Distro Reviews

tomscharbach

Brucehankins Could you accomplish the same thing with something like efibootmgr?

I would assume so, but I've never used a UEFI/BIOS software overlay or seen the need to so do. I'm also wary of allowing third-party software to alter UEFI/BIOS.

Dell UEFI/BIOS menus for modern Optiplex and Latitude computers are designed for use by IT professionals who need to have control over every aspect of UEFI/BIOS, and feature detailed, logically structured GUI menus with clear descriptions of each setting and related setting interactions, along with full system error/alert logs.

I'm always surprised when other users tell me, in response to a suggestion I make, that "My BIOS doesn't allow me to change that setting ..." Dumbing down UEFI/BIOS might reduce IT-10-T errors, but comes at a cost.

I would like to see Dell UEFI/BIOS keep a persistent log of every change made to UEFI/BIOS over time, from first boot until the present, but I can't have everything.

I'll take a look at efibootmgr to see what it does, and doesn't do. If it doesn't allow me to change basic settings like processor sleep states or USB power states or manage speed shift, I'll probably be better off sticking with UEFI/BIOS settings.

Brucehankins

tomscharbach efibootmgr is more for managing your efi boot entries. It allows you activate or deactivate, change order, add or remove entries. Doesn't allow you to manage or change BIOS options. But I was thinking of your comment on starting with a clean slate as managing or removing old or stuck efi entries, not starting fresh on BIOS settings as well.
For me, BIOS settings are typically a one and done kind of deal. I set it up how I want/need it, then don't mess with it again unless there's a problem. Swapping boot order of multiple partitions or drives, cleaning out old entries, or verifying data is something I do frequently.

tomscharbach

Brucehankins For me, BIOS settings are typically a one and done kind of deal. I set it up how I want/need it, then don't mess with it again unless there's a problem. Swapping boot order of multiple partitions or drives, cleaning out old entries, or verifying data is something I do frequently.

Yup. UEFI/BIOS settings on my production computers are stable. I set the Optiplex desktops one way, the Latitude laptops another and don't change things until I decide to do a bottom-up rebuild.

My test computers (one Optliplex, one Latitude) are entirely different animals. I fiddle with them all the time (SecureBoot on/off, SATA RAID/ACHI, this, that and the other) depending on what I'm running and what I want to do. I reset UEFI/BIOS annually because I no longer have any idea by then what I might have changed.

The reason I suggested resetting to default to @WetGeek for his ASUS Travelmate is that he seems to be constantly changing that machine, and reported what might have been a UEFI/BIOS issue.

Thanks for the suggestion, and thanks for the explanation.

joluveba

riffer In the meantime I am forced to install Windows to do my tax return. I think my old T420 will have to suffer the dishonour 🙁

Sorry if I'm asking a silly question, but, can't you do it on Linux?

I've been doing it on Linux for years, but you know, every country has different requirements, maybe you need some software not available on Linux.

riffer

joluveba

Unfortunately, My options are Windows, Android/IOS or browser. Not even sure about browser as that might just be for simple returns. No big deal. Install went better than I suspected it would.

WetGeek

My next adventure: Archman Linux

WetGeek

WetGeek Archman Linux

I'm posting this from there now. The Archman distro is, of vourse, based on Arch Linux. Its Budgi 10.5 (so far) implementation is quite good. The only owie I've found so far is a right-click on the background that displays the usual "Budgie Desktop Settings" and "System Settings," but clicking on "System Settings" does nothing. That's not really a showstopper, though, because system settings is available from the start menu.

Budgie settings look very normal. There are different themes than most of us are used to, of course, but I don't have any problem with them.

codewizard1975

@WetGeek I did try out the Ultramarine Linux. While it was nice and worked great for some things, it still lacked a lot of the basics that most distros set up during installation.

WetGeek

brent

I was curious how you're testing the OSs in the .ISO files you download. Do you install them on your hardware, or run the "Live" versions on the USB?

brent

WetGeek ultramarine budgie I worked thru in its live usb mode. I wasn't patient enough to see it as anything more than a variant of Solus Budgie.
Porteus: bare metal install. Love it.
Mageia 8: bare metal install. Love it but can't solve the internet connection problem yet.
I will say one nice thing about Windows: you can make a bare metal install disappear in a single keystroke so you can start again.
NEXT:
Euro Linux
Gecko
Haiku
Puppy
Slack

TRIED AND MOVED ON:
Venom
NuTyx
Void
Rosa
PsychOS
FreeBSD (@elfprince : FreeBSD revealed my true Low IQ. That distro is a widow-maker🙂).
MX Linux

Apparently WetGeek , this thread will never die🙂.
Digi it.

Brucehankins

brent you should throw Peppermint and NixOS on your list.

jppelt

brent Haiku is so much fun and different. Although I think in some ways harder to figure out than FreeBsd...although I quickly gave up and was able to work with GhostBSD. Neither lasted more than a day. BSD reminds me of late 90s/early 00s Linux...a lot of work to get minor things working (e.g. printers). Have you tried Bohdi? I did when Josh started talking about changing Budgie to enlightened tool kit. It has a real unique feel.

Brucehankins I liked Peppermint in the early days when they were trying to be 100% cloud...less interesting as yet another Debian fork.

riffer

brent Porteus sounds interesting. I'm putting it on my list.

brent

jppelt Heard that about Haiku. It's not a priority. And BSD is an acquired taste, for sure. you say it reminds you of 90/00s. Reminds me of DOS as well. I respect the determination and advanced aptitude it takes to run systems like this. I need a GUI a little more!
Brucehankins I hear a lot about Nix. SO many distros not enough time to audition a true #2. Look forward to the gecko test run. Aren't all Mints the same?

WetGeek

brent And BSD is an acquired taste,

Indeed. A taste I failed to acquire.

WetGeek

riffer Porteus sounds interesting. I'm putting it on my list

Sounded interesting to me, too, until I tried to install it. I probably could have gotten that done, but for me there are too many good distros out there that I haven't tried yet. No need to work so hard to try just one.

The nice thing about VMs is that it only takes two shots to kill off one that you'll never look at again.

brent

WetGeek riffer Porteus a fork of Slack and I know nothing about Slack but it's pretty neat. Just dabbling. I installed the LXDE desktop. I'm erring to gnome gtk over qt when I hop, but could not tell you why.
Geek, yes, so "many good distros out there".
Since d-hopping it new to me, I have only learned this. You are in love with it until you have to roll up your sleeves and dig into it then you will decide it's not your cup of tea or keep it.
edit: WetGeek --glad you like Ultramarine. I need to spend more time with it.

WetGeek

Back in my distro-hopping days, I spent about a year with Manjaro -- delighted to find a distribution based in Arch that I was actually able to install. I liked it a lot, and I couldn't pass up a chance to see how it's doing with Budgie. Unfortunately, that's going to take a bit more work ...

I'm having two problems with this. First, when I try to mount the child extensions, it generates an error saying that the ISO9660 is an unknown file type, and refuses to mount it. Thus, I'm stuck with a small window that makes configuring anything a challenge. I find it hard to believe that Manjaro doesn't know what an .ISO file is.

Second, I came here to see Budgie, but I haven't found any way to install that DE yet. Unlike other Arch derivitives, there's no search function for the software center. I'll have to brush up on my pacman commands, and see if I can fetch it from the command line.

But if I can't get the extensions installed, this is going to be a very short adventure.

UPPDATE: I couldn't find Budgie with pacman. Manjaro was in the results for a web search of distros with Budgie, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. I guess that's it for now. 😒

WetGeek

I figured out one problem. Manjaro does have a search feature, but it's not from the command line. There's a tiny magnifying glass icon in a part of the software center where I wasn't expecting it.

Now I just need to figure out how to get the guest additions installed. Or maybe just change the resolution to 1920X1080? That's next.

UPDATE: Yeah, that was the trick. Setting the display resolution to full HD got me more to work with, but this implementation of Budgie is amateurish, at best. It still uses the KDE system settings, and the Budgie start menu looks like this:

I had high hopes, but this isn't going anywhere. Time to remove another VM, I'm afraid.

brent

Picture 1: the VM changes distro a little aesthetically as far as a the top/bottom?
Picture 2: Yuck. That's an ugly budgie/kde marriage. why wander from the gnome stack if dev didn't have to? (rhetorical).
manjaro supposed to be phenomenal but fussy, I never tried it. Keep exploring, it's interesting.

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