I Picked A Bad Day to Give Up Printing

Just let me rant.

In the Unreasonable Expectations category, printing a single page is certainly near the top.

I forgot to install my printer.
No problem - plug it in and it's installed. Except for the small fact it won't print, all is well.
I could tell already that this was going to be another snowball from hell, rolling downhill to run me over. Is it personal? Sometimes it feels like it.

The printer kept saying it stopped. Well, the software did - the printer says READY, as it sits there, mocking me and blinking away.  Maybe it doesn't like snow (I don't either). No matter what I do, I can't get it to do anymore than it's doing. Desperate, I switch to a lesser operating system, which doesn't even see the printer. Super.

Back to linux, I ran some utilities, which told me I was missing just a few files (57 and a half). Ok, I'll play your game... I installed them, yet the printer continued to mock and challenge me.

Ok, let's visit HP, which has all sorts of drivers and utilities and headaches, but very few pain relievers. Finding drivers is a bit rough, as HP's web designers get better drugs than the rest of us. Or they just like screwing with the customers (like their printers). I'll have you know it went in flawlessly last time. The website wanted to identify my printer. But it failed. So I tried another browser, which also failed. I tried yet a third browser, completely open to HP and viruses, which also failed. Apparently HP wants a special browser, with features unavailable in normal browsers. I remember this from somewhere, deep in the past... like the last time I tried to find something on HP's site. Ok, let me just pick a driver from a list. Oops, you can't do that... it would contravene the Geneva Convention, like using your turn signals. It's really sad when you have to use a search engine to find which page you need on the site you're visiting now. The first page wanted to identify my printer again. VAIR ARE YOUR PAPERZ? it asked. My system replied PAPERZ? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING PAPERZ. The second link was back to HP, where it wanted my printer's model. My typing is particularly bad today, so 5 minutes later, I finally got the correct model typed in. And HP couldn't find it. I tried a few more times, with different orders of letters (and different yelled words), with the same response.

At this point, HP has essentially said the universe is not as I understand it. Basically, I don't have the printer sitting next to me because it doesn't exist. This is quite the metaphysical dilemma. We can all plainly see it. I can even hear it mocking me. Yet it doesn't exist. And it's still snowing. Let's put this in plain language: you believe in Jesus. Jesus happens to be sitting next to you, doing Jesus things... healing, blessing, damning people to an eternity with Flo from Progressive Insurance. You go online to ask Hewlett Packard if Jesus wore plaid and it tells you Jesus doesn't exist. You can clearly see Jesus, and you've been chatting merrily with him for an hour or two, so you're a bit confused, especially concerning the whole holiness business. You took your medicine, haven't started drinking yet, and have the complete assurance of Jesus himself that he exists, yet HP says he doesn't. Are you starting to get my dilemma now?  You then head out to some other Jesus sites on the web, but the search engines have no links for Jesus, even when I type his name correctly.  We need to dig Einstein up to explain this for us, although perhaps in this universe he doesn't exist. In that case, the guy in the wheelchair is unlikely to assist us either.

Back to searching; a software site, replete with loads of HP drivers, confirmed the non-existence of my printer. The printer must be feeling some kinda way by now. Or it has gone incognito, in which case the clearly printed model number was falsified by someone or some printer. Do you see my dilemma? Do I? This is after 2 cups of coffee the size of a Hyundai, so I'm marginally awake.

I narrowed my search to the model number and 'for linux'. The first site had all sorts of drivers for all versions of Windows and some Macs, but not one linux. These were all drivers for the printer that doesn't exist, confusing me even further. If Jesus were still here, I'd ask him why this is.  The second link took me to a cleverly hidden HP page for my exact printer, which HP said doesn't exist. Can you smell my frustration from my typing? The 2 options ask whether my version of Windows is 32 or 64 bit and I don't see my operating system listed. Well, I refuse to answer Windows questions, especially deeply personal ones like this, so I went with the operating system link. It told me that the drivers should already be present in linux, which I already knew, but the computer didn't. I downloaded the driver in a tarball, which has absolutely nothing to do with heroin, although I might be headed that way in about 5 minutes. It was a small download, about 3gigs, which took up a few of my spare hard drives (after I cleaned all the hamster pr0n from them).  The file made some suggestions that were anatomically impossible, so I figured I'd use the IT Crowd method: did you try turning it off and turning it on again?

Having read the above, can you guess how the IT Crowd method went?
Yup. No change.

I figured I'd give it the weekend off, to recharge and download new ways to terrify me. I also gave me the weekend off, to sleep, take up recreational pharmaceuticals, and beg the wife to spank me.

#####################

In spite of the day of the week persistently being Monday, I had to tackle the beast. I thought the weekend off would recharge me...  it recharged me for more recharging.

The voices told me to uninstall the HP printing software. They sounded reasonable this time, so off I went, followed by a reinstall. HP was very helpful, in that it let me download their version of the software, and provided instructions on installation. When I say instructions, I mean a few paragraphs about installing a previous version, from about 1985. They said if this part or that part didn't work, you just do xxxx.  This would not be possible for some users, but fortunately I'm a masochist and Hyundai-herder, so I went forth. It produced a few error messages that even HP couldn't decipher, involving hieroglyphics and lewd pictures of alligators. I'm weak on my alligator, so I just went with the defaults and completely refused to acknowledge the errors. You know the drill... if you don't acknowledge them, they do not exist.

The new software worked perfectly. It didn't take long to install, had no errors (that I acknowledged), and installed the printer perfectly. *except it didn't print. Same error. I briefly considered reaching through the internet and telling HP exactly how I feel about their software, but I'm told that's rude, like suggesting the owners of a work computer that it might work better if connected to a car battery, with a pair of battery cables.  I get a gold star for that... 10 years ago, I would've plowed ahead and suggested it with a smile.

I managed to find an error. Linux also found the error and asked me if I wanted to submit it. I did, then felt really bad, because I heard that every time an Ubuntu person received an error with HP in it, they shoot (usually themselves... usually). Since HP's error was the same error as the first time, I decided to do the right thing and shoot. Since I couldn't decide on who to shoot, I refused to acknowledge that I installed the printer and installed it again.

POOF - IT PRINTED!!!!!!!!!!!!

When they picked me up off the floor, I tried again, just to make sure it didn't print in my dreams after I passed out. It continued to print. I could feel, at that moment, the Flying Spaghetti Monster smiling down upon me. Then I tripped and fell on my face.

The moral of the story is to avoid alligators.
And to always install 2 of the same printer, because Printer won't print, but Printer2 will.





P.S. If you're really bored, put on some Monty Python and some pr0n at the same time. You'll wind up watching pr0n with a laugh track. Or so I hear.

We can laugh, but history's last laugh will be loudest

HP LaserJet Pro MFP M130nw - Review

One of the reasons I was politely asked to leave my previous web location was that I did not dedicate the blog 100% to technical content. The other reason had something to do with Halloween Boobies, but I won't bore you with that now.

In my long and storied computer career, I've had three printers at home: a LaserJet so old that it wanted a serial cable, and two multifunction HP DeskJets. The LaserJet worked flawlessly until, for some reason, it didn't. The DeskJets both followed the same trajectory: they printed nicely, the very expensive ink cartridges dried out because I barely print, and the scanner mechanism broke, which, for some reason, broke the printing function. This was years ago and I've somehow managed to survive.

So after much thought, I decided on a laser printer, with scanning, fax, and copying. Laser cartridges don't dry out and they produce a lot of pages. I looked around and found relatively cheap color laser printers. The first color laser I saw at work, many years ago, was about $10,000. So I was a little shocked to find this little bugger in the neighborhood of $350. Since I remember what was involved with color lasers, it was a real mental tug of war between I WANT ONE and YOU'LL BE SORRY.  The 'feature' that stopped the purchase was that it requires four cartridges (this is standard) at about $110 each, which is more than the cost of the printer itself (also standard with InkJets).

Since I had such a bad time with HP printers, there was no excuse not to get another one. Ok, let me back up.... when printers are released, they don't come with linux drivers. Windows and Mac - no problem. Linux... well... take your chances. The linux community got together and put together a resource on printers and whether or not they worked with linux. Unfortunately the linux community cannot travel into the future to say if a very new printer will work. So if you want a new model of printer, you have to wait til someone buys it and tries it, then posts the results. The ones I was looking at didn't have listings on the linux page yet. 

HP may have questionable hardware, as displayed by my two dead multifunction printers, but they're incredibly smart. They released software called HPLIP or something like it, that will allow you to use their printers on linux. HP was also very fortunate, in that their software is so functional that it's included in several linux distributions, Ubuntu included.

My nephew said you go into Costco to buy some cereal and walk out, $350 dollars later, with a cart full of everything, including tires for your car. So I naturally started there (online).  They had exactly one HP, which was the aforementioned color laser. Nope. Costco doesn't usually disappoint.

While I'm web-shopping, I noticed something... stores weren't listing small details, like price. Some had to be put in your 'cart' before the secret price would be revealed. Some were more complex and I give up easily. To prove my point, later that evening I did a search for a specific kind of juice, and that price wasn't  listed either. Juice. What the hell is wrong with these people?

My next step is where I used to live when they first opened... I won't say their name, because for some reason other people don't, so I'll tell you it rhymes with Breast Guy. BOOM, the HP printers popped right up. It was weird - they had prices listed. Not available in stores, this unit was probably being blown out at $99, as it was up to double that on other sites.  I did a compare of a few laser AIOs (all in one), as price was less a consideration than reliability and suitability.  I print something every other month or so, which isn't really a category to compare by. It turned out that the least expensive printer would be just fine. It's an awful shame this isn't the case with guitar gear.

Although this shouldn't be anyone's sole criterion for purchase, I checked the reviews. People are most likely to review something if they have a complaint, especially if you've ever had the misfortune to read Yelp. I was surprised to find a lot of great reviews and a few bad reviews, all pretty much the same. People liked the printer or they had trouble and hated the wireless setup. Since I'm a big shot network guy<tm>, this wouldn't be a problem for me.

The transaction was quick and pleasant, unlike any other transaction I have had on the web. I kept waiting for the internet to crash, but it didn't. I got a tracking number and it showed up when they said it would.

For some reason, I really didn't want to set it up. Who gets a new toy and doesn't want to play with it? I'll tell you who... the person who has to set it up first. I only knew this subliminally. Dammit if the reviewers weren't right: even a big shot network guy<tm> couldn't make the wireless function work. It's not that it wasn't user-friendly, it was user-HOSTILE. It also refused to set anything up until there was paper in it. Am I crazy for thinking it shouldn't need paper to set the wireless feature up?

My wireless network is set up very securely. So securely I almost had to take it  apart to get to it.  I need very specific info before I can connect anything wirelessly. Naturally the information was not available for this little bugger.  Going through the options on the face of the printer was an interesting feat.  The directions were printed out in four languages, fortunately, in case I preferred to read them in French, Spanish, or Portuguese (I think). Looking closer,  they basically gave a few quick steps, then referred to the User Guide, located at a web address. Just think of the money saved not printing a useful set of instructions. Just because you can get some backdoor software that works with linux doesn't mean there are any instructions for linux.

So I did what any short-tempered, ADD techie would do... I gave up and plugged the damn thing into my computer, with the INCLUDED usb cable. They used to charge you extra for them, causing many an unpleasant surprise when they opened the box after the stores closed. Linux recognized the printer and set it up. Yay! I told it to print a test page, which it promptly did. And by that I mean that it said it printed, but I checked the print queue and discovered it was sitting there, stopped, with no way to send it out for printing. I got all sorts of weird error messages, which I looked up, and discovered that people recommended reinstalling the HP software. I downloaded it and set it running, where it suggested removing the old software... yeah, ok. And it found the printer and bloody printed! I was shocked.

It printed very quickly, as lasers tend to. The print quality was great. This seemed to be just what I was looking for, wireless setup aside.

The printer came with a cd of software, Windows and Mac only, so most of you won't have most of these issues. Just for fun I tested the scanning function. From waaaay back, I remember that you have to use either a utility or graphics program and scan into it. And I did that. And it worked.  Beautifully and much quicker than I remember.

The fax function, which I really needed AT THIS MOMENT, was nowhere to be found. In fact, I noticed there was no jack in which to plug the phone line. What happened? I think the genius who purchased the printer somehow transposed the models that included wireless with the models that faxed. Or the printer only included fax capabilities if it was shipped on alternating Wednesdays, on a thirteen month cycle.

My situation is difficult and weird, so you will not experience the same variety of grief I did. You may experience different varieties of grief -  I don't know. I expect the wireless networking to be easier with software for your operating system, but I can't be positive.

The printer works well, quickly, and the print is nice. The scanner works quickly and accurately. The fax doesn't work at all, largely as it's not included on this model. Since scanning and printing work well, I think it's safe to assume that copying also works flawlessly (provided there's paper). HP no longer thinks hiding the power button is funny and has located it on the front of the printer, so naturally I had trouble finding it.

The printer does everything I want it to do.

If I get itchy, I'll give wireless networking another try. But I'll have to be damn itchy before that happens.

Unless it starts throwing random parts at me or the scanning mechanism breaks, I recommend this printer. For the price, you can't beat it.

Fred Astaire Reads This Blog

Actually there's no way to tell whether he does or does not. I'm going to err on the side of caution and let you know I'm making it up, lest I hear from his estate. Again.

• ThermionicEmissions is researching this: there is a report that Uber has a $63 helicopter option. Of course we don't use Uber due to tracking, location, and other nefarious actions, but isn't this interesting?

No, Dear, I did not sleep with that woman. It was the Russians.

• So there's the Crazy Lady next door, who has a hotline to the township, for reporting our suspected transgressions of The Rules.  She's having some sort of little rocks put on her property somewhere, and some of them fell onto our drive and walkway. I may need to call the township. This is clearly unreasonable and harassment.

Do you have an HP computer?  Check for this file: C:\Windows\System32\MicTray64.exe or C:\Windows\System32\MicTray.exe. If you have one of these, rename or delete it immediately. When that's done, look for C:\Users\Public\MicTray.log and delete it immediately. No one is taking blame for this yet, but this driver software, direct from HP, is a keylogger; it keeps a record of every key you type in the MicTray.log file. Every key. Passwords, financial, whatever.  It does not appear malicious at the time - more like bad programming on the part of the developer (Conexant). The log is deleted when you reboot, but can be used by many processes while running.

The program is an audio driver. When you rename or delete, it's possible that special keyboard keys will not work, which is the actual function of this driver.

This file will not show up if you're running linux [rim shot], as I do, on your HP computer.

• The US is about to announce a ban on laptops on carryon baggage on flights from the UK and Europe.  As in all cases of Security Theater<tm>, it appears baseless. Ignoring the people who are pissed off they can't use their own gear on a plane, any alleged explosives would cause just as big a problem in the cargo hold. Plus laptops are 'sniffed' at the checkpoint (mine was wiped with a swab and the TSA fellow told me they were looking for traces of explosives. I told him he'd get dog hair and that was it). Is this ok with you?
• Speaking of airports, Trump sped up the Facial Recognition program, where you will be scanned at all airports in the US eventually. This man is starting to become a hazard. Some would say he already was.

College costs getting you down? The University of Arizona is hiring "social justice activists" to "report any bias incidents or claims to appropriate Residence Life staff." Yes, the microaggression micromanagers can now get paid in something more than smug self-satisfaction. I predict an increase in the number of heads in toilets (swirlies) as this program gets underway. The sickening details are here.

Tech Support - WHAT Tech Support?

Whenever I call or email tech support, I'm really nice.  It's because I know they have a terrible job and I've been there myself.  Although I no longer do helpdesk work, I do work closely with them during my hours of toiling.

In the past two weeks, I have had two horrible experiences with tech support.  At this point one issue has been resolved and I have only recently stopped scraping pieces of my cranium off the ceiling long enough to type this out for my friends in hilarity..... Suffice it to say, if my department at work performed this way, we'd all be out looking for jobs.

Apparently this is not the case everywhere.

The Case of the Bad Display

I recently got an HP Elitebook laptop at work.  It is roughly the weight of a medium size car and has a seventeen inch display.  It is manly and magnificent.  We have purchased rather a lot of HP laptops and desktops at work as a result of transitioning from Dell Hell.  Sadly, one day I turned the laptop on and got only a gray display.

HP phone support was very helpful.  We diagnosed a bad display and they said a tech would be in touch to schedule a time to come out and fix it.

A week later, I called HP, wondering where my personal tech was.   They told me there was an issue with getting the parts and he would be calling tomorrow.

Another few days later, I called HP again.  The rep read the log and asked me what he could help me with.  Well, if he read the log, he'd realize no one had called or come out to fix my laptop's errant display.  I politely let him know there was no movement from last time.  He said to excuse him for a moment.

Did you ever wonder where tech support goes when they ask you to hold on?  Do they switch displays and continue watching whatever kind of porn tech support enjoys?  Are they writing a few additional chapters of their autobiography?  Pee-pee break?  I sure as hell don't know.

Tech Support Guy comes back and informs me that Repair Guy called last Friday.

No he didn't.  The phone didn't ring all day Friday and no one left me voicemail.

In any case, Tech Support Guy was going to phone Repair Guy personally and have him get back to me within thirty minutes.  That was kinda nice, actually.

Shortly thereafter, Repair Guy calls and says he's an hour out and would be happy to drop by to fix the problem.

More surprisingly, Repair Guy made it within the alloted time and found the building.  I work in the Twilight Zone, which is supposed to appear on Google Maps but doesn't really.  To find our building, you have to possess at least a few working brain cells, which rules out most of the people who try.

Repair Guy was very competent, personal and professional.   I have to admit that I hate working on laptops.. too many tiny parts that tend to become airborne and land in the carpet, where they rest in peace forever.  This guy tore the entire laptop down in no time, screwed in the new display and powered up the laptop.

Have you ever seen a broken laptop display?  It looks a little like fractals on acid.  I hesitated to point this out because we were apparently looking at a display that was broken right out of the box.  As it turned out, I didn't have to say anything because Repair Guy said it for me.

My company purchases a warranty for next day service because we can't have machines down.  Here we are, a week and a half out, and I still don't have a functional laptop display.  I hate to say this but we didn't have this problem with Dell (we had lots of other problems).

Repair Guy apologizes profusely and says he'll get another display overnighted.  Of course, overnighted refers only to shipping, not whether the warehouse has the part in stock.  So he might be back the following day and he might not.

Two days later, Repair Guy returns, pops in the new display and all is well in the world.  Total time: two weeks.

I'm loving the service, HP.
My coworkers inform me that you have honored your promises on every other repair.  Although I'm not surprised the glitch affects only my computer, I'm still saddened by it.




The Case of the Errant Security Cameras

Work purchased an eight channel security camera system with DVR to keep watch over the place.  The reviews on Amazon were very favorable and I felt comfortable going forth.

In spite of not knowing a thing about security cameras or DVRs, the system went up without a hitch.  And when I say without a hitch, I mean eight hours of hurling wires above a drop ceiling and falling off ladders.

Once everything got plugged in, it worked perfectly.
And when I say perfectly, I mean that all eight cameras worked and I got the whole thing configured, mostly without consulting the manual.  It was a minor shock to all present.

One of the neatest features of the system is that you can plug it into your network and monitor the cameras remotely, like on your phone.  Everyone was excited.

And when I say everyone was excited, I mean right up until I tried plugging the thing into the network. I gave it an IP address (like a house address for the network) and it completely failed to show up on the network.  I gave it a different IP address, which also failed to show up on the network.   I even tried giving it a third IP address and screaming, all for naught.  It's funny - screaming is a necessary technique employed by anyone who has ever worked on computers (or possibly cars).

After mucking about with this device way too long, I decided to email tech support.  I received an email response in record time, uplifting my spirits.  When I say my spirits were uplifted, I mean right up until reading the email, which was the equivalent of a long wait on the phone: "We're sorry but we're really busy.  Your email is very important to us.  Because of higher than normal email volumes, we will answer this email within one to five days.  You are cordially invited to hold your breath until then.  Remember, your email is very important to us."

One solid week later without a response to my very important email made me weary, in a very large and existential way.

Things were getting grim so I had to bite the bullet and get on Support Chat with them.  The cute little box informed me that I would have to wait up to three minutes.  Two minutes.  Then one minute or less.  Funny how time flies when you're waiting for someone to answer.  It was like watching a Microsoft Copy Dialog Box, which tells you that you have four seconds to go but it really means forty minutes.

Eight minutes later, Support Chat Guy hops on chat.  I explain the issue to him.  He tells me I need to plug the device into a router.  I am working on a huge business network with hundreds of computers and he wants me to plug the DVR into the business router, as if I were a home user.

I shook my head and explained to Support Chat Guy that this was a business and there was no way to plug the DVR into the router.  He said we might not be able to get the unit working then.

Sigh.

I told the fellow that I gave the box an IP address and it's not coming up on the network.  He spends thirty chat minutes (175 minutes in dog chat) trying to get me to plug the DVR into the router.  I keep telling him the router is not a concern if the device isn't showing up.

Sigh.

As I mentioned, I don't want to be rude but I do want my problem solved expeditiously, which isn't going to happen if this guy can't think outside of the box of Home User.  It is apparent that he does not understand networking and I don't wish to spend the time to school him.  I suggest the next level of support and he suggests I call on the phone.

Done.

So I call on the phone.  The noise in the background sounds worse than the noise in the background of my workplace, which has been described as `slightly louder than a soccer riot'.  Phone Support Guy reads over my case and immediately asks me to plug the DVR into my router.

This is like deja vu all over again.

I try explaining networking to this nice person, who apparently realizes that he is over his head much faster than his colleague.  He suggests having a higher level support tech call me back.  Unfortunately due to the time difference (I didn't ask but I'm guessing Estonia, Moldavia, or Eastern Bumfuct - the English side) they can only reach me between three and four o'clock so it might not be today.

Two days later there is a voicemail from the camera company, stating that he has tried to reach me two times.

Really?


WHY IS THIS SO INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT?

Xubuntu 12.04 Installed

Unable to contain my excitement and with the patience of a pregnant gnat, I decided to upgrade a machine (or two) to the latest Ubuntu: 12.04 [Porcine Paraguayan].  Before we go any further, I'm not sure this review is going to help you much unless you're a user of Xubuntu, like me.

Ubuntu comes in a few basic flavors: Ubuntu, the default; Kubuntu, with the KDE desktop; and Xubuntu, with the XFCE desktop.  KDE has a high Bling Factor and uses the most resources.  XFCE is a fairly lightweight, customizable distribution.  Plain old Ubuntu used to come with the Gnome desktop and performed somewhere in the middle.

Unfortunately the folks at Canonical (parent of Ubuntu) had a bit of an aneurysm (or a lot of crack) and replaced Gnome with Unity.  This is the most highly contested feature of Ubuntu.  It is arguably the most highly detested feature of Ubuntu also.  Unity started out as a simple interface for netbooks and progressed (regressed) to the Big Deal about 12.04.  It's the default and you're pretty much stuck with it.  It's very graphical and not very configurable.    Can you guess where I stand on the issue?


Using Xubuntu means I don't have to deal with Unity.  Since I have everything set up as I like it, upgrades don't look significantly different.  I get the nicer features and everything looks pretty much the same as it did before.  But remember, if you install Ubuntu from scratch, you'll get Unity.  If you install Xubuntu, you won't.

You might like Unity.
I don't.

The upgrade was pretty slow, as it is wont to be on the first official day of release.  I broke with tradition and did not install the beta version, which is usually quite stable.  After quite a few hours of downloading I was almost done, when the dog walked over to the laptop, stood on the right key, and canceled the upgrade.  He had no idea why I was screaming but he figured it must have been his fault.  Fortunately the upgrade process will continue more or less from where it was when it was interrupted.  Ubuntu:  now dog-proof.

The first thing I noticed was that the hiding panels hid all of the time, as opposed to the 11.10 and previous panels, which only hid some of the time.  This is a pretty good thing.  Thus far the laptop I upgraded is completely stable.

At work I upgraded a desktop quickly and painlessly, using the Update Manager.  Then I set about installing Xubuntu in parallel with Linux Mint Debian XFCE.  This failed miserably.  Spectacularly.  Repeatedly.  And continuously, until I remembered that I was unable to install Xubuntu on this brand new HP machine in the first place, leading me to try LMDE.  I even wiped LMDE but no luck.  Some web searching turned up others having similar problems, which seem to be related to HP's BIOS and the way it sees hard drives.  I called our HP rep, who has been too busy to find me an answer (for two months).  But this is not the fault of Ubuntu.

Another desktop got fouled up before the installation so I started from scratch, as opposed to an upgrade.  This too failed miserably.  And repeatedly.  The possible cause here was a previously encrypted HOME partition, which Xubuntu fresh install could not see or process, just leaving me hanging out there in Linux Space.

I was beginning to take this personally.

NOTE:  Always make your HOME partition separate.  This way if you need to reinstall, you'll have all of your data ready.

Another try got me a fresh install of Xubuntu 12.04 [Pregnant Peacock].  Then it froze consistently when I accessed the Screensaver control.  Finally I got everything working, probably due to a better video driver.   Do you drink at work?  I did.

After what seemed like twelve hours, I arrived home.  Eager for more grief, I decided to try upgrading my main laptop.  After at least two hours of downloading, I got an error and the entire installation stopped.  The error indicated there was a dependency issue around ncurses and I got past it here.

I am typing this on the aforementioned laptop, which seems to indicate that the upgrade was successful.  If you hear any screaming, it means there was a glitch.

SO WHAT'S NEW?

I have no earthly idea.  To be honest Xubuntu kinda sucks in the documentation department.  There's a menu item called IBus, which I clicked on, to no avail.  I was a little scared, as I try never to touch anything with an `I' in front of it.  As if you didn't know, it's a next-generation input framework.  Got it?

No matter how hard I try, I always seem to wind up with Pidgin and XChat.  I try valiantly to not select them or uninstall them, but like zombies, they come back and they're always there.   Same with the games.  Funny, OSes always come with games but no porn.  Guess which one is much more popular?

There is a menu editor.  Hopefully it's a new and improved menu editor because the last one came up when you clicked on it but was incapable of much else (kinda like Congress).  Apparently you need some sort of advanced physics degree to edit menus in XFCE and my degree expired last year.

Like the last release, the Ubuntu Software Center is front and center.  This is a real shame, as it seems quite slow, bloated, and useless to me.  But if it makes you happy, please use it.  I like Synaptic and sometimes the command line.

There are some important privacy controls I read about in Ubuntu but I have yet to locate them in Xubuntu.  I'll update you as I go along.

So for those of you playing along at home, the score is five total; with three successes, one user error, and one HP error.   I say go for it.


UPDATE-a few days later


I have upgraded or installed Xubuntu on most of my computers and laptops.  I haven't seen any glitches, although most of the installs were hampered by the ncurses issue mentioned above.  Shutdown feels faster, moreso than startup.  Don't forget to add Medibuntu to your repositiories after you upgrade, for all sorts of multimedia goodness.

AND FURTHERMORE.....


Do NOT encrypt your HOME partition.  As a security guy, I loved this option and selected it when presented.  When I went to mount my old HOME partition, I had to decrypt it.  It refused to decrypt.  After hours of research and trying, I now have gigs and gigs of encrypted data that I can't touch and seem to have lost forever.