this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2025
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I have tried, unsuccessfully, to get various AI models to create a script that will curl or wget the latest Ubuntu LTS desktop torrent, even should that LTS version update in the future (beyond 24.01.1 LTS). The purpose is that I would like to seed whatever the latest LTS torrent is and I don't want to have to keep checking the Ubuntu page for updates, I want it automatic. I know that LTS is slow to change versions but I am annoyed that AI can't just write a decent script for this.

I also have downloaded rtorrent as a command line and will deal with how to make sure the latest LTS is used, as opposed to the prior one, with a different script later, but that's not what I'm trying to now.

I am not asking for a human to create this script for me. I am asking why AI models keep getting this so wrong. I've tried ChatGPT 4o, I've tried DeepSeek, I've tried other localized models, Reasoning Models. They all fail. And when I execute their code, and I get errors and show it to the models, they still fail, many times in a row. I want to ask Lemmy if getting an answer is theoretically possible with the right prompt or if AI just sucks at coding.

This shouldn't be too hard to do. At https://www.releases.ubuntu.com, they list the releases. When curling the webpage, there's a list of the releases with version numbers some with LTS. New versions are always larger numbers. At https://ubuntu.com/download/alternative-downloads, they list the torrents. Also, all release torrents for desktop are in the format https://www.releases.ubuntu.com/XX.XX/desktop.torrent. I've tried to teach these models this shit and to just create a script for me, holy shit it's been annoying. The models are incredibly stupid with scripting.

I'm not a computer programmer or developer and am picking up more coding here and there just because I want to do certain things in linux. But I just don't understand why this is so difficult.

So my question is, is there ANY prompt for ANY model that will output successful code for this seemingly easy task, or is AI still too stupid to do this?

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[–] secretlyaddictedtolinux -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yes, but I need an interface between my brain at my IQ level and the programming language to get it to work... which apparently why I need to use a bunch of non-sense generating Markov chains...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That interface is called a manual or tutorial, and there are many better ones than neural networks

[–] secretlyaddictedtolinux -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

when i first started linuxing linux, i tried to read man man, but it was over 700 lines

my primary linux skills are whip-its and watching netflix. i'm sort of at the lower-skill end of the linux userbase. i don't know if there's any way to every change that, so why try?

[–] Kiernian 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

So, I kinda had this problem myself at one point a decade and a half ago, only it was booze and serviio.

I ended up taking an old tower I had, installing Ubuntu on it with no Xwindows or GUI of any kind, set up ssh, and unplugged the monitor, keyboard, and mouse and accessed the Ubuntu box only from a putty session on my windows box.

Then, when I wanted to do anything on the Linux box I'd ssh in and command line it. And Google and try again until I got it right.

I turned it into a domain controller for the windows boxes (well, login server via ldap) and had an irc bouncer and a bot on it, among other things.

All while still drinking and streaming video.

I can't say what the magic bullet will be for anyone else, but I was able to learn by removing my "crutches" until it just... Clicked for me. YMMV but don't stop trying.

[–] secretlyaddictedtolinux -2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

windows box? ew were you using windows? why?

[–] Kiernian 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

For gaming and everything else I couldn't easily do on Linux back when mandriva and Gentoo were still considered fairly new distros? And because I didn't know Linux well yet?

Linux has come a LONG way, but back as much as 20 years ago, doing something as simple as installing suse8 could see you with a fat string of error -3's just because you had a slightly less common model of hard drive. Forget trying to play one of the few MMOs that existed back then.

Production mac's were still running os8 back then.

It was a different world and gaming meant windows for almost all major titles because there were only so many WINE contributors.

[–] secretlyaddictedtolinux 1 points 15 hours ago

i am so glad linux has gotten so much better