The MASM Forum

So I have that old notebook. Actually, not that old, it looks new because nobody in my family wants to use it: it's too slow.

I decided to give it a try, and install Linux on it. After lots of searching for "best lightweight Linux distro for Windows users" etc, I voted for Linux Mint xfce (https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php).

Rarely seen such a confusing site, but after half an hour or so I found the link where the ISO can be downloaded. It's only 2.8 GB, cute. Then they ask you to install Etcher (148 MB) to be able to create a bootable USB stick. Umpffff...

Downloaded and opened. For a minute or so, Etcher gave no sign of life, but I could see it in the Task Manager, so there was hope. Now I finally see... a blank white window. Brilliant!

It was a known problem three years ago, see Blank screen on Windows 7 with every version of Etcher (https://forums.balena.io/t/blank-screen-on-windows-7-with-every-version-of-etcher/182627/17). Have they fixed it? Noooo... why should they, it's open source, right?

So I disinstalled Balena Etcher and took Rufus instead (1.4MB instead of 148MB). Little problem: it asks whether I want a DD or ISO usb stick. Google finds a thread, of course: Rufus ... says that ISO is recommended, but this tutorial says otherwise. So, should I choose ISO or DD? (https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/comments/mn0jo8/formating_ubuntu_usb_with_rufus_iso_or_dd_windows/) Easy peasy! Half of them recommend ISO, half recommend DD, and half recommend Balena Etcher. Linux is fun, folks!

After three hours of hard work, Linux is running, hooray! It doesn't recognise the touchpad, it doesn't connect to WiFi for unknown reasons, but yeah, Linux is running ;-)

Make bootable USB - Rufus

I'm rather 'partial' to Porteus !!!
Maybe it's just me, but I'm NOT a 'Mint' fan.

I currently have an older version of the distro' running 'live', from a CD, on my old Toshiba Celeron laptop, with 4 gig ram.
The damn thing 'hoots' along, to the point where I am seriously considering 'ditching' the old XP install and installing it.
Porteus found ALL of the hardware AND configured it perfectly, including Sound and the WiFi network !!!

I'd have to check what version it is, (I have tried a few versions in the past) but similarly, the Porteus site is perhaps similarly confusing, if Only because of All the various versions available,... but it has a great and easy software and updating facility.

Worth checking out I reckon, I've tried Heaps of Distro's and often use 'Puppy Linux' (which runs Live but can be installed), to Rescue files etc,.. Puppy invariably works great as well.

http://www.porteus.org/ (http://www.porteus.org/)

How old is your machine ??,... what processor and Ram etc ??

My considered opinion, in general:

Fuck open source projects.

Yeah, yeah, I know, open source is supposed to be the cat's meow, all problems eventually get reported and fixed, lots of hands to pitch in. In theory.

In reality things don't work that way. And the more complex the project the more likely it is to develop deeply-hidden warts and defects that are difficult to find and even more difficult to fix.

The best example I can offer is the hot stinking mess that is Wikipedia, which is kind of the ultimate open-source project. Sure, a lot of the articles end up being OK and accurate, primarily the technical ones that are fortunate to have people editing them who actually know what the fuck they're talking about. But then there are the tens of thousands of other articles, badly written, confusing, fought over, inaccurate ...

No thanks. I'll take commercially-developed software any day.

I have 'played' with various Linux distros in the past, ubuntu was okay but being a (sort of) fluent Windows speaker, I did not find any of them useful for me. Yes, Windows (7 that is) with all of its own known issues, is the place for me.

Haven't looked at any software development tools for Linux. Maybe one day, though.

I seriously Disagree with the "F**k Open source" projects concept.

There are some incredibly excellent Projects, (Software and serious Operating Systems, such as Free BSD, Open BSD, Chromium OS, yes, Ubuntu and perhaps unsurprisingly and lets not forget RedHat, which is now, the largest Open Source enterprise and in fact the Distribution that runs on THIS VPS Server, being CentOS, is based on it along with Alma & Rocky Linux, both VERY Strong and widely used Server operating systems, that we and half the world interact with every day.

One other Program instance that comes to mind, (simply because I have used it extensively) and for which there really is NO Commercial equivalent, is OBS Studio.

When you really start looking, there is a lot of excellent Free and Open Source stuff out there.
Plus, for someone SO enamoured with ALL things FREE,.. like Speech, I am somewhat surprised you aren't an ardent supporter of the whole GNU principles  :wink2:  :smiley:

I'm a supporter of public, crowd-sourced projects. In theory.

As I wrote, the problem is that in practice, some (not all) of these projects fall far short of their promise. One of the worst examples I can think of is Firefox.

I should add that besides commercial software, another good source is software produced by a single person or a very small team, provided that person is competent and conscientious. Case in point: our own @Biterider's ObjAsm package. Oh, and while I'm at it, @JJ's MasmBasic.

I always use Rufus to create bootable USBs. What make/model is the laptop? It's rare that Mint won't just pick things up. My desktop is 8 years old and it ran fine when I had it on here.

Quote from: jj2007 on April 18, 2024, 07:54:04 PMIt doesn't recognise the touchpad, it doesn't connect to WiFi for unknown reasons, but yeah, Linux is running

Linux has problems with touchpads, quite often they are non-standard PS/2.
Linux has major problems with older wireless adapters.

If you are lucky you can get a Linux driver from the manufacturer.
Get the hardware details (PCI vendor/device, also look at subsystem vendor/device).

Quote from: sinsi on April 19, 2024, 03:28:42 PMLinux has major problems with older wireless adapters.

same goes to windozes, even worse
no any drivers for old printers, old scanners, just buy buy buy and feed crazy biily stupid gatez

QuoteLinux has problems with touchpads, quite often they are non-standard PS/2.

I must say, THAT is Not a problem I have ever experienced with Any of the multitudes of Distro's I've tried and played with over the years ?? I might just be lucky and/or have Laptops that Linux is happy with ??  :wink2:  :biggrin:

QuoteLinux has major problems with older wireless adapters.

Yep, that was why I 'offered' up Puppy (apart from it originally being Australian, ... lol), it's Great at finding and configuring hardware, as is the veritable champion of hardware, Knoppix  :thumbsup:

Both Puppy and Porteus are great because of the limited, minimal spec hardware they can run on and load into ram etc, (if required) and all 3 require virtually Zero user input to get everything configured correctly  :smiley:

I have always been a SuSE fan, since it was first available, (I purchased one of the first full package releases, way back) but that is quite a different 'kettle of fish'  :biggrin:

Also agree regarding Rufus, it invariably works great  :smiley:

Quote from: greenozon on April 19, 2024, 03:59:18 PM

Quote from: sinsi on April 19, 2024, 03:28:42 PMLinux has major problems with older wireless adapters.

same goes to windozes, even worse
no any drivers for old printers

Not true in my case: Windows 7, and my printer is my good old HP Laserjet 2100M (native PostScript--woohoo!) that I bought in 2000. Now, I couldn't find the exact HP driver, but I found one close enough: so long as it speaks PCL you're in business.

QuoteRe: Problem with suspend, PC doesn't wake up
Post by mikeflan » Thu Nov 17, 2022 9:23 am (https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=385655)

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer to your problem. I want to know how to fix that too since one of my 5 computers has that problem or a similar problem. The other 4 wake from suspend just fine. Here is what I do on my problem machine.

Try to wake from suspend by pressing a key on the keyboard, not the power button. Then immediately start left clicking with the mouse while moving the mouse around. In my case, when it does not wake up properly, I get the password login box, but there is no way to activate the box where it will accept the password from the keyboard. When this happens, and when you get the blank screen, the thing to do is this:
While holding down the Alt key, press SysRq (Prnt Scrn), then r, e, i, s u, then b to Reboot or o to Shutdown. Wait a second between each key press.
That Prnt Scrn, r, e, i, s u, b works every time for me.

Shall we move it to "Nerd humour"?

Next problem: After each time I boot onto my usb, all of my settings are gone (https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=331591)

But Linux is indeed fast on that old Notebook (Celeron N2840, 8 cores, 4GB Ram). Right now I've booted into Windows, in order to save any docs still hanging around on C:

Well "right now" is perhaps not correct; half an hour ago. Windows is updating, and cleaning, and whatever.

Back to the Linux installation: "Do you want the installer to unmount the partitions on these disks before continuing? (https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=219715)" (9 posts, no answer...)

I thought you were intending to install to the HDD, not to run it from a USB.
That's what I like about Puppy Linux,... it asks you if you want to save your settings when you exit and creates the appropriate Space (where you specify) and formats it for you.

There are ways of Running 'Live' from a USB And having a dedicated space on the USB for 'persistence'  :smiley:

Quote from: stoo23 on April 19, 2024, 11:14:12 PMThere are ways of Running 'Live' from a USB

Yes, that works, but all settings are lost on reboot. So now I do the full install, wiping my Windows 10 harddisk.

Quote from: jj2007 on April 19, 2024, 11:32:55 PMSo now I do the full install, wiping my Windows 10 harddisk.

And begins UasmBasix and the RichLinux IDE.  :greenclp:

But seriously, there should be a way to install Linux to the USB drive?

Yes,.. when you create the Bootable 'Live' USB, you need to create a space/partition for 'persistence' / Your data / settings  :smiley:
Some distro's may allow your 'live' distro, to store your settings on the Windows hdd somewhere and will Read it on re-boot.
Knoppix could do that even running from CD/DVD as can some others and No it doesn't create a 'partition' or 'mess' with the Windows install  :smiley:

Porteus allows you to create a persistent 'Save File' on your usb stick:
Porteus - Persistence (https://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?t=5845)

Perhaps you CAN do it on Mint, with Aptik ??
How do I get my settings to a Mint Live USB? (https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=251250#:~:text=Yes%2C%20with%20a%20fully%20installed,Persistence%22%20with%20Aptik%20as%20well.)
Scroll towards the bottom (I have no experience with Aptik) or with Mint really, I tried a couple of versions a while ago.

QuoteBut seriously, there should be a way to install Linux to the USB drive?

There IS, you can do a Full Install to a USB  :smiley:

APtik

Mint:
APTIK - a Desktop Restore application (https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=407783)

A system migration tool for Linux (https://teejeetech.com/aptik-3/)

QuoteAnd begins UasmBasix and the RichLinux IDE.

I reckon there could be Healthy Market for that !!  :wink2:  :biggrin:

Can I install mint on a USB and save settings like Puppy? (https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=263198)

Booting From and Saving to USB (Solved) (https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=372552)

Saving configuration changes to usb memory stick (https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=156000)

Create a Persistent Linux Mint 21.2 USB in Under 4 Minutes! | Step-by-Step Guide (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNroapFEiKU)

Linux Mint successfully installed! Well, kind of: after pulling out the USB stick in response to "Remove the installation media and hit Enter", it has been printing "SQUASHF error (https://askubuntu.com/questions/1378992/squashfs-error-failed-to-read-block-at-the-end-of-liveusb-shutdown-after-ente)" to the console for the last 5 minutes. Console printing is fast, though, compliments :thumbsup:

Would be nice to know how it can be stopped. Ctrl C doesn't work, Ctrl Alt F3 neither. I guess I will have to hold the Power button for 5 seconds. Yep, that worked :badgrin:

Getting SQUASHFS error (https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=411449)

[SOLVED] Heaps of SQUASHFS errors on install (https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=414570)

squashfs error on trying to install Linux Mint xfce 64-bit (https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=416087)

Squashfs error at initial reboot (https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=393960)

Might be some help in there  :smiley:

Well as they always say on 'The IT Crowd', ...

The good news is it seems to work now.
The bad news is Linux Mint should not have been released into the wild. In 20 years from now, maybe :cool:

I tried red hat long ago,but recently "red hatters" was something else :)
I tried my Java both on windows and Linux and it seemed to run faster on linux,it also had cool Java native compiler that compiled to faster x86 code,but primitive lacking support for GUI app
You have a very long  kind of "autoexec.bat" ,there you can customise most things

Hello,

Linux as a server operation system is a very good one. You can install and configure Linux systems to replace important Windows services like SMB,DHCP etc.

I run Ubuntu Server at home, it runs my DLNA server for media locally and SMB so I can get my media when I'm out.
It also runs AdGuard to get rid of ad tracking, although I still need to use UBlock Origin in the browser  :sad:

Hi Sinsi,

Ubuntu does the job. You can also try a member of the Red Hat family, a RHEL derivative. Unfortunately, CentOS took another path for the development but you could try Oracle Linux. Rocky Linux and Alma Linux are the other candidates to replace CentOS.

Quote from: Vortex on April 21, 2024, 04:37:59 AMHello,

Linux as a server operation system is a very good one. You can install and configure Linux systems to replace important Windows services like SMB,DHCP etc.

I  had lots of Linux knowledge thanks to took a course in set up Linux webserver years ago
Later years I ran a project  to  increase my skills in  web programming using VS ,it testruns on light version of MS server
Probably a ms server would be  easier for my dream on copy and paste masm  source  onto server and server assembles and links it for you ?

Now jochen maybe could test do it with uasm ,reading code from website ?
Evolve his code that checks if mask forum has been updated or not

Quote from: Vortex on April 21, 2024, 05:25:34 AMHi Sinsi,

Ubuntu does the job. You can also try a member of the Red Hat family, a RHEL derivative. Unfortunately, CentOS took another path for the development but you could try Oracle Linux. Rocky Linux and Alma Linux are the other candidates to replace CentOS.

heh
I just picked one, it seems to work OK, I don't need a GUI, although Webmin might pass as one?
I am always using Google to find idiot guides to something simple, because any forum you ask a newbie question in is instantly full of what seems like 14-year olds  :badgrin:

Hello Sinsi,

QuoteI am always using Google to find idiot guides to something simple, because any forum you ask a newbie question in is instantly full of what seems like 14-year olds

Same case in some Windows forums too. Not much to expect from the younger generations.

Quote from: NoCforMe on April 19, 2024, 05:13:03 AMThe best example I can offer is the hot stinking mess that is Wikipedia, which is kind of the ultimate open-source project. Sure, a lot of the articles end up being OK and accurate, primarily the technical ones that are fortunate to have people editing them who actually know what the fuck they're talking about. But then there are the tens of thousands of other articles, badly written, confusing, fought over, inaccurate ...

Well no. I wish that were true. But even the technical articles contain rubbish. Because there are doorman there with a lot of half-knowledge who think they know something but then don't and then prevent any technical improvement. They don't understand anything about the technical process under the hood, they only believe what they see on the screen and draw their conclusions from that.

I really tried hard to improve a lot of technical articles, but they won't let me.

Examples:
1. They think Windows 95 is a GUI interface for DOS instead of an operating system.
They see and assume: "DOS boots first."
Their conclusion: "Windows 95 is not an OS."

2. They define operating systems as something that must be able to boot by itself.
They see and assume: "DOS boots first."
Their conclusion: "Windows 95 can't be an OS."

If you then point out to them that their definition of an OS is incorrect, they will not accept the criticism. They do not do this even if you refer to sources on how an operating system is defined in computer science courses at universities. This also applies if you show them that their own definition (see above) is incorrect by pointing out to them that DOS does not boot without BIOS.

3. They prefer false reasons:

QuoteDirect programming of the graphics card as in DOS is not possible under Windows anyway, since Windows is multitasking capable and requires the graphics card for the user interface itself.

instead of correct reasons:

QuoteDirect programming of the graphics card as under DOS is not possible under Windows anyway, because Windows runs in Protected Mode and the kernel shields direct access to the hardware by user space programs.

And the moderators call themselves administrators instead of moderators. But they are not administrators. They administrate nothing, if so, they only moderate.
And they are biased and let serious mistakes made by their own people of moderators go, but if it is a simple user or an IP, they are immediately blocked.
And in many cases, for no reason at all; they block you, when if you use their reporting system to report another user. In such a case, it is not the person who started the vandalism who will be blocked, but the person who reported it as such.
Yes, you will be blocked for reports about vandalism.

I've experienced all of that before. What Wikipedia needs are temporary moderators. Anyone who has been a moderator for four years shouldn't be able to become a moderator again. Otherwise you'll never get rid of this corruption.