Re: [BLUG] Install Fest

My computer is a dell laptop.  I have all of the original recovery disks (still unopened).  As far as creating a reliable image of my HD, I was planning to use clonezilla or partimage.   I am well aware that Kubutu is not the most stable version (I have tried several distros on Live CD).  However the particular approach I described (e.g. using a separate home partition) was influenced by a fellow math graduate student here at IU. He also mentioned that gimp *with* plug-ins will have most if not all of what photoshop has to offer.  Gimp without plug-ins will not cut it, as I have already tried it.  But I will also need replacements for flash, fireworks, illustrator, and dreamweaver.

I don't particularly care who makes the software so long as it works for my purposes.  The only way to know that is if I try it, so until I am confident that GIMP and other programs will work for me, I really need to keep photoshop, flash, etc.  Also my scanner was bought speciffically for the purpose of scanning from transparencies, and I heard on the linux forums that the linux software for that particular scanner does not support transparency scans.  The recommended solution, was to run Epson's software in virtual box in XP.  Wine was also offered as a possibility for the adobe software.  But keeping a windows operating system on the HD, would take care of both problems.  Usually though I would boot straight into Linux.

When I first emailed Mark Krenz about this, and signed up for the BLUG email list, there was a lot of talk about getting meetings going again, and in particular an install fest, and then nothing happened.   I could probably get my friend here in the math department to help me, but I was really looking forward to meeting some other linux people in Bloomington.  I would certainly appreciate the help from someone, even if it is only general guidance.

Best wishes,

Erik

On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 12:26 PM, Mark Warner <markwarner1954@att.net> wrote:

Erik Wallace wrote:
> Hi,
>   I was one of the two new users wanting to learn about linux.  When
> are we going to have this install fest?   At the time I first wrote to
> Mark Krenz about installing linux, I didn't even know what distro I
> wanted.  By now I know that I want to dual boot windows and kubuntu,
> with adobe creative suite and scanner software on windows, and tex/cas
> software on kubuntu.  I even have some idea of what it will take to
> set up the dual boot.  Currently my partition structure is as follows:
>
> 49MB Dell Utility
> 11GB Recovery
> 67GB OS (Vista)
> 2.1GB Extended
> - 2.1 GB Media Direct
>
> I would like to repartition as follows:
>
> 49MB Dell Utility
> 26GB Vista
> 54.1GB Extended
> -10GB /
> -2GB swap
> -40GB /home/
> -2.1GB Media Direct

Is this a desktop? If so, the simplest and safest solution would be to
add a secondary hard drive and give it over to Linux entirely.

I don't know about any Install Fest, but if you'd like I can assist you
live and in person, my place or yours.

As far as Kubuntu is concerned, I hope you understand that it stays
close to the bleeding edge, and may not be as stable or bug-free as some
of the alternatives. IMO, KDE4.x and Grub2 are just a little too fresh
for a production environment. That said, with the *buntus, there's a
huge user base to draw on for help and support.

Again, JMO. YMMV.

--
Mark Warner
MEPIS Linux
Registered Linux User #415318

_______________________________________________
BLUG mailing list
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Re: [BLUG] Install Fest

Erik Wallace wrote:
> Hi,
> I was one of the two new users wanting to learn about linux. When
> are we going to have this install fest? At the time I first wrote to
> Mark Krenz about installing linux, I didn't even know what distro I
> wanted. By now I know that I want to dual boot windows and kubuntu,
> with adobe creative suite and scanner software on windows, and tex/cas
> software on kubuntu. I even have some idea of what it will take to
> set up the dual boot. Currently my partition structure is as follows:
>
> 49MB Dell Utility
> 11GB Recovery
> 67GB OS (Vista)
> 2.1GB Extended
> - 2.1 GB Media Direct
>
> I would like to repartition as follows:
>
> 49MB Dell Utility
> 26GB Vista
> 54.1GB Extended
> -10GB /
> -2GB swap
> -40GB /home/
> -2.1GB Media Direct

Is this a desktop? If so, the simplest and safest solution would be to
add a secondary hard drive and give it over to Linux entirely.

I don't know about any Install Fest, but if you'd like I can assist you
live and in person, my place or yours.

As far as Kubuntu is concerned, I hope you understand that it stays
close to the bleeding edge, and may not be as stable or bug-free as some
of the alternatives. IMO, KDE4.x and Grub2 are just a little too fresh
for a production environment. That said, with the *buntus, there's a
huge user base to draw on for help and support.

Again, JMO. YMMV.

--
Mark Warner
MEPIS Linux
Registered Linux User #415318

_______________________________________________
BLUG mailing list
BLUG@linuxfan.com
http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug

Re: [BLUG] Install Fest

On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 9:47 AM, Josh Goodman <jogoodman@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> If you are just starting out I don't recommend going down the repartitioning
> path. You might end up in a bad part of town and I'd hate to see that happen
> to a potential new user.
>
> Depending on your CPU and memory specs you might want to give
> virtualization a try first. In fact, I would try it even if you have an older machine.
> I recommend VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org/) but there are other
> options out there.

The biggest issue I know with virtualization is that you need gobs of
RAM or the performance is crap due to swapping. I'd hate a new user to
think Linux is slow and crappy because they're trying it on VM without
enough RAM (either in the host machine or allocated to the VM). Ubuntu
can swap, Vista can swap, and in the wost circumstances both can swap.

If you're interested in trying one of the Ubuntu-based distributions
such as Ubuntu or Kubuntu, you can try them out with their new WUBI
product instead of even using a virtual machine.

WUBI installs Ubuntu within your Windows partitions. You boot in to
Ubuntu, so it gets the whole CPU and all the RAM, though it is still
slower than usual (and suspend doesn't work) as it needs to jump
through some special hoops to share the hard drive. It is *guaranteed*
to be faster than virtualization.

> On 03/09/2010 10:39 PM, Erik Wallace wrote:
> > I would like to repartition as follows:
> >
> > 49MB Dell Utility
> > 26GB Vista
> > 54.1GB Extended
> > -10GB /
> > -2GB swap
> > -40GB /home/
> > -2.1GB Media Direct

The best advice I can give *any* potential new Linux user is: Make
DVDs/CDs recovery media from your recovery partition!! Until you have
Linux installed and working well, there is no guarantee that anything
will go as smoothly as you originally expect. There is something to be
said about being capable of switching back to Windows until you can
get more research or find someone who can help.

Number 2 reason for having physical media for your recovery partition:
If you ever plan to pawn the computer or give it to friend/family, it
becomes significantly more valuable if it has the original recovery
media. Pawn shops won't even touch the computer without original
recovery media.

Physical media sometimes even has the ability to regenerate the
recovery partition.

Though if you know you can *reliably* make an image of the whole
drive, that would definitely be the way to go to try it out. However,
in the long term you'd still want the ability to recover Windows via
recovery media for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

As a new user, I recommend you don't bother with a separate /home
partition. One big partition will give you a lot more flexibility.
There are a *lot* of packages out there, and new users sometimes want
to try every option to solve a particular problem.

As a Windows user you have literally no idea just how many packages
are available for immediate download via the package manager. (There
are more than 25,000 packages for any of the Debian-derived
distributions.) Ubuntu distributions makes it nice and easy and
provide just a core set of packages on the install CDs, but you would
need a Bluray disc to actually hold all of the available packages.

> On 03/09/2010 10:39 PM, Erik Wallace wrote:
> > Of course I'm not a huge fan of keeping vista on my computer, but I
> > need to be absolutely sure that my scanner and adobe software are
> > fully functional. I am not entirely convinced that open source
> > replacements will be sufficient. If I discover that they are, then I
> > can remove vista, otherwise I think it is safer to keep it around
> > rather than doing an adhoc fix with virtual box or wine.

IIRC, there is a Linux program which uses the Gimp libraries while
providing more of a Photoshop-style interface. That only covers image
editing, though. (Gimpshop <http://www.gimpshop.com/>) Note that
Gimpshop is not a standard Ubuntu package (yet).

If you're a fan of the Adobe products, then you'll likely find
yourself shackled to a Windows partition. (Or a Windows VM if you have
the resources.) While many people find they can avoid using the Adobe
products, if you're actually a fan of them (and have the money to
afford keep using them -- not an issue if you're an IU student, but it
becomes an issue afterwards) then it is quite possible you'll just
find yourself unwilling to commit to the learning curves of other
products.

There isn't anything particularly wrong with that -- particularly if
you're interested in contributing to FLOSS projects to bring the
free/libre projects up to a point where you would be happy to use it
regularly.

Cheers,
Steven Black
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Re: [BLUG] Install Fest

If you are just starting out I don't recommend going down the repartitioning path. You might end up
in a bad part of town and I'd hate to see that happen to a potential new user.

Depending on your CPU and memory specs you might want to give virtualization a try first. In fact,
I would try it even if you have an older machine. I recommend VirtualBox
(http://www.virtualbox.org/) but there are other options out there.

To get started you would install VirtualBox on Vista, create a new virtual machine, download the
Kubuntu ISO, start the new virtual machine, point it at your Kubuntu ISO, and away you go. When in
full screen mode you will never know that windows is lurking in the shadows. This also has the
advantage of letting you run two OSes at the same time without the hassle of dual booting.

Cheers,
Josh

On 03/09/2010 10:39 PM, Erik Wallace wrote:
> Hi,
> I was one of the two new users wanting to learn about linux. When
> are we going to have this install fest? At the time I first wrote to
> Mark Krenz about installing linux, I didn't even know what distro I
> wanted. By now I know that I want to dual boot windows and kubuntu,
> with adobe creative suite and scanner software on windows, and tex/cas
> software on kubuntu. I even have some idea of what it will take to
> set up the dual boot. Currently my partition structure is as follows:
>
> 49MB Dell Utility
> 11GB Recovery
> 67GB OS (Vista)
> 2.1GB Extended
> - 2.1 GB Media Direct
>
> I would like to repartition as follows:
>
> 49MB Dell Utility
> 26GB Vista
> 54.1GB Extended
> -10GB /
> -2GB swap
> -40GB /home/
> -2.1GB Media Direct
>
> I have already been warned that Media Direct may not work after
> repartitioning, but it is worth a try. Vista does not respond well to
> resizing done outside of itself, and is unwilling to do it from within
> (because the MTF file is placed at the end of the partition). So the
> best approach seems to be to delete both the recovery and os
> partitions, create a new primary partition for vista and expand the
> extended partition into the remaining space, then install vista,
> followed by Kubuntu, and all appropriate software. It also may be a
> good idea to create an image of the whole hard drive before trying
> this feat. I do have an external hard drive to work with so that is
> perfectly reasonable.
>
> Of course I'm not a huge fan of keeping vista on my computer, but I
> need to be absolutely sure that my scanner and adobe software are
> fully functional. I am not entirely convinced that open source
> replacements will be sufficient. If I discover that they are, then I
> can remove vista, otherwise I think it is safer to keep it around
> rather than doing an adhoc fix with virtual box or wine.
>
> Now I am willing to listen to suggestions, but if we don't have this
> install fest soon, then chances are I will already have done all of
> this.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Erik
> _______________________________________________
> BLUG mailing list
> BLUG@linuxfan.com
> http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug
_______________________________________________
BLUG mailing list
BLUG@linuxfan.com
http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug

[BLUG] Install Fest

Hi,
I was one of the two new users wanting to learn about linux. When
are we going to have this install fest? At the time I first wrote to
Mark Krenz about installing linux, I didn't even know what distro I
wanted. By now I know that I want to dual boot windows and kubuntu,
with adobe creative suite and scanner software on windows, and tex/cas
software on kubuntu. I even have some idea of what it will take to
set up the dual boot. Currently my partition structure is as follows:

49MB Dell Utility
11GB Recovery
67GB OS (Vista)
2.1GB Extended
- 2.1 GB Media Direct

I would like to repartition as follows:

49MB Dell Utility
26GB Vista
54.1GB Extended
-10GB /
-2GB swap
-40GB /home/
-2.1GB Media Direct

I have already been warned that Media Direct may not work after
repartitioning, but it is worth a try. Vista does not respond well to
resizing done outside of itself, and is unwilling to do it from within
(because the MTF file is placed at the end of the partition). So the
best approach seems to be to delete both the recovery and os
partitions, create a new primary partition for vista and expand the
extended partition into the remaining space, then install vista,
followed by Kubuntu, and all appropriate software. It also may be a
good idea to create an image of the whole hard drive before trying
this feat. I do have an external hard drive to work with so that is
perfectly reasonable.

Of course I'm not a huge fan of keeping vista on my computer, but I
need to be absolutely sure that my scanner and adobe software are
fully functional. I am not entirely convinced that open source
replacements will be sufficient. If I discover that they are, then I
can remove vista, otherwise I think it is safer to keep it around
rather than doing an adhoc fix with virtual box or wine.

Now I am willing to listen to suggestions, but if we don't have this
install fest soon, then chances are I will already have done all of
this.

Best wishes,

Erik
_______________________________________________
BLUG mailing list
BLUG@linuxfan.com
http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug

Re: [BLUG] (FLOSS) Graphing Libraries

Graphing as in Graph Theory?

You might want to check out Graphine if you're into Python.
http://gitorious.org/graphine/pages/Home

I don't know too much about it except that it was presented as a
poster session during PyCon this year: (P17 @
http://us.pycon.org/2010/conference/posters/accepted/ )

Best of luck.

Simón

On Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 5:20 PM, Williams, Jeffery Allen
<jefjewil@indiana.edu> wrote:
> I'm looking to do some fractal like graphing.  I have two tasks in mind.
> The first is a graph the Collatz conjecture mentioned in the xkcd comic from
> Friday Mar 5.  The Wikipedia article on the Collatz conjecture has some
> interesting graphs, and I'm wondering if there are any good libraries to
> help me make something similar.
>
>
>
> For the second graph, I'd like see what loops are formed if you start with a
> given number in the range of the cksum output and use that as the input to
> cksum.  Eventually this must loop, but there could be many loops.  It think
> it would be interesting to see what the structure looks like.  If I get this
> working, I may try md5sum, but that's a much larger space to cover.
>
>
>
> I'm sure I could do this with MatLab somehow, but does anyone know of a good
> (open) way to show such information?  Has anyone done fun graphing projects
> in the past and have some insights for me?
>
>
>
>
>
> Jeffery Williams
>
> Software Test Engineer
>
> IU Cyclotron Operations
>
> jefjewil@indiana.edu
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> BLUG mailing list
> BLUG@linuxfan.com
> http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug
>
>

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Re: [BLUG] (FLOSS) Graphing Libraries

> I'm looking to do some fractal like graphing. I have two tasks in mind.
> The first is a graph the Collatz conjecture mentioned in the xkcd comic
> from Friday Mar 5<http://xkcd.com/710/>. The Wikipedia article on the
> Collatz conjecture has some interesting graphs, and I'm wondering if
> there are any good libraries to help me make something similar.

how about Graphviz?
http://www.graphviz.org/
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