Nothing Karmic about it.

I've had Ubuntu Karmic installed in both my Desktop and EEEPC since just after the release day, once installed I was quite impressed. Everything worked well, I was in awe over the X-splash effect and the cinematic shut down plus the improvement in boot up and shut down speed. I even like the extras such as Empathy, Evolution and the new Software Centre. A few weeks in though and some updates later every thing's going tits up. My FaceBook plugin for Empathy gave in the ghost, Gwibber has been very twitchy and Kaffeine pre 1.0 is pants.

I may look into trying to fix these annoyances or maybe stick it out in hope an update will fix them for me, I don't know if I want to spend my time tweeking till it works. A part of me wishes that I'd stayed with Jaunty but hope Karmic will improve seeing as we're heading into an LTS edition in April. Small annoyances they may-be but if they don't get fixed it'll just bug the hell out of me and I may make the switch to another Distro like Mint or something, Hell I might even give Slackware a go!

VM WHERE????????????????

I've had to install Ubuntu onto an older system. I'm a bit disappointed in this as all my files etc are on the new system and my partner won't allow me to....

A. have both systems in the house and

B. completely get rid of Windows on the newer system.

I tried a different route. I found out that you can download a free bit of software from VMware called VM Player. This allows you to create a virtual machine on your computer and allows you to run a different OS within your current system. So I thought cool! I logged onto the site and downloaded the software, once I had installed it everything seemed to be going fine but then the computer crashed (a Windows fault not Linux). I tried using it afterwards but it wouldn't work so I thought I'd uninstall and reinstall it.

After uninstalling VM Player I click on the program to reinstall and guess what happened. NOTHING that's what happened NOTHING HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm still determined to use Linux, after playing with it on my older system I'm very impressed with it. What I'd like to do now is either get a cheap second hand Laptop with no OS installed or even with no HDD. Or there is the option of buying the new eeePC.

Repetition Repartition!

[Taken from an older post from another blog I own]

I thought I nailed it. I thought I discovered the reason why I couldn't get Windows and Linux to dual boot, the drive only had one partition (dominated by Windows). So I decide to go about repartitioning the hard drive to allow both Linux and Windows on the same drive.

I use Gparted, burned it to disc and rebooted the computer. Gparted comes up. Now at this point what I should of done was read the documentation and instructions on how to use it, but eager to get started I jump straight in. The disk drive is displayed in a graphic showing the space and how many partitions it has. So first I click on the partition containing Windows and resize it, then add a new one for Linux. I resize the windows partition again then add a "Linux Swap" partition afterwards resizing the windows partition to make the drive look tidy with no unnecessary unused space. What I didn't realize was that each time I resized the windows partition I was giving Gparted a new command. I click OK. Instead of resizing the windows partition once like it should have, it resized it THREE times!

After clicking OK, Gparted shows a warning saying "depending on the nature and type of operation this may take a long time" I'm thinking it'll probably be a few hours. The estimated time till completion clock goes up and up and up. Basically I started the thing running Monday night at 5pm, it finished at 7am Wednesday! If it hadn't of resized the Windows partition three times it probably wouldn't of taken as long.

So Gparted finishes off and I'm like "well it may have taken a while but it's done now, at least I'll be able to install Ubuntu now". I load the Ubuntu installation disc into the tray and reboot the computer. The Ubuntu logo comes up with the options, I hit enter on the start and install and............................................NOTHING HAPPENS!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

My Linux experience isn't getting off to a good start but I'm determined to get into using it. I'm now looking into a different root and maybe give up on the dual booting idea. I'll keep you posted.

Dual Boot Ubuntu

[Taken from an older post from a blog I also own]


I have recently taken an interest in Linux. After reading more about it and looking it up over the Internet I decided I'd go ahead and give it a try. There was a lot of information on the Linux OS, Ubuntu. According to a few articles Ubuntu has become a popular operating system and it's easy to use. I also read up on the fact that you can use this (and other operating systems) alongside windows by "Dual Booting". So I thought "best of both worlds", I can start getting into using Linux and still keep Windows, but it didn't work out that easily!

I started by going to the official Linux site (http://www.linux.org/) and reading the tutorials there, then I went to the official Ubuntu site (http://www.ubuntu.com/). Here I could download a copy of the latest version 7.10 and read up some more on dual booting. After downloading, hash sum checking, burning to disc and hash sum checking again I rebooted the computer. The Ubuntu logo came up with some options, at this point I'm thinking "cool". I click on the start and install Ubuntu and.............................................nothing happens!

So I think to myself "I must have done something wrong". So I watch this video on line on how to do it step by step (google video) then I try again and nothing. The next day I'm getting shopping and I spot a Linux Format magazine with a DVD containing Ubuntu. I snap it up with the thought that the DVD might work better than the disc I burned from the computer. I rush home to try it out getting excited about the whole thing. I stick in the disc, reboot the computer, Ubuntu logo comes up with the options again and then NOTHING!

I'm starting to get frustrated at this point. I decide instead of dual booting, I'll just install it on an old hard drive I've got. After checking the drive and formatting it I rip out the drive containing Windows and popped in the blank drive. The installation from then went well and I finally got Ubuntu to work. With spending SO much time trying to get it going I still haven't had a good play around with Ubuntu, but I will. Have to say it does look good. I still want to get the computer to Dual Boot instead of swapping drives about so I'm going to look more into that.

Until I figure out how to successively do a Dual Boot I'll be getting to grips with the actual OS, so I'll let you know how I get on.