Adventures in Linux: Chapter 2: Installing

Man, my Adventures in Linux series has had a slow start... I've actually had half this one completed in a file for months and never got round to finishing and posting. Until now! Of course, now I have a million other posts to do with stuff like printers, video and upgrading to 9.10. So expect those to be done by 2015... at which point I'll need a break to go to cafe 80's on my hoverboard!

So, (way back in the distant days of last June) I’m ready to try Linux. I visited the Ubuntu site and downloaded an installation disc image, burnt it to CD and powered off. I restart the machine, boot from the CD and prepare to begin the installation. Ubuntu will install itself onto a seperate partition to Windows.

Oh, wait, I don’t have partitions. In fact, I don’t know a lot about partitions. Or setting them up. Maybe there’s something in the installer that will do it for me?

Hurrah! There seems to be! Brilliant. So what are my choices?

I can either install over windows, but that would defeat the dual boot option. Or it will set itself up on a new partition. Lets go with that!

Right, I want my Linux partition to be large as I hopefully will end up using it more than windows. So I set the utility to half the disc, 100GB for Windows, 100GB for Linux. It warns me it’ll take a while, which seems fair to me. However, after about 45 minutes, it all crashes. Oh.

I try it again, this time I allow a smaller partition for testing purposes. Just 20GB for Linux. So it goes through fine and Ubuntu installs! Hurrah! Right time to see what works.

Hm, the screen resolutions not great, and I don’t seem to have option to change it to anything else. Interesting. So I better figure out how to install my wireless adaptor so I can search the web for a solution. Oh, it’s installed. Log into my wi-fi. Hurrah! That was easy!

I do a search on my monitor type in Ubuntu. It's an HP w1907v. My search quickly turns up this blog which has someone with a similar situation. Right, so apparently I have to modify my xorg.conf file. Ok, how do I get to that?

Turns out I need to use the terminal. So I start that and I quickly find out about the 'sudo' command, which I need to prefix my commands with. Ok, so 'sudo gedit/etc/X11/xorg.conf' seems to work. Asks for my password and then opens up the xorg.conf in a text editor. Ok, so far so simple. I make the advised changes, which to my relief are really straightforward. You make a new subsection in the file and instruct it with the resolutions. I do this, save the file and restart the machine.

On restart the screen resets itself a few times, and is still at a low res setting. I go to check what I've done, as I do this I get a window pop up asking if I want to activate some drivers for my graphics card. I do. I restart and now my screens fine! Hurrah!

For some time I assumed this was due to the xorg.conf alterations, but recently it occured to me that maybe it was activating the nvidia drivers for my graphics. I'm thinking the latter as on re-installs, I haven't modified the xorg.conf and once the drivers are on the screen resolution is fine.

Next time: Getting my IPod working

Nothing of note

That is one of the worst titles I've ever used. That's not drawing people in! What school of Marketing is that from? Maybe if it was some sort of ironic in-joke that regular readers would be familiar with, then it'd be ok, but, and I haven't checked this mind, I'm assuming I'm not exactly writing for an audience of thousands here!

However, it is kinda accurate. Nothing particularly of note has occured that's compelled me to write in depth about it of late. But that's not necessarily anything new, a quick examination of the dates of my posts shows their sporadic nature. I can go weeks without feeling compelled to write. This is something I'm trying to focus on, I'd like to make sure I write something on a more frequent basis, just to make sure I'm writing. It's too easy to let these things slide, it's happened to me with drawing. While I'm not really doing this to accumulate legions of readers, (though I do appreciate anyone who does stop by to see my ramblings, and hope it's at least of some moderate entertainment) I would like to get a regular habit of actually writing something.

So what nerdy things of interest have occured? Well, last week I noticed this news piece
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8302286.stm
I firstly thought it was brilliant that Microsoft announced they were readying a security update to cover vulnerable areas, then mentioned the vulnerable areas! A day before the update! Hey you have 1 day to go exploit these areas! Just seemed pretty irresponsible to me.

So said update goes out on Tuesday. Wednesday, I receive a call from my future in-laws. Their e-mail is playing up. I go round and find that when they run a send/receive, the mail servers cannot be found. I check everything I can think of, we discover that oddly the e-mail is retrieved perfectly from another laptop running XP and from an iPhone. Neither of which had at that point recieved any security update, though it's assumed the main Vista computer had. The problem had not started until late tuesday.

Finally, I hit upon the idea of downloading Thunderbird and seeing if that would recognise the servers. It did. So it was purely a Windows Mail program issue. I cured the problem by updating to the latest version of Windows Mail. While I have no technical proof, it does seem logical that the security update broke Windows Mail! It seems to be a one off incident, I've seen nothing else about it, and another Vista machine with the same version of Windows Mail has no issues with the same mail servers. Still weird though.

Then over the weekend, I heard my Father express his surprise at how impressed he was when he tried Open Office. Brilliant! More people should be trying Open Office and realising how free software can still be great software. Soon they'll all be running Linux, heh heh heh.

I don't know why I added a dirty laugh to that, unless I'm planning to customise my ubuntu version to pornbuntu or something. Which I'm not. However I did pick up a Linux magazine this week too. This is a rare event as they're really damn expensive! Which I thought to be somewhat ironic as it focussed on largely free software. However, it finally hit me, they probably can't sell much advertising space! Why advertise in a magazine largely aimed at people shunning big corporations?

Finally (yes, finally, for a blog where I start by saying I have nothing to write about, I've blithered on for a while now. It's like urinating in a crowded pub toilet. It's really difficult to get started, but once you do, you just go on and on. Probably because you've involuntarily held in the last 8 beers. That's probably just me, and I've probably revealed too much...) my lovely fiancee and I have begun watching The Big Bang Theory. It's a show I've been aware of but only just recently properly watched any episodes. That and Wil Wheaton's recent discovery of it, which quickly led to a guest spot (that probably won't happen to me though) got me keen to see the whole thing. Season 1 arrived yesterday and I've watched one episode, in our breakfast comedy time before work. It's equal parts hilarious and scary as it holds up a mirror to my own character. Like when someone expresses excitment to watch Battlestar Galactica Season 2 again, 'with the commentaries!'.

Yep, it's a miracle I've even kissed a girl, let alone got one to marry me!!

Rick's Adventures in Linux - 1. The Beginning!

I spoke once before about how much I enjoyed my initial foray into the Linux world. Well, I’m still largely enojoying it! Hurrah! I’m keen for any future netbook I may own to have Linux on it too and would happily work in an all Linux world, but sadly my employers will not be convinced of the beauty of being run with Ubuntu. Even if you point out the inherent savings on software. Though given the amount of time I spend instructing computer novice ladies at my work how to use various things, I think the appearance of a different OS would cause mass panic. Or complete obliviousness. But probably panic.

Anyhow, I’ve found in my Linux journey that there’s a fantastic community of users out there who are sharing out their expertise to help newcomers like myself with any issues and difficulties they encounter. While my knowledge and experience is paltry compared to these guys, I feel it would be remiss of me if I failed to at least attempt to offer some assistance to those who brave the world of open source OS’s for the first time. So I shall tell the tale of my Linux journey, it’s successes and failures and links to the places that helped me out. I can only hope that at some point a new user with the same monitor as me, or a similar motherboard, or any generic problem I had, stumbles upon this and it helps them. Or that it is in some way an entertaining or interesting read. Hm, that last one might be a vain hope...

Chapter 1: The Linux Decision

As I’d stated in a previous blog, I was finding that life with Windows was becoming dull. I was missing the days of playing around with settings to make stuff work. I’d just built my new PC from components and was feeling technical. Then I read Stephen Fry’s blog about his new Asus EEE with Linux on it. He sounds pretty please and enthusiastic about this Linux business. So I wondered whether it might be worth giving it a try. So I did a little research. To sum up the pertinent points of Linux. That I discovered.

There’s no such actual system as ‘Linux’. Instead Linux comes in various forms, known as Distros. These Distros are all based on the core Linux basis, known as the ‘Kernel’, (sadly not the one with the fried chicken). From there they vary in many different ways, looking and feeling different and coming with different bundles of software.

The linux kernel and a lot of software for linux is open-source. Meaning, anyone can look at it and improve it and or use it for their own needs and styles. Hence how come the different distros, as people have come up with versions tailored to specific areas. For a better explanation of Open-Source and free software, go here.

One of the most popular distros currently, is Ubuntu. It’s considered to be friendly to newcomers and generally all round brilliant. Even this comes in different versions, as you can get Kubuntu, which is Ubuntu with a fancier desktop. Plus apparently Ubuntu gets a new version release every six months.

While you can’t run the same programs under Linux distros as you can with Windows, some highly regarded alternatives have been created. There’s Gimp in place of Photoshop and Open Office in place of Microsoft Office. There’s a plethora of music players, video players, media editors and programs for the ipod. I’m not much of a gamer on the PC, that’s what my playstation is for, but I was pretty happy to see Oolite, an open source version of a game that I loved in my youth along with Freeciv and some others. Web browsing, e-mail and IM’ing is all covered too. Ok, so if I was to change to a Linux system, I should still be able to do things I was able to do before.

You can dual boot. This basically means you can install a Linux distro onto a machine with Windows and then choose which system you want to use each time you turn the machine on. Ok, sounds useful, that way I can ensure a smooth transition over with Windows there for anything I can’t get working straight away.

These were the main points I needed to make my decision with. Obviously the dual boot thing was particularly important as it meant I still had Windows to fall back on. So I decided I’d begin with Ubuntu.

Next time: Ubuntu – The Installation