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Fastest method of upgrading Ubuntu

Posted by Ting
at October 30, 2008

Ubuntu 8.10 rolled out yesterday and as such the Ubuntu servers are hammered by people trying to upgrade through the network.

The quickest method of upgrading Ubuntu is as follows:

  1. Download the alternate ISO off BitTorrent.
  2. Change your package source server from the default to the fastest available:
    a. Within Ubuntu, go to System > Administration > Software Sources
    b. Click on Download From > Other.
    c. Choose “Select Best Server”.  Ubuntu will scan for the fastest server for you.
    d. Click on “Choose Server” and close out all the dialog boxes.
  3. Mount the ISO:
    sudo mount -o loop ~/ubuntu-8.10-alternate-i386.iso /media/cdrom0
  4. You should get a pop up asking if you want to upgrade and click yes.  If not, run:
    gksudo “sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade”

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  5. During the upgrade process you can choose whether or not to download updates off the network.  Choosing no will be the fastest option, but you’re merely postponing downloading the extra packages until later.

Update 11/15/2008:

I wanted to add that using this method will add the CD into your apt sources, prompting you to add your CD in whenever using apt-get to install packages.  Fix this by simply editting /etc/apt/sources.list and comment out all “deb cdrom:” lines at the top as root.

Update 12/17/2008:

This does not work with AMD64b installations as the alternate ISO only supports i386.

ubuntu
0

OS and browser agnostic ad blocking

Posted by Ting
at September 8, 2008

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, it’s hard to miss Google’s recent launching of Chrome, a new competitor in the browser market.  While trying the browser, I was rudely reminded of how much advertisement is out on the internet.  It’s like getting used to Tivo’ing all your shows and suddenly surprised by commercials during a live broadcast.

Either way, I wanted to continue testing Chrome while maintaining a relatively ad free browsing experience.  I found my answer in the form of Privoxy.


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software
3

Dell Latitude E6500 Review

Posted by Ting
at September 5, 2008

Dell revamped the grey drab look of their Latitude D-family when they launched the new E-series approximately a month ago.  The E6400 and E6500 models look to replace the D630 as the mainstream business laptop for companies.

The Dell Latitude E6500 ended up costing $1432 (including tax and S/H) with the following specifications:


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hardware