YEEEEHAAWWW ! I just had to say it. My new HP DV9000z came in Monday, which is why I haven't put anything on the site. Well, I have EVERYTHING working (well, the wireless works with linxant drivers). I tried every distro in the world, nearly, and some three times, but I finally got Debian testing installed on the thing. I still can't print to my Brother MFC-5840CN printer (if any of anyone who may read this knows how to overcome Brother's crappy Linux drivers I'd love to hear from ya').
Here's generally what I did:
1. I repartitioned the Drives deleting the partition from the second drive and shrinking the XP partition to 30 GB on the first drive. Whatever you do, DO NOT DELETE either the HP Rescue or the XP Embedded Partitions (that's the little hidden Partition at the end of the first drive). It took me 5 1/2 hours to restore everything to get the quickplay back.
2. I installed Debian etch with the Network install CD in text mode using the "noapic iommu=off" kernel switches. This got everything in place. To simplify things I just created an ext3 partition on the first drive filling the empty space for "/" or root, which turned out to be about 32 GB. I then created a 2.4 GB Swap partition (Don't ask about the .4 part I have no idea why I did that) and a /home partition on the second drive.
3. I installed just what the Debian presets were for Desktop, laptop etc. (they were the default selections) and I told it to use a mirror.
4. When all that was done I rebooted into recovery mode, or single user mode, brought up the Wired NIC, and adjusted my sources.list file to upgrade to Sid to get the 2.6.18 kernel (I'll post the link to the guys website who actually pioneered the setup later).
5. Then I did the usuall apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade stuff to get the latest and greatest. Hopefully you have better luck at this than I did initially. Make sure you get the 2.6.18 kernel. Once everything is finished updating, edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst file and remove the "noapic" from the load line for the new kernel, and reboot.
6. You should now get a shiney new Login screen GDM style (right now there's no KDE on it to speak of, you'll have to install that through synaptic).
From here you can do what you want. I installed the Nvidia driver using the installer from Nvidia's website to get the full 1680x1050 experience (AND IT IS SWEET!). Do some Googling for HP DV9000z linux and you should generally find all the same sites I did.
My MAJOR disappointments are that there are still NO 64bit versions of many apps. Adobe's Flash is still not available in a 64bit version. Google's toolbar will not install because of Debian's stupid renaming of Firefox to Iceweasel. Ndiswrapper doesn't work because only the 32bit windows driver is installed, if anyone knows how to get ndiswrapper working on this 64bit box, I'd be very happy to hear it, however the linuxant drivers work fairly well.
I'm not sure I'll leave Debian on there now that I know what it takes to install it on the machine. I'd really like to have Kubuntu running on the thing so that it matches all my other boxes, so I'll probably download the 64bit Edgy Alternate install CD, as the 32bit Live CD wouldn't even boot!
One thing I can say, this thing is Fast! So, anyway, I have 30 days on the Linuxant driver, so I'll have to do something quick. I'll keep this site posted.
Showing posts with label Debian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Debian. Show all posts
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Debian Printing
Now I remember why I left debian in the first place. Printing. I can't get my Brother printer to print now that I've switched to Debian. I'd like to rant all over both Brother (and their crappy support for CUPS printing) and Debian (for their non-standard way of doing things). However, neither is going to help me figure out what to do next. I'm thinking that going back to Kubuntu Edgy would be a really good idea, at least my printing worked there. I switched up my partition scheme to what it should have been for a long time. I partitioned off / from /home so that I can completely change out distros and keep my home dir intact. It'll be a sweet day when Linux can live up to the hype of some, and overcome the hurdles others create.
Well, I'm not sure what to do next, I've removed and reinstalled the drivers from Brother to no avail. My printer lights up like its going to print, and then nothing happens. (Kinda like Curly's "I'm trying to think and nothing happens!). Well, I gotta finish getting ready for tonight, despite being more discouraged for some reason than I've been in a long time.
Well, I'm not sure what to do next, I've removed and reinstalled the drivers from Brother to no avail. My printer lights up like its going to print, and then nothing happens. (Kinda like Curly's "I'm trying to think and nothing happens!). Well, I gotta finish getting ready for tonight, despite being more discouraged for some reason than I've been in a long time.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Swapped Back
Well, crow isn't so bad if you put a little ketchup and salt on it.
I finally had to come back and try Debian SID again. I ran Kubuntu for almost a year, which is a record for me I think. There are things I stand by as far as what I've said about a lot of Debian developers being cry babies. The problem is they make the best darned overall distro out there hands down. Especially if you like KDE. With Novell climbing into bed with Micro$oft, I wasn't about to run anything with "SUSE" in the name. The problem is right when I needed to be paying attention the most, Ardent's mail server decided to go all foobar on the SAN drives. I wound up setting on the phone till about 4 in the morning. Not only that, but due to my lack of pay attention, the whole upgrade I was doing to fiesty fawn went so far south I had to format and start over anyway. So, I decided to download the latest etch netinstall CD and try it out again. I'm going to have to do away with this STUPID "iceweasal" rebranded Firefox browser though, because its just getting on my nerves. There are a lot of places you can't do what you want because they only support "Firefox 2.0.x". The problem is that is EXCACTLY what you're running, but they don't know that. So, I installed a Firefox extension called, "User Agent Switcher". What it does is respond to Web Site Queries about what browser you're running. I had to setup my own "User Agent" because who would have ever thought that you'd run firefox and have to fake out a website so that it would know you were running Firefox? Anyway, here's the settings:
Other than that things are going well. I have Debian up and running, and mighty fine so far. I used dar to restore the greater part of my home directory, along with unison, which I use to keep my home directory synced up to the main PC here at the house. Now that I've gotten weaned off of kdar (a cool graphical utility that the maintainer gave up on) I'm able to do just what I want via command line. I'll script it all out sooner or latter.
Anyway, looking forward to the weekend, even though I have to go to an Executive Board Meeting at 8:30 am tomorrow. YUCK. I hate getting up early on a Saturday.
May God bless your weekend.
I finally had to come back and try Debian SID again. I ran Kubuntu for almost a year, which is a record for me I think. There are things I stand by as far as what I've said about a lot of Debian developers being cry babies. The problem is they make the best darned overall distro out there hands down. Especially if you like KDE. With Novell climbing into bed with Micro$oft, I wasn't about to run anything with "SUSE" in the name. The problem is right when I needed to be paying attention the most, Ardent's mail server decided to go all foobar on the SAN drives. I wound up setting on the phone till about 4 in the morning. Not only that, but due to my lack of pay attention, the whole upgrade I was doing to fiesty fawn went so far south I had to format and start over anyway. So, I decided to download the latest etch netinstall CD and try it out again. I'm going to have to do away with this STUPID "iceweasal" rebranded Firefox browser though, because its just getting on my nerves. There are a lot of places you can't do what you want because they only support "Firefox 2.0.x". The problem is that is EXCACTLY what you're running, but they don't know that. So, I installed a Firefox extension called, "User Agent Switcher". What it does is respond to Web Site Queries about what browser you're running. I had to setup my own "User Agent" because who would have ever thought that you'd run firefox and have to fake out a website so that it would know you were running Firefox? Anyway, here's the settings:
description="Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.1"The last two I just left blank. I thought about adding "Debian" for vender just to mess with folks. :-D But, I decided not to. Anyway, if you add a custom Agent and fill in the parameters with the above, the sites you go to will think you're running Firefox 2.0.0.1 (which you are).
useragent="Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061205 Firefox/2.0.0.1 (Debian-2.0.0.1+dfsg-2)"
appname="Firefox" appversion="2.0.0.1 (X11; en-US)"
platform="Linux i686"
vendor=""
vendorsub=""
Other than that things are going well. I have Debian up and running, and mighty fine so far. I used dar to restore the greater part of my home directory, along with unison, which I use to keep my home directory synced up to the main PC here at the house. Now that I've gotten weaned off of kdar (a cool graphical utility that the maintainer gave up on) I'm able to do just what I want via command line. I'll script it all out sooner or latter.
Anyway, looking forward to the weekend, even though I have to go to an Executive Board Meeting at 8:30 am tomorrow. YUCK. I hate getting up early on a Saturday.
May God bless your weekend.
Friday, December 22, 2006
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?
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.
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.
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