Ubuntu Fun

 

I have two micro ATX boards with ATOM processors.  I had one in the house for some secure processing ( but that has changed) and the other in the garage for a music player and to do Linux development.  The garage version surfaced with a dead SSD.  Not sure what happened, but I got a new one and started installing Ubuntu 22.04, latest and greatest.

Well the boot  USB stick didn't boot.  It would tell me it was going to, then blank screen with a blinking cursor.  After about 30 mins of this I found out that it had something to do with MBR and GPT and maybe UEFI.   Alphabet soup was easier to digest.  I figured out that the stick was GPT formatted, but I could not find a way to convert it to MBR.  The bootable stick creator from Ubuntu had one option, where is the ISO file (more Alpha Soup).  I searched around and found older Ubuntu instructions that used a different bootable stick creator(Balena Etcher) and it let me select GPT or MBR.  Off to the install. It all started according to the WEB instructions.

The install was all done and Ubuntu 22.04 would not boot up.  After searching again, these GPT UEFI thingees kept showing up.  In this process I did find the UEFI switch in the BIOS SETUP. With that changed, Ubuntu booted, although slower than I remember. The first USB stick probably would have started if I had found the UEFI switch earlier.  I did all the updates. then tried to launch FireFox, but it would not start.  Actually lots of things would not start. Some basic simple programs worked, but otherwise no luck.  In all fairness, the specs did say at least two cores and four was recommended.  Looks like Ubuntu 22.04 is just too much for the little ATOM processor.  So I backed up to Ubuntu 18.04 which I think is the last one I had running on these.   New USB stick and we are off installing again.
 

With the install done, Ubuntu 18.04 booted and quite quickly.  So I am very pleased with that.  Installed the network connection, loaded up the music files and at least I have sound in the garage again. Started loading a few other programs that I have used and did the big update.
 

There seems to be some conflict with Ubuntu 18.04, Kodi 17.6 and the HD Homerun plugin, but that is for another day.  But not too distant, this is how I watch TV in the garage.