The Geekly Guy

This blog contains information regarding all things Linux, although any computer technology subject matter fits within the realm of this blog.

Saturday, March 08, 2003

What's up?

What's new here? Not much.

I've gotten the LCD flatscreen to work in Linux. In fact, it was easier to set up in Linux than Windows and I didn't have to download drivers. I've gotten Xine working with Debian too, so I can now watch DVDs in Linux although for some reason, all my DVDs are showing in black/white when viewing them. If I dump the DVD viewing frame into an image file, the file is in color, so it seems like it could be a Xine or vidcard/monitor issue in combination with Xine. We shall see.
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I've been having a few niggling problems with Debian unstable lately. I forcibly downloaded some packages that weren't supported by unstable and from that time on, I get certain errors. I can't be specific at the moment, but certain packages were installed but won't run. Most Gnome packages won't run and I get Gnome lib errors when I attempt to do so, but that's with select packages. I can run gkrellm fine but not GTOP (what's funky is I can run GTOP as a regular user but not as root...as root, I get lib errors).

One thing I don't like about Debian:

There are three levels of Debian, Stable, Unstable, and Testing. I used to run Stable but found that it lacks alot of the latest and greatest packages, which I like to use. I migrated to Unstable and found that I couldn't have my cake and eat it too. I lost the capability of running some packages from Stable when I went with Unstable. The recent libs for Unstable won't work with the older libs of Stable, so I can't run packages that need the older libs. Debian removes the older libs and the packages supported by them when using apt-get. Imagine my surpise when I tried to use Kmail inside KDE and found that apt-get installed KDE but not KMail. So I had to start using a mail client other than what I'm used to. I chose Sylpheed, which is nice, but I'm used to KMail. It took me awhile to set up Sylpheed and I had to redo ALL my mail filters, a REAL pain.

[break....gotta handle a work issue...BBIAB...]

Back now...

About the above, I don't know if that's the price you pay for running Unstable but I don't remember reading about all this on the Debian install pages on their website. Perhaps they ought to add a few words of advice to those who want to give Unstable a try. A specific warning would be nice. The word 'Unstable' has meaning, yes, but I understood it as being more of a beta packages issue of some sort, not actual lib swapping and the package elimination that goes along with the lib swapping.
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I'm buying a new hard drive after work tonight so I can get rid of the 4GB drive that I have FreeBSD is on. 4GB isn't enough for me. :o) The whole system has like 184GB between 3 drives: 120GB WD, 60GB Maxtor, and the 4GB WD. You'd figure that'd be enough! Well, I like to try to separate my OSs/distros on their own drives and currently I'm running XP, Debian, and FreeBSD. I want to start using QNX again, starting this weekend. XP is on the Maxtor, Debian is on the 120GB, and FreeBSD is on the 4GB. I figure I can move FreeBSD on the drive that I buy tonight and add QNX to that, then chuck the 4GB or just use it for backup. If I use it as backup, I need another IDE channel as my machine was maxxed out when I bought the 120GB. That's doable though, but if I keep adding drives, I'm gonna have to get a 400W PS instead of the 300 that's already in it.

And it goes on and on and on... Hahahah!
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I can't even remember the last time I booted up FreeBSD. Maybe 3 weeks ago and when I did, I screwed up the network configuration, so I couldn't get on the internet with it. Another project for another day.
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Have I played with my Zaurus lately? If you look on my Zaurus blog, you'll see that I haven't. There's just no time, with work along with my desktop OS exploration. It'd be nice if I could allot some time (a day or two a week) to the Zaurus. If I start using it enough, I can justify to myself that I could get that new Zaurus clamshell! :o) Maybe not.
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I WILL look into a nice DVD digicam or at least a standard digicam. I've been wanting one of those for years. I just have no clue on what to get and I don't want to spend and arm and a leg on one. I want $300 max...is that realistic?