I’m really annoyed.
My notebook (HP Compaq nx9000) is currently running Mandrake 10.
While I’ve been happy with it, I thought I would give Debian a bash (excuse the pun), since it’s apparently one of those perpetually updated distros (and also one of the oldest), kinda like Gentoo, and I hate having to upgrade distros.
I burn the 2x ISO’s to DVDs, pop it into the notebook, and boot. It starts the installer, and eventually drops me into a menu.
“Right, what now?” I think to myself.
I consult various forms of documentation, but all of them refer to menu options that just aren’t on this menu. Weird.
Eventually, after a lot of swearing, I realise that it must be my DVD rom drive in the notebook.
To test this theory, I popped the DVD into my PC, and installed Debian. No mess, no fuss.
It’s weird how the drive my notebook reads the disc, but only in a half-assed kind of way.
–update
I finally found updated firmware for my QSI SBW-241 Combo drive here. It’s version VY02-3 (near the bottom). Be sure to grab the flasher executable too.
After upgrading the firmware, my notebook drive can finally read the DVD’s my PC has no problem with. Go figure.
Although the installer gets alot further along than it did before, it’s still not 100%. Oh well. Guess I’ll figure out a network install or something. Piece of shit.
I came across a weird problem.
I can copy a >2gb file from a smbfs mounted share to my local ext3 file system. No problems.
Just try copy the sucker back. Dies at 2gb every time.
Hmm. Google finds mention of 2gb filesize limits, but based on old kernels (pre 2.4) and usually in ext2.
So I try a search on smbfs instead. Voila. It’s apparently a known problem if you mount a smbfs filesystem.
The workaround is to use smbclient’s ftp-like interface to transfer the files.
The con is that you can’t use normal cp or what-have-you (even tried rsync), but the pro is that it’s fast. Much faster than normal cp, and also no 2gb limit. Guess I will be using smbclient for the file copies in future.
My desk at home is such a mess that I struggle to find my spare network cable that I use to plug my notebook in.
Nooo, I don’t have wireless, and I’d hate to try move the 17Gb of data that I need to copy across a wireless link. It would take forever. 100Mbit takes a while as it is.
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Please don’t label me a heretic for saying this, but has anyone ever thought what life would be like if Microsoft (ptooie) stopped fighting Linux and Open Source and brought out their own distro?
Imagine: Microsoft Linux
Now that’s an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one.
This article refers.
Goddamnit. The Mission is at it again, and in plain view too! What’s the world coming to?
In case the article is no longer available “live”, I have printed it to PDF.
Originally Posted: 03 August 2004 @ 07h43
I refer to THIS story.
Get a GRIP people! They’re just freakin’ stories, NOT based on reality. Fuck, they’ll probably go on about historical inaccuracies in Lord of the Rings soon.
–edit: Ahh well. The link no longer exists. I have no clue what I was on about, but you get the gist.
–edit #2:
This was really bugging me, but no amount of searching could find a trace of the article that originally incensed me.
This Google Search is enough to go on about in any case.
Again, get a grip, damnit. If they were labelled and marketed as factual documentaries, then you would have something to say about it.
I finally broke down and converted from Movable Type to Wordpress, mainly because of MT’s licensing change. I also decided to not bother with designing my own style… I’m using someone elses (It’s called Rubric, and I found it on Alex King’s site). I don’t have anything to prove. I know I can do web design… it’s just that other people are far better at it than I am (far far better), so I might as well use whatever they come up with. 
I’m not gonna lie and say that I’m gonna update more often, because it most likely won’t happen.
