Replies

Ok..

I gave up on Cinnamon.. downloaded and redid (reformatted) my USB 'thumbdrive' to Mint Maya Mate..

Tried to install 5 different times, making sure to partition the HD (btw, don't think I originally mentioned this.. but it is on a separate HD, but the same separate HD as the original install)..

Install would hang on final, and when I would force reboot.. it would send me to 'File not found' .. screen (or something like that).. :/

SO, I finally got the idea, since I can control the PC from the Live 'DISK' itself (actually USB thumbdrive), I would format the 1 TB HD (and wipe out all previous installs of Linux before I start to manually partition again).. ..
It worked :)

SO.. now I have installed MATE instead of Cinnamon. It is MUCH better/easier than I imagined.. not as sweet as Cinnamon, but good enough for me.

I DID check out your suggestions.. did lots of reading and viewing.. The learning curve is too steep for me :/ The help on the forums is pathetic.. about 50% of assistance are either smart-ass remarks or ignored completely :(

Good news;
MATE recognized my second monitor immediately :D All I had to do was to go into settings and 'UNmirror' them :)

and the 'Fallback' I was seeing from Cinnamon is NOT the same as MATE.. It was a fallback to Gnome.

I am going to back-up this setting I have now so that if I screw something up, I can just delete and copy over to start again.. seems, from what I have read, that it is much easier to restore linux than WinBlows.. (I personally still think WinBlows is much better than MacinSuck though ;))

As soon as I learn Linux better, I am hoping to evolve and to move to the Linux you have suggested.. but I have a way to go until I understand the terminal commands/structure.

I really appreciate your assistance and the reason I asked here first is because I saw crappy help/assistance on the Linux forums :p There were many that helped with easy to answer problems (on the linux forums), but few to assist with serious ones...

BTW.. my laptop is doing well with Cinnamon (probably until I connect a second monitor :/).. BUT, hopefully by that time, I will have a good general idea of how this all works.. and will install MATE (or some other user friendly version)

I’m glad you got it working!

“I DID check out your suggestions.. did lots of reading and viewing.. The learning curve is too steep for me :/”

So true. I’ve been using Linux since 2005 and I found the AwesomeWm and Xmonad were too steep a learning curve without some significant study. Once I have more time to spend on it I’m hoping to move over to one of them... I have read that they really can increase productivity.

“I have a way to go until I understand the terminal commands/structure.”

That takes time, but it will come. Here are some good ways to find out about commands.

http://www.unix.com/ — Excellent forum

Type the command you are finding out about and add —help to it, like:
wget —help
(For some reason typing in a double dash turns into a “—”... it should be the command, a space, and then two minus signs, and then ‘help’)

Or access the manual:
man wget

or:
info wget

Wikipedia has a page on every Linux command. You can find the master list at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unix_utilities

“The help on the forums is pathetic.. about 50% of assistance are either smart-ass remarks or ignored completely :( “

Then as a Freerepublic member you should feel right at home! :)