TexasSwede
texasswede@gmail.com
  • About this blog
  • My Website
  • My Resume
  • XML Export Tool
  • Photos

Project "Ubuntu @Home" – weekend update

Posted on November 10, 2009 by Karl-Henry Martinsson Posted in Old Blog Post

As I mentioned the other day,I am planning to start using Ubuntu as my main operating system at home, and use VMware to run Windows applications when needed.

 

Late Friday evening I started by emptying a 250 GB IDE harddisk from files, and then I unplugged all drives except the empty one as a precaution. I put the CD containing Ubuntu 9.10 ("Karmic Koala") in the computer and turned on the power. The install went extremely smooth, and I even found some new things I really liked compared with 9.04 that I had installed on my son’s computer this pastsummer. For example, you can now select "United States" and then "Central" as time zone, instead of having to set the location to either Chicago or some small town i never heard about. Why a large city like Dallas is not in the list baffles me, though…

 

The operating system found some hardware, but not the wireless network card. I actually tried both a Xyxel G-302and a Netgear WG311, none of them really unknown cards. I then (thanks to the online help) found out how to use a Windows driver, and I got the Netgear card to work. I choose that card since I was able to find the driver CD in my messy office. :-)

I then installed the Nvidia graphics drivers. This is where i had some problems. I have a GeForce 7900 GS card, so with some help from Google, I found instructions on how to get the latest drivers, and installed them. I think I had to do some recompiling of parts of the operating system as well. I got the drivers to somewhat work, but then something went wrong. In the end I just re-installed the opearting system and started over. I then found out about Envy, and it was a breeze to get the drivers installed.

I now had the drivers installed, and even gottwinview working.

 

There was just one problem. The resolution was just 1152×864 on each monitorat the most, while I was used to 1280×1024 in Windows. The second monitor, a Samsung, was able to go up to the resolution, but my CyberVision C92 was not recognized. After some googeling, I figured out that I had to modify the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf in order to provide the hsync and vsync values. I changed the values, after I figured out that I could not just use the editor gedit from the menu, I had to go to the terminal and start it from the command line using sudo in order to get full access to the system. Why there is no right-click and "run as root", I don’t get…

I restarted (I am sure there is a way to restart X without restarting the whole computer, but I am a noob and my computer restart really fast anyway) and now I could use the Nvidia control panel to set the resolution. Oops. The settings did not stick, I had to svae them. OK, no problem, click on the "save configuration" button. Nope, could not save the file. Again, I had to go to the terminal and do sudo nvidia-settings in order to run the settings program as root. Why even add it to the menu then, when it can’t be used from there? Well, let’s be clever and change the rights to xorg.conf using chmod.

 

Anyway, I changed the resolution, restarted, and… WFT? Just aconsole login prompt? OK, something is wrong… Did I corrupt xorg.conf like I did before? I tried all different ways of cleaning it, creating a new blank one, etc. The easiset way for me to do this was to boot using the Live CD, mount my hardddisk and use sudo gedit to edit xorg.conf on my drive.

Spent several hours trying to get this fixed. Finally I realized the problem. When I changed the rights, I had modified all the files in the /etc/X11 directory using chmod 666 *. You probably spot the problem. Yes, I had removed the execution flag for X. So sudo chmod 777 X and restart, all set! I told you I was a noob! :-)

 

Finally I was all set, running two monitorsin 1280×1024 side-by-side. I installed VMware, imported a (clean) Windows XP virtual machine I had built earlier and made sure it was fully patched and thateverything worked: networking, sound, etc.

I connected the other drives, mounted them and made sure I could read them. No problems. I then figured out how to mount them permanently, so they were available after each startup.I set them up as VMware shared drives as well, so my guest operating systems could map to the drives. Now I was pretty much done with the OS install.

 

I created a clone of the Windows XP VM and designated it forimage and video editing. I installed Photoshop, Nero, Sony Vegas and DVD Architect, as well as DVDshrink, Divx 6 and a few other utilitiesI use. No problem there this far. Tonight I plan to do some final testing to make sure I can render movies correctly.

 

The nextstep is to build another VMfor development tools. Might even do separate ones for Visual Studio Express and Eclipse, not decided that yet. And of course one for Notes 8.5.1, where I can install Domino Designer and Administrator.

I plan to install the Notes 8.5.1 klient in Ubuntu as well.

 

There are some issues with Ubuntu, as I see it. Mainly issues with it not being as user friendly as Windows. Right-click and "run as root" would make sense, for example. I understand that Ubuntu have a concept of "restricted" drivers, i.e. "non-free" drivers, and that is why the Nvidia drivers are not installed automatically. But it is still annoying. And if I want later versions of the driver (version 185 is included as a restricted driver, while Nvidia have version 190 on their site), it is even more complicated:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nvidia-vdpau/ppa
sudo apt-key adv –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com –recv-keys CEC06767
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-190-modaliases nvidia-glx-190 nvidia-settings-190
 

All this from the command line, of course.
 
Sure, Ubuntu is very powerful and safe, but it is still missingquite a few of the features that make Windows so popular and easy to use. I am not bashing Ubuntu (or Linux overall), just stating the facts as I see them. I am (this far) happy with Ubuntu on my computer, it start faster than Windows (much faster than the almost1 year old installation I had running until Friday), and have the equivialent to many of the programs I use on a daily basis.

 

I will come back with a report in a few days when I have everything installed, configured and have had some more time to test drive the whole system.

Update: This entry somehow got corrupted. Thanks to Chris Whisonant, he helped me by deleting it last night so I could restore it this morning. Sorry if you tried to read it while it was missing.

 

 

« OpenSUSE blocked by Postini – "Illegal Software"
"Project Ubuntu @ Home" – First Impressions »

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

HCL Ambassador 2020

HCL Ambassador 2020

IBM Champion 2014-2020

Stack Exchange

profile for Karl-Henry Martinsson on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites

Notes/Domino Links

  • Planet Lotus Planet Lotus
  • IBM dW Forums IBM dW Forums
  • StackOverflow StackOverflow

Recent Posts

  • Notes and Domino v12 is here!
  • NTF Needs Your Help
  • Helpful Tools – Ytria EZ Suite (part 2)
  • Busy, busy – But wait: There is help!
  • Semantic UI – An alternative to Bootstrap?

Recent Comments

  • Lotus Script Multi-thread Message Box [SOLVED] – Wanted Solution on ProgressBar class for Lotusscript
  • Viet Nguyen on Keep up with COVID-19 though Domino!
  • Viet Nguyen on Keep up with COVID-19 though Domino!
  • Mark Sullivan on Looking for a HP calculator? Look no further!
  • Lynn He on About This Blog

My Pages

  • How to write better code in Notes

Archives

  • June 2021 (1)
  • April 2021 (2)
  • March 2021 (1)
  • August 2020 (3)
  • July 2020 (2)
  • April 2020 (2)
  • March 2020 (1)
  • December 2019 (2)
  • September 2019 (1)
  • August 2019 (2)
  • July 2019 (2)
  • June 2019 (3)
  • April 2019 (2)
  • December 2018 (1)
  • November 2018 (1)
  • October 2018 (5)
  • August 2018 (2)
  • July 2018 (3)
  • June 2018 (2)
  • May 2018 (1)
  • April 2018 (2)
  • March 2018 (1)
  • February 2018 (2)
  • January 2018 (4)
  • December 2017 (3)
  • November 2017 (2)
  • October 2017 (2)
  • September 2017 (1)
  • August 2017 (2)
  • July 2017 (6)
  • May 2017 (4)
  • February 2017 (1)
  • January 2017 (2)
  • December 2016 (2)
  • October 2016 (3)
  • September 2016 (4)
  • August 2016 (1)
  • July 2016 (2)
  • June 2016 (2)
  • May 2016 (3)
  • April 2016 (1)
  • March 2016 (4)
  • February 2016 (2)
  • January 2016 (4)
  • December 2015 (3)
  • November 2015 (2)
  • October 2015 (1)
  • September 2015 (2)
  • August 2015 (1)
  • July 2015 (5)
  • June 2015 (2)
  • April 2015 (2)
  • March 2015 (3)
  • February 2015 (2)
  • January 2015 (10)
  • December 2014 (1)
  • November 2014 (3)
  • October 2014 (3)
  • September 2014 (13)
  • August 2014 (6)
  • July 2014 (5)
  • May 2014 (3)
  • March 2014 (2)
  • January 2014 (10)
  • December 2013 (5)
  • November 2013 (2)
  • October 2013 (5)
  • September 2013 (4)
  • August 2013 (7)
  • July 2013 (3)
  • June 2013 (1)
  • May 2013 (4)
  • April 2013 (7)
  • March 2013 (8)
  • February 2013 (9)
  • January 2013 (5)
  • December 2012 (7)
  • November 2012 (13)
  • October 2012 (10)
  • September 2012 (2)
  • August 2012 (1)
  • July 2012 (1)
  • June 2012 (3)
  • May 2012 (11)
  • April 2012 (3)
  • March 2012 (2)
  • February 2012 (5)
  • January 2012 (14)
  • December 2011 (4)
  • November 2011 (7)
  • October 2011 (8)
  • August 2011 (4)
  • July 2011 (1)
  • June 2011 (2)
  • May 2011 (4)
  • April 2011 (4)
  • March 2011 (7)
  • February 2011 (5)
  • January 2011 (17)
  • December 2010 (9)
  • November 2010 (21)
  • October 2010 (4)
  • September 2010 (2)
  • July 2010 (3)
  • June 2010 (2)
  • May 2010 (3)
  • April 2010 (8)
  • March 2010 (3)
  • January 2010 (5)
  • November 2009 (4)
  • October 2009 (7)
  • September 2009 (1)
  • August 2009 (7)
  • July 2009 (1)
  • June 2009 (4)
  • May 2009 (1)
  • April 2009 (1)
  • February 2009 (1)
  • January 2009 (3)
  • December 2008 (1)
  • November 2008 (1)
  • October 2008 (7)
  • September 2008 (7)
  • August 2008 (6)
  • July 2008 (5)
  • June 2008 (2)
  • May 2008 (5)
  • April 2008 (4)
  • March 2008 (11)
  • February 2008 (10)
  • January 2008 (8)

Categories

  • AppDev (9)
  • Blogging (11)
    • WordPress (5)
  • Design (5)
    • Graphics (1)
    • UI/UX (2)
  • Featured (5)
  • Financial (2)
  • Food (5)
    • Baking (3)
    • Cooking (3)
  • Generic (11)
  • History (5)
  • Hobbies (10)
    • LEGO (4)
    • Photography (4)
  • Humor (1)
  • IBM/Lotus (175)
    • #Domino2025 (14)
    • #DominoForever (8)
    • #IBMChampion (46)
    • Administration (7)
    • Cloud (7)
    • CollabSphere (8)
    • Community (47)
    • Connect (33)
    • ConnectED (12)
    • Connections (3)
    • HCL (12)
    • HCL Master (1)
    • IBM Think (1)
    • Lotusphere (46)
    • MWLUG (25)
    • Notes/Domino (97)
      • Domino 11 (7)
    • Sametime (8)
    • Verse (14)
    • Volt (2)
    • Watson (6)
  • Life (8)
  • Microsoft (7)
    • .NET (2)
    • C# (1)
    • Visual Studio (1)
  • Movies (3)
  • Old Blog Post (259)
  • Personal (23)
  • Programming (83)
    • App Modernization (11)
    • Formula (4)
    • Lotusscript (46)
    • NetSuite (4)
      • SuiteScript (3)
    • node.js (4)
    • XPages (4)
  • Reviews (9)
  • Sci-Fi (4)
  • Software (24)
    • Flight Simulator (2)
    • Games (4)
    • Open Source (2)
    • Utilities (6)
  • Technology (37)
    • Aviation (3)
    • Calculators (2)
    • Computers (6)
    • Gadgets (7)
    • Mobile Phones (7)
    • Science (3)
    • Tablets (2)
  • Travel (6)
    • Texas (2)
    • United States (1)
  • Uncategorized (15)
  • Web Development (50)
    • Frameworks (23)
      • Bootstrap (14)
    • HTML/CSS (12)
    • Javascript (32)
      • jQuery (23)

Administration

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Tracking

Creeper
MediaCreeper
  • Family Pictures
© TexasSwede 2008-2014