Almost(!)...
Hi everyone!
I've just discovered this distro and tried it out, and I was amazed as to how it was possible for my computer to make everything that I wanted it to (connect to my router through a wifi connection, play mp3 files, watch flash videos on the Internet etc) with a fully Free Distribution! I've always been a great Free Software enthusiast, but thought this kind of distros would be impossible to achieve, because of firmware and the likes, but I was very happy to discover I was wrong.
I was most happy to see my computer doing everything that I wanted it to, with this distro, but, at the end, I encountered a rather annoying bug that made me think twice about adopting it.
The bug I have is that, when I shut down the computer, I get a *lot* of error messages, similar to the ones that are described here. (Something about the "radeon" driver failing to "bind" and "allocate".) This messages are in great number and the succession lasts for about two minutes, or so, until they finally end and the computer shuts down.
I've tried making the same fix that other people did when they had this kind of messages at boot up, with another version of Trisquel - that was to delete the "quiet splash" option in the GRUB kernel line - but, although I don't have a splash screen any more, the problem was not solved.
Does anyone here know what can I do to solve this problem?
I would be *so* *happy* if I could solve it and was able to, for the first time ever, use a fully Free distro on my computer.
The Trisquel version I'm using is the 64-bit version of the latest build, with LXDE (5.5 Brigantia, Mini).
And I don't know if it helps to solve it or not, but the computer I'm talking about is a 5-year-old laptop with an ATI graphics card.
> The bug I have is that, when I shut down the computer, I get a *lot*
> of error messages, similar to the ones that are described
> here. (Something about the "radeon" driver failing to "bind" and
> "allocate".) This messages are in great number and the succession
> lasts for about two minutes, or so, until they finally end and the
> computer shuts down.
>
> I've tried making the same fix that other people did when they had
> this kind of messages at boot up, with another version of Trisquel -
> that was to delete the "quiet splash" option in the GRUB kernel line -
> but, although I don't have a splash screen any more, the problem was
> not solved.
Had the same problem, added nomodeset to the /etc/default/grub line
containing "quiet splash", ran "sudo update-grup" and haven't seen these
messages again.
> I've always been a great Free Software enthusiast, but
> thought this kind of distros would be impossible to
> achieve, because of firmware and the likes, but I was
> very happy to discover I was wrong.
I'm very happy that everything worked for you. However, Not everything is always working. It is important to help/teach people to think on compatibility with free software when buying hardware.
Michał:
Well... I now have a more pleasant boot, where it shows much less (to none) text messages, and, instead of the error messages when shutting down, I now only see the splash animation. But the computer still takes two minutes to shut down... So, I guess the only thing this procedure did was to hide the error messages.
I don't know how "normal" this messages are, but I guess that's something I can live with, for the moment.
The Ubuntu version on which this Trisquel 5.5 version is based on also gave me serious problems. So this doesn't seem to be Trisquel's fault. I know that this 5.5 version is, in an ultimate analysis, based on an unstable version of Debian. So I guess we can't expect much from this particular version. The next one will be based on an LTS version of Ubuntu, which is, itself, based on a testing version of Debian and should, therefore, have less problems. We'll see what happens with the next release.
Daniel:
Yes. Since I have a good (i.e. broadband) connection, where I can spend as much time as I want informing myself about this, I now always choose my hardware according to GNU/Linux compatibility. And have, since, avoid all sorts of trouble, by simply buying stuff that I know work well under GNU/Linux.
As for your last question I would check out h-node.org. It is a user maintained database of hardware. Users submit if their hardware works or does not work with all free distros (like Trisquel). That way other users will know if they should avoid that hardware or not.
Actually it helps us out if you submit your hardware to the site (assuming it isn't submitted already). Even if a particular piece of hardware doesn't work like lets say a wireless card the data is important. Someone else may be thinking about buying it but knowing it won't work may deter them and save them a big headache down the road. So if you have any old hardware to test that would be awesome.
Hi there, SirGrant.
Yes... I can see that my computer specifications are not listed there, yet. And I will most certainly submit the results of my experience, then.
It's the least I can do, to contribute something back to you guys, and to the Free Software comunity at large.
Take care and Thank You very much for this great disto.
Hi there! Have you seen this bug?
Hello there, lembas.
I've just checked that description and there's the possibility that, although my error messages are about the radeon driver, the bug might be that the system is not properly "killing" all the processes at shutdown/reboot. And that, for that reason, it takes so much time to do it.
I will test the proposed solution, when I have the time to, and then I'll say something back.
Thank you very much for your help. :)
I am a member!
Hi Fernando Negro,
Welcome.
I see you aren't a Trisquel associate member yet. If you have the money please consider becoming one. Even just a little bit every month helps. The project relies on its users and needs the funding to support a full time developer. Rubén has been working for little to no pay for many years. Right now the project doesn't even have enough money to pay minimum wage. Every little bit though is moving free software development along. We are trying to move the pace a bit.
Here are some links to how you could help.
Become a member:
http://trisquel.info/en/member
Make a one time donation:
http://trisquel.info/en/donate
Purchase something from the gift store:
Or buy free software compatible hardware online:
http://libre.thinkpenguin.com/
Trisquel derives funding from all of these sources.
Hello there, Chris.
I have not decided yet if I will adopt Trisquel or not, but I will surely make a donation, anyway, once I have the money to.
(I'm also one of the many unemployed already, so it will take some time and won't be that much... But it's the least I can do to offer something back.)
Take care, you all at the Trisquel team.
lembas,
I realized later that I misunderstood a possible relation of the bug I had with the description of the bug you linked to, after I quickly read it, when you posted the link to the description here. And, therefore, ended up not trying to implement that particular solution.
The problem I had was just that it took too long to reboot or shut down. I never experienced any kind of freeze. And I could reboot with no problems. So it was not the same bug.
Anyway, I decided to wait for the next release of Trisquel and also to install another very similar Ubuntu-based distro on that particular computer, so that I can make a comparison later, in terms of performance, when I install Trisquel again.
Thank you very much for your help.