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My memory is fading

shutter
Community Veteran
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Registered: ‎06-11-2007

My memory is fading

No not my laptop memory.... but my personal memory...
A couple of years ago, I started messing around with Linux, and downloaded a few OS`s to see what they were like.... I seem to remember one that had a dark red and black "flame" effect desktop page to start it off... I think it was called Phoenix... but can`t find it to download.... is it still available.. Undecided
( I remember using it as a live cd on a friends laptop, when his windows failed.... and it actually had a wireless connection immediately)...(no B43 or driver download)
12 REPLIES 12
w23
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Re: My memory is fading

Sorry, I can't recall that one (nor can Google it seems). One that I remember with a red and black theme was Sabayon (Gentoo based) but no flames as far as I recall, another was Ubuntu 'Satanic Edition' (not exactly mainstream though).
I think the curent Linux Mint would likely cover things like B43 drivers without additional download but it certainly doesn't match your colour description (it is easy enough to chage themes if you must have red /black) and compiz (if that's still used) has / had a wonderful flame effect for closing windows.
I tend to think my own memory is also on the way out so someone else may be able to help with what you think you might remember. Cheesy
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At any given moment in the universe many things happen. Coincidence is a matter of how close these events are in space, time and relationship.
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shutter
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Re: My memory is fading

No, At first, I could not find a download for Phoenix.... but have found one... and will give it a whirl on my spare hdd sometime soon..
Mint 11 is on one, at the moment, but if you check back on this board, you will see I had great difficulty getting the wireless to work with it... it needs to have the B43 Installer downloaded and installed AFTER installing the Mint 11..... BUT ... nowhere does MINT tell you you need to do this... which I think is a big shame on the guys who put it all together..I should think that 99% of users need the availablity of wireless internet  connection, and the facility should have been included in the Mint 11 Download, or at least when you try to "connect" to the internet... a popup message should tell you to get the B43 Installer and download it..
( this shows the reason why MS Windows is so popular..... it does give you instructions on how to connect, and the structure is in the program to do this, without further "messing about" in the dark)
HairyMcbiker
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Re: My memory is fading

Quote from: shutter
I should think that 99% of users need the availablity of wireless internet  connection, and the facility should have been included in the Mint 11 Download, or at least when you try to "connect" to the internet... a popup message should tell you to get the B43 Installer and download it..

Did you visit the Mint Forum and post this as a request? If not then you are just whistling in the wind mate. If they don't know about the problem they can't fix it.  As to 99% no I would say about 30-40% rather.
Quote
( this shows the reason why MS Windows is so popular..... it does give you instructions on how to connect, and the structure is in the program to do this, without further "messing about" in the dark)

Thats NOT how I remember it. And having worked on those systems for 10 years I saw a lot of driver issues. Best one was a NEW revision of a nic card + old driver causing a server to reboot after 30 SEC up time. Took a LOT of head scratching to find that problem.
Most of the time XP will just say NEED driver - connect to internet - no connection = no driver, nothing to say what kind of driver was needed just "unrecognised hardware". Maybe the newer versions have better setups but I haven't/won’t be using them.
And as to using a several years old version of a distro... you are asking for problems not the least being MANY updates. No idea of whether the distro even supports the older B43 chip-set any more, most have moved to the newer Kernel driver.
coolbr33ze
Grafter
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Registered: ‎05-08-2011

Re: My memory is fading

The only Phoenix edition i know of is within PClinuxOS, so don't know if it could be the same one your thinking of.  Wink Smiley
shutter
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Re: My memory is fading

Quote

Did you visit the Mint Forum and post this as a request?

No,.  didn`t do that... was so frustrated by all the effort on the forum here, to get it working, that by the time I did, I was so pleased ....!  just carried on...
I am surprised that nobody else has come across the problem, and not "reported" it or asked for it to be included... !.. Cheesy
Steve
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Re: My memory is fading

Quote from: shutter
I am surprised that nobody else has come across the problem, and not "reported" it or asked for it to be included... !.. Cheesy
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w23
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Re: My memory is fading

I could be wrong but my ACER netbook definitely has a Broadcom Wi-Fi built in and I don't recall having any trouble with the drivers (which I beleive are B43) when I installed Mint 9 and later Mint 10 on it.  Beware that there are two distinct varieties of Mint, one without the 'not-so-free' drivers and codecs to comply with certain national legislation in various countries and another 'full' version with a lot of this stuff included.  The discs attached to magazines are the legally safe internatonal version, could this have been the problem all along?  Otherwise Mint 11 may have taken a backward step on this particular piece of code.
Call me 'w23'
At any given moment in the universe many things happen. Coincidence is a matter of how close these events are in space, time and relationship.
Opinions expressed in forum posts are those of the poster, others may have different views.
HairyMcbiker
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Re: My memory is fading

My "old" Acer (P4) has the same chip set. So no wireless. I just plugged in a 3Com PCIMCA card, and got it connected straight away. Couldn't be bothered debugging the wifi issue on that LT as I don't use it much and when I do it is mostly wired anyway.
(Main reason is the 15" screen with a FIXED 1024x764 ratio  Crazy My old IBM LT (P3/733Mhz) has at least 1600x1200 on the same size screen.)
shutter
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Re: My memory is fading

Yes, I know... the MINT 11 "live CD".. does not have All the drivers and other bells and whistles. to keep it within the constraints of the "normal"  CD... whereas the Live DVD version , has everything EXCEPT the B43 broadcom ... how rediculous is that... Undecided
  (I downloaded the DVD version specifically to get "everything", and not have to download any other drivers and stuff)...
ejs
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Re: My memory is fading

Yes it is ridiculous that Broadcom won't allow the firmware for their wireless chips to be redistributed separately while plenty of other companies do.
I deliberately chose a laptop with an Intel wireless card because Intel has the longest history of supporting Linux with wireless drivers.
shutter
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Re: My memory is fading

But it IS distributed seperately... you have to download it seperate from the version of Mint / Linux that needs it...
They (broadcom) can`t gain anything under copyright protection because it IS available, BUT you have to get it seperately...  My main gripe was that this was not made clear on the download page, nor at any time during installation .
HairyMcbiker
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Re: My memory is fading

Again post your grievances on the Mint Forums so that they MIGHT do something about it for Mint 12 in a couple of months time.
We have no control over the contents of ANY Linux distro, UNLESS you roll your own or modify the existing using remastersys. They only way of getting something added is by TALKING to the authors not the plebs.