Lightest Linux distros, easy for noob, with virtual winOS?

[pamojja]

By the way, my 8 hours effort of intalling Magaia is already history. The SD-card for an unknow reason doesn't boot anymore.

Gladly, it now boots again.

"Reset sound mixer to default values" in case that might help.

Mageia has a nice way to show you the kernel in the "Your configuration" tab of its welcome program. i didn't see a quick way to find that in lxle though i didn't spend much time using it. in case some commands might work, these are the two i use to check the kernel version (uname -r) and if the driver for your built in wifi adapter are present (modinfo rtw88_8821ce):

Thanks, this was all easy. Additional I checked virtual audio. But it still didn't make a plip.

5.15.122-desktop-1.mga8

[pamojja@DESKTOP-TC9LOG0 ~]$ uname -r
5.15.122-desktop-1.mga8
[pamojja@DESKTOP-TC9LOG0 ~]$ modinfo rtw88_8821ce
filename:       /lib/modules/5.15.122-desktop-1.mga8/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtw88/rtw88_8821ce.ko.xz
license:        Dual BSD/GPL
description:    Realtek 802.11ac wireless 8821ce driver
author:         Realtek Corporation
alias:          pci:v000010ECd0000C821sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
depends:        rtw88_pci,rtw88_8821c
retpoline:      Y
intree:         Y
name:           rtw88_8821ce
vermagic:       5.15.122-desktop-1.mga8 SMP mod_unload
[pamojja@DESKTOP-TC9LOG0 ~]$

 

[z7vl7abxc]

i'm glad to hear your Mageia could boot again. the Sound Configuration section of the Control Center's Hardware tab also has a Troubleshooting button, but that is all commands to run to try and see what is going on behind the scenes. my vm does have sound with both "Enable PulseAudio" and "Use Glitch-Free mode" boxes checked. i'm not sure what glitch-free mode refers to, but those might be worth checking if they weren't previously.

 

[pamojja]

Think I enabled those too. Thanks. But with the slow SD-Card its installed its not really fun.

First partitioning the stick with the number of distros to be installed and their different approximately needed sizes?

How to preformat a stick, to be able to install a number of Linuxes? What initial file system? Preferably also with one on a partition, which comfortly can be read by Linuxes and Windows. Without having to access the windows and possible causeing damage, or the other way around-

 

[pamojja]

Just found out Bing in Microsoft Edge - for which I don't have any use for - does answer with ChatGPT-4, So I asked ;-)

Which linux distribution with lowest resource consumption (RAM, power), still easy enough from a beginner in Linux (no modern hardware detection problems) with only the most necessary programs (browser, office, multimedia) are recommended?

Copy

Search for: "Linux distributions with low resource consumption for beginners".

Answers are generated for you...

There are several Linux distributions that are suitable for beginners and have low resource consumption. Some of the most recommended distributions for beginners are Linux Mint, Zorin OS, Elementary OS and Ubuntu1. These distributions are user-friendly and offer intuitive operation. You can also try live versions of these distributions without having to install them1.

It is important to learn about your computer's architecture and choose the system accordingly2. Which of these distributions do you prefer? Would you like to learn more about a particular distribution?

More information:
1. computerbild.de
2. lippke.li
3. pcwelt.de
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The mentioned ones are not resource-saving enough. All of them require at least 1GB without running programs, with only browser open and a Youtube video easily 2GB. What other alternative Linux distros are there, with more economical resource consumption and reasonably beginner friendliness?

.I understand that you are looking for a Linux distribution that is even more resource efficient. There are several lightweight Linux distributions that are suitable for older or less powerful hardware.Some examples are Lubuntu, Puppy Linux, Bodhi Linux, and antiX.These distributions are known to require very little RAM and CPU power and run well on older computers.

Want to learn more about a specific distribution?More information:
1. computerbild.de
2. geekflare.com
3. lippke.li2from5

I have tried a total of 30 live distributions.

Mageia was the only one capable of playing audio. In Bodhi I couldn't find the task manager to check RAM usage, Puppy didn't start - only an error message. So I installed the only working Mageia, and updated everything to latest versions. Only now, in installed mode, audio doesn't work on Mageia either. Therefore the following questions in order: What setting or installation is needed in the installing Megeia for audio to play?

How do I find the task manager in Bodhi? How do I make sure that in most Linux distributions I can see and select undetectable WLANs?

Search for: "Mageia Audio Settings".

Search for: "Mageia no audio".

Answers are being generated for you...

I am sorry that you are having difficulties with the audio on Mageia.
Unfortunately, I could not find any specific information about your problem.However, there are some general steps you can try to fix the problem:

Verify that your audio device is detected correctly and that the drivers are installed correctly.Make sure the audio device is not muted and that the volume is set at an audible level.
Check the audio settings in Mageia and make sure the correct output device is selected.
Regarding Bodhi Linux and the Task Manager: Bodhi Linux uses the Moksha desktop, which is based on the Enlightenment desktop.To open the task manager, you can try right-clicking on an empty space on the desktop and then selecting "System" -> "System Monitor".

Regarding WLAN issues: there are several reasons why a Linux distribution may not detect WLAN.Some possible solutions are:

Make sure the WLAN adapter is turned on.
Verify that the driver for your WLAN adapter is installed correctly.
Try to add the network manually.
Hope this information helps you.

More information:
1. forums.mageia.org
2. forums.mageia.org
3. forums.mageia.org
4. support.microsoft.com
5. forums.mageia.org
6. support.hp.com
7. support.logi.com
+5 more
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Thanks with the tip from Bodhi. WLAN all other recommendations I have already gone through without success. Disappointingly, the only working Mageia, it installed but again did not work. Therefore I see now no other way, than to test only installed Linux Distros, since it is useful to me finally only installed.For this I will use a USB stick for different light Linux distrubutions. With which file system do I initially format the USB stick with enough partitions for at least 30 installed Linux distros?Which file system would be most recommended for an additional partition for files that can be read by and stored on the running Linux and Windows? Which boot manager can easily handle so many operating systems?To prepare a USB stick for multiple Linux distributions, you can partition it with a partitioning program like GParted. You can create a separate partition for each distribution and format it with the file system supported by that distribution (e.g. ext4 for most Linux distributions).

To prepare a USB stick for multiple Linux distributions, you can partition it with a partitioning program such as GParted. You can create a separate partition for each distribution and format it with the file system supported by that distribution (for example, ext4 for most Linux distributions).

For an additional partition that can be accessed by both Linux and Windows, I recommend using the NTFS file system, since it is well supported by both operating systems.

Regarding the boot manager: there are several boot loaders that can manage multiple operating systems, such as GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) or Syslinux.These bootloaders are able to recognize multiple operating systems and allow the user to choose which operating system to boot when the computer starts.

I hope this information helps you in setting up your USB flash drive.

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Only now I saw question suggested. Choosing one of the them:

How do I partition a USB stick with GParted?

To partition a USB flash drive with GParted, perform the following steps:Connect the USB flash drive to your computer.
Open GParted.If it is not already installed, you can install it from the Software Center or your distribution's package manager.
In the upper right corner of GParted, select the drive that corresponds to your USB stick (e.g. /dev/sdb).
Delete all existing partitions on the USB stick by right-clicking on them and selecting "Delete".

translated with deepl.com

Are there any easy to spot errors in the answers of ChatGPT4 made?

 

[pamojja]

Regarding Bodhi Linux and the Task Manager: Bodhi Linux uses the Moksha desktop, which is based on the Enlightenment desktop.To open the task manager, you can try right-clicking on an empty space on the desktop and then selecting "System" -> "System Monitor".

Only opened 'prefered apps' with no entries for me. Also 'ctrl*+'alt'+'del' doesn't brings the taskmanager as option.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

though i believe you are trying to avoid the command line when possible, one way to check ram usage when you can't find a system monitor or task manage is with free -m. this is from the lxle virtual machine for example:

free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           7496         353        5936           4        1206        6838
Swap:           923           0         923

usually the "used" column is what shows up in the graphical programs.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

Are there any easy to spot errors in the answers of ChatGPT4 made?

i didn't see any outright errors as much as a lack of probably helpful details.

i believe the easiest way to get grub to work with multiple installs is to install in uefi mode. generally i keep my bios boot settings to "uefi only" to help try and achieve that. i think that setting also works with ventoy. even so, when i boot a distribution live i usually run the efibootmgr command to make sure it works.

when installing in uefi mode, you will need an Efi System Partition (ESP - /dev/sda1 below) that is usually formatted as fat32 with esp and boot flags set. this is an image from my system with two full installs:

https://imgur.com/a/8QV7kLS

the esp will need to be big enough to hold all the efi files from however many distributions you want to install.

similarly, each separate distribution partition will need enough space for the full install. examples from my virtual machines:

q4os takes up about 8 GB of disk space and 50 MB of space in the esp
mageia takes up about 5 GB of disk space
lxle takes up about 11 GB of disk space and 11 MB of space in the esp

in addition to the minimum amount of space, there would need to be some extra room for anything you might want to install (like a new kernel on lxle). the lxle example above includes the installation of the 5.15 kernel previously discussed.

most distributions that i have installed work with the ext4 filesystem that was mentioned. one thing to keep in mind with ext4 is that it keeps 5% of space reserved for root so you would need to add that into your base calculation for how much space to give each distribution.

in my experience with multibooting, the newest installation usually adds itself as the first boot option. as mentioned before, i usually check that with efibootmgr. where that may get a bit tricky is that not all distributions install grub in such a way that it will show other operating systems. that is usually handled by a program called os-prober and some installs have it disabled by default.

i tried to keep that from straying into info overload or overkill, but wanted to try and demonstrate that there will be a lot of moving parts to a multiboot setup.

 

[pamojja]

though i believe you are trying to avoid the command line when possible

Well, when it wont be all the time studying new commands..

free -m.

Amazing. 330MB when idle, 800 somthing with the short youtube. WLAN is showing and connecting, only missing is sound. The mixer does shows a busy inticator though, that somewere it is playing, not in the speaker though.

i settled on bodhi linux and used it for a few years in part because of the fact that it was lightweight,

So glad I'm speaking to someone how knows this distro well

 

[z7vl7abxc]

only missing is sound. The mixer does shows a busy inticator though, that somewere it is playing, not in the speaker though.

in the Volume Control program other than checking to see if anything is muted, the only thing i can think of is to check the Output Devices tab to see if the Port has other options that might produce sound for you. there is also alsamixer. depending on the system, sometimes i need to use the F6 key in alsamixer to try a different sound card. as well, if there are blue arrows -> on the right side of the screen, sometimes i need to use the right arrow key to see more options.

lxle has a program in the menu -> Control Menu -> Utilities called System Profiler and Benchmark. under Devices in the left pane and then the PCI Devices section under that, it does show my "Audio device" but unfortunately not with a lot of detail. to get the helpful detail would need the output of either lspci -knn | grep -iA3 audio or possibly lspci -knnd ::0403. similar to when we looked at those for your networking connections, you are looking to see if there is a "Kernel driver in use" line.

there is a program called App Grid which looks like it will help install other programs. there is a listing in it for gnome-logs which is a graphical log viewer that may be easier to use than trying to check journalctl for messages about the audio device or sound driver.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

800 somthing with the short youtube.

in case it is of interest, invidious can play youtube videos without the extra overhead of the youtube site itself: https://docs.invidious.io/instances/

 

[pamojja]

use the F6 key in alsamixer to try a different sound card. as well, if there are blue arrows ->

Thanks. Only one further option not available and no blue arrow in mine.

invidious can play youtube videos without the extra overhead

I actually used already. Or piped, which however doesn't allow to reduce the data used. Here I just wanted a quick way of comparing the use of RAM idle, and somewhat standardized when under load.

generally i keep my bios boot settings to "uefi only" to help try and achieve that. i think that setting also works with ventoy.

Actually on the SD card, where Mageia I have now installed, under Windows only one folder titled EFI with 180kb is visible, the rest appears empty.

you will need an Efi System Partition (ESP - /dev/sda1 below) that is usually formatted as fat32 with esp and boot flags set.

Think in Windows standard formating is fat. So under windows preformating the new USB-3 stick, I only have to take care the first partition is fat32, and roughly 200kb for each to be installed distro, so with 30 distros at least 6000kb?

one thing to keep in mind with ext4 is that it keeps 5% of space reserved for root so you would need to add that into your base calculation for how much space to give each distribution.

Wouldn't it therefore be enough to only take care of the fat32 EFIs partition, and choose the further partitions size and formatting and from within the live-distros installing? letting it choose what it prefers?

 

[pamojja]

Testing further on live-usb 3 linux distros ask for a user and password. All my guesses didn't work. (Alpine, AntiX and Crunchbangplusplus)

What are the user and password?

 

[z7vl7abxc]

i've not used the others, but found this for antiX: https://antixlinux.com/quick-tips/

my usual web search is "<name of distro> live user password" or something similar.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

one detail i forgot to mention is that in order to be capable of uefi booting i believe the usb will need a gpt instead of the older mbr. i think most usb's come with an mbr. or at least the one i just checked does.

in Gparted if i select the correct disk from the menu at top right, click on the View menu and check the Device Information box that shows up in the left pane and has a "Partition table:" line. for mbr it shows "msdos".

in order to create a gpt, you would need to click on Device in the menu and then Create Partition Table. converting the partition table in that way does wipe everything else off the drive if i recall correctly. it's been a while since i did that.

this is an excerpt of output from the command sudo parted -l from my system disk that has a gpt and the usb with an mbr:

sudo parted -l
Model: ATA Samsung SSD 860 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End    Size    File system     Name    Flags
 1      1049kB  525MB  524MB   fat32                   boot, legacy_boot, esp
 5      525MB   431GB  431GB   ext4            mx21
 4      431GB   464GB  32.2GB  ext4            mint21
 3      464GB   496GB  32.2GB  ext4            pop
 2      496GB   500GB  4295MB  linux-swap(v1)
...
Model: SanDisk Cruzer Glide (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 15.4GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      16.4kB  15.4GB  15.4GB  primary  fat32        lba

df -h
...
/dev/sda1       499M  5.6M  494M   2% /boot/efi

and roughly 200kb for each to be installed distro, so with 30 distros at least 6000kb?

my system with just mx linux 21 and mint 21 is using 5.6 MB of space in the esp. i added an excerpt of the output of the command df -h to the above to show that. my q4os virtual machine is showing 50 MB used (but that may also include windows files) and the lxle vm shows 11 MB used.

Wouldn't it therefore be enough to only take care of the fat32 EFIs partition, and choose the further partitions size and formatting and from within the live-distros installing? letting it choose what it prefers?

after the first distro is installed, i have seen an option in some installers to "Install alongside" a previous install. it is possible that might work. in your situation i might try that with the second install to see if or how it works.

however, given how long you said the mageia install took, i personally would would opt for the more manual approach if possible. i don't think most installers are set up to navigate a multiboot situation as well as might be hoped. part of that is just personal speculation. part of that is based on the fact that ubuntu's installer (which lxle uses) has or had (they just rewrote part of it for the 23.04 release i think. i don't know if this bug was addressed) a longstanding bug where even if you chose the efi system partition on an external drive where you want the bootloader installed, it sometimes installed it on the internal hard drive instead.

that isn't to say it is a horribly written program or that i could do better. moreso that i think there are limitations as to what the installers were created to do.

 

[pamojja]

(which lxle uses) has or had (they just rewrote part of it for the 23.04 release i think. i don't know if this bug was addressed) a longstanding bug where even if you chose the efi system partition on an external drive where you want the bootloader installed, it sometimes installed it on the internal hard drive instead.

Does that mean it overwrites the EFI boot menu and Windows becomes unavailable? For a newbe, would that be easyly repairable again, or the windows11 trashed?

Are such bugs also known to exist in others? Like Debian based?

however, given how long you said the mageia install took,

One reason was certainly the slow USB and SD-card. The install itself actually took under 2 hours. I just didn't expect the actualization of packages, all downloaded inbetween, would take even more than 6 hours after.

I do also regret the update, because I suspect simply some incompatibility, which made in the installed WLAN version unavailable again.

i personally would would opt for the more manual approach if possible.

Would it be more manual with the command line, not even starting up the graphical interface?

So desperate, I just now tried full Ubuntu with Ventoy too, but wasn't thereby recognized as bootable distro.

 

[pamojja]

All my guesses didn't work. (Alpine, AntiX and Crunchbangplusplus)

Interestingly, only the entries of your provided link for AntiX did work. Not the other I searched for myself. And its idle RAM use in all my tests was only superseded by Slitax with 200MB, 820 with the standard youtube similiar, third short after LXLE. Other than what I've seen with all the other live-distros, this was the first with a very elaborative internet connection selection window at startup. Working well.

Sadly, though too with many adjustment options, sound still didn't work.

An other interesting is PeachOS. 590MB idle, sound not only working, but at startup it plays an surprising applauding sound file! So fitting - being the second of so many Linux live distros tested beside Mageia, where sound is simply working. The only distro until now with VirtualBox included already.

However, no WLAN instead.

 

[pamojja]

Another of those windows ape moments, after quick testing almost 50 linux distros now - still only the one first live found working out of the box: Mageia, all other either lacking at least sound or wlan. Ordered down to the least challenged RAM under my example load and hardware setting.

Got now a usb-C to dc adapter to power the miniPC with a powerbank. About 9 Watts with all peripherals. As a first look it seems Linux and Windows using the same when not under load.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

Does that mean it overwrites the EFI boot menu and Windows becomes unavailable? For a newbe, would that be easyly repairable again, or the windows11 trashed?

i don't believe that would happen, but never tested it on a system with windows installed. generally most distros will write their efi files to their own specific directories.

the trouble was that if a person were trying to create a truly portable disk, it wouldn't help much if the bootloader or efi files got installed to an entirely different disk. as you plan to (i believe) use the usb on the same system, i think the only consideration would be how full the windows-created esp might get. if i recall correctly, they default to one that is about 100 MB.

Are such bugs also known to exist in others? Like Debian based?

i don't have an answer to that unfortunately. the ubuntu installer bug just happened to come up in a forum discussion.

Would be more manual with the commandline, not even starting up the graphical interface?

i would (and almost always do) use a graphical program like GParted to create the esp as well the partitions for the distros. that way you could use what is usually titled the "Something else" option in the installers. that option usually gives you the choice to install on a specific partition rather than choosing for itself.

regarding the login for crunchbangplusplus live: https://www.crunchbangplusplus.org/

What are the login credentials for the live image?
The username and password are both 'live' without the quotes.

 

[pamojja]

regarding the login for crunchbangplusplus live: https://www.crunchbangplusplus.org/

Thanks. The most frugal seen until now: no visible menusk exept the usual small symbols of time, speaker, wifi, layout.. in the upper right corner, otherwise all just grey. The menu hides behind a right-click on the desktop.

It does have a greyed out display of system resurces. And there I mentioned diverting values of used RAM: 820MB there, while in the task manager htop 560MB at the same time only. 1200 under load. wlan fine, speakers quiet again.

 

[pamojja]

i don't believe that would happen, but never tested it on a system with windows installed.

Well, somewhere else someone advised: Linux Mint never failed on any hardware. Would run on the computers of his old parents perfectly for many years. My reality now, even that failed without special knowledge and my setup.

So I probably will just try Mageia without enabling actualizing first on the new stick. And see what's next then. What worries me a bid: during its first installation, it gave the option of packages to remove, because my hardware wouldn't support it. Beside unneeded language packs, mainly virtualization packages.