OT: Hotel wifi and general update Was: sddm ...

Mark Knecht posted on Mon, 18 Jul 2016 09:26:56 -0700 as excerpted:

> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 8:49 AM, Duncan <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> [N]o worries about *DM at all.  I just login at the text prompt
>> regardless of whether I'm headed for X or not, and startx just as if i=
t
>> was any other app I wanted to run at the text prompt. =3D:^)
>>
> I just knew when I saw you had replied that you'd say that! ;-)

=3D:^)
=20
> Here at home we share machines. My wife, much less my 86 year old
> mother, wouldn't be at all comfortable with a solution being that
> technical, and generally speaking, I like to know that graphics are
> working when a machine boots vs she logs in, types startx and something
> fails - which happened here after the Plasma 5 upgrade. My main machine
> has run 3 monitors for years with no xorg.conf file but after the
> upgrade it didn't work anymore and X wouldn't start at all.

I understand the other, not so technical, people thing.  Were I closer to=
=20
my folks so it would be practical for me to handle their computer stuff,=20
I imagine I'd do similar with them...

As for X not starting at all, that's actually how I ended up with a text-
only login a decade and a half ago.  I had just switched from MS and=20
still had an nVidia card that I had to run the proprietary drivers on as=20
before I switched I had thought to check for Linux drivers when I bought=20
the card, but I didn't know I had to check for /freedomware/ Linux=20
drivers.  Which was a problem as I wanted to build and run the latest=20
kernels and was thus updating kernels frequently.  Of course that meant I=
=20
had to rebuild the nVidia kernel module rather frequently as well, with=20
the result if I didn't being a failed X and *DM login GUI.

Of course that meant I had to do a text login to do the nVidia kernel=20
module build anyway, and that tended to "just work", so once I discovered=
=20
startx, I started just logging in at the text console and using startx if=
=20
I wanted X/kde.

The final straw was when a mandrake cooker (their supposedly faster-
updating beta program... that I ultimately left for gentoo when it got a=20
kde feature release plus a bugfix release behind kde upstream) update=20
broke whatever *DM GUI login I was using (whatever the mandrake default=20
was).  Simple enough fix for me: just quit using it. =3D:^)

> Having a DM is kind of nice when managing other people's experiences bu=
t
> this sddm choice seems oriented toward single user machine and less
> toward general usage cases. I suppose so many people use laptops these
> days it makes sense but not for me.
>=20
> Good to hear from you. Has the networking thing worked out OK for you?

Could be better, could be worse.  The wifi-N adapter works reasonably=20
well in the hotel, tho I do have to reboot it every so often as it=20
apparently stops passing the VoIP phone packets after a week or so so and=
=20
the VoIP adapter starts flashing and I can't get dialtone.

But I sure miss the cable internet, and being able to get youtube @ 1080p=
=20
without a system update interfering with the streaming.  Much of the time=
=20
on the hotel's wifi I can only get 320p, and the other day when I tried=20
to sync (via git) after nearly a month (been busy house shopping, but=20
have one signed up and thru initial inspections now), I had a /terrible/=20
time completing a full git pull on the gentoo repo, as it kept dying part=
=20
way thru.

There's two ways to look at it:

1) It's "complimentary" wifi provided by the hotel, at least I'm not=20
having to pay the $5/day extra they charge for priority wifi.

2) I (or in my case the city for me) am(/is) /already/ paying $100/day=20
for the room.  In this day and age, not having decent internet in lodging=
=20
costing that sort of money is entirely ridiculous.

I know one thing for sure.  If I were paying for it myself, I'd either be=
=20
paying way less for the suite, or it WOULD have good internet, even if it=
=20
meant a cheap motel and spending the difference on internet.

OTOH, the hotel, Homewood Suites by Hilton, does participate in HHonors,=20
the Hilton frequent-stay club, and they get a free internet upgrade.  If=20
I were paying for it myself, I imagine I'd be going that route.  Given=20
that based on the paperwork I signed, the city is apparently paying=20
standard rate for me anyway, no discounts of their own, I can't imagine=20
I'd be paying /too/ much more as an HHonors member, and possibly less,=20
while getting the internet upgrade in the process.

So yeah, mixed-bag, but I'm surviving.  I'm about 50 days into the 90-day=
=20
booking, and the house (actually condominium) sale is supposed to close=20
in a month (Aug 19), giving me a week or so after to get at least basic=20
furniture in place and move in before the hotel booking runs out, so I'm=20
more than half thru it, now.

Other than internet, I've no complaints.  Nice enough hotel, and while=20
the city did displace me from my owned trailer, rented space, I'm getting=
=20
a MUCH better place I'll actually own the deed to now, that as a rental=20
would go for more than twice the money I was paying where I was, so=20
really, nothing to complain about at all... but for the so-so internet in=
=20
the hotel they put me up in for the 90 days...

But hey, I was afraid I wouldn't have a stable enough connection to even=20
do youtube and the VoIP phone thing at all, and at least /that/ hasn't=20
been the case. =3D:^)

--=20
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman