Edit: It works! Not beautiful and shows a concerning amount of “Error” lines on startup but it will do. I got VSCodium and ESP-IDF running, at least – and CMake isn’t awfully slow despite it being a crappy 4GB RAM machine (not easily upgradeable). The first boot took a while and I haven’t rebooted since, I guess it will be below 30 seconds next time (Mint on same machine but HDD was about 1 minute).
Edit: I hope I chose the right kernel here, surprisingly not much info online on this! Also, I picked “targeted” because the 10-year-old system does not use any cutting-edge hardware and all drivers should be auto-detected, I think.
After some experience with Linux Mint, I gathered the courage to try another distro. I’d like to turn an old laptop into an IPTV receiver plus FTP/OpenVPN/HomeAssistant server with occasional desktop use. I first installed Windows 11 just in case my family needs to use it (it fucking sucks, the built-in PS/2 keyboard doesn’t work half the time but that’s an issue for later) but now I’ll be turning it into a dual-boot setup with Debian as the primary option. Please give me some encouragement, I’m really afraid of new things.
Old pic: https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/d4bf0222-4fc1-42ab-a3e9-464087dec3af.png
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I hereby grant the application for luck. May your linux boot,
You make it sound religious. Did i join a religion deccades ago and not knowing it?
It will do this just once
Guess what, you’re right! Technically, it does boot but
Debian GNU/Linux 13 mmpc tty1 mmpc login: _does not bring joy.
Also, why is the fan spinning? I’ve been on this screen for minutes while looking up lightdm troubleeshooting on my phone. Blinking the cursor and Linux backend stuff can’t be too CPU-intensive, right?
Edit: fixed. I had broken lightdm by adding the numlockx on script in the wrong place, too eager to get a lock screen with an enabled Num Lock
I haven’t restarted it since but it has brought joy. It’s not pretty but way less setup hassle than Windows if you want it at least somewhat privacy-respecting. And even default XFCE beats Windows 11 on looks and practicality.
No luck needed, it’ll go fine. You pretty obviously have all the experience you need.
Experience? Yes, but I’m also really clumsy and impatient. Lots of things, hardware and software, broke in my hands because I wasn’t careful enough. At least there is no personal data on the system right now that I could erase.
You don’t need luck. You chose wisely.
Mint is solid, if you use it and it works for you why change? Do you need to bother with windows? What do you use that can’t be done on Linux I wonder? Perhaps work out how to set a VM and try out Debian and even windows in a test sandbox so you’re comfortable with the processes before taking the plunge. Check out KVM, QEMU, and Virt-Manager.
I have worked with VMs before and still use an XP one sometimes. But modern Windows in a VM on an old laptop with 4 GB of RAM? I’ll pass…
I recently helped a friend install Debian via sms, it was surprisingly easy, and she had never tried installing Linux before. When installing on a laptop I’d recommend using cable instead of wifi, and then setup wifi when the system is up and running.
Best of luck
I just made the switch from Win 10 to Bazzite Linux some two weeks ago. It worked so great that I should have done it a long time ago.
I like it so far.
Is a laptop really a good choice for a home server?
What are the pro/cons vs a mini computer like a raspy or sort of? Is it trivial to keep the laptop always on without closing the lid?
Raspberry Pi is expensive and does not come with a UPS. I already have this mediocre laptop. The Pi cost may recoup itself on the electricity bill but I’m not happy about booting from an SD card.
The only lid problem is that the BIOS of this laptop does not allow turning on with the lid closed (also, there is no Power-on-AC) but I might hack it with a magnet.
You can run your Pi’s from an sata SSD, I’ve never used SD successfully long term. The lid. Maybe you could tell OS not to shut down when you close the lid and set it never to sleep or turn off? Used that on an old HP laptop (intel 6th gen) with broken screen, KDE, Jellyfin server. Might be worth a look Edit: in power settings…
Thanks. Maybe another pro is, that it also comes with a screen, if ssh fails.
I mean, the good old dumb 32" LCD TV should be the primary screen. But maybe mom will want to watch in another room sometimes, in which case she can pull out the laptop and use her familiar IPTV client.
