computer: Slax
Feb. 25th, 2009 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amezriFurthering my quest to find out what heck is wrong with my computer, I'm now running a Linux Live CD to see if it freezes. I guess the idea is that if I get NO freezes with the Live CD, then the problem is Windows and not hardware, but if the Live CD freezes, then it's hardware. Theoretically, that makes sense. We'll see how it goes in practice.
I started off intending to go with the Ubuntu 8.10 Live CD, as Ubuntu is probably the most popular distro right now. Or among my friends, anyway. But after an hour and a half trying to get the wireless to work, I gave up. The problem was the Live CD wasn't packaged with drivers for the Linksys wireless card, which the card won't work correctly without and the solution was just not happening -- I'd have to connected to the onboard ethernet with a cable and have it download drivers from the internet. The router is on the other side of the house, one floor down. So, uh, not happening.
Before I located the Ubuntu Live CD, I'd already downloaded the Slax distro, which is designed for portable use. I'm not really sure if this will be taxing the system properly, but at least I got the wireless working in 10 minutes instead of an hour! All I had to do was enter some commands in terminal because the GUI for the wireless connection doesn't work exactly right -- it'll take the WEP but for some reason doesn't handle auto DHCP.
Slax is running KDE and I kind of like the look of it. Display response is a bit sluggish, but I'm thinking that could be because it's just using whatever display drivers and not the proper one for the Nvidia card. I do have access to all my files, but won't be writing to the drives in case things go wonky. Actually, I'm probably not going to access the drives at all if I can help it.
In any case, I'll give this a try and see what happens. If I can't do all my normal stuff, at least I can use the internet! It'll almost be like those times I was out of the country and had to use net cafes. But, you know, without the fun travel part.
I started off intending to go with the Ubuntu 8.10 Live CD, as Ubuntu is probably the most popular distro right now. Or among my friends, anyway. But after an hour and a half trying to get the wireless to work, I gave up. The problem was the Live CD wasn't packaged with drivers for the Linksys wireless card, which the card won't work correctly without and the solution was just not happening -- I'd have to connected to the onboard ethernet with a cable and have it download drivers from the internet. The router is on the other side of the house, one floor down. So, uh, not happening.
Before I located the Ubuntu Live CD, I'd already downloaded the Slax distro, which is designed for portable use. I'm not really sure if this will be taxing the system properly, but at least I got the wireless working in 10 minutes instead of an hour! All I had to do was enter some commands in terminal because the GUI for the wireless connection doesn't work exactly right -- it'll take the WEP but for some reason doesn't handle auto DHCP.
Slax is running KDE and I kind of like the look of it. Display response is a bit sluggish, but I'm thinking that could be because it's just using whatever display drivers and not the proper one for the Nvidia card. I do have access to all my files, but won't be writing to the drives in case things go wonky. Actually, I'm probably not going to access the drives at all if I can help it.
In any case, I'll give this a try and see what happens. If I can't do all my normal stuff, at least I can use the internet! It'll almost be like those times I was out of the country and had to use net cafes. But, you know, without the fun travel part.
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I am totally sorry
Date: 2009-02-26 04:20 am (UTC)I apologize for any angst i caused you . . .
Hope your motherboard and all it's wonderful parts are ticking along well
:)
Re: I am totally sorry
Date: 2009-02-26 04:44 am (UTC)Actually, I'm hoping it does freeze, which means it's hardware and I don't need to wipe & reinstall Windows. Strange preference, I know, but I'd rather buy new parts than try installing XP SP2 and then all those updates... and all my programs. UGH.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-26 04:52 am (UTC)KDE is sexy (I prefer Kubuntu to Ubuntu). Do you have Amarok on there? Because you must try it out. Haven't tried 2.0, but 1.4 was at least 10x better than any music player for Windows or Mac.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-26 05:12 am (UTC)Yeah, I'm liking the interface much better, so if I do ever bother installing Linux, I'd probably go with Kubuntu as well :)
Don't have Amarok, but I can activate the module for Slax easily enough. Right now I'm a little sketch about using my drives while running this. I'm sure it's totally fine, but still... One problem at a time.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-26 02:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-26 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-26 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-26 07:33 pm (UTC)