Cant use Linux (av_linux) anymore... have to remove grub. help?

[canezila]

Tech high_up guy comes into my music room and I find out that linux is no option... Not his problem.  He just enforces rules from the 'top'.  But still, what a bummer.  So now I have to have only a pc... or a mac ... and life is not that good right now. 

How can I replace the functionality of jack, rosegarden, qsynth, mscore (finale,.. I know), ardour (mac port maybe), man I am bummed. 

Any advice on how to remove grub?  I jhave to return the computers to original state and must remove grub.  All indications point to some dumb xp disc to restore the garbage windows boot process.  Can anyone confirm? 

 

[GMaq]

Hi,

Wow sorry to hear that Canezila! That's a bummer! Somebody high up must have watched 'The Social Network' movie and how Mark Zuckerburg took down the Harvard network with a Linux box...lol

Anyway it's been many years since I did this but I believe you are correct that you'll need the Windows OS disc to rebuild the MBR. Unfortunately my recollection of exactly what steps to follow is pretty vague...

[canezila]

That is funny!!

I just made a remastersys DVD of my distro... I am starting to feel better now.  And the DVD iso was 3.8G.  Bigger than I thought possible.  Feeling even better than my first feeling better.

Now onto my xp cd hunt.  I feel dirty now...

[canezila]

It was 3.1G.

Anyway... I will use the DVD until next av_linux comes out.  By then, hope the persistent storage works.  Otherwise, I will just use part of the hard drive for storage.... but I will get by in this fashion. 

[trulan]

If you still have Windows installed, you don't need the install disc if I recall correctly.  You just need to boot into Windows, then rewrite the MBR by one method or another.  You need to "fdisk your MBR", as one Windows user told me.  But there are MBR cleaners (virus/bootkit removal tools) that will rewrite the MBR too.  Once that's done, you can redo your partitions and you're good to go.

[canezila]

Thanks.  I could not figure out, at the time, how to fix the mbr.  Reading what you recommended makes sense...wish I read that then.  But I used the restore discs and it is freshly installed... though not to spec.  Hope I dont get written up for that one

One final question.  The head tech said they can see if a computer is not running windows.... they call it a rouge computer.  This is, in their mind, bad.  Regardless of its use and function.  And they can track this for 4 years. I know web browsers have something that can change their identity.  Assume a different computer or OS... Is there truth to this? 

My plan is to purchase a computer for school (yes, out of my money..not the schools)... so I can run AV_Linux.  Laptop I guess.  Rather cheaper and faster box computer that I can build.... but then I will tether my 4g (OR 3G) as wifi and never have to be on their server/internet. 

Sucks to jump through hoops just to provide my students with the best music education I possibly can.  The alternative is to do without Linux and focus on XP or 7 and be dependent on their ability to purchase comparable music software (which they have never done before). 

I am going to create a spreadsheet comparing the linux apps and their price to that of windows, the apps that might get me close.... my dilemma is that I have never found anything that compares to Rosegarden.  For what I need, it is completely and unequivocally #1 must have.  They get crazy about copyright laws.. so I can take midi files from royalty free music and create fast arrangements to fit my situation.  Control every aspect, sf2, vsts, ladspa, whatevers....

Sorry to rant, but I am feeling better.  And it helps reinforce my point....

[canezila]

As I am more interested in seeing if I am trackable, I searched google and found this interesting site.  I guess it proves that, yes, I can be tracked because I would be the one that looks very different from all the others.  https://panopticlick.eff.org/    when I went there it says my: User Agent...is:   
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/535.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Ubuntu/12.04 Chromium/18.0.1025.168 Chrome/18.0.1025.168 Safari/535.19

Right now I am running my pvr ubuntu that I use for TV.  I will see what av_linux shows as well in a few hours.... interesting. 

[trulan]

It's easy enough to install a user agent switcher plugin into Firefox (or Iceweasel).  I used to set the user agent string on my desktop to match that of my old cell phone to access the mobile version of a website - stuff like that.  Just to test it, I went to the site you posted and was able to get this response:

Code:

MOT-E815_/00.62 UP.Browser/6.2.3.4.c.1.106 MMP/2.0

...Which says that I am a Motorola E815 cell phone running Openwave 6.2.3.4 browser.  When actually this is Firefox on Ubuntu 11.10.

I am not under any circumstances suggesting that you attempt to get around any security measures, just trying to explain the web browser user agent string a bit.  I have no idea if this is how they are identifying 'rogue' computers on the network, very likely they have a more secure and much less easily bypassed method.