Upgrading to Windows 7 (Dual Boot with Ubuntu)

I’ve run with Vista for about a year now and on the whole have had no problems with it. Now I’m one of those people that hasn’t really had any problems with Vista – and frankly I’m not sure what all the fuss was about. Yeah, I was happy with XP and only upgraded to Vista because my new employer was using it.

So why was I looking to upgrade to Windows 7 now..? Well there were a number of reasons but the most pressing was that Vista was starting to get on my nerves. So some reason it started to run painfully slow. This was mainly due to the fact that the hard drive would be chattering away for a good 20 minutes after I had logged in – now that’s infuriating! What the hell was it doing.? Well I didn’t really have the drive to spend hours looking for the source so had just lived with it.

When Windows 7 hit Release Candidate I thought – “What the Hell”. If it all went to hell in a wheel barrow then I could either restore my XP system with the CD that came with the laptop or install Vista from the CD I had bought for the upgrade (OEM version purchased with a new HDD).

Tweeting my External IP Address from Ubuntu Server

In my previous post I described the problems I encountered while trying to configure my Ubuntu Server to be able to send emails via the command line (in my case it was actually via a script). The reason I wanted to do this was so that I could run the script on a scheduled basis to check my external IP address and notify me when it changed.

Why? Well my ISP has provided me with a dynamic IP address which changes on a periodic basis – not that I normally notice. Well if I want to be able to administrate my Ubuntu Server from outside my local network, i.e. over the Internet via SSH, then I need to know the outward facing IP address of my router.

I had already found a script to do this and tweaked it a little to run under a non-admin user but while it could detect the change I needed some mechanism for it to tell me. After a fruitless evening trying to set up email I gave up and decided to use the Twitter API instead.

Command Line EMail on Ubuntu Server Failed – Tweeting Instead

Now that my Ubuntu Server is up and running and configured for the network I want to be able to remotely access it via SSH. Now that’s easy, even for me. I have OpenSSH installed and my router configured and it works like a charm. The problem is that I don’t have a static IP address from my ISP so periodically I will be assigned with a new one – so how do i know what it is at any point in time? Answer, I don’t. So after browsing around I found a script that would resolve my external IP address and email it to me. Brilliant! Everything was working up to the point where it needed to send the email. Well I didn’t think it would be that difficult – I just wanted to be able to configure the system so that it could send me an email via the script. I found a few tutorials on the web and decided to follow one which boasted to be able to complete the setup in just 5 steps. There was even a comment from someone saying ‘Thanks, it worked where others didn’t’ – well it didn’t for me. Why is it so difficult?

Remotely Connecting to Ubuntu Server

In a previous post I managed to get my Ubuntu Server test system connected to my home network and the Internet (at least from the inside looking out). If you read the post then you will know that because my house is almost 100% wireless I needed to move the system into the hallway to be next to the router in order to physically connect. Now although I have a very nice hallway I don’t fancy sitting in it for hours with a keyboard on my lap. I also don’t really want to be running wires around the house and as I think that the system will end up in the garage I need to be able to connect remotely, from my Ubuntu or Windows systems.

Configuring Networking on Ubuntu Server After Installation

I recently bought an ‘old’ PC to use as a test system, running XP for my .NET development and Ubuntu Server (Jaunty 9.04) for my investigations into Linux. I have a few spare drives kicking around so having a totally separate installation of XP and Ubuntu would be a doddle. I fitted an additional 20GB drive and for now I’m content to open the side and swap the cables until I get around to sorting out a suitable boot loader.

The installation progressed without any problems until I reached the network configuration. As the router is in the hall and my usual connects via the wireless I didn’t have a network socket nearby – we only have one wired PC in the house. I opted for ‘Setup Networking Later’ option and the process completed without any further problems. Now, as a Windows ludite how do I configure the network without a GUI..?