[SOLVED] Show disks on Desktop in AVLinux on Mac Pro2,1 A1186

Entirely new to Linux.

Have Mac Pro2,1 - A1186 - BTO/CTO
It has 5 gigs of ram and 4 hard drives, a 250 and three 500s. I have 8 USB drives of 500gigs and 1TB each to use with it.

The machine is basically useless as a Mac. Modern Apple operating systems and software will not install or run on this machine. Decided to try Linux. Tried many flavors and versions of Linux until finally got AVLinux latest version (AV_Linux_MX-21_Edition-21_ahs_x64) to install. So far no other version or flavor will install. Preferred Ubuntu Studio but no version of that would install. There are a lot of videos and articles saying how easy it is to install Linux on these machines. NONE OF THEM work with this model.

Been looking for how to get disks, trash, Computer to show up on the desktop like any "normal" computer. How is this done? The machine is still not usable. It does not even allow copying files freely from one disk to another. Plugging in a USB drive takes you to a window other than the desktop. When the machine boots up, the internal disks, computer, and trash, are not shown on the desktop. There is actually nothing on the stock desktop but a system monitor which is not part of the actual desktop. There seems to be no control panel, especially something that controls whether disks are shown on desktop.

The intended use is to process video. The only programs to be run are Audacity, Openshot, and possibly Kdenlive. There is no need for internet access or much else beyond being able to do audio and video editing. The ability to freely copy files between drives is crucial.

Please, No command lines!!!

Hi Strikes Rule,

Welcome to LinuxQuestions.

I have *tried* AVLinux in the past, but only passingly. I was looking to see if a distro pre-built for pro-audio would be preferable to one I assembled myself on Arch. I stuck with Arch (I like controlling exactly what goes into my system build or not).

Your main question seems to be why the "disks" don't show up on the desktop. I'm guessing you mean little icons on the desktop, or something similar. Although I have seen this in some distros (versions of Linux), it's not uniform across all. If you open your file manager (can't remember which one comes with AVLinux ...), you should see your file systems from the various disks. If some don't show up, they may need to be mounted (the concept of "mounting" is sometimes challenging for those new to Linux) - many graphical file managers have menu options for mounting so that you don't have to use the command line interface. You may also have to make sure that AVLinux comes "out-of-the-box" with support for whatever file systems you have on your many disks. If not, you can add this.

The trash function is usually there by default in most user-friendly distros. If not, you may need to install gvfs.

The age of your computer may be part of the reason you have been unable to install other distros. Perhaps you could try something like Antix if AVLinux doesn't turn out to be for you. If however, as you state, your main use of the computer is going to be for media editing, AVLinux makes sense. You could also look up other similarly themed distros (there are others besides Ubuntu Studio).

Finally, you *can* use Linux while avoiding the command line, but you may find it useful to learn certain basics. Although MacOS is a descendant of Unix and has many similarities with Linux, it has always hidden most of the workings from the user in an attempt to make the system easier to use (similarly to Windows). This is fine, except it makes a transition to Linux somewhat more challenging.

Cheers - not sure if this helps at all, but please let us know if you require further assistance.

Rick

That's a 14 year old computer and I would expect it to be difficult to install most major Linux distributions on it. Since you've managed to install a distribution you want you've passed the first hurdle.

You seem to put a lot of emphasis on having icons on the Desktop. Is this what Apple does? Some Linux distributions developers feel that there should not be a Desktop cluttered with icons so they make it difficult to do. This is particularly so with the Gnome Desktop Environment and the Nautilus file manager so if you have tried any distributions using that software, that is the reason. AVLinux doesn't use either so that's not a problem in your case and there are ways around this limitation in any case.

Have you gone to the AVLinux site for information? Have you read any reviews of the OS?

https://www.fossmint.com/av-linux-au...production-os/

Are you familiar with the Linux directory structure? Although there may be only one user for the computer, Linux is a multiuser system by default, one ordinary user and a user with root (administrator) privileges. I've not used AVLinux but most Linux distributions will show an icon in a panel on the side/bottom or top of the Desktop with a usb icon which you can use to access an external or flash drive. A USB drive can generally bee accessed under the /run/media or /media/username directory.

I'd read some reviews such as the one linked above on AVLinux and on the XFCE Desktop Environment which is what AVLinux uses. The Desktop may not look like what you are used to but Linux is very configurable and can generally be set to user choices.

Copying files to a separate disk will usually require changing permissions or ownership of the drive partition. Generally, a Linux system allows write permission to a normal user only in the /home/username directory.

Originally Posted by Strikes Rule Entirely new to Linux. Have Mac Pro2,1 - A1186 - BTO/CTO It has 5 gigs of ram and 4 hard drives, a 250 and three 500s. I have 8 USB drives of 500gigs and 1TB each to use with it. The machine is basically useless as a Mac. Modern Apple operating systems and software will not install or run on this machine. Decided to try Linux. Tried many flavors and versions of Linux until finally got AVLinux latest version (AV_Linux_MX-21_Edition-21_ahs_x64) to install. So far no other version or flavor will install. Preferred Ubuntu Studio but no version of that would install. There are a lot of videos and articles saying how easy it is to install Linux on these machines. NONE OF THEM work with this model. Been looking for how to get disks, trash, Computer to show up on the desktop like any "normal" computer. How is this done? The machine is still not usable. It does not even allow copying files freely from one disk to another. Plugging in a USB drive takes you to a window other than the desktop. When the machine boots up, the internal disks, computer, and trash, are not shown on the desktop. There is actually nothing on the stock desktop but a system monitor which is not part of the actual desktop. There seems to be no control panel, especially something that controls whether disks are shown on desktop. The intended use is to process video. The only programs to be run are Audacity, Openshot, and possibly Kdenlive. There is no need for internet access or much else beyond being able to do audio and video editing. The ability to freely copy files between drives is crucial. Please, No command lines!!!

We are happy to help if you provide more useful information (see 1st link in my signature), but cannot promise to abstain from command lines!!!
It sounds like you have some problems with AVLinux specifically. Maybe you should ask them? Last time I looked they did have a forum.

Digging deeper, it looks like this particular model of the Mac Pro, the A1186, is a custom unit that didn't sell well or for long. It was built at the transition from 32 to 64 bit and has "bios" that uses both. Herein is the problem. This is the 3gHz model of that niche, of which even fewer were manufactured.

Yes. Finding Any distribution of Any flavor of Linux was an issue with this machine. Main choices were Ubuntu Studio and AVLinux. No version of Studio would install on this model. At first no version of AVLinux would install either. Then I ran across an article that talked about video cards. The stock card had been replaced by the original owner with a "better" ATI card in order to run multiple large monitors, so I replaced it with an original found on eBay. After that AV was able to be installed. Studio still will not, so I went with what works. It looks like both processors, as well as WiFi, can be used without additional driver installs, with AVLinux, which is a plus. (Machine will Not be connected to the internet.) So, yes, that's a big step.

Many graphic designers, as well as other "creatives" prefer to have everything on the desktop - network drives, hard drives and/or partitions, removable media, project, and repository links, etc. for easier access. Multi-monitor setups are popular, where one works mainly on one monitor while having resource windows open on the other. This is true in other fields as well, like science, and engineering. Many programs and systems allow files to be dragged from open windows directly into project windows. When removable media is inserted or removed, it needs to come up on the desktop as well as file manager.

Also looking at other desktops and how to install them, to create a more Mac/Windows like environment.

There is only one user even if there are multiple people on this machine. No sense in authenticating just to copy or move files between drives on this machine. Thank you for that information. The permissions can be set up easily since there is only one user.


It looks like a lot of the customization needed and wanted, is available.


Thanks, Everybody.

Please mark your thread SOLVED (see my signature). Others will benefit.