Ubuntu For Free

I first installed KDE4 yesterday, and I’ve been impressed with it. Not in the ways I expected, but at the same time disappointed and frustrated in other ways I was not ready for. Ctrl-F12 fortunately doesnt require three keys on the left hand for a normal US keyboard, but instead does require both hands, almost universally. It’s interesting now, because I’m beginning to see a shift in the interfaces of operating systems. It is very apparent comparing KDE and Vista, and it’s amazing how the interfaces parallel the user base. I see this reflected in the new Ctrl-F12 desktop with the widgets, and I expect to find it as the foundation for future interfaces. I’ve seen other programs like Yahoo widgets try to do something like this, but it was more of an encumbrance with the operating system. This instead seems more naturally integrated, of course because it is part of the OS. It would still be nice to be able to use Ctrl-Alt-Del to see what I would previously expect for the “Desktop”. Another disappointment, is the missing alt+f1that I’m so used to. It makes me reluctant to use the new spectacular Kickoff menu. Also significantly lacking is the ability for me to lock my terminal. Having my personal laptop around in my office is usually ok for me, but I’d like to be able to lock it when I’m not at my desk.

My greatest pleasant surprise of installing KDE, was the improved performance. The core system seems extremely refined, fast, and immediately responsive.

Sometimes it’s so frustrating that I almost want to give up and logout and switch to the KDE 3.5 session, but instead I hop on IRC in Konversation and look for help in one of the channels. So far, it’s been an experience. Somewhat of a struggle, but I think I’ll keep trying.

I recently got a new Dell laptop, an Inspiron 1520. It came pre-loaded of course with Vista. I of course wanted Kubuntu on it, and that’s been an adventure.

Now… first things first. I setup the notebook using Vista and made sure that everything worked. Fortunately, everything worked… and worked perfectly.

Next, I moved into using GParted/CloneZilla from their LiveCD so that I can resize the NTFS partition. At first when I opened it, I noticed that it had a couple of partitions, including a recovery partition, the OS partition, and two others that I was uncertain of their purpose. It’s my first Dell, so I left those alone for now.

I resized the largest partition, the one used by Windows, so that I would have enough free room to support Ubuntu and all my desired files. I rebooted and attempted to let Vista load. Windows Vista noticed something had changed and spent the next 25 minutes checking integrity. It then allowed me to proceed to log in and everything again worked as expected.

I rebooted to use the GParted LiveCD again, this time with the intention of creating my desired partitions and this is where the problem began. I was unable to create any additional partitions because Dell had created all 4 partitions as Primary partitions, and that’s the limit. I opted to delete the last partition on the drive for convenience. The unallocated space was before this partition, so it just made the most since and required the least amount of data to be moved. I later found out this partition held the wonderful MediaDirect 3.0 software, that must be reinstalled prior to any OS.

I put the Hardy Heron Alpha1 disk in the tray, rebooted, and allowed it to install. I could not let it use a guided setup because I wanted /home on a separate partition. I also chose to put /etc on it’s own separate partition, and the Install program let me do it.

After rebooting, on the Ubuntu loading screen with the sliding orange progress bar, my caps lock and scroll lock lights begin to blink/flash. I rebooted and chose the Recovery mode from GRUB. This time, I see where it stops and it shows this error:

init: error parsing configuartions no such file or directory.

After searching the internet for reports of bugs with the flashing lights, I found a bunch of irrelevant stuff. Searching for the specific error message, I found the problem in a this bug report on Launchpad.

I re-installed and put /etc on the same partition as / and it now boots properly into Hardy Heron.

It seems that /etc can’t be on it’s own partition. Who knew? Not me. Not the install program. To me, it’s a bug that it wasn’t able to tell me : DO NOT install /etc on a separate partition.

Now that it boots, my next step is to get the wireless and audio working.