I want to use Linux
I really really do, but it obviously doesn’t want me as a user.
I installed Ubuntu, had the usual sound issue, resolved it, and was happy.
Then I thought, hey, what about Virtual Box, let’s take that for a spin.
I installed it, set up a virtual partition and started the machine.
It tells me I need to install some kind of kernel add-on.
No problem says I!
Fire up the package manager, find the thingy with the whatsit, and install away!
Then I have to reboot apparently(right, kernel thing)
I do, and Linux no longer detects my video card.
ugh.
play around with some gui thing, reboot, and all is fixed.
Well, fixed in 800×600.
Install some updates, reboot, and all is fixed again(at the right resolution).
I fire up Virtual box, it tells me I have to be added to a group.
I add myself to the group, log out, login, and fire it up again.
Woo!
It does something!
I begin to install windows!
Double Woo!
Pleased with myself, I fire up the old MP3 player and….no sound card.
Riiiiight.
Must have installed another Kernel update.
Well, go through the usual Ubuntu sound forum page, and remove/install the sound software.
I decided to wait until windows was done.
Reboot!
Now it can’t recover from my linux image…
I don’t even know what that means!
Fucking computers…
Filed under: Blog - @ May 28, 2008 9:01 pm
I feel your pain!
I’ve bounced around a bit recently (getting back into the habit of reinstalling more frequently than I’d like… Sometimes just for flavour).
I’d recommend OpenSUSE (but I can’t really), or Fedora (couldn’t get it to install from a netinst disk)… You could try FreeSpire (Ubuntu based now, but with a commercial polish)… though I don’t really like it either.
I’ve found the best alternative is to just live with the bounce and to avoid headaches, I’m basically living online (ie. data in services like Gmail, box.net, etc.) and using cross platform apps. Reinstallation is now only the pain of the install, and updating (+ minor configuration).
I’d still like to try running FreeBSD (hardware is a little more touchy there…), QNX (it’s available for free for non-commercial use, if you register and can figure out what you need), Haiku and, of course, AROS.
Barring all that, there’s still dual boots and VMs as required.
Best of luck!
I think I’ve said this before, but if you’re using Linux for the sake of using Linux, you’re doing it wrong.
Right tool for the right job, buddy, and for 99 percent of the stuff people do on desktop computers, that’s Windows.
And I say this as a professional systems and network administrator, who uses Linux (amoung other UNIXes and UNIX-likes) every damn day.
–Centurion, at home my server-in-the-furnace-room-where-my-cat5-all-terminates-at-the-patch-panel is linux. My desktop is XP. My XBMC, I don’t really think it has an OS as such.
I don’t like touching the kernel, ever. I know Linux is all about “Oh! You can just recompile the kernel!” but I’m all like “Fuck that, it’s the KERNEL! The one thing on the computer that has to work right, always. I’m not fucking with it!” And they’re all like “Pussy.”
Besides undoing some workarounds that had the battery indicator and suspend my Ubuntu-preinstalled laptop working flawlessly (grr, but I’m not alone at least), I haven’t had a problem on Hardy. Ellen’s had sound issues with games, though.
Oh I know I’m doing it wrong, but in that way it makes it oh so right.
But really and honestly, I shouldn’t be able to cause an Epic Fail by installing one app, then installing the updates to the OS.
I mean really!
Maybe I just like to complain about things, and therefore Linux is the thing for me 🙂
Like doing open heart surgery when you’re not really sure what the heart looks like in the first place…
Dude, take my advice. If you’re going to go Linux, go Debian.
Some people will bitch about the software being slightly older than the bleeding edge, but those people are full of crap. Yes, the software is a bit older. What you get for that, though, is software that doesn’t cause Epic Fail by installing two apps in a row.
Oh, and everything Just Works together. And if you really need newer versions, there’s Backports or Testing.
–Centurion, took me five minutes to get sound working on my Linux server when I was toying with using it as a media server. With two different sound cards. Both add-on cards. One an aureal 2 card, one a soundblaster LIVE card or some shit. And it all Just Worked.