Writing from Work
The install did not go as smoothly as I would have liked. It actually took three tries to get everything up and running, and two and a half hours later (when I finally gave up and went to bed) it still hadn't gotten exactly what I was hoping for.
What went wrong.
Well, the first two installs both bombed out at different places. Truth told, the first try I was actually expecting to fail exactly where it did... It got all the way through the install process, then crashed and burned on the reboot. Same spot that it did when I first switched over: the error messages were a little more helpful this time around, but it seems that the old Presario does not like to boot Linux when the BIOS's default video adapter is set to PCI instead of the on-board. All sorts of low-end memory conflicts. The prescribed fix -- to disable the motherboard video completely -- is not available with my particular BIOS. I've ran into this problem and enabled my video card before, so I know how (lspci to find the address of the video card, then adding the card's address and driver - ati - to the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file), but even if they knew what was causing it, a novice wouldn't know the fix without hitting the support channels.
Instead of fixing, I purposefully went the n00b route and tried the install disc again. This time was a little different... the fail was actually unexpected. GRUB failed to install. So I tried the LILO bootloader. It ran, but apparently didn't actually take, because I was given a "Welcome to GRUB" message on restart. I had also played with the install options, and apparently messed up X enough that it wouldn't redisplay the log-in screen.
Third time, I thought, I'll just let it do its thing. So I leave the preseed ubuntu-desktop. I hit the noapic, nolapic, acpi=off options, but not the expert. I answer the setup questions (Language, Keyboard, Time Zone) and let it do it's thing.
So What's Missing
Whenever there is an 'alternative', there are going to be differences. Aside from the obvious (and changable) things -- font differences, menu and quick-launch bars at the top of the screen, color palette -- there are some working differences - or at least inconveniences - out of the box.
The most noticible of them are the multimedia codecs: wmv, mov, and mp3 all require codecs that aren't among the initial install. Flash and Java get the short shrift as well. All are easy to get running, most with one or two clicks and a password. iPods are more of a problem - or so I understand... I don't have one[1].
Really, that's it. Silverlight would be a problem, but there really isn't that many websites using it, and the Moonlight replacement works nicely.
After I quit jerking around and actually let the installer do the work, it was a breeze, took maybe 40 minutes. Most of that was waiting on the mirror; not a big surprise within the first week of a release. Local install and DVD options are available that would have eliminated that.
Not the best experience in the world, I will admit; but even with the two false starts, it still took me less time than the last non-recovery install of Windows did.
[1] My wife does, but it's synced to her computer, not mine.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Ubuntu 9.04 Install log.
Posting from Windows
After much consideration, I decided to wipe the Debian part of my home system and install Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackelope). The main reason being I love to tinker - I hate leaving well enough alone.
So, I backed up my files (a DVDs worth of tarred MP3s, some pics, and some old writing samples I've lugged around since Win98 was shiny and new) and decided to approach installing from a fresh point of view.
I don't think many people are going to have a spare hard drive lying around, so I (surreptitiously) checked to see what programs I use -- if any -- don't have a version or equivalent available for Ubuntu. For me, the list was short: Windows Media Encoder 9 -- which muxes video for my daughter's MixMax -- is a MS only thing requiring a registered version of Windows to download and use. A lot of Windows-native programs that don't have an analogue can be run with WINE. And you can find out if a program you want to use will work by looking it up in Wine's application database. Unfortunately, neither my WME9 or Full Tilt Poker client (which has a Mac version, go fig) play well with WINE. No big deal; I can dual boot. [1]
First things first, I went to ubuntu.com and download the Jaunty alternate-install disc[2]. Like most distibutions, it came as an ISO file. ISOs are bit-by-bit copys (images) of a CD or DVD -- in this case a CD. XP doesn't handle ISOs natively, and if you don't have a program like Nero that can burn an image to disc, I'd recommend a program like InfraRecorder. From Ubuntu's download page, you can choose which version to download and grab the file directly from Canonical's servers. Down the page is another couple options. I have uTorrent installed on my windows side, so I used the torrent download. For me, this has a couple advantages. The most important for me is built-in MD5 check-summing. MD5 is an algorythm that creates a number (a sum) based on the contents of a file. If the contents of the file are changed even slighty - for example, say from packet loss or corruption during download - there is a large change in the MD5-created sum. By checking the sum of your downloaded file against the sum of the source, you can ensure that the data that was received is the same as the data that was sent. This becomes especially important when dealing with programs and the underlying framework that will run your computer. The difference is multiplied: doing a checksum just at the end means you would have to redo the entire ~700MB download if the checksum was wrong. The torrent protocol's incremental checksum means that you the client (program) can discard corrupt sections as it's downloading -- meaning it only has to re-request 1 or 2 MB at a time instead of 700.
There are other advantages of using the P2P transfer; One, once a file is sufficiently seeded it takes a tremendous burden off of the original servers, and two, it is often faster than the single-point download.
Once the ISO was downloaded, checksummed and burned; I used the disk cleanup and defrag utilities to make room on my hard drive for the install. I come up with 15 GB of free space on my first hard drive. Since this is a dual-boot system, I'm going to use that 15GB to store stuff that I'll want to be able to access from either platform - music, small vids, etc. Since XP can only natively access FAT and NTFS file systems, I'll format that as NTFS and make it a shared folder -- since it is a single-user system, there should be no problem with permissions. If there comes a time where I need more users, I can change that at a later date.
Since I do have a second HD, I'll just use it as my bootable linux partition.
It's 9:38, and I'm shutting down to do the install now.
1> Yes, I already knew all this before. Just like I knew that my particular model of Presario (SR1103WM) doesn't play well with LiveCDs, and needs the noapic nolapic acpi=off flags in order to actually install the Linux kernel. All this info -- and probably the ones for your computer as well -- is fairly easy to find with google.
2> See [1]. One other issue that poppe up on a google search: This presario model -- and linux on Compaqs in general apparently -- have had a problem in the past with kernel panic if the BIOS defaults to something other than the onboard video. We'll give it a try both ways -- it's a bug that's harder to find, and maybe the latest kernel has addressed the issue.
After much consideration, I decided to wipe the Debian part of my home system and install Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackelope). The main reason being I love to tinker - I hate leaving well enough alone.
So, I backed up my files (a DVDs worth of tarred MP3s, some pics, and some old writing samples I've lugged around since Win98 was shiny and new) and decided to approach installing from a fresh point of view.
I don't think many people are going to have a spare hard drive lying around, so I (surreptitiously) checked to see what programs I use -- if any -- don't have a version or equivalent available for Ubuntu. For me, the list was short: Windows Media Encoder 9 -- which muxes video for my daughter's MixMax -- is a MS only thing requiring a registered version of Windows to download and use. A lot of Windows-native programs that don't have an analogue can be run with WINE. And you can find out if a program you want to use will work by looking it up in Wine's application database. Unfortunately, neither my WME9 or Full Tilt Poker client (which has a Mac version, go fig) play well with WINE. No big deal; I can dual boot. [1]
First things first, I went to ubuntu.com and download the Jaunty alternate-install disc[2]. Like most distibutions, it came as an ISO file. ISOs are bit-by-bit copys (images) of a CD or DVD -- in this case a CD. XP doesn't handle ISOs natively, and if you don't have a program like Nero that can burn an image to disc, I'd recommend a program like InfraRecorder. From Ubuntu's download page, you can choose which version to download and grab the file directly from Canonical's servers. Down the page is another couple options. I have uTorrent installed on my windows side, so I used the torrent download. For me, this has a couple advantages. The most important for me is built-in MD5 check-summing. MD5 is an algorythm that creates a number (a sum) based on the contents of a file. If the contents of the file are changed even slighty - for example, say from packet loss or corruption during download - there is a large change in the MD5-created sum. By checking the sum of your downloaded file against the sum of the source, you can ensure that the data that was received is the same as the data that was sent. This becomes especially important when dealing with programs and the underlying framework that will run your computer. The difference is multiplied: doing a checksum just at the end means you would have to redo the entire ~700MB download if the checksum was wrong. The torrent protocol's incremental checksum means that you the client (program) can discard corrupt sections as it's downloading -- meaning it only has to re-request 1 or 2 MB at a time instead of 700.
There are other advantages of using the P2P transfer; One, once a file is sufficiently seeded it takes a tremendous burden off of the original servers, and two, it is often faster than the single-point download.
Once the ISO was downloaded, checksummed and burned; I used the disk cleanup and defrag utilities to make room on my hard drive for the install. I come up with 15 GB of free space on my first hard drive. Since this is a dual-boot system, I'm going to use that 15GB to store stuff that I'll want to be able to access from either platform - music, small vids, etc. Since XP can only natively access FAT and NTFS file systems, I'll format that as NTFS and make it a shared folder -- since it is a single-user system, there should be no problem with permissions. If there comes a time where I need more users, I can change that at a later date.
Since I do have a second HD, I'll just use it as my bootable linux partition.
It's 9:38, and I'm shutting down to do the install now.
1> Yes, I already knew all this before. Just like I knew that my particular model of Presario (SR1103WM) doesn't play well with LiveCDs, and needs the noapic nolapic acpi=off flags in order to actually install the Linux kernel. All this info -- and probably the ones for your computer as well -- is fairly easy to find with google.
2> See [1]. One other issue that poppe up on a google search: This presario model -- and linux on Compaqs in general apparently -- have had a problem in the past with kernel panic if the BIOS defaults to something other than the onboard video. We'll give it a try both ways -- it's a bug that's harder to find, and maybe the latest kernel has addressed the issue.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Mad Merlin
I've always been a bit enamored with the Arthurian mythos --- to be totally honest, that would be myths and legends as a whole, but the stories of King Arthur and his knights in particular. And as a country founded primarily by [former] citizens of the British Empire, I suppose that it is natural to explore the stories that shaped our culture.
Which is why I picked up - and read with interest - J. Robert King's retelling entitled "Mad Merlin". The plot will be no surprise to anyone remote familiar with the mythos - even half-remembered from the old Disney movie Sword in the Stone. All the pre-Lancelot standard set pieces are here. Arthur is born, fostered by Ector without knowledge of who he is, goes to London, pulls Excalbur from the stone, builds Camelot, marries Guennivere, sires a son (Mordred) by his half-sister, and defeats the Saxons at Badon Hill.
Where Mad Merlin differs from many retellings of the legends is in the origin of Excalibur and the treatment of Merlin himself - and injecting a rather post-modern sentiment about the power source of gods in the process.
What drew me in was the same thing that drew me into the old AD&D Planescape setting -- that for the gods, belief is power. Here, when the Saxons invade the Roman Britain, they bring with them their pantheon -- in particular Wotan (Odin), and Loki. With the Roman pantheon already displaced by Christianity and the Brittanic gods driven underground by the Roman conquerors, the visible -- and very deadly Saxon gods would be free to decimate the Brittanic forces.
How author King (not Arthur, King) uses these facts is a treat for the comparative-mythologically inclined and a spoiler I'm not willing to share, but it is safe to say that the wizened Merlin is much older than he first appears.
Pick it up, give it a read. It's pretty much supplanted White's The Once and Future King as my interpretation of choice.
Which is why I picked up - and read with interest - J. Robert King's retelling entitled "Mad Merlin". The plot will be no surprise to anyone remote familiar with the mythos - even half-remembered from the old Disney movie Sword in the Stone. All the pre-Lancelot standard set pieces are here. Arthur is born, fostered by Ector without knowledge of who he is, goes to London, pulls Excalbur from the stone, builds Camelot, marries Guennivere, sires a son (Mordred) by his half-sister, and defeats the Saxons at Badon Hill.
Where Mad Merlin differs from many retellings of the legends is in the origin of Excalibur and the treatment of Merlin himself - and injecting a rather post-modern sentiment about the power source of gods in the process.
What drew me in was the same thing that drew me into the old AD&D Planescape setting -- that for the gods, belief is power. Here, when the Saxons invade the Roman Britain, they bring with them their pantheon -- in particular Wotan (Odin), and Loki. With the Roman pantheon already displaced by Christianity and the Brittanic gods driven underground by the Roman conquerors, the visible -- and very deadly Saxon gods would be free to decimate the Brittanic forces.
How author King (not Arthur, King) uses these facts is a treat for the comparative-mythologically inclined and a spoiler I'm not willing to share, but it is safe to say that the wizened Merlin is much older than he first appears.
Pick it up, give it a read. It's pretty much supplanted White's The Once and Future King as my interpretation of choice.
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