Windows 8 Developer Preview

Let's say out of professional interest, I installed Windows 8 Developer Preview (64-bit) on my home laptop/netbook, a Lenovo x120e. I had replaced the hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD). The combination proved to be a very quick Windows Developer Preview experience (seems it likes, dual core, SSD, or both). Windows did not automatically detect drivers for my Wireless Network Connection (now called "Wi-Fi") or SD Card reader. After pointing Windows to the location of the Windows 7 wireless drivers, Windows Developer Preview found an updated driver via Windows Update.

My intention was to learn more about the next version of Windows and try to get used to the Start screen. Microsoft has a history of retiring old interfaces. Given I'm playing with pre-Beta code and interface, there is much that is awkward to do using the Windows screen or the Metro UI. I intended to give it longer but find myself immediately clicking the Desktop tile and using the "Desktop" pre-defined toolbar, a "Start Menu" toolbar I pointed to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu, and using the Windows key + R to bring up the Run dialog to tell Windows what I want to launch. Where I previously was learning to use Run as a side interest and productivity booster (bypassing the mouse), I am relying on it in the Preview more than the toolbars I added or the Start Screen button. I've come to enjoy the Metro game Tube Rider, and the Start screen feels natural for it, but as I spend much of my time with the laptop searching the web and watching videos, I spend most of my time on the Desktop. The Start screen doesn't feel natural to the way I use Windows. I don't like that single clicking the network icon slides in a wireless networks Metro pane (Action Center, Volume, and Power still bring up pop-up windows). Restart and Shut Down is awkward, and the preferred way to Log Off doesn't seem apparent to me.

My next phase of experimenting with Windows Developer Preview was to install it on my old netbook and an old laptop. I tried to install Windows Developer Preview 64-bit on my Samsung NC20 and got Microsoft's version of the sad Mac screen (the new blue screen) before it even got into setup with the error IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL. Windows Developer Preview 32-bit installed relatively without issue, but it doesn't detect the VIA Chrome video adapter, instead using the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter driver. Device Manager also lists the status of Microsoft Basic Display Adapter and VIA MSP Cardbus Host Controller as "This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. (Code 12)". Disabling the wired network controller (which I don't use) in the BIOS didn't help. On the Lenovo laptop, Windows detects the display adapter as "AMD Radeon HD 6300 series Graphics (Engineering Sample), which I think is funny. Speaking of Sad Mike screens (blue screens), the Lenovo returns from sleep into a blue screen. I recently turned off the automatic restart to see the error, KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR (volmgrx.sys).

I also installed Windows Developer Preview on a Dell Inspiron 8200. It also uses the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, and I had to point to the drivers for the modem (LOL). Windows better understood the audio when I pointed it to the audio driver. I noticed that the Metro way of displaying to Windows or split screening doesn't work on the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. Also, the SadWin screen (blue screen) I noticed getting on the Inspiron 8200 was the error "CACHE_MANAGER". I installed WinDP on this laptop because I wanted to try installing it on the oldest hardware I could get my hands on that met the minimum requirements. I installed it on the Samsung NC20 for contrast and to send the telemetry data. I'm pretty sure I'll switch it back to Unix\Linux of some sort though.

I'm curious to see what Microsoft does with it. I looked forward to both Windows Vista and Windows 7, used them at home, and when I started getting used to Vista and 7 at home found myself trying to do Vista and 7 things on my work Windows XP until I moved to Windows 7 at work as well. I remember I did not look forward to Windows ME or Windows XP (I was a big Windows 2000 fan) and my current view of Windows 8 is cautious and uncertain.

FreeBSD 8.2 i386 X11, XFCE4, sound, Firefox3, and Flash on Samsung NC20

Last time I tried it, I was unable to get Flash Player working on FreeBSD 7.2. I was able to get it working on FreeBSD 8.2 on my Samsung NC20 using the ports system. I didn't try ports last time, but it wasn't as hard as I thought. First I installed X11 (xorg-7.5) and Xfce4. Then I installed Firefox 3.6 from packages and loaded sound.

I installed xorg-7.5 from packages from the FreeBSD 8.2 RELEASE i386 DVD:
mount -t cd9660 /dev/cd0 /cdrom
pkg_add /cdrom/packages/All/xorg-7.5.tbz

To configure xorg, I added hald_enabled="YES" and dbus_enabled="YES" to /etc/rc.conf. I restarted and ran Xorg -configure then edited xorg.conf.new to include my screen resolution (Modes 1280x800). To test, I ran X -config /root/xorg.conf.new -retro. Since this worked, I switched to tty1, back to tty0, pressed CTRL+C then copied /root/xorg.conf.new to /etc/X11/xorg.conf (cp xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf).

I couldn't find Xfce4 on the DVD, so I had to get it from the internet. I went with Xfce because I don't like KDE4 or Gnome 3 (I liked Gnome 2 and KDE 3). I might want to try LXDE instead of Xfce.
pkg_add -r xfce4

I restarted and ran startxfce4. I got the latest Firefox I could get from packages:

pkg_add -r firefox

I enabled sound in /boot/loader.conf by adding the line snd_hda_load="YES" then I got the flash plugin from ports (some steps may be out of order):

portsnap fetch
portsnap extract
(if I had ran portsnap extract before, I would have run portsnap update)
cd /usr/ports/www/nspluginwrapper
make
(then I added linux_enable="YES" to /boot/loader.conf, saved, and restarted)
cd /usr/ports/www/nspluginwrapper
make install
make clean
cd /usr/ports/www/linux-f10-flashplugin10
make
make install
make clean
mkdir /usr/local/lib/browser_plugins/
ln -s /usr/local/lib/npapi/linux-f10-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so /usr/local/lib/browser_plugins/
ln -sv /usr/local/lib/browser_plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so /usr/local/lib/firefox3/plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so
nspluginwrapper -v -a -i
(nspluginwrapper -v -a -i needs to be run by each user, according to the FreeBSD Handbook)

FreeBSD 8.2 i386 on Samsung NC20

I decided to look at FreeBSD again. I've read that FreeBSD is a powerful operating system behind some well known websites, appliances, and services, so I thought it would be useful to learn. Also, where better to learn a Unix-like operating system than one that traces back to Unix?

The Samsung NC20 is a VIA Nano-based netbook. Its platform is not as widespread as an Intel or AMD-based system, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised I ran into problems. I found I could not install FreeBSD 7.4, either as an AMD64 or i386. I could not install FreeBSD 8.2 AMD64 either. FreeBSD 8.2 i386 could be installed, but I had to disable ACPI at first, then alter /boot/loader.conf to include the line debug.acpi.disabled="sysresources".

Next up, I wanted a wireless connection. My wireless connection is WPA-PSK using TKIP encryption. Things changed since last I looked at FreeBSD. I needed to alter /etc/rc.conf to include:
hostname="FreeBSDNC20"
wlans_ath0="wlan0"
wlan_tkip_load="YES"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"

I had to add my wireless SSID and passphrase to /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf. Because my original wpa_supplicant.conf was empty, I ran the following two commands (the first to verify the output):
wpa_passphrase ssid ssid_passphrase
wpa_passphrase ssid ssid_passphrase > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

After a restart, ifconfig reported an IP address. Success!