linux

I unbroke my ubuntu

I have a confession to make: IANAP (I am not a programmer) so when my technology breaks I struggle to fix it with a mixture of duct tape and google! Well ok, so no tape. Despite my lack of competence I have made several forrays into the wonderful world of linux, lulled by a mix of political correctness, can-do spirit and a philosophy I believe in. But, none of this helps when technology fails. No amount of feel-good philosophy can help me read my email which is the real reason for me having technology.

So last week when I was practicing with my new toy, a Samsung Notebook with Ubuntu, I came upon a wall of desperation when the menus disappeared. When turned on all I got was a background. Since I had not made any changes to the default it was still the brown boring background – and nothing else.

So I guessed, pushed and prodded the computer but it stubbornly refused to divulge any clues as to how it could be fixed. But never fear, the internet is here! The wonderful post:How to Reset Ubuntu/Gnome Settings to Defaults without Re-installing fixed everything.

Open terminal. Type

mv .config .old_config

hit return, then type

rm -rf .gnome .gnome2 .gconf .gconfd .metacity

restart the computer and it was as good as new. All the menus are back again and I am a happy ubuntu person ready to go out and rebreak my computer – frustration is, after all, a learning experience.

Posted on by mklang

Ignorance and incompetence rule

Many might have seen this already but it was too good to let it pass without a comment. From the Austinist: A teacher in Texas saw a student demonstrating Linux and handing out free Linux operating systems on CD’s. The teacher was shocked, confiscated the discs and asked the student what he was doing. Upon hearing that he was handing out the discs in cooperation with a local Linux group the teacher sent a letter to the group’s contact:

Mr. Starks, I am sure you strongly believe in what you are doing but I cannot either support your efforts or allow them to happen in my classroom. At this point, I am not sure what you are doing is legal. No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful.

These children look up to adults for guidance and discipline. I will research this as time allows and I want to assure you, if you are doing anything illegal, I will pursue charges as the law allows. Mr. Starks, I along with many others tried Linux during college and I assure you, the claims you make are grossly over-stated and hinge on falsehoods. I admire your attempts in getting computers in the hands of disadvantaged people but putting linux on these machines is holding our kids back.

This is a world where Windows runs on virtually every computer, and putting on a carnival show for an operating system is not helping these children at all.

Ignorance and incompetence rule! Even if we give the teacher the friendly interpretation that she is totally ignorant of computers… even then her overreaction takes monster proportions. Not only in her confiscation of the discs but in her letter. I agree “children look up to adults for guidance and discipline” but it is really amazing that she sat down and wrote her letter without taking the trouble to question or learn anything about Linux. It is not enough that she was ignorant of Linux but she is also incompetent in that she could not take the trouble to learn the truth before spouting her opinions and threatening others.

Read the whole thing exchange between the teacher and Linux group here.

Posted on by mklang

Late night project

Last night I decided to install Ubuntu (HardyHeron) on an old mac as a small side project naturally any such experiment is only carried out under the delusion that “this will be easy”. The actual installation went quite well with only a few minor hitches – all solveable.

The rest of the night, and a long night it became, was spent adjusting, fixing, adapting and tweaking the new system. The main annoyances that still remain are the reactrion times on the keyboard and that the short commands are not installed in the way that I like them yet. Not to mention all the programs (and their settings) that I rely on still need to be installed.

But so far it’s looking good. I wonder if this may be the switch? My last times with GNU-Linux were just explorations.

Posted on by mklang