Debian Big stick

This not my idea but copied from AI.

 

I am currently installing Debian on a 16GB USB stick. 

 

I do not know how much RAM it needs, in the system it is tested.

 

Debian "Big Stick" is a term used within the Debian community to refer to a large USB stick or other removable media used for installing or running Debian. It's a way to have a portable Debian system, either for installation or as a live system for testing or emergencies.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
 

Installation Media:
    

Debian can be installed from a USB stick, making it a convenient way to install the operating system on multiple computers without needing optical media.

Live System:
A "Big Stick" can also be used to create a live Debian system, allowing you to boot and use Debian directly from the USB drive without installing it on the computer's hard drive. This is useful for testing, troubleshooting, or accessing a familiar environment on different machines.
 

Portable Environment:
A "Big Stick" provides a portable Debian environment that can be taken anywhere and used on various computers.
Familiarity and Convenience:
Using a "Big Stick" allows users to have a consistent Debian experience across different machines, which can be particularly useful for developers or users who prefer Debian's stability and reliability.

Revisiting Reborn

YES, I revisited Reborn OS.

Many reasons.

It is very flexible.

Both online and offline installation is possible.

I was not fond of online installation in CEYLON but having come to Australia that radically changed.

I just installed Plasma on top of Reborn Gnome.

It is smooth and beautiful.

Gnome is light weight very suitable for online installation.

Thereafter one can install Plasma.

In addition I tried Pantheon utilities but no independent desktop.

I should try Cosmic Desktop.

Yes I got Cosmic Desktop.

Overall I prefer RebornOS to BlueStar.

Everything is difficult in BlueStar OS including installing AbiWord.

Web search says one could install by a terminal but it start a root in terminal no action even to kill or killal command.

I may ditch it to Manjaro Linux.

Am I gone fully Trixie Debian?

NO, No.

I am with bookworm for a while.

I have MX Linux in one /root partition.

It has three desktops.

MX Linux

Gnome Base

KDE full.

Now everyone is going for huge disks, they forget to have a working system one does not need bulk.

I am one who believe in "Small is Beautiful.

I just saw a Debian instead fir a 16GB Stick.

Amazing I started with 512MB USB stick with Puppy Linux.

For Practical reasons Puppy Linux is almost dead. I have 40 odd Puppy Linux images in my archive.

Marathon Linux Upgrading

I was up till 3AM.

Not due to my fault.

ARCH distribution, namely BlueStar Linux erased One and Only DATA /home partition I had.

It went like this.

To begin with it did not configure the Wireless Network on Live Session.

It only installs the base system.

Unlike Reborn OS which I like the most, which one can install online or offline. 

 

BlueStar the most beautiful and application packed distribution is rigid to the core.

 

Every line of instruction or code is remembered and one cannot undo.

That is what happened.

Having allocated the partition for install-ion, it wanted me to give me EFI partition for boot.

I accidentally allocated the data partition as EFI which was actually Ext4. 

I inadvertently had left it for formatting (forgot to undo).

 

Having realized the mistake I activated EFI and pressed the button OK.

 

Unlike those days, I read every line (most of the ARCH coding I cannot understand) and having realized that I made a big blunder, I cancelled the installation.

I generally, just let installation go on. uninterrupted.

But in this occasion I cancelled it and installed Manjaro KDE.

 

By the way, I wanted two KDE desktops and BlueStar is KDE. 

Blue Star did not mess up with the GRUB but it is in black and grey colour and I cannot read the menu at boot time. 

 

To add to the problem I am colour blind for blue and it is getting bad.

 

Once Manjaro got the GRUB file in colourful plymouth. I installed Debian 13 with only the Gnome Desktop.

Then, went to sleep

Woke up after 7 hours and a bit and I am now installing second instance of Debian 13 with Gnome, Plasma, Cinnamon and MATE.

No thank YOU to XFCE, which I begin to hate.

 

Most important thing before winding off.

 

I did not fiddle with my Partition Table.

 

I changed, one of the two SWAP partitions to a Ext 4 and installed Debian Junior, the kid's Operating System, in one  /root partition.

It has 4.2GB capacity and the partition had 18GB.

 

It runs on IceWarm Window Manager as the desktop, on boot up.

It has lot of kids games which I love.

 

No Synaptic Package Manager and I may have to learn how to install using Terminal again. 

I want only AbiWord and Brave Browser. 

That is one a later day.

 

What happened to my five books?

Latest copies were erased but old copies were saved in two 32GB USB sticks with entire Document Folder/s named 1 to 10.

 

Nothing really lost but now I have a clutter free /home folder.

 

NTFS partition has most of the latest images including Reborn OS. 

Reborn OS has a minor glitch with GRUB or I am resting it for a while.

Unfortunately, Manjaro is not booting and I had this problem some time ago with Manjaro. 

It is a very beautiful distribution.

I lost a few Debian packages to install Opera and Vivaldi browsers but quickly restore them from respective web sites.

All in all it is marathon Linux install and I am just preparing Debian Junior on a USB stick for demonstration and if necessary Single Install. It's GRUB is dicey.

By the way, this was posted with BlueStar Linux running.

Thank YOU BlueStar Linux developers. 

Gnome Debi, the Package installer

Gnome Debi, the Package installer

GDebi is a Debian Graphic installer.

It is already in the Debian System

Just question, Gdebi in the normal launcher, it launches itself.

One should have the package already downloded from the respective home sites.

Brave browser does not. 

I do not bother to work in a terminal and make mistakes.

1. Opera is there in downloads

2. Vivaldi an excellent browser is there in your download folder

3. Ulancher

4. I tried OnlyOffice, Yes I got it installed in a few minutes.

I suppose i do not need anymore now.

Well I Ditched Reborn OS for Netrunner OS

Netrunner runs on root which I do not like.

What one has to do is to GO to the System Setting and use Users to install a User. I use the name of a money for my USER Space. That works well. 

If somebody wants to money with me, I know what to do with that cyber space money.

Yes, I did not know ARCH has 4 vulnerabilities.

It did not update with or could not live with the GRUB file of Debian 13 kernel. 

 

Problems all started with Gnome OS which is 2.2GB and came out on the 08-08-2025. Gnome OS try to take over the whole hard disk. It does not live with the normal Partition Table and tries something new. 

Well Partition Table and GRUB file are backbone of Linux. 

If somebody tries to reinvent the the wheel, he or she would have to toil unnecessarily.

It is not going to work.

Coming back to Netrunner which was an old flame of mine that comes from Germany is a KDE desktop with a difference. 

It supports Synaptic Package Manager which is my favorite. 

By the way, Debian 13 supports Synaptic Package Manager as one of its Software, a nice way to satisfy old Linux guys like me.

 

Netrunner is bit out of date but it has both Gnome and KDE Software which is a big plus point. It even supports Oracle Virtual Box.

But I prefer Box utility of Debian.

 

I am not a fan for going straight into new stuff but being a Debian supporter all my life I could not resist going head on. 

In any case I had two Testing images in my NUC from the beginning of this year and Debian regularly provided me with Updates. 

I did not have any problems. 

By the way, my NUC has only 320GB SATA space with 55GB of NTFS for storing Iso Images. With 15GB for SWAP, I have only 250GB for four Linux Operating System. For my working Debian or daily driver I have given 100GB with a large /home partition. What it means is I have roughly 50GB each for the rest of the 3 distributions. 

 

It is economizing my hardware space and certainly not in any way FRUGAL.

I left two 1 terabyte SATA disks in Ceylon.

I won't pay for a huge air ticket to fetch them.

They will gather dust and I may buy a hard disk here in Australia.

 

Any new Linux Distributions takes about 20GB for the /root and rest is for /boot, /home, /var and /tmp or /opt. 

 

I give a huge portion for /var partition to install additional software which include Box utility, Scribus, Inkscape, GIMP, Audacity, VLC and many more.

I have Blender which is 1800GB for full install but Debian does install it with 350MB with rest probably coming from Debian libraries.

 

I am currently working on five books (very boring without a secretary) and may not test any of these applications except Scribus (really labour intensive making even a single page format with high precision takes inordinate time).

I have done with secretaries in the University. They make mistakes in medical terminology and I decided to do my own typing.

LibreOffice 25.2 seems to be very good but I do all my books with AbiWord which is my Work Horse. 

It does not have Macros and in fact it removes any Macro from LibreOffice and Microsoft Words.

I ditched Microsoft 25 years ago. 

Microsoft is a pain for any regular Linux user. 

It is trying to band wagon Linux and it is too, late.

Who would use Edge.

There is a plethora of other browsers from Dillo to Falkon to Brave to Vivaldi to Operate to Firefox to Konqueror.

 

Firefox is my favorite.

I started with Mozilla.

50 Linux Text Editors for Every User

Reproduction - Thank YOU.

I have highlighted few of them I have used in the past.

I do not use any of them now, Simply Lazy.

 Before I knew it, I was researching their histories, looking into their features and compiling a list of options for terminal and graphical editing. What started as a quick installation, turned into hours of research, and now I’m sharing it with you!

50 Linux Text Editors for Every User

Text editors are a must-have for any Linux user whether you’re editing config files, writing scripts or programming. Some editors are simple, some are customizable, and some are niche. This list is a collection of text editors you should consider checking out and even giving a try.

1. Amp: A terminal-based text editor inspired by Vim, written in Rust.
2. Bluefish: Editor aimed at web developers, supporting various programming languages.
3. Cudatext: A text editor with plugin support.
4. Dit: A simple and minimalist text editor written in Lua for fast editing tasks.
5. Ed: A simple line-oriented text editor, one of the oldest in Unix.
6. Emacs: Versatile editor with extensive customization options and built-in features.
7. ex: A line-based text editor and command interface for Unix systems.
8. FeatherPad: Lightweight editor for the Qt desktop environment.
9. Geany: Lightweight IDE offering basic project management and coding tools.
10. Gedit: GNOME’s default editor, designed for simplicity and ease of use.
11. GNOME Text Editor: Sleek editor for the GNOME desktop environment.
12. Gobby: Collaborative editor for real-time text editing.
13. Helix: Modal editor inspired by Vim, emphasizing speed and modern design.
14. Jed: A lightweight and fast terminal-based text editor with Emacs-like keybindings.
15. jEdit: Java-based editor for programmers, with macro and plugin support.
16. JOVE: A compact and simple Emacs-like text editor for Unix systems.
17. Jupp: JOE’s enhanced version, optimized for modern text editing.
18. Kakoune: Code editor focusing on efficient selection and editing.
19. Kate: KDE’s text editor with multi-document and split-view functionality.
20. Komodo Edit: Free, open-source version of Komodo IDE for basic coding needs.
21. Lapce: A lightning-fast and extensible code editor written in Rust, designed for developers.
22. Leafpad: Minimalist editor for simple text editing tasks.
23. Lite-xl: A simple, fast, feature-filled and extremely extensible text editor.
24. medit: A lightweight text editor with support for multiple tabs and plugins.
25. Micro: Modern terminal-based editor with intuitive interface and mouse support.
26. Mined: Text editor designed for Unicode text processing.
27. Mousepad: Simple text editor for Xfce, ideal for lightweight tasks.
28. Nano: Simple and user-friendly text editor for terminal users.
29. ne: A lightweight and easy-to-use text editor for Unix and Linux systems.
30. Neovim: Extensible fork of Vim with modern UI and improved performance.
31. Notepadqq: A free, open-source text editor for Linux, designed as an alternative to Notepad++.
    
32. NuShell: A modern shell that doubles as a text editor.
33. PHCode: A modern, open-source code editor designed to make coding intuitive and enjoyable.
34. Pluma: A simple text editor for the MATE desktop, similar to Gedit.
35. Pulsar: A Community-led Hyper-Hackable Text Editor.
36. SciTE: A lightweight, cross-platform text editor with syntax highlighting and scripting support.
37. Sublime Text: Lightweight editor with advanced features for developers and designers.
38. TEA Text Editor: Multi-platform editor with basic writing and coding features.
39. Textadept: Fast, minimalist editor designed for programmers.
40. Tilde: A terminal-based text editor designed to be easy for beginners.
41. vi: The original screen-oriented text editor for Unix systems, simple and fast.
42. Vile: VI-like editor with additional enhancements and features.
43. Vim: Highly efficient modal editor designed for power users and productivity.
44. Vis: A modern, efficient Vim-like editor with a small footprint and simplicity.
45. Visual Studio Code: A versatile text editor and IDE with powerful extensions.
46. Xed: Editor for Linux Mint, based on Gedit with additional features.
47. XEmacs: An Emacs variant with additional graphical and customization features.
48. xnedit – A fast and classic X11 text editor, based on NEdit.
49. Yudit: Unicode text editor supporting multiple languages and scripts.
50. Zed: A collaborative, fast, and modern code (and text) editor designed for developers.
51. Brackets. Editor focused on web development, featuring live reviews
52. Cream: A user friendly configuration for Vim for new users 
53. Light Table: Interactive and real time programming environment.
54. Lime Text: Open source editor inspired by Sublime Text 
55. Sam: Light weight text editor from Bell Labs, known for its powerful editing commands. 
56. The Hessling Editor: A text editor
    
57. The SemWare Editor. A versatile program editor
58. Zile: Light weight Emacs clone for Unix based systems
    

Conclusion

While it’s overwhelming, mastering a few editors will get you set. vi is everywhere on Linux systems, so it’s a must-know in any server environment. Nano is simple and easy to use for quick edits. Emacs is the most versatile and extensible, and can become so much more than just an editor.

I recommend trying at least two or three more from above based on your taste or workflow. Whether it’s a modern one like Visual Studio Code, a lightweight one like Geany or even Helix, having multiple tools will get you ready for any editing situation and preference. Personally, I mostly use neovim, vi, nano and Gnome text editor.

This list will be continually maintained, with suggestions added, outdated options removed, and replacements considered. Some solutions are less popular or relevant than others, as such, will aim to perfect this list over time. Go forth and try some out, let me know your favorites.

Libre Office 25.2-My First Visit-I won't use it.

On second thought, I decided to try LibreOffice 25.2 again as a learning exercise to get the hang of Title and Page Style without importing any word document from AbiWord and then re-examine the file under to see how many Macros for s single page layout.

I lost all my latest copies of my books yesterday, in one full swing. I am happy to say I recovered all my book files.

Then for the sake of scientific study, I looked at the Macros in new version ant there are lot of them. Top, bottom header, footer, margin and number placement etc are I think done by global macros. Whether you like or not they are placed in every page and one does not get a blank page or blank sheet to get the feel of like A4 Paper.

I took my book on Dogs which has not yet matured by had only 125 pages. 

I want to make it 150 or so.

I want to finish it after Trump and Putin meeting in Alaska and I am going to have an account on Alaskan dogs, for change. I think or wolves from Alaska become dogs to being with. 

Historically it is worth revising.

Coming to my discussion on LibreOffice the book I had Abiword was 125 pages but in LibreOffice it was 175 pages or more due to page adjustments.

I you do not have enough in your next book, the way to add to the number of pages is not by increasing the fonts but by adjusting the the page format liberally with Macros.

I won't try my book on Essentials in Linux on LibreOffice it would become at least 700 pages or maore.

It is already 416 pages with AbiWord.

 

First the plus point.

LibreOffice 25.2 in Debian is much sleeker than it was before. I revisited it after a very along time and to me the feel is much better.

It recognizes Abiword .abi files. 

Thank You.

I uploaded one of my working books on Dogs with 180 pages.

It did not figure out Abiword file without Macros.

It added Macros and made a hash of things.

For about half an hour I tried to get the pages format right and uploaded it as a pdf file and it got Everything WRONG in page format. 

In AboiWord, I can edit the pdf file live if it was linked to the original AbiWord file.

I get both the pdf file and the original file ready for publication at Amazion books without a hassle.

Well I won't use LibreOffice until I die.

AbiWord is the perfect page format correct and refine Word Processor.

What else one needs?

 

GNOME OS-Released on the 08-08-2025

 GNOME OS is an experimental, immutable Linux distribution that ships the latest in-development GNOME Desktop, core applications and stack. 

It serves as a reference for developers and testers. 

It is designed around the modern systemd and GNU-based userland built from the Freedesktop SDK.

Initially, GNOME OS used a library and set of utilities called OSTree to deploy the root filesystem and manage updates, but later migrated to "systemd-sysupdate" which offers enhanced immutability, auto-updating, adaptability, factory reset, uniformity and other modernised security properties. 

GNOME OS can be loaded as a live image in Boxes, VirtualBox, QEMU and other virtualization software, but it can also be installed on a standard x86_64 hardware. 

The distribution does not support traditional package management.

However, additional software applications can be installed via the Flatpak utility which is supported out of the box.

 

It is only 2.2 GB image.

I am going to install it.

I could not install it.

It tries to take over my hard disk.

It does not have a Partition Table compatibility.

It's partition system is bizarre.

I tried to format a 32GB USB stick with  235MB of reserved portion.

It could not.

It erased two other USB sticks with two live images. 

No harm done, I have those images stored in a NTFS partition.

I got Netrunner running in one of them and the other is free fot Testing any other image in the future.

If you are a newbie DO NOT try Gnome OS.

It is only 5 days old.

There are ton of Gnome Applications to Explore

There are ton of Gnome Applications to Explore

The basic installation of Gnome does to include all the applications Gnome has.

To begin with I would start with one that does not work.

It is Gnome Pie that is suppose to launch applications. It does not work. 

One open the Synaptic Package Manager and type Gnome and one can access any one of them.

 

I think Gnome is ready and mature or it to become an Independent Distribution. I support that view.

 

The list goes like this.

1. Gnome commander

2. Gnome Pie

3. Gnome Package Updater

4. CD Player

5. Celluloid

6. Font Viewer

7.  gThumb

8. Guake Terminal

9. Lollypop

10. Nautilus Cloud Client

11. Papers

12. Planner

13. Wike to Access Wikipedia

14. System Monitor

15. Gnome Disk Management

16. Gparted

17. Gnome Boxes

18. Gnome Software

19. Gnome web browser-Epiphany

20. Gnome Tweaks 

21. Gnote

22. Deja Dup

23. Polari

24. Geary

25. Apostrophe

26. Rnote

27. Document scanner

28. Fragment bit torrent

29. Shortwave

30. Audio Player

31. Video Player

32. Calculator

33. Calendar

34. Camera

35. Characters

36. Clocks

37. Connections

38. Console

39. Contacts

40. Disk Usage Analyses

41. Extensions

42. Maps

43. Settings

44. Weather

45. Tour

46. Lot of little games

47. Circle Applications

Debian Junior Desktop-Thank YOU

Debian Junior Desktop

Debian has dished out an Image that can be useful for kids under 8. 

The image size is 4.4GB.

I am going to install it in my NUC.

It is based on IceWarm Window Manager.

I did the unthinkable.

I deleted, one of the two swap partitions and installed Debian Junior on single /root partition, in there. 

It does not have Synaptic Package Manager and I cannot add Abiword in it. 

In any case it has LibreOffice 25.2 edition.

It did a very thing, in addition.

It messed up with my GRUB boot record.

YES, it did ruin my GRUB file and I had to reinstall my Testing Debian Installation to get back the original GRUB configuration.

It has lot of kids games.

Well I had been a pediatrician of yesteryear and I love Linux kid's games a lot.

Only French distribution Doudou Linux in the past supported kids games. 

It is dormant now.

Debian 13 "trixie", DVD is OK

 Debian 13 "trixie", DVD is OK

This is my addendum to the post here where I said Gnome DVD has no software to install after installation.

The remedy is simple.

Use the DVD-1 and install any of the desktops.

Gnome,

Cinnamon,

Mate

KDE

or all of them in one go.

It takes little longer buy all the same final outcome is pleasant.

Debian 13 "trixie" Gnome - Software 48.3 has nothing

Debian 13 "trixie" Gnome- Software 48.3 has nothing in it to Install.

I installed Debian 13 Gnome in my Testing Environment (Last 5 partitions of my Hard Disk) and it has nothing in it software repository to Install.

It is Sunday and perhaps the Developer Friends see this post and activate the repository for me to test it.

I have "trixie" testing already installed it is working fine.

It may that by trying to keep to the targeted date they may have overseen many important features.

Debian 13 "trixie" released

Big THANK YOU

Debian 13 "trixie" released

August 9th, 2025

After 2 years, 1 month, and 30 days of development, the Debian project is proud to present its new stable version 13 (code name "trixie").

"trixie" will be supported for the next 5 years thanks to the combined work of the Debian Security team and the Debian Long Term Support team.

Debian 13 "trixie" ships with several desktop environments, such as:

    GNOME 48,
    KDE Plasma 6.3,
    LXDE 13,
    LXQt 2.1.0,
    Xfce 4.20

This release contains over 14,100 new packages for a total count of 69,830 packages, while over 8,840 packages have been removed as "obsolete". 

44,326 packages were updated in this release. 

The overall disk usage for "trixie" is 403,854,660 kB (403 GB), and is made up of 1,463,291,186 lines of code.

Thanks to our translators who have made the man-pages for "trixie" available in multiple languages.
The manpages-l10n project has contributed many improved and new translations for manual pages. Especially Romanian and Polish translations are greatly enhanced since bookworm. All architectures other than i386 now use a 64-bit time_t ABI, supporting dates beyond 2038. Debian contributors have made significant progress towards ensuring package builds produce byte-for-byte reproducible results. You can check the status for packages installed on your system using the new package debian-repro-status, or visit reproduce.debian.net for Debian's overall statistics for trixie and newer.

Debian 13 "trixie" includes numerous updated software packages (over 63% of all packages from the previous release), such as:

    Apache 2.4.64
    Bash 5.2.37
    BIND DNS Server 9.20
    Cryptsetup 2.7
    curl/libcurl 8.14.1
    Emacs 30.1
    Exim (default email server) 4.98
    GNUcash 5.10
    GNU Compiler Collection 14.2
    GIMP 3.0.4
    GnuPG 2.4.7
    Inkscape 1.4
    the GNU C Library 2.41
    LibreOffice 25.2
    Linux kernel 6.12 LTS series
    LLVM/Clang toolchain 19 (default), 17 and 18 available
    MariaDB 11.8
    Nginx 1.26
    OpenJDK 21
    OpenLDAP 2.6.10
    OpenSSH 10.0p1
    OpenSSL 3.5
    Perl 5.40
    PHP 8.4
    Postfix 3.10
    PostgreSQL 17
    Python 3, 3.13
    Rustc 1.85
    Samba 4.22
    Systemd 257
    Vim 9.1

With this broad selection of packages and its traditional wide architecture support, Debian once again stays true to its goal of being "The Universal Operating System". 

It is suitable for many different use cases:

 from desktop systems to netbooks; 

from development servers to cluster systems; 

and for database, web, and storage servers. 

At the same time, additional quality assurance efforts like automatic installation and upgrade tests for all packages in Debian's archive ensure that "trixie" fulfills the high expectations that users have of a stable Debian release.

This release for the first time officially supports the riscv64 architecture, allowing users to run Debian on 64-bit RISC-V hardware and benefit from all Debian 13 features. A total of seven architectures are officially supported for "trixie":

    "trixie"
    64-bit PC (amd64),
    64-bit ARM (arm64),
    ARM EABI (armel),
    ARMv7 (EABI hard-float ABI, armhf),
    64-bit little-endian PowerPC (ppc64el),
    64-bit little-endian RISC-V (riscv64),
    IBM System z (s390x)

i386 is no longer supported as a regular architecture: there is no official kernel and no Debian installer for i386 systems. The i386 architecture is now only intended to be used on a 64-bit (amd64) CPU. 

Users running i386 systems should not upgrade to trixie. 

Instead, Debian recommends either reinstalling them as amd64, where possible, or retiring the hardware. 

 

My Opinion for i386 Users in Asia and Africa.

Old hardware consumes lot of Energy but if one is cash strapped one can use Antix or Legacy OS but you may not be able to configure Wireless Network but one has to use the Ethernet cable.

AntiX

Reproduction

Please Note

Mind you I could not get a persistence USB working for me. This was some time ago and i did not read any instructions given below but went for MX Linux instead.

It said old kernel and new kernel but I had several goes but could not mount a persistent volume. I was crazy for a persistent volume since, I do many things with Live USB on and I wanted them to be available for my next boot.

Say I install Abiword and I want it to be available on next boot.

 

So I went for Puppy Linux (I have about 40 Puppy Linux images, saved) which used to save the current work for next boot in a USB.

This long time ago and Puppy is almost dormant only Easy OS satisfy persistence with some glitches. Sadly it does not support Abiword but has the bulky LibreOffice.
Problem with old Puppy Linux is they do not support Wireless Internet.

I hope Puppy Developers get active and sort out this minor irritation of not supporting Wireless Connection.

I tried Legacy OS and Dark Puppy and they did not work.

 

AntiX

 

The Most Extensive Live USB on the Planet

Back in 2009, the antiX developers foresaw that USB flash drives would be the wave of the future for live Linux media. 

During the ensuing eight years antiX has been refining their live-usb technology striving to improve the live-usb experience and to find new and unique ways for making use of fast read write live boot media. During this same time USB flash drives have got larger, more reliable, much cheaper, and much much faster.

Live Boot Loader
The antiX distro provides legacy, 64-bit UEFI, and 32-bit UEFI live bootloaders. Like many other distributions, our legacy Boot Loader provides convenient popup menus for easy customization. 

But, unlike the others, on the live-usb we also offer an “F8 Save” feature that saves your choices across reboots. This has got to be just about the easiest way possible to customize a live-usb. It is a trivial way to customize the language, timezone, and many other things.

 There are no popup menus in the UEFI boot loader (yet), but we do offer a series of text menus that provide the same level of customization and these choices can also be saved across reboots of the live-usb.

The live-usb-maker Tool
Not all live-usbs are created equal. 

Our iso files support the creation of live-usbs with the “dd” command, which is often easy and convenient. However, a “dd” live-usb copies the read-only iso9660 file system from the iso file so few of our special live-usb features will work since those features try to take advantage of read-write capabilities of usb flash drives.

We encourage you to use the live-usb-maker tool (available for both GUI and command line) to make antiX and MX live-usbs. 

This will ensure you get a full featured live-usb. 

If you have already made a “dd” live-usb or were forced to boot with a live-cd or a live-dvd, don’t worry.

The live-usb-maker tool offers “clone mode” which will copy your currently running antiX or MX live system to a new USB STICK without a copy of the iso file.

If you have an old system that won’t boot directly from USB, just make a live-usb clone of your live-cd/dvd, leave it plugged in and on your next boot select “F4 Option” –> “from=usb” and it will finish the boot on the live-usb you just created. This gives you access to most of our advanced live-usb features such as persistence and remastering (but we can’t currently modify the Boot Loader on a live-cd/dvd).

Both the command line and gui versions of live-usb-maker allow you to make an encrypted live-usb. The command line version offers even more options and customization.

Live Persistence
Live persistence lets you save changes to the root file system and changes to the home file system across reboots. When you select persistence (usually from the “F5 Persist” menu), the persistence files will get set up for you automatically the first time persistence is enabled.
The live persistence menu. 

All of the options in this menu are explained in the “F1 Help” system

Dynamic root persistence saves file system changes in RAM and then copies them to the “rootfs” file whenever the persist-save program is run (it can be configured to always run at system shutdown).

Static root persistence saves file system changes directly in the “rootfs” file. This means persist-save doesn’t need to run and no extra RAM is used. This is very fast on a usb-3 system. It is okay on a usb-2 system and it can be painfully slow on usb-1. You are free to switch between dynamic root persistence and static root persistence on every boot. On an old system with limited RAM you may want to switch to static root persistence before doing a big system upgrade because there will be no extra RAM cost for file system changes.

Live Remaster and snapshot
The live remaster feature provides a slightly more permanent way of saving changes to a live-usb. It creates a new compressed linuxfs file system which contains all of your changes. Typically, someone would use root persistence to store changes on every boot and then after a big upgrade use live remaster to compress all of those changes into the linuxfs file, letting root persistence start over with a clean slate.

You can now use the live-kernel-updater tool to change which kernel the live systems boots with. You need to first install the new kernel and do a remaster.

The snapshot tool works like remaster, but it creates an iso file. Unlike remaster, it can also be run on an installed system. Using the live remaster tool is sort of like combining snapshot and live-usb-maker in one step without having to bother creating an intermediary iso file.

Live Frugal Install
The antiX live system provides a fast, automatic “frugal install” option. This is “to-disk” analog of the toram feature. It copies the compressed file system and a few other things to a existing hard drive (or other) partition. On a fast system, you can do the frugal install and be booted into the new system that was just installed onto your hard drive in under 30 seconds.

Other Advanced Features
The live-usb-store feature creates a Live-usb-storage/ subdirectory in your home directory that gives you access to all of the remaining storage space on the main live-usb partition.

The live-usb-save feature will automatically save certain configuration files across reboots even if no form of persistence is enabled. For example, wireless networks and passwords are saved automatically. If a file or feature is automatically saved across reboots we say it is “sticky”. Sticky features include:

desktop=
wicd
nowicd
automount
noautomount
dostore
nostore
savestate
nosavestate
backlight brightness

As root you can control which files get saved by editing the “general-state-files” and “machine-state-files” in the /live/boot-dev/antiX/state/ directory. The general state files are saved and restored on all machines. The machine state files are only restored on the machine they were saved on. For example, if you have one machine that needs a custom xorg.conf file, you can uncomment /etc/X11/xorg.conf in the machine-state-files list and that machine will have its own xorg.conf file that will only be used when the live-usb is booted on that machine.

Other Live Features
The “toram” cheat puts the compressed file system into RAM so you are free to remove the live boot media. If you combine this with dynamic root persistence then you will be asked to re-insert the live-usb when it is time to save your changes.

The “from=usb” cheat allows you to start a boot with a live-cd or a live-dvd and end the boot with a live-usb. We call this a hybrid boot. It provides you with almost all of the live-usb goodies except saving changes to the bootloader. You can also use “from=hd” to boot from a hard drive partition or “from=cd” to boot from a live-cd or live-dvd. The default is “from=usb,cd”.

The “password” cheat will force you to change the password for the root and demo accounts. This provides an extra layer of security by changing the passwords well before any networking is enabled. On a live-usb you can also edit the general-state-files as described above and uncomment /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow so your changed passwords are remembered across reboots.

Video Tutorials
Both antiX and MX have many other live-usb features that haven’t been covered here. Many of them are explained in more detail on the Run with the Dolphin YouTube Channel . For example:

    Make a MX/antiX live-usb from other linux distros with the live-usb-maker-qt appimage
    Make a live-USB w/ persistence!
    Remaster your antiX live-USB

Customization
Instead of packing every conceivable program into the antiX live-usb, we kept it small and lightweight but made it extremely easy to customize. If there are programs you want that are missing from the live system, simply install them via Synaptic or cli-aptiX, do a live-remaster and voilà, it’s just like those programs came pre-installed.

You can view the four flavours of antiX: full, base, core and net as starting points for people to create their own custom systems. Once you’ve customized the system to your liking, you are just a live-remaster or an iso-snapshot away from making it your own. You’ll have your customized system on live media. You can use it to install on other machines, use it as a snapshot/backup of your system, use it as a rescue boot device, or use it to take your system with you in your pocket.

Conclusion
The small footprint, extremely fast booting (getting to a Bash command line in 5 seconds and an X desktop in 12 seconds on a fast system) and easy customization make antiX Linux an extremely good choice for a rescue live-usb as well as for day to day use as a live system. Many people use the live system exclusively and seldom bother to install.

Debian 13 has arrived, dead on time

Debian 13 has arrived, dead on time

By the way, Debian 13 has arrived dead on time. 

I have been using "Trixie" testing from the beginning of this year and it is already updated and would be downloading DVD-1 and KDE image (available in Linuxtracker torrent) to my archive.

By the I am not a fan of KDE but use Gnome. 

Things I need.

1. Synaptic Package Manager

2. Stacer

3. Notepadqq

4. Neofetch (gone dormant)

5. Etcher

6. Tilex

7. Minder

8.Htop

9. Deadbeef

10. Ranger

11. Revolt

12. GDebi Installer to install Ulauncher, Opera and Vivaldi browser

13. All the browsers including Brave

14. Dillo

15. Falkon

16. Konqueror

17. VLC

18. Audacious

19. Scribus

20. Inkscape

21. Jitsi

22. GIMP

23. Blender (very heavy )

24. Kdenlive

25. Kodi to test

26. Simple Note

27. Feather Note

28. Red Note

29. Basket Note

30. Joplin

31. Audacity

32. Firefox

33. I do not like TimeShift (bulky)

34. Gnome Pie does not work

35. Da Vinci (not working and proprietary)

36. Several Audio OLD Players

37. Abiword

38.  Of course the latest version of LibreOffice

3.9. Focus Writer

40. Open Office

41. Xournal 

Yes not even 50 utilities.

MX Linux Update

MX Linux Update

This just to say that MX Linux is one of the 4 distributions, I have in my NUC.

I use MX Linux KDE version which is 2.9 GB.

It has 3 versions.

1. Flushbox for low resource computers.

2. XFCE which is middle weight version

3. KDE my favorite

MX Linux relies on the excellent upstream work by Linux® and the Open-Source community, deploying Xfce4, KDE and Fluxbox as Desktop Environment/Window Manager on top of a Debian Stable base. 

We draw from the core antiX system and include work and ideas used by Warren Woodford for his MEPIS project. 

Ongoing back ports and outside additions to our repository serve to keep components current with developments.

 

 MEPIS Linux was my beginning to Linux Entry before I did know how to manage the the Terminal.

It was Graphic Intuitive for a beginner and if not for Mepis I would not have been a Linux advocate of today.

I morphed into Debian from Mepis and never turned back.

Unfortunately Mepis is dormant.

By the Debian 13 has arrived dead on time. I have been using "Trixie" testing from the beginning of this year and it is already updated and would be downloading DVD i and KDE image available in Linux-Tracker torrent to my archive.

Netrunner Linux

It is Plasma Desktop 5 and I ditched it for BlueStarOS with the most beautiful Desktop. It supports AbiWord and it has ton of applications.

Netrunner Linux

Netruuner Linux is a distribution that comes from Germany.

It is a good distribution for Linux newcomer. 

I have tested it many a times.

It is only 2.7GB image.

It is based on KDE but not the typical KDE.

The password for live session is live.

In a Live session, One sees all the application categorized on the the right side.

Applications are arranged in a alphabetical order.

One can install what is not there using Synaptic Package Manager. in a Live seeion.

I liked it because it supported  Synaptic Package Manager.

One can install Gnome on top of the KDE but it makes the system unstable.

I am a Gnome user that is why I do not fancy it but nevertheless it is a good distribution.

How does one have a good password?

 How does one have a good password?
 
How one can remember a password with 14 to 16 characters (what banks employ now for an account, with the help of computers)?

To begin with one has to train the brain to remember.
 

I have a suggestion elsewhere (under web etiquette) that  I do not want to repeat here.

Beginning

Step 1
One has to remember in blocks of three or four.
To train your mind try to remember your VISA card number.
Front four are almost specific and easy.
The last four should be your next attempt.
Do this every time when you go to the bank or to the till.
Do not worry if you forget.
When you can remember the first and the last lot of four numbers, try the other two lot not in specific way.
Suddenly part of the brain not utilized before get a rush of blood and new neuron networks.
Person with any age with firm resolve can do that.
This subconscious repetitive acts can be easily extended to one's password.

I DO NOT use a VISA card now.

I used to remember all the telephone numbers of my friends by heart in good old days and friends are the ones, one frequently ring and (telephone charges were relatively expensive, then) the brain stores them for good.
 
I stop doing that when cell phones came into existence.
 
One has to have one’s own trick for remembering blocks of three or four.

Try to associate them with pictures, names, pets etc.
 
Your pet fish or dog or cat would have a secret code attached.
Every time you feed them repeat the code (in mind) mentally in no time it get fixed as a long term permanent memory.

Step 2
Come with a phrase to include all the 10 to 16 characters in one’s password.
This is the hard part but it can be done.

Step 3
Use elements that one never forgets (unless one has Dementia).
Birthday is an easy one to remember.
 
Use only two numbers from it, not all.

Step 4
Unfortunately this cannot be used if one is English but I will give some hint for them too.
For Sinhala U Mata Banna, or Muta Mata Gahanna Hithenawa or Even Puke Ariya are good enough relatively used rephrases one can remember in trans-literate content, which the English Search engine might have trouble in figuring out.
From that phrase  one can choose four characters (even more if the phrase is carefully constructed) easily.
For English user, one good example is to go to alchemy and remember few Elements from the Tables.
Elements like Argon, Neon, Nitrogen,Bromine could be used at lib.
Or even one can use pentagon, hexagon, octagon or any other scientific or mathematical elements.
 
Again one only remembers four characters.

Step 5
If one has ever used a password before which one has remembered with repeated usage, use the same in the middle or rearrange it and put it in the middle.
 
Which will easily give you at least six characters.

You already got 12 characters now.
 
Step 5
Use two capital letters easy to access from the keyboard as the leader or the end of the password or leader and end, depending one is right or left handed.

Step 6
If the web site requires you to use an alphanumeric pick an alpha numeral to satisfy them.
You got 16 in all and 14 probably is adequate.

Step 7
Do not tell your method to anybody.
Do not share your password even with your spouse.
One day you me be divorced!
That is real and if you have time read my book on “Myths, Miracles and Marriage”.
Usually perfectly normal people become paranoid after getting married.
That is my medical experience.
It is often the people who are near and dear (sometimes, so called friends) who steal your password, not a rouge who breaks in for quick takeaway and getaway.

Keep the record of the method in a secret hiding place that you only have access.
In case one day you forget.

The best place to HIDE  is your brain.
Not even a brain surgeon would not have any access.
 

Resetting the password
When you change the password, drop two and take two from your birthday.
Pick four alternative block of four from your catch phrase.
Jumble your original password or add a new one.
Follow the rest as required and one may be able to go on till eighty to ninety since you practiced your own method and is almost specific to YOUR BRAIN which a hacker may not be able to penetrate or crack.

Unless you are one of twins there are no two people alike.
Even in them their are subtle differences not due to genetics but the brain behaves differently, even in twins.

Foot Note
But beware your doctor with a short memory or who is cash strapped who might steal your birth day or the catch phrase that you utter to him every time you visit.
Remember doctors forget their passwords more often than their patients.
They will never tell you.
That is why they record every word you utter and then get the vital diagnosis
wrong.
In this computer age doctors have become robots (unlike good old days) and not real humans.
If they ask you do you forget your passwords
Straight away say NO.
The stupid guy will ask you to state the password and put it in his computer memory which is not protected from hackers.Even the nurse can steal it, if she/he is inclined.
I trust my doctor does not apply to passwords when you do visit him/her, next time, round.

That includes me too.

I might do that, catch your password, certainly not to steal but because my brain is getting absent minded, I might put that in my computer, easily accessed even by a little kid.

Do not worry, I do not practice now by choice not by design anyway.
You are safe with me, my dear.

Installing Debian Gnome and Applications

I have used Linux for over 30 years and my comments here should be viewed from the angle of a adult teacher now fully retired and enjoying the twilight years, writing books, on many topics other than Linux.

I use only Linux utilities for writing my books and is an advocate of Free Software (wrong to use Open Software).

I was a busy medical teacher, and I moved to Linux accidentally. 

To begin with I was a self learner and could take a Big Medical Book and read only what is useful for me.

I followed the same ploy, when I read Linux books including Linux Bible.

I never intend to teach any guy or girl Linux but if asked offer only guide lines.

Yes at the beginning, from Partitioning to using the Terminal, I used to have a Linux book by the side of me. 

I graduated to Linux Bible and until I retired I subscribed to Linux Magazine. 

It comes from Germany and is very expensive.

Then over the last 20 years, I stopped using terminal and started using Graphic Installer. I even used the Text installer to learn every step involved in installation.

Hardware assembly from my first PC to the current NUC was easy but never fiddled with the CPU.

This piece is for a different reason.

I get annoyed by the proliferation of YouTube Gurus.

My advice for a newbie is, do not listen to these guys who have learned Linux recently using the terminal and try to become teachers to gullible newbies.

They do not have hands on experience and many are doing things on Virtual Machines.

Virtual Machines are good when one is addressing a big audience but their impact is minimal on hands on experience.

I say; one has to burn or dirty your hands when one begins to learn a new thing. 

Beginning stage does not come easy.

Debian 13 uses about 13.5GB for it's /root files and my recommendation for /root is minimum of 20GB.

If one is adding lot of other applications have at least 10GB for /var partition.

I installed Debian 13 without touching the terminal.

Debian does not support Cosmic, Pantheon, and Tuxedo desktops.

Apart from Gnome and Plasma desktops Debian supports  Cinnamon (used by Mint), Budgie, Mate, Lxqt and a few Window Mangers. 

It does not support Unity and Ubuntu. By the way Ubuntu is based on Debian to begin with and it parted with Debian with Wayland Saga.

If you want to try new desktop types, the best option is Reborn OS which is fantastic but make sure YOU have at least 50GB space in your hard disk reserved since all these new desktops are not only bulky but very slow to mount or boot.

I just installed blender after 20 year gap and I did not use the terminal.

If you are learning Linux for the first time try to use graphic utilities for both distribution install and for applications.

Of course, one gets unnecessary applications. I delete these applications, I do not need especially the kids games, after installing the system.

Again I use graphic utilities to remove them never the terminal.

Linux has a way of removing orphan packages and updating the system almost on daily basis. I do not bother scheduling them which I used to do on daily basis on very small hard disks.

Chron Jobs and Daemon for processes are done automatically and that is the very reason I use Linux. I do not bother on background activities and simply work on my favorite applications.

I use AbiWord, the tiniest Word Processor for my books which has strict page format which I love.

Today of course I added Only Office, OpenOffice and LibreOffice to the Reborn OS for testing.

LibreOffice is in its 25the edition in Reborn OS. It may be true of LibreOffice of Debian 13.

Bottom Line is:

Do not become frustrated in front of a black terminal.

However, Htop terminal has a colour theme, now.

Do the easy graphic way.

Then buy the Linux Bible.

Then try the Terminal.

Of course if one is managing a Server, Terminal is the vital source.

I have over 20 books on Linux from Redhat to Suse to (no books on Debian) and very early versions of Linux books.

I left all of them in CEYLON.

Now I am in Australia.

My Son (Thank YOU) In Law of course bought me a Linux Bible.

He uses Apple for his work.

Reborn OS-Thank YOU

Finally I got Blender installed in Reborn OS.

 After some lapse I installed Reborn OS on my NUC.

This time no problem with GRUB file and it did recognize all the other distributions, already installed.

I had to reinstall Reborn OS three times since it filled up the /var partition of 8.6GB when I installed additional applications which included 10 different browsers in addition to Firefox, my favorite. 

I reduced the size of  /home partition and added 2GB for /var. 

That would fix my problems.

It finished installation, in double quick time.

It has STACER my favor utility which Debian 13 does not support.

But the Debian has System Monitor which is pretty good but Stacer with more graphic features I am hooked to.

I installed Gnome desktop but added the bonus of Plasma desktop.

One has to select one desktop at install time.

Reborn OS supports almost all the browsers.

Apart from Firefox my favorite, I have;

1. Librewolf

2. Falkon

3. Opera

4. Vivaldi

5. Konqueror

6. Brave

7. Dillo

8. Gnome browser or Epiphany

9. Anglerfish 

10. Google Chrome browser which I never use

11. Tor Browser 

I have no paranoia and I do not use it.

12. Safari of Apple 

13. Internet Explorer of Microsoft and Edge

That was (IE)  the first browser I ditched to go fully for Mozilla browser in it's early stages of development. Firefox was the standard for Linux Distributions and me being a Linux Guy stuck to Firefox for life. With Linux one need not fiddle with the Firefox configuration. In any case it is the strip down version of Firefox with no unnecessary cookies. 

That is the beauty of Linux and that is why it is fast. 

I used to use the history file when I was bit paranoid, having ditched Microsoft for it's snoopy behavior.

That was the first irritation of Microsoft which I detected very early in my web life.

Facebook of course I ditched in six months.

Now a few words about Linux Catchy OS. 

It is a strip down version of Arch with only the essentials tools available and it is absolutely fast.

It has developed its own browser. 

One has to have a good understanding of Linux to use it as a daily driver.

I prefer Reborn OS which is more desktop oriented distribution. 

One has to choose one desktop at installation. 

I use Gnome and add Plasma desktop, later. 

It supports Cosmic, MATE and many more desktops one can add later.

Reborn OS

Reborn OS is pretty Good.

I tried Cosmic desktop on Reborn OS and it works fine.

I have used only 35GB of my NUC for all it's partitions and my advice for a newbie is to use at least 50GB.

It has many good features. 

I am currently Installing Reborn Os on top of CarchyOS which is also based on ARCH but minimal. 

This is the penultimate stage of testing ARCH based distributions which were all based on KDE (Endeavour OS, BlueStar Linux OS which I have already installed in my System) but with Reborn OS I can choose Gnome desktop when installin.

I hate KDE except Plasma, because I am a Debian Guy using Gnome. 

I decided, I would promote only Gnome Desktop, in future due to many reasons. 

On second thought, I am promoting both KDE Plasma and Gnome.

Then, only one can see the difference.

Gnome of Debian is my workhorse.

Its installation is fast. 

Graphical instructions are intuitive and I had the choice of selecting Abiword, OpenOffice, LibreOffice and there was another word processor which I do not know anything about. 

Well, I went for my favourite AbiWord. 

One can install it either offline or online. Online takes a little longer and one can chose one out of about 10 desktops at install. 

I prefer online install. 

By the way, little while ago I installed Gnome minus LibreOffice.  

Firefox and LibreOffice have to support many languages by default.

It saved 2GB and the Grand Total was just over 7GB for the basic install. 

It had all the utilities I needed in a basic install and it went up to 8GB on full install and I have 11GB left, in my root partition of 19GB, for any additional packages I might Install.

RebornOS is a desktop oriented Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. 

Although the RebornOS live image provides Xfce desktop, the installation process offers a choice to install one of the many popular desktop environments and window managers. 

Other interesting features of the distribution includes the support for Flatpak packages, optional installation of Anbox for running Android applications

It has the capability to rollback the system to a previous date, and graphical system configuration and maintenance tools.

OS Type Linux

Based on ARCH

Origin USA

Architecture x86-64

Desktop XFCE

Category Desktop and Live Medium

Status Active

Blender Utility

Blender

Blender is huge application.

It is 1.8GB at Flatpak.

I tried to install it in Reborn OS but failed.

But with Debian 13 it's capacity is about 350MB. What it means Debian 13 has all the libraries to run.

I added few more libraries using Synaptic Package Manager. 

I use Blender 20 years ago when it was small.

This is another reason one should switch from Debian 12 to 13.

Blender doc is 233MB large.

Update on Gnoppix Linux and Ubuntu

 Update on Gnoppix Linux

I downloaded the latest image of the Gnoppix but it is nowhere near the original Knoppix.

It is nothing much to talk about but if you have low RAM do not try it.

It is trying to introduce this strange AI mode installation, which is bizarre for me to comment on.

It's image is 4.5GB. Mind you I do not like any image over 4GB, except BlueStar Linux.

Regarding Ubuntu, it is again a waste of time testing it it is over again.

It has no utilities, even though it is 6.5GB image.