Changing to Linux without an IT degree.

[MrGrumpy]

I could get by on Linux easy if it was just myself . However I have enough bother being tech support in this house for the windows users . Used to have servers running , firewalls and all that jazz, just for the hell if it and to learn stuff . It’s certainly helped me in my job which isn’t IT btw ! However a lot of our backend machine servers run on Linux . So fairly adept on the command line .

 

[Ming the Merciless]

kernals

If you’d said Kernel we might have thought you knew what you were talking about 😂

 

[DCBassman]

Okay...

Linux/Cinnamon now downloaded, from the University of Frankfurt, no less, and sitting on a new USB stick.

Having had bad experiences before I'm being extremely cautious: what is the next step to setting Linux up so I can boot it from the stick?

When you say it's on the stick, did you just copy it to the stick, or burn it using a tool like Rufus (Windows) or Balena Etcher (everything else)? It needs to be burnt to a stick to make it bootable.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Okay...

Linux/Cinnamon now downloaded, from the University of Frankfurt, no less, and sitting on a new USB stick.

Having had bad experiences before I'm being extremely cautious: what is the next step to setting Linux up so I can boot it from the stick?

Backup any files / documents you want to keep.

 

[accountantpete]

Okay...

Linux/Cinnamon now downloaded, from the University of Frankfurt, no less, and sitting on a new USB stick.

Having had bad experiences before I'm being extremely cautious: what is the next step to setting Linux up so I can boot it from the stick?

As above - make sure you have extracted the iso file and copied it to the flash drive using the proper software.

Insert the flash drive

Then go into your Bios and change the boot preference to boot from the flash drive which it should see - save and exit

After that you can boot and that should enter the installation phase

or use this Guide
https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

 

[Elswick Cotterpin]

I've been using Linux Mint on an old, secondhand Dell laptop for a couple of years, not had any issues with it. I was dual booting Mint and Windows 10 on the same laptop, but it wasn't the best arrangement, plus I was no longer using Windows so I did a full install of Mint.

Lots of help and guides etc available at the Mint forum and You Tube.

 

[PhotoNic69]

Linux is easy. I had Ubuntu on an old PC I rescued from work. Just wiped the HDD and installed it from USB. It was very MAC OS like. Used Libre Office on it.

FInally ditched it when I and the kids wanted to use more mainstream apps like Photoshop and Word etc for school. It was very lightweight.
Last thing I installed it on was a very old laptop my wife used to use. It was sloth-like. Ubuntu was lightening quick in comparison.

 

[Chris S]

Okay...

Linux/Cinnamon now downloaded, from the University of Frankfurt, no less, and sitting on a new USB stick.

Having had bad experiences before I'm being extremely cautious: what is the next step to setting Linux up so I can boot it from the stick?

Is there a *.ISO file on the USB? You normally have to use specialist software to create a boot disk, it's not just a case of copying files.

If there is then put the stick in a USB port and see if your PC checks it on start-up. If it does your PC will automatically boot up from it.

If it doesn't then you will need to edit the BIOS. What make and model PC do you have?

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Linux is easy. I had Ubuntu on an old PC I rescued from work. Just wiped the HDD and installed it from USB. It was very MAC OS like. Used Libre Office on it.

FInally ditched it when I and the kids wanted to use more mainstream apps like Photoshop and Word etc for school. It was very lightweight.
Last thing I installed it on was a very old laptop my wife used to use. It was sloth-like. Ubuntu was lightening quick in comparison.

Yup - I used to have my desktop as dual boot but always used Ubuntu
it is probably still on there

had to stop using it much because I needed software that was not available on Linux because I needed it for work
and a few games I was playing were the same

shame really
funny thing _ I originally put it on there to try out some software I needed for work and it only ran on Linux
then had to stop using it because of other work things

Personally I have worked on school computers for many years and always thought it would be better if school alwasy used Linux of some variety (Ubuntu??) for teaching and for the kids to use
Everything in the National Curriculum can be taught using Linux
NOTHING needs Windows and the bits that requite something specific can easily be modified to use an Open version


but I have never seen any school that does

which probably explains why school get a massive discount on licenses!

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Yup - I used to have my desktop as dual boot but always used Ubuntu
it is probably still on there

had to stop using it much because I needed software that was not available on Linux because I needed it for work
and a few games I was playing were the same

shame really
funny thing _ I originally put it on there to try out some software I needed for work and it only ran on Linux
then had to stop using it because of other work things

Personally I have worked on school computers for many years and always thought it would be better if school alwasy used Linux of some variety (Ubuntu??) for teaching and for the kids to use
Everything in the National Curriculum can be taught using Linux
NOTHING needs Windows and the bits that requite something specific can easily be modified to use an Open version


but I have never seen any school that does

which probably explains why school get a massive discount on licenses!

In addition if school only used free software it would mean that we would develop a generation that knew they did not have to pay for software

which would encourage software development for Linux over time

BUT
when I have tried to get school - and companies - to use free software then they always try to use the stuff they have to pay for instead
because - "it can;t be any good if it is free"
I have seen school - who always complain they are terribly short of money - pay thousands of pounds for software when I am teh official It expert and am trying to show them a free thing that does EVERYTHING they want and more
but no - we want to pay for this which does only 80% of what we said we NEEDED but looks prettier


people are weird
(schools especially so!)

 

[Andy in Germany]

Linux is proving to have some issues.


Firstly, my "home" computer won't start with the Linux OS. A chat with the local computer repair person suggests this is a problem with Linux interacting with the Lenovo starting software; I bought the computer seven years ago and it was a reconditioned unit back then, so the advice was to replace the computer. This rather defeated the point of putting linux on it in the first place, but hey, ho, at least I'd backed everything up this time.


Now another bug has appeared: I can't upload pictures, mainly to WordPress but I have a photo hosting account that won't take them either. A large part of what I do involves putting pictures online this is a major problem.


Wordpress reports "No data provided" regardless of how I try and upload the picture (either by using their uploader or drag and drop)

As I'm not particularly computer savvy, I'm a bit lost. Has anyone else come across this issue?


Details:

LENOVO 82QY
Linux Mint 22.3 - Cinnamon 64-bit
Cinnamon 6.6.7
Firefox mint-001 1.0

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Linux is proving to have some issues.


Firstly, my "home" computer won't start with the Linux OS. A chat with the local computer repair person suggests this is a problem with Linux interacting with the Lenovo starting software; I bought the computer seven years ago and it was a reconditioned unit back then, so the advice was to replace the computer. This rather defeated the point of putting linux on it in the first place, but hey, ho, at least I'd backed everything up this time.


Now another bug has appeared: I can't upload pictures, mainly to WordPress but I have a DeviantArt account that won't take them either. A large part of what I do involves putting pictures online this is a major problem.


Wordpress reports "No data provided" regardless of how I try and upload the picture (either by using their uploader or drag and drop)

As I'm not particularly computer savvy, I'm a bit lost. Has anyone else come across this issue?


Details:

LENOVO 82QY
Linux Mint 22.3 - Cinnamon 64-bit
Cinnamon 6.6.7
Firefox mint-001 1.0

Try uploading a photo to this thread, to see if it is most likely Wordpress itself or more generic browser issue. Might be a permissions issue, might not.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Try uploading a photo to this thread, to see if it is most likely Wordpress itself or more generic browser issue. Might be a permissions issue, might not.

Works here. I have found a workaround for WordPress but it involves about seven extra steps and takes much longer.

 

[Dadam]

Firstly, my "home" computer won't start with the Linux OS. A chat with the local computer repair person suggests this is a problem with Linux interacting with the Lenovo starting software;

"Lenovo starting software" will be the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - used to be known as BIOS. There will be a setting to change the boot order i.e the order in which it checks the disks to look for a boot sector. You'll need to move the one for Linux to number 1 position so it looks there first.

Google your computer model number plus "change boot order".

This is the AI summary google came back with when I just did it: https://share.google/aimode/WiRtdZ8ZnGNDtqz5m

 

[Andy in Germany]

"Lenovo starting software" will be the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - used to be known as BIOS. There will be a setting to change the boot order i.e the order in which it checks the disks to look for a boot sector. You'll need to move the one for Linux to number 1 position so it looks there first.

Google your computer model number plus "change boot order".

This is the AI summary google came back with when I just did it: https://share.google/aimode/WiRtdZ8ZnGNDtqz5m

Unfortunately that requires restarting the PC. Which won't start.