Ubuntu, and other Animals …

Hmmm …

I’ve got to admit, that’s a photo I never thought I’d show you …

Yes, that’s the Mac Mini; I know at least three friends of mine have looked at and been surprised about the size of it, I know that …

But that’s the Mac Mini running a Ubuntu 9.04 live disc.

Not something I thought I’d have a punt at, I know!!

And I’ve got to confess that, at the moment, actually installing Ubuntu on a few spare gigabytes of the Mini’s hard drive space is still something I’m a little unsure of, even though I know Ubuntu is something that works.

Good ol’ fashioned nerves, I think!

But it does show me that — in principle — it’s something I, or someone else, can easily install on many brands of computer.

I think the other hold back, there, is good ol’ inertia; lets face it, how many of us want to change, unless we absolutely have to?

But either way, Canonical have been rather clever; or at someone in the open source community has, at any rate!

You notice I called that a live disc?

In this particular context, that’s actually quite simple to explain.

Basically, what you have to do is put the disc in a PC and restart the PC. The Ubuntu disc basically takes over — much like any other install disc — and, if it’s the first time you’ve used it on a given PC , the Ubuntu disc will offer the usual sort installation options.

But also offers a ‘Try Ubuntu before Installing on This Computer’ option.

It’s a try before you buy scheme, in other words.

It’ll let you hook up to the net, use the on-board copy of Open Office, what have you.

And let’s you have a go at using Ubuntu, before you take what — for most of us — is the big step of installing it.

•••••

Actually, there’s another point, if you’ve got a friend with a computer running Ubuntu 9.04.

I do know it’s relatively easy to burn an Ubuntu install disc, whether I’m using the OS X powered Mini, or Ubuntu itself.

With OS X 10.5.x, I can open up Disc Utility, pick the relevant .iso image, and then hit the ‘Burn’ button.

Disc Utility even allows me to check on what’s called the MD5 Checksum, to make sure I’ve downloaded it correctly.

No, don’t ask.

I don’t know what an MD5 checksum is, either; beyond the obvious fact it’s what I have to check, to see if something’s downloaded properly!!

Hmmm …

No help, there, then!

But I’m burbling, aren’t I?

The point I’m trying to make here, is that Ubuntu allows you to either burn an install to either CD …

Or to a USB flash drive.

You know, those little memory stick things?

Something I’ll admit I’ve already tried to do, with mine. Which didn’t work, to be frank. Mostly because it’s one that’s partitioned into a larger (3.82 Gb) and smaller (1.5 Mb) volume; something I think prevents it from being used as a start-up drive. Don’t quote me on that, but I think that’s what’s happening.

I’m might just have to see if I can use Disc Utility to reformat it …

I’ll let you know on that.

•••••

I’ve also been in touch with an old school friend, on Facebook. As a result of which, we both had a look round, and managed to find a site called ZX Spectrum Games.

Dedicated to online versions of some old ZX Spectrum games.

Unsurprisingly …!!

Strange, but true; it’s kind of nice to be able to play “Jumping Jack”, after all these years.

It’s just a shame no-ones done “Atic Atac”!

OK, I don’t know if this counts as A Hack …

I don’t, really …

Although I think I might just run this past Adrian, Dan and Trevor, to see what they think …

Because what I‘ve done is a touch of … well …

Let’s call it exploring, for want of a better term …

Well, I say SAY exploring …

I’ve actually managed to install a copy of the Dapper Drake release of Xubuntu.

You know, I can practically hear Tim, Adele and Andrea, all going “Wha … ?” in the background; Tim and Adele are in Benfleet, and Andrea’s in Vegas!

No, seriously, ’Del, Andrea’s in Vegas; you know, gambling, fried chicken, Elvis impersonators?

Las Vegas …

I’m burbling, aren’t I?

What I’m actually trying to say is that I’ve managed — with some online guidance — to install a version on Ubuntu onto the vintage iMac.

Mostly because, while Mac OS 9.2 is a nice piece of kit, it does have trouble surfing the Web, and interacting with a ’net that moved on, since the original Ives designed iMac was introduced.

The fact that I’ve installed Ubuntu onto Tim’s laptop, and talked him through both reinstalling and updating it, got me thinking …

Mostly about the word derivative.

You see there’s a couple of version’s of Ubuntu.

As you may have realised, there’s a version of Ubuntu doing the round’s, called Ubuntu Studio; one that’s aimed at the creatives out there, who need to do some seriously heavy-duty video or audio stuff.

But that’s — if I’ve understood things correctly — is just a version of Ubuntu with a different selection of software, and tweaked in very small ways to match what you want to do.

Extra video or audio drivers, what have you.

There’s others.

The main two I’m thinking of, here, are what’s called Kubuntu and Xubuntu.

Did you know your desktop’s an application?

Sort of?

If I’ve understood things correctly — and I’m hoping Adrian will correct me, if I’m wrong — every OS going has what’s called a GUI, a Graphical User Interface.

That’s part of a ‘desktop’; there’s a lot more, I told.

It’s basically an operating system’s way of organising the folder, files and applications you see on screen.

But the main difference between Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu, is that they all use different desktops.

Ubuntu uses the Gnome desktop, Kubuntu uses the KDE desktop and Xubuntu — an older version of which I’ve put on the G3 —use one called Xfce.

Now the other reason for using Xubuntu is relatively simple to explain.

It’s a lightweight version.

Well …

I know Adrian’s going to disagree there, but … !!

Basically, Xubuntu is a version aimed at those of us with older, lower spec machines that need an operating system and a set of applications, that uses less room on the hard drive, and the smaller amounts of RAM that go with it.

Which I think I can say is the case with the G3 …

Which is kinda where the problem’s start …

Well, not problems, per sé …

You see, what I’ve used is the three-year-old Dapper Drake version of Xubuntu; the last version of any Ubuntu derivative available for the older PowerPC processors used by Apple, at the time.

•••••

Just as a piece of opinion, here, I’m thinking the reason Apple switched from ppc processor to Intel ones, is the simple fact that the G5 processors were notorious touchy. And hot! I’ve seen inside a G5 PowerMac, and, while I think the design is pretty good, I do know that the cooling systems — complete with pipes not that much narrower than beer line cooling pipes — were the big vulnerable point in the design. Once those go …

Which is unfortunate; as I’ve always pointed out to an old friend, Dave, what would have become the much cooler running G6 is the central processor for his PlayStation 3.

•••••

Back to what I was saying, the version of Xubuntu I used was the 3-year-old Dapper Drake version; the last one still available for a G3 processor.

The actual installation process was the reason for this post title.

I’ve had to hack … sort of …

Well, not literally; that’d take more actually coding skill, and improvising that I think I’ve got.

But — because the Xubuntu ‘Live CD’ and Apple’s hardware aren’t as good a fit as they could be — I had to do some digging on Google, to find out how to install Xubuntu on to the iMac; the two linked posted I found that walked me through it are here and here.

The walk-through is actually a lot simpler than it actually looks; but, ten year’s ago, I’m not sure if I’d’ve been confident enough to do it! It was simply a case of going into Terminal — by pressing ‘ctrl’, ‘alt’ and ‘f1’ — and, at the prompt, typing ‘sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf’.

In the ‘Modules’ section of the resulting file, I had to change the line that read ‘Load “dri”’ to ‘ #Load “dri”’.

A little further down the screen, I had to change the ‘HorizSync’ settings to ‘HorizSync 58-62’ and the ‘VertRefresh’ settings to ‘VertRefresh 75-117’.

Bear with me, only a touch more … !

Once those are changed, you need to hit ‘ctrl’ and ‘O’. Then ‘ctrl’ and ‘X’.

Phew!!

Then, once that’s done, you type ‘sudo killall -HUP gdm’.

Even MORE ‘Phew’!

Now, there’s two more commands I’ve not yet performed, now I’ve got Xubuntu Dapper Drake installed on my machine.

I’ll need to run both sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade to make sure I’ve as many recent upgrades as possible.

But first things first, it look’s like I’m going to have to get a two-button mouse.

Would you believe … ?

Thoughts From A Creative’s Place …

Hmmm … well, there’s a thing … !!

He says …

I’ve got to admit, I’ve been over Movie Night Paul’s, today; bless him, he’s managed to get himself a second hand computer.

Quite a big beast of a second hand computer, actually; back when Apple introduced the Mac Pro*, they made a big deal of the fact it was cheaper than the equivalently spec’d Dell*, by about £500.

And I’m thinking that’s what Paul’s managed to get hold of, IS one of those Dells!

Either way — and I’m hoping Kelly and Ronnie are paying attention — I know he’s managed to make use of the copy of Ubuntu Studio I’d given him a couple of days ago.

Actually, I’ve got to admit, I’m mildly impressed with what I’ve seen of it.

I’d actually headed over to his place, with Allison — who needed to get out, after hearing about an old friends sudden and rather unexpected death — to see if any of the stuff I’d downloaded would be of any use. And to drop off the Jaunty Jackalope settings for an O2 mobile Dongle.

Paul, bless him is on worse money than most of us, so, from where he’s sitting, the O2 dongle on has a very attractive price … and a much stronger signal than the equivalent gadget from 3.

More on that, anon …

But Paul, Allison and I had a good natter, today, about all sorts of things; computer’s, ostriches, scooters and llamas included.

Don’t ask.

Just don’t!

But, at any rate, I do know Paul let me have a butcher’s at the Studio’d up Dell; which is where I learnt a few things.

For one thing, Paul’s got two small, but workable, hard drives in the Beastie; one running a pretty much standard installation of Ubuntu, the other running Ubuntu Studio.

Amateur musician that he is, Paul’s installed Ubuntu Studio with the various audio options — and applications — enabled.

And from I saw, that’s a bewildering amount of applications … ! Complete with various music players, mixing desks, at least one software based synth, loop generators and quite a lot of others!

Including a copy of open source recording — and music making — application, Audacity; untutored musical idjit that I am, Audacity is something I’ve used to make one-of-a-kind ring-tones for my mobile phone. Either through exporting looped bits of audio, or — for the most part — plugging a mic into the back of the Mini, and getting going.

Which was something I was able to share with Paul; all he’s got to do now, is connect up a guitar, and a mic …

•••••

Mind you, there is a downside to this, though …

That’s the simple fact that, unlike the regular release of Ubuntu, Ubuntu Studio is aimed at someone — like Paul — who’s at least semi-serious about using their computer as a pro-level digital recording studio.

The problem with that, of course, is that Ubuntu Studio doesn’t — out of the box — have the option to hook up to the net via a mobile broadband dongle.

For those of us with a touch more money, this isn’t a problem; it’ll hook up to a regular modem, in much the same ways as Mac OS X, Windoze, and even the mainstream version of Ubuntu.

That’s going to be an issue for him, I think, until he can afford a landline. But, if nowt else, he does have that extra drive, with the regular flavour of Ubuntu on it. Which — I’m guessing — means he’ll be getting a mobile dongle, and getting hooked on some of Facebook and Twitter’s sillier online games, just like the rest of us …

But it does put him at a disadvantage, for hooking up Studio …

Bit of bad form, on the part of Ubuntu Studio’s makers, I think.

•••••

At any rate, let’s move on, shall we?

Shall we?

Yes, let’s!

Something I do know is that I did get ticked off by Sara Bartleman, about the fridge-freezer, I didn’t know that we were supposed to make any arrangements with Brentwood Council, and then put waste out, on the day it’s due to be collected; otherwise things get seriously nasty.

There’s a problem with that …

It seems, from the natter me and me Mum had with Brentwood Council about it, we couldn’t have done it like that, anyway. According to the woman Mum spoke to, when she was asking about it, we’d’ve had to pay the collection fee for it — £16, in this case — and then left out the fridge-freezer for collection. Which would’ve been any day from the day after we’d paid the fee, up until five days later.

Hmmm …

Leave something like that indoors, to crowd your flat — which has very limited space — , when you don’t know when it’ll be collected …

Or find a friend with a small truck that doesn’t mind helping you up to the tip, with something like that. (I’m not sure how many of my friends actually drive, let along have a small SUV! I know I’ve only used my visitor’s permit a couple of times …)

Or put the blessed thing outside, whilst it’s awaiting collection. And get done for a technical breach of tenancy.

Hmmm … Yummy set of options … !

Oy!

•••••

Wonderful world we live in, isn’t it?

But at any rate, I do know that, if nothing else, somebody’s managed to catch the open source wave, and combine it with the Fairtrade movement. And come up with a drink for geeks!

My question?

Does Ubuntu Cola come in a diet or cherry flavour … ?

* From what I’ve picked, over the years, the type of machine we’re talking about are known as work-stations, and are usually quite powerful, compared to the run-of-the-mill desktops you or I would have at home, or in the office. I know most of the Mac Pro’s have 1 640Gb hard drive as spec; all are capable of holding up to 4 terabytes, and being fitted with 16Gb of RAM. The top of the range monsters can hold 32Gb of RAM. This is before you start looking at the various expansion slots, and the extra monitors it’s capable of supporting … !