My Edgy but not Feisty day

After trying -- and failing -- to install about 10 distros yesterday on my Maxspeed Maxterm thin client, with a CD-RW drive and hard drive connected but sitting on the outside of the thin client box, I slid my Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty alternate-install disc into the drive and hoped for the best. Keep reading for an account of my day in the Edgy-Feisty trenches.

Since I'd previously installed Damn Small Linux 3.3 on a different hard drive, I tried to install it again on the drive I had connected at the time, an 80 GB Seagate ATA. But even DSL wouldn't boot from the drive, so I reached into my stack of IBM-labeled 14.4 GB hard drives and tried Feisty again. I did a command-line system install, and that went without a hitch. But since I'm not going to be doing everything with vi (I did that in college, thank you), I immediately began to reinstall Feisty in full.

The first time, it hung up somewhere in the middle -- my disc light was pegged on, but none of the drives were doing anything, so I had to reboot. Now it looks like the install is going to happen. I didn't time it, but it hasn't been quick. I'm currently on the "Select and install software," which just failed. But I have the option to try again.

We'll see how it goes.

Update (2:45 p.m.): The installer just won't go past "Select and install software." After a couple of failures, I skipped ahead and installed GRUB, then went back. Why, WHY isn't this part working? (I previously checked CD integrity, and it's fine). As I've written before, this is no typical hardware installation, being a hacked thin client, but I'd still like things to work.

Update (2:55 p.m.): Since it looks like the "Select and install software" step is just completing when I get the error message, and since I already skipped ahead and installed GRUB, I decide to skip ahead again and "Finish the installation." That goes fine, and the CD drawer opens. I move the CD and reboot ... AND get a command-line system again. No GUI.

Update (3:15 p.m.): I had the Live-CD ISO of Ubuntu 6.10, but I had never burned a CD of it. I decide to do so. By mistake, I burn Xubuntu 6.10 (now I've got two), so I load that as a live CD.

Update (3:50 p.m.): The Xubuntu install from live CD is proceeding swimmingly. If this install sticks, I'm going to keep it for awhile. I don't know how the traffic is now on the mirrors for the Ubuntu 7.04 live CD, but I just might wait until the Xubuntu Feisty upgrade is ready ... if this install sticks, that is.

Update (4:10 p.m.): The Xubuntu 6.10 install is almost done. It's currently REMOVING stuff -- language packages, GNOME utilities ... but I'm 97 percent done with the install.

Update (4:12 p.m.): The install finishes, the CD drawer opens, the screen goes blank. I hit return a couple of times and the system proceeds to reboot.

Update (4:20 p.m.): I open Firefox, and it says "Welcome to Xubuntu 6.06." I've got Xubuntu, but did I burn the wrong version? Also, the graphical installer never asked me for my networking settings, so I'll have to do those manually. Only I would burn the wrong CD ... But I do have a legitimate 'Buntu installed on the hard drive connected to my thin client. ... Should I call it Thin Xubuntu, or Thinbuntu? Maxbuntu?

Update (5:05 p.m.): I check my other Xubuntu 6.10 CD ... it seems that they never changed the "welcome" page in Firefox, and even 6.10 says 6.06. One thing's for sure -- Xubuntu isn't as snappy as Puppy Linux and Damn Small Linux. And when I try to shut down the system, the monitor goes blank, but the box stays on. I have to push and hold the power button to get the box to power down all the way. (I didn't have to do that with Puppy or DSL.)

Update (5:10 p.m.): In the Xubuntu menu, I go to System--Update Manager, which tells me that "New distribution release '7.04' is available." I click the Upgrade button. I get this message: "Authentication failed." Is it the traffic on the Internet, or a flaw in the process? I check for other software updates, and there are 90, totalling 139.2 MB. I start it. As an aside, I miss being able to bring up a menu anywhere on the desktop with a right-click, like I can in the Fluxbox and JWM window managers.

Update (5:55 p.m.): The updates download and install fine. Another try at the 7.04 upgrade. It fails for the same reason. But I do have Xubuntu installed on the thin client. And I'm about 80 percent sure it's 6.10. Time to turn the box off and go home. I'll live to fight another day on Monday.

Update (10:05 p.m.): I neglected to mention that the DesktopBSD install CD will NOT boot on the thin client. Just won't do it. I'd love to get a BSD on there -- will I have to build up from FreeBSD? I'm not completely opposed, but I hoped to get my feet wet with DesktopBSD. And as far as Xubuntu goes, the text editor is not as good as Geany. It's a bit basic, and doesn't have word count. But the word processor with Xubuntu is AbiWord, which is quick enough to launch that I serves as a nice text editor for my purpose, which is writing blog entries and not programming. And yes, I can use vi to hack at config files in the shell.

One of my projects should be digging through my boxes of crap in the shed and seeing if my copy of "Unix for Luddites" is there. I'd love to scan it in and have it available to all, in all its 1980s glory. That photocopied book by UC Santa Cruz's Scott Brookie got me going on Unix during college to write my papers. We used vi to write, nroff to format, and the printouts on a laser printer (in the '80s, for shit's sake) could be collected at the computer center on the far-flung campus, which had dumb terminals to access the system at every one of its eight colleges, as well as at the campus library.