en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/12/30/bfbc901cf8b123def0ec49b4efe0ebc4.html
Funny thing was that my intention of getting a new video card was to upgrade my linux system. I had some trouble as mentioned before with upgrading from 7.04 to 7.10 ubuntu. In the end, I figured part of the problem was the video card/driver since rebooting the system caused some havoc after various upgrade methods. Well, it looks like I'll be stuck with 7.04 until they figure this ATI problem out. Or perhaps, I'll just suck it up and get myself a new NVidia card.]]> Sun, 30 Dec 2007 14:47:38 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/12/30/bfbc901cf8b123def0ec49b4efe0ebc4.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/6/f2f47f6682cdba185893998c278cc42c.html transparent as I had hoped (and as the support piece of ubuntu's documentation had said). Upon starting up my desktop with the new card, I received a message in how the xorg.conf was misconfigured. Fortunately, the system had OpenSSH server loaded, so I could login through my Windows desktop (while reading the proper upgrade procedure), used apt-get to install the correct drivers, then finally ran a command to reconfigure the nvidia driver. Upon rebooting the system, I had a working display. But I still wasn't out of the fryer.

The system had left the resolution in a 1024x768. Not so great considering that my monitor can easily handle a good step above that. I ran another utility (after some searching) to configure the resolution. Now, it's much nicer at 1280x1024. I almost got into a trap of running a slightly lower level (and much more confusing!) utility to configure the card. But I managed to sneak out and find the proper utility to configure my card. Now, it looks quite decent!

The last step is to attempt to get the dual head part working. I can try with my old emachine 14". It's not a bad monitor, just SMALL. I really like working at 1280x1024, so I plan to examine a few more 19"+ type of monitors when I hit Akihabara again sometime.

As an added bonus, I moved things around in my apartment. Funny how switching two tables and moving my laptop somehow has increased my workspace.

Ultimately, after I finish the last few migrations and install a new OS on my laptop, I hope to completely turn my (k)ubuntu desktop into an NFS server. I have a "smaller" 250 GB external drive that I plan to externalize all my main data. Then I'll mount my home directory to either my local home directory, or to a mirrored directory. Sadly, my main goal in all of this is to work under the covers on my couch on my laptop. But also, if I get this type of "home architecture" going, I'd like to take one of my home systems in America and install ubuntu or some other form of linux on it as well. Then every time I cross the Pacific, all I have to do is bring my external hard drive home. The beauty of that situation is that I'd avoid having to lug around a heavy laptop (unless I go overseas for business trips) and would need to simply mount the mirrored external drive up.]]> Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:17:30 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/6/f2f47f6682cdba185893998c278cc42c.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/6/9d096f3f25edeab3997c3c1c577a8775.html
I totally forgot about that situation, tried going to sleep (failed), and woke up intending to watch youtube. Then youtube started freezing as did other video sites. And then I tried playing other video files. Originally, I was going to blog that the problem was the nvidia driver, but I realized/remembered (faintly) that mplayer had bogged down and probably was still running. I rebooted my machine to clear the problem and now everything is working again.

The worst part was that I spent several sleepy/waking hours trying to figure out what the hell was going on. What a waste of time!!!!]]> Sun, 06 Jan 2008 16:44:56 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/6/9d096f3f25edeab3997c3c1c577a8775.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/6/8/38a794e6bddd8d33fb746a5295e08031.html
Another reason why I was offline, so to speak, was that my internet in LA sucked dick. I use Time-Warner and either my cable modem or router has a problem of constantly rebooting. I'm not sure what other options I have in LA, but if I move back permanently, that's one thing I'll definitely address.

Then my main system had gone down just before I departed for LA. Actually, it didn't go down so much as I attempted to upgrade the damn thing from Ubuntu 7.04 to 7.10. Something I didn't know much about was that the system requires that you use something called a "restricted driver" because I have an NVIDIA video card. Ubuntu is rather retarded in that the community displaces the driver in a restricted area rather than automatically being integrated when you're building your system. Even less known is that the driver must be re-upgraded each time or re-enabled during kernel upgrades. It's truly retarded ideology that seems counterintuitive in spreading Linux as a mainstream desktop.

I ended up buying a new hard drive (a cool Seagate 500 GB) and simply doing a clean install. After a few unexpected lockups, the system started to experience more smoothness. I had to re-enable the NVIDIA driver, reboot twice (once where I got locked up), upgraded the base software and booted into KDE (KUbuntu) for all this to work. I think the next time I decide to upgrade my system, I'll just purchase a new hard drive, externalize my data and do a clean install (well, I'll at least get another external drive, backup my data and then try an upgrade). Hopefully, the next version of Ubuntu will focus more on system stability with hardware. You really can't call a system "stable" if it keeps crashing and locking up!

Hopefully, all these issues are behind me as I have more things to deal with in the upcoming weeks. Got to renew my passport, two credit cards and get my fat ass back in the gym. At least, things are improving a little here and there....]]> Sun, 08 Jun 2008 01:23:54 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/6/8/38a794e6bddd8d33fb746a5295e08031.html