Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

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MurphCID
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

Post by MurphCID »

antikythera wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:32 am Try MX out for yourself and see if you like it, I wasn't keen personally.
I’ll give it a shot this weekend...

Edit, downloading the Advanced Technology D/L since it has the later kernel.
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

Post by MurphCID »

Ok, I got Way, Way too ambitious with my extremely limited knowledge of Linux. I tried to install Arch, and completely smoked my system. I finally gave up at 2300 last night, and re-installed Mint. That was utterly painful, I just proved to myself, that perhaps I have no business attempting such things, and should stick with Mint since I am competent to install that. I might try MX linux today, or may wait till next weekend. Arch might as well have been Slackware I was lost completely even with the Wiki. I could get nothing to work, and just proved to myself that I AM a complete Noob. I think I might have to turn in my Linux Man card.....
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

Post by antikythera »

Arch-fu should be learnt in a VM first before attempting bare metal installs of Arch, it's a bit like Gentoo in that respect. If you want to try Arch with all the donkey work done for you then try Garuda or EndeavourOS
I’ll tell you a DNS joke but be advised, it could take up to 24 hours for everyone to get it.
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

MurphCID wrote: Sun Jan 24, 2021 1:46 pm Ok, I got Way, Way too ambitious with my extremely limited knowledge of Linux. I tried to install Arch, and completely smoked my system. I finally gave up at 2300 last night, and re-installed Mint. That was utterly painful, I just proved to myself, that perhaps I have no business attempting such things, and should stick with Mint since I am competent to install that. I might try MX linux today, or may wait till next weekend. Arch might as well have been Slackware I was lost completely even with the Wiki. I could get nothing to work, and just proved to myself that I AM a complete Noob. I think I might have to turn in my Linux Man card.....
Nah, keep your man card; you just need to climb with a safety line. Next time you want to experiment, use a program, like Clonezilla, to make an image of the drive you OS and programs are on, then test restoring the image to another drive (or, if you prefer, just clone the drive) or just pull the drive and replace it with another one, then experiment to your heart's content. That way, if things go south (in my case, when they go south), just restore the image or replace the original drive and you are back in business.

Being the complete noob and coward I am, when I installed Mint for the first time on a Win 7 machine, I yanked the one drive in the computer and replaced it with an empty drive so, if things when completely south (amazingly, they only took a temporary detour in that direction), all I had to do was pop the old drive back in to get back to square one (I also had Macrium Reflect images and rescue media I trusted but drive swapping was faster and easier).

When I got my System 76 POS, I pulled the NVMe drive the OS (Ubuntu) was installed on and replaced it with an empty (and better quality) drive. Fortunately, I didn't have to replace the original drives in either case but it was nice to know I had my ample asset covered (and that a lot of real estate to cover :cry: ).
Jeannie

To ensure the safety of your data, you have to be proactive, not reactive, so, back it up!
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

Post by MurphCID »

antikythera wrote: Sun Jan 24, 2021 3:06 pm Arch-fu should be learnt in a VM first before attempting bare metal installs of Arch, it's a bit like Gentoo in that respect. If you want to try Arch with all the donkey work done for you then try Garuda or EndeavourOS
Yes, you are completely correct, however, sometimes I am not too bright and decide to hit myself with the hammer just to see what happens......
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

Post by MurphCID »

Lady Fitzgerald wrote: Sun Jan 24, 2021 4:14 pm
MurphCID wrote: Sun Jan 24, 2021 1:46 pm Ok, I got Way, Way too ambitious with my extremely limited knowledge of Linux. I tried to install Arch, and completely smoked my system. I finally gave up at 2300 last night, and re-installed Mint. That was utterly painful, I just proved to myself, that perhaps I have no business attempting such things, and should stick with Mint since I am competent to install that. I might try MX linux today, or may wait till next weekend. Arch might as well have been Slackware I was lost completely even with the Wiki. I could get nothing to work, and just proved to myself that I AM a complete Noob. I think I might have to turn in my Linux Man card.....
Nah, keep your man card; you just need to climb with a safety line. Next time you want to experiment, use a program, like Clonezilla, to make an image of the drive you OS and programs are on, then test restoring the image to another drive (or, if you prefer, just clone the drive) or just pull the drive and replace it with another one, then experiment to your heart's content. That way, if things go south (in my case, when they go south), just restore the image or replace the original drive and you are back in business.

Being the complete noob and coward I am, when I installed Mint for the first time on a Win 7 machine, I yanked the one drive in the computer and replaced it with an empty drive so, if things when completely south (amazingly, they only took a temporary detour in that direction), all I had to do was pop the old drive back in to get back to square one (I also had Macrium Reflect images and rescue media I trusted but drive swapping was faster and easier).

When I got my System 76 POS, I pulled the NVMe drive the OS (Ubuntu) was installed on and replaced it with an empty (and better quality) drive. Fortunately, I didn't have to replace the original drives in either case but it was nice to know I had my ample asset covered (and that a lot of real estate to cover :cry: ).
Oh no, as my wife will attest, I have to do things the hard way at times.
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

MurphCID wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 7:10 am
antikythera wrote: Sun Jan 24, 2021 3:06 pm Arch-fu should be learnt in a VM first before attempting bare metal installs of Arch, it's a bit like Gentoo in that respect. If you want to try Arch with all the donkey work done for you then try Garuda or EndeavourOS
Yes, you are completely correct, however, sometimes I am not too bright and decide to hit myself with the hammer just to see what happens......
Or you hit yourself with a hammer because it feels so good when you stop. :wink:
Jeannie

To ensure the safety of your data, you have to be proactive, not reactive, so, back it up!
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

Post by MurphCID »

Lady Fitzgerald wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 7:29 am
MurphCID wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 7:10 am
antikythera wrote: Sun Jan 24, 2021 3:06 pm Arch-fu should be learnt in a VM first before attempting bare metal installs of Arch, it's a bit like Gentoo in that respect. If you want to try Arch with all the donkey work done for you then try Garuda or EndeavourOS
Yes, you are completely correct, however, sometimes I am not too bright and decide to hit myself with the hammer just to see what happens......
Or you hit yourself with a hammer because it feels so good when you stop. :wink:
That describes everyday at work.
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

MurphCID wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 7:31 am
Lady Fitzgerald wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 7:29 am
MurphCID wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 7:10 am

Yes, you are completely correct, however, sometimes I am not too bright and decide to hit myself with the hammer just to see what happens......
Or you hit yourself with a hammer because it feels so good when you stop. :wink:
That describes everyday at work.
No kidding! I'm so glad I'm retired!
Jeannie

To ensure the safety of your data, you have to be proactive, not reactive, so, back it up!
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

Post by MurphCID »

I so want to retire. Work is getting harder and harder to go to every day. 18 May, 2022 and I AM DONE!!!!!!!!
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

MurphCID wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 10:05 pm I so want to retire. Work is getting harder and harder to go to every day. 18 May, 2022 and I AM DONE!!!!!!!!
Hang in there!
Jeannie

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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

Post by MurphCID »

I went ahead and installed MX Linux on the Darter Pro in the ahs version. It is ok, not Mint though. I am going to keep working with it, but I might try the KDE version instead of the XFCE version.
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

Post by MurphCID »

Ok, so MX is alright, but not Mint. I will most likely install some other random distro today, and play with it for a while. I am thinking of one of the Red Hat clones or perhaps Manjaro. I am not sure how I feel about rolling releases of linux. With any luck I will have a new experience. But so far for me none of the distros I have tried meet up to the "Mint standard".
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

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AH to heck with it, nothing satisfies like a good Mint.
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

Post by MurphCID »

Pro tip here, if you do not know what you are doing, even with YouTube and Google do not try and install Slackware. Just don't do it. Trust me. It was worse than the Arch attempt.
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

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I have decided that this system will likely go away in a couple of months. I will most likely give it to my brother in law since he is a Linux user as well, and he is a great guy. I will also put POP O/S back on it, in OEM mode so he can modify it all he desires. Knowing him, he will most likely either keep POP O/S or put Ubuntu on it. I most likely will purchase this: https://system76.com/laptops/darter Since it has the same battery as the Lemur Pro, and the same internals, easy access to update, and the ability to put more RAM up to 64 gb inside, additionally it has TWO M.2 slots. I have started saving my coins, and should have enough to get it by mid summer. I like this model since it appears to be the Lemur Pro scaled up.

Edit: I decided on LMDE 4 to give to him. I’ll update the kernel to the 5.8 series though.
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

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War report on the Darter: Well after completely FUBAR'ing the laptop with my fumble fingered attempt at installing Slackware, I tried MX Linux 19.4 AHS. I have to say, not bad, not bad at all. Not Mint by any stretch of the imagination, but not bad at all. XFCE is not Cinnamon, but it is certainly usable. The System 76 systems really want a 5.+ kernel, so the AHS distro of MX is the one to use. Wifi works fine, (recall it did not under a 4.+ kernel. Keyboard lights work, and it seems stable. I am fairly happy about this. I will re-load Mint before I pass it on to my brother in law, or I might try Arch (again!) Or I will put Pop OS on it to bring it back to factory spec, and deliver it to him that way.

Any suggestions?
Last edited by MurphCID on Wed Jul 28, 2021 6:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

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Tried to install LMDE, and it just hung at a black screen. MX Linux was, as I have said decent, but I probably did not give it enough time. The 5.10 kernel ran great on this laptop. I just re-installed Mint 20.1 and spent an hour putting things back where they should be. One of the several things I like and appreciate about this laptop is the ethernet jack. The ethernet jack allows for very fast downloading of things. I always look in the wrong places for the numlock at startup switch. Could we place that in a more obvious spot Mint Team? :) Noobs like me have issues finding stuff unless it hits me on the head.
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

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Well I WAS going to get one of the new Darter Pro laptops to replace mine. but they upped the price $300 for the base model, and I just cannot shell out the extra coin to get it. If they had left it at the original price of $1099 or even $1199 I would go ahead and do it. But not for that price, not in the slightest. Too rich for my blood. Because by the time I add extra ram (16 or 32 gb), and a 500 gb SSD, it would be in excess of $1600 before shipping! Nah, not happening.
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Re: Birthday gift for me [System 76 Darter Pro]

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Having been spoiled by the Lemur Pro battery, I can say that the Darter Pro battery is underwhelming in daily use. In real world usage, I am currently getting about 3-4 hours max from the laptop. Since System 76 is out of laptops, I am thinking seriously about getting this one (in about six months): https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Linu ... en6.tuxedo I just hope that ordering is secure.
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