Recently, I have come across a lightweight Linux distribution that seems interesting coming from the Debian variant. It uses LXDE desktop that is not updated actively so this is a big concern due to lack of new features or bug fixes (recently noticed since I was watching a Youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLGrNhYp2R4). My main purpose is to try out lightweight linux distribution then. Usually I choose Ubuntu based Linux distribution so it is an interesting Linux distro for me to play with. I chose to install onto my Lenovo Thinkpad X200(2007 model), the oldest laptop that I have to see what is the effect on it. It has a dual-core CPU, 8GB RAM and 500GB HDD. Previously I have tried Bodhi Linux and Android-x86 on this laptop but in the end, I chose Linux Lite for this laptop since Linux Lite became my favourite Linux distro.
During the installation stage for WattOS onto my laptop, I encountered failure to install bootloader during the last stage of the installation. I tried to find a solution but failed to find any online. Later, I thought I turned on the WiFi for the installation and everything works! Interesting problem and solution. Below is the WattOS Linux installed onto my laptop.
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| WattOS on Thinkpad X200 |
Note: You will need bullseye-backports enabled, see backports website for instructions.
Import fasttrack archive keyring:
# apt install fasttrack-archive-keyring
Add following lines to /etc/apt/sources.list on your bullseye system.
deb https://fasttrack.debian.net/debian-fasttrack/ bullseye-fasttrack main contrib
deb https://fasttrack.debian.net/debian-fasttrack/ bullseye-backports-staging main contrib
If you cannot use https in your sources.list, add following.
deb http://fasttrack.debian.net/debian-fasttrack/ bullseye-fasttrack main contrib
deb http://fasttrack.debian.net/debian-fasttrack/ bullseye-backports-staging main contrib
Now I know there are more apps available for Ubuntu compared to Debain even if they shared the same deb package format. There is also a need to download specific Debian packages such as virtualbox before as initially was not in debian repository. I found the package in Oracle Virtualbox website and works. Cpupower-gui (0.7.2) needs to manually install dependency packages before it can install and work properly. Like I said, if you cannot find a app that you want to use, you need to search the Internet for downloadable deb package specific to Debian, if available, then install using GDebi Package Manager and install the dependencies package from there. If dependencies package fail to install, you may need to either install manually or download individual dependencies package to install. Else likely need to find alternative app if dependencies packages cannot be installed.
As for RAM usage, it was running around 500-600MB after installation and was snappy compared to Linux Lite that is my favourite Linux distro on most of my laptops. Apps launched pretty fast and it is running on a mechanical harddisk, not solid-state harddisk.
As you install and run more apps, especially in the background like firewall, snapd, flatpak and any apps loaded to memory upon startup, the speed of the laptop will be affected but still snappy enough for use. It also depends on how large the app itself if it is not so snappy during launch. I prefer to install apps as I can link to extensions so when I double click the file, associated app will launch. Else any apps not in the installed list may need to manually create the association so is more troublesome or tough for new users.
In conclusion, WattOS is a great lightweight Linux distro but it still fell short of ease of use, especially for new Linux users compared to Linux Lite or Linux Mint. Speed wise I think it is pretty fast, since I using the oldest laptop that I have for this review to see how speedy it can get. I may slowly get used to this Linux distro since so far I have not encountered any issues that I cannot resolve but just need some tinkering around since I am comfortable with it. Not sure if it will be my favourite Linux distro, only time will tell. Keep up with the good work!
HOTFIXED:
1. Installation failed near the end of installation from USB media.
This seems to happen to me quite often when doing fresh install of WattOS onto older laptops. Think it happened to me at least twice on two different laptops. However the solution is to enable WIFI before installation and then there is no issue at all to complete the whole installation process.
2. Failed apt update and upgrade process.
When installing WattOS onto old laptops, after trying to do a "sudo apt update", there would be some errors pop up. This also happens to me pretty often and changing the source servers from main to Singapore servers do not help at all. Finally the actual problem is that the time and date on the old laptop is not in sync with the actual time and date. Even if you put the timezone correct, the time and date might still screw up. The built-in network time sync is broken if you ask me. Only manually changing the time and date setting would help fix temporary but may fall back to wrong date and time after you reboot the laptop.
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| Unlock and changing date and time and click a few times at the spin button beside the time helps temporary. |
The solution is to manually install and configure the network time protocol service on your laptop. The full steps is as follows:
1. To install the NTP client package on Ubuntu, Debian, and Linux Mint:
$ sudo apt install ntpdate
2. The first thing we need to do after installing the ntpdate package is to open a command line terminal and be sure to disable Ubuntu’s default timesyncd service, as this will conflict with our attempts to synchronize with the NTP server.
$ sudo timedatectl set-ntp off
3. If you wish to synchronize your system time with the world time servers, all you need to do is issue the following Linux command with root permissions and you are done:
$ sudo ntpdate pool.ntp.org
4. The above command will synchronize your system time / clock. However, if you want to stay synchronized you need to do little bit more work. The work involves installation and configuration of NTPD daemon. NTPD uses NTP ( network time protocol ) to access a specified time server over the internet. Later, it will keep your system time synchronized without your further intervention.
$ sudo apt install ntp
5. In most cases your NTP Daemon will be configured out of the box and installation of ntp package is all you would ever need to do to keep your system time synchronized with internet standard time servers. However, it is good to check certain settings whether they are in place before we leave a system time in hands of NTP daemon. These settings are configured inside of the ntp.conf file.
$ sudo nano /etc/ntp.conf
6. In this file, place the fully qualified domain name of a time server which we intend to use for a time synchronization. For example, the default settings look like this:
server 0.debian.asia.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 1.debian.asia.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 2.debian.asia.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 3.debian.asia.pool.ntp.org iburst
You can use the NTP Pool Project website to find the closest NTP server pool to your location.
7. Once you have made any necessary changes to your ntp.conf file, be sure to save it and exit the file. Then, make changes take effect by restarting the NTP daemon.
$ sudo systemctl restart ntp
8. Lastly, use the ntpq command to list the NTP time synchronization queue:
$ ntpq -p
3. Write chinese characters on WattOS using ibus
Use synaptic package manager and search for "ibus pinyin". Install the ibus-libpinyin and its dependencies. Then go to "ibus Preference" -> "Input Method" and add another input method. Choose "Intelligent Pinyin" input method. Now you can choose between EN and Chinese when you left click on the EN icon in the taskbar.
4. Upgrade the kernel on WattOS
Search for "linux image amd64" in synaptic package manager and select to install. Also search for linux header under the same name as previous package and install dependencies. Then apply to install both packages and dependencies. After you reboot the laptop, you would have the new kernel installed.
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