Sunday, November 15, 2015

Curse of the Forced Updates (Again) - VM Hosed

Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!

I just managed to completely hose/screw up my Linux VM while trying to fix issues with sound + clipboard + display acceleration being broken after upgrading VirtualBox to a newer version. The VirtualBox change in turn was brought about because of one of those infernal Windows Updates that forced itself on my machine, which ended up completely clobbering/breaking some of the VirtualBox bits and pieces (i.e. I'm guessing the WU ended up deleting/overwriting/"misplacing" some files VirtualBox needed to do its business) thus preventing the VM's from running at all!  Argh!  Damned automatic/forced updates!

Damn! Damn! Damn!




On the plus side, I this was just somewhat of a toy VM that I'm not really using for serious production work. Also, since the it's hosed and not easily recoverable, I now get back some 12 GB of space on my main hard drive (bringing things back from the 1.5GB brink! yay!)

On the downside, I've just lost my toy VM with all it's apps and hand configured stuff that's needed to get *any* OS into an acceptable state, along with most of the tests I was doing for the labs I was teaching earlier this year, the source files for the rough business cards I'd quickly bashed together before my trip, and several months of game scores. Also, since I've been running this one for a while, I'll need to download a new ISO before setting up my next one. Gah!

Luckily, this happened on the VM and NOT my main machine/OS setup with all the stuff I've got going on there (touchwood!). It's also nice to think that now I have a nice chance to give the new KDE stuff a decent spin for a change (now that the disk space is available) ;)

~~~

Then again, putting everything into perspective, we just have to look at the tragic and despicable events in Paris last night. Lots of innocent people, civilians, going about their daily lives one moment... dead the next. Slaughtered by a bunch of deluded, cold-blooded brutal savages. Many others traumatised and put through horrors that people really shouldn't be exposed to...

What is the loss of a few files to the loss of human lives...

We should all be grateful that we weren't caught up in the carnage wrecked by these disgusting acts, and are safe and sound reading/writing this now. Many others were not so lucky.

For those in Paris/France, for those who've been affected - personally or who know someone who has - my deepest condolences and sympathies. Stay strong. Let us not let these terrorists get the better of us!

Peace.

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