My Linux Lite 2.0 Adventure

It's not much of an adventure yet but here goes.

Many of us have an old Dell or whatever sitting around.  Our old Dell Inspiron 1501 had 873megs of ram (which is what really) and an 80GB hard drive. It chugged along with Win 7 (upgraded from XP) but finally became intolerable. Time for Linux Lite.

(I first tried to install Puppy Slacko dual boot but trashed the file system somehow. They are serious about not installing Puppy to the hard drive but there is no need to be vindictive.) By the was, Slacko is wonderful when run from a USB stick and my go to Windows fixer at the moment.

So... I burned the linux-lite 32 pae (because I will use this again on a machine with more memory and the LLite guys recommend this for Steam over 64 bit) to a DVD (couldn't get Yumi to install correctly to multiboot) and booted the DVD (I didn't have a CD). Now let's connect to the internet. Typing the password for the WiFi I start getting numbers for some of the letters. What's up with that? Turns out LinuxLite starts with numlock on. That would normally be a good thing but not on a 15 inch laptop. Just hit the numlock key and turn it off. You can disable starting in numlock in settings -keyboard etc.

Next run update ... wow we have a lot of updates.

Then run "install additional software" (yes it is a menu item)... what shall we install first ... Google Chrome (I don't like FireFox and, now that they have made a political statement, I even like them less). Install Additional Software starts up a pre-configured Terminal with numbered selections. You can choose one at a time or several at once.

Next we install games. Oh well, my wife is going to complain about not having Hardwoods Hearts but maybe I can find something better than this little hearts game provided here. She uses this laptop now and then when her Lenovo or iPad is not within reach.

Time to reboot and see if Linux Lite has stepped up it's game from the LiveCD. LiveCD shut down was painfully slow but the installed shut down was a snappy 7 seconds. Installed boot up took 60 seconds to the feather (their desktop). Not bad on this creaky old machine.

Next I installed Dropbox. I did get Linux Lite and Samba working in Virtual Box but Samba setup is a black art and I can only get it set up when the moon is full and the stars are rightly aligned. I may get it working here also but let's not get overly confident. On second thought, I don't want Dropbox. I'm not leaving my account set up on this machine. Linux Lite also has Uninstall Additional Software that comes up as a terminal. Very handy so Dropbox is now gone.

Catfish File and Folder finder looks good until I learn a command to globally find files and folders through the terminal. This has alluded me as yet. Let's give her a spin. "smb.conf" nope ... "samba" nope. Ok, I could have NOT found those myself from the terminal. Maybe there is some secret.

Java browser plug-in because we want to give the hackers a chance. Restricted extras because you can never have too many codecs. Team Viewer because Ammyy doesn't do Linux. Deluge torrent client and you know why. Wine - maybe it has improved since I last tried it (I'm sure it was user error).

Done with those. It has GIMP already and VLC. I'm not familiar enough with Linux to know much else.

Now for that Samba setup. Can someone check the moon? But first (I can't face Samba yet) let's try to get Kwin going. I know, you have this snappy system now so why bog it down. I can always turn it off. I need to see those windows wobble at least once and don't even say the word Compiz around me.

So much for wobbly windows. I can't get Kwin working. Like Compiz, the packages are constantly changing so following any online instruction is futile. Besides that, most Linux users talk in jargon and almost never explain anything fully. Are they all 12 years old? Mathew Moore had a good video but the packages are no longer the same. But I installed them all and still don't have the control panel.

Good news on the Samba front. We have contact. Is it too early to say I'm getting the hang of it? I suppose you want to know the secret? To follow a time honored Linux user tradition I will give you a partial answer:
    1. Set up a Samba user name and password (I use the same as I used on the system). If Windows is asking you for a name and password, that is good news. It means you need to set one up.
    2. Don't expect the share to show up in the Windows network window. Access it from the Run command. And it is a mystery.
    3. Make sure the Linux share folder exists and is reflected in the smb.conf
    4. I think most smb.conf setup examples work but numbers one through three are not done right so we blame smb.conf instead.
    5. Oh, and make sure to restart Samba after changing anything. Linux Lite has a built in command so knowing the terminal command is essential on other distros.

In the end, I didn't change any word in the Linux Lite smb.conf file and it worked. I just made sure that the share folder name and location followed what they had in the smb.conf file. My Windows workgroup is named "WORKGROUP". I've always been creative with names.

I keep thinking of things with this Samba thing. LL had netbios = Lappy  and I wondered if I should change it and to what would use instead. I left Lappy and guess what. Windows sees it as Lappy. Ok, it doesn't see it, I need to use the run command but you know what I mean. I could have had netbios = Hitler and it would have worked.

Anyway, here is the awesome Linux Lite Network portion of their manual.
And here is a portion of that portion. How simple is that!

There you have it. By my explanation, unless you were already familiar with Linux and really did not need my instruction, you don't have a clue of what I just said. May I go to the head of the class now?

Sadly even before Samba was working Linux Lite recognized my Brother printer over WiFi but won't print to it. I have no clue about installing drivers for that printer although I supposedly found them. I need a print to pdf solution and put that Samba connection to use for now. Maybe there is an awesome printer install section of their manual also.

Here are some software notes to try:
ctl t drop down term
xordexkill
pulse audio
gnome disk utility
terminator
kde games look good
pinta
deluge
goobox
k3b
mediainfo
simplestreamrecorder
winff
alacarte menu edit
grub customizer
xsensors
gstreamer

I'll be back ...