Thursday, June 1, 2017

Linx Distributions and Peppermint-07-Boot Splash Gone Awry


  Further Comments.

Below are two discussions currently running in 
LinuxQuestions.

I am a Distribution Hopper for over 20 years with gray hair covering my vertex and decided to settle on few of my favorite distributions on merits.

Number one reason is easy to handle and configure.
Not too, heavy on RAM.
Have all the software packages.
Runs on both old (32 bit) and new (64 bit) hardware.

I prefer the PAE (just what PCLINUX did under Linux STAR until his retirement).

Why have two CD?DVDs for one ?

Laptop is not my favorite!

Reliable, stable workhorse and run at least one year without updates.

Only Debian “Fits the Bill” with distributions for all the platforms including Apple Platform.
Only caveat is one has to understand how Linux Works especially Debian and partitioning, partition table and bootable partitions including MBR.
 
Peppermint (currently version 8) is my Web Console, light weight (it is getting fatter by the minute) and can download almost all the software in Debian Store House (over 66,000).

AntiX (Mepis- Just Downloaded Version 16) my Utility Kit but Knoppix and Puppy Linux are my favorite trouble shooters.

Elementary Linux is pretty good if one is interested in audio and video play.
 
Emmabuntus now in 64 bit version is another good Linux distribution for kids as well as adults.

I am currently downloading MultiSystem (French Distribution) boot DVD (it used to be a CD few years ago)which is very useful in having several (I am not sure of windows) Linux Distributions in a USB Disk, Flash Drive or on a MicroSD chip. 

This is very useful to test a distribution without installing in your Hard Disk.

One can install MultiSystem as a software,too.

Go to Pendrive Linux Site, download the sh file and extract the utility and follow the instructions.
One need root permission to install in your Linux Distribution. 
I installed it on (PCLinux) my system breezily in about 3 minutes.
It has to be a Ubuntu based distribution and Debian does not support it.

For Debian it has its own USB creation package or Use UnetBootIn.

Not for text and writing books and Lyx (for program editors)is too advanced for a beginner.

I have found a very easy solutions.

One is to use MultiSytem software or DVD to have Multiple Linux distributions on a USB Hard drive or Flash Drive.


Other option is to install as many distributions (including Windows - Beware UEFI booting option but one can send Windows into hibernation by clever ploys) in your hard drive/s.

Have multiple operating systems (Windows for occasional Local TV watching (mostly cricket)) in Two Mega SATA (not SSD, the have low volume) disks with 4 GiB RAM extensible for 8 for Gaming.

I currently have seven (7) distributions (apart from Windows) in two hard drives and Windows forcibly sent underground (one has to be very very crafty to do this without destroying one’s hardware).
Unfortunately Windows (Developers) guys coming from India and USA has serious “Paranoid Disease Untreatable”; that is they cannot cohabit with Linux!

LinuxQuestions reproduction not edited including TYPOS!
TL;DR: I would love to know which distro made you stop distro hopping and you are happy with! May be no matter what happens i will stick with one of your preference! ;)
So, I am a serial distro hopper. Been using linux for a long time (Really Long Time) and have been distro hopping ever since. Primarily i started with ubuntu as everyone else does, then Linux mint, then Arch, then Manjaro, then Elementary, then OpenSUSE and OpenSUSE TW, and a lot i cannot even remember the names. But i am getting pretty tired.
I mean, i like UBUNTU but i don't like their 6 months release schedule (I do want fairly updated apps). I like Linux mint, but not their arrogance on holding updates back and making custom firefox and keeping same old softwares for another 2/3 years(ow, sorry, that's a core Ubuntu LTS issue, no complain here, just making some points).
I like arch, but come on, the installation is pain on the ass(Antergos? No thanks! Pretty much same thing, fails now and then) and you know, the breakage now and then is hell of an annoyance. Manjaro? A lot of controversy surrounding. I am not a fan of XFCE i guess. And community editions are not really my cup of tea. Just install Manjaro cinnamon and install couple of QT apps and see how ugly they look (Manjaro GNOME is okay though). I know, they will fix it someday.
I like fedora, but their "Restriction" is too much for a daily drive and their repo contains a lot less software. NOW, one thing i do like is openSUSE TW. And their approach, BUT the gnome updates always break extensions (and themes) without which it's quiet unusable for me and recently they dropped support for synaptic touchpads and replaced it with libinput ( The mouse movement is horrible, no way to customize mouse acceleration from GUI). I really really do like GNOME with extensions. Ow, i love it. KDE Plasma? You won't believe what i did do to like this DE and what not! I like simplicity, KDE is a mess in that sense. If you like KDE its fine, i am not judging, just a personal preference. :) So you get the problem i am facing, right? I know they all are linux, they are same at underlying structure and you can always customize it to your liking.
But, If you were a distrohopper and recently stopped, i would love to know which one made you stop distrohopping. :)
[–]krav_mark 70 points
Debian Stable. Because it is stable and secure and it just works and keeps working.
For me it is the trustworthy general purpose distribution. Am using it on everything from servers to laptops to rapberri pi's. They all are the same base just run different software.
Never really understood distrohoppers who install another distro most of the time only because they want to try some DE. You can install most DE's right on your current distro like from debians or ubuntu's repo's. Why change distro's for a different DE ? Just install the DE on the system you already use and so are familiar with.
Debian doesn't have the very latest versions maybe but it does have the most stable ones. And I need to get work done so want something versatile and reliable. Debian stable has everything I need.


Peppermint-07-Boot Splash Gone Awry

I have been trying to get my Boot Loader (of Peppermint-07) to mount more than seven operating systems in one go but Boot Splash of Peppermint could not.

Additionally its boot splash was magnified so large the icons were outside and not visible on the Desktop.

There was no way to minimize the output (Boot Splash) and on right click would show on a folder icon.

What I usually do is to reinstall the distribution, in this case Peppermint but it failed on three attempts.

Mind you the console was an old TV not a normal computer video output.

I was patient and tried installing Debian but it failed to rectify.

Then I tried Linux Light and it got it working once on first boot up but on restart went back to the Peppermint boot loader in MBR.

Then I tried 4M Linux but it could not read all the partitions in two SATA disks.

Then I tried Puppy Linux but it refused to update the boot loader.

Usually Puppy Linux does a good job.

Only one I did not try was Ubuntu (I did not have a latest distribution).

I am going to download its 64 bit version.

Then finally I tried Elementary OS and it figured out my problem and made a cute boot splash with all the distributions including Puppy (it identified it as an unknown distribution).

I made a big mistake of using CD/DVDs without Internet connection.

Usually these distributions would update the (in this case Peppermint’s faulty boot loader) packages at the end of the installation and remove old and redundant packages.

I was lazy and our Internet download speed was very slow.

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