New To Linux *again* - I Have Some Questions About Making Better Distro Installs

Hey,

When you have decided to multi-boot several distros and have space to do so. Is there a preferred sequential order for those distros?

Let me see if I can make it even more confusing. I presently have two Linux distros on my PC, PClinuxOS and Manjaro 0.8.12 XFCE. My PCLOS was installed first then came Manjaro.

If I am able to install a third distro would I do it from when I am using Manjaro, or would it be better sequentially to do when I am using PCLinuxOS? Or does it not make a hill of Garbanzos which distro I happen to be using at the time of the third installation?

How does 'GRUB' feature in to this equation?

The Grub screen (I think it's called) shows 'Manjaro' at the top, then Manjaro Advanced. Then below it is, PCLinuxOS followed by PCLinuxOS Advanced. Last is the MEMTest.

Would this hypothetical third distro and there is no problem with installation or with 'GRUB', appear at the top of the list when booting into it?

"XXX.distro
XXX.distro advanced
manjaro
manjaro adcanced
pclos
pclos advanced
MemTest"

Just for elucidation the third Linux distro I am considering adding is; Ubuntu 15.04 Mate Edition.

Thanking All in Advance.

herakles_14

Hey guys, what's the best way to try out distros? Do I completely reinstall each time I want to change a distro and if so, would nt that wipe all my data? Or does my personal data , text files etc etc stay on the system and only the distro changes?

My Linux computer comes today and it has Ubuntu installed which I believe is a very popular and stable system but I really want to check out the so evolve distro because it looks fantastic and the reviews were very favorable. BUT I was warned on this forum not to get involved with beta distros until I know what I'm doing.

Does swapping distros erase all data ?

Hello.

I am a newcomer to Linux, coming from Windows, desktop PC user. I already have a few months' experience with Ubuntu and Mint. I can handle some basic terminal commands, but I prefer the GUI whenever possible.

I'm not an IT specialist, far from it. Just a normal average computer user who can read a few things if they are understandable enough, and wants a decent operating system. So please speak to me in simple human terms, I can handle high tech jargon only so much. Thanks.

I have 2 main questions:

1. I've encountered problems when booting from LiveCD (written to USB) with both Mint and Lubuntu. The boot menu appeared but when I pressed any of the “try live” or “install” options, the screen froze with garbled checkerd pixels. Web searching for solutions, I found the thing with accessing special boot options and adding kernel parameters like 'nomodeset' and 'noaccel' and doing that I could proceed with installation. Then, after installing proprietary drivers, everything was fine.

This is not the first time this happened. As far as I understand this is related to the nouveau driver.

Does this happen only with some distros, like, for example, Ubuntu and its derivatives, or is it a larger problem from the main Linux kernel? From what I've read on some forums, such problems happened with other graphic cards as well, and it seems to be an old problem as old as 2011 if not older.

Why nothing could have been done to fix these issues so far? Couldn't all distros use some option from boot menu to either go with simple safe vesa graphics mode or a text based helpful install that might guide the user afterwards in downloading the proprietary drivers if s/he desires?...

And what is the main cause of the problem? Nvidia not doing FOSS drivers? Nouveau not being flexible enough? Linux kernel not keeping up? Particular distros that don't care about adding an extra boot option? A combination of all these? What is to be done? Would switching to other distro help in this regard? how would I know which distros use nouveau and which don't?

2. I'd like to look into other distros as well. What I need is stability, meaning as bug free as possible, as few apps hanging or crashing as possible, while still being user friendly. But no rolling realeases, please. I want to update the system without fear that I won't boot into desktop – again!

I need distros that come with multimedia codecs, Flash and stuff out of the box and also an easy option to install the proprietary video card graphics driver. I am all for FOSS, but for now I'm also being realistic, and unfortunately have to go with proprietary drivers.

What recommendations do you have?

Thank you.

Hi
I am not brand new to Linux but have been using a very popular Linux distro which has pretty much made everything easy for me in day to day use
I do distro hop quite a bit on my spare laptop and have tried many distros i came across Antix 13.2 which i really love and is a superb distro in terms of speed and increasing my learning curve in linux systems and was easyish to set up via wicd (just involved writing in wlan0) and that was it
One thing i can never get the hang of though and would love a complete idiots guide to is the wifi set up in some distros i have discarded because i just do not understand how to set it up
This evening i tried Sparky Linux on a usb and would love to have tried it but the wifi problem surfaced again
a box comes up re edit connections and from there i have no idea at all what to do what i normally do is disregard that distro and move on! But i would like to be able to input the info to get it working..any ideas please
Many Thanks

Hello,

I am looking for a live linux distro that is able to recognize more hardware by "default" without installation. For example, when I borrow a laptop/netbook, I want to be able to boot the live linux distro and be able to have wireless access to internet (at least most of the time).

I know how to get the wireless working if I have internet access to begin with, but sometimes I do not have a wired connection or am not allowed to install stuff.

I would like to try many live distros on different laptops, but it would be hard to convince other people to give me their laptops to do that; so I would really appreciate your help.

Thanks

Hi, please excuse any misunderstanding about the title.

I'm an experienced computer user, but not with Linux. As a matter of fact, even with Windows, I only do so much at the command prompt.

I am looking for a very fast (boot and etc.) Linux system, that has nothing more than a command prompt. No X-Windows. However, I would like to configure X-Windows immediately after an installation.

I noticed the LFS project. Very cool, but way too complex for me. It is exactly what I'm looking for, except, I would like the basic system to already be proven, maybe even with security updates.

The biggest most important thing is (ONLY WHAT I WANT). I don't want dozens of browsers, a hundred text editors, or any other cool or stupid open source or commercial software. I simply am looking for what Dos 6.22 was in Linux.

There are many distros. Can you guys help me pick one out that is light, secure and ready to be configured to run X windows or X-Free or Xorg, I'm not sure what the best is right now.

PS: I'm a linux noob, but I have had several decent installations of Ubuntu, and some experience with the command line, including compiling software, but still a beginner.

Hello

I'm trying to install arch based distro antergos on my system. I have slow but stable internet connection (512 kbps). But unfortunately, in the area I live, there is frequent power cuts. This is creating problem for me. It takes at least 4-5 hours to install antergos linux. Every time installation almost finishes, there will be a power cut, and i have to start it again. This happened 4-5 times, and i have wasted 2 days just trying to install this distro. Still unsuccessful. This incomplete installed linux boots to 'Grub Rescue' screen.

Is there any way I can continue installation from where it went down?

Really be grateful, if someone tells me how, or atleast redirect me to any knowledge base.

Thanks

The general question is: How behind are packages being packaged in Ubuntu? I know that this depends on the package and a ton of things, but I just want to get a sense of (stable vs. cutting edge--is there a good balance of both?) Ultimately, I want a system that fast, reliable, up-to-date, and easy to maintain.

I find myself debating whether to go with minimal Ubuntu, Arch Linux, or Slackware. I did some reading and realize that Ubuntu and Slackware are considered stable while Arch Linux is considered bleeding edge (yes, I realize Arch and Slackware require more work to maintain) but never to what extent. For example, I don't mind at all spending a ton of time setting things up since it is a one-time process, but I don't want to spend more than say 10 minutes a month for maintenance and ensuring things to work. From what I've read, Arch actually doesn't require much.

I'm not sure how behind the packages in Ubuntu/Slackware are to warrant me switching to another distro. I'm also not sure how stable Arch Linux is to warrant me to switching to a cutting/bleeding-edge distro for up-to-date stable packages (NOT anything newer, I don't want bleeding edge). I know that Arch has tests its packages too, but people often say "expect breakage".

Thanks!

Some notes:

- Don't recommend Ubuntu simply because Arch/Slackware requires a higher level of understanding to make it work. I intend to read documentations.
- I get the sense that Canonical is in the direction of "my way or the highway" and I really align with the Arch Way, but these are just philosophies that shouldn't have too much say in choosing a distro.
- Package management is important to me in sense that the system is tidy. For now, I have avoided PPAs on Ubuntu for this reason (apt-pinning is a solution but I don't know if it's a complete solution--if it is, I would have no problems with PPAs and actually use them).
- I like a system where it is bloat-free and has what I want, perhaps building from the base up. I don't know if this would necessarily provide me better performance though. I think Slackware kind of goes against this, but it's not a big deal especially because I heard Slackware is quite optimized somehow.
- I was originally set on Arch, but there are people telling me "expect breakage", "never update before an important event because of this" , "too much work to maintain when I just want to get things done" , and highlighting the disadvantages of a rolling-distro. This while I read things like "the only time Arch has broken for me was cause of my mistake in 3 years of using it" , "maintaining Arch takes like 5 minutes a month" , "as long as you subscribe to Arch news and don't do crazy stuff, Arch is as stable as any distro".
- I intend on being a programmer/doing software engineering if that matters. Maybe it means I don't want to spend too much time maintaining (not setting) the OS when I've got other things to do.

Thanks once again.

Hi guys, as I wait for my refurb to arrive to install Linux I have been doing a lot of research. I said in a previous post that I needed a cheap pc to install Linux that will run at least as fast as a Mac or pc. I have been doing some research and I want to know if anyone has used the evolve so distro, the sparkylinux distro or the korora Distro.

It seems to me that these will be perfect Linux light distros to run on an old machine.... Or am I sadly mistaken?
Thanks

Hello All, I am a newbie to Linux I have used computers for years & would say I'm certainly not computer illiterate, however I am completely new to Linux. Hubby & I have a netbook each & I wanted to give linux a go on them. I installed Mint 17.1 Xfce on mine & am loving it, not really having any problems. However this is not the case with hubby's netbook....which has the following spec:

eeepc 904HD
80 GB HDD
Intel Celeron M, 897 mHz (512 cache, 32 bit)
995 mb RAM
VGA - intel 915/GMS/910GML express graphic controller (rev04)

(mine has the atom processor & was shipped with windows 7 starter which I have dual booted with mint

On hubbys we have tried the following distros:
Mint 17.1
Mint 13
Lubuntu
Xubuntu
Zorin 9 lite
Bhodi 3.0.0

The problem we're experiencing with each & every distro is the mouse/touchpad freezes. In the live version all is OK, then once installed still OK...but only last for a couple of shutdowns & then the above problem kicks in. sometimes after the freeze it may work ok again the next time it is booted but not long before the freeze occurs again.....obviously xinput shows the elantech touchpad is not listed
I know it is a low spec netbook but there are many distros which claim to work on a much lower spec than this. I am not sure if this processor supports PAE as it often mentions PAE not supported on celeron M's but I also read that the pc usually needs to be pre 1995 to not support PAE & this netbook was made around 2008
I must say that most of the distros we've tried seem to be running OK until the 'freeze' put top hat on hit...so I am stumped as to what the issue is and hope some of you more experienced guys can point me in the right direction....i.e. a suitable distro for use on this eeepc netbook. My hubby does nothing fancy on the pc, he's just really browsing, skyping would be nice....OH & he is very computer illiterate....so something simple to use, fast & lightweight is all that is required.
The next distro I was going to try was leeenux linux, which is supposed to be perfect for the eeepc, but the only 2 free versions I could find is version 5.1 extended & v6 lxde SSD 2g
Many thanks in advance !!