Gnome rules, KDE drools

I installed KDE desktop on my laptop, but really prefer gnome, so want to uninstall it ...

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2755/ubuntu_7_10_how_to_uninstall_kde/

And, as I recall from the last time I did this, I'll have to fix the kubuntu splash to return it to Ubuntu ...

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=428061

Karmic Koala Kunundrum

I should have known better than to jump with both feet into the Karmic Koala release, Ubuntu 9.10, which went live just last week.

I clicked eagerly on the "Upgrade Now" button and waited hours for the downloads to complete.

When I rebooted, I had lost the 1024x768 resolution on my monitor, the largest available resolution was 800x600.

After the fact, I did some research on the problem and learned thatthere was a change to the Linux kernel regarding video drivers, and now the video modes were managed inside the kernel by default. Further research showed that my Intel video cards, with a somewhat aged 84915 chipset, were notoriously problematic.

I should have known not to be so eager to jump. In the past I've upgraded laptop first before desktop. Or I've downloaded and made a live-cd, and tried to boot off the live CD first.

I assume that they update the upgrade with bug fixes. Last time I waited three months after the new release before I upgraded; this time I might've been better off waiting. I'll do some more research and see if they update the published upgrade, or if it stays frozen.

Either of those precautions would've saved me agony and annoyance on Saturday. Instead of doing what I had wanted to do, I spent several hours backing up, wiping out, and reinstalling my PC. Most of the effort was spent getting a full backup. Even though I have regular backups, it was the end of the month, and my last full backup was a month old, I knew it'd be more difficult to restore a month-old full backup followed by a month's worth of incrementals.

So, I get the dumbass award.

Next time, before I jump into a new Ubuntu release, I will:

1. Download an iso and make a live cd.
2. Boot once off the live cd and ensure that the monitor graphics and network cards work.
3. Make a full backup first.
4. Wait a while before upgrading.

Launch a vm with a click

The old way to launch a vm in VirtualBox is using the GUI.

1. Launch VirtualBox
2. Focus on the VM you want to launch
3. Click Start

There's a way to launch it from a shortcut, a launcher, or a script.

In ubuntu, the "command" of the launcher is:

VBoxManage startvm machine-name

I pointed the icon of the launcher to /usr/share/pixmaps/VBox.png and now it's a handsome-looking launcher that launches the vm with a click.