Ubuntu Lumina - Devlog 1.2 (March 28th, 2020)
Published: 2020-03-29 00:17:22

Very important updates over the past couple of hours.

1. Virtual Box stopped working
2. QEMU freezes 
3. VMWare combusts my laptop
4. GNOME-Boxes screams in pain
5. There are plans I have to get around this
6. Those plans aren't pretty
7. Good news though

# Virtual Box stopped working
So for the past year, I have used Virtual Box for most of my VM work. I install it from the Debian installer binary. I uninstalled it, then I tried installing it through APT, failed. Snapcraft? Failed. Same with Flatpak, RPM, PacAPT and even the usual tried and true method of installing from source. Now, why did I uninstall it? Well, it crashed my laptop faster than I would crash a car if my lightweight self of a white person with VERY little driving experience would crash drunk driving in the Rockey Mountains. Now, why did it do this? Why is reinstalling not working? Probably because my dumb butt runs Lumina poorly installed with maybe a couple of dependencies missing and also I install a bunch of crap from different sources. Please read the above. Also with that, it might not be uninstalled properly or something and I might even need a new boot but that will be an issue (Will explain later)/.

# QEMU Freezes
So what I mean is that it freezes the terminal running QEMU, sometimes my actual desktop. Who knows why this could be... maybe the poorly installed desktop I did as an experiment **not running my** ***own god-damned scripts***. Or maybe the same issue with Virtual Box, or who knows I do a lot of LN commands to the /bin directory I might have screwed it up once or 70 times.

# VMWare combusts my laptop
Not much else here other than it's probably stealing my CPU and RAM which I have only 2 CPU cores and 4 Gigs of RAM. I have known VMWare to be easier but at the same time a bit fatter in terms of resources.

# GNOME-Boxes screams in pain
A huge thing to mention here is that GNOME-Boxes is a front-end to QEMU and in general a bit higher in resources as it can keep multiple QEMU boxes running/paused at once. Has the same issue as QEMU in general but it also causes my laptop to create this horrid sound that sounds like a turbine at full blast flowing while I have severe... whatever that disease is that makes your ears consistently ring while I am playing Nickleback at 150% volume with really powerful headphones. This might seem excessive of an explanation but it is 100% accurate.

# Plans to get around this
Plan A: Reinstall Ubuntu (or a flavor of Ubuntu)
Plan B: Install a different distribution
Plan C: Fix my current install
Plan D: Buy a new laptop

# The plans aren't pretty
Plan A Problems:
- Ubuntu decides to only half work sometimes when installing from the full ISO. The Mini ISO works good, however the mini ISO basically means I have a base Ubuntu core with nothing. Not the biggest issue but still very inconvenient.
- The only working flavors that *decide to install at all* are the mini ISO, Lubuntu, and Xubuntu. While this is good for performance this comes with caveats themselves.
- Lubuntu is weirdly slow for no real explainable reason.
- Xubuntu always fails to install without the terminal emulator for some also unexplainable reason. 
- Lubuntu and Xubuntu problems can't be explained online because only I am unlucky enough to experience two MASSIVE issues
- The only WM that works and is stable on my machine is Fluxbox but like Lubuntu has a for-no-explainable-reason slowness problem. 
- TinyWM installs and is fast but can't decide whether or not it exists.
- Same with other non-C++ implementations of TinyWM.

Plan B Problems:
- Ubuntu is the only distribution that can take the Wifi drivers my terrible laptop decided it wanted.
- Realtek RTL8723DE Wifi drivers do exist on other distros but tend to cry on installation on my machine and act like 14 years old me. Nothing should act like 14 years old me.
- My hard drive doesn't like other distributions
- My laptop, in general, is like a picky toddler who'd rather starve to death than eat the one specific food it likes but doesn't always want to eat it.

Plan C Problems: 
- That'd take more time and energy than building a nuclear power plant only using a hammer, wood, AND I have to keep it from melting down. Mind you, no nails or screws.
- I have no f-ing clue what is broken

Plan D Problems:
- HAHAHAHA... I can't replace my $20 phone from Best Buy, what makes you think I can buy even a cheap $200 laptop? I can't even afford that stupid Pinebook they made that was $99!!
- Beg my friends for a laptop? Pfffft, my friends are ALSO PRETTY F-ING POOR! Also kind of a dick move to ask for a laptop. Or anything in general without anything in return to them. 
- On that begging subject still, I am a social coward. I am brave enough for many things. Not brave enough boi for this! ![](https://media1.tenor.com/images/0ec2064071ad03b7daac9f8d409d89d5/tenor.gif?itemid=13221374)

# Good news!!
*"Whenever life throws bricks at your head, use the brain damage to create something special and more interesting"* - Gandhi probably.

While yes this whole debacle is about as solvable as finding the Zodiak killer, I am pretty darn determined to find something that doesn't involve quitting. Who knows, maybe I will be lucky enough to find something genuinely special of a situation. Like getting my ***usable*** laptop out of storage and fix the screen. It has 4 cores and 8 gigs of RAM, runs VMs like a charm. I mean my family is moving in a little less than a month to our actually nice house. If COVID-19 isn't gonna be mean. Or as mean. Hopefully, Colorado isn't in Lockdown by that point. Or restrictions are less. Or moving into a newly built house can be an exception. Only time and my stubborn ass will tell.