Linux is not easy.

[pianopraze]

OK, so I had elementary running on the Win7 machine - stable on the 160GB SATA SSD. Love it. One day it says "install Nvidia drivers" under updates.

 

I do... restart... nothing. No video, nothing. 

 

So, I'm like ok let's try Mint. So I reformat the 160 GB SATA SSD I had Elementary on and install Mint. It runs, slower and more buggy than Win7 (which is on 2TB 5400RPM SATA). It tells me to do this back up thingie but won't let me do it because the volume is not formatted right. Whatever. I use it for a day or so then I run the updates allowing it to install all. Restart.. Nothing... no video nothing... I guess it installed those stupid Nvidia drivers.

 

So I want elementary back and install it on a IDE 20 Gig HD. It's running great. I goto updates (and don't install the nvidia drivers) but it says error can't install updates, i look at the error message and it's scary saying the packet might be corrupted or something on the update server. Ok, well it's running fine with out updates. Fast, good, no crashes.  

I now go to reinstall Mint on the 160GB SSD drive. It installs fine. Restart and nothing, no prompt, nothing.... Ok, well I have Elementary on IDE so I press f12 and choose boot from 20 GB IDE drive... and Mint boots... ???? Mint was installed on the 160GB SSD, Elementary on the 20GB IDE. Once Mint gets up, I verify... yep, it's installed on the 160 GB SSD SATA drive. So I unplug the 20 GB IDE drive and try again. Nothing... doesn't detect the 160 GB SSD at all. So I unplug the 160 GB SSD and plug the 20GB IDE drive expecting elementary to boot. It doesn't. It gives me some weird corrupted crap. 

 

Mint is quickly getting on my s*** list. I'll install it on the 160GB SSD tomorrow with all the other hard drives disconnected. Then unplug that drive and plug the 20 Gig IDE and install Elementary again. 

[wasab]

10 hours ago, pianopraze said:

OK, so I had elementary running on the Win7 machine - stable on the 160GB SATA SSD. Love it. One day it says "install Nvidia drivers" under updates.

 

I do... restart... nothing. No video, nothing. 

 

So, I'm like ok let's try Mint. So I reformat the 160 GB SATA SSD I had Elementary on and install Mint. It runs, slower and more buggy than Win7 (which is on 2TB 5400RPM SATA). It tells me to do this back up thingie but won't let me do it because the volume is not formatted right. Whatever. I use it for a day or so then I run the updates allowing it to install all. Restart.. Nothing... no video nothing... I guess it installed those stupid Nvidia drivers.

 

So I want elementary back and install it on a IDE 20 Gig HD. It's running great. I goto updates (and don't install the nvidia drivers) but it says error can't install updates, i look at the error message and it's scary saying the packet might be corrupted or something on the update server. Ok, well it's running fine with out updates. Fast, good, no crashes.  

I now go to reinstall Mint on the 160GB SSD drive. It installs fine. Restart and nothing, no prompt, nothing.... Ok, well I have Elementary on IDE so I press f12 and choose boot from 20 GB IDE drive... and Mint boots... ???? Mint was installed on the 160GB SSD, Elementary on the 20GB IDE. Once Mint gets up, I verify... yep, it's installed on the 160 GB SSD SATA drive. So I unplug the 20 GB IDE drive and try again. Nothing... doesn't detect the 160 GB SSD at all. So I unplug the 160 GB SSD and plug the 20GB IDE drive expecting elementary to boot. It doesn't. It gives me some weird corrupted crap. 

 

Mint is quickly getting on my s*** list. I'll install it on the 160GB SSD tomorrow with all the other hard drives disconnected. Then unplug that drive and plug the 20 Gig IDE and install Elementary again. 

Seems like the force is weak within you, it would be difficult to train you in the ways of the Linux Jedi. 

 

Impatience leads anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to the dark side of windows or macOS. You must forbear yourself young one. Learn to let go , learn to forget .exe and control panel. Learn to forget Apple shininess or fall victim to the dark side. 

[EPENEX]

You're definitely doing something wrong or your hardware just isn't compatible. Linux Mint XFCE with installing proprietary software should work just fine on most hardware. If not, try Xubuntu.

[wasab]

1 hour ago, EPENEX said:

You're definitely doing something wrong or your hardware just isn't compatible. Linux Mint XFCE with installing proprietary software should work just fine on most hardware. If not, try Xubuntu.

Problem with op is that he is running Linux on some crap from the 1990s and expect to install modern nvidia driver on it and watch modern day YouTube expecting modern day JavaScript and HTML5 support. 

 

I know people like to install Linux on crap machine because they think they are 2nd rate OS and only thing they are good for(oh the ignorance) but come on. No OS is gonna make decades old computer feel young again.  

[pianopraze]

EPENEX I'm using Cinnamon. I unplugged all the hard drives, plugged in just the SSD and installed Mint, and it installed fine this time. No clue why it was so buggy with identical install last time. I then unplugged the SSD with Mint plugged in the IDE drive and installed Elementary. Now I can load either via the built in bios boot manager on this Dell

 

After installing and updating Elementary (with no error messages this time) I installed steam. It installed and I entered my user name and password, it went through another update (without asking me) and now insta-crashes every time I launch Steam. That's kinda sad as Elementary is my favorite Distro right now. It just feels right. And I feel right at home using it. It's 1000x nicer than using windows.

 

wasab: I'm experimenting and learning. I wouldn't learn to work on and operate motorcycles on a brand new Hyabusa. I started on my gs 500 the movers destroyed when I got out of the army and they shipped it across country. Only later did I buy a Vstrom, then a Busa. Likewise I don't' want to start with my Macbook Pro. It's to me a sane way to learn things. If I make mistakes they are not costly. And buying parts/replacements for these computers is a lot cheaper!

 

I guess you missed where I was going to install on my Mac Pro Cheese grater next.

 

I'm finding the Linux community either very helpful or very negative depending on the individual. I'm being in no way disrespectful. I'm reporting my exploration into this cool new system. This is not easy, there is a learning curve.

 

I've watched all these Linus and Level 1 tech videos and interested to learn. Why be negative about that?

 

Edit to add: I'm typing this in Elementary OS (Firefox browser). First time I've been on the forum running Linux

[Linus_torvalds]

On 8/14/2018 at 11:22 AM, pianopraze said:

Sorry mate_mate91 I just don't like the look of Manjaro. I'm more of a Mac than a PC guy. And the color scheme is visually unappealing. Appreciate the advice, but everyone has their preferences  

This is your problem! You do not research and do not like setting system for yourself. Do not like look of manjaro. This is wrong. You may do not like XFCE, GNOME or other DE but manjaro itself is just an OS. If you don't like XFCE try other DE that's it.  You can install whichever DE and looks you like https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php/Install_Desktop_Environments

You just need to use GOOGLE! Just search and read That's it.

I suggested manjaro because you would not have problems with propreitary software.

For example steam. You posted steam crashes manjaro comes with steam preinstalled! You would not have problems with wifi, nvidia cards, bumblebee and so on.

 

In the and of the day this is your choice. I just want you to do not have problems so that you'll stay on linux. Newcommers tend to get back to windows on first serious problem they encounter on linux.

[pianopraze]

I notice Deepin is on that list you posted. I installed Deepin and it is very nice. But it was crashing all the time.  So much that I didn't work with it very long as it was constantly crashing. The windows were flickering on and off. I'd have to reinstall it and take a video as my words can't describe it very well. The browser was crashing too. I didn't even get to the point of installing Steam. Maybe I got a bad download. It is one of the prettiest Distros though. I like the looks of it if it were stable on my machine. 

 

I think the main issue is the very old Nvidia 6800 graphic card.  

 

In Mint I'm having to install the Nvidia-304 driver, but xorg won't let it install. Couldn't figure out how to install an older version of xorg, so I'm currently downloading an older version of Mint. Apparently the Nividia-304 driver won't install unless i have xorg 1.19 or earlier installed.

[Linus_torvalds]

Deepin is chinese product, full of bugs and spyware!

 

You choose broken distros, bad DEs like deepin i think deep in your heart you want linux to be worse then you imagined so you can get back to windows

Why can't you just use software that's tested by time and it just works? Like GNOME for example, or KDE. If you like lighter version XFCE, cinnamon, MATE.

[pianopraze]

You accuse of something that's not real. But whatever. Windows is only for running games to me. Once I get more proficient with Linux using this older system I'll install linux on my Mac Pro to install some games via WINE. Eventually I will build a new gaming system and run only Linux on it. Despite the frustrations I'm enjoying Linux. 

 

I've spent the day installing Solus. Took three times to get it installed. First two times it said it couldn't install because the system was using the disk. SO I booted in Puppy and reformatted the disk. But once installed and updated it's quite nice. I installed the Nvidia drivers and it crashed the system and wouldn't boot the gui. I had to learn how to remove the driver via command line. fun fun. 

 

I was running Cinnamon on Mint... it was the worst experience so far. Weird how Elementary is the best and Mint the worst and they are both based on Ubuntu.

 

So far I like Elementary the best and Solus (budgie gui) the second. I like how I was able to put the bar at the top then make a dock for apps like on Mac OS at the bottom. Mint was just a pain. Deepin was probably the prettiest, Puppy is my goto to fix problems when things get flakey. 

 

[DimasRMDO]

On 8/19/2018 at 2:28 PM, pianopraze said:

snip

Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Weaver) is solid to me and it looks as nice as Elementary OS.

You need to get comfortable with the terminals if you want to get around, you can actually use it without relying on terminals but using terminal is much quicker (but can be catastrophic too if you mess something up).

Ubuntu Forum is your "go to" place in most cases, most issues are covered there already. Arch Linux Wiki can be useful too to know how things work.

[wasab]

16 hours ago, pianopraze said:

 

 

just get a dell xps developer edition or a chrome book a year or two from the future, ChromeOS will have Linux app support by then and it is already linux under the hood anyways. any and all distos you try the first time is gonna have a problem because of unfamiliarity and lack of experience. you are better off getting one made by OEM which have all the settings preconfigure for you out of the box. 

[pianopraze]

I'm rocking Solus and Elementary right now, loving them. I've got Solus looking like Mac OS, and Elementary does so out of the box. 

 

They are night and day faster than Win7 on the same machine. And much more stable! Now I have them set up and updated I've not crashed on either one. 

[pinksnowmanshandle]

eh yeah that's generally a given on older machines with your options for linux being highly restrictive.

It's great for modern hardware.

[pianopraze]

As of yesterday I've completely reformatted over Windows 7 with Elementary. 

 

I have a second HD with Solus on it I sometimes boot to but I find it a little too buggy and I am using Solus less and less. 

[jde3]

If you use Linux on shit hardware it's going to run like shit.

 

The best way to learn Linux is to take a 30 day challenge and dive right in. If you don't you'll boot windows every time you need to do something without learning the Linux way.

[stewi1014]

I use Manjaro, and I love it. I'm not going to be like mate here, and say you should use it. Pick whatever you want. Freedom to choose exactly what software you're using is the single greatest thing about Linux, and the moment someone decides to try it and is told they must run this and they must do that is, in my mind, completely backwards to the philosophy of the Linux community. I think this 'dictating' comes from an almost desperate desire many people have for people in general to move over to Linux, and while I'm in the same boat, I think they're going about it the wrong way. I wouldn't hold it against them.

[kokakolia]

I tried Linux and gave up on it. Only because there was no straightforward way to install programs outside of the built in app center with very few apps. And you typically get the answer « read this really lengthy instruction page for the solution » when asking for help. Learning organic chemistry is easier than this so screw Linux.