Debian Family – Absolutely Baching

Installing Giocoso on Peppermint OS

1.0 Introduction

Peppermint is a bit of an odd Linux distro, derived from Debian (indeed, identifying itself as Debian in the /etc/os-release file), but taking configuration and utilities from Linux Mint (which is itself Ubuntu-based, though Ubuntu is of course originally Debian-based... it's turtles and Debian all the way down, basically!). It's defining feature would appear to be heavy integration with cloud applications (or, using its own choice of terminology, 'Site Specific Browsers' or SSBs). Frankly, that's not something I'm terribly interested in and I've accordingly never used Peppermint OS myself for anything more than software testing. It's currently sitting 27th on the Distrowatch page hit list, so maybe it's not something many other people are interested in, either! Nevertheless, it's been around since 2010 and is considered stable and reasonably lightweight, so for those reasons, I thought it was probably worth getting Giocoso working on it.

Anyway: I downloaded the 64-bit version from the distro's own website andinstalled it on a VirtualBox VM, built with 4GB of vRAM and a 2-thread virtual CPU, plus a 40GB virtual hard drive. Similarly, as I do for all my documented Giocoso installs on Linux, I began by ensuring the operating system was as up-to-date as possible. In Peppermint's case, you do that by issuing the command [...]

Installing Giocoso on MX Linux

1.0 Introduction

MX Linux is not a distro I've used much, if ever... but at the time of writing, it's right at the top of the Distrowatch page hit ranking table, indicating that it's of interest to a lot of people. It was created as a merger between the antiX and MEPIS Linux distros, back in 2014 or so. It is generally available with an XFCE desktop, but can also be retrofitted with KDE or Fluxbox, making it quite usefully a 'mid-weight' distro: able to run on ancient hardware if you need it to, but also aimed at the more capable hardware of recent years. It is based on Debian -and literally identifies itself as that distro if you take a look at the /etc/os-release file.

As I do with all my Linux distros, I installed it on a VirtualBox VM, built with 4GB of vRAM and a 2-thread virtual CPU, plus a 40GB virtual hard disk. I chose to download the XFCE version from the distro's home website. Similarly, as I do for all my documented Giocoso installs on Linux, I began by ensuring the operating system was as up-to-date as possible. In MX Linux's case, you do that by issuing the command [...]

Installing Giocoso on antiX Linux

1.0 Introduction

I really know nothing much about antiX, and have never used it in anger... but it was in the top 20 list of distros on the May Distrowatch leader board, so I felt obliged to make sure Giocoso worked on it. Frankly, any distro whose home website has the strapline 'Proudly anti-fascist "antiX Magic" in an environment suitable for old and new computers' would not be a distro I'd bother with. Not because I'm a fascist, but because I personally don't see that mixing politics and an operating system makes a hell of a lot of sense!

As it turns out, the political pushiness doesn't really end there, since Wikipedia informs me that, "antiX is a Linux distribution, originally based on MEPIS, which itself is based on the Debian stable distribution [...and is...] suitable for older, less powerful x86-based systems. Unlike Debian, antiX does not use systemd. The releases of antiX are named after prominent left-wing figures, groups and revolutionaries." [...]

Installing Giocoso on Linux Mint Debian Edition

1.0 Introduction

Linux Mint (hereafter just 'Mint'!) is a popular desktop distro, but is usually found in its Ubuntu-derived form. That is, the Mint developers take Ubuntu and turn it into their own unique distro. What is not commonly realised, I think, is that Mint also comes in a completely separate distro that is derived from Debian. That's called, somewhat unimaginitively, Linux Mint Debian Edition... or LMDE for short. It's this Debian-flavoured distro I'm discussing in this article. If you're using the Ubuntu-derived version of Mint, please read this other article instead.

For the purposes of this article, I built a new VirtualBox virtual machine, using 4GB of vRAM and a 2-thread virtual CPU, plus a 40GB virtual hard disk and proceeded to install LMDE 5 (codenamed 'Elsie') using the ISO available via the project's website. That ships with the Cinnamon desktop by default, though others can be installed and used equally well: Giocoso simply doesn't care what desktop environment it's running on.. [...]

Installing Giocoso on Devuan

1.0 Introduction

In 2017, Debian adopted the systemd OS initialisation system and, at the same time, stripped out support for older initialisation systems such as sysvinit or openRC. This royally annoyed many Debian developers who saw the move as an unwelcome move away from Unix conventions. As was entirely their right, they therefore forked Debian and renamed their new systemd-less operating system Devuan.

Ideologically, therefore, Devuan is perhaps 'purer' than Debian, closer to both projects' Unix-y roots. Functionally, though, once you get past the business of initialising the operating system and its various processes, there's not a lot of difference between them. For that reason, since Giocoso runs fine on Debian, you might expect it to run perfectly well on Devuan, too... and it does! Nevertheless, Giocoso Version 2.x is the first version of Giocoso to support being run on Devuan: I had rather overlooked it in the past! [...]

Installing Giocoso on Debian

1.0 Introduction

Debian has been around for years and doesn't look like it's going away any time soon, so it's a good, reliable choice for a desktop distro. It comes with access to a vast library of software; is generally considered very stable; and can be used with just about every desktop or window manager known to mankind. It has never been my choice of desktop distro for my main PC, it's fair to say: but there's zero reason why it can't run Giocoso effectively.

For the purposes of this article, I built a new VirtualBox virtual machine, using 4GB of vRAM and a 2-thread virtual CPU, plus a 40GB virtual hard disk and proceeded to install Debian 11 using the 'complete installation image' ISO available from the Debian website. During the installation, I chose to install the Gnome desktop, but the specific choice of desktop doesn't really matter: Giocoso will run on all of them equally well. Of note, however, is that I ended up running the Wayland display server, rather than the ancient X11. Giocoso doesn't do a lot with graphics... but it does some, and it is therefore good to know that Giocoso functions equally correctly no matter if you're using Wayland or X11. [...]