Welcome to the #Fediverse, @edinburghlinuxcafe !
Tagging for #SolarPunkSunday!
@mnd999 @DoomsdaysCW There are many Linux Cafes (or similar) in many places. I don't know about London specifically, but I would be very surprised if there isn't. You could try checking https://endof10.org.
EDIT: I am very surprised, it doesn't look like there is. You could always start one? We started off as me saying " You know what we should do? ..." to some friends at a social over drinks. It really is that simple.
London Linux - Meetup
https://www.meetup.com/londonlinux/
Linux User Group (seems to be inactive now):
https://github-pages.ucl.ac.uk/linux/
I'm sure there are more around...
Everything about LinuxAfter something of a hiatus, since February 2025 are meeting on every fourth Wednesday of the month (except December) at the Hand & Racquet in Wimbledon (25-27 Wimbledon Hill Rd, SW19 7NE). [https://www.greeneking.co.uk/pubs/greater-london/hand-and-racquet](https://www.greeneki
@edinburghlinuxcafe @DoomsdaysCW @mnd999
Hello! And welcome 🙂
FYI there is a list/map of Linux User Groups here, not sure how up to date it might be!
The Silicon Corridor group is alive and well. Monthly meetups in Reading.
https://www.lug.org.uk/lugs/South-East/Berkshire%20and%20Thames%20Valley%20-%20Silicon%20Corridor/
HTH
"Want to start a Linux Repair Café? We have developed a starter pack to help you do just that (available in Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish). Existing Repair Cafés in our network can easily download it via their Repair Café account. You can access it by clicking on the ‘Downloads’ button. Let us know when you’re ready to open, so we can add your café to the world map.
"If you do not yet run a Repair Café within our network, you can register and download the starter pack for a Linux Repair Café.
"All Linux Repair Cafés are marked on the Repair Café International world map. This allows anyone interested to see which Repair Café can help them switch to Linux. You can see which Repair Cafés have gone before you by typing ‘linux’ into the search field."
https://www.repaircafe.org/en/more-and-more-linux-repair-cafes-including-france/
Since the Linux Repair Café became available in five languages, the number of Repair Cafés offering Linux installation has grown rapidly. This is also the case in France. Volunteers from two French Repair Cafés share their experiences and offer advice.
Welcome! Great to see you here!
@edinburghlinuxcafe @DoomsdaysCW
Excellent.
Keep up the good work!
I do it in a small way too for family and close friends. Very rewarding to see their amazement as an 'old' machine comes roaring back to very usable life 😊
@edinburghlinuxcafe
Hi, welcome to Mastodon!
You may find it interesting to follow Leah Rowe (if you're not already doing so). @libreleah
Supplies Libreboot (based on Coreboot).
https://libreboot.org/
@edinburghlinuxcafe @DoomsdaysCW _Wonderful_ what you say about helping people install Linux on their laptops! Here is something-- after having installed it on two different Asus laptops, one inexpensive Vivobook and one expensive gaming laptop, and one inexpensive HP, as of past 12 months:
The internal Wifi/Bluetooth is unstable in today's newest Debian Linux'es (and on some inexpensive HP Bluetooth doesn't even start). On Asus and some HP it can be repaired: my script
https://yoga6dserver.org/setup_for_install-bt-stability-for-mint.txt
@pvanheus @edinburghlinuxcafe @DoomsdaysCW Perfect!
I spent like many dozens of hours of research on this before I wrote the final version at Stackexchange here
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/804068/linux-mint-22-3-bluetooth-finds-no-devices-and-is-not-discoverable/804220#804220
..and in the process I realized that despite Microsoft saying they 'love' Linux, it seemed to me to be consistent that Intel, the main source of most Linux-unstable Wifi/Bluetooth cards, consciously avoid presenting the _full_ information that could easily make them work at once at all Linuxes; forcing dongles.
@i_dont_like_ai @pvanheus @edinburghlinuxcafe @DoomsdaysCW
The only time I've needed a dongle for Linux is for a Lenovo thin edge. My kit from PCSpecialist and Novatech works just fine with wifi.
@linuxgnome @pvanheus @edinburghlinuxcafe @DoomsdaysCW
Right, glad to hear Linux works.
[Btw: I am just about to update my answer at https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/804068/linux-mint-22-3-bluetooth-finds-no-devices-and-is-not-discoverable/804220#804220 with a comment with a fix for a 2024 Lenovo Wifi that I was sent from @diversetechgeek.bsky.social Anthony Dean and found to work on Mint and other linuxes]
@linuxgnome @pvanheus @edinburghlinuxcafe @DoomsdaysCW
The last lines of this link, according to the mentioned contact, works on Linux Mint, Ubuntu, and Pop!OS for his Thinkpad to cure Wifi, and this is a three-year old solution so it means that this is a gem of a solution to archive for Linux install experts:
@i_dont_like_ai @pvanheus @edinburghlinuxcafe @DoomsdaysCW
I have a 14-yr-old laptop from PCSpecialist running Kali and occasionally TAILS from a usb stick - no problem with the wifi. Just for info. No dongle needed for that.
@linuxgnome @pvanheus @edinburghlinuxcafe @DoomsdaysCW That's wonderful, and it is a healthy ecological perspective on putting old laptops to new use via Linux; like you, I often find that it works perfectly well.
For all students who are about to buy a new laptop, where is the 'canonical' list that says--do not by that HP but buy such and such Asus instead if you wish to run such and such Linux--but tune it this way? Ubuntu tried to make such a list for a while. Idea: make a Wiki or so for it.
@i_dont_like_ai @linuxgnome @pvanheus @DoomsdaysCW Having said that, would be happy to setup a wiki somewhere (codeberg?) if there was enough potential contributors. There are also some existing communities (Rebel Tech Alliance, Tech Reclaimers) who might be interested.
EDIT: the Tech Reclaimers are on the fedi! @TheBulletin and https://video.infiniteloop.tv/c/techreclaimers_channel/videos
@edinburghlinuxcafe @linuxgnome @pvanheus @DoomsdaysCW Yes! But this is exactly what Wiki's have shown themselves good at sometimes, if the moderation and set up is good. The quest is to be so moderate it is accurate:
E.g., somebody could submit:
"I got Linux such-and-such version .. to work with Asus laptop bought in 2026 & this is its type number.. perfectly / or: not perfectly, for Bluettooth was instable and such-and-such fix was required and now it is perfect / or: works with Wifi dongle"
@i_dont_like_ai @edinburghlinuxcafe @DoomsdaysCW I haven't had the WiFi problems you describe on my HP OMEN 15-ax252nr with an Intel i7-7700HQ (2.80 GHz) CPU and NVIDIA GP107M GeForce GTX 1050i Mobile GPU running the current Linux Mint Debian Edition.
The problem I do have is with that GPU. Once I install the official nVidia DKMS drivers from the regular LMDE repo, the various powerstates become unstable. Hibernate is already weird in Linux compared to Windows. I've had issues with it for as long as I've tried to use it. But with the official nVidia drivers, hibernate, sleep, and shutdown don't work correctly most of the time. The screen shuts off and the fans stop running but the lights stay on, including the keyboard lights. Opening / closing the lid doesn't do anything. I have to hold the power button down and force it to shutdown.
The longer the laptop is on, the more likely this is to happen. It's a pain in the ass. I never had these problems for the five years it ran Windows 10 but it's reliability repeatable in the couple of years it's run Linux: Linux Mint, LMDE, and Bazzite all did it.
@edinburghlinuxcafe @DoomsdaysCW
[Btw: Should I delete extra handles when replying to one?]
It is interesting what you say about the GPU stopping to work the longer the laptop is on.
A (vaguely conspiracy-like😅 ) interpretation:
Microsoft has a way of reducing intensities&ensuring that Linux folks don't get to hear about how _essential_ it is to slow the use or tune power management of some chips.
Solution: search for script-adjustments to slowing GPU use or tune powermanag.
@i_dont_like_ai @edinburghlinuxcafe @DoomsdaysCW
Incidentally, I plan to try harder for my next laptop to have an AMD GPU. My current Windows 11 laptop (Lenovo Legion Pro 5 16IRX9) and this Linux laptop are the last two I've purchased and nVidia was cheaper because it was on sale. This is what buying "on sale" gets me.
Looking at these to try to fix my Linux laptop:
@jrdepriest @edinburghlinuxcafe @DoomsdaysCW
Keep me updated on how it goes!
Of all laptop brands, I have a penchant for liking Asus though obviously the most cheapest Asus are sponsored to have a little instabilities which requires fixing on Linux. But it appears to me that Asus has a higher love for open source than some others (& unlike HP, even inexpensive Asus has battery charger limiter)
An the more expensive gaming Asus laptops I think have a tendency to work top with Linux
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