Two Epic Fails Trying to Install Mint on an Old Acer Aspire 3000 Laptop

As I recall bodhi was the only one where wireless worked out of the box. LXLE for 32 bit is still stuck on 12.04 while 64 bit is on 14.04. I didn't like being stuck on an older version so went with bodhi since the trusty base will be supported till 2019. 12.04 will also give you video glitches on lxle due to not having the sis video chipset fixes added to 14.04. There was a fix for this but I don't remember how as it's been a while. Wired ethernet worked on all of them out of the box..and you always have the option to use a bodhi livecd to download whatever you need since wireless should work for it as well I think. It will give you a feel for whether you will like bodhi or not. Bodhi has an extensive wiki and even a web based appcenter to install some apps so is generally fairly painless for new users to get into. The folks on the forum are very helpful and responsive. Oh bodhi has two 32 bit versions...one is a legacy version intended for very OLD hardware as in pentium's with 512mb ram...y0u won't need that one..just the normal 32 bit.

On lxle and xfce however the only thing you should need to do to get wireless working is make sure the following packages are installed (you can "instal:

b43-fwcutter - utility for extracting Broadcom 43xx firmware
firmware-b43-installer - firmware installer for the b43 driver
firmware-b43legacy-installer - firmware installer for the b43legacy driver

Screenshots of both lxle and bodhi can be found on linuxscreenshots.organization (just the first 3 characters after the period)
 
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You said bodhi wireless will work, then you said maybe it will work? We have the same pc's why would it not work on mine but on yours? Are you not sure about this, because I won't bother downloading and burning it then.

b43-fwcutter - utility for extracting Broadcom 43xx firmware
firmware-b43-installer - firmware installer for the b43 driver
firmware-b43legacy-installer - firmware installer for the b43legacy driver
This info. does me no good as I don't have any idea how to install it. All info I find on the internet is junk and don't work. Everybody has a solution but none of them work? good linux info is hard to come by. It amazes me that I can go to an official site and sill get no good info, Ubuntu, Mint, etc, none have good info. It seems they let anyone post technical advice without even testing it first. I tried lxle and might try bodhi but also might just get a ethernet connection and download the packages.

Thanks, pcpunk
 
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What I said was wireless worked out of the box on bodhi..ie the installed bodhi....I have no idea if they install the firmware on the livecd so due to space limitations it may or may not work...I don't recall as I had the laptop hooked to wired ethernet when I did the install to hd. More than likely they do include the firmware as b43 covers the most common laptop wifi chipsets.
 
Exactly! I am trying to do it without Ethernet. I'ts not likely that they include the firmware as I have tried many and none work.
 
Exactly! I am trying to do it without Ethernet. I'ts not likely that they include the firmware as I have tried many and none work.

Contrary to what it says, bodhi installs to hd just fine WITHOUT an internet connection but it's not my job to convince you so do as you wish. You could have tried the iso by now.
 
As I recall bodhi was the only one where wireless worked out of the box.

and you always have the option to use a bodhi livecd to download whatever you need since wireless should work for it as well I think.

Both the wifi and the wired ethernet will work out of the box in bodhi (although you may have to hit the button on the front to turn wifi on).
That's all I'm saying, I would not have downloaded it and ran it if wireless did not work. There is no b43 firmware on these linux distro's as I understand it, with some hidden exceptions in Ubuntu. I am running lxle now as I like it a little bettter than Bodhi. Bodhi did have a nice look though, just a little unfamiliar with the layout and don't need to learn anymore desktops lol. I will have to go back and play with it again.

No worries appreciate the help. If possible can you give me the rundown on the ACERDATA D: Partition from bodhi's gparted, I know it is Primary, can you provide me with the:
1. UUID
2. And how it is flagged
Right click on it in gparted and chose Info or Properties, you know. Thanks.
Thanks pcpunk
 
I don't have the partition you're asking about anymore.
 

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