Kimberly's Blog

Well, I took the plunge today and have installed Ubuntu Linux 10.04 code named ‘Lucid Lynx’.

Overall, I’m pretty impressed with the new version of Ubuntu. I do how ever have a couple of gripes which are problably more just minor annoyances than anything. Thunderbird I dislike, time will tell wheather that will change. As it stands I think Thunderbird 3.0.4 looks horrible. I might have to look at Evolution again.

Flash video’s did not work after the upgrade from 9.04, I had to rip out the flash pkgs and re-install them. Minor thing really, but the re-install fixed the issue.

Gwibber doesn’t seem to appear on the system tray anymore. When I close the window it closes it and I need to go through the menus to re-load it. Maybe I’m missing something, also one of my Twitter accounts seems to have been misplaced.

Bilbo blogger has now changed it’s name to Blogilo, thats cool. I have no problem with a name change, but it didn’t migrate my blog accounts over. I had to add all my blog accounts to it. Again a minor thing which only took up a few minutes. But it would have been nice if it migrated the settings / blog accounts across.

Firefox lost it’s icon on the menu, Not that I use Firefox (Chrome is my browser of choice), I thought it rather odd that it lost the icon however. Editing the menu and putting it back fixed it

All in all, I think Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx at this stage is looking pretty impressive.

I’m looking at moving the Podcast studio computers permanently to Ubuntu Linux.

I’m currently running the studio systems on USB key installs of Ubuntu. So far everything seems to be working well. I’ll be testing the recording software over the next few days and will be recording this weeks XTN on Ubuntu. Still deciding if I should use a Windows backup recorder just in case, and that probably won’t be a silly idea really.

Still have a little issue with the Linux blogging clients. I use Windows Live Writer which for a Microsoft application works really well in conjunction with WordPress. Also, I used iTunes to write the ID3 tags and insert album art so I’m also going to be playing with the ID3 tag editors under Linux.

I’m writing this on Lekhonee which is a gnome WordPress client. Anyway, all going well this time in a couple of weeks all the systems will be re-installed with Ubuntu.

If anyone is running Linux software for podcast production, I’d love to hear what software you use.

Once I get everything sorted on the Linux side, I’ll post a writeup with what I decide to use software wise.

The post is brought to you by lekhonee v0.7

Ok, While I personally havn’t used the Yum-Gui on Bluequartz/CentOS, I do find it odd that even though someone would close their business they would then go and put an update on the BQ update server to remove a package that I’m sure a lot of people would use.

I can understand Nuonce removing their repository for yum, but why go and do something that seems to be just stupid.

I see Solarspeed.net still has the .pkg available for download for the yum-gui but I suspect if it were to be installed a yum update would promptly remove it again.

Ok well, I have just tested it on my server. and if you install the .pkg from SolarSpeed.net it seems to stay there. I guess time will tell for how long.

Ok, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to purchase this off Trade Me when I saw it.

Heck, how often do you get a 1u rack mount server for under $100 that is a reasonable spec machine. Dual processor with a gig of ram.

It’s now running the web sites I have and doing a very good job of it so far. It seems to handle running Fedora reasonably well and the installation was no cause for concern. It sounds a bit like a jet because of the fans in it, so it’s been nick named "The Jet" I would hate to imagine the noise of a rack of these things.

I was watching an IBM xServer which went for $255 but unfortunately it was a little out of the budget at the time.

Well, I have a licence for Windows XP professional, and while I am not one to generally endorse Microsoft. I find myself having installed Windows XP on my Acer Aspire 4315. I’m going to dual boot it with Ubuntu 8.10 when it is released.

My decision to install Windows came from the small hardware issues I was having with Ubuntu 8.04. I was having intermittent wireless problems with the Atheros wireless drivers, Printing issues and various other little things under Linux. I am pleased to say that I have no such problems under Windows XP. I do hope Intrepid (Ubuntu 8.10) will solve many if not all the issues I was having. But for now, Windows XP is working like a dream. I guess I am hoping Linux will have no hardware issues once Windows XP becomes completely unsupported as I will not upgrade from Windows XP to any other Windows version.

I almost hate to say I am running Windows XP on it. but, like I said while I am not generally one to endorse Microsoft products. We live in a world where hardware is designed for Windows and is generally better supported under Windows.

I have got everything working like a dream, Sound, Modem, Network, Wireless, Dual View/TV out, Webcam etc…. I have even found Windows Live Writer to be an excellent desktop blogging package.

For those of you looking for Windows XP drivers for Acer Aspire 4315 Notebook. Google search the following drivers. All implement well and so far have given me no cause for concern

AHCI_Intel_v7.5.0.1017_XP
Audio_Realtek_v6.0.1.5413_R167_XP_Vista
Chipset_Intel_v8.3.0.1013_XP32
Lan_Marvell_v10.15.4.3
Modem_Lite-on_v.2.1.77.9
TouchPad_Synaptics_v9.1.11.0_XP32
VGA_Intel_v6.14.10.4847win2k_xp
Wireless_Atheros_V5.3.0.67_XP_XB63_XB62(WHQL)

If you know of better drivers please leave a comment. These work for me but I can’t guarantee they will work for everyone else..

I’m just sitting here sneazing my head off, Such a pretty sight Not.

I have been reading the Ubuntu Website & Forums

I’m kind of excited about the upcoming release of Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) You can view the Release Schedule

I guess I’m interested to see how upgrading from Hardy goes on my laptop. The last upgrade I did using a package manager ( yum on Fedora 8 ) left some problems lying around with packages that caused dependancy conflicts with future Fedora 9 updates. It wasn’t really hard to remove the problematic packages from Fedora 8 on Fedora 9. Though it would have been nice if Fedora had taken care of them to begin with. It’s not like they were packages from other repos.

Anyway, It will be good to see how Ubuntu handles upgrading Hardy to Intrepid. Ubuntu 8.10 release is scheduled for 30th October 2008, so I will let you all know how I get on with upgrading my Acer Aspire 4315 laptop.

Even if your Wireless lan adapter isn’t supported natively by the kernel drivers, there is another method to get drivers installed.

For this you simply need the Windows 9x/XP drivers for your specific adapter. On my system I was installing for the Acer (??) WarpLink 802.11b Adapter. you can use lsusb or lspci to find out the name of your adapter and search for drivers online if you need to.

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When I first installed Fedora 9 I discovered Banshee which I felt was a pretty good media player which had good library facility however I could not get Banshee to see my Ipod shuffle.

I happened to be browsing through the Add/Remove software Multimedia section when I found Amarok.

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And I can prove it. A) I am one and B) Check out LinuxChix and LinuxChix NZ

It’s great to see more and more women getting involved in Open Source software and even putting their hand up to say "I use it"