[UPDATED] What a long, strange trip it’s been

[Updated to include setting up the PDF Printer as the default and to add one more launcher to my dock. And I added a screenie of the updated dock. - Nanci]
[Updated 29 December to finally add that missing for the networks startup and AWN, as well as more info on getting Acrobat Reader 7. - Nanci]

No, I haven’t been listening to a little Dead, although I just fired it up on my computer. Over the weekend I decided I was finally ready to get Windows XP off my computer and go 100% Ubuntu Linux. But it was no where as way as it should have been, and there were several calls to my brother Peng to try to get things working right. But I’m going to do you a favor and let you guys know not only what happened, but also how to deal with what came up so that if you run into problems installing Ubuntu Gutsy you’ll have a better idea of what to do to fix it than I had.

Ok, first things first. I could have simply reformatted the partition that held Windows XP as a Linux partition and then go into /etc/fstab and change things so that the new Linux partition would be mounted, but I had installed and uninstalled several things since I last installed Linux so I decided to format both partitions and do a fresh install from scratch. I already had my /home directory on a separate partition, and I decided that while I wasn’t using it in the new install I still wanted to keep it s a backup. I’d have my old settings, and possibly things I’d need to wipe, but I was willing to take that chance. I went through the WinXP partition and backed up the files there that I knew I’d want to hold on to (a few documents and pictures, some logs, and a few other things I didn’t want to lose), double checked everything that was going to be wiped out, and checked it yet again before I felt comfortable enough to do my very first, rather complicated Linux install. I talked to Peng to see if my favorite Linux tech could come over for it, even if just for moral support, and we had already decided that he thought I could handle it on my own, but if I had a problem I could call him. I logged out of Linux, changed my computer’s BIOS to use the Intel graphics system on my motherboard, and booted my computer from the nice, new Gutsy LiveCD I got last month.

The installer seemed friendlier than the Ubuntu Feisty installer I watched Peng use when he first got Linux set up on my computer, and all seemed to go well. There were a few false starts as I changed my mind about some of the settings I wanted to use, but this is how I ended up setting up my hard drives

• Hard drive #1, 74.53 GB
  • 13.45 GB primary partition, formerly a combination of Windows XP (formatted NTSF) and BootMagic (FAT16), now the Ubuntu root (/) partition
  • 20.60 GB primary partition, formerly my Linux root (ext3), now my new /home partition
  • 40.39 GB secondary partition consisting of:
    • 352.93 MB Linux swap partition
    • 40.0 GB FAT32 partition containing documents, images, audio files, and other things I wanted easily available while booting from Ubuntu or WinXP, I’ll eventually get this partition formatted as an ext3 partition
  • 7.84 MB of unallocated space
• Hard Drive #2, 19.02 GB
  • 18.6 GB ext3 partition with some audio files, documents, and backups
  • 352.96 MB Linux swap partition
• Hard Drive #3, 14.32 GB
  • 6.48 GB ext3 partition with more of the same as the ext3 partition from drive #2
  • 368.88 MB Linux swap partition
  • 7.48 GB ext3 partition that was my /home partition before I started this reinstall

I know, why so many smallish drives? Why not just get another big drive and replace the two smaller drives? This computer actually came from a friend that I upgraded a little and made my own, and I really don’t have the ability to put too much new stuff into it, especially since I still owe a friend from their helping me with an emergency monitor replacement a few months ago. Besides, my next upgrade will be to a better video card. I’m hoping to organize my files better in the coming weeks, plus once I reformat that FAT32 partition I’ll probably move all of my audio files there, which will make things much easier on me. Luckily a roomie just got a new hard drive with tons of space on it so I can move the contents of the FAT32 partition to her computer temporarily when I’m ready to reformat it and finish making my computer 100% Linux friendly.

The reinstall went pretty well, although it went quite a bit slower than it may take take on your computer, but that’s due to a 2.20 GHz Celeron CPU and a mere 794 MB of RAM (something else I must upgrade one of these days). Once I got back into Ubuntu Gutsy I took all of the upgrades like a good girl, activated the Universe and Multiverse repositories, and tweaked a few other things before adding too much other software. But the problems started once I told Ubuntu to use the restricted drivers for my Nvidia GeForce2 MX100/200 video card (I told you I needed to upgrade it). When I rebooted my computer I got what I’ve learned is the Black Screen of Death (BSD). Holy frick! I went ahead and got the latest version of Envy, removed the Nvidia drivers, and reinstalled them. Reboot. BSD.

I was still flying solo here, so rather than call my brother I got to a command line and tried to run Envy in text mode. More problems, though, and I knew the Nvidia drivers weren’t installed properly. I booted from the LiveCD again and fired up Firefox to start trying to hunt down a solution to my problem. I really wanted to prove to Peng that his faith was well placed, so after making a few notes I decided to continue things from my hard drive, not from the LiveCD. But I couldn’t tell how to get back to using the Intel video system so I simply started a reinstall, figuring that between myself and the online resources I could get things working. I was wrong, plus it was getting late so I decided to stop for now and get some sleep, hoping a fresh mind would find a solution. I had checked the integrity of the LiveCD itself, hoping I had maybe gotten a disk with some issues of its own, but the disk reported as being just exactly what it should be so I knew it wasn’t a bad disk. What I didn’t know yet was just what the hell was wrong with trying to use my Nvidia graphics card.

Except I spent all day Sunday hunting for solutions, trying different things, and ultimately failing. One thing I did find was that when I logged into Gutsy in rescue mode I couldn’t use my network. How come??? It turns out this is one thing Gutsy does differently from Feisty, but I also found a solution. I went into /etc/network/interfaces and added this code, which got my network (and internet) access running again without the pretty GUI.

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

I was also seeing that there were issues with my FAT32 partition that was dropping me out of the bootsplash and into text mode, as well as slowing making my login much longer than I was used to. But after doing some more hunting I discovered that I should add pre-up sleep 5 right after the two lines setting up eth0 and that cleared up that issue. (I found it on this post on the Ubuntu Forums, at post #10.)

But I still wasn’t able to get my Nvidia card working, and after a couple of phone calls he finally came over Sunday night. We looked at a lot of things, and he ended up looking at me and saying, “Sis, I love you to pieces, but what the f*** did you do to your computer?” He wasn’t mad, just pretty dumsquizzled (as he likes to put it). I on the other hand was beyond dumsquizzled and was just plain pissed. There’s no way in hell I should be having so much trouble installing Ubuntu Gutsy, and I felt sorry for anyone who decided to try Ubuntu with Gutsy and thought that this OS is not only borked but completely farked up. We did yet another reinstall (I lost count of how many installs it took me to get my poor computer working properly), and before too long it was time for Peng to go home. We could get Gutsy working, just so long as I didn’t try to use the Nvidia graphics card. I thought this might be a possible solution (although not a great one), until I popped onto SecondLife. I naturally got a nice little warning that my video card was so old (and slow) that it wasn’t supported and I could run SecondLife but it would be at my own risk. I thought SL got painful when my computer worked properly, as underpowered as my poor comp is for something as intensive as SL, but just trying to open my inventory or TP someplace gave me a flash of black screen. This, I quickly decided, would not do.

I went to bed again, and Monday I got up knowing it was my quest to find out why I was having so much trouble and get things fixed. It turns out that Nvidia came out with new drivers recently and there are some major issues with them. There are several bugs filed about it, and a lot of very pissed off users. But I finally found a very possible solution. The version of Envy I was using has some issues of its own, and I started the hunt for the previous version of Envy, the one that I had used so happily when I first upgraded to Ubuntu Gutsy. After even more searching I found a link in this forum topic (in post #323) to the previous version of Envy, which I saved to a my old /home partition (the one I was using before the adventure began).

I also decided that since I had everything working in Ubuntu Gutsy after the upgrade from Feisty that I would take that path this time. I fired up the Feisty LiveCD and installed it, grabbed the obligatory post-install updates, all without letting Ubuntu activate the restricted video drivers, and then it was time for the acid test. I crossed my fingers and installed the older 0.98 version of Envy and told Envy to get the drivers for my Nvidia card.

I’m sure you can imagine how happy I was when I rebooted, told my BIOS to use the PCI Nvidia video card rather than integrated Intel video system, and when I rebooted again I saw my beloved desktop. I had to stop and do a Dance of Joy, although without firing up Linus and Lucy to do it to. So far so good, but I knew I wasn’t out of the woods yet. I went ahead and installed most of the programs I knew I wanted from the Ubuntu repos, then I installed Automatix2 and got the restricted and extra codec pack, as well as the W32-DVD codecs, as well as their extra fonts and Nautilus Scripts. (I had tried using Automatix to install the Nvidia drivers to no avail so I hadn’t tried it again, but I love their Nautilus Scripts and can’t find them anywhere else so it’s a must install, even if I don’t use Automatix for anything else.) One thing I forgot to do was to get Adobe Reader 7, and the Gutsy version of Automatix has Adobe Reader 8 but I hate the new interface so I ended up deciding to look for the older version on my own.

Once I got Feisty back to how I liked it I fired up the Update Manager and clicked on the distro upgrade button. I had high hopes, knowing i had successfully gone from Feisty to Gutsy via the Update Manager before, plus I had a working install of Envy I could always go to if I needed it. In addition I had already smartened up and had a backup of my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file I could get back to in case my Nvidia card simply no longer wanted to okay well with Gutsy. That way I could get to my desktop with my Intel graphics and start crying out for help in the Ubuntu forums with a brand new post, detailing what I had already tried and seen fail. The upgrade system told me it should take approximately 28 minutes to do the upgrade, but my system is so slow that it took more than twice that amount of time. But that was cool, because if it worked what’s an extra half hour or so after fighting with it for about a day and half?

Finally the upgrade was finished and I was asked to reboot my computer. I was afraid when I clicked the reboot button, because Gutsy would start with the Nvidia card in use, and that’s where the problems always happened for the last day and a half. I had Envy 0.9.8 ready to run in text mode if I needed it, and I hoped that was all ‘d have to do. I didn’t hold my breath as I rebooted but I did cross my fingers.

I saw the splash screen, it dumped to text mode when the issues with my FAT32 partition came around, and I waited for the FailSafe version of X to let me know there was a problem. But instead I saw the pretty background come up that meant that the Xserver started without a any problems, and a minute or so later I was at my desktop. In Ubuntu Gutsy. With the Nvidia card. The multimedia keys on my Logitech Access Keyboard worked, something that wasn’t the case after my last reinstall. (Feisty knows what to do with this keyboard, but Gutsy doesn’t even seem to know it exists.) I couldn’t believe my eyes, and I scared my roomies by shouting for joy. I would have danced, but the bod was stiff enough from all the sitting that the last time I did a Dance of Joy my bod let me know it would really appreciate it if I didn’t do that again, so I just scared my roomies (and maybe the neighbors), then got a can of soda to celebrate with. I fired up Firefox and checked my webmail (something I had luckily done through the course of trying to get things working so I wasn’t too backlogged), then I pulled up all the desktop icons I’d had before starting this adventure and set my desktop back up and fired up SecondLife, mainly to make sure it was running as it should. (It was, thank the goddess.) Before crashing I started moving things back in from the old /home partition and getting some more software installed. I was able to find Adobe Reader 7 off their FTP server since it’s not on their website for some reason. (Acrobat Reader 7 is also available in the Medibuntu repos.) I also applied a fix to the matter of issues on my FAT32 drive. Basically what I did was tell the AutoFsck not to check it for errors by going into /etc/fstab and changing the last two numbers on the line for the partition to a pair of zeros. While this means I won’t get notified if anything else goes wrong with it, but I should have run a chkdsk on the partition before uninstalling Windows XP and now I don’t have a way to do that. Luckily I should be reformatting the drive within a week anyway so I’m not to worried about it.

Today was spent mostly getting most the rest of my software installed, including some things I’ve blogged and some things I haven’t blogged. Among the things I installed today are

• Advanced Desktop Effects Settings, also known as the Compiz Configuration Settings Manager (ccsm) from the Ubuntu repos, which will let me make some of these changes to my desktop effects
• Compiz-Fusion Icon, a tray icon for controlling Compiz-Fusion (a deb installer is available here)
• Emerald theme manager (from the repos)
• Wallpaper Tray, which rotates wallpapers from my collection (from the repos)
• The Liberation fonts
• Google Desktop Search for Linux (I don’t like how Tracker sucks up resources while it’s indexing)
• Ubuntu Tweak, a cool utility I’ve been meaning to blog that gives me even more control over my computer. Think TweakUI for Ubuntu and you’ll have an idea of what it does.
• GPicView, an image viewer I almost like more than gThumb
• The Gimp brushes I had recently found
• Screenlets, a program with OSX-like widgets so I can have a nice clock on my desktop, as well as a little applet for the song currently being played in Exaile (my new favorite media player, just bumping out Amarok)

There are a few more things I need to install, but they’re pretty minor at this point and I can take care of them later on. Except for one thing. In the last week or two I found a way to bring the look of Mac OSX Leopard to Ubuntu. While I’m not a Mac girl by any means, partly due to how closed and expensive it is, but I’ve used OSX in he past and I do like some of the things it does, especially that very cool dock at the bottom of the screen and the spinning wheel while the computer is busy. I’ve always wanted a dock like that but hadn’t found one that worked quite right, so when I saw the article about adding the OSX look to Ubuntu I tried it and fell in love with it, so it was time to add it to my new reinstallation. Basically I needed to install two programs, Mac4Lin and the Avant Window Navigator.

Mac4Lin is basically a set of themes, icons, fonts, cursors, splash screens and sounds that you can use to give your Ubuntu desktop a personality conflict with how much it looks like OSX. It even has wallpapers so you can carry the transition even further, as well as themes for Pidgin and Firefox, as well as plugins for Exaile and Pidgin. The developer, infra_red_dude, has a thread on the Ubuntu Forums about it and is great about helping people get it up and running. He’s currently working on version 0.4, and the new icon set replace the Apple log for the panel menu with a black Ubuntu logo. He says the change is for copyright issues, but I prefer it like this since I’m running Ubuntu, not OSX.

Of course you need a dock if you’re going for an OSX look, and Mac4Lin comes with themes for Avant Window Navigator (AWN) as well as SimDock in case Avant give you issues. I installed AWN and instantly fell in love. This is the dock I’ve been looking for, and I adore the ability to clean up my desktop and just use the dock for my frequently launched programs.

I do have some duplications in launchers because I can’t run AWN while I’m in SecondLife (I just don’t have enough RAM for that for now), but otherwise I’m quite happy with the results. One issue I had was that the buttons for minimizing maximizing/restoring and closing a window were, IMO, on the “wrong” side. But I realized today that I could change that by going into Emerald Manager, then go to Edit Themes > Titlebar and change the Title-Bar Object Layout so it reads something like this:

HM:I(5)T:N(5)X(5)C

Now I have the OSX buttons but in the locations I expect them in for Ubuntu. It turns out this isn’t just a case of what I’m used to, it also became a hassle when I’m trying to access those buttons for a window that’s partly hidden by another window. The way Ubuntu (and Windows) does it I can reach the buttons as long as the top right corner of the window is visible, but in the OSX world it’s the upper left corner that’s needed. But that’s the great thing about Linux and open source, it’s all about the freedom to work how you want to work. My system can be different from any other system in the world, simply because I prefer it a little differently.

How does my desktop look now? Take a look for yourself. You can click it to see it at full size (1280×1024).

The wallpaper is actually the Leopard Space wallpaper from OSX, in a 1280×1024 since that’s the screen resolution I use. I have the About Gnome window open so you can see how my buttons are arranged. And yes, I know what time that clock says. I’m a night owl anyway, plus I really wanted to get this post finished before I called it a night.

Updated Wed 5 December 3:34 PM ET: I did forget one important thing. I needed to set up the PDF printer as my default, since that’s how I print most of the time. You can find the instructions in this HOWTO, just remember that if you print a test page from within the printer manager it will print to /root/PDF not your /home/your_user/PDF. This is a known issue, and it’s because the printer management window is run as the root user. Just print a page from any document (I used a single post window from the Ubuntu Forums) and it will show up in your PDF folder with no problems.

I also added a launcher to my dock to be able to start my screensaver manually. To do this just create a launcher with this info.

Name: Screensaver (or whatever you want to call it)
Command: gnome-screensaver-command –activate
Comment: Start the Screensaver manually
Icon: /home/nanci/.icons/Mac4Lin_Icons_v0.4/scalable/apps/preferences-desktop-screensaver.png

This will give you a very cool swirling screen icon. I found that icon by going to System > Preferences > Main Menu, then going into the Preferences section and selecting the Screensaver menu item. By right clicking it and selecting Properties I was able to click the icon and get the path to the icon being used. If you don’t have the Mac4Lin 0.4 icons installed the pat, and the icon itself, will probably be somewhat different.

The icons on the dock are launchers for Firefox 2.0.0.11pre (the latest nightly build of Firefox 2, although that should probably be 2.0.0.12pre), Thunderbird 2, Pidgin (my IM program, with a note that I have one unread message thanks to the AWN plugin), Exaile (the icon is showing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s The Lost Christmas Eve cover because I’m listening to their Wiziards of Winter, again thanks to the AWN plugin), my new Screensaver launcher, and Terminal, then icons for my open Firefox window and an open Pidgin window with my best friend Orluna (shown in mid bounce since there’s a new message waiting from her), and finally applet icons for my Cairo menu, the Clock/Calendar applet (with events on my Google Calendar) and my local weather. I did change the background to a nice holiday Tux wallpaper so the icons would show up better. I can’t find my bookmark to the site I got it from, but I’ll add it as a comment once I find it again. There are over 114 cool Linux wallpapers there and I can’t believe I don’t have the site bookmarked.

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