Ubuntu install error

Posted on September 13th, 2008 in Technology & Gadgets | No Comments »

I’ve found a number of references to the obscure error on the web:

Failure trying to run: chroot /target mount -t proc proc /proc

After careful diagnosis, I have come to the conclusion that this error has three causes (at least for me):

  1. A bad CD drive. [replace it]
  2. Bad CD-media or a badly written CD. [slow down the write, or change media]
  3. CD drive incorrectly connected (Cable Select, Master, Slave: incorrectly set) [check that cable and setting match, and that you have at least 1 Master connected, with the drive either set to CS or Master on a proper cable]

I hope posting this helps other people, as this problem took quite a while to diagnose, and much hair-pulling was involved. In my case, it was a “gradually” degrading CD drive (1), although I’ve also experienced (2).

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Setting up wview on Ubuntu

Posted on June 10th, 2008 in Technology & Gadgets | 10 Comments »

I decided to document my setup of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron running with a weather station, the inexpensive WS-2310. I built this computer setup for a buddy who wanted to run a weather station, but didn’t want to buy a Davis Vantage Pro2. The machine is a Pentium 4 2.8GHz, 80G HDD, 1 GB of RAM. Read the rest of this entry »

Booting Ubuntu installer off flash

Posted on June 8th, 2008 in Technology & Gadgets | 2 Comments »

I was trying to setup a buddy’s old laptop to run Ubuntu and wviewweather, and having no luck because his CD-ROM drive was flaky. So i found this great utility (OK, google found it) that sets up a USB flash drive so that it will boot as if it were the CD-ROM. This is: UNetbootin. Tell it where to find the ISO, tell it where your flash is, and ta-dah! Great utility.

No, copying the files from the ISO onto blank USB memory stick doesn’t work, in case you were wondering…

To give a little more detail, wview now supports a very inexpensive weather station, the La Crosse 2310 (I bought it for $120 including shipping off eBay). This is great for those who want to participate in CWOP and can’t afford or don’t want to spend the money to get a $400+ Davis Vantage weather station, and have an old PC with a serial port lying around.

Playing house with Gutsy Gibbon

Posted on November 25th, 2007 in Technology & Gadgets | No Comments »

Well, rumors of a user-friendly installation and easy compatibility for Ubuntu 7.10 are greatly exaggerated. Although it’s easy to use, it’s really quite difficult to install. Here are some of my trials and tribulations, and how I fixed them.

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Linux installed

Posted on March 31st, 2007 in Technology & Gadgets | No Comments »

Finally got my first LINUX server up-and-running for the fire department. It’s a great indication of how some distributions are much better than others. Read on to see how it progressed.

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