XFree me from having to be a video card geek

 Geek  No Responses »
Jan 132004
 

So, I downloaded and ISO image of the latest stable release of Debian Linux, burned it to a CD, rebooted and started the install. Everything went fine until I hit the X Windows configuration. Being that I haven’t really messed around with Linux for about three years, I forgot how easy it is so screw up an X Windows install. I wrote down a bunch of hardware info about the machine from WinXP before I reformatted the hard drive, but neglected to check out the video card info. BIG mistake. I ended up guessing vga on the chipset and of course, it doesn’t work. Since I inheirited this machine from someone else, I don’t know what the hell is in there off the top of my head.

Is it too much to ask for a Linux installer that can examine my video card and configure everything so that I don’t have to know the refresh rates of my monitor and the chipset of my video card? I think Red Hat got this right at some point, but they’re now dropping their traditional packaging and splitting into Red Hat Enterprise and the Fedora Project. Since I fear what is new, I’m a little skeptical of Fedora and I’m staying away for now. For instance, there isn’t any documentation for Fedora, per se. It appears that I’d have to use the Red Hat 9 manuals if I were going to try it out now. At the same time, I’m dreading trying to tweak an existing X Windows install. I may spend a little time trying to get it to work, but it’s not really something to which I want to devote more than an hour or so. Either way, I’m looking at yanking the video card and examining it. Not a big deal, but still. I can whine can’t I?

 Posted by on January 13, 2004 at 1:10 am

More Chaos and a little order

 Family  No Responses »
Jan 102004
 

Sofia has posted her photos from the 12.30.2003 Baby Chaos at Ramsey (ours are where the most recent Pictures Of the Week came from).

We’re in the process of rearranging our office/guest room. We managed to get the ornaments off the tree, but have yet to put the tree away and I bought the supplies that I need to fix the downstairs toilet, but have yet to get around to that either. Hopefully, all will be accomplished over the weekend.

In geekland:

  • Rearranging of the office means that I’ll finally get around to converting one of our older machines to a Linux box. I think I’m going with Debian since Red Hat is no longer supporting their desktop version, although Chip’s recent experience installing it doesn’t sound like much fun. On the other hand, I may or may not have to deal with SCSI drives and I definitely don’t need SMP support, so maybe my install experience will be a little smoother.

  • I’m continuing to tinker around with my Nokia 3650. I recently installed PuTTY and Opera, and FExplore thanks to links from Russell and Rael.

  • As if all of this wasn’t geeky enough, my dork friends bought me a PS2 Network Adapter and a copy of SOCOM II for my birthday to join them in their obsession (I think I heard one quietly chanting “One of us, one of us!”). Of course, I also had to purchase this to accompany them. With the office rearrange, the old 20″ TV came out of retirement and is now setup for maximum post-kid-bedtime gaming. I registered last night and will be meeting up with Bob Dolemite tonight while The Wife toils away.

  • Lastly, I finally got the DVD burner up and running. I copied my first two CDs over the weekend and amazingly didn’t end up with any coasters. It’ll definitely come in handy for backing up all of the family photos, reciprocating generous burns from friends, and once and for all solving feuds between The Wife and I over particular mutually favorite CDs.
 Posted by on January 10, 2004 at 1:17 am

So I lied…

 Family  No Responses »
Jan 062004
 

So, I obviously didn’t post new photos or year end/new year musings. I’ll get to it.

We spent the last two days filling 16 lawn and leaf bags and a trash can with twigs/small branches and leaves from our front yard. It was amazing weather here for the last few days. We nearly hit 80. We had the windows open throughout the house for a nice mid-winter airing out. A cold front came through yesterday afternoon as I was finishing the yard work and we’re back down to a more typical 40.

We spent New Year’s Eve at home after having an early dinner at Central Market with Ethan and Jessica and their two girls. LaLa fell asleep on the way home, so we just flipped around the TV and settled on After the Thin Man. I’ve heard good things about this series over the years, but never got around to watching any. The Wife and I both give it the big thumbs up. I think she’d seen that one before. The remaining installments definitely go on the Vulcan rental list. Speaking of Vulcan, we rented

last week. I also DVR’ed a bunch of Twilight Zone episodes from SciFi channels New Year’s Day marathon. Finally, we went to Ethan’s parents house in Westlake Hills on New Year’s Day for a little get-together. I got to see some former co-workers from both Furnituremediashow and MillwardBrownQuest. We saw a doe on the way back which caused The Boy to ask whether or not it was real. Strange.

 Posted by on January 6, 2004 at 12:35 am
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