Ok, a quick rant just to generate content.
I have an old laptop. It’s by the same folks that bring us evil printers. Back in the day it was a beast, but nowadays it just looks anemic. It’s been sitting there gathering dust for a while.
Then I got a wild hair.
Let’s put some Linux on there see if it works.
My beef with Linux has always been that setting up Linux requires some degree of tech know-how. And in the old days a screwdriver was required (because inevitably something had to be changed out/rejiggered™). It’s not quite that bad now, but it’s hardly ever a “run install, fill in the blanks, go” situation.
I tested several distros. Landed on Zorin because it was the least ugly. And I’ve had pretty good luck installing it on other machines before (albeit newer machines.) The live CD worked flawlessly. Didn’t need a thing from me. So I installed (complete with reformatting the hard drive and make it all shiny. (can’t wait to see what ancient content I’ve inadvertently deleted.))
Bait and Switch!
The installed version is NOT the same as the Live CD version!
For one thing the default desktop was Wayland. Which Barrier (software KVM) doesn’t play nice with. Switching to X.org based desktop took much research and lots of command copy pasting. (It’s supposed to be two clicks, but apparently my graphic driver and the switcher don’t talk to each other.) Anyway, sudo and the terminal don’t scare me. (And I figured if I completely hosed the installation, i could start from scratch because nothing useful is on this laptop right now.) So got past that.
For some reason the WiFi network worked out of the box. But the network speeds are crap because it’s an OLD machine.
Not so much the wired network.
Ok, true confessions: The first cable I connected the laptop was not actually connected to the hub, it just looked like it did. (yes, I suck at cable management and I have a rat’s nest (Rat King?) around my desk.) Anyway, after connecting and verifying that BOTH ends showed a live connection, then I had to go through the research/find the right driver to get everything to work. I think I might have had to edit something too, but it’s all a blur now.
Next step was getting the audio to work. This thing (ENVY dv7) still has one thing going for it: the Audio Beats built in sound card is pretty beastly. Did it work? Did it Fu…ForCryingOutLoud. More digging around for the right drivers and then using something called hda-jack-retask to muck with the soundcard configuration…. That was fun.
Well it works now. So… ya.
Next steps are going to be fun things like finding out if JellyFin will run on this thing and if it’s worth it. Might look for other server’ish applications…. I’ve got a working linux laptop after all….
So: What’s your favorite Linux distro? Did it take a screwdriver to install it?
edit: Not so quick as all that, that rant.