Installing Linux

[jj2007]

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.

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. 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? 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 ;-)

[sinsi]

Make bootable USB - Rufus

[stoo23]

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/

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

[NoCforMe]

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.

[zedd151]

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.

[stoo23]

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   

[NoCforMe]

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.

[StrykerX]

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.

[sinsi]

It 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).

[greenozon]

Linux 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

[stoo23]

Linux 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 ??   

Linux 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 

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 

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' 

Also agree regarding Rufus, it invariably works great 

[NoCforMe]

Linux 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.

[jj2007]

Re: Problem with suspend, PC doesn't wake up
Post by mikeflan » Thu Nov 17, 2022 9:23 am

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"?

[jj2007]

Next problem: After each time I boot onto my usb, all of my settings are gone

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?" (9 posts, no answer...)

[stoo23]

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'