Dependency Hell
So here's what happened: A few months ago, our desktop harddrive got corrupted when it lost power. It hasn't been able to boot up properly. I would have tried to fix it with a rescue disk, but the DVD drive had already gone bad weeks before. So I determined to get a new DVD drive while letting the family use my laptop as the general computer.
Today the cold-cathode backlighting for my laptop screen died, so I can't see anything on the laptop. Also, the DVD drive in there stopped burning disks a few weeks ago. So this afternoon I had two computers, both with no DVD burners, one with a corrupted hdd and one where I couldn't what I was doing.
Ever since our old XP machine started going fritzy years ago, I've always been inspired to feel perfectly horrible whenever a computer problem crops up. Especially hardware.
Well, I roll up my sleeves, drive to Wal-Mart, buy a new DVD drive for the desktop, and start the dirty, sweaty, anxiety-filled job of fixing the computer. I blew out all the dust, got the DVD drive in, set it up in the living room, and then the real frustration began. I can't use the rescue disk to fix the errors on the harddrive. There are files we haven't backed up that I can't copy over now because of a lack of permissions. I may have ruined a keyboard trying to get it clean. I spent hours unsuccessfully trying to download a new version of Ubuntu with various problems (including a buggy rescue disk). But finally, well into the evening, I succeeded in getting it via torrent, and tomorrow I will try to use someone else's computer to burn it to CD and make a clean install on the desktop (vast majority of the data was backed up anyway). For now I'm still running the computer directly from (a second) rescue disk, so I can't install anything persistently.
We've also discussed the possibility of moving to Windows 7 for the family PC, I may get Home Premium tomorrow and see what happens. I'd like to keep using Linux, but there are some programs the rest of the family missed which don't work well in WINE. Oh well, at least it's not Vista (wonder if I'll have to keep removing malware like with XP).
As for my laptop, I'm going to take it to the guy I bought it from and see what he thinks can be done. I'll probably put the HDD in an external enclosure so we can at least pull the last few months of data from it. If it turns out to be too much hassle to get the screen fixed and a new DVD drive, I may be in the market for a new laptop and keep the old one around to see if I can get it working with an external display or something. Thing is, I don't need either the expense of repairs, OR a new laptop right now, since I'm still unemployed and my bank account is looking a lot slimmer than it was when we first bought all this bling. Mom's is the same way, even with her steady job: she's been paying Britain's bills until he lands work, including child child support.
Anyway, it's been a long and frustrating day. I'll probably be turning in early tonight. Hope the PC runs okay off the rescue disk until I can do something more permanent.
Today the cold-cathode backlighting for my laptop screen died, so I can't see anything on the laptop. Also, the DVD drive in there stopped burning disks a few weeks ago. So this afternoon I had two computers, both with no DVD burners, one with a corrupted hdd and one where I couldn't what I was doing.
Ever since our old XP machine started going fritzy years ago, I've always been inspired to feel perfectly horrible whenever a computer problem crops up. Especially hardware.
Well, I roll up my sleeves, drive to Wal-Mart, buy a new DVD drive for the desktop, and start the dirty, sweaty, anxiety-filled job of fixing the computer. I blew out all the dust, got the DVD drive in, set it up in the living room, and then the real frustration began. I can't use the rescue disk to fix the errors on the harddrive. There are files we haven't backed up that I can't copy over now because of a lack of permissions. I may have ruined a keyboard trying to get it clean. I spent hours unsuccessfully trying to download a new version of Ubuntu with various problems (including a buggy rescue disk). But finally, well into the evening, I succeeded in getting it via torrent, and tomorrow I will try to use someone else's computer to burn it to CD and make a clean install on the desktop (vast majority of the data was backed up anyway). For now I'm still running the computer directly from (a second) rescue disk, so I can't install anything persistently.
We've also discussed the possibility of moving to Windows 7 for the family PC, I may get Home Premium tomorrow and see what happens. I'd like to keep using Linux, but there are some programs the rest of the family missed which don't work well in WINE. Oh well, at least it's not Vista (wonder if I'll have to keep removing malware like with XP).
As for my laptop, I'm going to take it to the guy I bought it from and see what he thinks can be done. I'll probably put the HDD in an external enclosure so we can at least pull the last few months of data from it. If it turns out to be too much hassle to get the screen fixed and a new DVD drive, I may be in the market for a new laptop and keep the old one around to see if I can get it working with an external display or something. Thing is, I don't need either the expense of repairs, OR a new laptop right now, since I'm still unemployed and my bank account is looking a lot slimmer than it was when we first bought all this bling. Mom's is the same way, even with her steady job: she's been paying Britain's bills until he lands work, including child child support.
Anyway, it's been a long and frustrating day. I'll probably be turning in early tonight. Hope the PC runs okay off the rescue disk until I can do something more permanent.