Posts Tagged ‘ubuntu’
Ubuntu 9.10 – a fresh new look
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
November 1st 2009
OK, so I decided a long while back to stick with Ubuntu. I have now had it as my primary operating system for six months, and I decided that when it was time for an update I would do a complete re-install instead of just an upgrade.
One thing that really bugged me about my previous install was that I did not have a seperate partition for my /home folder (where all the user related content and application data is stored in Linux), so I adressed this issue during install instead of trying to do it after the installation. I set aside 50GB for the root partition and 350GB for my /home. That should be just about enough, considering that Linux is not as bloated as Windows, I probably have too much space for the applications, but who cares. Better be safe than sorry.
To create the /home partition it was as simple as choosing to set up the partitions manually during install, first creating the smaller OS-related partition, then creating a larger partition (set up as primary) and then choose it to mount under /home. There. Done. there are more in depth descriptions of this process online, so google it if you are interested.
Am I happy now then? Yes. Now I can reinstall Ubuntu without loosing any of the settings and files related to my user. That feels a lot safer, because I do experiment with new software once in a while.
So anyway, this is not the most interesting bit about Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). More cool stuff are
Ext 4
Faster boot times – even though I hardly ever need to reboot. Under XP at work it takes around 2-4 minutes before I am ready to start working. With Vista, yeah that is a coffee break right there clocking in at 15 minutes. Ubuntu reboots and is logged in around 1 minute. Brilliant
Encryption of /home
These days when privacy is such an issue I like the fact that my /home folder is encrypted by default (if you choose to). Good. So even if someone would steal my computer and log in as an admin then they cannot get to my files without the proper passphrase.
New look
Finally, something that isn’t so effing brown! OK, it is a different brown but over-all the new standard theme is a lot less shitty than previous incarnation. Switched my theme to a cool black one first thing I did, but even the logon screen looks cool and slick. Very well done.
It works!
OK, one thing many people complain about is that you have to do a lot of set up with Ubuntu. Not true this time. Everything worked out of the box, including my obscure Wireless card, my web cam and the sound card too. All of these are notoriously buggy under Linux. Well, even after I applied the propriety driver for the graphics card I got all of the Compiz goodness that makes the linux experience so much more enjoyable.
Downsides
OK, so it is not perfect, but on the other hand I still have some issues to deal with.
- Internet banking – under 9.04 it worked really well, and I followed the same instructions this time. Nexus Personal just wouldn’t do it this time. I managed to install it allright, but it won’t show in the menu, and there are issues when needing to confirm actions in the internet bank. I can still log on and view my details, but I cannot pay anyone. That sucks. I think this is more due to the user being dim, than software, so I will continue working on it. After all, I do have a virtual Windows lying around for these kind of emergencies. Hopefully they will do some proper testing for the next release of the certificate software.
- Xbox streaming. Not tried this yet, but waiting for the scene to mature a bit. At the moment I stick to using USB for both my xbox and my surround system.
- VPN connection – got it running. I think. cannot really tell.
All in all I am quite happy so far… the experience is really smooth. Next upgrade is in April 2010… if they keep this up that will be the version that kicks Windows and MacOS ass.
From Windows to Ubuntu in three days
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
April 29th 2009
Since I had some time to kill the other day, I decided it was time to get rid of Windows once and for all. It is a major step, and I didn’t feel quite up to the task, considering I am such an addict to Windows software. I figured “If you want to learn to swim real fast, then jump into the pool and try and solve it as it comes along”.
If you didn’t know, Ubuntu 9.04 just came out. I had a good feeling this could be a good Windows replacement. Last version was smooth enough and I had it on my dual-boot machine. But this time I didn’t want to just have it on dual boot. I ended up spending way too much time in Windows because of laziness and comfort.
Heck I just downloaded the latest Ubuntu and burned an install CD… and formatted my harddrive. Oh I did a backup of important files, so nothing major should have been lost. Installation was smooth as always, and plonked away and suddenly there I was… a nice new shiny operating system. Now to get this working the way I wanted I had a few criteria that needed to work ASAP.
- Internet bank login needed to work in Linux
- Streaming music and movies to my Xbox360 needed to work from within Linux.
- Windows running as a virtual system under Ubuntu, with Adobe Creative Suite (Sorry, but Gimp just plainly SUCKS!)
- My secure VPN connection to Relakks need to work under Ubuntu too.
- local development server set up
What is kinda scary with Ubuntu is that you have all these wonderful Open source projects that can sort you out with almost anything you want to do – unfortunately, the people dreaming this up are not big on usability and graphical user interfaces.
Agreed: the terminal is very powerful, but for an average user it just doesn’t cut it. Sure it is simple to copy/paste code you find online, and there is some satisfaction in just watching it hammer away, but come-on… it is surely not that hard to dream up a basic interface for some of this stuff? Until they do, Ubuntu will not be a favourite of the average desktop user… well, I think my mom wouldn’t notice the difference, but we will never find out.
1. Internet bank on Ubuntu – solved with Nexus Personal
My first obstacle was the internet bank. I use certificates and software to identify myself, and after some power-googling I found out that there was a Linux version of my certificate program Nexus Personal. All good and well, and after finding an excellent guide on how to install it it worked straight off the bat. Some issues with signing, but it works most of the time. For some reason it works better for my girlfriend, who did her taxes the other night, and could identify herself with no problems. I guess my certificate might be busted. Oh well… a good 9 out of 10 for this. Points for Ubuntu.
2. Streaming music and video to Xbox360
No solid solution just yet, as the TV is busy, and I cannot intrude. I have avoided all solutions stating running a virtual desktop, as I need this to work for my GF too. Appearantly the Xbox360 can read any proper Upnp source, so I will now make an experiment witn Xbox Media Center (XBMC) which runs on all major operating systems. It is supposed to be better than anything out there, and simple enough to set up… and so far I can only agree. I will tell later on if this solution works.
3. Windows running as a virtual system
I read in many forums and blogs which environment was the best… some said VMWare, and some Virtualbox. After reading up on it and VMWare required too much time in the terminal, I decided to give Suns Virtualbox a go. Installation was easy, and pretty soon I had an XP machine going through the installation process. Not a hitch and very responsive.
I ran into some trouble with getting the USB and CD-rom to play nice, but printing worked straight out of the box. The solution to my worries was actually adding my user to the Vboxusers group, and restarting Ubuntu… then I added the USB in the settings of the machine, and presto… I now have a Windows box that I never need to shut down. I seem to have some issues installing Adobe CS3 on there, but I reckon I might need some more RAM… minimum requirement is 1GB. And it is a legal disc… guess I will have to try with an evaluation version and entering my serial instead.
Will get back to you on how this goes. If anyone knows of a good Photoshop replacement (not gimp or gimpshop) then please let me know in the comments below.
4. VPN connection to Relakks
Relakks is a privacy connection, since Big Brother has taken a jump from the TV-screen to politics here in Sweden. So far I have tried several guides with mixed results… I had it working on 8.10 so it is not impossible… just lost the original link. This guy has a pretty good idea though, and it should work… I will tweak and get him the update.
5. Local development environment
This I haven’t done yet, but will be very easy…
O Sh@#t f%ck, I just realised that I managed to delete my old one when I formatted my computer… I knew there was something… Oh well… what ever I had on there I can set up again. No biggie… fortunately I always try to do backups as well as uploads online.
Anyway, I will go with XAMPP as they make it easy to install and maintain a local environment with Apache, PHP, MySQL and all the rest.
Et voila, I now have Ubuntu, and only Windows for the necessary windows stuff.
Martin Welén » Mac eller inte?
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
April 22nd 2009
Just nu undrar min vän Martin om han ska haMac eller inte?.
Får jag föreslå den tredje vägen? Nya Ubuntu kommer imorgon.
My Vista hell pt. 2
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
June 22nd 2008
Woot! I finally managed to upgrade to XP from Vista. Sure, I said I would do this several weeks ago, but first I couldn’t find the time, and then I needed my computer to find a job, and also – Upgrading an Acer M5620 with a normal XP SP2 cd was impossible.
As I was installing the Win XP disk threw up a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). I tried to find out what might have caused this and suspected a faulty CD (genuine) to hardware error. In the end (and this took me several weeks) I found out that it was simply missing drivers for the RAID on my machine.
So I tried a couple of times by loading the drivers using F6 during the installation, but it caused other errors.
In a final attempt I followed instructions for slipstreaming the drivers onto a new install disk, which, lo and behold I also could set up to unattend the installation. Extremely useful. It both made the installation go smoother and quicker, as well as get around the issue of the drivers.
So finally I now sit on a clean system. No irritating memory hogging Vista in the way. Plus I can now install Ubuntu again as a secondary system.
I just need to adjust the partitions on the machine, but after that is done it should be clear sailing.
Let’s hope it will go smoother than the install itself.
My Vista hell pt.1
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
June 3rd 2008
Brilliant! Got myself a new computer, as I had to scrap my old trusty Shuttle from 2003. Got myself a new Acer, a new screen and new speakers. Yes. Ready to go and start doing some proper work on this gigantic machine.
Oh no. It would not be so easy would it? Generally I quite like Microsoft, at least since XP. I was an unfortunate user of Millennium for about 3 months, which I switched for Win 98 as soon as I could. Let’s just say that Windows Vista Home Premium will have an even shorter lifespan on my machine.
Sure, it looks good, and it connects to my Xbox 360 without a hitch, BUT for working on I could not have imagined any worse piece of crap.
First off, being a designer and web developer I wanted a stable environment to work on. So I installed Adobe CS 3. Great, Vista tried to block me every step of the way with all the new “security features”. That was pretty easy to fend off. It works, even though the combined strength of Vista AND photoshop at the same time almost brought my new machine to a halt. That should have set off a warning light in my head, but I ignored it, because I wanted to give MS the benefit of a doubt.
OK, set up XAMPP, it is a breaze normally for a good localized development environment – yes, I am “one of those” who do not particularly enjoy to get bogged down in setting up web servers from scratch. I LIKE GUI – so sue me. Anyway, it seemed to work and I strolled along quite nicely (after repeatedly telling Vista that I really, really, REALLY wanted apache, mysql and Filezilla running), So I continued to set up my machine.
Had to download new drivers for almost everything, as XP drivers are not good enough, and my webcam was not compatible, so had to buy a new one.
Then it happened. During the course of installing some type of peripheral like my speakers or webcam, XAMPP started doing something quite strange – the very moment I clicked Apache to start – BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death). Come on!! BSOD??? On VISTA? I thought this was long gone and burried together with Action Quake for all the gods sake!
Anyway, Vista starts up again, searches for a reason and replies “Aha, I found a solution”.
What was the solution, you wonder in child-like exitement? “Please keep on sending error reports so we can figure out what went wrong”. Well, you got it, Pal. It is now about a week since this started happening. At first only once or twice, but since yesterday I SWEAR I have caused this to happen about 96 times (if you are to believe indicator for error reporting).
Well, sod it. I have thought about this long and hard, and even if I do like the nice look of Vista it is really not worth all this hastle. In the words of one of my techie friends “Microsoft Windows is like a woman. XP was getting a bit old, and you were used to her good looks. Along came Vista, all nice and tarted up. Of course you wanted to play with her, please her and see what she could do to please YOU. Only after a few days you notice things that are really annoying, which your old girl friend didn’t question. Vista asks a lot of questions, refuse to use the same tools like your old girlfriend, and basically try to stop you as soon as you are having fun. Want my opinion? Go back to your old girlfriend. You will appreciate her more, and forgive the qurikiness. And while you are at it, why not have that new girl from down Africa, Ubuntu, on the side? They will play nicely together and not really care if you have one or the other.”
So long Vista, I am sorry, I will have to break up with you. Oh, and it is YOU and not me that is at fault here.
