Revive Old Laptops with Andy's Ham Radio Linux

[@signalscout6020]

Great stuff. This has been my rationale behind taking my first steps with Linux Mint, and Andy’s seems like a great fit for an old i3 ASUS that has had a couple of Linux distros on it. Installed without drama today, whereas Debian gave me fits. So far so good.

[@kendebusk2540]

After about 30 years of "well, it's been 10 years, let's renew", I'm ready to get active again. And I do have a smattering of Linux knowledge and a couple old laptops around. Thanks for this, you will be keeping me off the streets and out of the gangs by keeping me occupied on a computer/radio setup :)

[@SevenFortyOne]

Good to hear you'll be using your skills for good and not evil 😜 I'm glad you found value in this video!

[@GaryDrumm]

Damn. I wish I had seen this video an hour ago. I literally just started setting up an old laptop with Ubuntu Linux and still have to track down and install of the ham apps. 😂

[@HK-qj4im]

The rabbit hole is deep

[@johnwest7993]

I just saved this link. Your video is exactly what I was looking for for my old notebook PC for ham pgms. Having only a little knowledge of PC OS's and application installation sorts of stuff, and none with Linux I was concerned that I'd spend hours pulling out what little hair I have left and just end up with a trashed PC. So thank you for your tutorial and links.

[@wadepatton2433]

I've revived a few old laptops with Linux, but now I need to get another one and set it up for logging. Hope I can get that sorted out. I've had "ham radio linux" before but never tried to interface it for logging or control.

[@DonDegidio]

Hi Rob, Thanks for this information. Have downloaded Andy's Linux and Rufus. I have two Dell Latitude laptops sitting around doing nothing. Always wanted to try a Linux based OS and this one looks easy to install and has many ham related applications. I already have some 500GB SSD drives I can install into the laptops for added drive space. Hope your Thanksgiving went well. You and your family stay safe. 73 WJ3U

[@SevenFortyOne]

Have fun with this linux if you try it out! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family too!

[@Thomas-ZET]

I have an old dell that was used for home server, have always wanted to try Linux and this looks very easy. Thanks for the info

[@DonzLockz]

Very cool. I didn't know of this package. Sounds very easy to setup.👍

[@SevenFortyOne]

It is...

[@laszlokovacs8827]

Thanks for this video. I'll give it a shot this weekend.

[@MikeyB00o]

Thanx for explaining the Distro a bit, going to give it a try on a 4yr old Chrome book thats collecting dust

[@KC1PSK]

Hi Rob. Thanks for activating today. I did not know it was you until after the contact. KCS1PSK. Hello from Windsor Locks!!

[@SevenFortyOne]

No worries! thanks for making the contact today...I think your were my closest

[@Radiowild]

This is cool! Is this why I see all of these "working" old laptops at the hamfests?

[@wesKEVQJ]

I wanted a portable way t o use an sdr so I grabbed a Latitude 3340 with a touch screen but no hard drive on ebay. I grabbed a ssd, battery, and some ram and a charger. I installed this on it. I think it was 90 all together. 1.7 ghz, 8 gigs ram, 250 gb drive. It's one of the more rugged laptops was why I picked it. I did have to use an external usb dvd drive though. I have Skywave Linux on my desktop and that is good too.

[@karlmarx1463]

I like Devuan for old laptops, it's really fast.

[@1crazynordlander]

Because of the Raspberry Pi shortage I wish that hotspot developers would engineer devices that could be installed in PIC-Express expansion slots that are in all desktop computers. I know there are some that are USB devices out there but there are so many computers coming off lease that are reasonably priced. Some can be had for nothing.

[@SevenFortyOne]

Good points!

[@TheRadiogeek]

Nice tutorial Rob. 👏🏻👍

[@hudefuk]

I'll install it as a dual-boot with DragonOs. That should cover all the bases.

[@ryanv7075]

What was the CPU problem, did you figure out? Mine is a failing hard drive, haha

[@hudefuk]

Downloading...... Thanks!

[@SevenFortyOne]

Cool!

[@user-tj3qh7ru5y]

So, I have the same issue that my login does not work. How do I fix it? One other issue I have is when I put HAMRS in the menu I got an error message. It put it in under Ham radio but all the other programs in that file are gone. How do I get them back.

[@green_cloud4147]

Same here how do I get the list of ham programs back?

[@green_cloud4147]

found ham programs in internet and multi media folders , is there a way to put them back where they belong.

[@1crazynordlander]

I love Linux! What, no command line action?

[@SevenFortyOne]

Didn't need it ..Andy took care of everything

[@adlucem9845]

Is chirp on it? Getting chirp to work on Linux takes 8hrs of kernal compiling.

[@SevenFortyOne]

Chirp is there and it opens. Not sure how to get it to see my radio yet though . Still messing with that...

[@adlucem9845]

@@SevenFortyOne should be one of the 1,467 dev/ttyl just spend 4 days trying each one.

[@Littrell1966]

@@SevenFortyOne I tried linux for awhile and had to go give myself permission to use the com port of something like that. I can't remember. How is it working for you now?

[@just_in_time5518]

How dare you make a mistake! 😂🤣

[@wannabecarguy]

I never mispronounced anything...

[@daniell8387]

Linux pronounciations are insane and stupid. Like Gnome is pronounced Guh-nome, Suse is pronounced Soo-seh, GNU is guh-new.

[@SevenFortyOne]

People get worked up over pronunciation. I don't worry too much about it myself...

[@bits_for_bytes]

It’s only the people that have nothing to contribute 😂

[@wadepatton2433]

Names are never as simple as the rest of any language. OS names are unique in that they're often a combination of acronyms and various ideas by each creator-who may speak any other language as ours. Perhaps someone should compile a "Guide to Linux Distros Pronunciations". Of course "Distrowatch" generally has all the info we need to find out for ourselves. My favorite Linux distro name and a fine example of a bare-bones, but easy OS: "#!" Which is impossible to search for, so they now label it "Crunchbang" so we know how to pronounce it (and be able to find it). #! is what I put on an ancient win98 laptop and it gave it a new life. But it needs a battery so I don't use it.

[@ralphbeardmore9738]

I always say zzubuntu, no idea if its better