Good Morning from my Robotics Lab. This is Shadow_8472 and today, I’m inspecting a new to the lab, quality used computer. Let’s get started.
This is going to be another progress update post. If nobody objects, I think these will end up being the defacto standard post type. Anyway, the first thing I noticed about it was the Dell name brand. From what I have read, they tend to make good Linux machines.
My plan at this moment:
- Boot the machine as it is.
- Burn a CD or DVD with an image of its hard drive.
- Install Ubuntu MATE.
- Get the system stable.
- MineCraft server
I expect to finish through item 3 this week. Eventually, I’d like to learn the command line and how to remote in. After I get an idea of the command line, I can see about turning it into a server version and/or find a more appropriate distro for running a MineCraft server.
***
Well, I was not expecting this…. The computer boots just fine, if I had a VGA cable (I think). My current setup is the box, a monitor running off a DVI adapted from a DisplayPort. The wireless keyboard and mouse are working fine, and sounds are coming from an on-board speaker.
The computer is booting to Win7, but it loses the monitor signal after the Windows logo disappears. Even so, I am not letting a little problem like that keep me from shutting it down correctly. There is no account password, so I hit Enter, then Alt+F4 to bring up the shutdown menu, then Enter again to confirm shutdown.
While diagnosing the problem, I had the computer booted to both Linux Mint and Safe Mode. Safe Mode was particularly annoying because I had to mash F8 to get there, while F12 brought up it’s boot menu by simply holding it. In either case, the DisplayPort worked correctly, and I’m inclined to just proceed to installing Ubuntu MATE. I don’t know yet. Maybe I will go ahead and image the drive onto a disk.
***
I really don’t think I will ever be putting Windows back on this machine. Honestly, I doubt it. The only thing I might consider saving is Access, but I’m not sure if the license follows the computer with it, or the person or organization who originally bought it. Also of note, for the past two days, every word I type in here has been underlined by the spell checker (unless it happens to have a number in it, like F8 or F12). It’s kind of annoying. I think I’m going to go straight to 3 now. The computer is booted to Ubuntu’s install drive now, and I’m eager to get started… but it’s just I get the feeling I’m crossing a one-way bridge with no return, and I don’t like that feeling. I just want someone else to be responsible for it, but that would undermine the whole point of doing it mostly on my own… I don’t know what I’d need to make a backup and I doubt I would use it anyway, so I guess It should work now.
Now that is weird… no more underlines under most new words. I don’t know what is wrong with my spell check. Nonsense words are also being cleared in clear sections. Before, I thought Firefox was punting spellcheck off to a glitchy database, but now, I’m not sure… I can only hope I can arrange for things to work out. Undo and redo seem to reevaluate the underlines. (I am so off topic…). Anyway, I’m going to just go for it.
***
This is it, I’m at the moment of decision and I just can’t cross. Maybe I can talk myself into it… I just need some support to do a clean install. Dual booting is harder to maintain, and I don’t see any reason to keep that copy of Windows around except to have the option open… I think I will wait a few hours and continue my work then.
***
I backed out. The VGA cable arrived and Windows 7 did a full boot. I told it to do whatever updates it’s going to do, then I’m making that CD and I’m giving that drive a full startover.
***
It’s done. My father did talk me into making a system image and repair disk, though. Protip: make sure your power cord is firmly connected when you try updating and someone is likely to bump the tower with a broken arm chair. I did not learn this lesson the first time, so it happened again. But the important thing is that Ubuntu MATE is now installed and running as the exclusive OS on the new server.
I think that’s enough for this week. I’d like to poke around and learn some more about setting up a proper Linux desktop. Eventually, I will be wanting to dual boot my personal system, but that can wait until later. Final Question: I did a lot of back and forth in this one. Would you rather read an end of week report, or a progress log?
P.S. Restarting Firefox took care of the spellcheck problem. I wonder how it started though…