Mini-howto: using Envy on Ubuntu Gutsy (WARNING: use it at your very own risk)

NOTE: THESE STEPS ARE NO LONGER NECESSARY SINCE ENVY SUPPORTS GUTSY NOW

I have received many requests from users who would like to use Envy on Gutsy at their own risk.

I haven’t tested Envy on Gutsy yet and currently I don’t support it in any way (I’ll support Gutsy when it’s released as stable).

If you want to use Envy on Gutsy, even if it could potentially break your system, you will only have to follow these steps:

type:
sudo nano -w /usr/share/envy/instun/classes.py

get to line 324 which will look like the following:
elif self.details['osname'] == 'cassandra':#SUPPORT FOR LINUX MINT CASSANDRA

and replace the word ‘cassandra’ with ‘gutsy’ so that it looks like the following line:
elif self.details['osname'] == 'gutsy':#SUPPORT FOR LINUX MINT CASSANDRA

Save and exit by pressing CTRL+X

Then launch Envy

56 thoughts on “Mini-howto: using Envy on Ubuntu Gutsy (WARNING: use it at your very own risk)

  1. I’m not sure if it was just dumb luck, but:

    Apparently the ATI Driver Installer can now properly install the driver by itself on Ubuntu. I still have to confirm this on another PC, but it did update the drivers on my computer.

    Can anyone confirm this?

  2. Well, I can’t use your program as I don’t have nvidia nor ati but I certainly recomend it everybody just because I love the way you manage this project. Well doing!

  3. Hello,

    I’m a envy user from holland i use it for mythv installations, this works fine btw. I can confirm that it works great without problems on gutsy.

  4. I just did the fix on Gutsy tribe 4 and it worked wonderfully. I had to manually remove xorg-driver-fglrx but it was smooth sailing after that.

    Great Work

  5. On my Gutsy Tribe 4 with ATI Radeon XPRESS 200M some problems: the script go well, do all but after the restart, with fglrxinfo I have Mesa. Looking in restricted driver manager the board appare “not in use”. I enabled it, restarted but still Mesa. The 3D not work.

  6. Well, I just tried this “hack” with Gutsy x86_64 — using envy 0.9.6 — and the configurations was successfully completed.

    Many thanks! šŸ™‚

  7. Thanks, this trick works great on my Acer 5920G (nvidia 8600GT-M) and ubuntu gutsy tribe 5 (32 bit). had a hell of a hard time getting binary drivers to work until I discovered this. Envy ROCKS!

  8. I just tried with gutsy 32 bit. Seemed to work, desktops effect works, but glxgears or google earth crashes X with:
    Backtrace:
    0: /usr/bin/X(xf86SigHandler+0x81) [0x80c94b1]
    1: [0xffffe420]
    2: /usr/bin/X(Xfree+0x21) [0x81c3281]
    3: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//nvidia_drv.so(_nv002388X+0x206) [0xb7112416]
    4: [(nil)]

  9. thank you very much!
    I just successfully installed on gutsy tribe 6 and nForce 8400M GS 1280*800 @60

    In my case I experienced an extended (over 1280×800) login window and and a very slow desktop with very small text in taskbar. Refresh is @51hz. The system eventually freezed.
    Solution: go into recovery mode and type: sudo pico /etc/X11/xorg.conf then locate Section ā€œScreenā€
    Identifier ā€œDefault Screenā€
    Device ….
    and change these values as follows:
    SubSection ā€œDisplayā€
    Virtual 1280 800
    Depth 24
    Modes ā€œ1280×800@60ā€
    EndSubSection

    Saving and rebooting makes everything working with stunning composite desktop effects!

    complimenti!

  10. Grazie!
    Got my Gutsy working purty on this Dell 1420 with an 8400M GS. I was able to get it working myself but it would never stick on reboot. It would always kick me back into the new failsafe ugliness. Now it sticks! Thank you Alberto, and a Bravo from Colorado!

  11. Worked without any problems on 6600GT. (except a little refresh rate problem which can easily overcome with a change in xorg.conf)

  12. Worked like a champ for my Nvidia GeForce2 MX200 card. I had gotten the new kernel a couple days before the upgrade but borked my system in the Screens and Graphics window but Envy got me back right as rain. Awesome job, Alberto! You rock! I owe you a beer.

  13. Would it be possible to update this for Envy 0.9.11, or better yet release a new version as gutsy has now gone beta so the userbase should increase a fair bit. Going through the python code it seems youve semi-implemented Gutsy support anyway šŸ™‚

  14. I have a Tosh Qosmio G-15. Has Nvidia Geforce Go 6600 in it. Envy runs successfully, asks if xorg.conf should be automatically configured. Chose yes. Says needs a reboot, choose yes. Upon restarting, Same effect as attempting to install the driver through the restricted drivers manager, which is to say it will go to simply a black screen and do nothing else. Changing “nvidia” back to “nv” resets me back, of course, but ultimately I’ve made no progress. ;/ Any suggestions?

  15. envy took care of the drivers very well. But gusty at least for me still has the black screen on X display and all Terminals. I have to go into recovery mode change gdm
    chmod -x /usr/sbin/gdm
    reboot.
    Comes up now in text mode so you can at least work with the system. I have copied /usr/sbin/gdm to /usr/sbin/GDM and then did
    chmod +x /usr/sbin/GDM
    Now I can run /usr/sbin/GDM and get the display back up after a reboot. But this is far from a good answer, but at least it is somewhat working. I messed up and put too much faith in what ubuntu had in the works. Should have learned my lesson from 7.04. Hopefully the learning curve is in progress.

  16. @duuri
    Yes, it’s true. ATI’s proprietary driver doesnā€™t support radeon 9250. You should keep using the open source driver

  17. Hi. Well, I tried the Gutsy workaround, which works (because the nVidia logo pops up just before the desktop loads). However, something isn’t working. When I try to run Unreal Tournament 2003, I get the following error:
    “fcntl: Operation not permitted
    fcntl: Operation not permitted
    Xlib: extension “GLX” missing on display “:0.0”.
    Xlib: extension “GLX” missing on display “:0.0″.
    Couldn’t set video mode: Couldn’t find matching GLX visual

    History:

    Exiting due to error”

    Did I miss a step? Thank you for all your work, by the way!

  18. I was trying the mythbuntu gutsy rc with a Geforce 7600 GS without success. I only got a black screen without even a mous displayed as X.

  19. Ciao Guys,

    I get the following error while trying to install the nvidea driver, does anyone know how to resolve this?

    Linux Mint Cassandra 32bit
    Your graphic card has been detected as a Quadro NVS 110M
    Your graphic card is supported by the latest driver
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “interface.py”, line 24, in
    objects.mainmenu()
    File “/usr/share/envy/instun/objects.py”, line 980, in mainmenu
    menu1.process()
    File “/usr/share/envy/instun/interfaceclasses.py”, line 60, in process
    objects.nvinstconfirm()
    File “/usr/share/envy/instun/objects.py”, line 878, in nvinstconfirm
    confirmation.gotoop = nvidiainstall()
    File “/usr/share/envy/instun/objects.py”, line 142, in nvidiainstall
    nvidiainstall2()#CONTINUE THE INSTALLATION
    File “/usr/share/envy/instun/objects.py”, line 84, in nvidiainstall2
    task.blacklistlrm()
    File “/usr/share/envy/instun/classes.py”, line 1495, in blacklistlrm
    blist.actionlist()
    File “/usr/share/envy/instun/classes.py”, line 413, in actionlist
    restmanager = open(‘/etc/modprobe.d/lrm-video’, ‘w’)
    IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: ‘/etc/modprobe.d/lrm-video’

  20. Grazie alberto,

    I was not running it as root. I receive the following error now :

    Linux Mint Cassandra 32bit
    Your graphic card has been detected as a Quadro NVS 110M
    Your graphic card is supported by the latest driver

    OK: All the packages are installed
    Checking the Dependencies for the New Method

    OK: All the packages are installed
    No installer detected
    Download of the driver in progress, please wait
    –12:11:28– http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/100.14.19/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.19-pkg1.run
    => `NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.19-pkg1.run’
    Resolving us.download.nvidia.com… 196.33.166.200, 196.33.166.209
    Connecting to us.download.nvidia.com|196.33.166.200|:80… failed: Connection refused.
    Connecting to us.download.nvidia.com|196.33.166.209|:80… failed: Connection refused.
    md5sum: /usr/share/envy/linux-restricted-modules-2.6.22/nvidia/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.19-pkg1.run: No such file or directory
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “interface.py”, line 24, in
    objects.mainmenu()
    File “/usr/share/envy/instun/objects.py”, line 980, in mainmenu
    menu1.process()
    File “/usr/share/envy/instun/interfaceclasses.py”, line 60, in process
    objects.nvinstconfirm()
    File “/usr/share/envy/instun/objects.py”, line 878, in nvinstconfirm
    confirmation.gotoop = nvidiainstall()
    File “/usr/share/envy/instun/objects.py”, line 142, in nvidiainstall
    nvidiainstall2()#CONTINUE THE INSTALLATION
    File “/usr/share/envy/instun/objects.py”, line 96, in nvidiainstall2
    task.getdriver()
    File “/usr/share/envy/instun/classes.py”, line 1320, in getdriver
    print ‘md5new: ‘ + self.details[‘md5new’]#md5new
    KeyError: ‘md5new’

  21. Thanks buddy !!!
    I upgraded from feisty (both beryl and compiz worked just fine) to gutsy and my Geforce 7600 GS stopped working. I tried to install all nvidia-glx*, noting did work, they even did not regonize the card correctly and gave me only low-resolution.
    With Your help I managed to make working set. Only FPS dropped from 8500 (in feisty) to 2500 (in current gutsy). Have to figure that out later.

  22. I’m running a radeon x1600pro here… and having some technical difficulties.
    I assume the problems have been caused by myself, as I have not followed the very first instruction of this “tutorial”. After I installed Envy (envy_0.9.8-0ubuntu8_all.deb) and typed “sudo nano -w /usr/share/envy/instun/classes.py” into my terminal I could not see that there is any text available to edit, therefore I could not go to line 324 and replace cassandra with gusty. When the editor opens it says “[New File]”…?
    Ignoring the fact that I could not do the edit, I went ahead and installed the ATI drivers using Envy and I found that I didn’t hit a single error.
    My current situation is that:
    I have access to catalyst control centre, direct rendering is working and I have no serious problems.
    However, what I did all this for was to use compiz/desktop effects and when I try to turn it on I am told that “Desktop effects could not be enabled”.

    Is there anyone who can point me in the right direction?

    Here is an image of my attempt to edit line 324 http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z149/kozmoracer/Ubuntu/Problems/UbDrvrs.png

  23. @Kozmo
    there’s no need to do that trick since Envy supports Gutsy now.

    The ati driver (fglrx) doesn’t support Compiz+AIGLX yet (it will in the next release), therefore, if you want to use Compiz you will have to install XGL.

    I suggest you to wait for the next release of the driver.

  24. Ok, Thank you very much for your help Alberto.
    I apologise for my ignorance, but I’m one of the newer uses of ubuntu and still learning. I should have picked up that information before – I’ve just pieced together what you’ve told with other snippets I’ve read here and there, and it makes sense now :).
    I also should have figured out Envy supported Gusty… especially since it says that on the website next to the download button *hits head*. I did actually end up editing ‘line 324’ some how and of course – it changed nothing. Anyway – thank you very much for your help and also sorry – I should have don a bit more research before posting here.
    I also have to say that Envy is brilliant.

  25. When I install the LATEST Nvidia drivers for my Asus GeForce4Ti
    (x0250) card, and change xorg.conf to nvidia; GoogleMaps, Celestina,
    and Stellarium work GREAT, but Terminal window only shows up as a gray square. Is that because xorg.conf no long contains ‘Depth resolution’ table or ‘map’ for anything else besides a 24 bit ‘depth’?
    Thanks!
    Skip Flem
    Boston
    Gutsy…GeForce4Ti 4600 (NV25)

  26. Hi Alberto,

    I am using a GeForce 7600GS and the system runs OK until I launch a 3D game or I type #glxgears then the systems blocks and I have to restart the PC turning it off. I am using Gutsy 64 bits with an AMD dual core.

    I think it may be something like Juma’s problem but I could not find the solution.

  27. I have just run envy on Ubuntu 8.04 and even though a check shows direct rendering – yes, I can not use any advance desktop enhancements. I ran envy -g and got an error. Check of envy-installer.log”:

    python pulse.py ati
    root@Genisis:/usr/share/envy# python pulse.py ati
    Envy – Version 0.9.8
    ENVY ERROR: Your Operative System does not seem to be supported by Envy

    Appreciate any help.

  28. @Iain
    this blog post is old. You will have to install EnvyNG:

    1) Follow point 1 of the FAQ:
    http://www.albertomilone.com/envyngfaq.html#A

    2) Enable the hardy-proposed repositories
    (Go to System/Administration/Software Sources/Updates and select
    ā€œProposed Updates (hardy-proposed)ā€) and upgrade to envyng-core
    (1.1.1ubuntu17), then launch EnvyNG and install the drivers.

  29. I also should have figured out Envy supported Gustyā€¦ especially since it says that on the website next to the download button *hits head*. I did actually end up editing ā€˜line 324ā€² some how and of course ā€“ it changed nothing. Anyway ā€“ thank you very much for your help and also sorry ā€“ I should have don a bit more research before posting here.
    I also have to say that Envy is brilliant.

  30. When I install the LATEST Nvidia drivers for my Asus GeForce4Ti
    (x0250) card, and change xorg.conf to nvidia; GoogleMaps, Celestina,
    and Stellarium work GREAT, but Terminal window only shows up as a gray square. Is that because xorg.conf no long contains ā€˜Depth resolutionā€™ table or ā€˜mapā€™ for anything else besides a 24 bit ā€˜depthā€™?
    Thanks!
    Skip Flem
    Boston
    Gutsyā€¦GeForce4Ti 4600 (NV25)

  31. I also should have figured out Envy supported Gustyā€¦ especially since it says that on the website next to the download button *hits head*. I did actually end up editing ā€˜line 324ā€² some how and of course ā€“ it changed nothing. Anyway ā€“ thank you very much for your help and also sorry ā€“ I should have don a bit more research before posting here.
    I also have to say that Envy is brilliant.

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