---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Re: RHIZOME_RAW: Ubuntu: a Linux noobs story
From: steve.kudlak@cruzrights.org
Date: Thu, January 13, 2005 8:47 pm
To: "Pall Thayer" <palli@pallit.lhi.is>
Cc: "t.whid" <twhid@twhid.com>
"rhizome" <list@rhizome.org>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Please keep us posted!!! My funding form my Uncle in Washington
won't support too many fun things. I would love to get a good Linux setu
going so I can do my mix of Art, Science and Atmospheric Sceince Resaearch
and demonstrations for 7th to 9th graders.

Have Fun,
Sends Steve



> forgot the CCRMA at Home URL:
> http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/
>
> t.whid wrote:
>> Ubuntu: a Linux noobs story
>> http://www.mteww.com/mtaaRR/news/twhid/ubuntu_a_linux_noob_s_story.html
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/
>>
>> What the hell is Ubuntu you ask? According to Ubuntu Linuxs web
>> site,
>> Ubuntu is an ancient African word, meaning humanity to others.
>> Ubuntu also means I am what I am because of who we all are.
>> Very cool word.
>>
>> Ive decided to make Ubuntu Linux my gateway into the Linux world. Its
>> freshly installed on an old Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop of mine and Im
playing around with it. Its been a medium-difficult but fun
experience.
>>
>> Background:
>> I decided to look into Linux for use in art installations. I figured
>> build-your-own systems paired with Linux would be the cheapest way to
go (this was before the introduction of the Mac mini). Plus, there is
no way in hell Im going to run my art work on top of Windows.
>>
>> Im coming from a Mac OS background.
>>
>> Step 1: Distro delirium
>> The Linux live CDs are the easiest way to dip your toes into Linux and
>> try different distros. The first one I successfully tested was Knoppix.
Knoppix taught me that KDE is ugly as hell. Ive since learned that you
can make KDE look pretty cool. But the damage was done; I went in
search of a live CD with Gnome as the default desktop environment which
lead me to, what else? Gnoppix of course.
>>
>> But a funny thing happened on the way to Gnoppix, their live CD happens
>> to be Ubuntu Linux! After trying it out I was sold: its clean, simple,
worked well with my hardware, and used sudo to do system level
commands very similar to Mac OS X. (I forgot to mention that I
attempted SUSE in the meantime, but it wouldnt install on my low RAM
system.)
>>
>> Step 2: Install the damn thing
>> This should be simple enough. I downloaded the installer from a Ubuntu
>> download site, did a MD5 checksum, burned a disk (using Mac OS Xs disk
utility), popped it in my PC and booted from the installer disk. From
there it was a simple install process.
>>
>> Let me back up a second. My install process was probably a tad easier
>> then other users experience. What I mean is, is that because I simply
reformatted the entire disk and installed fresh, I didnt need to worry
about partitioning my disk for dual-booting. If you are partitioning
your disk to dual boot Linux and Windows then this might be a tougher
job.
>>
>> Step 3: Boot up your new system!
>> This is the easy part, just hit the continue button at the end of the
>> install process.
>>
>> Step 4: Remove hair violently
>> As soon as I booted up the problem was obvious. The entire screen was
>> being drawn very weirdly: fuzziness, noise, a weird mirroring affect
not good. Ill skip the details, but I tried and tried to fix it to no
avail. I decided to install Mandrake Linux instead.
>>
>> Step 5: Install the damn thing (2)
>> Again with the whole download-ISO-check-MD5-burn-CD bit (but with three
>> CDs this time). But now comes the interesting part. Mandrakes
installer is much more user-friendly and mature than Ubuntus, so when
I got to the part where one chooses their monitor resolution and color
depth, the installer had a fancy little utility to TEST ones video
settings.
>>
>> The installer chose default settings for my laptop monitor (based on
>> the video card I assume) and I clicked the test button.
>>
>> SAME PROBLEM AS UBUNTU!
>>
>> Blurriness, weird mirroring affect, everything! After fiddling around
>> with it a bit I finally realized that it was the color depth setting
causing the problem; everything worked fine at 16-bit, but not at 24.
This left me with a decision to make: stick with Mandrake or go back to
Ubuntu. I was sure the problem with Ubuntus screen drawing was the
same issue.
>>
>> Step 6: Go to Step 2
>> After looking over the Mandrake and Ubuntu support and community sites
>> I decided I liked Ubuntu. My impression was that the community is very
helpful and friendly (reminds me of the Mac community), there are lots
of Linux noobs like me (more experienced users are patient with them)
and it just has a good vibe. Back to installing Ubuntu.
>>
>> Step 7: Enjoy
>> So now I have a bare bones Ubuntu system running on my laptop (I did
>> have to edit the X11 config file by hand to get the system to default
to 16-bit color, but it wasnt a problem).
>>
>> Im excited to start playing around with it and see what Linux can do
>> in the studio. My plan is to create some dynamic run-time videos
(similar to MTAAs own 1YPV or Manovichs Soft Cinema), use it in
conjunction with touch-screens for more viscerally interactive pieces
(gallery version of Five Small Videos), and whatever else well need
cheap PCs for in the future.
>>
>> Of course Im a bit worried by this color depth issue, but it can
>> probably be overcome.
>>
>> ===
>> <twhid>http://www.mteww.com</twhid>
>> ===
>>
>>
>> +
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>
> --
> _______________________________
> Pall Thayer
> artist/teacher
> http://www.this.is/pallit
> http://pallit.lhi.is/panse
>
> Lorna
> http://www.this.is/lorna
> _______________________________
>
> +
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>