32 replies to this topic

[2guntom]

Another success with Linux Deepin-

 

I have a Gateway All-In-One running Windows 8.1. Not a fan of Windows 8.1 at all, but what is worse is that Windows 8.1 doesn't use the old BIOS we are used to, but rather a UEFI interface. UEFI to me is very cool because of the control it gives you, but is also very dangerous and tricky. The easiest thing to do in a situation like this is to wipe Windows 8.1 and install Linux in a "legacy" fashion so you have a familiar BIOS environment. Unfortunately I have to leave Windows on this one (long, sad story).

 

I had originally tried to install Linux Mint Cinnamon in a dual boot environment; that failed. I could get only as far as the menu to run it live or install, but never any further. I tried both with a DVD and a USB drive.

 

I tried to use Ultimate Boot CD to prep a partition for installation. I used CD and USB, 5.33 and the new LIVE Beta, and I couldn't get anything to even come up.

 

Xubuntu 14.04.1 DID work! From a USB thumb drive, the Live CD version came up and I was able to use GParted to manipulate the hard drive and make a partition for a safe Dual Boot install. And, it installed fine.

 

Nothing else I had played with would run or install, until last night.

 

I used Xubuntu in LIve CD form again to utilize GParted to manipulate partitions and make a clean free space. The USB thumb drive with Linux Deepin came right up for an install. Everything went fine until the reboot. A red box came up with an error about the boot security settings. I had to do a little snooping in the UEFI console, but I finally found the problem and disabled it. Not only did it start up correctly, but the Linux Deepin Boot Menu displayed properly like it would on any other computer (not the case with Xubuntu).

 

Linux Deepin works on newer Windows 8.1 machines, and allows a Dual Boot, or even a multiboot.

 

Side note: Google Chrome works fine. I even installed my usual extensions and everything worked fine. My previous issues with Chrome crashing or black screening the pc must have been because of a graphics incompatibility or possibly the age of the machine. For older machines run FireFox instead.

 

In FireFox I have noticed occasional errors regarding Adobe FlashPlayer being out of date. Go to the Deepin Store, search for "flash", and install the latest flash plugin.

 

I really hope this helps somebody.

 

I'm just glad that I finally found a single distro that may suit all my needs.

[APsit190]

I have a Gateway All-In-One running Windows 8.1. Not a fan of Windows 8.1 at all, but what is worse is that Windows 8.1 doesn't use the old BIOS we are used to, but rather a UEFI interface. UEFI to me is very cool because of the control it gives you, but is also very dangerous and tricky. The easiest thing to do in a situation like this is to wipe Windows 8.1 and install Linux in a "legacy" fashion so you have a familiar BIOS environment. Unfortunately I have to leave Windows on this one (long, sad story).

 

 

I don't know how you get the idea that the BIOS/CMOS environment (interface) is related to Windows, or for that matter any other kind of OS. The BIOS is what it is, Basic In Out System of which it loads the hardware settings at initial boot, before the OS is loaded. All the OS does, is it reads the Hardware information, and loads it up, and that is as far as where the relationship goes. The BIOS/CMOS interface (the program) is written in the BIOS chip , and is independent from the OS. The manufacturer writes the program and designs the interface for their particular brand of BIOS chip.

 

Some examples the BIOS does:

1. Sets the Boot order of the Disk Drives
2. Enables or Disables certain hardware
3. Change CPU/GPU speed and temperature
4. Change the Number Key to either on or off at boot

Plus a heap of other stuff. All these are totally unrelated to the way an interface actually looks. If it were possible, and if were to be programmed in the BIOS, the user could change the color setting to pink, and still this would be totally unrelated to Windows or any other OS (Operating System). BTW, I hate pink.

 

Blessings,

Edited by APsit190, 30 January 2015 - 02:23 PM.

[2guntom]

I don't know how you get the idea that the BIOS/CMOS environment (interface) is related to Windows, or for that matter any other kind of OS. The BIOS is what it is, Basic In Out System of which it loads the hardware settings at initial boot, before the OS is loaded. All the OS does, is it reads the Hardware information, and loads it up, and that is as far as where the relationship goes. The BIOS/CMOS interface (the program) is written in the BIOS chip , and is independent from the OS. The manufacturer writes the program and designs the interface for their particular brand of BIOS chip.

 

Some examples the BIOS does:

1. Sets the Boot order of the Disk Drives
2. Enables or Disables certain hardware
3. Change CPU/GPU speed and temperature
4. Change the Number Key to either on or off at boot

Plus a heap of other stuff. All these are totally unrelated to the way an interface actually looks. If it were possible, and if were to be programmed in the BIOS, the user could change the color setting to pink, and still this would be totally unrelated to Windows or any other OS (Operating System). BTW, I hate pink.

 

Blessings,

 

I think you might be misunderstanding my condensed composite post there, but do you have any experience with UEFI? If you do, and you do dual boots with Windows 8 and Linux, I have some questions for you.

 

UEFI is very strange, even more so on the machine I mentioned there. And, with this machine, instead of Windows 8 showing up in GRUB, it shows "Windows Boot Manager". This machine will not allow me to boot from any DVD's I've tried and only 2 bootable USB thumb drives as I mentioned. It doesn't matter if I go through the one time boot menu or set UEFI to do so- same results. I've toyed with trying rEFInd because Rod Smith makes more sense than anybody else on the topic; everybody else just does stand alone installs.

 

Any input on this is appreciated.

 

Now, the machine I'm on now, the UEFI is set up better; and it was sold as a Windows 7 machine. Windows 7 utilizes legacy BIOS. But, when I blindly boot from a USB thumb drive, it utilizes UEFI. DVD's utilize legacy BIOS. When I choose the one time boot menu, I can selet whether it is UEFI or Legacy BIOS. The first time I installed Linux Mint Cinnamon, I did so from a USB thumb drive. The default is UEFI so it never saw Windows 7, wiped the whole hard drive and installed Mint. The next time I installed Linux Mint Cinnamon from a DVD. It recognized that Windows 7 was there and offered a dual boot install. I later learned about UEFI and Legacy....

 

But, again, there is no Legacy BIOS for a machine that runs WIndows 8. Windows 8 requires UEFI.

 

Again, any input on this is appreciated to advance my learning curve and skill set.

[2guntom]

This might help a little-

 

"The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI, pronounced as an initialism U-E-F-I or like "unify" without the n^[a]) is a specification that defines a software interface between an operating system and platform firmware. UEFI is meant to replace the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) firmware interface, originally present in all IBM PC-compatible personal computers.^[2][3] In practice, most UEFI firmware images provide legacy support for BIOS services. UEFI can support remote diagnostics and repair of computers, even without another operating system.^[4]

Intel developed the original EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) specification. Some of the EFI's practices and data formats mirror those from Microsoft Windows.^[5][6] In 2005, UEFI deprecated EFI 1.10 (the final release of EFI). The Unified EFI Forum manages the UEFI specification. "

 

quoted from http://en.wikipedia....mware_Interface

[2guntom]

Came across my feed today- a noob to Deepin and he tests CrossOver with eSword - http://punktonrts.bl...mpressions.html

Edited by 2guntom, 03 March 2015 - 02:01 PM.

[2guntom]

CSM was the problem in the Windows 8 computer.

 

"The Compatibility Support Module (CSM) is a component of the UEFIfirmware that provides legacy BIOS compatibility by emulating a BIOS environment, allowing legacy operating systems and some option ROMs that do not support UEFI to still be used."

 

CSM was turned off; when U turned it on, all the sudden I could boot ISO's from USB or DVD.

 

There are other issues that can be dealt with now, but will increase in difficulty with the newest computers yet to be released.

Secure Boot is an issue, as is Quickboot/Fastboot and Fast Start Up.

 

Here's a nice article http://www.linux.com...efi-secure-boot

[2guntom]

2guntom, Deepin does look attractive & promising. The partition thing seems harder than LM for newbies, tho', which pretty much is automatic, if one needs, and I would think that would point some newbies to LM still.

 

Yep, my experience was the same. e-Sword on Crossover just works. Re: scrolling, sometimes the scrolling bar isn't present, but just a click in that area brings it back.

 

Given China's proclivity for doing some fishy stuff in the electronics world, I'd be genuinely surprised in Deepin's Crossover is legit or has no strings attached, but who knows?  Maybe it's an older version meant to attract folks to a newer version?  I basically purchased Crossover once, so a one-time expense for an e-Sword that works easily.

 

I'll come back here every so often and see if things continue to go well for you with the combo of Deepin & CrossOver.

 

Yes, partitioning; that has always been an issue. The partitioning tool that Mint has available during installation is one of their major successes.

Through trials and failures I have gotten into the habit of partitioning the hard drive prior to any Linux installations. Many Linux distros have GParted available in their "LiveCD" versions, but I have found that it does not offer the same latitude or freedom as the GParted has on the UltimateBootCD version.

 

I have been increasingly disappointed with Deepin. For a while I thought it was going to be THE distro for me, but it started getting glitchy, I experienced hang ups and crashes, and even had a snafu with the updater. I recently tried to install it on a computer and it was an utter failure. I am going to wait for Deepin 2015 to be released before I decide to abandon it. Hopefully they will fix some things...

 

The search continued and I found Zorin OS. Wow! It's a little bulky, but to make a distro that's compatible for a person switching over from Windows, you'd expect a little fat around the edges. The base versions give you an interface to make it mimic Windows 7, Windows XP, or Gnome. I tried the "Ultimate" version which cost $11.87 US and it has 6 different "looks" to choose from.

 

Zorin has Google Chrome, not Chromium, so it has a leg up on other distros if you stream a lot of video.

 

Since Zorin claims to be the "Gateway" to Linux, they have most things already set up and configured for basic users. This includes Wine. All I had to do was download eSword, right click on the file, select "open with Wine Windows program loader", and BANG! it's off and running. Just like that. It's the best I've seen eSword in a Linux/Wine environment. It's not as cool as running eSword in Windows, but it is as good as it gets, and what you'd expect if you are a regular Linux user.

 

As a test, I took Xubuntu and duplicated the Wine setup in Zorin. I got eSword working equally as well.

 

I'm extremely satisfied with Zorin and Xubuntu. I think they are both keepers. I wish I would have known about Zorin a year ago. the other thing that must be considered is that the other software and programs have changed and been improved continually so they are easier to use too.

[2guntom]

Installing eSword in Xubuntu instruction set

[Jeff Kroll]

And maybe also for posterity sake, 2guntom, I'll just add that sometimes things work for some people while not working for other people. It's a weird truth in life.  I have successfully run XP and Win7 in Virtualbox, with e-Sword working in both.  And I've successfully run e-Sword with various versions of Mint, along with Cinnamon for the last 18 months or so.

 

http://www.biblesupp...rossover-linux/

 

In my experience, Wine installation of e-Sword did not work (at least, easily), Crossover did, so since I pay nothing for nearly all my Linux software up front (there are some I've supported with a donation afterwards), I thought, "I can pay the $35 or whatever to make e-Sword work easily."  And it did.

 

I once thought Rick Meyers would never provide e-Sword for Mac, but he did, so I can't say he won't ever do it for Linux, but I would be very surprised.  For now, for everything I use e-Sword for weekly (and admittedly, I don't use use all of its bells and whistles, like creating my own commentaries/notes) by means of Crossover, the program works easily and well.  But since e-Sword has been adapted to iOS, I'm more hopeful that Rick will make his program available for Android.  : )

 

Thanks for chronicling some of your experiment.

Edited by Jeff Kroll, 24 November 2015 - 08:47 AM.

[2guntom]

Wow! it's been 2 years!

 

If people are insistent on running eSword in Linux, let me suggest Deepin. Deepin has come a long way, and (this is the kicker) IT HAS CROSSOVER BUILT IN!!! 

 

I'll start a separate thread on this if anybody is interested.

 

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