Part of Computer Recycling’s build workflow process can be found in the LibreOffice Writer Laptop Build Checklist on GitHub. This isn’t the entire process, but serves as a guide for new volunteers on things that we check, test, and do, to prepare a laptop with Linux Mint (currently 22.3). We also have some quality assurance steps that are not documented in that checklist, as we prefer to have several eyes on 1 build, in order to ensure we don’t miss things. ...
Printers in 2026 tend to have a host of options, but they also sometimes come with a lot of baggage - a quick search for “manufacturers disabling printers” turns up a lot of interesting results. Sometimes the best printer is the ancient, non-network-capable printer, like the HP Laserjet 1320 printer we have at The Working Centre’s Computer Recycling Project. [NOTE] The HP Laserjet 1320n is a network-capable printer. The model we have at the project is a non-’n’, non-networked printer. ...
Lately it seems like we are constantly bombarded with news about artificial intelligence, tariffs, or some disastrous event. While my work involves advocating the use of technology, and I’ve been connected to the computer sector since 1983, I’ve always recognized that it isn’t the answer for everything! Technology can make life easier, but is can also be a pain spot. Sometimes it’s nice to get away. One of the ways I “get away” is by connecting with nature. Lately my wife and I have been researching and finding different parks to go to in order to spot and photograph different wildlife. While this isn’t eliminating technology (the camera), it has several benefits: physical (walking, fresh air), mental (relaxing sounds of nature, relaxing scenes in nature), and just reminding us the world is more than just always in your face technology. ...
My Linux Mint XFCE 22.1 desktop At home Xubuntu 24.04 is the main Linux distribution I use. And while I have a Xubuntu 24.04 workstation at work, the main Linux desktop I’ve been using lately runs Linux Mint XFCE version 22.1. With the Computer Recycling Project’s switch to Linux Mint XFCE late last year I set up a workstation so I could fully experience all the handy features, and issues people might run into using Linux Mint XFCE on the desktop. ...
Embedded AppImage icons show on Linux Mint 22.1 XFCE When Yoyo Games/Opera released a beta version of their GameMaker Studio 2 game engine for Linux, I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to promote Linux in an unusual way, by making simple games entirely under Linux. I use Xubuntu at home (and still do). I love Xubuntu, and have become accustomed to some of the unique key bindings. Handbrake, a program I use heavily, also has some quirks on Linux Mint, that don’t exist on Xubuntu, so Xubuntu continues to be the Linux distribution I prefer to use… ...
dpkg: error processing package libglib2.0 – too many errors, stopping Recently we found that a number of our Linux Mint 22.1 installations that sat for awhile without updates ran into an issue processing the update for libglib2.0 when we tried running: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y From what I can tell the issues seems to be that certain dependencies need to be updated and configured before libglib2.0 as most of the errors are similar to: ...
Origins of Linux at The Working Centre’s Computer Recycling Project While I’ve been around The Working Centre’s Computer Recycling Project for almost 24 years (November, 2001), the origins of Linux at the project predate my arrival. It was in fact the efforts of volunteers who came before me, working on a custom Linux distribution called WCLP (Working Centre Linux Project), that first attracted me to the project. Like Linux Mint, WCLP was Debian-based, with a goal of getting a “usable desktop” on Pentium computers with 16MB of RAM and 500MB hard drives. ...
It began with a project Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how to better support people who come into The Working Centre’s Computer Recycling Project and buy a computer with Linux Mint. While the project has been installing supporting Linux since 2001, four years ago we decided to focus almost entirely on helping people locally with Linux. Linux Mint now runs on 95% of the hardware the project sells, and we’ve helped people with everything from scanning wirelessly through Linux Mint, to recovering from some bad/broken updates. ...
Solaar is software for more than just pairing wireless keyboards and mice Back on April 8th, 2025 I wrote about Using Logitech unifying devices with Linux in which I discussed how to use Solaar under Linux Mint, or Xubuntu, to pair Logitech unifying wireless devices. My goal with that article was just to provide simple instructions for people looking to pair their Logitech wireless unifying devices, but it turns our Solaar has other functions depending on the device. ...
I tried AI on my Lenovo ThinkPad T430s under Xubuntu Linux and it did something shocking! Yes, the heading above makes this seem like zoo of bad artificial intelligence videos on Youtube, but I was actually shocked at what happened when I tried to install Ollama on my ThinkPad T430s running Xubuntu Linux 24.04.2. Entertain me for a second and let me briefly explain why I was surprised: I’ve installed Ollama a bunch of times on hardware several years newer than my laptop. Ollama will run if you don’t have a modern graphics card (which sounds a bit strange since it’s mostly text based, but having a decent, modern Nvidia graphics card can really boost Ollama’s performance). ...