Tri-Boot Project Phase 3

Tri-Boot Project Phase 3
Installing Windows 7.

This is the installation is Windows 7 beta build 6801
As I mentioned before, Windows 7 works a lot like Vista in many way. Its almost like Vista 1.0 (where the initial release is Vista 0.5, and Vista SP1 is Vista 0.7) Because of this, one could assume Vista and her twin sister Win 7 would boot in the same manner. I mentioned the whole boot loader issue between XP and vista. But I will explain further how I got the XP and 7 to play nicely together.

Although you can edit the MBR with the command prompt, this is very difficult to do. So to simplify this, I used a program called EasyBCD. This really did make the process easy. One little issue I did run into though, 7 would not recognize the hard drive that had XP on it. After a bit of playing around, I got the system to recognize, although in the process I deleted the MBR (oops). This was easily fixed by throwing the disk back in there and running the system restore.

One thing I thought was pretty awesome was the fact that Windows 7 quickly found all of my drivers with the exception of the Sound Card (Diamond 7.1). This is including the Buffalo wireless card, which on installation, wanted me to set this up to my router, pretty sweet.

Tomorrow I am going to get Ubuntu installed and get this onto the boot loader system.

Tri-boot Project Phase 2

Phase 2
(Phase 1 was the backing up my hard drives part btw)

I decided to start out by getting XP installed. I found a really good tutorial series that walked me through virtually every Linux/XP/Vista duel-booting sequence a person could thing of (except the tri-boot thing) Since Vista and Windows 7 are really close like Identical Twins, I used the Vista tutorial as a guide. (The guide can be found here)

Vista uses a completely different way to boot. XP uses the Boot.ini sequence. Vista uses a system called a Master Boot Record (MBR) Indecently, This is much harder to edit then Boot.ini. (which isn't easy to edit to begin with) Fortunately there is a nice freeware program called EasyBCD (which can be found here) that simplifies the process.

As I was getting XP installed (and doing the dishes, researching and taking care of a sick friend) I got the drivers installed. Most were not hard to find as my machine is an OTC Mass produced E-machine W-3400 with some additions to it, like a WiFi card and a sound card. (there is also a $100 laughing fine that will be charged for anyone making fun of my crappy machine. All proceeds will go to getting me a sweet-assed custom built top of the line gaming PC.)

I did run into one bit of a problem with getting my WiFi drivers installed. It turns out the Manufature of my Wireless card, Buffalo Technologies, is in the middle of a lawsuit with Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) for copyright infringement. Because of this, They are not allowed to support there devices. (Details can be found here) The good news is that OpenDrivers.org did have the drivers backed up on there site. So all well and good.

Tomorrow I head into uncharted territory as I install Windows 7 and attempt to duel boot the system.

Tri-boot Project

So my desktop has been acting quite screwy lately. Mostly because all of my hard drives were full. I was unable to load up a Windows Update. I held off of it mostly because I didn't want to loose any of my files. (Music, Movies, Porn, etc) It didn't help that I only have an 80GB, 40GB and a 20GB hard drives in my computer. The other reason was because I wanted to try Ubuntu on my Desktop. I also wanted to try Windows 7 on my desktop. But I also wanted something that would be a stable backup in case these didn't work. That's when I got the idea to tri-boot my computer. Now I'm going to be frank. (no I'm going to be Magical, but my words will be frank) There is NO DOCUMENTATION ON THE WIRED that will tell you how to do this. (I mean really, If you into Windows 7, you don't want Linux, and if you into Linux, you really like Microsoft.)

The goal of this project is as follows
1) Install XP on the Main (80GB) Hard Drive
2) Install Windows 7 on the 40GB Hard Drive
3) Install Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex on the 20GB Hard Drive
4) Get all the systems to recognize all devices
5) Get all systems to play nicely with each other.

This last one is going to prove the trickiest as nether XP, Windows 7, or Ubuntu really like each other. I will note. This is not going to be a definitive guide until i finish the project. I am going to publish some of my mistakes and goofups as well. That way if you get into trouble like I have will on occasion, You can see remotely how to fix it.

Red Debug info below status bar in Mozilla Thunderbird/Firefox

A client called saying he got some "strange programming" below is status bar in Mozilla Thunderbird and he could not get rid of it. Having no idea what he was talking about, i got on a remote session with him to see what I could do. Sure enough, below his status bar was another gray bar with Red Debug info. Nobody in the office could tell what had happened. So i went on a google search. I found 2 sites that helped out tremendously.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Gray_bar_below_status_bar

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Gray+bar+below+the+status+bar

Evidently the problem is typically a programming issues. This could be caused from Mozilla not being updated, to spyware, to Addons. His problem was resolved by simply updating Thunderbird. But the links provided above lists a few more troubleshooting options