Another laptop bites the dust.
(Updated Jan 31)
A few months ago my oldest laptop died an unnatural death. It was an Acer Aspire One about 6 years old.
I finally got tired of the other one freezing and complaining, so I went to town(Cebu, PH) and found a replacement. I had had good luck with the cheap Aspire Ones, so I just picked the best one Acer had in the market here.
Acer V3 15inch i7 8Gb 1Tb 2.4Ghz - V3-547G-77P6
It came with Windows 10 64bit. The hardest part about that was the decision of which Linux distribution to dual-boot with it. The Internet here is terribly slow, so the choice was limited, one year old LinuxMint 17.1 64bit, Ubuntu 14.04 32bit or Ubuntu 15.10 64bit.
It seems Windows 10 insists on EUFI type BIOS for boot configuration and boot loader. After a couple weeks I had upgraded the "BIOS" to the latest rev on Acer's support site, learned to select the next boot device from in Windows 10 menus, almost worn out the install media, re-partitioned the disk several ways and had working 14.04 and 15.10 on separate partitions alongside Windows.
The Acer barely acknowledges the F2(BIOS) and F12(boot order) soft-keys during post. After finding the Windows command to go to boot menu things got a lot less frustrating. Click Power then hold shift and click reboot for the F2 BIOS menu during boot, or pick the file to boot on the next power up.
I tried installing with the BIOS set to ignore EUFI, but then Windows10 would not boot.
The final answer is to upgrade the BIOS(to v1.31) from the default(v1.25) so it can boot a linux. Then install with EUFI enabled to secure mode and grub in the EUFI partiton, then in the BIOS set the grub file to be trusted, and there also set the boot order of the EUFI systems. Setting the boot order in Linux (efibootmgr -o 4,1 ) or in Windows 10 does not work.
I spent the next couple weeks doing all that system admin I had nearly forgotten. I installed VMware and VirtualBox. Then WindowsXP, Andy's HAM Radio, LinuxMint17.1-64bit as virtual machines. I also attempted to visualize the old Acer Aspire Windows 7 and LinuxMint physical drives into VMware, but got sidetracked about the time I realized I needed to do it from VMware instance installed in a Windows host OS.
THEN THE ACER V3 DIED!!!!
I took it to the local Acer repair/warranty center in Cebu. Tomorrow I am to get it back and have the notes to correct the above procedures.
Showing posts with label Ubuntu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ubuntu. Show all posts
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Trade Ubuntu for Linux Mint
I realized during the recent programming activities that my linux workstations are getting too old and out of date. One laptop was Ultimate Edition 2.6 based on Ubuntu 10.4 and the other was Ubuntu 12.10. I couldn't find software to install that matched the systems. And Ubuntu has obsoleted the 12.10 because it was not a 'long term support' (LTS) revision.
I have been becoming more disillusioned with Ubuntu with each revision. Being an old unix traditionalist has its disadvantage! And I don't want it to look/work like Windoz!
Checking around, I was recommended Linux Mint Mate and KDE. Both looked much better. They have some of the sys-admin changes from older Ubuntu that I didn't agree with, but at least not the newest ones.
BUT, the prospect of downloading the install DVD, all the updates and replacing all my favorite packages through my cell phone data link was daunting.
I found OSDisc.com and had the solution. They make a business of copying software to DVDs then mailing them out to people like me that have low network bandwidth. So I ordered the latest 'long term support (LTS)' Mint 17.1. I got the live install disc for the Mate desk top and the KDE desktop in 64bit. Also I got the entire 17.1 64 bit repository, 10 DVDs and about 76GB.
Shipping to the Philippines is almost as slow as the cell phone data connection! It took about 4 weeks for them to show up. When it did, I realized that I should have been backing both systems up so I could install immediately. Oh well, another day of coping and sorting 2 years worth of data on a 500GB and 5 years of data on a 320GB drive.
After backing up and deleting lots of useless junk, I found I was able to completely clear one partition on my primary laptop. I proceeded to install Mate on this. This time I made /home and /Data separate mountable partitions so I will not have this level of backup problem next time. But since I saved the old system I will have to eventually finish coping the good stuff and delete the rest of the old system partition.
The next step was to create a local repository of the 10 DVDs. Instructions came on the first disk. Basically, copy all the DVDs to /data/repo/ with the provided script. Four hours later, I then had a repo that looks very much like the Ubuntu 14.4 64bit repo. Then install Apache2 and accept the default config so apt-get can access the repo files
Next change /etc/apt/sources.list to use this repo instead of the network:
Then I updated and installed most of my applications. Over one hundred packages. Next I needed to access the repo from both laptops, so figure out how to access a local repo with apt-get. I found these guides:
But the first problem was that it has been so long that I forgot how to network the two laptops without wire or hubs etc. Since I connect my cell phone directly to my primary system, and "Never" connect the navigation computer to the INTERNET I didn't think I had any way. I had purchased a TP-Link 702N WiFi Router to try to hack with linux (with openwrt). I did have a way. It turns out I got the wrong model, it should have been the 703N. So I didn't hack it and it still works as an access point (AP mode). So picking out IP4 addresses and setting /etc/hosts up everywhere, I finally got there. Lots of sneaker-net till I had ssh and hosts and all working.
Then I converted the /etc/apt/sources.list on the second laptop to access the first repo, and then it was just install, update, and add the required packages.
It is a little slow installing over wifi compared to the local repository, but much better than the Internet here.
I have been becoming more disillusioned with Ubuntu with each revision. Being an old unix traditionalist has its disadvantage! And I don't want it to look/work like Windoz!
Checking around, I was recommended Linux Mint Mate and KDE. Both looked much better. They have some of the sys-admin changes from older Ubuntu that I didn't agree with, but at least not the newest ones.
BUT, the prospect of downloading the install DVD, all the updates and replacing all my favorite packages through my cell phone data link was daunting.
I found OSDisc.com and had the solution. They make a business of copying software to DVDs then mailing them out to people like me that have low network bandwidth. So I ordered the latest 'long term support (LTS)' Mint 17.1. I got the live install disc for the Mate desk top and the KDE desktop in 64bit. Also I got the entire 17.1 64 bit repository, 10 DVDs and about 76GB.
Shipping to the Philippines is almost as slow as the cell phone data connection! It took about 4 weeks for them to show up. When it did, I realized that I should have been backing both systems up so I could install immediately. Oh well, another day of coping and sorting 2 years worth of data on a 500GB and 5 years of data on a 320GB drive.
After backing up and deleting lots of useless junk, I found I was able to completely clear one partition on my primary laptop. I proceeded to install Mate on this. This time I made /home and /Data separate mountable partitions so I will not have this level of backup problem next time. But since I saved the old system I will have to eventually finish coping the good stuff and delete the rest of the old system partition.
The next step was to create a local repository of the 10 DVDs. Instructions came on the first disk. Basically, copy all the DVDs to /data/repo/ with the provided script. Four hours later, I then had a repo that looks very much like the Ubuntu 14.4 64bit repo. Then install Apache2 and accept the default config so apt-get can access the repo files
Next change /etc/apt/sources.list to use this repo instead of the network:
deb [arch=amd64] file:///Data/repo/linuxmint rebecca main upstream import
deb [arch=amd64] file:///Data/repo/ubuntu trusty main restricted universe multiverse
deb [arch=amd64] file:///Data/repo/ubuntu trusty-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb [arch=amd64] file:///Data/repo/ubuntu trusty-security main restricted universe multiverse
#deb cdrom:[Linux Mint 17.1 _Rebecca_ - Release amd64 20141126]/ trusty contrib main non-free
Then I updated and installed most of my applications. Over one hundred packages. Next I needed to access the repo from both laptops, so figure out how to access a local repo with apt-get. I found these guides:
http://www.unixmen.com/setup-local-repository-ubuntu-14-0413-1013-04-server/
https://www.packtpub.com/books/content/create-local-ubuntu-repository-using-apt-mirror-and-apt-cacher
But the first problem was that it has been so long that I forgot how to network the two laptops without wire or hubs etc. Since I connect my cell phone directly to my primary system, and "Never" connect the navigation computer to the INTERNET I didn't think I had any way. I had purchased a TP-Link 702N WiFi Router to try to hack with linux (with openwrt). I did have a way. It turns out I got the wrong model, it should have been the 703N. So I didn't hack it and it still works as an access point (AP mode). So picking out IP4 addresses and setting /etc/hosts up everywhere, I finally got there. Lots of sneaker-net till I had ssh and hosts and all working.
Then I converted the /etc/apt/sources.list on the second laptop to access the first repo, and then it was just install, update, and add the required packages.
deb [arch=amd64] http://Nav/Data/repo/linuxmint rebecca main upstream import
deb [arch=amd64] http://Nav/Data/repo/ubuntu trusty main restricted universe multiverse
deb [arch=amd64] http://Nav/Data/repo/ubuntu trusty-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb [arch=amd64] http://Nav/Data/repo/ubuntu trusty-security main restricted universe multiverse
#deb cdrom:[Linux Mint 17.1 _Rebecca_ - Release amd64 20141126]/ trusty contrib main non-free
It is a little slow installing over wifi compared to the local repository, but much better than the Internet here.
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