If you want to overcomplicate things once, but then simplify everything after (within reason), take a look at netboot.xyz

Set up PXE on your network and never need to mess about imaging a stick again. Here’s a video thatll get you rolling. https://youtu.be/4btW5x_clpg

Here is the project on github https://github.com/netbootxyz/netboot.xyz

Fwiw I never had a problem hotswapping batteries out

I use a T460 as my daily in the living room.

Mine has an internal battery as well as a removable, large removable is a beast, literally lasts me all day and this machine is like 2017 or so. Backlit.keyboard. not sure they all have it but mine has a sim card slot and wan card built.l in. So internet is easy on a data only sim without tethering. Those wan cards are cheap too if it doesn’t come with.

BIOS has TPM and all that so its easy to secure. Also handles virtual machines well (supports vtx, vtd, Intel text, or and iommu - hyperthreading etc). Typically lenovos T series always have these. I expect most people having issues probably don’t set the BIOS options correctly. Efi supported as expected. Passes all the requirements for w11 if thats your jam. The machine is solid.

I run fedora 39 with sway/hyprland/KDE options. Installed from ‘fedora anything’ image was a breeze via usb. saying that, the only real hindrance these days is lack of usb3.0. So installing from USB is alright the once, but use network for transfers instead of usb sticks if you can.

Resuming from standby isn’t an issue on fedora or arch but it was on debian. If you have any issues, you can send me a PM. The resume from standby issue on Debian was the only thing I never solved reliably.

Oh has ddr3, but those sticks are cheap so you can throw in dual 8gb sodimms for less than 50quid/Euros. I’m sure it’ll take 32gb (dual 16gbs) but I haven’t bothered. I’m running 1600mhz sticks, but it should support up to 2133mhz sticks… have a 1tB ssd slotted in for under 100.

This is faily easy to build using offline models. Only problem is GPU whirring away running typically light terminal commands.

Yeah I feel this. Fucking huge mechanical boxes of fucking shite that should he lobbed down the stairs and anyone who wants to print should be beaten with toner cartridges till they are black and blue, or cymk

Immutables are easy enough. Had a couple of months on the kde fedora spin. Fresh install and youll have no dnf (equiv of apt in debian) or other terminal tools. Might make you wonder what to do. The trick is toolboxes (or distrobox for a bit more umpfh).

Commands like this

toolbox create testzone

toolbox enter testzone

Install a load of shit that eventually fucks up your config somehow… And if it goes to shit

toolbox rm testzone

If it complains the toolbox is still running when you try to delete you can kill it using podman to find its process id, then you can kill it. I forget the commands though

You can have a stack of toolboxes. Gives you dnf and all your terminal tools. Still a few things to work out with data storage since it locks most of the root directories. It wants you in best practice dirs like /home, /etc but thats also what stops it breaking.

If a toolbox isnt enough, you can use distrobox, which can give you other flavours of *nix within it.

Good luck!!

I read that as “Distro for Piece of Shit”. I was going to say, if you dont like them, install Gentoo.

Personally i tend to use Debian or Fedora. Fedora have also got a few distros that are immutable which if its a pos basically means it shouldnt ever break or get corrupted.

That being said… If it works, dont ‘fix’ it. Debian is a decent OS.

IMO, Honestly, at this point you probably arent going to miss much.

Youve presumably booted from an external device and installed an OS. I assume the time amd date are right.

Only question really is are you using efi or mbr boot method. If efi, you are probably fine and future proofed unless you want secure boot (windows) you may face an issue then. Thats not to say you will, just you might.

Intel have just released a driver update to combat this. Its somethimg to do with a transition layer implemetation that has been massively improved giving 500%+ performance boost.

Presumably it makes use of API access.

I may be slight off here, but for anything other than viewing currently playing, and maybe a few other things, you need premium to choose a track, and control the player.

Not in my experience. I dont use nautilus… You should maybe look at improving your shitty network than complaining about the tools you dont know how to use.

ssh can be your best friend. Apart from the fact it can give you secure admin access to the device and its files from virtually anything, your phone, another computer…

It also offers you the added one liner tools like sshfs for adding remote drives which act as they are mounted locally… then you get the best expeirence in my opinion better than winscp, because it feels native.

Pretty sure it was just called iPod Linux.

Just looked… looks like rockbox is the successor. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPodLinux

I had an old iPod nano that was hacked with a light Linux distro. Could even run doom on it… It ran, but wasn’t practical to play it.

Ok. That’ll be why. Must’ve been a preorder link I saw on Amazon or wherever it was. Thanks for the date.

What did the pirate say when he turned 80??

“Aye matey”

I did this with proxmox. However I’m using a Nvidia gpu for passthrough. Was awhile ago I set it all up. I remember it being fairly complex. Here is a super basic instruction for it. Possibly incomplete.

Check you have iommu enabled in efi/bios. (For Intel - enable vt-d)

Install drivers if necessary (again nvidia)

Blacklist device on proxmox host

Setup GPU passthrough (vfio) - assign the card video and audio to the guest vm.

Start vm and test

If you are using onboard card, you can probably blacklist it and use it for your vm… I’m not entirely sure how proxmox deals with losing its primary display… I expect it’ll cope ok. SSH for everything. Probably need to use virtio drivers. Install within guest…

Really… prob best hosting a media server and having a client on the TV end.