The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread

[Father Guido]

Thank you, Father-G
(And bless me, for I have surely sinned)

Clearly, I'm just 80% comedian, 20% engineer; 5% computer guy, and 2%mathematician. 100% hope to see you around, once I have my ducks more in a row; Thanks.

Hell, I'm no saint so forgive me too. My avatar/nym is nothing more than the fact that I "resembled" Father Guido Sarducci (comedian Don Novello) of SNL fame in my younger days and am a huge fan. Cripe, there are many who actually think I'm "white." While I may look so, I'll just call it Heinz 57...

EDIT: I'm not even Catholic LOL

 

[Deleted User]

Thank you, Father-G
(And bless me, for I have surely sinned)

Spoiler: Blah, blah

My Linux inquiry (on another thread) was 100% half serious, and completely (a partial) "shout out" to a comic genius and "admired man of the cloth" who said something of interest elsewhere.

Certainly, I have had one eye on this thread for a while, and will keep looking........But my Linux experience is still very limited, and most of my problems are self induced; Not ready to ask any smart questions here. In short, the hardware (screen and keyboard) were both still functional, but teetering on the edge of death; I hated W10 so much I thought I would "sacrifice the device" in the pursuit of learning something new; Nothing Linux was a problem in the endeavor, I just didn't get very far before the hardware went further South, (along with my patience), and the experiment came to a (violent, sacrilegious, blasphemous) end.
As ever, regardless of the outcome of the "election"; I'll pick myself up again and try to move forward. The only thing which is certain is that I will never vote soft or micro again.

Clearly, I'm just 80% comedian, 20% engineer; 5% computer guy, and 2%mathematician. 100% hope to see you around, once I have my ducks more in a row; Thanks.

I'm surprised you had problems with Ubuntu. I find it to be a very capable O/S, and 16.04 is the best ever. Worked beautifully well on my system, straight out of the box!

 

[lunatic59]

I would still recommend Mint Cinnamon before Ubuntu for first time Linux adopters coming from a Microsoft OS.

 

[AZgl1500]

I prefer Mint Cinnamon as it looks/behaves a LOT like Win7. I have a guest account in my garage unit and most people cannot tell the difference. Sweet!

That is exactly why I chose Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa with the Cinnamon desktop.
Every Windows type desktop command works exactly the same on Cinnamon as it does in Win7.

Close an App? Windows key F4 and it is gone. ( shssssh Control-Q works in Linux )
File Manager? Windows key E

what improvements have you found with version 18? is it worth the effort to upgrade a laptop with a UEFI BIOS that refuses to allow me to boot from a USB stick?

 

[lunatic59]

what improvements have you found with version 18? is it worth the effort to upgrade a laptop with a UEFI BIOS that refuses to allow me to boot from a USB stick?

Hmmm. I don't know that I would say that they were improvements for me in terms of my day-to-day use, but you can read the changelog.

Can't answer the UEFI part as I run legacy BIOS so I can dual boot with Win10.

 

[Deleted User]

I would still recommend Mint Cinnamon before Ubuntu for first time Linux adopters coming from a Microsoft OS.

Well as the old saying goes YMMV, but for me, installation and operation of Ubuntu 16.04 couldn't have been much simpler. An untrained monkey could have got it up and running
I don't really know how much simpler things could be. Maybe Mint literally holds your hand and makes you a cup of tea afterwards?

 

[lunatic59]

Actually the install routines are pretty similar except for the obvious branding. Mint does however check your location first and if it's U.S. based it makes you coffee.

 

[Deleted User]

Ah, fully internationali[sz]ed then? Like it!

 

[lunatic59]

And, if you install it on two machines in the same month you get a 50% discount on your next unicorn.

 

[AZgl1500]

Hmmm. I don't know that I would say that they were improvements for me in terms of my day-to-day use, but you can read the changelog.

Can't answer the UEFI part as I run legacy BIOS so I can dual boot with Win10.

Well, I can see that 18 would have a huge benefit for me, as I have to turn off the Mouse Pad in the BIOS.... fat thumbs lay on it while typing

now, the touch pad can be toggled on/off within vs. 18
so, I guess when I get my new laptop, I will have to put 18 Cinnamon on it....

this laptop is going to be sold as is, 17.3 Cinnamon, I hate the damn thing.... the Klutz who bought it, forgot to look and verfiy that it has a DVD drive in it

 

[Father Guido]

My take and reason to upgrade:

Linux Mint 18 will receive security updates until 2021.

Until 2018, future versions of Linux Mint will use the same package base as Linux Mint 18, making it trivial for people to upgrade.

Until 2018, the development team won't start working on a new base and will be fully focused on this one.

Enough for me. My android apps - fasttboot, adb, and 51 rules, etc, survived the upgrade. Way cool

 

[Dngrsone]

Last time I got dhcp and other networking upgrades, my 17.3 KDE broke.

Now I'm afraid to upgrade them on 18 xfce...

 

[Davdi]

I'm dual booting Win10 and PCLinuxOS o n a new self build core i7 box with Gigabyte Sniper M/B with UEFI and GPT disks. The OSes are on an SSD and there's a couple of 1TB HDDs for storage.
The UEFI gives a nice boot menu on F12 during boot.

 

[AZgl1500]

PCLinuxOS is kind of neat, and I liked it back 6-8 years ago.

But, Linux Mint with the Cinnamon Desktop runs circles around it for ease of use.

I have 17.3 Rosa Cinnamon now, but after reading about the new 18.x version of Mint, I am upgrading to that.

 

[Bg260]

I know there have been complaints about Wine, and running Windows programs in Linux. What about doing it the other way around?

https://sourceforge.net/projects/andlinux/?source=directory

 

[Deleted User]

I know there have been complaints about Wine, and running Windows programs in Linux. What about doing it the other way around?

https://sourceforge.net/projects/andlinux/?source=directory

278 downloads, last updated 2014.
I don't think it's caught on
And there's always Cygwin.

 

[Bg260]

278 downloads, last updated 2014.
I don't think it's caught on
And there's always Cygwin.

Whoops, NM. Why did I get a notification on it?

 

[Bg260]

So, from reading the OP. This thread was originally started so people could help others with Linux issues. Seeing as how we don't have a Linux sub-forum this is the only place to do it here. Or I could join a Linux forum and be a Noob/Newb all over again.
I have an issue with my Cinnamon install every few months. I use it rigorously to mount .isos and .imgs for my work an AndroidX86. Suddenly it will throw an error:

 $ sudo mount /dev/loop0 /mnt

 mount: /dev/loop0 is write-protected, mounting read-only mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/loop0, missing codepage or helper program, or other error In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg | tail or so.

My guess is that I am leaving something mounted accidently and booting to another OS, which causes /dev/loop0 to become permanently mounted as read only.

I also tried:

sudo mount -o rw,remount /dev/loop0

and got the same message.

So then I did this:

sudo mkdir /mnt/Androidx86

sudo mount -o rw,remount /dev/loop0 /mnt/Androidx86

mount: /mnt/Androidx86 not mounted or bad option

So

sudo mount /mnt/Androidx86
mount: can't find /mnt/Androidx86 in /etc/fstab

gksudo leafpad /etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=1ccaf881-c75d-43cf-86c3-bb82dad60131 /               ext4    noatime,errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=7f367da0-2f85-49ca-a972-eec0498afb7b /boot           ext4    defaults        0       2
# /home was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=5d980bb9-67e1-49b7-8e4a-e12b45cb4d73 /home           ext4    defaults        0       2
# swap was on /dev/sda8 during installation
UUID=532f7ad8-3e4d-4b67-94f8-dd9d182d525d none            swap    sw              0       0

Now I'm thoroughly confused!
When this problem starts the only way I can fix it is with a wipe and fresh install. I am a run and gun guy sure, and I know if I had a stronger grasp of the command line I could cure it.
At any rate I am unable to get anything done if I can't mount a read-only system.img as read-write

 

[AZgl1500]

One more Linux Mint install to my stable...

I have been complaining of my POS ASUS laptop that I bought last year, the WiFi card in it is junk, it can't hear anything farther away than I can piss.

My wife told me yesterday to swap my ASUS for her Dell Inspiron laptop which has an actual keyboard on it, not the vinyl layer piece of junk on the brand new ASUS. A keyboard by the way, that as a 120 wpm typist, I can't tell where the Home Keys are, and the keys don't register even though I hit them hard enough to drive a nail thru the kybd.

Well, okay, I have Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon on the ASUS and 18.0 has come out and is said to be the Cat's Meow above and beyond what 17.3 does.

So, I did a new install, this time though I did it with Dual Boot with the OEM Windows 7 Home Premium left intact. ( fully up to date with MicroSloths updates )

That way, I can try both O.S. versions on the same exact piece of hardware.....

and I can compare 17.3 against 18.0 with both running the Cinnamon desktop.

RESULTS:

Mint 18 is FAST! lots faster because a 6 year old Dell laptop is running just as fast, if not faster than the brand new ASUS which has twice the RAM, and a faster processor.

Mint 18 feels sooooo much like Windows, that after using it for only two days now, I had to stop and think this afternoon, Which O.S. am I using right now?? it was Linux, all I had to do to figure that one out was the Keystrokes Windows Key 'E' which brings up the File Manager, er uh, Windows Explorer if you are in MSloth land. It is really obvious when you compare how Linux looks compared to Windows file manger displays.

Firefox looks and works the same on both O.S. products, the same bookmarks are being used, but Linux is running a lot faster than Windows is on the same hardware.

So, that is my Cut To The Chase test report.....
Unprofessional, just a gut feeling from using it for about a total of 10 hours.

https://www.linuxmint.com/release.php?id=27

 

[Bg260]

I've been on 18 since day one
I spend 80% or more of my computer time in Linux. I do all my browsing from there and it just feels more comfortable. And safe. Not to mention free and constantly updated. Easy on the eyes. Oh yeah, extremely powerful! I just push it too hard sometimes.

 

[Bg260]

Hello, Serena.
Vertical Taskbars:

XP Style Fly-out Menus?:

 

[bcrichster]

Looks Nice!

 

[Bg260]

Not sure about the fly-out menu. I was never a big fan, it can get a little hectic. Hopefully it can be turned off

 

[AZgl1500]

on no, those menus have to stay.....

the reason I went to Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop is precisely because as a Windows IT support person, I do NOT have the time to invest in learning the underground workings of Unix/Linux.....

I just want the results, ie, a very fast browser and Windows capable utilities, which Libre Office almost matches.... a few wrinkles, but I am using the Word editor and the Spreadsheets without too many pains of anguish....

if you don't like the flyout menus, just choose one of the other 4 desktops available. KDE, etc...

On my desktop at home, it is, and will always stay, Win7....

for my laptop, it is a dual boot Win7/Linux Mint Sarah 18 Cinnamon desktop....
and I much prefer to use Linux in a laptop. much faster

 

[Bg260]

I was talking about the automatic fly-out on hover. It's new in 18.1. I'd rather click to open.
18.1 is only Beta right now. It should be official any day now.