It's not me, it's the computer that's stupid.
by AC - permalink
I'm been dicking around with VirtualBox for a couple of days now in an attempt to get Ubuntu 7.04 running as a virtual machine. I've never used any form of Linux in any way before, and it's not working, and I'm not sure why. One thing I am sure of is how much easier VirtualBox is to use than the merciless chasm of an app called Virtual PC. The documentation is also worlds better, but that's not so surprising, considering it comes mainly from the community. In any case, I downloaded the AMD64-flavored ISO, verified its integrity, and burned it to CD. I should mention that an hour into the download I realized I should probably have gone with the 32-bit i386 version, because I doubted my 32-bit version of Windows would be able to deal with a 64-bit VM. But whatever, it was almost downloaded, and in the meantime I couldn't find anything one way or another in the docs. So I created the VM, gave it a partition, mounted the drive, and successfully started Ubuntu. And it told me I needed the other version.
So OK, fuck it, live and learn. I dumped the VM and started downloading the i386 version. To pass the time I drove way the hell out Kirby/Whitten to pick up the lawnmower from the shop. So that was fun. I had Definitive Swim in the CD player.
The next time, didn't burn the ISO, I just mounted it as a virtual virtual drive or whatever, and again it started up fine and didn't even give me an error message. It didn't do anything at all, in fact, which is actually worse. I get the Ubuntu splash and the boot menu, but when I select "Start or install Ubuntu" or "Boot from first hard disk" or anything else, it shows me the "Starting the Linux kernel" dialog, and then a blank screen with an underscore in the corner. And it just sits there, indefinitely. I dunno what the hell is up, and I'm only slightly inclined to try to figure it out.
I suppose I can always take my shiny new Ubuntu CD and set up a dual-boot situation with it, but I've never done that before either, and frankly I don't have any idea how. I'm sure I could figure it out, but do I want to?
Anyway. Both DirectX and Catalyst have been updated in the past week, and I haven't installed either. I'm in one of those rare windows where all of my games and software seem to be completely free of glitches, crashes, and bugs, and I'm not about to tempt the Gods of Fucking Shit Up by updating anything that doesn't seem to need it. Source engine games are always iffy, of course, but I've been so frustrated by how buggy they are now after, if I've counted accurately, 6.7 million unnecessary patches that I don't even try to play them anymore. Those goddamn games have produced the most spectacular system crashes I've ever experienced, and I would just write it off and move on if they hadn't once run so beautifully before Valve started screwing with them.
But whatever. IFC played Kill Bill Vol. 1 tonight, and Vol. 2 is on tomorrow night. I'm just looking forward to that right now. The hell with Valve and their Orange Box clusterfuck.
by AC - permalink
I'm been dicking around with VirtualBox for a couple of days now in an attempt to get Ubuntu 7.04 running as a virtual machine. I've never used any form of Linux in any way before, and it's not working, and I'm not sure why. One thing I am sure of is how much easier VirtualBox is to use than the merciless chasm of an app called Virtual PC. The documentation is also worlds better, but that's not so surprising, considering it comes mainly from the community. In any case, I downloaded the AMD64-flavored ISO, verified its integrity, and burned it to CD. I should mention that an hour into the download I realized I should probably have gone with the 32-bit i386 version, because I doubted my 32-bit version of Windows would be able to deal with a 64-bit VM. But whatever, it was almost downloaded, and in the meantime I couldn't find anything one way or another in the docs. So I created the VM, gave it a partition, mounted the drive, and successfully started Ubuntu. And it told me I needed the other version.
So OK, fuck it, live and learn. I dumped the VM and started downloading the i386 version. To pass the time I drove way the hell out Kirby/Whitten to pick up the lawnmower from the shop. So that was fun. I had Definitive Swim in the CD player.
The next time, didn't burn the ISO, I just mounted it as a virtual virtual drive or whatever, and again it started up fine and didn't even give me an error message. It didn't do anything at all, in fact, which is actually worse. I get the Ubuntu splash and the boot menu, but when I select "Start or install Ubuntu" or "Boot from first hard disk" or anything else, it shows me the "Starting the Linux kernel" dialog, and then a blank screen with an underscore in the corner. And it just sits there, indefinitely. I dunno what the hell is up, and I'm only slightly inclined to try to figure it out.
I suppose I can always take my shiny new Ubuntu CD and set up a dual-boot situation with it, but I've never done that before either, and frankly I don't have any idea how. I'm sure I could figure it out, but do I want to?
Anyway. Both DirectX and Catalyst have been updated in the past week, and I haven't installed either. I'm in one of those rare windows where all of my games and software seem to be completely free of glitches, crashes, and bugs, and I'm not about to tempt the Gods of Fucking Shit Up by updating anything that doesn't seem to need it. Source engine games are always iffy, of course, but I've been so frustrated by how buggy they are now after, if I've counted accurately, 6.7 million unnecessary patches that I don't even try to play them anymore. Those goddamn games have produced the most spectacular system crashes I've ever experienced, and I would just write it off and move on if they hadn't once run so beautifully before Valve started screwing with them.
But whatever. IFC played Kill Bill Vol. 1 tonight, and Vol. 2 is on tomorrow night. I'm just looking forward to that right now. The hell with Valve and their Orange Box clusterfuck.
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