[carpartsho]

Yesterday my computer crashed. When i tried to boot it up it was unable to locate a few files needed and it would just stay on the scripting screen (like the Ubuntu version of DOS...is that called GNOME?)

Anyway, i got it reinstalled. Now i have a bad sector on my HD, but it seems to be stable and working well, if Firefox would just be more stable (keeps crashing). I did the first round of updates...is there another update that might be needed to make FF more stable? One thing i noticed is that now i no longer have Namaroka version of FF, but actually have FF. A few other things are strangely different (like my son can use the Facebook chat now, even though i hate Facebook and think it is the coming of the Beast).

My main question, however, is about the home folder. Can i just drop it on a flash drive rather than burn a "restore disk"? I just don't want to have to always go in and change the PITA things like the IPv6 setting in FF, or moving the buttons back to the left (because i hate Apple). Can I not just copy my "home" folder to a flash drive, and then copy it back the next time i install?

Also, my 10.04 or 10.04.1 version home folder....can i drop that into Hardy or Jaunty? Since we have some Hardy machines at work it would make y life easier.

BTW, those work machines....we found a "special" build of 9.04 that works on it. The video card is not as big an issue as RAM. With only 256 RAM those machines could not run anything other than the special version (and i cannot update or it crashes). But the machines are stable sans updates. I will likely put some memory in them to bring them to 512. I hope that makes them worthwhile to use (especially the one with the new HD, as it is meant to be like a local file and print server when i figure out how to set that up).

Which brings up my last question...can i set my home desktop up as a local file server, too? I would LOVE to be able to stream .avi files directly to my xbox from my desktop. I do it with my laptop, but it was XP with WMP media center edition, and it was made to link to your xbox. I am cool about not being able to do that. But if i could use it as a file server for other computers in my home wireless network it would make life much easier for me. Any input on that?

Yeah, lots of questions. But you know i love figureing this stuff out, and you guys are always so helpful (which allows me to pay it forward....i have installed Ubuntu on about 20 machines in the last year. it has caused my father in law to cease calling me to help him clean up viruses and stuff on his windoze machines, and he loves it)

[ranndomderr]

Yesterday my computer crashed. When i tried to boot it up it was unable to locate a few files needed and it would just stay on the scripting screen (like the Ubuntu version of DOS...is that called GNOME?)

The command prompt on a Linux box is called the shell. On most systems it is BASH.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bash_shell. The graphic user server is called X Windows or x11 but X isn't what you interact with. On top of X runs your GUI interface and that is called Gnome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME. There are other GUIs KDE and Xfce both run on top of X.


Anyway, i got it reinstalled. Now i have a bad sector on my HD, but it seems to be stable and working well, if Firefox would just be more stable (keeps crashing). I did the first round of updates...is there another update that might be needed to make FF more stable? One thing i noticed is that now i no longer have Namaroka version of FF, but actually have FF. A few other things are strangely different (like my son can use the Facebook chat now, even though i hate Facebook and think it is the coming of the Beast). Not sure why your having problems with FF but if you were using a beta (Namaroka) that probably explains it. FF gets unstable with bad extensions or a corrupt profile. I'd create a new profile and see if that helps.
My main question, however, is about the home folder. Can i just drop it on a flash drive rather than burn a "restore disk"? I just don't want to have to always go in and change the PITA things like the IPv6 setting in FF, or moving the buttons back to the left (because i hate Apple). Can I not just copy my "home" folder to a flash drive, and then copy it back the next time i install? Of course you can. Be sure you copy the hidden DOT folders as that is where the settings are stored. There is no registry in Linux all settings are in config and ini files.
Also, my 10.04 or 10.04.1 version home folder....can i drop that into Hardy or Jaunty? Since we have some Hardy machines at work it would make y life easier. Don't know how well that would work as the setting on some things change in the newer versions but things like FF would work the same. Also have you looked at sync programs like Ubuntu ONE and dropbox? Even Firefox has a sync extension that keeps bookmarks and even passwords in sync on different machines.

BTW, those work machines....we found a "special" build of 9.04 that works on it. The video card is not as big an issue as RAM. With only 256 RAM those machines could not run anything other than the special version (and i cannot update or it crashes). But the machines are stable sans updates. I will likely put some memory in them to bring them to 512. I hope that makes them worthwhile to use (especially the one with the new HD, as it is meant to be like a local file and print server when i figure out how to set that up). Are you referring to the netbook version or xubuntu? Xubuntu is a version of ubuntu based on the lightweight Xfce I mentioned above.

Which brings up my last question...can i set my home desktop up as a local file server, too? I would LOVE to be able to stream .avi files directly to my xbox from my desktop. I do it with my laptop, but it was XP with WMP media center edition, and it was made to link to your xbox. I am cool about not being able to do that. But if i could use it as a file server for other computers in my home wireless network it would make life much easier for me. Any input on that? I don't have an xBox so I have no clue what network protocols it uses. Assuming that it's Windows based then you need to load Samba server on any machine that you are going to act as a server to your network.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubunt...ver-on-ubuntu/

Yeah, lots of questions. But you know i love figureing this stuff out, and you guys are always so helpful (which allows me to pay it forward....i have installed Ubuntu on about 20 machines in the last year. it has caused my father in law to cease calling me to help him clean up viruses and stuff on his windoze machines, and he loves it)

[Wr8dIAUk]

A couple of other things:

When your ubuntu box crashed what did you do to correct it? The ubuntu CD has a repair option that can often fix problems without reinstalling. Also you need to learn how to run FSCK (FileSystemChecK) from a command prompt. It's the Linux version of checkdisk. If that hard drive had bad sectors that might explain why you crapped out. FSCK can find and lockout bad sectors and move the data(if it can read it) to a safe part of the HDD. On most modern HDDs the formation of bad sectors means the death of the drive is immanent. Old HDD would form bad sectors all the time and you could get lots more life from it. That doesn't happen anymore in my experience. Get your data off and chuck the drive.

Next time you do a fresh install of Ubuntu during the partition phase STOP and setup your home directory on a separate partition. Or you can move your data to a flash drive and use this procedure to create a separate /HOME partition now.
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-cre...in-ubuntu.html

The advantage is that when you do a reinstall you can tell ubuntu to use the separate partition for the home directory and tell it NOT to format it. It will just mount and use it. Keeps the data safe and you don't have to redo all the settings on your customized desktop.

[POMAH_K]

[italertb]

See the problem with the force is that it takes too much damn hand gesturing. It's bad enough that you have to take your hands off the keyboard and grab the mouse. There you are flaying your arms about. The command line is so much faster.

Not to mention the

(yoda voice) syntax backwards talking must you do

[VistaULTIMATEdownloadaPro]

LOL....in the 70's we would have been given wedgies and a swirlie.