My Linux Laptop
Lars Poulsen - 2026-04-25 [Tech]
The Machine: Asus
- x86_64 CPU
- Intel(R) Celeron(R) N4500 @ 1.10GHz
- 4 GB DRAM
- 125 GB SSD
- OS: Fedora workstation F43 installed 2026-04-25
This is a pretty minimal laptop. I bought it in 2022 at a January sale
at Best Buy for $150. For years, I had it set up in a Dual-Boot
configuration with Windows-11 and Fedora Linux.
Failure April 2026
Around 2026-04-20, I ran a full Windows
Update, and after that, it would not boot the Linux system, but failed
with a message like "Platform not supported by this image"and continued
to boot back into Windows.
I believe this was caused by an upgrade to the Secure Boot certificates
in the UEFI system, which invalidated the security certificates with
which my Linux images were signed. If so, it could have been rescued
by reinstalling Linux in the same partitions where it had been before,
but I could not quite figure out how to do that in the Linux installer.
So I decided I needed to start over, and
used Windows to download a Fedora Workstation Live Image to a USB and
installed that in "wipe everything" mode.
Failure Late May 2026
Around 2026-05-25, it failed again after an incremental kernel update.
It just would not boot. I looked to see which files I needed to rescuer
from /home (booting from a "Live"USB stick); got the files and proceeded
to do a full install again, while taking the opportunity to update to
Fedora 44. This installation was done on 2026-06-01.
Issues Encountered
As I get back into the things I need to set up, here are some of the
issues I encountered and (in most cases) their resolution.
Minor Configuration Settings
- Make sudo password-less for myself and other members of group %wheel
- Pin to dash: ThunderBird, Firefox, Terminal
Packages needing install
- cockpit
- lshw
- thunderbird
- vim
Install RPM Fusion repos (free, non-free)
- libheif-tools
- libheif-freeworld
Setting up Thunderbird email and news
I have a number of email accounts, that I want to read from different
places:
- From my "home" Windows desktop (which is at Afar (my workplace)
during the current home reconstruction project)
- From my work Windows desktop at Afar
- From my laptop
The accounts are:
- My home email account lars@beagle-ears.com
- My work email account lpoulsen@afar.net
(Two separate IMAP sources: One external, one internal)
- My "alternative" email: ljp93105@gmail.com
- My UseNet News account at eternal-september.org
User Interface View
- Layout: Classic
- Density: Dense
- Table (not Cards)
- Font size: 14 px (minimum allowed)
- Sort by: Date, ascending
- Toolbars: Add menu bar
- Extensions: Add FiltaQuilla
lars@beagle-ears.com
- Email address: lars@beagle-ears.com
- Manual configuration
- IMAP
- mail.beagle-ears.com
- Port 143, STARTTLS, Normal Password
- Username:lars
- Password: "b1rthpl2ce"
Outgoing: Dummy configuration - does not work!
Junkmail processing: Move Spam messages to Spam folder
Mail filters:
ljp93105@gmail.com
[All standard - autoconfiguration]
- Password: "Name@site2026"
[news] eternal-september.org
Issues Being worked on
Microsoft Edge Browser Repository Went Away
After some searching, I found
this instruction, which worked.
Issues Remaining
- Touchpad does not work in Linux - fixed after F43
More pages
These blog pages are found at http://www.beagle-ears.com/lars/pages/
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