"Arrgh, what's wrong now?!" written by Tinypliny on estrip.org

Category: linux

08/31/11 08:01 - ID#55063

Arrgh, what's wrong now?!

Seriously, I can't seem to catch a break with my linux troubles. It's been hardly 14 days since my fresh install and things are already starting to act up with Crunchbang.

The stylus goes on insane object and text selecting sprees on its own and randomly refuses to be controlled. The bash history no longer takes orders from ~/.bashrc and never remembers even a line of history (even though I have set it to remember 10K lines). E4rat is installed and running, but applications have been slowing down.

I am SO sick of having to do fresh installs every fortnight. It borders on the illogical and for this reason alone windows XP seems rather appealing. Its rock solid and just as fast even after 1.5 years after a fresh install. Why OH WHY can't my favourite distro come even close to that kind of stability and consistency??

tinypliny writes at 04:43:04 09/02/11 - Comment #64714: Too late. I re-installed crunchbang and things are going okay now. If I face more problems in a fortnight, I will give scientific linux a whirl.

But yes, your point of having a distro for playing around and one for work makes sense. I am not sure I tweak so much though... In fact I am going to post my running installation notes here to see just what kind of tweaking is breaking my system. I don't think I am linux-y enough yet to make major changes, but who knows.

I really suspect that it is a hardware issue - mainly to do with the ATI card from hell that I have. I still maintain that System76 was a big mistake.

uncutsaniflush writes at 12:28:21 09/02/11 - Comment #64711: (e:paul) - that's what I think (e:tinypliny) is doing as well. I think your advice is very sound. I used to have two version of several distros on the same box - one for "production" and one that was a "sandbox" for lack of a better term to mess around with. I would try stuff on the sandbox and if worked eventually the production partition would get changed.

(e:tinypliny) - I like Fedora 15 so I'm hoping Fedora 16 will be even better. I like gnome 3 shell. I'm running Fedora 15 on my hex-core box and an asus eee netbook. I'm running Arch on a G3 ibook. I've been using PCLinuxos for about 7 years on the computer(s) that (e:leettee) uses. It is a fork of Mandrake/Mandriva. I consider PClinuxos to be a generalist distro. It is conservative and thus stable. I've had uptime of over 6 months using it. I still using it on her box because I really haven't had a reason to change. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

I really like Arch but I hate going through the install process. It's not hard or complicated but it can be time-consuming But I don't have the time for it these days. But Arch is great because one ends up with a customised distro that only has what one chooses to install.

I think that Linux Mint is a great generalist distro. It builds on your choice of Ubuntu or Debian.

Despite using Ubuntu Studio for over 6 months, I'm not a fan of Ubuntu. I prefer Fedora's automagic to Ubuntu's. I would recommend Linux Mint over Ubuntu.

I liked E-Live which was an E17 based debian distro; but the developer hasn't had a new release in over a year, so it is outdated.

Automagic installers like Fedora's anaconda are great until one wants to do something that isn't automagical. Yes, it is flexible enough to let you do customised installs but depending exactly what one wants to do, it isn't always intuitive or obvious.

paul writes at 10:23:07 09/02/11 - Comment #64710: I think you are either having an issue with your hardware being non standard or you are messing it up yourself by over configuration, unstable packages, and non stable distros, etc. I have Linux computers that have uptimes of 6 months to a year without even rebooting. And at that point the reboots are just for kernel changes.

I mean my parents could have easily assumed windows XP sucked and was broken until you fixed their computer by removing all of the problems they had.

I think you need to separate your experimental playground Linux space from your workspace using two partitions or harddrives so that when you continue to play and tweak you are not killing your productivity by having to reinstall.

That or use virtual machines for experimenting via virtual box.

You might also want to stick with a Linux that more people use. More people = more testers, more developers and bug fixes. Same with common hardware.

Have you tried scientific Linux? Its based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux which is extremely stable. It wont be as cutting edge as fedora Ubuntu, etc but it will be stable and it can definately run your r code.

tinypliny writes at 09:45:10 09/02/11 - Comment #64708: What kind of audio do you want to produce?

tinypliny writes at 09:44:40 09/02/11 - Comment #64707: 15 different distros?! What were your favourites? What are your favourites now?

tinypliny writes at 06:22:13 09/01/11 - Comment #64700: I can't work on Win XP. Linux is pretty essential to the software I run. So for good or bad I have to stick to it. I don't have a choice really. It's either decent performance with Linux or fester in slowness in XP...

uncutsaniflush writes at 10:25:01 08/31/11 - Comment #64691: If WinXP works so well, why are you looking for alternatives?

I would suspect that you have made more changes to Crunchbang in the last month than you did to WinXP in the last year or so.

Did you ever consider having more than one distro on your computer at the same time? You don't have to wipe out everything everytime you change your mind about what distro you use. Unless of course you have a very small hard drive.

I, personally, at one point, when I was a distro whore, had 15 different distros (including several different releases of the same distro) spread across 2 hard drives totalling 70 gigs.

Like (e:paul), I'm liking Fedora 15 with gnome shell a lot and use it daily on the new box. I'm still looking for the perfect audio production disto. Ubuntu Studio ain't it.

Good luck with Linux. But if doesn't work for you, there isn't any shame in going back to WinXP.

Permalink: Arrgh_what_s_wrong_now_.html
Words: 146
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/31/11 08:04

Category: the odes

08/26/11 11:40 - ID#55033

Peacock Shoe

I wish this shoe didn't have such hideous heels and were more of a flat Mary Jane instead. I would get it in an instant.

Well... maybe not this instant but most likely after a couple weak lopsided debates with my rational self on the complete insanity of shoe-hoarding. But those heels are the best safeguards against any impulse buying.

Permalink: Peacock_Shoe.html
Words: 62
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/27/11 12:16

Category: disasters

08/25/11 08:31 - ID#55024

Hurricane Irene.

This massive hurricane is headed directly to NYC, Long Island and New Jersey. I am more than a bit worried. My brother is in zone A - categorized as the most flood and storm-prone in the city and likely faces evacuation this weekend.

Baruch College 155 E. 24th Street, HS of Graphic Comm. 439 W. 49th Street and John Jay College 445 W. 59th Street are the nearest evacuation centers. His building has already sent out an emergency preparedness notice.

All this is making me really nervous. I am desperately hoping that this hurricane changes direction and is somehow deflected well away from the whole NYC region. :(

Permalink: Hurricane_Irene_.html
Words: 106
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/25/11 08:32

Category: buffalo

08/25/11 08:13 - ID#55023

For Matthew!

Get better soon!

Permalink: For_Matthew_.html
Words: 13
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/25/11 08:13

Category: goals

08/24/11 12:36 - ID#55012

It's not lent but...

A chain of rants in (e:metalpeter,55007) make me want to throw down this self-improvement challenge.

I am ready to
a) give up salt for however long it takes
b) start doing push-ups all over again everyday for however long it takes

if someone else wants to give up something or take up something with me and be accountable for that here. It has to be something that is causing you harm or is damaging your life or is negatively influencing your life to some extent.

Too much salt and not enough muscle definitely are negative influences on mine.

Who is up for this little last-quarter goal-setting?

Permalink: It_s_not_lent_but_.html
Words: 107
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/24/11 12:37

Category: dance

08/23/11 02:45 - ID#55005

Calling Matthew to be AndrÃ© Rieu's photographer!!!

This is it! (e:Matthew), you need to enter the AndrÃ© Rieu photography contest!

Sign up on Rieu's site.

DO it now!!
Think of all the glory if you are picked!!

Permalink: Calling_Matthew_to_be_Andr_Rieu_s_photographer_.html
Words: 44
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/23/11 02:54

Category: buffalo

08/23/11 02:34 - ID#55004

Definitely an earthquake

I felt it and I thought, wow the wind must really be picking up in Buffalo. Guess it was really an earthquake and not just the building showing its age and resonating with the wind.

LOL@ this comment on the story:

Soon to be former Buffalo schools superintendent James Willians was seen jumping up & down in a temper tantrum b/c he could not get anyone to help pack his belongings...

Seriously, do people stalk the Buffalo news site just to post stuff like this? Hahah

Permalink: Definitely_an_earthquake.html
Words: 95
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/23/11 02:39

Category: i-tech

08/23/11 05:22 - ID#55003

E:Strip

Last Visit 2011-08-23 05:16:36 |Start Date 2007-04-01 15:09:25 |Comments 7,566 |Entries 733 |Images 1,235 |Sounds 29 |SWF 1 |Videos 171 |Mobl 9 |

This is the longest I have been on any website anytime in all of my www existence. I feel seldom bound to any online service or site unless it's for work/school or its services are just irreplaceable. I guess knowing everyone in person has made a difference here.

I feel more at home because of you all. :)

Permalink: E_Strip.html
Words: 73
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/23/11 05:25

Category: the odes

08/21/11 04:29 - ID#54994

Lost my credit card.

I lost my primary credit card yesterday somewhere between home and pricerite. But take a look at who checked out my last transaction...

I cancelled it. Hopefully, whoever found it didn't have a chance to use it before they froze transactions. It was lucky that the card was not entered into the cash-from-ATM scheme.

Lucky or if you believe that last transaction... hehe.

Permalink: Lost_my_credit_card_.html
Words: 65
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/21/11 04:29

Category: linux

08/21/11 11:04 - ID#54989

Sound card on PanP7

For reference the sound card on my PanP7 is:

cat /proc/asound/card0/codec* | grep Codec

Codec: Realtek ALC272
Codec: Motorola Si3054

It has the most crappy output with ALSA sound server. The front mic used with a mic booster produces an extremely high pitched sound. I am sure it is capable of killing all bats in a 10 mile radius and driving all humans crazy or deaf or both.

The driver is meant for these following platforms. From /usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/HD-Audio-Models.txt.gz:

ALC662/663/272
==============
3stack-dig     3-stack (2-channel) with SPDIF
3stack-6ch     3-stack (6-channel)
3stack-6ch-dig 3-stack (6-channel) with SPDIF
6stack-dig     6-stack with SPDIF
lenovo-101e     Lenovo laptop
eeepc-p701     ASUS Eeepc P701
eeepc-ep20      ASUS Eeepc EP20
ecs         ECS/Foxconn mobo
m51va         ASUS M51VA
g71v         ASUS G71V
h13          ASUS H13
g50v         ASUS G50V
asus-mode1      ASUS
asus-mode2     ASUS
asus-mode3     ASUS
asus-mode4     ASUS
asus-mode5     ASUS
asus-mode6     ASUS
dell         Dell with ALC272
dell-zm1     Dell ZM1 with ALC272
samsung-nc10     Samsung NC10 mini notebook
auto         auto-config reading BIOS (default)

The problem is the regular sound output is extremely low. I can bet that if I put windows on this machine, the speakers will come to life. But that is just not happening with ALSA. The alternative is OSS, which I tried but had so many problems, I had to return to ALSA. I could install pulseaudio but pulseaudio has such crazy whims and fancies it is impossible to predict what will stop or start working next. It's a just a sound card, not some rocket science. Linux sound drivers just aren't up to snuff yet.

Permalink: Sound_card_on_PanP7.html
Words: 269
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/23/11 05:38