I’ve been hanging out on irc.freenode.net#kubuntu and #ubuntu today and have really learned quite a bit, and have helped some people too. Mez set me on the road to Pbuilder, and so have been checking out that as well.
It’s really quite fun to be able to answer Linux questions. It’s been about nine months since I started using Linux full-time, and I recognize myself in so many of these people who are now asking questions. Same issues, same problems, same mindsets.
It’s good to give back to the communities that helped you out.
Well, I got my laptop back today… surprisingly good turnaround time! I’m quite impressed.
I put the hard drive back in and booted up. It booted smoothly and everything seemed okay. The USB port worked fine, network, wireless, screen, great. I noticed on the repair sheet that they flashed the BIOS, so I went into the BIOS to check things out. Seemed okay… until I got to Hardware. My Bluetooth card was missing. Yep, they put in the wrong-spec’d motherboard. Gotta send it back again :/
Ah well, free shipping both ways, I’m not complaining.
I set up a PGP keyset tonight and it wasn’t as baffling as it seemed at first 
Seahorse (Linux) is just right for managing keys.
PGP allows me to digitally sign documents, e-mails, whatever, and then allows you to verify that it was really I who signed / sent / wrote the document.
Not that I’ll be using this much, but I’ll need it for the Ubuntu stuff later. Mez insists that I need my key signed by a current member, but I can’t find that requirement anywhere. So we’ll see.
My public key
Step 1: Create wiki page
Step 2: Sign Code of Conduct
Step 3: Apply
Step 4: …
Step 5: Profit!
seth@erebus:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 5874 47182873+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 5875 9729 30965287+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/hda5 5875 7802 15486628+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 7803 9729 15478596 83 Linux
Disk /dev/hdb: 122.9 GB, 122942324736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14946 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 14782 118736383+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hdb2 14783 14946 1317330 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/hdb5 14783 14946 1317298+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris