Ubuntu on my Dell XPS M1330 - Booted with the MediaDirect button

October 9th, 2008 Roshan

So when my motherboard was replaced, MediaDirect stopped starting up, so there was no Media to be had from the button, Direct or otherwise and the button itself booted Vista and then started the MediaDirect application. Thinking I had a brilliant idea, I set out to see if I could boot Ubuntu using the MediaDirect button and Vista using the Power button, only to find that hundreds of other people have done that before to.

However none of those guides worked because I simply couldn’t manage to install GRUB to the extended partition due to many many errors. Finally, I deleted MediaDirect, installed Ubuntu in a couple of logical partitions and went back to using Windows. Then today, I decided to finish the job, and with LiveCD in hand proceeded to fight the demons of distro installation under esoteric conditions. GRUB kept failing trying to find stage1 and stage2 files, and no matter how many tricks I tried, none of them worked. Until I discovered this lovely parameter to grub-install.

So with GRUB already installed on the logical partition (as part of the Ubuntu installation process), I just had to point grub-install to the right place to get all the files from:
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/media/disk-1/ /dev/sda4
and boom! I had a bootloader on the extended partition.

The best part is that I’d already installed the Dell bootloader (the one that handles the difference between MediaDirect and Power) configured to look at the third and fourth partitions and so I shut down and hit the MediaDirect button and then much happiness ensued. At least until I saw how fonts looked in Firefox :)

The command to run from the Dell MediaDirect disc is:
rmbr.exe dell 3 4
Remember to start cmd.exe with Administrator permissions (right click, Run as Administrator). The only problem is that ‘Restart’ always means ‘Restart into Windows’.

To get proper instructions on how to do this instead of this garbled mess, here are the links I found most useful:
Using the Media Direct button to boot Ubuntu
Another thread for that
The thread where I found out about --root-directory

Posted in Gadgets | 13 Comments »

Answer these questions

October 7th, 2008 Roshan

Chitra is the reason for this. Blame her. Also, yes, I am aware that non-committal answers are completely useless.

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
Karma’s a bitch, but in the meantime, there’s my impotent rage to deal with.

2. If you can have a dream come true, what would it be?
Realistically, to have a nice small family, a job that pays enough and gives me enough time for me to take two weeks off at least each year to visit a foreign country. Not so realistically, I want to be Bov Ine - the fire-breathing god of doom who rides a cow whose hooves strike lightning and whose horns are a portal to Discworld.

3. Whose butt would you like to kick?
Guns, I believe in peace.

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Buy a stake in AIG (ha ha).

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
I don’t swing that way.

6. Which is more blessed: loving someone or being loved by someone?
Can’t I have both? I don’t know otherwise. Think hard, and you probably won’t either.

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you love?
If they love me…forever. If not, not at all.

8. If the person you secretly like is attached, what will you do?
Depends on what they’re attached to. I generally stay clear of people attached to cows, for instance.

9. If you could root for one social cause, what would it be?
Universal education. This is very important. Secondly, the mandatory death sentence for harassment.

10. What takes you down the fastest?
Ha ha! Like I’d tell you my only weakness!

11. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
Exactly? In bed.

12. What’s your fear?
Heights.

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
A very cunning character.

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married and poor?
Once I would have chosen the latter, but it makes little sense, so I’d choose the former.

15. What’s the first thing you do wen you wake up?
Hit the snooze button. Yes yes, I know everyone was thinking the same thing, and then we all go back to sleep. And you won’t believe it, it was just five minutes but when we woke up it was 3 hours.

16. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously who will you pick?
Henry Hill (the guy from Goodfellas) said it best, “If you can’t love two people at once, there’s something wrong with you”. No, not really.

17. Would you give all in a relationship?
I try. I would love to.

18. Would you forgive and forget someone no matter how horrible a thing he has done?
No, I’m the exact other end of the spectrum. I nurse grudges on tiny matters. I still don’t forgive Bikram for spilling lime juice on my sandals two and a half years ago.

19. Do you prefer being single or in a relationship?
The latter, but it does give you a little freedom to not be.

20. List of 6 people to tag:
Marc - Because he won’t do anything about it.
Isha - Because she’ll laugh at me and call me … a very bad name.
Volunteers please - I don’t get that many comments, you see.

When I was a kid I decided to write a chain letter, it didn’t get very long. But I sent it anyway, and I cheated, I used carbon paper. So take that, suckers. I was a young spammer. Sadly, now that’s all coming back to me.

Posted in Me | 18 Comments »