MX 19.1

[asqwerth]

Your office laptop is really new, has nvme SSD and a quad core Intel i5 chip. Its bootup to desktop speed is not a surprise.

The only question is whether your home machine's bootup to desktop timing is normal for that level of hardware and age. I can't help you there.

But junoluna is right that the ahs iso is really not meant for old machines. It comes with a potentially too-new kernel that may no longer work well with old hardware. I'm not sure, but it's possible that some old drivers that work better with your old hardware may have phased out of the latest kernels as they add newer drivers?

And the ahs repo is enabled by default to install the latest graphics-related packages which you surely will not need. As that repo continues to roll updates, who knows if that will slow your machine even more.

Try downloading the standard non-ahs 19.1 iso and testing it live on your old machine. That will show you how kernel 4.19 runs on your home computer. If it runs better, good.

You might wish to wait for experts to see if you can revert to normal graphics-related packages without needing a reinstall of 19.1.

Certainly you can install an older but Long Term Support kernel like 4.19 or the antiX-4.9 on your current 19.1 installation and make that the default boot on your bootloader . But if you install older kernels but keep the ahs repo enabled, I'm not sure if that will mess anything up.

Wait for Stevo and more technical people to wake up and give their comments on this thread.

[ADDED text in bold]

[Buck Fankers]

That's funny you mentioned that, I have the CPU temp displayed on the panel on my Linux Mint machine. I wanted to do the same on MX Linux but couldn't find it listed and just assume that the laptop didn't have that feature. Then the CPU temp shows up on inxi.

Yes, Inxi is great. Btw, check out different conky themes, with conky manager, some of them shows temperatures also.

[chrispop99]

not sure what difference it makes but was under the impression that the ahs version you have installed was specifically created for newer hardware rather than machines of your vintage

That is correct; the AHS version will offer no benefit to the OPs machine, and might cause problems.

I would suggest reinstalling with the standard x64 release, then using the Package Installer to install the 4.9 kernel, which often is better for older hardware.

Chris

[jeffreyC]

But the old laptop which has an HDD will still boot slower that the new laptop which has an SSD.

If you want the old laptop to boot faster put an SSD in it. It is really that simple.

[Bartman]

Perhaps this will help.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03577599

[tenmm57]

Thanks Bartman, I'm not spending anymore money on this laptop. I replaced the Battery and took it from 6 gigs of ram to 8 gigs (I think that's the max). I wanted something I could explore linux distros and see if I liked one more than Linux Mint. I have tried a few and I really like MX linux, I'm going to use it for a while.

[Stevo]

not sure what difference it makes but was under the impression that the ahs version you have installed was specifically created for newer hardware rather than machines of your vintage

Yes, but it should also be backwards-compatible with older hardware. I really haven't seen any regressions with it on older hardware; after all, many Debian users are running Debian testing and Sid on old hardware, too, as well as Ubuntu users and those of many other distros.
Look, Ubuntu just released 18.04.4 with a 5.3 kernel and their hwe stack for all users, basically the same thing: http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/202 ... ernel-5-3/

I want to nip this false impression in the bud, please. Basically:

Some users with really new hardware require the ahs ISO to even boot up the Live session to the GUI.

Users with 2018 and older hardware will be OK with standard MX 19, but also might benefit from advances in the kernel and video drivers in the ahs, or see no difference at all. As always, there may also be rare regressions, but hopefully the improvements outnumber those.

So it's no big disaster if you installed the ahs version without knowing what it was. Security-minded folks may wish to switch to the 4.19 Buster kernel to get Debian's long term security updates for it, if it supports their hardware--remember, the 4.19 kernel doesn't support much 2019-2020 hardware.

[Bartman]

Thanks Bartman, I'm not spending anymore money on this laptop. I replaced the Battery and took it from 6 gigs of ram to 8 gigs (I think that's the max). I wanted something I could explore linux distros and see if I liked one more than Linux Mint. I have tried a few and I really like MX linux, I'm going to use it for a while.

You're welcome.

All of my computers are old Windows XP computers that I upgraded with free spare parts and they run most Linux distros well.

I think the computer you have should have no problems running MX-19 / 19.1 as the Xfce user interface is lightweight and requires minimal resources.

The computer specs I posted runs MX-19.1 real well and and I have zero complaints.

As the motto goes Linux gives new life to old computers.

The important thing is to have fun and enjoy your Linux.

[junoluna]

I want to nip this false impression in the bud, please. Basically:

Some users with really new hardware require the ahs ISO to even boot up the Live session to the GUI.

thanks for the clarification stevo..

understood

[Justinian]

Tested a live stick of MX-19.1_ahs_x64.iso on AMD Carrizo-Excavator A8-7680. It blanked out or artifacted after Grub on normal and safe video attempts. Had the expected good live performance after this though:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: mx1 Kernel: 5.4.0-3-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 
           parameters: quiet splasht nosplash amdgpu.dc=0 
           Distro: MX-19.1_ahs_x64 patito feo February 15  2019 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: AMD A8-7680 Radeon R7 10 Compute Cores 4C+6G bits: 64 

Had also needed a similar boot modification (=1) on a Ryzen Athlon 200GE but I no longer have access to that machine.
I also wanted to see if something as small as the latest EasyOS (5.4.10 kernel) would be an appropriate live system for an old media card. Slow to initialize but speedier once on the desktop than even antiX on Intel E-7500 dual core with just 2 GB 1066 DDR3. Moved it to the Carrizo 7680 and the EasyOS screen got stuck soon after loading started. There was only one option on EasyOS where I could try amdgpu.dc=0 but the screen wouldn't go past "Waiting to load kernel video drivers 1 amd". Even commandline no x ended up on a blank screen. That this live boot issue manifests after Grub with all Stretch and Buster MX iso sticks or disks is curious. Only for Carrizo and Raven Ridge though. Intel Core2Duo liked it very well enough.

Code: Select all

System:    Host: mx1 Kernel: 5.4.0-3-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 
           parameters: quiet splasht nosplash 
           Distro: MX-19.1_ahs_x64 patito feo February 15  2019 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 Duo E7500 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Penryn