phpBB2 and the futility of package management
So since we moved Hidden Agenda’s website off the old rented website and onto the lovely new colod server there hasn’t been a forum available, mostly through my own laziness. So yesterday after discussing it with Ben I decided to get it installed again and let him get on with it. I’d already had a few problems with apt/aptitude on our home server trying to get transcoding working for fruppes etc (finally given up and returning it to windows/tvaversity so I approached this with some trepidation. After apt-cache searching I found that the only version available was phpBB2 which is approximately 2000-2! I decided sod it and install that version anyway for simplicities sake. Unfortunately the version in the repo for Hardy is somewhat fucked and wont actually install, a quick Google turns up a known bug and a fix, sod that. If I’m not installing from the repo I might as well not bother with Yea Olde version and just nab the source for phpBB3, 5 minutes later and bang, all sorted, it took longer to try and install v2, find the fix and decide not to bother than it did to install v3 from source! I am determined one day just to give up on repository stuff and go straight for building everything from source and on slackware. But eh, I’m far far too lazy todo that, so I’ll stick with broken, out of date repository stuff and enjoy bitching about it.
2 weeks till student loans, I’ve already ear marked most of my money:
- new server and collocation (thinking Dell R200/300 or possibly home grown, I don’t really need advanced RAID on it. I plan on 2 hard drives, non-RAID, 1 as the work horse hosting the vms etc and then using the other as a backup.
- new laptop, I really want a nice thin one, still torn between a Mac Air or a new EEE 1000. I don’t want a giant 17inch monstrosity but maybe a 15 inch Mac Book. I’ve been looking lot at the refurbished Macs they sell on their site, same warrenty as a brand new Mac but discounted and with the possibility of slight cosmetic injury.
- a new PC. Since I blew the last one when it was connected to Dave’s single stage I need a new one, I haven’t really missed gaming that much tbh so I might consider having a Mac for my main PC and triple booting MacOS/Ubuntu/Windows. Of course if I get an expensive Mac laptop I’ll be having to use that as my main pc and just connect it to monitors when using it at home. But we shall see.
Ofcourse I’ll change my mind about this all completely tomorrow, but it’s fun to speculate… 
I’m still getting headaches :/