4 posts tagged “linux”

I accidentally unplugged my laptop while I was adjusting my desk and without the battery inside it shut off.  This has happened many times before without a problem.  However, when I plugged it back in it wouldn't boot.  I used one of my Ubuntu LiveCDs to boot into an OS so I could complain on the internet and verify that this was a boot record thing and not a hard drive thing.  There is now a Windows partition sitting where my root Ubuntu partition used to be. 

You've got to be FUCKING me.

My only guess is that I accidenatlly hit the "media direct" button and the ghost image that Dell installs at the factory decided to overwrite it.  I had intentionally wiped this in the Fall of '07 so I have no clue how this happened.  Fortunately I have my important data in its own paritions so this shouldn't cost me more than a few hours of reinstalling Linux and hopefully not breaking anything worse. 

Sanity restored as well.  Since I already formatted my computer once today I'll just format again and finally install Ubuntu.  I'm tempted to find a scrap box on craigslist and turn it into a server, but it's not worth the money and effort to drag a tower up this damn hill.  I can dream though!

There are some Eee PCs on craiglist.... :3

Attempted to install KDE 4.* last night and accidentally deleted a lot of stuff in /usr/bin before finding out that it was missing dependencies. Whoops.  All the greasy Linux nerds at work give me crap about using Slackware (Two people have have independently responded "What year do you think this is, 1992/3?") so I'm going to try out Fedora Core and maybe Ubuntu.  Everyone has a total hard-on for Ubuntu, but to me it just looks too easy.  I won't actually learn anything by clicking the "go" button and waiting for it to install.  It isn't about having a good O.S., or personal enjoyment, or getting any work done, it's about steadfastly refusing to do anything the easy way.  One of the guys even suggested I "roll" my own distro.  Have I arrived at the intersection of both the drug and linux subcultures, exemplified by drinking a 20 of Jolt and then turning it into bong that runs Debian?  It's too much to take.

Next week some guys are going to give presentations on hacking. Of interest to me:
gumstix

Sup? 

Network just started working, I've been fighting with it all night, but it suddenly decided to work. Still don't have wireless going, but at least now I don't need my work laptop to troll for answers.  This is as successful as I've ever been in getting a distro up and running, go team!

Join me tomorrow when I accidentally format my external hard drive and lose years of personal data : /

The first pages of this HowTo were fairly useful, not that the install itself was particularly hard.  Burn the ISO, hit enter a few times and you're done!  I think the problems I was having early on were due to me trying to be clever with package selection.

Google Notebook has been out for a while now, but I just started using it regularly. It's handy for me because I'm between computers different computers, and it prevents me from vox-ing every stupid idea that comes into my head.