Linux fun.

gistfile1.txt

1. I want reasonably recent GL on my Laptop (which has Intel graphics). Currently, I'm on SW
   rendering. So I try to install their drivers.
2. Oh, they only support Ubuntu (and derived) distribs >=13.04. I'm on Linux Mint 14, not 15,
   which is older - no dice.
3. Okay, check upgrade procedure - could update in place but official docs recommend never doing
   this. They do show how to back up and restore using their mintBackup tool.
4. So I mintBackup my home dir and SW selection. This feels quite clunky (why do I have to select
   the home dir manually, why are home + SW selection separate steps?) but seems to work fine,
   if slowly.
5. Second, download the new Mint 15 ISO and write to USB drive. There's a really simple GUI tool
   for this that works just fine, so yay.
6. Boot from the USB stick. Boot menu works, after that, some loading and then a black screen.
7. Try compatibility config etc., same problem. Huh? Mint 14 installer worked just fine.
8. Some googling later: http://askubuntu.com/questions/286887/blank-screen-after-update-to-13-04
   Aha. Apparently, starting from Ubuntu 13.04 / Mint 15, *something* in the system just sets the
   display brightness to 0 (off) at boot. Okay. Once I know that, just increase it using Fn keys;
   works.

   This is the first point where I think "if I had to debug this over my phone and my dad was on
   the other end of the line, this would've taken hours".
9. Run Installer. For what it's worth, I'm not a fan of the options (either install 15 and 14 side
   by side or wipe everything - can't we just have a real upgrade path?) but whatever.
10. Installer is done, reboot. Aaand.... boot loader not found. Apparently, they now support UEFI
   boot - yay, potentially faster boot. (And booo secure boot BS but I've turned that off anyway).
   And massive boo for not actually booting. What now?
11. I google some more and eventually find this: http://linuxmint.com/rel_olivia.php
   Known issues - "oh, BTW, the EFI boot that we use as a default on EFI-enabled devices? Yeah,
   that completely doesn't work sometimes. If that happens, copy/rename the files on the boot
   partition or add this new file, one of those ought to work!". Not wanting to reboot twice, I
   mount the boot partition, do both the copy *and* the config file with the path to the boot
   loader (I figure one of them ought to work) and reboot the machine. And hooray, the OS loads
   now.

   Chance that one or both of these steps will end up screwing me on a random grub update
   sometime later: medium. Definitely not "low" or "zero".
   Likelihood of me phone-debugging this had it been my dad on the other end of the line: Zero.
   For most users, the machine would've been a complete brick at this point.
12. But it still boots up with display brightness set to 0. That link I first posted had the
   magic echo command to fix it, but their recommendation ("just put it in rc.local") doesn't
   work. I put a sane default in rc.local, reboot - no change. "sudo /etc/rc.local" on
   terminal - aha, the *setting* works, but apparently rc.local doesn't run. At some point
   during this I also did another google run and ended up here:
   http://askubuntu.com/questions/152356/why-does-ubuntu-reset-brightness-settings-at-the-loading-screen/153518#153518
   which unfortunately didn't have any further details.
13. Okay, so why doesn't rc.local run? Some googling:
   http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=142438
   Okay, great! Others having this problem, no answers! So it's one of THOSE, huh?
14. Some more searching: Aha, something on StackExchange;
   http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/72267/cannot-get-rc-local-to-automatically-run-at-all
   Okay, upstart doesn't do rc.local anymore. Fair enough. Seems annoying to break it,
   but whatever. There's a lengthy and fairly condescendingly-written answer by "goldilocks"
   that explains that this is due to upstart and "you might as well learn how your init
   daemon works" blah blah. Honestly, I would much prefer not to have to learn, but okay;
   it's a fairly detailed answer and includes a sample script. I create another upstart
   conf file for me ("brightness.conf") that sets the display brightness based on his
   template. Reboot, doesn't work. Yay. What now?
15. "initctl start brightness" on the command line (sudo again, blah) *does* work however.
   So again, the conf file is good, it's just not getting run. Checking the lines I copied,
   my first assumption is that it's probably the dependencies - the .conf files are probably
   named differently between distros, so my script has unmet dependencies and won't run
   at startup. Okay. So I change it to read "start on startup" since I don't even need file
   systems mounted. Reboot again, it works, hooray!
16. Now it won't connect to WiFi. Go to WiFi options. Oh, the adapter is turned off! I flick
   it on. Nope, snaps back to off. I try that 2 or 3 times, confused. Finally, I notice
   that a bit left from it is a switch "Airplane mode" that's set to on. Flip it to off.
   Try switching on Network. Nope, still nothing. Leave the dialog, re-enter, "Airplane mode"
   is on again. I switch it off, re-enter, and no, it's back on. At this point, I'm thinking
   WTF?
17. Check around the laptop - nope, no HW "wireless off" switch (like some laptops have).
   Scan around the keyboard - aha, "Fn+F2" will apparently toggle WiFi. I try it, go to
   the settings - aha, "Airplane mode" is now off! I turn on WiFi and it works. (Yay.)
18. I reboot to make sure it sticks, and it does. While I'm there, I also turn off
   "legacy boot" (since I'm now on UEFI for better or for worse). This cuts a few seconds
   off the already fairly short boot time - nice.
19. Okay, at this point I have a freshly installed Linux Mint 15 without my data. Install
   updates first (figure I might as well do that while there's no custom config for anything!)
   and then start the restore.
20. Restore files is completely uneventful (as it should be!).
21. "Restore software selection" OTOH is scary - at some point I re-installs grub (?!?) and
   pops up what must be one of the worst-designed dialogs I've ever seen asking me where to
   install GRUB - with no way to say "shut up and go away". So I uncheck everything, click
   "Forward" and end up at another dialog where I have to check "Continue without installing
   GRUB" and click "forward" again. (Otherwise, I'll get back to the first screen). Who came
   up with this UI? Jesus.
22. Okay, at this point I should have my files and settings restored. Reboot to make sure
   the package install didn't break anything. System still boots (sad that this feels like
   a victory now!) but on logging in, I seem to have a black background now. (My old background
   on Mint 14 was a solid-color blue). And all the text (both on the desktop and in window
   titles etc.) is black with a black drop shadow now. And the window manager theme seems
   fucked.
23. That bit where I mentioned everything is black on black now? Apparently that includes
   gnome-terminal, yay! What is it now...
24. Once I find the theme panel for the UI, it turns out that the settings for "Controls",
   "Icons" and "Window borders" were all set to blank - presumably meaning that whatever
   was the setting there doesn't exist on the system. This was probably a relic from some
   of the config files from the old system referencing components that don't exist on Linux
   Mint 15. Whatever. I set them all to what seems to be their defaults and now have a
   usable UI.
25. I have some symlinks set up internally to manage config files, and apparently they didn't
   get backed up. This doesn't take more than 2 minutes to fix, but I still wonder why the
   mintBackup tool apparently defaults to not copying symlinks? (I backed up to a NTFS
   partition since that's the only large enough disk I had lying around, but I backed it up
   as a tar file, so FS impedance mismatch isn't the issue here). Shouldn't the defaults in a
   backup program be as "information preserving" as possible?

And that's where I am right now.

Note that I still haven't gotten around to actually installing any GL drivers (and the fun
breakage *that* will undoubtedly imply).