[Tutor] OT: Recommendations for a Linux distribution to dual-boot with Win7-64 bit

boB Stepp robertvstepp at gmail.com
Wed Jun 29 18:16:40 EDT 2016


On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 7:56 PM, boB Stepp <robertvstepp at gmail.com> wrote:

> Now I can get into BIOS.  BIOS sees my USB flash drive as "UEFI: Lexar
> USB Flash Drive 1100", but it silently refuses to boot to the iso
> image installed on it.  Something new to puzzle out!

OK, I'm into a live Mint Linux session off my USB flash drive.  The
problem I experienced was in incompatible BIOS settings.  As far as I
can tell, since my W7 installation is *not* UEFI, I needed to likewise
have the flash drive setup.  Once I did that I got into Linux.

The first thing that came up was a warning:

"Running in software rendering mode.

Cinnamon is currently running without video hardware acceleration and,
as a result, you may observe much higher than normal CPU usage.

There could be a problem with your drivers ..."

Mozilla Firefox appears to be the pre-installed browser.  However, I
was not connected to my home's wireless network.  I found the icon for
that and did the needed password and MAC Address stuff and got
connected.

Next I found the Driver Manager application, ran it, and it
recommended applying "nvidia-352, Version 352.63-0ubunto0.14.04.1,
NVIDIA binary driver-version 352.63".  I did so and the initial
warning  I mentioned above went away.

I typed both "python" and "python3" in the terminal window to see what
is here:  Python 2.7.6 and Python 3.4.3 [Does this mean we are *on*
topic now?  ~(:>))].  Question:  Is Python 3 used by any of Mint's OS
functions?  Or does it only use Python 2?

No Git is pre-installed, but it immediately tells me the command to
type to get it!  Cool!!

Typing "vi" in terminal tells me that VIM 7.4.52 is the installed
version.  Kind of behind, but I am sure I can update this if I go with
Mint.  No gVim but it again offers a list of available packages and
the command to type.

My initial impressions are very good!  I have gotten this far with
just some poking around, no Internet searching required.  I like the
clean default appearance of Cinnamon.  Running off the USB stick it
seems quite snappy.  So it will only be significantly better once it
is installed to a hard drive.  Windowing controls are oh so slightly
different from Windows, but so far everything is just *obvious*.

BTW, I am typing this from Mozilla Firefox (I haven't gotten around to
thinking about setting up Thunderbird.) running in Mint while
listening to a Pandora music stream from my Pandora One account.
Everything is just working!  Like it very much!  Since my wife is
planning on trying out Mint on multiple PCs in her classroom this
coming school year, I think I will just go with Mint.  I'm sure I will
encounter some warts along the way, but in my experience with enough
searching and thinking and asking ... almost all warts can be dealt
with.

Only gripe so far is that my fancy Corsair gaming keyboard has become
a normal keyboard.  As I said in an earlier email, some clever people
have put together a package to access most of the keyboard's features.
It is still in a very early version of 0.2 or so.  However, I have not
gotten much use out of my fancy keyboard to date.  I mostly like it
because it is a mechanical keyboard and care little for the other
stuff.  Even though David saved the day by reminding me about the
"BIOS" setting on a keyboard switch, I think I will stick with the new
quite functional but not fancy mechanical keyboard coming soon and
give this gaming keyboard to one of my two children who will probably
appreciate it more than me.

Now when the new hard drive arrives tomorrow we'll see if I can get a
good dual-boot of Windows 7 and Mint Cinnamon going!

Thanks for all of the help even though this has been off-topic for this list!

Meanwhile, more playing around with Mint!!

Cheers!
-- 
boB


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