[SOLVED] THREE MAJOR PROBLEMS!

Zorin 5 Ultimate - 64 bit,

Set screensaver to activate. Does not matter how many minutes. After the correct time has elapsed, the main screen starts to fade out as if the screensaver is about to kick in.
As soon as the screen turns black, it quickly snaps back to the splash screen. And that is it. It will not dim the screen no more after that. And screensaver never comes on. Does anyone know anything in particular in what causes this?
I switched from Win 7 home premium 64 bit to get away from problems, not inherit more. I also lose my weather applet when returning home from work. Computer on all day & when I get home it's gone.

Also, sometimes when I reboot, I get an indicator Applet error and my indicator applets are missing. However, after a reboot, my weather applet & indicator applets return again. Did I burn the OS to disc too fast? I am really disappointed and at my wits end! I was hoping for better with Linux. I also have Cairo dock installed. I run an ATI card, but when I installed the Proprietary driver from the update center, my Cairo dock flickers like crazy when I hover my mouse over it.

I uninstalled the 64 bit proprietary ATI driver and all is OK again. Is it because of the system now currently lacking the ATI driver causing my screensaver to not work correctly also? Is there any Linux OS that does not have any problems? I love my Zorin 5 Ult 64 bit, but there are definite problems here. Forgive me for all the questions here, but can someone tell me in a plain easy to understand way in how to fix these things? I am about to get rid of Zorin & I am highly disappointed after contributing my &15.00 for the Distro. What a shame. I chose Zorin over Ubuntu because Zorin comes pre-installed with everything! It looks cool, and is really nice, except for all these little problems now. Even the new Ubuntu doesn't even come close to Zorin. But if it does not have these problems, I may switch. Maybe it was a mistake to turn to Linux? HELP!

1) Please read this thread viewtopic.php?f=12&t=946

2) The 64-bit version of ANY distro lacks (for right now anyway) compared to the 32-bit version of it, so even on a 64-bit PC, I'd still run the 32-bit version vs the 64.

3) Use the LTS-based versions of Ubuntu or Linux Mint or Zorin OS (or any Ubuntu-based fork) because the LTS or Long Term Support releases are MUCH more stable.

4) AMD / ATI are ok, but I personally have had better luck with Intel / NVidia and Linux.

Thank you Obsidian1723,

I will look at the thread, and into the other suggestions you gave.

I did install the driver for my card again. It did not help the screensaver & my dock flickered again so I removed it again.

I will try the other things you said.


Thank you.

quote from Obsidian;I use Ubuntu for my desktop, Debian and CentOS for servers. All are rock solid stable. I admit that I am more akin to the *.DEB format and Debian-Based distros over the *.RPM and Red Hat-Based distros; but that's just my personal preference.

Use what works for you, but don't rule out the Linux world over Canonical's b.s.


Makes sense to me. I was wondering just the other day about LTS releases and about what it meant. Thank you for the info.

cominatyalive wrote:quote from Obsidian;I use Ubuntu for my desktop, Debian and CentOS for servers. All are rock solid stable. I admit that I am more akin to the *.DEB format and Debian-Based distros over the *.RPM and Red Hat-Based distros; but that's just my personal preference.

Use what works for you, but don't rule out the Linux world over Canonical's b.s.

Makes sense to me. I was wondering just the other day about LTS releases and about what it meant. Thank you for the info.

Yeah, I'm not ruling out Linux, just Ubuntu after 10.04LTS.

Thanks Swarfendor437 & Obsidian1723,

I used Firefox this morning & downloaded the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid.
I have burnt the 64 bit Lucid desktop for AMD64 to disc.

It's just so very hard for me to just wipe out my entire Zorin 5 installation after I spent a day or so getting it set-up just the way I wanted it.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, Isn't Ubuntu pretty bare upon installation? Or does the first update session upon installation pretty much bring it up to par in the software & extras department?

So I held off from the 10.04 Ubuntu installation for now, partly also because I ran out of time this morning & had to go to work. As for the Applet Indicator problem in Zorin, I just locked all the applets to the task bar and for now, at least they are not disappearing upon restart, but I still get the Applet error message every now & then.

These are the only problems I have. Three total. I may stick it out. I really don't know anymore. Nothing like having my screensaver only work for a few days. Unstable or not, isn't that just plain pathetic though? These kind of things should not be what labels an O.S. unstable. Don't you agree? I might go to 10.4 anyhow. Maybe tonight. If it's not much better, I can always go back. Cheers, ( I guess ).

"Also, if I'm not mistaken, Isn't Ubuntu pretty bare upon installation? Or does the first update session upon installation pretty much bring it up to par in the software & extras department?"

Ubuntu has less than say Linux Mint or Zorin OS by default when you compare the default install of each one, yes, of course..... however, Ubuntu has more than Debian upon which Ubuntu is based. Ubuntu LTS does update, but it uses different repositories (lucid for 10.04 vs natty for 11.04)

Give Linux Mint 11 a try....it is pretty polished, and like Zorin it has all the codecs and everything pre-installed...you may have better luck with it and with Mint the 64 bit version will be fine...and yes, the screensaver even works too

Also, like Zorin...it looks darn good too and generally works better then ubuntu (even though like Zorin it is ubuntu based)...

Thanks Craig,

Guys, never did get the screensaver to work, nor the applet errors fixed, and yes, the weather applet also still
keeps disappearing after i leave my computer for a few hours in my Zorin 5 64 bit.

But I did fix one thing though, as I was mentioning about how my Cairo dock was flickering, and I thought it was my 64 bit ATI propitiatory driver from AMD messing it up. Turns out it was not the ATI driver.

I was using Cairo Dock Open GL.

When I switched to Cairo Dock Closed GL, it stopped flickering and worked beautifully! Can't remember if someone told me to use the Closed GL, but hey! It worked!

If Mint is everything you say it is, I will try it! I have heard others say it was really nice, but never gave it a spin yet. Before I go, does anyone know of a solid Flyer designer software for Linux? I tried Scribus, but it is a 2008 release and it freezes every time. I need some kind of good software for creating Business Flyers. Any clues?

If I can just find a solid Linux Distro, one that has everything working, and a good Business Flyer app, I will ditch Win 7 for good. Got frustrated again with Zorin and I have been putting Win 7 back in, doing the updates, and had a whole bunch of failing updates! I could not believe it.

I never had trouble before with Win 7's updates. But hey, there's a first time for everything isn't it. Just so happens lately, there are no more first times with Win 7, more like 100 umpteenth times is more like it. Getting more sick to my stomach with each & every passing day now. Been messing with both OS's for weeks & not getting much sleep.

OH! and another thing, OBSIDIAN!

I will take out two of my memory cards and go with only 4 GB of ram and with the 32 bit for awhile and
see what happens. Maybe I have been over-killing things. I'll see into it. THANKS!

I had the same screensaver problem (not working) on Zorin 5 ultimate.
As a workaround:
Go to software centre and download "Automatic screensaver for X" (XScreensaver)
This is the X11 screensaver, it works just fine for me. There are a lot of add-ons, that you can chose before downloading,I didn't enable any more of these. I just left all the default settings.

Hey guys,

It's been a while since my last posts, so forgive me for being distant. I have tried many distros out there. As far as I'm concerned, and I'm sure I can speak for others out
here, that I have concluded that every Ubuntu distro after per say, Maverick Meerkat, in my opinion is pure c***. 11.04 Natty Ubuntu, especially 11.10 & the new Alpha Beta-2 12.04 LTS is just garbage compared
to Zorin. I find myself loving the unity layouts, but after the headaches from the freezes from trying to use compiz is just not worth it anymore.

After explaining my few minor problems to you guys months back that I had with Zorin Ult 5.1, I have recently been using Zorin 5.2 core 64 bit. And let me tell ya! There's nothing that even comes close. I'm totally satisfied with this fast, no frills, excellent system! No glitches, no mistakes in design, just flawless! No headaches, No problems period! The only thing that I would really like to see soon is a faster Kernel. As Zorin is still behind with it's 2.6.38 kernel. Why cant they provide us with the 3.1 kernel? It's so much faster. But thats the only thing I can say. Other than that, I want to thank all the guys from good o'l Ireland! Hands DOWN TO YA'S! GOOD JOB! ZORIN 5.2 CORE IS THE BEST DISTRO IN THE WORLD! FLAWLESS! JUST FLAWLESS! COMPIZ & ALL! I have tried all the Ubuntus, Ult Editions, etc.... Nothing compares. And I Have Gone Back To Zorin every single time. And I am with Zorin to the end! THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY TIRED HEART! PS: Although Linux Mint 11 & 12 are very fast & also very nice distros, They still cannot compare
to Zorin's layout & compatibility. I also had a very hard time installing the Nvidia X-org driver in Linux Mint 12 Lisa. With all this said, it's really sad to realize that out of over 100 distros, only three get my nod of approval. With ZORIN
5.2 CORE 64 BIT at the very top of the bill! In closing, I just want to say, that there is a God! Thank you Zorin! you have taken me from the 15 year tight grasp of Microsoft, and you converted me & opened my eyes to a whole new level of computing. I bow to you o' Zorin, Never will I ever return to the evil clutches of Windows ever again. Zorin! please dont ever change your course of the straight and narrow. Thank you, & God Bless! yours truly, Cominatyalive.

Hi,

a very nice testament to Zorin 5, and I hate to take the wind out of your sails but Zorin 6 will be based on Ubuntu 12.04 with Gnome 3!!.

I still have Zorin 5.2 and am also using Gnome 3 with PearOS/PinguyOS/Ubuntu 11.10, Gnome 3 sucks in many ways and still has a long way to go before it is fully stable/useable.

Lets wait and see what the devs bring us in the form of Zorin 6, both Pear and Pinguy have done a great job so far!!. I hope that the Zorin dev team can match them!!.

Regards Wolfman

Thanks Swarfendor & Wolfman & Herbie,

Yes, Theemahn did the Ultimates, but Blackwolf, Moebius & others are all making similar distros with Onyx 64, Unity and such. But perhaps your right. Still, they all have freezes & glitches. Zorin does not. As for 64 bit before with 5.1, yes, I had a few glitches & problems. But with 5.2 core 64 bit, I have no problems whatsoever now or I would have gone to 32 bit weeks ago. For now, it's working splendid with no hickups at all. It's amazing & you just cannot compare any other system to Zorin at all. We just need a faster Kernel. But it's fairly fast as it is now with the 2.6.38-13 is it? But I'd like to see it jump like the 3.1 Kernel. Mmm, I wonder if I could upgrade without problems. After all, the folks from Ultimate do it. But it would be nice to see Zorin provide it soon. Thanks Guys!

Wolfman wrote:Hi,

a very nice testament to Zorin 5, and I hate to take the wind out of your sails but Zorin 6 will be based on Ubuntu 12.04 with Gnome 3!!.

I still have Zorin 5.2 and am also using Gnome 3 with PearOS/PinguyOS/Ubuntu 11.10, Gnome 3 sucks in many ways and still has a long way to go before it is fully stable/useable.

Lets wait and see what the devs bring us in the form of Zorin 6, both Pear and Pinguy have done a great job so far!!. I hope that the Zorin dev team can match them!!.

Regards Wolfman

Not a problem Wolfman,

If Zorin lite 6 has the 12.04 Kernel, & I'm betting it has, it's probably a very decent system.
I'm actually looking very forward to checking it out soon. You see, it's not Ubuntu's fault that things never get resolved, it's the reflection of the management. Zorin's team has their dung together, Ubuntu does not. If only Unity was compatible with Compiz I would be a lot happier. One could just run Unity without Compiz, but that spoils it. Zorin has not been spoiled. As you know, they have went with what's good & stuck with it. And it shows through their work. It's all a reflection on the creators. It's sad actually. I know that Conical is under a lot of pressure for deadlines. The designers are rushed to meet the deadline, and as you know, things go to the wayside. I can tell right away from the git go of any install and be able to guess the integrity of any system. Per example, I installed Ubuntu's new Alpha 2 beta 12.04 and when it rebooted, all I received was a blank purple screen and a froze PC. I threw the disc right into the trash. Not only that, just to install it, I first had to press F6 and turn off ACPI just to get it to start installing. Am I burning the ISO too fast? My slowest burn speed is 6x. I'm thinking I might need it slower say 2 or 1x ? Am I correct? This may be why I am having 3/4 of my problems. What is your take on this?

PS: The Zorin Dev team already has them beat by a long mile. I'm sure of that.

Hi,

firstly; always burn your disks at the slowest speed to avoid errors. I mean; its not like you have something to do right away or what!! so just take your time with the burn process, those extra few minutes can save you hours of heartache:D

Secondly; Ubuntu do have their work cut out and in all fairness to the devs of other OS'es, they just build on what Ubuntu has already done, sure it takes time to iron out the mistakes and I think that pushing out a new OS every 6 months is too much!!.

I would rather wait longer for a complete bug-free OS than have one too soon that just crashes or reports bugs all the time!!.

Regards Wolfman

Sure, You can close the thread. BTW though, my K3B will only allow me to burn at 6X at the lowest. Still way too fast. Is this my DVD rom? as the media I am using is stated for 1x to 16x. As for the gnome 3.2 shell, I used it on 11.10 and mint 12 and I really do not see any thrills in it. It's just a vamped up unity launcher. I got tired of Mint 12 screwing up between switching back & forth to mate & back to shell again. It messed up. The shell eventually showed nothing but a colored blank screen. At least I never had any glitches with Shell on 11.10. Actually, I kind of like Oneiric 64 bit actually. Compiz can be had with some fiddling & the shell is stable. Has everything except the (snow) effect in compiz. Anyways, you can shoot me a personal about the DVD speed and close this beast. TTYL!