If I had to pick one horror story that I get messaged about the most, it would be the dreaded bootloader. "It's missing" or "I have a black screen of death.." and some people edit their grub.cfg without realizing it can disable you from booting at all, essentially turning your computer into a brick. Yay!
Most of you already know that when you power on your computer, the first software that runs is a bootloader that invokes the OS from the computer. GRUB, the GRand Unified Bootloader, is an important part of many Linux systems. Above are a few tips to help address the issues with Grub 2.
What are your horror stories?
Showing posts with label nixie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nixie. Show all posts
OMG Video: Desktop Recording in Ubuntu - No Sammich For You!
While on vacation this last month, I gathered up all the requests for Ubuntu help and advice that I have received over a year or so and decided I would attack them here by popularity.
The most popular "request" was.. sudo make me a sandwich (alternately, sammich)
Sorry guys, you need my private key to ssh in as root ;-)
The second most popular request is: How do you capture your desktop in Ubuntu?
Here's two ways of capturing your computer screen - Easy and Challenge Mode:
To answer that I have put together a video tutorial which helps people learn the easy way to do desktop recording (gtk-recordmydesktop), and the more difficult way I do it, using ffmpeg from the terminal.
You will probably notice that I did not record sound in this tutorial - I used Audacity to narrate the desktop captures during the editing process.
I hope you enjoy and find this useful, and I owe many thanks to FakeOutdoorsman and andrew.46 from the Ubuntu forums for making this possible.
Which method did you know? The easy, the difficult, or both ways?
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We're NOT Mac OS X!
Those who installed Lucid Lynx got a surprise - from pre-releases through to the full release of 10.04, Ubuntu's windows buttons have swapped sides! Interesting how this default setup of these buttons now mirror those of the OS X.
The following short tutorial will explain how to switch your minimize/maximize/close window buttons from the left side back to the right side, without using the command line! Farewell counter-intuitiveness, hello happy computing.
Update: No, I don't think Ubuntu is turning into a Mac. I also could give two flying fracks what side my buttons are on, personally.. but this was a popular request upon the advent of Lynx. So... I just thought I'd poke fun at the random similarity to Mac OS X, assuming nobody would take it seriously. Strangely enough, a lot of you did. Meh, I really hate explaining a joke, it takes the fun out of it. 8-)
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GNU/Linux: The Name Game
I have been asked several times why I do not refer to Linux as "GNU/Linux," or "the GNU/Linux operating system," or some variation thereof. Most of you are well aware of the controversy around using the term "Linux," but many people who have recently switched or are considering trying Ubuntu, or some other distribution of Linux, are likely confused already, and so this may require a bit of explanation. Wikipedia has a decent, concise article that explains the two sides to this argument: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU/Linux_naming_controversy
Here is my position on it: Though I am familiar with both sides, I do not choose to call Ubuntu (and other distros) "Linux" because I feel the GNU/Linux folks don't have a leg to stand on. I do so because, quite simply, the target audience of my videos are newbies to Linux, or those who have never even tried it before. Linux is by far the most widely used and understood term.
I want to make things easier for them to understand, not more difficult. I feel that I am not doing anything wrong; when I choose to call Microsoft Windows Vista "Vista" I am not doing a disservice to Microsoft. Nor do I do a disservice to Canonical by calling Ubuntu "Ubuntu." A great many people and groups have to come together to make any particular operating system, particularly community-created ones, and credit for success should go to each and every one of them.
I am not a political activist, I am simply someone pretty new to Linux who hopes to help people avoid some of the pitfalls I ran into when I first tried it. I have never claimed to be an expert, but I do feel that we can do even more to help users of other operating systems feel comfortable in trying Linux as their desktop O/S, and Ubuntu in particular.
I plan on making a new series of videos which show how easy Ubuntu is to work with - completely without the terminal. If just one person who was scared of Ubuntu because they thought that using the command line was required tries and likes Ubuntu because of the videos, I will feel like they are a success.
So, back to the point: Am I an evildoer who helps spread misinformation and avoids giving credit where credit is due by using "Linux," or is it perfectly OK to do so - what do you guys think?
Photo courtesy of Alles-Schlumpf
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OMG Exclusive: Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Video Review
Introducing: The best Ubuntu yet?Since its release a month ago I have been testing Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx, and I have been pleasantly surprised by the improvements in this version of my favorite distribution of Linux. It really is faster, better looking, and more feature-rich than ever. Not everything is perfect, though. In this video review I give my thoughts about the operating system, and how it compares to Windows.
I have to admit that I still dual-boot with Windows, primarily to play the games I love, but for most things use Ubuntu, and I hope this helps people understand why it is a viable desktop operating system for all but specific high-end applications (and games).
In the future I will be creating more reviews and comparisons, and some more tutorials designed to help ease the transition of new Ubuntu/Linux users and perhaps enabling them to get more out of their new operating system. I hope you enjoy it, and please let me know what you would like to see from me in the future!
What features do you like best in 10.04? What do you hope for in future releases?
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OMG! Win Linux T-Shirts all day!
Win a t-shirt!
To celebrate the team up we're running a little contest with some nerd-tastic prizes up for grabs - namely 'sudo make me a sandwhich' t-shirts!
How to win?
- You need to follow both @NixiePixel & @omgubuntu on Twitter
- Tweet the short blurb below: -.
- All new @omgubuntu; Video Content by @nixiepixel! RT and WIN geeky prizes all day!
Nixie will be announcing winners every 6 hours, so pay attention to her twitter stream!
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