Posts Tagged ‘ubuntu’

Dual-screen monitor problems with Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic)

Problem: Could not get multiple monitors to work (one laptop screen, one external widescreen) with Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

Symptoms: Blank screen when turning off “mirror screens” mode.

Resolution: Disable or remove compiz. (System -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Visual Effects -> None)

Other Karmic annoyances…

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , ,
Filed under tech : Comments (4) : Oct 30th, 2009

How not to get bored while installing an operating system

Traditionally, installing (or re-installing) an operating system was a dull job. You’d feed your machine with floppy disks (or a single floppy and a single CD if you were lucky) and wait for ages while an hourglass twizzled around. And the screen would be full of platitudes, in a retro-VGA-style, about how much better your life would be. And a chorus of Angels would sing to hail the new computing experience. (Or they would if there were any sound drivers which worked by default).

But now things are different. I give you Ubuntu 8.10.

I must admit, I’m a long-time Linux zealot, having started with Slackware 1.something with (I think) a 1.3.20 kernel. I did install it from floppy disks. I did cycle from home to University campus several times with bundles of floppies containing XFree86. I did rashly install Netscape Navigator and wondered if I’d miss NCSA Mosaic. *sigh*

Back to the present. I’m installing Ubuntu on this laptop. I’m also browsing the web and writing this blog post. On the same machine. It booted from a USB stick into a usable system and is installing in the background.

And here’s the inspiration for this post, an example of how polished the system is:
Migrating stuff from other OSes

Yep, I know. Hardly earth-shattering. But these are the missing bits of fluff that Gnu/Linux distros have been missing.

Anyway… while it’s installing, I’ve got some web-browsing to do. (Did I mention that I can do that? Wirelessly? Oh…)

Tags: , ,
Filed under tech : Comments (0) : Nov 4th, 2008

Gutsy Kurobox

The Kurobox has been running Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty) for a few months, and I’ve been itching to upgrade it to 7.10 (Gutsy). For no particular reason, other than “just because”. Installing any O/S on the Kurobox is quite a task, so I went for the ‘apt-get dist-upgrade’ route rather than doing a fresh install.

And it all went surprisingly well. Top props to the Ubuntu guys and gals who made it work.

There’s only one fly in the ointment. The source-o-matic service (formerly at ubuntu-nl.org) has gone, which is a great shame. Source-o-matic automated the creation of ‘/etc/apt/sources.list’, and is a useful convenience tool for both new installs and upgrades alike. I very much hope that source-o-matic has been just moved, not removed.

In the end, it was a no-brainer to edit ‘/etc/apt/sources.list’ and do ‘%s/feisty/gutsy/g’ – but that’s not the point. If an open source O/S is to thrive, it needs to be easy to maintain and upgrade, as well as being easy to use day-to-day. And tools like source-o-matic help.

Tags: ,
Filed under Kuro Box : Comments (0) : Jan 23rd, 2008

Debootstrap Ubuntu on a Kuro Box

Since nas-central wiki won’t allow the uploading of zip files, I’m uploading one here instead. It’s just the debootstrap script for Ubuntu Gutsy.

I wrote an article about how to debootstrap Ubuntu some time ago, and as a quick fix, linked to a script hosted by someone else. If you’re the owner of food.fishcracker.net, then sorry about that. This is what I should have done in the first place: hosted the file myself rather than leech off someone else.

Here’s the file.

Tags: , ,
Filed under Kuro Box : Comments (0) : Dec 7th, 2007