elen_nare | Fun with computers! (Reply)

We're learning how to analyse telescope images in my Astrometry class. For that, we use a program called IRAF. Which only runs in Linux-based operating systems. So, I finally gave in to the inevitable, and decided to install Ubuntu on my laptop (which fortunately has two hard drives!). A friend who studied computing lent me an installation CD, so it should be all plain sailing, right?

Yeah, not so much.

First problem: my CD drive refused to read the CD. Or, when I tested it, any CD at all. I checked the control panel and it seemed to be the software that was failing, so I googled, and Microsoft was kind enough to provide a "fix-it" program that actually worked! That done, I put the CD back in, and it instructed me to restart the computer to begin the installation. Click restart, and on to the next problem!

Second problem: when I restarted the computer, it rebooted into Windows. No Ubuntu in sight. Reboot again, same result. The CD also offered a "if rebooting doesn't work" option, so I clicked that.

Third problem: the option failed to work. Reboot again. Still not working.

Then, suddenly, inspiration! If it was booting straight from the hard-drive, I could restart it for the rest of my life and it wouldn't ever work. *facepalm* Restart the computer again, edit the start-up options (sure enough, it was set to boot directly from the hard-drive first, so I simply moved "boot from CD" up). And, finally, it worked! Once it started, the installation went pretty smoothly. Though, did I mention I started the process at 1:30 am? Not the brightest idea... I went to bed at 4am! Luckily it was Saturday, so I could sleep in the next day.

Installing the actual program I needed was completely plain sailing, luckily. Just type the command given in the readme file, and it did it all by itself :) I also installed a Fortran compiler, so I can run all the programs I did last year, and even make new ones. (Programming-savvy people, do not mock me for using fortran! :P)

Now it's just a matter of learning to actually use the program... we did some work today in the observatory computers, but we all had some problems with things not working. Ah well, practice will make perfect - or at least good enough to pass the subject! ;)

Anyone else had similar fun installing stuff? And for those of you who use Ubuntu, which version are you using? I've got the 11.10 at the moment, not sure whether or not to upgrade to 12.04.