Just got a new laptop to run Linux

U

unixfish

Guest
The old Dell D630 has been slowly dying. This weekend, the whole bottom of the screen where Linux Mint displays the status bar went to static fuzz. The rest of the screen is fine. I had to finish a coding project with an external monitor, external keyboard, and my main monitor shut off. I usually use both monitors.

I just ordered a new laptop - a Dell 17 5000. It has an AMD Radeon R5 M335 graphics card. All things being equal, I would have just preferred Intel graphics, but this may be nice. I found the Dell for $300 off with an on-line coupon.

I have read there are some things to watch when installing this video - I will be re-installing Mint 17.3 (I may leave a Windows 10 partition to dual boot?). I hope I don't run into trouble. I read that lib32gcc1 and libc6-i386 may need to be updated for the graphics card to work properly while researching compatibility. We'll see. I may be back for some help if I run into problems and cannot Google the answer!

Then comes the "fun" part - re-installing all the development tools, SVN Workbench, compiler packages, copying over all the ShrewSoft VPN settings, desktop, terminal and Emacs setup, then updating (higher resolution monitor on the new unit!), etc. All that fun stuff that is easy but takes forever.

I suppose I could do some targeted backup / restores? I will probably set up an SSH link, or pull the old unit's drive and connect it to my USB adapter - who knows. I just am not looking forward to a ton of work to get right back to where I am today.

I've had a few pixel-wide lines flashing red and green on the bottom of my display for over a year - I knew the screen would not last forever, I just did not want to spend the money until I knew it was "more terminal". And this weekend, it became just that.

Looks like I need to ramp up my consulting efforts to pay for this too.

I did look up this unit on-line for compatibility with Linux. Is it just me, or are the hardware databases not kept up to date? I could not find the Asus machine my daughter has, or a Lenovo I was also looking at. The Asus is a 2-in-1 which I don't need or want, and I found the Lenovo has a proprietary Wireless N card that needs to be manually updated after every version update. But still - the databases I found did not seem to list any "modern machines". Maybe I was looking at a site that is no longer updated.

All for now. Just sharing.
 


Actually, the title should have said "Just ordered a new laptop to run Linux"!
 
I hope you like your new Dell. That XPS 15 looks sooo nice...
 
Hope you like the new laptop! Don't forget to make recovery DVD's if you think you will want to keep Windows 10 (now or later). I have only had limited experience with Win 10, but you may run into some of the same issues I did... such as, you can't just pop in a Linux USB or DVD and boot it up. In fact, you probably can't see the quick "Hit F-key to Enter Setup" or "Hit F-key for Boot Options" before Windows starts.

If you have these troubles, you'll need to get into UEFI setup and change the boot options. And they may only work once and then they will be masked again the next time you reboot. This is VERY ANNOYING if you like to boot often on other distros. Here are the steps to get into a Win 10 UEFI setup:

  1. Click the Start menu and select Settings.
  2. Select Update and Security.
  3. Click Recovery.
  4. Under Advanced startup, click Restart now. ...
  5. Select Troubleshoot.
  6. Choose Advanced options.
  7. Select UEFI Firmware Settings.
  8. Click Restart to restart the system and enter UEFI (BIOS).
Are we having fun yet? Thank you Micro$oft.

Good luck, but I know you'll get through it. Just wanted to give you a heads-up on what it's like.

Cheers!
 
Yeah, been there. I did not realize the BIOS could be updated every boot so this was only a one-time shot.

SecureBoot has been a concern of mine; sure, it's probably easy to deal with, but I just don't like that I might have to and have not dealt with that before.

Thanks for the heads up!
 
Every system seems to do UEFI differently, so you may have a very good experience, while mine has not been too good with an HP laptop. I did have Win 10 and Linux dual booting for awhile, but I have now long since deleted Win 10. Most of the Linux distros I tried required Secure Boot to be disabled and/or Legacy Mode enabled... but openSUSE was the one that really stood out to me. I used the "Leap" edition and it installed just fine with Secure Boot left enabled. It wasn't my favorite distro (although it is very nice), but it worked better than all the others that I tried.

Let us know how you fare too!

Cheers!
 
Installed Mint, set up a bunch of programs, then ran into a problem; silly thing would not shut down. I was getting "BUG: Unable to handle kerlel NULL pointer referenced at (null)" and then a bunch of plymouth-upstart-bridge termination and restarts. I had to pull the battery and unplug it.

I tried some other debugging - I could not even get cinnamon to shut down. WTH?

I switched the laptop to be legacy boot (shut off EUFI). I am now re-installing. If this does not work, I may have to go to Mate or back to Ubuntu.

This is exactly what I was dreading with a new machine. There is no reason brand new, main stream hardware should be having this issue. I hope it's an EUFI remnant - I had to trash the Windows boot setting in BIOS and jump to the CD just to install Mint the first time.

Yeah, it could have been me dorking up EUFI. Let's see if I can get this thing to work before it gets too late tonight.
 
Nope. Still will not shut down after a clean install. Lots of messages on the screen, nothing looks "critical". I will try another dist to see if it's a PC issue or Cinnamon.

I am looking at /var/log/kern.log on my old machine, and am seeing "similar" messages. I will have to debug more thoroughly tomorrow.
 
Ubuntu installed (had to clean my DVD first - how did it get gunk on it in one day?) and the machine reboots fine.

When I was searching yesterday, I saw a lot of reference to Ubuntu 14.04 issues on boot / reboot, and how a new kernel fixed the issues. It finally dawned on me after I went to bed:

Mint 17.3 is based on Ubuntu 14.04​

I could have played with updating the kernel on 17.3, as Mint 18 is not due until the end of May. My consulting clients are Ubuntu based, and I updated to Mint to keep "basic compatibility" with Ubuntu while using an interface I liked better (which probably only meant being Debian based). The Ubuntu repositories have the basic software I need without compiling from scratch.

It looks like I will have to learn to live with Unity. I really liked the Mint menu structures. Ah, well, I should be back to making money with this laptop by the weekend. I will think about installing Cinnamon on Ubuntu, but that is a research task after I get a few coding projects off my plate.
 
unixfish said:
Ubuntu installed (had to clean my DVD first - how did it get gunk on it in one day?) and the machine reboots fine.

When I was searching yesterday, I saw a lot of reference to Ubuntu 14.04 issues on boot / reboot, and how a new kernel fixed the issues. It finally dawned on me after I went to bed:

Mint 17.3 is based on Ubuntu 14.04​

I could have played with updating the kernel on 17.3, as Mint 18 is not due until the end of May. My consulting clients are Ubuntu based, and I updated to Mint to keep "basic compatibility" with Ubuntu while using an interface I liked better (which probably only meant being Debian based). The Ubuntu repositories have the basic software I need without compiling from scratch.

It looks like I will have to learn to live with Unity. I really liked the Mint menu structures. Ah, well, I should be back to making money with this laptop by the weekend. I will think about installing Cinnamon on Ubuntu, but that is a research task after I get a few coding projects off my plate.
Click to expand...

If you're going to use Mint, use MATE as the desktop. Much more reliable and flexible.
 
I also like the Mint MATE edition and used it for a number of years. I also had shutdown problems with Mint on my UEFI based laptop, but holding the power button down for several seconds worked rather than pulling the battery. You might like Ubuntu MATE also!
 
I've used KDE in the past and had problems (software that does not run under KDE). I've had menus crash under KDE. I'm sure this is fixed now, but once bitten twice shy. The KDE interface is nice, the way software packages work the Gnome feels better. Personal preference is an odd thing.

Mate = Gnome 2. Since 3 is out, is there a long term future for Gnome 2? I know, I know - nobody really knows.

Cinnamon is nice, but it seems a bit, well, "heavy handed"? Maybe it's just me. My new machine has decent specs, so it should not matter.

The others are the others - outliers in my eyes.

It looks like I will just have to learn to like Unity, or use it until Mint Cinnamon 18.0 is released. By then, I may have Unity configured to my liking.

I took to Cinnamon really quickly - maybe Unity will grow on me after a while. I have a few months to decide before the Mint kernel will run properly on my machine (end of May, beginning of June with the 18.0 release).

Thanks to everyone for the responses.
 
unixfish said:
I've used KDE in the past and had problems (software that does not run under KDE). I've had menus crash under KDE. I'm sure this is fixed now, but once bitten twice shy. The KDE interface is nice, the way software packages work the Gnome feels better. Personal preference is an odd thing.

Mate = Gnome 2. Since 3 is out, is there a long term future for Gnome 2? I know, I know - nobody really knows.

Cinnamon is nice, but it seems a bit, well, "heavy handed"? Maybe it's just me. My new machine has decent specs, so it should not matter.

The others are the others - outliers in my eyes.

It looks like I will just have to learn to like Unity, or use it until Mint Cinnamon 18.0 is released. By then, I may have Unity configured to my liking.

I took to Cinnamon really quickly - maybe Unity will grow on me after a while. I have a few months to decide before the Mint kernel will run properly on my machine (end of May, beginning of June with the 18.0 release).

Thanks to everyone for the responses.
Click to expand...
Mate is slowly switching to GTK+3, as Xfce is. The latter case has already caused some debates. This can actually mean more bloat and overall burden. So, we should expect them to become something like Cinnamon.

Unity is, so far, the least "I-want-this-to-look-different" environment; you can't move anything there, and to at least somehow change the look, you have to use third-party software.

You may want to try LXDE or LXQt, or just a plain window manager, gratefully, we have galore.
 
Ubuntu was occasionally not shutting down either. I could hold down the power button and get Ubuntu to stop; Mint would hard hang; even 30 seconds holding the power button would do nothing.

A bit of research, and I think I found it. I had to edit /etc/default/cron and set GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="reboot=acpi" and doing an update-grub. I *think* this has fixed the issue, I will know after a week or two if I no longer hang when shutting down. There are other options available that may help as well (reboot=force - but this seems heavy handed?).

Mint may have worked as well with this change, but I have Ubuntu set up so it works, and I need to get back to working with this machine.

This one was a bugger to search the net for, because the messages on the console were not indicative of what was happening. Let's see how this works.
 
I hope that solves the shutdown issue for you. I tried similar tweaks to GRUB in Mint but I was not successful (nor did I try to tweak cron). I never gave Ubuntu a chance though because I dislike Unity. I found openSUSE to work well, and I'm now running Debian which also shuts down normally. Debian needed some help to get the WiFi working, but seems to work well otherwise.

I don't know if it is UEFI that causes so much grief, or what. I only have this one laptop now, and it has been difficult from the beginning. Linux used to be a breeze to install on just about anything, but not lately. It seems to vary widely from distro to distro, and from OEM to OEM.

Cheers!
 
I have a D630 that runs Vista. Disc Drive's broke and USB ports are kill (sad airhorn). Im using this trusty rusty Hp 2000 notebook with Linux Lite 2.4 (Basically Linux Mint if XFCE was its main desktop) and I'm lovin it (reference ftw). Here's a screenshot of what I got going so far.

Screenshot - 03312016 - 05:04:55 PM.png
 
Yikes! Look at all those desktop icons! OK, OK, I am a bit of a neat freak and keep my desktop clear. It's just me. :)

My machine has been shutting down fine now - no problem. I do have an issue where if I close my lid and open it, my machine comes back to life, but "black screens". I also have an HDMI second monitor - but when I unplug the HDMI, tmy machine hangs. Both of these are the X.org video driver for the AMD Radeon card. I installed fglrx, and both problems disappeared. However, the machine ran a lot hotter, and sometimes was really slow; I often play aisleriot solitaire to unwind, and with the fglrx drivers, clicking on a card was taking 0.25 to 0.5 seconds to register. The rest of the machine just seemed sluggish as well.

I pulled the fglrx driver out, and I just won't suspend my machine. I have a full HD display, so I don't need the second monitor for the most part. fglrx will not be supported on Ubuntu 16.04, and the open source drivers will be updated as well. I have a month to not suspend my machine - no bigger, I never do anyhow. There are some other fixes that can help the issue, but again - I almost never suspend my machine or close the lid unless it is shut off. I'm going to wait until 16.04, then try again. If I still have the issue, I will address it then.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 699 (members: 3, guests: 696)

Latest posts

Top