Kubuntu Breakthrough

EUREKA! (No I'm not talking about Vacuum Cleaners). Anyway, I found a combination of software, and settings that appears to have fixed my hibernate problems with Kubuntu and my Toshiba Laptop. (HINT: NEVER buy a toshiba).
Anyway, a hint came from Elijah's Website. I didn't use the software he mentions, but it did bring to mind something I remember from way back. You need a "resume=" line on your kernel load command to enable it to read the old RAM contents back into RAM. Linux uses your Swap file by default. The problem had been that every time I did a hibernate with the powernow or klaptop daemons they would blow away my swap file. Well, Guidance does a nice job hibernating, however, I couldn't get it to resume.
So, here's what I did:

First, I modified the fstab file to do away with those stupid UUID labels (who thought that was a good idea anyway?):
change your fstab from:

# /dev/hda4
UUID=4e7536dd-d4d7-4338-9344-1bb9ae43ed4e / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/hda2
UUID=7792b1a8-17dc-4e15-8232-a2ff3f93a507 /boot ext3 defaults 0 2
# /dev/hda1
UUID=AC07-770A /winxp vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# /dev/hda3
UUID=0a208f65-e0ca-4fd2-a298-8bb1824d19cf none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0

To:

/dev/hda4 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# UUID=4e7536dd-d4d7-4338-9344-1bb9ae43ed4e
/dev/hda2 /boot ext3 defaults 0 2
# UUID=7792b1a8-17dc-4e15-8232-a2ff3f93a507
/dev/hda1 /winxp vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# UUID=AC07-770A
/dev/hda3 none swap sw 0 0
# UUID=0a208f65-e0ca-4fd2-a298-8bb1824d19cf
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0

NOTE: I didn't delete the UUID stuff I just commented it out, in case I needed it later.

Then edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst file and add "resume=/dev/hda3" (If /dev/hda3 is your swap partition) to the end of your kernel load line as follows:

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.17-10-generic
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.17-10-generic root=/dev/hda4 ro quiet splash resume=/dev/hda3
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.17-10-generic
quiet
savedefault
boot

Notice the line that starts with "kernel"? Thats the line you append the resume statement to. To find out which partition is your swap, if you don't already know, go back to your fstab and look for the line that looks similar to this:

/dev/hda3 none swap sw 0 0

the first section (/dev/hda3 in mine above) will give you the device id of the swap partition. By the way, hda is your first IDE drive, sda would be your first SCSI drive (or USB mass storage device if you use one of them). Then the number at the end is the number of the partition in particular. So, /dev/hda would be my first IDE drive, /dev/hda3 would be the third partition on that drive.

Anywhoo, I was able to hibernate successfully once with this setup, but have hence had IO problems. So, consider the above volatile at the moment. I'll keep working on it. I'll test it again here in a little while and make sure it wasn't a fluke.
OH, you may also want to note that I'm working in Edgy, not Dapper or Breezy. (that's version 6.10)

I'm seriously considering going to the next version already. I couldn't have as many problems with that version as I do this one. Whatchya think?

Christmas and KJ2000 Reading

Well, Christmas is over, and all the gifts have been unwrapped around our house. This actually turned out to be a better Christmas for the kids than I thought it would be. We spent last Saturday with the family from my side, and had a GREAT time. We played Cranium (a neat game, and the more people the better). We snacked, and opened presents. We all swapped "White Elephant" gifts, which was real fun. I wound up with a bottle of soap from Bath and Beauty, or whatever its called. My Wife, Angela, wound up with the gift she brought, an empty Harmonica case. :-). My sister's Husband wound up with an older Wireless access point I had retired. I updated it and made sure it worked before I took it.
Sunday Evening we went to My wife's side's get together. Another good time. We had a great meal, and exchanged gifts. It was good. WE also had Sunday Morning Worship services at Missionary Ridge (Just in case you were wondering). I hope your Holidays, Christmas in particular, have been good to you. I really hope you focused on Family, friends, and the Christ who set us free. I know some of you will point out that Christmas was originally a Pagan Holiday, not Christian as many suppose. However, I feel that most of the traditions around this day can be redeemed. Just as God commanded the Israelites to melt down the gold and silver from the pagan temples and use it in the Temple, I think traditions that can be put through the fire of God's Word, and can come out OK, are fine. Like exchanging gifts in celebration of Christ's birth. Now, we all know that Jesus was NOT born on Dec. 25th, as there are too many indicators to the contrary. However, we can celebrate that He was born. His birth in and of itself did not redeem mankind, but had He not come into this world, and set aside His glory, we would have never had a Christ to redeem us at all!! Not only that but the story of Christ's birth teaches us a great many things that are backed up by other Scriptures. I'll probably go into them a little bit at a time over the next few weeks (yes I know afterward) so you can be prepared for Next year. I meant to this year before Christmas, but it just didn't work out.
For one: God shows that there are no age limits on those whom He can use. God used a girl, no more than 16 years old (Mary) to be the mother of His Son, Anna and Simeon we're "well stricken in years", with Anna being at least 84 years old, then there were Joseph, a young man, Elizabeth, probably middle age, Zacharias her husband, the parents of John the Baptist, who was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. So you see, whether you are young or old God can use your service, and enable you to do extraordinary things. Not only that, but God can use Rich and Poor, Jew and Gentile, Slave and Free. He doesn't care whether you have an education (Matthew the publican, Paul the Apostle) or not (Peter the Apostle). You can be a fisherman, a shepherd, a Carpenter, a Tax Collector (publican), or even a leper. God used Kings, and slaves to write His Word, and to bring Jesus Christ the Living Word into this world. All the ground is level before the Cross, and there is no such thing as a big I and a little you. This is the consistent message of the Bible as a whole, and especially in the Birth of Christ.
Another tip, notice how God inconvenienced the WHOLE WORLD, to make it possible? God can move mountains if we'll only believe.

Now, the KJ2000 update. I ran into a snag. There appears to be an issue with the text, that I just can't get over. Here's a snippet from the email I sent Dr. Couric on Dec. 5th:
I found something that has me, well, kinda thinking.
In Galatians 3:16 the KJ2000 says, "Now to Abraham and his descendant were the promises made. He says not, And to descendants, as of many; but as of one, And to your descendant, who is Christ." However I couldn't find ANY such passage in Genesis. They all use "descendants" plural (except in one place that was specifically talking about Isaac). What do we do there?
I think that's why they went with "seed" in the KJV. My problem is I never got to take any Hebrew, I know how to tell a plural vs. a single Greek word, but with Hebrew I'm in the dark

end snippet.
This may not seem to be much of a big deal to some, however it deals with the prophecy of Christ's coming. And, if we force the plural onto a place in the Old Testament where there is no plural then we're not being faithful to God's Word. So, until I hear back my reading of that version has stopped. I haven't heard anything from Dr. Couric in a while, and I pray that everything is well with him.

Tired of Fighting P2

Ok, Now that my pressure for other activities has past I want to follow up.

Some year or so ago I used SUSE, and back then, (as I assume now) there was the big argument about MP3 players. Well, I got tired of the argument then too. Here's the rant I never sent to the mailing list:

'<'terribly irritated person beginning useless rant'>'
To be honest I'm getting tired of fighting all this crap. I'm tired of fighting the Linux drivers to keep my network up because I can't use the native drivers without locking my system up. I'm tired of seeing black menus and having to reverse engineer packages to make them look proper, and reverse engineer the icon directories and index files because some extra package decided to blow them away. I'm tired of lame license / legal excuses for not having basic MP3 and DVD playing support. Its not just SUSE its all of them. Linux isn't any better than windows for one simple reason: PROBLEMS are problems even if they are different!
I may not have any viruses in Linux, but God knows I have had a multitude of other stupid problems to fight that I could have avoided altogether on windows. Windows Crashes, but so far I'm not seeing any better on Linux. EVERYTIME I shutdown KDE I get the old crash window that I also have to close. Uptime? Whenever I mention it in a local user group I get excuses (usually related to security and patches) as to why their boxes haven't been up for more than 2 months! Which is no better than the Windows servers I support. Patches? I'm constantly, and I mean CONSTANTLY, getting notices from Novell and SUSE about patches, no better than windows there. Cost? My time trying to get Linux running at all is equal to or greater than the time I spend fixing a windows problem.
Someone tell me PLEASE that there is a version and/or distro of linux that just runs! WHY, pray tell, do I have to add a special repository to keep Gnucash up to date on SUSE 10 and cannot rather just download the stupid thing from gnucash?? Why do I have to spend so freaking much time resolving hardware and software dependencies? Last of all, WHY can't I run "setup" to install an application, ANY application? You want to know why people don't flock to Linux? Because its just as time consuming, just as costly, and just as big a pain in the butt as every other operating system!! Just because it don't have problem x doesn't mean it doesn't have problem y!
The real problem here is that I can't stand MS crap, and would LOVE to see Linux do great! I think linux has the potential to make every other OS bite the dust, and is great simply because it gives you choice and freedom. I love it because I can make it what I want, not what some vendor wants for me. Also because I know that many of the hardware (and software) issues aren't
Linux's problem. I know that Hardware vendors will not support Linux fully, if at all, and I know that MS writes crap just so that no one else can work with it. What I don't understand, and what I know is inherent in Linux is the lack of a simple setup executable that prompts me for information and copies the files where I want it. NO I will not accept the HORRIBLY long rpm
commandline to relocate files as an excuse, or "work around" for this lack. I downloaded the citrix client just the other day, and ran install.sh, and guess what? It installed, (ie copied) all the files to the location I specified, and ran. It was a completely distro agnostic install routine! figure that! Why continue to propogate these "package managers" as "cool" or useful? They are neither if you are a software developer!
here's how to fix this:
1. Create a software products repository of some kind (similar to the registry in windows but only for a list of what's installed).
2. Create a software installer that checks that list for things that it needs, asks the user basic questions about where and for who, etc., and copies the files and modifies configs appropriately.
3. Create a central (single) icon directory and icon format that doesn't require a complicated index, and forty subdirectories and voodoo to make work!
4. Create a driver interface api (or whatever the equivalent is these days) so vendors DON'T have to GPL their trade secrets (if its not already there) and a driver install routine that doesn't require making sacrifices on a full moon.
There you have it. The four things I KNOW, absolutely KNOW, will make linux the 21st Century operating system of choice! If someone were to do this Linux would become the OS you could go to Wal-Mart and buy applications for off-the-shelf!!!! Yes I said buy, I don't think its of the devil to get paid for your work. I'm just glad there are highly skilled volunteers who do such
good work for nothing.

'<''/'END terribly irritated person's useless rant'>'

Well, that was in November of 2005. Guess what? Little has changed. KDE has become more stable, and I understand the DVD issues a little better, but little else is any different. Firefox on Edgy in Kubuntu, constantly locks up. OpenOffice.org crashes on occasion just because I logged in! I can't get VNC to work, Wireless is useless on the Thinkpad because the hacked broadcom drivers don't support WPA or LEAP. Some of this is NOT the fault of Linux, or any of ITS programmers. I also know, please don't write ranting on me, that these guys do what the do for free on some occasions. I know too that Sun, Novell, IBM, RedHat, and others pay Open Source developers, so there not all volunteers.
I also want to tip my hat to all those guys who work hard, and aren't whiners. I have read and heard about several of them, and I say may God bless them! However, those who think we should bow to their feet and just live with whatever they put out because they're putting it out for free need a good dose of reality! I don't like using crappy software, even if it is free.

Anyway, enough ranting. My irritation subsided, I'll go back and figure out how to fix my problems.

Oh, I was going to mention Alien.
Here's the deal. Back in OpenOffice.org 1.x there was this GREAT setup routine, that would work no matter what distribution you tried it on. (I used it on Debian, SUSE, and Mandrake). Then Some LOSER at Sun dictated going to package management, and dumping the installer. There was no explanation given, there was no rationale behind it, as I asked several times on the OOo lists. So, now users are required to know how to install with RPM. If you don't use RPM sorry about your luck! The problem with using Alien on something like OOo is that there are several things that just don't get done. Like, Mime type updates, icons for the desktop etc. Not only that but if you use a debian based distro you lose the ability to stay up to date on other dependencies. And, Finally, you have to jump through a hundred hoops read pages of howtos to do something that should be as easy as starting "setup"!!!! WHY DO WE MAKE THINGS HARD ON PEOPLE and then turn around and get mad at them for complaining that we've made it hard on them!?!?! The best justification for this on the OOo list I could ever get was, "its free so you should just be glad you have it." Whoop-de-freakin'-do! I'm sure that'll cause a lot of MS Office users to convert, don't you?

Tired of Fighting

Well, no, I haven't forgotten about the BLOG. I did postpone working with it for a while though.

Today's topic: Tired of Fighting in Linuxland.
Linux is really beginning to suck wind. Sorry, but that's the best I can say about it. Why?
Easy, There is NO way to stay decently up to date.
There is NO way to just do an install of an application.
There is NO decent hardware support.
Should I go on?
Now, some of you are going to try and argue that distro X has this part or that part, the problem is NOT A SINGLE STINKING one of them have it right! Debian is technically at the top, but they have WAY too many cry babies, and jerks. On one hand you can't use their "trademarked" name, but yet they whine and moan about Firefox wanting to trademark its name. Stupid, absolutely STUPID! They don't mind putting anything into their distro, or working with anyone as long as you're not MORE popular than they are, or as long as you don't try to control what they can do. Its OK, however, for them to control you with their ignoramoose manifesto.
SUSE is also one of the best technical distros, however, once you install it, that's it. NO updates. I'm not talking about security or bug fixes, but new versions are out. Now, it may have changed with OpenSUSE since 10, but I doubt it. The problem is that you can't even download the source and just compile it. Thanks to their oddball way of locating the libraries, and refusal to populate the ld.so.conf file, you have to manually run configure with a hundred switches. And, now with Novell selling out and hooking up with Micro$oft, I wouldn't run SUSE at all.
Ubuntu being a Debian derivative is right there with its older brother. However, once they release version X they're as bad as SUSE about new versions of software. There is still no package, or set of packages, for OpenOffice.org 2.1, and other software even for Edgy! And from what I can tell there aren't any plans to make any. Granted I could jump through a thousand hoops with alien and convert the rpms, but that's another bone to pick.
Anyway, they're all beginning to show their age, and I'm getting tired of fighting my computer just to get basic stuff to run.
Since upgrading to Edgy, I can no longer simply run VNC, as a matter of fact, can't run VNC At all. Why? who knows? no one is telling.

Another reason I'm beginning to get tired of Linux, is the stupid, yes stupid, refusal to dump "package" management. I think that is the absolute dumbest part of Linux. Why can't I just run setup, or install and install an application regardless of what distribution I'm running? Because, we're to technical to be smart enough to make that possible.

I think package management has its place, but for general use, a simple installer for applications would make life easier.

There are many other reasons, but I'm getting pressured to do other things, so I'll leave you with those thoughts. And, YES, I'm upset at problems on my Linux machines.