Linux Mint is Totally Worth It - Tips to make it even better

So, after my disastrous diversions in trying out "new" and "latest" I have come back to the very trusty Linux Mint 17.3 Xfce 64-bit OS.

What have I learned from the past misdirection? Well, firstly "new" doesn't mean "best". Now, some may require this "new" for some niche hardware enablement or to try out a latest feature but if you are a normal user or want your system to just work without doing troubleshooting all the time, then tested and proven software is the best. For me, this is Linux Mint 17.3 Xfce 64-bit.

My Notebook is the HP 15-AC040TU 15.6-inch Laptop (Pentium 3825U / 4 GB RAM / 500 GB HDD / FreeDOS / Intel HD Graphics).

All hardware is recognized and the driver installation is very easy. Just a small problem of the bluetooth driver is there. A manual install is required for my notebook's bluetooth driver: Broadcom 43412. This particular bluetooth adapter does not have a opensource driver and you are required to follow the instructions mentioned at this website: http://askubuntu.com/questions/632336/bluetooth-broadcom-43142-isnt-working-on-ubuntu

Just follow the instructions there to get the bluetooth adapter working. For Linux Mint 17.3, even if you have installed and use the latest Linux Kernel like I do, presently it is 4.4.0-31, still you only require to follow the default instructions and not follow the instructions for the 4.4 kernel series. I think this is because Linux Mint 17.3 came with the 3.19 kernel version. I cannot think of any other reason.

Also, there some things you would want to add to get a better experience with Linux Mint 17.3.

First is the brightness remembrance thing. Linux Mint 17.3 does not remember the brightness level after a restart. To fix this just do:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nrbrtx/sysvinit-backlight
sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install sysvinit-backlight

Then, we require support for h265 (hevc), to do this do:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:strukturag/libde265

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-libde265

sudo apt-get install gstreamer1.0-libde265

sudo apt-get install vlc-plugin-libde265

Next, install redshift, do:

sudo apt-get install redshift-gtk

You will have to create the config file manually since automatic recognition does not work in Linux Mint 17.3. To do this follow the instructions on this website: http://jonls.dk/redshift/

Next, install Thermald:

sudo install thermald

Then, install TLP:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install tlp

You will have to manually start TLP every time, to do this do:

sudo tlp start

Install the latest kernel using the Update Manager. I am using the latest one (don't know if it is the latest till now) 4.4.0-31.

Install Steam using the Software Manager.

Get some games from GOG.com. If you are within the requirements of the game you could very well use PlayOnLinux to play the game.

Install PlayOnLinux:

To do this first install wine:i386: sudo apt-get install wine:i386

Then:

wget -q "http://deb.playonlinux.com/public.gpg" -O- | sudo apt-key add -

sudo wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_trusty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install playonlinux

Install SoftMaker FreeOffice from: http://www.freeoffice.com/en/

You can use the template mentioned on my blog post: http://aajkyakiya.blogspot.in/2016/07/making-softmaker-freeoffice-textmaker.html to make the documents look like Word 2007.

Install Google Chrome from: https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/index.html

Install Crosscore, Roboto, fonts:

sudo apt-get install fonts-croscore fonts-crosextra-caladea fonts-crosextra-carlito fonts-roboto

The Crosscore fonts give you alternatives for the most common Windows fonts. You get Arimo (sans-serif), Tinos (serif) and Cousine (monospace). These fonts are metrically compatible with Monotype Corporation’s Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier New. And Carlito (which matches Microsoft's Calibri) and Caladea (matching Cambria).

You can also use the very good software Send Anywhere to send and receive files. Get this from https://send-anywhere.com/web/page/download

For educational apps: you can take tips on the apps mentioned at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Edubuntu/AppGuide

Intel hates Pentium and Ubuntu Unity hates WINE gamers

Linux Mint 17.3 Xfce 64-bit edition was the OS on my HP Notebook. This OS is stable, does its job, does not pose any problems and is user friendly. But, this stability requires the Linux Mint OS to have old and proved software. This resulted in my Gen 8 Pentium to not have the latest and up to par performance which it could if it had newer software. That is what I thought and boy was I wrong.

On the https://mesamatrix.net website, the latest mesa 12.0.1 advertises latest OpenGL compatibility with Intel Gen8+ graphics. So, I was under the impression that this would also mean the Intel Pentium that have Gen8, i.e. Intel Broadwell graphics like my 3825U. But, this is not the case.

I had changed my OS from the very stable Linux Mint to the latest Ubuntu 16.04.1 release. The Ubuntu Unity release. Thinking that the base edition would offer more latest and stable versions than the spins. I then added the Padoka ppa and the Wine DRI ppa.

The drivers, Mesa, xorg, and more that is available from the Padoka PPA does not even provide Mesa 12.0.1, after upgrading the Mesa was still at 11.2 and OpenGL support at 3.0. Which was a let down. Then I purged the Padoka ppa and added the Oibaf ppa. This gave me the latest mesa alright, but still the supported opengl version is 3.0. So, Intel has just given the code for the Core i processors and has conveniently forgot the Pentium of the Broadwell architecture.

Intel hates Pentium. This is what I gather from my very frustrating experience.

So, I thought okay this may at least prove a decent performer for my games that I run under WINE. The game I tried is the GOG version of Neverwinter Nights 2. This game installed correctly using the Wine DRI ppa version of WINE. And, with the Oibaf mesa. I use the excellent PlayOnLinux software to manage the installation. This is another excellent piece of software. I would describe this in my later posts.

So, I launched the game. But it crashed. After fiddling around I got to the problem. I had enabled the Gallium Nine option in the wine configuration. But later I got to know that this only works well with Nvidia and AMD gpus and not with Intel gpus. So, another bummer. Another wasted effort and bandwidth for getting the latest and greatest. After de-selecting this option, the game opened.

Then another problem, I was not able to alt-tab from the game in fullscreen. The only option was to hard reset the notebook, since after pressing the alt-tab keys, the game would not respond. Then I searched the internet for this problem and came across many other such problems, all relating to Ubuntu Unity. There was one shortcut that worked, The minimize shortcut. This minimized the game, but after opening it again, it would freeze again. So no way of going forward but to hard reset the notebook.

Then, what I thought was to install the Xubuntu-desktop in my Ubuntu installation. The download was an okay ~250MB. After going into the Xubuntu session, I launched the game and was able to alt-tab without much problem.

So, Ubuntu Unity hates WINE gamers. Again, from my personal experience.

Now, I am stuck. I wanted the latest and got burned. What are my options. To go back to Linux Mint 17.3 Xfce 64-bit edition. Or to install the Linux Mint 18 Xfce 64-bit edition. Or to go for the Xubuntu 16.04.1 edition. Lets see. Maybe I would try CentOS 7.3 instead.

What would be better?

LinuxMint, is it really worth it?

Well, after my previous post on delaying LinuxMint update, and after stating that my new notebook exclusively runs LinuxMint, and that I have many games (through Steam and PlayOnLinux) installed on my notebook, I got a wake up call when I learned that LinuxMint 17.3 uses Mesa 10.5.9, which is an old release.

LinuxMint 17.3 is super solid, with no crashes, with no problems whatsoever, but I would like a newer version of Mesa to expose the processors's graphics capability. Also, there is no easy way of upgrading Mesa like you have for installing new kernels in LinuxMint.

I think this is a big gap especially for me because I would like to have the best possible frame rates for the games and which my quite limited hardware is capable of. I would not like to wait over a year to use my hardware to its full capability.

Of course, if you are looking for rock solid stability, I can guarantee that LinuxMint 17.3 Xfce 64-bit version will give you the most stable system I have encountered. I would even say that it is better or at least equal with the stability of CentOS. But, if you want to use the latest and newest features at the moment they are available, then you will have to look elsewhere.

So, I am now looking at the recently released Ubuntu 16.04.1 64-bit Unity edition. Why the Unity edition, because there are some quite serious bugs still in the Xfce (Xubuntu) edition. The main is the no cursor on Intel graphics when suspend and resume. And, I have Intel graphics only. So, with only this bug, Xubuntu becomes a big no-no for me.

The Padoka (https://launchpad.net/~paulo-miguel-dias/+archive/ubuntu/mesa) or the Oibaf (https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-drivers/) PPAs will provide for the latest and newest Mesa graphics for Intel. The Padoka PPA provides an even more cutting edge version of Mesa than the Oibaf PPA.
Also, the Wine + Gallium Nine (https://launchpad.net/~commendsarnex/+archive/ubuntu/winedri3) PPA will provide the enhanced Wine compatibility layer for Windows games running on DirectX 9. This Wine PPA requires one of the Padoka or Oibaf Mesa.

And also when Ubuntu 16.04.2 arrives, it will bring most, if not all, of the very current Mesa, Linux Kernel, and X.Org stack with it. So, when 16.04.2 arrives, I wont be needing the Mesa PPAs and can easily purge them before upgrading the hardware compatibility stack.

In my opinion, this current Ubuntu LTS 16.04 series is becoming a very good, in-the-now release that supports current generation hardware. Even its derivate LinuxMint has become a product for people who are running on old/previous generation hardware.