[sf-lug] Meeting notes for May 2, 2021

[aaronco36]

Quoting Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com> from [01]:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The question was raised as to the best distribution to install on an older 
machine with lower specification and I called MX-Linux, someone else said 
AntiX and I believe it was Michael Paoli who suggested Debian's multi-arch 
ISO 
<https//cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/multi-arch/iso-cd/debian-10.9.0-amd64-i386-netinst.iso>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Besides the abovementioned distros as "the best distribution to install on 
an older machine with lower specification" -- including Wayne's/Bobbie's 
and Michael P's respective MX-Linux and Debian multi-arch recommendations 
-- a DistroWatch search [02] for lower specification and Beginners 
distributions shows the popularity-ordered results as Linux Mint [03][04] 
(latter reference for the lighterweight Xfce desktop), Zorin OS [05][06] 
(latter for the lighterweight Zorin OS Lite), PCLinuxOS [07][08] that 
Bobbie S may be more familiar with (latter reference [08] for the 
lighterweight Xfce), and Bodhi Linux [09][10] that referencing at least 
from [11] Rick M may be more familiar with :-)


Quoting Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com> from [01]:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He might let us know if the conversion was practical but around 12:45 PM 
we developed audio problems and after a reboot and reconnection there was 
no improvement at my end so at 12:54 I signed out for the day leaving only 
Michael and Aaron still in the meeting.

A very interesting meeting with lots of input from most attendees.

Too bad audio was so bad today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Would speculate that my and Bobbie's Jit.si Meet microphone/audio issues 
at today's SF-LUG virtual meeting could have arisen from one or more of 
the following:
- loose connections between the microphone's/webcam's USB connector and 
the computer's USB port
- particulate or other matter (e.g., drops of soda, tea, coffee, etc) 
either on the microphone's/webcam's USB connector or on the computer's 
external USB port itself
- USB microphone/webcam attached to one USB port with another "noisy" USB 
device (e.g, flashdrive in active use) attached to an adjacent USB port
- concurrently-running applications using high system-resources that could 
possibly affect Jit.si Meet audio performance
- various issues with audio-input settings on the computer's Linux distro, 
e.g., Pulse Audio VolUme Control (pavucontrol) or other related software 
issues

After my own first 15-20min microphone-quirky presence starting ~11:25am 
on today's SF-LUG virtual meetup, I exited Jit.si Meet, completed my 
download of Zorin Core, shutdown all loaded browser tabs+windows, removed 
the USB used to dd-"burn" my previously downloaded Linux Mint 
ISO+checksum+sig[12], shutdown the PC, gently cleaned using 99percent+ 
isopropanol the USB contacts on both my microphone/webcam and external 
computer ports, rebooted my machine, and ~3/4hr later re-opened a 
limited-few browser tabs+windows including the Jit.si Meet link for the 
SF-LUG meetup.
Think that one or more of these steps successfully resolved the 
audio-input issues I myself had :-)
Don't know about Bobbie S's microphone/audio issues using her Dell E7450 
though :-\

-Aaron


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REFERENCES
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[01]http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2021q2/015242.html
[02]https://distrowatch.com/search.php#advanced
[03]https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mint
[04]https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4013
[05]https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=zorin
[06]https://zorinos.com/download/#lite
[07]https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=pclinuxos
[08]https://www.pclinuxos.com/?page_id=3836
[09]https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=bodhi
[10]https://www.bodhilinux.com/
[11]http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/kicking.html
[12]https://linuxmint.com/verify.php
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aaronco36 at sdf.org