IT on Michael’s Domain

Overstretched IT support

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The problem: Crash during boot

More than a year ago, a few weeks after receiving my new work computer, it failed to reboot after a system update and got stuck early in the boot process. I soon realised I could still start the computer using “safe mode”. Strangely, nothing seems to be wrong because when I manually exit safe mode at the end of the boot process, the computer works fine. Our IT department has tried to fix the problem many times without success. I even had to work without a computer for about 3 weeks while it was “under repair”. You probably know how much work you can get done without a computer: close to zero.My computer runs Cubbli 20.04.06LTS, an unofficial Ubuntu spin maintained by the University of Helsinki for internal use. Although you can do bioinformatics on a Windows or macOS computer, Linux is hands-down the first choice. Many bioinformatics developers don’t even bother to release their software for Windows. MacOS works mostly fine (since it is also UNIX-compliant OS), but I would have to pay twice the price for the same calculating power.The computer is a Lenovo P350 with an NVIDIA T1000 graphics card, which I use to address two screens. I mainly need the graphics card for 3D modelling, phylogenetics analysis and similar tasks. This graphics card may have caused the trouble. I initially did not want to buy this model, but since there was a shortage of graphic cards at the time, IT convinced me to swap out my original choice against the T1000.

Why I am running Windows 11 now

Sun, 03 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

My work computer broke in early summer: the graphics card failed. I used it without a graphics card since, but a few weeks ago the hard drive started to make problems. I ordered a new machine, but since the new Lenovo models will be coming soon, IT asked whether I want to wait for a few weeks in order to get the newer model (the P350 instead of the P340). So I have to bridge this time with something. I tried the old desktop that controlled the Äkta Avant, but it was pretty unusable (boot time ~ 3 minutes), but the solution appeared to be our old HP Elitebook G3. Most people who know me know that I am a big fan of open source software. Many of the best open source programs can run on Windows OS: Firefox, VLC, Inkscape, Blender, Scribus, Zotero. However, some open source software has never been ported to Windows. And often, the Linux version of the software runs better than the Windows version. One example is Gnumeric, Gnome’s spreadsheet calculator, which has an excellent chart export function to SVG. I have often recommended to my Windows-using students to install the Linux Subsystem for Windows (WSL) in order to run Linux programs, but only now have I done so myself. In order to do this, I needed to upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11. I followed these instructions: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/tutorials/gui-appsStrangely when I tried to upgrade, Windows complained that my hardware is not “compatible” with Windows 11, but nevertheless started and succeeded with the upgrade.Here you can see a Win 11 running on a decomissioned HP Elitebook G3, which my university had refused to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 in 2019 (even though it was technically one day within the limits). I did a fresh install of Win 10 with the official installation media which I downloaded from Microsoft. For some strange reason, it never asked me for a license (even though the I had exchanged the SATA-SSD for an NVMe SSD). In fact the computer is actually very fast and usable, and I will definitely keep it around for a few years as my only Windows machine, because there are still rare occasions when I need a physcial Windows installation.On the downsider, the Win 10 install was a PITA because my university IT locks the BIOS, and once the machine is decomissioned, they don’t feel the responsibility to give these machines a second life. IMHO, this is totally against the sustainability goals of our university. Fortunately, one can mostly work around a locked BIOS. In the worst case, one needs to exchange it against a spare BIOS from China.

Meine Podcast-Favoriten

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Meine Podcast-Favoriten. Fast jede Episode ist fantastisch:

ComputerNachrichten und Informationen über Computer-Sicherheit und wie das Internet und Computer funktionieren: Security Now!
Alles über Linux: The Linux Action Show!
Jede Woche wird in FLOSS Weekly ein neues Open Source Projekt vorgestellt.

Wissenschaft und Skeptizismus

My favorite podcasts

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

My favorite podcasts. I enjoy almost every single episode:

Computer-related stuffSecurity news and education about security and how computers and the internet work: Security Now!
Everything Linux: The Linux Action Show!
Every week one Open Source project is the topic: FLOSS Weekly

Science and Skepticism