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I am running POP!_OS now but used Linux Mint Cinnamon for two years and Windows 7 before that. Luckily I didn’t have to give up much when I switched to Linux. I used LibreOffice instead of Microsoft and things like Firefox and Thunderbird so I still use many of the programs i used before.

I missed the flexibility of Irfanview but the default image viewer plus Pix were good enough for my purposes.

Being an ex-Windows type I wanted an anti-virus – especially since some of my Wine games used third party add-ons I had to download manually. I chose the Flatpak version of Clamtk. It was a bit clunky but worked. On POP i tried the ,deb version but uninstalled it as it seemed buggy. Now when I download the needed Windows files I do so and then upload them to Virustotal. So far it has worked fine.

I use Timeshift before every update and have it scheduled to do one daily, one weekly, and one monthly. Every few weeks I clean out the oldest snapshots. Don’t use it to backup /root or /home (especially) or your ssd /hd will fill up fast. Mint comes with a backup/archiving program and I experimented with it for my /home directory but the files were big and it was more of an all or nothing approach.

When you install programs read the website/github descriptions before choosing between Flatpaks or deb files. Flatpaks are better in some cases and deb files in others. Also check out Appimages. They’re self contained. Appimages i used on Mint: Freetube (interesting Youtube viewer still in beta and very buggy unfortunately), and Fluent (newsreader). Currently I am using appimage versions of Ksnip (screenshot tool) and Xnview-MP (image editor and viewer) both work fine.

About screenshot tools. The defaults in Mint and POP are good for most use cases but both have some annoying quirks, 90% of the time if i am online i just use the one built into Firefox.

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JGO, wdburt1

They also have a version called LinuxFx which may be a backup plan if they have to stop using the Windows name. Check out the carbon copy webpage:

https://www.linuxfx.org/index.php/release-news/linuxfx-operating-system

I checked out the site a few months ago but it didn’t appeal to me. I was satisfied with Linux Mint and if i wanted a change the KDE Plasma would work.

I think Derek at Distrotube summed it up best in his review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP9hrM3mFcE

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Cybertooth, Alex5723

The directions on the WineHQ page worked for me when I was using Linux Mint. I used it with Lutris to play games and things worked out well.

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bassmanzam, DrBonzo

I did a quick test and it seems to supply similar responses to DDG and the others with some major failings. The first is that it won’t work without javascript enabled. Other search engines have limited options when you disable javascript but work. The second is that you need to have cookies enabled for the site to work. So it’s not a privacy orientated search engine.

There also doesn’t seem to be a way to vary your searches by level of “safe search” moderation. Sometimes you’ll need to make safe search strict and sometimes it’s better to turn it off.

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wavy, satrow

Get the first initial updates (your 138). If you have to reboot do so and then see see if there are anymore system updates. If not then download Timeshift and set a restore point. Then you can start downloading what programs you need.

Try to find a good mirror closest to you. These will vary over time but when a problem pops up just try a new mirror.

Firefox will update through the package manager.

One thing I miss on POP!_OS is the differentiation between security updates, program features, and updates to third party programs. On LM I would prioritize security updates first. I would also install programs in smaller groups for better troubleshooting if there is a problem. If you install many programs and have a problem it is harder to determine a cause than with one new program.

I used the Flatpak Clamtk  and it could be slow but it worked okay. It updated through the UI. One thing I learned was to scan something small like the .var or etc folders first to get the program working and then scan my download or another folder. Clamtk goes through a “setting up” routine where it appears dead for a while.

For Clamtk on Mint you may want to go with the Flatpak. It seems lighter and newer. I installed the ,deb version on my new comp and it seems a lot slower.

I never scanned the whole computer as Clamtk is so slow. I would scan downloads or any attachments friends sent me and my .wine folder due to Windows games and third party add-ons.

For the firewall GUFW is fine. Just turn it on and use the default settings. i used “home” as my computer type.

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bassmanzam

Thanks Paul.

I rechecked Gtkhash and redid all of my checks and it picked it up this time. I probably made an error the first time and then checked the iso but of course the checksum is for the zip file. Most times when I have had to checksum it has been directly to the file not the container/folder.

Thanks.

Ryzen 7, POP!_OS, 32GB Ram.250GB SSD, 2TB HDD

My tech suggested the link. I wanted to use the Linux 64.iso and also tried the 64 with grub. i checked sha1, sha256 and md5 and neither of the hashes below the iso downloads worked. Then i enabled all of the checksum types possible and nothing worked.

The program I am using is gtkhash and it worked recently when I checked a POP iso to make a live USB.

I saw a post about dragging and dropping a symlink so I experimented with  a file to match my code and it worked. The output:

Name: .wine

Link to target: /media/user/extradrive1/WineGames/.wine

Parent folder: /home/user/

My only issue so far is that when I first moved .wine to the HDD I didn’t create a symlink because the info I had didn’t mention one. When I logged back in later .Wine had been recreated in /Home and seemed to be an exact duplicate. I found out later that it wasn’t growing like the one in the second drive,

When I learned about symlinks I made one and renamed .wine folder .wineold. Then my desktop shortcut for the game wouldn’t work. So for now I reverted to .wine and rename the link. I will try again later with the symlink restored and a new desktop shortcut. Now I just need a small Lutris game to see if I can get that working.

i first tried making symlinks after reading how people used them to stop flatpaks from filling the OS drive. i made a link to my HDD but wonder if that will mess with the way Gnome deals with them.

The trouble I had was probably due to clicking on the drive rather than the drive folder. I debated getting an external drive to transfer games (including the .wine info) but thought a fresh install of the games would be better and due to the condition of the computer I couldn’t be sure it wouldn’t crash during the transfer.

The frustrating part is that i have had some crashes due to trying to install on the second drive (Lutris with no symlink), Teamspeak Flatpak (crashed when initially setting up sound – did that on Mint too) and today I downloaded the POP iso to make a backup live USB and checked it with GTKhash. Being an old Windows user I also scanned with Clamtk and the desktop froze – no alt-f2 even the clock stopped. After a hard reboot everything was okay and I finished the USB and it works fine.

i decided to start collecting log info for System76 support in case there is a real problem but all of the crashes have been related to software. One thing i am checking on is that my Syslog is expanding very fast – probably due to an error message getting spammed. I lost 18 GB of SSD space today and the log I made and the Wine update combined were less than 1GB.

The syslog thing may be related to a symlink I made for my Flatpak .var folder but I’m not sure. In any case I will send something to support and if I have to restore to and earlier Timeshift spot.

I am still happy i went this route but wish it could have been a bit smoother. It’s nice having a newer /faster computer with 4x the ram I had before, Ryzen 7, Radeon 6600, 32G ram.

For users of Linux Mint if you don’t see a security update and you use Nvidia check your update manager. If you’re like me and temporarily ignore non-security updates it may be there. I think the security update I installed came as a regular update until it’s status was changed.

Installing the new drivers also required upgrading to a later kernel

I have used the Appimage of FreeTube on Linux Mint for about a year.

When it works it works okay. When it doesn’t it is frustrating and has caused my computer to reboot. (That may be due to power issues and if it couldn’t load a video it would try using bluetooth – which I don’t have- and my computer would have an out of memory(?)incident and reboot. Appimages are not supposed to affect the system but this one did.

It uses “invidious instances” to contact YouTube and bypass location or age restrictions. Sometimes the instance it selects won’t work and you get a page long error message. YouTube changes it’s code fairly often and instances that work may fail. So the restrictions are not bypassed.

Searching videos was always chancy. Say I search for “news Ukraine” for the last hour – no results -so I check for today and there are several hits for the last 30 minutes.

Say I check for videos about Linux Mint from today. The program is searching, searching, searching… and comes up with no results. I search for Ubuntu and Linux Mint pops up. It is very beta.

They have added improvements to the look and such but the actual performance went downward it seemed to me. I stopped using it at version 0.17.1 and it is at 0.18.0 now.

I got it so I could casually view videos with out signing in and watch a few foreign vids. I haven’t used it in months and won’t install it on my new computer until it reaches version 1.

Edit: My understanding is that it bypasses SOME of YouTube’s tentacles but you are not anonymous while using it.

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Microfix, Charlie

1 – Has anyone transferred files from computer to computer using USB? and do you need special cables?

2- Would it be easier to add the old computer temporarily to the LAN and transfer that way?

 

I just bought a new router from pcWRT. An earlier model was recommended by the guy at routersecurity.org.

It’s a pcWRT CF-WR619AC Gigabit Dual Band Secure WiFi Router with Parental Control.

It took almost two weeks to get shipped from the US, go through customs, and delivered to me.

I had some problems setting it up due to my jumping the gun and then having to get internet to work – my modem needed to be reset. The machine is made in China by Comfast(?) but the software/UI is all pcWRT.

It doesn’t show packets in and out like my old firewall router used to but there is an app to view bandwidth usage, parental control and so on. i was happy that I could turn off all of the apps i don’t want or use but could turn them on later.

I had two complaints that I gave feedback on their forum. The first was that their “manual” was just a series of internet phone links to their forums. No phone = no support. The second was that my router had a typo on the sticker which showed the browser URL and default password. The url didn’t work.

I got the problems worked out and the router is working fine. I did a test at https://www.grc.com/shieldsup and it did better than my old router. It’s also much faster.

I would recommend this router. Just check their forums first and write down any tips you need.

https://www.pcwrt.com/forums/

I have learned a lot by checking the log files – and then searching online. Most of the time though the causes of the crashes seem cryptic.

I used to see pulseaudio and bluez mentioned mentioned before reboots before I updated the kernel and and Nvidia. In Freetube it seemed like the program had trouble connecting to YouTube so it tried bluez and lead to a memory leak or something. In YouTube add-ons may have been an issue.

I had my first crash in a week this morning. The computer had been on for about 12 hours and I was searching for a music video in YouTube and the system rebooted. For the first time in a while i had my 4 usual add-ons running.

Log: journalctl -r

— Reboot —
Nov 06 11:35:21 user1 systemd[1]: anacron.service: Succeeded.
Nov 06 11:35:21 user1 anacron[31634]: Normal exit (0 jobs run)
Nov 06 11:35:21 user1 anacron[31634]: Anacron 2.3 started on 2022-11-06
Nov 06 11:35:21 user1 systemd[1]: Started Run anacron jobs.
Nov 06 11:30:05 user1 rtkit-daemon[1234]: Supervising 4 threads of 3 processes of 1 users.
Nov 06 11:30:05 user1 rtkit-daemon[1234]: Successfully made thread 31508 of process 31261 owned by ‘1000’ RT at priority 10.
Nov 06 11:30:05 user1 rtkit-daemon[1234]: Supervising 3 threads of 2 processes of 1 users.
Nov 06 11:30:05 user1 rtkit-daemon[1234]: Supervising 3 threads of 2 processes of 1 users.
Nov 06 11:30:05 user1 rtkit-daemon[1234]: Supervising 3 threads of 2 processes of 1 users.
Nov 06 11:30:05 user1 rtkit-daemon[1234]: Supervising 3 threads of 2 processes of 1 users.
Nov 06 11:30:01 user1 CRON[31480]: pam_unix(cron:session): session closed for user root
Nov 06 11:30:01 user1 CRON[31481]: (root) CMD ([ -x /etc/init.d/anacron ] && if [ ! -d /run/systemd/system ]; then /usr/sbin/invoke-rc.d anacron start >/dev/null; fi)
Nov 06 11:30:01 user1 CRON[31480]: pam_unix(cron:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)

Cron and rtkit are the other two services I see often in logs associated with crashes. I have no idea why Cron spams the system so much.

@Ascaris The new computer will have at least a 1TB drive. I’m not sure I will get separate drives for the OS and data. My current computer just has a 1TB HDD and i still have about 650GB left. Since the computer is having issues i am thinking of backing up my Wine folder to an external HD so it won’t be an issue later when i switch computers.

I couldn’t remember the format.:) and will probably reformat as Ext4