So, my friend Chris mentioned that I should check out Songbird for an iTunes alternative.  So, I download it, and a whole bunch of stuff spits out on my screen, and the app doesn’t run.  I see something that looks like:

*** glibc detected *** ././songbird-bin: free(): invalid pointer:
0x00007f203935a8d0 ***

Hrm. after searching around, I find out that the libvisual plugin package is to blame. So, I remove it:

$ sudo apt-get remove libvisual-0.4-plugins

And it works! Just thought I’d pass this along in case someone else runs into this issue.  This is reported as bug 15306 in the Songbird Bugzilla – would be nice if they fix that at some point.

So, in order to fix an issue I was having with the Nvidia driver (weird drawing issue of the titlebars), I decided to upgrade to the latest version of the Nvidia driver.  This turned out to be quite an ordeal, because after upgrading, X didn’t want to start, giving me issues like “Failed to initalize GLX extension” and “Ubuntu is running in low graphics mode”.  After fighting with this for a few hours, I finally found the info I needed.  Here’s what I did to solve the issue:

• Remove all nvidia packages with Synaptic Package Manager
• Remove linux-generic and linux-restricted-modules-generic packages as well
• Install build-essential and lib6c-dev packages
• Download latest nvidia driver from their website.
• Stop X (hit CTRL-ALT-F1) and run:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

• Verify that gdm is indeed dead – there might be some processes still hanging out – be sure to kill them.

$ ps -ef | grep gdm

• Install the new driver:

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86*-pkgx.run

• Accept all defaults
• Restart X:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

This will hopefully fix the issue — it did for me!

Upon installing Ubuntu, I noticed that my second monitor wasn’t being used.

On the top panel, I noticed that there was an icon that popped up that said that there were no proprietary drivers installed, and that I should install the nvidia driver for best results.  I installed it, and had to reboot the system, which I did.

I figured that that would have solved the issue, and I would have at least been able to change the setting System->Preferences->Screen Resolution.  No go.  I looked online, and found a guide.  This helped me get the rest of the way.  Here’s what to do, in a nutshell:

$ cd /etc/X11

Make a copy of the xorg.conf file, in case you mess things up. I will typically use my initials and a datestamp in the backup filename, to know that I made the change, and when.

$ sudo cp xorg.conf xorg.conf.<your initials>.<datestamp>

Edit xorg.conf (don’t forget sudo!) and add the following lines in the Screen section:

# Turn on TwinView
Option	"RenderAccel" "true"
Option	"TwinView"
Option	"MetaModes" "1280x1024 1280x1024"

Save the file, and then restart X by hitting Ctrl-Alt-Backspace. This should have both screens enabled when it loads back up.