Friday, May 21, 2010

The Geekiest Thing I Ever Did

There are three computer operating systems, MS Windows, Apple Mac, and Linux. I was reading that installing Linux on older machines give them new life. I happened to have an old laptop in the basement, just sitting there gathering dust as Windows XP really made it cumbersome, so I thought I would give it a try. Leo Laporte, technology broadcaster, said that you are not a real geek unless you have installed Linux.

Installation was simple, just install the CD. The problem was that it would not connect to our wifi network. That actually took me a couple of hours and typing strange codes that I had no idea what they meant:

~$ lspci -vvnn | grep 14e4
~$ sudo modprobe -r b43 ssb wl
~$ sudo modprobe wl
:/bcmwl/$ sudo dpkg -i bcmwl-kernel-source*

Well, you get the idea. Anyway, I booted up and there was our wifi network. The computer is running great, much better than it ever did. Guess I am officially a Geek now.

No comments: