Other Distros

[Colonel Panic]

Hi again Baldronicus, thanks for replying. I don't have any other suggestions to make except that a similar thing happened when I tried to install non-free packages in Debian 10 using gdebi. Here's my thread on the Bunsen forums about it, and I would point to post 11 in that thread in particular;

"Thanks John. Sadly it didn't work for me; I got this error message;

dpkg: warning: 'ldconfig' not found in PATH or not executable
dpkg: warning: 'start-stop-daemon' not found in PATH or not executable
dpkg: error: 2 expected programs not found in PATH or not executable
Note: root's PATH should usually contain /usr/local/sbin, /usr/sbin and /sbin"

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=6144

Again it seemed to be a PATH issue (though I didn't sort it out that way).

This thread might help as well;

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... bug=918754

If it looks like I don't really know what I'm talking about here, you're right but I'm trying to point you in the direction of people who do know what they're talking about on this subject.

[Mike Walsh]

@ vtpup:-

There is, of course, a much simpler solution.....one which will allow you to run Mint from an ext4 partition, and yet still use Grub4DOS in its normal mode of operation.

The approach is known as 'chainloading'. I had the same issue myself, when I wanted to run a 'mainstream' distro from its own, separate partition some time ago.....yet still retain a single, Grub4DOS menu that would boot everything I had on my drive at that time.

You set-up a separate ext4 partition. You install your mainstream distro to that partition, then at the point during the boot process where it asks for the location of the GRUB2 bootloader (where you would like it to be installed to), specify that partition.....not the drive, the partition. This way, GRUB2 will be installed to the PBS, or partition boot-sector.

Then, you add a stanza to your menu.lst file as follows:-

Code: Select all

title "Whatever title you want" (sdxx/boot)
  chainloader (hd1)+1
  rootnoverify (hd1)

In the given example, I was chainloading AntiX Linux from Grub4DOS, where AntiX had been installed to a small, 32GB IDE/PATA-interface SSD.....a 'castoff' from ye anciente Dell lappie after installing a larger one, and which was usable in the old Compaq tower because it was built at the time when SATA was just making its presence felt in the market. Many boards manufactured around that time had both IDE and SATA connectors, as did mine.

AFAIK, that code should be modifiable to a partition boot sector, as opposed to a drive boot sector. Remember:-

hd0 is the equivalent to sda
hd1 is the equivalent to sdb
hd2 is the equivalent to sdc

.....and so on. (hd0,0) would be sda1. (hd1,0) would be sdb1.....and (hd1,1) would be sdb2. Rinse & repeat, etc.....

I make absolutely no guarantees, of course, but.....worth a try, perhaps?

See HERE.


Mike.

[wiak]

The approach is known as 'chainloading'. I had the same issue myself, when I wanted to run a 'mainstream' distro from its own, separate partition some time ago.....yet still retain a single, Grub4DOS menu that would boot everything I had on my drive at that time.

That was a nice example/explanation of chain-loading Mike.

wiak

[Baldronicus]

Hi Colonel Panic.

I must confess my edit in the reply to vtpup was intended as a warning about something I had come across (but my wording was confusing).

Thanks for the info. There is some interesting reading that does clarify things a bit. Although I have to admit that I have been lazy, and not checked the Bunsen thread, nor attempted to further read the Debian release notes, yet.

[Edit- Trust me! I should have read the Bunsen thread that you referenced first. It is good that you found the fix using sudo.].

[Edit- the explanation given at the end of the Debian bugs thread is very interesting and explains things a bit.]

[Edit- I suspect you would have already tried it, but would removing and then re-installing Softmaker Office, using the sudo approach you used for gdebi, work?] I was wondering if Softmaker might have released patches, or updates, that might work with these changes. [Edit- the Debian release notes paragraph regarding AppArmor seems to suggest that similar problems to those you describe might occur with third party applications].

I also forgot to mention that I tried to be clever and set su -l as an alias for su, but I don't think Debian supports the alias command (I couldn't find a man page for it, anyway). Perhaps it also poses a risk. Then again, it could be that I just messed up the syntax etc.. [Edit- And it would probably only work in a specific shell setup, and not be universal, anyway, I guess.].

[Edit-Thanks for your assistance and the additional info. Apologies for the long tome. And for not reading properly first .]

[vtpup]

@ vtpup:-

There is, of course, a much simpler solution.....one which will allow you to run Mint from an ext4 partition, and yet still use Grub4DOS in its normal mode of operation.........

Mike.

Thanks Mike for the chainloader explanation. Might try that some day. (I think I've seen the chainloader expression used in the past to boot Windows partitions, btw)

Also, a note of interest about the issue I experienced:

It may be possible that the real problem I had with Grub4Dos was not necessarily the fact that it wrote a new problematic MBR, but that it thought partition 1 was the Windows7 boot partition -- when in reality it is the Acer recovery partition. Win7 main entry is partition3. On booting it may have jumped to part 1 and that may have triggered the recovery screen.

Unfortunately I didn't stick around long enough to investigate just what was going on, and reverted the whole system with the backup MBR.

At this point I have Mint running on ext3 and everything booting as desired, so it may be awhile before I try to get ext4 going again.

Also after many forays into Openshot video editing on Mint LMDE, Bionicpup64, and UpupbBB32, I've returned to Tahrpup32, my old mainstay, as the only one where it works. I actually got both Openshot 2.4.1 and 1.4.3 running on UpupBB after much dependency tweaking, but 2.4.1 crashed on a complex video, and 1.4.3 lost sound halfway through a rendered video.

The same project file on Tahrpup's Openshot 1.4.3 rendered perfectly. So I guess I'm going to be sticking with old technology on this computer.

[Billtoo]

I updated the Manjaro install on my Compaq Presario and switched to the
5.6.3 kernel:

Computer
Processor Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5200 @ 2.50GHz
Memory 4030MB (700MB used)
Machine Type Desktop
Operating System Manjaro Linux
Date/Time Sun 12 Apr 2020 05:10:27 PM

Display
Resolution 3840x1080 pixels
OpenGL Renderer GeForce GT 430/PCIe/SSE2
Session Display Server The X.Org Foundation 1.20.8

Version
Kernel Linux 5.6.3-2-MANJARO (x86_64)
Version #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Apr 8 20:57:18 UTC 2020
C Library GNU C Library / (GNU libc) 2.31
Distribution Manjaro Linux

Working well so far.

[Baldronicus]

Hi vtpup.

Please accept my apologies for the delayed response.

Thank you for the explanation regarding the attempted Grub4Dos installation. I would imagine that that could very well explain things.

Good that things are set up as you wanted. And yeah, what works is good . Thanks.

[Billtoo]

I intalled Manjaro to the hard drive of my HP desktop pc:

Computer
Processor AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1045T Processor
Memory 8154MB (786MB used)
Machine Type Desktop
Operating System Manjaro Linux
Date/Time Sat 18 Apr 2020 08:25:49 PM

Display
Resolution 3840x1080 pixels
OpenGL Renderer AMD REDWOOD (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.6.5-1-MANJARO, LLVM 9.0.1)
Session Display Server The X.Org Foundation 1.20.8

Version
Kernel Linux 5.6.5-1-MANJARO (x86_64)
Version #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Apr 17 18:26:37 UTC 2020
C Library GNU C Library / (GNU libc) 2.31
Distribution Manjaro Linux

No problems so far.

[Colonel Panic]

I've just installed the latest version of Absolute (released yesterday), which is one of the few distros left which is based on Slackware, and for the most part the things I had to say about it when I used it a couple of years ago are still true now. It has LibreOffice, which I've struggled to run in recent versions of Slackware (although Slackware will install LibreOffice from the Absolute DVD), but for some reason has abandoned Waterfox, which I thought worked very well on it, and gone back to Firefox.

It also doesn't have an e-mail client such as Thunderbird or Claws Mail included as standard, which I think is necessary for a mainstream distro, or a console-based file manager like Midnight Commander.

As before, it has a rather idiosyncratic implementation of IceWM which doesn't allow you to move a window to another workspace by clicking on the title bar (in fact I don't think it even has any other workspaces), and it's also difficult to change IceWM for another window manager if you prefer it. However, the themes supplied have improved somewhat from those previously supplied with the distro and there are a variety of colours available now with them and some good if subtle 3d effects with the toolbars and buttons too.

If you're not happy to stick with IceWM and the default configuration, however, my advice would be to install 64-bit Slackware instead and then grab the extra packages from the Absolute iso or DVD. What I tend to find with this distro is that its rigidity in, for example, only having one workspace available becomes frustrating for me in the end and usually means I don't keep it for very long.

[EDIT 17/05/2020: I have found a way to change the number of workspaces available in Absolute, and other options too if necessary, through the prefoverride file which I got from SUSE and which does what it says it does, i.e. overrides the icewm preferences file.]

[Billtoo]

I installed Xubuntu 20.04 beta to the hard drive of my HP desktop:

Computer
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-6100T CPU @ 3.20GHz
Memory 3888MB (750MB used)
Machine Type Desktop
Operating System Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Date/Time Tue 21 Apr 2020 07:19:09 PM

Display
Resolution 3840x1080 pixels
OpenGL Renderer Mesa Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (SKL GT2)
X11 Vendor The X.Org Foundation

Operating System
Version
Kernel Linux 5.4.0-26-generic (x86_64)
Version #30-Ubuntu SMP Mon Apr 20 16:58:30 UTC 2020
C Library GNU C Library / (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.31-0ubuntu9) 2.31
Distribution Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP XFCE
XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP xubuntu

I haven't tested much yet but runs okay so far.

[Colonel Panic]

Another good one; Exton’s take on MX, which he released recently and has LXQt as its main window manager although it keeps the original XFce too. He's also upgraded the original Debian packages to the forthcoming Debian 11, and added his own kernel.

It looks good with its light grey theme and McLaren sportscar wallpaper (Exton clearly has a linking for fast cars), and works well with no "beeping" on my machine.

The only downside is that in common with other offerings I've tried from Exton it’s a bit light on software, so that even things like office suites don't come as standard; if you want something like LibreOffice you have to install it yourself.

http://www.exton.se/?p=2679

[peebee]

This video:
Install Chrome OS On Your Laptop / PC Access Google Play and Linux on Chrome!
shows how to install ChromeOS onto a laptop or PC....

1. You don't have to use Linux Mint .... I used a much smaller and simpler download - Puppy Linux (UPupEF variant).
2. Does not work on old laptops or PCs that don't have UEFI booting.
3. You don't have to install to the internal hard disk - you can install to another usb external drive - I used a usb connected ssd drive and it worked fine.
4. You can edit the install.sh to remove the need for the figlet dependency.

My notes from the video:

All Files Needed
Brunch Files: https://github.com/sebanc/brunch/releases
Chrome OS Files: https://cros-updates-serving.appspot.com/
Install.Sh File: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shrik ... install.sh

download
Brunch
rammus latest version from ChromeOS Files
install.sh (make exec)

move 3 files to usb frugal install

put in folder ChromeOS

right click on Brunch to extract
move 4 files from extract to Chromeos folder

right click on ChromeOS image to extract
rename to rammus_recovery.bin
move to ChromeOS folder

should be 6 files in ChromeOS folder

may need to edit drive id in install.sh /dev/sda

needs secure boot disabled and uefi boot enabled
boot and security in bios

boot from usb
enable internet
edit install.sh

get and install dependencies:
pv
cgpt

run install.sh

[quirkian2new]

Some guys made a re-master of Tinycore based on tinycore linux 10.1(x86), with 3 different flavours, can be boot frugally from harddisk by copying to root directory of partitions, with Firefox v71 :

http://pub.nicereader.net/10/tinycore_n ... irefox.iso

http://pub.nicereader.net/10/tinycore_nr_firefox.iso

http://pub.nicereader.net/10/tinycore_nr.iso

[enrique]

I know mainstream could say same thing about Puppy.

But why downloading a remaster from China, korea or even Russia? Why not download from source?

But now that we are here. Do we have a Puppy derivative base on Tiny Core?

[rockedge]

Do we have a Puppy derivative base on Tiny Core?

There has been work done in that direction: CorePup
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=108188

[enrique]

rockedge
I was just reading it. There is so much history to learn on this forum. The other day some one said "If you are bore read a Book" . I know not for everyone as many are into the Social Network thing. But there is so much to read hear on the forum.

I found interesting page 6,
pUPnGO 6 to 20 MB iso
... https://archive.org/details/Puppy_Linux_pUPnGO
... https://archive.org/download/Puppy_Linux_pUPnGO
minux => ISO Image only 24 MB

[Colonel Panic]

I've recently installed the release candidate of OpenSUSE 15.2 Leap (the so-called "non-rolling" version of the distro). It doesn't have as big a collection of software in its repositories as, say, Ubuntu or Debian but there's enough available for most daily tasks; it's also proving to be stable and everything works as it's supposed to.

[Colonel Panic]

I've also installed the latest version of Zenwalk, 15.0 (released last week). It has a very dark default theme which might not be to everyone's taste, and limited options as standard to change it if you don't like it; however, it works well and I've had no problems with it so far. Also, being based on Slackware, it's very stable and doesn't "beep" on my machine.

It's interesting that Salix was started by some former Zenwalk devs and for a while it looked as though it was going to eclipse Zenwalk as a distro, but Zenwalk's still putting out editions and Salix hasn't been heard from for years now.

Slackel's also released a couple of betas of its forthcoming release (7.3), an Openbox one which works well and a MATE one I haven't tried yet. MX have released a beta of their forthcoming KDE edition, but sadly I've had much less luck with this one; it only loads XOrg at all in safe mode and there's no sound.

[ETP]

Currently have the latest version

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ubuntu ... o/download

on test & it is very impressive especially considering it is tracking the development release of Ubuntu Groovy Gorilla, the final of which is not due out until Oct 2020.

It basically adds tweaks and improvements plus the Cinnamon desktop to Groovy. Updates are coming in by the day.
The improvements since I looked at the previous June release are staggering.

Firefox, Thunderbird & Celluloid (A front-end for mpv) are included. Full details containing numerous links follows:

https://ubuntucinnamon.org/kickoff-of-t ... ting-week/

To my copy I have added Google Chrome, Opera, some utilities and a converted IP TV pet.
I also installed gtkdialog taken from Fossapup & installed some extra required libs/symlinks.

The following shared video of my copy gives a brief overview plus an idea of it's current performance:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xGbQYtioXt6mzoi48
.