As a young tech trying to get started, Knoppix live CD enabled me to clean viruses and recover data for clients.

After years of using it as a specific tool, I decided to daily drive it when an older machine stopped accepting Windows Updates.

I still run Windows on my big rig, but Debian on everything Else.

SuperDisk™? 😏

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I found a web site, biosbug.com, and was able to generate an unlock code.

Yeah, really looks like I ought to do a clean install I think.

The system takes forever to boot, but it’s pretty responsive after…

I appreciate the help and info greatly. I’ll eventually get it right! 🤦‍♂️

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I’ve got an even older machine, Intel Atom, 2Gigs RAM, and I’m running 64bit XFCE4 there quite decently, but thank you for the info. How much longer do you think 32bit has? I thought web browsers already switched to only 64bit?

ZRam is good stuff

I’ve clearly broken something then, because after removing my media files… the install is over 200gigs.

I’m brand new to Gnome; I thought you could freely add Desktop Environments without conflict? I’ve since removed XFCE and am all in on Wayland… I think? Is Wayland the same as XWayland? 🤦‍♂️

If I install Gnome cleanly, will it still install and use Wayland?

And I discovered my BIOS is password protected 🫣 and I can’t remember it 😢

I didn’t think I had anything held… 🫣

Strange thing is all I’ve ever done is install:

XFCE

Gnome

Firefox was here ootb

And…

an XFCE plugin, docklike taskbar I compiled from source

Scrcpy, android screen mirror I compiled from source

Picom, compositor I compiled from source

Flatpack support, for openRCT

A few themes from internet

One thing I did notice is the Updater in Gnome always sees updates Synaptic doesn’t see. Even now… weird…

On the updated system, running Gnome, it still happens. In addition, installing extensions from Synaptic results in them never appearing (but reported as installed). I have switched to using Extension Manager from Synaptic, and it is able to install extensions properly (they can be used)

I don’t really know much about Linux, which is why I have it on this system… to hopefully gain enough knowledge to be completely comfortable with it. So it is very likely I have inadvertently created a Frankbian 😢

Guess I was looking for confirmation

Yeah… I’m thinking the SSD is the route… fresh install…

Your comment about Wi-Fi and net install… yeah… I was assuming my phone set to USB share would work OOTB… probably won’t though, eh?

I think I’ll snag the Gnome install media and just stick with that.

Currently, this system is running very decent. At least as well as it did brand new with original software… except the boot times…

If I go the SSD route, the drive can be left as is in case I totally screw up. I can use the same enclosure from the SSD on the HDD.

The machine is an Acer Spin3, 7th gen Intel, 12Gigs RAM, Intel gfx