Linux Diary 0000

by James Wallace Harris, 11/17/23

You may think this diary is about technology, but deep down it’s about being old and fighting to learn new things. My life would be far easier if I weren’t pushing myself to learn Linux. I spent hours yesterday trying to get Linux Mint Debian Edition working with my scanner and printer. So far, I’ve mostly failed. Both work with my Windows and Mac OS machines, so I know both devices work and the cables work. Both took just minutes to set up on those OSes.

Failing is frustrating. But failing is how we learn. Technology is getting so easy to use that we learn less and less by using it. Technology is getting so good that the technologically challenged can fumble around and make their phones, TVs, and computers work by themselves. We used to believe every kid should study STEM courses, but recently the big tech companies laid off a quarter million computer careerists. We weren’t smart enough to foresee technology getting smarter.

Of Arthur C. Clarke’s Three Laws, the third says, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Most technology is approaching magic in use by most people today. As it does, we’ll need fewer magicians. This is becoming even more true as we rely on artificial intelligence.

At seventy-two I doubt I’ll have time to become a Linux Wizard, but I might become a wizard’s apprentice. Linux isn’t made for Dummies, although the Wizards of Linux are working hard to spread Linux to everyone. Linux is already hidden away everywhere. You use it but don’t know it. All I’m doing is trying to consciously get to know it before it turns completely magical.

I got LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) running on my new Minis Forum EM680. It looked great and worked in the way I wanted — until I tried hooking up my printer and scanner. In both cases, Linux said it saw the device, even giving me their names, but said there was an error communicating with them. I started with the built-in drivers and utilities that come with LMDE. I then downloaded drivers and utilities from HP and Epson. Same results. They recognized their own hardware by name but said there were problems.

I wondered if the problem was the new AMD computer or LMDE? I got out my old NUC 5 with Linux Mint based on Ubuntu. This time the drivers that came with Mint worked with the HP Officejet. I got the printer working with a USB cable and with a Wi-Fi connection. But I wanted to use HP’s utility hoping I’d get more functionality out my all-in-one printer/scanner/copier. No matter what I did I couldn’t get any further with the HP driver and utility. I didn’t bother testing the Epson Perfection V370 and Plustek 3800L scanners. I figure I’ll work on the HP Officejet all-in-one first. Get the printer going, and then see if I can get its scanner working.

I then started Googling and found people having the same problem with HP and Mint. One Reddit thread suggested that the latest Linux Mint and the HP software had a timing problem. One guy even said if he turned everything off and on, then waited thirty minutes, the HP device manager would work with the printer one time. This is why most people don’t use Linux. This is why I should give up. But I won’t.

I also posted a message to a group of people who scan books and magazines asking if any of them used Linux. Three said they did. Two used Ubuntu Linux and one Fedora. Ubuntu and Fedora use the Gnome desktop manager, a graphical user interface. Mint uses Cinnamon for its desktop manager but is based on the Ubuntu distribution. I picked Mint because I like the way Cinnamon looks and feels. I dislike the Gnome desktop. But the Mint version I used also switched from the Ubuntu Linux distribution to the Debian Linux distribution. To make matters even more confusing and amusing, the Ubuntu distribution is based on Debian.

In other words, the Debian people build a version of Linux, and then the Ubuntu people customize it the way they like it, and then the Mint people take that and customize it again to their tastes. LMDE tried to simplify things by putting Cinnamon directly on Debian.

My problem might be a configuration problem. Maybe it’s a dependency problem. Maybe it’s caused by new hardware. Or its old drivers. Or conflicting drivers. Who knows?

I don’t know if my major problem lies with software configuration or the new hardware on my new computer. That’s why I started testing things on an old computer. The new machine has an AMD CPU while the old one has an Intel CPU. And they each have different GPUs.

This is further complicated by the fact that HP and Epson try to make drivers and utilities that work with all flavors of Linux and hardware. But the configuration combinations are endless, and that’s where problems arise. Even Vuescan that works with a wide variety of scanners didn’t work. It recognized the scanner was an Epson Perfection V370 but couldn’t talk to it.

Now this brings me to the point where I need to decide what to do. My friend Mike sent me a text this morning that said Nvidia updated its driver for Linux, and it fixed a bug that the last version caused him. The fix he made for that bug was to downgrade to an earlier edition of the driver. Waiting is sometimes a solution, so now Mike’s back to using the latest Nvidia driver. I could wait and see if Mint LMDE sends out a fix in the future. I’m in no hurry because I can print and scan from my Windows machine.

However, the goal is having a Linux machine that does everything I want to do. Luckily, I have two Linux machines. I can keep Mint on one and continue to learn to use that distribution. I can then use the second machine to test different Linux distributions.

Then what distribution will I try next? Linux has countless distributions. They vary by what graphical desktop they use. But they also vary by how often they update to the latest version of Linux itself, all its support programs, and all the various application programs, and which programs they prefer. They fall along the spectrum from old and stable to new and bleeding edge.

There’s a big advantage to sticking with the tried and true. But new CPU, GPUs, and other technologies need the latest version of Linux to recognize the new hardware, but the latest versions of applications often break things, and it takes a while for the bugs to be discovered and fixed. So, you want the latest hardware support and the shiniest new software, but not if it breaks something. It also helps to pick a distribution that is so popular that it gets supported first.

For my test machine I need to try Ubuntu, which is popular and widely supported, and Debian which is old and conservative. That tried-and-true nature is why Ubuntu starts with Debian and adds newer hardware support and mostly new applications. However, Debian changed recently to speed up hardware/software adoption yet stay reliable. It also comes with a plain version of Gnome, the desktop manager. However, Ubuntu is what two of the guys use that said they scan with Linux. And when you go to software web sites that support Linux, usually it’s Ubuntu.

I’ve just talked myself into getting a copy of the last version of Ubuntu that offered long term support and test it with my HP Officejet, Epson Perfection V370 scanner, and my Plustek 3800L scanner.

I wrote this to help me decide what to do. Hope it wasn’t too boring to read. But if you use Linux and have any tips to help me out, let me know.

JWH