nixternal

Finally broke down and bought a fairly inexpensive laptop tonight. I purchased the Compaq Presario C304NR. Celeron M 420, 512MB DDR2 PC4200, 80GB SATA Drive, 15.4″ widescreen with brightview, i950 video (YAY no crappy binary blobs here), and much more. Notice I left out the WiFi part, it is a Broadcom 4311 which only works with NDISWrapper and not with bcm43xx-fwcutter. Ya, I know binary crap, but I need wireless and this lappy doesn’t come with pcmcia slots.

I successfully got everything running just fine. Installed Kubuntu 6.10 (Edgy), fixed the resolution issue by installing 915resolution from the universe repositories, and fixed the WiFi issue with NDISWrapper and this tutorial. More information on the laptop and how well it runs Kubuntu can be found on the Laptop Testing Teams wiki page.
Feisty also had the same issues as Edgy, but that is somewhat expected at this early in the game. I am hoping more functionality comes to the laptop with the Broadcom drivers and a couple of the function keys.

Final grade for the Compaq Presario C304NR running Kubuntu 6.10 Linux, A-. A- because I had to use binary rubbish to get it working 100%.

My new nixmon theme. Simple yet full of the good stuff.

For my next trick…

Received my C++ GUI Programming With Qt4 yesterday. I even wrote my first application!

Remember in Independence Day when whatshisface-math-guy writes a virus that works on both his apple laptop AND an alien mothership? Bullshit! If real life were like film I’d be able to port wordpress to my toaster using a cat5 cable and a bag of glitter.

Thanks to rr72 in #ubuntu-chicago for reading /. and bringing this one up in the channel.

• Top 20 hackers in film history
• Top 10 Servers in the movies
• What code DOESN’T do in real life (that it does in the movies)

Yeeeeehaaaaw (I bet imbrandon does this every day!).

This weekend will be a busy one. Tomorrow is my nephews birthday party, so I have to go and spend a little time there, and then Sunday is the College of DuPage Linux User’s Group “Linux Fest.” It seems I will be taking over the presidency of the club since our current president is moving to New Zealand. I know NZ has a killer LUG, but man did you have to leave us just for that?

I am currently working on some topic based help system for Kubuntu. So far all I have done was mock-up what it “might” look like as a front page to KHelpCenter for the Feisty release. I am also working on adding some content to the Edubuntu Handbook (look 2 posts down).

I have already started my weekend work, which will be busy and fun. I started by making my blog here validate, thanks to Ms. Grabow for teaching me the ins-and-outs of HTML and CSS the correct way, and not the typical hackish way I have done for years.

NOTE: If you are interested in coming out to the CoDLUG event on Sunday (10am-4pm Chicago time), email me for details.

After reading John Vivirito’s blog post HERE and HERE about Automatix and support, I got a flash back. I got a flash back of the Linux of old, the RTFM Linux days. Up until recently, I thought Automatix was pretty decent for the person who was brand new to Linux and didn’t know their way around it all that wall. It was cool for people who are constantly on the go, and need everything now. At the same time I believe that people should go out, find the applications they want or need, and learn to install them themselves. In the long run, learning to how compile, make, install, configure, whatever is a great knowledge to have. So I was close to 50/50 on the whole idea, or maybe closer to 75% doing it yourself, and 25% the Automatix way. Until today…

If someone on #Ubuntu told you that Automatix caused a certain problem don’t believe him/her. Its a known fact that the #Ubuntu channel spreads misinformation about Automatix. If you ask us for help and you mention that your were told by someone on #Ubuntu that Automatix caused the problem, your request for help will be ignored.

Wow! Here you are providing an application, a decent one at that, to a lot of users who just so happen to use the most popular Linux distribution today, and you won’t provide them support when someone says, “hey check out #automatix, maybe they can help you as this seems to be an issue directly related to that.” I have sat through countless hours helping people who tried to upgrade to Edgy, but upon booting noticed they had no X-Windows. I actually sat there, pulled many into #ubuntu-classroom, and helped them through their woes. Myself, I spend countless hours on IRC, Instant Messaging, and E-mail helping any and everyone possible. Why? Because I believe in and love this awesome movement built around the greatest operating system ever, Linux. And then I get a user who says they won’t get support from you because I said it was caused by your application and maybe you have a quick fix for it, and not only are they upset at you, but they tend to be annoyed at me for sending them your way. Sounds more like a gaming clan than an Open Source solution to me. Granted, not everyone can troubleshoot every question down to the true source, but you need to listen to people who have a borked system that someone in #ubuntu or the like send your way. If it isn’t your issue, then good for you, let them know, and hey, maybe you can still help them fix it continuing your contribution to the Linux community.

So how do we fix a problem like this? Simple. Scour the Ubuntu Wiki, the Community Documentation, the Ubuntu Forums, the Kubuntu Forums, and even check out the Ubuntu Documentation Storage Facility. Learn how to install these applications you really want installed. Maybe you can even spend some time and learn how to package an application for your use, and possibly get it sponsored and uploaded into an Official Ubuntu Repository. Many of you made a switch to Linux to learn something new, to gain a greater knowledge, or stability and security were you plan. If these were your intentions, then I say don’t bother with Automatix and the like, learn to install everything on your own, ask questions in #ubuntu on chat.freenode.net (port 8001), or maybe send an email to ubuntu-users(at)lists(dot)ubuntu(dot)com. Since I am a part of the Ubuntu Documentation Project, and I can proudly say, RTFM. Read The Fantastic Manuals, and if you find a part that isn’t so fantastic, file a bug. That will be your contribution brownie points for the day! And remember, the Ubuntu community will always help you when they can.

• Restricted Formats for Ubuntu (I highly suggest you use the Free stuff if possible. Remember, MP3s can be ripped and so can your CDs into the OGG-Vorbis format)
• NVidia and ATI Binary Drivers (Don’t expect to use these and have successful kernel upgrades, or even upgrades to Xorg or from one release to the next)

NOTE: I do not condone the use of binary drivers, restricted formats, or other non-free applications. I know that not everyone can follow this, and I would be a hypocrite if I said I do all of the time. Oh wait, Java is GPL now, however Flash isn’t All of my MP3s, oh wait, I don’t have any, only OGG now. And my iPod, ya it came with DRM enabled, but Rockbox quickly fixed that issue. Do as you wish with YOUR computer, but do it on your own and learn it the right way.

,but not yet ready!

As some of you may recall, a couple of months back I sent out a message through this here blog about needing some help with the Edubuntu Handbook documentation. Thank you to everyone who responded and who helped out tremendously to get it up to where it is today. So where is it at today? LTSP documentation is loaded and pretty much taken care of, but there is plenty of other chapters/sections that need your help. Yes you! So if you are an avid Edubuntu user, or know your way around Edubuntu, can read and write English, and have a few minutes on your hand, then we could definitely use your help.

Here is the current state of the Edubuntu Handbook (Note it is still crude as it is still in draft mode, needing more content, we will proofread when all of the content becomes available.

If you come across a section stating “This section is available for adoption,” then please feel free to add to it. To chat with any of the Edubuntu developers concerning Handbook development, please if possible stop by #edubuntu in IRC on the Freenode network (server is chat.freenode.net and the port is 8001). You can also email the group at edubuntu-devel(at)lists(dot)ubuntu(dot)com to communicate your interest. Thanks everyone!