(12-30-2023, 08:56 AM)KC9UDX Wrote: I use one of these cheapy "802.11N" dongles that only sticks out the side of the PBP about 3/8". I don't even notice that it's there. But that could be because I spent 2 years with a very large obnoxious one. I use it because NetBSD 9.3 does not work with the internal Wi-Fi (of course NetBSD 10RC1 might; I haven't tried it).I know I have a big dongle with an antenna, but might have picked up a smaller one somewhere also. Problem is, besides just having to futz with it while traveling, is I need a trackball for web stuff as I touchpads just suck, so that only leaves one port for plugging in phones and things.
I have the same opinion of Manjaru; but I haven't used it much. I keep it on my wife's PBP, mostly because usually I don't have to deal with it (except when it breaks when I update it).
I did have the original PBP "Debian desktop" for a while which seemed to do everything Manjaru does, but it felt lighter. I'd say you might want to try that, but I'm not sure if that version of Debian is still relevant on the PBP. I'd still be using it if NetBSD didn't do everything I needed it to do.
Yeah, I might go with Debian or one of a few others I'm more satisfied with from x86 experience before Manjaro, but
I guess the next step is to figure out what is wrong with my boot menu and do Arch fresh. It seems to me either something was corrupted when I tried this last install, or there are problems with some of the newer hardware elements added when the PBP went back into production last year. Or, reading up on ArchARM, it looks like there was a switch in maintainers at some point when the original guy disappeared, so might be they haven't ironed out all the problems since putting the packages back together...?