Tag: windows

September 18, 2024 – My Love/Hate With Linux

September 18, 2024 / / 0 Comments

The sun is on the horizon for Windows 10. The stated date support ends is October 14, 2025. I have stated that my strategy is to gain some familiarity with Linux. When that day comes, I will be making the switch, whether I like it or not. See my post yesterday on running machines without vendor support.

A lot of people would find Ubuntu relatively acceptable if they were willing to learn new programs like Thunderbird for email. Heck, it installs with Office Libre, a full office suite for free. I pay several hundred dollars a year to maintain Microsoft Office. Office Libre will read those files, again for free.

Unfortunately for me, I am not the standard user. I have to be interested in Software Defined Radio and TV tuner cards. This requires a lot more than the standard Facebook user. There are things that have to occur like blacklisting the Linux driver from the kernel using the ‘vi’ editor. Fortunately for me, this is the third time I have done this. It is starting to become familiar to me.

My third time started with me trying to figure out ‘Myth TV’. This is the Linux program used to watch and record programs with my latest TV tuner card I purchased this summer. Due to me struggling to get this card to work, I decided that I needed to test this card in an environment more familiar to me, Windows.

I rescued this computer from my wife’s mother’s estate. It had not been powered on for several years when I obtained it. I decided that I would install Ubuntu on a new SSD to allow me to access the old data if needed for estate purposes. But, it has been almost two years now and I have already searched for anything that I thought might be useful. I found nothing.

As a result, I thought that I would refresh Windows 10 for purposes of testing this tuner card. This is when I found out that yes, I have a knowledge gap with Linux, but the real problem with my dual operating system boot was the fault of UEFI. Unified Extensible Firmware Interface is what the acronym stands for. Because of how I partitioned the hard drive the last time I installed Ubuntu, I had to start of again.

UEFI is a BIOS replacement (don’t worry, I will explain). BIOS is the software that is embedded on a chip and loads up the basic required drivers like keyboard and hard disk. It was determined in the mid 2000s that BIOS had limitations for the new hardware coming online. Computers of my vintage have both a BIOS and UEFI making things even more confusing.

It is also true that UEFI is the reason I had to reload Ubuntu last time as well. I was trying to update the driver for UEFI when I bricked my first installation. I got into a spot where only Windows would load and I wanted to keep that data. If this were the old days of just BIOS, I would set my boot sequence once and that is the way the computer would load until I changed it.

It has taken me several weeks of fiddling around to really figure out how this works. When my computer reboots, I need to hit F12 until the UEFI menu comes up. From there, I pick how the computer is going to load. This means, that if I walk away on the reboot, it will load Windows, because this is how the BIOS is set to boot. So, if I actually want Ubuntu I need to hang around.

My silver lining is that my card works. You might recall that I had to fashion a mounting bracket. I also had to plunk down a license fee to Hauppauge for the Windows program but now I know that the tuner works. So, it is back to Ubuntu and MythTV. I have finally mastered the boot sequence so I can go back and forth if desired. I have my SDR installed again.

Things are looking up for me. I want to get this project finished so I can get back to radios. I still have only really turned on my scanner, I have some ideas about setting up a workstation for different radios in that space. There is always a million other things that I want to get to. The TV tuner is just the gateway to having the football game on while I reload or do something at my bench.

End Your Programming Routine: Let me state that I don’t hate Linux. I hate the fact that I am getting old and learning new technology is getting harder. Time is a more valuable commodity than aptitude. I don’t have days and days to fart around, I just want things to work. I find myself stumbling around until I get it, but it is hard to ‘learn’ in this fashion.

January 9, 2024 – Adding a USB, PCIe Expansion Card

January 9, 2024 /

All of my USB ports are full. It was possible to unplug things as I need them, but that was inconvenient. It is also possible to add a USB hub, however my computer is so old that it only has USB 2.0 ports. So, not only was this for convenience but also gives added performance.

One thing to know is that these cards are considered a USB hub. This means that you are not going to be able to charge 7 different devices each plugged into their own port. Cards or ports that perform the full USB capability are significantly more expensive and you may need an upgraded power supply to do so. Investigate specifications based on your own needs.

Here are a few more tidbits. The card that I chose has 5 USB, A-style ports and 2, C-style ports. Part of why I did this was to try and future proof this machine as long as possible. This desktop computer was purchased as a refurbished computer in 2012 so we are going into the 14th year of use. Pretty good as technology goes.

You can purchase cards that have less ports and by proxy they are also cheaper. But again, I was trying to future proof this as much as possible. So my particular card is the value compromise, the most ports for the cheapest cost. Here is how it was installed.

This video was also edited using a new software OpenShot. I am not sure why Microsoft keeps making video editing worse. The old Windows Media editor was the best, then I was using Pictures, and I have played around with ClipChamp. Each version was more difficult to work with then the last. So, I tried OpenShot.

It works fine, but it may not have the features that I actually want still. The transitions are a little clunky and there are no screen or text editors. So, maybe practice is what I need first before I move on to another program. Also, with two videos with my new action camera, the audio is definitely poor. I need to investigate a separate microphone or just relegate this to voiceover type videos.

End Your Programming Routine: I cant say again how much better plug and play life is. Plug the card in and start using it. This is miles from having to assign the drive in the BIOS and then re-install the service pack (for those of you that remember NT). This was after setting the jumpers on the card, etc.