Problems: ATI Drivers, Anti-Virus, not Working

Asked by the_webninja

I was Loving exploring My ubuntu Operating System, until I got the bright idea to try to install ATI drivers for my 9250 ATI Video card. The minute I did that it Screwed up my Boot Process, giving me Errors everytime I booted up which said it could not recognize my configuration and must boot to LOW GRAPHICS mode. There is a Radio Button that gives the option to reconfigure the Graphics Settings, but it does nothing but cycle back around saying it can't recognize my configuration, and must boot in LOW GRAPHICS mode. Once I get past that point everything is fine. But it upsets me because Uninstalling Drivers seems to be impossible with Ubuntu. I also noticed when I tried to run Avast Anti-virus that it found the TOTAL NUMBER OF INFECTIONS: 450971566080 Something has to be wrong there, and there seems like no way to correct that Problem either. I tried downloading AVG Anti-Virus but it fails to install with an error stating "Broken Pipe" whatever that means.

Does anyone know how to Uninstall things in Ubuntu? Because the Add/Remove does not work with most installations. It just states "Cannot Remove because other applications depend on this Program" And if I can't re-install unless I get rid of the old Garbage then I am screwed? Do I have to Format the Hard Drive and start over from the beginning?

And can someone clarify to me if KDE files work with Ubuntu or not? Cause I have a lot of KDE stuff installed on my Ubuntu system but I noticed some of the Customization Features of the KDE stuff did not take affect such as the Splash Screen modifications and Folder Appearance Customizations.

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Arnaudus
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Best Arnaudus (a-lerouzic) said :
#1

Hi,

1) For the ATI driver, just try to remove the package. If you cannot do it with Add/Remove, open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and type:

sudo apt-get remove packagename

(of course, replace "packagename" by the name of the package you want to remove). How did you install your ATI driver? Have you tried to install the package xserver-xorg-video-ati ?

If the package manager says that a package depends on another one, that means that this other package will be removed as well. It is not that bad, just check that you don't need the other one neither.

About the anti-virus: I don't understand what you are trying to do. You don't need any anti-virus on Ubuntu, there are very few viruses for Linux and the default security of the system is not too bad. Are you trying to run WIndows programs with lInux? This is unnecessary, don't do that unless you really know what you are doing. Apart from very few programs, all you need is in Add/Remove and Synaptic package manager. You'll screw up your system if you install other programs, especially Windows programs that have to be emulated to run (more or less) properly.

KDE programs work very well with Ubuntu. However, the default dektop manager is Gnome, not KDE. That means that you can run KDE applications in Gnome without any problems, but they will not be integrated properly, since they are designed to run in a KDE environment. You can run Gnome applications in KDE, and KDE applications in Gnome, but for the desktop manager, you have to make your mind and decide whether you prefer Gnome and KDE, you cannot run both at the same time.

By the way, don't hesitate to split your questions into elementary ones, it is difficult to follow which one still need assistance otherwise.

Hope this helps!

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Tom (tom6) said :
#2

Hey, welcome to Ubuntu. It's going to take a while to get used to it but in a couple of weeks you'll probably be quite an expert. Don't worry your current problems probably aren't too hard to solve.

First to turn a lot off and give your graphics card a breather, try gradually adding things for it to do later. Right try going to the Systems menu at the top of the screen, the top taskbar. Down to Preferences (top item) and go to Appearances (2nd item?). In the pop-up box go to the last tab 'Visual Effects' and choose 'None'. We can have a go with them later. Now try System menu again but go to Administration and hopefully find Catalyst there. If it is there then use it to turn things down a bit to give your graphics card less to do.

Now System - Administration (again) - Hardware Testing (near the top)
it tests a few things and then reports it's findings to relevant people in here, it asks for your email at the end so the relevant person can help you - i think that's how it works

Now System - Administration (again) - Hardware Drivers (near the top)
It'll ask for the users password (not the root nor administrators password)
In the pop-up box it should say
Ati Graphics Driver (ticked) Enabled
untick it to disable it.

Finally do
Now System - Administration (again) - Synaptic Package Manager (near the bottom)
This is my preferred Package Manager and if the 'Add/Remove Programs' one is giving trouble then try this one instead. While you have it open click the Mark Updates and then click Apply. Also try installing the ClamAv from here. Its a good strong anti-virus that hackers haven't seemed to start targeting yet.

All done? Rebooted successfully? Now turn either the Compiz features back on in Appearances or go back into Hardware Devices and see what can be done there. If that works and allows rebooting then try the other one too ;)

Good luck and have fun in Linux
Welcome in :)

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the_webninja (the-webninja) said :
#3

Thank you for taking the time to answer my Question. You told me a lot of what I wanted to know. I wasn't trying to run Windows Programs on Linux, but I was worried about the need for an Anti-Virus Program. And the Avast Anti-Virus Scans but it acts like it is not working right because it gives the wrong Results. It says I have like a Million infections, and I know that is not right. I was able to install an AVG Workstation Anti-virus, it works good but it only scans one File folder at a time. I tried to Uninstall the Workstation version of AVG but the Add/Remove would not let me do it. I was able to download a Full Version of AVG for Linux, but it would not install because I already have the Workstation Version installed and it wanted me to Uninstall the old AVG before I could install the new one. It's okay I am not worried about that problem that much. The System works fine except for the boot problem caused by the ATI software which you told me how to remove. So that should fix the majority of my boot Problems once I remove that. Everything else works fine.

Thanks again, and I am having a great time exploring Ubuntu.

Thanks,

Mark*

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Tom (tom6) said :
#4

Cool, that's good to hear. Welcome to Linux :

Kubuntu is better for KDE because it was designed for it and includes that kinda stuff as standard. Adding KDE to Gnome is a bit bloating but probably fine on your machine.

Clam Av is a great native linux anti-virus. I only scan 1 folder at a time but that folder could be my whole system ;) but as Arna says Linux is that much safer. The kind of person that it takes to writes virus' on Windows would probably have more fun and get more kudos writing apps in Linux or else might well lose interest in hacking the system.

Native Linux apps tend to be better than running Windows stuff under Wine but here's the fount of all wisdom about that;-
http://www.winehq.org/
Their AppDb (Applications Database) lists HowTo guides on a huge range of Windows apps and games, they might have the answer to your install issue.

Good luck and welcome to linux :)
Regards from
Tom

Revision history for this message
Tom (tom6) said :
#5

Ok, for Ati (and nVidia) cards i've just found a tool called "envyng", the normal one for a gnome desktop is "envyng-gtk" the Kubuntu one is "envyng-kde" or something easy like that. It's not for OpenSource drivers. Install it fron Synaptic. Use it to uninstall your current driver and reboot. Then use it to reinstall the better and latest proprietary driver. Once envy is installed it's in
Applications - System Tools

Hope this helps your ati issue!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)