New Linux Dude Lesson Learned #1

[WN9HJW]

Lesson learned number 1!!

Don't try to compile from source a big, complicated program with a lot of dependencies, some of which effect system stability, unless you're sure you know what you're doing or am prepared to give up and reinstall the OS!


Don't ask . . .

[NQ6U]

Been there, done that. What distro are you using?

[WN9HJW]

Mint Cinnamon 16. Except for self-inflicted problems, it works great for me.

[NQ6U]

Not familiar with Mint, but next time you want to install a software package try either "yum install" or "apt get". Makes things much easier.

[KJ3N]

Lesson learned number 1!!

Don't try to compile from source a big, complicated program with a lot of dependencies, some of which effect system stability, unless you're sure you know what you're doing or am prepared to give up and reinstall the OS!


Don't ask . . .

After the 3rd or 4th time trying to compile something in RH6 (yes, that goes back a few years), I decided that my choices were:

1) Wait for someone else to build a working binary
2) Re-install RH and try yet again
3) Do without whatever program it was that I was trying to compile
4) Boot back to another OS that already had what I wanted and stop causing myself aggravation.

Option #4 won out in many cases.

[KC2UGV]

Lesson learned number 1!!

Don't try to compile from source a big, complicated program with a lot of dependencies, some of which effect system stability, unless you're sure you know what you're doing or am prepared to give up and reinstall the OS!


Don't ask . . .

What were you trying to build?

[n6hcm]

seriously. there are packages for nearly anything you would want to build (so you only really need to build if you're doing something quite custom).

[KC2UGV]

seriously. there are packages for nearly anything you would want to build (so you only really need to build if you're doing something quite custom).

Not necessarily. Soundmodem and Xastir are packages I routinely build, as the packages in the repos are rather crippled/old.

[n2ize]

Lesson learned number 1!!

Don't try to compile from source a big, complicated program with a lot of dependencies, some of which effect system stability, unless you're sure you know what you're doing or am prepared to give up and reinstall the OS!


Don't ask . . .

Mopst of the time if something doesn't compile it's due to missing "devel" files whcih often contain headers and other sources required for compilation. Most of the time if you install the missing packages it will compile. However, in general a failed compilation shouldn't affect system stability unless it is something that runs in kernel space.

[n6hcm]

Not necessarily. Soundmodem and Xastir are packages I routinely build, as the packages in the repos are rather crippled/old.

most of the world would consider this "quite custom." :)

[KC2UGV]

most of the world would consider this "quite custom." :)

Interestingly enough, I don't generally customize those builds. For some odd reason, the package maintainers disable commonly used items (Like, in Xastir, they disable several map formats, and remove soundmodem support), and for soundmodem, it's just old. But, I get your point.

[WN9HJW]

What were you trying to build?

GNU Octave version 3.8.

It's supposed to have a new GUI option that isn't present in any of the earlier releases, and I just wanted to try it out.

Unfortunately there are no pre-built package downloads, so I downloaded the source and went about trying to install that. I figured, what the heck, how much trouble could it be? Quite a lot as it turns out. Lots of warnings about this or that missing. So I went about installing all the missing dependencies. Trying ./configure again periodically to see what new missing packages there were.

At some point the system would no longer let me start any apps from the app menu. Don't know why. I couldn't even say which package I installed that caused the problem. But obviiously I must have done something wrong.

After fishing around the various Linux forums for a solution for awhile I just decided it'd be easier to reinstall the system. Which I did. I'd only had the machine for a couple of weeks so I didn't have anything at risk.

I'll just wait for someone else to prepare the Octave 3.8 package. I'm not smart enough or careful enough yet. In the meantime I'll just use the Octave 3.6.4 which works very well for me without GUI.

[WN9HJW]

I just decided it'd be easier to reinstall the system. Which I did. .


With two issues after the re-install. The brightness controls - either the function keys or the slider in the system settings - would not work anymore. Found a solution for that pretty quick. Had to edit the "grub" file. Which I did and now that works fine.

Then the other issue is that sometimes (not every time) the "grub rescue" prompt comes up with I reboot. There are multiple solutions for that that can be found online but none of them seem to work for me. But if I just power-down then restart, the normal bootup happens.

[n2ize]

After you did the initial install did you install all the updates and bug fixes ? That is usually the first thing I do when I install a new version of a distro. Usually they ill be a few hundred package updates and bug fixes right after the initial install and many more in the weeks and months following.

[NM5TF]

With two issues after the re-install. The brightness controls - either the function keys or the slider in the system settings - would not work anymore. Found a solution for that pretty quick. Had to edit the "grub" file. Which I did and now that works fine.

Then the other issue is that sometimes (not every time) the "grub rescue" prompt comes up with I reboot. There are multiple solutions for that that can be found online but none of them seem to work for me. But if I just power-down then restart, the normal bootup happens.

have you tried "boot repair" yet ???


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update

and then


sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair

fixes most boot issues

just select the "fixes most issues" tab...

tommy

[ad4mg]

have you tried "boot repair" yet ???


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update

and then


sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair

fixes most boot issues

just select the "fixes most issues" tab...

tommy

Likely the most awesome application in any repository! I just fixed the "no GRUB menu" problem on a UEFI system (Windows 8.1) that I had installed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit on. It would only boot Ubuntu after the install. I installed and ran boot-repair and selected the "Fix most issues" tab, and a few terminal commands later all is well!

If anyone is brave like me and insists on dual booting Windows 8 / Ubuntu, I think it is most important to make sure Secure boot is disabled in the system setup. Detailed instructions here: Install Ubuntu on Windows 8.x system (http://askubuntu.com/questions/221835/installing-ubuntu-on-a-pre-installed-windows-8-64-bit-system-uefi-supported)

"Brave" is a relative term, as I had created an image of the HDD using Clonezilla before I did anything. I was minutes away from putting that image back on the hard drive, but I figured I'd try boot-repair first. I got lucky, this is my first experience with a UEFI machine. It is cool to be able to create more than 4 partitions!

[NM5TF]

Likely the most awesome application in any repository! I just fixed the "no GRUB menu" problem on a UEFI system (Windows 8.1) that I had installed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit on. It would only boot Ubuntu after the install. I installed and ran boot-repair and selected the "Fix most issues" tab, and a few terminal commands later all is well!

If anyone is brave like me and insists on dual booting Windows 8 / Ubuntu, I think it is most important to make sure Secure boot is disabled in the system setup. Detailed instructions here: Install Ubuntu on Windows 8.x system (http://askubuntu.com/questions/221835/installing-ubuntu-on-a-pre-installed-windows-8-64-bit-system-uefi-supported)

"Brave" is a relative term, as I had created an image of the HDD using Clonezilla before I did anything. I was minutes away from putting that image back on the hard drive, but I figured I'd try boot-repair first. I got lucky, this is my first experience with a UEFI machine. It is cool to be able to create more than 4 partitions!

kewl !!!

glad it worked for you....

2 ESSENTIAL TOOLS for any *nix enthusiast

1. Live Cd/.iso of most any *nix OS to be able to partition "on the fly"

2. Boot Repair to fix whatever mess that you make of boot/grub config files

[WN9HJW]

have you tried "boot repair" yet ???


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update

and then


sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair

fixes most boot issues

just select the "fixes most issues" tab...

tommy

I did that after booting from the hard drive, and it did not make a difference. But then more recently, I made a boot-repair CD and ran the same boot repair program after booting from that, and the problem "somewhat" was fixed.

Instead of about 1 out of every 2 or 3 boots or restarts getting the "attempting to read or write outside of disk hd0" message followed by the grub rescue prompt, I get the hd0 message but followed by a "press any key to continue prompt" which when I do that, then goes into a normal boot up. So whatever is underlying this problem is still there, but the boot repair has set it up to get around it.

I'll figure it out eventually but for now as long as I can boot the computer reliably, I'm OK with that extra step in the boot up process.

[WN9HJW]

Not sure how but I fixed the problems.

I installed Debian using the entire drive. Then re installed Mint alongside it. Now it boots perfectly every time.