ben.hamilton.id.au

Just did yet another painless upgrade to WordPress, which is the software that powers this web site.

It is now running version 2.5 quite happily. What made this upgrade different was the fact that I did it from my laptop running Ubuntu 7.10.

Every other upgrade I’ve done from a Windows platform, using the FTP tool I’ve been familiar with, FileZilla.

The default install of Ubuntu hasn’t installed FileZilla, so it was a quick click to System | Administration | Synaptic Package Manager | Search | “Filezilla” | Mark for install | approve the dependancies | Apply.

In under a minute, FileZilla was installed and my favorite FTP tool was running just like it does on my Windows laptop. Yay! I just love how easy it is to install most things with Ubuntu.

Two pages I’ve found useful when playing with GRUB (a Boot loader that allows you to choose between multiple operating systems on boot up) are these:

• The GRUB Manual
• The GRUB page – particularly this one on temporarily editing a GRUB menu item

It is nice to be able to re-order the menu items, change the length of time the menu stays on screen and change the wording of each entry.

Did a google for “Ubuntu wireshark install” hoping to get some instructions on how to get Wireshark installed under Ubuntu.

Found the following line: sudo apt-get install ethereal

and knowing that ethereal was the former name for wireshark, I promptly entered sudo apt-get install wireshark

at the command prompt. Lo and Behold, it starts installing Wireshark. I love it when stuff is sensible…

Ohh, oh, oh, it works too. Just like that.

Anyhow, getting back to what I was saying, it is really nice  when playing with a new program (or operating system) and things start falling into place with where to find things, how to do stuff.

One of the things I’m finding with Ubuntu is that while it is harder to install things (not by much tho) I’m finding that i’m actually more producting minute for minute than with Windows (XP or Vista)  – that is when typing a document or actually going to get something done, I’m taking less time with to do the doing. It isn’t that the programs are magically better (I don’t think) but rather that there are fewer distractions. Perhaps that will change with time and knowledge. I don’t know.

I’m now running Ubuntu 7.10 on my personal laptop (it dual boots with MS Vista Ultimate, but defaults to Ubuntu). Of course I want to do it all, including connecting to MS Windows VPN’s.

The short set of instructions over at tipotheday were spot-on.

My only addition would be to have the Ubuntu 7.10 install CD (or ISO) handy. Personally I used the command line (CLI) version, worked a treat.

Posted more for my own benefit

sudo vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

This runs vi as the superuser, editing the grub menu, which is what controls which OS to boot into. Important for me ’cause the new laptop is now dual booting Ubuntu and MS Vista Ultimate. Just changing the default OS, now it’s Ubuntu 7.10, loving it!