#editorial | Logs for 2019-10-23
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[00:00:35] <RandomFactor> because of the hellish proportional fonts spawned from the profoundest deeps
[00:00:50] <RandomFactor> they started the madness
[00:01:10] <chromas> I use a proportional font for coding. it's probably why my bot is so great
[00:01:22] * RandomFactor mutters darkly
[00:01:40] * chromas laughs in evilosity
[00:02:20] <RandomFactor> incidentally, if i can lift it, i will kill an intruder with that typewriter some day
[00:02:45] <RandomFactor> It is like it was carved out of a slab of steel
[00:03:05] <chromas> gotta start lifting now, for practice
[00:03:28] <RandomFactor> I should force my kids to write a letter on it.
[00:03:50] <RandomFactor> The whinging would likely shake the rafters
[00:04:54] <RandomFactor> I bought new ribbon for it a while back. Never installed it though. Amazing what you can find.
[00:16:09] * Bytram learned to type on a teletype which had a "key feel" not unlike a manual typewriter. This I know because I used a manual typewriter for every letter I sent out to colleges asking for information.
[01:18:55] <Bytram> ~arthur https://www.theregister.co.uk
[01:19:00] <exec> └─ 13Google unplugs AMP, hooks it into OpenJS Foundation after critics turn up the volume • The Register
[01:19:01] <exec> 699 stories loaded
[01:19:01] <exec> story not found
[01:19:11] <Bytram> =submit https://www.theregister.co.uk
[01:19:12] <upstart> Submitting "Google unplugs AMP, hooks it into OpenJS Foundation after critics turn up the volume"...
[01:19:14] <exec> └─ 13Google unplugs AMP, hooks it into OpenJS Foundation after critics turn up the volume • The Register
[01:19:34] <upstart> ✓ Sub-ccess! "Google Unplugs AMP, Hooks It Into OpenJS Foundation After Critics Turn Up the Volume" (12 paragraphs) -> https://soylentnews.org
[01:20:40] <Bytram> ~arthur https://www.theregister.co.uk
[01:20:44] <exec> └─ 13Google: We've achieved quantum supremacy! IBM: Nope. And stop using that word please • The Register
[01:20:45] <exec> 699 stories loaded
[01:20:45] <exec> attempting to submit story: "Google: We've achieved quantum supremacy! IBM: Nope. And stop using that word please"
[01:21:15] <exec> submission successful - https://soylentnews.org
[01:21:21] <exec> 698 stories loaded
[01:24:48] <Bytram> ~arthur https://www.theregister.co.uk
[01:24:51] <exec> └─ 13Traffic lights worldwide set to change after Swedish engineer saw red over getting a ticket • The Register
[01:24:52] <exec> 698 stories loaded
[01:24:53] <exec> attempting to submit story: "Traffic lights worldwide set to change after Swedish engineer saw red over getting a ticket"
[01:25:22] <exec> submission successful - https://soylentnews.org
[01:25:28] <exec> 698 stories loaded
[01:27:09] <Bytram> ~arthur https://www.sciencedaily.com
[01:27:12] <exec> └─ 13A 'shocking' new way to treat infections: New research uses electrochemical approach to treat infections of metal-based implants -- ScienceDaily
[01:27:12] <exec> 698 stories loaded
[01:27:13] <exec> attempting to submit story: "A 'shocking' new way to treat infections"
[01:27:43] <exec> submission successful - https://soylentnews.org
[01:27:48] <exec> 697 stories loaded
[01:38:08] <Bytram> ~arthur https://phys.org
[01:38:11] <exec> └─ 13Halfway toward LHC consolidation
[01:38:11] <exec> 697 stories loaded
[01:38:12] <exec> story not found
[01:38:21] <Bytram> =submit https://phys.org
[01:38:23] <exec> └─ 13Halfway toward LHC consolidation
[01:38:23] <upstart> Submitting "Halfway toward LHC consolidation"...
[01:38:44] <upstart> ✓ Sub-ccess! "Halfway Toward LHC Consolidation" (7 paragraphs) -> https://soylentnews.org
[01:38:58] <Bytram> .
[01:40:50] <Bytram> got some stories out, but need to get to bed; subbed a couple stories, so hope that helps!
[01:41:04] <Bytram> Have a great night everyone!
[06:07:39] <chromas> takyon: pang
[06:08:23] <chromas> the Google Quantum Supremacy story doesn't have anything in the Previously block
[06:19:55] <janrinok> what kind of pang would you like takyon to have?
[06:22:06] <chromas> growing pangs
[06:22:27] <chromas> I pasted in a couple soi links at the end
[06:22:46] <janrinok> ;)
[06:22:48] <chromas> and a <sup>[$]</sup>
[06:22:55] <chromas> I made a macro just for pasting that into articles
[06:23:25] <janrinok> you are feeling versatile this morning, aren't you. Sowing random tags just 'cos you can....
[06:24:58] <chromas> Yeah, I might even add it to the bot some time :D
[06:26:34] <janrinok> would you be happy if I scraped your entire website to gather as much HTML examples as I can. I'm still working on my own server and while there are numerous tutorials on HTML, none that I have found contain a complete structure?
[06:29:06] <chromas> I have a website?
[06:29:22] <chromas> oh, the feed reader? Yeah, do whatever you need
[06:29:45] <chromas> it's already got several seo bots on it. probably found it in the Loggie logs
[06:30:58] <chromas> I should remove some of the sources though. I think it's got a bunch of Nature journals and they're probably not useful unless I'm writing an article
[06:48:30] <janrinok> I see you've configured your site correctly - I can't get to anything anyway... Thanks for the permission but I'll keep on looking elsewhere
[06:54:14] <chromas> What is it you're trying to get?
[06:54:23] <chromas> I don't really have anything interesting
[06:57:06] <chromas> Here's an html tutorial:
[06:57:06] <chromas> <!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title>Title</title></head><body>Blah blah</body></html>
[07:00:21] <janrinok> I'm searching for nothing in particular - I learn as much from looking at other people's code as I do from tutorials. Tutorials only show one way to do things, but individual programmers find different ways of organising code, laying out, or simple clever tips and tricks. I don't want to spend the next couple of months working on this for something that I will not use very often in the future.
[07:01:12] <janrinok> I am quite happy to plagiarise existing code for my own use.
[07:01:42] <chromas> Ah. Well I don't have any tips except the <details> and <summary> tags are pretty neat, and MS Edge doesn't support them
[07:02:00] <chromas> they work sorta like the spoiler tag on soylent
[07:02:27] <janrinok> I have 2 projects currently ongoing which exercise my brain, the web server is just something I am playing with to investigate alternative ways of editing the output of bots for the largest number of people.
[07:02:35] <chromas> oh yeah, and putting in <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
[07:02:43] <chromas> fixes zoom on mobile sites
[07:03:19] <chromas> Building a server from scratch?
[07:03:19] <janrinok> I'll confess that I hadn't even considered mobile sites. I use desktops and not my phone.
[07:04:20] <chromas> I haven't looked much into it, but D has a framework thingy that does irc and http and a bunch of other stuff
[07:04:39] <chromas> vibe.d
[07:04:50] <chromas> I know how much you love D since you started playing with it :D :D
[07:05:22] <janrinok> the 'problem' that I am looking at is that bots find stories but cannot tell a good story from a bad one. So there still has to be a person in the loop. I like your simple processor but it uses php and I would rather use python. There are alternative options - as stand-alone editor, simply feed it directly into SN's submission page, and a few others etc
[07:06:06] <chromas> phpoo
[07:06:21] <chromas> I should do more python
[07:06:31] <janrinok> I do like D, but it will require a significant amount of effort before I can write it as quickly as I can python, so something that I can achieve in a matter of days now would take months in D for me to get working to my satisfaction.
[07:07:10] <janrinok> Secondly, python is installed on every linux machine - I don't know about Win machines - so I'd rather use something that is already there.
[07:07:19] <chromas> You could throw a neural net in there to rate the stories
[07:07:39] <chromas> or maybe bogofilter would work
[07:08:50] <janrinok> having never used either, I would have to go away and look at both of those suggestions. I could spend a lot of time simply debugging my early attempts because I did not understand the finer points of either of them
[07:09:32] <janrinok> I have a limited amount of 'free' time, so I would like to get things done as economically as possible.
[07:15:04] <chromas> well if you ever do decide to mess about with neural nets, python's pretty popular to work with
[07:15:31] <chromas> but if you don't decide to, then it's not popular at all :)
[07:16:52] <chromas> Did you say storybot can take arbitrary urls?
[07:23:27] <janrinok> sry - got called away - yes, storybot has the -u option which simple takes a single URL
[07:25:03] <janrinok> s/ple/ply/
[07:25:05] <exec> <janrinok> sry - got called away - yes, storybot has the -u option which simply takes a single URL
[07:25:47] <janrinok> I'm not sure if the version that SN is running has that option - I think it does.
[07:26:37] <janrinok> SN seems to have not updated storybot for quite a while. I'm just trying to finish off v5
[07:29:50] <janrinok> just for interest, storybot5 has the following capabilities:
[07:30:12] <janrinok> -u process a single url and output to stdout
[07:30:26] <janrinok> -r process a list of rss feeds
[07:31:36] <janrinok> -t use predefined headers and footers for the output of each story processed, user configurable or simply default to the normal header that you see on all Arthur stories
[07:32:19] <janrinok> -d1...-d7 Process stories from the previous 1 to 7 days in addition to the current day
[07:39:07] <chromas> I can't even find where storybot is executed by exec. I see where it reads the output from files. Maybe it's run by a cronjob
[07:55:07] <chromas> think I'm missing some python libs
[07:56:31] <janrinok> which libs are do you think you are missing? I only ask so that I can make sure they load automatically in future versions
[07:57:14] <chromas> it'd be nice if python would give some sort of error output. it just gives a traceback
[07:57:24] <chromas> File "/usr/local/bin/storybot/storybot2.py", line 17, in <module>
[07:57:24] <chromas> from miscutils import getDateList
[07:57:24] <chromas> File "/usr/local/bin/storybot/miscutils.py", line 15, in <module>
[07:57:24] <chromas> import lxml.html.clean as LHC
[07:57:36] <chromas> I've only got storybot2 though
[07:58:39] <janrinok> so you need python3-lxml - assuming you are running python3 and not python2
[07:58:56] <chromas> installing
[07:59:15] <janrinok> miscutils is a module that is included in storybot - it should already exist
[08:00:36] <chromas> next is requests. installing
[08:00:53] <chromas> oh whoops
[08:01:05] <chromas> I should've tried -h or something instead of running it with no parameters
[08:01:06] <janrinok> ... whoops doesn't sound goog
[08:01:21] <janrinok> good
[08:01:37] <chromas> so it's updating feeds to somewhere
[08:01:49] <janrinok> it should be reading the SN feed logs
[08:01:53] <chromas> Ah, it made a directory, StoryBot2
[08:03:21] <janrinok> inside that directory should be a folder for each of the dates that you are processing - which will default to today's date. It will story the parsed stories in there.
[08:03:48] <chromas> I just want the -u part
[08:04:03] <chromas> Looking at the code to find the switches
[08:04:23] <janrinok> ./storybot -u http://some It will output to stdout
[08:04:40] <chromas> That works. Is there an option for no header?
[08:04:49] <janrinok> not in v2 no
[08:05:25] <janrinok> do you want me to send you v5, and you can play with that (and find bugs for me too)?
[08:05:37] <chromas> hm, exec failed 126
[08:05:40] <chromas> sure
[08:06:09] <chromas> Might be that it's not in the environment variable thingamajig
[08:07:03] <chromas> oh derp
[08:07:16] <chromas> trying to execute its directory
[08:14:29] <janrinok> check your SN email
[08:14:46] <chromas> just got the notice
[08:15:41] <janrinok> you might (will!) find it has some rough edges although I am using it successfully each day.
[08:16:52] <janrinok> any missing libraries are standard python 3 and can be installed on any distro as we did earlier with lxml.
[08:17:50] <janrinok> There are also some spurious files in the package I have sent that are not used - they are there for various features that I am working on but have not yet included, or because I have forgotten to delete them!
[08:20:27] <janrinok> for the headers and footers, you have a handful of predefined values which you can invoke using python string formatting e,g, {true_url}, {word_count} etc. look at the existing intro.txt and extro.txt for examples. Documentation is still being written so you haven't got any ;)
[08:22:10] <janrinok> critique it as much as you want - I grant you a special license to do what you want with it as long as it is non-commercial - use it, throw it away, laugh at it. Whatever...
[08:23:19] <janrinok> would be grateful for any bugs, suggestions, unexpected behaviour or outbreaks of plague that it causes
[08:24:00] * chromas prepares to cackle
[08:24:17] <janrinok> you will need to prepare well - there will be much cackling
[08:26:07] <janrinok> gtg a do things in rl - will keep watching here to answer any questions or observations that you want to talk about
[08:26:44] <chromas> Alright
[08:26:46] <chromas> Ooh
[08:27:05] <chromas> It wants /data/bin-dev/storybot4/templates.txt when using the -u parameter
[08:27:18] <chromas> I should probably look at the docs
[08:27:48] <chromas> (where docs = source)
[08:28:30] <janrinok> no that should link to storybot5/templates.txt - I've got both versions installed and I had missed that because it keeps on working for me
[08:28:39] <chromas> I should go to sleep, but anyway, I modified the xtractor script to have different scrapers
[08:28:52] <chromas> http://chromas.0x.no
[08:29:04] <chromas> the storybot option doesn't work yet though, 'til I figure it out
[08:31:19] <janrinok> Edit 'processstory.py' and change line 19 : storybot4 change to storybot5
[08:33:05] <chromas> What can I change rest of the path to, since I don't have any of that? Can I just stick it into /tmp or /run somewhere?
[08:33:14] <chromas> will it create the missing files?
[08:33:25] <chromas> oh I'm dum
[08:33:35] <chromas> I just point it to where I installed storybot
[08:33:42] <janrinok> you haven't got line 19 or you haven't got processstory?
[08:34:05] <chromas> I don't have /data/bin-dev/ on my hdd
[08:34:10] <janrinok> yup - you might find a few more like that. Sorry.
[08:34:12] <chromas> But I just changed it to where I stuck the script
[08:34:21] <janrinok> good, that should work
[08:34:32] <chromas> yep. it worketh now
[08:34:46] <chromas> except when running it from my script. fpos
[08:35:07] <chromas> gotta make sure I put the path in right
[08:36:26] <janrinok> in 'miscutils.py' remove lines 5, 9 and 10
[08:37:41] <chromas> just delete completely? no changy?
[08:37:58] <janrinok> delete completely - not needed in the release version
[08:39:25] <janrinok> if/when you get it running, you will also generate a log file in /tmp/storybot.log.txt, or some similar name. It might help if you encounter problems.
[08:40:13] <janrinok> I've got to go out for 30 mins or so, if you have any probs, queue the questions up either here or in a DM and I'll get to them as soon as I can.
[08:40:51] <janrinok> if 'fpos' your name for my software lol!
[08:41:26] <chromas> nah, my script
[08:41:45] <chromas> Also, I just noticed I've been calling exec() on form input with zero sanitation. herpty derp
[09:15:17] <chromas> hm. looks like the httpd user doesn't have access to /tmp
[09:24:02] <chromas> there we go. I just modified the storybot5.sh to run the script instead of figuring out the proper way to set the working dir in phpoo
[09:25:12] <chromas> articles-as-a-soyvice
[09:26:20] <chromas> php--
[09:26:20] <chromas> janrinok++
[09:26:20] <chromas> phpoo--
[09:26:21] <Bender> karma - php: -1
[09:26:21] <Bender> karma - janrinok: 72
[09:26:21] <Bender> karma - phpoo: -1
[09:33:20] <Bytram> coffee++
[09:33:20] <Bender> karma - coffee: 101
[09:33:37] <Bytram> That seems... elementary!
[09:42:19] <Bytram> whereto? http://feedproxy.google.com
[09:42:20] <upstart> ^ 03Amazon adds thousands more US locations to its Counter in-store pickup service ( https://www.cnet.com )
[09:42:21] <exec> └─ 13Amazon adds thousands more US locations to its Counter in-store pickup service - CNET
[11:22:57] <Bytram> whereto? http://go.theregister.com
[11:22:58] <upstart> ^ 03US customers kick up class-action stink over Epson's kyboshing of third-party ink ( https://www.theregister.co.uk )
[11:23:00] <exec> └─ 13US customers kick up class-action stink over Epson's kyboshing of third-party ink • The Register
[11:34:37] <janrinok> ~gday Bytram
[11:34:40] * exec amazingly reticulates a side channel of beverage for Bytram
[13:21:17] -!- Fnord666_ [Fnord666_!~4039920d@64.57.rwn.vj] has joined #editorial
[13:32:25] <janrinok> ~gday Fnord666
[13:32:27] * exec arrogantly hangs a trigger warning sign about a sidechain of nasty v on Fnord666
[13:38:53] <Bytram> ~gday janrinok
[13:38:55] * exec genuinely writes a fanfic featuring a ladle of b-splines about janrinok
[13:40:16] * Bytram has tossed a couple stories in the subs queue, but does not see [m]any subs to work on myself; either I personally subbed them (via bot), or I do not think they would be of interest to our community.
[13:44:32] <janrinok> OK, I'll get to it in a while
[13:44:41] <Bytram> mare see!
[13:45:01] <Bytram> I'm working on another sub atm; should be ready in a few minutes
[13:46:08] <janrinok> np, I'm trying to install hyperbola OS in VM - back to everything on the command line. We can write brilliant software but they have chosen to use a retarded installation method that should have disappeared with the ark
[13:53:51] <janrinok> Bytram, you do know that Fnord666 has already pushed a lot of stories out don't you
[13:55:52] <Fnord666_> Morning/Afternoon!
[13:56:10] <janrinok> how's things?
[13:56:17] <Fnord666_> !gday janrinok
[13:56:21] <Fnord666_> ~gday janrinok
[13:56:23] * exec excoriatingly evolves a painting of pocket cmn from janrinok
[13:56:57] <janrinok> more cmn - just what I didn't need ;)
[13:57:43] <Fnord666_> lol
[13:57:50] <Bytram> ~gday Fnord666
[13:57:51] * exec seriously irritates a carload of unverified backups with Fnord666
[13:58:13] <Fnord666_> ~gday Bytram
[13:58:15] * exec excoriatingly kipes a boatload of Splode from Bytram
[13:58:29] <Bytram> so that makes it an ex-splode?
[13:58:37] <Fnord666_> Gotta dash to a meeting but I just wanted to say howdy
[13:58:42] <janrinok> I must be older than I thought - I didn't even understand that one...
[13:58:44] <Bytram> doody!
[13:58:51] <Bytram> =g kipes
[13:58:52] <upstart> https://www.dominicancooking.com - Kipe: Video - Recipe of the Dominican Deep Fried Bulgur Roll
[13:58:54] <janrinok> toodle pip
[13:58:54] * Bytram neither
[13:59:24] <Fnord666_> biab
[14:01:04] <janrinok> I'm trying to work out how to make a partition bootable using fdisk or cfdisk now that they have removed the 'a' command - you know, the command that made partitions bootable!
[14:01:49] <janrinok> I discover that others are having the same problem!
[14:03:14] <Bytram> Just use a DOS boot floppy and use the format /S command to copy the system files to it! ;)
[14:03:21] <Bytram> (IIRC)
[14:03:51] <janrinok> er no, I'm formatting partitions and you have to select a partition to be bootable
[14:03:57] <Bytram> nod nod
[14:04:49] <janrinok> everything on the web says use the 'a' command to toggle the bootable flag. Fdisk have removed the 'a' command......
[14:04:55] <Bytram> can you boot a live cd of some other distribution (e.g. Ubuntu) to get things set up for the partitions, and then proceed with your distro of choice?
[14:05:37] <janrinok> no, because I'm working inside a VM that is trying to install a new OS (hyperbole Milky Way)
[14:06:05] <Bytram> Okay, that's another story in the hopper. It's kind of "dry" in its writing, but should still be informative, nonetheless.
[14:06:34] <Bytram> Don't tell me they... exaggerated their capabilities?
[14:07:57] <janrinok> well it is meant to be systemd free, based on Arch and Debian and only using true free software. But it has reverted to a command line installation rather than the normal installations that are used by most distros. That in itself isn't a problem.
[14:09:22] <janrinok> But they are saying use fdisk to make a partition bootable but fdisk no longer does that. None of the software that I can find in the base installation will do what I want to do, despite what their glib instructions say. And I am following the 'Beginners' guide - I don't see them having many takers at this rate.
[14:11:48] <Bytram> Ummm, I guess they do not QA much!
[14:12:27] <janrinok> I'm just going to pop on to the IRC channel and see if there is any help there...
[14:12:39] <Bytram> good luck!
[14:23:08] <janrinok> well I've left my question and will now wait for some help
[14:24:37] <Bytram> just for giggles, I've found it useful to feed an executable through "strings" to see what, if any, switches may exist that might have failed to get documented. Also, I often see the text of error messages which can help narrow things down.
[14:36:45] <Fnord666_> Can't you mark the partition bootable using gparted?
[14:41:39] <janrinok> not if you can't install it - I'm in the process of installing hyperbola - which is using pacman to install a basic system which you then have to configure to get it to boot.
[14:42:31] <janrinok> Once booted I might be able to install gparted but I am at the mercy of a minimal system at present which doesn't want to do what the instructions say it should.
[14:43:22] <janrinok> Because I am in the installation phase, I cannot use another CD/thumbdrive to get at it inside the VM
[14:43:44] <janrinok> or, more correctly, I can't find a way to do that
[14:50:43] <Bytram> hmmm
[14:51:57] <Bytram> can you save the current VM? Then access the virtual drive with another live cd? or
[14:52:15] <Bytram> maybe pull the thumb drive and insert another and launch another live cd from there?
[14:52:52] <Bytram> or just start over, use another distro to set up the partitions, and once those are set up, THEN install hyperbola?
[14:53:19] <janrinok> 1, It isn't on a thumbdrive - I can just specify where I've saved the .iso for virtualbox to use when installing
[14:53:38] <Bytram> abstractions--
[14:53:38] <Bender> karma - abstractions: -1
[14:54:46] <janrinok> 2. You have to specify which distro you are installing for virtualbox - you can't (I don't think you can anyway - change distros part way through. If I was doing this on a normal clean computer it would be much easier than getting inside a VM
[14:55:35] <Bytram> so... install to a real disk, then dd from real to vm drive?
[14:55:45] * Bytram is clutching at straws
[14:55:49] <janrinok> 3. Rather than use Anaconda to give the user a working minimal system they are doing everything from the command line.
[14:56:35] <janrinok> 4. I don't want to erase what I have on my current computers - I always try in a VM before committing to a complete installation
[14:56:41] <Bytram> nod nod
[14:57:03] <janrinok> If they don't want people to do that, then it is not the distro for me anyway.
[14:57:13] <Bytram> excellent point
[14:57:33] <janrinok> Have you enjoyed your 2 days off?
[14:57:41] <Bytram> If it is this much work just getting it installed... what will it be like when you finally have it up and running?
[14:57:58] <Bytram> got some much-needed sleep, but have a clopen ahead of me tonight/tomorrow
[14:58:18] <janrinok> exactly. I'm all for free and libre, but if it doesn't do what it says on the box then I will use something else
[14:58:32] <Bytram> think I got something like 11 hours sleep a couple nights ago, all tolled.
[14:58:38] <janrinok> well, at least you have had some recovery however minimal
[14:58:39] <Bytram> zactly
[14:58:46] <Bytram> and you?
[14:59:46] <janrinok> All the work here is now complete which coincided with the completion of the work in the neighbourhood being done by the local council. Today is peaceful again (after 6 months!) and very pleasant
[15:00:40] <janrinok> S goes away on Monday for a week of rest for myself. I should have time to do the things that I want to do but not have to do anything other than that :)
[15:02:03] <janrinok> The first time that S went away I slept for 18 hours, but normally it is around 11-12 on the first night and then normal nights but plenty of naps when needed for the rest of the week.
[15:02:42] <janrinok> gtg and start cooking - back on later
[15:02:59] <janrinok> have a good one at work and catch up with you again later
[15:04:41] <Bytram> Ugh, I hear ya! Best wishes on catching up on our rest, and enjoy the peace and quiet!
[15:04:45] <Bytram> I gtg, too.
[15:04:51] <Bytram> laters taters!
[15:06:03] <Bytram> ~arthur https://phys.org
[15:06:06] <exec> └─ 13New organelle discovered inside cells found to prevent cancer
[15:06:07] <exec> 730 stories loaded
[15:06:08] <exec> attempting to submit story: "New organelle discovered inside cells found to prevent cancer"
[15:06:38] <exec> submission successful - https://soylentnews.org
[15:06:43] <exec> 729 stories loaded
[15:42:49] <chromas> janrinok: you can change operating systems in a virtualbox vm all you want. the only thing setting a distro does is set the icon and some default values like ram and stuff
[17:13:55] <janrinok> chromas, yes, but I can't do it while it is installing, or if I can, I cannot see how
[19:31:43] <chromas> with the a key D:
[19:31:44] <chromas> :D
[19:33:08] <chromas> Asuming you haven't got it installed yet, check your partition table type. If it's gpt, then that's why; that partition system doesn't have the boot flag
[19:34:37] <chromas> guid partition tables are used for efi systems. you'll want a 100mb or so boot partition
[19:35:17] <chromas> https://wiki.archlinux.org
[19:35:19] <upstart> ^ 03GRUB - ArchWiki
[19:35:20] <exec> └─ 13GRUB - ArchWiki
[19:38:02] <chromas> if you are using an efi system/virtual machine, you can use systemd-boot instead of grub
[19:38:27] <chromas> (yes, systemd has a bootloader)
[19:45:56] <Fnord666_> Does UEFI apply though when you are booting a VM?
[19:47:20] <Fnord666_> Here is what I found
[19:47:22] <Fnord666_> VirtualBox. VirtualBox by default uses the BIOS firmware for virtual machines. It supports EFI too, but unfortunately does not support booting UEFI-based system volumes, which includes Windows 8 in UEFI mode. However, if you'd still like to test or use EFI with other operating systems, enabling EFI support is easy.
[19:48:02] <Fnord666_> So he is booting the machine from virtual BIOS which will find the attached .iso
[19:48:47] <Fnord666_> I would allocate the VM, then boot it with a liveCD that has gparted. Use that to build the partitions correctly for the VM or at least one bootable partition.
[19:49:20] <Fnord666_> Then reboot the VM with the installer .iso. The installer should see the bootable partition and be able to install into that.
[19:50:02] <Fnord666_> The liveCD is just used to do any desired partition formatting within the VM. Nothing is installed at that point.
[19:51:09] <Fnord666_> Unless I completely misunderstand the issue
[19:52:24] <Fnord666_> And as you (chromas) said, picking a distro to define the VM initially just sets some default allocations, etc. It doesn't do anything within the VM, just configures the VM's parameters.
[19:53:12] <Fnord666_> Mayber I'll try this all tonight when I get home.
[19:53:29] <Fnord666_> s/Mayber/Maybe/
[19:53:30] <exec> <Fnord666_> Maybe I'll try this all tonight when I get home.
[19:55:34] <Fnord666_> Heading home now. TTYL
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