The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread

[Dngrsone]

Thinking about maybe taking Kubuntu 16.04 for a test drive... I've a feeling that Mint KDE 18 will be a few months down the road.

Meanwhile, I've been tasked with resurrecting the firewall appliance I had to abandon when I went to Uverse so many years ago.

Someone gave me a link to a procedure for possibly getting my modem to go into bridge mode so I can use the firewall; but if that doesn't work, then I have a link for hacking into the modem so I can program it to go into true bridge mode.

Yeah, hacking the modem is risky. Funny thing, though-- I just found an identical modem at a Goodwill for cheap. I could always run down there and buy that modem and have a backup before I try anything potentially catastrophic.

Meanwhile,I am also toying with the idea of going to a different firewall OS: PFSense vs the Smoothwall Express build I've had for ever.

 

[Deleted User]

I'm definitely going to dual boot my new laptop with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. I think 14.04 is getting a bit stale now.

 

[svim]

KDE Connect
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/kde-connect-sync-android-linux/

 

[psionandy]

Blimey... @svim that KDE connect looks really useful.. thanks for the heads up

 

[AZgl1500]

sigh!

it won't work with Mint and Cinnamon desktop

 

[Dngrsone]

I might give it a go...

 

[Dngrsone]

Whelp, downloaded Kubuntu 16.04...

I tried it out, installed it, but haven't spent any time on it. So far, though I see one positive: I can get my Logitech MX Master to work via bluetooth instead of needing the stoopid dongle. Something I haven't been able to accomplish with Mint KDE 17.3 yet.

Don't know if I will like Kubuntu as much I do Mint, but I figure this would be a nice transition for Plasma 5 while I wait for Mint KDE 18.

 

[AZgl1500]

let us know more on Kubuntu 16.04...

I just have not got brave enough to mess with my Mint 17.3 Cinnamon yet...
it works a treat for me, but some things, it just can't do

 

[Dngrsone]

I'll do... Right now I'm trying to unbreak my internet again.

I finally figured out what was wrong with my firewall setup; but now I think it's actually broken, and getting the modem and firewall to cooperate isn't easy by a long shot.

So... Restoring status quo, I'll have to pull out the firewall and troubleshoot the hardware, and try again at a later date.

 

[Dngrsone]

Well.

Kubuntu is a non-starter... the primary reason (okay, the only reason) I went to KDE in the first place is because I wanted separate wallpapers for each virtual desktop.

This feature was removed from Plasma 5.

I am happy to notice in the intarwebs that I am not the only person who enjoyed this feature, and after much feedback, the developers decided that it might be a good idea to restore said feature. No telling when that will happen. I imagine some feet dragging is happening behind the scenes.

I will stick to my slightly broken Mint KDE 17.3 until then.

 

[Deleted User]

Oh I am so happy today. Just got hold of an Ubuntu 16.04 LTS installation disk, courtesy of Linux Format magazine.
Wow, Ubuntu just gets better and better doesn't it? Straight out of the box, I've got two external displays working, both VGA and HDMI. This never worked with previous release, for my laptop.
Network adapter working, wireless network available. Printers automatically discovered. Everything is just working so well.
This means of course that the Win 10 installation I was suffering has been immediately consigned to the bin!

 

[AZgl1500]

Hmmm, do I need to install that as a dual boot with my Linux Mint 17.3 ??

I like Mint Cinnamon, but it did not find my WiFi network adapter on a 1 year old ASUS laptop.

other than that, it seems to be okay.

 

[Joelgp83]

If it's a Broadcom adapter, you can get support by going to settings> additional drivers and selecting a driver to install.

 

[Deleted User]

Yes I expected to have some additional drivers to install for my system, but no, it worked straight off. I've found graphics drivers to be particularly problematic in the past.
But with the Ubuntu install disk, you have the option to run the O/S off the disk before a full install. @AZgl1500 it may be worth trying to see if your hardware is recognised, or as @Joelgp83 says, try to locate proprietary drivers.
Interestingly though, my main reason for grudgingly using Win 10 was its better support for multiple monitors, but actually it's struggled with my system. Ubuntu really works a lot better in this regard.

 

[AZgl1500]

If it's a Broadcom adapter, you can get support by going to settings> additional drivers and selecting a driver to install.

I tried that on my ASUS and no drivers came up for my laptop at all.
I had to find the name of the adapter, and search for a driver. As it turned out, it was only available as a Windows driver....

I downloaded it and followed some instructions from the Linux forums and the adapter installed and works fine. I am using that laptop right now under Linux Mint 17.3; I formatted the drive and got rid of MSsloth totally.

 

[bcrichster]

I'm running dualboot Mint Cinnamon 17.3 & Win10 on an ASUS ROG and must say that everything works 100% in both OS's. BT, WiFi, graphics, no qualms. Dualboot is the way to go for sure.

 

[AZgl1500]

Yes I expected to have some additional drivers to install for my system, but no, it worked straight off. I've found graphics drivers to be particularly problematic in the past.
But with the Ubuntu install disk, you have the option to run the O/S off the disk before a full install. @AZgl1500 it may be worth trying to see if your hardware is recognised, or as @Joelgp83 says, try to locate proprietary drivers.
Interestingly though, my main reason for grudgingly using Win 10 was its better support for multiple monitors, but actually it's struggled with my system. Ubuntu really works a lot better in this regard.

I'm leery actually of even messing with my laptop, I overlooked the fact at purchase time, that it did NOT have an internal DVD drive. That was a huge, glaring error, that has caused me no end of problems.
The Toshiba BIOS in it re-configures itself ever time it boots up, depending on what it detects at turn on time.

It was also configured to totally ignore any "permanent" BIOS settings to make it use a USB-DVD as the primary boot device.... I accidentally stumbled on some settings that IF done in the proper sequence, would allow it to boot up once..... but, after that "once time", the damned BIOS went back to the way it was....

I will never, ever, buy another laptop with a Toshiba BIOS in it. I had a Toshiba laptop just prior to this one, and it had the same damn thing in it. That is why I specifically chose the ASUS, I wanted to get away from Toshiba..... argh!!! but I got bit by it again....

 

[Dngrsone]

I got around Toshiba's dodgy UEFI shenanigans by using a third-party boot manager: rEFInd.

Though I do have a DVD writer on my laptop, that UEFI was a pain in the butt to work with when setting up my dual-boot.

 

[Deleted User]

I had to actually disable the built-in webcam in my BIOS after a Win10 update caused the machine to blue screen seconds after booting. Turned out it was some problem with the webcam, triggered when Skype started.
Looks like I'll be able to re-enable the webcam now I've got a more stable O/S installed.

 

[AZgl1500]

I got around Toshiba's dodgy UEFI shenanigans by using a third-party boot manager: rEFInd.

Though I do have a DVD writer on my laptop, that UEFI was a pain in the butt to work with when setting up my dual-boot.

Why do I have to find out about this from an Android forum?
I complained about what was happening to my laptop on the Linux Mint forums, but to no avail....

I am reading their webpage: https://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/

but have not had the time to figure out how to get it installed so that it can be used.

You get 50 Stars for mentioning this...

 

[Dngrsone]

Do a search through Linux Mint forums for refind and dngrsone, and you should be able to find my rantings about dual-booting the Toshiba.

 

[AZgl1500]

I'm just now reading some of Richard's threads on his page:
this one caught my eye a bit about Ubuntu

https://sourceforge.net/p/refind/discussion/general/thread/f1c9485e/

I will do some searching for your threads later tonight.... but you've put me way ahead of the game by alerting me to a fix already.

 

[bcrichster]

Wow.. I actually went from a decent Toshiba Satellite that had no problems on BIOS to the ASUS with a UEFI and still no problems, just had to disable a few things before installing anything. Flawless.

 

[AZgl1500]

Wow.. I actually went from a decent Toshiba Satellite that had no problems on BIOS to the ASUS with a UEFI and still no problems, just had to disable a few things before installing anything. Flawless.

I'm guessing you were smart and bought an ASUS that had a DVD drive in it? That gets rids of a ton of problems with UEFI.

 

[bcrichster]

I'm guessing you were smart and bought an ASUS that had a DVD drive in it? That gets rids of a ton of problems with UEFI.

Absolutely. Can't believe they even make laptops without DVD drives now..