Weekly Forum Summary

Community
14

This week in our forums…

Key Stats

In the past week, the Linux community forums had the following activity and key statistics:

  • Total New Posts: 44
  • Total New Topics: 6

Top Members

Interesting Topics

Below are some of the most engaging and informative discussions from the week, with an emphasis on new topics. Each title links directly to the relevant post.

  1. Linux mint installed but wont boot
    Category/tag: linux Support
    A fresh install of Linux Mint 22 on an older Toshiba Satellite stumped @Ady when the system wouldn’t boot post-install. With details about legacy vs UEFI mode and GRUB target device, the thread turned into a practical walkthrough of diagnosing firmware mode mismatches and correct bootloader placement. Helpful guidance from @hydn and @ricky89 focused on ensuring the USB boots in UEFI and targeting the whole drive for GRUB (e.g., /dev/sda).

  2. Forum outage report
    Category/tag: Community
    @hydn posted a transparent incident report about a ~12‑hour forum outage traced to a Cloudflare SSL certificate issue. The post outlines detection (Better Stack alert), remediation (reset cert settings), and follow-up prevention measures—plus a candid note about being under the weather. A model for concise postmortems that keeps the community informed.

  3. Linux Mint GUI using WSL
    Category/tags: linux Support command-line virtualization desktop-environments
    New member @GC67 explored running a Mint GUI on WSL. The key blocker—tasksel not launching—was explained as a systemd limitation in WSL. The thread steers newcomers toward installing light desktops like XFCE and using Windows X servers (VcXsrv/X410), or taking advantage of WSLg on Windows 11. @rogerp requested command outputs to assist further, and @hydn provided a clear action plan.

  4. Ubuntu Server LXDE Problem
    Category/tags: linux Support ubuntu server
    @JamesCRocks installed a minimal LXDE on Ubuntu Server and ran into a half-missing taskbar. @hydn suggested using “Panel Preferences” or the lxpanelctl config command to adjust applets, noting a known LXPanel bug in 24.04. The guidance resolved the issue and the topic was marked solved.

“You can access Panel Preferences by right‑clicking an empty area of the taskbar… or run: lxpanelctl config.”

  1. :orange_heart: Supporting Members of LinuxCommunity.io
    Category/tags: Community forums
    A community note from @hydn outlining how paid membership tiers sustain hosting, upgrades, and giveaways, and how member engagement keeps the space welcoming. Includes a link to the volunteer @staff group and a call to support continued growth.

  2. I Created CHMER (CHess prograMER)
    Category/tags: Showcase programming
    @hemuk477 introduced CHMER, a chess programming endeavor under the HSR-projects umbrella. @hydn added a project link and encouraged visibility. A nice snapshot of member projects in progress and an open invitation for feedback and collaboration.

  3. Welcome! Please introduce yourself
    Category/tags: Community forums
    A steady stream of introductions this week: @MrBeverage brings live-performance keyboard expertise and new Fedora KDE enthusiasm; @Zedboy is training toward Linux sysadmin; @ed_chigliak migrated from Windows to Mint and Voyager while starting an IT role; @Ady is moving from Microsoft to Mint on older hardware.

“Just installed Fedora 42 KDE on a new AMD Ryzen 7 mini, and diggin’ it. Having fun writing Bash scripts.” — @MrBeverage

  1. 2026 vector user interface library
    Category/tag: Showcase desktop
    @Halano previewed a fast, animated vector UI library—“sci‑fi UI” vibes with high performance. In conversation with @rogerp about FOSS plans and toolkit choices (Qt vs GTK), @Halano shared a vision closer to FLTK—leaner, faster, feature‑packed—and skepticism of heavy abstraction layers.

  2. I started with Mint Mate but now use Mint Cinnamon
    Category/tags: General Discussions Discussions distros desktop
    @leafydiode reports mixed‑resolution mirroring issues (2K monitor + HD TV) on Mint Cinnamon that don’t occur on the same hardware in Windows. @MarshallJFlinkman discussed mirroring vs extended desktops, fractional scaling caveats, and shared a useful reference. A good case study in Linux display configuration trade‑offs.

  3. List of External/Internal drives with Linux Support
    Category/tags: General Discussions Discussions linux hardware
    @benowe1717 added multiple WD Elements and a Toshiba Canvio to the community-maintained list. They noted that smartctl often detects these as “internal” and misreports RPM—raising interesting observations about how external enclosures present devices and how SMART tools interpret them.

Activity by the @staff Group

Highlights of staff contributions this week:

Best Reply or Topic of the Week

Best Reply: A crisp diagnosis of a legacy/UEFI mismatch and how to correct it during reinstall on an older Toshiba, a scenario many newcomers face.

“You installed in legacy mode, but your disk has an EFI partition. The fix is to boot the USB in UEFI mode and reinstall, making sure the bootloader goes to the whole drive.”

Thanks for reading. See you again next week! :slight_smile:

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