It's Saturday and way too early for my brain to be working, so on the question of file system format, I'll just go by the display on the page re:making a larger storage file - in gparted it shows the partition as being ext2
Posted on 10/25/2019 10:00:18 AM PDT by Carriage Hill
Windows 10 could be better if only Microsoft got rid of its layers of made-men, according to a former Microsoft distinguished engineer.
Tired of boring, buggy Windows 10 updates? You can blame them on Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's failure to eliminate the company's legacy of appointing "made-men".
(Excerpt) Read more at zdnet.com ...
I finally had to get a Win 10 machine to run my printers. It does some weird things by default.
It seems to want to reboot overnight. I am assuming it is doing an auto update. The annoying part is that it shuts down programs when it does this and some of them were set just so to run a print job. When Windows shuts them down I lose the settings. Annoying.
The start button will spontaneously stop working.
Corel Draw will decide not to display the size of objects properly.
Printers on the network disappear and reappear.
Scanners disappear from the network and will not reappear unless the computer is rebooted.
I am a former Certified Microsoft Network Administrator and have been a tech geek since 1985. The OS is buggy.
I like my Macs much better.
Thank you for all the info, but I’ve done full install of Mint and other systems (usually other Ubuntu-based) on USB sticks - and on regular disks - before. Choosing “something else” during regular install usually works just fine.
For increasing persistence, I was speaking specifically of Puppy Linux. But the method is still pretty much as you described -
https://www.pendrivelinux.com/create-a-larger-than-4gb-casper-partition
But I can relate about having a concern with drives using Gparted. When I was relatively new to dual-booting, I managed to delete Windows while doing an db install.
I also managed to accidentally erase Windows just using the file manager in the Ubuntu flavor I was using. Another time, using file manager in Linux to delete some files , I actually deleted the the Linux install as I was using it! It was pretty funny - when I realized what was going on I started moving files I wanted to keep over to the Windows partition before the LInux OS deleted them.
Ah, well - you live and learn when it comes to being careful with partitions.
It should work though. :) I am not familiar with 17.x, but does it have a “driver manager” in the system settings control center like this 18.3 does? You have to be cautious with what you leave selected for updating in that, but I would run that and let it check your system and populate suggestions. And if it populates and suggests a listing for a graphics driver, leave it checked green and uncheck everything else. This should go grab the driver you need for that.
Yep, the “something else” works, but for an average non techy user this could be a challenge and not fly right for them. Taking out the internal is fool proof and mistake free. I’m not familiar with Puppy Linux, read about it a few times but never did try it out. But if it reads and writes to ext2 or ext4 you should be able to partition and format the balance of the stick to one of these unlimited size file systems for the storage? Does Puppy also want a swap partition like mint?
For persistence, Puppy makes a “casper” storage file (with the 4 gig limit) for any changes you make/programs you add and such. You can skip making a storage file, but then you lose everything (except the OS itself) each time you restart.
Puppy is designed to completely run off the host PC’s memory, so it needs no swap file - it will use the host’s swap/real RAM. It does the job very well, too - fast & very light-weight If you got a dinosaur PC with 128-256M RAM., it should love Puppy.
Puppy is more kind of a swiss-knife distro than one a person would use as a their everyday OS (tho some ppl do). It would be nice if it were developed to a full blown, intuitive distro for general use. Can be quirky at times.
It’s pretty easy to add just regular storage on a Puppy Linux stick though. Pop it in while running Windows and make a folder called “Storage” or whatever - the size is only limited by the USB drives size. Then, while in Puppy, just remember to move everything you want to save to that Windows-made storage folder on the stick’s main directory.
Thanks for the advice. If it’s safe, maybe I should just go the sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade route from the terminal.
OK, now I am not sure about this, and you know more about the puppy than I do. But could you do the install with the limited 4 gig storage partition as normal, and then just go extend that partition larger after? Would puppy allow storage use bigger than 4 gigs if it was seen as available? Or is it formatting the storage as FAT where 4 gigs is indeed the max for that partition?
Now you have me curious as hell and wanting to go play with this to find out. lol
One of a hundred reasons why I’m staying with Win-7 Pro 64x. I have it on 2 HP commercial-grade computers; one is back-up and stored in the basement with lots of electronics, food, water and ammo.
Remember you choose to do that... It might do more than just that one driver needed and install firmware also. :) But the driver manager has always worked well for me. I just make sure I update ONLY the driver I really need if it finds it, and make sure everything else is unchecked.
If a system is working fine with the current drivers, there is no need to change any of the others no matter what it suggests to you. Especially installing firmware that might permanently affect that particular hardware. But if there is any question at all, I leave it alone and go do some homework on it first. :)
It’s not the drivers so much, I’d be more concerned with kernel-level updates.
I think if a person were looking into Mint, coming from Windows or whatever, and they read the update warnings they’d probably back off.
On Levels 4 & 5, especially - for example:
“Level 4: Unsafe packages. Updates classified as level 4 could have a potential negative affect on system stability. Deselected by default for safety and visibility.
Level 5: Dangerous packages. Updates classified as level 5 can have a negative affect on system stability depending on the system hardware and specifications. Also deselected for safety and visibility.
Although there are users who claim that level 4 and level 5 updates disrupt their systems when it comes to stability, there are plenty of users who select level 4 and level 5 for updating and not having any problems with their system after updating.”
Mac? A little pricey but it runs Unix which is a very good OS.
Yes, I went and read that earlier. I think that is your cure because ext2 is not limited right?
Yup, ext2 would be the way to go. I’ll give it a try next time I make a Puppy stick.
Honestly I have never had a problem with any updates, but I clear first and check only what I think I really need. But here is the trick, In update manager select Edit>update policy> “just keep my computer safe”. Or edit>preferences>levels. This one of the things I like about linux over Win 10, you can set detailed update preferences if you like. Or not update at all if you would rather not.
Please drop me a line to let me know how it worked in case I can’t find the time to go play with it myself. Love to have it in my knowledge base. :)
“In update manager select Edit>update policy> “just keep my computer safe”. Or edit>preferences>levels.”
—
Thanks, that helps.
Actually, I believe Mint moved away from the “levels” settings in the update manager.
In Windows 10, the setting I use is “metered connection” so MS doesn’t try to do automatic updates. I like to initiate and monitor updates.
Here is one... I’m on an experimental project this morning to completely wipe a tablet, flash it, and try to make it linux with android capabilities if possible. Wife got it new years ago and it worked for one week and then bricked, company out of business, no fixes for it at all otherwise. Shame to let it go to waste completely, we kept the battery up so it should be good to go for a few years yet if I can make it work. :)
That’s the great thing about Linux - you can repurpose devices with it and get extended usage.
Yep, I’m just not sure yet what to put on it. Still doing homework on that. Needs to be light and work android apps. While android is linux, I’m still not sure how to make it cross handle the android apps after it is linux. I need to find the right combination.
First step is to make sure I can even flash it, then go from there. :)
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