The Golden Ratio

The newest version of Ubuntu was just released, so I decided to do a fresh install on my laptop.

Yesterday I installed a fresh copy of Xubuntu on my laptop. I opted to go for Xubuntu instead of the default Ubuntu since I’m going to try out a tiling window manager, specifically Xmonad, so it felt like a waste to install all the default Gnome applications when I won’t be using them. To make the installation even more different I installed from the Alternate CD so I could get my whole system encrypted. I probably don’t need the encryption, but it feels better to know that it is encrypted when I drag the computer around with me and keep work related stuff on it.

Installing from the Alternate CD almost worked as easy as it should have. It started up just fine, and in the start phase there was an option to partion and encryption the entire disk. All fine and dandy so far. The problem arrived alittle bit later when the installation process was nearing the end. During the “Setting users and password”-phase the installation suddenly stopped. I checked the /var/log/syslog file, and the last logged message from the installer was user-setup: Done, but after that nothing happened. When I tried to reinstall again the same thing happened. This time I decided to ignore the problem, and reboot from another tty-terminal. The sytem then managed to boot the new Xubuntu, and everything seems to be working fine. I’ve been using the system for a couple of hours now and I haven’t noticed anything missing. I am a bit curious about which part of the installation process I skipped over, and when that will come back and bite me.