Post intended for January 15 2018.
Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I am going ahead with installing the older, Long Term Support version of Ubuntu on the SSD I put in the ASUS machine. Let’s get started.
So far, this is an “update” post instead of a “report” post; I plan on posting any stray thoughts worth recording here. I already have the thumb drive with my target version, but I remember Linux complaining before about not having enough space, the install drive only just a little too small. I also remember it seeming to not see the SSD. I will start by looking up the problem.
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OK, so about right away, I found conflicting forum posts from what to expect. I’m going to need to just try again and poke around.
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I get to learn a little bit more about formatting. The current formats for consideration are: NTFS, FAT32, ext3, ext4. I know NTFS is a format Windows is happier on, and one source said ext3/ext4 is best for when the drive is going to be used with just Linux, so I think I will format it to FAT32. That is, after I find it.
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I feel silly! The SSD was connected, but only to power and a loose SATA cable. I spent some time looking for it after bringing up the terminal and using the lsblk command. (LiSt BLocK devices) I connected the drive to one that works and I am working on installing now. I don’t think it will let me choose the format, though.
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Interesting… the installer crashed. It seemed to want to default to ext4, and I tried to poke around a little for FAT32, but it isn’t worth it. I plan on replacing it with the new LTS version in a few months. Installation is now underway. Looking at the information scroll they have while it installs, they seem to have their own GUI program for getting software. I don’t know if that’s a feature propagated by Debian, Ubuntu, or just super-common to Linux in general, but I am guessing either of Debian or Ubuntu. The install is finished, so I’ll reboot.
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Funny thing about setting up the BIOS to boot to USB first, you got to remove the USB to boot internally. The reminder to remove the boot medium before a full shutdown was a nice touch that isn’t present with the Ubuntu installer I used. Maybe it’s new and the installer is a bit older. This LTS version is about to be replaced from the most recent after all. I’d have to look it up, but I think LTS versions are given out every five years or so… Nope, every two years with five years support, it would seem.
OK, so I have set up a number of computers with differing versions of Linux, so I think it’s time to take next week off and re-orient myself in where I stand to take on ROS, dual booting with Windows, and server versions. Final Question: I get a bit disappointed when a project misses a long-term deadline. I’m sure if I were to make such deadlines for myself, I might disappoint someone reading. What do you think? Should I give deadlines months in advance, or just work on stuff as I come to it?