Given that Antix was now my only way of connecting online from this machine, I decided to reset the GRUB boot menu. I used the Antix boot repair utility, and it seemed to work okay. But, rebooting to test it, I discovered a glitch. My 3 partitions are currently used as:
#1: Swap,
#2: Antix v19.3 (upgraded), and
#3: Linux Mint v20.2.
The glitch, is that the boot repair didn’t find Mint. Instead, it found Debian v11.1, which I’d had previously installed in p#3, but over-written with Mint. I tested to see if it could boot Mint from the line specifying Debian, and the answer was no. Instead, after failure, it returned to the GRUB boot selection screen.
My solution was to go back into Antix, and enter
Code: Select all
sudo update-grub
That worked okay, but it had an odd side effect when I tested for booting Mint. Previously, Mint would go fairly quickly to the login screen. However, this time, it:
1) Gave me a blank screen with “LINUX MINT” top center, and 4 or 5 dots below it, similar to the Antix Live display.
2) It did a slow march across the dots, changing their color to display progress, similar to what Antix does.
3) It showed a terminal login, in large amber lettering on a black background. (I think it was tty1.) I decided to just wait, and see what it would do.
4) It displayed the normal LM login screen & routine.
Another oddity, once I was finally booted into Mint, is that the LM copy of ESR Firefox suddenly started working again when I tested it. I don’t know if it will continue to work, but it’s working now! (Curiouser and curiouser…) After discovering it was connecting normally, I went into the Settings, and checked. I found that DoH was on. I left it that way. I also found that HTTPS-Only mode was on. I turned it off.
I had no way of knowing exactly what had changed, to make FF work again in LM. But, encouraged by the ESR version suddenly working, I decided to reinstall FF v94.0 from the repos, and test that. I don't know how or why, but it's also working(!), and I'm using it right now to update this thread at the LM forum.
Is it possible that the altered behavior of booting Linux Mint is connected with the sudden resumption of Firefox (both versions) being able to connect online?
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