Linux

Problem: I've set up Samba on my Linux box and can access my Windows shares fine. However, every time I want to access a file from my Windows share, Linux, difficult motherfucker that it is, downloads the file, stores it in a temp directory and then plays it.. So, if I want to play .. say a 1.4 GB movie, I have to download the entire damn thing across my network to see it.. Not Good Enough.

Edgy (and apparently Dapper as well) have this rather annoying issue where the "Sharing" screen in System settings (Kubuntu) is greyed out even after entering admin mode, or if you open the fileshare module using kcmshell as root. The fix for this is to just open up your package manager and install the base Samba package which hadn't been installed.

Setting up Samba will be a very annoying procedure otherwise.

Following my recent adventures with Azureus, I found that Azureus was crashing on a regular basis and often not starting up at all. Running it from the command line gave me an error similar to the following:

An unexpected error has been detected by HotSpot Virtual Machine

and a lot of mumbo-jumbo following that.

This error has been reported all over the place, including at bugs.sun.com (who decided to close it.. thanks guys! :S). But no apparent solution was being provided anywhere. Azureus was definitely stable when running 1.4.2, although it wasn't exactly performing up to par. So, this was definitely a java compatibility problem.

... and don't bother installing a 64-bit version of a distro, unless you _really_ need it. I was aware that most people stated that it made no whit of difference to average desktops unless there was some serious number crunching involved. I knew all this, but still went ahead and installed it.. Serves me fucking right.

The performance (in terms of speed etc.) isn't the problem with my new Kubuntu install.. it's the package support that's the real pain. Talk about a waste of time :S

Installing Java 5 for example is a real pain, and apparently to get it working in FF, I'll have to install the 32-bit version anyways.