when the pane is locked certain things are greyed out - I would click the
unlock button and enter password, the lock icon would change, but the greyed
out items would remain greyed out. At least think that was what was
happening, I'm applying hindsight to my confusion now I see how the panel is
supposed to work. Anyway it works now.
remaining issues:
* why does add remove software show a different set of available packages
from synaptic?
* cpu craziness, now only caused by libre JS in icecat, but earlier caused by
a wider range of things. Updating the kernel seems to have helped, but oddly
not all at once it wasn't like flipping a switch it just improved gradually
after updating the kernel.
the next 2 are not trisquel issues, but more general:
* not a bug as such, but with MATE and Gnome both installed the panel applet
in MATE that lets you control network connections is invisible. I believe
this is a known conflict, and wouldn't a be long term problem as I intend to
pick one or the other, but if anyone knows how I can switch net connections
on and off and pick wifi networks etc in MATE without that applet I'd love to
hear about it as a short term workaround.
* the impossible-to-grab resize corners in windows using GTK2 really bugs me,
I'm aware of the alt right click alternative, which is great, but not so good
if controlling the computer one handed while holding a guitar and leaning
across a table, as I often need to do. this is a point against MATE and for
Gnome3 fallback, I think, though it seems to depend a bit on the app. Also
MATE in Mint seems better with the corners, so what is different there? Other
than that I think I prefer MATE but there are pros and cons.
there are quite a few more issues, that are not bugs as such but general
issues with GNU/Linux common to all or many distros. Not sure if I should get
into that as I'm finding I get better answers to obvious small bugs than to
general "why make it like that?" type issues.
I guess I'm concerned that if after much work if I get a solid trisquel
install, and manage to work out a system to transfer it to multiple/new
computers (looking into remastersys or similar) that the hardware support
issue of using only free software may bite me in the future - however it is
now mostly behaving on my laptop, though it was totally not usable on first
install.
So there's a defined issue, why does a system that behaves fine running off a
live USB stick seem to have major hardware issues when actually installed on
the same system?
Having got a setup I like then being able to backup and transfer it easily
between machines or reinstall a clean system with all my apps in place on the
same machine is very important to me, and I haven't really tried it yet.
