Another Software reload

So for those that don't know, last time I went to update my OS things went horribly. I moved my windows partition, and it didn't like it. So I loaded Ubuntu desktop, installed Xfce, and then deleted Unity. This for some reason was very bad. on boot up it would give me errors and rarely would it shut down with out a cpu timeout. Requiring me to hardshutdown almost EVERY TIME. Needless to say this made me unhappy. So while I was on Staycation I took the opportunity to reload software. This time I was determined to do it right... or at least closer to right.

First off I installed Ubuntu server. Next (I don't know why I was surprised) I had to add my wifi and manually bring up my wifi card. It wasn't hard, just took me by surprise. Next I installed Xfce4. Some tinkering and now that works as expected. Then installed just the packages I wanted from synaptic. 

So far so good. It boots up into the shell, and then I start the xfce. Often I'm doing shell work so this doesn't actually bother me. I have another laptop I'm using as a game server, it's likely I'll take time to reload that one the same way. I did however learn the importance of checking for typos when trying to connect manually to the internet at my favorite coffee shop.

So how you do this, on ubuntu is sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces. Then just add

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid RouterName
wpa-psk NetworkPassword

Then you just :wq out of that and sudo ifup -v wlan0. you should be able to  ping google at this point.

when I googled this there was a hot mess of answers mucking about with wpa supplican and such, that's all automagically done in the server. Don't make life harder than it is. :)

Focalwanna LED Music Spectrum Electronic DIY LED Flash Kit 12*11FFT(with housing)

Picked this up at Amazon, it's a pretty simple kit IF your into soldering SMD. If I were to do this again I'd invest in some solder paste, and use the reflow oven at the local makerspace. All surface mount, which wouldn't be so bad except for all the tiny LEDs in the front. Go slow, remove them from the package one at a time, check polarity solder in one side. Then you can solder in all the other sides when they are all on. That way if you have to remove one it's not a huge ordeal. Instructions came with it. It seems pretty hackable, though most of the heavy lifting is done by two chips on the back. They shorted me a green and a blue LED, and for some reason I don't have output from the speakers. I paired this with an external speaker though and it looked awesome. For the price it's a nice project, and well worth the effort. What an effort it is.