• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread

Christmas Humor


There's plenty more on this site. Figured Moody et al would get a big kick.




The Twelve Days of UNIX

ball1.gif
Lyrics: Evan Leibovitch [evan@telly.on.ca]

Dedicated to Dave Mason, Chris Siebenmann, and anyone who's left their computers
alone just long enough for them to self-destruct:

On the first day I left it, my Unix gave to me:
A burnt-out V.D.T.

On the second day I left it, my Unix gave to me:
Two faulty tapes;
And a burnt-out V.D.T.

On the third day I left it, my Unix gave to me:
Three heads crashed;
Two faulty tapes;
And a burnt-out V.D.T.

On the fourth day I left it, my Unix gave to me:
Four bad blocks;
Three heads crashed;
Two faulty tapes;
And a burnt-out V.D.T.

On the fifth day I left it, my Unix gave to me:
Five core dumps;
Four bad blocks;
Three heads crashed;
Two faulty tapes;
And a burnt-out V.D.T.

On the sixth day I left it, my Unix gave to me:
Six bad controllers;
Five core dumps;
Four bad blocks;
Three heads crashed;
Two faulty tapes;
And a burnt-out V.D.T.

On the seventh day I left it, my Unix gave to me:
Seven blown partitions;
Six bad controllers;
Five core dumps;
Four bad blocks;
Three heads crashed;
Two faulty tapes;
And a burnt-out V.D.T.

On the eighth day I left it, my Unix gave to me:
Eight gettys dying;
Seven blown partitions;
Six bad controllers;
Five core dumps;
Four bad blocks;
Three heads crashed;
Two faulty tapes;
And a burnt-out V.D.T.

On the ninth day I left it, my Unix gave to me:
Nine floppies frying;
Eight gettys dying;
Seven blown partitions;
Six bad controllers;
Five core dumps;
Four bad blocks;
Three heads crashed;
Two faulty tapes;
And a burnt-out V.D.T.

On the tenth day I left it, my Unix gave to me:
Ten ports a-jamming;
Nine floppies frying;
Eight gettys dying;
Seven blown partitions;
Six bad controllers;
Five core dumps;
Four bad blocks;
Three heads crashed;
Two faulty tapes;
And a burnt-out V.D.T.

On the eleventh day I left it, my Unix gave to me:
Eleven chips a-smoking;
Ten ports a-jamming;
Nine floppies frying;
Eight gettys dying;
Seven blown partitions;
Six bad controllers;
Five core dumps;
Four bad blocks;
Three heads crashed;
Two faulty tapes;
And a burnt-out V.D.T.

On the twelfth day I left it, my Unix gave to me:
Twelve boards a-blowing;
Eleven chips a-smoking;
Ten ports a-jamming;
Nine floppies frying;
Eight gettys dying;
Seven blown partitions;
Six bad controllers;
Five core dumps;
Four bad blocks;
Three heads crashed;
Two faulty tapes;
And a burnt-out V.D.T.


xsnow-18.gif

Please be sure to include credits with all submissions.
 
that is true, which makes me curious why so many are so anti-ChromeOS and pro-Ubuntu lately.

I'm not anti-Chrome OS, but I know it's basically just a browser. It would be of rather limited use here, because many of Google's cloud services are unavailable, or occasionally United States only. Also can't guarantee good fast unlimited internet access. But then Chromebooks are not officially available in China. But on the other hand I could take Mint or Ubuntu, and remove pretty much everything, LibreOffice, Skype, GIMP, education software, games, leaving just the Google Chrome browser. I think that would give me an idea what it would be like to use. Any productivity, or teaching, or talking to my friends on-line.....forget it. I could probably use Chrome OS at home, for browsing, listening to streamed music and watching streamed TV. But for work, travel and general out and about usage, it would be NO.

here's another mystery. why are so many Linux geeks so anti-OS X? isn't it built off of UNIX? or another one, why so many Linux geeks hate UNIX? seems hypocritical since neither are Microsoft, and all of them are so like each other.

I'm not anti-OS X, however I'm strongly anti-Apple pricing model though and their brand whore Gucci like image they convey. If Linux didn't do everything I require, I'd actually consider making a Lenovo OS X Hackintosh laptop. :D I have a Macbook that was given to me, but I certainly wouldn't go out and spend the equivalent of $2000 for one. And I have absolutely no desire to use anything Windows, this year has left a rather sour taste in my mouth about Micro$oft. Skype seems to be OK, as long as not using the spyware PRC version. Although apparently the NSA with PRISM have complete access to everything going through Skype...but that's going OT.
 
Here's an error message that made me chuckle just now....

Code:
0.0.17-3_i386.deb  [B]Something wicked happened[/B] resolving '192.168.31.10:7001?url=http:http' (-11 - System error)

Yeh, my internet going down is rather wicked.
 
Here's an error message that made me chuckle just now....

Code:
0.0.17-3_i386.deb  [B]Something wicked happened[/B] resolving '192.168.31.10:7001?url=http:http' (-11 - System error)

Yeh, my internet going down is rather wicked.

Heh, if only it happened on Halloween night. Then it'd be thematically appropriate! :p
 
Well, fixing the Software Sources cured my broken packages issue, and xfce downloaded, so now I have Thunar.

yay

That will help me simplify my renaming of music files (essentially, stripping out the artist names and underlines), and I can concentrate and converting some 147 .wma files to .mp3...

cake :rolleyes:
 
Well, fixing the Software Sources cured my broken packages issue, and xfce downloaded, so now I have Thunar.

yay

That will help me simplify my renaming of music files (essentially, stripping out the artist names and underlines), and I can concentrate and converting some 147 .wma files to .mp3...

cake :rolleyes:

write a script using ffmpeg to convert them over for you.
 
MikeDT, yeah, you could strip out everything and be left with a sortie equivalent of ChromeOS, except the Linux Flash Player overheat bug would still be there. i am not sure why it doesn't happen in ChromeOS, but Ubuntu seems to keep taxing the CPU for some reason. NO computer, linux or otherwise, should be running at 160*F plus just playing YouTube. Games, perhaps, if not up to the task, but not YouTube.

I am also not sure how ChromeOS, essentially Linux, gets around the Silverlight requirement for Netflix. Ubuntu can't even do it yet.
 
MikeDT, yeah, you could strip out everything and be left with a sortie equivalent of ChromeOS, except the Linux Flash Player overheat bug would still be there. i am not sure why it doesn't happen in ChromeOS, but Ubuntu seems to keep taxing the CPU for some reason. NO computer, linux or otherwise, should be running at 160*F plus just playing YouTube. Games, perhaps, if not up to the task, but not YouTube.

I am also not sure how ChromeOS, essentially Linux, gets around the Silverlight requirement for Netflix. Ubuntu can't even do it yet.

No Linux OS will do that, including Chrome OS. Microsoft Silverlight is Windows or Mac only. There was the Moonlight project, which was an open source equivalent for proprietary Silverlight, but I'm sure that's abandoned now. Because it couldn't do the one thing that would make it useful for things like Netflix, the dreaded Digital Restrictions Management, that the MPAA and Hollywood insists upon. :rolleyes: DRM is not really possible to do because of the nature of open source software, there's no secrets and can't really hide anything. Microsoft could do Silverlight for Linux if they wanted. They do Skype for Linux. Although this is academic for me, because nothing around here uses Silverlight and/or has DRM. :)

The BBC got into a spot of trouble a few years ago when they first launched their online viewing service, iPlayer, because it used Silverlight. The UK government basically said, the BBC is a public broadcaster funded by public money, the TV license fee, so therefore has to support public operating systems like Linux. Netflix on the other hand being a private corporation can do what it likes. Apparently it's Hollywood that insists on Silverlight, because of the apparently secure DRM it has, or quite possibly there's some kickback going on between the studios, Netflix and Micro$oft.
 
MikeDT, i was using Netflix on ChromeOS without problems. i just added the Chrome Webapp for it and it played normally. not sure if that works in Ubuntu though.
 
If it's using a webapp it should work without problem in Ubuntu, or any OS for that matter that has Google Chrome. I can't test it for myself, because there's no Netflix here. Webapps are actually browser extensions or plugins that get installed into the browser? CCTV uses one to play their streaming TV and on-demand programs.
 
is it possible to add-apt repository from say, Vector, SuSE or some other distro?
It is possible to include Debian's repository to install certain pacakages that are not in yours. If you try this, and it installs without issues, comment out the repository once done installing the software. I would say try Debian's unstable (Sid) since Ubuntu is based on Sid.
 
I am also not sure how ChromeOS, essentially Linux, gets around the Silverlight requirement for Netflix. Ubuntu can't even do it yet.
Since Silverlight is proprietary and if Chrome is not using Moonlight, linux equivalent, then Google probably paying MS to use it.
 
Saptech i was, again, not speaking of installing software from another distro. i was specifically referring to installing another distro via Synaptic that isn't Ubuntu-based. that would involve adding that Distro's repo, obviously. i heard Synaptic can install distros on top or in replacement of another distro, at least, that is implied by Moody who can get Kubuntu 13.04 on a Chromebook when the only supported (officially) distro is ChrUbuntu 12.04 LTS

The Chromebook BIOS doesn't support init.rd and vmlinuz at boot. ChrUbuntu gets around it by allowing ChromeOS's kernel to boot and it loads after it, so instead of ChromeOS, you get Ubuntu. unfortunately, no how-to exists online for how to get SuSE, Fedora, or another distro on the thing. i am sure it's possible but it would have to be done some odd way, like through Synaptic if possible.
 
isn't Ubuntu Debian-based?

EDIT: that's just a newsgroup of folks asking how, not a how-to. there is no answer as of yet. a few replies ask 'why don't you want Ubuntu' and some are just repeated over and over.

I also have the SSD in my C7, so the article wouldn't apply for me.
 
Yes it is, so is Mint but they use their own repositories. Debian follows the strict open source philosophy, meaning not including non-free software, but one can add repository for non-free software.
 
oh, so i'd be stuck in the same boat i was in before by not being able to install some apps. no thanks. one reason i am trying a non-Ubuntu approach is because of their crappy philosophy. i had a hell of a time installing Skype, which was a FREE app, because of them.

My goal is for a more common distro like Fedora, SuSE or Vector. those at least are not dumbed down like Ubuntu. i'll go back to ChromeOS until they can get a proper distro in there.
 
No Linux OS will do that, including Chrome OS. Microsoft Silverlight is Windows or Mac only. There was the Moonlight project, which was an open source equivalent for proprietary Silverlight, but I'm sure that's abandoned now. Because it couldn't do the one thing that would make it useful for things like Netflix, the dreaded Digital Restrictions Management, that the MPAA and Hollywood insists upon. :rolleyes: DRM is not really possible to do because of the nature of open source software, there's no secrets and can't really hide anything. Microsoft could do Silverlight for Linux if they wanted. They do Skype for Linux. Although this is academic for me, because nothing around here uses Silverlight and/or has DRM. :)

The BBC got into a spot of trouble a few years ago when they first launched their online viewing service, iPlayer, because it used Silverlight. The UK government basically said, the BBC is a public broadcaster funded by public money, the TV license fee, so therefore has to support public operating systems like Linux. Netflix on the other hand being a private corporation can do what it likes. Apparently it's Hollywood that insists on Silverlight, because of the apparently secure DRM it has, or quite possibly there's some kickback going on between the studios, Netflix and Micro$oft.

Roku is Linux-based, and they can play Netflix. So, there is a way to do it... as far as I know, though, no one has hacked the relevant parts out of a Roku to find a way around the problem for the rest of us.

There used to be a wine-based hack to run Netflix in Ubuntu, but I don't know if the repository works anymore.
 
oh, so i'd be stuck in the same boat i was in before by not being able to install some apps. no thanks. one reason i am trying a non-Ubuntu approach is because of their crappy philosophy. i had a hell of a time installing Skype, which was a FREE app, because of them.

My goal is for a more common distro like Fedora, SuSE or Vector. those at least are not dumbed down like Ubuntu. i'll go back to ChromeOS until they can get a proper distro in there.
Debian's repository is huge. It comes with over 37,500 packages, precompiled software bundled up in a nice format for easy installation. Fedora has same philosophy as Debian and the others. The key is adding the non-free software repository.

Good luck!
 
Nick, it's strange you had a hard time with Skype using Ubuntu, even Skype's website have it available to download for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora & OpenSuse.

I haven't installed Skype but with my distro (Mageia) I would have to go through hoops, but I'm sure it's doable.
 
So, out of curiosity, what is everyone's favorite distro?

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS for the win!

I run a triple-boot setup: 2 installs of WinXP Pro SP3 (one for daily use, the other a stripped-down install that I use for transcoding video & audio), and 1 install of Ubuntu 10.04.

I've been reading everyone's comments regarding a growing dislike for Ubuntu and I agree, at least when it comes to the newer versions. I tried Ubuntu 11 & 12 and found them entirely unusable. I'm probably too used to GNOME desktop. The new interfaces were completely non-user-friendly (for me, anyway) and I did give the "new" version of GNOME a try but it was nothing like 10.04.

When I worked at a PC repair shop, we used Kubuntu 12.04 as a default OS if a customer didn't purchase Windows. It's been a while since I used Kubuntu on my own PC but I *really* liked it. Took some getting used to after running Ubuntu/GNOME for so long, but I found it to be extremely user-friendly. I even installed it on a laptop that I fixed up for my sister.
 
I have a dual boot setup with Mageia 3 and SalixOS. Mga is based on Mandriva/Mandrake and Salix is based on Slackware.

Mga is running Gnome 3 & KDE4, Salix is running Xfce4, and I always have Openbox installed for my main usage.
 
Nick, it's strange you had a hard time with Skype using Ubuntu, even Skype's website have it available to download for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora & OpenSuse.

I haven't installed Skype but with my distro (Mageia) I would have to go through hoops, but I'm sure it's doable.


I know their website has it. i tried downloading the multi arch 12.04 *.deb and the package installer aborted saying 'Architecture not supported' and exited. i then tried going to Ubuntu Software Center and it wasn't listed. then tried Synaptic and it gave me multiple issues and said 'this package requires [insert dependencies here], click ok to install them' and i did, then it aborted saying they were not installable. i ended up having to hack the crap out of the system files to 'allow' the install. took a half hour longer than it needed to.

In VectorLinux 6, all i need to do is go to a terminal, type 'slapt-get -i Skype' and it downloads, installs it and any dependencies. tried that in Ubuntu after the above (before the hacking) and it said 'no such package: Skype' and quit. stupid noob protection

I haven't given up on it yet though, i don't want to wipe it and put ChromeOS on again if i can avoid it, but i'm still trying to track down the YouTube CPU Overheat bug i've been having, currently the ONLY issue left.

I had been saving this one for a side project, after fixing the overheat bug, but i installed VirtualBox (which is easier when removing the noob protection) and have planned to try Vector 6 in a VM, but haven't decided to go through with it just yet.

i managed to strip out just about as much as i can from Ubuntu but removing anything else would remove parts that i use, like it says it would remove Kubuntu-Desktop or Ubuntu-Desktop which both are required. i need parts of Unity to login as no matter what, it won't default to kdm as a default login shell, and losing that Unity part would kill logins. losing KDE would not be acceptable either. not sure why it thinks Okular for example is required by KDE though. but i have only got 2GB left, not sure if Vector can fit in that.
 
Back
Top Bottom