Well today I decided to do something useful with my time. And no I didn't go outside in the sunlight.
I decided it was time to upgrade my Kernel, so I downloaded the newest 2.6.25 kernel source and compiled it and installed it. Wow that was really really easy. Took me all of an hour maybe, including the 50 minutes to compile it on my 2400+. So now I no longer have 2.6.20-16 any longer, well i do but I'm not using it. If you think that compiling a new kernel is hard, think again, it's easy.
Now I just have to learn more about compiling it and all the options I can use to make it faster, then I'll compile a new version and try it with all my improvements to see if it actually makes a difference.
New post in a few hours after I try again.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
code::blocks ide
Well today I decided to crack open my old C++ books and to try and learn something new with all my free time ;) .
From what I read in the Ubuntu forums it would be an issue to install it, seems to be hard. Well first thing I found was a .deb , bypassed that not even trying it, found the source code, configured that, got a few errors about missing packages, downloaded a few of them with apt-get,. Then a few more were missing, so more apt-get, after about 5 or so I had everything I needed and a compile went flawless. Perfect install and runs nice a smooth to. Goodbye Visual Studio .Net.
Now I just have to learn a bit more about coding and get on my way.
From what I read in the Ubuntu forums it would be an issue to install it, seems to be hard. Well first thing I found was a .deb , bypassed that not even trying it, found the source code, configured that, got a few errors about missing packages, downloaded a few of them with apt-get,. Then a few more were missing, so more apt-get, after about 5 or so I had everything I needed and a compile went flawless. Perfect install and runs nice a smooth to. Goodbye Visual Studio .Net.
Now I just have to learn a bit more about coding and get on my way.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
nVidia
Well I got my repaired video card back from BFG Technologies today by courier. All I can say is wow, did they ever do a good job in repairing it, a brand new heat sink and fan combo with a metal shroud was put on it replacing the cheaply looking plastic fan that fell off it before. Also I got a free t-shirt from them.
After installing it and restarting Ubuntu it picked it up and worked perfectly. Now that I had a decent video card, a FX5500 256 MB, I decided to give the restricted drivers a try, what a mistake. After downloading them with apt-get and running the install of nvidia-xconfig i ended up with only 800x600 resolution and no acceleration. So I tried both the legacy and the new glx drivers along with the regular ones but they all gave the same result. So I then gave up and downloaded them directly from the nVidia website, the installer had me kill x by stopping gdm and then installing them, no precompiled binari3es were available so I had to build from sources which ultimately failed as when windows started up I had three desktop images overlapping on screen, thought the resolution was wrong so I checked and it was 800x600 @ 85 hz which my monitor can handle without trouble, so I even tested it on my 19" NEC to no avail.
The monitor was using the corrected drivers even, all the same the login screen loaded fine, never started getting multiple images until i logged in. So I turned the drivers off and went back to the way it was, good ole 1024x768 @75 hz and all is back the way it was.
Maybe I'll try them again later on after the next upgrade in 10 days to Hardy.
Good luck to anyone who does get them working, I bet it looks nice using them with compwiz.
After installing it and restarting Ubuntu it picked it up and worked perfectly. Now that I had a decent video card, a FX5500 256 MB, I decided to give the restricted drivers a try, what a mistake. After downloading them with apt-get and running the install of nvidia-xconfig i ended up with only 800x600 resolution and no acceleration. So I tried both the legacy and the new glx drivers along with the regular ones but they all gave the same result. So I then gave up and downloaded them directly from the nVidia website, the installer had me kill x by stopping gdm and then installing them, no precompiled binari3es were available so I had to build from sources which ultimately failed as when windows started up I had three desktop images overlapping on screen, thought the resolution was wrong so I checked and it was 800x600 @ 85 hz which my monitor can handle without trouble, so I even tested it on my 19" NEC to no avail.
The monitor was using the corrected drivers even, all the same the login screen loaded fine, never started getting multiple images until i logged in. So I turned the drivers off and went back to the way it was, good ole 1024x768 @75 hz and all is back the way it was.
Maybe I'll try them again later on after the next upgrade in 10 days to Hardy.
Good luck to anyone who does get them working, I bet it looks nice using them with compwiz.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
CNR
Well I decided to give Click N' Run a try and see how it works or if it works on Ubuntu. Well low and behold it the install ran flawlessly. Now it's a simple click in the menus and a website launches showing me a large list of software.... Some of it free, didn't seem like much though, everything i seemed to click it wanted to charge me for, including wallpaper packs.
Guess they do believe i the motto, you get what you pay for.
I'll keep it going for a few weeks and try it out instead of compiling from source like i usually do, just to say I tried it. But unless the selection becomes easier to browse and filter by free only, it may now get much use.
Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, been busy helping a friend move, never really been on the computer all that much, only a few minutes each night. Oh well, I'll try harder to ge t this Ubuntu downpath and let you guys really know if it's worth the switch...
Guess they do believe i the motto, you get what you pay for.
I'll keep it going for a few weeks and try it out instead of compiling from source like i usually do, just to say I tried it. But unless the selection becomes easier to browse and filter by free only, it may now get much use.
Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, been busy helping a friend move, never really been on the computer all that much, only a few minutes each night. Oh well, I'll try harder to ge t this Ubuntu downpath and let you guys really know if it's worth the switch...
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
The Value of Switching?
Yes The value of switching to an Open Source O/S is quite appealing, and still is baby.
After about 2 seconds I was able to find a nice tutorial or two about how to make DVD's from some xvid's I have lying around still. After just three or four clicks and a quick install from a .deb file I was up and converting my xvid's to DVD burnable iso's and burning them in no time. What a difference from say having to go out and purchase ConvertXDVD like I did back on my *Other* operating system.
Managed to find the alternative programs to just about everything I've used on windows now, including Pidgin which is practically windows live messenger on steroids and supports a dozen different instant messaging program. My GMail Notifier is running in the system tray just like windows and Deluge is very similar if not identical to uTorrent. XChat is fairly simple,I've used it before on windows and it's idential, not as sweet as good ole mIRC,but hey it's free. Even have my system monitor now running, so I can see tasks and give them priority the same as I would in winderz.
Switch worthwhile??? Heck yeah in my opinion, how about yours?
After about 2 seconds I was able to find a nice tutorial or two about how to make DVD's from some xvid's I have lying around still. After just three or four clicks and a quick install from a .deb file I was up and converting my xvid's to DVD burnable iso's and burning them in no time. What a difference from say having to go out and purchase ConvertXDVD like I did back on my *Other* operating system.
Managed to find the alternative programs to just about everything I've used on windows now, including Pidgin which is practically windows live messenger on steroids and supports a dozen different instant messaging program. My GMail Notifier is running in the system tray just like windows and Deluge is very similar if not identical to uTorrent. XChat is fairly simple,I've used it before on windows and it's idential, not as sweet as good ole mIRC,but hey it's free. Even have my system monitor now running, so I can see tasks and give them priority the same as I would in winderz.
Switch worthwhile??? Heck yeah in my opinion, how about yours?
Monday, April 7, 2008
Music
Well it seems today that I couldn't make without music being apart of my online life. So I tried a few different Music Players that came with Ubuntu. Audacious and XMMS seems to both be identical and be very very similar to WinAMP. After a few moments I was able to change the font in both of them to make them readable, the biggest other difference is the file browser, but you can even change that luckily in the preferences options.
By God I think I found heaven. Yes it's true, there is a player out there comparable to WinAMP if Not Better! I shortly after getting XMMS working correctly the way I like it found Amarok, the all in one home listening studio. By Default it even shows the song in a similar way to the WinAMP popup when the player is not on screen so you now what song is coming up next in case you want to skip it. A few quick changes and it shows the OSD in the bottom right corner the way I like and without the Album or file location info. It shows the album art perfectly by downloading it itself and another tab shows the Wikipedia info about the artist your listening to, amazing for quick research if you want to know if they did indeed sing that song your thinking of.
Last night before I went to nadaland I did mange to get a very simple looking Conky install working since I don't like the builtin task manage I needed something to show processes simply to know if something has stopped responding or is a memory hog.
By God I think I found heaven. Yes it's true, there is a player out there comparable to WinAMP if Not Better! I shortly after getting XMMS working correctly the way I like it found Amarok, the all in one home listening studio. By Default it even shows the song in a similar way to the WinAMP popup when the player is not on screen so you now what song is coming up next in case you want to skip it. A few quick changes and it shows the OSD in the bottom right corner the way I like and without the Album or file location info. It shows the album art perfectly by downloading it itself and another tab shows the Wikipedia info about the artist your listening to, amazing for quick research if you want to know if they did indeed sing that song your thinking of.
Last night before I went to nadaland I did mange to get a very simple looking Conky install working since I don't like the builtin task manage I needed something to show processes simply to know if something has stopped responding or is a memory hog.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
The sWITCH
Well I decided to make the switch from windows to another operating system finally, permanently. Occasionally I've used other open source o/s such as Debian or FreeBSD, Slackware, Fedora, RedHat you name it, but only in short increments and never on my main system. Well today I flattened my main system and installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu 7.07 Feisty Fawn then updated to 7.10 Gusty Gibson. It went flawless, no issues, no errors, no useless junk like I'm so used to dealing with.
I decided to create this blog to track my daily awareness of the new, exciting and other useful things I learn to deal with using this new Operating System.
Hope You Enjoy
Jordan
I decided to create this blog to track my daily awareness of the new, exciting and other useful things I learn to deal with using this new Operating System.
Hope You Enjoy
Jordan
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