Distro-hoppers anonymous

Colonel Panic · 2025-06-14 07:06:24

Late night posting be damned (either that or it's early onset dementia) - I meant Fluxbox.

johnraff · 2025-06-14 07:44:19

^

Colonel Panic · 2025-06-17 14:15:13

johnraff wrote:

^

Yeah, I was probably thinking about the applications (Firefox, VLC etc.) at the same time as I was writing about the window manager and got them tangled up.

In other news, I've just downloaded the 32-bit version of Refracta and hopefully it will work on this machine.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2025-06-17 18:53:45)

Colonel Panic · 2025-06-17 18:52:05

I've just downloaded SwayBang (ArchBang with the Sway tiling compositor), and am posting from it now (live session).

It certainly looks good with a nice clear status bar at the bottom, and seems lightweight; but so far I haven't found a way to change the keyboard map to gb (setxkbmap of course doesn't work). For that reason alone I'd say, stick with XOrg until this is sorted out.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2025-06-17 19:00:46)

hhh · 2025-06-18 02:30:50

Colonel Panic wrote:

I've just downloaded SwayBang (ArchBang with the Sway tiling compositor), and am posting from it now (live session).
It certainly looks good with a nice clear status bar at the bottom, and seems lightweight; but so far I haven't found a way to change the keyboard map to gb (setxkbmap of course doesn't work). For that reason alone I'd say, stick with XOrg until this is sorted out.

A wayland keyboard config for Sway has befuddled you, you say? sTiCK to xORg yOu saY?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Sway#Keymap

Colonel Panic · 2025-06-18 08:03:26

Yeah, I must admit I didn;t spend too long on researching this Thanks hhh, I;ll give it another go.

PackRat · 2025-06-18 09:28:26

Colonel Panic wrote:

but so far I haven't found a way to change the keyboard map to gb (setxkbmap of course doesn't work). For that reason alone I'd say, stick with XOrg until this is sorted out.

There is an example the sway wiki - https://github.com/swaywm/sway/wiki#keyboard-layout

man sway-input

PackRat · 2025-06-19 01:41:56

CachyOS

Smooth running Arch spin with optimized kernel and other packages. Went with the plasma desktop edition (several desktop options available during the install). Calmares installer.

One thing to note. By default CachyOS creates a zram swapfile - but I saw this mentioned nowhere in the Wiki installation instructions. If you go with manual partitioning and create a swap partition, you will end up with a swap partition and a zram swap file. Post install, I had to change my partitioning scheme; delete the swap partition and enlarge the data partition. Zram can be eliminated, but that looked to be tedious, and I decided to go with the default to see how the system ran.

Edit - this is worth noting for those thinking of trying out CachyOS (thanks to chroot)

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 04#p144004

Run that command; the pertinent information is at the end:

Subdirectories of glibc-hwcaps directories, in priority order:
  x86-64-v4 (supported, searched)
  x86-64-v3 (supported, searched)
  x86-64-v2 (supported, searched)

hhh · 2025-06-19 02:26:27

^ https://cachyos.org/

https://cachyos.org/_astro/hero.BvceRk57_Z1Kaefg.webp

Sweet desktop. Transparency with blur, square windows with no border, colored fonts and systray icons.

unklar · 2025-06-19 07:45:04

hhh wrote:

^ https://cachyos.org/
https://cachyos.org/_astro/hero.BvceRk57_Z1Kaefg.webp
Sweet desktop. Transparency with blur, square windows with no border, colored fonts and systray icons.

That sounds somehow familiar to me...
https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 34#p124434

Colonel Panic · 2025-06-20 18:24:16

I've now downloaded and installed Hatchery. First impressions are very favourable but I'd like to change some of the key bindings - swapping Alt for the Windows key for the key bindings, for example.

It's also very light on preloaded software, so I've had to install those too. Otherwise, definitely a thumbs up for this one.

[Edit: no longer in Hatchery because it spontaneously rebooted itself. Not good. Replaced with the latest version of Mabox.]

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2025-06-25 19:56:49)

GalacticStone · 2025-06-20 21:12:27

It read a few pages and posts in this mega-thread and realized how little I know about the vast world of distros.

My limited experience is as follows : I received a new laptop for Xmas in 2017 and I was finished with Windows already at that point. Receiving a brand new machine was the perfect time in my mind to make the leap over to Linux. I had already done some reading and research and had settled on Ubuntu (*wretch*). If I recall correctly, it was 16.04 Xenial Xerus. It was my first Linux install and I was amazed at how easy the transition was. So, I guess in that limited way, I am grateful to Ubuntu as an on-ramp into the Linux world for me.

I then experimented around a little bit with different flavors and desktops. I put Lubuntu on one of my wife's old netbooks and used it as a test platform to piddle around with other desktops. I tried Plasma, Gnome, Unity, Gnome "Flashback", LXDE, LXQT, OpenBox, MATE, and maybe one or two others that I forget at the moment.

Futzing around with OpenBox and Ubuntu back in 2019-2020 is what led me to discover BunsenLabs and first come to this forum. I liked OpenBox and it's bare bones approach, but it was also intimidating to me because I wasn't very comfortable with coding or the command line back then and I had a lot of trouble getting it set up as a proper daily driver, so I gave up on it and went back to Ubuntu and Gnome until just recently.

I didn't like what I was hearing coming out of Canonical. The slow creep towards bloat and monetization, telemetry, corporate-like behavior, and a problematic CEO at the helm had turned me off to Ubuntu. Also, frankly, I was feeling "trapped" on Ubuntu and becoming bored with the interface. Gnome is bloated, Ubuntu is bloated, and both are resource hogs. There was a ton of processes and daemons running all the time that had no useful function for me and I wasn't knowledgeable enough to start diving into code and taking a scalpel to the unneccessary bloat. All that stuff running in the background for services I would never use was bothering me on a nitpicky level and because the machines I have are resource-limited by today's standards. (low RAM, entry-level processors, etc) .... so the decision to jump ship to BunsenLabs was made. It was the best decision I have ever made in regards to an operating system. It's like the proverbial breath of fresh air.

So, that's it. I went from DOS to Windows to Ubuntu to BunsenLabs. Barring some kind of unforseen issues, I plan on sticking for BunsenLabs indefinitely.

Sector11 · 2025-06-23 17:21:40

GalacticStone wrote:

{snip}
ME: DOS to Windows to Ubuntu (7.04) to #! to BunsenLabs to BearDog (barebone LilyDog)

Welcome.

unklar · 2025-06-24 15:05:58

I'm still actively using this Debian based Hyprland install from @JaKooLit because, yes, because I haven't found anything comparably stable on my hp laptop yet.

By the way, Debian has removed Hyprland from testing. Due to its constant development, it is only available in unstable. If you can read German, or have a translator...
https://linuxnews.de/hyprland-aus-debia … -entfernt/

Edit:
@Sector11, dito, Welcome

Last edited by unklar (2025-06-24 15:07:36)

dmontaine · 2025-06-26 13:24:36

Just trying OpenMandriva Cooker with the xlibre 25 server. Very stable for a development version. Glad to see that X11 will live on. Too bad the fork is too late for Debian 13.

Last edited by dmontaine (2025-06-26 13:25:55)

mariannemarlow · 2025-06-26 15:27:43

What I really need is a distro that changes it's appearance every day so that I don't get bored.

I have been trying to get distros to run in a virtual machine and cannot manage it, it's too much faff.

My laptop wont even let me run a distro from a live USB any more either.

I don't go out much due to several health issues and I just need something light hearted and fun to run my daily life on.

Sorry for the rant!

hhh · 2025-06-26 18:18:55

mariannemarlow wrote:

My laptop wont even let me run a distro from a live USB any more either.

You're going to have to explain that one. You can't get a USB device to show up in the BIOS settings?

mariannemarlow · 2025-06-26 18:40:43

It shows up, but the Laptop wont run it. It says checking.. then fails.

hhh wrote:

mariannemarlow wrote:
My laptop wont even let me run a distro from a live USB any more either.
You're going to have to explain that one. You can't get a USB device to show up in the BIOS settings?

hhh · 2025-06-26 19:59:59

You only have the one USB drive?

DeepDayze · 2025-06-27 00:00:36

dmontaine wrote:

Just trying OpenMandriva Cooker with the xlibre 25 server. Very stable for a development version. Glad to see that X11 will live on. Too bad the fork is too late for Debian 13.

Perhaps Debian could consider it for Forky?

#2681 2025-06-14 07:06:24

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2682 2025-06-14 07:44:19

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2683 2025-06-17 14:15:13

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2684 2025-06-17 18:52:05

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2685 2025-06-18 02:30:50

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2686 2025-06-18 08:03:26

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2687 2025-06-18 09:28:26

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2688 2025-06-19 01:41:56

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2689 2025-06-19 02:26:27

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2690 2025-06-19 07:45:04

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2691 2025-06-20 18:24:16

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2692 2025-06-20 21:12:27

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2693 2025-06-23 17:21:40

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2694 2025-06-24 15:05:58

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2695 2025-06-26 13:24:36

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2696 2025-06-26 15:27:43

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2697 2025-06-26 18:18:55

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2698 2025-06-26 18:40:43

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2699 2025-06-26 19:59:59

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#2700 2025-06-27 00:00:36

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

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