12-04-2020, 09:35 PM
Back again, at last. That's how long it took. Under the given circumstances it turns out that in order to install the VBoxGuestAdditions4340 successfully I had to use Linux Lite 3.8 64bit. Anything newer wouldn't do, as I found out by experimenting with some of the .vdi files found at this site: https://www.osboxes.org/linux-lite/ (a highly commendable one, IMO: all the settings are there, so there's hardly any need for fine-tuning). After this, installing 4-5Gb of system updates (which there seems to be no dearth of), a customized browser and the application I needed the most all went like a charm.
The result still not perfect, but the GUI is much more user-friendly than anything I've met before, Linux-wise, and at least both the internet connection and the bidirectional clipboards Guest<->Host are working.
A few questions/issues left over…:
1. It seems that the bidirectional clipboards Guest<->Host only work properly with plain text, or something similar. Copying formatted stuff, say a from a page in a browser in the Guest (and maybe only the Guest), blocks the functionality until the VM gets rebooted.
2. Drag & drop in either direction still isn't working. At one point it seemed that I'd be able to move a tiny file onto the Guest, but as the progress window was showing an increasing number of minutes, the whole machine ended up freezing until I force-quit the VM.
3. So far the solution to 2. has been to mail to myself the few files that were necessary. But it would be useful to know where in the Guest the Shared Folder that was set up in the VB Manager is to be accessed. I probably figured it out ages ago in L/Ubuntu, but remember?
4. Now that this installation is running properly, is it possible to upgrade from 16.04 to 18.04 without having to change anything else? One of the reasons is that an application I wanted to install gave an error to the effect that the kernel was “unsupported”. Earlier versions of that app didn't help, but when I tried to apply this work-around, as suggested by its developers for those running Ubuntu 16.04: [sudo apt-get install linux-generic-hwe-16.04], I ended up with a VM that wouldn't boot up anymore.
Then, some small stuff:
5. My Mac's keyboard layout is not US, and I have to use the Opt (Alt) key for a number of special characters, especially the @. In the Linux Lite environment the Alt key doesn't seem to be responsive, so what's the trick to get a @ there?
6. Lots of Mac users would probably testify that one main inconvenience of switching back and forth to a Linux or a Windows environment is having to constantly keep in mind to use the Ctl key instead of the key. Of course it might be quite encompassing, but is it conceiveable to change the mapping of these keys in the Linux environment to have them match the Mac's?
7. Can Linux Lite's bootup chime be disabled? Couldn't find anything…
8. I was able to change the user name entered at bootup, but the admin's name, say in the Terminal, remains that of our friendly <[email protected]>. Is there an easy way to change that?
9. Occasionally, at bootup the File System and the Trash icons get shoved back up to the upper left corner. Is there a way to tell them to stay put once and for all?
10. Last, just as everything was set up and running, I started getting at bootup, right away after login, the image of a mouse that says "XFCE - Starting Desktop Manager". Not a clue how it suddenly got there, but here too… how to get rid of it?
Any comment will be appreciated.
The result still not perfect, but the GUI is much more user-friendly than anything I've met before, Linux-wise, and at least both the internet connection and the bidirectional clipboards Guest<->Host are working.
A few questions/issues left over…:
1. It seems that the bidirectional clipboards Guest<->Host only work properly with plain text, or something similar. Copying formatted stuff, say a from a page in a browser in the Guest (and maybe only the Guest), blocks the functionality until the VM gets rebooted.
2. Drag & drop in either direction still isn't working. At one point it seemed that I'd be able to move a tiny file onto the Guest, but as the progress window was showing an increasing number of minutes, the whole machine ended up freezing until I force-quit the VM.
3. So far the solution to 2. has been to mail to myself the few files that were necessary. But it would be useful to know where in the Guest the Shared Folder that was set up in the VB Manager is to be accessed. I probably figured it out ages ago in L/Ubuntu, but remember?
4. Now that this installation is running properly, is it possible to upgrade from 16.04 to 18.04 without having to change anything else? One of the reasons is that an application I wanted to install gave an error to the effect that the kernel was “unsupported”. Earlier versions of that app didn't help, but when I tried to apply this work-around, as suggested by its developers for those running Ubuntu 16.04: [sudo apt-get install linux-generic-hwe-16.04], I ended up with a VM that wouldn't boot up anymore.
Then, some small stuff:
5. My Mac's keyboard layout is not US, and I have to use the Opt (Alt) key for a number of special characters, especially the @. In the Linux Lite environment the Alt key doesn't seem to be responsive, so what's the trick to get a @ there?
6. Lots of Mac users would probably testify that one main inconvenience of switching back and forth to a Linux or a Windows environment is having to constantly keep in mind to use the Ctl key instead of the key. Of course it might be quite encompassing, but is it conceiveable to change the mapping of these keys in the Linux environment to have them match the Mac's?
7. Can Linux Lite's bootup chime be disabled? Couldn't find anything…
8. I was able to change the user name entered at bootup, but the admin's name, say in the Terminal, remains that of our friendly <[email protected]>. Is there an easy way to change that?
9. Occasionally, at bootup the File System and the Trash icons get shoved back up to the upper left corner. Is there a way to tell them to stay put once and for all?
10. Last, just as everything was set up and running, I started getting at bootup, right away after login, the image of a mouse that says "XFCE - Starting Desktop Manager". Not a clue how it suddenly got there, but here too… how to get rid of it?
Any comment will be appreciated.
Q&T