Hail Ubuntu...

I am happy today, and you know why... ?
After posting this, I went home,
* created a System rescue CD from an ISO image.
* Booted with System rescue CD and deleted all partitions.
* Booted with WinXP CD and installed it on a 25GB NTFS partition,leaving behind other part of disk as unpartitioned.
* Booted with Ubuntu 7.10 CD and installed it on a 15GB ext3 partition along with 3GB swap, leaving behind other part of disk as unpartitioned.
* Booted with System rescue CD, created one 20GB FAT32 and 3 30GB NTFS partitions from the unpartitioned space.

Now My lappy is a fully functional WinXP-Ubuntu 7.10 dual boot system. I never had thought installing a dual boot system was as easy and enjoyable as eating Hide & Seek.

I could have had installed the media direct partition but I did not want to. I also don't have the system restore partition. I don't think both media direct and Dell's System restore will work with the dual boot config. considering that MBR is written by Ubuntu.
Now I am on a hunt to find necessary drivers to make my lappy work fine.

Hail Ubuntu...

My weekend adventure....

Should I blame my itch to switch or My(monkey)Mind...
I brought home Wubi, wanting to try Ubuntu. It wouldn't install, It tried to download the Ubuntu ISO image but as I was as connected as the oasis in the Sahara..It didn't proceed. I thought of a plan, 'I can make an ISO image of the latest Ubuntu 7.10 Live CD that I have and place in the correct location.' But naa....My Dell pre-configured system does not have an ISO writer software !! I needed it badly... I went to the nearest cyber cafe, got Imgburn in a pen drive, came back and make an ISO image. Now when I tried to Install Wubi.. It wouldnt proceed, reason...The wubi was for version 7.04 and my ISO was 7.10. So I said 'Until next time when I am really desperate I will try you my dear Ubuntu Linux.'

Now comes the Interesting part. After a couple of hours when I am using my system, I notice that the drive opens in a new window, The hidden folders cannot be seen. The folder options menu is ineffective. I was sure...this was a virus that some also call as rootkit. I checked a few things and I learnt that the virus was amvo.exe. It spreads through an executable file d.com that is hidden in USB pen-drive. Whenever you access your pendrive the virus jumps into action, adds a few entries into windows registy. The pre-installed Macafee Antivirus couldn't detect it. I should have updated the antivirus with latest signatures...but shouldn't the company be providing the system with all the latest signatures?? How can you expect everybody to be connected ?
Anyways...I tried to correct the problem, booted with Ubuntu Live CD and deletedd all the suspected programs and files but still the problem persisted. The virus was not dying. I said 'Fcuk Windows...' I took backup of my data into a pendrive and thought of trying the Dell System restore which brings back the system to factory settings state wiping off every data from the disk. But...but but...that option did not work...there was some modification done to the bootsector(or whatever) so it wouldn't start. Now I decided I was going to reinstall WinXP. Prepared my system for the Dell media direct partition, booted with the WinXP CD, formatted the drives and installed both XP and Media direct.. But now when I tried to log into Media direct 'Missing NTLDR' message came, same followed with WinXP.
I was frustrated, I finally decided 'I will install Ubuntu' and I did. My system is now a working Ubuntu system with limited functionality(no sound,cannot play popular media format files & all). While installing Ubuntu, I formatted the hard disk with one 3GB swap, and others as some 30 GB ext3 partitions. Now I can access only one of those ext3 partitions which is mounted as '/'. I have to learn the basics of linux, it's file system, commands and all or else I cant live with Linux.

My lappy

This post is due for some time. There is a saying in Kannada 'ಹಲ್ಲಿದ್ದರೆ ಕಡಲೆ ಇಲ್ಲಾ,ಕಡಲೆ ಇದ್ದರೆ ಹಲ್ಲಿಲ್ಲಾ' meaning 'when you have teeth, you don't have nuts and when you have nuts you don't have teeth. I always thought once I get my laptop, I will do a lot of things..but I haven't started yet, I'm just preparing for the start.

Mine is a Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop with following config:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5250 @ 1.50GHz (2 CPUs), 2038MB RAM,Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2, 15'' LCD screen, bluetooth,Wifi, 1.3px integrated cam,6 cellbattery, 160GB harddisk, DVR R/W drive, Media direct and all other basic things that comes with a laptop but no extra graphics card.

This one cost me 45K but the prices fell by 2K even before I got the system in my hand. Probably I will get some extra goodies for the price change. Dell imports the systems from Malaysia, and it takes at least 3 weeks for the delivery to clear the Lakshman rekha and come out.My system got delayed a bit more because of some misplacement by the delivery person.

There is very little to complain as of now except for a bad viewing angle, irritating DVD drive and loads of Dell's system utilities. The system came with only one drive partition. When I asked the service engineer for more partitions, I learnt that at max I can get only 2 working partitions considering the previously existing recovery and media partition. Now I have a 25 GB C drive and a 121 GB D drive.

I also received the latest Ubuntu Linux CD after ordering it from shippit. Live CD was good but still I'm not convinced to switch to ubuntu. Plain and simple reason, I dont have a internet connection. If I switch to ubuntu, I wouldst be able to enjoy all kinds of media formats unless I am connected. May be I can try for a dual boot system just to get started with Linux only if I win over my laziness

The first thing I did after getting the laptop was install a few applications. Here is a long list.

1)Mozilla Firefox
2)7-Zip
3)Audacity
4)Blender 2.45
5)Gimp
6)Inkscape
7)Irfanview
8)Kompozer
10)Launchy
11)Mediacoder
12)MediaMonkey
13)Mozilla sunbird
14)Notepad++
15)OpenOffice
16)Process Explorer
17)Python 2.5
18)Scribus
19)Stellarium
20)SumatraPDF
21)VideoLAN
22)GhostScript
23)Dev C++
24)Web Developer Server Suite

Of all these softwares, the italicized ones were the ones I was trying out for the first time.
Blender is hell of a 3d modeling software. Though the learning curve is steep, I have started learning it.
Stellarium is just another cool software showing real time sky.Irfanview, Inkscape and Gimp are my dispensable tools.Seems like Scribus may join this team also. Scribus needs Ghostscript and Blender,Inkscape,Gimp need python, so had to install them also.
I used Nvu for HTML editing earlier but Kompozer has replaced it now. Mediamonkey is a nice media player. Sunbird is just an OK calendering application. I can do some screen casting using VLC. SumatraPDF is a really light PDF viewer. OpenOffice looks cool, I'm drafting my post on Openoffice writer itself. Firefox,7-zip, Launchy & notepad++ need no explanation, they are a must. I have Dev C++ installed but seems like I have forgotten all C & C++ I had learnt.

Another application that needs a mention is web Developer Server Suite. It has Apache,MySql,PHP, Perl,awstats cores and web applications (CMS) like drupal,wordpress,Joomla,mediawiki,phpBB. A really good suite for learning these all.

There is so much to do,so much to learn, wish we had 48 hours a day. Wish teleporation becomes a practical reality sooner, so that I can make better use of my commute time. When you have too much to do, you dont know what to do, where to start from, my state is somewhat similar. I need to slow down and take things one by one.