Linux for a Dummy

[The Admiral]

18 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

My thoughts too, a quick look around and it doesn't look like the Dell hard drives are cheap but thats to be expected as they "fix" things like the motherboard and BIOS so that only there own items work.

Alan

Hmm, that's a bummer! Is there no way around it? I'm guessing you've 'oogled it?

Ian

[Alien 13]

1 minute ago, The Admiral said:

Hmm, that's a bummer! Is there no way around it? I'm guessing you've 'oogled it?

Ian

It is also a plus in a way, they have always been the most stable machines I have used.

Alan

[SilverAstro]

Oh ! What happened to the idea of trying it via a Live USBstick ? (sorry I've been away domesticating !)

Edit, Ah! I thought you had cream-crackered a drive , phew.

[Alien 13]

2 minutes ago, SilverAstro said:

Oh ! What happened to the idea of trying it via a Live USBstick ? (sorry I've been away domesticating !)

Edit, Ah! I thought you had cream-crackered a drive for a mo. phew.

I have downloaded the file will wait till tomorrow when my head has cleared to make a Live USBstick and have a play with an older laptop, the one I am typing on will be out of bounds to anything other than Windows.

Alan

[Alien 13]

Finally figured out how to make a bootable USB stick with help from "Rufus" and even managed to get into the BIOS of the Dell XPS to change boot sequence (never an easy task and impossible on my later machine).

Turn on and I be having Linux running from the stick, looks quite good although I cant get it to connect to the net yet.

The next big hurdle and another venture into the unknown will be to turn the laptop into a dual boot device, I expect this will involve partitions etc but am clueless at the moment.

Alan

[The Admiral]

2 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

Finally figured out how to make a bootable USB stick with help from "Rufus" and even managed to get into the BIOS of the Dell XPS to change boot sequence (never an easy task and impossible on my later machine).

Turn on and I be having Linux running from the stick, looks quite good although I cant get it to connect to the net yet.

The next big hurdle and another venture into the unknown will be to turn the laptop into a dual boot device, I expect this will involve partitions etc but am clueless at the moment.

Alan

Well done Alan. When I tried Mint on an ancient laptop from a DVD a few years ago, I was amazed to see that the wireless network was viable! From what I've read, getting the wireless network can require a bit of work. What distro are you using?

When I downloaded I am pretty sure that the image was already bootable, IIRC, so I didn't need to go through the rigamarole of converting. Wasn't there an option to download an already bootable image direct to the stick?

I get the impression that modern computers are a bit like cars, no longer designed to be fiddled with by the great unwashed!

Ian

[Alien 13]

42 minutes ago, The Admiral said:

Well done Alan. When I tried Mint on an ancient laptop from a DVD a few years ago, I was amazed to see that the wireless network was viable! From what I've read, getting the wireless network can require a bit of work. What distro are you using?

When I downloaded I am pretty sure that the image was already bootable, IIRC, so I didn't need to go through the rigamarole of converting. Wasn't there an option to download an already bootable image direct to the stick?

I get the impression that modern computers are a bit like cars, no longer designed to be fiddled with by the great unwashed!

Ian

Thanks Ian, I dont know if there is a version that is bootable but Rufus looks to add some files and downloads a couple of others, its quite straightforward though.

Linux (Mint) did identify all the networks in my area and let me enter my pass code but wouldn't connect, a very quick look at the network properties etc showed that most if not all boxes where blank.

I dont know if the internet problem is due to me running Linux from the stick rather than installing it.

Alan

[The Admiral]

Sorry, can't offer any advice there, I'm at the end of my knowledge base! It is odd though that you've got wi-fi up and running yet can't access the internet. Could it be related to the type of security encryption you are using? Just a wild shot in the dark.

Ian

[Alien 13]

I am looking at how to make a dual boot system now but one obvious question is how big should the Linux/Windows partitions be? the machine has a 500Gb single hard drive.

Alan

 

[Alien 13]

I now have the laptop set up as a dual boot and both win 7 and Mint work fine, I have even got the internet to work, the only minor observation is that when I created a partition on the drive for Linux another small one appeared after installation, is this normal?

The only slight gripe at the moment is having to keep entering passwords for almost every menu.

Alan

 

[rotatux]

18 hours ago, Alien 13 said:

As a complete novice I have to ask why are their so many different Linuxes around

Actually it's not "many different Linuxes" but many different distributions, Linux being only the kernel. Distributions are assemblies of software where most software is the same everywhere, and some choices are different. The main differences are in package management, desktop user interface, and initial desktop setup.

A desktop is an assembly of file manager, background, window manager (= decorations and associated behaviour), and some other elements depending on the chosen desktop. You don't know those concepts because they don't exist in Windows where everything is uniform and imposed by MS. IMO the strong point resulting from this is choice of ergonomics, and that's why so many distributions (5+ pkg managers x 10+ desktops x 10^N possible setups x 10^P general or specific usage targets).

As a newcomer you should try a few of several desktops (KDE Gnome XFCE LXDE LXQT...) to get a feel of which ergonomics is best for you, and keep an eye on ease of package management. Most distros will allow you to install additional desktops to try after initial setup. As said previously, KDE (though it's not my own choice) is usually considered closest to Windows habits, and is the desktop of choice if willing to use KStars / Indi.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Putting on the horns... ...

Instead of using your precious laptops, why not buy a Raspberry Pi3, where for a total outlay of approx. £40-50 you can have a system that will drive your whole setup....

[Alien 13]

14 minutes ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

Putting on the horns... ...

Instead of using your precious laptops, why not buy a Raspberry Pi3, where for a total outlay of approx. £40-50 you can have a system that will drive your whole setup....

Good point but my spare laptops have had a good life and are worthless at the moment might get £20 for both if I was lucky.

Alan

[David Smith]

10 hours ago, Alien 13 said:

I now have the laptop set up as a dual boot and both win 7 and Mint work fine, I have even got the internet to work, the only minor observation is that when I created a partition on the drive for Linux another small one appeared after installation, is this normal?

The only slight gripe at the moment is having to keep entering passwords for almost every menu.

Alan

 

Not certain but I suspect that small partition is what's called the Swap partition. Basically a small corner of the hard drive that Linux uses a bit like "virtual memory". By default Mint usually create a small swap partition.

https://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5.2/Deployment_Guide/s1-swap-what-is.html

[JamesF]

On 27/08/2017 at 15:56, pete_l said:

I've been using Linux since it first came out and I used Unix professionally as a developer since the early 80s.

Oooh, go on, what hardware were you using then?  My first exposure to UNIX was when I went to university in the mid-80s and we ended up using a VAX 11/780 (assuming my memory isn't making stuff up) running a BSD variant.  There was quite a significant move to Sun hardware over the next couple of years though and I got to play with one of the Sun 4 workstations as I did a graphics based project for part of my final year's coursework.  I remember people dabbling with MINIX towards the end of my degree, too.  I probably still have Tanenbaum's book somewhere here in my office.

James