Fun with new computer

Last week, I bought a new computer for myself / work. I was using a borrowed, older AMD system, which struggled under the load of what I use a computer to accomplish. Yesterday, I undertook to set up that computer.

I pulled my old SSD drives from the previous computer in order to install them into my new Dell XPS 8960 tower. I bought it from Costco, and considering the specs, I got a pretty good deal. It shipped with Windows 11, which I won’t use except to download BIOS updates and the like. I have a strong preference for Ubuntu Desktop.

I installed the boot drive from the prior system, and attempted to directly boot into that installation. Of course, that didn’t work, because why would it? The boot presented a bunch of errors, including a couple that led me to believe it wasn’t going to be hardware compatible. I guess going from an older AMD to a more modern Intel platform, I should have expected that.

I chose to download the latest LTS version of Ubuntu, and do a clean (dual boot) install. I spent most of the day yesterday on that process, including installing the various applications that I use regularly. Most installed without a hitch. I run Windows under VirtualBox for work, so of course that was one of those applications.

Would you care to guess what wouldn’t run on the new system? Yep, VirtualBox. Attempts to launch it failed because the required service wouldn’t start. I managed to track down the problem. This computer had Secure Boot active by default. The kernel modules from Oracle for VirtualBox aren’t signed by default, so they wouldn’t load under Secure Boot.

I spent a couple of hours trying to sign the affected modules, as suggested by multiple community posts on various support sites. That didn’t work for me, at all. Ultimately, I decided to simply turn off Secure Boot. Yes, I know the risk I’m taking. I need to be able to use VirtualBox on a regular basis, so I don’t have to continually dual boot back into Windows when I need to do work.

Besides, with Ubuntu and VirtualBox, I can run multiple Windows instances concurrently, which recently became something that I occasionally need to do. Two major customers implemented incompatible VPN requirements, and I will occasionally need to be logged into both at the same time.

The older AMD machine really struggled trying to run more than one Windows VM. It was simply under-powered for that requirement. The main reason I decided to upgrade my computer was to meet that need. And before you ask, no my employer didn’t buy the new computer. That’s on me.

Once I turned off Secure Boot, I was able to move forward with VirtualBox. I am very pleased with the performance difference this new system offers over the loaner my housemate (friend, heart sister) offered me when I arrived here. Don’t take that wrong, I was blessed to have anything when I arrived.

It was a project of some 10 or so hours to get everything setup and working as I want on this new computer. Ultimately, it was successful, and I am happy with the result.

As an aside: I also bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ last week. Setting it up, since I was already running a Samsung smartphone, was pretty much a breeze. I used Smart Switch from Samsung to copy data, settings, and apps from my phone to the tablet. It’s WiFi only, so far as I can tell, but I won’t really be taking it anywhere that doesn’t have WiFi, so that’s no issue. I wasn’t intending to setup a data line for it anyway.

The last couple of days have been productive overall. I’m happy with my tech, for honestly the first time in years.

Tags: Computer Upgrade, Tablet, VirtualBox