The Linux adventure continues

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on by

I have always considered Linux to be a bit of a geeky system.

I had hoped that with time, the front end would make things simpler, in the same way that Windows more or less made DOS obsolete. That isn’t the case.

The more I have used it, the more I like it. It is extremely fast, solid and also versatile. It is now my default operating system, so all I have to do is switch on the laptop and leave it to boot up. I only have to hover over the keyboard if I want to go into Windows.

In my last post, I mentioned how I was having problems with reinstalling Linux in a virtual file. I still haven’t solved that problem (despite having put an appeal out on the forums), but am developing a couple of theories. One is that apparently a hard disk can only handle four primary partitions? I had never heard this before but it could be the reason for my problem. My hard disk came with three partitions already set up. There is one small one that has an uncertain function. There is another that contains the factory restore code and then there is the main one which is around 320 Gb in size. My first job was to split that into and OS partition and a Data partition, not realising that I had now used up all my four partitions. Some day, I may restore to the factory default and then leave Windows in one partition and Linux in another.

Because I wasn’t able to reinstall, I had to get by by restoring my Linuxmint directory, and that is what I’m working off at the moment. I was also stuck with the size I had originally specified, which was 19Gb. This filled up pretty rapidly leaving me with a setup that lacked flexibility. I hunted the Internet and came up with a solution. Apparently, Linux is able to increase a file size without recreating it. I did say that Linux was flexible?

I tried it out last night and it worked. Or at least it partly worked. This is what I did.

My NTFS Data partition is the one that hold my Linux install. Linux is mounted in a folder called “linuxmint”, in two main files – “root.disk” and “swap.disk”. I can access these files directly from Linux using the path /host/linuxmint/disks/.

Using Terminal as Root I used the following –

cd /host/linuxmint/disks
dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=10240 >> root.disk
e2fsck -f root.disk
resize2fs root.disk

The second line is the one that does the main work. It takes a very long time to run, and it is set to increase the size of root.disk by 10Gb. This can be varied by changing the value of “count”.

My problem now is that “root.disk” is 29Gb in size which is exactly what I intended, but when I examine the properties of any directory in Linux, it tells me that the disk size is still only 19Gb. Somehow i have to work out a solution to this little conundrum.

I will say one more thing in favour of Linux –

It certainly keeps an old man’s brain active!

Disasters and setbacks

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on by

Having successfully worked with Linux for a while and having grown to like a lot of its features, I decided to take the next step.

Up until now, I had been running Mint in a Virtual File within Windows. I decided it was time to give it its own partition and to do a proper install.

I started off last night by resizing and moving my NTFS partitions. This went without a hitch and I ended up with a nice fat 60Gb of free space on the hard disk.

This morning, I ran another full backup and then started work. The first job was to install Linux in the new partition.

Everything came unstuck.

Linux recognised the drive of course, but failed to see the free space. It insisted I had a 350Gb partition and that my only option was to format it. It completely failed to see the two existing NTFS partitions.

I tried several times, but ran into the same problems, no matter what way I tried to do the install.

I decided to cut my losses. I resized one of the NTFS partitions to fill the vacant space and then went to install Mint in a virtual file again, only this time I would make the file 60Gb instead of the 20Gb I had been using.

Again all went well, and it asked me to reboot to finish the installation.

Immediately I got an error – “No primary partition found”.

Once more I went into the install/uninstall routine, trying out varios settings, all to no avail. This was particularly tedious as the uninstal;l had to be run each time, otherwise I would just have added a new entry each time to the boot-loader.

In the end, I gave up. I didn’t bother with the uninstall, so I was left with the virtual file and the boot loader. Using Windows, I then restored my backup of the LinuxMint folder that I had made earlier.

I’m delighted to say that this worked. I still had to restore a lot of files within Linux, but it is now 99% up and running.

So I have wasted about eight hours and am more or less back to where I was yesterday. Some minor things still aren’t working, but I can live with that.

My only fear now is that my re-partitioning of the hard drive went amok somewhere, causing faulty volume labels or something.

One of these days, I am going to have to do a total manufacturer’s system restore.

*sigh*

Problems and solutions in Linux

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on 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 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 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.