So, I have a few machines running Linux at home. Well, two anyway, with another waiting to be enlightened once I replace its CDROM drive.
The main one, azathoth, is primarily a server but the peripherals attached to it mean that I need to use X applications from time to time. The window manager I use is fluxbox, because that doesn't fart around putting stuff in the way. All of this is running on the Gentoo distribution, since I like the control you have over what exactly is installed.
Which is all by way of explaining that sometimes this stuff breaks, and then I have to fix X Windows by hand.
This happened again a couple of weeks ago when I upgraded fluxbox and X suddenly decided that it no longer wanted to run at a reasonable resolution and defaulted back to 640x480. Fluxbox at 640x480 is better than Windows at 640x480, but it is still dismal. What seems to have happened is that in the upgrade the X server had finally realised that I had chenged monitors without changing my display settings: the Dell 21" I had from work years ago had gone back to the office to be my primary display there, while I had been using a poxy little 15" monitor for at least three years. I just didn't need a hi res display on azathoth since I do most of my work on laptops these days.
Hand configuring X is a pain. Most distros ship with some kind of automatic program to do hardware detection, but Gentoo doesn't, or at least not for XFree86. Which is no longer supported.
I also realised that in fact I had not been using a Gentoo X config file ever - I had always been copying the old config file from a SuSE install I abandoned on azathoth years ago.
Fortunately, the documentation is helpful and I had the right manual for the monitor, but still - it was a trying experience.
Which all goes to prove... well, nothing really. I had dug myself a hole, and I managed to climb out. If I were doing a fresh install of a more GUI-oriented distro (such as Ubuntu) then I would not have any of these problems.
Still, it's good to be back working in a reasonable resolution, even if it is on a machine I don't use much.
Posted by Dunx at January 14, 2006 07:44 PM
OOOHHH! I don't know where to begin with this...
Having thought about it, I think I can boil it down to the following...
Don't use Linux as a desktop system. It's not designed for that. It runs a fabulous server, but it isn't, and possibly will never be* a match for Windows on the desktop.
While I'm here, can I also say that Moveable Type throws JavaScript errors on IE, and I've just seen the following when previewing this post:
MT::App::Comments=HASH(0x8163f90) Use of uninitialized value in sprintf at lib/MT/Template/Context.pm line 1187.
You need the Automated Rich Speaks Editor you do mate. Running on a Microsoft server... Never fallen over yet... ;-)
Every Linux fiend** I know runs at least one Windows box for "testing" purposes. When pushed they'll generally admit it's because they need a stable platform to write their vitriol-fuelled Wikipedia-sucking hate mail from. (I'm not counting you in that group - just so you know)
* send hatemail to "despiteAllEvidenceToTheContraryIThinkLinuxOnTheDesktopIsAFabIdea@beerpowerednoisefrenzy.co.uk
** Gobshite
If I could modify your advice slightly: don't use Gentoo as a desktop system unless you are a lot more confident about X setup than I am.
I quite happily ran Linus as my sole home desktop operating system* for several years, on both a laptop and a desktop machine, until I got my Mac in 2001. If Wintel laptops worked better with their sleep/wake cycles I'd probably go back to running Linux on a laptop again, because that's what tipped me over to the Mac in the first place.
Thanks for the heads up on the MT errors. There are problems with this installation at the moment.
Or you could use real browser.
* apart from a Windows machine I needed to do my UK taxes on, because TaxCalc only runs on Windows.
I couldn't agree more that Linux on the desktop is abysmal... I mean, can we agree on the keystrokes for copy and paste, please? The only thing worse is working on Windows and being severly limited to using only the apps available.
The mac with real good tools under the hood and a good consistent interface on top, is a sweet ride. ;-)