Some questions about Trisquel

8 Antworten [Letzter Beitrag]
Gatalito
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Beigetreten: 04/05/2021

Hi everyone.
I'm interested to install Trisquel as my second Linux installation on a dual boot Linux desktop pc as a replacement of Linux Mint 19. I need to know though some things in advance.

How long is going to be supported the latest version of Trisquel?
What are the repositories that is based on?

As I intend to make a manual installation how large should the / partition be? I'm asking because I currently have a 20 GB partition for the / of LM19 but I have also plenty of space in my disk so it will not be that much of a problem to change the size of this partition, in case that is needed.

Magic Banana

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Beigetreten: 07/24/2010

Trisquel 9 will be supported until April 2023. Trisquel has its own repository. Nevertheless, most packages are built from the unmodified source packages from Ubuntu (18.04 in the case of Trisquel 9), which itself has most of its packages identical to those in Debian.

20 GB is more than enough for the default install... but you will install additional packages. In the end, that depends on what you plan to install. In particular, some video games require a lot of disk space. If you do not plan to install heavy games, I would advise to double your 20 GB (hence, get 40 GB) to be at ease. To have the installer let you manually partition your disk, choose the "Something else" type of install.

Finally, Trisquel is a *GNU*/Linux distribution: https://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html

strypey
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Beigetreten: 05/14/2015

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if there's an option to install larger programs like games to the /home partition instead of the OS partition?

Magic Banana:
> If you do not plan to install heavy games, I would advise to double your 20 GB (hence, get 40 GB) to be at ease.

FYI I have installed a few, relatively heavy games on Trisquel 7 and 8 (such as 0AD) and I never got anywhere near filling a 20GB OS partition. But there's no harm in future-proofing, so if you have plenty of disk space, go with 40GB. IMHO that would be sufficient even if you do plan to install some heavy games. You have the option of using something like GParted to make it bigger later if you need to (unless you're using LVM or encrypted disks, which makes partition management quite a bit more complicated).

Magic Banana

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Beigetreten: 07/24/2010

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if there's an option to install larger programs like games to the /home partition instead of the OS partition?

For programs installed with the package manager, I do not think it is possible.

You have the option of using something like GParted to make it bigger later if you need to (unless you're using LVM or encrypted disks, which makes partition management quite a bit more complicated).

LVM actually aims to more flexibly (re)partition the disk space. Without LVM, the main issue with enlarging / over /home occurs when /home is on XFS, that Trisquel's installer chooses by default. XFS cannot be shrunk. On the contrary, it can be enlarged. As a consequence, for those who want to keep the default filesystem types for / (ext4, which can be shrunk) and /home (XFS, which cannot), it is better to overdimension /: if space is missing on /home, it can be easily taken from / (e.g., using GParted as you suggested).

strypey
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Beigetreten: 05/14/2015

Magic Banana:

> For programs installed with the package manager, I do not think it is possible [to install games to the OS partition].

That's a shame. I'm not sure who would be in a position to action this, but it would be good to make some changes to package management to make it possible to install at least the art data of games to /home, which I'm guessing tends to take up most of the space.

> LVM actually aims to more flexibly (re)partition the disk space.

Understood, but in my limited experience LVM partitions cannot be managed with GUI apps like GParted, making them trickier to use for newer GNU/Linux users who aren't as confident editing partitions from the command line.

> XFS cannot be shrunk.

Good to know :) I have only ever used ext4 and I have a lot to learn about the newer file systems that are often used in desktop GNU/Linux, eg like XFS and BTRFS.

Gatalito
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Beigetreten: 04/05/2021

Thank you for your reply. :)
No I don't intend to install games. It is an office desktop but I don't even need to install the full version of Libre Office either. I just need to find a debian based distribution because I want it to support the drivers of an Epson scanner among some other things. I want to be able to install .deb packages.

I have another question too. Does Trisquel support 32 bit computers with intel processor.
I have an old laptop that is in almost perfect condition as it hasn't been used that much, that doesn't have though the appropriate hardware to support modern linux distributions. It is not 64bit, it has only one GB of RAM but it has 80 GB disk space and needs a 32bit version with something light for a GUI. Xfce or something similar.

If Trisquel can't support it I'm open to other suggestions because I wasn't able myself to find something other than DEBIAN but I wasn't able either to figure out on Debian website which version to install at this laptop. ( that it would a shame not to use it as it is perfectly fine. It is like new but 15 years old).

I know that Trisquel is GNU distribution and that is mentioned on gnu.org because that is the place that I came from. I checked gnu.org and that is how I came here.
The second installation on the double boot pc is a PureOS one.

strypey
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Beigetreten: 05/14/2015

Gatalito:

> have an old laptop that is in almost perfect condition as it hasn't been used that much, that doesn't have though the appropriate hardware to support modern linux distributions. It is not 64bit, it has only one GB of RAM but it has 80 GB disk space and needs a 32bit version with something light for a GUI. Xfce or something similar.

Etiona (Trisquel 9) has 32-bit versions. I have been using Trisquel for years on a 32-bit Acer Aspire One that is at least 10 years old. The Mate desktop environment on the standard Trisquel install has been light enough for this. I do recommend replacing the existing hard drive on your laptop with an SSD, which will massively improve the performance of any OS used on it (as well as increasing the storage capacity available to you), and ideally upgrading the RAM to the max the laptop can take.

Etiona is based off Ubuntu 18.04 and will be supported until April 2023. For Trisquel 10 and beyond, whether there are 32-bit versions depends on whether there is sufficient community support for the work required. The future of 32-bit support in Debian itself is currently a topic of much discussion, see:
https://lwn.net/Articles/838807/

Gatalito
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Beigetreten: 04/05/2021

Wow. That's great! Thank you! :)
I'm not sure if I can replace its disk with an ssd. Are these disks compatible with such old laptops? This is a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo laptop bought in 2005 in order to have an idea about what is all about. It was my late father's laptop and he didn't use that much and also kept it in a case so the laptop doesn't even have a scratch on it. That was a laptop for windows XT but I had installed on it an Ubuntu.

I have already asked though about upgrading its RAM. But I'm not sure either how much RAM this laptop can take.

What I have noticed is that the newer Linux releases are not that much and some of them not at all compatible with older pcs.

Anyway. There is not point to moan here. :)
Thank you for your suggestion and your help. I'll install Trisquel on both the desktop and the laptop and I'll comeback to tell you my impressions.

I'll probably start with the laptop, as the desktop needs a bit of work before I install anything as Trisquel will replace LM 19.

Thank you again for your help. :)

loldier
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Beigetreten: 02/17/2016

SSD SATA disks are compatible with SATA HDDs. Older Amilos may have IDE connections. Transcend has IDE SSDs available, eg. TS64GPSD330.