IMPOSSIBLE!

Oh My GOD! Apple makes it impossible to do anything with their hardware EXCEPT put their OS on it. Now I am not complaining as Mac OS X is a variant of OpenBSD and in that respect it's Unix anyway but Apple has NO intention of sharing it's hardware!

We (my good buddy Patrick and I) have been plugging away at trying to wipe the drive on an old iMac and install Linux for a friend....What a travesty. If I thought Microsoft was a proprietary horror shop well move over because Apple has taken xenophobia to a whole new level. 

YOU CAN NOT boot to a USB or a CD-ROM easily unless it's a Mac disk...well a Mac CD because Apple only wants their OS on their hardware. Now that's not a problem if you're running a currently machine but if you have older hardware like the machine above you're dead and stinking in the Apple water. They won't upgrade it's software and you can't upgrade the hardware. SO what do you do with a pretty paperweight that contains a CPU and a HD?

YOU INSTALL LINUX ON IT!

Well that's easier said than done. But then this is the Tao of SysAdmin so this is part of the journey.

I'll keep you up to date as the build goes along....but I've had to call in reserves and I've invited my buddy Pat over to help ... well he's done the cracking and gotten the box up to Ubuntu PPC version 10.10LST.

I'll tell you how that progressed on my next post. :D  OH...here's a shot of my newest Desktop build...hope you like

Learning as I go

File transfer between machines is ultimately what any network is about...shared resources is the heart of a client server based network. Linux is such a client server based solution. That's sort of  the way community is supposed to be. In an indigenous culture that's the case. Perhaps the Open Source community is a lot like the indigenous people in the way they share and work together. The vision of Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation create an environment of sharing and exchange that's resulted in the Android OS. 

"Once I was in Victoria, and I saw a very large house. They told me it was a bank and that the white men place their money there to be taken care of, and that by and by they got it back with interest. We are Indians and we have no such bank; but when we have plenty of money or blankets, we give them away to other chiefs and people, and by and by they return them with interest, and our hearts feel good. Our way of giving is our bank."  - Chief Maquinna, Nootka

Resignation??

Is it really resignation if I choose not to install Funtoo on this netbook? The kernel wouldn't compile...there just wasn't enough space. My journeyman in the IRC warned me...he suggested that I not get discouraged if it wouldn't load. Oh if he only knew how encouraged I've become. This has not deterred me...it's why I set out on this journey

I had to think about it. I could put some patience to work and go back into the kernel and learn every module (which I plan to do at some point) or I could put Bodhi back on it and streamline the package selection. I looked at how long it took for the software to compile and thought that I would do better to continue to learn to program while I re-member myself as an admin.

I am not resigning to failure when I acknowledge that it would be possible but impractical to continue to install funtoo/e17 on this netbook. It would be a learning experience to say the least but would it be functional in the end? Would it be practical? Now ... we're on a journey here with this Open Source thing...trying to find enlightenment on the command line so what's the lesson...what was this really about?

Was I just impatient and wanting something to do ... there's plenty to do around here if I were to get up from this PC. Perhaps I was looking to prove something to myself ... that I could do it alone. I soon found out that I would need help. I would soon find out that this wasn't about anything tech related...it is and was and always will be about me.

I gave this a good shot...spent a few days trying to get funtoo installed on this netbook. Well...even the folk in the IRC said they don't know that there would be any noticeable difference with gentoo installed. The system just wasn't able to handle it. There wasn't enough memory and the processor was supported by the kernel but it would be such a more enjoyable experience with a binary disto...for now.


Does that mean I'm gonna give up on FunToo? OH NOT AT ALL!!!

I'm just going to have to get a better machine to install it on. My cousin said he's going to give me a desktop that I can have....tower, monitor and keyboard/mouse. I'm not sure what state it's going to be in but regardless it's going to give me a test box and I can retire this laptop as a primary PC and use the netbook for travel. --------

OH YEAH!!!!!  ---- I put Bodhi back on the netbook

And barely used 75% of the Memory. I have a web cam app, chat, browser, email, text editing, WiFi...Pandora.....backup. What more could I want from a notebook. Thanks Bodhi! 

Linux rocks when it's enlightened!

Tao Te Ching 

Written by Lao-tzu
From a translation by S. Mitchell

44

Fame or integrity: which is more important?
Money or happiness: which is more valuable?
Success of failure: which is more destructive?

If you look to others for fulfillment,
you will never truly be fulfilled.
If your happiness depends on money,
you will never be happy with yourself.

Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.

The compiling has begun...OMG is it slow and tedious. I knew this coming into this so I can't fuss...it's all part of the experience of The Tao. Being at one with the where we are when we're there. This part of the build could go wrong and I'd have to go back...most probably will want to go back and rebuild this kernel and turn off a lot more modules. I have to become ... should I say I am becoming more comfortable with this process and thanks to fread2282 I have a companion on this ... other folk come in and out and share the love but for the most part fread2282 has been the chariot mate on this build.

I must look deeper into this funtoo/gentoo tree difference. Some things come from funtoo some come from gentoo and there seems to be little problem ... though I did have to find an alternative install method for the portage tree. Now...if that sounds real foreign to you don't worry...it sounds foreign to me also. I understand the concept but I've never made ready use of such knowledge and thus am at a loss.  I wonder though....could you use funtoo and enlightenment as an appliance..that a distro bundled with a specific set of software and use enlightenment to create the unifying apps and interface....

I have an idea and though it's far beyond what I can do myself I know that I can accomplish it at some point. I am on the journey and it's starting with this kernel ....cranking away..creating the core...the real Linux.

WEMEUS 

Here goes the install and here goes my imagination - How about I build a version of linux for the person who doesn't know a lot about computers and doesn't really want to. they usually use windows and are afraid of viruses and malware. They want a digital solution to the office place but can't afford much of the licence fees often associated with commercial business software. They are looking for support and though they will try it on their own they need help doing most things therefore they would appreciate an ongoing service contract that's fair and scales based upon their independence. 

More often than not they are craftspeople who don't have a tremendous amount of business background and they often do not have any organized technical infrastructure. The realistic client realizes the need to invest in business and would see this as an opportunity to modernize and streamline their business. Using the combination of GNU/Linux OS, Open Source Software, Time Bank, Land Trusts and education WEMEUS has as it's goal to build an OS supported by the small business community. 

What would happen if people found a new way to use old things

Lesson from cooking

You can want to have rice pudding after dinner and if you don't know early enough in the day you won't have rice pudding that night. Things happen in an order and you can not rush them. You just can't. 

If I wanted to rush this process along other than choosing different hardware or putting more time in to my kernel selection process...other than that I wouldn't have any way to speed this up. Whatever comes after this .. even there, I have no way of speeding up that process either. I can't rush ahead and to sit here and watch the code crawl by on this screen would be wasteful...of my time. 

If there's time to lean there's time to clean

That was a regular saying in the kitchen...and there truly was always something to clean. Well there are cobwebs in the corners and recesses of my mind regarding systems administration and I truly have to clean them out and fill the empty spaces with fresh new knowledge. I feel as if I am learning more about myself than I am about Linux at this point. Habits, behaviors, things that can lead to my success or my failure. 

So in the process of cleaning on this strange Sunday full of compiling - I go and take my Chooea out for a walk. He's always happy to accompany me on a run outdoors in the hopes that he'll find a chicken bone or something. It was a long walk...to clear my head. The ideas come at me with such speed that I can't contain them all...a good walking meditation with my Chooea always get's me back in order and slows me down. 

Warriors

Sometimes...sitting at the command line you're focused on what you're doing. Preparing for what's to come. Visualizing virtual spaces and thinking about what's ahead for this machine. Before you lay the foundation for the environment you have to bear the burden of setting the rules. Well...there's only room on a keyboard for one set of fingers and though there are eyes that might glance at a screen...no look in the world can stop an <ENTER> pressed too soon.

So we learn to move slowly through the wood..we take our time, reading each line of code over. Did we put a - and not a = again...this tiny little keyboard forces me to take my time. Reminding me of why I am headed back...to find what I left there...my joy. I find myself spinning my wheels and remembering how much help I got last time I went to the #funtoo IRC --I went back and lo and behold I was received with honest help! It came not a minute too soon...the beast of a ride that is Funtoo rose up to greet me and thwart my movement. At every pass, filesystems won't format right because boot medium is out of date. New medium installation script doesn't work have to do it manually. New boot medium uses different wireless interface...hell it even uses a GUI! This one's gotta go in the pocket for future use...seems like it's gonna be useful later. ***note to self. :D

It all sounds poetic but there was a battle going on today between me and this box. I had to get up and move around and force myself to go out. Chooea insisted that I take him out for a walk and I had company otherwise I would have never gotten up. The beast raged against me but I wasn't alone. That's the lesson of today ... you are never alone - there's always guidance and help available.

The many folk who helped me fread2282 blaise ... you helped beat the beast back and reminded me the power of preparation and forethought. How important it is not to waste someone's time. The notion of theft and not stealing comes to mind. Not stealing someones time by not being prepared or consuming their knowledge at the expense of your own. I've gotten few things done today other than prepare to emerge --sync.

And the servers are down.....

So I send this out to my digital warriors---cyber tygers

She's guarding the wood....keeping me in her view. All goes well...emerge we say and things appear. Just like that, simple. Emerge world. lol...she's there, while Michael Jackson beats on Pithos in the background

The journey has light ahead but yet I am in the thicket. Network up and running, reconfigured it again after a reboot and will have to do it yet again as I took a screenshot of the desktop before I closed it. I wanted to remember the environment. Perhaps I'll use this wallpaper...

Looking too far ahead, reading further along in the installation manual I began to feel somewhat overwhelmed. It was a foreboding sense of awe as you stand at the base of a mountain and remember it's magesty. I've had that feeling just now. I was overwhelmed with the awesome task of compiling code from scratch on a slow ASUS EeePC 4G. I wonder if this small thing has become a mountain.

Like in the picture above the land ahead is flat but the path is not clear. So instead of looking up the mountain I will look right beneath my feet...where the traps and snares lay waiting for my distracted attention.

Time passes...that's for sure. And with time so pass the things we may have grown to become attached to. In childhood it happens all the time. You grow too big to wear a favorite garment, you grow too tall to sleep in the small bed and have to move to a real bed. We experience this all through our lives. The concept of impermanence is lost amid the chatter of a people consumed with a fear of scarcity.

I sit here on one laptop working on another one and I am at the critical juncture, and so early in the journey...do I format the disk and essentially wipe off the installation of BodhiLinux I have already installed and working ---though memory is tight! o_O---or clear the way for a journey that could take some time.

Like in my knitting....you don't finish if you don't drop some stitches. The only way to finish is never to stop, no matter how many stitches you drop. It has been a while since I've administered Unix systems in the work place. So...one last time...here's the desktop I'll say goodbye to and hopefully by the time I get the system optimized the gtk2 theme that matches the e17 theme will be upgraded to gtk3. I'd love to revisit that combination.

for now....time to let go and start over--------

What is "The Way?"

Rather than rehash a litany of tales about yesterday and how I came to this place I'm gong to just be where I am and tell you a little about what I'm doing. First off...my desktop - or should I call this my office? A canvis? A microphone? Oh well...whatever it is here's a peek of today's itteration.

BodhiLinux on IBM ThinkPad T60

So...as I was saying...I'm trying to install Gentoo Linux on an ASUS EeePC 4G...just because. The proverbial "Designed for Microsoft Windows XP" logo on the dash but that's where the problem came in...what a mess!  I immediately replaced Windows with BodhiLinux and BAM...(screen shots to come later)

I've had issues with this networking from the stage1 build. I think I have made some progress though. I've gotten the network connected so now I can move forward with the installation. WRONG!  I'm going to repeat this process a few more times just to be sure I understand the nuance. That's where the Tao comes in...I've gotten the thing done but I've learned to give in to the learning and let go of the need to accomplish and finish.

The systems are usually up and running almost perpetually. Rarely do you shutdown or restart a running Unix server...so to learn to work in the moment with sustainability as the focus...well let's just say I've got network access. now to send you guys a pic of the desktop there..rather similar to this one (remember, they're both running BodhiLinux---more on the reasoning behind that another time).

---- back to play with the network