elementary OS

Hardware / Installation

So what do I say about elementary OS on various hardware. Well, it works on semi-modern hardware. It does not work on slower systems or those without good graphics. Installation itself is extremely simple, though the average user will probably have to add a number of apps. One can install much any app available in Ubuntu, but the default apps are ones that fit their philosophy. Which I don't mind, and agree with, but reality has me using lots of other apps.

Anyways, two lists for the hardware experience:

Switching from Kubuntu

Normally I use the KDE and sometimes LXQT for desktop environments on Linux. The folks at elementary OS developed their own Pantheon desktop environment. It is a mixture of various components, all developed from by elementary OS team on Github. While switching is relatively easy if using Ubuntu, there are some complications if using KDE/Kubuntu. So please read to the end.

Oh, and if you get stuck, don't forget that CTRL-ALT-F# will switch to a text-based login. And elementary OS uses CTRL-ALT-F7 (tty7) as the graphical screen.

• Make sure your existing install is up to date:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

• Add in elementary OS's repositories:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:elementary-os/daily

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:elementary-os/os-patches

sudo apt-get update

• Install elementary OS's Pantheon desktop & greeter:

sudo apt install elementary-desktop pantheon-greeter

• When asked, choose the lightdm display manager.

• You may be done. If you've not received any errors, reboot. You are probably not using KDE/Kubuntu.

• If you are using KDE/Kubuntu, this is the tricky part. You will get an error about gsignond. This is because of dependency conflicts between some base packages between Kubuntu and other Ubuntu(s). Don't forget the CTRL-ALT-F# trick if necessary. Issue these commands:

sudo apt-get purge signon* kaccounts-integration kio-gdrive kaccounts-providers gsignond-plugin-oauth gsignond

sudo apt-get install gsignond-plugin-oauth gsignond

sudo apt-get -f install

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

For older installs, the "apt-get -f install" was needed. Also, there are a few other package version confusions that are cleared up by running the update/upgrade. And yes, the last commands are two sets of same two commands. I haven't researched why, but I had to run them some systems that had been sitting around for a number of months.

In the end, everything has been smooth on my two mains laptops, my desktop and my 64-Bit test laptops using this method.

Oh, another two thoughts. First, after a reboot, be sure to select the right desktop environment. Second, you could leave KDE. Some things are little weird in KDE. For instance logging out doesn't work. I decided to uninstall KDE. I could always reinstall it.