List of programs for a MCM and/or Kitchen PC

2048

I thought I'd have a go at installing Linux on a T410. I was going to buy another SSD but then though ‘zark it' and decided to just install it in place of Windows; the worst-case scenario is I just have to install Win10 again.

Well, my decision was made easier when I attempted to boot the laptop and it claimed no bootable devices found, so whatever happens, I'm installing an OS at this point. I don't know if the error has arisen somehow, somewhy since I last played around with that laptop, or if I left it without an OS…??

Anyway, onto installing Linux Mint! It went as smoothly as on the Lenovo AIO, and all the device drivers seemed to work. Firefox went on ok, along with the extensions.

For future reference, Firefox extensions (add-ons? Whatever the zark they're called)

• Sponsorblock 

• Ublock Origin

• Unhook

• Privacy badger (not sure yet)

One concern I had was about opening & closing the lid: to be a Kitchen MCM, the laptop needs to sleep when the lid is closed, and wake straight to the password screen when the lid is opened… and that works!

Still to test:

• USB speaker

• Bluetooth dongle

• …and then Bluetooth headphones

• Crucially: there's no X-mouse button remapper for Linux, so we need an alternative; there's something called Input Remapper to try.

Things a Multimedia Consumption Machine MCM needs to do & run:

• Firefox + UB + SB

• MP3 player… Audacious (and something called “Winamp Refugee”?)

• VLC 

• Surfshark

• Qbittorrent 

• Puddletag (to try; alternative to MP3tag)

• Audacity

• Okular (to try; alternative to SumatraPDF)

• X-mouse (to try: Input Remapper)

2245

Hmm, it seems the last time I wrote about a T410 and Win11, it was to say that it was seemingly working alright, but that was not the case. It kinda worked, but the laptop would frequently throw up a BSoD and need restarting. This was particularly inconvenient because the T410s have a quirk that, upon starting when connected to the dock, they claim there's a keyboard error (which needs Escape to be pressed to get past; it's a weird error that makes no sense).

So I reverted it to Win10 IoT.

You know, or not, being as how the laptop claimed no boot devices today, it’s lucky that I’m installing an OS. To discover the total lack of a bootable system on there would have been very annoying if the current Kitchen T410 had died and I needed to slot in the spare in a hurry…

Defining the M.C.M. and why it'll all be ok with Linux

0644

When I'm not killing\wasting time replaying ancient computer games, my main computer use-case is as a Media Consumption Machine (MCM; a completely made-up term). This means I use it mainly for online video-watching, offline video-watching with VLC, and offline music-listening with Winamp.

As far as I can tell, this is a perfect use-case for Linux: there's nothing taxing there for me to have to figure out, just basic functionality. Sure, I'll have to find something other than Winamp (I'll miss its amazingly-green interface after the 25 years we've had together…) but I've already tried Youtube + ublock + sponsor block and that works fine.

The majority thing I need to try is power-management: will those ol’ T410s behave the same way under Linux, i.e. will they wake-up when the lid is opened, and sleep when the lid is closed? That's the next thing to test…

Settling on a distro; EVERY O.S. needs tweaking to make it bearable

1634

Ok, calm down: the choice isn’t between scrabbling around trying to get Windows to ‘illegally’ work for the rest of my life, and a Linux alternative I haven’t got the patience to learn.

It turns out that it’s Ubuntu that isn’t for me, and Linux Mint (LM) is the way to go (again, for me). For future reference, I also had a go at Zorin OS, but it was too similar to Ubuntu. I think it’s that those OSes are a little over-stylised for me; I want something a bit more ‘mechanical’. It’s like the days when I tried to make Win7 look like Win9x instead of its supposedly more modern stylised look & feel.

Anyway, I’m typing this on Linux Mint (well, not really: I’m still just using Google docs in a browser!) and a lot of things seem to be going ok. I’m going to have to learn to live without a few things & programs, but that’s life. I was annoyed by the amount of initial configuring I had to do (though less annoyed than by the configuring I couldn’t do in Ubuntu & Zorin) but then I look at the list of shit I had to piss about with when installing Windows (e.g. making Win7 look like Win9x, the stacks of stuff I need to do every time when installing Win10, and now the loooong list of Win11 stuff that needs fiddling) and maybe Linux begins to look not-so-bad after all!

Fighting Linux: the war without end

1415

Actually out for a walk in the sunshine, which is exactly what I needed after the frustrations of yesterday.

Trying Linux again went exactly as expected. Why is Linux such a ball ache…?

At least one of the error messages was refreshingly honest:

“Something went wrong

“We're sorry, but we're not sure what the error is.”

Windows would just give you a bullshit error & incomprehensible code, but Linux tells it like it is (and doesn’t give you a code you can go away and search online…)

So what went wrong this time? I think my first error was choice of distro (ah, how I've missed distro-hopping!) I figured I'd just go with Ubuntu as it sounded user-friendly. Zarking oopslol.

Initially it was a bit too much like my first try of Win11 where the taskbar (or dock or whatever) was full of meaningless icons with no text. Unlike Win11, it didn't require updating the OS to add text labels, just a bit of terminal work to add an add-on.

But even that shouldn't have been necessary! Why not just allow a user to right-click the taskbar and alter its appearance…?

I tried to install (what I thought was) a fairly basic list of programs, but even that was a chore. It led to my all-time favourite absolute classic but of Linux zarkwonkery: outdated instructions.

A great deal of the time when you go to install a program from the terminal, following someone's instructions on a forum, it'll throw up some kind of (what I understand as) a dependency issue: “you can't do that because first you need this”. 

Fine, back to Google to figure that out; try to install what is suggested; repeat at least once; eventually try to install something which no longer exists in a repository or wherever.

Well… some of the time. A lot of the time I just give up.

1750

Linux Mint, labels on panel(“panel” = taskbar) - right click panel, Applets, Group window list, click cogs for settings, select panel pane at top, Button label, window title from dropdown.

The End of Windows, and a new beginning.

1549

It's been a while, and -oops- I never finished writing about that Lenovo AIO. Longstoryshort: installed Win11 IoT on it and it's still waiting for a use-case; I'm sure it'll come in handy one of these years.

I haven't done anything particularly technical with computers for a few months (thankfully, I guess!) but a week ago, it finally happened: the end of Windows 10 (or more accurately: ‘normal’ Win10 (i.e. not LTSC\IoT) won't get any more security updates).

Two PCs are still on Win10 Pro (which seemed so modern & alien when I first used it back in 2017!) so they need something doing to them. I'll probably IoT the other household laptop, maybe with Win11, but I have other plans for my main computer…

I made the leap from Win7 to Win10 back then. Initially I tried to make Win10 look like Win7 but eventually resolved to just get used to Win10 because one day I would have to get used to it.

…and get used to it I did! I even became comfortable & familiar with it (it’s not a huge jump from Win7 really). I got so used to it that I was annoyed many, many times when then starting to use Win11 (which I also resolved to get used to; again, it wasn't a huge jump from 10 to 11 really).

Well, this week brings an even bigger leap, possibly the biggest leap ever, and something I first thought about (and dismissed…) doing 20 years ago: it's time to properly try Linux.

I've dabbled with it a few times (indeed, this log started with wasting a lot of time on Linux) but have never used it on a ‘main’ computer. As I'm sure I've said on here, two things put me off Linux: the terminal (which shouldn't really put me off; I began computing life by inputting commands into a command prompt on Amstrad\C64\MS-DOS) but I'm sure I can get to know it, and a lot of the time it's just a case of copying commands from a website.

…which kinda brings me onto the main reason I've always given up on Linux (and even sold all of my Raspberry Pis): the “community”. Zark, they can be tiresome. It's fine if you search for a solution to a problem, and someone has already documented it, but if you have to approach a community and ask for help… well, you'd have more fun just slamming your fingers in a drawer. Even if you go in saying you're a beginner, they will always assume knowledge, meaning you'll have to go down other rabbit holes trying to find out what they mean. The best is when they insist on you copypastaing some configuration settings; just this evening I found two dead threads where an evident beginner was asked to do this, they did it, and there are no replies afterwards…

But I mustn’t let this put me off. Even though I've got Windows 10 IoT on a few machines up until 2032, and Win11 IoT on a few more for (hopefully) a few more years after that, eventually the gravy train of Windows will run out (even if I wanted to buy more copies of Win11, it won't run on most of my computers because of arbitrary requirements…) and I'll have to make the switch to Linux. It's best if I do that while I'm still (relatively…) young.

The best time to learn Linux is 20 years ago; the second best time is now.

Today I bought a second 5TB external HDD as a backup store and am currently copying stuff onto it before I begin messing around with the HP desktop.

Maybe I'll have a fun evening of installing Ubuntu on that second Lenovo AIO! Nothing to lose there…

A second Lenovo AIO. But why...?

2013

I've gone and got myself another Lenovo AIO. It's old (as all my supply is) but this might be one of the most modern PCs I've had: its original OS was Win10.

Ancient Dell Optiplex cleaned & updated... via a BIOS-reflash

2035

Parents’ old Dell Optiplex is still running Win10 and needs updating to something else before October when Win10 support ends. What a pain in the arse.

First job is to deal with this:

I'm trying to install Win11 but so far can't boot with USB sticks formatted to UEFI OR legacy. They both hang during installation.

Some googling found that maybe updating the BIOS (from A05 to A24) will help… It might allow toggling of Secure Boot, an option which is utterly absent from the current bios.

An update is available from Dell, but it's a Windows\DOS executable… so I need a Windows installation before running it. How wonderful.

…because by now I had already swapped the SSD (to increase the storage available to parents) and wiped the old SSD to make it the main drive in one of the T410s (which can live with a smaller drive).

…so now I'm reïnstalling Win10 Pro, unthinkably, to try this bios update. Wot a waste of time.

EVEN MORE FUN: first auto-reboot during installation gives “no boot devices” error. The fuq?

Hoping switching back to legacy solves this…

Yup, we might be in business. Can't believe I've just installed an ancient version of Win10!

Now to flash the bios and hold onto our butts.

…it claims flash successful!

But seemingly nothing has changed in bios; there's still no Secure Boot option.

Trying to install Win11 from legacy USB stick: hangs.

Trying to install Win11 from UEFI USB stick: looked like it was hanging… THEN PROGRESS! Win11 is installing. No idea if updating the BIOS is what changed things, but we're heading in the right direction.

(Only small issue was that bios was still set to boot in legacy (despite installing via UEFI (this was done via F12)) so a gentle and amazingly useful error message popped up suggesting that I might like to reboot into bios and change to UEFI to let windows 11 boot.)

R.I.P. BushNAS - you won't be missed

1825

What a clumsy, messy, disorganised oaf I am: the BushNAS has been injured.

I was attempting to ‘tidy’ the loft and in my useless, stressed state I knelt on the Bush tablet and heard the unmistakable sound of breaking glass. The screen is cracked to all hell. Time to wipe it utterly and send it to the recycling.

Why this isn't so bad really:

• The touchscreen didn't work anyway, so nothing lost there.

• I'd found a much better candidate for being the NAS machine (well, two actually: StreamNAS, and then PavNAS)

• I wasn't using it for anything, and didn't have any need of it.

Best to send it on its way.

Just for posterity:

16th of December 2024: IoT brought to my attention… (also could have been 11th of November)

Old Lenovo AIO Win11

1546

Took apart an old and otherwise useless Sky box to extract the 1.5TB HDD and fitted it as secondary storage in the cellar’s Lenovo AIO. Proper score!

Might use this period of transition to also update the OS to Win11. Trouble is, it was unhappy enough (in terms of lack of drivers) with Win10, so this can't possibly improve matters. Still, I like that kind of challenge…

I remembered to remove the secondary HDD first though, so windows doesn't do weird partition stuff!

…but I stumbled when it came to the same UEFI thing as yesterday: this old AIO is pure legacy, baby, so I'll need to make a new installation USB stick.

1657

Maybe it's for the best that I don't work in some critical I.T. job: I forget so many things…

I remade a MBR\BIOS boot media (on a microSD card) and it worked fine to install Win11 IoT, but I forgot to unplug the network cable before installing so windows wanted me to use a Microsoft account to log in, which threw me a bit (until I realised my mistake). Thankfully, Rufus has some truly brilliant options when creating Win11 media, one of which includes forcing windows to allow the creation of a local account instead. Could have been annoying…

1901

Something has gone to shit with the Lenovo: it hangs on boot with a blinking cursor or a black screen. It was ok until updating (obvs…)

I was troubleshooting something else (the secondary HDD not showing up) and actually may have solved that whilst sorting this new problem: in BIOS, the SSD was excluded from the boot order, but the secondary HDD was included. Weird. Putting the SSD back in the boot order allows boot (and updating) to continue). I suspect it's because the ‘secondary’ drive is HD0 and the actual boot drive is HD1. 

Back in windows: yup, the secondary drive now shows up.

Another Win10 machine 'embraces' the future

1220

Win11 installation went fine; just had to turn off legacy boot, turn on secure boot, and turn on UEFI boot mode.

One more machine future-proofed!

Transitioning from 10 to 11, and UEFI/Legacy fun

1242

I was just about put the old Dell laptop away until I need it, but then I remembered that it's on the list for needing Windows 10 replaced with something else, so time to install Win11 IoT.

Started poorly when I got the Rufus error message telling me the USB boot drive is UEFI only and the laptop is set to boot in legacy mode. I hope I don't need to reflash the Win11 stick…

I'll boot into Win10 one last time to see what programs I need, then try again. This could be a good place to write that:

• DOSBox 

• Surf shark 

• Hakchi

• Zoom

• Standard Ninite stuff

A working Windows 7 OS, and a working installation of Memory Map

1040

Windows 7 Ultimate is installed & activated! No silly cracks needed (for future ref: it's the ISO burnt to the green USB stick).

So pleased I don't have to piss about with the stupid loaders…

Weirdness on this (utterly wrecked) spares T410: trackpad works, but none of the mouse buttons do. PLUG A MOUSE IN!!

Drivers…

1036

Driverpack Solutions is quite annoying sometimes, what with trying to shoehorn in loads of bloatware, but it does work. It gets the WiFi working, and seems to have got at least a couple of the trackpad buttons working, along with two-finger scrolling!

Memory Map next. This is the big one; the whole reason I'm doing this…

1155

It's not a quick process, but MM is up & running! All tracks & routes are in and GPS connectivity is working.

1654

The real test?

Trying this ‘finished’ harddrive in another T410.

It should work perfectly, theoretically…

…and it does indeed work!

(There's some shit in Device Manager about PCI\USB stuff, but I think that's due to the USB expansion card, which has never really worked properly. Hmm, actually, the presence of that card may well indicate that this other machine is the OG T410! [Correction, 4th March: I've established that the OG T410 is, in fact, the organ donor one which I've just installed Win7 on. Everything matches; I even have photos from 2014 of it throwing up the exact same BSOD error message as it does to this very day.)

MM loads up and is registered and connects via USB-Serial to the Geko. Result.

On giving up on Raspberry Pi, and reinstalling Windows 7

0952

The old desktop did indeed yield another slim adaptor, so that's a handy spare to have.

The PavNAS has been up & running for over a month with no complaints and I can access it from the other machines in the house at any time with no problems. What a result: the whole reason I started this log was to detail my NAS journey and that journey has been undertaken & completed!

PiNAS was a bust, as I should have known it would be, and buying a proper NAS is needlessly expensive; an old Windows laptop with a bunch of hard-drives attached is cheap and easy to set up. I should really spread the word…

Part of me is sad that I gave up on Raspberry Pi and Linux, as it was a journey that I started in earnest well over a decade ago. I feel slightly deflated that I didn't persevere with it and work through the difficulties.

…but then part of me is glad that I reälised I struggling with a challenge which I didn't enjoy. Linux never made intuïtive sense to me, but I think what put me off the most was when I went looking for help. Not only was the learning curve for command line stuff incredibly steep, but every response to a query I saw always assumed some knowledge, meaning more searching to learn that knowledge. It was all such a waste of time & effort. And don't get me started on that Reddit-twonk who kept insisting the Pi problem was power… Sure, I may yet have to learn Linux one day when the Windowspocalypse happens, but at the moment I am very happy to continue using the Windows I am familiar with. 

Pivoting slightly to backing-up data: I've mashed together a 500gb harddrive of ‘essential’ data in a USB case as an off-site backup. Being slightly paranoid about that data being elsewhere, I looked into ways of password-protecting the drive and the best way I found was using Veracrypt. This creates an encrypted container which is password-protected against access. The only disadvantage I've found is that you have to have Veracrypt installed in order to mount the container as a drive for access. Still, it's fairly straightforward and free.

https://veracrypt.eu/en/Beginner%27s%20Tutorial.html

I had a bit of trouble with it initially because I was using a USB HDD enclosure which I didn't know had some loose connection going on. This led me to believe that it wasn't working when I tried it on the kitchen T410 (that it was the old style of enclosure with a double USB lead for power also added to the confusion). Anyway, trying combinations of leads and enclosures led to the dodgy PCB conclusion (there's evidence that some amateur soldering has taken place on it, but I don't remember doing it…) so that enclosure has been retired. It's a shame as it's anodised red and is definitely the coolest-looking peripheral I have.

I was thinking my IT work had calmed down a bit now, but there're still tasks to undertake:

• Boot old desktop and see what data is on there. Reïnstall it back under the stairs.

• Finalise Win7 installation on T410-compatible drive, especially getting Memory Map up & running and checking GPS connects ok.

• Both old AIOs and the Dell laptop are still running Win10 Pro which goes out-of-support in October. Need to think about changing them over to IoT…

• PSXPC! Need to get PlayStation emulator up & running in a more intuïtive way, plus look into SNES & N64 emulators.

 

1034

I need to write about Windows acquisitions!

1912

Decided to stop playing Civilization for a bit and get down to “work” on finalising the Win7 installation on an SSD fitted in a T410. Then I'll have a disk which I can just slide into any T410 and use Memory Map. It'll make me less reliant on the aging T60…

Booted up the “spare parts” T410 (connected via VGA to the big Dell monitor) and found that all I had done before was literally just install Windows 7; thanks, past me…

It was giving me shit about scanning the extra HDD fitted in the (slim!) optical drive bay adaptor; seems that HDD (from the Mac Mini) still had a system partition on it. Got rid of that (without even having to use Diskpart!) and it's all good.

Windows 7 was not activated, and none of the loaders I had to hand worked to activate it. Arse. Seems I may have butted up to this issue a couple of months back (19th Jan) as I'd downloaded another Win7 ISO. Let's Rufus that onto a USB and have a go at reïnstalling Windows; I literally CANNOT ZARKING WAIT to piss about trying to install drivers again…

1940

Goddamnit, the machine started giving me shit even BEFORE installing Windows! Refused to boot from USB, even when selected from Boot Menu; had to exclude the harddrive from boot menu in BIOS in order to FORCE it to boot from USB.

REMEMBER TO ADD IT BACK IN AFTER INSTALLATION.

…immediate issue where Win7 installation claims it can't be installed to the harddrive, though it did, unusually helpfully, hint that it was due to not being bootable cos BIOS:

“Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu.”

Luckily, I'd got far enough in the installation to delete the existing partitions; this meant that the computer COULDN'T boot from the harddrive even if it wanted to, so had to boot from USB.

Further weirdness: mouse pointer can be moved in installation program, but no clicks work, either built-in or with external mouse… Luckily it can all be done via keyboard.

Currently installing…