Conversation with Brian Swaney on Thu 23 Nov 2006 07:02:55 PM EST:
(07:02:55 PM) Brian Swaney: Hey, Paul. I found the problem.
(07:03:03 PM) Me: What was that?
(07:03:13 PM) Brian Swaney: My computer is dependent on Ubuntu 6.06.
(07:03:21 PM) Me: ?
(07:03:22 PM) Brian Swaney: It has the GRUB menu.
(07:03:46 PM) Brian Swaney: Deleting its partition took off the GRUB menu, preventing my computer from starting up.
(07:04:08 PM) Brian Swaney: Now I have to figure out why GAIM won't authenticate...
(07:04:32 PM) Me: Yes, I assumed you'd delete and reinstall Ubuntu at the same time
(07:04:45 PM) Brian Swaney: I just booted windows to figure out if my password works. I guess so...
(07:04:54 PM) Brian Swaney: Well, I needed partition spacwe.
(07:05:37 PM) Me: Ah, I see
(07:05:41 PM) Brian Swaney: I first took off Linux. and loaded MediaDirect. It didn't work too well.
(07:06:02 PM) Brian Swaney: Then, I tried to load it, only to find it broken.
(07:06:21 PM) Brian Swaney: I was somehow able to load Windows that time, because I deleted its partition.
(07:06:30 PM) Brian Swaney: That's when all hell broke lose.
(07:06:57 PM) Brian Swaney: I figured it wasn't worth the space if it wasn't going to work.
(07:07:00 PM) Me: Yeah, those bootloader (Grub) issues are scary but usually they're fixable without deleting everything
(07:07:38 PM) Brian Swaney: I knew the information was there. I saw the Windows partition when I booted from the disk.
(07:07:55 PM) Brian Swaney: If I didn't know how to do that, I'd probably just sit in my dorm and cry.
(07:08:38 PM) Brian Swaney: I just saw that my computer was confused. Funny, except the not being able to boot thing kept me from laughing.
(07:09:09 PM) Me: Yes, true
(07:09:51 PM) Brian Swaney: My dad says not to mess around with Edgy unless it's on a computer I can afford to learn on (and possibly crash), because it's still experimental. He also says if access to Windows from Linux is what I want, that I can just "mount" it.
(07:10:23 PM) Me: Edgy is finished
(07:10:32 PM) Brian Swaney: Locked?
(07:10:49 PM) Brian Swaney: Anyway, it didn't work.
(07:12:01 PM) Brian Swaney: I spent until like 4:00 am loading the ISO, then my computer stopped working.
(07:12:33 PM) Brian Swaney: I'm going to sign off to test my password. It's auto-sign-on.
(07:12:36 PM) Brian Swaney has signed off.
(07:12:49 PM) Brian Swaney has signed on.
(07:12:54 PM) Me: Weird
(07:12:56 PM) Brian Swaney: Wierd.
(07:13:24 PM) Brian Swaney: it works just fine here, but gaim said "Authentication failed."
(07:13:47 PM) Me: ?
(07:13:50 PM) Brian Swaney: I backed up my files on a flash drive this time.
(07:13:57 PM) Me: I don't follow
(07:14:10 PM) Brian Swaney: I am just as confused (likely more) as you.
(07:14:37 PM) Brian Swaney: I backed up my files in case something like that happens again.
(07:15:21 PM) Me: That's always a good idea
(07:15:54 PM) Brian Swaney: Yes, I was really wishing I'd done that last night.
(07:16:10 PM) Brian Swaney: I was determined to avoid reloading Windows at all costs.
(07:16:23 PM) Me: Did you have to? You shouldn'tve once you fixed Grub
(07:16:39 PM) Brian Swaney: No, I tried that first.
(07:17:10 PM) Brian Swaney: I fixed Linux, then Windows worked. At least it's not Linux needing Windows.
(07:17:22 PM) Me: True
(07:17:59 PM) Brian Swaney: Well, I'm going to try gaim again. I need to redo all those driver things. I don't even have wireless anymore.
(07:18:07 PM) Brian Swaney has signed off.
(07:20:41 PM) Brian Swaney has signed on.
(07:21:01 PM) Brian Swaney: Got it. A computer is only as smart as the user (not very).
(07:21:11 PM) Brian Swaney: I put "@aol.com" at the end.
(07:21:16 PM) Me: Haha, that'd do it
(07:21:34 PM) Brian Swaney: I forgot the domain was already included.
(07:21:59 PM) Brian Swaney: Ok. I already ran apt--get update.
(07:22:16 PM) Brian Swaney: Now to those drivers from Open Source night...
(07:22:45 PM) Brian Swaney: Let's start with the screen one. It's bothering me, being so blurry and all.
(07:22:59 PM) Brian Swaney: What should I type?
(07:23:23 PM) Brian Swaney: There?
(07:23:45 PM) Me: Gimme a sec
(07:25:29 PM) Me: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu
(07:25:37 PM) Me: Enable the restricted repository
(07:26:08 PM) Brian Swaney: What is a restricted repository?
(07:26:17 PM) Me: then run:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-`uname -r`
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo depmod -a
sudo aticonfig --initial
sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv
(07:26:29 PM) Me: It's software that isn't open-source
(07:26:43 PM) Brian Swaney: Ok. How do I do that/
(07:26:45 PM) Brian Swaney: ?
(07:26:54 PM) Me: Read the link
(07:27:47 PM) Brian Swaney: I don't see anything about enabling it yet...
(07:28:20 PM) Me: Actually it's called in here the "Multiverse" repository
(07:28:34 PM) Me: No I take it back it's in Restricted
(07:28:44 PM) Me: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu#head-155b53308911d4d3869b3650856a41550f57f891
(07:31:04 PM) Brian Swaney: What is the apt repository line?
(07:31:43 PM) Me: Huh?
(07:31:55 PM) Brian Swaney: That's what your link talks about.
(07:32:56 PM) Me: Edit the ones already in the list to include restricted and non-free
(07:33:10 PM) Brian Swaney: Where do I find the list?
(07:33:27 PM) Me: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu#head-5bbef89639d9a7d93fe38f6356dc17847d373096
(07:39:21 PM) Brian Swaney: I'm not sure I did it right, but nothing really seemed to change.
(07:39:33 PM) Me: Yeah, that's ok
(07:40:02 PM) Brian Swaney: I just checked 2 things that said something about a copyright.
(07:40:10 PM) Me: Yep, that's it
(07:43:26 PM) Brian Swaney: The first part (sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-`uname -r`) didn't work.
(07:43:52 PM) Me: Why are one of your backquotes forward?
(07:44:13 PM) Brian Swaney: I copy/pasted.
(07:44:16 PM) Me: Oh never mind
(07:45:06 PM) Brian Swaney: "sudo depmod -a" only went to the next line.
(07:45:59 PM) Me: Ok, run
sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-386 instead
(07:46:22 PM) Brian Swaney: Is this aticonfig stuff going to mess up the x-server thing like last time?
(07:47:16 PM) Brian Swaney: It said it's already the newest.
(07:47:26 PM) Me: No it shouldn't
(07:47:49 PM) Brian Swaney: It said
brian@brian-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-386 instead Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
linux-restricted-modules-386 is already the newest version.
E: Couldn't find package instead
brian@brian-laptop:~$
(07:47:58 PM) Me: Ok, you've already got it
(07:48:21 PM) Brian Swaney: Ok. Is this "aticonfig" stuff what broke the video driver last time?
(07:48:32 PM) Brian Swaney: Or the x-server thing?
(07:49:08 PM) Me: No, what broke it last time was that you had X.Org 7.1 but an older fglrx
(07:49:27 PM) Me: So fglrx would be like "No."
(07:50:08 PM) Brian Swaney: The last 2 lines didn't work.
(07:50:24 PM) Brian Swaney: They said:
brian@brian-laptop:~$ sudo aticonfig --initial
Uninitialised file found, configuring.
Using /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Saved back-up to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.original-0
brian@brian-laptop:~$ sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv
Warning: Option 'VideoOverlay' doesn't affect running session.
Warning: Option 'OpenGLOverlay' doesn't affect running session.
Using /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Saved back-up to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.fglrx-0
brian@brian-laptop:~$
(07:50:33 PM) Me: Yeah they did
(07:50:46 PM) Brian Swaney: Is everything ready to fix the screen?
(07:50:49 PM) Me: Hit Ctrl-Alt-Backspace
(07:50:53 PM) Brian Swaney has signed off.
(07:51:37 PM) Brian Swaney has signed on.
(07:51:51 PM) Brian Swaney: Yay, my screen is cool-looking again.
(07:51:59 PM) Me: Ta-da
(07:52:14 PM) Brian Swaney: Now the next critical thing is the wireless.
(07:53:02 PM) Brian Swaney: As of yesterday, I no longer have support for WPA-enterprise/TKIP encryption (exactly what OSU uses).
(07:54:54 PM) Me: sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome
(07:55:41 PM) Brian Swaney: Hey, can you copy those commands from earlier? I'm going to copy them into a flash drive. I didn't know [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Backspace] would log me off or anything, thus losing all that you said above.
(07:56:33 PM) Brian Swaney: Is it going to work?
(07:56:40 PM) Me: Gimme a sec
(07:56:45 PM) Brian Swaney: I'm not on campus, so I have no way to test it.
(07:58:29 PM) Me: http://pastebin.ca/256305
(07:59:30 PM) Brian Swaney: Oh my, I always thought these were private. Or did you put them there?
(07:59:42 PM) Me: I just put it there a sec ago
(08:00:01 PM) Me: Pastebin just lets you copy paste any text into it and send someone a link
(08:00:11 PM) Me: AIM won't let you paste a lot of text
(08:00:19 PM) Brian Swaney: It scared me.
(08:00:30 PM) Me: It will disappear in a day or so
(08:02:43 PM) Brian Swaney: I think I need a driver update for a flash drive.
(08:02:53 PM) Brian Swaney: It doesn't open.
(08:03:13 PM) Me: Flash drives don't have drivers
(08:03:48 PM) Brian Swaney: Ok. Then why would it not open? Would Windows have anything to do with it?
(08:04:03 PM) Me: Edgy fixes this problem much better, one of the reasons I suggested you install it
(08:04:15 PM) Brian Swaney: Well, it didn't work.
(08:04:40 PM) Me: Places->Computer
(08:04:45 PM) Brian Swaney: When was it set in stone (officially released)?
(08:04:46 PM) Me: See if it's in there
(08:04:58 PM) Me: A month ago maybe?
(08:04:59 PM) Me: Not sure
(08:06:09 PM) Brian Swaney:
CD-RW/DVD+ Drive
32.0 GB Volume
DellUtility
Filesystem
(08:07:13 PM) Brian Swaney: Is it one of those?
(08:07:48 PM) Me: I don't think so. Try running sudo apt-get install gnome-volume-manager and see if you have it
(08:08:29 PM) Brian Swaney: It said:
brian@brian-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install gnome-volume-manager
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
gnome-volume-manager is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
brian@brian-laptop:~$
(08:08:53 PM) Me: Curious.
(08:09:09 PM) Brian Swaney: My dad's worked earlier today...
(08:09:26 PM) Me: g-v-m is the program that handles automounting drives, it should just work
(08:11:02 PM) Brian Swaney: Well, on to wireless...
(08:12:36 PM) Brian Swaney: There?
(08:14:36 PM) Me: Yep
(08:14:52 PM) Brian Swaney: Any ideas on wireless?
(08:15:02 PM) Me: sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome
(08:15:10 PM) Brian Swaney: I have nothing to test it on right now...
(08:15:48 PM) Brian Swaney: It said:
brian@brian-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
network-manager-gnome is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
brian@brian-laptop:~$
(08:16:07 PM) Brian Swaney: This one doesn't seem to like WPA or TKIP.
(08:16:31 PM) Brian Swaney: It didn't earlier.
(08:16:43 PM) Me: How do you know?
(08:16:58 PM) Brian Swaney: Not until you got it to connect at that one meeting.
(08:17:29 PM) Brian Swaney: It only gave me the options of WEP and open.
(08:18:11 PM) Brian Swaney: It doesn't even list the wireless adapter right now.
(08:18:20 PM) Brian Swaney: I know it's attached.
(08:18:20 PM) Me: Hmmm... I've seen that problem before but I can't remember how it was fixed
(08:18:45 PM) Brian Swaney: Before, it showed up sometimes, and sometimes not.
(08:19:29 PM) Brian Swaney: The big problem is the WPA/TKIP supplicant.
(08:19:58 PM) Me: Yeah; well, you should have wpa_supplicant installed by default when you pull in network manager
(08:20:15 PM) Brian Swaney: How do I do that?
(08:20:47 PM) Me: No, it's already done
(08:20:56 PM) Brian Swaney: With the disk?
(08:21:26 PM) Me: You could try sudo apt-get install wpasupplicant but it's 95% sure that it's already installed
(08:22:12 PM) Brian Swaney: So it says...
(08:22:21 PM) Brian Swaney: Ok. Moving on..
(08:22:26 PM) Brian Swaney: What else was there?
(08:22:40 PM) Me: Automatix
(08:22:45 PM) Brian Swaney: What is that?
(08:23:05 PM) Me: It installs video codecs / other commercial stuff
(08:23:28 PM) Me: http://getautomatix.com/wiki/index.php?title=Installation&Itemid=38#Installing_on_.28K.2CX.29Ubuntu_6.06_i386.2Camd64_.28Dapper.29
(08:25:42 PM) Brian Swaney: It said:
brian@brian-laptop:~$ wget http://www.getautomatix.com/apt/key.gpg.asc
--20:24:18-- http://www.getautomatix.com/apt/key.gpg.asc
=> `key.gpg.asc'
Resolving www.getautomatix.com... 82.165.193.29
Connecting to www.getautomatix.com|82.165.193.29|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 1,730 (1.7K) [text/plain]
100%[====================================>] 1,730 --.--K/s
20:24:23 (86.83 MB/s) - `key.gpg.asc' saved [1730/1730]
brian@brian-laptop:~$ gpg --import key.gpg.asc
gpg: directory `/home/brian/.gnupg' created
gpg: new configuration file `/home/brian/.gnupg/gpg.conf' created
gpg: WARNING: options in `/home/brian/.gnupg/gpg.conf' are not yet active during this run
gpg: keyring `/home/brian/.gnupg/secring.gpg' created
gpg: keyring `/home/brian/.gnupg/pubring.gpg' created
gpg: /home/brian/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key 521A9C7C: public key "Justin Hayes (Automatix Repository Master) <wildtangent@w1ldt4ng3nt.net>" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1
brian@brian-laptop:~$ gpg --export --armor 521A9C7C | sudo apt-key add -
OK
brian@brian-laptop:~$
brian@brian-laptop:~$ gpg --export --armor 521A9C7C | sudo apt-key add -
OK
brian@brian-laptop:~$
brian@brian-laptop:~$
(08:25:54 PM) Brian Swaney: Does that mean it worked?
(08:26:56 PM) Me: Yes, in general, if a command prints nothing, that means it succeeded, that's just a Linux rule
(08:27:09 PM) Brian Swaney: I guess it did; sudo apt-get update got a bit more.
(08:27:45 PM) Brian Swaney: Ok, am I at the threshold of the last crash?
(08:28:47 PM) Me: No, this was unreleated
(08:29:08 PM) Brian Swaney: How far am I from the point where it stopped working?
(08:30:21 PM) Me: You're not gonna run into it
(08:30:33 PM) Me: The reason was because I copied my sources.list in
(08:30:41 PM) Brian Swaney: Would I need any other updates/drivers?
(08:30:44 PM) Brian Swaney: I see.
(08:30:48 PM) Me: Which works fine for Edgy, but makes Dapper hate its own life
(08:31:06 PM) Brian Swaney: I guess it didn't like yours...
(08:31:13 PM) Brian Swaney: <<laughs>>
(08:31:29 PM) Me: True, cause you have Dapper installed
(08:32:00 PM) Brian Swaney: Well, my dad believes I shouldn't install Edgy.
(08:32:18 PM) Brian Swaney: It always stops about 3/4 of the way anyway.
(08:32:43 PM) Me: Well, stay with what you're comfortable with but I think Edgy has less weird problems
(08:33:08 PM) Brian Swaney: Yes, likely. I just want what works.
(08:33:26 PM) Brian Swaney: Apparently, Edgy didn't.
(08:33:43 PM) Brian Swaney: Oh yes, now I know what I'm forgetting.
(08:33:56 PM) Brian Swaney: How do I edit the GRUB menu?
(08:34:20 PM) Brian Swaney: It's back to that timer with 4 versios of Linux as choices.
(08:34:28 PM) Me: sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
(08:35:37 PM) Brian Swaney: Ok, so I just comment anything I want to stop, right?
(08:36:40 PM) Me: ...yes
(08:37:28 PM) Brian Swaney: ## before each entire clause I'm blocking?
(08:37:37 PM) Me: Just one #
(08:37:43 PM) Me: ## is for a heading or something
(08:37:59 PM) Brian Swaney: Each line, or just the first one?
(08:39:07 PM) Me: Each line
(08:39:20 PM) Brian Swaney: Where is the timer?
(08:39:25 PM) Me: At the top
(08:39:42 PM) Brian Swaney: It's all commented there.
(08:40:14 PM) Me: Uncomment the timer line and set it to 0
(08:40:24 PM) Brian Swaney: I'm going to e-mail a copy to you; I don't think I can paste all of this...
(08:40:48 PM) Brian Swaney: Uncomment it? I thought commenting it would negate it.
(08:40:57 PM) Me: We want to make it work
(08:41:03 PM) Brian Swaney: At zero?
(08:41:16 PM) Me: But we want the timer time to be zero => no timer
(08:41:22 PM) Brian Swaney: Wouldn't that mean load selected OS instantly?
(08:41:25 PM) Brian Swaney: Oh.
(08:41:41 PM) Me: Or you could set a really high # if you want to
(08:42:00 PM) Brian Swaney: The first lines are:
# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.
(08:42:14 PM) Brian Swaney: I'm not sure that's what I'm looking for.
(08:42:35 PM) Me: Nope
(08:42:52 PM) Me: Look for timeout
(08:44:00 PM) Brian Swaney: I just e-mailed a copy to you.
(08:44:21 PM) Brian Swaney: I trust you finding it more than myself.
(08:44:43 PM) Brian Swaney: If I goof up, I may have some problems.
(08:45:00 PM) Brian Swaney: betts.62, right?
(08:45:37 PM) Me: It's right there, line 19
(08:46:04 PM) Me: Change timeout 10 to timeout 1000 or something
(08:46:38 PM) Brian Swaney: A "#" would just negate it alltogether, right?
(08:47:21 PM) Me: No, it means the timeout is the default, which might be no timer or it might be 10 sec, I'm not sure
(08:47:42 PM) Brian Swaney: Ok. It's zero.
(08:48:44 PM) Me: I think it's safer to set it to 1000
(08:49:32 PM) Brian Swaney: I'll set it to 5 minutes. I should reach it by then.
(08:50:22 PM) Brian Swaney: Ok, now I pound the 2 copies of Linux, right?
(08:51:06 PM) Me: Comment out the one you don't want to see
(08:51:18 PM) Brian Swaney: That's what I mean by copies.
(08:51:51 PM) Brian Swaney: The ones that are right below the good ones.
(08:52:02 PM) Brian Swaney: The top 2 are active.
(08:53:04 PM) Brian Swaney: Ok. Now I cut/paste Windows up right under Linux, right?
(08:53:21 PM) Me: Yep
(08:53:21 PM) Brian Swaney: It says:
title Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
(08:55:36 PM) Brian Swaney: I just copied it (to preserve defaults) and pounded out the original.
(08:58:44 PM) Brian Swaney: I just e-mailed you a copy of my current startup sequence. I'd like you to make sure it's right before I boot from it.
(09:01:51 PM) Me: Yep, that'll work
(09:02:45 PM) Brian Swaney: Ok. I'm going to try rebooting now...
(09:03:09 PM) Brian Swaney has signed off.
---
(09:05:21 PM) Brian Swaney: Well, I forgot to change their names.
(09:05:29 PM) Brian Swaney: What was that command again?
(09:05:48 PM) Me: sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
(09:08:39 PM) Brian Swaney: Ok. I'm going to reboot from Windows now to copy all of these commands into this flash-drive which is apparently Linux-proof. I'll ask about them again there. I hope that's not annoying for you...
(09:08:57 PM) Brian Swaney has signed off.
(09:10:43 PM) Brian Swaney has signed on.
(09:11:22 PM) Brian Swaney: Ok, I'm ready.