Skip to main content

Partial decommissioning of Gandalf


The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine.

After a few months of continuous use of Linux Mint – mainly for simple browsing during workday lunchtimes and weekdays –  the headline of the project remains that wholesale migration from Windows to Linux is not functionally possible, for the reasons cited therein.  In this instance, the short story is no Microsoft Excel, no Foxit PDF browser for Windows, no on-the-fly VPN client.

Consequently, there is no further development use of Gandalf.  Gandalf has other issues as well: even in last days as a Windows machine, the hard drive had developed a nasty habit of intensive operation, wasting time and resources on misadventure not commanded by the user.  The habit has returned to Gandalf as a Linux machine, meaning that the user needs to sit around for up to fifteen minutes from time-to-time while Gandalf faffs around for no good reason.  There could be an underlying hardware issue of the hard disk.

Two apps give rise to the symptoms in Linux: rm and timeshift.  Timeshift is easy to resolve: just uninstall it.  But rm is fundamental to the operating system; difficult to see how rm could be usefully removed.

Rather than re-install Linux on Gandalf, Gandalf had the following applied:
  • Deletion of non-admin user account;
  • Uninstallation of FoxIT PDF Reader for Linux;
  • Uninstallation of Bleachbit;
  • Uninstallation of VeraCrypt;
  • Uninstallation of grive2;
  • Installation of secure-delete;
  • Running of sfill -lvz /.


With no user data to sync, Legolas uninstalled FreeFileSync.

This leaves Gandalf as a useable machine for a really patient user for light browsing only.

Google-drive-ocamlfuse remains on Gandalf.  A future session would need to create a new non-admin user account in which to run google-drive-ocamlfuse.

Gandalf thus reverts to a nearly-identical functional build as new laptop Sibelius, running Linux Mint 19.



End of post.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Downgrading of the project: Calc has a fatal bug - it cannot reliably link workbooks

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to on-going work to make LibreOffice Calc workable. Unfortunately, it turns out that LibreOffice isn't fit for purpose.  Specifically, it cannot reliably link workbooks, even in its own native workbooks. As a consequence, the project is now downgraded.  My time is now better spent doing other, more productive things, with a greater chance of success. Background On 29Jul2018, I complied a detailed test using fresh, sample data created specifically for the purpose, in Excel on Windows 10, then had a virtual machine running LibreCalc on Linux Mint to import it. The basic spreadsheet functionality of linked workbooks failed haphazardly. I logged the test results on 29Jul2018 on AskLibreOffice  and, to date, have yet to see any evidence of anybody taking ownership of recognising the issue and thus fixing it. The s...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Big Bang: Microsoft Windows goes for good, positive adaptations required

On 27Mar2021, Linux Mint ate Microsoft Windows 10 on Legolas. Three months on, I conclude beyond any doubt that wiping out Windows was the best decision I ever made. The second best decision I ever made was to test Linux Mint in Virtual Box five years ago. The third best decision I ever made was to take ownership of the learning curve that migrating in Windows really entails. A quick reminder: what’s Microsoft Windows like nowadays? I still need to use Windows at work. I cannot easily describe how painful it now is to use Windows. So I’ll try to describe it difficultly. My work machine is a powerful beast, but it exhibits constant latency. For a keyboard-orientated power user, this means that some keystrokes go walkabouts when other services on the Windows machine go to nuclear war with each other, scrambling to feed their narcissistic self-importance for besieged system resources wholly at the user’s expense. Something on Windows tends to clear the keyboard buffer randomly, resulting ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Deployment of Wine

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. Having established that there is no way to migrate fully from Windows to Linux , the project now needs to consider running Windows apps in Linux.   This is a big change to the strategy of the project.   This is a big change to the deployment of a Linux workstation, a crushing admission of failure, and the opening of a whole new world of risks to an otherwise secure operating system. Environment & required functionality For this blog post, Wine was tested on: The Linux Mint Xfce 19 virtual machine " Bilbo ", on host Windows 10 laptop " Saruman " The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 virtual machine " Gimli ", on host Windows 10 host " Legolas ". Alternatives There are alternatives to Wine/PlayOnLinux, notably the paid software Crossover. Software selection Wine and PlayOnLinux are present in L...
Post a Comment
Read more