Hot keys….

Here is a list of hot keys I use, and what they mean (some are application-specific):

CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE :: Kills the xserver and restarts it – useful if your desktop session just craps its pants and freezes up.
CTRL+ALT+F1…F6 :: Switches between console virtual terminals, supporting multiple logins at once – useful for when you are doing multiple [...]

Video card upgrade…

Well, I absolutely do not seem to be able to use any nvidia driver past 8776 on my puny 128 meg 5200 nvidia card (AGPx4) – the screen just fritzs whenever I start the xorg server and the system locks up hard. Nothing works except magic key sequences (thank God for those!).
My main machine [...]

More kernel 2.6.19…

Well, I have tried on several machines, and only the work machine successfully compiles all the way without errors.  Another would not even compile.  My son’s machine would compile, but then kernel panic’d on reboot because my ATA-Raid card was not read correctly.
I think I’ll wait a while on this version….
Besides, 2.6.18.5 seems fine for [...]

Vanilla Kernel HowTo – Version 2.6

I don’t know about other distros, but I am pretty sure this is a method of installing a new 2.6 kernel that will work on just about any distro.
But, I am not sure, so YMMV.
I make it a point to boot into init level 3 (edit /etc/inittab), since I will have to recompile my nvidia [...]

Kernel 2.6.19….

I upgraded at work from 2.6.18.2. Curiously enough, the lilo problem I had been having (see Mysteries, Puzzles, and Enigmas) at work vanished. Lilo worked great, no weird rescue steps needed.
Everything seemed ok, until I tried to recompile my nvidia driver. It failed on multiple versions of the driver. The nvidia [...]

Event Viewer

At work, I can really get into a good groove working on our intranet. It is small, but interesting to work on. What can knock me out of that groove and really just poison the day is being snapped back to the reality of working with Windows by encountering another limitation. So, [...]