> Really? I'm on feisty and have had no such problem.
yeah, is very hardware specific from what i gather. have always had add acpi=off to kernel boot parameters which should make any scaling impossible but, for some reason, it works in edgy. have read pages (in italian and german. luckily acpi is acpi in all languages 8) by people with similar laptops to mine (an Asus A6KM Q013H) who have no such problems (or have other problems). have changed bioses, replaced dsdt tables, recompiled kernels but nothing...
― koogs, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 10:20 (5 years ago) Permalink
Autumn, I don't actually think it's a driver issue anyway. I tried an old CD drive (which had previously successfully installed linux on an older machine) and this too failed with the same error.
So it's probly my shitty motherboard, which quite frankly has always had 'issues' ever since I bought the shitty thing from PC shitty World
(note to ilxors, never ever buy from PC World. They are rub)
― Ste, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 10:32 (5 years ago) Permalink
Manufacturers make drivers for Windows. You cannot blame any Linux for this. It's like putting milk in your car and expecting it to go.
A DVD-ROM drive is a generic IDE device that does not need drivers. This probably isn't a driver issue.
Anyway, the fact is, Linux didn't work out of the box on his hardware in the most basic and fundamental way. This "don't blame Linux, contact your manufacturer" attitude, while perhaps fair in some cases, comes across to curious people as passing the buck.
So really, when Linux has problems like this (which is increasingly rare, as you say) it's like giving away organic milk which you claim will work in cars whose manufacturers support it, and then blaming the manufacturer for not publishing the specifications of their engine when it doesn't work. The fact is, it doesn't work. Who gives a shit why apart from the dairy farmer?
― caek, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 10:41 (5 years ago) Permalink
A fair argument, but by blaming Linux for driver troubles you're still blaming the wrong entity.
I agree that it should work with an IDE ROM drive though. I've honestly not heard of a difficulty like that before.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 11:00 (5 years ago) Permalink
I don't think anyone is actually blaming Linux on this thread.
― caek, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 11:11 (5 years ago) Permalink
hi Hanle y!!
someone must have launched an exploding pig against the night sky?
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 12:40 (5 years ago) Permalink
i only like eating food that Abbott can't afford
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 12:43 (5 years ago) Permalink
I'd like to use Linux, and in fact have Gutsy running on my laptop, but for some reason I can't get an internet connection going anymore. I'm working through it on the support forums, but it's slow going. I had my share of issues with connectivity back when I was running XP, so as per usual I suspect it's a hardware issue, but it's no less frustrating.
Here's my thread on the Ubuntu Forum if anyone wants to take a crack at it.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 16:10 (5 years ago) Permalink
I'd like to use Linux but...
1) I use my machines for work, not just for internet terminals and general futzing around with photos and music and what have you.
2) I've never been motivated enough to learn to make it work even for that much.
3) Why bother?
― kenan, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 16:47 (5 years ago) Permalink
Linux is fine for x-terminals, but I'll run it on my main machine when you pry Solaris from my cold dead fingers.
― shieldforyoureyes, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 17:17 (5 years ago) Permalink
You use Solaris as your desktop? Why?
― stet, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 17:20 (5 years ago) Permalink
Because he has Suns.
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 17:23 (5 years ago) Permalink
That said, Dave, is there a minimal sparc CD set for getting OpenSolaris runnning? I don't want to burn 6 cds.
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 17:24 (5 years ago) Permalink
Sun will send you one, IIRC.
― stet, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 17:25 (5 years ago) Permalink
I don't have a DVD drive or an x86 machine
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 17:26 (5 years ago) Permalink
I don't run Solaris on the desktop, I refered to "x-terminals" and "main machine" yaknow. Terminals live on desktops, computers live in racks.
I'm actually still running Solaris 8, because I want to maintain a consistant environment between my ss1000's and my E3500. That's not a very good reason, but...
E10K's are beginning to get cheap on the used market... mmmmmm.
― shieldforyoureyes, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 17:30 (5 years ago) Permalink
You can get the CDs for sparc here http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/solaris-express/get.jsp -- Solaris express is "built on OpenSolaris technologies" which may or may not be what you want. xpost we have just binned some at our work; they refuse to give them to me "for legal reasons".
― stet, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 17:32 (5 years ago) Permalink
Shit, sorry Jon, that link is for DVDs for X86 only. I could have sworn it said CD mailing as well.
― stet, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 17:35 (5 years ago) Permalink
-- kenan, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 03:47 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Link
I have Vista somewhere on this machine, and every time I've tried to use it it's done something incredibly annoying, or incredibly stupid, or gone wrong in some way. Ubuntu just works.
Linux is a crap option for games though.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 20:13 (5 years ago) Permalink
Hahahaha well obv I prefer that food (ie most everything) BUT....I can't afford it.
― Abbott, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 20:18 (5 years ago) Permalink
I have Vista somewhere on this machine
Yeah... I dropped back to XP myself. Just like in the Mac commercial.
― kenan, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:03 (5 years ago) Permalink
vista wouldn't let me :(
i used to use suse but i got fed up with it :(
― DG, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:04 (5 years ago) Permalink
No, you can't just GO back, you have to reformat, reinstall, and start aaaaaall over.
― kenan, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:06 (5 years ago) Permalink
Upside: a fresh install of XP on a blank drive will mbring back those wonderful long-ago times when your PC was fast.
― kenan, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:07 (5 years ago) Permalink
Dave, you wouldn't believe some of the deals I see on Suns in Manhattan....
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:07 (5 years ago) Permalink
Last couple of times I've done linux installs - it has been: a) quicker than a windows xp install b) all the hardware works straight away (more than with xp)
I'd recommend Ubuntu or Fedora. I do still think that there is a massive problem if you need to open word, excel, powerpoint documents. Openoffice is ok but documents still never come out exactly right. I have this problem with Mac too though - it's really the lack of a proper office standard than a problem with Linux.
― tpp, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:07 (5 years ago) Permalink
yeah i did but something causes the XP install program to crash xxxpost
― DG, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:08 (5 years ago) Permalink
Hi Tracer!
My boss is trying to get me to boot off Linux live cd.s like knoppix, but the way I see it if I can't use good applications I'm not sure I'll have much use, unless I was a programmer. If there is a good linux based multitrack sound recorder... Still, I am really liking garageband. I guess its just romatic to think of everyone using their own different OS , but in the end there is a need for everyone to be on the same page too
― Latham Green, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 23:49 (5 years ago) Permalink
ew knoppix
― Autumn Almanac, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 00:11 (5 years ago) Permalink
Ubuntu is a live CD, use that. Knoppix is suited to small storage devices and therefore a bit rubbish for everything else.
― Autumn Almanac, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 00:12 (5 years ago) Permalink
Ubuntu? Of course after years of poverty I am just learning the entire MAC OS X now too. My parents bought me a macbook to help me throu gh school days. I wonder if I could run a linux on it? Isnt MAC OS X unix based?
― Latham Green, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 01:08 (5 years ago) Permalink
You can run Linux on Apple hardware fine, but as you say the default operating system is Unix-based and considerably better put together as far as the average end-user is concerned, so very few people bother.
[Exception: software packaging, dependency resolution, upgrading and other sysadmin stuff on Debian-based Linux >>> than on OS X]
― caek, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 01:14 (5 years ago) Permalink
^^^
― Autumn Almanac, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 01:39 (5 years ago) Permalink
I'm upgrading feisty to gutsy and EVERY FOUR SECONDS it's stopping the 50-minute upgrade to ask me if I want to replace a file. YES I WANT TO REPLACE A FILE, JUST FUCKING DO IT.
― Autumn Almanac, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 11:54 (5 years ago) Permalink
There is a command line switch to say yes to every question if you're doing this using apt-get rather tha Synaptic.
-y, --yes, --assume-yes, Automatic yes to prompts; assume "yes" as answer to all prompts and run non-interactively. If an undesirable situation, such as changing a held package or removing an essential package occurs then apt-get will abort. Configuration Item: APT::Get::As- sume-Yes.
― caek, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 14:17 (5 years ago) Permalink
Oh, yeah, thanks, but I'd already kicked it off in the Update Manager thing. It didn't start hassling me until after I'd downloaded the 1.5Gb of updates.
― Autumn Almanac, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 19:59 (5 years ago) Permalink
Christ. After upgrading to gutsy I couldn't hotplug usb devices. Had to go into some obscure setting to fix it. Clearly some way to go for the ordinary folk.
― Autumn Almanac, Thursday, 22 November 2007 11:37 (5 years ago) Permalink
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I'd eat those words. I didn't know it would be this soon, though. So, ok... Windows XP is gone. Completely done with. Now it's all about Ubuntu 7.10, the "Greedy Gardener" or whatever the fuck they're calling it. Some initial observations:
First the bad news. Configuring drivers can be a honking pain in the butt. I still haven't gotten it to properly recognize my 5-button mouse. The driver for my monitor had to be reinstalled a couple of times before it stuck. Don't ask me why. installing fonts is a minor disaster. And of course there's a bit of a learning curve, but really it's not nearly as daunting as it has been for me in the past.
The good things: A very impressive amount of it Just Works. The Totem media player, for instance, is maybe the only media player I have ever seen that searches for codecs, finds them, installs them correctly, and then plays the frickin' movie. It's a brave new world. Also... my goodness it's fast! Even rendering those wacky graphics, like Beryl stuff, is just burnin'. The graphics rendering as a whole is top-notch, and the font smoothing is exceptional -- better than Mac, I'd say. It's highly customizable, which I love, since unnecessarily changing the color of things is one of my favorite computer pastimes. Of course Gimp can't replace Photoshop, but every time I play with it, I'm impressed with how much it does do.
There is more work to be done before I can report on some more essential stuff, like networking. Apparently you can remote desktop into Mac OS? And vice versa? That sounds exciting.
― kenan, Monday, 10 December 2007 22:07 (5 years ago) Permalink
This thread is exactly why Linux should be avoided, especially for desktop use. Plus, guilting people into Linux is really low-down.
― libcrypt, Monday, 10 December 2007 22:23 (5 years ago) Permalink
Apparently you can remote desktop into Mac OS? And vice versa? That sounds exciting.
Yes, you can use Apple Remote Desktop (faster) or VNC (slower). VNC works with basically every GUI under the sun, except maybe Aegis.
― libcrypt, Monday, 10 December 2007 22:25 (5 years ago) Permalink
Guilting people into using Linux? Huh??
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 01:02 (5 years ago) Permalink
7.10 has a REALLY annoying bug that means my backlight won't go off when I close the laptop lid, and "da community" won't release a fix until April (probably because it's a kernel bug). This gives me the shits, but the fact that Vista's first service pack won't be out until next year puts things into perspective.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 01:05 (5 years ago) Permalink
Do you really want to support the EVIL empire, Microsoft? Are you just a just a puppet, a corporate TOOL who has never considered that the OS yr PC comes with might not be the ONLY OS? Are you really in favor of PROPRIETARY applications that limit FREEDOM in favor of bloody PROFITS? Have you sold your SOUL for thirty pieces of SILVER?
And so on. By and large, folks who say they'd like to run Linux, but... are often speaking from some vague sense of guilt-by-association with Microsoft, not by a desire to have some functionality Linux offers that Windows doesn't. (I'm not saying that anyone here ain't Linuxing entirely of their own free will, etc., nor that there's a Linux guilt squad on the loose.) The geeks who are driven to Linux by a need to tinker never find themselves in need of an "excuse". And I sure have heard a lotta folks offer guilty excuses regarding why they aren't using Linux. This is sad. Folks ought feel no obligation to do this or that or whatever with their computers. If you want to tinker, then do so, but it's not an obligation.
Besides, there are more tinkerable choices than Linux, anyways.
― libcrypt, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 03:45 (5 years ago) Permalink
Oh yeah, fair enough.
Beryl/Compiz alone is incentive enough for people to look beyond Windows/Mac.
(Incidentally, whilst typing the above sentence my work Windows PC froze for 20 seconds for no reason.)
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 03:48 (5 years ago) Permalink
The whole reason I went (back) to Linux 10 months ago is Windows-specific issues: Viruses and spyware, poor performance, hulking registry.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 03:50 (5 years ago) Permalink
I have learned much. Lesson #1 -- RTFM. Do not go off googling stuff and installing programs and drivers that were compatible with earlier editions of the OS. That's a bad idea, born of hubris.
Ok, so I reinstalled and started fresh, and with user manual on screen and a determination not to mess with what need not be messed with, I have reached to point of saying that Ubuntu Linux 7.10 is a thing of blinding operating-system beauty. I installed it on my work PC now, and was amazed -- AMAZED! -- at the way it detected networks, computers, printers... it was the easiest computer setup I've ever had the pleasure of overseeing. It looks great. It feels intuitive. It's endlessly customizable. It runs Office docs with grace and aplomb. It's fast as doo doo. Compared to XP, it's the difference between It's A Small World and Space Mountain. I am totally sold.
― kenan, Monday, 17 December 2007 17:53 (5 years ago) Permalink
:) :)
― kenan, Monday, 17 December 2007 17:54 (5 years ago) Permalink
I'm struggling with red hat seeing my physical hardware (nothing coming from lspci)
― Alex in Denver, Monday, 17 December 2007 18:07 (5 years ago) Permalink
It's OK to Google stuff, dude.
― libcrypt, Monday, 17 December 2007 18:10 (5 years ago) Permalink
The longer you hold out on Linux, the less you have to learn to make it work if you finally give it a go.
― Kerm, Monday, 17 December 2007 18:20 (5 years ago) Permalink
I've struggled with xubuntu on my 6 yr old laptop for the last 6 months, and it's definitely more sluggish than xp. I'm gonna have to go back.
― give me back my 200 dollars (NotEnough), Tuesday, 16 October 2012 07:39 (7 months ago) Permalink
> GNU GRUB version 2.00-7ubuntu11> BASH-Line editing is supported for the first word, TAB lists possible command completion anywhere else > TAB lists possible device or file completion
the Grub command line is not the linux command line - it's just a tiny bootstrap program that'll let you examine and mount boot images, and change boot parameters. you shouldn't ever need to use it, especially not on a live cd.
that said, my older laptop wouldn't boot livecds without extra boot parameters, specifically acpi=off. also removing things like 'splash' from the command line might give you better visibility of what's happening.
and, yes, patience is needed with livecds.
― koogs, Tuesday, 16 October 2012 08:50 (7 months ago) Permalink
trying out Mint linux - slick interface!
― Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Thursday, 3 January 2013 21:38 (4 months ago) Permalink
@dow, - maybe late but could try to boot from llinux on usb stick
― Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Thursday, 3 January 2013 21:42 (4 months ago) Permalink
My weekend project:
http://lfsbook.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/
― Allen (etaeoe), Thursday, 3 January 2013 22:39 (4 months ago) Permalink
Thanks Latham, the laptop owner just wanted some way to add speed and avoid freeze, so I gave up on getting linux the way I was asking about, and deleted some stuff never used; that seemed to suffice, so far. But I wouldn't mind having linux as backup on my own Windows laptop (405 GB free). Maybe I'll try the usual disc method, but how would I get it on a USB stick?
― dow, Thursday, 3 January 2013 23:41 (4 months ago) Permalink
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/help/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows
― Allen (etaeoe), Thursday, 3 January 2013 23:43 (4 months ago) Permalink
Thanks!
― dow, Thursday, 3 January 2013 23:49 (4 months ago) Permalink
I installed ubuntu side by side with windows XP - you have the option of which to boot into when you startup. or if you have a big usb stick just run it off there if you like.
BTW Mint linux is really impressive so far!
― Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Friday, 4 January 2013 14:42 (4 months ago) Permalink
i dual-installed Mint 13 a few months ago and plan to migrate over to it between now and when support for ubuntu Lucid LTS runs out (april). i can't get on with Unity and with Mint 13 the Mate alternative supports all the stuff fussy old me likes / requires.
not keen on mint's enormous menu though, seems to involve a lot of movement to get to where you want to be.
― koogs, Friday, 4 January 2013 14:56 (4 months ago) Permalink
Unity is annoying. I dont get the appeal
― Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Friday, 4 January 2013 20:17 (4 months ago) Permalink
I switched my 5 y.o. laptop from windows xp to Mint 14 (with xfce) on an SSD last week and i really like it so far. I was going to get a new computer to replace it, but this is running well enough that I'm probably not going to bother.
― 1.5GB of audio-destroying fluff (los blue jeans), Sunday, 6 January 2013 03:12 (4 months ago) Permalink
Los, how much memory do you have for it on yr laptop?
― dow, Sunday, 6 January 2013 03:19 (4 months ago) Permalink
Not too get too nosy, just wondering how much is required--and how much I'd need to keep Win 7 and add something like Mint 14 etc
― dow, Sunday, 6 January 2013 03:20 (4 months ago) Permalink
OH SURE, just poke around my medicine cabinet a bit while you are at it
Right now it takes up a little over 5 gigs, but you should probably set up at least a 20 gb partition
― 1.5GB of audio-destroying fluff (los blue jeans), Sunday, 6 January 2013 04:23 (4 months ago) Permalink
Get a raspberry PI for Linux!
― Binder, Binder & (Sufjan Grafton), Sunday, 6 January 2013 04:27 (4 months ago) Permalink
i've 3 different linux distros on this laptop and i give them 10GB each for the operating system (which is 70% used on this one) but /home is separate (and huge because that's where all my files are). and, i think, 2GB of swap (for 4GB of ram) but i'm not sure that's applicable for an SSD
― koogs, Sunday, 6 January 2013 10:39 (4 months ago) Permalink
I was wondering today if you put a linux virtual machine on yor upc how encrypted the files on it are from other users- like is it a way of encrypting your data if you felt like it
― Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Monday, 7 January 2013 18:59 (4 months ago) Permalink
If you used an encrypted filesystem in the VM image, sure.
― mh, Monday, 7 January 2013 19:36 (4 months ago) Permalink
using Oracle virtualbox
― Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Monday, 7 January 2013 20:49 (4 months ago) Permalink
koogs, would you have a smaller swap for an SSD?
― 1.5GB of audio-destroying fluff (los blue jeans), Tuesday, 8 January 2013 04:13 (4 months ago) Permalink
no idea. all the schemes i knew for sizing these things were relevant in the days of MBs of RAM, not GBs.
but it was more the limited writes of ssds that has me worried - isn't the swap partition written to more frequently than other parts of the disk, which would suggest it'd wear out sooner. yeah, i know, wear levelling algorithms in the hardware and all. would be interesting to know.
here's something: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq
but even that seems outdated given
"High RAM and high disk space With 2 GiB RAM and 100 GB hard disk, use 2 GiB for swap since hard disk space is plentiful."
and neither 2GB ram nor 100GB HDD is particularly "high" imo
― koogs, Tuesday, 8 January 2013 09:54 (4 months ago) Permalink
in 2013 nobody really knows how big to make a swap partition
― autistic boy is surprisingly good at basketball (silby), Wednesday, 9 January 2013 01:28 (4 months ago) Permalink
It was ever thus
― badg, Wednesday, 9 January 2013 02:16 (4 months ago) Permalink
was always HALF RAM, or maybe TWICE RAM (i forget). but then ram and disk became orders of magnitude cheaper and faster and more available, maybe to the point where things just don't swap out anymore. (also, a lot of linux machines are now single user so there are fewer processes running)
― koogs, Wednesday, 9 January 2013 09:45 (4 months ago) Permalink
I jsut spent the morning screwing with shared folders with virtual box/mint linux and -I failed
― Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Wednesday, 9 January 2013 16:03 (4 months ago) Permalink
shared between virtual box and the host? have had trouble with that in the past. it works for one combination of guest additions / kernel and then you update and it all breaks. i ended up using a samba share, effectively copying everything over the network even though it's the same disk.
am several minor versions behind with box virtualbox and ubuntu but am sticking with something i know works.
― koogs, Wednesday, 9 January 2013 16:11 (4 months ago) Permalink
Booting my raspberry pi for the first time right now. I used Linux as my only OS from 2002 til 2006 but haven't really touched it since so this feels strange.
― joygoat, Wednesday, 9 January 2013 16:59 (4 months ago) Permalink
I coudl not understand what to put for mountpoint in the command line or for that matter what tp put for share - I did get usb integration to work for moving files out of virtual machine to host but that crashed my whole pc - so I guess it idd not realy work
― Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Thursday, 10 January 2013 20:12 (4 months ago) Permalink
Update. It worked and I got nice German pop files.
― Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Friday, 11 January 2013 04:44 (4 months ago) Permalink
What is a "nice German pop file?"
― fields of salmon, Monday, 21 January 2013 11:42 (4 months ago) Permalink