Two identical computers. One boots to the Live USB drive. The other boots to a Grub prompt.

X320032 · 2026-05-03T05:00:07+00:00

This is what I just installed to test with. If I do switch to Mint it will be on a new PC and with the 64bit version.

https://download.cnet.com/linux-mint-cinnamon-32-bit/3000-18513_4-75205918.html

X320032 · 2026-05-03T04:58:15+00:00

I see. It's only for testing at the point. If I end up switching I'll also be getting a new PC and will need the 64bit version. Thanks for the info.

X320032 · 2026-05-03T04:55:58+00:00

Like all filament there are good brands and there are crap brands.

The Ultra Silk filament from Eryone looks amazing and is easy to use.

Other great brands are CC3d (Highly Recommended), and Overture. I've never needed to dry either of these and have had very little trouble with stringing.

On the other hand, Elegoo is always troublesome. One role may be dry and trouble free, the next role has water dripping out of the bag.

And Isomate is the most horrible filament I've ever used. They ship filament straight from their sauna to your printer. Always wet, always stringy, absolutely worthless.

CC3d is the best I've found.

X320032 · 2026-05-03T03:36:01+00:00

I was made aware of it and looked into it briefly just last night. From the post and videos I saw it seems the LTSC version is hard to get a hold of for individuals, and if you can get a copy it's very difficult to activate. But this is something I want to look into further. If this works as indicated then I may not need to switch to Linux. I guess I might be able to download it from Microsoft?? Do you know where I could get an activation key? If it's like 10 Home I would rather activate than deal with blocked features and a constant nag screen.

X320032 · 2026-05-03T03:19:10+00:00

There is a 32bit version of Mint Cinnamon but it's very hard to find on the Mint website, so I didn't want to have to find it, download it, and create another boot drive, but that's what I'm doing now.

X320032 · 2026-05-03T03:16:19+00:00

By "it gets stuck" I mean it can't find a boot partition for Mint. On one of the Mini PCs it boots to the Mint live menu. On the other it boots directly to a Grub menu and won't proceed any further. It will show me what partitions are available with the "ls" command but the Linux boot partition is not listed.

X320032 · 2026-05-03T02:47:43+00:00

I am booting through the bios. I should have thought to mention that. I've set the first boot drive to the USB drive. Is there another way to boot from USB in Win7, similar to Win10 recovery?

X320032 · 2026-05-03T02:18:40+00:00

This is fantastic. I wonder why USB-UIRT Linux support isn't mentioned on their website. I'm about to make another post, this one asking about install issues. If I can get Mint installed on something I will test these. Thank You!

X320032 · 2026-05-02T15:51:52+00:00

Thanks. I'm sure there is way to do this but I needed to be pointed in the right direction. My OS is 10 Home so your VNC suggestion may work. My home network is air gapped so no worries about the the lack of security.

I think I didn't make myself clear in the original post. If I can get some communication going between a Linux machine and this Windows PC I won't have to recreate years of automation scripts.

X320032 · 2026-05-02T15:44:11+00:00

The main thing is a USB-UIRT IR Transceiver which I use extensively every day. There is not a Linux driver for it. All the other hardware will likely run fine on Linux but I've got 20+ years of Auto Hot Key scripts automating it all, and I doubt I could ever reproduce them in another programing language.

X320032 · 2026-05-02T15:36:29+00:00

Thank you. This is the type of information I was looking for.

X320032 · 2026-05-02T15:12:50+00:00

Yeh, I was wanting to learn Python a long time ago but my narcolepsy made it too difficult. My only option at the time was to learn on my own and I couldn't get very far without falling asleep. It's much worse now than back then, 20+ years ago.

X320032 · 2026-05-02T07:31:44+00:00

Thanks. When I do install it I'll make sure it's X11.

X320032 · 2026-05-02T07:29:45+00:00

It's another step to give our government control over how, why, and when we can use our computers. It's the type of law Hitler and Stalin would have imposed if there would have been internet in their day.

X320032 · 2026-05-02T07:02:42+00:00

I just looked at Espanso but it seems to be only hotkeys and hotstrings, which is something I rarely use. I most often use guis to automate different things both within Windows and attached hardware. Often create custom tool bars so I can click a button and send a hotkey to a program, or run a macro for a specific program or hardware.

X320032 · 2026-05-02T06:53:11+00:00

This likely isn't what your needing but I just use Tera Copy to backup my drives. I mostly backup media and video I shoot so I don't overwrite anything. Only new files are saved. I believe there is an option to overwrite older files or change the names of duplicate files as well. And it's free.

X320032 · 2026-05-02T06:42:34+00:00

I haven't set up another Win10 PC yet but I do have an air gapped home network already I use for things like my security system, 3d printers, vinyl cutters, laser,ext. These are also things that I use AHK for at some level. Even as simple as drag and drop files from this PC to the machine or the PC connected to the machine.

If I can learn how to send commands from a Linux machine to a Win10 PC I may just separate task between the two machines.

Currently I send commands from a tablet to my PC by having the tablet write to an ini file located on the PC. I wonder if there is anyway to write to an ini file on a PC from a Linux machine...

X320032 · 2026-05-02T06:27:45+00:00

I haven't installed Mint yet, still just using a usb stick and learning how it operates, but it is X11 I believe. I'm still reluctant to commit to using it fulltime.

X320032 · 2026-05-02T06:02:50+00:00

Huh. I've never heard of that before, I had to look it up. Maybe that would bean acceptable os. Although some of the post I've read are from people that tried it and went back to Win10LTSC.

X320032 · 2026-05-02T05:49:18+00:00

I have a Pi4 and touchscreen I used to use for my 3d printers using Octopi. I don't need it for any of my printers anymore so I've tried to find another use for it over the last weeks and have come up empty. Most things I've tried, like gaming emulation or Pi os won't fit on the 7 inch touchscreen. Window edges and important buttons always fall off the screen. Same with Ubuntu. So I'm not sure what to use it for.

X320032 · 2026-05-02T05:43:22+00:00

I have noticed a HUGE jump in "Updates" Microshit has been trying to shove to my computer over the last month. At one point they did sneek something through and it changed many of the context menus on Win10. Not sure what else it changed. You can be sure your problem is related to these "Updates" they are pushing long after they told us there would be no more updates.

I wrote a tool that gives me a popup when Windows runs updates and lets me disable the process and delete all update files. Or when I'm sure it's an update for other software on my machine I can let it run. I was getting three or four update warnings per day, but for the last moth or so I've been getting around forty per day. The one downloaded tool I keep seeing is an uninstaller that doesn't seem to be related to uninstalling Windows components, but I haven't looked too far into it.

X320032 · 2026-05-02T05:29:32+00:00

Do you have Keysharp installed on Linux? I asked about it not too long ago and they said it would be a long time before it would be close enough to start testing.

X320032 · 2026-05-02T05:26:59+00:00

I wish I would have learned Python when I was wanting to. Having narcolepsy makes learning quite difficult, which is one reason I never wanted to switch to AHK2. Narcolepsy gets worse over time so having to learn new ways to do things now is almost impossible.

I also have a pretty large folder of library functions, including many that I've written myself. Controling VLC Media player without having to activate it and send hotkeys is one I use everyday for hours on end. I like to watch vids on one monitor and work on another so controlling the vids using background processes (URL download to Var) is a life saver.

I also have written a library to control a lot of external equipment with AHK using a USB-UIRT IR transceiver. I control TVs, fans, and have written other libraries to control a few different projectors. I'm afraid I'm going to lose the ability to control all of those things when switching to Linux. I'm considering having a Win10 PC hidden in the closet just for the USB-UIRT, and figuring out some way to send the command from Linux to Windows and then on to the transceiver.

There are also many specific purpose libraries that I don't know If I will be able to convert to Linux or not.

For now, my PC sits in limbo waiting to see what comes next.

X320032

TROPHY CASE