Distro-hoppers anonymous

johnraff · 2024-10-30 04:26:42

Trixie upgrades are coming in almost every day at the moment, so if you leave it for a while it will build up...

Bookworm works pretty well, yes.

Colonel Panic · 2024-10-30 13:16:29

johnraff wrote:

Trixie upgrades are coming in almost every day at the moment, so if you leave it for a while it will build up...
Bookworm works pretty well, yes.

Thanks for replying. I thought that if I upgraded to Testing I'd have more up to date versions of programs such as Firefox as standard (so 128 instead of 115), but it didn't turn out to be the case.

DeepDayze · 2024-10-30 14:34:08

hhh wrote:

^ Here you go...
https://distro.ibiblio.org/baslinux/
https://archiveos.org/basic/
If anyone gets this installed and running, please post a scrot in the Monthly Scrot thread!

This old gem would be fun to play with on some real old laptop or desktop machine! I still have some old Slack CD's to grab packages from to customize this. Perhaps might also be fun to use Links to browse the Net.

johnraff · 2024-10-31 04:35:43

Colonel Panic wrote:

I thought that if I upgraded to Testing I'd have more up to date versions of programs such as Firefox as standard (so 128 instead of 115), but it didn't turn out to be the case.

In general, you should indeed get more recent versions of programs on Testing than Stable, but Firefox is a bit of a special case.

If you install firefox-esr you'll get the extended support version on whatever Debian you're using, except Buster:
https://packages.debian.org/search?keyw … ection=all
My Firefox on Bookworm is 128.3.1esr.
I wonder why you're still stuck on 115?

Colonel Panic · 2024-10-31 19:44:56

Thanks for replying John, and for the link too. I've downloaded 128.3.1 and am posting from it now (in Testing).

I had to use Seamonkey to download it though, because when I tried to do it through Firefox I got an error message; "File not downloaded - Potential security risk."

If Firefox 128 esr is available for stable as well though, there doesn't seem to be an awful lot of point on the whole in moving to Testing (from Stable) because Firefox is the only program I use where the actual version seems to make any difference at all (the local government website I have to access won't work with 115 esr).

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2024-10-31 22:47:37)

johnraff · 2024-11-01 03:07:03

^You don't need to download Firefox 128.3.1 from anywhere - just install firefox-esr the regular way using apt.
(It just got upgraded to 128.4.0esr today.)

It might be best first to remove any firefoxes you installed from a download.

Last edited by johnraff (2024-11-01 03:08:11)

Colonel Panic · 2024-11-01 06:54:22

johnraff wrote:

^You don't need to download Firefox 128.3.1 from anywhere - just install firefox-esr the regular way using apt.
(It just got upgraded to 128.4.0esr today.)
It might be best first to remove any firefoxes you installed from a download.

Thanks for the suggestion. One reason for downloading it as a file rather than using apt though is that I can reuse the file whenever I install a distro that either is, or is based on, that version of Debian - as I just have done (I'm posting from Firefox 128.3.1 in AntiX init-diversity now). It saves on download space (and capacity, for those still stuck on monthly usage caps) and on having to carry out the same procedure every time I install Debian or a Debian-derived distro.

In other news, amidst all the ballyhoo concerning yet another version of Fedora being released this week there's been another version of Pisi released this week. Pisi is an independent Turkish distribution with an interesting history - its developers used to work on a distro called Pardus that was used by the Turkish government, but they were sacked by the country's dictator for being insufficiently supportive of his leadership of the country.

The old Pardus had a very good reputation and it is to be hoped that PiSi will have too. The new one is OK and perfectly usable but is more or less a respin of Debian Stable.

[Edit: I'm posting from Pisi (live) now. It's quite tricky to change the default keyboard language from Turkish to British English, but I managed it and am currently listening to BBC internet radio (on Firefox).

The software that's provided is very up to date (Firefox 131, for example). The repositories seem quite small though (I wasn't able to install abiword or strawberry), so the question really is why, when there's a lot of competition amongst distros at the moment?].

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2024-11-04 20:10:48)

Colonel Panic · 2024-11-15 08:51:16

I've just installed MX 23.4 (the XFCE edition) from a magazine cover disk, and am trying to make it into an installation that I can "snapshot" for future use with all the applications I need already installed.

For me MX is, like Sparky, a capable distro which suffers from just one flaw; aesthetics, I just don't like the look of it, so that's one of the things I'm hoping to change. Exton did a very usable MX spin a while back, so I'm going to see if I can use that as a template.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2024-11-18 21:49:52)

Colonel Panic · 2024-12-01 22:22:40

Thank heaven, or someone, for Gentoo Live (and other live disks of course). My computer's developed a weird fault whereby it won't boot or recognise the keyboard at all from the hard drive, so I can only get it to work by booting up a live disk, and when I do that it's fine.

DeepDayze · 2024-12-02 14:51:40

Colonel Panic wrote:

Thank heaven, or someone, for Gentoo Live (and other live disks of course). My computer's developed a weird fault whereby it won't boot or recognise the keyboard at all from the hard drive, so I can only get it to work by booting up a live disk, and when I do that it's fine.

Perhaps try switching USB ports for your keyboard as there's a chance your USB ports are no longer working properly or that your keyboard is failing.

Colonel Panic · 2024-12-03 08:52:27

DeepDayze wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:
Thank heaven, or someone, for Gentoo Live (and other live disks of course). My computer's developed a weird fault whereby it won't boot or recognise the keyboard at all from the hard drive, so I can only get it to work by booting up a live disk, and when I do that it's fine.
Perhaps try switching USB ports for your keyboard as there's a chance your USB ports are no longer working properly or that your keyboard is failing.

Thanks. I've changed the keyboard as you suggest for a spare (got another one on the way from Ebay) and used the boot repair tools on the MX live disk to get back into MX on the hard drive, and I've at least got something I can use again. I still can't use the grub boot menu but I can live without that for the time being.

It may be that this computer's getting old now though (the motherboard dates from 2012) and I need to look at getting a newer one.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2024-12-03 08:54:30)

DeepDayze · 2024-12-04 17:16:40

Colonel Panic wrote:

DeepDayze wrote:
Colonel Panic wrote:
Thank heaven, or someone, for Gentoo Live (and other live disks of course). My computer's developed a weird fault whereby it won't boot or recognise the keyboard at all from the hard drive, so I can only get it to work by booting up a live disk, and when I do that it's fine.
Perhaps try switching USB ports for your keyboard as there's a chance your USB ports are no longer working properly or that your keyboard is failing.
Thanks. I've changed the keyboard as you suggest for a spare (got another one on the way from Ebay) and used the boot repair tools on the MX live disk to get back into MX on the hard drive, and I've at least got something I can use again. I still can't use the grub boot menu but I can live without that for the time being.
It may be that this computer's getting old now though (the motherboard dates from 2012) and I need to look at getting a newer one.

If you wanted to keep the CPU and RAM from your old system you can find another motherboard that supports those on eBay.

Colonel Panic · 2024-12-04 20:08:10

DeepDayze wrote:

If you wanted to keep the CPU and RAM from your old system you can find another motherboard that supports those on eBay.

Thanks. I could do, but I don't know if it's financially worth my while when whole second hand base units (case, power supply, motherboard, CPU, RAM etc.) are still relatively cheap and the CPU is a fairly old i5 so probably not worth all that much on the secondhand market.

I'd definitely want to keep my present optical drive because those are getting scarcer now.

EDIT; in the spirit of trying to make the most of my current machine, I've just installed the latest version of AntiX (the runit edition) and it's working well so far. I've added a couple of extra programs to it though such as smplayer (for playing mp3 files) and epyrus (for an e-mail client) where I haven't been keen on AntiX's own choices.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2024-12-06 18:16:05)

Colonel Panic · 2024-12-12 18:45:14

My new keyboard (a Cherry G230) finally arrived last week and everything's working OK now; it seems that the old keyboard or its connection was largely responsible for the problem I was having. The Cherry's got a flatter action than my old Logitech K120 had, more like a laptop keyboard, but so far I haven't had much in the way of RSI that some people have reported with these or similar keyboards. In any case I've got something now that will keep me going for the foreseeable future (or at least the time being).

I'm focusing more at the moment on updating the distros I currently have on my hard drive than on acquiring new ones. I've just updated Nobara (2.2 GB), and before that Gecko Cinnamon Rolling (about 1.6 GB) and Mint (about 900 MB). Sometimes less really is more.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2024-12-12 21:46:23)

Döbbie03 · 2024-12-23 18:23:27

Currently 75% the way through of a full Gentoo install. I have a working desktop, dwm, and am currently waiting for the very painful webkit-gtk and nodejs to finish compiling. Only been waiting around 45 minutes so far.

PackRat · 2024-12-23 20:10:13

Döbbie03 wrote:

Currently 75% the way through of a full Gentoo install. I have a working desktop, dwm, and am currently waiting for the very painful webkit-gtk and nodejs to finish compiling. Only been waiting around 45 minutes so far.

Döbbie03 · 2024-12-23 20:37:41

Exactly, well I made it through. I have a very nice and complete Gentoo install.

PackRat · 2024-12-24 01:08:58

Döbbie03 wrote:

Exactly, well I made it through. I have a very nice and complete Gentoo install.

Awesome

Döbbie03 · 2024-12-24 02:39:46

It was a breeze this time, other than a minor issue where I thought it had all gone kaput.

Gentoo is set as my default boot now

Let's see how long this lasts.

Colonel Panic · 2024-12-24 11:00:55

Excellent! I feel honour bound to point out though that there is an easier, or at least quicker, way to get Gentoo up and running - the ExGent distro (which I'm posting from now);

https://exgent.exton.net/

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2024-12-24 12:13:01)

#2501 2024-10-30 04:26:42

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2502 2024-10-30 13:16:29

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2503 2024-10-30 14:34:08

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2504 2024-10-31 04:35:43

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2505 2024-10-31 19:44:56

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#2506 2024-11-01 03:07:03

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#2507 2024-11-01 06:54:22

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#2508 2024-11-15 08:51:16

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#2509 2024-12-01 22:22:40

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#2510 2024-12-02 14:51:40

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#2511 2024-12-03 08:52:27

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#2512 2024-12-04 17:16:40

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#2513 2024-12-04 20:08:10

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#2514 2024-12-12 18:45:14

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#2515 2024-12-23 18:23:27

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#2516 2024-12-23 20:10:13

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#2517 2024-12-23 20:37:41

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#2518 2024-12-24 01:08:58

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#2519 2024-12-24 02:39:46

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#2520 2024-12-24 11:00:55

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