By the way, I've installed Mint 19.3 Xfce (32 bit) and not Cinnamon nor MATE....Could this be the reason of my "issues"?
I don’t think so, no. Are you able to do other tasks on this machine? Browsing, mail etc. Is java installed? Do you have prior Linux experience? If not, don’t get frustrated. It’s a very logical OS. You’re doing a good thing by repurposing the older machine too. I’ll keep trying to help as much as I can.
OK.....here is what I did: -) I downloaded Mint 19.3 Cinnamom 32 bit and installed it (I did skip the 3rd party software installation) -) I download JMRI for Mint -) I created a specific folder ("My_Train") -) I moved (drag and drop) the JMRI.tgz into that folder, and extracted it -) I right clicked on the DecoderPro (page like) icon..............BUT this time, I had the option to select another one !!! -) Went into Resssources>Icons, and was able to pick an icon that looks like DecoderPro -) Now, when I double click on that icon, JMRI finally executes I will have to hook up my DCC++ base station (Arduino + Deek motor shield) to verify everything is operational though I may have more question down the road anyway........I will keep you posted
Grrrr............................more frustration Like I said, I was able to launch DecoderPro. I then hooked up my Base Station and went thru the basic settings (select the system - DCC ++ - then select the Serial communication, then selected the port. But then it says there was something wrong in the settings and I should click on back I rebooted the laptop, but this time when I click on DecoderPro (or PanelPro) I see the 4 options (Run in Terminal, Display, Cancel or Run). And when I click on Run................nothing happens !!!! JMRI doesn't launch...................
OK...........last update: I had dragged and dropped bot icons on the desktop. I put them back in the JMRI folder, and now I can launch But I still have the message "An error occured while trying to connect to DCC++, press the back button and check the connection details" FYI: for serial port, I selected "ttyACM0" the other available options are ttyS0 to ttyS31
OK, so last info: I realized I didn't do the sudo adduser command after the new installation So I did it, and now it seems to work Will have to try tonight on my layout......!
Congratulations if you have indeed solved the problem. Unfortunately Mint, like any Linux install, requires that you do some work in getting things to function as you think they should. It took me some time to figure out my install and it wasn't until I read that you have to use the ADDUSER command in order to get the computer to read the communication port for you that things started to come together. As for the icon, well, just about every OS will let you change an icon so it was just a matter of trial and error until I got it right. Stick with it, Mint seems to be a great platform and JMRI is certainly the way to go for model railroad DCC interfacing. Rob
hummm very interesting indeed. ive always liked linux and have it installed on one computer (but the power supply died )
Linux, almost any district, is an excellent way to keep outdated Windows and Mac machines useful way beyond their respective manufacturers intended life. As mentioned above I use a 2008 MacBook running MXlinux for all my railroading. SDD and 4 gb of ram have its boot time right around 25 seconds. Very satisfied with it.