So this weekend I busted out my nerd hat and attempted to install Ubuntu on my desktop. First I did some initial backing up of my windows computer, I’m too lazy to buy two hard drives, so I just partitioned my current one, and there’s always a moderate risk you blow the hole drive away. After my partitioning I attempted to boot in to my Ubuntu CD it took a solid 10 minutes to realize I couldn’t boot from my none existent CD Rom, but had to scroll extra far down my boot from list and select my DVDR. Finally I get in to live CD and managed to kick off my install everything went smoothly, and when I finally loaded up my new OS I realized I installed Edgey, last years version of Ubuntu D’oh. So I discovered there was an auto updater and installed Feisty Fawn rather easily.
Unfortunately the restart caused my TTY to fail (whatever that is) and I couldn’t load my freshly installed Feisty Fawn, after several attempts I threw in the towel and did another fresh install. Same process same problem. Eventually I got really annoyed, and began doing some research and found out it had something to do with my boot kernel. I soon realized I had been skipping the kernel loading screen, so I went to that menu selected a different kernel and everything loaded ok. I’m still curious why the newer kernel fails but the older one works ok.
So half the reason I wanted to install Ubuntu was to try this sweet program called Beryl. Basically makes your system look like you are using a futuristic Mac OS. So I updated my graphics driver a pre req for the program, I reset, and to my annoyance my versions of X windows and graphics drivers no longer matched, and therefore I lost my GUI. I tried reverting my driver, I tried upgrading my X windows, but I realized in this none GUI mode I had no internet and was therefore powerless. So I gave up yet again and reinstalled my OS. So three installs later, I have my OS up and running but I am too terrified to modify anything, because I am fairly confident I can get to a point of no return again. I really need to start with baby steps and move from there.
Comments:
wow, I feel retarded. does this blog come in english, too? or just nerd-speak?
Posted by Kenny at 09:27 PM on August 28, 2007
The “I busted out my nerd hat” comment should have been enough to convince you to stop reading…
Posted by Halfcent at 09:43 PM on August 28, 2007
Lost your GUI eh? Well, it always turns up in the last place you look.
Posted by George at 10:37 PM on August 29, 2007
Is it sad I understood 99% of this entry? Don’t you have a old crappy machine/school laptop to try it on first?
Posted by Vince at 08:04 AM on August 30, 2007