Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Simple to upgrade Linux distro

[Mick]

On Wednesday 19 Jul 2017 01:46:36 Dale wrote:
> Howdy,
>
> This isn't a Gentoo question but most everyone here used something
> before Gentoo.  I need a simple to upgrade distro for someone else.
>
> A friend of mine had windoze XP, which is dead to M$.  She needed
> something and buying a computer or new OS is not a option, even tho she
> needs to upgrade that 10 or 12 year old thing she has.  So, I put Mageia
> on it a couple years ago, used to be Mandrake way back which is what I
> started with.  She has been doing updates every week or so since it is
> GUI based and pretty easy.  Tell it to update or just click the pop-up
> when it tells you one is available and when it is done, reboot.  Yea,
> windowish I know.  lol

Most 'user friendly' distros these days use some kind of software/OS updater, 
like Synaptics.  Even MSWindows users can point and click with these and not 
hose their systems.


> Anyway, she did a update and now she can't login
> to KDE.  I drove up, hour away, and tried to figure it out.  It has
> changed so much, I'm pretty clueless.  It is NOT Gentoo by any means.  I
> renamed the user directory in case it was a config that the new update
> was hanging on but nothing.  It just won't let you login.  Also reset
> the password as well.

Did you look at the logs?  Assuming this is a systemd OS try:

journalctl

to view the log.  Add -b to only see boot messages, -f to follow current 
activity (just like 'tail -f' command), and -n 15 to see the last 15 entries.


> Thing is, I installed ICEwm during the install
> and it works.  It logs in but the screen doesn't refresh like it
> should.  You close a app, it's closed but it doesn't refresh the screen
> so it looks like it is still there.  The whole thing is weird.

This sounds like a video driver/compositor problem.  My guess is some 
xorg/mesa driver was updated and the box is not able to process the latest 
code.  However, to make sure no hardware problem is present, I suggest you 
take a look inside and blow away any cobwebs from video card cooling fan and 
heatsink.  Removing and reseating the video card may also clean the contacts 
from any oxidization, which an old box may have.

Finally, if there is an Xorg.0.log on this box take a look at it to confirm if 
this is a video driver problem.  With systemd you would probably need to run:

journalctl -e /usr/bin/Xorg

(someone more knowledgeable with systemd could chime in here if I got this 
wrong)


> What I'm looking for.  Something that I can install fairly quickly from
> a DVD.  Rig is to old to boot from USB stick.  Something with a GUI
> update process that is fairly easy.  Uses either KDE by default or is
> easily installable, hopefully during install by default.  The big one,
> needs to be able to run on older hardware.  Her rig is something like a
> 2GHz single core CPU and around 2GBs of ram.  The drives are SATA but
> that's about the most advanced hardware it has.  The video is a built in
> Intel of some sort.  Nothing fast or even fancy for that matter.  Yes,
> I'm keeping a eye out for a newer rig but it is what it is right now.

Anything with KDE will be putting a load on older hardware.  I don't know what 
Mageia has changed in their distro to cause these problems, but if 
cleaning/reseating video cards, RAM modules, etc. does not fix the problems 
you observed, then it's time to blame the software.

Have a look at Mint with a KDE desktop:

 http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3292

Or Kubuntu:

 http://www.kubuntu.org/

However, I would expect both of the above to require 256MB video card memory 
and capability for hardware video acceleration.  Really old video cards won't 
be able to provide this.  Also 2G RAM is the absolute minimum for running 
Plasma or Gnome.

If she can live without KDE, then I would recommend Lubuntu/Xubuntu:

 http://lubuntu.net/
 https://xubuntu.org/

These can probably run with as little as 512MB RAM.


> I've used Gentoo for so long, I don't know what other distros offer
> nowadays.  I figure that there are several distros that are graphical
> nowadays but also need good support for older hardware and easy update
> process.  Googling around isn't helping me much.  If I find something I
> like, no KDE.  If I find KDE based and a GUI updater, something else
> won't work.  I figure asking those who have personal experience would be
> best.  :-)
>
> Thoughts?  Suggestions??
>
> Thanks.
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-)

I suggest she revisits the need to run Plasma, if her current hardware has 
reached the end of its useful life.  There's a bigger world out there and 
there will be replacements for many of the desktop features she currently 
thinks are irreplaceable.

-- 
Regards,
Mick