To PAE Or Not To PAE?

Hello Linux experts (because I suspect experts are what I need). Being a newbie I tried to choose a linux distro that I could use most like windows XP in particular, to include apps, maintenance and ease. To me it seemed like ZORIN fit the bill so I installed Zorin 9 on a 500 gb HD and configured a desktop with Cairo Dock (that dock being like the quick launch bar in Windows). So far so good.

Two main tasks I have is finding a back up (clone) utility I can use to clone the entire HD to an external USB HD so that I can simply plug in that clone and have the identical Zorin back exactly the way it was. Secondly I want to install my Canon printer (all in one print, copy, scan, and fax) so that I can use it the same way as with XP.

So far I've been disappointed for both because the clone apps I see available are "dd" (terminal) which does not seem to work and/or if it did the advice is that a clone could take days or weeks? Say what? Is that nuts or what. In windows I can clone my HD in 45 minutes, plug it in the computer and have an exact working copy of the source HD. Obviously days or weeks to obtain a HD clone is not good, and I'm not even sure that if I did it anyway that I would actually be able to plug it in (in place of the original HD),having an exact working copy of all files including boot, system, files and apps.

Next, installing my Canon printer seems unlikely if not impossible because I can't find drivers for that printer available for Zorin.

Did I make the wrong distro choice, and if so which Linux distro should I have installed? Ubuntu? Mint? Or maybe I'm looking for more in any Linux that can be had to date? Any advice please? Save me from having to go back to Windows which everyone knows (including M$oft MVP's)sucks.

I am one day old with Linux (no diapers yet either). I have downloaded Zorin 9.0 after some trial and error but successful, yesterday 2/25/2015 I purchased the Zorin 9.0 Ultimate went through the download process from the web and POOF!!!!!!, nothing, nothing, can some one help me go through the steps and download Zorin 9.0 ultimate. I am also unable to download from any disk on this OS, I have tried to download the Canon Printer with their software with no success. You can send your reply to my e-mail address. THANKS.

Am running a P4 @ 2.66 with Hardy Heron 8.04.4 .
Have googled a decent amount of commands for terminal to find out that alone.
Saw posts from 2004&9 that said to use Mysql server or Postgresql server to get the benchmark packages to cook the box.
I am going to try and read everything through commands, then decide on new distro.
1st Mint looks easy enduser. Ubuntu is looking kinda' commercial.
Ubuntu still looks like the distro to follow.
If you want to tell me a package that the synaptic will load and let me use, I thank you. All the us.ubuntu.olderversions. server addresses are worthless.
THX again
Paul

I compose on a Dell laptop model #Latitude D505. I have Xubuntu 12.04 (it won't upgrade) on it. Here are the Dell's specs:

Quote:
Dell Inspiron 8600 (Pentium M 710 1.4GHz, 1GB RAM, 40GB HDD)
And it has 20 GB free space. I guess on paper it should run the Xubuntu easily but it is deadly slow. Most of the things I do in the terminal don't complete (I tried to install Dropbox--no luck.). Sometimes I can't even open the Ubuntu Software Center, let alone install stuff from there.

I have LibreOffice 4.2 something on there and that is all I need. Like I was saying Dropbox would be nice though.

So I stared checking out lighter distros. (I was told Xubuntu was one of the lightest--btw I have two desktops with Xubuntu on them as well--distros out there but was shocked when I started investigating.) (see screenshot)

So as long as I can install a relatively recent version of LibreOffice (and like I said Dropbox would be nice) I will be happy.

To reiterate: I'm just using the laptop as a word processor. Yes, I would have to be online (and can be) to use Dropbox but Dropbox is not essential.

Btw. The libreoffice on there now works well (once it gets going) as a word proccesor, but with all those distros that are so much smaller I was thinking that I could even improve on the word processor's speed.

Thanks.

I bought an old Thinkpad R51 (with Pentium M CPU) and have installed Linux Mint 14 which supports non-PAE CPUs.
The seller said the touchpad did'nt work any more after installing windows 7 (And the OS key was illegal).
I want it to work and found The UltraNav driver which is touchpad driver for the ThinkPad R51 at LenovoDriver.com.

I did not find a version for Linux, though. And I found this comment:
"Your ThinkPad R51′s touchpad might not operate for the reason that the touchpad is incompatible together with the operating technique installed around the laptop. That is ordinarily the case when applying an unsupported version of your Windows OS or an option OS which include Ubuntu".

I downloaded the version for Windows XP and tried to run it in the Terminal. But this is my very first day on Linux Mint (!!!) and I did not get it to work.

Is the touchpad lost forever, or does some solution exist?
Does anyone know?

I've been using/testing Zorin 9, Mint 12, and Ubuntu 14 on 2 older computers for about 2 weeks now and I'm completely impressed with the look and feel especially of Zorin and Ubuntu. My problem is that I also have 2 newer computers that I am unable to install or even test any of the 3 on due to I imagine video incompatibilities. I get to the point where you choose the partition, and I just choose the defaults and then I get this sort of Linux version of the BSOD. I've tried all three in different configurations but nothing is working. I figure I just need current Video Drivers for Linux but there's no way, at least that I know of to update them cause Windows doesn't recognize the "run" command and I can't get into Linux to update it there. Any advice is appreciated.

Thank You
John

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 !!

Hi, guys! I'm new in this Linux community, and I must say that, for now, I feel at ease. But I need some help.

Look, the reason why I knew Linux is because I needed a portable OS to work in differents PCs (Mine is damaged). I found Slax Linux and I've tried it. It's very intuitive, but it's hard to add more programs (modules) because I have to look for each one I require. I need a distro with all the basic programs -LibreOffice, a good web browser...-. A distro which I can use inmediatly, without need to download or reboot.

So, which would you recommend? Thanks for your attention

My thinkpad x200 is running on slackware 14.1. I am aware that my device is powered by a core 2 duo processor and Windows proved it to be so. But slackware says that my laptop only has 1 cpu. I became aware of it after configuring conky. Later on i checked it using lscpu and some similiar tools.
How can I fix it?
Thank you.

I've got a more powerful computer that you guys have told me will handle any distro. But there's about eight million of them! I've been happy with Xubuntu (I have it on both of my computers) but I also like change. So if I put a different distro (I have Copy.com right now syncing the files between the two Xubuntu computers) on the one computer, is that going to screw up the syncing? And I've heard all the distros have the same relative file structure so navigating shouldn't be a problem. But which distro? And people have said 'try different ones.' Okay, I've got a flash drive, can you give me some links where I can try these cool distros? I've heard Red Hat is good. Some of you guys are Slack fanatics. Mint seems popular. I'm a pretty basic user. Don't need huge bells and whistles. Xubuntu's simplicity has appealed to me. Maybe I should stay with that! I'm open to any and all suggestions. Thanks!