Test report on new Darter Pro and Mint

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Well I followed the directions here: https://itsfoss.com/upgrade-linux-kernel-ubuntu/ It shows the 5.14 Kernel installed, boots (slowly) and the installer tells me that there is a broken kernel package. It tells me to use the "Broken" command to find what is wrong. I have not the knowledge or experience, and so have FUBAR'ed my system somewhat. It works, and shows the 5.14 there, but I am going to re-install MInt and try again...

Situations like this is why I make multiple Timeshift snapshots and Rescuezilla images and keep multiple data backups. It saves me an enormous amount of time and frustration not having to ever reinstall the System.

[MurphCID]

Well I followed the directions here: https://itsfoss.com/upgrade-linux-kernel-ubuntu/ It shows the 5.14 Kernel installed, boots (slowly) and the installer tells me that there is a broken kernel package. It tells me to use the "Broken" command to find what is wrong. I have not the knowledge or experience, and so have FUBAR'ed my system somewhat. It works, and shows the 5.14 there, but I am going to re-install MInt and try again...

Situations like this is why I make multiple Timeshift snapshots and Rescuezilla images and keep multiple data backups. It saves me an enormous amount of time and frustration not having to ever reinstall the System.

That is the smart move, but I am a guy, and therefore stubborn...

[DAMIEN1307]

but I am a guy, and therefore stubborn...

We menfolk are NEVER stubborn...We are "Steadfast and Unmovable"...lol...DAMIEN

[MurphCID]

but I am a guy, and therefore stubborn...

We menfolk are NEVER stubborn...We are "Steadfast and Unmovable"...lol...DAMIEN

LOL! That sounds so much better. Lordy one of the great things about Mint is it takes no time at all to get

[MurphCID]

Stable again. Backgrounds, music, applications, all back to normal. This is a very nice experience. I plan on having a great time with this laptop, it is so far so good. Disppointed in the kernel issue, but not enough to know when to stop having exceeded my limitations.

Battery life is really good, I have been playing with it, and pushing it hard, and at 38% battery it shows that I have have over 3 hours left. That is amazing, and what I was looking for in this laptop.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Well I followed the directions here: https://itsfoss.com/upgrade-linux-kernel-ubuntu/ It shows the 5.14 Kernel installed, boots (slowly) and the installer tells me that there is a broken kernel package. It tells me to use the "Broken" command to find what is wrong. I have not the knowledge or experience, and so have FUBAR'ed my system somewhat. It works, and shows the 5.14 there, but I am going to re-install MInt and try again...

Situations like this is why I make multiple Timeshift snapshots and Rescuezilla images and keep multiple data backups. It saves me an enormous amount of time and frustration not having to ever reinstall the System.

That is the smart move, but I am a guy, and therefore stubborn...

And you think a cranky old broad who's part Irish, part German, and total princess can't be stubborn?

I'll admit, however, I learned my lesson the hard way over two decades ago. It was only pure, dumb luck that kept me from losing data.

[MurphCID]

Situations like this is why I make multiple Timeshift snapshots and Rescuezilla images and keep multiple data backups. It saves me an enormous amount of time and frustration not having to ever reinstall the System.

That is the smart move, but I am a guy, and therefore stubborn...

And you think a cranky old broad who's part Irish, part German, and total princess can't be stubborn?

I don't know my wife claims that no one is as stubborn as I can be, but she is biased after almost 33 years.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Situations like this is why I make multiple Timeshift snapshots and Rescuezilla images and keep multiple data backups. It saves me an enormous amount of time and frustration not having to ever reinstall the System.

That is the smart move, but I am a guy, and therefore stubborn...

And you think a cranky old broad who's part Irish, part German, and total princess can't be stubborn?

I'll admit, however, I learned my lesson the hard way over two decades ago. I was only pure, dumb luck that kept me from losing data.

Well, it appears the forum software substituted the B word (witch spelled with a B) I used with "princess". Gotta "love" nanny software. Oh well (spelled with an H).

[DAMIEN1307]

but she is biased after almost 33 years.

Only 33 years???...She just hasn't been with you long enough yet to know the difference between stubborn and steadfast and unmovable yet is all...lol...She will eventually come around to our way of thinking once she gets to know you better...lol...DAMIEN

[MurphCID]

but she is biased after almost 33 years.

Only 33 years???...She just hasn't been with you long enough yet to know the difference between stubborn and steadfast and unmovable yet is all...lol...She will eventually come around to our way of thinking once she gets to know you better...lol...DAMIEN

She would be almost perfect if I could convert her to using Linux, and one or two other little "quirks"....

[DAMIEN1307]

She would be almost perfect...and one or two other little "quirks"....

Ahhh...Those little quirks...lol...THAT must be the reason why im happily divorced...lol...DAMIEN

[MurphCID]

The old Darter Pro is doing really really well with Manjaro and the 5.14 kernel, I even seem to be getting some better battery performance. Odd that. I finally had to connect the charger to the New Darter Pro, having used it and used it which includes 3 re-installs of Mint.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

She would be almost perfect...and one or two other little "quirks"....

Ahhh...Those little quirks...lol...THAT must be the reason why im happily divorced...lol...DAMIEN

It's my quirks as much as it was my ex's that make me happily divorced.

[Portreve]

Well I followed the directions here: https://itsfoss.com/upgrade-linux-kernel-ubuntu/ It shows the 5.14 Kernel installed, boots (slowly) and the installer tells me that there is a broken kernel package. It tells me to use the "Broken" command to find what is wrong. I have not the knowledge or experience, and so have FUBAR'ed my system somewhat. It works, and shows the 5.14 there, but I am going to re-install MInt and try again. Not sure what went wrong. But this is how you learn.

Been trying other options, but this is not working, so I am going to reload and go back to the 5.11 kernel. What I don't understand is I followed the directions EXACTLY, and it keeps telling me I have broken packages. But it does not tell me what is broken. confused is going on? I mean Manjaro is humming along on the 5.14 Kernel on the old Darter and working perfectly with NO issues. So why is downloading from the Ubuntu repositories causing broken packages? Hmmmm. Annoyance. Thank goodness it is so easy to re-install Mint and get it back where I want it.

One more edit, on the plus side, I AM using the terminal more, and learned that to change directory to downloads I cannot type CD Downloads, I have to go CD /home/murph/Downloads. Plus I am learning just how fast terminal is. So it is not all bad, I am learning quite a bit.

Well, that's not necessarily true. Here's two ways you can do it:

cd ~/Downloads [ENTER]

Remember that "~" in this context implies the current user.

And the other way is to use tab autocomplete. This is mostly useful when you have highly complex paths to get through which may or may not include your user account's directory structure.

Consider the following hypothetical directory path:

/usr/share/gallifrey/tardis/time.rotor.d/30-console.conf

You could pretty easily use the [ TAB ] key to avoid having to type most of that path statement. Just start typing each part and hit TAB, and let it fill in the rest for you.

[MurphCID]

Well I followed the directions here: https://itsfoss.com/upgrade-linux-kernel-ubuntu/ It shows the 5.14 Kernel installed, boots (slowly) and the installer tells me that there is a broken kernel package. It tells me to use the "Broken" command to find what is wrong. I have not the knowledge or experience, and so have FUBAR'ed my system somewhat. It works, and shows the 5.14 there, but I am going to re-install MInt and try again. Not sure what went wrong. But this is how you learn.

Been trying other options, but this is not working, so I am going to reload and go back to the 5.11 kernel. What I don't understand is I followed the directions EXACTLY, and it keeps telling me I have broken packages. But it does not tell me what is broken. confused is going on? I mean Manjaro is humming along on the 5.14 Kernel on the old Darter and working perfectly with NO issues. So why is downloading from the Ubuntu repositories causing broken packages? Hmmmm. Annoyance. Thank goodness it is so easy to re-install Mint and get it back where I want it.

One more edit, on the plus side, I AM using the terminal more, and learned that to change directory to downloads I cannot type CD Downloads, I have to go CD /home/murph/Downloads. Plus I am learning just how fast terminal is. So it is not all bad, I am learning quite a bit.

Well, that's not necessarily true. Here's two ways you can do it:

cd ~/Downloads [ENTER]

Remember that "~" in this context implies the current user.

And the other way is to use tab autocomplete. This is mostly useful when you have highly complex paths to get through which may or may not include your user account's directory structure.

Consider the following hypothetical directory path:

/usr/share/gallifrey/tardis/time.rotor.d/30-console.conf

You could pretty easily use the [ TAB ] key to avoid having to type most of that path statement. Just start typing each part and hit TAB, and let it fill in the rest for you.

Good point, and thanks. I will give that a shot. I am back up on the New Darter since I am playing a game on the Windows desktop. My daughter even told me that this is a good looking laptop. Also the battery life is really nice, much better than the other one, At 97% I am showing 15:25 on time left on the charge. I am so happy. It has become the new desk laptop upstairs with the Lemur Pro being relegated to bag status. It will be my go to the coffeeshop laptop. The keyboard on this one is just sweet, I am getting used to its typing quirks.

[famouslastwords]

Fact that your new laptop is working so well with the 5.11 kernel is the main thing. Also noted on distrowatch the latest PopOs release is showing as being on the 5.11. In another thread today, it was said the 5.11 will not be supported after about 4 more months (Feb 2022)but that a newer one will be introduced then and think LM 20.2 has support until 2025 ? Anyway you're clearly overall happy with it and performance on it should never degrade, only improve from here on, so that's a win.

The 5.14 experiment went about as well as expected but it's one of those why not try and see things. Really would take some time and settle on a working backup/restore method vs having to do fresh reinstalls. Much faster and less tedious than having to reconfigure and customize everything. I like rsync but like pretty much always in Linux there's no shortage of tools/methods.

Ps, Just glad this time Mint is running well for you and think it's really cool something was done so people with otherwise unsupported systems can use LM. It's a WIN.

[MurphCID]

Fact that your new laptop is working so well with the 5.11 kernel is the main thing. Also noted on distrowatch the latest PopOs release is showing as being on the 5.11. In another thread today, it was said the 5.11 will not be supported after about 4 more months (Feb 2022)but that a newer one will be introduced then and think LM 20.2 has support until 2025 ? Anyway you're clearly overall happy with it and performance on it should never degrade, only improve from here on, so that's a win.

The 5.14 experiment went about as well as expected but it's one of those why not try and see things. Really would take some time and settle on a working backup/restore method vs having to do fresh reinstalls. Much faster and less tedious than having to reconfigure and customize everything. I like rsync but like pretty much always in Linux there's no shortage of tools/methods.

Ps, Just glad this time Mint is running well for you and think it's really cool something was done so people with otherwise unsupported systems can use LM. It's a WIN.

Thanks. Maybe I should have gone with the 5.10 Kernel? It IS an LTS after all. I finally got it through my thick head that System 76 Coreboot really, really wants the latest and greatest Kernels. Or at least the 5.8+ for it to work the best without having to install the System 76 PPAs. I refuse to do that because they have their own Kernel spin, and I don't want it to conflict with Mint. I don't mind the re-installs since I really don't keep too much on the computer, I have it all on an external Samsung T7 SSD. Plug into USB-C and boom there it is. So fast.

On another note, on the old Darter Pro, I got notice that there was a load of updates, and discovered that it was Rolling Release update night. I went to the 5.14.7 Kernel, and Manjaro 21.14. It was utterly painless, a bit slower than regular updates, but far, far, far faster than the stupid Microsoft update.

[famouslastwords]

LMAO Microsoft, had never heard that one before, nice.

Hadn't heard about the LM edge iso thing until dorking around in this forum. Really cool that LM is doing that. It's at 5.11, did you use that edge iso to install LM ? If the OP in that other thread is right and 5.11 is going EOL in Feb (it already went EOL officially long ago), then probably next step up for Mint will be 5.13, that's the one being used on Ubuntu's newest snapshot according to Distrowatch. So am assuming that's the one LM will use next. Try that newer one when it becomes available ...

Though now that you mentioned it, could go with the 5.10 series. According to google, it's going to be supported by the fine folks assoc w kernel.org until end of year 2026. Those people are literally the best in the world when it comes to the Linux kernel. See if your system still runs well with it. Either or ... at this point am a tad confused by it all. Don't really try to keep track of how Canonical Inc works. Again ... according to google 5.13 just went EOL on Sept 22nd and it's going to be the kernel Ubuntu uses in their next release apparently. Thus at some point used in LM.

Has to mean the Ubuntu kernel team is going to take responsibility for maintaining it ... My 2 cents on it, try that 5.10 and see how it goes, works out well then why not keep it. Though can also try the newer one when it comes. Would still keep that 5.10 as backup, provided it works well on your hardware o course. When messing with kernels, with some basic precautions should be a no harm/foul proposition for the most part.

If you install that 5.13 when it's available and it's fantastic, actually gives you a noticeable benefit, then set it to boot as default and have your backup just in case.

Still advise you to go ahead and settle on a proven incremental backup/restore plan. It's just an all around good idea and isn't rocket science. One reason being Manjaro, discussed in another thread really new hardware, joy can be had with distro's who cater to that niche. Gentoo/Arch ... easiest for people who don't want to become uber-geeks an Arch based, like Manjaro. Though did note, being on the cutting edge, users can get cut.

Someone else mentioned in your rolling revisited or whatever thread it's not if it breaks but when and folks w/o the know-how to fix it will be pooched. That's not the case with a recent working backup. It breaks, wham restore backup in no time flat and back in business. Don't know how much customization, tuning, tweaking you do to your OS's but I do A LOT.

Am in the dang process of getting a minimal Debian Bullseye netinstall setup, have been at it for probably 10hrs or more and it's still not done. If I were to break this install so badly I couldn't recover it and don't have a backup, will feel like tying a rope around my neck and jumping out the window.

Even on this ancient laptop, restoring a backup takes all of 30mins. All customizations, installed software etc. etc. right back as they are. Lol ... yep, you are from Texas BUT the people at the Alamo would've loved to have a backup. Wayyyyy toooo much coffee.

[MurphCID]

LMAO Microsoft, had never heard that one before, nice.

Hadn't heard about the LM edge iso thing until dorking around in this forum. Really cool that LM is doing that. It's at 5.11, did you use that edge iso to install LM ? If the OP in that other thread is right and 5.11 is going EOL in Feb (it already went EOL officially long ago), then probably next step up for Mint will be 5.13, that's the one being used on Ubuntu's newest snapshot according to Distrowatch. So am assuming that's the one LM will use next. Try that newer one when it becomes available ...

Though now that you mentioned it, could go with the 5.10 series. According to google, it's going to be supported by the fine folks assoc w kernel.org until end of year 2026. Those people are literally the best in the world when it comes to the Linux kernel. See if your system still runs well with it. Either or ... at this point am a tad confused by it all. Don't really try to keep track of how Canonical Inc works. Again ... according to google 5.13 just went EOL on Sept 22nd and it's going to be the kernel Ubuntu uses in their next release apparently. Thus at some point used in LM.

Has to mean the Ubuntu kernel team is going to take responsibility for maintaining it ... My 2 cents on it, try that 5.10 and see how it goes, works out well then why not keep it. Though can also try the newer one when it comes. Would still keep that 5.10 as backup, provided it works well on your hardware o course. When messing with kernels, with some basic precautions should be a no harm/foul proposition for the most part.

If you install that 5.13 when it's available and it's fantastic, actually gives you a noticeable benefit, then set it to boot as default and have your backup just in case.

Still advise you to go ahead and settle on a proven incremental backup/restore plan. It's just an all around good idea and isn't rocket science. One reason being Manjaro, discussed in another thread really new hardware, joy can be had with distro's who cater to that niche. Gentoo/Arch ... easiest for people who don't want to become uber-geeks an Arch based, like Manjaro. Though did note, being on the cutting edge, users can get cut.

Someone else mentioned in your rolling revisited or whatever thread it's not if it breaks but when and folks w/o the know-how to fix it will be pooched. That's not the case with a recent working backup. It breaks, wham restore backup in no time flat and back in business. Don't know how much customization, tuning, tweaking you do to your OS's but I do A LOT.

Am in the dang process of getting a minimal Debian Bullseye netinstall setup, have been at it for probably 10hrs or more and it's still not done. If I were to break this install so badly I couldn't recover it and don't have a backup, will feel like tying a rope around my neck and jumping out the window.

Even on this ancient laptop, restoring a backup takes all of 30mins. All customizations, installed software etc. etc. right back as they are. Lol ... yep, you are from Texas BUT the people at the Alamo would've loved to have a backup. Wayyyyy toooo much coffee.

Excellent points and I agree. Part of my problem is that I just don't have that much Linux knowledge at this point. So I am trying to bang away and see what breaks... One of the things I really, really love about Mint is the fact that it is very forgiving to folks like me. I really appreciate your posts, I learn something new each time. I think maybe my mistake was going to the Ubuntu versions rather than the direct Kernel.org site. I completely agree that using an LTS is probably the way to go. This machine has such new hardware (Intel Xe graphics for one), that I want to get a Kernel that works right with the hardware. I don't do as much tweaking as you probably do, I just want it to look like I like, work like I like, and be stable. One of my wish list items is to get it to recognize my cell phone, and even my iPad mini.

[famouslastwords]

Stick with Ubuntu or better with what Linux Mint makes available. Don't be at all surprised if the 5.13 when available is a repeat of the 5.14 experience with LM 20.2. Breaks, doesn't tell you what all broke, left scratching head and reinstalling. Though shouldn't by the time LM's people make it available. If they say it's good to go with 20.2 then it surely will be. Though it's still a try it and see affair, it's just awesome they're taking steps. Once again, shows LM cares about the userbase.

Still backup/restore can take much of the pain away, as can doing such experimentation in a VM, with a real hypervisor eg: KVM.

Much of what I typed could be misconstrued too. Think we all know LM is kickbutt. Just because a given kernel officially goes EOL doesn't mean patches and etc can't/won't be applied to it. Thanks for the thanks Murph, it's enjoyable discussing tech and LM forum is about the best around too.

So perhaps time to fire up some VM's and/or start dabbling in multiboot. Because it sounds overall like you're happy with LM 20.2 and that it's running well on that new beast of a laptop. The stuff with your phone not sure. I'm too fuzzy brained atm to even think. Problem = more coffee = solution.