Linux and SSD help please.

[1066familyman]

I would second for Mint, Ubuntu might be a bit more resource hungry. As others have said on here, stick with a normal Hard Drive first.

Download your .iso, 32 or 64 bit depending on your architecture, you could write this usb stick and boot from that, but you will need to set your BIOS to boot from USB.
https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php


https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/744
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

Mint will give you the option like other Linux distros to run the OS live and then install to your Hard Drive.

As for backing up Windows, without getting to complicated if you write the Mint .iso to usb stick, boot into Linux Mint it will mount your windows drive. You can then plug in an external drive and move all your important files to this.

Whatever is easier for you.

Ok thanks. So I've now downloaded Mint to a dvd. All smooth there.

On a reboot I pressed f2 and then navigated to boot. My problem now is getting the dvd drive ( Cd Rom) moved from number 6 on the list up to number 1. When I press the + key , either on my number pad or the + on caps , nothing happens. - doesn't move it down either. Basically, the + and - keys aren't moving anything anywhere

Any ideas anyone please?

 

[happypig]

try using f keys. I *think* f5/f6 work like +/-

 

[1066familyman]

try using f keys. I *think* f5/f6 work like +/-

Thanks for that. f6 moved it up for me.

Unfortunately, despite moving the cd rom to number one on the list, saving the changes and exit, several reboot attempts later and it's still booting in Windows

Not sure if there's something a miss with the disc I burned then? The burn took around 6 minutes to complete and the Mint file size I downloaded was 1.5gb. It finalized and ejected the disc after burning ok.

It's not looking good if I can't even get past getting a disc burnt and up and running as a Linux test. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong please?

 

[1066familyman]

Forget the above post.

I'd selected the the cd rom boot when in fact I'd missed there was a DVD option Now put that to the top of the boot list instead and hey presto!, computer is now booting from DVD as Linux Mint.

I'll report back on how it all goes. Thanks for everyone's help so far.

 

[1066familyman]

Update, as promised.

Firstly, a big thanks to everyone on this thread for all the help & advice.

I ran the 32 bit Mate Mint 18 dvd a few times to have a play around. I liked it and everything ran pretty smooth.

So I finally went ahead with the install option of side by side with Vista (Just as a safety net really, even though I'd no intention of going back to Vista if all was well in Linux land).

I think I possibly did a silly thing and slide the slider over to give more disc space to linux for the install. The slider started at only wanting 110gb for linux but I was able to get to 210gb for linux leaving about 280gb for Vista (I've since read that linux will run fine on as low as 20gb, not sure if true or not?). Pressed install, left overnight, woke up in the morning to find an error and a failed install. Sure enough, when ejecting the linux disc and rebooting with Windows, Windows was now shot completely. I supect I may have committed some sort of partitioning foul and been given a red card as a result?

No problem I thought, I have all files saved on external hd, computer is going Linux or the bin anyway, so back in goes the disc, and in at the deep end this time with a full on clean wipe and full linux install.

Success!

One week later, having played around with Mint, I'm still boring everyone in the family with disbelieving head shakes that I now appear to have a near 10 year old laptop that works like I just bought it yesterday. It's bloody amazing! :

I realise it's only a week in and maybe I'm in a honeymoon period, but so far everything is incredibly smooth and fast and I'm really enjoying using the laptop again. Mint is so easy to use and just does everything in a common sense easy to understand way. If things stay this way then it's easily the best computer move I've made to date.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

[Wardy's twin]

Are you still happy with this?

 

[1066familyman]

Are you still happy with this?

Yep, as happy as I was on day one

I even did the same for eldest daughters old vista laptop as a hand me down for daughter just starting secondary school. She's happy too as that machine runs like new now as well.

I see there's a Sarah to Serena update available now, but Sarah has been so good to me that I'm sticking rather than twisting.

I honestly can't recommend Linux enough to anyone wanting to revive an old Windows machine.

 

[1066familyman]

Can anyone help please?

I still have that old laptop, still running 32 bit Mint and everything is still lovely... however...

I want to start uploading my music files onto Google Play music. I've managed to download their music manager app and it opens up ok but will not upload music. I'm signed into my Google account whilst doing it. No joy either when trying to upload via the page on Chromium browser ( I use Opera ordinarily).

The versions I've tried have been both the 32 and 64 bit for Ubuntu /Debian. I downloaded the Fedora version too, just in case, but can't even get to install that one.

Anyone managed to upload music to Google play music on Mint? I don't really want to abandon Mint for another distro just for this as very happy with Mint for everything else.

 

[happypig]

Can anyone help please?

I still have that old laptop, still running 32 bit Mint and everything is still lovely... however...

I want to start uploading my music files onto Google Play music. I've managed to download their music manager app and it opens up ok but will not upload music. I'm signed into my Google account whilst doing it. No joy either when trying to upload via the page on Chromium browser ( I use Opera ordinarily).

The versions I've tried have been both the 32 and 64 bit for Ubuntu /Debian. I downloaded the Fedora version too, just in case, but can't even get to install that one.

Anyone managed to upload music to Google play music on Mint? I don't really want to abandon Mint for another distro just for this as very happy with Mint for everything else.

Could be permissions ?
Does google play have access to the directory the music is stored in ?

 

[nicko31]

SSD are easy to install like a new bike tyre. bit of a trick to getting them inplace but simply if you follow the instructions. upgrading is usually done in situ, you clone existing HD to the SSD then switch over in BIOS which is primary, or simply change the connectors round.

Linux is the way to go if you have no software that needs Windows, you might need to stick with the old slapper (i play a few games that tie me to Direct X). though there's little benefit to getting Linux and installing onto a crufty old HD, and if your getting a new one might as well go SSD.

Indeed SSD's have really fallen in price during 2018 after last years shortage. Just be sure not to defrag the drive as an HDD, it will wear the drive out

 

[boik]

Can anyone help please?

I still have that old laptop, still running 32 bit Mint and everything is still lovely... however...

I want to start uploading my music files onto Google Play music. I've managed to download their music manager app and it opens up ok but will not upload music. I'm signed into my Google account whilst doing it. No joy either when trying to upload via the page on Chromium browser ( I use Opera ordinarily).

The versions I've tried have been both the 32 and 64 bit for Ubuntu /Debian. I downloaded the Fedora version too, just in case, but can't even get to install that one.

Anyone managed to upload music to Google play music on Mint? I don't really want to abandon Mint for another distro just for this as very happy with Mint for everything else.

I did get it to work last year and uploaded a few thousand songs. Just tried it again and it no longer connects even tho I am logged into my google account. To be honest, Music Manager has always seemed like an afterthought and very unsatisfactory. I might have another play later but got to go out now.

 

[Mannakin]

If anyone wants to know how to swap from a HDD to SSD, try this YouTube video. I've now swapped 3 laptops and 2 desktops using this method

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh4uRhWwZT0&t=636s&index=10&list=WL

 

[1066familyman]

Could be permissions ?
Does google play have access to the directory the music is stored in ?

I assume so. Signed into my Google account thingy and agreed to the t&c's.

I did get it to work last year and uploaded a few thousand songs. Just tried it again and it no longer connects even tho I am logged into my google account. To be honest, Music Manager has always seemed like an afterthought and very unsatisfactory. I might have another play later but got to go out now.

That's interesting. All the help and advice I've been able to find is from last year or older. Maybe it just doesn't want to work anymore

 

[Marshy]

I would get a new SSD and add additional memory whatever route you decide to take operating system wise.

If its old enough to be running Vista the Hard Drive will be shit.

 

[1066familyman]

I would get a new SSD and add additional memory whatever route you decide to take operating system wise.

If its old enough to be running Vista the Hard Drive will be shit.

Yeah, I agree with you about the hard drive. I'm just running this laptop until it stops tbh, and I back up all my files to an external hard drive as I go anyway. My original question about an ssd is not really relevant now. I'm fine with what I've got for now.

Just want to know about Google play music issue now. Would an old cruddy hard drive be the issue here do you think? I can't see how it would as it stores everything fine and transfers it to the external hard drive no problem. The music files I want to upload all play fine too.

 

[dadams2k11]

Are you using the root account or a normal user account? Some programs will not run with the root account for security reasons.

If it's the root account, create a new account.

If a user account try these steps in a terminal.

sudo apt install snapd

Let snap install then install the desktop player:

sudo snap install google-play-music-desktop-player

 

[happypig]

I assume so. Signed into my Google account thingy and agreed to the t&c's.

You misunderstand. Does the music directory have it's permissions set correctly so that the google program can access them.

Open a terminal, cd to the music directory and do "LS -LA". down the left side of the window it will tell you the file permissions for each file, something like "drwxr-xr-x".
this tells you what the file is ("d" means its a directory) and what the permissions are for user (you), group and others. If permissions are wrong then google will not be able to read/write.
Do that and come back and report what the permissions are.

 

[1066familyman]

You misunderstand. Does the music directory have it's permissions set correctly so that the google program can access them.

Open a terminal, cd to the music directory and do "LS -LA". down the left side of the window it will tell you the file permissions for each file, something like "drwxr-xr-x".
this tells you what the file is ("d" means its a directory) and what the permissions are for user (you), group and others. If permissions are wrong then google will not be able to read/write.
Do that and come back and report what the permissions are.

Thanks. This is what I've now done:

Right click on Music > open terminal > type in LS -LA

I then get........The program 'LS' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt install sl



Not sure what to do next. Have I done something wrong so far? I rarely play around with terminal to be honest.

 

[1066familyman]

Are you using the root account or a normal user account? Some programs will not run with the root account for security reasons.

If it's the root account, create a new account.

If a user account try these steps in a terminal.

sudo apt install snapd

Let snap install then install the desktop player:

sudo snap install google-play-music-desktop-player

Thanks. Let me continue trying to check the file permission advice first and I'll get back to you.

 

[1066familyman]

So snapd will essentially mean that the google play music player will be installed and then made compatible with the Linux distro I'm using. Is that it in a nutshell?