Other Interesting Distros, Part 9

[deleted]

Using the Software app, there was no apparent way to enter the name of a package I wanted to install.

Doesn't it have a search icon on the top left?

WetGeek

[deleted] Doesn't it have a search icon on the top left?

Thanks for your comment. The answer is, not that I noticed, but I could have missed it. I was looking for a link where the others were. Unfortunately, it's gone now, and so is the VM. When I have more time, I might create the VM one more time, and check for that. It still doesn't solve the "no menu" problem, but I might be able to get somewhere farther in my exploration.

EDIT: Yes, I see that now. As I said, I was looking among the other links in the middle of that panel. This was the first time I'd ever used Software. On Fedora, I'm not sure I ever ran the GNOME DE, and if I had, I would have installed software at the command line, using dnf.

As yet, though I have no idea whether it would have gotten me that software I needed. It's taking a very long time to update the system and load the software catalog. I don't want to conclude that it wouldn't have worked for me without doing that first.

MORE EDIT: As it turns out, I could not have installed the micro editor I use to configure a system from the command line. (On any other version of Fedora, I can.) And I could not have installed Vivaldi. I could have installed Thunderbird and the three games I mentioned.

So, by changing my workflow and using software that I wouldn't ordinarily use (like nano and Firefox), I could have gotten a little farther with my exploration. But there was still no menu that I could find. I'll leave this VM available a bit longer, in case there are any more questions.

@[deleted] : Thanks again for pointing out that search icon.

brent

WetGeek it is not self-explanatory and it took me a while in Fedora to 'get it' re: magnifying glass=search.
Interesting wade into this immutable which is silverblue. If I read this before I tried Keonite I would have had a better time.

[deleted]

brent and floppy = save

brent

WetGeek ell, a complete disaster didn't happen, but I still had no luck wtih Silverblue. When I took the next step with the installer, I wasn't offered a choice of partition to install into. The installer just started up and I resigned myself to overwriting Solus Plasma on this machine, since it appeared that it was already destroyed

it'll do that. I pre-partition instead of trusting the installer to make the partitions. it took me a few tries to succeed with Fedora installs and I have to credit that with good guesses. It was not an intuitive installer at all but I made it work.
I think Fedora 38 Plasma may be next for you. The immutables had a mixed performance. Unless you are on an immutable hunt. there's only a couple more, right?
edit/sp

WetGeek

brent I pre-partition instead of trusting the installer to make the partitions.

I do that, too, and lately it seems to have gotten me into more trouble that I don't understand. Other distros that I have installed into those partition keep showing up in my BIOS, even after I've installed other distros to replace them. Trying to remove them from the boot order in UEFI has had no effect. This laptop has just Solus installed, as the Partition Manager proves, but I still need to go through F-12 to start Solus. So, currently I have two laptops, one of which will only launch Sparky Linux, and the other will only launch Solus.

brent I think Fedora 38 Plasma may be next for you.

Actually, I like Fedora 38, whether immutable or mutable. I'm getting tired of these "other interesting distros," though, and although that feeling might not last, I think I'll give 'em a rest for a while.

I can't wait to be able to install the next Solus Plasma from an .ISO file, and see how everything works with all new software.

brent

WetGeek . Trying to remove them from the boot order in UEFI has had no effect.

there you go. efibootmgr is a tool loved and recomended around here but is a useless application to me as I can't get it even retain a boot order let alone delete a d**ned thing...I find those partitions and old/un-necessary boot partitions that you speak of here an annoyance. have to try to outside software but only after I've researched and its low on the to-do list.

WetGeek I can't wait to be able to install the next Solus Plasma from an .ISO file, and see how everything works with all new software

yep yep yep. now that I have Budgie back and dialed in after a 6 month estrangement...I still can't wait for the 4.4 iso.

ps--on the fedora spins page near the bottom is a link to more unusual fedora distros under the 'fedora labs' moniker. maybe 5 highly niche things exist like a science-only distro whatever that means. haven't attempted these seeming oddballs

WetGeek

brent efibootmgr is a tool loved and recomended around here but is a useless application to me

I haven't tried that, but I figured I'd try deleting and re-creating the EFI partition on one of my laptops (fortunately, the one that launches Sparky Linux only). I wanted to get rid of all the boot order crap that doesn't work anyway. DO NOT DO THAT, no matter how frustrated you might get. Now the UEFI settings report the boot order is empty -- which is fine with me -- but I can't even boot a Solus live USB to install it again.

I probably need to update the BIOS, but when I tried to download that from DELL, I was told I don't have sufficient privilege to do that. I'll probably need to resolve that before I can make that laptop useful again.

If I have to, I'll buy another Latitude when the 4.4 .ISOs become available, and worry about these ones later. but I hope it doesn't come to that. With DELL's product quality, and great service, these laptops are probably good for another 10 years, at least. I just need to figure out the right incantations to get them fixed.

WetGeek

brent let alone delete a d**ned thing

I just tried it, with similar results. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that even updating the BIOS on these laptops won't fix anything. I'm sure they're designed to update the BIOS without affecting any user content, so that's unlikely to do anything to solve my problems.

I'm going to order another Latitude today, and when the new .ISO files are released, I can recycle the two I now have. It was only by accident that I ended up with two of these in the first place, so I have no need to order two of them now.

And I'll never consider another dual-boot scheme, no matter how much of my SSD is "wasted" on Solus. I've learned my lesson, and it's what I've always believed to be true. If I ever want to "dual boot" with another distro, I'll create a VM and do it that way.

I'll never fsck with my BIOS again by creating additional bootable partitions for distros that I can't later get rid of. And anyway, there's no other distro or DE that I want to keep on a long-term basis. Just Solus Plasma.

Axios

WetGeek have you tried setting bios back to legacy only and booting it (of course it wont)
then going back in and setting it to uefi

WetGeek

Axios have you tried setting bios back to legacy only and booting it (of course it wont)
then going back in and setting it to uefi

No, I didn't think of that. But it wouldn't hurt anything to try it now, since that laptop is bricked. I'll give it a try.

WetGeek

WetGeek I'll give it a try.

Nope -- thanks for the suggestion, but no change happened. The UEFI boot order list is still empty, and the Solus USB drive won't boot.

Axios

WetGeek That is strange specially the usb thing

[deleted]

WetGeek Can you boot the USB in Legacy Mode, though? What model Latitude is it?

WetGeek

[deleted] Can you boot the USB in Legacy Mode, though? What model Latitude is it?

No. 5580. I'm prettty sure my best chance of success is if I can update the BIOS, and DELL has one for the 5580, but I got that error when I tried to download it I don't know what that was all about.

[deleted]

WetGeek That's really weird. The boot menu (F12) should recognize the USB drive in legacy mode.

brent

https://labs.fedoraproject.org/
"Fedora Labs is a selection of curated bundles of purpose-driven software and content as curated and maintained by members of the Fedora Community. These may be installed as standalone full versions of Fedora or as add-ons to existing Fedora installations."
titles: Design Suite, Games, Astronomy, Comp Neuro, Jam, Python Classroom, Security Lab, Robotics Suite, and Scientific versions.

I have no idea what the nonsense marketing gimmick of 'purpose-driven' (I mean, is there a 'lethargy-driven'?) means but the ancient question still stands:
Does bundling a bunch of like-minded, hobbyist software together constitute a real distro with a special title? it's just a bunch of specialized software on a Gnome shell. Which I guess is a distro.
Don't we all stack our software to our interests or needs? This seems to take it one step further. Spitballing here, not judging. Perhaps a rainy day tour. I mean if I was really really into Robotics then Fedora Robotics Edition is perfectly suited to me? I wonder if its that easy? Cool idea, but hard to categorize.

WetGeek

[deleted] That's really weird.

Yeah, that's what I believed, too. I'd love to post screen captures of the BIOS, but of course, that's impossible. I'm going to try one more time to boot the Solus USB drive with the BIOS set to legacy mode, just to make sure I haven't somehow been mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that what happened the last time I tried it.

WetGeek

WetGeek I'm going to try one more time to boot the Solus USB Storage Device with the BIOS set to legacy mode

Wow! I had no reason to believe what the real problem was. The Solus USB drive that I've used so many times (maybe too many times) does not boot now. When I wondered if that might be the case, I tried using a USB drive that I'd created for installing Sparky linux, and that one booted with no problem. So I created a new Solus 4.3 Plasma USB drive using a brand new one from the same batch that the Sparky one came from, and that also booted just fine, using the UEFI settings in the BIOS.

I used the KDE Partition Manager from the Solus Live session to delete everything from my SSD except the EFI boot partition and the SWAP partition. Then I created two 221 GB partitions and installed Solus Plasma into the first one of those. I'm no longer as sensitive about dual-booting with different partitions, now that I know I can easily restore my BIOS if necessary, but I'm still going to favor VMs as the best way to explore other distros.

It remains to be seen whether I can clean up my BIOS and remove the names of the distros I've installed and removed in the past, but even if I can't, I can live with that.

And special thanks to @[deleted] for putting up with me until I saw the light, and realized that every suggestion he made was a good one. It was just a flaky USB drive that made me think that they didn't work.

Axios

WetGeek Glad you got it fixed.

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