Problems after upgrading to Xubuntu 9.10

[RusBus]

Hi.

I have a computer that I installed Xubuntu 9.04 on from an old installation CD. Once it was installed, I played around with the computer for a while, and then realized that I could upgrade to 9.10. I did, and then when I logged back on, my Firefox icon on the taskbar doesn't show up, but I can still click where it's supposed to be and Firefox opens.
Also, Gnometris won't open when I click on the icon, which is bad for me because I find it really addicting and want to play it again.
Oh, yeah, and I installed XScreensaver and noticed that the "Sonar" screensaver has been updated and is now in 3D, and it's pretty cool, except for the fact that it flickers so much it hurts my eyes. Any idea why it does that? Also, the "Molecule" and "Polyhedra" screensavers are supposed to show a description of the molecule/polyhedron, but the descriptions won't show up, and some parts of the molecule flicker just like the "Sonar" screensaver. I'm still learning how to use Xubuntu, so I don't have a clue how to fix these problems myself, and I don't know what's causing them.

Thanks in advance!

[dale456654]

Your firefox icon will probably need updating as it is now firefox 3.5. To do this, Click Applications > Internet right click firefox and choose Shortcut to desktop or quicklaunch.

Try launching gnometris from a terminal and see if that helps. To do this click Applications >Accessiories > Terminal. Then type gnometris.

Do you have desktop effects enabled? This can cause flickering.

[RusBus]

All right. Firefox has an icon now, but when I typed "gnometris" into the terminal, it said:
(gnometris:7040): ClutterGLX-CRITICAL **: Unable to find suitable GL visual.
Failed to initialise clutter: Unable to realize the default stage

So, why would that happen? I don't really understand what it means.
Also, how do you disable desktop effects? I can't seem to find that.

[ewg]

Eliminate desktop effects:
System>Preferences>Appearance>Visual effects

Choose no effects

[RusBus]

Actually, on my computer the "appearance" menu is under settings, and "visual effects"isn't listed in the menu. Come to think of it, aren't the visual effects used on computers running Compiz, like in Ubuntu? I don't even have Compiz installed, so the desktop effects probably aren't the problem. I think I'll just need more RAM.

[D-cat]

Actually, on my computer the "appearance" menu is under settings, and "visual effects"isn't listed in the menu. Come to think of it, aren't the visual effects used on computers running Compiz, like in Ubuntu? I don't even have Compiz installed, so the desktop effects probably aren't the problem. I think I'll just need more RAM.

It should be located here:


Which should present you with the following screen:


There should be tabs up top, the one to the right is Visual Effects. This should be present whether compiz is available or not.


The third selection is to activate compiz. The first one keeps visual resources free. Also check your hardware driver settings and make sure you are running the appropriate 3D drivers for your card. Note that some cards (e.g. Intel) do have visual bugs in graphical processing, though Karmic was supposed to have most of them fixed, it may only apply to a clean install instead of upgrade.

[RusBus]

Yeah, I don't have the Settings menu in that location. Like I said, I'm running Xubuntu and don't have Compiz installed at all.



Aww, I lost the game.

[D-cat]

I'm running Xubuntu

I'm an idiot, I don't believe that didn't click with me.

Okay, still, what do you have for a graphics card?

lspci | grep -i vga

[minthaka]

Wouldn't be easier to have a clean install? I don't know why someone prefer the upgrade when it is normally not possible (I mean a bug-free upgrade, if you know about tens of thousand libraries and config files have to match).
It takes about the same time:
1. Copy all your important settings from /home/user/ to a safe place (like .mozilla, .thunderbird, .Skype)
2. Have a clean install
3. Install the needed apps, have some first runs.
4. Overwrite the new config folders with the backuped ones.

It's not very difficult, and you can make yourself sure, that there is no mess with old configurations / libs.

[RusBus]

I actually have no idea what my video card is. It's built into the mainboard and I don't remember what it was called. If it helps, the computer's a Compaq Presario S3010CL.

Also, it took forever for me to install Xubuntu originally and I don't think I really want to take the time to re-install it, and I'm not sure I have enough space on flash drives or such to back up all my stuff (I have a lot on there). I dunno, if the problems really bother me enough, I suppose I could try a clean install, but I don't think the problems are bad enough. They're just odd.