Manjaro: Why I hate Fedora XFCE spin

Recently I bought a new desktop. It is a lowend desktop, with a Pentium CPU (not the i7 I am used to, at all), dual core, 8 gigs of RAM (more than enough for Linux, though not Windows), and a shitty old GeForce card (we are talking 200 series here).

New media desktop: Linux Mint 18.1

I have recently moved, and found my self in need of a computer outside of my gaming station. So I set to build a desktop for light browsing and music. Now my requirements were actually quite light, it should be able to run Netflix and Spotify, as well as an optical out for my audio. It also helped a little bit that I had a 120GB SSD laying about unused, so I didn’t have to invest in that. In the end I decided for an Intel build, simply cause I am a Intel / Nvidia kinda guy, don’t ask me to explain it. After the break, we will reveal the specification.

Windows 10 Home, version 1511, 10586 update not installing

So over the past few years, I have not been updating this one simply because I started playing games on my computer. While Linux support is getting better, realistically you can’t expect things to just work.

Anyway, I recently had to replace my motherboard, and as such I had to reinstall Windows 10. A funny thing, after I replaced my board with the same hardware (HDD as well), it actually booted in to Windows 10 without any changes on my part. Anyway, this all went well, and I got Windows installed, and configured and so on. The problems started when I was running through the updates, until I got to Windows 10 Home, version 1511, 10586. This was ready to install, just required a reboot, but no matter how many times I rebooted, it would not start installing.

Why I hate/love Ubuntu

A while ago I got my Dell XPS12, which have been my linux box for about a year now (too much of a gamer to use my desktop to Linux). Since I have gotten, I went with the comfortable route and installed Ubuntu, mainly because with no CD Rom, Ubuntu was the easiest one to create a Live USB with. Since then I have a USB DVD Rom, which I can boot from, and almost every time I use Ubuntu I think it is time to make a jump.

Getting ready to reinstall Windows 7

I recently discovered I had some issues on my Windows box, which is currently my most used box. For the most part there are small issues, like a software crash here and there. But I recently got an undefined Windows message (“Preparing security options”) and I tried to research it, and my results were undefined. That, combined with Chrome coming out in 64 bits (meaning I could drop 32 bit Java completely), I decided it was time, after more than 2 years of not reformatting my box at all (which is a personal best for me, I usually end up having to do this once per year).

Roomba is a cure for vacuum phobia

I am extremely lazy when it comes to vacuuming. Usually I go over if I get a visitor or if I am feeling inspired. So the other day I was looking at my apartment and got fed up with it and bit the bullet. I bought a Roomba 780. Since I started it up yesterday, I have vacuumed 4 times, and it has been close to full each time.

First run it actually stopped as it was full, and never completed. Second run got some more and then I thought it had taken it all. However, I scheduled it to run 3 times a week, so when I got home today it had made its run (of course I have it set so it runs while I am at work, so it wont disturb me). Decided to clean the brushes and filters, and when I emptied the dust out I figured it was so much that I would let it run again. This time I started moving stuff around, making sure it gets access behind couches etc. All in all, my apartment have never been this clean.

Disabling the touchpad on Ubuntu on a Dell XPS12

One of my most loved features of some Touchpad drivers are “Disable when another pointing device is connected”. I have been trying for a while to get the same thing running on my XPS, as the touchpad is so big and the keyboard so small, it is almost always an annoyance when you accidentally touch it. Well, today I found a quick solution, albeit a manual one. I have tried GPointing Device Settings, Touchpad Indicator and more, with no success. The configuration tool in Ubuntu only lets me do some tweaks to speeds etc, but not disable the device. Recently it has annoyed me so much that I went the terminal route and wanted to disable it manually with X11. Hit read more if you want the commands.

Ubuntu 14.04

Been a while since I updated here, but I have not had the time to play around with my XPS to really come with some feedback. But once 14.04 I immediately updated and have been running it for a while. One thing I only recently noticed is that now the touch screen support is much much better. It now supports drag to scroll, like you do on a mobile device, which really saves you time. I have not really played too much around with the touch screen to tell of any other improvements (most importantly the freezing issues if you use it too much).

Ubuntu 13.10

I have been using Ubuntu 13.10 for a while, so I can finally sum up my thoughts on how well the Dell XPS was performing on this release. In terms of hardware, it is pretty much well supported, everything more or less works out of the box, except the multi touch on the touch pad, at least I can not get any of the gestures to work properly. It also seems to have a bit of a sweet spot in terms of right clicking, which I struggle to hit at times. In terms of the touch screen, it works, but Ubuntu is not made with this in mind, so it is a limited functionality. For example, there is no multi touch zoom, and a touch is only registered as a left click, nothing more.

Mageia 3 on XPS 12

In part of my newest acquisition, I tried out Magiea 3 on a XPS 12. As I only went for the live experience, I never got to try the full experience as I never decided to install it. The reason? Basically a lot of the hardware was not working, unfortunately. The touch screen was not working out of the box, but to me that was not really a big deal, as no Linux distro so far have been able to use that efficiently. The touchpad was not working at all. As it is basically a multitouch pad, you need the multi touch functionality enabled to make it work, as you cannot click it if it doesn’t work. This did not work, which was the biggest deal breaker for me, especially since a quick Google resulted in a forum post recommending to submit to the bug tracker.