Since I was clueless, I decided to sell the various pieces that I knew worked and just dump the rest. I put the video card up on ebay and when I decided to open the machine up this morning to remove the component. I found that one of the screws were missing. I pulled out all the parts that I could and did a little dusting with compressed air when a screw just flies out of somewhere and flicks me in the neck. After putting the entire thing back together and trying it again, the machine decided to boot up calmly without a single hitch. I guess I shouldn’t have bought that beautiful Thermaltake enclosure for the hard drive or put the video card up for sale. Only problem now is that the auction ended and I’m not sure if I can reneg. eBay’s customer service hasn’t gotten back to me yet.

Onto more important things: Ubuntu 5.10

Talk about a hitchless install. I can see why they call this the “people’s” Linux distribution. I’m impressed. I haven’t been this impressed since I finished installing an configuring my first Linux box with Slackware on a 486DX machine a few years ago. In that case, however, I was just impressed with myself.

Of course there were some annoyances like the fact that my ALPS touchpad was not working as it should (clicking for me randomly) but I was able to find a description and a guide to fix the issue on Ubuntu Blog, right here on WordPress.com. I definiately have to read past the first page which will be my project for the next few days.

Until then, Cheers!