I am sorely tempted to allow my Windows instinct to take over and do a clean reinstall of linux. I know it’s the wrong impulse. I just don’t know what the alternative is.

My linux desktop continues to lock up, rejecting mouse and keyboard input. This is reproducible. Switching to Ximian hasn’t helped. It’s clearly a software issue because the system responds to ctl-alt-f3, so it’s still getting keyboard input. And the mouse cursor moves; none of the buttons work, however.

So, last night I thought I’d try the kde desktop instead. But I seem to be stuck in a loop. If I use redhat-config-packages and select “kde,” it tells me that I need two “cups” apps. I know Ximian installed cups stuff, and printing to a printer hanging off an XP machine actually works. (Cups has something to do with printing.) If I then deselect kde from the package manager and try to install the cups stuff from the RedHat CD, it fails because it conflicts with the Ximian cups stuff. I suppose I could uninstall the Ximian cups stuff by hand and then hope that cups reinstalls from the CD, but I am just about certain to miss some files and miss some file that keeps track of the files because I Don’t Know What I’m Doing™.So, just starting over seems like a good idea

Someone stop me before I get all windowsy on linux’s ass.

Categories: Uncategorized dw