[Rant, frustrated cry for help] My adventure of Linux as my only OS begins (by force).

[MachFront]

After a disasterous Win7/Lubuntu dual-boot a couple of months ago, I reset my laptop to it's factory settings. Right away , I knew something was rotten. Updates usually would not download. It would remain at 0kb/0% for forever, even if I selected a few tiny updates.
I attempted a number of 'fixes' I read online and installed some FixIts and hotfixes, etc. from MS.
Nothing worked.
Last weekend, after attempting yet another hotfix, my Win 7 began major funkiness. Programs would fail to download (after downloading nearly fully). I attempted a few system restores a week or so back and then I began seeing a message that a certain "api-ms-win-downlevel-l1-1-0.dll" was missing and thus no program would launch expect for Firefox and Reaper. I downloaded said dll and put it in both of it's proper places and still no program would launch and WIndows still claimed the dll was missing.

I could not even restore to factory settings because the HP Recovery Manager could not launch due to this missing dll.

So, now, here I am. Forced to use Linux (and due to the partitions and their...placement and so on, blah, blah...I was 'forced' to delete everything including my recovery partition.
So, here I am, forced to use just and only Linux as my only OS. Joy.

Of COURSE (being Linux, specifically Lubuntu...again...) I'm ALREADY (mere minutes in) experiencing issues with regards to very basic things.

My internet speed is suddenly super slow. Like, slower than dial-up kinda slow. Like...downloading a 59 KILOBYTE (yeah, really) extention for Firefox took two minutes. Using Win 7 and Firefox I could, before, download something like, say, CCleaner or anything else of that size (around about 20-70 Megs) in a few seconds.

It took almost three minutes to load the KVR homepage earlier. Something that used to be nigh instantaneous.
WTH?

I'm already fearful of how in the hell I'm ever going to be able to use Reaper and especially all the synths I love and need (especially Synth1). Last time I had to become mired in Linux I couldn't even make Jack work with a native Linux DAW and native Linux synth. There are, quite honestly, NO Linux walk-thrus online that actually come right out and say: "Do exactly this...then do exactly that..." with regards to (well, anything) Jack or ...anything music-production-related. All of them are kinda like: "Well, you install this and ya...ya know...ya just kinda....do it...an' stuff...".

Boy. I can't wait. I'm SO inspired. I look forward to hours and hours of pulling out hair I don't have instead of creating music. YAY!

(I've been waiting for Lubuntu to 'update' for the last 40 mins and it's only about a fifth of the way through downloading.)
SO MUCH FREEDOM.

Windows screws me because even though I own a computer with legit Windows installed I still don't own copy of Windows and therefore cannot do a clean install.
Linux screws me because of....seemingly everything else.

This clinches it. As soon as I'm a freakin' millionaire, I'm only using Macs. Ugh. I hate Macs.

[MachFront]

I swear. Really. How can one operate on a daily basis with an OS that chokes one's internet speed so that a very basic webpage such as an old-school tabletop rpg forum ( dragonsfoot.org/forums ) that would once (Win 7 Home Premium) load any page within four seconds, now takes one minute and 55 seconds?!?!?
Yay. A "modern" OS that ROCKETS me into the internet age of the mid-90s!!! Woooo hooooo!!!

[MachFront]

As an American firearms enthusiast, I recall some years back the NRA running ads which featured a number of diverse persons all of whom proclaimed "I am the NRA.".
Some Linux forefront org should do that.
Imagine.
It could feature a diverse core of persons, all of whom are clearly physically/physiologically, emotionally, psychologically and (obviously, duh) finacially-destitute individuals sadly staring at their shoes sullenly proclaiming: "I....am Linux...." and then sobbing or otherwise breaking down, etc.

It would be so real.

[PapaLazarou]

Honestly, slow internet speeds are not a "feature" of Linux, so there must be some issue on your particular installation. In fact on an old netbook I've got, which has only 1Gb RAM and is cripplingly slow with Windows 7, installing Xubuntu has given it a new lease of life. I can have a browser and other applications open on this netbook in Xubuntu and still have memory free, compared to Windows which fills the memory and swaps to disk continuously just showing the desktop...

How are you connecting to the internet? Wireless or wired LAN etc? If on wireless, have you tried using a wired connection instead?

Anyway, if you want to re-install Windows 7 and have a product key, you can download media from here - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/softwar ... d/windows7

[Burillo]

if you're experiencing the same slowness in both Linux and Windows, are you sure it's not a hardware issue?

[MachFront]

I'm not. Everything was aces in Win 7. Even when everything was borked w/ my Win still earlier today. Super quick. Flawless. Even with things near totally effed up.
Now, with a fresh install of Lubuntu... slow crawling.
Also, the laptop feels hot as hell under my hands (I s'pose that's worth mentioning).
Freakin' weird (as it's, obviously, using less RAM and only a lil bit more cpu).
That is to say: Ideling: Win7 - cpu 0-1%, 800-something Megs RAM, Lubuntu: cpu 1-2%, 600-700 Megs RAM. (HP 2000 AMD Vision APU 1.2Ghz duel-core, 4 GB RAM)

[MachFront]

I don't have a product key since the laptop came with Windows and the 'product key' (such as it is) is OEM. One cannot use the (legal and legit downloads of Windows and key in said key... I already tried that a year or so ago, which led me to the first time I restored to factory settings via HP Recovery Manager.

With Win 7 Home Premium installed on this little, humble 'netbook' I could have Firefox and MusicBee and any other sort of minor program launched and running in the background and also be running Reaper with a simple song with around about 10 tracks with perhaps 15 or so VSTs and it would be running approx 22% cpu and 1.5GB RAM. *shrug* No biggie. Especially for someone like me for whom a 'complex' track may be something as 'crazy' as Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13" main theme, yaknowwaddaImean?

That's near moot now though I s'pose since it appears I won't be able to use Reaper without a compatibility layer like Wine and even less likely to use many of the synths I use...and...ARGH...If I ever get around to it since I'm spending so much time chasing wherever the cursor jumps to whilst I'm writing (as it has done multiple times this posting...grr)... *sigh*

I know. I know! I know it's silly and non-geek and defeatist. I know. But I'm just....overwhelmed. So overwhelmed I'm letting it effect me emotionally in a sad and depressed and more than sorta angry way.

[fmr]

Try download and install Windows 10. Maybe it, somehow, recovers your key, and updates your license. Google for Windows 10 ISO. You have some options that allow you to install it without a key, although you may need one later to fully unlock it.

In case you can't, you always have the option to become a Windows Insider, and then your Windows will become licensed automatically. But better

[Burillo]

you're not the target audience then. stick with Windows. no sarcasm.

[robotmonkey]

Linux is still pretty much cr@p on desktop when compared to Windows. Even the better distros like Suse, Ubuntu and Mint. I think you might try to switch to different solution or download Windows 10. Maybe the latter one can read the embedded product key from motherboard.

[MachFront]

I'm not convinced that this lil thing will shoulder Win 10. Also, since my own lincense key isn't my own (being OEM and thus cannot and will not verify or register Windows as 'legit'...I tried before..after some research is how I learned why it wouldn't/didn't, which is why I reset to factory settings back in Nov 2014), I can't anyhow so that is moot as well.

I realize also that I'm not the 'target audience' of Linux in general. But I've no choice now. I'm stuck with Linux. Even my recovery partition is gone (as I stated, due to the clustereff that my partitions were in and I couldn't, at install, simply delete and format the two Win partitions without some amount of headache....honestly, if it takes more than a few minutes of thought in THIS day and age, it's not worth it...seriously).
As I said, I'm now stuck with Linux whether I like it or no.
Now I've to somehow work through the bizarre and unnecessarily complex maze of modern Linux with regards to music stuffs.
Were I to be of a mind of: 'net, writing, pics, vids, period I'd have little to no issues, but nope...I've got to contend with somehow combating coming at least somehow close to where I was before with music production: launch Reaper, select VST, done.
My meanderings before proved that just and only that was a multi-tiered and overly-complex and tear-yanking process. I have no choice but to confront it and also realize that I'll lose nearly a decade off my life attempting to do so even if it's possible (but, again, as I stated before...while trying to tip my toes into the pool I could not even get Jack to work with a native Linux program with a native Linux plug...I was playing around: Seq24 (because it's cool and seems SO fun in it's simplicity) with the wonderful QSynth and ZynAddSubFX...I couldn't even get freakin' sound. Nothing. Asking here as to why and how Jack was doing effectively nothing resulted in: "complex things you can't understand even though you've admitted to being a Linux newb". ....thanks.

Better that any and all Linux forums with regards to any and other OS issues. That usually results in the oh-so-helpful Linux 'community' stating: "Dude. I dunno. Mine works totes aawwsuum!" or, "Here, try this crazy-ass stuff that will take you YET ANOTHER 10 or so hours of doing/trying things.", or "run this, the report back". All of these results in: "Ok, here it is.... or.... I tried and here's the result... or... since no one said anything instead of spending the weekend with my family I stayed locked to the internet reading a gazillion things for hours and hours and I learned this and that and tried this and that...
This always has resulted in: *crickets*
That's the default reply in Linux forums: nothing.

Hopefully I can win the lottery or God calls me home or something.
I know I sound silly to 99% of you who are reading this, but I trust those here to offer useful help moreso than other places online and besides, if I don't vent, I'll explode...and I do realize I'm full-force dunce cap covered enough to know that the likes of me may never, ever be able to...'be able' with Linux. I'm actually legit sad and depressed about it already. At least I've saved my Reaper prefs and song files so that if I ever fall into a crapload of money I can maybe get an old, used copy of Win 7 Home Premium and start over or something... Guh.

[MachFront]

Gosh I do go on.
tl;dr - Can't do nuthin'. Windows worked awesome til it didn't. I can't ever get Windows again unlesssomeone wants to send me gazillion moneys. I dig Linux for basic stuffs. Music things are crazy complicated for anyone into computer music production. For someone that basic computer music production is, inexplicably after well over a decade, still crazy complicated, Linux is like a wall with an angry demon-clown-face right in my face, it's little to no fun and every bit that isn't easy is yet another punch in the face.

Gimmie: Launch Reaper, launch any given Win-capable VST. Done.

or

Gimmie: tons of monies to have new legit Windows 7 so I can install and such without worry...
Besides, I need Reaper cuz I can use my keyboard as a MIDI keyboard. (It's the first of the few reasons I began and still use Reaper.)
Hell, if I could afford a MIDI keyboard, I'd use the money to.....ugh...AARRGGHH! FIRST I'D USE THE MONEY TO ALLOW SOMEONE...ANYONE TO RESEARCH HOW THE f**king LINUX OS COULD ALLOW SOMEONE TO TYPE SOMETHING...ANYTHING WITHOUT THE f**king CURSOR GOING ALL OVER THE PLACE OR OTHERWISE DELETING ALMOST EVERYTHING ONE HAS WRITTEN! THAT'S THE FIRST f**king THING I'D INVEST IN. f**k. f**k!!!...
I'd use the money to buy a copy of Win 7 and then I wouldn't have to worry about any of this...

[sprnva]

Have you tried to reinstall Windows 7 (the correct edition) and use the product key on the side of the machine with phone activation?

As far as I know, the sticker key is valid, but not for the automatic activation that OEMs like HP use.

Failing that, if you search online for the matching HP key for your Windows 7 version and install the HP licence file (*.xrm-ms) you will have a fully licenced Windows install again. You could then upgrade to 10 if you wished.

[Krezie]

I don't know how old your laptop is, but you could try ordering a recovery kit from HP.

Check the info here:
http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/bph07143#AbT0

[xNiMiNx]

I don't have a product key since the laptop came with Windows and the 'product key' (such as it is) is OEM. One cannot use the (legal and legit downloads of Windows and key in said key... I already tried that a year or so ago, which led me to the first time I restored to factory settings via HP Recovery Manager.

An unbranded OEM disc + your key shouldnt work. A retail disc + your number shouldnt work. Your SLIC + an HP OEM disc should though, and as you said there is legal outlets for such things.

Check your PM, and try to cheer up, its 1's and 0's, dont let it get the best of you.

Good luck.