Newbee questions before installation… will it work on my Notebook?

[cxo]

My computer is a Lenovo Thinkpad W520, a powerhouse with an i7-2720, 32 GB RAM, two fairly big SSDs, fingerprint reader, USB3, eSata and a color calibration tool - you name it, this was built for photo and video editing.

The printers are a Samsung M288 printer/scanner and a Brother MFC 6490CW2.

Recently I installed Ubuntu 18 LTS and ran into several problems - the machine did not boot properly, sound did not work and more, printer installation felt like a dentist appointment, Wifi was dead slow, Bluetooth did not work and a few more. I could fix some of that but it was no fun at all. So, I am ready to quit the "normal" Ubuntu world.

**As LL is based on Ubuntu, too, do I have to expect the same problems?

Did any of you ever successfully install this OS on a similar machine? **

Intended use:
1. Video editing with Shotcut
2. Audio editing
3. Photo editing
4. organization of media files
5. Standard tasks like web browsing, writing letters, spreadsheets etc.
6. Maybe, maybe use Wine or similar to work with the construction software SketchUp or Vectorworks plus a renderer or so.

[torreydale]

[member=10611]cxo[/member]

There is a hardware list where you can see the hardware of other people successfully running Linux Lite.  Go to www.freecinema2022.gq and click on Support, then Hardware DB.  In fact, I did a quick search, and here are the results I received when I searched for "w520."  https://www.freecinema2022.gq/hardware_res...ch_results

Secondly, you can boot to the Live Media and see if sound, fingerprint reader, printers, and et cetera work before you install the software to your computer.  Printers may require installing separate drivers and doing this in a Live Media session might not work.  You could check Samsung and Brother for compatibility of those printer models with Debian/Ubuntu based Linux.

[cxo]

Wow, that was quick.

Would I need the normal or the UEFI installer?

[torreydale]

[member=10611]cxo[/member] ,

Consider following the release announcement and the installation guide referenced here:
https://www.freecinema2022.gq/forums/relea...-released/

[cxo]

Okay, I did it. It works, but some things are strange:

The monitor brightness control works, it is at maximum, but the screen is pretty dim.

There is no sound. In the control panel, I see "Dummy Output", and there is also no Input device though this machine has mic and speakers. I am just guessing that the installer did not recognize the built-in stuff.

But the worst is, before I switched to LL I saved all my data to two external HDs, one is NTFS-formatted, the other exFAT. If I plug them in they don't mount. If I launch Gparted I can see the partitions but I can't mount them either. So, at this time I can't bring my data back on this machine.

What can I do?

[Moltke]

There is no sound. In the control panel, I see "Dummy Output", and there is also no Input device though this machine has mic and speakers. I am just guessing that the installer did not recognize the built-in stuff.

Maybe the pulseaudio server hasn't started, try this; open a terminal and type

Code:

pulseaudio --check

  hit enter and next type

Code:

pulseaudio -D

and hit enter again, that should start pulseaudio and your audio will work. If it doesn't, then something else might be happening, but this usually solves that kind of issues.

But the worst is, before I switched to LL I saved all my data to two external HDs, one is NTFS-formatted, the other exFAT. If I plug them in they don't mount. If I launch Gparted I can see the partitions but I can't mount them either. So, at this time I can't bring my data back on this machine.

This one might be tricky and we'll need more info before giving any advice. Could you take a screenshot of gparted showing the drives and post it here so we can take a look at it?

Hope this helps!

[Valtam]

exfat is supported in Kernel 5.4 I think.

Sent from my Mi Max using Tapatalk

[az2020]

But the worst is, before I switched to LL I saved all my data to two external HDs, one is NTFS-formatted, the other exFAT.

I'm new to LL, and don't know if it doesn't read those formats. Or, whether it's a matter of you not knowing how to mount them(?). I'm not very proficient with these things. But, I would open a command-line window an type "sudo fdisk -l" . Hopefully you'll see them there as /dev/sdb1 (or sdc1, etc.).

If you see them, the next step would be to mount them.

If the formats aren't readable in LL, I would be looking at the "system rescue" bootable ISOs that are available. (Even "clonezilla." That's a bootable ISO which lets you clone a disk or partition and recognizes various formats. You can get into a shell and access external drives like you can from any booted Linux environment.).

Stay at it. These initial gothcas can be discouraging. But, it's worth it to work through it and be able to run Linux as an alternative to Windows. (I did it late 2014, a few months before Win 10's release. I was hearing how Windows was going to change. I got out then. It can be extremely frustrating. But, it's worth it to get to the other side.).