OS installations out there without any kind of X server than there are with.

Point is: the GUI is not needed for Linux to be a fully functional OS.

Re:Linux has always had "safe mode".

[timmarhy]

It's cut and dry. a kernel is NOT an operating system, it only becomes one when userspace is included. that means at a minimum, a shell.

Re:Now I can try linux again!

[HeroreV]

If you hit Ctrl+Alt+F# (F1, F2, etc) you can get into a command line, then login and use sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf to edit your configuration file. Of course, users should never be expected to do such a thing, but it's at least nice to know that you can.

Re:WHEN will we be rid of you?

[Anonymous Coward]

You see, the difference here is that nobody in their right mind attempts the job of a biologist without any qualifications. EVERYONE thinks they know about computers in a way which has understandably pissed off the OP. Maybe he has a point.

Re:Linux has always had "safe mode".

[Anarke_Incarnate]

It is not all about usability by everybody. The OS is complete without a GUI. To say that a GUI must be present for it to be an OS is just simply WRONG!.

Plus, not every linux install is going to be to Grandma's computer.

Re:great!

[kozmico]

The [alt+leftmousebutton] doesn't work, you can't get the topbar off-screen, which is needed to see the "next" etc buttons. I had this problem when installing Ubuntu on Playstation 3 (537x368 or something), I had to [Tab] and hit [Enter] in the blind, which worked okey. It should had changed to a bigger virtual desktop than the actual resolution.

Re:Two Words

[nonos]

MS Windows has this option for ages...