An Open Source Rant - Linux

"wiffleballtony" (wiffleballtony) 12/14/2016 at 09:03 • Filed to: None

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See what I did there? I combined the animal mascot for Linux with a car to keep it Oppo-relevant. Possible incoherent ramblings after the jump.

A quick recap for those who didn’t read my last post. I have a older Dell that was dropped in my lap from a family member because due to their negligence it had become unusable from less than diligent upkeep. Previously I had wiped it and reinstalled Windows, but it was still pretty slow and they decided to just purchase a new machine. So, the Dell sat in my closet for a couple years, until recently...

For some stupid reason I decided that I would attempt to resurrect the Dell. The scope of the project was to make it at least able to run Netflix. The plan was to install Linux which is theoretically not full of bloatware of which Microsoft OS has been maligned as being. Off I go to the interwebs and download an Ubuntu ISO, burn it, and boot from it on the aforementioned Dell. The install went pretty smoothly, but thats where the fun stopped. Apparently Ubuntu has a bug that essentially prevents you from seeing your installed Apps on their version of the desktop. This is probably the biggest bug I have ever experienced in my history of OS. This bug is well documented and has not been addressed for over a year with no documented solution. The big issue here was that this was my first foray into the scary world of Linux and its hard to tell the difference between a bug and how things are supposed to be. Anyway, I fire up the pre-installed Firefox browser and head over to Netflix to try my luck. Surprise! Netflix doesn’t work on anything other than Chrome in Linux. No worries, I’ll visit the built in App store to download Chrome right? Wrong, its not listed. So I go to the Chrome website and download their Linux version, which also fails to install. After a bunch of internet digging I find out I need to execute a dizzying number of commands in command line to add a repository to my OS and then tell the OS to download Chrome from there and then install. All of which I do. Fire up Chrome, go to Netflix.... and its just as slow as with Windows. Somewhere in the midst of this I had posted on Oppo and many of you suggested Linux Mint.

Off I go to download Linux Mint ISO, burn the disc and boot from it. Only this time the install fails multiple times. Feeling pretty defeated, I holster my mouse and keyboard and walk away. A couple weeks go by and I re-think my goal. Instead of a Netflix machine, I am going to use it as a firewall PC. My reasoning being that most networking equipment has the computing power of a Gameboy original. So I do some quick Googling and the apparent two favorite Firewall distros are ClearOS and Smoothwall. So I download both ISOs and start to work again. However as before for some reason either of these refuse to boot. In a fit of desperation I put my Windows disk in. And it boots. Using the Windows disc, I delete all partitions and start over. This time ClearOS installs smoothly and everything is looking good. I am at the “Getting Started” screen and the machine is failing to pull an IP address despite being plugged directly into the router with link lights active. A search of the interwebs proves fruitless, so I post on the forums. Fairly quickly a developer responds telling me to execute a line in command prompt to check my NIC, which I do. As it turns out my Intel NIC isn’t supported anymore. The developer, being unsure as to whether his own product is able to auto-mount USB drives suggests that I install an older version of ClearOS. Their website clearly states that they support MOST NICs. I wasn’t aware that Intel was too small to make the cut. I thank him for his time and promptly try Smoothwall. Which also installed smoothly, the second time. The install process did ask me some odd questions about what color I wanted my NICs to be and I am pretty sure I may have made some mistakes. But it did install and thats where the story ends last night.

Ultimately the moral of the story in my mind is that I won’t talk crap about Windows anymore. I have used pretty much every distribution from Windows 3.1 to 10, and none of them (including ME and Vista) have given me this many problems.

Mercedes Streeter > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 09:12

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Honestly it’s probably your computer. I’ve never had any issue with Linux other than the same issues/limitations that Android has (since you know, similar kernels and all that jazz). I’ve had an install fail here and there before, but I just wipe and do again and it goes through just fine.

On the other hand, I have 100 copies of Windoze 7 at home, and ALL of them have the issue where the CPU gets stuck at 100% because of Windows Update. And funny enough, depending on hardware, the fix isn’t always the same!

Also, installing Linux via disc is probably the worst way to do it. I always burn to USB flash drive and install from that.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 09:12

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Time for an XKCD dump.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 09:12

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Did you burn the Mint disk on the slowest speed and do a hash check on the ISO before you burned it and a disk check on the disk after you burned it? (For the record, ANY OS ISOs, if downloaded, should always be hash checked to make sure there are no errors.) If the download was corrupt or the disk was burnt at high speed, there’s more chance the disk had errors. Most of my Mint installs (of which I’ve had very few) were not because of issues with Linux, but because the disk or the download were corrupt.

Did you try creating a bootable USB instead of a disk? They are usually much less problematic. Unetbootin, Linux Live USB Creator or other programs are great for this, you just need to download the ISO (and hash check it) and point the program at the flash drive you want to use.

Just successfully finished installing Lubuntu on an old Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop 10 minutes ago.

wiffleballtony > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 12/14/2016 at 09:15

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I did a disk check on the Mint disk. Seemed fine. I think the Ubuntu install had borked something as two other OS had similar issues. I’m sure Mint would be great but at this point I don’t think I’m going to go that route.

Mercedes Streeter > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 12/14/2016 at 09:15

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I never used DVDs to install a Linux OS, but that’s because I’m cheap as hell and have like 10 empty USB drives laying around at any given moment in time (thanks Chicago Auto Show!)

wiffleballtony > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 12/14/2016 at 09:16

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So relevant that it hurts. I actually did chuckle.

wiffleballtony > Mercedes Streeter 12/14/2016 at 09:18

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It probably was the computer. With that said, Windows seemed to somehow dodge the issues that the Linux operating systems were getting foiled by.

TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 12/14/2016 at 09:18

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XKCD, always relevant.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 09:24

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Hardware support in Linux is a cruel mistress. I did lol a bit when you said you chose Ubuntu over Windows because of “bloatware” reasons, when Windows is multiple times sleeker with less preinstalled rubbish and far better hardware support.

Rico > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 09:24

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Sums up most of my Ubuntu experience too on an older Dell that I tried to resurrect once (Dimension 4600 I think it was). I finally got almost everything working but it took forever and this was easily like 10 years ago so it’s sad to see things are still the same.

Nibby > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 09:24

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Which Dell is it? Hardware?

Comes over to help work on your car and only drinks beer > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 09:26

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Heh, good timing. Had a windows 8 machine upgraded to 10 that I retired for another chromebox for some web streaming, decided to try and load linux and Kodi on the Win 10 machine last night to try that out. Made a recovery drive for windows, then loaded Ubuntu from a USB. Couldn’t get my network set up, despite an ethernet connection, and also couldn’t get WI-FI set up. Ended up putting windows back on it, but might mess with it again tonight. Suggestions/advice would be appreciated, I thought Ubuntu was the preferred Linux distro for Kodi.

facw > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 12/14/2016 at 09:31

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Maybe this one as well?

wiffleballtony > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 12/14/2016 at 09:34

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Preconceived notions bit me in the rear for sure.

wiffleballtony > Rico 12/14/2016 at 09:36

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Yeah this one is a Dimension 5610 (I think).

wiffleballtony > Nibby 12/14/2016 at 09:38

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Dell Home Dimension E510 (Pentium D 2.80GHz, 512MB RAM, 160GB HDD) de51f2.

Those are the specs off the Dell website, however I think I upgraded the memory to 4GB.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Mercedes Streeter 12/14/2016 at 09:39

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I have 5 sitting downstairs on my desk - two were broken when somebody bumped them while plugged in and ripped the plugs off. I bought some USB cables from the Dollar Store, cut them and soldered the USB-A end to the pins on the flash drive board then coated the hole with a generous amount of hot glue. They look like shit, but they work again and I usually only use them at home for OS installs, etc. It’s nice to re-use them....they work great and it took maybe 20 mins of my time for both, rather than wasting another $20. :)

wiffleballtony > Comes over to help work on your car and only drinks beer 12/14/2016 at 09:40

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I’m not sure I could give unbiased advice at this point. I was told Mint was a good choice, so I will say that. As far as my experience Ubuntu would randomly drop my Wifi for no reason. I’d have disable and re-enable the connection to restore.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 09:41

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No worries. I’ve run into situations like that before, but they’ve been uncommon for me. My daily laptop runs Mint 17 (that I am on as I type this), as does my spare desktop and mom’s laptop runs Lubuntu - other than a few niggles, they’ve been amazingly solid. Wish you’d had the same experience!

Nibby > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 09:42

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pentium Ds are old and it may not handle netflix and video playback very well in 2017...

Can’t go wrong with Debian + XFCE for that kind of system

wiffleballtony > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 12/14/2016 at 09:42

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I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that its a Dell.

Comes over to help work on your car and only drinks beer > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 09:45

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Oh, sorry, although my response was to your post, I wasn’t expecting your poor soul to have to advise me, that part was for a broader audience.

Comes over to help work on your car and only drinks beer > Comes over to help work on your car and only drinks beer 12/14/2016 at 09:47

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I think I might try OpenELEC? I’m not going to use the box for anything but Kodi, and that installed much easier on my raspberry Pi, although the Pi didn’t stream too well.

Comes over to help work on your car and only drinks beer > Comes over to help work on your car and only drinks beer 12/14/2016 at 09:47

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Pi is now set up as an emulator.

wiffleballtony > Nibby 12/14/2016 at 09:51

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I figured that was the case. Sadly, it does have a PCIE x16 slot on the mobo but due to the fact that its a Dell, the CPU cowling prevents you from installing anything decent in that slot. I even have a spare AMD 7870 that I could have used.

Nibby > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 09:55

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A 7870 is too nice of a card to put in there anyways

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 10:01

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I used Ubuntu as the main OS on my work PC for a few months, and I’m a linux server admin professionally. Personally I think Linux is best kept to embedded devices and servers. Without first-party driver support (of which there is very, very little for consumer hardware) the experience is never going to be good enough.

Roundbadge > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 10:18

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Weird. I’m running an i3 laptop at home that our network administrator had decided to throw away, and I had zero trouble loading Linux Mint on it. I’ve been using it trouble-free since July.

bhtooefr > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 10:33

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It’s because BTX was designed back when dual slot cards were extremely rare, so there was no need to consider CPU heatsink shroud to GPU clearance.

The way to fix it would’ve simply been to move the PCIe x16 slot down one position, then there would be room for dual slot coolers, but the machines that had this configuration typically didn’t have the power supply to run what at the time were still big cards, so AFAIK nobody using BTX bothered to do that, and enthusiasts stuck with ATX anyway.

Also worth noting that BTX was Intel’s standard, to try to deal with the extreme heat of Prescott Pentium 4s cost effectively, not Dell’s standard.

wiffleballtony > bhtooefr 12/14/2016 at 11:02

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Its not so much the girth of a dual slot card as much as its the overall length.

wiffleballtony > Roundbadge 12/14/2016 at 11:03

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Well, an i3 is significantly faster than the Pentium D in this thing.

wiffleballtony > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 12/14/2016 at 11:05

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I’m a network admin professionally but I also support our Desktop Support team so I have to switch hit sometimes. But I’ve only ever had to support Windows machines and of course Cisco IOS.

wiffleballtony > Nibby 12/14/2016 at 11:06

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I think it was actually originally going to get an nVidia 8800 GTS 512.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 11:49

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I went from consumer support to pure network/hosting and VOIP (most of my day is fixing VOIP shit) and sweet heavens how do you guys do it.

404 - User No Longer Available > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 12:13

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People rag on Windows 10 with all the telemetry stuff, but itself as an OS is actually pretty damn good. It’s the first Windows every I can install almost every machine without fiddling with drivers. Pretty much the only one gave me trouble was my tablet, because the digitizer wasn’t recognized with a clean USB install. Otherwise, install it, run Windows Update a few times and bam, all drivers installed.

Roundbadge > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 12:15

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I saw in the post that it was a Pentium D after I posted that...but I let it ride anyway. I mean, yeah...it does have more processing power...and I did add lots of RAM as we had it laying around...I don’t know where I’m going with this.

I like Linux Mint, I guess.

jimz > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 13:30

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I use Ubuntu on my Dell laptop and everything worked. You didn’t happen to try using the new Mir/Unity 8 display server and desktop, did you? that’s not finished yet and doesn’t work reliably.

wiffleballtony > jimz 12/14/2016 at 13:47

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I downloaded Ubuntu 16.04 whatever that uses.

Nauraushaun > wiffleballtony 12/14/2016 at 14:35

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Linux gives you a lot of power, but you need to be ready to work through issues. And face compatibility issues. But Windows is a joke. The Mac OS gives a mix of power and friendliness, that’s where my loyalty lies these days.

lone_liberal > wiffleballtony 12/19/2016 at 22:49

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I’m totally with you. I will never use a Linux distro as a desktop. It has it’s place, and that place is a server rack. I have no issues with the various versions of Debian and Ubuntu I’ve used for servers, but as a desktop? Life’s too short for that crap.