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I installed Mint but all I get is a splash screen and no apps or anything. How do I find apps and get them installed in Mint? How do I get to a gui? I selected the Cinnamon desktop but I don't really get a desktop. Any suggestions would be welcome as I've never used Linux before.

Then you did something wrong during installation.

All of our installations are working out of the box. Also LMDE the debian version works without problems.

https://linuxmint-installation-guide.re ... en/latest/

It's looking a bit better now. I had to boot Mint into compatibility mode and all looks much better.

It seems to work fine if I boot from the usb key and select compatibility mode. But if I install mint it doesn't use the compatibility mode and nothing shows on my desktop.

Direct to a hardware? A BIOS setting may be required.

I use Mint LMDE on VM's and have no problems with it.

netmaestro wrote: Fri Jan 24, 2025 9:54 pm I installed Mint

No Linux expert here but why Mint? The ever popular Ubuntu installs pretty easily and gives you a nice looking GUI. Should find everything you need right here:
https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

I like Mint Linux LMDE 6 better

I eventually found the solution. The OS doesn't have the right driver for my 31" Samsung monitor and so it refused to create a desktop on it. The fix was to edit the grub menu and change "quiet splash" to "quiet splash nomodeset". Now I have a good working gui and a couple of apps working and I'm off and running. Pretty steep learning curve ahead. I'm not even going to try installing PB on it until I have a better feel for this environment.

BUT - I'm sticking with Linux. I've had enough of MS and Apple knowing the temperature of my bath water.

netmaestro wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 8:54 pm BUT - I'm sticking with Linux. I've had enough of MS and Apple knowing the temperature of my bath water.

So this forum will lose a Windows expert, but will get a new Linux expert.

Still playing with it, I'd like to get something that just installs without tweaks. I'm dropping Cinnamon and trying XFCE.

netmaestro wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 8:54 pm Pretty steep learning curve ahead. I'm not even going to try installing PB on it until I have a better feel for this environment.

Well then. Mint it is. One I never tried but mk-soft likes it best so must be good
I lost my stomach for Linux due to all those "why doesn't this work" issues that constantly crop up. And yeah, the thought of getting PB to work on it was like the last straw that put me off completely. I wanted to use it for the most part, not troubleshoot it for the most part. Linux is just a "troubleshoot for the most part" proposition and I have no time or patience for it any more. Best of luck to you though.

netmaestro wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 8:54 pm "quiet splash nomodeset"

I have prepared an answer for you, but the forum has been working poorly for me for several days now, depending on my provider. I already had a period of problems, I don’t know what caused it. Sometimes it doesn’t work all day, or at a certain time it turns on for 10 minutes, if I’m lucky, then I have time to read and write. It works on the phone, but it is inconvenient to use there.

1. Remove "quiet", "splash" in the download line to see the log.
2. Add "nomodeset" to eliminate the problem with the video card driver at the boot stage.
3. I’m not sure whether it will be possible to select a different video card driver using chroot. But this is a hint to search for a solution.

For me, XFCE is in second place. Cinnamon has useful features: you can configure the click of the right mouse button according to the heading for maximization/minimizing the window. In Cinnamon, I have a care for a gibernation with memory power, the computer turns off all devices except memory, when it is turned on, it is previously turned off with applications and performs it in 2 seconds, the screen appears instantly, but access appears after 2 seconds. I keep my tips in the archive

Randy Walker wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 9:35 pm Mint it is. One I never tried

The developers of Cinnamon bundle it with Mint, so if you want maximum compatibility with Cinnamon, then you should use Mint. In Ubuntu, the shell is Gnome, I did not really like it.

netmaestro
You can try booting from ISO images by adding them to Grub2 (link2). This way, you can experiment to see which OS you like best. You can highlight 50 GB for each OS and install a few OS.

I can advise you to try the following:
Mint - maximum simplicity, everything works out of the box.
EndeavorOS (Arch), unlike Arch, has a graphical installer and also works well using Arch repositories, which contain the most updated versions of packages. The best of the Arch line.
Fedora (from the Red Hat line) - I once liked searching for packages in the manager, now I only use it to create rpm packages.
MX - I use i386 (x32) to compile deb packages because I was often advised to try this OS.

After installation, experiment with switching video card drivers. You will be disappointed if you spend a few days setting up the system, and then when you try to use a proprietary video driver, you may get a black screen and have to reinstall. In each OS you have your own way to determine the video card. On one it will be determined automatically, it will not do this on the other, on the third will be determined incorrectly, so that the correct operation of the drivers may depend on the system. An interesting situation may arise with two video cards, for example, the video card built into the processor must be disabled so that it is not detected as the main video card.

As a recovery tool, I like IceArch, which gives full access to the system. For DogLinux, the author said that his build supports all video cards and allows testing.

netmaestro wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 9:16 pm Still playing with it, I'd like to get something that just installs without tweaks. I'm dropping Cinnamon and trying XFCE.

Xfce is my preferred desktop environment - no fuss, quite simple and responsive even on old PC's. However, other DE's are also good, like everything with Linux it is just a matter of personal preference.

It's the same with choosing a distro - there are lots of good ones. I personally like MX Linux and used it for years - it tends to be "install and go" with no messing about, very stable rather than "bleeding edge". But also have MInt on a multi-boot system for testing and I like the sound of Mint LMDE that mk-soft uses. Ubuntu is a bit heavy for my old machines.

Never had a problem installing PureBasic - the easy install guide from mk-soft is brilliant!

Good luck and enjoy!

So I have a productive Linux environment now. I'll let you in on a couple of problems I ran into:

1. My bootable media wouldn't boot. It always booted to the hard disk and wouldn't boot from my usb thumbdrive. I went into BIOS and chose "USB Key" as the first boot, no luck. "USB Floppy" didn't work either. The one item I was ignoring was "usb hard disk" so I put that at the top and presto! It boots.

2. My welcome screen was unusable. No icons on it, nothing. And the text was super tiny. After much research, I learned how to edit the grub file and add the "nomodeset" flag where it says "quiet splash". Once I did that, everything went perfectly.

I'm going to read freak's instructions on installing Purebasic. 'cause I haven't fought with my computer enough today.

For Geany - copy for the user and for root, and the Grub2 config can be opened with the code highlighted..
Tools and Configurations for PureBasic
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