Linux *still* sucks.
Start with Ubuntu ... easy distribution of the gods ... snort.
Tried to install. Lots of errors on device. Check web. Grumble.
Crappy external drive that only works with Windows (and that poorly).
Okay, not the fault of Linux. Purchase new enclosure.
Installing to a Dell Inspiron 8600. This is about as generic as it
gets, folks. It's a smidge old, but everything on it should just work
as there has been plenty of time to work the kinks out.
Ubuntu Dapper Drake ... pull the LiveDVD ... install.
Hey, cool. Recognizes my firewire drive after boot. Finally, looks
like someone finally beat on the Firewire people.
Start configuring network. Hey, not bad. Connects to my neighbor's AP.
Whack. Bad computer. Reconfigure a couple of times until it connects
to my AP.
Tell it to use the whole drive. Go.
Stop.
Can't recognize and format. What?!?!? It managed to mount the bloody
thing. Partition is active.
Sigh.
Right click on eject. Retry. Can't find device. ARRRGGHHH!
Pull cable and remount drive. Start a terminal. sudo unmount. Try again.
Partition goes through. Starts install. Not bad. Chews for a bit.\
Error. Bad sector description on FAT 16 partition or somesuch. WTF?!?!
Who said you could touch hda? Cancel, cancel, cancel. Stop.
Try again. Text install.
Beat network into submission. Again. Partitions are correct (still
don't know why swap is on sda5). Restart.
Chew, chew, chew. Nasty dialog about my FAT16 partition. Again. This
time it doesn't try to do anything to the partition. Continue.
Dump grub on the firewire drive. Done.
Okay. Let's use the LiveCD to boot across to the Firewire drive as my
machine can't do a native firewire boot. Should just need to look up
magic command to pivot the root.
Uh, no. And, BTW, Ubuntu has removed the "Rescue" option from their
normal CD *AND* the DVD. WTF?!?! You've got 2+GB left. Put the damn
rescue on the DVD you idiots. Download yet another CD that should have
the rescue. Bittorrent rocks.
Rescue doesn't work. Why? Why can't I boot /dev/sda1 as my root from
rescue? Grrrrr.
Dig more. 4 hours later. I finally find the article that explains how
to create a bootcd. Ergh. How do I create a boot CD when I only have a
LiveCD and need to install syslinux? Let's try the LiveCD persistence
feature.
Nice. Most useful thing all night. Repartition the firewire drive with
an install partition and a persistence partition (just in case so I can
keep it around). Type magic commands. Reboot LiveCD. Hey, presto,
LiveCD with persistent overlay. Very nice.
Transfer iso to mac. While mac is burning bootcd iso, reinstall Ubuntu
on shrunk partition. Again beat network into submission. My AP, dammit!
BootCD finishes burning about time Ubuntu install finishes. Put bootcd
in. Bingo. System comes up off of firewire drive.
Man, that's an annoying orgasm sound when you log in. Gotta remember to
kill it.
Check network. Beat wireless into submission. Again. What is with
"Attach to any AP". That is *never* what you want.
Pull the latest updates to get security fixes. Pull in EasyUbuntu
primarily to get OpenGL support. Reboot.
Start tuxracer.
Slow as dog sh*t. Uh, oh.
fglrxinfo. Crap. Mesa. No acceleration.
Check the logs. DRI up. DRM up. Check web. Crap. Solution is to
deinstall/reinstall. Fine.
Done. Reboot. fglrxinfo. API ERROR. WTF?!?!?! That ought to be easy
to spot on the web. It is. Oh, it is.
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/linux-restricted-modules-2.6.15/+bug/47371/+index
The latest updates break compatibility with *the single most popular
line of graphics chips in laptops*. It's been this way for a month.
It's some flavor of kernel/driver idiocy.
You know what. I really detest closed source drivers, but I'm almost in
favor of ATI here. It's been 4 freakin' *years* people and you *STILL*
don't have a stable kernel API for DRM/DRI drivers in Linux. And it can
be resolved by copying in an old file. The deity knows which parties
are at fault. I hate you all.
Copy in an old libGL. Resolve a few links. Beat. Whack. Reboot.
Wave a rubber chicken. Start tuxracer. It runs. Sorta. Move on.
Great. Download the actual source code I've been trying to compile.
./configure dance and all that.
WTF?!?!?!? There's no GCC!
You have got to be kidding me! I'm going to have to manually manage all
the dependencies on Linux. No way, not happening. Hit the web.
build-essential. Give that a go. At least I get gcc. Fine.
Compile. Stop. Can't find gtk2.0. Give me a break. I've got Gnome
stuff on here. gtk2.0 *HAS* to be on here. Probably I'm missing
development headers. Find libgtk2.0-dev something. Attempt to install.
Dependency failure:
llibgtk2.0-dev: Depends: libgtk2.0-0 (= 2.8.17-1ubuntu5) but
2.8.18-0ubuntu2 is to be installed
It's a point release, folks. Just install it. Upgrade it or not, but
don't leave it hanging.
Enough. Full stop.
Time to go get some Fedora images. Yes, DeadRat installs the universe,
but at least they do it without me beating myself senseless.
I'm fully expecting to lose my firewire support on a retry.
Grrrrrrrrrrrr.
-a
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