Recent posts
#1
General discussion / Sparky is great but I ignored ...
Last post by WraithGlade - Today at 02:03:41 PMHello Sparky Linux community!
I recently discovered Sparky Linux and am planning on switching to it from Linux Mint soon. It is a real gem of a distro and it is great that it is closer to mainline Debian than Mint is while in many ways actually being easier and more customizable, etc.
However, I'd even previously seen Sparky Linux before but had almost immediately dismissed it all because of some trivially easily fixable problems with the formatting of one of its pages that created a terrible first impression. The problem is potentially unwittingly losing you lots prospective users based on something that'd actually be very easy to fix!
I tried to post on that page (the Sparky Linux "About" page) a comment about this issue so that the Sparky Linux maintainers could fix it and hence further improve the distro's reputation, but it looks like the post probably got falsely marked as spam and probably was never seen.
So, here is a copy of that intended message for the Sparky admins/devs/maintainers:
As you can see, literally all that would have been required for me to start using Sparky Linux way earlier would have been for the bullet points on the "About" page to actually be formatted as real bullet points.
Yet, in the past that trivial problem convinced me to not bother even trying the distro since it seemed like a very clear sign of extreme laziness, thus resulting in a false assumption.
There are so many distros that people often make quick judgements based on first impressions like that, as a quality filtering mechanism.
I think it'd be really beneficial to fix it!
Anyway though, thanks for reading and have a great day/night/week/etc!
I recently discovered Sparky Linux and am planning on switching to it from Linux Mint soon. It is a real gem of a distro and it is great that it is closer to mainline Debian than Mint is while in many ways actually being easier and more customizable, etc.
However, I'd even previously seen Sparky Linux before but had almost immediately dismissed it all because of some trivially easily fixable problems with the formatting of one of its pages that created a terrible first impression. The problem is potentially unwittingly losing you lots prospective users based on something that'd actually be very easy to fix!
I tried to post on that page (the Sparky Linux "About" page) a comment about this issue so that the Sparky Linux maintainers could fix it and hence further improve the distro's reputation, but it looks like the post probably got falsely marked as spam and probably was never seen.
So, here is a copy of that intended message for the Sparky admins/devs/maintainers:
QuoteSparky Linux is a great distro for people who want a distro descended directly from Debian, but which is just as easy (or even easier I'd say!) to set up and customize as Ubuntu or Linux Mint.
This is a real gem of a distro and I am glad I stumbled upon it and realized its value. You should be proud of the work you have done on it! The extra scripts you add in your "app center" add a lot of value, especially for setting up desktop environments and window managers that are less commonly used than the big three overused ones (Gnome, KDE, and Xfce). I especially love Trinity Desktop Environment, FVWM, IceWM, and Window Maker and recommend other users try those.
Technically, I've encountered Sparky Linux before a long while back, but dismissed it almost immediately as probably terrible because of the fact that this page here (the main Sparky Linux "about" page) contains unformatted asterisks and minus signs instead of proper bullet points (which, by the way, can be implemented in either Unicode or via HTML ordered/unordered list item code tags).
That extremely sloppy/careless formatting (or lack thereof) had previously made me assume that if you aren't putting enough effort into your about page to even format your bullet points correctly then the same level of disregard for details was likely happening throughout your entire distro. I very strongly recommend that you FIX THAT FORMATTING as it is potentially actually losing you a significant proportion of prospective users due to the (falsely) very bad impression it creates.
However, luckily I recently tried your distro and found that it is actually by far one of the best Debian derivatives, especially for anyone (like me) who is trying to get away from the "monkey patches upon monkey patches" dependency chain that Linux Mint has as a consequence of being derived first from Debian and then also from Ubuntu which causes many subtle problems and breakages and constant churn in Linux Mint.
I plan on switching to Sparky soon from Mint.
Thanks again for creating such a wonderful and thoughtfully designed distro!
As you can see, literally all that would have been required for me to start using Sparky Linux way earlier would have been for the bullet points on the "About" page to actually be formatted as real bullet points.
Yet, in the past that trivial problem convinced me to not bother even trying the distro since it seemed like a very clear sign of extreme laziness, thus resulting in a false assumption.
There are so many distros that people often make quick judgements based on first impressions like that, as a quality filtering mechanism.
I think it'd be really beneficial to fix it!
Anyway though, thanks for reading and have a great day/night/week/etc!
#2
Introduction / Sparky 9 LXQT is excellent
Last post by dltas - June 01, 2026, 02:48:02 AMLong-time Linux user here with MX Linux as daily desktop driver. I tried Sparky 9 LXQT on an ASUS VivoBook E203MAS from 2019 and was *very* impressed. What a fast and easy-to-use distro! Congratulations to the Sparky team on putting this distro together. It's made the VivoBook my happy travelling machine.
#3
Introduction / Sparky linux 8 just rolled out...
Last post by lschacher - May 28, 2026, 01:30:02 PMGreetings and salutations.
I am nearing the completion of a sparky 8 rollout to about 50 desktops at a small private school.
I replaced Windows 10 and 11 desktops and Windows server 2016 with sparky on the desktop and Univention Corporate Server to authenticate.
Nearly all of the staff and students are productively using sparky linux 8.
I have over 45 years of large enterprise IT experience and found this to be a winning combination.
Warmest regards to all.
Larry S
I am nearing the completion of a sparky 8 rollout to about 50 desktops at a small private school.
I replaced Windows 10 and 11 desktops and Windows server 2016 with sparky on the desktop and Univention Corporate Server to authenticate.
Nearly all of the staff and students are productively using sparky linux 8.
I have over 45 years of large enterprise IT experience and found this to be a winning combination.
Warmest regards to all.
Larry S
#4
Hardware / Re: shared usb printers not sh...
Last post by galen - May 25, 2026, 10:08:00 PMSolved.
Published needed to be set and cups service restarted a few times.
Published needed to be set and cups service restarted a few times.
#5
Hardware / shared usb printers not showin...
Last post by galen - May 25, 2026, 07:12:29 PM(Solved)
Sparky 2026 forky
Usb printers brother lasers.
I had to upgrade cups so sparky could find them on local machine.
After starting cups service and trying to find the working printers across the wifi network. Printers are not showing.
$ ss -t -p -l
Show cups is running port 631.
On other network machines printers are not discovered nor by nmap.
Host cups has printers set to shared.
Firewalls are not enabled.
I must be missing something.
What?
Sparky 2026 forky
Usb printers brother lasers.
I had to upgrade cups so sparky could find them on local machine.
After starting cups service and trying to find the working printers across the wifi network. Printers are not showing.
$ ss -t -p -l
Show cups is running port 631.
On other network machines printers are not discovered nor by nmap.
Host cups has printers set to shared.
Firewalls are not enabled.
I must be missing something.
What?
#6
General discussion / Re: Question about Sparky KDE ...
Last post by wpeckham - May 19, 2026, 12:29:17 AMDid you go into the Plasma settings and turn on animations?
No matter how they are set on install, you have the power to change them later. The Plasma default is not for them to already be configured. Some distributions do change that, but I have not done a NEW install of Sparky for a long while and do not recall if I had to turn things on.
No matter how they are set on install, you have the power to change them later. The Plasma default is not for them to already be configured. Some distributions do change that, but I have not done a NEW install of Sparky for a long while and do not recall if I had to turn things on.
#7
Installation / Calamares Manual Partitioning ...
Last post by guigirl - May 16, 2026, 11:50:08 AMHello. Does installation with Calamares using **Manual** Partitioning, actually work, pls?
Encrypted *Auto*-installation [in a different, single-boot single-SSD, pc] works fine, but so far i have a 100% failure rate [12+ attempts] when i do manual partitioning in Calamares on my main pc. This error always results [once the installer is ~ >70% complete, ie, what i mean is that this failure does not happen immediately, but instead several minutes elapse during which all seems to be proceeding well]:
```
The package manager could not make changes to the installed system. The command <pre>apt-get --purge -q -y remove sparky-backup-* live-* calamares</pre> returned error code 100.
```
Manual partitioning is essential for this installation, as it is an existing triple-boot [one older distro now removed to make room for this new installation] with ArchLinux controlling the bootloader, & with three SSDs in it... some of whose partitions i need Sparky to mount.
I have tried various combos of partition arrangements, & varied the destination also for the new system to go, but all attempts lead to the same failure message. I have tried no boot partition, my existing Arch boot partition, a new 300MiB boot-efi partition specially for this installation... i have tried assigning a bootloader & not assigning one [using instead Arch's one]... all attempts fail with the identical error. I have not tried not encrypting the putative Sparky partition, because even if that were to work, it would be useless... i require it encrypted.
The ISO is `sparkylinux-2026.03-x86_64-kde.iso`. It passes its hashsum check. I have tried it on two different USB sticks.
Does anyone have any advice pls?
Encrypted *Auto*-installation [in a different, single-boot single-SSD, pc] works fine, but so far i have a 100% failure rate [12+ attempts] when i do manual partitioning in Calamares on my main pc. This error always results [once the installer is ~ >70% complete, ie, what i mean is that this failure does not happen immediately, but instead several minutes elapse during which all seems to be proceeding well]:
```
The package manager could not make changes to the installed system. The command <pre>apt-get --purge -q -y remove sparky-backup-* live-* calamares</pre> returned error code 100.
```
Manual partitioning is essential for this installation, as it is an existing triple-boot [one older distro now removed to make room for this new installation] with ArchLinux controlling the bootloader, & with three SSDs in it... some of whose partitions i need Sparky to mount.
I have tried various combos of partition arrangements, & varied the destination also for the new system to go, but all attempts lead to the same failure message. I have tried no boot partition, my existing Arch boot partition, a new 300MiB boot-efi partition specially for this installation... i have tried assigning a bootloader & not assigning one [using instead Arch's one]... all attempts fail with the identical error. I have not tried not encrypting the putative Sparky partition, because even if that were to work, it would be useless... i require it encrypted.
The ISO is `sparkylinux-2026.03-x86_64-kde.iso`. It passes its hashsum check. I have tried it on two different USB sticks.
Does anyone have any advice pls?
#8
Hardware / No wi-fi on SparkyLinux 8.3
Last post by paul74 - May 14, 2026, 05:52:45 PMHello,
Just installed Sparky 8.3 on a HP Pavilion dv7 machine.
Installation ran fine.
But wifi is not working.
Wi-fi equipment is RT5390
message is "wifi not working, no driver found"
Il try to download firmware from internet but I got "page not found" as, I guess, driver is old and not available anymore.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Just installed Sparky 8.3 on a HP Pavilion dv7 machine.
Installation ran fine.
But wifi is not working.
Wi-fi equipment is RT5390
message is "wifi not working, no driver found"
Il try to download firmware from internet but I got "page not found" as, I guess, driver is old and not available anymore.
Thanks in advance for your help.
#9
General discussion / Question about Sparky KDE ...
Last post by Omnimaxus - April 26, 2026, 08:45:09 PMHi to everyone. I tried out the live ISO of SparkyLinux 9 KDE (rolling). There were no desktop animations whatsoever. Is this because I was in the live ISO, or because it wasn't installed yet? Do the animations come back as expected following installation? 0r is this the actual default? Thanks.
#10
Hardware / Re: No WiFi on SparkyLinux 8.2
Last post by AxL - April 24, 2026, 10:28:44 PMQuote from: eye_sparkle on March 23, 2026, 03:16:02 PM[....]
Any advise on how to fix this?
You can use inxi -Na, to find out the driver used by the wifi, you intend to use.As you can see in the attached image:
Quote from: eye_sparkle on March 23, 2026, 03:16:02 PM[....]
Thank you.
You're welcome !!
Cheers !!
