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I feel I’m disturbing the grave of a long-buried forum here… Still, with the demise of XP imminent, I thought I’d share my thoughts on what to do with my old NC20.
For some time, my Sammy has been relegated to file-serving duties, providing a simple and low-power way of sharing files on my home network. At this late stage I did not want to invest serious money in a new Windows OS, so I re-investigated Linux (I posted on this previously). Not being a linux guru, I was not interested in jumping through any hoops in order to get a working installation.
First the bad news: I tried half a dozen current distros, including Ubuntu, Mint, SolydX and SolydK, Debian and Mandrive. I tried to run all these from a USB drive created with LiLo (LinuxLive). None worked. Most of the information I could find about running linux on an NC20 was intimidating, mainly because of video driver issues.
I knew I’d had Linux Mint running in the past, so I dug out some old distros. The good news: while the current Mint 16 is a non-starter, Mint 12 worked perfectly from USB so I installed it as a dual-boot with XP. A tiny bit of fiddling (one line added to one configuration file) persuaded the machine to share an attached USB drive across my network and the machine has now resumed its previous role as a 24/7 file-server with a new, hopefully secure, OS. In fact, once the Sammy had finished updating it had the look of a perfectly usable machine. Wired and wireless connections work, volume and brightness controls work, it plays all my music files – mp3 and flac – and is happy with SD video, though 720p constitutes cruel and unusual punishment for it. Browser, email and office applications are all present and in good order.
The NC20 is not quite past its use-by date. Mint 12 (Lisa) is officially obsolete and I haven’t tried version 13 (Maya), which is a LTS release supported until April 2017. If I get round to trying it, I’ll post results back here.
Well, I just tried Mint 13 on a USB stick and while it booted to the desktop, not much worked thereafter. I’ll be sticking with 12.
Linux does not like Samsung computers… or looking at it another way, Samsung Computers are not Linux Friendly…
but I’ll start you off by directing you to Linux on my Samsung run by a guy called Voria
There you can find ways of getting the Fn Keys and also the Brightness to work correctly.
I have used Mint, Elementary OS, Chrome OS (that is the Hexxeh version) Ubuntu 12.04, 13.04 (and even Android)
If you use the Vanilla versions… The Voria work arounds, workMore recently I am using Linux Lite v 1.0.8 (ver 2.0 due out in a couple of months)
…
@fenlander 133559 wrote:
I feel I’m disturbing the grave of a long-buried forum here…
No probs, we don’t have many new posts around here but we get a surprising number of readers and I’m sure other owners will be facing the same problem.
I’m thinking about what to do with my NC10. The Mrs still uses it regularly and prob has no idea that XP is being shelved or what the consequences of that are.
I might just replace it… 🙁
What i forgot to say was…
My Mrs is also using, Linux Lite v 1.0.8 – and apart from things ‘looking a ‘very little bit’ different’ is using it happily…
as long as it ‘does’ her email, skype has some form of Word Processor for printing out recipes… and she can browse the Web… which is what most people use a computer for… she is a very happy bunny and I saved nearly £100 by NOT buying Windows 8…
Just as a matter of interest…
Microsoft has closed down ALL the LEGAL Windows 7 DOWNLOAD sites… forcing us to go over to Windows 8Disks can still be bought from Computer Spares Retailers… but when they’ve gone… they’ve gone.
Ebay obviously will have some disks… but how many of them will be legal and unhacked??? Ebay isn’t ONE dealer, it is lots of little ‘people’ selling through Ebay – Buyer beware…
@sammyone 133569 wrote:
More recently I am using Linux Lite v 1.0.8 (ver 2.0 due out in a couple of months)
…Quick question… I’m trying to install Linux Lite on NC20, when booting from a USB flash drive, I get this “longhaul: option “enable” not set, aborting”. Any idea how to get past this?
I’ve never installed an OS so this is like a foreign language to me!
Thanks.
The OBVIOUS question is… “DID you run Linux Lite from the Pendrive first, to see if it is compatible with your hardware?”
@sammyone 133600 wrote:
The OBVIOUS question is… “DID you run Linux Lite from the Pendrive first, to see if it is compatible with your hardware?”
That’s exactly what I was trying to do, test it first, and that’s as far as I got.
You got Linux Lite working on a NC20 right?
I don’t have an NC20 to try it on…
I apologise in advance, if you are already aware that…
A couple of reasons for Linux not Loading…
Wrong Pendrive – NOT all Pendrives are created equal for some reason (!) I use PNY (fairly expensive) Cruzer, Medium priced or Kingston cheap & Cheerful… (to pass on to relatives as needed) All of these work fine with ISO ‘burners’
Pendrive too small – For CD equivalent – (Linux Live)… I wouldn’t use any less than 2Gb (this leaves room for files to be extracted during loading) For DVD equivalent (Full size Ubuntu distributions) no less than 4Gb.
Method of ‘burning’ ISO onto Pendrive…
One cannot ‘just’ copy files onto a Pendrive – it has to be a Bootable Pendrive; which is an operation carried out by the program loading (burning) the ISO to the Pendrive…Which Linux Loader did you use to ‘build’ your Pendrive? I find that Unetbootin ( http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ )
is pretty good… you can also allocate (say) 512Mb as to make a ‘Persistent’ Folder so you CAN install (say) Chrome Browser and also save files while using Linux n Live Mode.There is also LiLi (Linux Live) http://www.linuxliveusb.com/download
Hopefully in there, is a clue to why your Pendrive is not loading…
@sammyone 133603 wrote:
I don’t have an NC20 to try it on…
Ah, sorry, crossed wires… This being the NC20 forum I assumed your comments from a few weeks ago about using Linux Lite v 1.0.8 were referring to that particular netbook! 🙂
Anyway, I’m using a standard 8GB pendrive, so space and quality shouldn’t be an issue. The Linux Lite install guide specifically states to use Win32DiskImager rather than Unetbootin to create a bootable Live USB drive, which is what I have done.
But it might be a moot point if Linux Lite simply doesn’t work on NC20. Shame, as I was liking the look of it. I might try Mint 12 in that case..
@Numpty 133599 wrote:
Quick question… I’m trying to install Linux Lite on NC20, when booting from a USB flash drive, I get this “longhaul: option “enable” not set, aborting”. Any idea how to get past this?
I’ve never installed an OS so this is like a foreign language to me!
Thanks.
That’s exactly the error I got with EVERY ‘current’ distro I tried. Eventually I settled on Mint 12 which installs without problems. I use LiLo to create the USB image and a completely nondescript drive.
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