Skydome scattering crashed Ubuntu?

[TrueNorthist]

I'm not sure if this should be posted here...

Edit: It shouldn't be posted here. I have moved the question to an appropriate thread. My apologies.

[Hooray]

a user space application like fgfs should never be able to cause a system crash, usually the OS would instead kill the process before it's causing stability issues. If your whole OS crashed, and not just fgfs, the issue is likely to be a problem related to your OS, drivers, hardware or a combination of these, see: http://wiki.flightgear.org/System_Crashes

[TrueNorthist]

Thanks Hooray. I moved the question to graphics once I realized it should have been posted there. But what you say makes perfect sense as usual. In other words, FG is simply the next program that came along that needs high graphics. I will investigate the driver a bit more. Blast! I have not been having much luck using Ubuntu on this laptop. But out of curiosity, is there a command that disables atmospheric scattering? I will also go and delete the other post in graphics.

[Hooray]

was going to respond to your other thread (Bumblebee) but can't seem to find it now: The issue you are describing is almost certainly related to your recent driver modifications, FG is merely the app using the driver. In general, it is also a good to disable 3D desktop effects - or even using a custom window manager / account for fgfs.

Also keep in mind that Bumlebee is still considered "beta"-ware - so I'd suggest to be careful regarding installation of such drivers, because they may affect overall system stability.

[TrueNorthist]

Not to mention the effects of a novice user on an otherwise perfectly functional operating system. I could have done any number of things to it while trying to get the gpu working. And sorry to make you chase around looking for my posts. I deleted the one in graphics as you have answered it here.

Thanks again Hooray! Happy trails.

[Gijs]

With a fresh ubuntu root install and a freshly compiled version of FG, upon starting it stalls just at the point the scenery begins to take shape, causing the os to become completely unresponsive. I have to hold the power button and do a hard shutdown as the keyboard is dead. I no longer get failure warnings from Ubuntu* and the driver is now the stable version but everything freezes completely as soon as I try to run FG. ( * This has changed. See below)

I should add that I have a separate /home partition. I only formatted the / partition which wiped the previous FG so I recompiled from scratch. Is it possible some previous settings are being stored in the /home drive? Is there a command line option to disable atmospheric scattering? It all started with my enabling that within the sim and can actually see it trying doing the same thing before it locks up. (It tries to build the cockpit image etc, but then everything slowly turns a light blue with a few scattered dark pixilated areas then poof) Disabling that might allow me to at least open FG. As it stands I dare not even try to run it. (Again, see below)

I enabled wireframe and disabled a couple of view options that I know and this time the entire system didn't completely freeze, but many of my system functions are gone like cut and paste and ubiquity and none of the buttons in this forum are working either. But I can still type. Terminal shows "intel_do_flush_locked failed: Input/output error
Segmentation fault (core dumped)".

I'm sorry Gijs. When my system goes haywire none of the forum features work either. I had to add a new comment. And I am sorry for not posting in the right thread, or not knowing how to fix this, or possibly saying silly things that "everybody" already knows, but I am trying to do this right. Please forgive my ignorance.

* I am also now getting repeated failure messages from Ubuntu again, with suggestions to report the problem, which I already did yesterday. The errors have something to do with xorg so I guess the driver is hooped again. It says: "Sorry. Ubuntu 12.10 has experienced an internal problem. If you notice further problems try restarting the computer." I have a few screenshots now of the report it sends if anyone is interested. I have already sent a report and simply cancel it for now. But it pops up regularly.

Last edit. I am discovering that Ubuntu 12.10 is having loads of issues with graphics drivers, in particular the Optimus/hybrid graphics type like I have. As a last ditch attempt before removing FG from Ubuntu and reformatting again I disabled every single rendering option I could and enabled wireframe but it still results in a crash. I wish I had never clicked that check box and enabled atmospheric light scattering... Maybe 13.04 will deal with all the bugs and I can try FG again in Ubuntu? We shall see. But for now I'll stick with the windows version.

[TrueNorthist]

I could not accept failure as an option! I decided to try and clean up any mess I had created and do a careful install of bumblebee and appear to be making some progress. I am now able to open programs using the optirun command but am having trouble running flightgear.
I have tried the following:

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optirun sh run_fgfs.sh --aircraft=Cessna337 --prop:/sim/rendering/texture-compression=off --airport=CYVR --runway=08R &

But it fails with:

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sh: 0: Can't open run_fgfs.sh

And:

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optirun sh_fgfs.sh --aircraft=Cessna337 --prop:/sim/rendering/texture-compression=off --airport=CYVR --runway=08R &

But it also fails with:

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/usr/bin/vglrun: 303: exec: sh_fgfs.sh: not found

I did do a search in here for all entries with the word bumblebee and optimus and see that others have had similar problems but no solutions. Has anyone ever been able to get a compiled version of FG to run using bumblebee on one of these optimus chipsets? I did notice that the compiled version does not appear to be in usr/bin so that explains why the second command failed.

Edit: I forgot to add that I can open FG now without it locking up. *** Correction, I can run a repo version, but if I open the compiled version the system crashes and I have to reinstall the driver or it generates crash reports. But at least I am making progress.

[Thorsten]

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sh: 0: Can't open run_fgfs.sh

would seem to indicate that you don't have permissions to open the script or that it isn't set to be executable. What's in there anyway - why not run the fgfs binary directly?

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/usr/bin/vglrun: 303: exec: sh_fgfs.sh: not found

Now you're trying to run a differently-named shellscript (used to be run_fgfs.sh, now its's sh_fgfs.sh and it isn't found - simply the wrong name? Or if you are in the directory where the script is, you still might have to use ./sh_fgfs.sh (usually the local dir is not in the search path for security reasons).

It's terribly difficult to tell without knowing more of your setup, but the errors don't seem to be Optimus-related at all, they look like a badly set up shell script.

[Hooray]

yes, please use the fgfs binary directly, the shell script is not needed.

I am discovering that Ubuntu 12.10 is having loads of issues with graphics drivers, in particular the Optimus/hybrid graphics type like I have.

I don't think there is any distro that properly supports "Optimus" at the moment, which is not a Kernel/Linux issue, but a NVIDIA problem, because they are the ones developing the CLOSED SOURCE drivers without making the specs available to enable others to develop/fix drivers for them...

[TrueNorthist]

Sorry Hooray. I realize now that it is indeed an Nvidia issue. Saying it's a Ubuntu problem is just another rookie mistake on my part I'm afraid. Hopefully I won't be able to use that excuse much longer. And Thorsten, I googled

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/usr/bin/vglrun: 303: exec: : not found

and found this (among others) that appears to attribute it to the program not being in the usr/bin folder, so I looked and indeed it is not there. And it is entirely likely that I am trying to use a badly setup shell script. I don't yet know what a good one is, but I'm working on that. I was using a compiled version of FG based on the instructions here and used

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cd ~/fgfs
sh run_fgfs.sh

to launch. I had also added several options to it from here and it was working just fine -- aside from terrible frame rates in traffic -- which is what got me wondering whether the gpu was actually working...

When you guys say "run the binary" do you mean

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./fgfs.sh

Regardless, I will be recompiling FG shortly and will also reinstall Bumblebee, now that I am an expert in how not to do it.

Edit: BTW, here is an example of the command I was using to launch FG, prior to all the problems.

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sh run_fgfs.sh --aircraft=Cessna337 --prop:/sim/rendering/texture-compression=off --airport=CYVR --runway=08R

It was working, so I assumed I would just add "optirun" in front of it. I have tried several other commands that also do not work. (Not surprisingly)

Edit x 2: I should also add my system specs:

Asus N56VJ-SH71-CD, Intel Chief River i7-3630QM 2.4GHz Turbo up to 3.4GHz, 8Gb DDR3 RAM, Intel/NVidia GeForce GT635M 2Gb Optimus. 750 Gb 7200 rpm HDD. Dual boot Windows 8/Ubuntu 12.10.

[Hooray]

ah, is that possibly the shell script from brisa's download&compile script ? Did you use the scripted compilation on debian tutorial/script ?
PS: Your hardware is definitely powerful enough for FG, you probably "just" ended up with a borked OpenGL configuration because of your driver modifications.

[F-JJTH]

Hi

Could I suggest you to try this method :

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cd fgfs
gedit run_fgfs.sh


Replace the last line :

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./fgfs --fg-root=$PWD/../fgdata/ $@

by :

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optirun ./fgfs --fg-root=$PWD/../fgdata/ $@

Save the file (Ctrl+s) then close gedit and finally run FG :

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./run_fgfs.sh

Does it work ?

[TrueNorthist]

I had to attend to life for a bit, so please forgive my slow response. My neighbours know I am a mechanic and they frequently blind-side me with their recalcitrant cars.

Hooray, It was the script from here. I don't know who wrote it, but it did work. I think I am beginning to understand why the script is not ideal and am really keen to try the solution offered by F-JJTH. I will be compiling FG after dinner and will give it a go. I can see why it just might work so I must be making progress. I'll let you know how it went.

[TrueNorthist]

That worked beautifully JJTH. I even understand why it worked, which is a small miracle. FG is running very smoothly, even in traffic with the graphics dialed up fairly high. I will avoid atmospheric scattering until I completely understand what I did to cause FG to fail. You know, a fella would have to pay a lot for lessons like this.

Thanks guys.

[Hooray]

please get in touch with brisa, so that we can add a corresponding startup flag, or even a separate "runfgfs-optimus" script that implements F-JJTH's suggestion.