Contest and Projects

Due to a mix-up, I ended up with two copies of Linux Format #126, the Christmas 2009 issue. I figure I'll run my first ever contest here at Daemon Dancing - after over 6 years of writing on this blog, why not? Let's make it a simple one - just drop me an email at jdarnold@buddydog.org and next Monday, when I get back from my work trip, I'll randomly select one entry to mail it out to. No strings attached and, believe you me, I won't be keeping your emails around! And heck, I'll even make it open internationally, just to make it even more likely I'll get at least one email entry:)

So I get a 1.5 out of 4 for my holiday projects. I did get the girls' computer up and running. The new power supply took a bit of forcing to get it to fit into the old case, but then it was up and running just fine. I was bit stumped as to what to install for an OS on it. For obvious reasons, the old Windows XP installed on the hard drive failed to boot. Really, all they do is play flash games on it at this point, save for R10.4 playing some Day of Defeat with me and my clan buddies. So I moved her onto the Windows machine and had to pick a Linux for the new box. I went with OpenSUSE 11.2, as I'm most familiar with that and so it would require the least amount of thought. So far, so good.

I get a half a project because I did try to install a new Linux on my own box, but wasn't really happy with it. I installed the latest Sabayon (v5.0), after being pretty impressed with how well the Live CD ran. But I immediately ran into a problem after the installation - GRUB refused to boot it up.

Because I run my own boot manager (TerraByte's BootIt NG), I always install the GRUB boot loader onto the first block of the OS's boot partition. One test of an installer is just how hard this is to do, and I'm happy to report it wasn't too hard for the Sabayon installer - just select the Advanced Options and it was one of the choices. But on boot, I just saw "GRUB " and I knew immediately what the problem was. My machine is a homebrew one, with both old fashioned IDE drives and newfangled SATA drives and this isn't the first time an installer or LiveCD called the drives something different than what a full boot calls them.

Unfortunately, I had formatted the partition as an 'ext4' drive, so I couldn't get at it with my OpenSUSE 11.0 boot. And it may also have had something to do with why GRUB didn't work either. So I redid the install using 'ext3' and still had the problem. After rebooting the Sabayon Live CD, the usual GRUB steps to fix a broken GRUB install didn't quite work:

# grub
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hd0,0)
(hd0,3)
grub> root (hd0)
grub> setup (hd0,3)
....
grub> quit

I do the ",3" part to (hd0,3) so that it installs in the root block of partition 3 and not the root block of that whole hard drive, to not overwrite my own boot manager. But I knew this was still wrong, because after a "normal" boot, the boot drive is hd1, not hd0. I think there is a way to tell grub this using another parameter to the setup command, but I had a better idea - I just booted into my OpenSUSE boot and changed all 'hd0's to be 'hd1'. After booting, things got a little further, until I realized that the setup command doesn't seem to fix the /boot/grub/menu.lst file, so I had the make the same s/hd0/hd1/g change there too.

Now I was able to boot into Sabayon. And because they aren't afraid to install binary drivers, I got the nVidia drivers and was quickly able to turn on my second display, which was nice. But the update process left me a little mystified. I couldn't really figure out how to get it to select packages and install the updates. And even when it was downloading, it was incredibly slow and, in the end, didn't seem to do anything.

So in this age of instant gratification, I sort of gave up. I think I'll try the Sidux distro next, although I should just stop wasting time and install OpenSUSE 11.2, as that is the one I like and use.

Holiday Projects

So on this long weekend in the US, I have a few technology projects I hope to work on:

Fix Girls' Computer

Their computer finally gave up the ghost a few weeks ago and they've been using one of my work computers while I figured out what to do. I picked up an AMD motherboard for cheap (US$120) from AscendTech.us, that included an AMD 6000+ cpu and 1gb of RAM. What it did not include was any kind of manual, which kind of upset me. I think it is an ECS MCP61SM-AM motherboard, which isn't even listed on the ECS web site. But I did figure it out enough to get it put into the case, only to find out the power supply only has a 20 pin plug, and the new ones require a 24 pin plug. So I ordered a new power supply and now it awaits final assembly. Not sure what OS I'l put on it. Maybe I'll go back to Qimo For Kids again.

Install New Linux

My current openSUSE installation is pretty old at this point. I did upgrade from 10.3 to 11.0 about a year ago, but since then I've managed to break it. An update was going too slow and eventually had to be abandoned, leaving it in a state where even the updater won't run. But it was time to start fresh anyway. Good timing, as Linux Format #126 reviewed the "best" KDE4 distros. Not surprisingly to me, their #1 pick was OpenSUSE 11.2. But I also thought the Sidux and Sabayon distros sounded interesting, so I wanted to spend some time with those before picking one.

Continue Linux From Scratch

I also need to get back on the Linux From Scratch project. I have the toolchain all built and backed up, and am ready to begin Chapter Six and actually build the real copy. I have gotten a little sidetracked in the whole package manager discussion, but I think I'll just ignore it for now and try an install. If I want to go further, then I'll think more on a package manager. But I have really been enjoying the heck out of getting into the real guts of a Linux install.

Work On Android

One new toy I haven't talked about is my G1 (Google) phone from T-Mobile. I have actually had it about 8 months now. I really like it and one reason I bought it was for its open source development model. I have a couple of interesting little projects for it ready to go, but just haven't found the time to pursue. I'm not a huge fan of Java programming, but I think I know enough to get something running.

So who knows how many, if any of the above projects I'll get to. Well, I have to do the first one so I can get my test computer back, and it promises to be a cold rainy day here in the US Northeast, so I think I can definitely get that done. As for the rest....?

Perfect Match

Cool questionnaire to help you pick the right Linux distro.  No idea how good it is, although openSuSE was one of my picks (others included PCLinuxOS, Kubuntu, and SimpleyMEPIS, all likable distros).  See which ones you should try.

zegenie Studios Linux Distribution Chooser