Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

GalacticStone · 2025-05-28 20:39:56

Hi Folks,

I'm back.

Obvious question : who the hell am I?

I'm some dude that wandered in here 5 years ago, asked a bunch of questions about installing BL on my laptops.

Update : my wife's ancient laptop is toast. I never could get anything to install on it. I donated it to a friend of mine who tinkers.

My own laptop (the Lenovo with only 4G of RAM) started having problems and I got a good deal on a newer Lenovo that has 8G. It's a big improvement.

Well, I went the safe route and installed Ubuntu, but kept thinking about BL and running something different. My current Ubuntu installation is 20.04 and it's getting long in the tooth (and no longer receiving updates) and I am finally ready to make the jump to BL.

It's been a while, so quick question - is there a preferred program to make boot media with the ISO? I recall that I had some issues previously, but I don't know if that was me or my wife's ancient laptop.

Sign me off as "Soon to be on BunsenLabs"

MikeG

Last edited by GalacticStone (2025-05-28 20:40:43)

johnraff · 2025-05-29 05:59:09

Hi Mike, welcome back!

If you've already got a Linux system, it's easy to copy an iso to a usb stick.
https://www.bunsenlabs.org/installation … dvdusb-key
https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#write-usb

marens · 2025-05-29 12:18:40

Welcome back, @GS.

GS wrote:

My current Ubuntu installation is 20.04 and it's getting long in the tooth (and no longer receiving updates)...

You can use the free Ubuntu Pro and extend support for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS until 2030.
https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 97#p142797

I did this a month ago and I'm getting updates.
Applications like Firefox and Thunderbird are not supported, but you can install them from a PPA.

GS wrote:

It's been a while, so quick question - is there a preferred program to make boot media with the ISO?

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS already has Startup Disk Creator installed.
You can download the ISO and try BunsenLabs.

GalacticStone · 2025-05-30 21:11:20

Thanks for the helpful info and encouragement.

I have the ISO downloaded and the checksum verified. I am going to make the boot media now and do the install.

Hopefully my next post is a jubilant screenshot of my new BL install.

Wish me luck.

GalacticStone · 2025-05-31 00:11:18

Make it so!

Galactic Stone's desktop

hhh · 2025-05-31 13:29:38

Great!

-mod note- Before anyone brings up the thumbnail policy for large images, that policy is really intended for the Monthly Screenshot Thread, which is in the general forums, where the aim is to allow users with bandwidth limitations to enjoy a thread containing dozens of images.

GalacticStone · 2025-05-31 14:47:33

My apologies for the oversize image. I can remove it if required, just let me know. I'm still learning my way around this forum and it's software.

I have a couple of questions involving minor tweaks. I'm not done searching the forum archive yet, so I'll look there first before being that guy who posts without looking for the answers.

I'm still getting everything configured the way I want.

Printer support works, which is great. That was an area of concern for me because I've had problems with printing previously. Even on Ubuntu 20.04, the network printing was glitchy.

It works now, but there's a little bit of weirdness. In the print job queue, it shows a printer error for every new job, but then the error goes away and the print job completes without problems. Weird, but not a deal breaker by any means. I can live with it.

The Gnome calculator freezes up and I have to kill the process to close it. It doesn't work at all.

I'm also trying to figure out where to change the default application bindings for file types. Like, I want all my images to open in GIMP, etc.

Also can't find an easy way to reduce the height of the horizontal tint panel I am using (or reduce the icon size).

Nothing major, just little stuff like that.

hhh · 2025-05-31 16:10:21

Don't worry about the image size here. In the screenshot forum, use an image hosting service (there are several free ones), they'll offer a thumbnail link for use on forums.

I don't have a printer so I can't test, sorry. I'd open a new topic in "Basic Help and Support"...
https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewforum.php?id=2

Both gnome-calculator and galculator work for me, but I'm on a Carbon testing install so the packages are newer. I'd open a topic for that issue, too.

For your image request, right-click on an image file, "Open with >" (second menu item), "Open with Other Application...", choose GIMP from the list of applications and check the box for "Use as default for this kind of file", then click the "open" button. You'll have to do that for each image filetype (jpg, png, etc...)

Tint2 is edited directly from its configuration file. In the BL Main Menu go to User Settings>Tint2>Edit Tint2s>Tint2 Editor, select the config and click "OK" and the config will open in your default text editor (Geany by default). Or you can find all the config files in ~/.config/tint2. Panel length is under "Panel>panel_size" and you'll want to change the first value to a lower percentage or set a specific pixel length (the default is 100% wide by 30px tall).

Icon size is under Tasks> task_maximum_size and Launchers>launcher_icon_size. You'll need to restart tin2 to see any changes you've made (under the same User Settings>Tint2 menu). List of tint2 selectors is here...
https://github.com/o9000/tint2/blob/master/doc/tint2.md

GalacticStone · 2025-05-31 19:27:29

Thanks! I tweaked my panel and got it looking proper. I'll mess with the calculator later - it's not a high priority at the moment.

Quick question. During the welcome script right after install, it mentioned downloading a script that automatically checks Debian for updates. I didn't download it then, and now I can't find it. Is this the program used to check for security updates and such? Where can I find that now? I don't recall the name of it.

hhh · 2025-06-01 00:28:31

Open a terminal and run...

bl-welcome

The welcome script describes what bunsen-apt-update-checker does and will install it for you if you choose to. It can always be removed with...

sudo apt remove bunsen-apt-update-checker

johnraff · 2025-06-01 02:17:01

Off-Topic but I think we need to rethink our image size policy a little bit, and put it up in the Rules.
I'll start a new topic for that.

GalacticStone · 2025-06-01 02:44:15

Thanks again for the help.

I installed the update checker. Do I need to set it up, or does it just do it's thing now that it's installed?

I'm really liking BL so far. It feels like you folks hit just the right balance between "old school" and newer functionality. Nice.

So far everything works with little fuss.

Raw OpenBox is a chore to configure just right. You folks made it easy. I love how config files just automatically open in the text editor. (* chef's kiss *)

johnraff · 2025-06-01 02:55:10

GalacticStone wrote:

I installed the update checker. Do I need to set it up, or does it just do it's thing now that it's installed?

It should just work. Wait a few days and see if a popup and system tray icon appear with info about an upgrade available.

You can still do apt updates or upgrades in a terminal without waiting to be informed if you want.
Once the checker has reported, it will offer to open a terminal where you can run whatever apt commands you want. It's just a regular bash shell.

GalacticStone · 2025-06-01 03:29:51

johnraff wrote:

GalacticStone wrote:
I installed the update checker. Do I need to set it up, or does it just do it's thing now that it's installed?
It should just work. Wait a few days and see if a popup and system tray icon appear with info about an upgrade available.
You can still do apt updates or upgrades in a terminal without waiting to be informed if you want.
Once the checker has reported, it will offer to open a terminal where you can run whatever apt commands you want. It's just a regular bash shell.

I should have done this five years ago. Instead, I spent half of a decade wandering around lost in the Ubuntu and Gnome wasteland. LOL.

johnraff · 2025-06-01 09:31:19

johnraff wrote:

Off-Topic but I think we need to rethink our image size policy a little bit, and put it up in the Rules.
I'll start a new topic for that.

Done: https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=9418

Pirx · 2025-06-01 10:43:23

GalacticStone wrote:

I'm some dude that wandered in here 5 years ago...

Welcome to the club. I came back after 7 years of inactivity.

GalacticStone · 2025-06-01 21:48:56

Pirx wrote:

GalacticStone wrote:
I'm some dude that wandered in here 5 years ago...
Welcome to the club. I came back after 7 years of inactivity.

Hopefully I don't wander out and get lost again. LOL.

#1 2025-05-28 20:39:56

Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#2 2025-05-29 05:59:09

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#3 2025-05-29 12:18:40

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#4 2025-05-30 21:11:20

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#5 2025-05-31 00:11:18

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#6 2025-05-31 13:29:38

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#7 2025-05-31 14:47:33

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#8 2025-05-31 16:10:21

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#9 2025-05-31 19:27:29

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#10 2025-06-01 00:28:31

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#11 2025-06-01 02:17:01

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#12 2025-06-01 02:44:15

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#13 2025-06-01 02:55:10

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#14 2025-06-01 03:29:51

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#15 2025-06-01 09:31:19

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#16 2025-06-01 10:43:23

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

#17 2025-06-01 21:48:56

Re: Wandered back in after five years wandering the wasteland

Board footer