Jaunty Jackalope

whoozwah — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:11:18 +0000

So it’s been a while since I last posted up a blog. That’s because it’s been a while since I’ve done something I considered really cool that I wanted to share. I’ve installed the newest version of Ubuntu Linux (9.04, Jaunty Jackalope) on my main rig in a dual boot environment. That means when I turn my computer on, I can choose between Linux and Windows.

The installer is very slick and very user friendly. There’s only one section in the whole process that even requires a bit of attention and that’s the hard drive splitter. I told the installer to section off 20 gigs of free space and to install it there. It automatically set up up a boot loader so that I can choose Linux or Windows at start up. After answering a few more questions, off it went. The install process only took about 20 minutes and it was done. Here’s where things started getting fun.

About a year or so ago I upgraded to 4 gigs of RAM and 2 graphics cards. Well, everything works fine…in Windows. However, since Linux is free and open source by design, it’s a lot harder to set up graphics, especially when it’s involving 2 video cards because the drivers (the software that makes the video cards work properly) are closed source (that means you aren’t allowed to look at the programming code and/or modify it).

Well I tried several different things to get the video drivers working. The first thing I tried was using the driver updater that’s built into Ubuntu. It saw that I needed the new drivers and started to download them. It crashed. Alright, try something else. I went to nvidia’s (they made my video cards) website to get the linux driver. Downloaded it and installed it. It kills my graphical interface altogether. When I reboot, all I get is a command prompt (think the linux version of DOS). After I get that fixed and I can get back into my graphical desktop I found a program called EnvyNG which is supposed to do all the work for you. It looks at your system, finds out which card you have, which driver you need, downloads it, installs it and adds the proper entries to your xorg.conf file (that file controls a lot of the functions of your video and graphical interface). Well I run it and it says it finished and to reboot. I did and it goes to a command prompt.

Now I’m starting to get a bit pissy but I won’t give up. I go to a place called the Ubuntu Forums and ask my question there. Within the hour a couple of guys who really know their stuff were helping me (for free mind you) get this thing going. As it turns out, there are a different set of drivers I could get that would make it work and there’s a special line of code I’d have to add to my xorg.conf file (graphical settings, remember?) to make Ubuntu understand that I have 2 video cards and which one to use as the display. Well this worked out fine so then I was at a newly installed Ubuntu desktop with proper video card drivers installed and SLi (when you have 2 video cards working together) set up and working just fine.

After that I could really get down to settling into the new operating system. It comes with Firefox 3 installed as the default web browser so I was set for that. Just had to get adblock and set up my home page and bookmarks. Then I installed the ubuntu-restricted-extras package which included java, flash, unrar and some other stuff so that I could get most of my web pages working fine. Next was to install VLC and the rest of my video decoders so I could watch my movies, TV shows and anime properly (and in HD when applicable). I installed audacious and streamtuner to make internet radio streams using the shoutcast protocol work since I like to listen to Digitally Imported and Social Crime Radio. Finally, I installed Exaile for my music manager.

So now that I had my video working, my internetz going and my multimedia rockin’ out, what’s next? Not much. Just use it like I would Windows but knowing the fact that what I’m using is a free, open source operating system that does everything Windows can do except DirectX (Microsoft graphics) accelerated games (that’s the only reason I still have Windows ) and was written by a community of people that care about this stuff, know it inside and out and will help you if you need it for free. Can’t ask for anything better than that!

Social Crime Radio

whoozwah — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:20:01 +0000

This place rocks. You can find it here. It’s an internet radio station that plays 24/7 mostly uncut stand-up comedy. Full performances too, not just clips. No commercials either. Just a small request for a donation when you first connect to the stream.

Check it out and have a few laughs.

Later,
Dave

My Easter sunday

whoozwah — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:08:50 +0000

Today was a pretty good one. I was able to sleep in fairly late today which gave me time to dream. Once I got up I headed over to the folks’ house to eat. I normally eat like a bachelor and they had good food over there. I got the chance to shoot the breeze with my folks while waiting for the food and the little sister to get home. When she arrived, boyfriend in tow, we ate. After we ate I along with my sister and her boyfriend went back to my house to play some games. She brought her laptop and used my high speed internet as my folks do not have high speed at their place.

Well after game time was over we headed back to my parents’ house and watched the uncut version of Dumb and Dumber which was great. After that I helped my dad organize his hard drive so that he could find stuff easier then I came back to my house. It was a nice lazy day and I’m glad I was given one.

Later,
Dave

Dave's Cave

Jaunty Jackalope

Social Crime Radio

My Easter sunday