I'm copying to the list so others can add ideas. On 2020-11-28 10:41 a.m., Callie Jones wrote: > When you ask if I have a USB do you mean an external drive? If so, yes I do have an external hard drive, in fact that's > where I do my backups. It's a WD drive, 500 Gb, with only 88 used so most of the space is free. Actually best to use a USB flash drive for the live distro. Need at least 2GB now. This will "boot" -- I have to hit F12 to get a menu so I can choose the flash drive, then get a Mint screen that allows me to try a lot of the software. There is an "Install" button on the screen. Takes 15 mins or so to install, then another 10-15 to run the upgrades. Recently Mint is fussy about installing the TimeShift backup, which I find uses a lot of time and disk space, so I say no to this. Other readers may want to weigh in on whether it's worth installing. > > When you say "live distro" do you mean a live version of Mint 17.1 Rebecca (my current version) or the newest version of > Mint? I notice you say to get the latest Mint suitable for my hardware. I do not know what would be suitable, but I can > provide my hardware details if that would help. > Yes - live version. Unless your hardware is really old, it will be 64bit, so the default download will work. I use the MATE version. There are also Cinnamon and XFCE -- these have slightly different interfaces to the underlying O/S. Largely a matter of preference. If you have LM17, you could use it to download (you'll need to mount some drive or other to save the file), then there is mintstick program which should be on the live distro (if not it can be installed from a terminal with "sudo apt install mintstick") to "copy" the image to the blank USB flash drive. Hopefully you have enough USB slots. If not, one of us will help out somehow. > The last paragraph is not clear to me as I am not familiar with any of those terms ( 2 pane file manager, Double > Commander, midnight commander). File managers display the names of files and directories that you can navigate around, copy, move, open, etc. I like to have two windows, and I maintain a personal discipline of copying or moving from the left to the right. It is really easy to copy the wrong direction. Some people prefer to highlight, copy/cut then open another location and paste using just a single window. > > This has been the issue I have had with Linux since I started using it (almost 20 years ago). Technical support is > geared towards those who have tech knowledge. I started using it back in the day because my husband was a Linux person > and he introduced me to it. Back then it was Mandriva 9.2, if memory serves me. I thought it was an excellent > alternative to Windows, and never used Windows again. My husband was my go to person for tech support. Unfortunately he > passed away 4 yrs ago. > You have pointed out what I also consider the biggest failing of the Linux community. We definitely need discussion groups for what I'll term "ordinary" users. That is, those who don't want to get deep into the technicalities. I've felt for a long time that our Linux-Ottawa should have a discussion forum that is aimed at putting people in touch with each other. Almost all of the common difficulties are pretty easily resolved -- in my experience a lot more easily than with Windows. Macs are very, very easy -- you just pay through the nose and they either fix things or tell you that "we don't do that" as if nobody needs anything they don't provide. I've also found that the "ordinary" users generally are quite capable of doing the common tasks if they are explained fairly clearly. > At the beginning of this year I was planning to get a new computer at Trailing Edge and have them install the latest > Mint. This is what I did in 2016 when I bought my current system; they installed Mint 17, and it worked fine ever > since. When the pandemic hit, plans changed and I was obliged to remain with my current system. It is now slowing down > and I envision more problems, and my version is no longer supported. Last year I bought a nice tower at Canada Computers and had them install Mint for me. I ended up reinstalling about a month later as I decided I didn't like the way the disks were partitioned. I had them install because I got an NVME disk (solid state -- 512 GB that looks like a stick of gum!) and I was a bit concerned that it may need special drivers and preferred their tech people to fight with that. As it turned out, that wasn't an issue. Still, the $125 to do the setup and install wasn't out of line as my hardware had the NVME disk for boot and "working" and a mirrored pair of 2TB spinning disks to hold files. Cheers, JN > > In any case if you could clarify the terms above I will try to muddle through. > > Thanks > Marlene > > > > On Sat, Nov 28, 2020 at 9:40 AM J C Nash <profjcnash [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com <mailto:profjcnash [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com>> wrote: > > Do you have a USB that can boot with the live distro? > > If so, you could get access to your content that way. And kudos for complete backup! > The live distro will possibly help diagnose any problems with your system. > > My guess is that the easiest solution (others may give different opinions, and I hope > they do, as there are several possible solutions I'm sure) is to get a USB with the > latest Mint suitable for your hardware and "install", then copy back your files. > > For copying back, I like a 2-pane file manager, and use Double Commander, or else > midnight commander in a terminal. > > Let us know how you get on. > > John Nash > > > On 2020-11-27 1:53 p.m., Callie Jones wrote: > > My o/s is about 4 yrs old (Mint 17). It has been running fine although I had been thinking about upgrading as I was > > aware the system wasn't up to speed anymore and was gradually slowing down. The problem is I am not a tech savvy > person > > at all so would need outside help. In any case, when the pandemic started I knew I would not be upgrading any time > soon > > and hoped all would be well. > > > > All was well until a couple of days ago, when out of the blue, the green "show desktop" icon in the lower left > corner of > > the panel was blank, no content at all. Right clicking displayed, the 2 options: 1) About... and 2) Remove This > Applet. > > Single clicking resulted in the screen going blank or reverting to the background image. > > > > I can not access anything through the desktop as all content has just disappeared! Therefore I have no access to any > > programs, such as GIMP which I use all the time, and word files that I use daily for my work. Everything else is > still > > functioning so my work is not being hampered at this point, however there is no way to know if something more > severe is > > imminent. I have done a complete backup just in case. > > > > I would appreciate any input on this matter. > > > > Marlene > To unsubscribe send a blank message to linux+unsubscribe [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org To get help send a blank message to linux+help [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org To visit the archives: https://lists.linux-ottawa.org