the gookins dot net

All my devices are revolting against me.

My continuing saga of trying to install Ubuntu on my laptop:
Last night I did a final clean up of my hard drive, uninstalling a few more things and defragging a couple times. I’d done some research on getting Windows disc management to allow the partition to be shrunk more. It can be done but you have to uninstall/delete/move a bunch of system files, then defrag again and shrink the partition and then restore all the files you deleted. It sounded like a risky pain in the butt, so I decided just to install Ubuntu on the 17GB that Windows was graciously letting me have.

So I shrunk the Windows partition, popped in the Ubuntu CD (version 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon) which I’d burned like 6 months ago, and rebooted. Except the laptop booted into Windows. Every computer I’ve ever owned has defaulted to booting from the CD before the hard disc, but not this on one. So I had to reboot again so I could enter BIOS. But then I apparently didn’t hit the F2 key quick enough, so the laptop booted to Windows again. In frustration, I pressed the power button before Windows had started completely, and the computer went to sleep. When I pressed it again, it started back up but my screen stayed dark and I had no mouse or keyboard control. Press power button again. Nothing. Close the lid; wait; open again and Windows is back. Reboot one more time. Press the friggin’ F2 key and get into BIOS (half an hour after starting). Change boot preferences so it will boot from a CD. Exit BIOS and the Ubuntu disc boots. Yea!

Now I’m getting excited because the Ubuntu splash screen is up and the loading bar is running across my screen. Just waiting for the welcome screen to come up. And waiting…and waiting. OK, I know from when I tried to install Ubuntu on my old laptop that running an operating system from a CD can be slow, so I decide to play some Wii while I wait. I figure that whenever a new install screen comes up I’ll just pause the game and click the buttons and then go back to the game while it does its thing. So I start a game of golf and I play a couple holes, checking the laptop every now and then I notice that the loading bar on the splash screen has stopped moving. I figure it must be ready to load the welcome screen. I play a couple more holes of golf and it still hasn’t moved. I get down on the floor and put my ear to the computer. The CD is not spinning. I get no response from the keyboard or touch pad or power button. It is frozen. What to do now? Unplug the AC power and remove the battery. Manually remove CD. Put battery in and plug in power cord. Reboot AGAIN. Have spent an hour and accomplished nothing. Fling Ubuntu disc across room. Decide to try downloading the newer Ubuntu release and burning to a fresh CD. Start download. Should only take an hour and 20 minutes.

I’ll just play some more Wii while I wait. Grab Wiimote and turn back to the TV screen. Now the frickin’ Wii won’t do anything!!! Apparently the Wiimote rechargeable battery needs charged. The charger has been unplugged for like a month, so I plug it in and put the Wiimote on it. I could get out the other Wiimote, but I’d have to change the settings to make it work as player 1, and I don’t think I can deal with that right now. Turn off Wii. Write ridiculously long and boring post. Hope Wordpress doesn’t hose everything when I click “publish”.