This did the trick1, everything else worked out of the box. Not that there was a box. I downloaded an ISO and put it on a memory stick, then booted from that and configured. Was only the wifi that didn't work instantly so I had to trudge through some instructions to find out what to do.
This is posted from the new / old laptop. Everything looks alright to me, should work a lot faster than it did. It looks a bit utilitarian I'll have to experiment with display resolutions. Then the question is do I give it back to Mum and Dad? Do they really need this laptop?
It's been a good test, I'm going to install the same OS on the PC downstairs too, that has been struggling for a while. I have another wifi dongle that I will need to use on the old PC, it should hopefully be as easy as:
Add a "non-free" component to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example: deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free Update the list of available packages and install the firmware-ralink package: apt-get update && apt-get install firmware-ralink
though trying that on the laptop (so I have two wifi connections) just caused some sort of issue. Also, as this extra package (containing the drivers) is not part of the official Debain distribution it means I have to get it onto the old PC somehow, before it has an wireless connection... so either drag the PC upstairs or run a long network cable down the stairs to the study...
Then when I get used to using whatever-this-comes-with-instead-of-itunes it'll be nice and easy to rsync my music and things between each computer and the NAS. I've been using music monkey on the old PC for ages rather than itunes, but I still think of it as itunes... good branding apple. I will also need another photo editor / organiser too. Picasa has been good for me for years, but it's clear google are phasing it out. They want you to use google plus for everything but the offline syncing is not so good with that. I want my home copy of everything to be the master and online is just a backup, google etc want things the other way round...
Paul Clarke's blog - I live in A small town. Wed + father to two, I am a full-stack web engineer, + I do mostly js / Node, some ruby, python, php ect ect. I like pubbing, running, eating, home automation + other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, Television, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.