Hello guys, I have one old laptop here with broken hdd. I decided to use that laptop as a media center for my television. I took off the screen, which I will be using in another project and I connected that old laptop to the television via HDMI cable. The keyboard was also broken so I decided I will take it off too and that I will use only a touchpad with software keyboard on screen only. The laptop also has a DVD player inside, which I want to use too.

Now where is the problem. I spent last two days trying different distros - porteus kiosk, puppy, chaletos, linux mint, slax, ubuntu, archlinux, chromium os.. None of them have worked for me.
The problem is that I am unable to run any of these systems in persistent mode. Because of the broken hdd I want to utilize flashdrive only, but I also dont want to run live session only, because as you've already noticed, I am not a native speaker and I want to set my keyboard and language for my country and I want to use that settings every time I boot, not just for one session.
I also dont want to install the os on the flash drive itself because I tried that already and it was terribly slow and unresponsive (ubuntu and linux mint, I can use only USB 2.0 port). I also experienced problems with mechanic, for instance chromium os did not support them at all and porteus kiosk seemed to be too simple to even recognize my drive. Maybe I did something wrong but all I was able to do in porteus kiosk was to open a browser. Another problem is that the system has to be fast and easy to use for windows 10 user, because when connected to the tv, whole family will be using it and I really cannot imagine my dear mother to read in english or to use anything what is not visible at first glance on the desktop. In fact I am proud of her that she managed to learn some basics of windows such as copying file from folder to folder and open a browser and look for her favourite songs. For this reason I cant run anything what requires deeper understanding of the system.

So here I am with a request on you guys:
I would like to ask you for recommendation of distribution, which meets these requirements:
1) It is usable in persistent usb mode and it is not difficult to create such usb device (I would be grateful for any tutorials, because I failed terribly when creating persistent usb stick in the last few days - and I even cant count how many times I've tried).
2) It is fairly well-known with good community base (to ensure that my native language - czech - will be available).
3) It supports laptop CD/DVD players.
4) It supports software desktop keyboards.
5) It can run a browser with support of flash and java, because I also want to watch movies online and I was unable to run some players because it "did not recognize the media" even if it did on windows machine. This is because I wanted to use something like kodi and geexbox, but these did not support browsing the internet as far as I know.
6) It is simple enough so even my momma can use it. For instance it has themes like linux mint and it can immitate windows 10 layout.

I would be really grateful for any help or recommendation, or any kind of tutorial about persistancy, because as I've said, I'm getting mad after many and many hours of constant trying and failing.

AntiX - http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

TinyCore - http://www.tinycorelinux.net/

Both can run with persistance, both can run from ram, both are customizable.

i have an htpc with fedora and the kodi interface which logs in automatically. fedora has a persistent-live-usb but it is fairly buggy. i think its best to install fedora on a usb (same diff).

I noticed you tried puppy. What problems did you have with it? It has super persistence support or you can live boot via CD and "frugal install" on to your usb. You can then create a "save file" on the same usb.

Another suggestion Debian. Yes Debian is great on old pc's, I'd recommend installing on your usb since I don't think it supports persistence.


Let us know what works

Thank you all for your ideas. Tinycore seems to be a little too small for me, but that AntiX.. that is awesome, works flawlessly and I finally managed to make it work in persistent mode because of its easy setup.

About that puppy - well, I think I did not manage to make it persistent, it always entered the live mode and did not save any changes I did to it. I suppose it is because I fu*ed something up terribly, but as I've said, I spent the whole weekend figuring it out and I was sick of it, really.. Now I'm just happy that the AntiX works.

But I've encountered few problems in it. And I would like to ask you for help about that.
I've installed the latest version of the AntiX, I did not found anything what could be called "modular", it was just one big file with all in it. So I ended up with several things, but I really dont know if it does have software keyboard in it. Currently I'm running external keyboard, but I really have to replace it with software keyboard. Is any preinstalled in full AntiX, or do I have to download one? I'm completely new to linux, so I would be thankful for any guide how to download some.

The second problem I've encountered is that I don't know how to place an icon of the browser on the desktop. Running it from internet menu is okay, but as I've mentioned earlier, my parents will be using this too so I would like to make it as easy as possible to them to access the mozilla.

Last but not least is that when I mess something up the speakers beeps. So I know they are working and the system is controlling them properly. However when I run something like a video on youtube I cant hear anything. I've tried to change the settings for the speakers but none have worked. Do I need to upgrade the drivers, or codecs or should I do something else?

And finally I had a disk in my DVD player and it did not recognize it. How can I access it?

Thank you in advance

Most of your answers will be found at the antiX website at: http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?tit...tallation_Tips

It looks like it uses the synaptic package manager, so finding and installing the correct multimedia packages, software keyboard, etc., should be fairly straight forward. Again, the antiX site will have the best info on what you should install.

This article from the antiX site is specific to your question concerning icons: http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?tit...ons_to_Desktop

Not hearing video in your browser is likely because you don't have the correct multimedia packages installed.
You were not clear if your system can't see the disc in the DVD or simply can't read it. What type of disc exactly? If it was a DVD, then it may be again that you don't have the right packages installed for what you are trying to do.

That laptop with so many broken features sounds like an ideal candidate for running headless.
I assume that networking is still working?

Set it up as a server (no GUI) and communicate with it using SSH from a another PC.
If you absolutely must have a GUI, then you could control a virtual screen/keyboard using VNC remotely.

If you are expecting to use flash, you will find that many video streams are looking for a browser user-agent string that indicates it is running on Windows.
add-ons are available to spoof the user-agent string...

Personally, I much prefer to download TV & films as this tends to exclude adverts.

Thanks, I'll try to play with that AntiX for a while, maybe it will work just fine.

Jeremy, yes, network is still working. And that idea about running it as a server is really good in fact. It didnt cross my mind, thanks. However I have a question - is it simple enough to use? As I've said, my parents should be able to easily control that and I really don't know if they can manage to connect to another server if it is more complicated than just a single icon on the screen of their laptops. In fact my mother has problems with running multiple windows at once, because she is afraid she might do something wrong. I really can't imagine her confusion when she has two separate windows, each controlling different device. Or worse, using console to send commands to the server.

I really never did anything like this, however if it is really simple to use, I would give it a try. Do you know about any comprehensive guide on this which might again lead to a working setup fulfilling all my needs from my first post?

It's going to be hard to use with just a virtual keyboard, no mouse(?) and no standard screen.
Basically, you run a background program on the laptop (server) which transmits the screen output, mouse position to a remote PC;
It also accepts keyboard entry and mouse movements from the remote PC.

This all works best if both PC's are on the same local network.

Have a look at https://linuxconfig.org/vnc-server-c...ux#h6-2-client

Even if you don't get your family to use it, you may find VNC useful whilst doing various Admin things.

Well, the touchpad is still working, so I thought I would click on letters via touchpad. But I agree, its a bit unconfortable. However that is the reason why I want simplicity so much.

It is indeed all within one local network, so I will definitely give it a try, thank you

@ RigelBlack:-

Puppy, as MillJ says, ought to be able to do exactly what you want. One of our Forum members, s.Kami, runs a Puppy Linux user's group in Hungary; I don't know whether that would help at all, but we are talking about the same language sub-group, and geographically speaking, in your corner of the world.

You can find the website here:-

http://skamilinux.hu/

Hope that may, perhaps, help. Even if it's not your language exactly, they may be able to point you in the direction of somewhere a bit more local to you. And there are Puppyfied packages available for the KODI media server.....which is designed to work from a touchpad/mouse/pointing device, and AFAICT, there's no need for a 'virtual' keyboard (although we have those for Puppy, too!)

Worth a try, perhaps?

(I'm not surprised you couldn't do anything with Porteous Kiosk except open a browser.....that is how a 'kiosk' distro is supposed to work..!)


Mike.