Ubuntu improve WIFI performance and reliability

If you need a stable internet connection through WIFI then it is important that WIFI performance remains consistent and WIFI connection is reliable at any given time. This is vital if you are running any kind of server or using torrents. Unfortunately, the power management feature exists for different devices within Ubuntu promotes unstable and slow WIFI connection which is enabled by default for WIFI devices. This creates problems such as automatic turning of WIFI and loosing of WIFI connectivity randomly while the system stays idle for a while or there is no inbound packets coming to your system. To check whether you have power management active for your WIFI device execute the following command into the terminal:

iwconfig | grep -w "Power Management"

Now if it is active then you can easily turn it off by executing following command:

sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off

Where you have to replace wlan0 word with your WIFI device name which can be found by executing following command:

ifconfig -a

The above command will list all the network devices present in the system including WIFI devices. If the terminal says that command not found then install the program by installing the package net-tools. To do that, execute the following in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install net-tools

Now to make this setting persistent between the boots you can do several things. First, make changes to the /etc/pm/config.d/blacklist file. To do that, in the terminal execute the following to open the file:

sudo gedit /etc/pm/config.d/blacklist

Add the following line in the /etc/pm/config.d/blacklist file:

HOOK_BLACKLIST="wireless"

Second, make changes to the /etc/pm/power.d/wifi_pwr_off file. To do that, in the terminal execute the following to open the file:

sudo gedit /etc/pm/power.d/wifi_pwr_off

Now add the following lines in the /etc/pm/power.d/wifi_pwr_off file:

#!/bin/sh 
/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 power off

Do not forget to replace the word wlan0 with your WIFI device name and save the file. Now, execute the following command it make the file executable upon every boot:

sudo chmod +x /etc/pm/power.d/wifi_pwr_off

Third, make changes to the /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf file. To do that, in the terminal execute the following to open the file:

sudo gedit /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf

Now in the /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf file, replace wifi.powersave = 3 with wifi.powersave = 2 and save the file.

That is it!

Cheers!
Imam

Ubuntu synchronise Google calendar and contacts and view & edit google drive files with GNOME applications

If you are using Ubuntu 16.04 then you can easily integrate Google apps experiences into your Ubuntu Desktop by using GNOME desktop applications. Which means you can easily view and edit your Google account calendars and contacts books right from your Ubuntu desktop without needing to open-up a web browser and sign-in to google account every-time you have to amend something.

Now fire up a terminal and put the following command into to install GNOME control center, Calendar, and Contact applications and GNOME online accounts package:

sudo apt-get install gnome-control-center gnome-contacts gnome-calendar gnome-online-accounts

If everything is installed properly, you should be able to find corresponding applications icons into Dash applications tab. Now, in the Dash search for Settings icon and click to launch All Settings window like shown below:

Now goto Online Accounts and click on the plus sign which will open Add Account dialog. Select Google and sign into your google account. Finally, click Allow button to give GNOME applications access to your Google services. Now you should see which Google services will be synchronised with the GNOME applications like shown below:

From here you can easily toggle the services you do not like to be synchronised with the Desktop applications. Turn on Calender, Contacts and Files which will in turn let you access Google Calender, Contacts and Drive from GNOME Calender, Contacts and File applications.

Accessing Google Calendar:

Search for Calendar icon in the Dash and open it. Click on the Manage your Calendar icon and select Calendar Settings from the popup menu. Now in the Calendar Settings dialog window click add button and select from web if your Google account calendars are not showing in the Calendars list like shown below:

Every time you change calendars you have to click Synchronize from the GNOME Calender application.

Accessing Google Contacts:

Search for Contacts icon in the Dash and open it. From Change Address Book dialog window select your Google account, like shown below:

The application will automatically synchronise your contacts upon change.

Accessing Google Drive files:

When you open Nautilus file manager (GNOME Files), you should be able to see your Google account email with other storage drives like shown below:

With GNOME Files, you will be able to access Google Drive files just like any other local disk partitions. To reflect any changes to the Google Drive do not forget to Unmount from the GNOME Files application.

Cheers,
Imam

Fix Ubuntu shutdown and suspend problem on HP 250 G3

If you have a HP 250 G3 notebook and use Ubuntu based GNU/Linux then you may be experiencing problems such as the system will halt at shutdown and will hang when you try to suspend. All these problems are related to each other. You can easily fix these problems by just changing some settings in your BIOS.

First thing you can try if you have Windows operating system, then you can try installing the latest vendor BIOS program and see if the problems persist. After installing latest BIOS if the problems still occur then just go into your BIOS setup screen and look for USB 3 configuration in pre-OS option and then change the USB 3 configuration in pre-OS state to be in enabled. BIOS is the operating system neutral system settings program you can get into when the computer starts. To enter BIOS just try to press Esc key on the keyboard and press one of the F1-F12 key to enter BIOS settings. And if you have done everything correctly, hopefully, you will no longer experience any of the above problems anymore :)

Install Ralink RT3290 Wi-Fi driver on Ubuntu based distributions

Note: Ubuntu 17.10 or above has a builtin driver (rt2800pci) which performs good and usable.

Ralink. RT3290 is a PCIe device which combines 802.11bgn Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 devices in a single chip. Currently, Linux kernel has experimental support for RT3290 wireless through the module named rt2800pci. The state of this module is such that in many circumstances you will have very weak wireless signals.

Ubuntu 15.04 comes with Linux kernel version 3.19 and the problem of weak RT3290 wireless signals is still prevalent since by default Ubuntu 15.04 will be using Linux kernel rt2800pci module. However, there is a official driver available for Linux from MediaTek for Ralink RT3290 STA wireless device. This driver will fix weak signal and many other problems on Ubuntu 15.04 based distributions. To install this driver simply download the following file and after extracting the file in the Home directory of your Ubuntu, follow the instructions in the ReadMe file inside the extracted RT3290 folder (You may need to shutdown computer and boot again to get it working).

RT3290 Linux Driver (Ubuntu 15.04)

After installing the driver hopefully you will have better wireless experience in your Ubuntu system :)

For fedora users, please try the following:

RT3290 Linux Driver

*Updated package for latest Ubuntu based distributions (tested against Ubuntu 17.04). Also suitable for Ubuntu 15.04 based distributions:

RT3290 Linux Driver (Ubuntu 16.04 or latest)

*If you update Linux kernel then you will have to run the following commands from the RT3290_u16 directory to compile and install the driver for new kernel:

./compile.sh
sudo ./install.sh

*If you do not see Wi-Fi network, you may need to activate it manually by executing the following command from RT3290_u16 folder or reboot computer:

sudo ./activate-net-rt

*If you are able to see WIFI interface but can not connect to any WIFI network then you should try wicd Network manager instead of default network manager for connecting to WIFI networks. To do that, on Ubuntu first install wicd network manger by entering following command in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install wicd

And then remove default gnome network manager of Ubuntu by entering following command:

sudo apt-get remove network-manager-gnome

Finally, restart computer and use Wicd Network Manger to connect to WIFI networks.

Cheers!
Imam

Setup Objective-C programming environment on Ubuntu Distributions

Objective-C is a programming language which expands C programming language by including Smalltalk object orientated programming language. It has robustness like C programming language as well as it is feature rich like C++ and Java. It fully supports object oriented programming including Encapsulation, Data hiding, Inheritance and Polymorphism. It is the main programming language for OS X and iOS application development.

GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) provides compiling support for Objective-C source files through GNUstep framework. It is very easy to setup Objective-C development environment on Ubuntu based distributions. We just have to install few packages on to our Ubuntu System.

From your favourite package manager just install the following packages:

• gobjc
• gnustep
• gnustep-make
• gnustep-common
• gnustep-core-devel
• gnustep-devel

Or in the terminal put the following command:

sudo apt-get install gobjc gnustep gnustep-make gnustep-common gnustep-core-devel gnustep-devel

Once all the packages are installed properly, you should be able to compile any Objective-C source file by entering the following command in the terminal:

gcc source.m `gnustep-config --objc-flags` -lobjc -lgnustep-base

This should produce a.out binary in the current directory.

For Example, put the following codes into a text editor and save it as Hello.m

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    NSLog(@"Hello, World!\n");
   
   return 0;
}

Now, compile the source file Hello.m using following command in the terminal:

gcc Hello.m `gnustep-config --objc-flags` -lobjc -lgnustep-base

Now, run the executable file by putting following command in the terminal:

./a.out

You should see something like below in the terminal,

2015-04-22 19:24:26.483 a.out[31686] Hello, World!

Do Programming on Ubuntu/Kubuntu Linux

Programming on Linux

Linux in general is great development platform where the operating system's kernel itself is free and Open Source. So there is virtually no limit of what you want to do with your Linux computer. Kubuntu, Ubuntu and Gnome Ubuntu are all great Linux Desktop distributions with bleeding edge desktops and touch pad user interfaces. You pick your Linux distribution flavor and start working on your projects in no time. All Ubuntu variant distributions have common package names for development and application support.

Programming Language support

Ubuntu Linux by default comes with GNU Compiler Collection and you will find almost all of the software build for the system uses GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). With GCC you can program for C, C++, Objective-C, Objective-C++, Fortran, Java, Ada, Go and many other programming languages. One good thing about GCC is that it is available for many different operating systems for example Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS. Furthermore, GCC is supported on all major CPU architectures.

Programming in C and C++ languages

GCC will give you gcc compiler and g++ compiler for C and C++ source files respectively. Both gcc and g++ compiler support almost all existing C standards for example ANSI C, ISO C, C99 and C11.

Installation of required packages

To get minimal development environment with C and C++ compilers, install the following packages under Ubuntu distributions:

• build-essential
• autoconf
• automake
• flex
• bison
• libtool
• gcc-multilib
• g++-multilib

Enter the following in the terminal to install the above packages:

sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake flex bison libtool gcc-multilib g++-multilib

Then, install manual pages which will help you understand function definitions.

Enter in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install manpages-dev manpages-posix

Now, you can start writing your programs in the text editor of your choice and compile your source files easily from the terminal by putting the following command:

For C program:

gcc source_file.c

For C++ program:

g++ source_file.cpp

This will produce executable file named a.out in the current directory.

If you want to read manual of a function just type the following in the terminal:

man name_of_the_function

For example:

man printf

To exit from manual press q keyboard key. Use Up and Down arrow key to navigate through the manual.

If you prefer Integrated Development Environment (IDE) then check out the following IDEs. Here I put my experiences with different IDEs:

Netbeans
Build on Java, solid user interface, recommended for all kind of developments
https://netbeans.org/

Code::Blocks
Uses native user interface, simple and good for experimentation and start-up projects
http://www.codeblocks.org/

Eclipse
Build on Java, Extensible in nature
https://eclipse.org/

KDevelop
Native KDE development environment, good for C++ and QT projects
https://www.kdevelop.org/

Geany
Lightweight native IDE, good for simple projects
http://www.geany.org/

Finally, if you ask me which IDE I would prefer, I would definitely say Netbeans :)

Cheers!

Imam

Compile and use custom Linux kernel on Ubuntu

Introduction

Everything you do on your Ubuntu operating system is controlled and managed by Linux kernel. Your system's performance, stability and hardware support all relies on the kernel being used. Ubuntu ships it's own custom Linux kernel which supports variety of hardware and has a standard performance and stability across different computers. Sometimes, you need to build your own Linux kernel for using with your Ubuntu operating system. Some of the reasons for doing so are listed below

• Your need to use a hardware which is not supported with default kernel shipped by Ubuntu but supported with newer Linux kernel or kernel from other sources
• You need maximum performance and stability for your specific hardware
• You want to know how Linux kernel perform for specific kernel configuration

Preparation

Getting the Linux kernel:

There are many options for choosing a Linux kernel. The first option is to use a standard Linux kernel, which can be downloaded from

https://www.kernel.org/

You can find three different kernel on the website tagged with Mainline, Stable, Longterm. As the tagging suggests, mainline kernels are the ones with latest commits and patches but needs testing and verification, stable kernels are for production use and longterm kernels come with more security patches than stable kernels.

Other, Linux Kernels such as Zen Kernel

https://github.com/zen-kernel/zen-kernel

And PF Kernel have more features and performance tweaking than standard (Vanilla) Linux kernel.

https://pf.natalenko.name/

Now, download Linux kernel sources from one of the sites listed above.

Installation of dependencies

To compile and build packages for Linux kernel you will need to install some dependencies. Open up the terminal and put the following commands:

sudo apt-get install kernel-package libncurses5-dev build-essential

sudo apt-get build-dep linux-image-`uname -r`

Compile and Build

First move the downloaded Linux kernel file to the Home folder and open up a terminal. In the terminal put the following commands:

Enter root mode:

sudo -s

Change the current directory to /usr/src:

cd /usr/src

Move the downloaded kernel file to /usr/src

mv /home/[username]/[kernel filename] .

Extract kernel file to /usr/src,

If kernel file is tar.gz file then put:

tar xvf [kernel filename]

If kernel file is tar.bz2 file then put:

tar xjvf [kernel filename]

If kernel file is tar.xz file then put:

tar xJvf [kernel filename]

If kernel file is zip file then put:

unzip [kernel filename]

Create a link to extracted folder:

ln -s [extracted folder] linux

Change the current directory to /usr/src/linux:

cd linux

Now, configure kernel to your needs and liking (Very important!). To select a feature press keyboard Spacebar key, and press Esc key twice to move back a menu. Press Esc key twice in the main menu to exit and select yes to save configuration.

make menuconfig

Compile and build kernel deb packages:

make-kpkg clean

make-kpkg kernel_image kernel_headers

Or

make-kpkg clean

make deb-pkg

This will take a while depending on your CPU speed, so relax or have a break or do other work.

If there were no errors in compiling and building then you will find newly created deb files in the /usr/src folder.

Now, Install the deb files, update initramfs, update grub:

cd ..

dpkg -i *.deb

update-initramfs -c -k [kernel version, press tab to see installed linux kernels and choose the one you just installed]

update-grub

exit

All done, now you can reboot your computer and select Advance from the grub boot menu and select your kernel. After booting into the new kernel check the kernel being used from the terminal:

uname -r

If you encounter any problems during booting new kernel, do not panic. Just reboot the system and from the Advance grub menu select previous working kernel!

To remove non working kernel put the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt-get remove linux-image-[kernel version]
sudo apt-get remove linux-header-[kernel version]

If you do not know exact name in the above command for example, linux-image-3.17, press Tab key after entering linux-image. This will show installed kernels in the system.

Cheers!
Imam

Use CDEmu CD/DVD device emulator on Linux

Introduction

If you have CD/DVD disk image files such as files with .mds, .cue, .iso extensions then you can use CDEmu daemon from CDEmu suite http://cdemu.sourceforge.net/about/ to mount them on your Linux without burning to physical disks. CDEmu suite is a collection of programs to facilitate virtual optical drive on the Linux operative systems. CDEmu suite provides the following components:

• VHBA module; a linux kernel module which exposes a virtual SCSI Host bus adapter
• libMirage; a library which can be used access data stored in different image files
• CDEmu daemon; a daemon which implements the virtual devices by passing the data between VHBA kernel module and CDEmu client back and forth.
• CDEmu client; a command line application for controlling CDEmu daemon which can be used to actually perform tasks on the virtual devices such as mounting, unmounting image files as well as checking status of virtual devices.
• gCDEmu; a graphical version of command line CDEmu client.

We will be using CDEmu client to utilize the CDEmu virtual devices.

Installation on Kubuntu and Ubuntu 14.10 64-bit distribution

Install the following five deb files in order:

• vhba-dkms_20140928-1_all.deb
• libmirage10_3.0.3-1_amd64.deb
• cdemu-daemon_3.0.2-1_amd64.deb
• cdemu-client_3.0.0-1_all.deb
• gcdemu_3.0.0-1_all.deb

Usage on Kubuntu: command line client (use similar approach for Ubuntu)

Mounting image files

I have two image files for two different Linux games: Creatures_3_Internet_Edition.iso and majesty.iso

Now I am going to mount them in two different virtual devices

Steps:

Navigate to the folder containing the iso files

Open a terminal in the current folder by pressing keyboard Shift and F4 keys together.

To mount majesty.iso, enter:

cdemu load 0 majesty.iso

On the terminal and press enter. This will load majesty.iso on the first virtual device and you can navigate to the mounted device by clicking on the Majesty_Linux just showed up on the Places panel.

Now, to mount Creatures_3_Internet_Edition.iso, put the following command first:

cdemu add-device

This will create one more virtual device. Now, just put the same command as with mounting majesty.iso but with different load number, type:

cdemu load 1 Creatures_3_Internet_Edition.iso

The number followed by load parameter indicates the virtual device you are going to use for mounting purposes. Now, you should see both devices showed up on the file manager's device panel.

And finally you can check the virtual devices status by putting the following command:

cdemu status

Unmounting image files

To unmount the iso files just put the following commands:

cdemu unload 0
cdemu unload 1

You can know more usage of cdemu command by putting the following command in the terminal:

man cdemu

Scroll the manual window using Up and Down arrow keys and press q to exit from the manual. Type exit and press enter in the terminal to close the terminal window.

Usage of Graphical client (gCDEmu)

Follow the similar procedure for the graphical client.

Find and run gCDEmu from the application launcher; Kickoff->Applications->System->gCDEmu

Right click on the on the System Tray gCDEmu icon and click New device from the pop-up menu.

And now select Device #00 from the pop-up menu and this will give Device properties dialog window.

From the Status tab click Load button and select your image from the file browser.

Now check the file manager for image loaded device to mount and browse it. Use device properties dialog to unload and remove devices.

Cheers!
Imam

Run executable files on Ubuntu Linux

Introduction

Ubuntu by default uses the gnome file manager. And by default the Ubuntu file manager gives you options to either open a file or execute a file. There are basically two kinds of files on Linux which are executable; Binary files and Script files. To run these files, first you have to make them executable by setting the necessary file permissions and second you have to run them from file manager or terminal or any other third party applications.

Now lets go through the process of running a executable file by Ubuntu file manager.

I have downloaded Maniadrive; a free game from http://maniadrive.raydium.org/
to my Home folder. After extracting the downloaded file and going into the newly extracted folder, I find two files where both file names end with .sh. The sh files are shell script files which can be opened with a text editor as well as can be run. So, to run the game I have to run the mania_drive.sh file.

Extracted ManiaDrive folder

First, I make sure the mania_drive.sh file is executable by setting the executable permission. To do that I right click on the file and select Properties from the menu. When the Properties window shows up, I go to the permissions tab and make sure Allow executing file as program is ticked.

File properties window

Now that, I have set the file permission to executable, I can run the file either from the terminal or from the file manager.

To run the file from the Ubuntu file manager, first I have to check the file manager's settings. From the file manager, I go to edit menu and then select Preferences. This will bring up Files Preference Window. I select the Behaviour tab and tick Run executable text files when they are opened. Now, I can run the mania_drive.sh file by just double clicking it!

File manager Preferences window

Cheers,

Imam

Install Ubuntu Linux

Introduction

Ubuntu is a Debian derived Linux distribution. It comes with famous GNOME desktop environment with some special elements exclusive to Ubuntu. It uses Unity shell which emphasizes on screen space saving and simplicity. Ubuntu is suitable for broad range of applications from workstation to development and from gaming to server purposes.

Desktop

Ubuntu uses Unity Dash for launching your applications. It is not a traditional menu driven interface where you go through different menu items to find and run an application program. In Dash you actually see all applications available to you for running whether its installed or not.

Unity Dash applications section

Obviously, you can filter out installed and non-installed applications for easier searching using Filter results of the interface. Your applications and files are listed on the different sections so to not confuse a user. Dash also features searching online contents which you can always disable from System Settings->Security & Privacy->Search->Include online search results for performance reasons.

Dash online search feature

Unity launcher is another neat dock holding your favorite and running applications. When you have a ton of applications running on your desktop unity launcher will let you scroll through all the application icons easily.

Unity launcher

Ubuntu is optimized for saving desktop space for running applications. Its top panel will hold application menu and window control buttons if you maximize your application. Top panel also shows global system menu button and different notification indicators.

Ubuntu top panel

Unity shell has one cool feature which you will rarely see on other desktop environments, Unity HUD. Unity HUD lets you search application menu items. Just Focus your application window and press Alt key on your keyboard and this will bring up HUD interface. Type the menu item you are searching for and it will give you the result if there is any. Then you can activate the menu command from the HUD result.

Unity HUD showing similar application menu items from searching "file"

With Ubuntu desktop you can increase your productivity and multitasking speed. With the awesome Workspace Switcher on the Unity launcher you can easily organize your applications into different desktops. To enable Workspace Switcher go to System Settings->Appearance->Behavior and tick Enable workspaces.

Ubuntu showing 4 different desktops accessible via Workspace Switcher

You also have better application window management. For example, if you want an application window to always be on top of others then you just right click on application window title bar and select Always On Top. This is specially useful if you are reading contents from one window while both window overlapping each other. Also, if you have multiple windows open for an application then you can easily switch among them by just clicking the application icon on the Unity launcher.

Software

Ubuntu Software Center is all in one application where you can browse huge collection of proprietary and open source programs and games available for Ubuntu. In Ubuntu Software Center you can search for an application, monitor application installation history, remove existing application, review your favorite applications and see others feedbacks on the applications.

Ubuntu Software Center

Ubuntu has power terminal emulator like other Linux environments. In the terminal, you do not have to remember whole commands since you can easily get commands suggestions by pressing the Tab key on the keyboard. This will work for most commands and their respective command arguments. But, you can always read the command manual just by putting "man command-name" in the terminal.

Overall, Ubuntu's default desktop applications are slick looking and promote simplicity.

Download and Installation

Just head over to http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop to download the operating system iso file. You may download 32-bit or 64-bit file depending on your system and then burn the iso file on a DVD and then boot your computer from the DVD and then install Ubuntu by following the online instructions.

First boot

After you finished installation of Ubuntu and boot your computer into Ubuntu, the first thing you should do getting the Internet connection on the Ubuntu. Because, the system as with it's default state does not come with enough software installed to run all different files and programs. So, you need working Internet connection for downloading all necessary additional packages to the system. To make life easier I have created a package which will install all the necessary files and also configure the system with necessary permissions. Just download the package from the following link

SConfiguration1410.tar.gz

This package is designed for just installed Ubuntu 14.10 system with Internet connection.
But, you can also use this package if you want to make sure everything is installed.

Follow this for running executable files on Ubuntu

http://onthim.blogspot.com/2014/12/run-executable-files-on-ubuntu-linux.html

After downloading the package, extract the package by right clicking on the file->Extract Here. This will create a SConfiguration folder. Into the SConfiguration folder just follow the instructions from ReadMe.txt file to start the setup. If everything went well you should see the following message.

Now, you have a fully working Ubuntu 14.10 system!

Cheers,

Imam

Install Broadcom wireless network adapter driver on Kubuntu 14.10 and Ubuntu 14.10

Introduction

Kubuntu does not come with Broadcom wifi driver pre-installed due to license issues. However you can easily install by going to Kickoff->Computer->System Settings->Driver Manager and selecting appropriate option and clicking on the Apply button. But this method will only work if you already have Internet connection on Kubuntu by other means such as wired connection.

Driver Manager

Wifi Driver

To make life easier, just download the following package from other computer with Internet connection and copy the file to a 64 bit Kubuntu system.

bcmw1410.tar.gz

For Ubuntu 14.10 64 bit,

bcmw1410u.tar.gz

Once you have the package on your Kubuntu system, extract the package by right clicking on the file->Extract->Extract Archive Here, Autodetect Subfolder. This will create a bcmw folder. Into the bcmw folder just follow the instructions from ReadMe.txt file to start the setup.

Follow this for running executable files on Ubuntu:

http://onthim.blogspot.com/2014/12/run-executable-files-on-ubuntu-linux.html

If you have followed everything correctly, the setup will install wifi driver on your system and you should see wifi network available on the Kubuntu System Tray panel.

KDE System Tray

Cheers,

Imam

Ubuntu/Kubuntu Install upstream open source graphics drivers

Ubuntu comes with stable version of open source GPU drivers for providing support for various GPU's from different vendors (AMD, nVIDIA, Intel, S3 ...). But, since open source drivers are updated continuously from different contributors, it is sometimes useful to try upstream version of drivers. Any upstream drivers are regarded as unstable yet they provide new functionally and bug fixes.

Oibaf provides upstream drivers for various Ubuntu versions through Personal Package Archive (PPA). PPA is an online software repository system for Ubuntu Linux. One can install package (software) from PPA repository to local system by adding PPA address to Ubuntu software sources list.

Now, let's install upstream GPU drivers from Oibaf PPA on the Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE plasma desktop environment).

Open up terminal application:

Kickoff -> Applications -> System -> Konsole

Add ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers (PPA address) to system:

 

Enter the following in the terminal: 

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers

Here sudo command gives permission to make changes to the system, apt-add-repository command adds a ppa address to the system.

Then the following will show up for confirmation.

 

Just press enter key to confirm.

Now, update the system's software repository by putting the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt-get update

That's it, now you can download the drivers from Oibaf PPA repository. To accomplish that, you have to upgrade the system by putting the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Wait for a while for all the processes to be finished in the terminal. if everything is finished type exit and press enter key to exit from the terminal window.

One last thing, open source drivers need texture compressions library. Texture compression library is a requirement for many modern 3D games and software. Texture compression library comes separately from open source drivers and one has to compile them from the source to install them. However, To install texture compression library onto Ubuntu simply download the pre-compiled libraries.

Follow this for running executable files on Ubuntu

http://onthim.blogspot.com/2014/12/run-executable-files-on-ubuntu-linux.html

Pre-compiled texture compression library for Ubuntu variant distributions

http://onthim.blogspot.com.au/p/onthim-downloads.html

Now, Install precompiled library

Open Home folder (suppose I have download the file in home folder):

Kickoff -> Computer -> Home

Extract the downloaded file:

 

Right click on the tc*.tar.gz file -> Extract -> Extract Archive here Autodetect Subfolder

Install:

 

Navigate to recently created tc folder and open the Setup.sh file (make sure it is executable and the file managers runs it).

That's it, now you have upstream drivers!

Cheers,

Imam