Linux, Virtual Machines and Gnome Themes

I decided I wanted to play around with Linux a bit, but wanted it on my desktop machine instead of my laptop which currently is running OpenSuse. However, I didn't want to partition my windows machine, wanting to be able to move back and forth between Linux and windows quickly and easy. I searched online to see if it would be possible to run linux from within Windows.

After searching about, I found two peices of software, VMWare and Sun xVM VirtualBox. I tried VMWare first but I couldn't see any way of booting off a linux ISO (which is how I wanted it to run, having a Suse Linux iso on my computer still from when I downloaded it to put onto my laptop). Maybe I missed something, but then I downloaded Virtual Box and this was much clearer how to use it. Linux installed as normal, but from within a window in Windows Vista. The best thing was I could get on with using my computer whilst waiting for Linux to install. Once it had installed I have been able to run linux as though it was booting directly into linux, and I have had no problems with it yet.

I wish I had descovered this software sooner, as I have often installed linux onto computers when I have become bored of Windows, but then miss the none linux compatable software which I need to use for uni projects, home projects, etc. Anyway, this software is very nice, and it is free (and not just a trial version as far as I can tell), plus it is legal and easy to download full linux ISO's which you can install from, which also contain most of the software you could need. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to try out linux, or would like to use linux, but don't wish to switch 100% away from Microsoft. You can also try out multiple versions of linux as well as other operating systems, such as older versions of windows, DOS, etc.

Some links:

Virtual Box Website
Suse Linux Desktop 10 VMWare (for use with virtual desktop applications)

Installing linux while getting on with some 3D design work:

Once I had installed Linux and played around a bit I decided I wanted to try my hand at creating a theme for the gnome desktop environment. After looking around on the internet and at the existing gnome themes, I realized it was going to be easiest (for me) to make a theme based on the 'Crux' theme, which is mostly image based and so wouldn't involve so much messing about with numbers and finding out what each style was referring to.

Some screenshots of the theme: (graphics created in gimp)

Linux

One thing my games tutor Brad suggested was learning Linux and C++, both which are useful things to know and understand. Both of which I have actually wanted to know for a long time.

Strangely enough I had actually downloaded a version of Linux a week or so back, openSuSE 10.4. My Dad and I had previously experimented with this distribution of Linux back at versions 6.4 and then again at 8.0. We had always had problems with the operating system, never quite working properly. However, since I had been ill over the weekend and stuck up in my room and bored I decided to get Linux installed on my barely used laptop. After having some difficulties with swap partitions and the boot record (I had managed to mess the hard drive up some how) I managed to install the operating system and everything has worked perfectly from then. All the hardware compatibility issues I had found with previous versions were gone, and I am very happy with the system, and my laptop is at last getting use again.

While exploring the installed programs included with the OS and the other software on the disk I came across a program under development called qt designer. Bored, and having no idea what it was I opened it and found it was a widget maker. This uses C++ as the language for programming these widgets. I have worked my way through a couple of the basic tutorials, managing to get "hello world" and similar stupidly basic examples working. Hopefully as I continue with this I will learn C++ (which seems very similar to the actionscript I was using in my Flash Game project, so hopefully this won't be too hard).

So not only am I learning Linux and C++, I am learning C++ in Linux. I am also playing the Curse of Monkey Island which has nothing to do with anything, but its fun! (apparently using ScummVM this can be run on Linux, which if I was doing would actually tie in to this post but....I'm not.) :)

Also working on my website, started from scratch again. I wouldn't like to think about how many times I have done this. I guess its because I never really spend all that much time and effort making it look how I want, so whenever I come back to it I don't like it. Anyway I'm keeping it simple for now and will upload soon and hopefully put stuff on it. I keep writing about it in my posts so that when I read them back I will feel guilty and get on with it :P

The fact I have been posting so much lately shows how bored I am lately! The next thing I need to do for my course is get hold of Unreal Tornament 2003 (think thats the version I need) and a book on the game engine as we will be designing a level for it next term, which I am looking forward to but can imagine will be quite difficult so I should really get learning it now!

web pages I looked at and used to fix my hard drive issues in linux:

http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2005/11/how-to-repair-corrupt-mbr-and-boot.html
http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialAdditionalHardDrive.html
http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/mounting.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-33858.html