Offlist: Re: How can I logically troubleshoot my Ubuntu/Gnome/(GConf?) problem? (was: Re: Troubleshooting without help from others)

[Jason Spiro]

2007/3/15, CLIFFORD ILKAY <clifford_ilkay-biY6FKoJMRdBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> replied to my
off-list message:
> On Thursday 15 March 2007, you wrote:
...
> > Cool! I didnt think of checking the bug tracker.  So if a dist
> > upgrade doesn't fix it, I'll try that.
> >
> > (The thing that initially worried me about the dist-upgrade idea
> > was that I might make the problem worse. :-))
>
> It doesn't sound like you could make it worse. Worst case scenario,
> how long would it take you to reinstall? You have to weigh the cost
> of time in troubleshooting against doing a fresh install, even if
> it's another distro. There are no hard and fast rules. You have to
> use your judgment when to forge ahead or cut your losses and burn it
> down.

If my goal was to save time, I think I should have reinstalled Ubuntu
already.  :-)  When I am at home, I tend to spend time troubleshooting
to gain the experience that it provides.

> Case in point, last summer, I was going to speak at a conference and
> wanted to make sure that I wouldn't have any problems with my laptop
> connecting to the projector once I got there so I tried hooking it up
> to an external monitor. I was running Mandriva at the time. No matter
> what I did, there were no signs of life on the external VGA out
> connector. Apparently, the version of Xorg in that version of
> Mandriva had a bug that effectively rendered it useless in that
> scenario. Since ignoring the problem wasn't an option, I had to
> either fix the problem myself or use another distro. Since I had
> neither the time nor the inclination to fix something that in all
> likelihood was going to be fixed in a later release anyway, I decided
> to install Kubuntu. I was able to see video out but it wasn't
> synching. I fiddled with Kubuntu for two days(!) before I gave up in
> disgust and move on to Fedora Core 6, which worked out-of-the-box. I
> haven't been completely happy with FC. I've hard more hard "freezes"
> with FC6 in the few months that I ran it than I did in the years I
> ran Mandriva. I still miss Mandriva but the cost of staying with FC
> isn't higher than the cost of moving back to Mandriva in terms of my
> time.

It's funny how often it happens that something works in one distro but
not another.

P.S. Clifford, I hope you don't mind that I am replying to list.

-- 
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