random PC tips

Due to the Kernel of my current Ubuntu Linux being incompatible with the new squashfs, I wanted to update my Ubuntu desktop to the newest version, 11.10. The old version I was using was 10.04 LTS (long-term support). The process had to be done in three parts, and took a quite long time (~3 hours). If you have a slow internet it could take much more. But at least the process was straightforward. First, I upgraded from 10.04 to 10.10 with this guide (quoted below). Upgrade from 10.04 LTS to 10.10 - Network Upgrade for Ubuntu Desktops (Recommended) You can easily upgrade over the network with the following procedure. Open the Software Sources application from the System -> Administration menu Select the sub menu Updates from the Software Sources application Change the Release Upgrade drop down to "Normal Releases" and close the application Press Alt-F2 and type update-manager  Click the Check button to check for new updates. If there are any updates to install

I was bummed to find out that there was no USB boot option on my K8N motherboard BIOS. Hoping that a BIOS update would give me that option, I started to figure out what to do. I downloaded the latest BIOS version from the ASUS K8N pages . (download -> select your OS -> BIOS -> Bios version 1011). The version 1011 was released in 2006, so I figure that will be the last version they will release. Then I got the Asus Update program for Win XP, from softpedia . First, I saved the current BIOS for backup reasons. I selected "Save current BIOS to file" and clicked Next, chose a folder and saved it as "oldBIOS.rom". Then I updated the BIOS with "Update BIOS from file". I chose the new BIOS rom file "1011.rom" I downloaded earlier.   The BIOS Flash window. After a short while the BIOS flashing window appeared, with info on my current BIOS version and the one I was updating into. I figured it would be safer to clear the CMOS checksum t