About to upgrade my operating system. Might be out a while.

[Atash Hagmahani]

OK, Lilya, what was that about my cloud of bad luck?

 

After spending weeks trying to troubleshoot various problems, I discover that my relatively new HP dvd1140 DVD reader/writer doesn't read anymore. I don't know what happened to it. As a result, I can't boot off the install DVD to upgrade my operating system, which I was hoping would solve a whole bunch of built-up problems including and especially my sound system going out on me.

I'm going to back up my hard drive, get another dvd reader/writer, and upgrade my operating system.

As we all know, operating system upgrades NEVER go well, especially when I'm doing them, so don't be surprised if I am out for a while. 

[Atash Hagmahani]

Good news is that my operating system has been upgraded. This turned into an expensive project, as I had to replace a DVD drive that went bad, and sprang for a new hard disk to simplify matters.

It will take a while to re-install everything, and work around various bugs.

[Lady Lilya]

I'm telling you, Atash.  You gotta do something about your bad luck in the technology department.  Some kind of good luck charm?  Exorcism?  I dunno. 

I know it must be really frustrating for you, but I can't help but get some amusement out of the fact that it is so predictable. 

[Atash Hagmahani]

For anyone who wants to install Skype on 64 bit OpenSUSE:

http://albertopassalacqua.com/?p=514

For some reason, this workaround for a bug in the dependencies is totally missing on the OpenSUSE forums. It worked for me.

Lilya, now I am WAAAAY cool. I've got microphone working on SUSE, and video on Skype. Tomorrow I'll try to get Cinelerra installed. That's another one that's not working yet.