Category Archives: Linux

Problems and solutions in Linux

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on September 25, 2010 by

The move to Linux continues.

I have reached the stage now where Linux is my main operating system.  I now only log into Window for a couple of minutes a day, and the rest of the time I am in Mint.

To my disappointment, there are still a couple of applications that still have no real equivalent in Mint.  One is Windows Live Writer, which is unrivaled  when it comes to writing posts on blogs.  I am currently using ScribeFire, which does the job, but lacks some basic essentials, such as the ability to save a draft post locally.  The other package I tried (and will probably return to) is Blogilo.  This has a lot more features but is not quite as convenient as ScribeFire.  I suppose you can’t win ’em all?

The other application I have been having problems with is Open Office.  I have a couple of spreadsheets created in Excel.  These spreadsheets contain a few complex graphs.  Open Office opens the files perfectly and displays the full content, but is apparently incapable of saving the spreadsheets without losing the graphs.  I could recreate the graphs in Open Office, but they are complex, and frankly, it’s simpler just to boot into Windows.

Apart from all that, I have expanded my setup to include my master PC which sits in my office.  It now has Mint running happily in a dedicated partition, and I use KRDC to control it.  The latter is a lot less problematic than UltraVNC which I had been using in Windows.

One aspect of mounting a Linux system within a virtual file is the ability to backup that file.  I haven’t tried this out yet, but technically, if I have to wipe my hard disk, it should just be a matter of reinstalling Mint in a virtual file (to set up the boot loader), and then just overwriting that file with the backup.  In theory, that should restore the entire Linux setup, including all documents, settings, software and preferences.

Needless to say, I haven’t tested the theory out in anger yet.

It should be interesting, should the day come?

Half a loaf is better than a whole pan

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on September 18, 2010 by

I mentioned during the week that I was playing around with Linux.

I confess that the more I play with it, the more I like it.  However I did have one major problem with it.

As I said, I am using Linux Mint as my personal flavour.  Their download site gives a few versions.  For various reasons, I happen to like KDE as my interface, though I know the Geeks will frown on this as Gnome is their apparent choice.  That left me with two options – 32 bit or 64 bit.  The machine I am mounting it on is a 64 bit machine, so naturally that was the one I downloaded.

This apparently was my mistake.

It installed very easily and without any problems.  In no time, I was up and running, porting across my bookmarks into Firefox and generally customising everything.  It was on the second day that I began to notice problems. 

The first problem was that I couldn’t get sound to work in Firefox.  The system sound was fine, and I was able to play sound files without a hitch, but when it came to running videos within Firefox, it just didn’t work.  I played around with Firefox’s Extensions, but I kept coming up against a blank wall.

The second problem arose when I tried to install Adobe Air.  Again, there was no way it was going to work for me.  It was the same problem as with the Firefox Extensions – they all complained about the architecture.

In a fit of annoyance, I removed Mint and downloaded the 32 bit version.  As before, this installed perfectly and this time I was able to customise the setup much quicker as this time I knew what I was doing.

This time however, videos played perfectly in Firefox, and Adobe Air installed without a hitch. 

So my advice to anyone wishing to try out Mint – use the 32 bit version.

It saves a lot of headaches.

Trying out Linux

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on September 14, 2010 by

I like Linux, but it has one inherent problem.

If you want to install Linux on a PC that already has Windows installed, there are two opions – you either have to install Virtual Machine software, or you have to partition the hard disk.

I have a natural fear od repartitioning a live hard disk. If it goes wrong at all with even the smallest error, you can end up losing your entire operating system and you end up with a dud machine.

Installing a Virtual Machine is a safe alternative and is very simple to install. However, the drawback to VMs is that unless you have a massive memory installed, they tend to be fairly slow. Also there can be difficulties in tying the VM to the master operating system, so your Linux install may not be able to access the Windows partitions.

I recently came across a new system of running Linux on a Windows machine, and it works extremely well.

A friend recommended Linux Mint so I went to their site and downloaded the latest ISO. I burned it to a DVD and inserted it in the drive. I was given three options. I could run Mint directly off the DVD, which isn’t much use as I wouldn’t be able to write any files, including settings. I could allow the DVD to repartition the hard drive and do a full install.

The third option intrigued me though. It offered the option of installing Linux as a virtual program within Windows. I chose this option and the only real decision I had to make was how much space to allocate. I chose 20Gb.

The installation was completely painless,

I ended up with a fully functional operational installation of Mint. It is a dual boot system, and by booting into Mint, the OS has full access to all the PC’s hardware, and the only drawback is a very slight degredation in speed, as all disk reads and writes have to be translated into NTFS.

For anyone interested in trying out Linux without compromising their current setup, I couldn’t recommend Mint highly enough.