Can no longer use Linux Mint

[beacon]

Thanks to everyone, even to those who have been so critical about what I thought was a fairly innocuous post. I am especially grateful to those who sent private messages and to Artgirl who seems to be one of the few who saw my request for what it was. She was able to look for a way to help without finding one fault after another about my approach. I hardly think I was blaming people for not replying to earlier requests; I simply stated a fact, as I pointed out in a later post. Nor was I getting at Linux Mint; the issue was that, after years of using it I was desperate to continue but was running into too many problems. I should perhaps point out that I used several alternative systems while trying to decide, and the experience only confirmed my respect for Mint.

[ArtGirl]

Thanks to everyone, even to those who have been so critical about what I thought was a fairly innocuous post. I am especially grateful to those who sent private messages and to Artgirl who seems to be one of the few who saw my request for what it was. She was able to look for a way to help without finding one fault after another about my approach. I hardly think I was blaming people for not replying to earlier requests; I simply stated a fact, as I pointed out in a later post. Nor was I getting at Linux Mint; the issue was that, after years of using it I was desperate to continue but was running into too many problems. I should perhaps point out that I used several alternative systems while trying to decide, and the experience only confirmed my respect for Mint.

Beacon, you're a really decent person, and thank you very much for your kind message. I'm very glad to see you are getting helpful advice for issues now, and am glad you were honest. You're correct that you were very reasonable about things. I hope lessons are learnt about how peoples' threads are responded to, and that you feel better about accessing any further support, and continue to receive positive answers.

Keeping things clear and positive makes what can easily be overwhelming issues much more manageable, and there's space to learn how you can have your system running as you need it to, instead of dealing with stuff that has nothing to do with resolving the issue. I have only on a few occasions had to block anyone, much less than previously elsewhere, and those people would behave the same anywhere I imagine. There are certainly some helpful and nice people here, and you're one of them!

[English Invader]

If Mint 18.2 was working, maybe it would make sense to go back to it. ...At least until your problems with 18.3 are resolved.

It is a shame to give up something that has served you for years.

I'm still happy with 17.2 and have no intention of upgrading until I absolutely have to. I've spent ages configuring old PC games to work with Wine and, when I upgrade the OS, that process begins all over again with no guarantee of the same success (that's not a complaint BTW, just something I accept as part and parcel of being a Linux user).

[Moem]

That article on why Linux is not Windows is actually really good. I would suggest to not take it as a personal insult, but simply to read it, take from it what is useful to you and leave the rest. Pretty much the same as what I'd suggest doing with answers you get here.
I see many people (not Beacon; speaking generally here) who take the time to respond angrily to what they see as rudeness, and seem to ignore the helpful replies they are also getting; to me that seems exactly the wrong way around. Spend your energy on what helps you and makes you happy, not on what riles you up.

[beacon]

Thank you Moem for your kind comment.

[Faust]

...... I upgraded from Linux Mint 18.2, which is when my problems began. When I couldn't resolve them I went back and installed 18.2. The same problems were there, so I thought I would have another go and made a clean installation of 18.3. That is where I am at the moment.

I've been following this thread for a couple of days .
I'm sorry to hear about your woes with 18.3 .... it really should not be like this for you !

Let's try to rule out the least likely causes of the grief here ...... good old " Occam's Razor "
Starting with your hardware ( a few more details may help ) but if you are getting an internet connection with the live cd we can assume that
your network card is working fine , and if you are getting through the install process , it's a good indication that your hardware in general is good .

If 18.2 was working well for you , there is no earthly reason why we shouldn't be able to get you back to that , just for starters
You said that you " went back and installed 18.2 " and I'm curious about that , again a little more detail may help .

.... I'm still happy with 17.2 and have no intention of upgrading until I absolutely have to.

I'm with you on that one !
I feel the same about my Mint 17.3 ; it has done everything I ever wanted , from Day One .
It is faultless in every way , and I have the old-school attitude of " If it ain't broke don't fix it " ....
BUT ... the end of support date is not so far off , and by running an obsolete version of Linux we will be losing one
of it's major strengths .
I've already started a Mint 18.3 system on a spare drive and I'm using some slack time to do all of the installs , configs and tweaks
so that it does exactly what my 17.3 system does .... and it's about as much fun as shoveling wet sand -

No doubt I'll be pleased at some point in the future , but so far it's not giving me anything that I don't have already .
[ FWIW - I skipped 18.2 altogether so I reckoned a fresh install was my best option / least agony ]

[English Invader]

That article on why Linux is not Windows is actually really good. I would suggest to not take it as a personal insult, but simply to read it, take from it what is useful to you and leave the rest. Pretty much the same as what I'd suggest doing with answers you get here.

It is a good article but it does show its age a bit. Mint and Ubuntu have made Linux more mainstream and it is quite possible for someone to use Linux long-term purely for security reasons, out of convenience or simply because he/she wants "free beer". You don't have to be a tech-head on Arch or an open-source fanatic on Debian anymore, you just have to respect the community ethos and use a bit of initiative.

[Moem]

That article on why Linux is not Windows is actually really good. (...)

It is a good article but it does show its age a bit. (...)

I won't argue with that: it's a fair point.

[beacon]

Thanks a lot Faust. I should have taken the same attitude as you and stuck to the 'if not broke, don't fix it' axiom, but as you note, support will end at some stage, and I wanted too much to be on the 'cutting edge'. I'm a bit uneasy about getting further involved, because as you have seen, I seem unwittingly to upset members for being naive both technically and in using the forum. However, taking up your kind invitation I shall try to be clear about 'going back to 18.2'. When I found the problems with 18.3, I searched for ways to 'downgrade', but apparently that is not possible. So I installed from the live CD I had for 18.1, deleting what was on the hard drive, and then updated to 18.2, which was the previous version that had worked well for me.

Karl has referred to the links to my unresolved problems, and I think my hardware details are in the first link that I have now marked as solved. The second remains, and I'll keep working on it.

I am obliged.

[lexon]

A lot to read through. Eyes are not the best. I have only used Linux since 2003.
I have used Mint since Mint 6 and always do a fresh install. Never an upgrade so I never look through messages about upgrades.
A couple years ago I bought a USB flash drive with Mint 18.0, Cinnamon and Mate, 64 bit from Amazon. Works fine dual booted on two Laptops.
I bought one with more mint versions but it is not a very good flash drive. I can only install KDE. I made a review at Amazon.
I use to make my own CD's and then DVD's.

L

[CoffeeFiend]

That article on why Linux is not Windows is actually really good. (...)

It is a good article but it does show its age a bit. (...)

I won't argue with that: it's a fair point.

"Whereas an out-of-the-box-Windows user has the Classic or XP desktop with Wordpad, Internet Explorer, and Outlook Express installed..."
I'd say definitely showing its age.

[Hoser Rob]

Thanks to everyone, even to those who have been so critical about what I thought was a fairly innocuous post. I am especially grateful to those who sent private messages and to Artgirl who seems to be one of the few who saw my request for what it was. She was able to look for a way to help without finding one fault after another about my approach. I hardly think I was blaming people for not replying to earlier requests; I simply stated a fact, as I pointed out in a later post. Nor was I getting at Linux Mint; the issue was that, after years of using it I was desperate to continue but was running into too many problems. I should perhaps point out that I used several alternative systems while trying to decide, and the experience only confirmed my respect for Mint.

You aren't alone. There are REAL experts out there who'd sympathize. Here are a couple of articles by Miguel de Icaza, who developed Gnome and Mono:

https://itvision.altervista.org/files/M ... sktop.html

http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2013/Mar-05.html

[karlchen]

Hm, the last real experts explain what made them turn away from Linux in 2012 and 2013. Interesting. Very interesting.
Actually, my personal way has taken the exact opposite direction. Over the past few years, at home Windows 7 has been used less and less frequently.
There is hardly anything which I can do on Windows 7 which I could not do on my Ubuntu and Linux Mint systems as well and as conveniently.
Interestingly my almost complete move from Windows to Ubuntu and Linux Mint gained speed exactly in those year mentioned above, in 2012/2013.
I simply love(d) Precise Pangolin and Mint Maya.
But maybe I am simply no real expert.

[JerryF]

Beacon,

Just a hunch...when you reinstalled 18.2, did you restore your home directory? With the hidden directories that contain configurations, that may have reinstated the problems you were having.

P.S. Did you verify the ISO when you downloaded it?