Hey Guys...

Question 1
Running an early version of NG 0.5 with Raring:

Running well on the Dell laptop which has been relegated to shore duty as it's a power hog. Needed to add a couple of Gimp libraries (libgimp2.0-dev and libpcre3-dev) to add a new plugin, and discovered that Raring is no longer available in my apt-get repositories. (Its hell getting old) Attempts to apt-get install result in the expected 404 errors.

Found Raring in the Ubuntu "old-releases" (http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/raring) but the question is how to utilize it to install my gimp libraries?

Current etc/apt/sources.list looks like so...


Appreciate any suggestions... Hate to update the distro just to have package access when it is working well for my needs.

Which brings me to Question 2

Picked up a Thinkpad T42 for the boat box as power consumption is much less than the Dell box. Was planning on loading latest 0.5 (June) from a stick. Downloaded from torrent, formated PNY 8G stick using Start Up Disk Creator and checked for good boot on Dell laptop. Booted ok.

Set up BIOS boot sequence on T42 for USB FDD , USB HDD, with internal drive last.
On boot, the T42 is not seeing the USB stick at all. Not sure if this is a problem with the PNY stick (too large for the old bios?) or what. Not really a Navigatrix problem, but hoping someone with an elderly thinkpad might have seen and solved the issue.
Got a BIOS update available, but reading through the changes, it doesn't seem to address the issue, and I am loath to mess with firmware unless absolutely necessary.

TIA for any assistance on either of these questions.

The good news is, the US Govt finally decided I really wasn't dead after all, which has made life in general much easier.

(The Other) David

You should be seeing the packages under deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu raring-security main, at least that's what this page says:

http://packages.ubuntu.com/raring/i386/libgimp2.0-dev/download

The other one is, oddly, in a Czech repository, but can be found http://packages.ubuntu.com/raring/i386/libpcre3-dev/download

Probably the least drama would be to d/l the packages (either from there or the URL you referenced) and install them with sudo gdebi-gtk, or sudo dpkg -i.

Sometimes 'older' machines use a USB-CDROM flag to boot from a stick. Do you have something like that in your BIOS?

However, not all Thinkpads will boot from a USB

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Supported_Boot_Devices

You might have to look at Plop (which is already on the stick). http://www.pendrivelinux.com/boot-from-usb-without-bios-support-via-plop-cd/

And congratulations that the report of your death was also an exaggeration.

I was doing some research and I found this:I don't know if this buggy-ness effect the installation you have, or not. But it might be something to consider if you're having difficulties.

Decided to just skip the Gimp plugs... Take me longer to find and install all the related dependencies than the time the pluging would save. My only real complaint with using an Ubuntu base for Nx is the Ubuntu creed of "Update or Die". Old-releases repository is gz'd and not usefull as a repo (at least wit my limited knowledge) Anyway problem solved by just ingoring it <whistle>.

As to the T-42 issues, I believe I did have problems from the bug in the usb-creator-gtk when I was making the stick for that fella in Fiji last year. I updated with the patched version, and since then all bootable sticks have been ok. Think it's a problem with the T-42 BIOS not recognizing a stick as a bootable device. USB fdd, hdd, cd are all included on the boot list, and above local hdd. Maybe will have to upgrade the firmware <shudder> but for now will play with PLOP. Seem to remember using it on a machine with a bios that wouldn't recognize a usb stick to install Fedora.

Tks again for the suggestions. Will pass back results for posterity. Oh, and the best thing about not being dead anymore is I no longer have to watch out for them damned zombie hunters.

(The Other) David

This is completely without regard for reality:

If you use the Partition Editor do you have a boot flag?

Yeah Moe, boot flag is there... Like I said, think it's an issue with the T42 as the stick boots fine on the Dell laptop. Haven't had the time to play with PLOP as I am busy building a couple of dinks. Wondering if the size of the stick is an issue. I think some older hardware has issues with big pendrives in a boot situation.

Anyway tks for the suggestion, will keep poking away. Not a pressing issue, but needs to be dealt with.

(The Other) David

Thinkpad T42 is capable to boot from a USB memorystick, at least wit the latest bios (3.23) - has done that many times.