What kind of mint preference are you looking for?
What kind of mint preference are you looking for?
I purchased a large 4TB used mechanical hard drive for archival backup—it was surprisingly inexpensive. My current system doesn’t recognize it as a known device. Despite the Toshiba branding, there’s a DELL sticker on it, suggesting it might be a custom build. I decided to test it with a simple, lightweight drive manager that can bypass such issues. A friend provided me with a heavily modified version of Dragonfly BSD without a graphical interface, which makes sense since he works with minimalist single-board computers. I prefer having a GUI for ease of use, so I tried the Mint distribution. It seems to have three versions; only one with a GUI has been used by me before—GNOME 2 claims to be incomplete, and GNOME 3 is a fork called Cinnamon. The lack of a GNOME 3 non-fork version leads me to believe GNOME 3 isn’t universally accepted. This pattern shows how systems can become chaotic over time. I realize I might have overlooked something important. Should I stick with the xfce variant or switch to Ubuntu?
I've been using Mint for quite some time now. Mostly I stick with Cinnamon because it offers the most customization and features. The newest Mint release has been a bit more problematic for me, mainly with certain programs. That's why I've moved a few machines to Mate for testing. It also has its own quirks, especially when using multiple monitors. Mate uses less resources than Cinnamon. It's been a while since I tried XFCE; back then it seemed too minimal for my needs, but it works if you want something very lightweight. In short, I'd suggest Cinnamon if your system can handle it. When I mention bugs, they're not too severe. I've experienced some issues, but it's been my main OS for a long time.
I installed mint cinnamon 21 on a USB drive and tried to boot it. The device is much smaller than I thought. It seems to work only with certain Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections—no support for N. It crashed twice, which reminds me of the old version I used before. It makes me wonder how unstable Ubuntu really is. I’d rather stick with Debian instead; it’s not worth the hassle.
Not familiar with what's bundled with Mint/Cinnamon's liveCD. Is it possible that it doesn't have an appropriate driver for your WiFi adapter, and is falling back to a more generic support? What is the adapter, anyway? The thing to remember with Linux is it's almost never a <distribution> problem, per se. I'd search "Linux <your WiFi adapter> stuck a/b/g" and see what surfaces. Linux distros do like to stay lighter-weight for the live-boot image. 2.4GB isn't really all that small. Arch has a current Live image of ~820 MB !
The documentation appears sparse regarding the hardware specifics. The system is an MSI mag b660m with DDR4 RAM and Wi-Fi. It seems to be a built-in component rather than something added manually. I anticipate needing an M.2 bay in the future. Perhaps installing a Wi-Fi card via a PCIe x1 slot would work, though PCIe slots are limited in microATX form factors. The video card might be replaced by a Thunderbolt or triple-thick GPU. It’s unclear exactly what components are present. Your explanation about potential failure points makes sense; I recently added a 4TB mechanical HDD (my existing drive can only hold up to 3TB) and had to install it internally for compatibility testing. This caused a significant increase in available space. I’m considering cutting partitions to ensure proper functionality, so I might proceed with an installation now. A USB key installation would be preferable at the moment. I’ve been planning to run three virtual machines and an emulator, including one that needs Unix support. I’m delaying the Windows setup until then to avoid data loss. I wasn’t aware liveCDs had such restrictions. I don’t understand how the installation process functions in Cinnamon. Back in the day, liveCDs would force a full format of the main drive and erase the system files, which I didn’t want to do. Do you have control over what software gets installed? If so, I could simply use another USB key slot for that purpose. Edited December 16, 2022 by Bombastinator
It features an M2 key positioned in the second slot, next to a PCIe x1 slot already taken by your graphics card. The slot seems to include a heat-spreader bar that might conceal its occupancy. MSI labels the card as "Intel WiFi 6e." When using a Linux system, running `lspci -v` in a terminal will display detailed PCI information, including the WiFi card. You might also find GUI tools or Windows settings that provide more specifics. If those aren't sufficient, the physical key likely has a part number etched on it. You may need to search further, but it should be possible. Ensure your boot drive supports automatic USB storage updates; otherwise, changes won’t save. Before installing Windows, partition your drive carefully—older Windows versions often store important files at the end of partitions, which can only be moved with a dedicated offline defragmenter tool. This process can be quite involved. It’s worth noting those installation steps usually begin with choosing partitions, as highlighted in the guide.
Mag mortar is the right choice. The max version is a bit pricier, around $60 extra. That detail should be noted. Regarding the USB key, I’ll handle that. For the partitions, you’ll want a boot partition larger than the minimums set by Microsoft and Windows, which can be quite large. A 128GB works, but you might need more depending on your needs.
The setup depends on how you organize your system components. Key points to consider: decide whether your user data stays on the Windows partition or moves elsewhere. If it’s on another drive, files like Documents usually go there by default. Most files created by users are saved in that area. You should think about where you’ll install your apps—Windows lets you pick a different drive via the Microsoft Store, and many third-party programs let you choose the location. It’s up to you. I noticed my Windows 10 setup, with only a few apps, uses 51GB of a 75GB drive. This is mostly unused; if I were using it actively, the usage would be lower. Linux can also gain from active swap unless RAM is excessively large. Both operating systems rely on RAM caching to speed up loading. When memory runs low, the system may evict cached data, causing crashes or freezes. This can happen with many tabs open, a Zoom call, and heavy browsing. You can adjust Linux’s cache settings, but sometimes you’ll find yourself needing more RAM than you think. Personally, I favor keeping swap enabled so the system has room to handle spikes in memory demand. If a process tries to use more memory than allowed, it may trigger an OOM error and stall the whole system. The exact impact varies, but balancing RAM size, usage habits, and drive performance is essential. In my experience, 2GB of swap with 16GB RAM works fine—especially if you set the swap priority and cache limits correctly.
I don’t rely heavily on Windows because it isn’t very secure. I mainly browse and play games, all in Steam, with the Steam folder on a separate drive—probably 256GB. There’s still space, though it might feel a bit wasteful. It’s a 2TB hard drive. For RAM, I have 32GB, which used to be quite a lot for regular use but isn’t as much now. Regarding swap space, I’ve got enough room for an extra large swap area—it’s not a problem. I also discovered my NVMe drive can work with Optane, and prices are pretty low right now. I filled that slot and there’s no more room left.