In moving from Windows to Linux, I installed Lubuntu on an old Windows 10 machine (incompatible with Windows 11). After switching the OS and running some fixes (to sound and bluetooth, for instance) it this machine is running well (with only an annoying failure-to-measure-data error at boot up that I can’t seem to solve).
My second Linux project was the purchase of a Mini-PC with Ubuntu pre-installed. This has been a nightmare, with System and Activities prompts missing, with websites not working normally, and with a sudden inability to recognize an HP printer (that the Lubuntu device has no trouble seeing); printer worked great on multiple tests initially, then vanished, with rebooting, etc., no solution. There are other problems as well.
My current plan is to create a Lubuntu boot drive for the Mini-PC and start from scratch, hoping for another good performance with Lubuntu. But I wonder whether I’m deluding myself. That is, I wonder whether the problems may be with the Mini-PC and not Ubuntu, in which case I’ll just be wasting my time. Thoughts?
Switching from Ubuntu Desktop (or Ubuntu Server too) to Lubuntu is easy, as its really only the removal of ubuntu-desktop packages & addition of the replacement lubuntu-desktop packages. The Ubuntu base remains the same as its common to all Ubuntu products.
You don’t provide release details; which are what I’d consider, given the Ubuntu base is the same on all Ubuntu products, which includes flavors like Lubuntu. There are minor differences, eg. Lubuntu 24.04 & 24.04.1 LTS media installs and uses the GA kernel stack, same as Ubuntu Server 24.04 & 24.04.1 LTS does, where as Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 & 24.04.1 LTS installs & uses the HWE kernel stack; but to me that is only package differences anyway (with the 24.04.2 ISOs, Lubuntu and other flavors will switch and use the Ubuntu Desktop defaults as for kernel stack).
You can also switch from Ubuntu to Lubuntu via re-install; in your case this maybe more successful in fixing your printer issue, but it still seems like overkill to me.
Given Lubuntu and Ubuntu are both using the same Ubuntu base; I’d expect the printer setup/usage or problems to be the same, if they’re not its a configuration issue, or package change/error that was made.
Are your systems using the same release? as the difference in age of software stack (eg. your Ubuntu Desktop is one release, the working Lubuntu is newer/older and a different release) would make far more difference than the packages installed on both (as to me the difference with Lubuntu versus Ubuntu Desktop/Server is just package differences).
According to chapter 1.3 of Lubuntu Manual you can run a live session of Lubuntu without installing it by choosing the option ‘Try Lubuntu’. Then you will see whether these issues still persist.
Thanks. The releases are the most recent available for Intel 64 hardware; because I’m not sure what I’m doing yet, I assumed consistent updating is the best course (as it is with Windows). My hope is that a Lubuntu installation, even though built on the Ubuntu base, will somehow be stable enough to avoid the glitches on Ubuntu install. (Because these are glitches, and not design limitations, I’m assuming that any change may avoid them.) But this may be foolish, or at least overkill, as you say. The printer problem is the most significant and the most maddening as the printer worked perfectly, in multiple applications, and then just disappeared from Ubuntu’s view, with nothing changed that I can think of. I’ll play around with this and report back. Thanks again.