Manjaro Linux 21.2.2

I somehow ended the month with close to half my phone data left. Not sure how that happened since past few months I ran out fast data early and limped through rest of month on very throttled data. Anyway downloaded Manjaro Linux. Its a big download, almost 4GB, why I never tried it before.

Burned it to a dvd and booted it. Its based on Arch Linux. Interestingly it comes with ADB and openvpn installed. Meaning simple as it gets for using Azilink. I was however curious if Easy Tether would work on it. Need ADB for Easy Tether. And their tiny operating system bit software. Well just running in demo mode from dvd, I installed the Arch Linux pkg for Easy Tether. Its just in RAM memory, gone when I turn computer off. Anyway installed it, and two commands to run it. Bingo it worked. First modern linux I have gotten Easy Tether to work. It didnt work on MX or on BusterDog. Long ago during brief period on Sprint had crappy LG phone that would get hot during tethering. Older version Easy Tether and some older Puppy Linux.

I am impressed enough with Manjaro, may install it and use it day to day for a while. Even if I dont, nice knowing of a linux that works with EasyTether. I dont mind Azilink, but nice to have choices.

Yesterday was interesting, no matter what I did, my data remained at 9.43GB. So I downloaded several including full dvd version Knoppix, Fedora, openSUSE, and some unofficial xfce version Debian 11.2. Oh also MX21. I used far more than 9.43GB. It had reset this morning to 20GB for the new 30day period. Still it was fun not to be worried how much data I used. And I got few new toys to play with.

As I mentioned Manjaro had openvpn and adb, and I was able to install and connect with Easy Tether. Knoppix 9.1 also had both openvpn and adb but not some other dependencies Easy Tether needed. Possibly too new of a kernel. But was simple to copy over script for Azilink and connect with it. It doesnt care about version so much as long as a working version of adb and openvpn exist. Those are what it uses to connect to the Azilink app on the phone.

Sure I could make a custom version of Puppy that included stuff needed for Easy Tether and Azilink too. Just more hoops to jump to get there. Manjaro is definitely the one that works best right out of the box. Has everything to support either Easy Tether or Azilink.

Knoppix 9.1 is definitely a good one though. It runs in frugal/demo mode and is able to save settings, etc with a save file. Doesnt require passwords, just type sudo in front of root command and thats it. You can force it to go into official root mode or in user mode. But why would you. Plenty of distributions with stick up their rear that want to force that kind of thing. Makes no sense giving yourself permission on personal computer, only makes sense on a shared network where you dont want users making root changes to the system. Can be installed to flash drive or hard drive in frugal mode. Its also fast, considering its size and that it runs from compressed files. I could easily skip the bouncy desktop stuff but suppose its for the kiddies out there to hold their interest. I looked and was able to disable most of that. Should be an opt in rather than opt out feature though.

Oh and big list games included, they squeezed almost everything except kitchen sink on one dvd iso. Oddly they missed AisleRiot solitare. Didnt see any solitaire though lot small games I hadnt seen before. But not hard to add AisleRiot if one established a save file. Or it has WINE so could run xmsol, a nice older independent windows bundle of solitaire. Its unusual since its just exe file, doesnt install, just runs like in the old DOS days. Works well in win10 by the way. I just rarely use windows except for tax software.

One year when tax software stopped working on XP and I had no newer windows, I spent three days getting it to run on WINE. Yea it worked, but whole lot work just to use it once. Decided that wasnt productive. Yea be nice if the creators of it made sure it worked in WINE if they didnt want to make a linux version, but most windows software writers dont care. hard to find a pc that doesnt have win10 installed anymore, but if you do, can run an unactivated version, just has that watermark telling you its unactivated. But to run tax software once a year, who cares.

I found a LXDE spin of Fedora 35. My big dislike of the official Gnome version was Gnome and it was sudo happy. I didnt like Gnome so didnt spend time trying to give user root powers or open the root account and run from there.

The LXDE spin had slightly different installer. It gave option of no user account. I tried this. Yes, but after installation when I booted up the SSD, it wouldnt let me log into the root account. I assume it was somehow locked and you needed a user account to sudo and unlock it??? So reinstalled it with a user account. It this time gave me option to give user Administrator privileges. Oh and I tried option to encrypt the partition. When I booted, went to page to enter encryption password. Then asked for user password. I just hit enter twice and I am in. Oh Administrator user has to still type sudo, but doesnt have to enter password after each sudo command. That password thing is really biggest PITA ever where I am only user and some distributions make it darn frustrating to give user "root power". The password stuff is fine on multiuser computers, I get it, you dont want users making changes to the system or getting into other users accounts. But where I am only user on my own personal computer, well constantly giving myself permission to do stuff is royal PITA and pointless. Better ways to handle security, containerize/sandbox programs.

So LXDE Fedora has minimal software preinstalled. I did the updates (LOT UPDATES) and added Firefox and VLC and Aisleriot (solitaire), Frozen-Bubble, and Mahjongg. Oh and Libre Office. Dnf is much like apt-get in Debian. However the dnfdragora gui frontend is wonky. I couldnt get it to work. Read some and apparently been like this for years. But like say dnf on commandline is much like apt-get so not big deal. Oh they only had the one choice in wallpaper, so found cute kitten pic.

Oh and like most linux, I got by just statically copying the files needed to get adb and openvpn working, it of course had neither. Once that was done, moved the Aziliink files/script over. No problem connecting. Just now installed the Easytether rpm for Fedora. Easytether works fine. Easytether is kinda hit or miss in linux. Some distributions its as automatic as windows. Others I never could get it to work. It would say connected, but wouldnt do anything, and not nameserver problem, it wouldnt even ping, just say network not available. Azilink is old but if you have adb and openvpn installed, any versions from what I can tell, the script can negotiate with Azilink app on the Android phone. Supposed to be able to use it with windows and mac, but never tried. Its most reliable way to tether Android phone to linux. Well a phone with proprietary unrooted operating system taht has tethering and hotspot locked. Apps like Azilink and EasyTether and FoxFi do an end run using usb debugging. Some can do bluetooth. But I dont mind usb.

I tether to Red Pocket (MVNO prepaid) on ATT network. Red Pocket says up front they dont care if customers tether. However I am using old ATT phones and they charged extra to tether so had the native Android tethering locked down. ATT phones that are networked locked are ok on most MVNO that use ATT network, you though usually have to custom tailor the APN file. And this usually doesnt happen automatically after inserting SIM like an unlocked phone will.

Both my phones are whitelisted ATT phones so shouldnt have a problem after Feb 22, but this whitelisting scheme ATT came up with means nobody is ever quite sure until after Feb 22. The really were milking this changeover to try and get customers to buy a new phone on easy monthly payment plan, and in doing so sign long term contract for service. Lock em in. No matter what they say, they really dont like prepaid BYOP plans.

I didnt try installing WINE cause Red Pocket finally fixed their data metering problem and I am down half my data for the month now. Not wanting to get throttled, that is painful. None of this downloading linux distributions to try is important, it was just fun opportunity while I wasnt metered on data used.

Its been interesting. I like MX and Puppy. Manjaro impressed me though I didnt like pacman package manager much (its based on Arch Linux). Knoppix worked installed with a save file overlayer, works much like frugal install Puppy linux. Though since so much software built in, had lot hassle getting WINE 7.1 to replace the included WINE 5. But this LXDE spin of Fedora is the big surprise. I found myself liking it, despite that dnfdragora being fubar, the only really sour part of the experience. Be interesting how MX and Fedora and Knoppix compare to Puppy on old slow computer. Put it on that old computer with AMD e-350 processor. That is the absolute slowest two core processor I ever experienced. I havent used it for a while, last time i used it, had used LXDE spin of Debian on it. And yea it was slow. Sure I tried Puppy, but dont remember. Its very limited processor. It works but you need lot patience. I cant imagine win10 on it, maybe a really locked down win10 without all the background bloat running. Knoppix is fast, surprisingly fast, so be interesting.

Guess I didnt post my experiments booting old computers.  Anyway my old income tax software computer its a HP DC5100 SFF.  Its hyperthreaded single core P4.  Its 2.4Ghz but can turbo to over 3Ghz.  

Well it would boot win10 slowly as it always has (well after I reseated RAM). Run Knoppix9.1 fine from usb SSD.  Wouldnt boot anything else from usb except some linux distributions from usb dvdrom.  SLOWLY.  Live dvd is not way to boot fast.

I downloaded new Firefox on win10 after it kept bitching it couldnt update current version.  Sluggish, but win10 runnng on original PATA mechanical hard drive.  Did replace the little lithium battery for clock as it wasnt keeping time and anymore that matters if you take it online.  

But noticed it had SATA connections.  This is from 2005 or so thus little surprising.  So borrowed cable from daily driver computer,  popped in first Puppy Fossapup 9.5 installed to SSD.  It actually booted and faster than windows.  Then tried booting the SSD with my current daily driver MX-19.  I swear it booted faster than Fossapup.  The SSDs make lot difference.  Yea win10 has lot busy hidden back rooms, but Ihave this pretty well locked down, had to, it wasnt going to serve two masters running on this ancient computer.  Only put win10 on there when long ago tax software one year sniffed for XP and refused to run on it.  So this is just a unactivated win10, good enough to run tax softwarer once a year.

But honestly I am impressed that a computer from 2005 can do this well.  I could probably live with it as daily driver if I had to.  Oh interesting linux has a driver for sound chip on it, win10 doesnt.  No sound on win10.