From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

I would like to learn to use Linux.

I have an old PC which I could use. It is:

HP Pavilion Slimline
Model ID = s3240.uk
Motherboard = ASUS M2N61-AR (HP OEM)
CPU = AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 4400+ at 2.3 GHz
RAM = 1GB
Disk = 1TB SSHD (previously used)
Network = nVidia nForce Networking Controller

<https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-m2n61-ar-hp-oem>
says that the CPU is 64-bit.

The CD-ROM is the only bootable device for removable media.

My immediate interest is using a web browser, and a modern email client.

Can anybody suggest a suitable Linux version for me to install?

TIA
--
Graham J
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 2026-02-06 13:36, Graham J wrote:

I would like to learn to use Linux.

I have an old PC which I could use.-a It is:

HP Pavilion Slimline
Model ID-a-a-a = s3240.uk
Motherboard-a-a-a = ASUS M2N61-AR (HP OEM)
CPU-a-a-a-a-a-a-a = AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 4400+ at 2.3 GHz RAM-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a = 1GB
Disk-a-a-a-a-a-a-a = 1TB SSHD (previously used)
Network-a-a-a-a-a-a-a = nVidia nForce Networking Controller

<https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-m2n61-ar-hp-oem>
says that the CPU is 64-bit.

The CD-ROM is the only bootable device for removable media.

My immediate interest is using a web browser, and a modern email client.

Can anybody suggest a suitable Linux version for me to install?

Modern web browsing is memory hungry.

Email... depends. My Thunderbird, started this morning, eats this
instant nearly 8 GB of ram. I have seen it at double that after two
weeks of use. I suppose it tries to keep in ram all the content from
mail accounts and Usenet.

You might try "Damn Small Linux". <https://www.damnsmalllinux.org/>
--
Cheers, Carlos.
ESEfc-Efc+, EUEfc-Efc|;
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Fri, 2/6/2026 7:36 AM, Graham J wrote:

I would like to learn to use Linux.

I have an old PC which I could use.-a It is:

HP Pavilion Slimline
Model ID-a-a-a = s3240.uk
Motherboard-a-a-a = ASUS M2N61-AR (HP OEM)
CPU-a-a-a-a-a-a-a = AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 4400+ at 2.3 GHz RAM-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a = 1GB
Disk-a-a-a-a-a-a-a = 1TB SSHD (previously used)
Network-a-a-a-a-a-a-a = nVidia nForce Networking Controller

<https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-m2n61-ar-hp-oem>
says that the CPU is 64-bit.

The CD-ROM is the only bootable device for removable media.

My immediate interest is using a web browser, and a modern email client.

Can anybody suggest a suitable Linux version for me to install?

TIA

Linux Mint 21.3 is fine.

If you scroll down, you can see "Release Date" 2024-01-10
and "End Of Life" 2027-04.

Cinnamon Buttery smooth
MATE
Xfce Low resource usage (good for older machines)

We sometimes use (Mirror Sites) like university sites in Canada, for downloads, to offload any central servers.

https://linuxmint.com/mirrors.php

I'm using this, just to show how a mirror site displays the goods.

https://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/linuxmint/stable/21.3/

linuxmint-21.3-cinnamon-64bit-edge.iso 16-Jan-2024 16:04 3G <=== really new hardware 2026
linuxmint-21.3-cinnamon-64bit.iso 09-Jan-2024 12:59 3G <=== live a little...
linuxmint-21.3-mate-64bit.iso 09-Jan-2024 13:11 3G linuxmint-21.3-xfce-64bit.iso 09-Jan-2024 13:26 3G <=== low resource usage
sha256sum.txt 18-Jan-2024 10:39 397 sha256sum.txt.gpg 18-Jan-2024 10:40 833

*******

Here is me, playing with the said item, in a VM. This was already installed
and has been sitting there for a while now (Sept2024). It wants to do updates :-)
I had to take the picture, before it started "acting needy".

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/VNKfJLpj/LM213-XFCE.gif

*******

But now we get to the sticky part. Your graphics.

Your machine has an x16 slot. It can take a graphics card as an add-on.
For example, a GT1030 might fit in the slot.

Otherwise, the 6150SE iGPU on your system, is covered somewhat here. The
340 driver was released in 2013. And it works on a 4.15 or so, version of kernel.

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=337332

While Nouveau might certainly work for your hardware, I don't know that
for a fact. This aspect then, will be the "experiment". I can't verify
here, as I don't have one of those. They were quite popular and were
cranked out by the millions over several years.

The reason I mention the GT1030, is I bought one here about three months ago. My computer store buys batches of (to them) obsolete graphics cards.
My Optiplex refurb needed a small "boost", as the previous 13 watt
card I stuffed in it, the acceleration effect from that one was about zero.
The 13 watt card cost me $39.95 and was the cheapest video card I ever bought. Whereas the gutless GT1030 is "5X as powerful" and it cost me $99.00 in
this time of shortage and rationing. I wouldn't say it was a "good deal",
but it's certainly less than the $300 I would have paid otherwise for a low
end one.

Paul

--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

Paul wrote:

[snip]

Linux Mint 21.3 is fine.

https://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/linuxmint/stable/21.3/

linuxmint-21.3-xfce-64bit.iso 09-Jan-2024 13:26 3G <=== low resource usage

[snip]

Thanks for your guidance.

Downloaded Xfce. Burnt the .ISO to a DVD. Booted the DVD.

Menu appears:

Start Linux Mint
Start Linux Mint in compatibilty mode
OEM Install (For Manufacturers)
Hardware detection
Boot from Local Drive
Memory Test

Tried "Hardware detection": nice list of devices. Noted PCI devices
need drivers.

Tried "Start Linux Mint"
Kernel panic - not syncing: "No working init found"
... followed by a page of info

Tried "OEM Install"
Same:
Kernel panic - not syncing: "No working init found"
... followed by a page of info

There's a reference to some documentation, but before I work through
that, have I actually downloaded something that will install Mint on
this hardware?

Or do I need to find an "Installer"?
--
Graham J
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Fri, 2/6/2026 12:08 PM, Graham J wrote:

Paul wrote:

[snip]

Linux Mint 21.3 is fine.

-a-a-a https://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/linuxmint/stable/21.3/

linuxmint-21.3-xfce-64bit.iso-a 09-Jan-2024 13:26-a 3G <=== low resource usage

[snip]

Thanks for your guidance.

Downloaded Xfce.-a Burnt the .ISO to a DVD.-a Booted the DVD.

Menu appears:

Start Linux Mint
Start Linux Mint in compatibilty mode
OEM Install (For Manufacturers)
Hardware detection
Boot from Local Drive
Memory Test

Tried "Hardware detection": nice list of devices.-a Noted PCI devices need drivers.

Tried "Start Linux Mint"
Kernel panic - not syncing: "No working init found"
... followed by a page of info

Tried "OEM Install"
Same:
Kernel panic - not syncing: "No working init found"
... followed by a page of info

There's a reference to some documentation, but before I work through that, have I actually downloaded something that will install Mint on this hardware?

Or do I need to find an "Installer"?

This particular live media contains both

Live Session (should show up like my picture does)

Install icon on desktop

The Install icon kicks off the disk drive installation.

You can also trigger the install process, by using the Install
item on the DVD.

*******

So now we have to figure out why the legacy BIOS boot process
didn't work. The disc is a hybrid, it supports MSDOS boot and
GPT boot. On a legacy BIOS, it should do the MSDOS boot thing
via the media.

Your symptoms could be similar to this. Maybe a corrupt initrd.lz .

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/768361/kernel-panic-no-working-init-found

The file it is unpacking is:

caspar/initrd.lz 125,655,394 bytes

where the lz is likely Lempel Ziv compression of some sort.

*******

The disc booted on my Optiplex 780 but it must have taken
at least ten minutes, with most of that time spent (slowly)
loading the Desktop Environment. That's an E8400 (Core2Duo 3GHz)
with 16GB of RAM, so it does not lack for RAM. On a Q45 chipset
at a guess. And it is using my GT1030 for video.

*******

Where it offers you "Start Linux Mint", you can press the <tab> key
to access the "boot line".

Now, since my Optiplex is acting like a perfect pig, I will be
booting a second time, with an edited "boot line". I press <tab>

quiet splash --

You can cursor back and use the backspace key to remove both words.
This allows a more complete record of boot text as it boots.
Removing quiet, allows the text to be output. Removing splash
removes the splash screen that covers up what is underneath.

--

Now, in my case, since the machine has enough RAM to hold the
entire DVD, I will be booting this time with

TORAM=yes --

and what that does, is read a lot of the DVD into RAM so
that slow DVD access does not spoil a good time. The
TORAM=yes is not practical on small RAM machines, and it
depends on the size of the DVD as to how practical it is.
Ubuntu likely requires a dual-layer DVD, and then an 8GB
machine would be the minimum for loading that as a TORAM.
Loading an LM that way, might profitably use 4GB of RAM
(3GB for the DVD, 1GB might allow the low-resource XFCE to load).

But that's what I will be trying next, to make the live
session even remotely responsive (due to how slow my
Optiplex DVD drive is, it is slower than any other
DVD drive in the house).

I burned another DVD and the TORAM=yes is going a lot
faster now. I guess the other Verbatim DVD is a bit
of a flake.

Paul




--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Fri, 2/6/2026 7:11 PM, Paul wrote:

On Fri, 2/6/2026 12:08 PM, Graham J wrote:

Paul wrote:

[snip]

Linux Mint 21.3 is fine.

-a-a-a https://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/linuxmint/stable/21.3/

linuxmint-21.3-xfce-64bit.iso-a 09-Jan-2024 13:26-a 3G <=== low resource usage

[snip]

Thanks for your guidance.

Downloaded Xfce.-a Burnt the .ISO to a DVD.-a Booted the DVD.

Menu appears:

Start Linux Mint
Start Linux Mint in compatibilty mode
OEM Install (For Manufacturers)
Hardware detection
Boot from Local Drive
Memory Test

Tried "Hardware detection": nice list of devices.-a Noted PCI devices need drivers.

Tried "Start Linux Mint"
Kernel panic - not syncing: "No working init found"
... followed by a page of info

Tried "OEM Install"
Same:
Kernel panic - not syncing: "No working init found"
... followed by a page of info

There's a reference to some documentation, but before I work through that, have I actually downloaded something that will install Mint on this hardware?

Or do I need to find an "Installer"?

And here is a picture of my fresh-cut media, booted on the
Optiplex 780 with E8400 Cure2Duo processor.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/1zHzLB3V/LM213-XFCE-Booted.gif

The Install button in the Live Session can be seen in the upper
left corner. There is a 1TB HDD in the machine, and in principle,
I could ask Linux to erase the partition table and put a setup suited
to the distro.

If you don't include a swap partition, the installer will install a
/swapfile and that will be used for a swap space instead. This means
it is possible to do a single-partition install, if desired.

Paul

--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Sat, 2/7/2026 4:08 AM, Graham J wrote:

Paul wrote:

[snip]

There's a reference to some documentation, but before I work through that, have I actually downloaded something that will install Mint on this hardware?

Or do I need to find an "Installer"?

This particular live media contains both

-a-a-a-a Live Session (should show up like my picture does)

-a-a-a-a Install icon on desktop

The Install icon kicks off the disk drive installation.

You can also trigger the install process, by using the Install
item on the DVD.

*******

So now we have to figure out why the legacy BIOS boot process
didn't work. The disc is a hybrid, it supports MSDOS boot and
GPT boot. On a legacy BIOS, it should do the MSDOS boot thing
via the media.

[snip]

I don't see anything like you describe.-a It does not get as far as a "Live Session".-a It shows the 6-line menu in a table as I described in my previous post.-a And yes, I can use Tab to stop it there.

The BIOS is set to boot the CD-ROM first, so it should not matter what the hard disk is.-a But in my experience, in general a BIOS does try to read something from the HDD before it starts to load from the CD-ROM, so a faulty HDD will prevent a CD-ROM from booting, whereas a completely absent HDD does not.

The menu option "Hardware detection" allows me to see the SSHD, and shows it has a windows installation on it.-a This is because the SSHD came from a machine where the motherboard died.-a If I boot the SSHD, it - very slowly - boots to the login prompt for the Windows 10 system on it.-a I expect to erase this SSHD - should I do so before trying to boot the Mint DVD?

What I - perhaps naively - expect is for the Mint DVD to boot and ask me where I want to install Mint, and perhaps warn me that it will overwrite anything already present on the SSHD.

Your help is very much appreciated.-a Sadly I can't do anything more today, so will look for your reply tomorrow.-a Thanks.

Erasing the Windows materials, is an excellent suggestion. And I use that
a percentage of the time, when test installing materials.

You can erase a Windows HDD using a Windows DVD and the Troubleshooting (not Install) option.
You could also cable up the drive to another Windows computer and use the Command Prompt there.

For example:

Win DVD Command Prompt (in Troubleshooting)

diskpart.exe
list disk
select disk 0
list partition # Take a look at the layout, ascertain this is the correct disk
clean # There is no "are you sure?". Cleaning is *instantaneous* via erased MBR/GPT tables.
exit

And in Troubleshooting there may be a Shutdown option
to end the Windows DVD session.

This does not remove private information from the disk drive, is not forensically clean, but it does prepare a disk for installation.

You *should* be able to boot the 21.3 DVD with *no* HDD wired up at all. Unplugging it, would allow you to examine a Live Session to your satisfaction.

It's just a question of whether that file in Casper directory is OK or not.
My DVD (not really all that old), seemed to be doing a lot of retries,
and that is likely why it was taking ten minutes to boot. The new DVD
just whizzed along.

*******

If you have rewriteable media, you can partake of other trial materials.
I loaded this one into a VM. The download ISO is 25,165,824 bytes.
The Firefox I loaded in a Live Session, was ~150MB of stuff (Firefox
package plus dependency libraries).

http://www.tinycorelinux.net/downloads.html

TinyCore
(23 MB) TinyCore is the recommended option for new users who have
a wired network connection. It includes the base Core system
plus X/GUI extensions for a dynamic FLTK/FLWM graphical desktop environment.

The download is a 32 bit edition.

[Picture] Use "Download Original" if picture is too fuzzy

https://i.postimg.cc/253K21PZ/Tiny-Core-Linux.gif

This is not a pleasant environment, and just to move the
windows around, will take some amount of random choices :-)
To move a window, there is an "|" symbol on the upper left
border of a window. Use that to "reduce" the window to a
half inch long "thing". At the bottom of the "thing" is some
decorative text. Grab the "thing" and move it, then hit the
"|" icon a second time and the window expands to the original
size.

Paul


--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

Paul wrote:

[snip]

Erasing the Windows materials, is an excellent suggestion. And I use that
a percentage of the time, when test installing materials.

So why does the booted DVD (of the Mint .iso) care about what is on the
HDD? Surely the job of the installer is to initialise the nominated
media ready for the installation? Apologies if this sounds like a
stupid question ...

You *should* be able to boot the 21.3 DVD with *no* HDD wired up at all. Unplugging it, would allow you to examine a Live Session to your satisfaction.

Tried that, exactly the same error
"Failed to execute /init (error -2)"
... followed by a whole page of other stuff.
So is the DVD corrupt?

It's just a question of whether that file in Casper directory is OK or not. My DVD (not really all that old), seemed to be doing a lot of retries,

This system takes 34 seconds from power up to showing the menu. Easily
the first 20 seconds is the BIOS splash screen and verbose diagnostics.

http://www.tinycorelinux.net/downloads.html

Might try this later. But is there any way to examine the DVD for
integrity - in that its file system does contain the necessary Casper directory and files?

[snip]
--
Graham J
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Sun, 2/8/2026 5:43 AM, Graham J wrote:

Paul wrote:

[snip]

Erasing the Windows materials, is an excellent suggestion. And I use that
a percentage of the time, when test installing materials.

So why does the booted DVD (of the Mint .iso) care about what is on the HDD?-a Surely the job of the installer is to initialise the nominated media ready for the installation?-a Apologies if this sounds like a stupid question ...

You *should* be able to boot the 21.3 DVD with *no* HDD wired up at all.
Unplugging it, would allow you to examine a Live Session to your satisfaction.

Tried that, exactly the same error
"Failed to execute /init (error -2)"
... followed by a whole page of other stuff.
So is the DVD corrupt?

It's just a question of whether that file in Casper directory is OK or not. >> My DVD (not really all that old), seemed to be doing a lot of retries,

This system takes 34 seconds from power up to showing the menu.-a Easily the first 20 seconds is the BIOS splash screen and verbose diagnostics.

http://www.tinycorelinux.net/downloads.html

Might try this later.-a But is there any way to examine the DVD for integrity - in that its file system does contain the necessary Casper directory and files?

[snip]

Using IMGBurn, I can rip a DVD back to ISO and
then compare the checksum to the original. That's
assuming the media is not so damaged that the
read attempt fails.

In this case, as a test, I'm using the drive that
originally burned the media. The DVD drive in the Optiplex 780
is going to be a somewhat older drive, as the machine
was a refurb purchased downtown in a small shop.

This is the RIP back, for verification. I just did this a few
minutes ago.

Name: Linux-Mint-21-Cinnamon.iso
Size: 3067232256 bytes (2925 MiB)
SHA256: 5AA24ABBC616807AB754A6A3B586F24460B0C213B6CACB0BF8B9A80B65013ECC

This is the original burn file (on my SSD DVD ISO collection).

Name: linuxmint-21.3-cinnamon-64bit.iso
Size: 3067232256 bytes (2925 MiB)
SHA256: 5AA24ABBC616807AB754A6A3B586F24460B0C213B6CACB0BF8B9A80B65013ECC

Test: Pass

I'm not doing an analysis at the file level. Some Ubuntu discs
support per file sums, and the media actually does a "Verify
on the way up". Which for the poor user, takes a while. On Mint,
by not doing that, we can resort to a Verify Rip instead and see what
that tells us.

I haven't done enough testing on the Optiplex DVD drive, to know
whether it's a stinker or not. All I can tell you, is it didn't
do a TORAM=yes run properly. On the other piece of media I burned,
this one...

Name: linuxmint-21.3-xfce-64bit.iso
Size: 3033710592 bytes (2893 MiB)
SHA256: B284AFCC298CC6F5DA6AB4D483318C453B2074485974B71B16FDFC7256527CB1

I found that was reading better and the DVD was spinning at the
"normal rate" for a TORAM run. That's got nothing to do with the
ISO formulation, because the streaming part of the read, is reading
a .squashfs file of prodigious size. Most of the DVD should be
a squash, which is compressed. There are still other loose files
on the disc, in formats like the .lz .

You need lots of RAM, to hold most all of the ISO in the machine
memory, plus provide memory for the OS run itself. But the advantage
is, once the squash is loaded, Live Session accesses to applications from that RAM cache are very fast. You can even do the install, based on items
being plucked from the RAM cache of TORAM=yes, and put on the HDD.

*******

Only *occasionally*, does a HDD with UEFI/GPT materials, interfere with
the booting of a legacy BIOS MSDOS media (this is a *BIOS* issue).

This doesn't happen all the time, but the BIOS behavior is not saintly
at all times. You will learn a few things along the way. I would say
at least 98% of the time, this whole procedure is a nothing-burger.
You boot the hybrid-disc in the mode you want the installer
to run in (such as UEFI/GPT) and it... just works. And the Linux
installer GUI does have a "remove everything and install this" option.

The only time I clean a disk drive, is when the disk has been a bit
of a nuisance. I have one Seagate drive, that some UEFI probe operation
does not work properly, and I have to clean that disk on yet another
computer, before I can put it in the Test Machine. I would like to be
able to find a firmware update on the Seagate site for this, an update
does exist... just not for the Version 1 of that disk drive. That's why
you don't constantly see problems, but at the fringe, the right garbage
drive, you may see the odd issue.

I have another computer, where the BIOS freezes if the MBR sector is
all zeros. I want to scream when that happens (because a brand new
hard drive could arrive that way, or a "clean all" hard drive
also has the offending bit pattern). The computer that
does this, doesn't get into the room all that often. But it's
still in the house. I keep this garbage equipment, for reproducing
problems.

I'm testing on the Optiplex, as an emulation of an older
generation of equipment. I've had two motherboards fail, that also
would have been candidates for the role of "old stock", machines
having enough RAM for any Linux distro to use.

Other useful criterion, are whether the hardware supports SSE2 or
SSE4. There can be various Linux which have requirements like that,
likely some application doing it. The reason this happens is...
the devs don't want to do the work. You can emulate everything,
with a speed penalty, and as long as the user understands why
things are slow, I don't have a problem with trapping missing
instructions and using code to replace the instruction. We did some
stuff like that at work.

Paul
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

Paul wrote:

On Sun, 2/8/2026 5:43 AM, Graham J wrote:

[snip]

Might try this later.-a But is there any way to examine the DVD for integrity - in that its file system does contain the necessary Casper directory and files?

[snip]

Using IMGBurn, I can rip a DVD back to ISO and
then compare the checksum to the original. That's
assuming the media is not so damaged that the
read attempt fails.

First I will try downloading the Xfce file from a different mirror so as
to compare the downloaded files.

I also tried the DVD in my Windows machine and can see it as drive E:

E:\casper contains 6 files including initrd.lz
This appears to be a compressed file containing the file: kernel\x86\microcode\AuthenticAMD.bin at 76166 bytes
Does this explain "No working init found" ?

Is it possible that this .iso is incompatible with my hardware?

Is the 1GB RAM a fatal limitation?
--
Graham J
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

Graham J wrote:

[snip]

First I will try downloading the Xfce file from a different mirror so as
to compare the downloaded files.

Done. Downloaded linuxmint-21.3-xfce-64bit.iso from <https://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/www.linuxmint.com/pub/linuxmint.com/stable/21.3/>

... it is identical with what I downloaded 2 days ago from <https://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/linuxmint/stable/21.3/>

Per Paul's recommendation:

Try http://www.tinycorelinux.net/downloads.html
Burn CD
Boot TinyCore OK
Runs OK. Very sweet! Can't see any way to install it to SSHD.

From recommendation by Carlos E.R.

https://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ download dsl-2024.rc7.iso
Burn CD
Boot - Menu - 8 items
Choose "DSL202 hacked from antiX 23" (the default)
switch-root: "can't execute 'usr/bin/env' I/O error" - then crashes

Try again, choose "Safe video mode" from menu
Comes up in 1024 x 768 resolution (but card can do 1280 x 1024)

Use installer icon to install on my SSHD
Follow prompts...

Boot to SSHD
Login OK
Seems quite snappy, given the age of the PC and its limited resources.

So nothing fundamentally wrong with my hardware.

---

What is wrong with the Mint installer? Is it incomplete?
--
Graham J
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 2026-02-08 21:45, Graham J wrote:

Graham J wrote:

[snip]

First I will try downloading the Xfce file from a different mirror so
as to compare the downloaded files.

Done. Downloaded linuxmint-21.3-xfce-64bit.iso from <https://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/www.linuxmint.com/pub/ linuxmint.com/stable/21.3/>

... it is identical with what I downloaded 2 days ago from <https://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/linuxmint/stable/21.3/>

Per Paul's recommendation:

Try http://www.tinycorelinux.net/downloads.html
Burn CD
Boot TinyCore OK
Runs OK.-a Very sweet! Can't see any way to install it to SSHD.

From recommendation by Carlos E.R.

https://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ download dsl-2024.rc7.iso
Burn CD
Boot - Menu - 8 items
Choose "DSL202 hacked from antiX 23" (the default)
switch-root: "can't execute 'usr/bin/env' I/O error" - then crashes

Try again, choose "Safe video mode" from menu
Comes up in 1024 x 768 resolution (but card can do 1280 x 1024)

Use installer icon to install on my SSHD
Follow prompts...

Boot to SSHD
Login OK
Seems quite snappy, given the age of the PC and its limited resources.

So nothing fundamentally wrong with my hardware.

---

What is wrong with the Mint installer?-a Is it incomplete?

The installers have a minimum memory requirement to run, to; it should
be somewhere in the documentation. And the messages they give can be misleading.
--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Sun, 8 Feb 2026 17:03:46 +0000, Graham J wrote:

First I will try downloading the Xfce file from a different mirror
so as to compare the downloaded files.

Typically, the official download site will offer hash checksums
(commonly SHA-256 these days). This allows you to verify that you have
received an authentic download, regardless of where you got it from.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 2/8/26 12:45, Graham J wrote:

What is wrong with the Mint installer?-a Is it incomplete?

I drifted away from Mint many years ago, but the last few versions that
I used all had a problem when the Ubiquity slideshow appeared during installation. Removing that slideshow with the package manager while
running live from the CD, before installing, fixed the issue.

Looks like they're still talking about that as recently as a few months
ago. <https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=451308>

Whatever trouble you're running into, I suggest spending some time at
the Mint forums. They were excellent whenever I needed help.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Sun, 2/8/2026 4:14 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:

On 2026-02-08 21:45, Graham J wrote:

Graham J wrote:

[snip]

First I will try downloading the Xfce file from a different mirror so as to compare the downloaded files.

Done. Downloaded linuxmint-21.3-xfce-64bit.iso from
<https://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/www.linuxmint.com/pub/ linuxmint.com/stable/21.3/>

... it is identical with what I downloaded 2 days ago from
<https://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/linuxmint/stable/21.3/>

Per Paul's recommendation:

Try http://www.tinycorelinux.net/downloads.html
Burn CD
Boot TinyCore OK
Runs OK.-a Very sweet! Can't see any way to install it to SSHD.

-aFrom recommendation by Carlos E.R.

https://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ download dsl-2024.rc7.iso
Burn CD
Boot - Menu - 8 items
Choose "DSL202 hacked from antiX 23" (the default)
switch-root: "can't execute 'usr/bin/env' I/O error" - then crashes

Try again, choose "Safe video mode" from menu
Comes up in 1024 x 768 resolution (but card can do 1280 x 1024)

Use installer icon to install on my SSHD
Follow prompts...

Boot to SSHD
Login OK
Seems quite snappy, given the age of the PC and its limited resources.

So nothing fundamentally wrong with my hardware.

---

What is wrong with the Mint installer?-a Is it incomplete?

The installers have a minimum memory requirement to run, to; it should be somewhere in the documentation. And the messages they give can be misleading.

You did put the necessary information in your first post, and I
must have scrolled too quickly on that one. That's the reason
initrd can't unpack, is it's a resource issue. Not enough RAM to
unpack initrd.

The TinyCore Linux will run there (the 1GB machine).

But that's going to be more than a bit of a challenge for
the fancy-graphics distributions.

I would recommend 3GB of RAM, as a passport to sampling the Linux Map.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg

There are some low-resource distributions. But then it's a question of how their package management works, as to how pleasant they would be to use.
Like with the TinyCore, the OS doesn't need much, but when Firefox is
loaded, that could quickly chomp into the available RAM. By using a swap partition,
that can help with a low RAM situation, but with slow swap devices, that can be annoyingly slow.

*******

In terms of the end of Windows 10 and the potential for computers to be
thrown away, there are likely to be sticks of RAM available for nothing,
for something like the 4400+. For example, the two dead machines here,
have DDR and DDR2 sitting there. A matched pair work best in
machines with a processor like that.

We cannot use the Crucial memory advisor stuff, as Crucial chucks all
the old RAM type info (when it would have been easy to keep it). Micron
has crushed Crucial anyway, as part of paying attention to markets that
pay well for them, so who knows, maybe that web page won't be working
for much longer.

"How much memory does the ASUS M2N61-AR (ACACIA-GL6E) Motherboard
(DDR2-667MHz) Motherboard take? You can upgrade your ASUS M2N61-AR (
ACACIA-GL6E) Motherboard (DDR2-667MHz) Motherboard to up to a
maximum memory capacity of 4GB Memory.
"

OK, it is a microATX with two slots, so 2x2GB of DDR2 would work, removing
the 1GB stick already in the machine. That generation works best with
a matched pair. You *can* on some of these machines, run unmatched sticks,
but the speed will be somewhat lacking.

https://www.boardss.de/images/M2N61-AR.jpg

In a virtual machine, we can test whether a distro loads with
a specific amount of RAM. The virtual machine has a RAM field you
can adjust, and then see if a thing works.

*******

Someone did try a few distros in a VM to check their RAM requirement.
The trick is to find something that has "comfort features" and isn't
too arcane at the interface level.

https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog/theouterlinux-1169710/theouterlinux-m-se-i486-distro-list-38287/

I think XVesa could be an ingredient to the lower resource ones. A couple
I tried here now, are just over 1GB in "top" so unlikely to be running
on a 1GB machine.

*******

For one more test, I tried the following.

I remembered my laptop (single core, weaker than your 4400+), has
two DDR3 sticks in it. A 1GB and a 2GB. I unplugged the 2GB stick
to make it into a 1GB test machine.

Now, this should be burned to a DVD, because not all your CD media
supports overburn to 800MB. This is the network-based installer.

Name: debian-13.3.0-amd64-netinst.iso
Size: 790626304 bytes (754 MiB)
SHA256: C9F09D24B7E834E6834F2FFA565B33D6F1F540D04BD25C79AD9953BC79A8AC02

I used the non-GUI installer, the one that uses ncurses. The controls
are <tab> to move from field to field, <space> to toggle the field you
are over at the moment, and <Enter> when you're over top the <Continue>
item and the Enter gives permission to accept the input settings offered.

When I did the netinstall, I de-selected the top entry which is the
Debian desktop support, plus, I did not select any DE. I also de-selected
the SSD server option. That installs reasonably quickly.

When it is time for the reboot (and removal of the DVD from the tray), the
OS will boot into a text screen. Mine took 24 seconds to boot. And, it
appeared to stop...

After staring at this for too long, I hit the Enter key and the login prompt appeared, accepting the userid and password I had configured during install.

[Picture] This is right after I had hit Enter and discovered the prompt was waiting for me

https://i.postimg.cc/MGt6hs63/Debian-133-netinstall-first-boot.gif

At that point, you can do this after logging in as Bullwinkle

su root # There's no sudo here, Debian likes their elevations

apt install Xorg # Metapackage for X11 server

apt install twm # Old fashioned window manager

apt install plocate # Need a locate to help you find your way

updatedb # Scan the disk, add filenames to the locate database

locate locate # check that it works

apt install synaptic # Mostly for the easier scrolling than scrolling in XTerm

apt install firefox-esr # Metapackage to install Firefox (lots of dependencies)

exit # We're bullwinkle again, the unelevated user

vi ~/.xinitrc # Tell X11 how to load. Load these two lines into the file

/usr/bin/xterm & # Need a controlling terminal
/usr/bin/twm # When TWM exits, the .xinitrc script is finished.
# esc, :wq, which saves and exits

startx # Now, we start the window manager, open a terminal in it on X11

The window decorations, the top bar allows moving a window downwards. The upper-right
corner is the resize, and allows pulling up to make the window bigger.

firefox # Now we try out our application. "top" shows it chowing down
# on swap, but the default swap partition size was sufficient to
# take this picture.

[Picture] You can use "Download Original" if the picture is fuzzy

https://i.postimg.cc/WbMw0rbX/Debian-133-netinst-xorg-twm-xterm-firefox.gif

Now, is that a nice DE, this non-DE with no Session Manager and just a
raw X11 session ? Not really. It's just another datapoint. This attempt is bigger than TinyCore, smaller than the XFCE that couldn't unpack initrd because not enough RAM. I've done one of these before (an empty install, add your
own icing), and that's why I could do the netinstall various bits easily.

One question would be, whether making the iGPU graphics on my machine use less RAM, would that have helped ? Some of the iGPU have a minimum size, which
is not helpful. 128MB should be sufficient for compositing of windows, whereas smaller amounts would be enough for double buffered frame buffering.
For example, work out 1366x768 x 4 bytes as an estimate of a basic unaccelerated
frame buffer. Perhaps 8MB or 16MB would be sufficient then (no compositing, might
stutter a bit).

While using Firefox, half my default swap was used up, So the thing wasn't really running entirely from RAM.

Paul
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Sun, 2/8/2026 3:18 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:

On 2026-02-08 11:43, Graham J wrote:

Paul wrote:

[snip]

Erasing the Windows materials, is an excellent suggestion. And I use that >>> a percentage of the time, when test installing materials.

So why does the booted DVD (of the Mint .iso) care about what is on the HDD?-a Surely the job of the installer is to initialise the nominated media ready for the installation?-a Apologies if this sounds like a stupid question ...

Because if a Linux install disk erases the existing windows (or anything) without asking, insults would ensue.

I once had a Linux installer, erase the three existing Linux on a HDD :-)
And then you "wonder what hinders adoption" :-)

Installers come in all shapes and sizes. The "relatively mature" ones
will state options like "erase disk and install" or "install side by side".
But I've also had an install disc propose "hey, pal, see that terminal
over there, now you go over there and partition this disk".
And while making this suggestion, the install does not indicate
whether it is going to do an MBR or GPT installation, whether
you should make a BIOS 1MB partition, and so on. Then, when the installer
fails to finish, the user is shocked but not surprised at the outcome.

Paul


--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 2026-02-09 13:11, Paul wrote:

On Sun, 2/8/2026 4:14 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:

On 2026-02-08 21:45, Graham J wrote:

Graham J wrote:

What is wrong with the Mint installer?-a Is it incomplete?

The installers have a minimum memory requirement to run, to; it should be
somewhere in the documentation. And the messages they give can be misleading.

You did put the necessary information in your first post, and I
must have scrolled too quickly on that one. That's the reason
initrd can't unpack, is it's a resource issue. Not enough RAM to
unpack initrd.

Some installers can make use of a preexisting swap partition. On some
you can open a terminal and activate it.

The TinyCore Linux will run there (the 1GB machine).

But that's going to be more than a bit of a challenge for
the fancy-graphics distributions.

I understand he did manage to install Damn Small Linux.

I would recommend 3GB of RAM, as a passport to sampling the Linux Map.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg

There are some low-resource distributions. But then it's a question of how their package management works, as to how pleasant they would be to use.
Like with the TinyCore, the OS doesn't need much, but when Firefox is
loaded, that could quickly chomp into the available RAM. By using a swap partition,
that can help with a low RAM situation, but with slow swap devices, that can be
annoyingly slow.

And modern Linux fragments swap, a rotating rust disk is slow as
molasses. SSD is acceptable.

I remember that when I updated some release of openSUSE to the next,
swap suddenly became very slow. I could hear the disk trashing. Then I migrated to an SSD and things were acceptable. That machine had 8GiB ram.

...
--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 2026-02-09 13:43, Paul wrote:

On Sun, 2/8/2026 3:18 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:

On 2026-02-08 11:43, Graham J wrote:

Paul wrote:

[snip]

Erasing the Windows materials, is an excellent suggestion. And I use that >>>> a percentage of the time, when test installing materials.

So why does the booted DVD (of the Mint .iso) care about what is on the HDD?-a Surely the job of the installer is to initialise the nominated media ready for the installation?-a Apologies if this sounds like a stupid question ...

Because if a Linux install disk erases the existing windows (or anything) without asking, insults would ensue.

I once had a Linux installer, erase the three existing Linux on a HDD :-)
And then you "wonder what hinders adoption" :-)

Installers come in all shapes and sizes. The "relatively mature" ones
will state options like "erase disk and install" or "install side by side". But I've also had an install disc propose "hey, pal, see that terminal
over there, now you go over there and partition this disk".
And while making this suggestion, the install does not indicate
whether it is going to do an MBR or GPT installation, whether
you should make a BIOS 1MB partition, and so on. Then, when the installer fails to finish, the user is shocked but not surprised at the outcome.

And some ditch a wonderful, solid, working installer as is YaST and
invent a new one like Agama and release it on us while incomplete.
--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

Paul wrote:

[snip]

What is wrong with the Mint installer?-a Is it incomplete?

The installers have a minimum memory requirement to run, to; it should be
somewhere in the documentation. And the messages they give can be misleading.

You did put the necessary information in your first post, and I
must have scrolled too quickly on that one. That's the reason
initrd can't unpack, is it's a resource issue. Not enough RAM to
unpack initrd.

OK understood. Pity about the misleading error message - as bad as
Microsoft! Why doesn't the installer check for sufficient RAM?

Snip other good stuff.

I could hunt for more RAM for the ASUS M2N61-AR motherboard, but my
initial view was that I would see if the machine worked before investing
time on that.

I have several other old machines (stored in a lock-up) which might be
newer than the HP Pavilion and could well have a useful amount of RAM -
so will try them first.
--
Graham J
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Mon, 2/9/2026 3:02 AM, Old Macdonald wrote:

On 2/8/26 12:45, Graham J wrote:

What is wrong with the Mint installer?-a Is it incomplete?

I drifted away from Mint many years ago, but the last few versions that I used all
had a problem when the Ubiquity slideshow appeared during installation. Removing that
slideshow with the package manager while running live from the CD, before installing, fixed the issue.

Looks like they're still talking about that as recently as a few months ago. <https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=451308>

Whatever trouble you're running into, I suggest spending some time at the Mint forums. They were excellent whenever I needed help.

For a friction free experience, you really need enough RAM.

There are all sorts of low-resource distros out there (the TinyCore being pretty impressive), but they're not for naive first-time Linux users.

And from a processor speed perspective, any machine that can host
4GB or 8GB of RAM, should be fast enough, and have good enough
instruction set coverage for a good time.

The Debian netinst I just used, this version was smart enough to label
the screen "low-memory mode" or similar. In other words, when it saw
the 1GB I had to offer on the laptop, it was basically warning that the
RAM was too low to make this easy. And my plan was only to install
enough stuff to get the screen working in a graphics mode.

Paul

--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 2026-02-09 14:12, Graham J wrote:

Paul wrote:

[snip]

What is wrong with the Mint installer?-a Is it incomplete?

The installers have a minimum memory requirement to run, to; it
should be
somewhere in the documentation. And the messages they give can be
misleading.

You did put the necessary information in your first post, and I
must have scrolled too quickly on that one. That's the reason
initrd can't unpack, is it's a resource issue. Not enough RAM to
unpack initrd.

OK understood.-a Pity about the misleading error message - as bad as Microsoft!-a Why doesn't the installer check for sufficient RAM?

It has to be running to be able to, would be one reason.
Also, it is not a hard known limit.

Snip other good stuff.

I could hunt for more RAM for the ASUS M2N61-AR motherboard, but my
initial view was that I would see if the machine worked before investing time on that.

I have several other old machines (stored in a lock-up) which might be
newer than the HP Pavilion and could well have a useful amount of RAM -
so will try them first.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

Carlos E. R. wrote:

[snip]

The installers have a minimum memory requirement to run, to; it should
be somewhere in the documentation. And the messages they give can be misleading.

Found another 1GB RAM, so the machine now has 2GB. It boots the Mint
DVD, takes several minutes to start, and looks useful.

So the next step is to try the installer.
--
Graham J
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 14:10:37 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:

And some ditch a wonderful, solid, working installer as is YaST and
invent a new one like Agama and release it on us while incomplete.

Nothing to stop anybody continuing to include YaST in their distros.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 2026-02-09 22:00, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 14:10:37 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:

And some ditch a wonderful, solid, working installer as is YaST and
invent a new one like Agama and release it on us while incomplete.

Nothing to stop anybody continuing to include YaST in their distros.

That it is not maintained and adjusted for the current system features.

For example, create a new user. One thing YaST does is ascribe the user
to the default group "users", whereas the new style of the system is
create a new group with the same name as the user, and add the user to
that group.

I don't have any strong opinion toward any of the two methods, but one
is the traditional in this distro. Why change it without a community discussion?
--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 22:14:54 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:

On 2026-02-09 22:00, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 14:10:37 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:

And some ditch a wonderful, solid, working installer as is YaST
and invent a new one like Agama and release it on us while
incomplete.

Nothing to stop anybody continuing to include YaST in their
distros.

That it is not maintained and adjusted for the current system
features.

It is rCLmaintainedrCY by anybody who wants to take the code and make
updates to it.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

Graham J wrote:

Carlos E. R. wrote:

[snip]

The installers have a minimum memory requirement to run, to; it should
be somewhere in the documentation. And the messages they give can be
misleading.

Found another 1GB RAM, so the machine now has 2GB.-a It boots the Mint
DVD, takes several minutes to start, and looks useful.

So the next step is to try the installer.

Done!

Took about 2 hours from booting the DVD to having the update manager
install everything it thought it needed.

Now to play, so more questions coming ...
--
Graham J
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 2026-02-09 22:54, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 22:14:54 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:

On 2026-02-09 22:00, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 14:10:37 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:

And some ditch a wonderful, solid, working installer as is YaST
and invent a new one like Agama and release it on us while
incomplete.

Nothing to stop anybody continuing to include YaST in their
distros.

That it is not maintained and adjusted for the current system
features.

It is rCLmaintainedrCY by anybody who wants to take the code and make
updates to it.

There are none.
--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:54:20 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:

On 2026-02-09 22:54, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 22:14:54 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:

On 2026-02-09 22:00, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 14:10:37 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:

And some ditch a wonderful, solid, working installer as is YaST
and invent a new one like Agama and release it on us while
incomplete.

Nothing to stop anybody continuing to include YaST in their
distros.

That it is not maintained and adjusted for the current system
features.

It is rCLmaintainedrCY by anybody who wants to take the code and make
updates to it.

There are none.

If you care so much, why donrCOt you step forward to do it?

Remember the software only existed because somebody cared enough to
create it in the first place.

The code doesnrCOt write itself, you know.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Tue, 2/10/2026 11:14 AM, Graham J wrote:

Graham J wrote:

Carlos E. R. wrote:

[snip]

The installers have a minimum memory requirement to run, to; it should be somewhere in the documentation. And the messages they give can be misleading.

Found another 1GB RAM, so the machine now has 2GB.-a It boots the Mint DVD, takes several minutes to start, and looks useful.

So the next step is to try the installer.

Done!

Took about 2 hours from booting the DVD to having the update manager install everything it thought it needed.

Now to play, so more questions coming ...

The "top" command can show you (status lines)
how your supply of memory is going, and how much
you have "dipped into swap".

Paul


--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 2026-02-10 20:34, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:54:20 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:

On 2026-02-09 22:54, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 22:14:54 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:

On 2026-02-09 22:00, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 14:10:37 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:

And some ditch a wonderful, solid, working installer as is YaST
and invent a new one like Agama and release it on us while
incomplete.

Nothing to stop anybody continuing to include YaST in their
distros.

That it is not maintained and adjusted for the current system
features.

It is rCLmaintainedrCY by anybody who wants to take the code and make
updates to it.

There are none.

If you care so much, why donrCOt you step forward to do it?

Because I don't have the skill set required.

Remember the software only existed because somebody cared enough to
create it in the first place.

The code doesnrCOt write itself, you know.

No, in this case it was a company that created and maintained it, for
business purposes, for decades.
--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

Carlos writes:

Because I don't have the skill set required.

Pay someone who does. SUSE did.

Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

Remember the software only existed because somebody cared enough to
create it in the first place.
The code doesnrCOt write itself, you know.

Carlos writes:

No, in this case it was a company that created and maintained it, for business purposes, for decades.

I.e., they cared enough to create it and maintain it. A company is a
group of people.
--
John Hasler
john@sugarbit.com
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Tue, 10 Feb 2026 15:57:46 -0500, Paul wrote:

The "top" command can show you (status lines) how your supply of
memory is going, and how much you have "dipped into swap".

It does that as well as other things.

If you just want a simple three-line synopsis of system RAM and swap
usage, try free(1) <https://manpages.debian.org/free(1)>.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Tue, 10 Feb 2026 23:12:41 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:

On 2026-02-10 20:34, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

If you care so much, why donrCOt you step forward to do it?

Because I don't have the skill set required.

Why not make it worth the while of someone who *does* have the skill
set required? Get together a group of like-minded YaST aficionados,
and pool some funds together to sponsor further development.

No, in this case it was a company that created and maintained it,
for business purposes, for decades.

DoesnrCOt mean it has to continue that way.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Tue, 2/10/2026 7:03 PM, John Hasler wrote:

Carlos writes:

Because I don't have the skill set required.

Pay someone who does. SUSE did.

Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

Remember the software only existed because somebody cared enough to
create it in the first place.
The code doesnrCOt write itself, you know.

Carlos writes:

No, in this case it was a company that created and maintained it, for
business purposes, for decades.

I.e., they cared enough to create it and maintain it. A company is a
group of people.

This doesn't smell like a small project.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YaST

If you threw Carlos in that vat, you'd just
see a stream of bubbles as he sank in it :-)

It's most likely that the code would be
foreign enough, you would not even know
what a "correct response" was, while working
on the code.

https://yastgithubio.readthedocs.io/en/latest/architecture/

Paul
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 11/02/2026 6:34 am, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

<Snip>

The code doesnrCOt write itself, you know.

Hmm!! Isn't THAT where AI is taking US?? ;-P
--
Daniel70
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 11/02/2026 6:19 pm, Paul wrote:

<Snip>

A company is a group of people.

.... who are, generally, trying to make a buck out of their product!!
--
Daniel70
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 2026-02-11 01:03, John Hasler wrote:

Carlos writes:

Because I don't have the skill set required.

Pay someone who does. SUSE did.

I don't have that money.

Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

Remember the software only existed because somebody cared enough to
create it in the first place.
The code doesnrCOt write itself, you know.

Carlos writes:

No, in this case it was a company that created and maintained it, for
business purposes, for decades.

I.e., they cared enough to create it and maintain it. A company is a
group of people.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 2026-02-11 10:21, Daniel70 wrote:

On 11/02/2026 6:19 pm, Paul wrote:

<Snip>

A company is a group of people.

.... who are, generally, trying to make a buck out of their product!!

And I sustain that they will make fewer bucks by ditching YaST. YaST was
the sole product that made SUSE different and interesting.
--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 11/02/2026 9:40 pm, Carlos E. R. wrote:

On 2026-02-11 10:21, Daniel70 wrote:

On 11/02/2026 6:19 pm, Paul wrote:

<Snip>

A company is a group of people.

.... who are, generally, trying to make a buck out of their product!!

And I sustain that they will make fewer bucks by ditching YaST. YaST was
the sole product that made SUSE different and interesting.

Never used Suse so wouldn't know.
--
Daniel70
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote at 20:57 this Tuesday (GMT):

On Tue, 2/10/2026 11:14 AM, Graham J wrote:

Graham J wrote:

Carlos E. R. wrote:

[snip]

The installers have a minimum memory requirement to run, to; it should be somewhere in the documentation. And the messages they give can be misleading.

Found another 1GB RAM, so the machine now has 2GB.-a It boots the Mint DVD, takes several minutes to start, and looks useful.

So the next step is to try the installer.

Done!

Took about 2 hours from booting the DVD to having the update manager install everything it thought it needed.

Now to play, so more questions coming ...

The "top" command can show you (status lines)
how your supply of memory is going, and how much
you have "dipped into swap".

Paul

htop is similar but also can act as a general task manager
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

Carlos writes:

Because I don't have the skill set required.

I wrote:

Pay someone who does. SUSE did.

Carlos writes

I don't have that money.

Too bad, but that's life. Most of us can name things we'd like to have
but can't afford.
--
John Hasler
john@sugarbit.com
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

I wrote:

A company is a group of people.

Daniel70 wrote:

.... who are, generally, trying to make a buck out of their product!!

Yes, of course. So what? Most people are trying to make a buck out of something. If Carlos wants YaST maintained he can probably find
someone who is willing to make a buck out of doing so for him.
--
John Hasler
john@sugarbit.com
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:00:04 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07 wrote:

htop is similar but also can act as a general task manager

On Linux, rCLgeneral task managementrCY would mean a bit more than just
killing processes or altering their priority: there is also control
over resource usage <https://manpages.debian.org/prlimit(1)>.
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

Graham J wrote:
[snip]

Now to play, so more questions coming ...

File sharing with Windows set up, from <https://ipv6.rs/tutorial/Linux_Mint_Latest/Samba/>
Firefox on Mint shows the [samba_share] section in as a single line in
the /etc/samba/smb.conf file ... confused me for a bit.

Installed xrdp and can now use remote desktop from my Windows PC

More playing soon ....
--
Graham J
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Thu, 2/12/2026 9:57 AM, Graham J wrote:

Graham J wrote:
[snip]

Now to play, so more questions coming ...

File sharing with Windows set up, from <https://ipv6.rs/tutorial/Linux_Mint_Latest/Samba/>
Firefox on Mint shows the [samba_share] section in as a single line in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file ... confused me for a bit.

Installed xrdp and can now use remote desktop from my Windows PC

More playing soon ....

The recipe shown, is for a previous time before GUIs.

Yes, you should install samba.

sudo apt install samba

Here is the reference section of my notes file.
Only the last line may be of some assistance (smbpasswd).

sudo smbpasswd -a bullwinkle

You can try doing that one after verifying samba is installed.
The rest of the lines are "noteworthy but not necessarily essential
or functional for that matter".

*******
workgroup = WORKGROUP # /etc/samba/smb.conf
server min protocol = NT1
server max protocol = smb3
client min protocol = NT1
client max protocol = smb3
ntlm auth = yes

wins support = yes \
local master = yes \
preferred master = yes /

sudo apt install wsdd <=== network neighbourhood?

sudo smbpasswd -a bullwinkle

*******

If samba has been installed, open your File Manager, do
Properties on that /home/graham/share you created, and
there is a "sharing" tab there just like on Windows.
That is where you do your thing, to make the folder
into a share.

mkdir /home/graham/share # That's if you're a Terminal guy
# and before using the File Manager.

When this feature first came out (about four distros ago),
after you did the "sharing" tab, two packages used to install
and you might see this somewhere while it is happening. The
automation was installing them, as part of the ceremony.

If the interface today is silent, you might check "dmesg"
or "sudo dmesg" (depends on distro) and see if there
are any entries there. If you set the smbpasswd (as if
the password on shares is handled separately from the /etc/passwd
ecosystem), then that is one less thing to worry about.

The server min and max protocol values, would help a
WinXP user "see" the Linux Mint share. NT1 is likely
to be the SMB1 thing.

The wsdd is unlikely to ever work. Some bits of Samba
seem to have had the nuts cut off them, so they don't work.
But I find that these kinds of commands from your other
Linux machines, will reach the share on your (serving) machine.

nemo smb://wallace/shared
thunar smb://wallace/shared
pcmanfm smb://wallace/shared

nemo smb://192.168.1.3/shared

These all tend to work, even if you cannot "see" the shares
in the GUI. Your workgroup = WORKGROUP is likely to be the
case, and is matching some of your Windows machines, but the
Win7 machine with home groups, may have resorted to
workgroup = MSHOME so you'll have to check that one to see
if it plays fair.

Paul
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