Foundation post will be at bottom of page…new Logs will start at top.
- 1/28/2021 Update: Have moved *Karmi’s Daily Blog Log* to the top of Pages section. Handy for quick notes ‘n updates when actual posts are not needed.
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12/03/2022: From the Karmi’s Musings & Tech blog – the Stella Morabito – “The ‘Whiteness’ Smear Is Really An Attack On Private Life, Relationships, And Universal Values” post.
12/02/2022: From the Karmi’s Musings & Tech blog – Misandrist Christmas *GIFT* for Men – ‘The Butt Tape Dispenser’
12/01/2022: From the Karmi’s Musings & Tech blog – Buddhist Monks ‘Breaking Bad‘
11/23/2022: Install Fedora 37 Linux Cinnamon SPIN onto a 12.2” Samsung Chromebook Plus 32GB eMMC drive
11/21/2022: Will Europe freeze this winter?
11/16/2022: New post up on Karmi’s Musings & Tech blog: Fedora 37 Linux – Cinnamon SPIN: ‘Leader of the Pack!’
10/27/2022: Testing Block Editor in plan to move down to a cheaper plan or to another Web Host.
7/12/2022: This is ‘Doctor Week‘ for me…scheduling just fell this way. 1) Eye Doctor today ‘n my vision is still messed up by the dilating drops, 6.5 hours after the drops. I’m going to have to plan for cataract surgery, in both eyes, sometimes within the next 6-months to 2-yesrs. That requires someone to come wid me, which is a big issue. I’ll have to try ‘n hire someone…to make a 90-mile round trip wid me, and wait in the waiting room for my surgery to end – I believe they remove cataracts one at a time on different dates – so I need the help twice. Will check wid one of my brothers…closest is over 60-miles away, and he said he would a year ago so I’ll check again wid him…he lost his wife not long ago. I have 2 eye Doctors…the other one checks the epiretinal problem in my right eye…hopefully surgery is never needed!!! It distorts the vision, e.g. my left eye sees an object the size of a dime, but to my right eye it looks like a big blurry nickel (those are American coins). 2) Tomorrow is a Physical-Wellness exam wid my primary care Doctor (female German – great Doctor!). 3) Thursday is just another checkup on my heart…looks fine apparently, but a CT scan showed ‘something’ about 6-months ago, and heart Doctors are checking it out…I should know more tomorrow. They took all kinds of tests, and then I wore some heart monitor for four days, and all looked good. Wore another heart monitor for 24-hours last week, and the Thursday visit should explain a lot. Just 2 more Doctor visits left this year…so far. 😉
- BTW, it’s all free…I pay like $3.50 for prescriptions, but everything else (including Medicare monthly payments, and monthly prescriptions payments, and Part B Medicare, and deductibles, and copays, and prescriptions minus the $3.50) is free. Don’t believe anything the lying Democrats ‘n their MSM puppets say…
6/28/2022: I forgot my own birthday last week…76-years old. 😉 That happens to hermits. Tried versions of ArchoLinux yesterday ‘n this morning, and it is still a ‘Password Dependent‘ OS. Tried to download the roughly 5.5GB Qubes OS iso this morning, but my internet is still incredibly slow.
6/17/2022: Verizon wireless increased my LTE Home Internet’s signal strength from 2-3 Amber bars to 4 Green bars, which improved my phone, but has basically left me wid something worse than the old dial-up internet. I downloaded a 3.7 GB Regata OS file this morning…took 55 minutes. That was faster than normal surfing ‘n downloads in the afternoon. I’m talking speed tests wid kbps results. This is a remote area of Florida so ISP’s are limited to mainly satellite providers & Verizon wireless. Went thru two stages of support this morning, and Tech Support is sending it to Engineering now. Hughes net suked which is why I moved to LTE Home Internet when it came to this area.
4/24/2022: 1) Well, 3+ weeks is ‘ALMOST‘ “Daily” isn’t it…sorta. 😉 I’ve actually been testing lots of Linuxes, e.g. Kodachi ‘n Tails yesterday & today. Used them to test Pirate Bay ‘Stuff‘ but too slow for me…and it seems a lot of Pirate Bay stuff is just uploaded, so it has flaws. I’ll soon be able to buy The Expanse season 5 on Blu-ray for about $21.36 (which is what season 4 is going for – I’ve had 1 thru 4)…season 5 was going to take a long long time to download a copy!?! It was going to take way over 2 hours (a day possibly?!?) to download ‘n my time is worth more than $10 an hour. Maybe movies are quicker, and I may try testing one tomorrow morning. 2) Porteus Linux has been so good that I’m not really feeling like posting on any other Distro at this point. Majority of my Blog’s views are from searches, so posting daily or weekly isn’t needed to keep views coming in. Did like the new Kodachi 8.20 ‘n may do a review…possible on Tails also.
4/1/2022: 1) Looks like a lot of NVIDIA GPU’s have dropped in price. Newegg & EVGA have both notified me lately on price drops of the 3060 Ti…down to $479. I had asked to be notified @ certain price level…what, early last year or even in 2020!? My computers are all fairly new, wid Win11 Pro on them, so it will probably be 2-3 years before I build another one. Prices need to drop more for me at this point! 2) Tested Porteus 4.0 KDE Plasma ‘n Cinnamon today, and liked Cinnamon well enough to plan on doing a post on it. If they get root section in the final 5.0 stable in the 4.0’s root section shape they will have a great Distro! 5.0-rc3 has a 5.12.14 kernel and 4.0 stable has a 4. 16or18 (?) kernel which causes a FHD Video issue, i.e. no FHD. Root sections seems to work great though!
3/20/2022: XeroLinux – ‘An “Eyecandy” lover’s wet dream.’ Tested it yesterday. Probably more akin to fecal incontinence than a “wet dream.” ☹️ Not worth writing a review on.
3/8/2022: Started testing Linuxfx, but never made it past name ‘n password, i.e. Linuxfx has become strictly for ‘Submissive Linux Distro users‘. If they are going to offer the Win10 or Win11 look, then they should also offer the root user option…i.e. no pesky passwords.
3/2/2022: Tested EuroLinux 9 Beta yesterday, the large ISO version, and it kept having problems. Will try the minimal version today…
2/13/2022: Tested Bluestar Linux yesterday…just too busy for me so didn’t do a review.
1/31/2022: 1) The new ‘Linux News Agency‘ addition has been bringing in early views, which is unusual for my posts, i.e. they usually sit for awhile first. 2) Have moved Search, Categories ‘n Archives Widgets up on the Sidebar. The WP Pages Widget on the Sidebar doesn’t get many views, when compared to the “Home page / Archives” views so I wanted to give visitors a quicker access to Searching the blog. That Google Translate Widget is popular. As mentioned in recent ‘reaches 60,006 views‘ post, Search Engines send most of the views here…like 40,452 of those 60,006 views at time of that posting. Heading into a new year I try to review what seems to work best for the visitors. 3) Tested Nitrux Linux ‘n it was terrible, plus it was for ‘Password Dependent‘ users, and not worth the time for a review.
1/30/2022: Linux Newbie blog adds ‘Linux News Agency‘ – Pages don’t get much traffic, so I’m adding this. \o/ ’Hippity hip Hoorah’ \o/
1/29/2022: Still working on getting a review post on CentOS Stream 8 finished… 🙁
1/28/2022: Have been testing CentOS Stream 8 ‘n 9 recently (off ‘n on for a couple weeks). Both have been a pain, but finally figured out how to get CentOS Stream 8 set up wid the KDE Plasma ‘n Nvidia drivers. CentOS Stream 9 seems more suited for a virtual machine (VM) or maybe server instead of a ‘Desktop Duty‘ Linux OS…I just can’t get it to work right or at all wid KDE Plasma and/or Nvidia drivers. Have started a review post on the CentOS Stream 8…
1/25/2022: 1) I’m done wid AMD ‘n their false Ryzen™ hype…their processors just ain’t made for standard ‘Desktop Duty‘ & are absolutely a pain for testing Linux OSes! Am bringing ‘Antec Jr.‘ back ‘n will make it my main Linux Test machine, and make ‘CM130‘ a secondary Linux test machine for basic testing ‘n to see how a Distro works on AMD junk. Intel fully supports Linux, and AMD doesn’t. Will make ‘Rose‘ the new ‘Keeper of the Data‘ computer. Pulled the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC 4GB GDDR5 from ‘Rose‘ and put it in ‘CM130‘ after I had pulled the GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER™ VENTUS XS OC GPU from it. Put that GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER™ VENTUS XS OC GPU into ‘Antec Jr.‘ 2) Pulled all internal drives outta Antec Jr.‘ including the 256GB PCIe 3D NAND PCIe M.2 2280 NVMe, and now have 4 Trayless Hot Swap SATA enclosures in the case’s exterior bays. Testing is easier when just the test drives ‘n devices are involved, i.e. I remove Windows 11 Pro ‘n Data drives when testing Linux. 3) Will update the Buy Low or BYOC – ‘Build Your Own Computer’ page after testing each computer to make sure all the new changes are working…’Antec Jr.‘ is already checked out ‘n back on line. 4) I have had a bunch of RHEL-based & several other Distros fail wid the AMD Ryzen™ 9 3900X recently, which is why I removing ‘CM130‘ as my primary Linux Testing machine. I’ll use it after main tests to see if the Distro is AMD compatible. 5) OK…all hardware changes ‘n computers work fine after changes. Have updated the Buy Low or BYOC – ‘Build Your Own Computer’ page to reflect changes.
1/19/2022: Tested Linuxfx 11 with Android support this morning, but it is now a full ‘Password‘ Dependent OS so I may not do a review post on it. BTW, Linuxfx, Windows 11 ‘n none of my Android devices have ever forced me to use a password. They’ve done a pretty good job making it look sorta like Windows 11, but the forced usage of the Linux ‘Nanny‘ ruins the experience for me.
1/16/2022: Should change the name to ‘Monthly‘ blog log. 😉 1) Just tested MX Linux KDE and couldn’t login as root…even tho a root password was created during installation. Recent Cinnamon test of MX root section worked, so like I say – LINUX IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES – you never know what you’re gonna get! 2) Slackware 15.0 3rd release candidate doesn’t appear to be portable!? Was installed onto 120 GB SSD, then made an image wid Clonezilla…restored it, but Clonezilla didn’t seem sure. Slackware looked like it was booting OK, then started talking about the USB might be a problem. Then tried a clean install to USB, and it worked; however, during reboot it started the same USB talk, and just stopped at that point. It also didn’t work on Ventoy. Will stay in the Top 10, but probably no higher than it is now, unless the final Stable release can be made USB portable.
12/31/2021: Tested ArcoLinux – the Cinnamon DE version today – arcolinuxb-cinnamon-v21.11.05-x86_64.iso. Took some pics thinking it would offer the ‘Root‘ login option, but there didn’t seem to be a way to do it. May change my mind, but right now I’m not planning to do a post on it. Fuk the Linux ‘Nanny‘!!! 😉
12/29/2021: Testing Vanilla Arch Linux today…Arch Linux GUI, and am very surprised by its performance. Definitely headed for my top 4-10!
12/27/2021: Twenty 20 days since last log?!? Durn…time flew. 15 posts on mostly new ‘n good Distros and/or versions. Tested a lot more than that tho…mainly searching for Linux OSes for normal Desktop OS users (aka “normal people“) that don’t force annoying Enterprise OS “Authenticate” popups or other ‘Pesky Passwords’ on the normal users. Garuda Linux Cinnamon was probably my favorite to test ‘n review during that time. Tested KDE neon a few minutes ago…it didn’t want a Admin or root password, so I just closed down the installation at that point. Some Distros that ask for an Admin password during installation will allow you to log in as root @ the login Welcome Screen.
12/07/2021: For the most part, Linux is a horrid Desktop OS to deal wid…terrible…wid few exceptions! I have tested openSUSE Leap ‘n Tumbleweed for several days or so, searching for a password free and/or login option as root, but not much about their minor root issues (e.g. sound) has changed. Everything works fine in the ‘Password Dependent‘ user section, but no sound in root area. The openSUSE repositories also seem to have some serious problems, except when using the terminal. Am not really wanting to do a post on it. GeckoLinux Cinnamon has been easier to work wid, but same sound issues in root section. Linux just isn’t meant as a normal Desktop OS. May do a review on the MX Linux tests…was very easy to work wid. Am testing CentOS Stream 9 right now…
12/01/2021: DURN!!! Almost a month since my last log…gotta love how this blog has fell into place, i.e. little to no maintenance needed to keep’er rolling! Have tested some Distros, but nothing to actually bother writing about.
11/06/2021: Tested CentOS Stream 9 yesterday ‘n didn’t like it at all.
11/04/2021: Tested some Vanilla Arch Linux recently ‘n one wid an installer version whilst trying to find another Linux Distro that isn’t controlled by the Linux ‘Nanny‘ ‘n made for Password Dependent OS users. Linux just isn’t made for “normal people,” i.e. it’s made for Businesses & Corporations. Anyway, Arch isn’t worth doing a post on…
11/01/2021: Removed CloudReady Linux from ‘Sam‘ the converted 12.2″ Samsung Chromebook – converted to a Linux Laptop/Tablet/Sketchbook. Replaced it wid EasyOS 3.1 on the 32 GB eMMC drive, and now in a dual-boot wid Fedora 34 Cinnamon…Fedora is first boot. CloudReady Linux isn’t improving like it should, so EasyOS gets a shot at the Linux test lappy. The Dell wid Windows 11 Pro leaves no area for another lappy other than as a test lappy. 😉
10/30/2021: 1) I have an older receiver that was connected to all my other pre-4K TVs before they gave out. It’s prrrobbably between 6-8 years old, 5.1 wid great woofer, and everything worked great until I got a 4K TV a year or 2 ago. Volume stayed low, especially on some discs (I don’t watch TV other than DVDs or Blu-ray), that it was a pain to hear, so I used the soundbar w/ bass speaker. It’s good, but not like those 5.1 speakers. Gave it another try today, and maybe I had somehow missed the ARC connection…could’ve sworn I had tried that first. Anyway, TV has an HDMI ARC connection (#2) and so does the receiver and I may have had the TV wrong (?!?!). Volume is right now and sounds good after some tests, so maybe I got it right this time… 2) Watched Dexter 4.1, 4.2 & 4.3 tonight, and ended up turning off the receiver and 5.1 sound system. Went back to the 40″ Vizio soundbar wid woofer. Some older programs work better w/o the receiver and 5.1 speakers. I may also need a 4k receiver to work best wid a 4k TV (???), but not any time soon…my cables are set up to just easily switch HDMI input cables. Mostly watch old series like Dexter, Empire, Game of Thrones, The Americans, and about 20 others (growing collection) PLUS about 7-800 movies (slower growing collection).
10/26/2021: The DIYPC MA01-R case is the worst case I’ve seen since 2006. Main problem was the advertised 13.20″ H x 6.80″ W x 14.00″ D measurements are not correct. The case is actually bigger than ‘Rose‘, and I would not have purchased if I knew that! The DIYPC is 14 1/8th” tall wid the feet on, and over 13.75″ wid them off. The old ROSEWILL Micro ATX Mini Tower model FBM-01 is a thousand-times better case, so I’ve given it the 16 GB’s of memory, and promoted it back to secondary test computer…or now, main Intel test computer. Was going to use ‘DIYPC‘ as the new TV computer, but the 43″ Samsung TV couldn’t deal wid the Ryzen™ 5 3400G APU with Radeon™ RX Vega 11 Graphics…AMD is always a pain! So, I promoted ‘InWin‘ to the TV computer spot…which actually works better space-wise in that area. That cleared up the Mobile Cart‘s middle shelf, and I demoted DIYPC to last computer I use for anything. 🙂
10/24/2021: 1) After working steadily wid Windows 11 Pro recently, installing, upgrading, testing, etc. that just made trying to work wid Linux a pain. Anyway, Windows 11 Pro is such a pleasure to work wid, that you sorta expect other OSes to behave sorta like that, but they don’t. Windows 10 has over 1.3 *BILLION* users for a reason. 2) Have been testing Fedora 34 ‘n 35 Beta, Redcore Linux, Manjaro, and AlmaLinux recently…plus a few others. Will have a post on AlmaLinux soon…
10/22/2021: 1) Tested 4-5 Linux Distros this week, but nothing to post about. After 25 years of messing wid Linux, I don’t ever expect to see a really good Desktop OS be produced by any Distro. At best, Linux is just a secondary desktop OS suited more for specialties. 2) Am still doing some tests wid CloudReady Linux OS (now owned by Google), but w/o some major improvements, it seems more destined to be a laptop OS. At first I thought a major problem was being caused by AMD components, but discovered yesterday that it has problems wid at least some Nvidia GPU’s. e.g. my GeForce GTX 1660 XC & GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER™ VENTUS XS OC. Haven’t tried it wid the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC yet.
10/17/2021: Planning on doing a post soon, and have been researching, e.g. 1) The Future of Everything, 2) Windows 10 Pro OEM key for $12.99 (code WYNE), 3) Upgrade Fedora 33 Cinnamon to Fedora 34 Cinnamon (problems wid slow mirrors on that one).
10/15/2021: This blog almost runs on its own now…not a lot of regular visitors, but apparently 45-65+ daily visitors who end up here after they ran a search…usually something about Linux. Search Engines send 30-Times more than the next highest “Referrers” – WordPress Android App, which sends about twice as many as the WordPress Reader, and then Twitter. The other “Referrers” are ten (so far) in the double-digits numbers, and then about 113 single-digit “Referrers.” I believe this page has had just 3 total visitors since I started it on 12/11/2020. 😉 Anyway, just relaxing ‘n enjoying having Windows 11 on all my computers now, and just really not much to report on Linux. Did use Fedora quite a bit the other day, reformatting the tests that I was doing on that Mushkin Helix-L M.2 2280 PCIe drive…Fedora was on a 32GB SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 Flash Drive that works on all my computers when needed.
10/14/2021: OK…upgraded ‘Rose‘ (TV computer) this morning, so that’s all 5 desktop PC’s & the new Dell XPS13 laptop upgraded to Windows 11 Pro. *EXCELLENT* OS!!! ‘Rose‘ is the oldest build (2019), but has an upgraded Intel i7-8700 & the overpriced GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC 4GB that I purchased ($239.95 on 2/08/2021) just before they went to $500…after being at $150 last year. Not a bad GPU actually, now that I have used it for awhile, but not for gamers. Am back on a budget until February or March 2022, no plans for any new builds until I see what the new Alder Lake CPU’s are going to be like, so a new build is probably a year +++ away.
10/13/2021: 1) Tried doing an image backup ‘n image restore of Windows 11 using Clonezilla today, and that didn’t work either. The Asus PRIME Z490M-PLUS micro ATX MoBo doesn’t list the Mushkin Helix-L M.2 2280 PCIe in their supported devices, so that is at least one problem. It works as a data drive…it works wid a clean install, but it won’t work wid an SSD backup image (can install image to standard SSD). Guess I will just store this Mushkin Helix-L M.2 2280 PCIe in case the Dell laptop’s M.2 PCIe gives out after the 1 year warranty ends. 2) Almost seems that you need to buy these M.2 PCIe’s when you buy the MoBo, i.e. all the MoBo’s supported ones, that I have searched for, are either no longer available or out of stock or the product number is questionable or it is just too expensive.
10/12/2021: 1) Upgraded ‘Apevia‘ (main computer) this morning to Windows 11 Pro. Just shy of 20 minutes, and it is fairly loaded wid apps also, like ‘Antec Jr.‘. Apparently upgrade speeds can vary for various reasons, e.g. your ISP speeds, Microsoft servers availability, perhaps computer’s age, etc. ‘Rose‘ computer is only one left w/o an upgrade yet, and it is now only used wid the 43″ TV, i.e. a dedicated TV computer computer right now. 😉 4 successful desktop PCs ‘n 1 laptop upgrade/s, wid various hardware and no problems. Winaero’s Windows 7 games for Windows 10 is only app that has needed to be reinstalled, that I have noticed so far. 2) *NOTE*: Windows 11 Pro is noticeably faster on my main computer (‘Apevia‘) than Windows 10 Pro was. Also, Firefox had been having problems wid sites focused on videos, and also opening many links. Had did a refresh just last night, but it didn’t help. Edge browser had no problems wid the same sites Firefox was having problems wid. Tested two sites, and now they work w/o any problems. 3) The Mushkin Helix-L M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe 1.3 250GB was meant for the new Dell XPS 13 9310, but I decided not to mess wid the Dell until the one year warranty is up. Have tried it in the ‘Apevia‘ computer, but can’t get it to open after restoring a backup image to it…not sure what’s happening there. However, doing a clean installation of Windows 11 on it works fine…but soooooooooooooo many setting ‘n stuff need added in. For now, I left the clean installation on it, pulled it out of the computer ‘n replaced it wid the original upgraded version’s Samsung SSD EVO disk. The upgrade is just so easy ‘n perfect, and I am so lazy! 😉
10/11/2021: Upgraded ‘Antec Jr.‘ this morning to Windows 11 Pro, and @ 45 minutes it has been the slowest upgrade yet. ‘Antec Jr.‘ is loaded with apps (bunch of opensource also), so maybe that was one reason for being the slowest. Clean install tests have all been less than 5 minutes, but reinstalling apps ‘n settings ‘n such would add time & extra work to that method. So, internet speeds ‘n apps can slow upgrades down; however, all the upgrades have been incredibly successful, and I highly recommend that method. May do a post on it in the future…
10/06/2021: Upgraded two desktop PCs to Windows 11 yesterday. Upgraded ‘XPS13’ (new Dell XPS 13 Lappy) this morning. ‘XPS13’ upgraded in less than 15 minutes – twice as fast as the other two computers took!? Probably my internet connection was slow yesterday – and/or – Microsoft was swarmed by early adopters like myself. 😉
10/03/2021: The Dell XPS 13 9310 arrived yesterday ‘n WHAT A COMPUTER! Much lighter than the 12.2″ Samsung ‘n about 1/2″ wider, but depth is 1/2″ smaller. I don’t know how they squeeze soooooooooooooo much into such a lightweight ‘n small package!? I set it up w/o internet so I could avoid passwords, Pins, name, etc. and will enter what info I want added later. Connected to internet after setup and updated it. One Windows 10 sticker on the back, and one Intel sticker was on the ‘rubberized‘ keyboard/touchpad area – it came off easily and apparently took all residue with it because no cleanup was needed. Skipped fingerprint ‘n facial recognition stuff. Fast bootup … really *FAST*! Right @ 11 seconds for both startup methods: 1) it starts up by opening the lid. 2) with lid open already, you press the start button. ‘Apevia‘ & ‘Antec Jr.‘ boot WIN10 Pro up in 9-10 seconds, so the ‘XPS13‘ (new name) is a fast booting laptop. Oh, forgot to mention the Bluetooth Microsoft mouse also arrived yesterday ‘n they work great together. Laptop has 1 MicroSD-card slot, 1 headset port, and 2 Thunderbolt™ 4 ports so I didn’t want to waste port space wid a USB wireless dongle. Also have a uni USB C to USB Hub 4 Ports in case I need more ports.
10/01/2021: It’s already a looooooooooooooooooooog day, and looks to be even longer before its done. 😉 My Dell XPS 13 9310 is/was suppose to arrive today – at first it said ‘between 11:45 AM EST and 2:45 PM EST‘. Then around 3:00 PM EST that notice dropped the ‘between 11:45 AM EST and 2:45 PM EST‘ and the new notice said ‘by end of day‘. About 2 hours later, I decided to see if I could find out what FedEx’s ‘by end of day‘ meant and/or was. Delivery hours and service times:
We generally makes deliveries from 8 AM to 8 PM, Monday-Friday; and on Saturday and Sunday for residential deliveries. If you got a message that says FedEx will deliver your package by end of day, that means your package should arrive before 8 PM on the delivery date.
Well, “generally” & “should” is their way out for making this a looooooooooooooooooooog day for me. I’m in no hurry for the laptop, but the wait is a pain, and sorta stops me from watching Yellowstone season 3 episodes 4-6 tonight. Its been good to this point, and seems to keep getting better.
9/29/2021: My Dell XPS 13 9310 has shipped ‘n due to arrive this Friday (Oct. 1st).
9/27/2021: Have gave away 2 of my 3 Chromebooks now, and the 3rd one is now a dual-boot CloudReady Linux ‘n Fedora Linux Laptop/Tablet/Sketchbook, a former Samsung Chromebook. Linux Desktop simply cannot compete for ‘Desktop Duty‘, because it is not meant for normal Desktop users. Yesterday I switched back to CloudReady Linux as the first booting OS, because it is faster ‘n isn’t bloated like other Linux Distros. Guess I am going to have to start slowly learning how to use CloudReady, which is basically the open source free version of the Chrome OS proprietary version. CloudReady can pretty much be installed on any computer – including Chromebooks ‘n Mac devices. I’ll probably start doing some posts on it before Christmas, but am in no rush at the moment. Took a long time to figure out how to get my passwords over to it, without having to use the Cloud, because it doesn’t seem to have an offline word processor that can recognize MS Office docs .. ?!? Anyway, a pain to work wid…
9/25/2021: Whilst waiting for my new Dell XPS 13 9310 to arrive next month, I have been trying to prepare for needed items ‘n accessories. Will probably just use the old Acer laptop case…lot bigger than a XPS 13 requires, but it is a nice sturdy case wid lots of space. It will be on a shelf area most of the time (out of the case) for quick access to, and for quick ‘n easy charging. The XPS 13 only has 2 Thunderbolt™ 4 ports, 1 headset port, and a MicroSD-card slot…so I have purchased a uni USB C to USB Hub 4 Ports that is compatible wid both Dell ‘n the 2 Thunderbolt ports. Am prepping to not actually need that hub very often, but hubs are always handy at some point. Decided to go wid a Bluetooth wireless mouse for normal use wid the XPS 13 – my spare mouse was USB A type dongle (stuck out about 2″ when USB-C adapter is used), and the USB-C wireless mice were all more than I wanted to spend, and didn’t provide enough info either. For this new Lappy, I went with a Microsoft mouse – ugly blue colour so it will be easy to spot amongst all my mice…seriously ugly sky blue that was $2+ less than the black one. Anyway, no ports needed wid this Bluetooth, good size, and I like MS mouses.
9/22/2021: Audio Video Capture Cards1080P HDMI to USB 3.0 arrived today, and I have no clue how to use it yet. 😉 Had wanted some kind of capture ability for testing Linux installs ‘n such, but could never get any accurate info for what I wanted. This was a special –
Item(s) Subtotal: $39.95 .. Shipping & Handling: $0.00 .. Had a code 808CJ3WJ: -$31.96 ..
Total before tax: $7.99 .. Estimated tax to be collected: $0.56 .. Grand Total: $8.55. At that price I don’t really have to know how to use it! 😉
9/14/2021: Found out one of my sister-in-laws has late-stage dementia yesterday. Didn’t know anything about her having it, tho she had been diagnosed as having early-stage (?!) in 2015, just about the time she was getting ready to retire. I talked to her earlier this year, on the phone, and she seemed fine. My brother told me that he now bathes her, feeds her, she can barely swallow, and he can’t leave her unattended now. Apparently the last few months have been rapidly down hill. She’s just 69. A *GREAT* woman — raised 3 boys, then went out and got a job. Worked until she could retire.
9/04/2021: Added a ‘Windows 11‘ WP “parent” page yesterday ‘n moved a couple other pages under it as child/sub pages to it.
9/02/2021: 1) UPDATE– I may be able to just do a clean new “manual” upgrade wid their Media Creation Tool, but all the writers are causing confusion wid their different information right now. At some point, MS is going to be offering their Media Creation Tool/s for Windows 11, but its still showing Windows 10 at that official site. That page will ask a few questions, check your equipment, and then give you some choices. Fuk all the writers’ speculations on what is going to happen…they don’t know. My 5 computers that are going to be moved to Windows 11 have the recommended hardware, so I’ll stay with the MS official site, and their info. There is a *HUGE* demand for Windows 11 right now. 2) Prepping for my Windows 11 upgrades on 5 computers, by actually creating a Microsoft Account for each computer, and adding the outlook.com addy for each one also. No OS is as secure as MS Windows, so its about time I get that stuff setup for each computer now, in case Windows 11 requires it. Besides, you can sign-out of the account at any time. I plan on getting the Windows 11 ISO before doing any upgrading…well, I may upgrade 1 or 2 just for basic testing; however, for the most part, as soon as I get a computer upgraded and WIN 11 digitally registered to that computer, then I’ll do a clean install.
8/31/2021: Have been changing, updating, posting, etc. over @ my political blog, The Swamp Hermit’s Report. Under the WP Business Plan here since March of this year, and they do a lot to sorta fix ‘n change bad settings I make or miss…i.e. there’s more to it than I understand, and they’re keeping an eye on ‘Thangs that I know nothing about. I had a lot of terrible settings over at the The Swamp Hermit’s Report (like I had had here), and use the setting here to fix those over there. Even use the Classic Editor here to do the posts for over there, then copy the Preview here ‘n paste it over there…add the pics over there, and finish up. $300 a year (one payment) is well worth the price, IMHO. especially since it is a Twofer! 😉
8/20/2021: 1) The Velocifire TKL71WS is too ‘busy’ for my secondary board (see 8/17/2021 Log for more info), so have moved it to the #3 – ‘InWin‘ computer. For Linux testing, I use the Boot Menu key a *LOT* ‘n this board required too much changing for that. Have moved the Perixx PERIBOARD-429 US Wired Mini Backlit Keyboard back to its original #2 spot…it’s wired, but in that area wired is OK. 2) Tested Zenwalk Linux today ‘n didn’t care for it.
8/17/2021: Ordered the Velocifire TKL71WS 71-Key Tenkeyless Compact Size Gaming Keyboard with Brown Switches & Ice Blue Backlit for $50.28 (wid tax ‘n free shipping) yesterday, and it arrived today. *FAST*!!! At 13 x 4 x 1.5 inches it is a little smaller than I had thought…well, I had thought that @ 13″ long it was a tad too big, but the 4″ width allows it to fit in tight places easily. Not easy finding just what I wanted, and this will be my secondary board. The row of number keys are combined with the F1-F12 row, so on one key there is F1+1+! & so on. The lighting is also complicated, but a tad easier than figuring out how to get the right key on a single 3-key ‘tHiNgiE‘!?! Hours ‘n hours ‘n hours ‘n hours ‘n then even more hours ‘n hours shopping for a Small-Compact .. 84-key Compact Tenkeyless (AKA 75%) .. scissor-switch keys .. USB 2.0 (Wireless 2.4 GHz) Dongle (i.e. both wireless ‘n wired) .. Backlit .. less than $50. Could’ve been even smaller, but I could not find one of them either. The VELOCIFIRE TKL02WS is perfect as my main/primary board tho…the others have all been a pain. 😉
8/14/2021: The Arteck HB220B Universal Backlit 7-Colors & Adjustable Brightness Multi-Device Slim Portable Wireless Bluetooth 3.0 Keyboard is nice, and it works wid the new Sabrent USB Bluetooth 4.0 dongle: however, how does one boot into the BIOS or open the Boot Menu wid a Bluetooth keyboard?!? I know keyboards have keys, but I have no clue what a “Hot Key” is, and it appears that at least some Bluetooth keyboards can’t boot into BIOS. This MoBo has a Bluetooth setting but it appears that it still isn’t “paired” with the keyboard. ‘InWin‘ is just used for WIN 11 Beta right now, and for just quick tests. Keyboard works wid WIN 11 ‘n Fedora since adding the dongle, but there will be no booting into BIOS or the Boot Menu, apparently.
8/13/2021: 1) Got the Arteck HB220B Universal Backlit 7-Colors & Adjustable Brightness Multi-Device Slim Portable Wireless Bluetooth 3.0 Keyboard yesterday, and quickly discovered that ‘Apevia‘, ‘CM130‘, and ‘Antec Jr.‘ don’t have Bluetooth!? Both the Chromebooks ‘n the phone have it tho…ain’t sure about ‘Rose‘ or ‘InWin‘ yet. Just never really used Bluetooth ‘n had figured all computers have it. This keyboard is very very “Slim” and has no legs. Not suited for a main blogging TKL backlit type of keyboard tho, but will work great wid what I do wid ‘InWin‘ (and even ‘Rose’ at times – handles TV duty now). 2) Because ‘InWin‘ probably doesn’t have Bluetooth either, I purchased this yesterday: Sabrent USB Bluetooth 4.0 Micro Adapter for PC v4.0 Class 2 with Low Energy for $5.99. They claim it works wid Bluetooth keyboards, and they are becoming popular, tho I prefer the USB 2.0 (Wireless 2.4 GHz) type. 3) The move to backlit ‘n smaller keyboards is working out great! Will do a post on keyboards (in general), possibly, since I never knew there were so many types – e.g. the Mini’s from just one brand!?! Am done wid any keyboard having a number pad tho, except maybe in emergencies. BTW, am lovin’ the VELOCIFIRE TKL02WS Wireless Mechanical Keyboard!
8/09/2021: New Perixx PERIBOARD-429 US Wired Mini Backlit Keyboard arrived today. Perfect size (not for main keyboard tho), and ‘CM130‘ & ‘Antec Jr.‘ can share the same Sabrent HB-UMN4 Sabrent Mini 4-Port USB 2.0 Rotating Hub which has both keyboard ‘n mouse plugged into it…they share the same monitor already. The 429 is a wired USB keyboard, but those 2 computers are to the right side of the desk, and against the wall w/ 1 stacked on the other, so the cable is never in the way. Have noticed that the Blacklit needs turned of before shutting down or it might stay on until auto shutoff kick in (10 mins?). Fn-key + W-key turns it off ‘n on.
8/07/2021: 1) Arteck HB220B Universal Backlit 7-Colors & Adjustable Brightness Multi-Device Slim Portable Wireless Bluetooth 3.0 Keyboard for $19.99. Don’t know anything about Bluetooth or even this company, but worth the gamble @ that price. If its any good I may buy a couple more, since they are what I’ve been looking for (except Bluetooth instead USB receiver (dongle)). Non-mechanical, small foot print and Backlit…hard to find for some reason!? Scissor-switch keys instead of the noisy mechanical ones. Main thing for me is Backlit, some kind of wireless & no number pad (smaller). 2) ISP’s and actual internet speeds. 8 Megabits (Mb) in 1 Megabyte (MB). ISP says you have 50 Mbps download speeds, which sounds better than 6.25 MBps download speeds. They are the same speed. 😉 I get between 5-7.5 MBps on actual downloads…average is about 6 MBps, and is the fastest I’ve ever had.
8/05/2021: Been trying to find a new ISP backup plan for the Verizon LTE Home internet. LTE Home is mostly excellent for this remote area – 50 Mbps speed – but Verizon seems to be working on their signal, and LTE Home has been going down between 3 PM to sometimes after 9 PM. AT&T claims they have 4G ‘n 5G coverage here, so I am trying a $30 prepaid card and a $40 AT&T Alcatel Volta phone. I definitely like the flip-phones w/ dial buttons instead of this touch screen crap! Raining all day today so the signal isn’t great, but it does offer internet service wid the Mobile Hotspot setting on the phone. Have 14 days to return the phone, but there is no refund for the $30 card. No one wants to offer me an actual landline!?! Anyway, am falling behind on my postings because of time spent getting the Verizon Jetpack cancelled, and then trying to find a replacement. Will probably return the phone…I like flip-phones better…
8/03/2021: Just purchased a Perixx PERIBOARD-429 US Wired Mini Backlit Keyboard – Thin and Silent Scissor Keys – White Backlight Color for $29.99 no tax ‘n free shipping. Wanted Backlit ‘n Quiet ‘n Small…Dimensions: 11.10″ x 5.32″ x 0.55″ (282 mm x 135 mm x 14 mm). It’s wired, but it’s going to go wid main Linux Test computer – CM130, which is outta the way. Backlighting has made a believer outta me! It’ll replace a 17.375″ x 5.625″ Logitech … 17.375″ x 5.625″ !?! Have never used a number pad in my life, but still ended up wid’em on my keyboards?! 17.375″ wide vs 11.10″ wide!?!?!?!
8/02/2021: Durn Verizon was down for 5+ hours today. Have 2 Verizon ISP accounts – 1) LTE Home Internet. 2) prepaid Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot wireless internet. That prepaid Jetpack is just a backup, but am cancelling it tomorrow – it goes down when the LTE Home goes down so it is useless…slow ‘n useless. LTE Home is around 50 Mbps wid great download speeds also…that Jetpack is 1-2 Mbps – it used to be pretty fast, like 10-15 Mbps. Firmware doesn’t update anymore so maybe its just too old. Cell phone 4G suks here also, so will check into getting a landline for a Home phone. Remote areas are great, but come wid some drawbacks also…
7/31/2021: Making another slight ‘Progression‘ change, as I sorta ‘Go wid da Flow‘ on this blog, and ‘Da Flow basically involves 3 different OSes – Windows, Chrome OS (Chromebooks), and Linuxes (over 2000 Distros/DE/SPINS/Flavors/etc. PLUS CloudReady OS is Linux). Added new Page for this move also – Special *PURPOSE* Linuxes. Had thought I would be slowing down a little wid the blog, but ‘Da Flow says it’s time for some positive Linux posts again. Linux is a *LOT* more than just a failed “Desktop” OS.
7/29/2021: Grocery day … lazy day. The VELOCIFIRE TKL02WS Wireless keyboard is great ‘n a Backlit keyboard is only way to go, for me. I will get another Backlit, to use one on the main Linux test computer, ‘C130‘.
7/27/2021: Not a lot of decent “Desktop” Linux activity going on, so I’ll add some new ‘Stuff‘ to this page: 1) New VELOCIFIRE TKL02WS Wireless Mechanical Keyboard came today ‘n the Backlit keyboard is absolutely excellent. It’s a ‘Clickity‘ one, but apparently there are O-rings you can buy to make it quiet…no faster than I type it isn’t really a problem. 😉 $50 for a keyboard seems very high, but for a “TKL” w/ Backlit it apparently isn’t (?!?). I may move to a better one in the future…more options, more available information, better battery, etc. – like the Keychron K8 Wireless. Noisy tho … Backlit keyboard is definately something I have needed – *WOW!!! 2) View of my property from above – green roof is my hut ‘n others are sheds used for storage, or workshop, or garage. Had help building the hut, but did the others myself 3) Post from my other blog – What Totalitarian Governments *DO* to Little Girls.
7/24/2021: OK…closer to a “Weekly” than a Daily Blog Log. 😉 Problem w/ wireless keyboard & mouse combos is there is only one USB receiver (dongle). Over the years, they get shifted around, a full sized mouse replaces those mini-mouses, and I have/had ended up with 2 mini-mouses w/ no receivers – i.e. keyboards were being used w/ full sized mouses. Logitech has a unifying USB receiver, but they’re $10 or so. Anyway, just got a new Logitech M185, a mini that I use w/ laptops/Chromebooks ‘n can be easily stored in a laptop case. Also threw away a keyboard that the lettering had faded away or chipped away w/ nails, which left me w/o a good spare keyboard. Long story…anyway, have came across “mechanical” keyboards that have back-lighting, supposedly easier to replace keys, smaller footprint, but are expensive. Don’t know anything about them, e.g. they have different type of batteries and most seem to be wired or Bluetooth. Just ordered VELOCIFIRE TKL02WS 87 Key Wireless for $50 ‘n free shipping, and it has USB receiver instead of Bluetooth, and has a USB cable for charging or using as wired. That wired option interests me because some Linux Distros require a wired keyboard when testing. It will probably suk, but I try to keep up w/ newer ‘Stuff‘ or possibly better keyboards in this case. Backlit keys might also be interesting.
7/19/2021: Am dumber than dirt on ‘The Cloud‘ – want to do some testing on what it is ‘n is about, but can’t seem to find a way to go at it. I have avoided all the Cloud stuff ‘n sync stuff ‘n store stuff for many reasons, but am starting to get the feeling of being left behind – sorta. Don’t want to pay for Cloud service, so am looking into what the “free” Clouds are about, e.g. Free Cloud Services. It is akin to swimming against the ‘Flow‘ – which I rarely do anymore.
7/18/2021: 1) Have slowed down on the Linux Distro testing ‘n reviews, so extra ISP’s are not needed…cancelled my HughesNet service ‘n it ended today. Verizon wireless thrashes them at speeds, price, and unlimited DATA. 2) Hard to believe that Microsoft is about to have another GROWTH explosion, but it appears that they are now so far ahead of anyone ‘n everyone that absolutely *NO* outsiders know or even understand what Microsoft is doing. BTW, this Windows 11 Beta I am testing is amazing!
7/14/2021: Just yard work today…a few hours of it anyway. I have huge hedges in sunny spots around the property for privacy, and the shady spots get a custom privacy wood fence. Fence is 7′ high, but I only use 4′ boards (8′ cut in half) from top down to 3′ off ground…have an electric fence running down in that lower area to keep dogs out. Privacy is my goal, and it has worked. I use a DOEWORKS 40V Li-ion Cordless Pole Hedge Trimmer for the top of the hedge (hedge is about 6’6″ high), and a 18-volt cordless Ryobi Hedge Trimmer for the sides. Property is an acre, and there is 2-300′ of hedge (maybe a little more), so those two tools work great together! Only did the tops today, so still have most of the sides to do. After that, I finished up the mowing, in the mainly wooded-half of property.
7/13/2021: 1) Mowed half my property this morning (it’s an acre so I have the easy half left – more trees ‘n less grass!). 2) Tested EuroLinux earlier – not worth doing a post on. Couldn’t even enable RPM Fusion, so forget Nvidia drivers!?! After seeing how secure, stable ‘n reliable Chrome OS ‘n CloudReady OS are, the other Linux Distros have all fallen to at least third place as just a third rate Desktop/Laptop OS.
7/12/2021: 1) Microsoft has its own Linux distro called CBL-Mariner – Linux is a ‘Toy OS‘ so everyone wants ‘Their Own‘ version to play wid, hence over 2000+++ versions (at least!) floating around. 😉 2) Went for my yearly “Wellness” visit today ‘n Doc said to keep doing whatever I’m doing – more of a mental physical for old people where they’re checking “cognitive impairment assessment is performed to look for signs of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia and check for depression and other mood disorders.” My other yearly visit is around January of each year – with a CT Scan ‘n Blood Work type of physical ‘Stuff‘ physical. All free for me.
7/11/2021: Looks like Google is planning to merge Chromium OS ‘n CloudReady OS to make one strong Linux Distro – Chromium OS Integrates CloudReady Installer. I’ve tried both: 1) Chromium seemed difficult ‘n buggy-like. 2) CloudReady seems to lack apps. Google needs something to fix the AUE date on the Chrome OS ‘n this looks like a great plan, if that is their plan!? 😉
7/09/2021: 1) Reinstalled Fedora 34 on ‘Sam‘ this morning, to a Samsung 64GB memory card. Only have one 128GB memory card, but have three of the 64GB. 64GB’s is more than enough for Fedora 34. May use that 128GB card for AlmaLinux at some point. That’s a $314.57 Chromebook turned into a Fedora Linux Laptop/Tablet/Sketchbook. 😉
7/06/2021: Rocky Linux came outta ‘Da Gate Late ‘n can’t even get the NVIDIA driver installed. AlmaLinux ‘n CentOS Stream had No Problems with getting the NVIDIA driver installed…basically installed it graphically. AlmaLinux *OWNS* that old CentOS spot…
7/05/2021: 1) Raining like a ‘Cow peeing on a flat rock‘ for several weeks now. Probably contributed to a very large tree snapping about 12’ up the trunk, and then falling on ‘n around my utility shed area ‘n carport/workshop area. Didn’t damage anything but the neighbor’s fence!?! Finally got that all cleaned ‘n sawed up … finally got a lot of it burned (not easy in the rain). Tree fell from a neighbor’s property ‘n he had a tractor that hauled all the big stuff off. 2) Testing Rocky Linux, and had problems wid NVIDIA drivers…will give it a second chance tomorrow. AlmaLinux and CentOS Stream had no problems wid NVIDIA – see RHEL-based series.
7/04/2021: 1) That Samsung XE521QAB-K01US Chromebook Plus is still @ $249 w/ free shipping. I love mine…just the right Display size, tho I hated it at first – 1920×1200 is 16:10 aspect ratio ‘n seemed weird at first. NOT SO! It makes for a great size ‘n clarity. I just don’t need another one…I guess!? 😉 2) A lot less sales than I had figured for this July 4th. Never buy less than a 1920 x 1080 display on a laptop, tablet or Chromebook – those 1366×768 displays are old technology. 3) Just found out that there is a Hyundai Technology that makes laptops. Bet you could install Linux on them, and they all seem fairly low priced.
7/02/2021: Looking for a Linux Laptop? Samsung XE521QAB-K01US Chromebook Plus (Intel Celeron 3965Y) is being offered for just $249 w/ free shipping at ebay. That’s $50 less than what I paid for my ‘Sam‘ – plus I paid $14.58 shipping. Easy to convert that one…documented here!
6/30/2021: Gave that 11.6” HP Chromebook away…to a preacher/handyman that I know in the area. He’s done some tree work ‘n miscellaneous jobs some years back, and I remembered him when wondering who would want that Chromebook. Its not made for testing, just for Chrome OS ‘n Google. Gave him that old 10+” ASUS Memo pad in the shed also…finally got rid of that useless Android thingie! 😉
6/28/2021: Been testing the new 11.6” HP Chromebook all day. The 1366×768 display is OK, but the other two Chromebook displays are a lot better. Slower than the other two also, but it’s was a $149 Chromebook that has now jumped back up to $259 (not worth that, IMHO!). Am not going to be able to do the (UEFI) Full ROM script, but the RW_LEGACY Firmware script has worked. Have had problems with the 32GB SanDisk microSDXC cards, I think, but went to SanDisk 64GB small USB later, and it is working. Just ordered 3-pack if 64GB Samsung EVO Select microSDXC cards…none of the Distros seemed to like the SanDisk card. Laptops have these SD card slots ‘n I want to make use of them…hopefully the switch to Samsung SD card will work.
6/23/2021: 1) Almost purchased a Asus Zenbook UX303LA-US51T “(new in box)” in an eBay auction yesterday. The winning bid was $272, which could’ve been easily beaten in the final minutes; however, even “(new in box)” for that model means the battery has been sitting there, inside for 6-7 years. Decided to skip it…staying with about a 2 year max on “(new in box)” laptops instead. 2) The Chromebook 11.6″ laptops are almost impossible to find – at a price I will pay – without that 1366×768 display. Also, the Board or Intel CPU needs to be in a certain platform/family for MrChromebox’s script to work. The board’s name is too hard to find, but the board and CPU have to be in the same platform/family to work w/ each other. Mainly avoiding anymore Geminilake Chromebooks (which is why Linux won’t install on my 14″ HP). 11.6″ is only about a 1/2″ smaller than a 12.2″ – so am mainly looking for a steal before July 4th holiday. Some interesting Windows 10 laptop deals are starting to look good also…Linux should fit onto any of those.
6/21/2021: DistroWatch may be blocking WP Blogs from linking to them, or at least my domain. All the links to DistroWatch in this CloudReady OS post didn’t work; however, those same links worked in my WP Reader. WP Support said that sites do that – “blocked references from a specific domain” if too much traffic comes in. DistroWatch is about useless anyway, so I’ll just stop linking to them.
6/20/2021: Getting Fedora 33 Cinnamon onto ‘Sam‘ has improved my opinion of Linux as a possible OS for laptops; however, knowing Linux as I do, it will *NEVER* be as stable ‘n reliable as I have found Chrome OS to be. MrChromebox.tech also offers a UEFI (Full ROM) Firmware script that turns the Chromebook into a “regular PC” where you can install any OS. I may try that in the future, on a much cheaper Chromebook, but not on this one. Right now, it’s sorta like a dual-boot with Fedora ‘n Chrome OS, and works great. I like the 12.2″ size better that the 14″ HP also. Have already started looking for a 11-11.6″ Chromebook or Windows 10 S laptop, tho will probably go with a $90 or so refurbished one…just for testing. MrChromebox.tech also offers a Supported Devices page for finding Chromebooks that are capable of using at least the RW_LEGACY script. It appears that I almost ‘Stole‘ the Samsung 12.2″ Chromebook XE521QAB, but may find a cheaper laptop for testing before the July 4th holiday…something around $150-170 for a new one, and I would even settle on a 1366×768 display for a test laptop, and most of the 11.6″ ones seem to be 1366×768 anyway.
6/19/2021: 1) Had forgot to upgrade Fedora 32 to Fedora 33 in yesterday’s How to turn a $314.57 Chromebook into a Fedora Linux Laptop/Tablet/Sketchbook – Chromebook series part 5 post so did it this morning – after also reinstalling it to a 128GB Samsung EVO Select microSDXC Memory Card from the 32 GB SD card. 2) Installed AlmaLinux on ‘Sam‘ (Samsung Chromebook), but there was no laptop setting for what happens when closing the lid. Weird, laptops they are! Anyway, AlmaLinux installation stopped working if the lid was closed, so moved Fedora 33 to that 128 GB SD card.
6/17/2021: As per the FossaPup64 9.5 Linux post, I got Puppy Linux to boot from a USB it was installed on. ‘Live’ Fedora 33 Cinnamon Spin was able to boot also. Installing it to an 128GB SD Memory card didn’t work. Am running tests now to see if a 32GB device (SD card then USB) will work. The firmware script I have in now may be just for USB’s, and it looks like they may need to be 32GBs or less (like the Chromebook’s storage – ??). ‘Live’ Ubuntu wouldn’t boot from a 64 GB USB, so may try it with a 32 GB USB later – *IF* Fulltime Linux Root User distro Fedora doesn’t work out.
6/16/2021: Google doesn’t want people buying a good laptop fairly cheap ‘n then installing Linux on it – they say they’re “OK with it,” but it wouldn’t be this difficult if they really approved of it. Yes, I am back to trying to install Linux on a Chromebook. Also, am liking the new Samsung better today! 😉
6/15/2021: 1) Maybe I should change name of this page to “Karmi’s Weekly Blog Log”?! 2) The Samsung 12.2″ Chromebook XE521QAB arrived yesterday ‘n I disliked it almost instantly. I like it better this morning, but the HP Chromebook (‘Chromebook‘) will probably be my favorite for home use. Samsung Chromebook it too much about the display – touch ‘n Stylus Pen. 12.2″ may also be a tad too small, but I am still testing that and a lot of other ‘Thangs that I wanted to learn about Chromebooks, and laptops in general. First Impression: the HP Chromebook is probably gonna be a better ‘Fit‘ for me here at home.
6/11/2021: I have a bunch of USB’s for USB-A ports, but the new Chromebook came with 2 USB-C ports ‘n just 1 USB-A port … USB C Male to USB3 Female Adapter might be the solution. Will add it to the Gadgets ‘n TidBits page.
6/09/2021: When one actually does some testing on other Desktop/Laptop OSes besides Windows 10 Pro, they can see how far behind those other OSes are, e.g. an OS like Linux isn’t made for or suitable for ‘Desktop Duty‘. Yes, one can claim that their Electric Lamborghini is just like a Lamborghini, but gets better gas mileage; however, can it actually get a tag for driving on the highway? Simply No. Have been testing ‘Chromebook‘ hard…trying to install Linux using Developer Mode…installing Linux Beta for installing apps (GParted didn’t work but GIMP did). Chromebooks are made for Chrome OS, and are amazing; however, other than to test, I see no reason to put Linux on one. Honestly, the one ‘Thang I don’t like about Chromebooks at this point, is the Auto Update Expiration (AUE). From what I can tell so far, you’d have to pay a lot of money to get a top quality Chromebook that has a life span of 7-8 years, and I could probably buy the same setup with WIN10 Pro for less. These tests are made easy because Chromebook has “Powerwash.” Excited to see what the 12.2″ Samsung can do when it gets here…great display that is also touchscreen ‘n Stylus pen able…it stops getting updates in 3 years. What then? I dunno yet, but that’s basically $100 a year ‘n then updates stop.
6/08/2021: ‘Chromebook‘ has 2 USB-C ports (1 on each side), but just 1 USB-A 2.0 – thought to try a Sabrent HB-UMN4 Sabrent Mini 4-Port USB 2.0 Rotating Hub since it rotates ‘n doesn’t have a cable in the way (if space is limited). $7.99 at Newegg w/ no tax ‘n free shipping. Will add it to my Gadgets ‘n TidBits page. 😉
6/07/2021: Currently have 3 internet plans…am preparing to have just 2 by end of year: 1) Hughes Net satellite has been an ole faithful, but its $40 a month is coming to an end. 2) Verizon LTE Home Internet should drop to $60/65 a month soon, since I added AutoPay – unlimited w/ fastest service I’ve ever had. 3) Added a Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot 890L line to my prepaid Verizon phone account today – with AutoPay it’s going to be $59-something total for the 2 lines. Pulled the Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot 890L out of storage shed ‘n tested it, i.e. it hasn’t been used in years. Had a new battery already, so got it up an running, but had problems trying to add new line. Quick trip to Verizon in town ‘n they had me added quickly. $30 a month makes Hughes Net expendable…keep 2 with all my computers ‘n testing, for now. With the mobility of smaller Chromebooks (waiting on the 12.2″ to arrive, but suspect it will be my go-to size) figured I’d give it better mobility with its own Jetpack Hotspot.
6/05/2021: Tested openSUSE 15.3. Great little installer ‘n fast. Has Root User option, but has same sound issue in Root as Before. Truthfully, after seeing what Chrome OS can do on ‘n with a Laptop, all the other Linux Distros have fell into a #3 OS area…at best. Only password Chromebook has asked for is when I boot up the machine. Since I can just close the lid to turn off display ‘n put it to sleep, then open the lid when I want to use it, there is no need for a password since it opens immediately back onto the desktop. Left it like that all yesterday evening, then all night, and it had barely used the battery…maybe 4-8% was used ‘n that included opening it to check on ‘Thangs.
6/04/2021: Been busy busy shopping for another Chromebook for the past few days – I am really impressed by the total package they offer, plus battery life is incredible, plus their lightweight makes them better @ portability ‘n quickie action than the 15.6″ Acer I have. Purchased a Samsung 12.2″ Chromebook Plus V2 4GB 32GB XE521QAB-K01 New Sealed Stylus Pen earlier, for $299.99 + $14.58 shipping…no tax. That gives me 2 new Chromebooks (total of $524.56) to see which I like best, and will use the other one for testing. I had questions on this one, but this – Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 Review – helped make up my mind.
6/02/2021: New HP Chromebook already had a name when it arrived – ‘Chromebook‘. Can see the Linux kernel involved, i.e. the Mouse can’t auto-scroll ‘n nor are there any useful settings for scrolling, but it is a laptop. Running it thru hardware testing today ‘n the Intel® Celeron® N4000 (1.1 GHz base frequency, up to 2.6 GHz burst frequency, 4 MB L2 cache, 2 cores) kicks some arse! Most people underestimate the Celeron CPU as a Desktop/Laptop processor…definitely not a gamer’s processor, but its fine for normal computing. I’ve seen it hit 2.80 GHz this morning ‘n ran easily @ 2.69 GHz during a Stress Test. Seems to idle above 2.20 GHz, i.e. haven’t seen it at the “1.1 GHz” advertised base frequency. Impressive Top to Bottom (so far)!!!
6/01/2021: 2) Chromebook arrived. *EXCELLENT* piece of Hardware! Am typing this update on it now. Will take me some time to get use to, but at this early point I see *NO* reason to test Linux on it. Impressive from the start plus one of the sharpest laptop Displays I have ever used (resolution setting are extremely flexible ‘n easy). Installed Firefox, but quickly deleted it after seeing how perfectly the Chrome browser works with the Chromebook. Not a replacement for an actual WIN10 Desktop PC, but certainly a better companion to it than ‘Ace the Laptop‘. 😉 Well worth the $209.99 price. Lightweight ‘n easy to use as a quick portable. 1) The 128GB Samsung EVO Select microSDXC Memory Card arrived earlier today, and the new Chromebook should arrive in an hour or two.
5/28/2021: 1) downloading 3 RHEL based distos this morning…all over 9 GBs EACH. Thinking about doing a RHEL based series since 4 of my Top 5 are based on it. May give up on Oracle since it always seems a pain to download…AlmaLinux ‘n CentOS Stream are already finished. 2) UPS sent an email saying my Chromebook is delayed until June 1rst!? Package is in Jacksonville, Florida and is delayed there!? Something doesn’t sound right…more later. OK…forgot it’s Memorial Day weekend which is huge holiday in America. 3) Finally used Verizon wireless for the Oracle download…Hughes Net is just terrible at downloading huge files, which is why I may drop them totally early next year because they are only a cheap backup now.
5/27/2021: Upgraded AlmaLinux OS 8.3 to AlmaLinux OS 8.4 and had no problems – one of the smoothest OSes I’ve worked with.
5/26/2021: UPS saying Chromebook delivery will be this Friday. Trying to do some research on it whilst waiting…1) looks like the “Free cloud” is just for one year, i.e. a gimmick to get your Data stashed on their Cloud, and then start charging you after 12 months. 2) I’ve always ‘Made‘ my own Cloud ‘n have never charged myself a dime! 😉 3) Chromebook has a microSD™ memory card reader, but am not sure what size or ‘wHaTeVeR‘ compatibility issues there will be, so will wait for more info when it arrives Friday. I know the old ASUS Android tablet only took 32 GB’s as max size. Anyway, space will not be an issue for me on the Chromebook. 4) don’t know anything about memory cards, but went ahead ‘n purchased a Samsung EVO Select microSDXC Memory Card 128GB for $20. Couldn’t find any requirements on what the HP Chromebook required, but saw a site recommending the Samsung Evo Select for Chromebooks. If it fits it fits…if not, I’m outta 20 Gringo Dollars. 5) hate waiting for a new ‘Toy‘ to arrive! 😉
5/25/2021: Am not sure yet, but it may be possible to boot Linux from a USB on the Chromebook. Talking fully installed to a USB already, e.g. I have Puppy Linux ‘n Fedora 33 Cinnamon installed on 3 different USB’s, and am hoping to be able to boot into them. All my permanent Linux Distros (Puppy, Fedora, CentOS Stream, AlmaLinux and Oracle Linux are on at least one USB) are installed only on USB. Don’t want to mess up the Chromebook by the installation processes of other OSes, but booting a Linux Distro should be fairly simple…yes?!? 😉 Then again, Chrome OS may be better than Linux…can’t wait for the durn ‘Thang to get here!!!
5/24/2021: Brief update since I’ve missed about 4 days already…was busy researching, posting, searching and finally buying a Chromebook. They’ve done something that Linux has never been able to, i.e. create a Desktop OS that is both popular *AND* shows growth after just 10 years. Time I give Chrome OS a shot…on its own hardware.
5/19/2021: Did the ‘Apevia‘ computer last nite ‘n have started backing up ‘n upgrading the other 5 computers this morning to 21H1 version. 9:45 AM EST and have finished the backups ‘n all computers are now upgraded to the 21H1 version. No problems other than the Acer laptop being incredibly slow. Will do a post on it later today…
5/18/2021: Just finished upgrading ‘Apevia‘ computer’s Windows 10 Pro to the new 21H1 Update version. Prepping other 5 computers ‘n backing them up for the 21H1 Update also.
5/17/2021: 1) Headed into 2nd season of Dexter (just purchased the Complete Series for $36) – first time seeing it, and so far it is one of the best series I have ever seen (Top to Bottom), but still early. 2) Renewed my CDL Class A driver’s license today – $82 covers the next 8 years…will put me @ 83 then, so this was last time for keeping the CDL. Could’ve done it online if I had dropped the CDL and got a standard license. Couldn’t do CDL online because they want a vision test. 3) Looks like Microsoft is carrying Linux now…working on that post. 4) Piddling with Linux for 25 years now – hoping they would eventually come up with a Desktop OS version, but it apparently is never going to happen. They are just too focused on the commercial aspects…which is why most Distros force the annoying “Authenticate” popups on Desktop OS users, i.e. they can’t get past the sever mentality ‘n keyboard-based parts.
5/12/2021: 1) 4th try for the Newegg Shuffle – at this rate I could probably do the blog on each entry! Will do it here instead. 😉 $499.99 for a MSI RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G OC Ventus GeForce RTX 3060 Video Card by itself (no combo). 2) Have an acre of land with over 300′ of 6′ tall hedging around it – custom privacy fence covering the empty perimeter spots. Am trying to catch up on the hedge trimming ‘n lawn mowing…well, it’s first of summer in Florida, so when I catch up it is time to start again!?! 😉
5/08/2021: 1) Mentioned “looking into WSLg Architecture” on the 4/26 entry, and the entire WSL idea it looking like it has reached a new *MAJOR* breakthrough. Have added a new Windows Subsystem for Linux ‘Page‘ for what is looking like a long series.
5/03/2021: 1) Tested the new Rocky Linux RC1 and it’s looking real good. Offers root login so you can avoid annoying “Authenticate” popup or other ‘Pesky Passwords’. 2) Fedora 34 Spins – Cinnamon ‘n KDE – are both problematic, IMHO. KDE Plasma ‘Live’ is terrible on both my Intel ‘n AMD test machines, and haven’t been able to even install it.
4/26/2021: 1) TextMaker is now my main word processor ‘n have associated .doc ‘n .docx file with it. (Free TextMaker is an advertisement platform for SoftMaker.) 2) Lots of new Linux Distros are available for testing, but if they are ‘Password Dependent‘ it is difficult to even bother with them. 3) Downloaded the new T2_SDE 21.4 but am not ready to try it again. 4) Have started looking into WSLg Architecture – is ‘GUI applications support in the Windows Subsystem for Linux‘ – which may end up being a way to avoid the Linux OS issues.
4/24/2021: May have found the Word Processor I have been searching for, and have created the new Office Suites ‘n Word Processors page to reflect the search ‘n what is available for free as a possible replacement for MS Office Word.
4/19/2021: 1) Firefox updated to version 88.0 today ‘n the Google Search problem is still there. One of the biggest companies in the world ‘n they can’t get their search engine right on Firefox!?
4/17/2021: 1) Tested new Zorin 16 Beta…just another ‘Password Dependent‘ Linux Distro pretending to be a Desktop OS. 2) Had issues yesterday w/ Waterfox ‘n Firefox…had to clear cache to fix them. Took awhile to figure it out, but worth the lesson to realize a cache can cause so many problems.
4/14/2021: 1) Had already deleted about 4 Distro ISO’s because of a lack of interest on my part, but just finished formatting two SSD’s with Distros already installed ‘n waiting for a review. The research on Web Hosting was extremely interesting and consumed all my time ‘n interest. 2) This year is going to end being another ‘Year of the Doctors‘ for me, but I guess it is needed. Going to one Doctor always turns into at least one more visit…my Dermatologist is going to end up being five visits!? Just had stitches removed from one Mohs surgery this morning, and have one more Mohs surgery next month, so that will be two more visits. Lived in Miami for decades – lots of boating, fishing, skiing ‘n scuba diving plus loads of sun tanning. Boating can be terrible since you’re getting the direct sun plus its reflection off the water. Am lucky my skin problems have been minor!
4/11/2021: Still ‘TiNkERiNg‘ w/ the Business Plan upgrade. Thought about changing Themes, but hard to beat the Rowling for what I want. Would like to add an actual image in the Top Header Menu area, but seems like everything has to be linked there. Could add a Logo for the site in the Site Identity area, but that may interfere with my Site Icon (?!?!?!). Actually, a lot of the customization options were also offered in the Free plan, but I just hated customizing ‘Thangs‘! 😉
4/09/2021: OK…only one issue with upgrade, a minor one w/ Jetpack. Used the “Chat support” for first time ever, and it does a good job. Slow enough for me to read and reply, plus you have the browser right there. Great to have Classic Editor back!!! Will stay with some form of pay from now on…probably another host tho.
4/08/2021: Have been busy busy! 😉 Am working on a Foundation Post for the new Web Hosting Info ‘n Ideas page. Have also tested a lot of Linux Distros recently, but may end up skipping all reviews on them since I have been so focused on upgrading the old ‘Free‘ WP Blog Plan…will catch’em on their next upgrades!
4/02/2021: 1) New editor is terrible! Click on a spot to type ‘n it drops to the end of the page. Incredibly slow compared to Classic Editor. Pics seem better, but a ridiculous Open Source Editor that reminds me of LibreOffice Writer – especially the slow part. Even my other blog has the new editor now. 2) Spring in N. Florida, but a cold-spell has moved in for a couple days…warms up by noon so I’ve been mowing the lawn (about an acre+) ‘n will finish up tomorrow. 3) Downloaded a bunch of Linux ISO’s, but ‘Password Dependent‘ Distros have lost all appeal to me which makes it difficult to even review the ones I like. No biggie tho, since most visitors to this blog are here after searching for something. 4) The 500GB SanDisk Extreme® Portable SSD V2 came in yesterday…speeds only in 400-500MB/s since whatever its reading from or writing to isn’t USB 3.2 Gen 2. Could’ve bought a standard Samsung SSD for less than half that price, but wanted to test one in case of some future upgrades. ‘Apevia‘ is my only computer right now w/ USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports. USB4 is even faster, but everything needs to match in order to get 40Gbits/s speeds. 😉 Still, I’m wanting to slowly move to the 1000++ MB/s transfer/copy/paste speeds between at least two computers soon.
3/30/2021: Tested MakuluLinux “LinDoz” – ‘Password Dependent‘ Linux Distros are just too annoying to write reviews on all of them anymore. I can pay $11-21+ at URcdkey for a legal Windows 10 Pro OEM CD-Key so a pretend-to-be Windows doesn’t interest me. Nice Linux Distro ‘n everything works, but no Fulltime Linux Root User access or option.
3/27/2021: Tested KaOS this morning…didn’t care for it.
3/26/2021: 1) Ordered a 500GB SanDisk Extreme® Portable SSD V2 ‘n have been looking for something portable that was supposedly faster than a SSD. They are more expensive than I wanted to pay, but might be worth it if the “1050MB/s read and 1000MB/s write speeds” are actually close to that. 2) Downloaded Fedora-Cinnamon-Live-x86_64-34_Beta-1.3 ISO this morning. Had tested Fedora 34 Beta 1.2 on 3/16/2021. Sound in System Setting still doesn’t work, i.e. I get THIS (instead of my 2 speakers) when trying to “Test sound” and cannot change Output or anything. It will play a song when I test that in Parole Media Player. 3) W/O Admin sections working WordPress is slow elsewhere, e.g. here on edit page…S..L..O..W!!! Buggy too, i.e. when opening edit page, then clicking on section to type in it drops to the bottom of the page!?! This always happens when some idiot believes they can reinvent the wheel… 4) ref. yesterday’s “trying to copy 3 pages with 5 pics” statement – LibreOffice was copying it, but was very slow at it as another test showed this morning. I didn’t know, but can work w/ slow if I know what’s going on. 😉
3/25/2021: Getting the – Manjaro Linux 21.0 ‘just another Distro for Password Dependent OS Users’ post out today was murder. Classic Editor and parts of the WP Admin section are gone, on this blog (but other blog still has them?!), and it took forever to get it done. Anyway, its free so I’ll figure out a way to just write it up and paste it. Unfortunately, LibreOffice Writer performed horridly today, e.g. trying to copy 3 pages with 5 pics was incredibly difficult!? Must be an easier way, or I’ll have to check out another Open Source Office Suite…may do that anyway…Writer just isn’t nearly as good a Word. I’ll give it another week, but am going to look for a better word processor now – *SURELY* Open Source has a better word processor!? I may end up going with the Code Editor before this is over…
3/23/2021: Tested ‘n updated Fedora 33 Cinnamon, CentOS Stream & Puppy Linux 9.5…they are all installed on a 4-port USB hub that is attached to new rebuild ‘Apevia‘. Each Distro recognized new Intel® i9-10900K CPU.
3/22/2021: 1) – equally working on new rebuild ‘Apevia’ and ‘Antec Jr.‘ main computers now. 2) – Mentioned yesterday that LibreOffice didn’t have a program equal to Microsoft Office Picture Manager, but found out later that Microsoft hasn’t offered it since 2010 (I believe?)…my 3-licensed office is 2007 Home & Student ‘n has it, but the URcdkey 2016 MS Office Home & Student version mentioned in ‘Word vs Writer‘ post doesn’t. I don’t believe Open Source software has what I am looking for, but Adobe seems to have free versions of their software that may work. I now have Photoshop Express, Bridge 2021 ‘n Creative Cloud installed, and the Photoshop Express seems to be the one I need – tho haven’t tested the other two yet. MS Picture Manager didn’t do everything I actually need, i.e. I used a combo involving Paint, Paint 3D, and GIMP along with MS Picture Manager. Anyway, I am done with having to jump-thru-hoops to re-activate one of my own legal MS Office licenses! Microsoft seems to have purposely left an Office Suite niche open and I am in the process of filling it with LibreOffice, i.e. ‘Merging‘ Microsoft ‘n Open Source Software. If Open Source Software doesn’t have it, then I’ll look for free versions of reliable software like Adobe.
3/21/2021: I use 3 apps in Microsoft Office – Word, Excel and Microsoft Office Picture Manager. I don’t use Excel anymore since quitting Fantasy Football, so the LibreOffice suite now only provides me with half of what I need. Microsoft Office Picture Manager has been a major part of my blogging, and LibreOffice doesn’t have anything to replace it. So I’m checking around…I use GIMP for somethings, but it can’t replace Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Checking around for a replacement got me to Luminar – until I saw the price!? Photoshop Express is recommended highly, and it is free at the Microsoft Store…so will test it. Have also heard that there is a free online Microsoft Office version ‘n maybe they have it for using online?! Will check around for an Open Source version that might be able to replace Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
3/20/2021: ASUS Prime Z490M-PLUS MoBo arrived a few hours ago…installed everything ‘n then installed the $10.30 WIN10 Pro OEM, and then Activated it. Going thru updating and adding drivers from the MoBo DVD…its a slow USB DVD player, but does the job. Edge browser is pretending it can’t find the Firefox link … fuker! 😉 I’ll add Nvidia GeForce Experience ‘n let it handle the GeForce GTX 1660 Super drivers after I go and eat.
3/18/2021: Will be testing Kodachi 8.0 within the next couple of days – one of my favorite Specialty Linux Distros. Another Doctor appt next Tuesday (23rd) ‘n the advanced ordered ASUS Prime Z490M-PLUS MoBo may arrive that day also…so am waiting to see if it will need to be signed. Once that ‘Apevia‘ upgrade/rebuild is done then I will be using LibreOffice for all my blog prep work ‘n postings.
3/17/2021: 1) ASUS Prime Z490M-PLUS MoBo was shipped yesterday…was an advanced order, so that now has the rebuild on hold since the Intel® i9-10900K came yesterday. When I upgrade to Intel’s Alder Lake later this year or next year, will move the build’s ‘Guts‘ into ‘Rose‘ computer…other than the GeForce 1660 Super. If GPU prices ever come down again the ‘Apevia‘ will probably get a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition. My Bank had a notice up yesterday morning that US Gov’t will be depositing about $1,400 into my account this week – no wonder foreign mobs are trying to get to the USA!? 2) Just purchased the WIN10 Pro CD-Key for the ‘Apevia‘ rebuild – from URcdkey for $10.30 (w/ offer code).
3/13/2021: Android tablet has already been moved to remote storage shed…don’t know anyone who would want it. My Acer Aspire 3 AMD laptop (‘Ace the Laptop‘) never gets used, but the keyboard didn’t work yesterday. Spent a couple hours yesterday attempting to fix it by following some of the online suggestions…unplugged the battery, after removing 5,000 super tiny screws ‘n still didn’t work. After putting the 5,000 super tiny screws back in another suggestion was to check the keyboard cable for loose connection!?! That would require removing 5,000 super tiny screws again!!! Another suggestion is to update it…have never liked Acer ‘n like it even less now. This update is taking forever ‘n I doubt it fixes the keyboard…when it finishes (if ever!?) I will note what is coming next if it doesn’t work…Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock…yeah, I removed the back cover & ‘Ace the Laptop‘ is going to be a test area for me to learn a little about laptops. Should take a sledge-hammer to it…probably will soon. Will remove it from My Computers list.
3/12/2021: Got all the wires ‘n cables switched from 2 different displays, 2 different computers, and 2 different electrical circuits as I make the switch to ‘Apevia‘ as my main-working computer. New MoBo was an “advanced order” and Amazon is giving arrival date @ March 20-23, so I have plenty of time to prepare. Removed AMD MoBo ‘n cleaned up the Noctua NH-U9S CPU cooler and the Ryzen 5 3400G APU…APU will go to shed today. Also added extra 4-pin 120mm PWM fan to case…fan was left-over from recent Liquid Cooler addition to ‘CM130‘ build. New MoBo has two USB 3.2 Gen 1 headers so I wanted to add a couple more front 3.0 USB ports to the case’s one on top (top area is like 10″x14″ that can also act as a shelf)…ordered Kingwin Hot Swap Mobile Rack w/USB 3.0 Hub for that. Bays are switched ‘n WIN10 Pro SSD will stay in one of them…maybe other as a small Data drive. Already have a Kingwin KF-251-BK Dual-Bay in the case, so these additions give me four Hot Swap bays and three 3.0 USB ports on front ‘n top, plus the two 2.0 USB ports on top.
3/11/2021: per “3)” from yesterday – prep-planning is now over! 😉 Have moved to purchasing components on sale, e.g. just advanced ordered a ASUS Prime Z490M-PLUS MoBo. ‘Apevia‘ has the Ryzen™ 5 3400G APU & ASUS Prime A320M-K AMD Ryzen micro-ATX MoBo which will soon be removed ‘n sent to the shed. Will use the 16GB of PNY DDR4 2400MHz memory, the Noctua NH-U9S CPU cooler, PSU and whatever else is in with the case for a new Intel build using the Apevia X-Qpack3-NW-BK case. Will look to buy a Intel® i9-10900K next month if the price stays around $460. Plan now is to ‘Promote‘ ‘Antec Jr.‘ to ‘Keeper of the Data‘ as I do a slow move to LibreOffice from Microsoft Office, and the upgraded ‘Apevia‘ becomes my main working computer. ‘Apevia‘ and ‘Antec Jr.‘ both sit low and to my right next to each other – within easy reach. ‘Antec Jr.‘ will handle all downloads & USB boot media creation plus keep all Data including ODT files from LibreOffice…’Apevia‘ will handle Linux Newbie blog activity (posts, pages, pics, etc) using LibreOffice. The new ‘Apevia‘ build will get the GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER™ VENTUS XS OC GPU currently in ‘Antec Jr.‘. Will probably do another move to Alder Lake next year after I see how it does. *Afternoon UPDATE*: Like to payoff my credit card every month, but may not do it this month…just purchased the Intel Core i9-10900K CPU from Newegg after they added a $15 promo code – total price ended up @ $452.99 with free shipping and no taxes. That may be the lowest price that this CPU gets too anytime soon, and may even jump over $500 soon. Anyway, lots of work switching main computers whilst in the process of building one of them…have never had a pair of computers set up for what I’m about to attempt. I wanted to be able to use Linux on my main-working computer, but that PCIe M.2 2280 NVMe in ‘Antec Jr.‘ isn’t made to be swapped in ‘n out. ‘Apevia‘ will be set up with only swappable drives in Hot Swap bays. Windows 10 Pro will go on a spare 250GB Samsung SSD ‘n will never see a Linux Distro (its drive bay also has an on-off switch so it doesn’t have to be removed); however, it will mainly be used as a WIN10 Pro machine that will also include my Top Two Distros on USB’s…some possible final Distro testing also.
3/10/2021: 1) Finally got my new eTalk Verizon phone to stop dropping calls. Was having to drive 7-8 miles to get a signal that worked…during auto problems ‘n Doctor visits!? One scheduler for x-rays suggested setting it to Wi-Fi Calling…after half-dozen attempts finally got it ‘n it worked! My Verizon Home page said the phone ‘n SIM needed synced or something…called support and now all is working. The old phone didn’t have SIM card…someone said that was 3G…that phone (or one like it) worked great for 12-13 years, under a grandfathered plan. 2) Now I can finish up w/ Doctors…by July?? Had some skin autopsy checks that came back with 2 that needed removed, but no biggie with that kind. 3) prep-planning for new build and/or upgrade…may involve two-three computers??? Was thinking about Intel® i9-10900K CPU, but will probably wait for the Alder Lake stuff ‘n PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 ‘tHiNgIeS‘ to do a *BIG* build. Probably gut the ‘InWin‘ computer…take that board, CPU ‘n 16GB memory and move them into ‘Apevia‘. Am tired of AMD so only need one AMD computer. That InWin case is just too small for me, and this way I can eventually move ‘Antec Jr.‘s Intel® i9-9900 CPU there. Anyway…just prep-planning for now, but I can move fast when time is right! 😉 New moves will also be away from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice…HERE.
3/08/2021: 1) Tested MakuluLinux 2021-03-05 … installation stalled @ 93% complete on two different computers. 2) Tested SparkyLinux 2021.03 w/ KDE Plasma .. ‘Password Dependent‘ OS for OS users who need a ‘Nanny‘ to watch over them. Did a post on Sparky – 10/07/19 using Mate DE and it allowed Fulltime Linux Root User access. May test their minimal ISO later, for a Cinnamon DE.
3/06/2021: Mentioned earlier during the week that I had Doctor’s on Thurs ‘n Fri…now I have another x-ray ‘sOmEtHiNg‘ this coming Tuesday. Once you go in for more than a yearly physical ‘n blood-work ‘n CT scans, it seems there are many more trips added in. Still have a Vitreoretinal Doctor this month, and should probably see a regular eye Doctor also. Never costs me anything but gas for the 80++ mile round-trip…America actually has the best medical system in the world, but mask wearers won’t admit to it. 😉
3/03/2021: Got the truck back…a 2005 Ford F150 with less than 130,000 miles on it. After the first few years the mileage use has dropped down to about 4,000 miles a year. Will start keeping up with steady checks ‘n maintenance. Speaking of maintenance, I updated the Buy Low or BYOC – ‘Build Your Own Computer’ page to reflect the recent changes ‘n upgrades. The prices for GPU’s will seriously restrict most changes now until those prices come back down. The GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC 4GB GDDR5 (GV-N105TOC-4GD) GPU it a terribly slow GPU ‘n I will not buy anymore GPU’s that are rated below the Top 30-40…not noticeably slow in normal ‘Desktop Duty‘, but slow on benchmark tests. The GeForce GTX 1660 XC ‘n GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER™ VENTUS XS OC GPU’s wouldn’t fit in the SFF ‘CM130‘ recent build, which is one of the reasons I purchased the 1050 Ti. Getting the right ITX GPU for a SFF build is already difficult to figure at times, but prices for them stop any real research right now.
3/02/2021: Went ahead ‘n got the ‘Apevia‘ computer running again last night…just involved cleaning the Ryzen 5 3400G ‘n plugging it in. Since the Noctua’s the NH-U9S cooler/fan was already set up it just needed the tightening of two screws, and also allowed me to stick that Ryzen stock fan out in the shed – those are terrible! Apevia‘ is going to mainly be a working Linux computer (for now), which is the ‘3rd Computer‘ being used when testing a Distro, e.g. lots of reformatting of Linux file systems (mainly ext4) and also reformatting USB media creation DD disk imaging tool (or whatever it is?!). Switched the two outside displays to reflect that change for Apevia‘ from being a 22″ – 22″ – 24″ to a 24″ -22″ -22″ setup now. The mobility of the ‘Wagon on Wheels‘ setup makes it station for testing…’CM130‘ is now the main Linux test computer on that mobile 3-computer station. Will need to update the Buy Low or BYOC – ‘Build Your Own Computer’ page to reflect these recent upgrades, moves ‘n changes – when I get the time. Will be mainly waiting by the phone today, for a call from the auto repair shop when they are done ‘n coming to pick me up. Busy week…
3/01/2021: Busy week ahead with Doctor appointment Thursday ‘n another one on Friday. Naturally, my truck started acting up past Saturday, and it is in the shop overnight waiting for a power steering pump. A pulley also needed replacing. Anyway, hopefully it will all be done before the Doctors. Was at the auto shop for four hours ‘n they gave me a ride home…then the mailman brought the Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 120 AIO CPU Liquid Cooler so I pulled the Ryzen 5 3400G out of ‘CM130‘ – then pulled the Ryzen 9 3900X outta ‘Apevia‘ – then installed 3900X in ‘CM130‘. Phew! The liquid cooler was amazingly simple to install, and that 3900X has never ran so cool! Oh, I also pulled ‘n installed the slow old GeForce 1050 Ti. I’ll leave ‘Apevia‘ as is until I make sure ‘CM130‘ is handling everything OK. That Cooler Master Elite 130 case is actually made for a 120mm liquid cooler…a stock CPU/APU fan/cooler barely fit under the PSU; however, the liquid cooler’s block has at least 1″ clearance. Even the case’s fans are setup for a liquid cooler…runs incredibly quiet now ‘n cooler than the Ryzen 5 3400G did (at idle, anyway).
2/25/2021: Testing another ‘Password Dependent‘ Distro that may offer a way to Fulltime Linux Root User access. I’ll *HAMMER* it if it doesn’t work out. 😉 ‘Password Dependent‘ OS users should be using something like Android or Chromebook if they’re too stupid to handle an OS w/o a Nanny helping them!
2/23/2021: Did final tweaking on my ‘Computer Station‘ today…the mobility of my ‘Wagon on Wheels’ has worked out so well on the left-side that I moved the two PC’s under the desk to the far right-side of the desk. One is actually between the desk ‘n a wall now, on a ‘Sled‘ contraption I built this morning for sliding it out to work on. The other I moved from the left over to the right underneath the desk, and built a ‘Sliding-Shelf‘ contraption to pull it out and work on. Doing a post on all that right now, but it works really well, and I have lots of hardware experimenting in ‘da works now…also part of the post I am working on. Oh, new Samsung monitor mentioned yesterday is up ‘n running as my main now…all three now on Monitor Arms that makes everything more spacious ‘n easier to work in. I highly recommend using Monitor Arms if you use more than one monitor (See – Reclaiming *Prime* Desktop Real Estate for more info).
2/22/2021: 2 year old 27″ LG IPS display started acting up last week…never did like that thing, so didn’t bother to order a new power adapter to see if that was the problem. Why troubleshoot something that has been problematic from day one? It wasn’t VESA Mount compatible either. Hauled it to dump immediately. Brought the 11 year old Dell display in from the shed ‘n have been using it as a temporary replacement. My much older 22″ LG is a lot sharper and has been my main monitor (again!) for a year now. Newegg had a SAMSUNG S22E450D 22″ for $79 w/ free shipping ‘n no tax…it is VESA Mount compatible so I ordered it. It also has a DisplayPort input which I have grown to like. It could be my new main display after a few tests. Also ordered another Fleximounts Gas Spring Desk Monitor Arm for $25.67 (on sale now for $23.99)…the Flexmounts offer 2 installation methods, which is why I chose it over another Loctek that I like better. See – Reclaiming *Prime* Desktop Real Estate for more on those. Arm is already mounted ‘n am waiting for the display to arrive today. I don’t know why some of the Monitor Arms are so expensive…I’ve paid less than $26 for each of the three I have, and they have been *GREAT*!!!
2/19/2021: The ExpressCage MB732SPO-B and 120mm 4-pin case fan came today. Will probably do a post on the ExpressCage MB732SPO-B SATA Hot Swap Bay – first impression = verrrrry handy! World of difference in sound between the new PMW fan ‘n that 3-pin loud stock fan. This MoBo has two PMW case fan headers ‘n I may replace the 3-pin 80mm in order to control it also. The old 120mm stock case fan was attached by 4 long silicon or plastic anchor/rivet ‘tHiNgIeS‘ I never saw before, and I needed them to install the new PWM fan…otherwise, drilling or long thin bolts ‘n nuts since the normal case fan screws that came with it wouldn’t work w/o drilling. I believe they are “Toolles Fan Rivet” – 
From England, so far…worked great ‘n I WANT some! 😉
2/18/2021: Am looking into more Slackware-based Distros…just need a few days to recover from the ‘Password Dependent‘ Slackel Linux experience…should do a post on that Linux “Holy Inquisition” supporting Distro! Downloaded MaboxLinux ‘n tested it today, but never got past the Openbox window manager…heck, couldn’t even find how to switch mouse buttons in it!?
Arch ‘n the ‘Archies‘ best tighten up before EndeavourOS leaves ‘em all in its dust…*IF* it hasn’t already!
2/17/2021: Did a quick install of Slackel Linux tonight…possibly the most ‘Password Dependent‘ Linux Distro I have ever seen. An insult to any Desktop OS user, IMHO, starting with this quote:
(The root password for the live CD is “live”. Standard user login is “one” with password: “one”) (no quotation marks).
For installation and for all work required administration privileges the super user “one” with password “one” is used.
No Fulltime Root User login option @ Welcome Screen, just lots of insults if you try.
2/14/2021: Testing new ‘CM130‘ build ‘n decided the 120mm case fan is just too loud. The 3-pin fans plug into a molex connector so there is no control. I ordered a 4-pin (pwm) 120mm silent fan today ‘n some SATA male to 4-pin molex female adapters ‘n some12 inch 4-pin TX4 PWM Fan Power extensions. The extra extensions ‘n adapters were just adds to my stock, which I have let grow old ‘n limited. Threw away a gallon Ziploc bag filled w/ old memory dating back to 2006 (or even earlier), and a bigger bag w/ 1/2 dozen+ 3-pin fans of various sizes…couldn’t give the stuff away ‘n am not into selling on eBay. Also tested Puppy, Oracle ‘n Fedora in new build. Puppy ‘n Fedora were fine, but Oracle won’t boot all the way in it…?! AMD probably…since same USB drive would boot on Intel machine. Really like this Cooler Master Elite 130 case tho I may add a Kingwin KF-251-BK Dual-Bay Internal Tray-less Rack instead of the old HDD one I have in it now…maybe at some point.
2/12/2021: Piddling with the CentOS Stream on ‘Rose‘ for most of the day…mainly trying to get a Nvidia driver installed instead of the NV137 driver (nouveau is open-source graphics driver for Nvidia GPUs). Upgraded the 4.18.?? kernel to the 5.10.?? didn’t help either way. Fedora ‘n Puppy easily added Nvidia drivers for the new Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC 4GB GDDR5 (GV-N105TOC-4GD) GPU. Anyway, CentOS ‘n Oracle seem to be mainly Enterprise oriented, tho Oracle does have a 5.4.?? “unbreakable kernel” that I may try to break tomorrow. 😉 Pulled CentOS off of ‘Rose‘ and restored my Clonezilla Oracle image to that permanent USB drive on ‘Rose‘. Will backup Oracle with a new Clonezilla image, and then try to install Nvidia drivers on it tomorrow. Am surprised so few fulltime Linux users use Clonezilla..!? Anyway, will leave CentOS Stream on the ‘Apevia‘ computer…for now.
2/10/2021: Brought my homemade computer Test Bench from the shed this morning and the new Asus PRIME A320I-K mini-ITX board arrived a few hours ago. Hooked the now retired ‘Antec. Sr.‘ PSU to it, then added that 16GB’s of memory, and installed the AMD Ryzen™ 5 3400G APU plus it’s stock cooler-fan (with added Low-Noise Adapter to quiet it down) in it. Booted right into BIOS for some tweaking, then on into Fedora 33 Cinnamon SPIN. Paid $10.14 for a WIN10 Pro key from URcdkey – on sale plus they gave a CODE that lowered it to $10.14, so will install it later onto retired ‘Antec Sr.‘ old PNY 240GB SSD.
OK…WIN10 Pro now installed and Activated – not bad for just $10.14!!!
Busy day…also tested FreeBSD, and couldn’t get to a graphical DE. Believe I’ve only gotten to the actual graphical Desktop of one BSD Distro, and it required passwords. FreeBSD didn’t even require creation of a user…but I couldn’t get to a DE!?! The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB also arrived today…will stick it in ‘Rose‘ tomorrow. 4 test computers will now give me 2 AMD’s w/ 1 having a dedicated GPU. 2 Intel’s w/ 1 also having a dedicated GPU.
2/09/2021: Building a new mini-ITX computer…gutted ‘Antec Sr.‘ for 16GB (2 x 8) memory, PSU ‘n SATA Hot Swap Bay, erased the SSD, and then ‘Retired‘ that computer to a storage shed. Working on that post…
2/07-08/2021: Have tested Mageia 8 RC ‘n PCLinuxOS…nothing special to post about. Is the GPU price jump going to hurt AMD’s CPU’s? 
Even older GPU versions are incredibly *EXPENSIVE* right now – if you can even find a decent replacement for what you actually wanted!?! Tariffs, Bitcoin miners, Crypto miners, Bots, etc. are all combining to drive up demand, and prices are following.
2/06/2021: 1) Tested Solus 4.2, EndeavourOS 2021.02.03 ‘n Ubuntu 20.04.2 over the past couple of days. ‘Password Dependent‘ OSes that force Desktop OS users to deal with annoying “Authenticate” popups on their own home computers barely interest me anymore. 2) Many Linux Distros have been having issues with new NVIDIA drivers…actually, I’ve noticed it for some time now, and a quick search of a Distro’s forum often shows the issue. However, it seems to be getting worse so I may end up doing a post on the problem/s.
2/01/2021: 1) As mentioned in the Tux ‘da Linux Salesperson – “Trust me…Linux is just like Windows Plug ‘n Play, only better!!!” post on 1/25, ‘Apevia‘ AMD computer had problems with an update for Fedora 33 (note: same update to Fedora 33 on the ‘InWin‘ Intel machine had no problems) which mainly slooooooooooowed the boot-up time waaaaaaaaaay down. I’ve been updating the ‘Apevia’ daily and it was slowly being fixed by Fedora. Today, it had a new kernel upgrade and a Nvidia ‘module‘ (?!) added or fixed. This update fixed the problem/s and the fast boot is back (note: “fast boot” for Linux, i.e. WIN10 PRO is much faster at booting on fairly new computers than any Linux Distro). Basically took 7 days to correct the problem… 2) Downloaded 3 more Distros to test this morning – Alpine, KNOPPIX and Devuan. Looking for portable Distros that can run in RAM ‘n possibly also offer Fulltime Linux Root User access. Devuan has failed already, but was a decent Distro. Have tried KNOPPIX several times before, but not since my Linux skills have improved over the past year or so. Seems this is my first try with Alpine. Decided to try these 3 Distros after reading a test/review of ‘Fedora vs Puppy Linux‘ by the “Slant community.”
1/29-30/2021: No OS is ever going to beat the Microsoft OSes, and I’ve been trying to find one since roughly 1993 when I first tried OS/2. Linux is having problems with new NVIDIA driver ‘n kernel again…my ‘Apevia‘ AMD’s Fedora is still slow at booting up after a recent update. Am probably going to move CentOS Stream ‘n Oracle Linux ahead of Fedora on my Karmi’s Top 10 Linux Distros page. NOTE: Took 7 days, but Fedora finally fixed itself.
1/28/2021: Great to have unlimited DATA to work with! Downloaded and am testing Endless OS. Nice Distro so far, but nothing special so probably won’t bother with a review. The Live USB is interesting though…has a built in persistence ability. At first boot of Live media it offers a “test” or “install” choice…I selected test ‘n and later had a problem figuring out how to install it. Weird, had to select the “Format” icon (maybe it was “Reformat”?!?) to get it installed because the USB was in persistence mode after that first boot, and the two choices was gone.
1/26-27/2021: There are a bunch of Android OSes/systems…I have been testing some that ‘Claim‘ to be for Desktops/PCs, but so far they have the word “Tablets” throughout. Probably do a post if I can find one that is actually focused on the Desktop/PC.
1/23/2021: As mentioned in the Part VIII: Third Year Begins – Linux ‘n its “Holy Inquisition” post I had been having problems with my HughesNet internet provider and went to Verizon LTE Home internet…hooked it up yesterday ‘n decided to go with it. It will be about $60 a month w/ unlimited data and no contract…for two years will also pay $10 a month for the equipment. Went w/ two years on the equipment in case I changed plans again…5G is coming to this remote area at some point. Guess the Main News is that HughesNet lowered their monthly price from $72 to about $41 when I called to cancel about an hour ago…that $41 a month for a year is a “Loyalty” reward ‘n no contract. Can cancel either provider at any time, but now have unlimited data ‘n another 10G plus 50G Bonus on HughesNet. They can be backups for each other temporarily, and I can download whenever I want to now w/o worrying about data. Verizon Home LTE downloaded an ISO this morning almost 3 times faster than HughesNet ever did, so HughesNet will be gone before the year is over. Verizon Wireless kicks everyone’s arses…
1/19-22/2021: Downloaded ‘n Tested 1) Berry Linux, 2) Hanthana Linux, 3) Scientific Linux 7.8, and just downloaded 4) Ubuntu Kylin for testing later. Not sure if I’ll review any of them at this point…maybe Ubu-Kylin later. Mainly searching for Distros that offer Fulltime Linux Root User access or option to do so, but may look closer at interesting DE’s like Ubuntu Kylin‘s UKUI.
1/14-18/2021: Ran outta monthly ISP Data until new month begins on the 20th. Can still surf normally, but download speeds are throttled down below 300-500kbs. Have still downloaded 3-4 Distros during this time, but at times I’m not waiting. Some can take 4-7 hours to download when throttled. Tested one already, but not gonna do a review of it…too much like Chrome OS w/ its web-based focus. That was ClearOS. I like the RHEL based Distros like Fedora ‘n CentOS Stream that allow Fulltime Linux Root User access. Sure wish Ubuntu would offer that option…
1/11-12/2021: Working on an exciting ‘new‘ Linux Distro! Lots of work left, but may do a “Part 1” today or tomorrow.
1/7/2021: First post was on January 6, 2019 as ‘dis Third year Begins!
1/4-7/2021: 
My Oakwood Recliner arrived 1/4-Mon ‘n I don’t know why I waited so long to get a recliner…my first. Been planning a year to get one, but never made it out to look at ’em, so really knew nothing about what I needed…besides 36″ max width & 42″ max height. Needed to use it to watch DVD/Blu-Ray/old DVD recorded movies and series for about 2.25 – 3 hours a night and then roll it out of the way until next time. I’m 6’2″ @ 195-200lbs so it also needed to let me lay back w/o my knees ‘n ankles hanging over uncomfortably. Fits me perfectly…ankles hang just comfortably over the end. Says it supports 300lbs ‘n it seems very sturdy for only costing $219 (free shipping + $15.33 tax). Watching TV on a bed loaded w/ pillows SUKS!!
1/4/2021: Busy posting and/or testing since 1/2/2021. EndeavourOS Deepin-Desktop (beta v20) has me bogged down right now…downloaded their latest ISO 1/2/2021 ‘n spent most of yesterday testing it. It may be having issues with AMD. Will try to do a post tomorrow…
12/31/2020: Bunch of downloading today (2AM-8AM Bonus hours!) – Testing Deepin 20.1 right now, but with a focus on the Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE) for possible testing of other Distros (mainly Fedora). Also downloaded UbuntuDDE since I don’t trust Deepin, and am also finding problems with it, e.g. AMD, speakers on both Intel ‘n AMD, etc. Lots of planning ‘n prep work is involved right now…
12/25-27/2020: Been piddling w/ a few Distros ‘n trying to ‘find‘ a post: 1) Lubuntu – just too “lightweight” for me, and I don’t care for “old computers” … even my 2016 build is too old for me. 😉 2) Clear Linux OS – maybe a post on this one, since it should perform better than it does, i.e. it has the backing of Intel. 3) Haiku – sure want to do a post on this one, since it clearly offers Fulltime Linux Root User ability; however, seems more of a developers ‘Pet‘ project, i.e. lots of hard-work put into it ‘n lots of future potential, but not ready at this time.
12/24/2020: Downloaded ‘n tried to install Openmamba this morning. Slow download. Difficulty in creating ‘Live’ USB installation media. UEFI ‘Live’ boot problems. Maybe it was my ISP and/or the AMD ‘Apevia‘ Linux test computer?! Anyway, I started at 5:30 AM, and the installation was was still trying to update at 7:57 AM when I shut it all down. My 10GB of “Anytime Data” kicks in from 8:00AM – 2:00AM and I don’t want to waste it on Openmamba, i.e. HughesNet gives me 50GB’s of “Bonus Bytes” from 2:00AM – 8:00AM so I will wait until tomorrow and do some tests on an Intel machine.
12/23/2020: Part 2: I don’t do “holidays” – everyday is enjoyable to me, but today I bought myself another “Christmas present” 😉 a small recliner. Live on my own land ‘n built a 20′ x 30′ roof structure, then poured a 20′ x 16’ slab and enclosed that area, i.e. enclosed living area is 320 sq feet. Sorta like an efficiency apartment with a full size private bathroom, and the rest all open w/ a kitchenette area. A BIG MAN recliner would’ve been nice, but impossible to live around, so I went with a small one that can be pushed outta-the-way when done watching TV. Just DVD/Blu-Ray/old DVD recorded movies and series, for 2.25 – 3 hours a night is all the recliner is for. Am tired of fixing bed cushions ‘n pillows constantly when watching TV, and tired of storing them all outta-the-way afterwards. Should get it within two weeks…
12/23/2020: Part 1: I find Chrome and WordPress slow together, and Chromium doesn’t seem to have an app extension for my Surfshark VPN, but also seems slow. Even tried MS Edge browser last night…maybe a little better, but just too long to load WordPress. Linux Newbie blog needs a separate browser from my other blog, so I’m not switching every time I want to work on a blog. Today I converted to the Waterfox browser for the Linux Newbie blog…just added the Bookmarks Toolbar to give it the ‘Chrome feel‘ and it’s much faster loading WordPress.
12/21/2020: Laptops have their need and/or usefulness, but I am not a fan of them. ‘Ace the Laptop‘ is/was more of a test on how cheaply I could buy one. Did this post on it during the process: Linux – Laptops – ‘Living’ Posts. Total price from Walmart (tax ‘n shipping included) was $277.13. It’s OK, for a laptop, but it started having display/graphics problems about two months ago…maybe three months ago since I rarely use it for anything but checking it out occasionally. It was having a sorta white looking ‘n flickering display on bootup and required a shutdown and restart to correct it. Then last week, same thing started when it woke from sleep, so decided to check some options. Found some display driver updates were available, plus some AMD updates on another section of the WIN10 settings update app. Anyway, it took *OVER* a GB to finish updating!?! Fixed the problem tho…I should really check it more often.
12/19-20/2020: Testing Q4OS … will publish a post on it tomorrow.
12/16/2020: Was thinking about testing the new Linux 5.10 kernel; fortunately, however, that is something I rarely test. Just saw this today: Linux 5.10 Didn’t Even Last 24 Hours… Linux 5.10.1 Released Due To Bugs. I’ve already had problems with kernel updates in the past, when the Distro updates it, so will wait…
12/14/2020: Downloaded the Mageia Linux 85MB Mageia-7.1-netinstall-nonfree-x86_64 Network Installation iso earlier this morning ‘n *HOURS* later the installation failed. No clue what happened, but had tried that method instead of others in an attempt to save ISP Bonus Byte Data. Anyway, am now downloading a 2.5GB ‘Live’ iso during normal ISP hours, which will take a couple hours since my Anytime Data has already been used up…its free time but speed is throttled down to less than 300-400KB/s.
12/12/2020: Downloaded GeckoLinux Static ‘n GeckoLinux Rolling Cinnamon versions this morning…not worth doing a post on, so will just add log about it. Will try the 938MB “Barebones” version after downloading. “938MB” is barebone? Better off just trying the real Distro – openSUSE, IMHO.
12/11/2020: I seriously doubt anyone has as much fun with Linux as humble me; thusly, a lot of activity on ‘n about the LINUX NEWBIE – SINCE 1996 blog gets lost…as in poof!?! How many hours have I wasted on trying to get the GUI to open in the T2_SDE tests, i.e. T2 System Development Environment tests that get it installed, but no GUI after login. Well, not as many hours as were wasted on Gentoo, for sure! Am creating a Karmi’s Daily Blog Log from this foundation post, but also seriously doubt all of my on ‘n about blog activity will be logged in…probably as good of a logger as a tester, so to speak whilst 🙂 I’ve conducted a *LOT* of Linux activity today, but doing a daily check for news on Linux Distros gave humble me the idea for this new page – GeckoLinux “Barebones”:
If I never log in another act of activity on that Page, then just finding that pic will still have been worth the effort, so to speak of *FUN*!
LINUX IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES – you never know what you’re gonna get!
Linux Newbie - since 1996 
