Some questions before New Install Of 16.04.7

[O)9(yo&#]

I recently installed the new 16.04.7 on a HDD. It is performing flawlessly, using the Nvidia 304 driver this computer needs. I would now like to install it on a SSD. Some questions:

First, how can I install it in such a way that it does not upgrade to kernel 4.1x? I need to keep it on 4.4, for the already mentioned reason; namely, that I need the 304 driver. Currently, I have to select Advanced Options in Grub, and choose the 4,4 kernel. I know you can delete kernels, but I have only done it for old ones, not new ones, and I'm afraid I may damage things severely. Also, editing Grub is a bit frightening to me. Again, I would like to avoid that.

Second, is there a trimmed-down version, so I don't have to install things I will later have to delete, namely the browser and office suite? I prefer different ones.

Third, what is the best way to disable or uninstall the amazon lens?

Thanks as always, the help is much appreciated.

[mikewhatever]

1. To keep the kernel 4.4, you need to start with Ubuntu 16.04.1 installation image, and make sure not to install the HWA stack.
All the later ones have later kernels.
Get it here: http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/16.04.1/

2. No.

[oldfred]

You can install the server version and then not install anything additional other than specifically what you want.
If you have to have the old 304 nVidia, you probably have to stay with older versions of Ubuntu. I found my older nVidia card worked just as well for normal use with nouveau as proprietary driver. And then found the Intel haswell chip's video was just as good or slightly better than my GT 620 card.

If you install the full desktop, you also get all the applications. But you can from server just install apps you want.
Server uses this to let you choose what apps to default install. You can choose nothing.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Tasksel

[TheFu]

Support for 16.04 will be ending next April, so now is the time to start planning what you will do then. I had an nVidia 7200 GS card that lost proprietary support from nVidia for the 16.04 release. There is the nouveau driver available in the newer versions, but I couldn't get it to run at the resolution desired. $70 and a new GPU solved that issue. If solving a problem will take over 4 hrs or $70 solves it, I'll pay the $70 every time.

I'll be upgrading our 16.04 systems this fall sometime. Timing depends on support for each application with newer releases. I really want to skip 18.04 completely, but a few of the applications usually take 12 months before they support the current LTS, so timing could be too tight.

As for using lighter Ubuntu - any of the other flavors will be lighter than the normal, default, Ubuntu Desktop running Gnome3. Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu-Mate are all choices. Some have a "minimal" desktop option - but that does the normal install, then removes the other packages. I complained that the minimal install included a browser - the team decided that a browser wasn't optional. I suggested lynx, since obviously, anyone desiring a minimal install would happily accept a minimal browser. Overruled again.

If you don't load Gnome3, you won't get any 'lense' stuff.

There is also the "alternate installer", but that is more hassle than just removing the packages, IMHO. If you need to do this often, make a list and keep that list in a file that is part of your backups. Every time you find another package to remove, just add that to the list. I use ansible and have config modifications, new packages to be installed and other packages to be removed from all my systems. It is always becoming more complete, more automatic, and more consistent that way.

If you install the server version, then you won't care about the proprietary GPU driver. Server doesn't have a GUI. It is certainly lighter than any desktop. The CPU isn't wasting time with GUI processing. That's a good thing.

[O)9(yo&#]

1. To keep the kernel 4.4, you need to start with Ubuntu 16.04.1 installation image, and make sure not to install the HWA stack.
All the later ones have later kernels.
Get it here: http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/16.04.1/

2. No.

Thanks, but I want to stay with the 16.04.7 for security reasons. I still have Ubuntu 14.04, believe it or not, with extended security, good until 4.21. so when I saw 16.04.7 was out, it rekindled my interest in trying to get it up and running. Previous attempts had failed, as i couldn't get the 304 driver going. for whatever reason, I was successful this time.

I guess I'll have to figure out how to edit Grub. I can use the current HDD install and if successful, then apply it to the SSD one.

[O)9(yo&#]

You can install the server version and then not install anything additional other than specifically what you want.
If you have to have the old 304 nVidia, you probably have to stay with older versions of Ubuntu. I found my older nVidia card worked just as well for normal use with nouveau as proprietary driver. And then found the Intel haswell chip's video was just as good or slightly better than my GT 620 card.

If you install the full desktop, you also get all the applications. But you can from server just install apps you want.
Server uses this to let you choose what apps to default install. You can choose nothing.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Tasksel

Thanks for all that great info. I have never installed a server version, as this is just for home use. A desktop is a must.

[O)9(yo&#]

Support for 16.04 will be ending next April, so now is the time to start planning what you will do then. I had an nVidia 7200 GS card that lost proprietary support from nVidia for the 16.04 release. There is the nouveau driver available in the newer versions, but I couldn't get it to run at the resolution desired. $70 and a new GPU solved that issue. If solving a problem will take over 4 hrs or $70 solves it, I'll pay the $70 every time.

I'll be upgrading our 16.04 systems this fall sometime. Timing depends on support for each application with newer releases. I really want to skip 18.04 completely, but a few of the applications usually take 12 months before they support the current LTS, so timing could be too tight.

As for using lighter Ubuntu - any of the other flavors will be lighter than the normal, default, Ubuntu Desktop running Gnome3. Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu-Mate are all choices. Some have a "minimal" desktop option - but that does the normal install, then removes the other packages. I complained that the minimal install included a browser - the team decided that a browser wasn't optional. I suggested lynx, since obviously, anyone desiring a minimal install would happily accept a minimal browser. Overruled again.

If you don't load Gnome3, you won't get any 'lense' stuff.








There is also the "alternate installer", but that is more hassle than just removing the packages, IMHO. If you need to do this often, make a list and keep that list in a file that is part of your backups. Every time you find another package to remove, just add that to the list. I use ansible and have config modifications, new packages to be installed and other packages to be removed from all my systems. It is always becoming more complete, more automatic, and more consistent that way.

If you install the server version, then you won't care about the proprietary GPU driver. Server doesn't have a GUI. It is certainly lighter than any desktop. The CPU isn't wasting time with GUI processing. That's a good thing.

More great info, thanks I appreciate it. As for the lens issue, my searches brought up a number of threads, many from here, but there seemed to be much conflicting info on the subject, and the possibility of damaging Unity if not careful. Which is why I haven't done anything yet. Other than put the icon in the trash. Which I know doesn't really do anything, Of well, it could be worse. Much worse. Windows 10 worse.

As for support running out in 4/21, I plan to sign up for extended security maintenance, which I have on 14.04. Just installed that for nostalgia's sake, really. I was mainly using Linux Lite 3.8, but that also runs out in 4/21. Which is why I wanted 16.04.7. Yeah, I could buy a new card, but since the machine is 12 years old, I'm reluctant to do that, if I can get things working as is.

The nouveau drivers won't even run Xubuntu, or Ubuntu Mate. Really have to have the Nvidia drivers (apologies to Nvidia haters, but hey the stock is soaring).

[oldfred]

My 2006 Laptop with 1.5GB of RAM was essentially retired when I got my new UEFI system in 2014. And it then had 12.04. When 16.04 came out, I installed it to laptop. I typically installed full Ubuntu, but changed to fallback/flashback as Full Ubuntu was so slow. And 16.04 was almost functional with standard Ubuntu.

But I recently, just as a test, tried to install 20.04. Desktop would not install at all. But I was able to install server version and then add fallback/flashback. Expected that to pull in all the gnome pieces it needed but it did not. So I had to add more gnome. But ended with with functional desktop. But spoiled with fast SSD systems, so laptop still retired.

[mikewhatever]

Thanks, but I want to stay with the 16.04.7 for security reasons. I still have Ubuntu 14.04, believe it or not, with extended security, good until 4.21. so when I saw 16.04.7 was out, it rekindled my interest in trying to get it up and running. Previous attempts had failed, as i couldn't get the 304 driver going. for whatever reason, I was successful this time.

I guess I'll have to figure out how to edit Grub. I can use the current HDD install and if successful, then apply it to the SSD one.

You'll get from 16.04.1 to 16.04.7 after installing updates. There is probably quite a lot, so remove all unneeded packages first. Starting with that old image is the key to get nvidia-304 to work, because it has the right kernel and xserver versions, which may be old, but still supported.

...Not sure what you mean by "edit grub". Why bother?

[TheFu]

Unity? Unity is dead, dead, dead. Move on. Get over it. Try fvwm.

Nouveau drivers work on all Ubuntu releases. There's nothing tied to any DE.

If you buy a current PCIe GPU, it can be moved to the next system you get/built.

Nvidia stock price has no impact on Linux ease of use, sadly. On the cheap GPUs, there's little reason to prefer nvidia.