For the record: burning works flawlessly now with Feisty. At least something works as it should. Yay!
---
Speaking of Linux games, there is a neat one that brought me actually some fun: Globulation 2. It is a strategy, still in development and therefore with quite a few imperfections, but it runs smoothly even on my piece. It's still an alpha, so that can be excused for now.
Some good:
- it has a good unit management system; you don't actually select the units and send them to do something, you order what-is-to-be-done-where, and any free globs (that's the units) of a given type will hurry to the place to do their job. The ultimate top view above the many faceless units you command.
- the units do all the stuff on their own, and once you make sure your base is well equipped and supplied, you can concentrate on the strategy and don't loose time with micro-management.
- the whole look is kind of neat, with the globs and their buildings
Some bad:
- as mentioned, it is in development, so there are some things that seem unfinished
- the music becomes annoying pretty fast, to be turned off after a few minutes
Monday, May 28, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
Development new and old
My laptop is really the genuine article. I have considered playing some neat-looking game for Linux (and there's very few of them, let me tell you), but it didn't do much in the way of playing. It seemed to require 3D hardware support. Doesn't sound like anything unusual nowadays (my gaming tastes are hopelessly backwards). So... does my lovely laptop support that?
Well it does... but not for Linux. After spending another couple hours of looking for drivers and success reports, I actually found a petition to AMD for making drivers for ATI Radeon XPress 200M - just my brand.
Not that I would be using it that much, but it's kind of disheartening. Ah, whatever.
For the record, the game that interested me, was SCOURGE. Could be fun. :(
---
Some good news in turn: on my work computer, I worried about the sound under Linux. Well, nothing to worry, the default ALSA driver worked perfectly (I don't have speakers yet so it's headphones-only).
Anyway, there is sound! Go MP3s!
---
USB is fun, especially under Linux. I didn't use 'em much after upgrading on Feisty, but at some point I tried my USB key. Didn't work.
As the ancient tradition commands, I googled, and found some reports on USB devices being destroyed by the Linux kernel (what?!?). Luckily it turned out to be not my case, What was my case, was a broken new driver, which excluded some devices (like my newer 1GB USB key), but recognized others (like my older 256MB key, and my DVD burner). Of course, I could have only one at a time. There is more in comments on this...
...but isn't THAT fun?
Well it does... but not for Linux. After spending another couple hours of looking for drivers and success reports, I actually found a petition to AMD for making drivers for ATI Radeon XPress 200M - just my brand.
Not that I would be using it that much, but it's kind of disheartening. Ah, whatever.
For the record, the game that interested me, was SCOURGE. Could be fun. :(
---
Some good news in turn: on my work computer, I worried about the sound under Linux. Well, nothing to worry, the default ALSA driver worked perfectly (I don't have speakers yet so it's headphones-only).
Anyway, there is sound! Go MP3s!
---
USB is fun, especially under Linux. I didn't use 'em much after upgrading on Feisty, but at some point I tried my USB key. Didn't work.
As the ancient tradition commands, I googled, and found some reports on USB devices being destroyed by the Linux kernel (what?!?). Luckily it turned out to be not my case, What was my case, was a broken new driver, which excluded some devices (like my newer 1GB USB key), but recognized others (like my older 256MB key, and my DVD burner). Of course, I could have only one at a time. There is more in comments on this...
...but isn't THAT fun?
Monday, May 14, 2007
bzip2 annoyance and more linux
Guess I didn't mention I've got a Linux at work as well. Developing necessesity, it appears.
The good thing was I received a brand new computer for my new job. The bad thing was I had to install it myself. :)
Vista... well, that was easy. But I still didn't like it.
And then there was Debian. And a brand new computer.
The first downloaded installer (stable version, you know) failed to detect the harddisk, due to a SATA something bus (oh, where are the IDEs gone?), so I had to look for a more experimental version supporting my hardware, and got something named Sarge. That worked pretty well.
The second hurdle was the graphical card, an ATI Radeon X1650 or whatever. Not that I need much graphical power, but there's two monitors (also a great perk). And for the holy kebab I just couldn't kick that thing to work. But lucky me, after a week or so another version of the drivers came up, and it worked! 3D effects would take more work, but I don't need them. It's also very tricky to play with the settings in the xorg.conf file to make two monitors work... ah, whatever.
Now only to make the soundcard work. :D
---
And at last, the question of bzip2 shall be examined. This insidious little trojan masquerades as an archiving/packing utility, and lies in wait on unsuspecting Unix beginners.
As a proper semi-expert I don't stoop as low as reading manual pages or program help beyond the basic introduction. It is obvious some fiendish person decided to abuse this rational and time-saving behaviour, and designed this "tool".
So what's the fault? The default behaviour is not merely packing, but also deleting the source files! Yes, you hear that right. Instead of the lovely unpacked files, you have suddenly ugly packages that may have a smaller size, but of course loose their former functionality. And this is not mentioned right at the start of the documentation. Seriously.
So, if you happen to pack anything important with this, you may look pretty much like a fool in the end. :(
Like I did. :)
The good thing was I received a brand new computer for my new job. The bad thing was I had to install it myself. :)
Vista... well, that was easy. But I still didn't like it.
And then there was Debian. And a brand new computer.
The first downloaded installer (stable version, you know) failed to detect the harddisk, due to a SATA something bus (oh, where are the IDEs gone?), so I had to look for a more experimental version supporting my hardware, and got something named Sarge. That worked pretty well.
The second hurdle was the graphical card, an ATI Radeon X1650 or whatever. Not that I need much graphical power, but there's two monitors (also a great perk). And for the holy kebab I just couldn't kick that thing to work. But lucky me, after a week or so another version of the drivers came up, and it worked! 3D effects would take more work, but I don't need them. It's also very tricky to play with the settings in the xorg.conf file to make two monitors work... ah, whatever.
Now only to make the soundcard work. :D
---
And at last, the question of bzip2 shall be examined. This insidious little trojan masquerades as an archiving/packing utility, and lies in wait on unsuspecting Unix beginners.
As a proper semi-expert I don't stoop as low as reading manual pages or program help beyond the basic introduction. It is obvious some fiendish person decided to abuse this rational and time-saving behaviour, and designed this "tool".
So what's the fault? The default behaviour is not merely packing, but also deleting the source files! Yes, you hear that right. Instead of the lovely unpacked files, you have suddenly ugly packages that may have a smaller size, but of course loose their former functionality. And this is not mentioned right at the start of the documentation. Seriously.
So, if you happen to pack anything important with this, you may look pretty much like a fool in the end. :(
Like I did. :)
Monday, May 7, 2007
And the laptop stays
How comes that as soon as you swear to do something, there immediately crops up a serious reason why you won't do it. (As for the question of honour, I didn't swear anything, just seriously considered. :) )
So I was this hot to return the laptop and take a better one (and considered the compatibility with Linux this time), when the store I have it from halted me. Saturn, the German electronics supermarket, accepts exchanges only in under two weeks from buying... which I spent trying to make the damn thing work. Duh.
But now that they have refused me (and I wanted to get a more expensive laptop, so they wouldn't be harmed a lot anyway), I was kind of insulted. Well, not with me! I can't return it, and repairing the damn thing's DVD would take two weeks, which is too long for a serious addict.
I hadn't a problem with its performance, and the main issue was the broken DVD. And since I planned to spend some money anyway, I bought an external DVD burner, and it works fine. The other issues can be ignored... and so I'm back to Asus A9RP. There you go, Saturn. :->
---
Note to self: describe the necessary fixes and updates for Linux in comments to this post. Might be useful for someone out there.
So I was this hot to return the laptop and take a better one (and considered the compatibility with Linux this time), when the store I have it from halted me. Saturn, the German electronics supermarket, accepts exchanges only in under two weeks from buying... which I spent trying to make the damn thing work. Duh.
But now that they have refused me (and I wanted to get a more expensive laptop, so they wouldn't be harmed a lot anyway), I was kind of insulted. Well, not with me! I can't return it, and repairing the damn thing's DVD would take two weeks, which is too long for a serious addict.
I hadn't a problem with its performance, and the main issue was the broken DVD. And since I planned to spend some money anyway, I bought an external DVD burner, and it works fine. The other issues can be ignored... and so I'm back to Asus A9RP. There you go, Saturn. :->
---
Note to self: describe the necessary fixes and updates for Linux in comments to this post. Might be useful for someone out there.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
I got a blog!
Yeah, well. I have my own blog now, what a miracle. :)
This will be a test of whether the online diaries and blogs fashion can work for me as well. This could be fun... or too much work. Anyway, we will see.
Greetings to the blog community,
your manfred
---
Updates already: first changes to the blog. Chosen the Scribe template because of the acceptable colors, but ditched the background image. Go minimalistic design! Also edited the language settings from German to English... these intelligent systems like to do the work for you, and sometimes you have to undo it to get what you want.
This will be a test of whether the online diaries and blogs fashion can work for me as well. This could be fun... or too much work. Anyway, we will see.
Greetings to the blog community,
your manfred
---
Updates already: first changes to the blog. Chosen the Scribe template because of the acceptable colors, but ditched the background image. Go minimalistic design! Also edited the language settings from German to English... these intelligent systems like to do the work for you, and sometimes you have to undo it to get what you want.
Giving up the laptop (rant)
Not that it wasn't that bad; ASUS A9RP, was pretty cheap for me to afford, and had the sufficient equipment and performance for my backward needs. The first thing that freaked me out was the pre-installed new and shiny Windows Vista, instead of the trusty XP. Friendly suggestion: don't use it. There are so many safety precautions that you ignore them after some time anyway, and I found myself resenting the system very quickly. Two days to be precise. It also had problems with the wireless card, but I digress.
XP, well, it has it's few (hundred?) little quirks, but you can get used to it. The stability can be also tweaked to 'decent'. But I didn't have XP at hand. :|
But I had Linux! Found a Kubuntu CD somewhere, so why don't give it a try at last? And I tried it. It worked quite fine, lacked a bit of elegance, but was very user friendly, which I liked. But then I wanted to have some features working that were apparently too special. *sigh*
One was the wireless card, since I was connecting through it to the Net by default. This didn't work quite well, as my particular type had no Linux drivers made yet. Lucky that I have other means of going on-line, I've spent a week or more browsing around looking for answers. In the process I have upgraded the Ubuntu from 6.06 to 6.10 and even to the experimental Feisty. Didn't help. Later I have tried a downgrade even, but that didn't anything either. :)
In the end I have compiled the drivers myself, solved another few problems along, and got the device working. Yeehaa! Pity the configuration for the network didn't work right; sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, sometimes it broke after some time. (And I have used wireless on the spot with XP for a long time without much trouble. Duh.)
But I could still tolerate that, until I wanted to actually burn DVDs with the damned thing. I think I started one DVD well, but then it came upon some mystical boundary that Linux couldn't pass, and it broke. I have ruined several DVDs without burning one successfully; meanwhile, I hit upon numerous accounts that said Linux somehow doesn't work with that burning thing. I mean, that's what users do daily, and they put on it fancy settings for security reasons, where secure means unusable? Perhaps I am too spoiled by the fast and dangerous life in Windows (and I have reinstalled some, trust me), but always watching upon the permissions and switching the whole time between root and ordinary user, oh my. Somewhere there was the problem with the burner; some group or user or whatnot had not the proper permissions, and you could just type esoteric commands from various forums in the hope some will help. Getting Linux to work without Internet would be impossible for me. Windows sucks big time, but I could always get it working... well maybe not on the first try. :)
Long story/rant short, I've gotten my hands on a WinXP CD at last, and was soon annoyed again. See, the drivers for the laptop would only work with the Service Pack, which I didn't use on my crappy old computer at home (a decent firewall was enough for me). And the Service Packs I downloaded didn't work either. Grrr.
Furthermore, after burning two or three DVDs, the ROM refused to cooperate and burn more; though maybe I was at fault for playing with drives all that time. Later, it stopped reading media completely, so there may have been a hardware problem after all... or I have just broken it. :|
---
So I had enough, and decided to give up (but heroically!). I'm getting a new one, this time I've checked if it's compatible with Linux, and it appears to be.
To sum up the 'bad' from the ASUS A9RP I had:
- trouble with the wireless card and DVD-RW under both Linux and Windows. Didn't try burning under Vista
- preinstalled Vista (if you get one with XP with everything necessary, it might work well)
- the 'Function' button is on the bottom leftmost position, instead of the 'Ctrl' one... now think which one you will be using 99% of the time.
- there's also an annoying clicking sound that keeps repeating over and over (harddrive? fan? sound system???), that is working well with the other features at driving you insane. :)
The rest was quite fine, I just didn't get the features I wanted to work. And if a semi-experienced user can't then it's pretty bad.
End of rant.
XP, well, it has it's few (hundred?) little quirks, but you can get used to it. The stability can be also tweaked to 'decent'. But I didn't have XP at hand. :|
But I had Linux! Found a Kubuntu CD somewhere, so why don't give it a try at last? And I tried it. It worked quite fine, lacked a bit of elegance, but was very user friendly, which I liked. But then I wanted to have some features working that were apparently too special. *sigh*
One was the wireless card, since I was connecting through it to the Net by default. This didn't work quite well, as my particular type had no Linux drivers made yet. Lucky that I have other means of going on-line, I've spent a week or more browsing around looking for answers. In the process I have upgraded the Ubuntu from 6.06 to 6.10 and even to the experimental Feisty. Didn't help. Later I have tried a downgrade even, but that didn't anything either. :)
In the end I have compiled the drivers myself, solved another few problems along, and got the device working. Yeehaa! Pity the configuration for the network didn't work right; sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, sometimes it broke after some time. (And I have used wireless on the spot with XP for a long time without much trouble. Duh.)
But I could still tolerate that, until I wanted to actually burn DVDs with the damned thing. I think I started one DVD well, but then it came upon some mystical boundary that Linux couldn't pass, and it broke. I have ruined several DVDs without burning one successfully; meanwhile, I hit upon numerous accounts that said Linux somehow doesn't work with that burning thing. I mean, that's what users do daily, and they put on it fancy settings for security reasons, where secure means unusable? Perhaps I am too spoiled by the fast and dangerous life in Windows (and I have reinstalled some, trust me), but always watching upon the permissions and switching the whole time between root and ordinary user, oh my. Somewhere there was the problem with the burner; some group or user or whatnot had not the proper permissions, and you could just type esoteric commands from various forums in the hope some will help. Getting Linux to work without Internet would be impossible for me. Windows sucks big time, but I could always get it working... well maybe not on the first try. :)
Long story/rant short, I've gotten my hands on a WinXP CD at last, and was soon annoyed again. See, the drivers for the laptop would only work with the Service Pack, which I didn't use on my crappy old computer at home (a decent firewall was enough for me). And the Service Packs I downloaded didn't work either. Grrr.
Furthermore, after burning two or three DVDs, the ROM refused to cooperate and burn more; though maybe I was at fault for playing with drives all that time. Later, it stopped reading media completely, so there may have been a hardware problem after all... or I have just broken it. :|
---
So I had enough, and decided to give up (but heroically!). I'm getting a new one, this time I've checked if it's compatible with Linux, and it appears to be.
To sum up the 'bad' from the ASUS A9RP I had:
- trouble with the wireless card and DVD-RW under both Linux and Windows. Didn't try burning under Vista
- preinstalled Vista (if you get one with XP with everything necessary, it might work well)
- the 'Function' button is on the bottom leftmost position, instead of the 'Ctrl' one... now think which one you will be using 99% of the time.
- there's also an annoying clicking sound that keeps repeating over and over (harddrive? fan? sound system???), that is working well with the other features at driving you insane. :)
The rest was quite fine, I just didn't get the features I wanted to work. And if a semi-experienced user can't then it's pretty bad.
End of rant.
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