[Sussex] The "usual" linux weirdness......

[john davis]

Wotcha List,

Why is it, that after 6 or 7 years of using linux, I can still find strange
stuff?

Ok, I'll define the "strange" bit a little.

Now it so happens that it hasn't, until now mattered which distro I've used,
I've stuck to KDE for my desktop. Yes, perhaps it was to do with it feeling
more familiar to windows when I first started the linux thing, but recently
I've found that it's not quite as straight forward as that.

For instance, recent iterations of the *buntu's have caused me a little
grief (which dovetails into yesterdays problem, but more of that later). I
think it was 8.10 (kubuntu) that had some bugs in the network manager, where
for reasons that are far, far above me, it was proving a PITA to input my
static IP address. One of the "work rounds" was to uninstall the kde version
of the network manager and install the gnome network manager. Now those
who've been on the list a long time may recall my former self proclaimed
status as "LUG nugget". I still claim that title, as I couldn't, for the
life of me, work out how that was done. So I ended up just installing the
whole of gnome and configuring the network that way, but still using KDE as
my preferred desktop.

That seemed to have done the trick - fine.

Now, when it became available recently, I installed 9.04 (I'd all ready been
meddling with KDE 4 - with much frustration in trying to do "normal" tasks,
that would have been straight forward under KDE 3), this was a straight dist
upgrade. A little time after that, it became apparent, that the newer
version had problems with my sound device(s), and on logging in would get a
warning that AL2100 (I think that's what it's called) analogue doesn't work
and it was falling back to AL2100 digital. I've got no idea what it is that
actually produces the sound from the system......

Another problem arose, though I can't remember what it was, but it seemed
that I'd need to log into gnome to sort it out. Since then I've hardly gone
back into KDE, as it now seems that it's gnome that's become the "user
friendly" desktop. The sound works fine, I don't need to keep changing the
default apps to open various types of media files, the choice of screensaver
is amusing (currently the bouncing cow) and quite a number of other things.

This has all come as a surprise, because of the last 5 or so years, I've
attempted on a number of occasions to learn how to use gnome and it's just
got me frustrated with (IMO) the dis-jointed way it was put together. Don't
get me wrong, I'm still "just a user" and not techie, there are still a few
bits that I haven't sussed out, but it's been easier then getting my head
round KDE 4.

One of the strange things, is, as I alluded to earlier, the
networking........Yesterday morning, it just stopped working. Since I got
this new PC, I've returned to dual booting with windows (curiosity about
Vista mainly). Windows wouldn't connect either and I ended up coming to the
conclusion that it was either the network card or the router/modem - it took
a lot of swearing, much frustration, time and digging around to work out
that it was the bit between the network card and the router/modem i.e. the 8
port network switch had decided to "seize" up and I had to disconnect and
unplug it to get it going again.

Ok, I can hear you saying "what's strange about that, you should have looked
at that as one of the first things", yes you're right - it just didn't occur
to me. The strange thing though, is by using the browser in my phone to try
and locate an answer, I found the bit about re-configuring the networking
i.e. clicking the network manager icon in the top right hand corner of the
desktop screen, highlighting the connection and then clicking "edit" to
change/amend it. If I do that, I don't see any connection whatsoever, wired,
wireless, etc etc, just an empty dialogue box. Yet here I am, typing this
into gmail with no problems at all. I can access the net in both
gnome/ubuntu and windows again..... So what the hell's going on????

I'm not in any rush to find out how it's working (I don't really care, as
long as it's working - as I said, I'm just a user, not a techie). Though it
would probably be advantageous to know......

Or is it just me being thick (entirely possible) ???

Anyway, I hope you're all having a useful bank holiday...

regards

John D.
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