However, when you get to the root of it, LinuxCollections.com is a service company, and this is a service some customers would like. So we looked at how we could streamline the process. Downloading and adding a distro to our database is fairly straightforward, but creating the web page, grabbing screen shots, documenting details of the distro, etc. can be time consuming. So we have created a "By Request" page - see the LinuxCollections.com By Request page.

By creating a "catch-all" page that lists requested distros, we can simply do the minimal amount - download the distro, get it in the catalog, and let our customers do their stuff. If there is sufficient demand, we can upgrade a distro to have its own page. So we have created the page, and we shall see how it goes.

(Note this is the quick & fast, expert approach)
Insert Debian USB Complete Collection, and boot to menu, then select the Live Standard (Shell)
Once at prompt, sudo su[Enter]
Now as super user, insert target USB (e.g. 4GB or 8GB blank/new USB drive)
Use dmesg[Enter] to verify actual device, in this example, sdc (System in use has sda as bootable hard drive, sdb is Debian Complete Collection, and target USB ends up being sdc), so we see final line of dmesg is: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
Once we know correct target device (i.e. /dev/sdc) we can do the dd operation. It turns out the correct partition is already mounted (!) (See note below), so go to iso location:
cd /run/live/findiso/boot/iso
Then run the dd command to create USB with Cinnamon:
dd if=debian-live-10.5.0-amd64-cinnamon.iso of=/dev/sdc[Enter]
(i.e. input file is the iso (plus be sure to use correct version on your USB!), output file is the USB device (dd will drop ISO file onto USB, which will boot on systems that can handle USB booting))
When this completes, you can shutdown system (e.g. systemctl poweroff[Enter]), and remove Debian USB Complete Collection, then boot with newly created target USB inserted (or move to another system, etc.)

Note:
In the case where you wanted to find the partition (or where using the USB from an already installed system (vs. booting a live option)), you would need to know which partition to mount.
From the GRUB boot menu when you start up the Debian Complete Collection
Details on this LinuxCollections.com Boot USB
Notes on Partitions (Volumes on this USB)
Item 2) USB Boot - Boot and ISOs
Meaning the USB_Boot volume/partition/mount point is where you can find the ISO
So if you use mount /dev/sdb2 on Live system, you see it is already attached at /run/live/findiso!
On a running system where you just put in the Debian USB Complete Collection, you would use mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt[Enter] to mount the partition at /mnt, so you would find the iso files at /mnt/boot/iso

When looking at sources.list (the /etc/apt file that lists where to look for packages), there are 3 typical categories (components) used by the Debian distribution. These are main, contrib, and non-free. When installing from disc or our USB collection, Debian will only use main and contrib. This is because these are the only ones that adhere to the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG). Below are the details as indicated by Debian at SourcesList.

• main consists of DFSG-compliant packages, which do not rely on software outside this area to operate. These are the only packages considered part of the Debian distribution.
• contrib packages contain DFSG-compliant software, but have dependencies not in main (possibly packaged for Debian in non-free).
• non-free contains software that does not comply with the DFSG.

So if using proprietary drivers, or other non-free software in Debian, you may need to update your sources.list to reflect different repositories and adding the non-free component. Here are some examples:

This is a typical entry (for the buster distribution):

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main

This is how the lines are broken out:
Archive type - deb (Debian packages) and deb-src (source files)
Repository URL or location - actual URL/location
Distribution - buster (which distribution we want)
component - main, i.e the DFSG software packaged by Debian

Here are typical entries to get updates and security updates:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ buster/updates main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ buster/updates main

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main

If you also need the contrib and non-free components, add contrib non-free after main, e.g.

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free

So if you are trying to install a package that can't be found, you will want to determine more details on the package. Some vendors may have a separate repository, and so that line will need to be added to your sources.list, and then you will need to run apt-get update to refresh/update the package lists before performing the install. For other proprietary and non-free packages, the non-free component (category) will need to be added. If you only want to use software that complies with DFSG then you will NOT want to add these options.

So how can you install a third-party or non-free package if you can't access these via the internet on the system itself? Typically you will need to download a .deb file that has the packaged software, and the use dpkg utility to install, purge, etc. This can get involved if there are other dependencies and/or it is an older or newer release than your current Debian version, so this is a more advanced topic. The bare bones approach (that does carry risk if you do an install this way) would be to download the .deb file, copy it to the system, and then run dpkg -i somepackage.deb. You will want to explore details from the actual provider of the .deb. Other options could be downloading the source and compiling it on the system, or testing on non-production system before installing onto a production system.

Note: These are inactive menu entries, only to provide textual information
via the GRUB menu system (use Esc key to exit / return to Main Menu)
Entries marked with ==> will show more info

==> Notes on using all ISOs from USB (After install)
After install, to mount all 16 isos and make all packages available
Do the following steps:
1) insert USB, and mount USB_Boot (largest 100+ GiB) partition
2) Open terminal as superuser (root)
3) change to the /path/to/usb/boot/mountusb folder
e.g. cd /media/user/USB_Boot/boot/mountusb folder
4) Run ./mountusb.sh

Note: You can see this sequence on the Debian 10 install video starting at 4:25. It starts with trying to install vim and tofrodos (which fail), then the mount process, and then, after all packages available in the /etc/apt/sources.list, voila, these packages are installed!

So you will want to open a terminal, make sure you are root:

You can use su: ~/$su[Enter]
Enter your password (for the root user):
Password:******[Enter]
If you use whoami[Enter], the name displayed will be "root"
Now change to mountusb folder, typically /media/[username]/USB_Boot/boot/mountusb, e.g.
#cd /media/cooldude/USB_Boot/boot/mountusb[Enter]
Then run ./mountusb.sh
#./mountusb.sh[Enter]

You can refer to script mountusb.sh for all the details - creates folders and mounts ISOs based on USB structure. Note that if you move the ISO files to your hard drive, you will need to change locations for mounts.

We have tried to put notices in shipments containing older distributions, but do not have a comprehensive way to identify and ensure that this notice is included in all shipments when appropriate. The following outlines the important info in this notice:

Thank you for your purchase! You have purchased an older disc that may not boot or act properly on a newer/modern system. In other words, this may only boot or load correctly if it is run from a system that is contemporary from the release of the disc. For example (but not limited to), it may require an IDE hard drive interface vs. a SATA hard drive interface, or must have older VGA compatibility modes (screen resolution issues). Please do not contact LinuxCollections.com regarding operation of this disc.

To better understand what could happen when you try to boot an older distro on a newer system, reviewing the change from IDE (ATA/ATAPI) hard drive interfaces to SATA (Serial ATA) as the main hard disk interface is illustrative. This interface evolution changed the main hard drive designation in the system from /dev/hda to /dev/sda. So often on a newer system, the CD/DVD drive would be on the SATA bus, and most newer systems do not even have an IDE interface. So the initial portion loading the bootable ISO structured disc will work and load the boot portion (because the new system recognizes and handles the initial loading the same as an older system), but when that boot portion tries to load additional portions via script, it will fail if looking for a /dev/hd? device (because there is no such device on the system, or that device is NOT the bootable disc). If the distro is old enough, it may not even know about or treat the SATA interface correctly at all, meaning it will fail miserably when it uses internal scripts to continue the boot process.

It is in the realm of possibility that there may be an option to specify a different device, or overcome this issue, BUT it is totally distribution dependent, and has more to do with the timeframe when the distro was released. There is simply no way for a distro that was created when the SATA interface wasn't even thought of to bypass its designed boot process. In simple terms, the bootable disc (at the time) safely assumed something like this: OK, I just loaded, and it is from a disc. For Linux (at that point in time), all hardware that can read a disc would be on the IDE interface, which means I just need to search and look at all /dev/hd? (meaning /dev/hda, or /dev/hdb, or /dev/hdc, etc., etc.) devices on the system, and find "me", then load the next portion of the boot process. So what happens with this distro boots from a new system, is it looks at those devices (which may not even be there), can't find "itself", was not designed to look elsewhere, so it can not continue the boot process, and it just simply fails.

As mentioned above, there may be ways to get it to boot and properly load, but it also may be impossible if you have a new system. If you are trying to run a 2006 distro on a computer produced in 2020, there is no guarantee it will work. You best bet is to boot on a 2006 system. Note that the reverse is also true - trying to boot a brand new distro on a 2006 system may fail just as miserably, so being able to buy an older distro is awesome if repurposing older hardware. However, this is where you must be aware of what you are doing. If trying to boot an older distro on a newer system, you can try searching online, or reviewing notes (README type files), to (perhaps) find the configuration information needed to make this work. However, please note that LinuxCollections.com is NOT a support organization - we simply put the ordered distribution onto media, package, and ship it to our customers.

As an interesting aside, many years ago we were asked when we anticipated moving to BluRay media from DVD media. At the time, we responded it was too far in the future to even say and we had no plans to transition. Now, many years later, how many PCs & Laptops have BluRay players? How many have USB ports? Looks like that ship has sailed. We do anticipate the demand for optical media will continue while the vast majority of systems (especially older systems) use this as a bootable option. Of course, (at the moment), the transition to USB seems to be well under way, and our USB Complete Collections are pretty cool - we think everyone should have one or more, so check out our Videos if you don't yet realize what they offer.

Facebook Links - at some point, Facebook removed the block of LinuxCollections.com links, so if any Facebook user pointed out that we were NOT violating their community standards, thank you. It never made any sense to us, and we are grateful this is no longer an issue - the original post on our blog was back on January 10. There are millions (if not billions) of people that have no idea what Linux is, how powerful it is, and what it can do for them, and as long as our sales justify a marketing budget, Facebook seems like a reasonable platform to put some of those advertising efforts.

This includes all 6 desktop environments, as well as Ubuntu Studio (which uses Xfce, like Xubuntu), and the Ubuntu Server install. You are able to run everything but the Server as a Live desktop, plus you can install any or all of these to a hard drive. If new to Linux, or curious what Ubuntu is all about, this is a great place to start! For further information, you can see the product page for the Ubuntu USB Complete Collection.

For single disc options, the ISO (data image of the CD/DVD disc) is transferred onto the USB. So when you boot from the USB drive (as long as supported on the particular computer you are booting from), it is essentially the same as booting from the disc itself. You can do things like test/check media, and for all practical purposes, it will operate just like booting from the disc. The major difference is often speed - reading from USB 3.0 is significantly faster than reading from optical media and quite noticeable.

We do offer the dual USB and disc option for various reasons - if something happens to the USB, you still have the original "data". Since the data on the optical media can't be modified, you will always have the original as a backup. Also, if you have a system that can't boot from the USB drive, you will still be able to boot via the disc option.

As an aside, the term "boot" in this context is the act of loading the operating system. When you start a typical computer, it will initialize its BIOS (from Basic Input Output System), that allows important functions like accessing memory, accessing media, accessing peripherals, and accessing network hardare. Once this initializes, the BIOS then doesn't do much more, but will try to load an operating system (as based on its boot priority). Often this can be a CDROM (which also covers DVD drives), Hard Drive, network, or USB drives. Once it starts loading this, it falls back into a supporting role, letting the operating system run your computer. If it can't load (i.e. can't find a bootable option), it will put a message like "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

It is also important to understand what Linux is. Linux is an Operating System that can run a computer, just like Windows 10 or Mac OS X. So this means you must "boot" from the media (whether CD, DVD or USB). You CAN NOT load or run a bootable Linux distro in Windows, for example. Meaning if you are in Windows, and are trying to figure out how to load or do something with the media, you need to step back, shut down Windows, and then start your computer with the media in the drive. IMPORTANT: Your BIOS may also need settings to allow the correct "boot" order - for example, if you have Hard Disk as primary/first, you will always boot from the hard drive, and your disc or USB will simply be ignored - you must set these as a higher priority than the hard drive.

For details on how to configure a system to Boot from USB, refer to this reference section from our Quick Reference pages - How to Boot from USB

Please be aware that the typical USB is made for storage, and hence, can be written to. This means you should not modify or change the data on the USB if you wish to use it as it was delivered - a bootable version that can run/install the included Linux versions. All Collections USB include a user storage partition (USB_Storage) that can be used to transfer data from different operating systems (e.g. Windows to Linux to Mac, etc.). But all other partitions / files should remain untouched. Also an important note: If performing an install, when actually selecting where to install, be 100% positive you are not selecting the USB device. Typically the size/partitions/name will make it clear which drive is which, but if unsure, take the time to clearly identify and select the drive you wish to install on!

A final note on security - most systems are concerned with protecting you from remote access vs. physical security. For the vast majority of systems, if you have physical access to the system, it is assumed security was in protecting the actual physical access (i.e. keeping system in a locked room), rather than protecting the system now that you can dismantle it or boot from a different device. For a generic version of Windows on a generic system, you can boot from Linux and then mount (access) the hard drive, and see the directory and access files, etc. There are ways to prevent this, but it requires another layer of security (such as encrypting files, UEFI secure boot, etc.).

The whole intent of the USB drives that we deliver are to be placed into a USB slot, on a computer that is off and configured to Boot from USB before other devices, and then turn on the computer to boot from the USB drive - you will then boot into the Linux distro on the flash drive, or into a menu on a Collection USB. Any other usage could potentially damage or destroy the files/data on the drive

For details on how to configure a system to Boot from USB, refer to this reference section from our Quick Reference pages - How to Boot from USB

So we received a phone call and asked how to get the Admin password back on Linux. Well, a more accurate term would be the root user or super user password, but losing or forgetting this password is definitely a huge problem. So what are your options?

You will be able to find various options and approaches if you search the internet for solutions to this problem, but (and this is totally dependent on the distro, your security setup, and other configuration options for sudo/sodoers), here is a potentially quick way to fix this.

• The following assumptions apply and all depend on how your system is configured!
• You can log in with your user name or some other user
• That user is configured to use sudo for administrator/super user functions
• The password, if required, is the password for the user (and not the root password)

Also note that this approach also works for some live distros and will work for any system configured to allow sudo to run as super user for the logged on user.

• Log on as user with password with sudo privileges
• Run terminal session (alternate: Ctrl-Alt-F1 or Ctrl-Alt-F2, etc. and log on as user with password)
• At prompt in terminal, type sudo su[Enter] - if configured, will allow you to run as super user level, if asked for password, use your user's password.
• If successful (you will be warned if it fails), you will be logged in as root (typically indicated with # prompt)
• Now type whoami[Enter] - if it shows root, you are almost there!
• Type passwd[Enter] - Enter your new password, and again to confirm
• Now type exit[Enter] - this returns to normal user prompt
• To test, type su[Enter] - and enter your new password - you should be logged on as root (whoami)

For more info on sudo, use man sudo - sudo allows a permitted user to execute a command as the superuser or another user, as specified by the security policy. Note that this must be setup already, and not all distros use this approach (to add created users in the sudoers list). So this process may not work - but it will work on various Linux distros. An interesting aspect of this is that you can change the root password in situations where you really shouldn't - so please be aware that even though you were granted certain privileges, you should not abuse them. You don't need the root password if you can do what you need to do with sudo!!

We had an e-mail today asking what to do with the disc and the files on it. We surmised they were running Windows or Mac OS X, and popped in the disc to check it out. We diplomatically pointed out that they are missing the concept entirely. Linux is an operating system - it needs to run on the computer itself, not as a program to run under a different operating system (notwithstanding certain releases that do use this approach).

Virtually all Linux DVDs/CDs and USB drives are meant to be booted. On a DVD, if you see an isolinux folder, you most likely have a bootable DVD. But looking at the disc is not the intent. Linux is an operating system and as software, it truly shines when it is running. The way to do that is to put it in the DVD drive, make sure your BIOS is set to boot from DVD before the Hard drive, and start up your computer - the Linux distro will run & load from the DVD.

Some Linux distros are considered "Live", where you can run & do everything from the DVD, and will not do anything to your hard drive. Others are "Install" which don't provide a full/working environment, but expect to be installed onto a hard drive to turn your system into a Linux system - but all expect to be booted. These are NOT Windows or Mac programs, and there is no real reason to look at the disc. They need to be booted to run the operating system they contain.

I'm using Linux, and what can I do to solve a problem that I don't have the knowledge or expertise to even know where to start? Whom do I ask?

The first approach should be to evaluate and try to clearly identify the problem at hand. Is it definitely a software issue or definitely a hardware issue? If software, it is time to Read The Fine Manual (sometimes seen as RTFM). (Aside: If you ask someone for help that the manual addresses, exasperation can set in, and this will sometimes become Read The F^@#!@& Manual - if the answer truly is there, note that you are wasting someone else's precious time asking for something you didn't take your time to find...). If it is hardware, the first attempt should always be the manufacturer. Often this will be fruitless, but it still must be tried, as it may lead to an online forum, or another resource that can get you to a solution. Additionally, there may be updated drivers that address the specific problem you are experiencing (drivers are the glue that tie the physical hardware to the software world, and often there must be a direct match between the actual hardware and the actual software - never assume "any old" driver will work correctly (and don't blindly assume that the correct drivers are always flawless)).

At this point, if unable to figure anything out, or still completely baffled, it is time to understand there is no commercial entity that has any responsibility for your particular issue. With a dose of humility, understand it may be your inexperience or lack of a proper contextual model that is the barrier to finding the solution. File away any frustration and anger, open your mind to new possibilities, and start the quest to find the knowledge you need.

With that in mind, the next step is to reach out to the Linux community. We list several resources on our Quick Reference page, and a good place for a newbie (new person using Linux) is LinuxQuestions.org. You will want to do internet searches on different search engines and try rewording your searches to see if you can find solutions other people have posted in different forums. You may want to search based on a well formed question, specific error wording, what works and what doesn't, etc. You can also look for distro forums, hardware forums, user forums, or any active community that is relevant and has a relevant section for asking your question/posting your problem.

Some other items to consider are typical troubleshooting items. Try to duplicate the problem on a different system. If it is working on one system but not another, identify what is different (configuration, settings, connections, etc.). Refer to system logs (typically in /var/log). Learn some GNU/Linux command line tools for hardware - e.g. lsmod, lspci, lsusb, lsblk, dmesg. If network based, learn command line tools for networks - e.g. ping, ifconfig, nslookup, dig.

Finally, accept that not everything is guaranteed to work in Linux. If possible, find hardware and software that does work in Linux. The true open source approach would be to accept the challenge, and do the engineering to solve the problem, and then report and offer the solution back to the Linux community. Since this can fall outside of the realm of possibility for some, it is understandable that this particular solution is not realistic. So if some program or hardware only has Windows drivers, you may need to use VirtualBox or a commercial solution like VMWare to run a virtual machine and use that "Windows" solution to run the specific program or access the piece of hardware.

The key thing to keep in mind is that any Linux based operating system has been developed with millions of man hours over decades. If new to this environment, you should be respectful of all the work that has gone into the software, and be thankful for everything that does work correctly. Be prepared to share your results/experiences with others to help the whole community. If you have difficulties with hardware, put pressure on the hardware manufacturer to better support Linux.

There are many options - for guidance, you can run 64-bit material, so you can look at distribution platforms tagged AMD64 or x86-64.

I use MS Office 7, for word and excel.
Photoscape for photo editing.
Chrome and Firefox for browsers.

You are in good shape with the browsers. You can explore Libre Office for alternatives to office apps, or look into Wine (which allows Windows executables to run in native Linux). We have a wide ranging set of options at our Quick Reference pages, including OSAlt for Linux alternatives to popular Windows programs. These are all linked right at the top of the page.

I've been doing a lot of reading this past week re Linux. There is an OCEAN of information out there.

Sure - there is a thriving community of people that use Linux, but because there is no company marketing and polishing this for the mass market, there is a lot of specific information and personal opinion, which can make it confusing to people new to Linux. There are some companies that take a commercial approach (e.g. Canonical/Ubuntu), and there are also others taking similar approaches with paid for distros.

So, my question to you is; What Collection do you recommend for my needs? Do you also have instruction videos?

If you read through our FAQ, the recommended collection for someone new to Linux is our Most Popular Collection 64-bit - for a wider selection, you can also check out the Live DVD Collection. What has become quite popular since we released it (but focused solely on the Debian distribution) is our Debian USB Complete Collection. We do have videos (How To Videos) that show off different collections and what different Window Managers look like (KDE, GNOME, Cinnamon, etc.). You can also check out our Quick Reference page for Linux tutorial and other educational information.

Issue #1 - this should go without saying, but it has happened. Be sure to visually inspect the disc for fuzz, hair, fingerprints, food, styrofoam, or anything on the physical disc that can stick on the bottom surface of the disc itself. Remember there is a laser reading a rapidly spinning disc, so if you can see something on the disc, there is a good chance it could affect the reading of the data. Clean the disc and hold up at an angle to carefully inspect and make sure the bottom disc surface is clean. If you see scratches or actual physical damage, it could mean the disc is a frisbee.

Issue #2 - don't believe everything you see. A customer was checking discs from an All Disc Debian purchase, and had several that did not generate the correct ISO MD5 sum (something like this). They insisted the discs were bad. and although we did ask them to try a different system, they were confident they were right. So they shipped all the discs back. We verified them on several systems and had to ship them back, suggesting that possibly their drive was failing. This was a great waste of time and money for everyone involved. It is always a good idea to check/verify discs in a different system, because it is possible that you have a rapidly spinning drive using a high-precision laser that may be wearing out... If the speed is wrong, or there is a wobble (bearings wearing out), you may get errant data from the drive. Moral of the story: Errant data could be a bad disc, but it also could be a bad drive.

Issue #3 - understand what you are looking at. Recently a customer was doing something similar with a Debian All Disc purchase, but copying the DVDs to a drive and doing directory listings to check things. When every disc past disc 2 had the same "files and folders", he figured the discs were not duplicated correctly. It took way too long to get to the point and explain that the packages are all in a pool folder, and the discs are built in an automated way, so if you don't actually compare the sub-folders, you won't see any differences. Luckily everything got resolved without shipping anything, but precious time was wasted. Moral of the story: What you believe and see may not be a correct representation of reality.

Issue #4 - software and hardware quirks. This is something I've seen over the years, and basically it is a disc change event that gets handled incorrectly. So you may swap discs, but the system doesn't think anything happened, so happily reports its cached data, which makes it seem like the new disc is the old disc. Usually you can do an eject or work with the disc to get things synced up again, but if there is a hardware issue, sometimes you have to shut down the system and restart, so there is no cached data anywhere to verify that it truly is a different disc. Moral of the story: Always keep a spare optical drive on your shelf.

Still, this is NOT the future that anyone should accept - if you run into this, complain (as the squeaky wheel metaphor hopefully applies). This is a classic case of computer algorithms and unintended consequences. So what do you think is the problem? You can refer to their community standards, but we just squint, shake our heads, and move on. Always realize that even a large organization with lots of employees aren't necessarily effective.

If there are any items you'd like covered here, please feel free to reach out and let us know about them. If new to Linux and LinuxCollections.com, be sure to refer to our FAQ and our Quick Reference pages for items that we won't be covering here (but may be what you are looking for). While still waiting for the Year of Linux on the Desktop, we may all be experiencing the Linux decade…