Can't get anything done, what happened to Mint?

[DAMIEN1307]

*Makes fart that sounds like a Duck from a distance quacking fast*

Im old enough where i am now certified to fart dust...lol...DAMIEN

[Pierre]

You rang?

Ha, I just inquired about you today in another thread, and @RIH pointed me here.

Glad your OK.

those Holidays in Bali .. aren't allowed, these days.

[Portreve]

Is this thread still really going on?

Personally, I hope the OP takes that computer back, gets their money back, and then gets a decent system to try LM on. Who knows what some random tech half-assed together to squeeze a few bucks out of them.

It's not like it takes piles of cash to get decently LM- capable hardware.

[RollyShed]

Is this thread still really going on?

No, it has wandered off into the wilderness.

Personally, I hope the OP takes that computer back, gets their money back,

The OP hasn't said anything, anywhere, since the middle of last month so has either given up or walked away. I suspect you could call this thread SOLVED.

[Portreve]

The OP hasn't said anything, anywhere, since the middle of last month so has either given up or walked away. I suspect you could call this thread SOLVED.

Well golly, RollyShed, that's like having a joke without a punchline.

[NGRhodes]

That's just playing with words. a '"tool" to be actuated by a terminal command' is a sequence of coded computer instructions, and a GUI application 'to be actuated by', for example, a user selecting a menu item,' is a sequence of coded computer instructions. Ergo, any sequence of coded computer instructions is a program.

Nope...not really trying to play symantics games at all on this one.
I have many times tried to find a definitive answer for this and have always had browser results calling Windows defraggers either, software, programs, or software programs.

Whenever i try to find the same for e4defrag, it is always called a tool or command line tool but never a software, a Program, or a software program by definition.

"Thats my story and im sticking to it"...lol...unless, of course, you could show me please, some recognised, credible source that could and would tell me otherwise...DAMIEN

A computer program is simply defined as a set of executable instructions, this is a fundamental definition of modern computing. Software, tool, application are references to computer program(s).
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_program for more information.

Hope that helps

[germeten]

A lot of socializing going on here, Anyway I swapped out to a 2TB hard drive and closed a couple thousand tabs, but the
problem of system taking over on its own, to defrag, or load updates remains, and when this happens I can just as well
abandon everything I've been working on for a couple hours, to a day, for the software to finish whatever the hell it wants
to do. And rebooting can lose documents, or I get to load that last hundred or so before it finds the last one I was
working on. Is there no key control to just STOP ALL PROCESS that lets me preselect what I want to run? That can
put off defrag or updates for later? I'll install "that" app. I mean some of us need to get sh!t done, So tired of crippleware.

[Mick-Cork]

A lot of socializing going on here, Anyway I swapped out to a 2TB hard drive and closed a couple thousand tabs, but the
problem of system taking over on its own, to defrag, or load updates remains, and when this happens I can just as well
abandon everything I've been working on for a couple hours, to a day, for the software to finish whatever the hell it wants
to do. And rebooting can lose documents, or I get to load that last hundred or so before it finds the last one I was
working on. Is there no key control to just STOP ALL PROCESS that lets me preselect what I want to run? That can
put off defrag or updates for later? I'll install "that" app. I mean some of us need to get sh!t done, So tired of crippleware.

Sounds like you need to throw that machine away, it's haunted

[RIH]

but the problem of system taking over on its own, to defrag, or load updates remains

I have never had a computer running Linux decide to defrag on its' own.
Updates only happen when the user tells them to happen, unless the user has deliberately turned on automatic updates.

Whatever is happening to your equipment it isn't what you think it is, nor is it normal behaviour.

....and closed a couple thousand tabs

If true, that is likely to be the root cause of your issues - sloppy user housekeeping..

[Moem]

A lot of socializing going on here

That is what the chat section is for. If you want more focused help, it's better to post in the support section of the forums.

[MikeNovember]

Hi,

You have a 13 years old computer, with dual core Pentium, 4GB RAM and 500 GB HDD.

This is not enough to run Mint with Cinnamon Desktop Environment.

You could gain by:
- using Mint with XFCE desktop environment, using much less resources than Cinnamon,
- increasing RAM up to 8GB,
- replacing HDD by an SDD.

Even with this, your computer would still be a bit under undersized and not really adapted to modern browsers.

Regards,

MN

[acerimusdux]

^^^
what Mike said.

1. A dual core 4G ram system from 2008 will do better with MATE or XFCE; XFCE edition probably the best bet.

2. Even 250GB HD is usually plenty. The system only needs < 30 GB. How much else you need depends on your data. Mostly depends on whether you save much video. Obviously you are already using 360 GB, but you may also have things saved you don't need.

3. Why still running Tara? Upgrading to the latest would need a fresh install, but upgrading in place to 19.3 can be done relatively easily from the update manager following these instructions: https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3838

4. While the suggestions to upgrade components are well intentioned, often this isn't that cost-effective on a system that old. The supported ram and hard drives will still be slower, and possibly even more expensive than faster more up to date components. You could probably find something for around $300 that would run circles around your old machine. And less if you look used in places like e-bay.

5. If something is bogging down your system, using too much CPU time or too much ram, you can check that by opening a terminal and running "top". Use the shift and <> keys to cycle through the columns it sorts on. There is a %mem column and %cpu column which will show how much programs are currently using those resources. By default it should sort descending, but if you do need to reverse the sort you can with shift + R.

6. Are you running timeshift? If you are trying to back up too much data, too frequently, that could cause some of what you are describing and could account for the large amount of hard drive space you are using (assuming it isn't from saving video files).

[RollyShed]

You have a 13 years old computer, with dual core Pentium, 4GB RAM and 500 GB HDD.

This is not enough to run Mint with Cinnamon Desktop Environment.

However if you have a nearly as old ASUS TP200SA with only 2GB RAM, 30GB "disk" and a 64-bit dual-core system then it will run Cinnamon OK. I use it ever day. The 10+ year old eMachines eM350 with 2GB of RAM will also run 64 bit Cinnamon 20.2 as I tried it though it is usually used with 32 bit MATE which was installed a few years ago.

The difference between Cinnamon and XCEF isn't worth the trouble, no bootup time difference and no noticeable other advantages.

[majpooper]

You have a 13 years old computer, with dual core Pentium, 4GB RAM and 500 GB HDD.

This is not enough to run Mint with Cinnamon Desktop Environment.

However if you have a nearly as old ASUS TP200SA with only 2GB RAM, 30GB "disk" and a 64-bit dual-core system then it will run Cinnamon OK. I use it ever day. The 10+ year old eMachines eM350 with 2GB of RAM will also run 64 bit Cinnamon 20.2 as I tried it though it is usually used with 32 bit MATE which was installed a few years ago.

The difference between Cinnamon and XCEF isn't worth the trouble, no bootup time difference and no noticeable other advantages.

I agree with Rolly on this - I have tried all manner of supposedly "light" approaches to run on old under powered systems - (dual core 2-4GB of RAM). I tried "light" OSes - the usual suspects lubuntu, puppy so on and so forth. The light DEs as well with mixed results but never anything that is really satisfying or at least what I find usable as a daily driver. And like Rolly I have not found by just replacing Cinnamon with xfce that that really yields all that much performance wise. Bodhi linux (standard) has been the exception for me because I found Bodhi to be the best truely "light" OS OOB. First Bodhi starts with very few software packages and the ones that are pre-installed are light like pcmanfm file manager for example and a very light DE, Moksha (seems much lighter than xfce). However Moksha takes a little bit of getting used to but once you figure it out it can be configured to be quite nice looking - but beware it is ugly in it's default theme. Bodhi is designed from the ground up to be light and will run quite well on old under powered systems.

The other approach is to build from a base like Debian netinstl add only what you need but keeping everything truly light - browser, file manager etc.. I have done this by adding a very light display manager and using IceWM windows manager (extremely light) as the DE. It ends up being a pretty primitive system kind of 90s look and feel - but very "snappy" albeit extremely ugly.

I have only run into a few of these systems (two to be exact) where folks asked me to install linux - I have gone with Bodhi on those. All the other systems I have installed linux on and support (was eight down to six) have been old Windows 7 and just recently a Windows 10 systems. I install LM Cinnamon on these - easy to install, easy to support. What I do with my PC and laptop, VMs and a few old test mules is "monkey with a machine gun at the mall."

[RollyShed]

Thank you majpooper.

The other comment by MikeNovember "Even with this, your computer would still be a bit under undersized and not really adapted to modern browsers." doesn't make sense either as everything (4 or 5 laptops at least, lost count) with only 2GB of RAM work perfectly on all the modern browsers I install and use.

[majpooper]

Thank you majpooper.

The other comment by MikeNovember "Even with this, your computer would still be a bit under undersized and not really adapted to modern browsers." doesn't make sense either as everything (4 or 5 laptops at least, lost count) with only 2GB of RAM work perfectly on all the modern browsers I install and use.

Well the same goes for me here as well - one of the systems I installed Bodhi on was an HP DM something or other netbook - really under powered - 2GB RAM and a crappy CPU (can't recall what exactly but 2010/11 era I think). I replaced epiphany-browser (the Bodhi default) with chrome for the user and it ran just fine. The only thing I worry about with the Bodhi systems is I don't think the users are diligent in terms of applying updates - maybe that may be a good thing . . . . ? ? ? ?

[acerimusdux]

I used IceWM 15-20 years ago, even made some themes for it. On hardware that was old even then.

I find both LXDE and LXQt are pretty good for lightweight systems. I've been exploring a couple of different LXQt options in a VM, and found surprisingly that the plain old Debian stable LXQt edition was as good as any out of the box. I tend to like to have multiple desktops with different backgrounds, though. So even when running LXQt I install PCManFM and use that rather than PCManFM-Qt to control the desktop. I also like to use xfwm4 with compositing enabled as the window manager (I prefer dark semi-transparent menus and panels). I also prefer Thunar as my actual file manager. So if the system can handle it (and it should) I prefer just running Mint XFCE and just adding an LXQt panel to that (Cairo-Dock in panel mode is also an interesting alternative for a bit of bling).

[rene]

[ ... ] as everything (4 or 5 laptops at least, lost count) with only 2GB of RAM work perfectly on all the modern browsers I install and use.

Do note though that you are going to have to scale said "perfectly" by the level to which said everything in fact does even halfway seriously "work" since with 2G I can without reservation assure that said level is not a high level

[Boccerini]

A somewhat competent PC isn´t that expensive.

I just bought a Fijitsu Esprimo P420 MT off ebay.de for €130.

It has a Core I5 4440 CPU, 8 GB RAM, a 120 GB SSD and a 512 GB HDD.

My "gaming" PC, with which I play GTA V, has the same CPU and 8 GB RAM. It´s more than fast enough for every day use. In fact my daily use PC is a USFF Fujitsu Q910 with a Core I5 3470T and 8 GB RAM with Linux Mint, and it runs fine

Of course, if you´re broke, €130 is a lot of money. I would imagine one could find even better deals if you take time to look around.

[majpooper]

It really gets down to how you are using your computer. I put Bodhi standard (very few apps ) on a ~ 10 year old netbook for a family friend - can't remember exactly what CPU but weak for sure and 2GB RAM. I replaced epiphany-browser with chrome, his browser of choice. All he really wanted was something to read and send emails and get driving directions when he traveled. He just wanted something a bigger than his phone with a keyboard that was easy to use. Basically it is a browser platform. It works just fine.