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

[pamojja]

Sadly, a second Mageia install fail. I realize when I want the Linux on the internal drive, I might have to do it there, to see how it actually turns out.

Despite being now a new USB-3 stick, and sound is indeed working leaving out an actualization of Mageia, but now it's peskier about asking to do actualizations than windows. And did start with it when first connecting to the internet without being asked for. Had to turn the wlan off, to quit it again.

USB-3 didn't allow a faster install than the former old SD-card. 4 hours without actualization, instead of 8. Also, the installation from the same live-usb went different. Didn't ask to remove unneeded language-packs or packages unsupported by the hardware. About half into the installation, its live update window turned empty white, and didn't show the progress bar anymore.

New buggy behavior: Login screen, once clicked, grays out the display for about 20 times, before turning black, and after some while the desktop appears. Everything worse unresponsive than on the SD-install. Already the main menu takes 3 times to click, til it shows. As much to turn anything on. Freezing often, closing often not possible because of run-away processes.

i would (and almost always do) use a graphical program like GParted to create the esp as well the partitions for the distros.

I didn't find any way in Gparted to flag the supposed boot partition as esp or boot. Mageia must have it installed in its own partition. Its choice was there anyway in the boot menu, and booted also this way.

Thanks for your enough detailed instructions how to partition. Even if it didn't work as expected. It booted in uefi.

even so, when i boot a distribution live i usually run the efibootmgr command to make sure it works.

I misunderstood this advice. From within Mageia live for install, this command wasn't recognized.

 

[pamojja]

Login screen, once clicked, grays out the display for about 20 times, before turning black, and after some while the desktop appears.

At other times it alternates with black screens. Also reboot or shut down never complete. Found the most consistent way to reboot also in windows to power off and on again. Always the quickest.

A question about AntiX: The control center under hardware shows 3 options: test sound, sound settings and alsamixer frequency response correction. Only the last opens a window. the former 2 only a quick black window, disappearing in a blink of a moment again. Are there other options to access sound settings?

 

[z7vl7abxc]

in antiX the Test Sound button in the Control Centre runs this command which can also be run from an open terminal
speaker-test --channels 2 --test wav --nloops 3
if i right-click on the speaker icon in the panel at the bottom right of the screen and select Open Mixer that opens the same window as the Adjust Mixer button in the control center. it is also the command alsamixer.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

I misunderstood this advice. From within Mageia live for install, this command wasn't recognized.

i had forgotten how the boot process looked with Mageia. at least when i boot the iso to create a virtual machine, i see that the two top options are Install Mageia and Rescue System. i don't think there would be a place to try efibootmgr in the install process. if i choose Rescue System and then "Go to console", i can run the command there. that's not quite the same as trying it live before install though.

this article shows a different way to check to see if a linux system is booted in uefi mode, but also doesn't really apply to the Mageia installer except in the console unfortunately: https://itsfoss.com/check-uefi-or-bios/

 

[pamojja]

Deleted the useless Mageia install again. Formatting the stick from within Mageia live, reminded me of the limitation of 4 primary partition only. If I remember it right, an operating system does need.

This time, I could find how to flag the boot partition as esp and boot from within GParted. However, if the limit for a drive is only 4 operating system partitions, then the need for such a large boot-partition as I planned is actually useless. Still would need a way to install the boot manager in it?

Tried to create another partition for Ventoy on the new faster stick, so testing of live-distros would be faster. However, Ventoy from within Windows seems it would just overwrite the whole stick with its exFAT file system. Is there another way to make it satisfied with just one preformatted partition on a USB stick? Or would exFAT suffice for initial formatting (seems to be recognizable by both, linux and windows too), and afterward resize and add additional partitions with GParted?

Finally, windows recognizes only the first boot partition, the second I intended for Ventoy, but not the third very large 32fat formatted - for accessing files from both windows and linux. The last linux partition is only seen as unformatted. Does an external 32fat partition have a size restriction in windows, to be recognized? Or would it have to be under the first 2 partitions of 4?

Finally, which of my intended partition doesn't have to be a primary partition? Seems after 4 there is no way to add anymore, like a linux-swap I wanted to add?

Sorry for so many questions at once.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

the limitation of 4 primary partition only

that was a limit of the mbr. it shouldn't apply if you have changed the partition table to gpt which i believe supports at least 128 primary partitions: https://developer.ibm.com/tutorials/l-gpt/

Still would need a way to install the boot manager in it?

the second time i created a Mageia virtual machine, i was more careful about making sure i had booted in uefi mode. when i did that, i was able to check the bootloader configuration where the text on the left said "Boot device" and the drop down selection box to the right of that said "EFI System Partition". each installer should have its own version of how to select that partition to install the bootloader in.

However, Ventoy from within Windows seems it would just overwrite the whole stick with its exFAT file system. Is there another way to make it satisfied with just one preformatted partition on a USB stick?

i created my ventoy usb on mx linux and it has two partitions. the first is the larger partition that holds all the iso's. it is formatted as exfat and has the boot flag. the second partition is actually fat16 and has the esp flag. the ventoy usb has an mbr.

i hadn't paid attention to the flags before. i've never seen them split like that, but it is probably because ventoy is a special use case.

Or would exFAT suffice for initial formatting (seems to be recognizable by both, linux and windows too), and afterward resize and add additional partitions with GParted?

were you intending on installing the distros to the same usb that ventoy uses? i have not seen that done. i've only ever seen that tried with two usb's. one that is being read from and running the installer. the other that is being installed to. it may work with your ventoy usb, but i am not sure how.

the thing with trying to install multiple distros on a disk with an mbr (not set up like ventoy) is that each new install will overwrite the bootloader in the mbr itself. in that way, the most recent install "controls" the grub menu. some grub implementations will look for and add other distros to the menu. others will not. i believe that is more complicated than using a gpt and efi files where each install has its own directory.

Does an external 32fat partition have a size restriction in windows, to be recognized? Or would it have to be under the first 2 partitions of 4?

that i'm not sure of as i haven't used windows in a while. the wikipedia article (in the bar on the right side) on File Allocation Table says the max volume size for fat32 could be as small as 2 TB depending on sector size: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#FAT32

Finally, which of my intended partition doesn't have to be a primary partition? Seems after 4 there is no way to add anymore, like a linux-swap I wanted to add?

back when i multibooted with an mbr, i would create one extended partition and then some logical ones inside that. i don't recall if there was any limitation about what could be a logical partition (root or swap) instead of a primary one. some brief info on the extended partition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning#Extended_partition

 

[pamojja]

Finally, windows recognizes only the first boot partition, the second I intended for Ventoy, but not the third very large 32fat formatted - for accessing files from both windows and linux. The last linux partition is only seen as unformatted.

that was a limit of the mbr. it shouldn't apply if you have changed the partition table to gpt which i believe supports at least 128 primary partitions: https://developer.ibm.com/tutorials/l-gpt/

One important caveat is that Linux has traditionally used the same GUID code as Windows for its data partitions. Thus, it's impossible to differentiate Linux partitions and NTFS file system or FAT partitions from their partition table GUIDs alone. This is unimportant on a Linux-only system, but if you dual-boot Windows and Linux on an EFI-based computer or if you create Linux partitions on a removable disk and use it in Windows, the result is that your Linux partitions appear to be uninitialized partitions in Windows, and Windows may ask whether you want to format the partitions if you try to access them.

That could explain why windows cognized the 3rd and 4th partition as one unformatted only, without knowing its size. Actually, I made the mistake of creating the first two partition and one in the end, with some unformatted space in between, first. That caused the MBR and all formatting to be gone again. The following was my naive solution to create something similar again:

the Gnome Partition Editor (GParted) will do the job. Click Device > Create Partition Table to create a new GPT data structure

But haven't tried yet to create more than 4.

the ventoy usb has an mbr.

I wanted ventoy live, a few installed, and data (fat32) partition all in one, since this stick allows faster transfers then with what I had. As it seems, finding a working linux for me will take an unexpected longer time, and much more experimentation.

All that makes it really more complex than first thought. Though I could try to install and reformat it with ventoy, then move it further for making space before for a efi boot partition, it probably just break something or all again. Probably better to keep ventoy on a separate stick.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

with so much complexity already involved in trying to install multiple distros to one usb (partition table, number of partitions, partition sizes and bootloaders etc), doing it on a separate one than the ventoy usb would be my choice if i were trying to set something like that up.

 

[ML_113]

with so much complexity already involved in trying to install multiple distros to one usb

That's why I love EasyOS so much with its Limine bootloader. It makes life easier for multiboot lovers.

 

[pamojja]

It makes life easier for multiboot lovers.

Thanks. But how do you think that could really circumvent the impossibility to install Ventoy beside other partitions?

Probably better to keep ventoy on a separate stick.

Couldn't resist a last try. Interestingly, Ventoy's partition couldn't be resized or moved, all greyed out in GParted. Also copying and paste Ventoy's 2 partitions to the new stick, failed to make Ventoy bootable there.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

Interestingly, Ventoy's partition couldn't be resized or moved, all greyed out in GParted.

when i look at my ventoy usb in gparted, there is a ! next to the /dev/sdX# device name for the exfat partition. if i click on Partition in the menu then Information, it says

Unable to read the contents of this file system!
Because of this some operations may be unavailable.
The cause might be a missing software package.
The following list of software packages is required for exfat file system support: exfatprogs.

that may be different for you depending on what packages you have installed.

if i click on View in the menu then File System Support, i see a grid of what actions are available for different filesystems.

Also copying and paste Ventoy's 2 partitions to the new stick, failed to make Ventoy bootable there.

i've not tried copying and pasting a partition as far as i can recall. did you check to see if the flags were the same on the pasted version? i'm not entirely sure that's all that would be needed to make it bootable, but could be worth a try. if not, i don't recall creating a ventoy disk taking too long so that might also be an option.

 

[ML_113]

Thanks. But how do you think that could really circumvent the impossibility to install Ventoy beside other partitions?

You can install EasyOS + some distros on the HD and Ventoy on a USB, multiboot as much as you like !
My old brain will be so confused so I stop at 2: Easy and MX, these duo do everything I need in life.

 

[pamojja]

You can install EasyOS + some distros on the HD and Ventoy on a USB, multiboot as much as you like !

Until now I tested almost 50 distros, only Mageia is working as live with my new miniPC. None of the downloaded Puppies or MX worked for me - if you read only the former page 11 of the thread, you would already know.

Installed the only one Mageia working, and it quit working as installed. The live working is on a Ventoy stick, but my objective was to have Ventoy, data accessible both in linux and windows, and other Linuxes installed on the same stick for finding at least one working with my setup installed, because it's the only with USB3 I have and large too.

Though I certainly will continue to test each and every distro till I'm successful, so also EasyOS, I just don't see any difference in multiboot to any other operating system?

multiboot as much as you like !

I'm already traumatized be booting hundreds of times during the last week, and finding only one Linux live distro working out of the box.

 

[arochester]

tl;dr

What is the make and model of the mini-pc? Or, can you give us some basic specs? Or, can you give us a link to where it can be bought?

I have a laptop, and try as I might, I cannot load any Linux on at all.

If I was you, I would be looking for someone with some knowledge of Linux to install it. Presumably there are Linux User Groups (LUGS) or other computer groups near you.

 

[pamojja]

What is the make and model of the mini-pc? Or, can you give us some basic specs?

The specs and weighty reasons to buy such over any other mobile solutions is explained in the opening post of this thread. Bought here on Prime Day for 120,-: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B099KMPRTJ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

If I was you, I would be looking for someone with some knowledge of Linux to install it.

If I would need professional help already for installing only, I can do without or use a live Linux only.

The main reason for linux and me was - as pointed out in the first post, and beside escaping the monopolies - is that I don't really need a resource-hungry operating systems. But have other life-priorities, then to learn command-lines for operating a computer for my insignificant needs.

 

[arochester]

Did you disable Fastboot / quick start in EFI/Bios and Windows?

Ubuntu auf Mini-PC, Installation scheitert › Ubuntu installieren und aktualisieren › Systemverwaltung, Installation, Aktualisierung › Forum › ubuntuusers.de

forum.ubuntuusers.de

 

[pamojja]

Think secure boot is disabled, fast boot I'm not sure if it worked. But Ubuntu would be no point in using. From energy-consuming point of view, as hungry as Windows.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

Installed the only one Mageia working, and it quit working as installed.

when you boot, do you get a boot menu? if so, have you tried "Advanced options for Mageia" and tried one of the older kernels (5.10 instead of 5.15) to see if that works better?

 

[pamojja]

when you boot, do you get a boot menu? if so, have you tried "Advanced options for Mageia" and tried one of the older kernels (5.10 instead of 5.15) to see if that works better?

Yes to the boot menu with advanced options, but didn't try. Already with the live-install kernel - used because the actualized sound didn't work - it reminded me too often I would have to actualize. Now deinstalled again. Magaia live in comparison works like a breeze.

 

[arochester]

There is little point in thinking secure boot is disabled. You need to KNOW that secure boot is disabled.
I am not proposing that you use Ubuntu, but Ubuntu is Linux and is used as an example.

The computer scored 9.3 out of 10 for use with Linux.

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