overview for Bobson

Thanks! I did a fresh install of Debian (64 bit) with KDE, and it seems to be working for me, except it's already frozen up and needed a reboot twice. I might go with a more lightweight DE if that keeps happening.

Newbie with questions about Debian in c/linux@lemmy.ml

[–] Bobson_Dugnutt@hexbear.net 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

It's an intel core 2 duo t9300, which I'm pretty sure is 64 bit. I guess I was confused because it was previously running a 32 bit version of windows 7.

Edit: I'm not sure if it's amd64 or aarch64 or mips64. I think it's amd.

Newbie with questions about Debian in c/linux@lemmy.ml

[–] Bobson_Dugnutt@hexbear.net 2 points 10 months ago (5 children)

I was under the impression that it's old enough to only work with the 32 bit OS. I'll double check that and try installing the 64 bit version if I can.

If the 32 bit version is all that will run, am I shit out of luck when it comes to running any modern software?

Newbie with questions about Debian in c/linux@lemmy.ml

[–] Bobson_Dugnutt@hexbear.net 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (7 children)

I tried "flatpak remotes" and it listed flathub. I also tried "echo $?" after installation and it returns 0. So it should be working.

But when I try to install Shortwave in the terminal it says:

error: Nothing matches de.haeckerfelix.Shortwave in remote flathub

I also can't find Shortwave in the software center.

Edit: I wonder if this is because it's a 32 bit OS?

Newbie with questions about Debian in c/linux@lemmy.ml

[–] Bobson_Dugnutt@hexbear.net 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Yes it's Gnome

Newbie with questions about Debian in c/linux@lemmy.ml

[–] Bobson_Dugnutt@hexbear.net 2 points 10 months ago

Thanks! I think I've seen some frame skips, I'll double check and maybe go with a different DE. And having heard all that, I'll keep Ubuntu as a last resort.

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Newbie with questions about Debian (hexbear.net)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by Bobson_Dugnutt@hexbear.net to c/linux@lemmy.ml

27 comments fedilink

I got an old Windows 7 laptop that was going to be thrown out and decided to put Linux on it (see previous thread here). Most people suggested I go with the latest stable version of Debian, so that's what I installed. I've mostly used Windows, but I do have some experience with Ubuntu.

The installation went smoothly, but I've had a few problems getting it set up to my liking:

I can't figure out how to setup flatpak. Everything seems to be working fine until I enter the last line in the terminal:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

I hit enter and nothing happens. No error message or anything. I restarted the computer but flatpak doesn't work, either through the software center or the flatpak website. I found a few forum posts with the same problem, but no solutions.

I somehow set it up so that my username is not the super user, so I have to type a password in the terminal every time I want to use sudo. Is there a way to fix this without a clean install?
I somehow set up the hard drive partitions so that the OS is on an encrypted partition, so I have to put in a password for the BIOS to boot up. Is there a way to fix this without a clean install?
I'm used to a desktop interface with a toolbar/start menu that I can pin frequently-used programs to, but with Debian it seems like I need to click "Activities" to do anything. Is there a way to set up the interface so it's more like Windows in that regard?
If I need to do a clean install, I'm thinking of switching to Ubuntu, since I'm more familiar with the interface. Is there any reason why I should stick with Debian? I've heard some people trashing Ubuntu but I'm not sure why. Is Debian better for older hardware?

Edit: Thanks for all the knowledgeable replies. I did a fresh install of Debian 12 (64 bit) with KDE and it seems to have resolved all my problems. Although it's a little slow and buggy, I've had to reboot it twice. I'll try a lightweight DE if that continues.