Been trying the newest Linux Mint Operating system

[Smoke4320]

So got an older computer from Mother in law shes 84 and going into an assisted living center


It has only 4 Gb of Ram a 500 gig HD and a sucky AMD processor equal to a Celeron in speed
windows 10 was loaded on it and it was so slow many programs would not work or would seize

Figured it was a great way to test The newest Linux Mint 18.3 cinnamon release..

It is totally free as are all the programs. free office programs , email programs, graphics programs ect
loads quickly. loaded all the drivers for printer, monitor, network, ect, ect automatically
even connecting to email server took 3 clicks and it found all the setting itself

so far have not found anything I cant do that we were doing on Win 10
The Desktop/menus as configured looks like Window XP/7 but its easy to make it look like Win 10 desktop if you want

Must say I am impressed..

[farmerjim]

I have both Mint and Ubuntu. I like Ubuntu better, but that is probably because I have been using it longer.

[RogerDat]

I use Red Hat but that is partly due to CentOS being the flavor of choice at work for servers so having the open source desktop version that is close to the production one simplifies my life.

Linux Mint Hmmm - Linux is the best way to take and old computer and set it up to do what the majority of people do with a computer and do it well. I have 2 I was planning to set up, capture a disk image for restoring and pass on to family members that tend to break computers a lot. Eventually get tired of asking "now what did I say about downloading screen saver programs from internet advertisements?" Being able to just blow a disk image back in and re-boot is wonderful. Three click wizard sounds pretty good too.

How is Mint on finding drivers in laptops? Anyone know? That was a place Ubuntu thrived as I recall.

[pertnear]

Where is the best (i.e. safest) place to download Linux Mint? What version should I be looking for?...TIA

[Smoke4320]

Where is the best (i.e. safest) place to download Linux Mint? What version should I be looking for?...TIA

https://www.linuxmint.com/ Kind of the OFFICAL Linux Mint page
The newest is Linux Mint 18.3 cinnamon release.. This is a long term support release till at least 2021
Next version is 19 (in beta testing right now) and its supposed to be supported till 2023

[farmerjim]

"How is Mint on finding drivers in laptops? Anyone know? That was a place Ubuntu thrived as I recall. "
I don't know about Mint on laptops, but Ubuntu had all of them for 2 of my old XP laptops. They work better now than when they were on XP. Make an image to be able to restore if needed, then try Mint. I bet it will work fine.

[HangFireW8]

Mint is just Ubuntu with better desktops and UI choices, so driver support is just fine.

[Smoke4320]

Just plugged in an old HP printer/scanner from 2008 .. rebooted computer ..It automatically uploaded all the drivers .. works like a charm

[DougGuy]

I been telling y'all the virtues of LM for a couple years now. It is the easiest escape from Win10 on the planet!

No OS is without it's quirks and faults, and Linux has them too but they aren't nearly as annoying as M$.

You can download Linux Mint Cinnamon and install it on a machine and someone that has never seen linux before will be running it in minutes.



so far have not found anything I cant do that we were doing on Win 10

Must say I am impressed..

I found one BIG THING that I can't do in Linux Mint that I did all the time in Win10... CURSE IT!! For real, 95% of me cussing at the 'puter doesn't happen anymore.. :bigsmyl2:

[Smoke4320]

As the old saying goes you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink..

It will take me a while to become real comfortable with mint but so far I am highly impressed

The big kicker for me is that Linux has much less virus exposure ..

[dragon813gt]

I may have to set up a virtual machine running Linux on my NAS. The software it runs on is already Linux based. And I can’t say I’m really impressed. It’s really stripped down and serves its purpose so I’m assuming a full blown version of Linux will be just what I need. Especially if I can remote into it and manage my drives like I’m connected to them at home. Can’t currently do this.

[Tatume]

Recently I downloaded Ubuntu on my current machine. I found it easy to use, works just fine, but I have to start all over. It won't find any of my Windows files. I can email a file to myself, then boot Ubuntu and download the file, and work on it. But I can't access my files directly. Is there a way to do this?

[Traffer]

Thanks for the post. I have always hated Windows 10, so I have stuck with Windows 7. I haven't tried any of the latest flavors of linux. The last time I tried using it was prolly 10 years ago and it was a pain...gonna try it again now. Thanks again.

[respiegel]

How are you running Ubuntu? Is it installed as a dual boot or running as a virtual machine?
If it is a VM, you’ll have to map your real drive to the virtual machine.
If you’re dual booting you might need to mount the drive to view the files



Recently I downloaded Ubuntu on my current machine. I found it easy to use, works just fine, but I have to start all over. It won't find any of my Windows files. I can email a file to myself, then boot Ubuntu and download the file, and work on it. But I can't access my files directly. Is there a way to do this?




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[DougGuy]

Recently I downloaded Ubuntu on my current machine. I found it easy to use, works just fine, but I have to start all over. It won't find any of my Windows files. I can email a file to myself, then boot Ubuntu and download the file, and work on it. But I can't access my files directly. Is there a way to do this?

You may have to manually edit your fstab to make sure the partition containing the windows files is mounted. Ubuntu will read NTFS and FAT32 file systems, but if it doesn't mount the partition, it won't show up in Ubuntu.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountingWindowsPartitions

[popper]

Linux still using KDE? Biggest problem was for me the DOS, Make sure you have a backup as a disk crash could be difficult for full recovery. Yup, have to mount the partitions correctly. I used it on thumb drive so only data was on the HD, worked pretty well.

[DougGuy]

Linux still using KDE? Biggest problem was for me the DOS, Make sure you have a backup as a disk crash could be difficult for full recovery. Yup, have to mount the partitions correctly. I used it on thumb drive so only data was on the HD, worked pretty well.

KDE is a dinosaur. There are much better GUI for linux these days.

[Traffer]

Again, thanks guys. I needed a "boost" to get back interested in Linux. I never had anyone help me out with it and always got frustrated with the exact things you are discussing. ...like not reading the Windows partitions. This is encouraging.
For those who do not know...
Linux is far far more efficient. This translates to being able to use the older computers that will be too slow for Windows 10 and even 7. If you have an older computer, laptop or PC, that was just too slow, chances are that a Linux install will allow you to be able to use it again.

[DougGuy]

Again, thanks guys. I needed a "boost" to get back interested in Linux. I never had anyone help me out with it and always got frustrated with the exact things you are discussing. ...like not reading the Windows partitions. This is encouraging.
For those who do not know...
Linux is far far more efficient. This translates to being able to use the older computers that will be too slow for Windows 10 and even 7. If you have an older computer, laptop or PC, that was just too slow, chances are that a Linux install will allow you to be able to use it again.

Well, what M$ is doing is dropping support for classes of hardware across the board. There is no longer support for older GeForce video cards, once 10 updates they won't work anymore, same with chipsets on the motherboard, updates fail, things run terribly, and they are doing this to cause consumers to go out and buy new hardware so they can run windows. This makes M$ happy because it keeps the hardware manufacturers in business, its a conspiracy, one hand greases the other with YOUR HARD EARNED DOLLARS!

This is the best reason in the world to get away from Microsoft, and you use the same hardware windows chokes on, and it runs beautifully for years and years to come with Linux..

[Tom W.]

My wife has an old HP laptop sitting in the closet. I may try it if I dare. I'm not so good at doing things like that......

[DougGuy]

I have 2 desktop PCs with quad core processors, gobs of memory, multiple drives, they are the equivalent of gaming machines, or souped up for power users, these are not just go to walmart and buy a PC, they've been tweaked and tuned for speed and performance, and they deliver.

One is my everyday user, the other serves as a backup storage unit for music and other large stashes I keep around, but I found a great use for it being it is offline and idled most of the time. I use a stack of cheap 60 and 120gb Solid State Drives, SSD's and when a new distro or flavor of linux comes out, I go download the iso and burn it onto a bootable usb stick using Etcher, and I install it onto one of the SSDs I have around and I run it. I have loaded probably 2 or 3 DOZEN flavors of Linux in the last 3 years, it is interesting to see the differences in the major forks, some are really neat, and some are just a PITA.

By attrition, Linux Mint has beaten all of the others in ease of use, stability, robust performance, and I run it on two desktops and two laptops now, it is my go to OS of choice, haven't booted into windows in ages.

Occasionally you WILL NEED windows to do maintenance to the BIOS, like flash it with an updated BIOS file from the manufacturer, and I find a bootable iso of WinPE which will boot and run windows in memory from a USB stick, and I can run the BIOS updaters from this, without having windows loaded onto a hard drive. Occasionally you will have a filename corrupted to the point that neither Linux nor windows can open it or delete it, and you can use the bootable WinPE to get into the file system and nuke it. Windows will never be totally wiped off the planet, even at a hardcore *nix user's house, but it's a seldom needed tool that I keep around for times when the updater won't run in anything but windows..

[Tatume]

You may have to manually edit your fstab to make sure the partition containing the windows files is mounted. Ubuntu will read NTFS and FAT32 file systems, but if it doesn't mount the partition, it won't show up in Ubuntu.

Thanks all for the information, sincerely. However, I interpret this to read "I'm in over my head."

[KenH]

"I found one BIG THING that I can't do in Linux Mint that I did all the time in Win10... CURSE IT!! "

That is one funny line!!! and so much truth in it also..... but there are a few times when I curse at Linux. Especially when dealing with trying mount other drives, dealing with COM ports (mostly because I'm so accustomed to Windoz)..... and of course when there are programs that are windoz only. Some run just fine under Wine, but others require a VM with Windoz installed..... and just try doing your taxes with Linux. I don't think there are any of the popular tax programs that are ported to Linux. If there are, please enlighten me.

Ken H>

[DougGuy]

FYI.... Once WINE is installed in Linux, (WINE is the Windows emulator and allows many Windows programs and games to be run in Linux) I found QuickLoad to run flawlessly in all flavors. Sometimes there is an error at install about QL can't find a certain font, which btw is a windows only font, you just have to pick a diffferent font and the issue is resolved.

[Dvedw]

I have a laptop that I may try Mint on. It has been years since I've looked at Linux.

[Smoke4320]

I had done the same .. Last time I tried it was not impressed. Too much would not work. Too many command line entrys to get wrong and screw everything up..
Mint 18.3 you can pretty much run graphically to look like Win 7 or Win 10 .. Its up to you

at least that's my take so far

[popper]

Win10 was designed with streaming in mind ( that linux & unix already do - except for the UI scheme, Win is a port of unix anyway with wrappers around it). Old BIOS & hardware wasn't really designed for streaming so they aren't supported and don't work that well.

[Smoke4320]

Linux Mint 19 “Tara” Cinnamon released!
This article was posted on Fri, 29 Jun 2018 14:07:40 +0000
The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 19 “Tara” Cinnamon Edition. Linux Mint 19 Tara Cinnamon Edition Linux Mint 19 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2023. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable […]

[Traffer]

Linux Mint 19 “Tara” Cinnamon released!
This article was posted on Fri, 29 Jun 2018 14:07:40 +0000
The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 19 “Tara” Cinnamon Edition. Linux Mint 19 Tara Cinnamon Edition Linux Mint 19 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2023. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable […]

Great, what a coincidence. Going to do a dual boot on my main PC and install it on an old netbook. Yay!

[Dvedw]

Will probably be installing on my spare laptop this evening.

[dragon813gt]

I have Mint 19 Tara Cinnamon running in a virtual machine on my laptop. As I thought it runs very similarly to DSM that runs on my NAS. And speaking of the NAS I tried to run it on a virtual machine there but I didn’t have enough memory. So I ordered 8GB to upgrade it.

I can’t say I’m really impressed w/ it. I know I’m going to have to use the terminal at some point. This doesn’t make it the most user friendly OS. And I honestly have no complaints about Windows. I stuck w/ 8.1 because I knew exactly what 10 was and how much info it sends to Microsoft. Having to use Wine to run Quickload and Quicken isn’t very appealing. I can run them as well as every other program I use on Windows.

For someone that just wants to surf the web and perform some basic document editing I can see the appeal. I can also see the appeal for people that are into computers. I guess I fall in the middle where I know enough to be dangerous but not enough to make switching over a breeze. I will play around w/ it for awhile to see if it grows on me. I still plan on running it on my NAS for remote access because file management through DSM is a chore.

[GhostHawk]

I have been playing with it for the last two days. Seems pretty decent.

Biggest difference, Mint put shortcuts to cd's, flash drive, etc right on the desktop.

Windows likes to hide everything in C:\windows.
Linux leaves it all right out in plain sight, but you have to know how to find the drive.
That they don't make so easy.

Biggest thing I need at this point is some 30 years of experience running it which I don't have.

I will say the install was painless.

And I think it is a good tool to have in the box. Got a virus or malware, boot to mint, grab a cleaner and watch those bugs get sucked. Protect yourself in this bug.

I won't say I am done with windows. But I see a dual boot in my near future.

[Traffer]

I have Mint 19 Tara Cinnamon running in a virtual machine on my laptop. As I thought it runs very similarly to DSM that runs on my NAS. And speaking of the NAS I tried to run it on a virtual machine there but I didn’t have enough memory. So I ordered 8GB to upgrade it.

I can’t say I’m really impressed w/ it. I know I’m going to have to use the terminal at some point. This doesn’t make it the most user friendly OS. And I honestly have no complaints about Windows. I stuck w/ 8.1 because I knew exactly what 10 was and how much info it sends to Microsoft. Having to use Wine to run Quickload and Quicken isn’t very appealing. I can run them as well as every other program I use on Windows.

For someone that just wants to surf the web and perform some basic document editing I can see the appeal. I can also see the appeal for people that are into computers. I guess I fall in the middle where I know enough to be dangerous but not enough to make switching over a breeze. I will play around w/ it for awhile to see if it grows on me. I still plan on running it on my NAS for remote access because file management through DSM is a chore.

I think it is interesting what you say about Windows 10. I am a retired PC tech and tried my best to ward off friends and family from Windows 10. They just giggled under their breath and thought me a tin foil hat weirdo. I have preferred Win7 to Win8.1 because I am not into the app generation. I see nothing wrong or cumbersome about using "applications" and "programs" instead of the bite sized apps. And I do not use touch screens except when I have to. Gimme a desktop PC any day. Anyway I just wanted to say your mention of "I knew exactly what 10 was and how much info it sends to Microsoft." has encouraged me. With the revelations about Google and Facebook spying on people and manipulating ...I tell folks "you ain't seen nothing yet. wait till Microsoft gets exposed." With Windows 10 and a not too complicated algorithm they can easily discern when you go to the bathroom and how long it takes. All this information about you is stored for future possible use. Consider if someone nasty were to use it against you ...Like perhaps Lois Learner. Anyway I am itching for a rant today but have better things to do.

[dragon813gt]

There was plenty of warnings before Win10 rolled out. If people didn’t head them, that’s on them. Unfortunately most people just want to buy a computer from a store and go about using it. And Microsoft has that market cornered.

It’s what happened to me w/ Win8. I needed a laptop and that’s what it came w/. It’s a touchscreen Ultrabook and I’ve been very pleased w/ it. I don’t use the touchscreen all the time. But there are time where it’s convenient and I’m glad I have it. I hesitate to say this because something bad usually happens. But Win8 has been the most stable OS I’ve used since XP. My work laptop is Win7 and there are all sorts of issues w/ it. Every time our IT department releases updates they invariably break something. The last one caused an endless boot loop. We had to delete five of the updates to stop it.

I’m willing to give Mint a try. In my case I don’t see it replacing Windows. I almost want to buy a cheaper laptop, w/ enough horsepower, and install Mint on it just to play around w/. That will have to wait for now. Lots of guns needs to be bought before that [emoji23]

[roadie]

Anyway I just wanted to say your mention of "I knew exactly what 10 was and how much info it sends to Microsoft." has encouraged me. With the revelations about Google and Facebook spying on people and manipulating ...I tell folks "you ain't seen nothing yet. wait till Microsoft gets exposed." With Windows 10 and a not too complicated algorithm they can easily discern when you go to the bathroom and how long it takes. All this information about you is stored for future possible use. Consider if someone nasty were to use it against you ...Like perhaps Lois Learner. Anyway I am itching for a rant today but have better things to do.


Oh, it will be something when Microsoft's info gathering is exposed for the theft it really is, as well as the spying. As mentioned by dragon813gt though, people were warned when Windows 10 was rolling out, made no difference, people still latched on to it like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

People sure talk the talk concerning their online privacy, the walking the walk is where they get wobbly. And Microsoft knows they can do pretty much whatever they want, people will still buy their junky product. I wonder how many people have stopped using Facebook and Google.....I suspect not a lot.

On topic, I think the best thing new users to Linux can do, is to toss out any notions that Linux is like Windows, cause it isn't. It doesn't do things the way Windows does, and to expect it to will only invite frustration and in many cases, giving up and going back to Windows as the daily driver. Linux has a learning curve, though it's light years ahead from when I started some 20 years ago. Nowadays, running Linux is like a walk in the park.

Another point I'll bring up, is that Mint is by no means the only....or best....Linux version available. There are dozens of different flavors out there. Same with Cinnamon, it's just one of a pile of different desktops available.....there's Mate, Xfce, E17, Gnome, and the old pig, KDE....which is actually not bad in the Linux I run, I just don't care for it when lighter, faster desktops are available.

[dragon813gt]

I now have it up and running on my NAS. Trying to figure out how to mount drives. This is where it really becomes inconvenient. W/ Windows you just go to my computer and map the drive. Takes all of five seconds. Not so easy w/ Mint.

Was able to get ExpressVPN working but I had to use terminal to activate and use it. Thankfully there’s a plug-in for Firefox. But you still have to connect through terminal first. Then then the plugin works and you can pick which server you want to use.

I’m sure I’m having the same frustrations as anyone that’s trying to switch over. If Mint is the most user friendly I don’t want to see any of the other ones.

[dbosman]

I've found a working solution for old, under powered, XP Centrino, notebooks. Old school wired, internet install.
From https://askubuntu.com/questions/117744/how-can-i-install-on-a-non-pae-cpu-error-kernel-requires-features-not-present

Workaround 3: If you have a wired internet connection, use the "net install" mini-CD
You will need a reasonably fast wired connection for this method -- all packages will be downloaded over the internet.
Download the non-PAE netboot CD image mini.iso
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/precise/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/non-pae/mini.iso
and burn it to a CD or USB.
Boot from it, follow the steps, and choose linux-generic when asked to choose a kernel, and ubuntu-desktop to get the "default" Ubuntu installation the regular Desktop CD would have given you, just with a non-PAE kernel.
You can also choose one of the other desktops. You should choose a desktop otherwise you will not have a GUI to play with after installation.

[Smoke4320]

Linux 19 now has a real easy way to mount drives ..
Go to disks on the menu
click and choose drive or partition to mount ..
click on the right arrow and drive is mounted

[DougGuy]

Linux Mint 19 “Tara” Cinnamon released!
This article was posted on Fri, 29 Jun 2018 14:07:40 +0000
The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 19 “Tara” Cinnamon Edition. Linux Mint 19 Tara Cinnamon Edition Linux Mint 19 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2023. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable […]

I plan to check LM19 out soon enough myself but see no reason to abandon 18.3 just yet. Jesse Smith runs a website called "distrowatch" that seems to be the message board for all things linux, he posted a good review of LM19:

https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=current

[GhostHawk]

Anyone know of a good app to partition drives from inside Mint?

I have mint up, running, stable, well the wifi is blinking on and off but I have a fix for that.

I'll move it and plug it into the lan.

But I would ideally love to dual boot this.

The good news is the Windows 10 that loaded itself while the computer was "asleep" is gone never to return.

Lord what a waste that thing was. Made the laptop slow, buggy, you never knew if it would work or not.

I have a variety of older OS's that just might work on it, from 98, xp sp3 untended USB corporate to a brand new Win 8.1 with key (First OS I have paid money for in 22 years) Peg leg check, eye patch check, parrot on shoulder check, Ahoy Matey! So call me a pirate, see if I care! :)

[rdwarrior]

Question for all the Linux gurus - i have an old laptop running i think Windows xp - started having problems and no horsepower to upgrade OS. Do I need to make an image of the disc before trying to install Linux on it? Do I need to make it dual bootable or what - I dont want to lose any files I may still have on that laptop. I have not played with OS on puters in probably 15 years so I dont want to make that computer completely unusable due to having just enough knowledge now to be extremely dangerous.

[DougGuy]

Anyone know of a good app to partition drives from inside Mint?

Open a terminal window, type: sudo apt-get install gparted

It will ask for your password, then install gparted. Great partition editor..

[DougGuy]

Question for all the Linux gurus - i have an old laptop running i think Windows xp - started having problems and no horsepower to upgrade OS. Do I need to make an image of the disc before trying to install Linux on it? Do I need to make it dual bootable or what - I dont want to lose any files I may still have on that laptop. I have not played with OS on puters in probably 15 years so I dont want to make that computer completely unusable due to having just enough knowledge now to be extremely dangerous.

You could copy all the important files or go to youtube and search for hard drive replacement for your model, get a new SSD drive and install it, save your entire XP drive and use a USB/HDD cable to interface it in times that you want access to it.

[GhostHawk]

Logged into Mint last night after moving it to its home and plugging in the Lan.

Gparted great tool. Was able to do a search and find and install it painlessly.

But before taking irrevocable steps I decided to run with it a bit as it is.

Soon as I logged into Firefox all my bookmarks, saved loggins were there.
Fired up Youtube and she is quick and sweet with no issues at all.

Flawless.

So if nothing else it will sit there and let me play Youtube vids while I am casting/reloading.
That is good enough.

Boots quick, no real issues. Later today we'll try out their version of Minecraft. See how that flys.

Overall, I am impressed. Linux has made big strides since I last tried it. Big strides.

[Smoke4320]

Yes i find linux mint 19 to be very fast. Web pages just jump now instead of waiting 5- 10 seconds waiting for one to load.
The huge reduction of viruses is a plus along with thr elimination of windows spying.
Thunderbird email is super quick as well.
So far i am pleased

[Ole Joe Clarke]

Can I install Linux on my fairly new desktop with Win 10 easily? I don't like drama on a computer.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

[Smoke4320]

Yes there are several ways to do it.
I chose the simplist (to me) and reversable if i did not like it.
Assuming you have a dvd drive or USB port and your computer bios can be set to boot from the dvd drive or USB first.
Get you a clean dvd disc or USB stick
Go to windows 10 make a bootable dvd or USB
Go to linux.com
Download the mint cinnamon 19 ISO file from one of the listed sites. This will probably take a while depending on your download speed so be prepared to wait.
Now the easy part set bios to boot to dvd first
Load dvd in drive .. Restart computer
It will load linux in a test mode .
Try it out .. Make sure printer, drives sound ect all work.
If happy click link to load linux to your hard disc and follow promps.
Enjoy

[DougGuy]

Can I install Linux on my fairly new desktop with Win 10 easily? I don't like drama on a computer.

Have a blessed day,

Leon


Question for all the Linux gurus - i have an old laptop running i think Windows xp - started having problems and no horsepower to upgrade OS. Do I need to make an image of the disc before trying to install Linux on it? Do I need to make it dual bootable or what - I dont want to lose any files I may still have on that laptop. I have not played with OS on puters in probably 15 years so I dont want to make that computer completely unusable due to having just enough knowledge now to be extremely dangerous.


The easiest way is to disconnect your windows drive, go to walmart or best buy and get a 120gb or 256gb SSD (solid state drive) and install Linux Mint to this drive. After you install it you can reconnect your windows drive and use the F8 key at boot to bring up a boot menu that will let you choose which drive to boot from.

This way Linux and Windows can both be used independently on the same machine, and they won't fight each other. Dual booting works, but to be honest if something goes wrong, and eventually it will, it makes it much harder to repair or recover. Windows is so self-medicating these days, it keeps a hidden partition for system restore, it basically fixes itself for the most part, and Linux can sometimes have problems with these partitions as they will be visible to Linux.

The best part of doing it this way will be that Windows cannot read the Linux file system, so windows cannot break Linux!!!!

[Smoke4320]

DougGuy sounds like a great solution as well

[dragon813gt]

Desktops make things a lot easier. My laptop has a SSD and regular hard drive in it. But Windows boots from the SSD and the other hard drive is where everything else is. Don’t want to wipe one or the other out just yet. Even w/ backups of everything.

[DougGuy]

A NOTE ON UPGRADING LINUX MINT TO 19....

I would HIGHLY ADVISE any Linux Mint users interested in upgrading to visit THIS PAGE https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2416 and CAREFULLY reading and following the instructions to check to see if Linux Mint 19 is ready to upgrade YOUR system before you casually assume it is safe to install the new one.

There are some widespread issues with MESA 18.0.5 that will BREAK the update, they are working on this problem as it is well documented and reported, give them time to find a solution and PLEASE RE-RUN the Mintupdate Check utility before upgrading!

Those who are downloading Linux Mint 19 as an .iso image, burning it to USB stick (I use Etcher, a free and painless USB writer!) and doing a clean install on non partitioned drive should not have these issues..

[roadie]

A NOTE ON UPGRADING LINUX MINT TO 19....

I would HIGHLY ADVISE any Linux Mint users interested in upgrading to visit THIS PAGE https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2416 and CAREFULLY reading and following the instructions to check to see if Linux Mint 19 is ready to upgrade YOUR system before you casually assume it is safe to install the new one.



This is an all too common problem with Linux distributions like Mint and Ubuntu, or any that push regular upgrades.....things break. Sometimes because of bugs, sometimes because the upgrade was pushed out too soon. I would suggest checking the website before a major upgrade to make sure there are no issues going on.

Really, with a hard drive install, you can bork it really good with a bad upgrade and usually the easiest fix is to rip it out and start again. Not me, thanks, I don't worry about constant upgrades.....and I'll say it again, Linux ain't Windows, you don't have to upgrade everytime you boot the thing up.

I upgrade only for security fixes, if it's running good, then leave it be. There's usually not a huge benefit in upgrades anyway. When a new version of the distro I use is released, I just install it alongside my current one, get it running right, and migrate my stuff to it.

[roadie]

I seriously cannot believe that Mint doesn't ship with Gparted. The distro I run is a 300 meg download and ships with Gparted. Mint is something like 1.5 - 2 gigs.

That's a major difference in size and it just boggles my mind, that you have to install a decent partitioning manager after you download that much.

[GhostHawk]

Well I spent about 3 hours yesterday moving the laptop to its new home, plugging it into the lan.

Instantly negotiated connection and Youtube was off and simply FLYING.

Never saw a single second of that circular "loading" indicator. Video's just RAN. No runs, no skips, no errors, no time outs, no strikes, no outs.

Perfect performance.

Then I copied several of my old MP3 cd's to the music folder. Ran those flawlessly also. Had to download some dependancy's to get media player to work but it sorted itself with no need from help from me except a password and an ok to do this.

Loaded some of my old wallpapers, and grabbed a few new. Nice, simple system, easy to do.

Used software manager to download Minecraft. Now I just need to figure out where it is and how to launch it.

But, overall, one more day in, no major hiccups. Runs 10x faster that windoze 10 ever did. Considerably snappier than 8.1 even.

I'll find some more questions on this road I'm sure down the line. But I don't see anything being a deal breaker here.

I am in no rush to upgrade to mint 19 at this point.

I will say that downloading the .iso and burning it to CD was dead easy. (Thank you IMGburn)

Booting from CD takes longer to load, and I don't think it saves much. But it is an easy risk free way of trying it before committing to it.

The install itself is dead easy.

Once installed boots are very quick. But mostly I have just been shutting the lid. Open up click the mouse, put in password and hey presto ready for most anything.

[roadie]

Question for all the Linux gurus - i have an old laptop running i think Windows xp - started having problems and no horsepower to upgrade OS. Do I need to make an image of the disc before trying to install Linux on it? Do I need to make it dual bootable or what - I dont want to lose any files I may still have on that laptop. I have not played with OS on puters in probably 15 years so I dont want to make that computer completely unusable due to having just enough knowledge now to be extremely dangerous.



If I was installing for the first time, I'd grab a USB stick and install to it with some program in XP. Then set the bios to boot from the USB first and if the install is good, you can try Linux, you might like, or hate it. But there's basically no risk to XP....most problems are caused by doing things you shouldn't do in the XP partition from Linux. I wouldn't write files to the XP partition as I have had problems years ago with corruption.

Then, if you find you like Linux, as DougGuy mentions, you can grab another SSD and install from the USB stick. There are usually no problems setting up a dual boot, but there are also no guarantees against problems. Just cause it's never happened to me, doesn't mean it won't happen to you, or anyone else.

I notice from the thread that Mint apparently doesn't mount other partitions on boot, this is not true of all Linux distributions, and it's something to be aware of when you have XP, or whatever on another partition.

[goodolejim]

Linux Mint is a derivative of Ubuntu so the drivers are the same. I like Mint better but would not feel abused if I went back to Ubuntu.

Semper Fi

Doc Olive

[DougGuy]

Let me impart a GOOD lesson here.. Many years ago, before Windows got so hoity toity and fancy, hardware was a major concern to those who were system builders and system integrators, I learned a little nugget.. I used to use nothing but Abit motherboards, so I learned to go to the Abit forum, and just scroll the topics, if there was a chipset or motherboard that was particularly problematic or difficult to get working right, there were usually lots of posts concerning this model motherboard, and I learned to avoid using those, as some of these things come out half baked and they use their customer base and the forum to beta test! Yes you paid for the hardware then you complained about it not doing certain things, yada yada, and you were doing Abit a HUGE favor posting the ills of their hardware so their driver writers and engineers could refine their products....

Now.. About the "nugget" in discussion. I would look at a motherboard on fleabay, then immediately head over to the Abit forum and scroll the topics looking for this model board there. I would buy the boards that DID NOT have any posts on them, because this meant no one was having issues with them! Guess what? SUCCESS!!! YAY!! A bug-free system and a flawless install and got a machine running it's little behootie off and stable as a rock...

Fast forward to July 2018, apply the same logic to Linux Mint 19, and just scroll the topics posted on the Linux forum here: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewforum.php?f=46

Sadly, well over half of the topics are some complaint about Linux Mint 19, it seems to have a LOT of issues, not just limited to the MESA 18.0.5 issue that breaks the upgrade from 18.3. Apparently even clean installs of LM19 are fraught with problems of one kind or another. YMMV...

[Minerat]

Does any one know how it does with Land Desktop 2004 or even some of the old ACAD 13 based programs like Eagle Point Site design?