Distro-hoppers anonymous

MarkW · 2025-08-02 19:35:49

I've hopped from Ubuntu (tried every available flavour at one time or another), to Open SUse, to FreeBSD, then back to Ubuntu (XUbuntu this time) and finally to Bunsenlabs

greenjeans · 2025-08-02 21:18:53

close2zero wrote:

But one thing I have kept from the time with CrunchBang Linux is a pure minimalistic Desktop environment. Running X11 (xorg-server and xorg-xinit), openbox, tint2 and of course conky. So even if I don't have distro-hopped, I have kept my work environment as I did in CrunchBang Linux.

Word for word that's my story too right there. Truly amazing what an influence Crunchbang has had on so many people, it's where I first started to really enjoy Openbox. Sitting here right now jamming on some blues and tinkering with conky, lol.

BunsenLabs is doing a nice bit of community service here, keeping a home for us ol' bangers from back in the day.

close2zero · 2025-08-02 23:03:39

@ratcheer & @greenjeans - I have seen many names here that I recognize. I remember the names from both CruncBang Linux and Arch Linux. And I really do remember Sector11 and his conky configs. I still use the same style I've got from playing with one of his configs back in the CrunchBang days. I also still use Terminator, Thunar, gmrun, networkmanager, nm-applet, etc.. Nothing has changed really, except now all of this is running on my minimalistic Arch Linux installation. I know BunsenLabs did pick up the thread and kept the fire alive for many people who where lost when CrunchBang died (R.I.P.). Those people have my deepest respect: Those who did the job and made BunsenLabs possible.

I was playing with the thought of distrohopping a few years back. The idea of getting familiar with Gentoo was a plan. I did like the ability to use a system that gives you choices. The idea of building the system from source code, from the core to the GUI, was intriguing indeed. But the time and effort needed to do the task became a bit too big.

Last edited by close2zero (2025-08-02 23:07:50)

Colonel Panic · 2025-08-15 10:28:39

I've just installed the latest version of OpenSUSE Tumbleweed Slowroll. So far everything is working well except that I couldn't find any way to set the keyboard to GB (UK), and also grub-update isn't installed in the distro or (apparently) installable so I had to go into another distro and use that one's boot repair facility instead.

Slowroll also doesn't come with an office suite so you have to install that yourself.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2025-08-15 11:55:18)

close2zero · 2025-08-15 17:38:32

Colonel Panic wrote:

I've just installed the latest version of OpenSUSE Tumbleweed Slowroll. So far everything is working well except that I couldn't find any way to set the keyboard to GB (UK), and also grub-update isn't installed in the distro or (apparently) installable so I had to go into another distro and use that one's boot repair facility instead.
Slowroll also doesn't come with an office suite so you have to install that yourself.

OpenSUSE as a rolling release. Nice I have tried OpenSUSE many many years ago. We are talking back in the days where you got it on CD's. If I don't remember wrong I believe the version I had was on three CD's. And I still think I've got them somewhere.

If you see my previous post in this thread, I was explaining my kind of static way of going with linux. But things have changed since that post. I no longer use X11. I have migrated to LabWM and wayland. I had to find a replacement for tint2 and I found sfwbar. The transition went smooth.

I also did mentioned that I had planned to try out Gentoo a while back. That triggered me to give it another try. I am setting it up in VM right now. I am finished with stage 3 and are now compiling the kernel. I did chose the systemd version as I am familiar with it due to my time with Arch Linux. If I am pleased with the result, I will put it on one of my NVMe SSD's and try it out for a while.

[edit] Typo

Last edited by close2zero (2025-08-15 17:41:54)

Colonel Panic · 2025-08-16 11:05:03

close2zero wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:
I've just installed the latest version of OpenSUSE Tumbleweed Slowroll. So far everything is working well except that I couldn't find any way to set the keyboard to GB (UK), and also grub-update isn't installed in the distro or (apparently) installable so I had to go into another distro and use that one's boot repair facility instead.
Slowroll also doesn't come with an office suite so you have to install that yourself.
OpenSUSE as a rolling release. Nice I have tried OpenSUSE many many years ago. We are talking back in the days where you got it on CD's. If I don't remember wrong I believe the version I had was on three CD's. And I still think I've got them somewhere.
If you see my previous post in this thread, I was explaining my kind of static way of going with linux. But things have changed since that post. I no longer use X11. I have migrated to LabWM and wayland. I had to find a replacement for tint2 and I found sfwbar. The transition went smooth.
I also did mentioned that I had planned to try out Gentoo a while back. That triggered me to give it another try. I am setting it up in VM right now. I am finished with stage 3 and are now compiling the kernel. I did chose the systemd version as I am familiar with it due to my time with Arch Linux. If I am pleased with the result, I will put it on one of my NVMe SSD's and try it out for a while.
[edit] Typo

Thanks for replying, but I haven't really touched Slowroll since that mishap. I've installed another distro instead; Emmabuntus, which is working with no problems at all.

I had some things that I needed to do online this morning (one of them involving my bank, another one my doctor's surgery) and to be honest I just couldn't be bothered trying to work around or sort out Slowroll's problems first. I needed something that just worked, and thankfully Emmabuntus did (I've got the 32-bit version, based on Bookworm).

I always liked OpenSUSE Leap in the past but it usually took a while after each new release before its problems were ironed out. Once it worked though, it was as solid and reliable as any distro out there; you could leave it for over a month with no updates and nothing would break when you did finally update it.

I generally stick with Debian-based distros, with the occasional Arch-based one such as Endeavour or Manjaro / Mabox.

P.S. I applaud your decision to use Gentoo. There's a Swedish distro based on Gentoo called ExGent which provided an easy way of installing it (Gentoo), but it hasn't been updated for a while.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2025-08-16 12:15:28)

close2zero · 2025-08-16 12:06:51

@Colonel Panic
Then you should take it easy and make it simple until you've got the time and effort to do otherwise. The bank can be a pain in the ass. But the next part sounded even worse: You're doctor's surgery..!? Nothing really bad I hope.

Colonel Panic · 2025-08-16 12:19:50

close2zero wrote:

@Colonel Panic
Then you should take it easy and make it simple until you've got the time and effort to do otherwise. The bank can be a pain in the ass. But the next part sounded even worse: You're doctor's surgery..!? Nothing really bad I hope.

Thanks for replying. My bank's website is actually pretty good; it's one reason I stick with them even though there isn't a branch in my nearest town any more. It does need two factor authentication though.

I contacted my doctor's surgery to order a new prescription (more two factor authentication). Nothing too bad although I had a bad fall last year and still have to take pain-relieving meds for a broken leg.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2025-08-16 12:20:57)

unklar · 2025-08-16 14:11:57

Thanks, Debian!

I just spent 40 minutes updating this box from debian12-cinnamon to debian13-cinnamon. The main bootloader is installed here with the BL-carbon and cog's-hatchery systems.

These sources did the job with ~2084 packages.

Types: deb
URIs: https://deb.debian.org/debian
Suites: trixie trixie-updates
Components: main non-free-firmware
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg

Types: deb
URIs: https://security.debian.org/debian-security
Suites: trixie-security
Components: main non-free-firmware
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg

The system is working as usual so far(except for a few minor issues, such as the windows still displaying ‘debian12’).

hhh · 2025-08-16 14:15:56

unklar wrote:

... a few minor issues, such as the windows still displaying ‘debian12’).

That's what you named your computer (the default setting for bookworm). Change your hostname...

https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-ch … e-command/

Colonel Panic · 2025-08-16 22:48:50

A quick update: I managed to sort out the issue I had with the keyboard in OpenSUSE and decided I can live without the grub update utility (I'll just use Boot Repair in another distro instead).

It's looking very promising at the moment; I've managed to install a couple of other packages such as Strawberry, Opera and Qalculate using opi.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2025-08-16 22:49:21)

close2zero · 2025-08-17 00:44:44

Colonel Panic wrote:

A quick update: I managed to sort out the issue I had with the keyboard in OpenSUSE and decided I can live without the grub update utility (I'll just use Boot Repair in another distro instead).
It's looking very promising at the moment; I've managed to install a couple of other packages such as Strawberry, Opera and Qalculate using opi.

First: Nice that you've got it up and running again
Second: Ouch.. I am really sorry to hear about your leg. I'll hope you get well soon!!

[Edit] Btw:
Using VM on an old and cheap ThinkPad T495 to install Gentoo is nothing I will recommend. This seems to take a week, at least. But the time set aside: So far so good

Last edited by close2zero (2025-08-17 01:27:17)

unklar · 2025-08-17 10:19:22

hhh wrote:

unklar wrote:
... a few minor issues, such as the windows still displaying ‘debian12’).
That's what you named your computer (the default setting for bookworm). Change your hostname...
https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-ch … e-command/

Thank you for reminding me! Of course, I had set the name to ‘debian12’.

Sun For Miles · 2025-08-17 14:50:02

On topic of OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, the most annoying thing for me was font (non)quality by default. I have 1080p 96dpi screen (which in 2025 you can count as low-dpi), and to my eye font rendering was abysmal. It took me a couple of try and error attempts to solve the situation, and this write up is the core of the solution:
[Reddit] Why is font stem darkening not enabled by default on every distro?

ratcheer · 2025-08-18 13:09:13

I blew my /boot partition with the new 6.16 kernel, Thursday. It is quite a bit larger than those up to 6.15. I messed up my recovery, then I managed to wipe out months of good backups as I flailed around trying to recover my system. To make a long story short, I spent the weekend doing a fresh install of Arch Linux and trying to get back to some semblance of what I had before. I'm not finished yet, but at least my PC is usable, again.

Last edited by ratcheer (2025-08-18 13:11:06)

Colonel Panic · 2025-08-18 22:12:21

Not many 32-bit distros left now but I've managed to find another one; extrox, which is based on 32 bit MX and combines XFce with compiz for special effects.

It also has Orange Juice, which its developer describes as an an Authentic Audio Enhancer.

I've just installed it and it all seems to be working well. A couple of links;

https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=80724

https://pi-a.co/mx-fe

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2025-08-18 22:18:08)

hhh · 2025-08-19 19:03:16

Rhino Linux...

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 01#p145201

Colonel Panic · 2025-08-21 23:37:22

Second time lucky with installing BesgnuLinux (a Turkish distro based on Debian Trixie and using JWM as its window manager), because the first time round it failed to create a partition to install into so I had to go into a distro I already had on my hard drive (Neptune 8.2), and create the partition from there.

Once it's up and running though, it's a smart-looking distro with a wide choice of mostly lightweight software (Sylpheed, for example, instead of Claws or Thunderbird) and a nice set of mostly Gnome-derived games.

There is also a theme-coloring utility which enables you to set whichever colours you want to have for the various icons, highlights and backgrounds (although the standard theme is a perfectly acceptable shade of pine green).

If I was being Dedoimedo-level critical, I'd probably say that the menu fonts are a bit "reedy" and could do with being stronger for ease of use, particularly when my eyes are getting tired.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2025-08-21 23:39:29)

unklar · 2025-08-27 15:54:33

@PackRat,
do you know which desktop @cog chose with the new ‘gila-ISO’ from 2025-08-14 ?
https://hatcherylinux.org/download/

PackRat · 2025-08-27 17:16:24

unklar wrote:

@PackRat,
do you know which desktop @cog chose with the new ‘gila-ISO’ from 2025-08-14 ?
https://hatcherylinux.org/download/

Should be awesome window manager. The vertical bars are awesome widgets.

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