Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I’m starting my first expedition into another branch of the Linux family. Let’s get started!
Moving away from Windows involved one of the larger culture shocks I’ve ever experienced without leaving home. The concept of software package managers was something I had only seen on phones. The file system left me wondering where my secondary drive was. And the downright alien sense of open-ended desktop environment customization options almost sent me reeling with decision fatigue. But the mindset surrounding Linux lends itself to self-guided study, an element that is sorely absent from a number of other mainstream operating systems.
The switch to Manjaro has brought back some of that sense of culture shock, but the similarities are already surfacing. Of note, I am also finally trying out this fancy KDE desktop environment, now that I’m on something with a discrete graphics card, so I won’t be totally sure what change comes from where all of the time. The file system has some subtle differences, such as /run/.local, a directory I am otherwise used to finding in ~/.local. Software installation comes from either an official repository, or else code can be downloaded and compiled from AUR (Arch User Repository — similar to Ubuntu’s PPA, but it’s supposed to be safer to use). Furthermore, Arch-based distros have a rolling release schedule for their software, delivering the “bleeding edge” experience.
Installation was typical from what I have come to expect from distros meant for a desktop experience. I downloaded an ISO to “restore” to a thumb drive, and installed the intended install drive. I was sure to physically detach any other drives that I wanted intact before booting to a live session with a few essential programs and an installer application. It did offer a choice between a couple Office suites, which was nice.
Of note, I did have to install some proprietary drivers to get my NVIDIA graphics card to run Minecraft, or at least a custom mod pack. I hear it’s a bit of a gamble with KDE and that there are workarounds that tend to break with updates. I was cautioned to enable SSH before flipping the proverbial switch, but fortunately I was lucky and didn’t have to do some extensive repair.
I gave the system a few days to ease in before getting my father to rustle up my old PCI Wi-Fi card from somewhere in the garage. Long ago, we got this card when the machine was relatively new. I was in a dorm setting, and my wireless printer was particular about having only serving computers connected to the same wireless network. When I upgraded from Windows 7 to 10, was having the hardest time getting the upgrade to take. I even reached out to tech support some scammers who showed me to a network log or something and said, “These errors are what is keeping your computer from –what was it your problem was?– upgrading to Windows 10.” (aside paraphrased, the rest is as close as I remember) My parents were ready to pay these guys a reasonable-sounding fee, but the whole thing smelled off, and I backed out. Our own, internal diagnostics pointed to the Wi-Fi card, and I had to give it up.
My Wi-Fi card has had one of its detachable twin antennas smashed and trashed. In the meantime, I had need for my desktop to go wireless again. We bought a USB3 based antenna that served me well until the day I decided to use it with Linux. Since then, I’ve been using my Raspberry Pi 4 as a reverse Wi-Fi hotspot, and I’m quite proud of it.
Today, I decided to install the old card back into its slot and lo and behold, it worked straight away. I tried to run some speed tests to find if the newer Pi 4 was outpacing the older, more direct PCI card. But it was during peak usage in my area, so I’ll need to run something across my local network. Whatever the case, my father had the idea to stick the double-length antenna from the new Wi-Fi adapter onto the vacant attachment point on the old card.
Final Question: Have you ever reinstated anything you thought was hopelessly obsolete?