Hooked on Linux

Hardy Heron Beta is Perfect

2008-04-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

After running brick wall after brick wall trying to get compiz working on my fancy new HP laptop I decided that I needed a cutting edge distro with the most up to date kernel and drivers. I decided to give Ubuntu a try. I had played with it before and I thought is was a good basic distro, but lacked the polish of Suse or Linspire (pre 6.0). Mint on the other hand put the needed touches on the distro, that is why I have been using it for a while now and I have no complaints except for a working intel 965 driver.

I booted into the live version and tried to get compiz functioning and could not. I have had similar problems with with live CDs and that is sometimes you have to reboot to get the changes to stick, which of course you can't do with a live CD. I installed to disk and did not have a lot of hope that I was going to succeed. The install was perfect and I booted into the OS once it was installed and it appeared that I was not going to get compiz.

Ubuntu incorrectly used the VESA driver. I had to change to the Intel 965 driver and viola, I had 3d. I had to install some compiz packages and then enable desktop effect before I had wobbly windows and other 3d eyecandy (see the movie below).

Be afraid Microsoft be very afraid. I'll be honest, the hardy heron release does not have the polish of the Vista but it it has been completely stable since I have installed it (and it is a beta release). I cannot say the same for Vista. I have had several blue screen of death's and it has been hanging during shut down intermittently for a while now. I think is is hilarious that a free beta version of Linux is more stable than a $240.00 copy of Vista Home Premium.

Just a quick aside, I have Vista Home Premium on my home desktop computer and it to has been nothing but problems since I got it. It is a Compaq tower that I got a good deal on, or I thought I did. It does not have a dual core processor and I kind of wish it did. The mobo can take a dual core Intel processor so I thing I will pop one in when the warranty expires. I had to upgrade to two gig of ram, Vista was too slow with one gig. My wife uses the machine most of the time, I may use it once or twice per week. About three weeks ago I noticed that my Zone Alarm icon in the task bar was missing. I had to reinstall Zone Alarm, I thought this was odd but I did a virus scan once Zone Alarm was reinstalled and found nothing. Several weeks later I was trying to uninstall a program but uninstall was not an option in most of the programs in control panel. I contacted HP tech support and they determined that I had a virus, it is a long story but I ended up reloading Windows.

I just tried to install a new video card with TV-out in the Compaq. It should have been compatible and it did work but I could not get the drivers to load so my max resolution was 800 x 600. I contacted EVGA support and they could not get the card to work so I am returning it tonight. This is not a Windows problem (unless you consider not releasing your source code a problem), but it is frustrating that a card that is suppose to work with my system does not.

Ubuntu has reached a point where it requires very little tweaking to make it usable and look good. I am not sure what my favorite distro Mint is going to do to their next release (they are built on Ubuntu) to polish it and make it their own.

Ubuntu had bared some codecs from the distro (mp3 for example) and relied on others to integrate them into apt-get. I think they have seen the light with the Hardy Heron release they did not include mp3 and other non-free software but they include an option in synaptic to install support for mp3 and Windows fonts etc... They finally understand that if you want the average user to use your OS you have to make it as usable as Windows.

I love several things about Ubuntu, I have it installed on my HP laptop and this is a little thing but you have to wonder why no one else (Windows or HP) has never though of it. With every other laptop I have owned you have to manually adjust the screen brightness when on battery. Sony actually dims your display by about 60% when on battery power, almost unusable, you have to increase the backlight every time you are on battery.

With Ubuntu, If I am on battery and I stop typing for a period of time the screen slowly dims until black. This sounds like a simple thing but it is a brilliant way to get a little more life out of your battery. It beats holding the function key and and pressing the f5 or f6 key to increase or decrease the screen brightness.

I also love the compiz effects especially wobbly windows, they are addictive. I have read several stories that this is the most important Ubuntu release and I agree, as far as stability and functionality Hardy Heron is a biggie.

PCLinuxOS Sucks (not really)

2008-04-06T20:12:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a new laptop, you can read about it here. Since I am a Linux geek I was careful to check that the hardware was compatible with Linux. The chip set and video card is made by Intel and according to this web site Intel open sources the drivers. Fantastic! I have an older HP laptop that has a funky TwisterK video card that still does not have Linux drivers and never will.

You know what they say when you assume, if not ask your parents and they will tell you hoe the rest of the saying goes. You would think opens source drivers would mean a well functioning video card, well I should have checked some forums before I bought the laptop. Apparently there is a bug, and I don't think anyone is to blame. From what I have been able to find there is a problem between the Intel video drivers and the fancy Compiz 3d interface for Linux.

I had installed my favorite distro, Linux Mint Darnya. It was great for a while but after getting use to the Aero eyecandy in Vista I was itchy to get compiz working on the laptop. I had compiz working a little on my old laptop so I knew what compiz could do. Unfortunately it was too buggy to be functional.

I thought for sure PCLinuxOS 2008 would be the distro that would give me the fancy 3d interface. I had installed earlier versions and liked them alot. PCLinuxOS was short lived on my laptop, it could not do something that other Linuxes had done, configure the wireless card. I was shocked, how could every other version of linux configure my wifi card but not PCLinuxOS 2008?

Oh well I will keep looking.

Linux Hardeware

2007-11-24T14:58:00.000-08:00

Up to this point I have babbled on about Linux the OS and have not talked about hardware. Up until this point you could buy a computer- desktop or laptop, with Linux loaded on it from web stores like Sub300.com or even Walmart. The problem with Linux hardware is that even though that manufacturer is saving money by not paying the Windows license fee for each computer, a small box shop will never be able to buy components as cheap as Dell or any other of the big boys, so your Linux computer will not have cutting edge hardware and it will cost more that a computer that you can buy on sale at Best Buy or Circuit City
For Linux hardware to become popular to anyone accept the geeks trying to support is it will need need to find a niche, it will need to do something that Windows or OSX does not. There are many places where Linux could outshine Windows, but the first one that come to mind is low resource computers. This could mean loading Linux on old computers that Vista would not run on, but it is not easy to make money selling used equipment. You could have a new Linux laptop or desktop that is far from state of the art hardware, but why would you do that? A couple of interesting answers to that question have recently appeared.

The first is the O n e Laptop Per Child project or OLPD, they have come up with the XO computer. Their goal is not profit, but it is more altruistic. They have this amazing idea that if we can provide computers to children in third world countries, they will not be left behind in the information age. Unfortunately for Microsoft the XO runs a modified version of Red Hat, and this scares the hell out of Microsoft. It scares them so much that they came out with a low resource version of XP to use on the Intel version of the OLPC and the story is here. They are very aware that for the majority of people, once they become comfortable with an operating system, they need a very good reason to change. This has worked well for Microsoft, they sell discounted versions of Windows and MS Office to many school districts in the US and in other countries and when the students graduate and buy a computer, they will buy what they know. A very bad analogy is a drug dealer giving dope to someone until they are hooked, then charging them for their product. I am not comparing Microsoft to a drug dealer, it is a wise business move for them to get their products into schools.

There are three pieces of Linux hardware that are currently available that I think will start the mass acceptance of Linux as the operating system of choice. The first one is, as stated above, the OLPC XO computer.

The next is the commercial version of the OLPC laptop. It is called the Asus Eee laptop. The laptop has 900 mhz Intel micro processor, 512 mb of ram, and no hard drive but 4 gig of solid state storage. It has a speakers, microphone, a .3 mega pixel web cam, a seven inch screen, wifi, and 3.5 hours of battery life. The design of the Eee is a little more adult than the brightly colored XO. It is a little bit bigger than a hard cover book, although not as thick. I have seen black and white versions, I prefer the black.

The laptop runs a modified version of Xandros Linux, the interface is extremely simple compared to a normal Linux desktop, however you can install the KDE desktop, but it takes some doing.

I was at Micro Center in St Louis Park Minnesota and I noticed that the had an Eee on display so I was able to play with it for a while. Of course the first thing that I did was power it down and time how long it took to beet once I booted it up again. I read that the boot time was fifteen seconds and it was very close to that, maybe a little faster. My second thought was I bet OpenOffice is really a dog on the Eee". Again I was pleasantly surprised, I did not time it but it did not take any longer to load that the OpenOffice on my 2 giga hz Sony laptop. I did not bother seeing how much memory was allocated to OpenOffice, but I kind of with I had. I launched Firefox and checked out hoe the world wide web looked through the seven inch window. Unfortunately Micro Center has Safe Surf on their network so my surfing was limited, but page loads were reasonably fast and played You Tube videos.

What I liked about the Eee:

It is the perfect size to take just about anywhere, yet it is not too small to do some serious surfing.

I have a Nokia 770 that I use as a PDA, I have a few minor issues with it, but for the most part it does everything I need it to do and more. I think at some point the Eee could substitute for my 770 and laptop. The Eee will do everything the 770 will do and more (accept built in bluetooth). I also think most days I could leave my laptop at home and just haul around the Eee. I have already been wondering if I will be able to run my PowerPoints on it and I believe it has a video out so I should be able to connect it to a LCD projector if I can change the output resolution. Hmmm it just may work...

It definitely seems to have enough horse power to do everything I need. I like that the OS is Linux, I should be able to apt-get any programs that I need.

I like that it has video out, and three usb ports. Heck my old two thousand dollar Sony only two usb ports.

Dislikes:

Most of the dislikes are inherent to the size of the device. The keyboard is cramped, but if you want a small laptop you have to have a small keyboard.

I was disappointed with the display. The display on my 770 is very sharp, it is probably the nicest thing about the unit. The resolution on the Eee, I believe is 800 x 480 and it is not bad, but compared to today's standards the cursor and icons are a little large and not crisp like the 770. I have read that Asus is going to come out with an Eee that has a ten inch screen. The first laptop that I had was a ThinkPad that had a 9 inch screen and the old pencil eraser instead of a touch pad and I would have a hard time stepping back in time and buying a laptop that has a smaller screen than my old ThinkPad.

Neither the keyboard or the screen (I would prefer the 10 inch model) are a deal breaker. The keyboard is as good as it can be for its size and the screen is functional, you probably would not want to spend hours without a break using it, but it is adequate.

I think 2008 will be the year that Linux will find its niche on the laptop/desktop. It is going to be a long time before Linux overthrows Windows on the corporate desktop, if it ever does, or becomes the standard home or soho OS. The dynamics of computing is memory is fast and cheap, processor speed doubles every eighteen months, Moore's law, and Microsoft will build an OS that needs all of the computer's power and more. This is a plus for Linux,

Mint makes a great mojito

2007-09-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

Linux Mint

My wife and I are just back from a short vacation to the sleepy little island of Isla Mujeres Mexico. Somehow I have managed to spend fifty three years on this earth without ever tasting a Mojito. What a mistake! There is very little that can beat sitting at an outdoor restaurant wrapped in the evening August heat of Mexico and sipping on a Mojito with fresh mint leaves floating in the drink. My point is that mint makes a Mojito the perfect drink, the Mint Linux makes Ubuntu the perfect distro. Not a Windows killer, but I have not doubt that even a novice Windows user could find their way around Mint.

I had tried earlier versions of Mint and liked them but no matter how hard I tried I just could not get use to Gnome. I am accustom to KDE where just about everything is tweakable and felt stifled by the lack of of options in Gnome. So I used Mint for a while but always eventually installed a distro with KDE in place of Mint.

I saw that there was a KDE version of Mint so I decided to install it on a whim, per my previous post, I though Freespire 2.0 was the coolest thing since Sony invented the Walkman, so I installed Mint on a free partition. Everything I thought about Freespire was multiplied by ten in Mint. After using Mint for about half an hour I moved my files from Freespire to Mint. Mint has the functionality of Freespire, but it is much more polished.

Download

There are five different versions of Mint 3.0 (Cassandra) that you can download. There are two Gnome versions to download, two KDE versions and a lightweight XFCE version. I opted for the mini KDE download, I hate it when the distro installs two gig worth of crap, most of which I will never use. I wish every flavor of Linux had a single install CD.

Installation

The Mint installation is pretty much a standard Ubuntu installation, the one thing I like about the Mint installation is it allows you to install grub in the root partition rather than the MBR via an advanced button. I am scratching my head, did I miss the advanced option in the Ubuntu install or Freespire install that allows you to install grub in the root partition? I don't think so, but it is possible. I am reasonable sure that Mint is the only one of the three distros that gives you the option. In my opinion (that would I am a non-programmer I don't want to muck around with grub), it is better to install grub in the root partition and use a commercial boot loader to dual, triple, quadruple boot.

Mint is a live Cd with an install options. This is a nice option, you can get an idea if your hardware will work with the Linux version without wasting your time trying to install it. However, I have had everything work in the live CD but when I installed it I ran into hardware problems. Likewise, I have had wireless cards that did not work in the Live CD but did when I installed to the hard drive.

There was a problem with the installer when Cassandra was first release, the work around is here. They have since fixed the problem and they have updated the ISO so the installer on your ISO should work unless you downloaded your ISO shortly after it was released.

When I performed the install I had an existing installation so I did not try to create a new partition, I just edited the existing partition and that went without a hitch. There is no package selection, you get everything that is on the CD. I did not time the install but it definitely took less than twenty minutes. All of my hardware including my D-Link DWL-G650 wireless card were correctly detected. I actually got the network working while I was running the live CD, that hasn't always been the case with other live CDs.

After the install is finished it gives you the option of continuing to work or to reboot and use your brand new Mint installation.

Using Mint

This is what your Mint desktop looks like, more or less, I like a translucent task bar.
I don't think Freespire 2.0 is bad, I just don't think it is not as professional as Mint. The one thing I like about Mint is the very brave decision they made to include Tasty Menu by default. Suse has a similar menu and a lot of people railed against it when they included it in their last release. I actually like it a lot, I wish it was more configurable, I think part of the kicker should be reserved so the user can put short cuts to programs, documents, jpgs, or what ever they use the most. I know that in tasty menu you can list the most recent programs, most used programs, recent documents etc... but I would like a area of the menu that will show my most used programs and documents, it would save me a lot of time.

One of the problems with Mint if you use wifi is you have to reenter your settings every time you boot the computer. Here are instructions for a work around.

Another issue with Mint is root login, there is a huge controversy about the security issues caused by logging in as root, but I have ran into several issues where sudo did not work. In case you do not know, sudo allows you to run a program as root. In order to do this open a terminal and type sudo and the command that you would like to run as root. Once you press enter you will be asked for the root password.

To allow root login you will have to use the sudo command. Open Konsole and type the following:

sudo kate /etc/kde3/kdmrc

Then press enter. You will get some error messaged in Konsole, ignore them. You will have to enter your password. The Kate text editor will open and allow you to edit kdmrc.

Change the line that says "AllowRootLogin = False" to "AllowRootLogin = True" and click the save icon. You will be able to log out and login as root.

One of the first things a Linux addict loves to do once the new system is installed is to see what free software is available. Mint uses Adept as a package manager, it has a very slick interface but I like Synaptic so that was the first thing I installed. There is all of the usual software and if that is not enough there is a comprehensive list of repositories here, as the post states do not get greedy, there is no guarantee that all of the repositories will play nice together.

3D desktop eye candy is available through Beryl. I have two laptops, one has an old unsupported S3 Twister video card so Beryl isn't much good. My Sony laptop has some 3D capabilities and Beryl is very cool. I have found a bug where it will not display the task bar so I haven't used it much.

The stock icons, fonts, wallpaper and everything else that I usually tweak are pretty darn good. The only thing that I have changed visually is I have made the task bar translucent and I have added my vacation photo's to the desktop wallpaper.

My favorite thing about Mint is it just works. I haven't had any lockups or other strange things happen since I have installed it. I can play MP3s with Amarok, I can play YouTube videos, I haven't run into a situation yet where I could not play a video or open a file because that codex was not already installed.

Any complaints? Only a few, the wireless configuration interface located in the task bar could be better. I own a Nokia 770 and wireless interface is great. It will list the available hot spots that are within range and allow you to connect to them with a single click. As long as you connect to the same wifi hot spot Mint will connect when you boot up, but if you are traveling you will need to start KwifiManager or other configuration tools to connect to the hot spot.

Ubuntu should learn a lesson from Mint, they should buy Mint and incorporate the Mint tweaks into Ubuntu.

Fantastic Freespire

2007-08-12T13:02:00.000-07:00

I had tried Linspire 6.0 OEM a while ago and was terribly let down. The interface for previous versions of Linspire were always professional and more polished than most of the other distros. However 6.0 looked like very little time was spent on polishing the interface, it was almost an exact clone of Ubuntu. My guess is because Linspire is changing their business strategy, they would rather spend time coding Click and Run than trying to redo their base distro, Ubuntu. I think they are moving from being a Linux distro company to a software provider for Linux because as we all know, one of the major problems with Linux is installing software. I could rant for a while as to I don't understand why the software providers just don't package the program and all of the dependencies like a windows exe, but I won't put you through all of that.

I haven't spent a lot of time playing with Linux lately, but I decided what the heck, why not try it , when I saw the new version of Freespire. I installed it on my old HP ZE1250 laptop that must have some odd proprietary chip set that just does not work with Linux. If you look at my past posts you can see that I have had nothing but problems trying to get Linux to work on this laptop.

I grabbed the ISO and burned it to CD. The install process is very similar to K/Ubuntu. Not as simple as the Linspire installation process, but still easier than Windows. Freespire inherited an aggravating flaw from Ubuntu, by default you have to install grub in the mbr. To get around this with Ubuntu they have an alternative ISO image that will allow you to install grub in the root partition, Freespire does not have an alternative ISO so there are some special steps that you have to take that I cover below. I use Acronis boot manager because I triple boot or quadruple boot, and one distro's version of grub may not boot another version of Linux, and if it doesn't you are stuck trying to edit the grub config file (good luck if you are not a programmer), or you can reload the version of Linux that you use the most, leaving the other version unusable. I learned the hard way, go with an after market boot loader and install grub in the root partition, it will save time in the long run. Anyway, the Freespire/Linspire install is fast and easy. The options are kept to a minimum and the installer just works (for me anyway, even on my Linux hating laptop).

The one thing I really like about Freespire is they keep programs on the CD to a minimum so everything fits on one CD. This is the opposite of Suse, when you install Suse you need five CDs plus the "add on" CD if you want closed source programs, and it will take up two gigs of disk space on your hard disk. If you do an install with KDE and deselect everything but KDE, it is still almost two gigs on your hard drive. I am not a programmer so I don't need five shells and six editors. Suse also includes software that I just don't use, Evolution for example. This sounds like I am bashing Suse, I am not, I really like Suse, I just wish they had a basic installation CD that included KDE and a minimum of other software. I know they have a network installation CD but you are still stuck with almost a two gig install that you end up downloading.

I do tech support for a medical company, and from time to time our customers will have to reload Windows because their computer will not boot. This was a big problem before service pack one was released, it still happens, but just not as often so it appears that SP1 and Sp2 fixed a lot of initial problems.

The usually reason that Windows will not boot is because the hive is corrupted. One solution to repairing the hive is to boot into a shell and manually copy the Windows system files, but if the customer is not good with computers or the english language, it is much easier to reinstall Windows. Installing takes over an hour and one half for Windows alone, then we need to install the printer drivers, reinstall our program and restore the data. From the beginning to end it takes over two hours. There were many times I wished that our program would run in Linspire, if it did I could have the customer put the CD in the CD drive, three clicks and fifteen minutes later we would be done, we could even make a bootable image CD with everything we needed on it and included it with our computer when we ship it.

The other problem that we have encountered with Windows is activation. Our customer's computers are not connected to the internet so we have to hope that after reinstallation the customer calls Microsoft to activate Windows. I know of several times when they did not and I received a phone call thirty days later saying they were locked our of the computer because Windows was not activated.

As stated earlier, if you remove the check mark from "install grub in master boot record" (something like that) Freespire should install grub in the root partition, and actually in older versions of Linspire (Lindows), if you did not install grub in the MBR, it would automatically install grub in the root partition. Alas, those were the good old days!

Since Freespire does not install grub in the root partition on its own, after the install, Acronis will see the new OS, but when you click on the icon to boot it all you get is a flashing cursor in the upper left hand corner of the screen. I searched the Linspire forms and was able to find the solution as explained below, of course this works with Linspire also.

Once the install is complete, boot into live Freespire CD (this works with other live Linux CDs or if you have a working Linux version on your hard drive) and open a terminal as root, then type the following:

grub (press enter)

You will get a grub prompt.

Then type:
root (hdX,Y) Where X is the drive number, you have to remember that grub was most likely written by an engineer so your first hard drive is 0 not 1. If you want to install grub on the second hard drive the syntax would be (hd1,Y), be sure to include the parenthesis. The next variable is the drive partition- Y and again you have to think like an engineer, so if you want to install grub on the fifth partition of the first drive the syntax would be (hd0,4).

Press enter.

Then type:
setup (hdX,Y) then press enter. The syntax will be the same as the root command. I have encountered a problem with grub when typing the the setup command, I will get an error message the first time I type the setup command. If that happens, just retype the command (or press the up arrow key, this will bring up the last command that you typed) and press enter, it has always taken it the second time through.

Close the shell and reboot, once in Acronis, or the boot manager of your choice click on the Freespire icon and you should boot into your system.

Once in Freespire you will get the "first boot" configuration screens where you can configure date and time, set up the network connection, add users and more. Once finished with all of that, you are finally using your Freespire OS.

When I wrote this Click and Run was still in alpha so I was not able to use it to install any other programs.

One thing Ubuntu is really bad at is wireless networking, I have five wireless cards and I think only one of them works in Ubuntu. The Ubuntu wireless applet is lame compared to Freespire's wireless setup. Also, I could not get ndiswrapper to work at all in Ubuntu, I have not had to try to use it in Freespire because my D-Link cards work!

I have an old Microsoft B wireless card that works in just about every version of Linux that I have tried (Microsoft, go figure), I also have a D-Link DWL 650g that usually works in any distro can load the madwifi driver. The D-Link card does not work in Ubuntu, but works flawlessly in Freespire. My laptop is a fair distance away from the router so it is nice to get a little extra speed.

Click and Run is not up yet so I am kind of stuck with the programs that came on the CD. I tried Automatix but was not able to get it to work and I also did not have any luck with klik.atekon.de either.

Final thoughts about Freespire 2.0, the look and feel is not highly polished like most Linspire versions, but then it is the community supported version. I expect the final Linspire 6.0 version to be better than Freespire 2.0 and the Linspire 6.0 OEM version that I had tried a while back. I don't thing Freespire is ugly, it is just that the interface could be a little better, the icons are different than other flavors of Linux but they are kind of basic, there is nothing special about the look of Freespire. That said, Freespire works great, I use to love, after an install, searching for and adding repositories to get non-free software and tweaking everything. I still like getting in and tweaking the interface, but is nice to have all of the codecs installed. It is also nice to have my wireless cards "just work".

I've been away

2007-06-18T19:52:00.000-07:00

I have lost my obsession for Linux lately. There are several reasons for this, one of my laptops has problems with most Linux distros, I have been trying to learn VB Studio 2005, and I have spent the last month playing with my new toy- a Nokia 770.

I had a Linux server (file, music) setup, but my wife wanted to keep the Windows box on all of the time so it did not make any sense to run two computers when one will do the job. I have been using Windows most of the time because of VB Studio 2005. I haven't given up on Linux, I still use it when I buy anything or log onto my bank website.

I have PCLinuxOS and Linspire 5-0, along with Windows loaded on my work laptop. Linspire has been on it for almost two years and is getting old. I really like PCLinuxOS and it it operates flawlessly but it does not have.

I had played with Mint previously and liked it accept for the fact that it has Gnome desktop. I have also played with Ubuntu and Kubuntu. The big problem I have with K/Ubuntu is that I cannot get wireless working, even with my old Microsoft B card that works with everything, that is a definite deal breaker.

I wanted to try Mint 3.0 since it was just released. It is a very nice distro, but again Gnome was the deal breaker. I was able to use ndiswrapper to get my Netgear card working. The configuration was not as easy as PCLinuxOS, because I had to use the command line compared to the PCLOS gui.

I also tried the new beta of Ubuntu. I tried it because I saw in the release notes that they have tweaked acpi to make the laptop run cooler and the battery last longer. The one problem I have with PCLOS on my "problem child" HP laptop is the fan runs all of the time and the laptop runs hotter than usual. The Ubuntu beta worked great, but Gnome again was the deal breaker. I decided to try Kubuntu Feisty Fawn, the install was easy, my laptop runs cooler, even though this is the "old" Kubuntu, the fan actually runs less that when I am in Windows, Honest! The deal breaker was I could not configure my wireless car using ndiswrapper. I do have an Old Microsoft B card that plugs and plays, so I will use that for a while.

2007-05-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

Mint Linux

2007-03-08T21:11:00.000-08:00

Since having problems with PCLinuxOS and Suse I thought I would try Mint Linux. I know there is a lot of disagreement on non-free software, but I think if Linux is going to be competitive it needs to be competitive with Windows,in other words it needs to play DVD, MP3s, Apple and WMF our of the box without setting up repositories. Anyway Mint is suppose to do that. I took a chance and installed it to hard drive even though my wireless card would not work with it. After installation I tried to load Windows wireless drivers, which worked well in PCLinuxOS but not in Mint. However, my DLink car worked just fine and the fan on my laptop hardley runs at all. The nice thing about Mint is because it is base in Ubuntu there is tons of support available form the forums.

Suse Really does suck!

2007-03-04T20:25:00.000-08:00

I have PCLinuxOS loaded on one of my laptops and I really like it, but I have had some problems with the laptop shutting down. It is working fine in windows so I am assuming there is a problem with acpi and PCLinuxOS. Suse works fine, but I just cannot get internet to work. I tried Linuxant driver loader and that would not even work. I am hoping that PCLinuxOS is going to release their 2007 version soon or Linspire 6.0 will be released soon.

Suse Sucks

2007-02-27T20:20:00.000-08:00

I really like the look and feel of Suse Linux, but I have had problems for years with hardware in Suse. I was hoping that Suse 10.2 would be different. I installed it on several of my laptops and I really like the feel of it but I cannot get any of my wireless cards to work and if I do not have internet access it is a deal breaker.
I read earlier that Suse was not going to include any non-free software in their latest release, from a nonprogrammer point of view, this is a big mistake. I know you can add repositories and install proprietary drivers but it just did not work. I even tried ndiswrapper and it would not work. I had PCLinuxOS loaded on the same laptop and I was able to use ndiswrapper to set up the same wireless card that would not work in Suse. I just don't understand why Suse with all of those developers cannot get ndiswrapper to work and PCLinuxOS with apparently only several developers can!
The bottom line is that Suse is a really slick looking distro but I cannot get even one of my five wireless cards to work in it and I can always get at least one in just about every distro that I have tried.
The kicker in is worth mentioning, I really like it at first, that was why I spent so much time scouring the forums trying the get any of my wireless cards working. I though the design with tabs was ingenious, but I was sick of it and ready to go back to the old style kicker by the time I gave up.

PClinuxOS

2006-11-24T19:22:00.000-08:00

My newest addiction is PCLinuxOS .93. I am not sure but I think Texstar is the main person at PCLinuxOS. I remember the name from years ago when I was playing with Lycoris, I believe he had his own repositories and I have also seen texstar repositories for Suse, so he is quite active.

I am a big fan of Linspire, but I have had problems running Linspire on some of my equipment and I am not sure if it is me or if Linspire has just become buggy. I have had numerous browser crashes in Linspire, and if there is one program that should work flawlessly, it is the web browser. The crashes have occurred on multiple computers so I don't think it is a hardware problem.

Besides the browser it is nice to have Windows emulation. Codeweavers is good, but I cannot run Dreamweaver MX 2004 (I haven't tried it in the beta yet), among other programs (I am still waiting to run Tombraider in Linux). I tried Win4Lin, and I am still a little pissed that they seem to have dropped support for the old version. I actually bought the new version and tried to use it but is so sloooooow. VMware is darn good free emulation, I wish they would have started giving it a way before I bought Win4Lin. I have tried running Linux (Suse among others) in Windows and it is just to slow. But when running Windows in Linux, Windows seems to be running at almost full speed, after installing VMware tools.

Back to Linspire- it is very hard to get VMware to install in Linspire. I have done it (it take some command line magic) and there is a comprehensive how-to in their forum, but if they wanted to Linspire could make it an easy to install (CNR perhaps) program. Since they don't, I think this is a huge mistake because I now have to find a Linux distro that will run VMware, and I am sure I am not the only Linspire fan in the same boat. Makes you wonder if they might have some sort of contractual obligations or even get a piece of each sale of Win4Lin.

I recently bought a 120 gig hard drive for my laptop so I could easily have three to four Linux distributions on my laptop. I thought Ubuntu/Kubuntu was the next great thing. I had tried it a couple of releases ago and it just required to much tweaking out of the box. With their latest release, 6.10, I thought I would actually run Ubuntu for a while. I had plans of installing a Mac OS X theme, but none of my six, yes six, PCMCIA wireless cards would work with Ubuntu. I am not sure why, but I checked the forums and I could not get anywhere. I went back to OpenSuse 10.1 it would not allow me to access my Windows partition without some editing, of course any closed source programs/drivers are missing from the OpenSuse release. And yes I know I can set up repositiories to download those packages, which I did, but is is just a lot of tweaking to do when Linspire does it out of the box. The deal breaker was a Suse bug, at least I consider it a bug, it does not seem to bother them. Every time you turn off your computer or reboot you have to use their network manager tool (which is a slick little tool) to find your wifi hotspot and connect to it. With other distros it will automatically connect.

After a little searching I decided to try PCLinuxOS. I really do not like Mandriva, which it is based on. And I had tried a previous version of PCLinuxOS which I did not like, but this version is great.

Installation:

Installation is easy. Boot into the program to run it live and click on the install icon. Unlike Linspire, there is a built in partitioner which worked great. I had run into a problem in Ubuntu and Kubuntu, if you did not create the partition with their partitioning tool, it would give you an error saying something about there not being a root partition, even though you just tagged one of the existing partitions as root. I scoured their forums to discover the workaround is to delete the partition and then create the partition, then Ubuntu will install. It is kind of crazy that a polished distro like Ubuntu would let a bug like that go into the released version.

There are three sizes of PCLinuxOS that you can download. I grabbed the smallest one. I prefer to install the base system and then get the programs that I want from the repositories. Unlike Suse, the installation did not take long. I rebooted and entered the system.

The System:

It was great, I love the cursor theme, transparency was enabled in the task bar by default, the icons were great, the icon for the synaptic manager was on the desktop and the repository was listed. I guess what I liked about the feel of the distro is that it felt like I would have done it this way. PCLinuxOS found my wireless card and even though network setup is a little different than what I am use to, it is simple and straight forward. I could access my NTFS partition, even though I could not write to it. I could also access my Windows computer via the network.

Installing Programs:

As I stated before I can install many-many-many programs through Synaptic, so I enabled the repository and grabbed all of my favorites.

Emulation:

I grabbed the latest beta of Crossover Office and installed it. I also installed the free version of VMware server. Compared to Linspire, I was amazed at how easy it installed. I installed XP in VMware and everything is working great.

Complaints:

Not many, I could not get my touchpad to scroll, so I installed synaptics (I hate that this projects name is so close to the synaptic front end program for apt). I still could not get my touchpad to scroll, so I will have to look at the PCLinuxOS forums. My second complaint is not really a complaint, it is more of a preference. There is no network manager in the panel, but you don't really need it because as long as you have the same access point it will connect automatically. Still, I would prefer a network manager like Suse or Linspire's.

Closing Thoughts:

I could be wrong but I am guessing that other than Texstar, there aren't many people involved in the OS. Again, I am not an expert, and I just go by what I read, I would guess that PClinuxOS is structured like Mepis where Warren seems to be the man in charge and I don't think there are many other people helping with the coding.

I need to use PCLinux for a little longer and then if everything continues working as slick as is does now I need to donate to the cause.

Linspire again

2006-06-28T07:31:00.000-07:00

I got tired of Linspire a while ago, I had it installed on three computers and it crashed on all three. I went back to Windows for a while on my main computer and since my wife is using my main computer now I will end up staying with Windows until virtualization software gets closer to native speed. Of course I have problems with Windows software, I have a wireless music server and I installed Panda Titanium and it killed the connection, Panda hasn't been able to configure their software to work with the plug and play server so I am going to uninstall Panda and try another firewall. The problem with Windows software is both of those items are expensive and I just wasted money. At least in Linux for the most part the software is free.
I have two laptops that I am trying to load Linux on. The first is a Sony PCG-V505DC2. This works well with all versions of Linux, my other laptop is a HP ZE1250, there are some weird issue with this laptop, I cannot get most versions of Linux to work on it.
I use the Sony for travel and I don't want to connect to unsecure wifi networks when I am using Windows. I have been able to load everything that I want on it, but I have not been able to get my G wifi cards to work, and that is a deal breaker. I thought my wifi cards were working in Suse 10 but I cannot get them working in 10.1. I had Kubuntu loaded but its wifi manager was terrible, I couldn't connect to half of the wifi hotspots when I was traveling. I also could not access my home network via samba or smb4k. Other than that it is a great distro. I was about to give up when I decided to load Linspire again. The last time I loaded it CNR would not work. Not this time everything is working and it is n ice to be able to install of the great CNR programs again.

Been away for a while

2006-06-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

I haven't done much in Linux for a while. I decided that I needed to learn Dreamweaver and I also wanted to learn a 3D program. I am not saying that you cannot be productive in Linux but I ran into multiple circumstances that made it to hadr to run the software I needed.
The problems were just to hard to over come so I am using Windows most of the time. I still tried to use Linux when I was traveling and using wifi, Windows is just to scary to use in those circumstances.
Dreamweaver MX 2004 would not work in Codeweavers. I could not load Win4Lin because Netraverse must have decided that they were not going to put to much effort into supporting their old version in hopes that people will upgrade to the new version. I am kind of pissed, this was not cheap software and now it does not work in most new Linux flavors, at least with out a lot of work. I was hooked on Vmware for a while and I still like it but it is just to slow for everyday use.
I have been traveling a lot so I did not get very far with Dreamweaver or the 3D software. I tried Blender, the learning curve is steep and I played with it for a while and decided to move on. I am considering K3D, Realsoft and Maya.
I have gotten the Linux itch in the last several weeks and I have tried loading some new just released flavors of Linux on my redhead stepchild laptop, it is a HP ZE1250. It does not get along with a lot version of Linux. I saw on a web search that there is defective driver for the via hard drive controller. It is so weird because every other kernel release will work. I am able to get Linspire installed but I keep getting DCOP errors and the desktop stops responding. I had Suse 10 installed and working but I thought I would try something newer, I also wanted a Debian distro because of all the programs that I can install with Apt. The end result; no luck. My parameters were that it had to install without any hassle and it had to work with my DLink wireless card. Ubuntu, Kubuntu installed but locked when I tried to boot into it. I could not get my wifi card to work in Suse 10.1. PCLinux OS locked during install. I tried Morphix, but it appears that they haven't updated the kernel and KDE in a while so it did not work with my wifi card.
I still do not have a working version of Linux on the laptop that I have at home. I am not sure what I am going to do, probably stick to Windows. Windows really irritates me, I spent an entire hour last night and another hour tonight trying to load DLink drivers for my wifi cards because I had to swap them between my laptops. The drivers had been loaded on the laptops and Windows should hang onto those drivers and plug and play the drivers when the card is plugged in. Nothing will work the same in Windows twice. I rebooted, I uninstalled drivers, I reinstalled drives, I tried to manually install drivers and nothing worked. I finally reinstalled and it worked. Linux may not have the driver for every card but at least when you plug a card in that is supported it works.
I did load Kubuntu on the laptop I use when I travel, just so I have a safe way to access the internet on the road. I really like it, although there are some problems. When I boot I will do a disk check on my windows partition, very time consuming. The wifi manger is funky, twice it would not find the hotspot that I new it was there. The difference between Kubuntu and Windows, I don't have to pay $350 for my copy of Kubuntu.

Still diggin VMware...(so far)

2006-02-21T07:34:00.000-08:00

Per the blog title, I am still diggin VMware. I bought a 512 meg stick of ram to get my computer up to 1 gig. Set the ram for my Suse 10 VM to 700 meg ( I don't plan on doing anything in Windows while running Suse). I am a little disappointed, Suse doesn't seem that much faster with the extra ram.
I am still trying to get VMware tools to work in Linspire. I found instructions posted on the Linsire website to install VMware tools in Linspire. I didn't have the correct compiler installed so it did not installed correctly. I need to uninstall and try it again. Linspire is soooo sloooow without vmware-tools.

I was able to install Vmware tools into Linspire, but I think it broke the OS. I can still boot into Linspire but it is the wrong resolution and it is still slow.

The coolest thing about Vmware are the community built virtual machines. What a great way to try a Linux OS without partitioning and installing.

Since I started playing with VMware they have released a free version of EXP server. This is great! At one time I actually did pay $100 for VMware, I was disappointed, it was limited as to which Linux you could easily install it into, and while it was cool to run XP in Linux, it was much slower than Win4Lin (Win 98). At this point many of the newer programs will not run in Windows 98 so Win4Lin is less and less of an option. Anyway it's nice to get a free version of Vmware to play with. While I am excited about able to easily run multiple virtual machines I am not sure this is the be all end all road to Linux. The performance hit is a big issue. Surfing the net in Suse VM is just slow enough to be annoying. I could install a low resource version of Linux like DSL, I would thing surfing the web would be faster.

The Problem with Windows

2006-02-11T20:20:00.000-08:00

Per my previous post, I have been using VMware to run Linux. This means that my main OS is Windows and I am running Linux as the guest OS. This is very cool because once I am into both OSes I can jump back and forth between OSes (without having to reboot of course). I decided to go with Windows as my main OS because of Photoshop and Dreamweaver, both programs will work in Linux but they run a little bit better in their native OS. I actually feel a little guilty using Windows as my main OS.
The XP partition on my desktop computer was only about a month old when I loaded VMware on it. Unfortunately, I had not yet loaded anti-spyware or anti-virus programs on it. I did have the Windows firewall turned on, but I picked up some nasty viruses and spyware. I thought I was going to have to reloaded Windows. I eventually got rid of them, but it took some doing. This just reminded me how vounerable Windows is. I have used Linux for years and I have also ran virus checks and never found one virus in Linux.
The other problem I have is with a Windows program, Music Match Jukebox. They are really a sleazy company, years ago they tricked me into buying a lifetime upgrade. I have not used it for years, but I need the program to work with the server on my SMC music beamer. I had temporarily set up Music Match on my laptop to act as a server for my SMC box. Of course, as soon as you start the program, they want you to buy an upgrade, but I thought- no problem, I have a lifetime upgrade. I entered my upgrade serial number and the program kicked it out. I had to email Music Match and they reactivated the serial number, but never explained why my "lifetime upgrade" serial number did not work. I had problems again today, I entered my serial number and supposedly I have the full version, but I don't have the features that I am suppose to have. The other problem that I have is I ripped a CD to my hard disk, and Music Match would not play any of the songs after it finished ripping and there is now a folder on my hard drive that I cannot delete. I tried rebooting and I still cannot delete the folder. What a great program!! The other problem I have with Music Match is how it looks up the CD information. I like Lsongs, a free program, it's CD look up is light years ahead of Music Match.

Loving VMWare

2006-02-11T20:00:00.000-08:00

I like Vmware so much that I shrunk my Linux partition, grew may Windows partition, and installed several Linux virtual machines. I created a Suse 10 VM, I downloaded Kanotix VM, and it took several tries but I created a Linspire VM. I also downloaded a Mac OS X VM from somewhere on the internet. Amazingly it works! Accept for the internet connection, I haven't been able to get that going yet. The only other problem that I had with OS X was I had my XP partition formatted FAT 32 and the OS X had a file that was over 6 gig. You need NTFS to handle a file that big, so I used Partition Magic to convert the partition to NTFS.
Of course, the guest OS is a little slow, but it is very usable.

Linux in Windows

2006-01-22T16:04:00.000-08:00

I had played with VMWare before. The Windows host did not run the Linux versions that I wanted, and the Linux host would not install in most versions of Linux. I was able to get it to install once and it was very slow, especially compared to Win4Lin. I have been pretty discouraged with Linux lately, there are a lot of great things about it, but is is a pain in the butt to have to dual boot to use Windows programs. I have emulation software (Win4Lin and Codeweavers), but it is not perfect. I have Photoshop 7 and Dreamweaver MX loaded in Win4Lin, I was using Photoshop to edit some photos, for the most part it was working fine, but the mouse was jumpy (not what you want to have happen when editing photos). I have been using Dreamweaver and it is just slow.

Enter option two- I discovered VMWare player. It is a free program that will run VMWare images. The cool thing is that there are free community supported images that you can download. So to recap, you can get a free VMWare player to access images and then download a community image. So it is like getting $200 in software for free. I was reading in the forum that you can download the beta create an image, uninstall VMWare, install the player, and it works. I have not tried this to verify it, but I do have an image of Suse 10 ready to test with VMplayer.

There are two cool things about using VMWare, first is that I don't have to reboot to use some of my Windows programs that don't work so well in Linux. Second, I can backup my entire Suse 10 image, in case I break it, the really cool thing is that I can created the perfectly tweaked Suse 10 configuration, back it up and install the image and VMplayer and any of my other computers. The downside is that I have to use Windows more than I want.
I discovered a good reason not to use Windows, again. When I was installing VMWare it asked me for a serial number. I did not realize that it had been sent to me via email, so I searched the warez sites for serial numbers. a dangerous thing to do, I picked up spyware that locked up my computer. I installed Microsoft spyware beta, it found the spyware and attempted to remove it, but that killed my computer, it would not boot. I had to reset Windows to the last restore point.

Kanoix again

2006-01-12T19:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, I blew away my Linspire beta partition and loaded Kanotix. I really want to use it because it is 100% Debian compliant. The bad news is I have not been able to get my Microsoft wifi card to work. I don't have time to mess with it so I will let it go until I have more time.

Try again and again

2006-01-08T19:43:00.000-08:00

I wiped out my Linux partition again because of the Linspire dcopserver problem. It actually wasn't that bad but I wanted to try Mandriva (didn't like it). I also wanted to carve out a 5 gig partition to load OSes that I wanted to experiment with. I currently have Linspire beta on that partition. I had to reload 5-0 several times because once sound didn't work and other time-- I just don't remember, I have loaded Linux too many times. I loaded a bunch of programs through CNR and had multiple dcopserver crashes. I uninstalled all of the programs, accept for OpenOffice 2.0 and then disabled CNR and the update client. I have had no dcopserver problems for the last two days. I cannot help but think CNR or one of the problems is causing the crashes. I will use the computer for several days and if it is still error free I will enable CNR and see if I have problems. I am also having problems with Linspire Internet suite, it crashes when I try to log onto blogger.com. No fear, I installed Firefox. I have Win4Lin, Photoshop, Dreamweaver MX, and some games loaded. I had a pleasant surprise, I was able to get The Sims for Linux installed and working. I am amazed because it did not work in Mandriva 2006 and it does in Linspire. I bought the game several years ago and have not played it. I can now.

Mepis, Kubuntu, Xandros, Knoppix and Kanoix

2005-12-27T19:27:00.000-08:00

Per my previous blogs, I spent a lot of time over Christmas trying to get any version of Linux to work on my laptop. I had Suse 10 loaded on it, I really liked Suse. There were two reasons that I dumped it. I wanted to run Windows programs on Win4Lin and I wanted to get my G wireless cards working. Suse 10 does not have a Win4Lin enabled kernel, I did a little googling and found a procedure to patch the kernel but it did not work. I also tried ndiswrapper and the Linuxant driver to get any of my wireless cards working, but no luck. Suse had one other irrating flaw, it would dump the wireless settings when the computer was shut off.
So I decided to try some different distros. I wanted to stay with Debian so I would have the entire Debian repositories to choose programs from.
One of my favorites distros use to be Xandros (Corel). I had a Xandros 3.0 disk so I installed it. I could not get any of my wireless cards to work and the wireless tools available in Xandros are not nearly as good as Linspire or Suse 10.
Knoppix and Kanoix are two cool distros. I could not get my wireless cards to work in either distros. I installed Kanoix to my hard drive (by using the Kanoix-installer script), hoping to get wireless working once installed, but no luck. I gave Kubuntu a half hearted try and again no luck. I installed Mepis and had everything working when I broke it by doing an upgrade.

Merry Christmas!!

2005-12-26T18:32:00.000-08:00

OK, after I installed Mepis and loaded Win4Lin, Photoshop, games and struggled trying to load Flash in Win4Lin, and tweaked the interface,I had the bright idea that I would update everything through synaptic. Bad idea!! It downloaded 700 Meg of updates and after it finished sound did not work and even though my screen resolution was suppose to be 1024 x 768 it looked more like 800 x 600. That was the bad news.
Since I trashed Mepis, I decided that I would give Linspire another chance. I loaded it, Win4Lin, Photoshop etcetera... Previously, the DCOP server was dieing so none of the programs would work when I clicked on the icons. Something that their support said made me think the problem may lie with CNR. After I got everything up and running I used CNR to update the system (only 4 programs), then I disabled CNR. I let the computer run most of the day, clicking on program icons from time to time, and all is well so far. This is a record for Linspire on this computer. Anyway, Linspire is my OS of choice, so to appear to have Linspire 5-0 up and running on the computer that I use the most, when I have had no luck previously, it is like a Christmas present.
I need to let the computer run several more days, then make my usual interface tweaks and see if it is still stable. I am hoping because if not, I just may go back to Windows. There is no real reason for me to run Linux, other than I like it and I also like all of the free programs. Most of what I use it for can also be done in Windows.

Merry Christmas??

2005-12-25T19:39:00.000-08:00

It has been a good Christmas, but there have been some downsides (Linux and non-Linux related). Besides Christmas presents I had two large unexpected cash layouts. I had to stick $500 into my car and on Christmas eve day I got a $350 doctor bill for my knee surgery that I had done last July.

I have spent most of my spare time that I have had off of work trying to get any Linux disrto to work on my HP laptop. If you have read previous posts there must be weird hardware problem with the Linux 2.6 kernel and the ZE1250. Linspire would be the OS of choice, but I get DCOP server errors. I have done some research on the Linspire forums and some other people have the same problem and they seem to think that the error is caused by the sound server. I tried disabling it and I still had problems. I thought I got a hint from the Linspire support people that the problem was cause by CNR. I disable it, but I also had other problems, Mozilla would not work on a new install for some reason. My wireless cards were not working. I loaded and reloaded and could not get everything to work at the same time so I gave up. I was hoping to load Kanoatix, and I did but I could not get wireless working. I tried their ndiswrapper gui, but it did not work with the driver that I have for my DWL-G650 card. I tried madwifi-same thing. I think there is an issue with wep because I could not get any of my cards to work. I tried iwconfig commands to no avail. I had Suse 10 installed but Suse does not have a Win4Lin enabled kernel and I wanted to run Photoshop and several other Windows programs. I also could not get a G wifi card to work.
I finally out of desperation decided to try Mepis again. I figuered out a mistake I had made configuring the wireless cards, you have to go back to the first tab to actuvate the configuration. I have win4Lin installed and working. I also have a wireless G card functioning in Mepis. The only possibility of a crash and burn is that I am upgrading the OS as I type. I am hoping it works.
I almost gave up, as much as I like Linux I am tired if dicking around to get everything to work. If Mepis does not work, I was going to leave Linux alone (on this computer). This actually drives me crazy. Linux works great on my other computers, just not on this one.

Suse 10 on HP ZE1250

2005-12-11T18:15:00.000-08:00

I went back and forth with Linspire support for over a week and they were not able to cure the DCOP server error problem. It has to be something specific to the ZE1250 hardware because I have Linspire loaded on several other computers and I do not have a similar problem.
I finally gave up on Linspire (at least on the HP) and loaded Suse 10. I really like Suse, it is a very polished distro, the problem I have had with it in the past is hardware detection and configuration. I am still haunted by that in Suse 10. I have about five wireless cards, all but one works in Linspire (it's a Microsoft wireless card, go figure). I can get only one of them to work in Suse 10. I can get two G wireless cards to work in Linspire and none in Suse. I have tried ndiswrapper and it did not work. I checked forums and I only found one post where someone got ndiswrapper working and he did not post how he actually did it. I was actually going to buy the Linuxant driver, but the demo would not work. I do have a B wireless card that works in Suse and that is good enough for now. I plan on messing with ndiswrapper in the future.
The second headache I have is the touchpad, it is so erratic in both Suse and Linspire. Linspire is usable, in Suse it is almost a deal breaker. I use to have instructions for editing the /etc/fstab file, like I said "use to". The instructions were for an older version of Suse and probable will not work with 10. I finally found a post that helped me. I can install ksynaptic and use it to fine tune my touch pad. I did it and it worked. The touchpad is almost perfect now, it is a little glitchy in Firefox, but not bad.
The really irritating thing is I cannot get any emulation software to work in Suse 10. Win4Lin 4.5 needs the kernel patched, I did it and it did not work. I cannot believe that Suse does not have a Win4Lin kernel. I could upgrade to the newest version of Win4Lin, but I would have to install Windows 2000 and I do not own a copy. VMware does not work, there is an issue vmmon. I haven't found a fix and I am not sure that I will. It is irritating that I have expensive emulation software that is no longer usable. I do have the newest version of Crossover Office, but it is not working with Suse 10, of course. I have a ticket in and will probably hear back Monday. I really do not need to run Windows software on Linux so I am going to take a deep breath, relax and use my Suse install as is.

Linspire Woes

2005-11-20T20:56:00.000-08:00

I have Linspire intalled on four computers and it is either completely toast or partialy crashed on three. In a way this is OK because they have just released the latest version, so I migtht have been updating my compters anyway. On the other hand this is just an incremental upgrade so it is probably not worth wiping and installing. It is kind of strange, I have an old Ipaq desktop computer that I use for a music server along with a SMC music streamer. This computer is on most of the time and this is the computer that has no problems.
It is a little scarry that Linspire has performed so poorly. I mean Linux is suppose to be stable, but it has crashed like a big dog an three out of four computers. I tried thinking back to see if it was possibley something that I may have done and I don't think so. Could it be some nonCNR software that I loaded, possibly, because I have OpenOffice and Crossover Office loaded on all three computers, not to mention Win4Lin.
One of the computers that it crashed on is my HP Laptop. I have had problems with multiple Distros on this machine. I have the newest Linspire loaded and it is mostly working, but from time to time the desktop quits responding and I get a Klauncher cannt be reached via DCOP error message. I emailed Linspire support and got a reply that I don't think will work, but I will try it anyway. They want me to uninstall and then reinstall CNR, what the heck, it's worth a shot.
Reguardless I don't want to give up on Linspire, it is more than just an OS. I am really hooked on CNR, they have it well organized, you can peruse software by catagory, most popular, newest, and they even have software you can buy. I am sure that if I had Debian installed I would be able to find most of the programs in the Debian repositories, but CNR makes it so much easier to find the newers and best software.
CNR is probably the main reason that I have not installed another distro on that laptop. If I was to load Mandrake of Suse on the laptop I would not have the access to all of the extra programs that I have with Linspire. Sure, they come with five CDs, but that pales in comparison to CNR. If I wanted to be really radical I could install Synaptic and enable the Debian repositories, that would give me even more software to choose from. Of course I don't use most of the programs that I have, so that would be sort of rediculious.
Linspire has CNR and Mandrake has Club Mandrake, since I have paid for CNR I don't want to shell out more to for Mandrake. I have loaded Open Suse on the laptop but there are some serious shortcomings that I don't want to take to time to overcome. Such as no MP3 support, no 3D drivers for my video card, no playing encripted DVD, and so on and so on... There are workarounds for all of this but I am spoiled and if I can find a distro that includes all the above out of the box, that is the distro that I am going to go for.
I do like Kubuntu a lot, but it is the same story as Open Suse when it comes to getting all of the functionality that I need. I did try Ubuntu, a very nice distro, but I just do not like Gnome. It is not as mature as KDE.
I just bought the full version of Suse and I am expecting it to arrive this week, the timing is beautiful because I have Thanksgiving week off so I will have plenty of time to tinker.
If I cannot get Linspire to function normally on my HP laptop, then I will throw Suse 10 on and I should be able to find most ot the programs that I find in CNR by using Yast or Apt for RPM. It woun't be the same as Linspire, but I will have to live with it.

New find

2005-10-24T18:48:00.000-07:00

I just discovered autopackage. This is a great alternative to synaptic or Kpackage. I cannot believe how easy it is. You just download the package, make it executable, click on it and autopackage does the rest. There aren't thousands of packages available yet, but this is so easy I think it will catch on fast.

Blogger for Word??

2005-10-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

Google had a great idea, they created a plugin for Word so you can creat and edit posts whenever you want. Word?? I don't want to go back to Word, I am hoping they are working on a version for OpenOffice.

Linspire let down

2005-10-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

I know I have been raving about Linspire, but I have had several problems with it lately. I was using LSomgs to tag MP3s and Linspire did a couple of strange things. It has problems with partitions. It originally found and mounted several different partitions, then for some reason it dumped them. I manually edited the fsab to mount my Windows partition. In the middle of tagging MP3s I shutdown the computer and turned it on the next day, for some reason most of the the songe I tagged were not tagged and I had to redo them.
There are some well documentated sound problems with Linspire 5-0 and I am experinecing them on my desktop, LSongs works, but none of the desktop sounds work. I have also noticed a Window like glitch, you click on "turn off" computer and the computer does nothing. This happens fairly oftern on my Windows machines and it is very irritating.
The next version of Linspire is almost ready, I am going to install it on all of my computers when it is, that should fix all of my little OS glitches. I am a little worries that Linspire is turning into Windows and I have to do an OS reload every year.

Suse 10

2005-10-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

I guess the next challenge was Suse 10. I tried to install via the network install CD and it would not work., so I downloaded the 5 ISOs. The install was prettymuch flawless, I installes it on my HP ZE 1250. I could not get my wireless to work during install. I was able to get it to work when I booted into the system, but I have to set up wep everytime, it does not hold my wep key. I cannot get any of my wireless g cards to work. I have been playing with Suse 10 for about one week now and it is very nice. Baghria is available via Yast and looks very good. I went in and added sources for DVD and MP3. Even though there are many programs available on the CDs or available via FTP, I am still spoiled by Linspire FTP. Linspire is really aimed at the home user, where as Suse is more for the business user, so there are a lot of really unteresting programs available via CNR. Linspire also has the entire Debian repositories to work with. The Suse program selection pales in comparision to Linspire. I'll play with Suse, but when the next Linspire is available I will dump Suse for it.

The Next Challenge

2005-10-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

Linspire has the latest beta of their OS available, I know I wasn't going to bother with it, but the Linspire beta on my HP laptop isn't working so well, so I will probably download it tonight and install it over the weekend (it only takes 15 minutes to install vs 2 hours for Microsoft). I said I wouldn't on the previous post , so I guess Linux is some kind of an addiction.
I might check out Suse 10, I see that is available via bit torrent. I really like Suse, 10 had KDE 3.4 and other new things. Unfortunately, I have always had problems with Suse hardware detection, Suse doesn't work some of my machines that other Linux will run on without a problem. I also need to do some checking to see if there are repositories, I am pretty sure that TexStar has a Suse repository, but I hate install an OS then not being able to install the programs that I want.
I also need to take the hard drive out of my server and slap it into my other faster computer. The server is just to slow and the onboard video is lame.
I am also toying with the idea of setting up a computer with speakers in my workout room. I am thinking of taking one of my other computers and running a live Linux version so I don't have to install a hard drive. I would stick a wireless card in it and access my MP3s on my server or listen to internet radio. I am also painting this weekend so I am not sure what I will get done. So many projects so little time.

Exiting Eden

2005-10-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

It was too good to last forever. The Linspire install on my pain in the butt HP laptop is acting up. I am getting DCOP server errors. I am running a beta version of Linspire so I am not to worried. They just released the next beta and I have doubts that I will install it (but of course as I am typing this I am thinking maybe I'll have time). I will probably wait for the final release. Besides, I am using that laptop to learn SQL server 2000, so it basically a Windows laptop for now.
I am content with Linspire for now, I have no need to install any other flavor of Linux, but I am sure that something new catch my interest.

Linux Eden

2005-09-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

I finally have my little Linux empire up and running. I have two laptops and two desktop computers (a bit excessive) running at least one flavor of Linux . One laptop dual boots between Windows and Linspire, the other laptop triple boot between Linspire, Kubuntu, and Windows. One desktop has Windows, and multiple Linux versions. The other is set up as a server so it runs Linspire exclusively. The Linspire server also acts as an MP3 server. I have a SMC music streamer connected to my stereo and I am using MP3Beamer software to operate it. It works great! I can listen to my CDs or internet radio using the SMC and MP3Beamer. I am going to get rid of one of the desktops so my only desktop will be the Linspire server/MP3 server, no sense running both desktops.
Another little toy that I have is a D-Link print server, It is sooooo easy to setup in Linux! I just set it up using the printer Wizard.
Since I am using Linspire as my operating system, installing programs is not problem, I just use CNR and it is done. I am a Linspire insider for life and I feel a little guilty about not having to pay anything for the new OSs, so I will probably buy Star Office 8 from them when it is available. I paid $10 for MP3Beamer, but that hardley counts. If we don't support Linspire they won't be around long.
Right now I am waiting for Crossover Office 5.0. According to their web site it will run a lot of Windows programs. They have yet to name them, so I am a littel sceptical as to whether they would be programs I would run, but I am still stoked about Crossover Office 5.0. I have played around with Transgaming's Cedega, but I play very few games and the games I play will not run in Cedega. Win4Lin is great, I can run Photoshop and Dreamweaver in it. Win4Lin can't run games, but it will run all of the necessary Windows programs. The nice thing about Win4Lin is it is fast. It boots quickly and it is kind of cool to see a Windows desktop in Linux. I don't think that most people realize how much work it takes to do that.
The cool thing is that everything Linux is working and I have some pretty extreme techie toys.

What Up?

2005-08-14T18:21:00.000-07:00

I am still on the fringe of Linux nirvana. I have been using Linspire on my desktop computer almost full time, even though there are sound issues with KDE, sound is working great for everything else. I mostly listen to internet radio or my music library, and LSongs is great for that. Linspire is hasn't worked out very well for my HP laptop. I have the beta loaded and ACPI does not work very well, the fan is constantly running and the laptop is hot. I read some other posts at Linspire that said that ACPI does not work, I posted a bug report so I will find out. In lieu of having a usable version of Linspire on the HP, I have Kubuntu loaded, and it is great. Linspire is loaded on my Sony laptop and it is flawless.
I was thinking about trying to install Suse 10 beta, but this is the first beta and it probably will not install anyway. I think I will wait for RC1.

(K)Ubuntu Love

2005-07-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

I installed Ubuntu because I could not get most other distros to work on my laptop. I was amazed! Before I installed it I though there was nothing new in Linux. Boy was I wrong! Ubuntu is slick, it has a very complete feel, after playing with it for several days I am still impressed. I understand what the buzz was on the internet.
There are several hurdles for the average Windows user. I am sure that they have no clue about sudo, also a lot of distros will auto mount the Windows partition, but not Ubuntu. It is not a big deal becasue Ubuntu has great documentation online, it easily walks you through editing the fstab file.
My main issue with (K)Ubuntu is I like KDE and Kubuntu will not set up my network when I install or after install. I found a way around this. I install Ubuntu and make sure everything is working, then I use synaptic to install KDE. I can log into KDE and my network works. However, the first time I tried to install KDE I got some repository error messages and, of course, it did not work. I still need to add more repositories to Ubuntu to get all of the programs that I want.
I saw that Debian has started a project to incorporate all of the Ubuntu changes into the main Debian distro. Ubuntu must be diong something right.

The Latest Craziness

2005-07-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

I have three partitions on the HP laptop- XP, Linspire beta, and the third one I save for experimenting. I have had Mepis loaded on it. I try to Like Mepis, it is a really good distro, it works great on the HP, it just lacks a little polish, but it works, but it lacks polish, but.... I have spent the last week switching off between Ubuntu and Kubuntu. I want the KDE version, but when I loaded it the first time networking did not work and it took me a while to fugure out the no root thing. I still could not get networking going, so I loaded Ubuntu. Ubuntu is great everything works, it has a lot of polish, but I hate Gnome, pretty blah, definitely not as tweakable as KDE. I searched for some Gnome themes to spice things up, but I did not find anything I like. I spent the next several days reloading Kubuntu and Ubuntu, and the networking that I did eventually get working previously would not work in either. I learned a long time ago that if you computer refuses to act like it should you should just leave it alone, and I did until tonight. Low and behold, Ubuntu loaded and networking worked. I installed a couple of cool crystal themes and icon sets, and I can live with it for a while. I also installed KDE via apt-get, it crashed last time I tried, but I also got some error messages. This time- no error messages, I will see if it works. That would be the best of both worlds, I could switch between KDE and Gnome as I see fit.
Having been spoiled by Linspire, it is shuch a pain to have to install flash and manually edit fstab so I can mount the Windows partition in Ubuntu.

Redheaded Stepchild Laptop

2005-07-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

I have a HP ZE1250 that use to be a great Linux laptop. It replaced a Z505 that had an external CDROM that made it hard to install Linux. The HP has been wonderful up until recently. There are some issues with booting from the CDROM, but Smart Boot Manager fixes those issues. I had problems with Linspire 5-0 and Suse 9.2, I could install them but they would lock up constantly. It appeared to be an issue with the kernel (?). Newer distros are out since this hiccup and they are working on the laptop.

I have loaded:

Linspire Beta- New kernel, and it works, but this is beta software so there are a few problems, I am getting a DCOP server error from time to time, but other than that it is working well. CNR is kind of glitchy, but I have been able to install several programs.

Mepis 3.3- Works flawlessly, I should be using it but I like Linspire better so I will limp along on Linspire rather than use a fully functional Mepis. I like Mepis, it's just that it is my second favorite distro.

Ubuntu- A very cool distro, but it is Gnome and I am a KDE guy.

Kubuntu- Another very cool distro, but a lot of things do not work. I did not configure the network when I installed it, and the distro does not let you login as root so I could not configure network. I installed Ubuntu, then figured out that I could install KDE via apt-get. For some reason not all of the repositories were functioning so not all of the packages installed and the distro did not work well. Samba worked great, but you have edit the etc/fstab in Ubuntu and Kubuntu to access your Windows partition.

The good news is that D-link DWL-G650 wireless card works with all distros- plug and play! It is nice to have a G card that just works.

So for now I have Linspire 5.1.25, and Mepis loaded on my laptop. I will probably keep this version of Linspire until the stable release is out, unless I more problems pop up.

Linux Nervana

2005-06-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

Hard core techies will read this post and hate me, but I am goint to say it anyway- I like Linspire. I use to hate it, originally they claimed that they would be able to run any Windows app. A claim that everyone at the time knew was rediculious. Also, Michael Robertson made some inflamitory statements about the Linux community.
I like Linspire for several reasons. First, it works. It is the only distro that works with all of my computers. I really like Suse, but it iehter won't install, or some of my hardware will not work with Suse (touchpad, and display configuration in Saxt is just plain strange) . The second reason that I like Linspire is the attention to detail, they tweak the user interface the way I like it out of the box. Suse is another distro that has a great feel to it, but if it does not work with my hardware, that is a deal breaker. Finally, Linspire has Click n Run. I know if you have Debian you can apt get all of the programs on CNR for free, but CNR organizes them and generally has a pretty good description. It also enables 3D acceleration, something that I have had problems with when I have tried to install Doom from a Debian respoitory.