Back!

I’m back, glad to be back on my nice shiny connection, even though it’s currently so messed up, the wifi I was using was actually more reliable.  .

On the subject of ubuntu, I’ve decided to stick with gentoo on my desktop, since the ubuntu install messed up a bit.  But I will keep ubuntu on my laptop, since compiling kills the (already dead) battery, and I usually can’t wait when on my laptop.

Holiday!

So, here I am, on holiday. Phone’s GPRS connection is working nicely. I’ll keep blogging until my phone’s balance runs out, and keep leaving comments .

Status Report.

So, another day with ubuntu… Thanks to a very nice tutorial I now have the binary ATi drivers working, and with my dual-screen. ET works rather nicely too. However I haven’t solved my 10 minute login problem.

I’ve been customising my desktop a bit. I got bored of the orange, so I picked a nice blue theme, tango icons and a wonderful blue wallpaper I found on google images. Heres a screenshot: (click for bigger version)

(Edit: Made the above bit actually work :-/)

OOoooooooubuuuuuuunntuuuuuuuuuuuuu.

So, I decided to try ubuntu and see what all the fuss is about.  I’m currently a gentoo user, and I love it.  No idea why, I don’t really like waiting for compiles, but I’ve just never seriously got into anything else.

I looked around for a floppy netinstall or something, as I hate burning CD-Rs and I don’t have any 700M CD-RWs.  Eventually I gave up and did the “Install from another distro”, with debootstrap.  I did this once before in vmware with debian and it wasn’t too bad.

This part of teh install went reletively easy, and a few commands and a bit of waiting later, I had a bootable ubuntu install.  Add to menu.lst, reboot, bang, I’m in ubuntu.

Plus point #1: Bloody fast boot.  Literally, it was screaming.  This is the fastest boot I’ve ever had, ever, on any machine, with any OS.  Except maybe my homemade calculator boot disk, that was fast .

Problem #1: I’m an idiot and forgot to set a root password.  Reboot, init=/bin/bash, mount, passwd, mount, reboot.  Done .

I start apt-getting ubuntu-desktop, and I get bored.  I switch to another VTTY and try to apt-get links.  Uh oh.  Is this what it seems?  Could apt possibly be /that/ stupid?!?  Yes, it is true.  You can only have one apt running at a time.  :-O.

Anyway, I pause the download and apt-get a bunch of stuff to keep me amused till ubuntu-desktop finishes.

It /finally/ finishes, I start GDM.  Some error pops up  saying it can’t find the “human” theme.  GDM still works though, but with some horrible blue theme thing.  Meh.

So, I try to login, switch to a VTTY, add a normal user, back to 7, login .

…

..

.

Hmm, I think something’s broken.  Restart Xorg, login again as failsafe, no everything’s fine.  Login again with GNOME.

…

..

.

Nope, this ain’t working.  :’(.  I just have a blank red-brown wallpaper and a mouse.  No panel, icons or anything.  So, I switch to my VTTY, continue IRCing and listening to my oggs.  Suddenly, I hear a weird sound.  Nope, it’s not IRL, it’s coming from my headphones.  Switch back to 7, WTF!??!, it logged in!!  Here I have it, an ubuntu desktop!!.  I logout and in again just to check.

…

..

.

It finally logs in.  Why the HELL is it so slow!??!.  Anyway, I’m finally logged in.  I apt-get xmms, stick on some oggs and start having a mess around.  And now here I am.  IRC running, OGGs playing, firefox open in another virtual desktop.  This doesn’t seem so bad after all.

*** GOOD STUFF ***

The condensed story so far:

* Not too bad install

* Pretty damn easy

* Bloody fast boot

* Nice orangey theme

* Fast apt-getting

* Fast desktop, fast menus, etc.

*** NOT SO GOOD STUFF (Ok, COMPLETE SHIT) ***

* Only one apt at a time

* Apt-cache search returns millions of irrelevent results not even containing the word I searched for.

* SLOOOOOOW login.  So slow I could install gentoo before it finishes.  (Ok, not quite, meh.)

* No accelerated openGL (yet, I’d be amazed if it worked by default)

* No dual screen (yet, same as above, never works by default in anything).

* No mplayer, mpg123 or lame in the default repos (I know it’s weird licensing and stuff, but it just pisses me off.  Gentoo has it.)

(related to above) * No closed or not completely OSS software (Gentoo has all sorts of closed source nice things in portage, why can’t ubuntu?)

Greetings and salutations

Hey,

I’m Cillian, or Dav[id,e] as some know me.  I program, I game (a bit, mostly ET), and I hang around on IRC.  A lot.  And annoy lots of people.  Just ask Xalior.  :-/.

So, this is my blog, check it out if for some deranged reason you want to hear my ramblings.