For anyone who comes across this in the future looking for an answer, I went with MX Linux KDE, which is based on Debian, and has great customization features and a native program to essentially clone and install the system elsewhere.

Shipping him a hard drive with the system is something I might consider too, since that night actually be easier for him to install with instructions then anything software. I remember that computer had a SATA SSD

Meant to reply to op not you whoops

Thanks, I’ll try that, but how to I add that script when using clonezilla? When trying something in the past like that in the terminal it didn’t do anything and said it didn’t recognize this commands for some reason.

Am I supposed to start Clonezilla in a different mode?

Also, /path/to/image/dir is the partition correct? And do I have to specify which sda?

I want to make it size agnostic, because I don’t remember what size his hard drive is (and he definitely doesn’t have the ability to check), but I have the distro installed as a partition.

The issue I had with clonezilla is that it only works on the original hard drive.

When testing it on a second machine it had errors because it was trying to install to the exact same blocks as the original hard drive, and wouldn’t install.

Unless the bashscript can somehow ignore that?

I tried following the guide I found on their site too, which mentioned going into advance mode and checking off something to “check blocks” or such so it could be installed on any device, but couldn’t find such an option when I did it. I don’t know if that’s limited to a specific version of clonezilla

Edited to make clearer - I’m not using an image that’s over 10 years, that’s what he has installed on his PC. It can’t be updated anymore, and even Firefox on it is getting deprecated soon.

I want to send him a USB with a customized version of Mint 22.1

He did literally say it’s not meant for consumer use, it’s just his build for himself that you’re free to use

Just wanted to update, in case anyone came across this: wasn’t any different than Cubic really, just with more options.

Now going to test setting it up on a laptop instead of VM and using Systemback to make it into an iso

I imagine if a Chinese company far away can pull all this off for so long without getting caught, the entire close by Russian government could do much, much more.

Also it’s to make sure he can hit superman. Superman is faster than a speeding bullet, but a batpoon isn’t a bullet. Checkmate

Also extremely useful to know, and a good idea. Universal blue is Fedora though right? How does that do on older desktops compared to Debian based systems?

He forgot how to use email. Once on the phone, after he finally figured out how to see my video call (he couldn’t figure out how to start his) I walked him through step by step on trying to just get rust desk - which is in the Ubuntu repository already - installed, and failed at that.

Not only to him, but to a lot of elderly people, software is essentially magic. They don’t even quite understand the concept of “installing”. It took me awhile of explaining, with pictures and such, that a Google search isn’t run by people bringing up the information you’re looking for.

That’s why I’ve already typed and printed detailed step by step instructions on just the installation process for the OS, so that he can follow that. He does a lot better with physical mediums, like paper, USB, and so on. He even managed to install an SSD (with my direct in person supervision) and kind of understand what that was.

But software? Magic essentially.

This might be exactly what I need. I will definitely be trying it first thing tomorrow

Yup, problem is I’m now too far to set that up. I’m about an 18 hour flight away, assuming small layovers.

He had LTS, but that was 8 years ago.

The neighbors wouldn’t work, since on one side is an empty house and the other has also very tech illiterate people (and in the case of the parents of the neighbors, actually fully illiterate).

I like the idea to have though for the future

I’m in another country, how would I install it while also updating his OS?

Microsoft

The fee varies based on multiple factors, but international with currency conversion it can actually reach an estimated total of 5%.

So technically the information wasn’t wrong either, it’s most likely your dad asked the wrong question or didn’t understand the answer.

Searching on DDG gives a similar answer btw.

It’s not LLMs ruining his brain, he’s just dumb on the topic.

You have to think of it has fiefdoms.

Just because they are currently liege of King Trump, doesn’t mean that they don’t want to have power themselves. If given a plain opening, they would become king themselves. They don’t have loyalties, only compromise. Hence, they make sure to keep their own share of power close to have some form of resistance against the king.