Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

Friday, October 26, 2018

Bigboy






A couple years ago my 27" iMac desktop's graphics chip de-soldered itself from its board due to heat buildup inside the nice-to-look-but-shittily-ventilated iMac case.

I took the hard-drive that held all my images out of the iMac and decided that I'd build my own Ubuntu-based computer.

I've never (ever) looked back.

With the help of a friend from work and the web-site www.pcpartpicker.com, I worked up a parts list and placed orders with multiple vendors for things like an AMD 8-core processor, 32GB RAM, 500GB SSD boot drive, 1TB mechanical auxilliary drive, 750 Watt power supply, graphics card, Asus Motherboard, CPU cooler, keyboard, WiFi adapter, 4k Samsung Monitor, and a Corsair Hi-Airflow case (above).

My intent with this build configuration was simple: I wanted a ripping fast machine that was easy to service. At the end of a three hour build party with my two brothers, Bigboy woke up and has been running w/out problems ever since. No more MS Windows bullshit and no more Apple closed architecture and form factor that prioritizes beauty over function.

Bigboy runs mostly open-source applications with the exception of Lightroom.  Lightroom only runs on Mac and Windows, so I run Windows 10 inside a VMWare virtual machine on top of Ubuntu. This localizes the Windows nastiness. Lightroom works well, if a bit slow, inside the VM.

Last night I did a major operating system update - going from Ubuntu 16.04LTS to Ubuntu 18.04LTS. I did it by doing:
sudo -i
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get autoremove
apt-get install
reboot
sudo -i
apt-get install update-manager-core
do-release-upgrade
reboot
The whole upgrade process took a few hours to complete. I was watching a movie while it was going on. I checked in on the upgrade every once in a while to see if I had to answer any questions about replacing or keeping config files for some OS subsystems.

In the end - Ubuntu 18.04 came up without any drama, thank God.

Once the new OS was running, I had to tweak the 18.04 GUI fonts which were too small for these eyes to read. To do this I installed the package "Gnome Tweaks." This application allows users to modify the display scaling factor, basic OS fonts and lots more. In no time, I got the system fonts to a size than even a geezer could read.

The Bigboy build experience taught me a bunch about making and maintaining a computer.  More than that though - it was a huge confidence-builder when it comes to learning and applying new skills.


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