Pop!_OS from System76 experience on a 2008 Mac Pro 3,1

[serpico007]

This project idea has been in my head for awhile. My dog just passed away and to help me get through the grief, I took a week off and thought this would help me pass the days.

I wasn't interested in patching to run a current OSX flavor. I installed a nice new Samsung SSD and installed Pop!_OS. I was testing ElementaryOS and a couple of other flavors of Linux but settled on this one. My past experience with Linux has been off and on since the 90's using different hardware. Long story but would rather document this current experience to help anyone else with older Mac hardware.

I love this generation of Mac Pro and use the Apple Display 23" from the previous generation. 16:10 ratio is such a nice experience giving me the extra height in pixels. Having a current OS installed and something different to experience with my favorite hardware is nice. It would also help me journal my feelings of loss for my best friend.

It's been only a day so I'm slowly creating my environment. Firstly setting up 1Password and syncing bookmarks, getting familiar with the OS and searching for new apps to help me through this time. Hardware is working fine so far, power management is working on sleep/wake up consistently and only installed an extension called Dash To Dock to keep the dock showing at the bottom of the screen.

It's been awhile but I don't know what are the popular websites to follow for Linux news, popular software for photos and videos. For example, I have many photos of my dog taken with a Nikon DSLR and files in NEF format that I would love to view.

I would appreciate any other users suggestions to create a nice foundation for productivity.

 

[serpico007]

Decided on gThumb for organizing photos as it seemed to work best. I recall using Shotwell long ago but after reading reviews and Gnome integration, I stuck with it. Been able to upload photos to iCloud through Firefox. I originally thought I had videos but then remembered that the photos were probably Live Photos which explained the 2 second clip. Unfortunately I can't upload these via the browser. I also don't see Shared Albums, just my photos and own albums.

After a few system updates, the Mac Pro is quiet and not producing as much heat as before.

 

[wardie]

I have exactly the same MP3.1 setup as you, I may give that a go. Thank you.

 

[filu_]

I have been using OpenSUSE for many years, since I started using the iPhone I am trying to reconcile these two worlds

However, I have other assumptions - I collect photos on the desktop. These are photos from various cameras, telephones or other family members. I arrange them chronologically and thematically, e.g. Holidays2020, Easter2019, etc.

When I tested the Mac mini, I couldn't accept the fact that the photos that I copied from the desktop to the external Mac drive, the Mac tried to sort in its own way.

However, I prefer to stay with my system and simply use the cable to download the photos to the desktop, to the appropriate folders. Then I leave a few of the event on my phone to show my friends. So there is a "mini-gallery" in a sense, and it's all for PC. Of course, on every iPhone I only have photos taken with this phone or copied from others(my wifi). I never transfer older photos to my phone.

From this point of view, I cannot understand Apple's obsession with synchronizing the content of devices - with photos or music. I prefer my manual way.

I also don't use iCloud for any purpose other than backup and backup of several documents, though Dropbox is a better solution for a mixed environment.

Have fun!

 

[serpico007]

@filu_ That process is comfortable for me as well. Family and friends are all on iOS, so I end being the one figuring out workarounds. Long term, I will organize my photos that make sense to me which is similar to how you stated. I like how Android is open in that way similar to a PC when copying files and folder structure. I use the iPhone mainly as my connection to family and friends, so I do the workarounds and can't use my Note 9 daily.

I'm looking forward to continuing this project and learning.

 

[filu_]

Yes, the iPhone is convenient in many ways, also if our loved ones use it - iMessages or location sharing - when I visit my brother or vice versa, we don't have to call / write "where are you", "when you arrive".

There are also a lot of flaws and certainly many of them are objectively not flaws, but I perceive them that way because of my habits. I like my order in photos on PC but I also like how the iPhone will do a nice montage of "Memories".

What I like about Linux, what I don't like about Android, I was always overwhelmed by the multitude of skins, launchers and applications.

What I like about the iPhone, which is simplicity, I don't always like about the Mac OS, although I haven't had a lot of contact with it.

It becomes comfortable in the old age, there is no time for everything I have thought many times that it can pay better, buy ready-made solutions and have peace of mind. But Mac seems too expensive and too silly to me, Windows does not suit me too ... And matches with Linux

 

[sanfrancisofont1984]

For pop os news specifically its subreddit? Some mods are from the company apparently.

 

[alex cochez]

This project idea has been in my head for awhile. My dog just passed away and to help me get through the grief, I took a week off and thought this would help me pass the days.
..
It's been awhile but I don't know what are the popular websites to follow for Linux news, popular software for photos and videos. For example, I have many photos of my dog taken with a Nikon DSLR and files in NEF format that I would love to view.

I would appreciate any other users suggestions to create a nice foundation for productivity.

So sorry for your dog.

To read RAW files, have you tried gthumb? Works fine here (manjaro gnome).

And for me, rawtherapee is an outstanding photo editor.

Home

About RawTherapee is a powerful, cross-platform raw photo processing system, released as Free Software (GPLv3). It is designed for developing raw files from a broad range of digital cameras and targeted at users ranging from enthusiast newcomers who wish to broaden their understanding of how...

rawtherapee.com

 

[serpico007]

So sorry for your dog.

To read RAW files, have you tried gthumb? Works fine here (manjaro gnome).

And for me, rawtherapee is an outstanding photo editor.

Home

About RawTherapee is a powerful, cross-platform raw photo processing system, released as Free Software (GPLv3). It is designed for developing raw files from a broad range of digital cameras and targeted at users ranging from enthusiast newcomers who wish to broaden their understanding of how...

rawtherapee.com

Thank you for the condolences and suggestions. I am using gthumb now and it is working very well. I’ll look into rawtherapee for sure.

 

[serpico007]

Friday today, almost a week of using Pop!_OS on the 3,1. Been working fine so far with no hardware issues leaving it on 24/7.

I did install some extensions and programs. Gnome-tweaks to get back the minimize/maximize buttons, had no idea how much I would miss it. Neofetch to get that cool looking system specs data in Terminal. Installed Gimp to see if I can fix some blurry photos. Pop! Shop is very nice with the inclusion of flatpak options. I still use terminal to update/upgrade or install anything I don't see in the shop.

Overall, a nice experience using this distro. I thought I would end up on ElementaryOS but sticking with this for now. The Mac Pro feels very quick with just the SSD and no other upgrades. Next I'll need to test out my iPod's and USB3 card I added.

 

[filu_]

The old iPod nano (this flea without displays) runs on me under OpenSUSE. I'm plugged in and can transfer music from my computer. I had to install some add-on to the system but it was in the repositories.

 

[serpico007]

The old iPod nano (this flea without displays) runs on me under OpenSUSE. I'm plugged in and can transfer music from my computer. I had to install some add-on to the system but it was in the repositories.

I tried with my original iPod via FireWire and it did get detected. Shows up as 5.0 GB Volume with the standard folders Calendars, Contacts and iPod_Control. I can't copy songs over though which makes me think it needs to get formatted again. Probably read only.

 

[filu_]

In my case, the iPod is simply displayed as an iPod, not a flash drive.



With the file manager (I use Mate so "old Gnome") I can look into the iPod but there is a real Apple clutter in folders.

I use Rhythmbox to add or remove something from my iPod. Please refrain from formatting for now, because maybe it is not needed if we do not work on a data warehouse but on an iPod. I am attaching screenshots with the packages installed. Try this way.

 

[serpico007]

I remember using Rhythmbox long ago, didn't know it was still around. Clementine was the other program I tried long ago. Guess things don't change much but nice to see development is still ongoing. I'll give Rhythmbox a try today.

 

[filu_]

The RB is quite .... simple. But we are trying to see the iPod in its own form and not as a mass storage

 

[serpico007]

Just installed it and it detected all the iPod's and surprisingly there was music I forgot I had on them. Slowly but surely I'll have this Mac Pro all set up.

Now I need to ask if there is a backup process that exists. I normally just backup documents and files, never an entire system. Apple had a nice system but never actually needed the backups luckily. Today I copy/paste files to external drives or NAS drives.

 

[filu_]

Unfortunately, I will not help you here - just like you, I do not make backups, I only archive files that are important to me (taxes, official letters, etc.) and photos on an external drive.

I use a separate /home partition, so I can access it even from another live system on USB.

I have always been wondering about the addiction to backups in the Apple world Make a backup of your iPhone, iPad, preferably on a Mac, and then create another backup of everything in TimeMachine



There is a Deja Dup tool built into Mate, rather you'll have one in Gnome. On OpenSUSE, the default filesystem is btrfs, which has a snapshot system, but I don't understand it completely and have been using ext4 for years.

Edit:
I think combining Linux backup tools with the NAS can have an interesting effect. Good luck!

 

[petercoffin80]

It is quite simple.

 

[filu_]

It is quite simple.

Btrfs snapshots? Maybe, but I never had the motivation to change my data partitioning and encryption system to ext4.

In fact, for years I only updated the system, and the partitions on two HDDs lasted ...

 

[serpico007]

Think I'll stick with saving files instead. I've been making notes of everything I'm learning and installing. Clean installs are the best.

 

[filu_]

If you are implementing yourself in the system, it may be worth trying to do such a backup. I think I should too - just for the exercise

 

[serpico007]

Stuck with my secondary drive in read only mode now. How can I unlock it?

 

[filu_]

1. How is the second drive connected? SATA, USB?
2. My guess is that we are not talking about the problem at the BIOS level (I don't know at all what it is like on Mac, I'm extrapolating solutions to PC).
3. How is this drive mounted? Automatically? Where? / var / run / media? / mnt?
4. Maybe it's just user permissions - the disk is mounted with root permissions.
5. I am not fluent in this, I do not learn - I have been cloning my developed solution for years - some disks / partitions are mounted automatically, some on demand. But that's why I stick to OpenSUSE because it gives me this opportunity.
6. Even if I won't be able to help, you definitely need to provide more information, without it, even someone smarter than me won't help much

 

[serpico007]

I believe it’s a permission issue. It was set up with OSX when I bought the Mac Pro last year. It is internal SATA old school drive for storage. I slipped the ssd out and slipped this new one and installed Pop!_OS.

 

[filu_]

Mountpoint?