[sudo-discuss] Linux dual boot on Basement Computer bank?

8 Nov 2017

A few months ago about a dozen Core 2 Duo Lenovo boxes with 4 GB of RAM
materialized in the basement hall way. They were all left running with
the monitors on, but they had Windohs on them and the lock screens
required a password which was nowhere in evidence, and rebooting also
required a PW to log in.  Anywho, since they just seemed to be heating
the basement, and it was summertime anyway I shut them all off, and did
so a couple of weeks later when I noticed they were powered back on
again. Since then they have mostly been off, and some folks know the
password and have been using them periodically. Someone blew Linux Mint
on one of the boxen.

The one on the far left (facing the wall) was unplugged, I plugged it
back in but it was beeping whenever it booted, but just required that I
open the case and clamp down the memory sticks, All Praise Cyber Jesus.
Since I had revived box from the dead like Lazarus I felt like no one
would object if I made it dual boot Linux as well as Windows 10. The
machines are mostly empty and have 300-500 GB hard drives, so I hacked
off 60 GB and copied a Debian 9 installation off of a flash drive, fixed
the fstab, installed grub, and set the machine to boot Windoze by
default. The USB wifi sticks are the only way for these things to get
internet since there is no ethernet cable in that hallway, but I managed
to get one working with Debian and it seems stable.

So unless someone objects I propose to set the rest of the machines to
boot automatically into Windows (and not require a PW when the screen
blanks) and also, I'd whack off a small chunk of their hard drives so
all the boxes dual boot Windows and Debian stable (except possibly the
Mint box, it may have been installed to stomp on the whole drive).  It
will give me something to do and keep me out of the sun. This will not
adversely effect the Windows installations, which will still be
available to do whatever folks do in that OS.

Attached is a picture of the machine I mucked with, folks can go down
there and play around with it. As those of you are wise in the ways of
dual booting know, you can select Linux by using the "up arrow" key on
the keyboard to scroll to the Debian 9 "grub" entry and hit the Enter
key. It will automatically boot to a non-privileged "omni" account (PW:
omnivore) and it will hang for a few seconds at the lightdm display
manager to give you a chance to change the Linux desktop to taste (I
configured it for mate, xfce, cinnamon & KDE, and could add other
options if desired). You can also switch users to a "sudoroom" user,
that has sudo privileges, the PW is the same as the username, except in
drop case.

In a world without Gates who needs Windows?

Special Ed

-- 
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Edmund Joseph Biow
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Windoze: Kleopatra (http://gpg4win.de/download.html)
OSX: GPG Keychain (https://gpgtools.org/#gpgsuite)
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An "easy" way to set up PGP on your computer is to download the free & open
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he neither able nor willing? Then why call him god? - Epicurus (341-270 BCE)

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[sudo-discuss] Linux dual boot on Basement Computer bank?