My brand spanking new laptop (System76) and I have been on a wild roller coaster ride--including a completely borked system. 
The laptop arrived Tuesday and, as I noted in another thread, I installed Kubuntu over its default installation of Ubuntu 14.04. All was good. Until it wasn't. I installed Samba--as I always do on a new install--but the laptop wasn't seeing any other computers on my network; they were seeing it, but could not access it. Deciding that I must have missed something or...whatever...I went about uninstalling Samba via Synaptic. Seemed simple. Until it somehow broke everything.
But I have to interject something here: Mixed in with all this was news that a family member had a stroke, and then his heart stopped; he was resuscitated but is now comatose. My niece called me, and she was distraught and upset--it's her dad. She and her dad have been estranged for the last three years, and now he's 2000 miles away [where he had gone to take care of his elderly father]. I spent 30 minutes calming her down and STRONGLY urging her to get on a plane. She's really bad about flying and did NOT want to do it. But she did. Yesterday her dad had another heart attack. Things are looking grim.
So, as you might imagine, the laptop and its problems didn't seem that pressing.
But it was borked. I couldn't log in with K at all, and U was screwed up--one thing was a missing pointer. The trackball was working, but there was no visible sign of the pointer on the screen. I also had no wireless.
So, I thought, no big deal, I'll download K14.04 and wipe the drive and reinstall and be on my way. Not so fast! I don't have any writable DVDs, only CDs--and they're not big enough for recent K releases--and no USB sticks. What to do, what to do?
I installed 11.04, thinking I could just step through version upgrades. Nope. That failed miserably at different points.
I downloaded 12.04 alternate, the latest version I could find that would fit on a CD. Installed it and had a working system again--but still no wireless. Thank goodness I always have Ethernet cables on hand.
Mix in tons of family-crisis-related phone calls and e-mails, I apt-getted a lot of updates and stuff, fixing broken crap along the way, slap in a few Synaptic-installed Kubuntu components, and I now have a beautiful 14.04 working, complete with wireless--and formatted the way I wanted the disk formatted.
I seriously have no idea why what happened happened, and right now I don't really care. It could have been anything from not noticing something was going to be uninstalled that shouldn't have been, or an incorrect response to a prompt, or...who knows? Bottom line: I love Linux! Even when something goes wrong it's this wonderful adventure that ends up great.
The laptop arrived Tuesday and, as I noted in another thread, I installed Kubuntu over its default installation of Ubuntu 14.04. All was good. Until it wasn't. I installed Samba--as I always do on a new install--but the laptop wasn't seeing any other computers on my network; they were seeing it, but could not access it. Deciding that I must have missed something or...whatever...I went about uninstalling Samba via Synaptic. Seemed simple. Until it somehow broke everything.
But I have to interject something here: Mixed in with all this was news that a family member had a stroke, and then his heart stopped; he was resuscitated but is now comatose. My niece called me, and she was distraught and upset--it's her dad. She and her dad have been estranged for the last three years, and now he's 2000 miles away [where he had gone to take care of his elderly father]. I spent 30 minutes calming her down and STRONGLY urging her to get on a plane. She's really bad about flying and did NOT want to do it. But she did. Yesterday her dad had another heart attack. Things are looking grim.
So, as you might imagine, the laptop and its problems didn't seem that pressing.
But it was borked. I couldn't log in with K at all, and U was screwed up--one thing was a missing pointer. The trackball was working, but there was no visible sign of the pointer on the screen. I also had no wireless.
So, I thought, no big deal, I'll download K14.04 and wipe the drive and reinstall and be on my way. Not so fast! I don't have any writable DVDs, only CDs--and they're not big enough for recent K releases--and no USB sticks. What to do, what to do?
I installed 11.04, thinking I could just step through version upgrades. Nope. That failed miserably at different points.
I downloaded 12.04 alternate, the latest version I could find that would fit on a CD. Installed it and had a working system again--but still no wireless. Thank goodness I always have Ethernet cables on hand.
Mix in tons of family-crisis-related phone calls and e-mails, I apt-getted a lot of updates and stuff, fixing broken crap along the way, slap in a few Synaptic-installed Kubuntu components, and I now have a beautiful 14.04 working, complete with wireless--and formatted the way I wanted the disk formatted.
I seriously have no idea why what happened happened, and right now I don't really care. It could have been anything from not noticing something was going to be uninstalled that shouldn't have been, or an incorrect response to a prompt, or...who knows? Bottom line: I love Linux! Even when something goes wrong it's this wonderful adventure that ends up great.
Comment