RM Jones’ Adventure

I did something DUMB and I blew my Ubuntu 8.04 graphics and I couldn’t get it back (it only had about a 600 x 400 resolution or something like that). Not nearly high enough to display correctly on my computer. What did I do that was so DUMB, you ask. I did something that I knew better because it had caused the same problem for me before. A couple of times in the past I tried to change the screen size in the “Administrator” mode. Each time it did the same thing. After I had installed and was using Crossover Linux I was having trouble getting my resolution to stay where I wanted it. It kept on resetting to the highest resolution when I started the computer.. So I thought, incorrectly so, that “Maybe This Time It Will Work From The Administrator Mode”. Ya, sure it will. DUMB. Anyway, I blew it and couldn’t get it back.

The only part of reinstalling Ubuntu that is bad is going through the LONG list of programs and deciding which one to install. I thought I would give APTonCD a try. You can find APTonCD either using “Add/Remove Programs” or Synaptic. I found out that APTonCD is a really great program

When I ran it APTonCD gave me the options of putting the files on 4 CD’s or 1 DVD. I chose the DVD. It then saved an .iso file with all the applications on it. Make sure you remember where it put the file so you can save it to a DVD (or 4 CD’s) later. It put it in my /home so that was easy to find

After it completed building the file and saving it the next question was if I wanted to burn it now. I chose yes so I didn’t really need to know where it was except to move it to my data disk later. Next it wanted to know which program to use to burn the DVD and I chose K3B which is the one I like best and then it jumped into K3B and away we went. Easy.

I transferred all the files that I didn’t want to lose, just in case something went wrong, from /home to my “Data” disk and then I shut the computer down.

I did a new install from the Ubuntu disk without formatting my /home. When I restarted my computer I had it do all the updates to the original install. Next I ran the recover part of APTonCD. All it did was add the DVD to my sources for Synaptic. I launched Synaptic, turned off all the repositories except that DVD. Then I did a “Reload” which only loaded the files on the DVD.

As I was working my way though “selecting” all the files I found that by “selecting” “APTonCD-metapackage” it selected all the files that remained. So just scroll down to “APTonCD-metapackage” and double click it and save yourself some work. When I clicked on “Apply” it installed everything from the DVD. It worked great. In a very short time I had completely rebuilt my Ubuntu / Kubuntu system. Since I didn’t format my /home folder, which was on a separate partition, I didn’t even have to set things up again. Outstanding.

That’s all there is to it. I am now a Very Happy Penguin

That’s all for today. I’ll be back before long with more of the ramblings from a new Linux user.

Have a Great Day.

Bob Jones