The UDEV Problem

So another ongoing problem I'm having is the issue of UDEV not starting properly. When I boot, the process will hang at "Starting UDEV...." and sit there for about 4 minutes, until it times out.

The boot process will continue at this point, until it gets to "Loading HAL", at which point it will hang again for another 2 minutes.

At one point, the problem seemed to go away automagically, and the computer booted about as fast as a moderately bloated Windows boot -- which for Linux, is lightning. But then I made the mistake of running the system update. In addition to breaking a bunch of other things, it also blew up my UDEV groove, and the computer was back to aking around 10 minutes to reach a usable desktop.

It would be nice if there was some way to track what UDEV is doing during the boot process, but there isn't.

Problem: UDEV hangs at "Starting UDEV", waits for timeout, stalls again at "Starting HAL daemon"

Reproducable: always
How to Reproduce: Boot the computer
Workaround: Sit there and wait

Steps to troubleshoot:

1. Read piles of man pages and comb through forums, Write a few questions into forums, which were ignored. Read more man pages. Google progressively, trying new searches every time I learned a new word.

2. Downloaded and learned to use a program called "bootchart" (http://www.bootchart.org/). After wrangling with it for several hours, I learned from it that there was a long delay while UDEV "waited for devices to settle".

There was not much information available about what this means, or how to tamper with this process. Most of the info obtained by googling "waiting for devices to settle" found the phrase in forum posts by people whop were also exasperated with UDEV for some reason or other.

There are also some tools available for managing UDEV here: http://linux.die.net/man/8/udevadm. But these are all intended to be used after the computer has performed the glacial task of starting up. There are no tools for looking into UDEV during the boot process.

3. Tried to look around the computer for some explanation of what was happening.

There is a good page of how to write UDEV rules here: http://www.reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html. The guy who wrote this is apparently the Lao_Tze of UDEV, since most forum posts about problems with UDEV will refer readers to this guide. Too bad it isn't much help for resolving issues with out of the box UDEV problems.

There is a lot of info about how udev works in general. But to the average user, not much of it means anything. And again, the screed assumes that the reader is trying to create new problems for himself, not solve existing ones. There is no identifiable information about what UDEV is doing while it boots.

It did give me the idea of going through /etc/udev/rules.d and renaming the files one by one in the hope of finding the problem rules file. After about 2 hours I had managed to test about 4 files and got bored. I then copied the entire rules.d directory to a usb stick, and deleted everything except the files that were necessary.

Specifically, I was after 60-pcmcia.rules, for one. I read a lot of posts pointing to it as a likely culprit.

More later ...

More:

1. It seems likely that any problem manifested as a UDEV error happened somewhere else first, since UDEV gets things passed on to it from other programs. I read about this is Border's last night and can't remember the details.

More on WLAN Investigation

I tried a few other distros after a Fedora update broke my system. Thing is, Linux Mint had the same ZD1211 problem. *

It turns out that the bootcode error is not an uncommon problem, and as usual, there is no documentation for the driver from the vendor, nor is there anything to be gained from spending hours combing through forums. People who have this problem are just screwed.

I wonder if this is part of my udev issue.

Anyway, I did see in one Debian thread that it's possible several versions of the driver are loading at once and colliding. Of course, there is no information on how to get this to stop happening, but it's a start.

Maybe it says something about how bad getting info is when my efforts to look into this by a Google search have as the first item my own ramblings on how there is no information.




-----------------
*Ubuntu is a dud. I give up on them. I've tried 5 versions and my lappy barfed them all up.

A WLAN Investigation

My onboard wifi has stopped working. It will not conect automatically. For awhile, I could get sporadic manual connections by:

1. Restarting the computer or
2. Restarting Network Manager (-->Services -->network-manager)

If I go into Network Configuration (-->System --> Administration --> Network Device Control), the onboard wifi is shown as "inactive". If I highlight it, the "Activate" button on top grays out (unusable).

Under the hardware tab in this screen, the wifi chip is shown as ASUSTek Wireless WL 159g (this is correct).

Under Device Tab, double clicking the adapter:
--> General: Conttrolled by network manager ticked, Activate device when computer starts ticked. Nickname is wlan0. Automatically obtain ip address with DHCP selected. Nothing else is ticked.

--> Harware: MAC Address is 00:13:d4:18:74:b8
--> Wireless settings mode = Master


The adapter is detected in lsusb:

lsusb -v :

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0b05:170c ASUSTek Computer, Inc. WL-159g
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 255 Vendor Specific Class
bDeviceSubClass 255 Vendor Specific Subclass
bDeviceProtocol 255 Vendor Specific Protocol
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x0b05 ASUSTek Computer, Inc.
idProduct 0x170c WL-159g
bcdDevice 48.02
iManufacturer 16 ASUS
iProduct 32 USB2.0 WLAN
iSerial 0
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 46
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0x80
(Bus Powered)
MaxPower 500mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 4
bInterfaceClass 255 Vendor Specific Class
bInterfaceSubClass 0
bInterfaceProtocol 0
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x01 EP 1 OUT
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes
bInterval 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x82 EP 2 IN
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes
bInterval 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x83 EP 3 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 1
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x04 EP 4 OUT
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 1
Device Qualifier (for other device speed):
bLength 10
bDescriptorType 6
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 255 Vendor Specific Class
bDeviceSubClass 255 Vendor Specific Subclass
bDeviceProtocol 255 Vendor Specific Protocol
bMaxPacketSize0 64
bNumConfigurations 1
Device Status: 0x0000
(Bus Powered)

==================================

But dmsg had this to say about it:


hub 3-0:1.0: 3 ports detected
usb 1-5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
usb 1-5: New USB device found, idVendor=0b05, idProduct=170c
usb 1-5: New USB device strings: Mfr=16, Product=32, SerialNumber=0
usb 1-5: Product: USB2.0 WLAN
usb 1-5: Manufacturer: ASUS


Then:
zd1211rw 1-5:1.0: phy0

Then:

firmware: requesting zd1211/zd1211_ub
usb 1-5: firmware version 0x4330 and device bootcode version 0x4802 differ
firmware: requesting zd1211/zd1211_ur
usb 1-5: USB control request for firmware upload failed. Error number -32
zd1211rw 1-5:1.0: couldn't load firmware. Error number -32
firmware: requesting zd1211/zd1211_ub
usb 1-5: firmware version 0x4330 and device bootcode version 0x4802 differ
firmware: requesting zd1211/zd1211_ur
usb 1-5: USB control request for firmware upload failed. Error number -32
zd1211rw 1-5:1.0: couldn't load firmware. Error number -32

===================

The wifi would not connect. More, the device was not shown when clicking the nm panel applet. My network was also ot listed.

When I tried to set up "connect to other network," choosing my own network alreay listed under "Auto", the "Disconected" flag came up immediately.

=============================

But another USB plug-in adapter worked fine:

dmesg [snip]

usb 1-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
usb 1-6: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
usb 1-6: New USB device found, idVendor=050d, idProduct=905b
usb 1-6: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
usb 1-6: Manufacturer: Belkin
phy1: Selected rate control algorithm 'pid'
Registered led device: rt73usb-phy1:radio
Registered led device: rt73usb-phy1:assoc
Registered led device: rt73usb-phy1:quality
usbcore: registered new interface driver rt73usb
firmware: requesting rt73.bin
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
wlan1: authenticate with AP 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5
wlan1: authenticated
wlan1: associate with AP 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5
wlan1: RX AssocResp from 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5 (capab=0x421 status=0 aid=1)
wlan1: associated
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan1: link becomes ready
wlan1: no IPv6 routers present
wlan1: disassociating by local choice (reason=3)
wlan1: authenticate with AP 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5
wlan1: authenticated
wlan1: associate with AP 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5
wlan1: RX AssocResp from 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5 (capab=0x421 status=0 aid=1)
wlan1: associated
wlan1: disassociating by local choice (reason=3)
wlan1: authenticate with AP 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5
wlan1: authenticated
wlan1: associate with AP 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5
wlan1: authenticate with AP 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5
wlan1: authenticated
wlan1: associate with AP 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5
wlan1: RX ReassocResp from 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5 (capab=0x421 status=0 aid=1)
wlan1: associated
wlan1: disassociating by local choice (reason=3)
wlan1: authenticate with AP 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5
wlan1: authenticated
wlan1: associate with AP 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5
wlan1: RX AssocResp from 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5 (capab=0x421 status=0 aid=1)
wlan1: associated
wlan1: disassociating by local choice (reason=3)
wlan1: authenticate with AP 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5
wlan1: authenticate with AP 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5
wlan1: authenticated
wlan1: associate with AP 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5
wlan1: RX ReassocResp from 00:17:3f:62:1d:c5 (capab=0x421 status=0 aid=1)
wlan1: associated

========================

Right now, under lsmod, both rt73 (the Belkin USB external) are loaded:

lsmod:

rt73usb 31232 0
rt2x00usb 17792 1 rt73usb
rt2x00lib 43776 2 rt73usb,rt2x00usb
rfkill 17316 1 rt2x00lib


Then:

zd1211rw 54280 0

=================================

But zd1211 has no info in the "used by" column.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This is important:

firmware: requesting zd1211/zd1211_ub
usb 1-5: firmware version 0x4330 and device bootcode version 0x4802 differ
firmware: requesting zd1211/zd1211_ur
usb 1-5: USB control request for firmware upload failed. Error number -32
zd1211rw 1-5:1.0: couldn't load firmware. Error number -32
firmware: requesting zd1211/zd1211_ub
usb 1-5: firmware version 0x4330 and device bootcode version 0x4802 differ
firmware: requesting zd1211/zd1211_ur
usb 1-5: USB control request for firmware upload failed. Error number -32
zd1211rw 1-5:1.0: couldn't load firmware. Error number -32


Searching forums yields no information other than that this error and problems with ZD1211 are common: a lot of people ask, no one answers.


=================================

Here is additional information about the ASUSTEk WLAN, from

http://www.modem-help.co.uk/ASUSTeK/WL-159g-USB-2-0-Wireless-Network-Adapter.html


http://www.modem-help.co.uk/search.php?id=USB\VID_0B05%26PID_170C#results

http://www.modem-help.co.uk/search.php?id=USB\VID_0B05%26PID_170C#results

http://www.modem-help.co.uk/ZyDAS/chipset.types/802-11-WLAN-Controllerless.html

1. There are files in /lib/firmware for zd1211, but I can't look at them in gedit.
2. Yum shows zd1211-firmware is installed. The "Info" tab in Yumex and the dates of the /lib files match and show the driver version number is 1.4

Get Rid Of Desktop Icons Using Configuration Editor (gconf-editor)

I like a relatively blank desktop. In Fedora linux, You can add or remove items on the desktop like Computer or mounted drives using the Configuration Editor, but the Gconf editor is not installed by default.

So before you can change or remove items from your Desktop in Fedora, you need to install the Configuration Editor. From a terminal. login as root and:

yum install gconf-editor

There! That's it. Now:

Applications -> System Tools -> Configuration Editor. In this screen, click apps, then Nautilus, then Desktop. Check boxes for things you want, uncheck them for things you don't.

You should not remove system-installed desktop icons by dragging them to the trash.

You can create icons for any other program either on the panels or the desktop without using the editor. To add a launcher to the desktop, right click and select "Create Launcher." To add on to a panel, right click the panel you want to add to and select "add to panel."

Desktop launchers created this way can be trashed with no ill effect. Panel launchers can be removed by right clicking the launcher and selecting "Remove from panel."

Getting Flash 10 To Cooperate in Fedora 9

Flash 10 is out, and all Linux users should make sure their pharmacist has his pager turned on.

It seems the new flash has some new resource needs, but doesn't actually come with them. You can go get them yourself. But when you first install it, you may find the Flash will not work in Firefox, or that you can't install Flash, or you can't configure Flash, or that Flash causes Firefox to crash or that there is no sound when you watch youtube videos or other Flash videos.

This article will be specific to Flash, Fedora 9, and Firefox 3.0.2. This also is for a 64-bit Fedora install, since the new Flash will not work on 64 bit Fedora without a helper program.

To install flash and use it with Firefox in Fedora 9, you need to do the following things:

1. Install the Adobe repository. The easiest way to do this is to go to a site that uses Flash. When you see the box telling you Flash is not installed, click "install missing plugin" or "get flash". This will take you to the Adobe download site.

Select Linux, select your distro, as as your dowload type, select "YUM for Linux". Yes, you want to open it with Package installer. Now you have the Adobe repo configured.

Next, open a terminal. Applications -> System Tools -> Terminal (if you don't have a panel or desktop launcher for terminal, make one now!)

Login as root. Make sure Firefox is closed. Then:

yum install flash-plugin

yum install nspluginwrapper

yum install alsa-oss-lib.i386

yum install libflashsupport

You need all of these things. The flash plugin will not work in 64 bit Fedora without nspluginwrapper. Installing the alsa program will resolve the issue of Firefox hanging, going gray, or not playing sound. At least it did on my computer.

To make sure the plugin is installed, restart Firefox. In the URL box, type "about:plugins". Flash should be at the top of the last, followed by nspluginwrapper.

One thing that worked when I had an issue with this was to verify the installations in terminal by using "yum install" whatever was missing. If it was installed, YUM would say so, and if it wasn't - or wasn't installed properly - YUM would install it.

Make sure Firefox is closed when installing plugins, or they may not take and the only way to fix it is uninstall the plugin, close Firefox, and start over.

Reboot, With Notes

OK so I had to take a little break and go lie down. After Banshee blew up my computer, I needed to reinstall anyway so I thought I would play around with some other distros.

I liked OpenSUSE at first, and noted that any computers I saw sitting on store shelves with Linux used this flavor. I liked that it tore through Udev, blasted out HAL and went from power on to a usable desktop in about the same amount of time as a really bloated XP boot. Which seems about as good as it gets for me so far!

But that was the live CD. It was like "install me! install me!" and when I did it was like "Hah! Sucker!"

First, the installer and configurator, YaST, is buggier than a damp kitchen cabinet. The installer crashed and burned, requiring a mulligan from the repartition stage - 35 minutes down the drain. After 2 laps around this, I tried downloading the full install DVD from the website and using that.

This is where I learned about the tedious process of checksums. When you download a Linux install, you can look around near the install link for an MD5 checksum. You then install a program that will inspect the file you download, return the checksum, and allow you to compare it to the one listed on the site. The number is about 200,000,000,000,000 digits long.

You can also select "media check" when you boot from the install CD. The trick is, if the checksums don't match, it may indicate errors that will cause problems later. The remedy to checksum errors is to try re-downloading the file, or to burn the ISO image at a lower speed.

The main reason for checksum errors is apparently similar to the reason witchcraft is so complex: a built in "must be ya didn't do it right" so when it doesn't work, someone can cop an attitude without actually knowing why it didn't work.

Checkitout: 2 wasted CDs, burned at a speed usually reserved for calligraphy, same for 2 wasted DVDs, same YaST crash. Then! A manufactured DVD from Linux Pro magazine ($15) had the same issue.

Turns out the reason YaST crashes when you try to install OpenSUSE on your laptop is that Linux No Likee ACPI. Turn it off. Here's how:

When you boot the DVD, you are given a menu with selections, including "Install." At the bottom of the screen, you will see a line that says "Boot:" If you type anything while this screen is up, it will appear on that line. Type "acpi=off" before selecting "install"

If that doesn't work, turn off power management on the BIOS. Use the ACPI=OFF line anyway.

Now the real Open SUSE nightmare begins.

A Word About Banshee

The music player Banshee boasted a host of features that seemed to bring multimedia functionality in Linux up to what the rest of the world merely expected: a winamp clone.

OK: so here goes:

Banshee will not run from the Applications menu until it is run from the command line at least once. Even in Banshee's documentation, this gotcha is not made clear.

Even so, just dropping to console and using "start banshee" "banshee start" or just "banshee" is not good enough.

The way to run banshee from console is to login as root and use the command "banshee-1". It took an hour of combing forums to find this out.

It took Banshee three crashes and 15 minutes to start the first time. The only way to know Banshee had crashed was if you happened to have to console still up so you could see the error messages. Otherwise, you would just sit there and wait, as you have become accustomed to doing.

After getting it to run once, you quit and try the launcher. Banshee stalls, then explodes, like a grenade with a five second fuse. X goes down like a prom queen, ctrl-alt-esc results in scrambled video, and a reboot reveals that your entire partition is trashed -- Fedora reports there is no ext3 partition and dies.

I know I should just report this and ask nicely for help. But what good will that do if clear instructions never existed to begin with? How will I ever know if it was a problem with me, or the program, or both? And that took hours to sort out. Why would I want to subject myself to that? And what good are forums if it takes hours to find the somplest of answers?

I'm ranting now, but this is terrible. Do Not Want!

The Linux Wall Part 2: A Flip-Flop

Earlier, I said one thing that made me happy about Linux is that things just work. I feel a need to qualify this: The things that work work perfectly. The things that don't work exist on a spectrum somewhere between not working at all and trashing your OS.

I know there are ways to work around these issues. As I said earlier, Linux seems to be designed around the idea of getting things to work rather than making them not work. You can change anything you need to change, even rewriting the programs or the OS or both if you need to. By contrast, getting Windows APIs is like stealing secrets from the Kremlin -- even multimillion dollar corporations under contract to Microsoft can't pay to get the level of cooperation your average Joe with a Linux box can get by just asking.

On the other side, simple things like syncing your MP3 player, getting your computer to boot up in under 15 minutes (!), or reinstalling a program/driver that is having problems take on a nightmarish, Kafka-esque proportion that will put off the new user as a default setting.

And this is coming from a guy who does not flinch at dropping to a command line, editing the registry, changing BIOS settings, or even taking the computer apart and playing with jumpers to get something to work.

Listen: One of the most complex games on earth is chess. It took millions of dollars and decades to research to build Deep Blue, which was almost good enough to beat someone who had put in the energy to become a master of the game.

But the saying goes: "a minute to learn, a lifetime to master."

This would be a good paradigm for Linux to look into.

Getting The F*ing Linux Thing Off Your Computer

OK, so I totally blew up Fedora by installing the music player Banshee. Warning 1: Banshee will totally fubar your system. More later.

But now, I was in a pickle. I could not boot to Linux because the partition was trashed. But I could not boot to Windows because the bootloader for Fedora did not offer Windows at an option by default and I did not know how to change it. Finally, I managed to get Windows up, and was faced with the next hurdle: how to get the Linux partition off the hard drive so I could use it again.

The partition showed up in My Computer. But although you can access an NTFS partition from Linux, Windows will not read a Linux Ext or LVM partition. So Now what?

Here's how to fix your bootloader to get back to Windows and remove the Linux partition from your hard drive from within Windows.

First, you need your Windows XP cd.
1. Boot from the CD. Select Recovery Console from the setup menu. (Press R).\
2. A DOS-like screen will ask you which installation you want to log onto. Look for the number next to C:\windows and pressit.

Example:

1: C:\WINDOWS
Which installation would you like to log on to?_
1 (this is what I typed)

C:\WINDOWS_ (this is a good ol DOS prompt, you're ready to do the next step....)

C:\WINDOWS FIXMBR (type FIXMBR.This will erase the existing master boot record and create a new one. Many warnings follow. Type Y and hit enter.)

C:|WINDOWS_ FIXBOOT (FIXBOOT will recreate the Windows bootloader and GRUB).

Now restart the computer. Windows will load (hopefully) and run scandisk and chkdsk.

When you get to the desktop, right click My Computer and select "Manage". Select "Disk Management."

You will see all the partitions. Windows will be labelled NTFS (or FAT32, if you chose it), and the Linux partitions will either be unlabelled or labelled as "Unknown".

Right click each partition EXCEPT the one are using right now (!), and select Delete.

Now, you can right click the empty space, select Format, and reformat it as an NTFS Primary partition.

BuhBYE Linux partition. You may now reinstall your favorite distro and go back to torturing yourself. :)

Startup Chores

After installing, there are some chores and things you might like to set up. One good thing to do is configure the "sudo" command. This will save you having to change your login status everytime you want to make some change to the system from the terminal.

First, a word on the terminal. There should be an icon for it on your desktop. If there isn't, find it in your applications menu, right click it, and select "add launcher to desktop." Terminal is your new buddy. As much as Linux has a graphical environment like Windows, it is still at heart a command-line OS, like old-skool DOS. This is what I meant by "be prepared to get dirty" earlier.

Whenever you see someone say "log in as console", or "open a console (or terminal)" this is what they mean.

Getting sudo set up is easy, but I'm still in the "shut-up and do what I tell you" stage of learning. So here is a good, easy-to-follow guide in plain language to setting up sudo:

http://fedoranews.org/mediawiki/index.php/Thomas_Guide:_sudo

The Linux Wall, Part 1

I really wanted to post a nice entry on configuring your hardware. I mean, from a Windows perspective, it seems that once you've installed the OS, the next sensible step is to set up your gadgets and drivers, right? Unfortunately, there is almost zero useful information on how to do this on the internet. There are some clues, but they are vague enough to confuse Ellis Peters.

So far, it seems to me that in Fedroa 9, device drivers are handled first by UDEV, which is a sort of on-the-fly device manager. The vastly oversimplified version is that UDEV detects devices and installs drivers each time you boot the computer, which is supposed to allow for changes (for example, if your USB hard drive was plugged in last time but isn't this time, UDEV is supposed to figure that out).

But just like in Windows, automatic driver installation is sketchy. The drivers may be installed improperly, or the wrong driver may be used, or it may not be installed at all.

There is a glimmer of hope that UDEV can be configured manually, but I haven't found anything that specifically address how to do this in plain language. It will be my goal to do it myself, if I ever figure it out. So watch this space. Or, if you know a place to get this information, post a comment!

Which Flavor? -- Picking a first version

Saying "I want to get Linux" is like saying "I want a dog." OK, which one? A tiny morkie? A big goofy Afghan? There is a lot of advice out there on how to choose a package. What do you use the computer for? How much Linux do you know?" How much general computer stuff do you know? It all leaves out one thing: they're all different, and your computer will like some of them more than others.

The sole criteria for choosing a Linux distro for a new user should be this: will it work on my computer with a minimum of hair-pulling?

There's only one way to find out. Try them all until you get one you -- and your computer -- like.

Search Wikipedia for "Live Linux Distributions". Get a bunch of them, burn them to CDs, and try them.

A "Live" distro is a version of Linux that can be run from a cd or USB key that will not make any changes to your computer. You plug it in, boot up, play around, and when you restart, Windows comes up as though nothing ever happened.

Be patient. Live CDs take a long time time to boot. What you're looking for is:

1. Boots with a minimum of weird error messages.
2. Picks up your sound, video, usb ports and network card with a minimum of hassle.
3. Will eventually get to a desktop by itself if left unsupervised.
4. Will boot up the same way and do the same thing more than once.

Since some distros took as long as 15 minutes to get to a desktop. I don't wana have to stand there and micromanage it. Some distros were spotty, and out of 5 reboots, would only work right 3 times. Other times it would not pick up some or all of the hardware, require a lot of tweaking to get cetain hardware to work, crash, or load the desktop and refuse to do anything else. None of this means any one version is better than any other.

I started out with NimbleX, Puppy, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu and Fedora 9. NimbleX was spotty, Puppy needed too much manual configuring, OpenSUSE didn't pick up any hardware, and Ubuntu just barfed.

But Ubuntu gave me the insight regarding trying different distros. I spent three hours trying to get it to work.. But I have an old rule of thumb for software: if I can solve a problem by using someone else's product, there you have it.

So Fedora 9 was the winner. I loaded with no hassle, picked up all my hardware, and did it again several times. I installed permanently, and after only a couple hccups, it occurred to me that it worked better than XP on my laptop.

You may have different results. If you get a burp, do a little research and try to fix it The best way to start is by Googling the EXACT error mesage you get, or by seeing where it hung and Googling "(Linux Flavor) hung (the last thing on the screen when it hung)" or that sort of thing.

You'll start to learn how Linux works, and will find yourself increasingly able to step ahead of or around minor issues, and Linux in general will begin to seem less cryptic.

Dipping My Toes In

I'm looking to move over to Linux, since even the idea of using Vista makes me want to curl up under the desk and cry. And Mac's lock-in is worse than PC -- at twice the price. Linux is the third, and looks tasty. I love the eye candy of desktop managers that rotate in cubes and splat and wiggle windows, combined with the old school flavored tinkering in terminal windows -- very William Gibson. And you never even have to spend any money! Delicious!

But the trade off is that you have to swim the Linux Moat to get to the castle. Even though some new Linux flavors ("distros" to the hip) are user-friendly enough to look approachable, Linux still has a long way to go before it is a viable alternative to the average user.

By "average user", I don't mean the PEBKAC types who don't want to know how to use a computer, they just want to do stuff on a computer and become aggravated when stuff doesn't just happen. Linux will probably never be suitable for those types.

But there is still some way to go even for more responsible users who don't mind a learning curve and some DIY in exchange for independence from expensive "gurus" who make money by counting on their customers' ignorance.

I'm starting to think these are problems of perspective on the part of the Linux community, not function.

There are two main issues confronting the new Linux user:

1. It's not Windows. Trying to interact with it the way you interact with Windows is like trying to give specific directions to a New York cab driver. It smiles and nods, yammers back at you, and who the hell knows where you'll end up. Also, there is no Make This Thing Work Button.

2. Most of the documentation and support tends to assume a level of knowledge on the part of the user that probably does not exist.

It's the last part that is probably more likely to turn off a potential Linux convert than the first. To the uninitiated, Linux seems glitchy and clunky enough to create a thick layer of doubt: am I not doing it right? Is it a bug? Or does my computer just dislike this flavor of Linux? Including combinations, this makes a total of six impenetrable obstacles for the new user.

So you RTFM, and they tell you to:

1. Click on things that aren't there,because the documentation is three version behind, or
2. Rekafooble the flotutran by typing nimnumnuts at rt pleh%, (without bothering to explain what the flotutran is or how to find the thing that rekafoobles it) or
3. Do things you can't do because the thing you need to do them is the thing that isn't working.

So you head off to the FAQs and spend about three hours sifting through forums, finding the same as above, even if the person who asked the question explicitly stated he is a total noob and is completely lost, or complaining that the thing doesn't work/can't work/will never work, or someone asking the EXACT same question you were looking for - eureka!!- and following his post with "Hello? Anyone there?" .

If the instructions and support forums have no compassion for this noob perspective, the new user just feels barricaded. I mean, I'm trying to get away from having my computer be a tooth-gnashing, hair-pulling ordeal. At least Windows and Mac put out some sort of welcome mat (even the Vista welcome mat has a flaming bag of dog poo on it).

But it doesn't have to be like that. For one thing, you can tell they're trying to help, but either they take their own knowledge for granted or they're no better at figuring it out than you are.

And more importantly, I am now the proud owner of a laptop that runs nothing but Fedora 9, and I couldn't be happier. If I can do it, anyone can. Because everything just works. And I also know that in exchange for a little learning curve, even if something doesn't work or stops working it will be OK -- because there is a way to make it work.

This is the fundamental perspective of Linux that makes it so attractive. It's all about getting things to work. I think it could argued that Windows and Mac spend way more energy on finding ways to make things not work. How much time do you think they spend figuring how to get your Ipod to NOT work with anything but Itunes? And I'll bet MS has an entire zip code of buildings filled with people whose sole job is to sabotage Firefox and Winamp.

So here's my ongoing story of dabbling in Linux, written from the perspective of someone who is reasonably competent with XP, does not want Vista, and is just as lost as you are. It will be beyond the scope of this blog to get into specific errors -- unless there is some general knowledge to be gained, or unless it's funny. There are no universal solutions that will work for everyone except one: use your noodle and don't be afraid to get dirty.