no terminal

thenewoc · 17 Sep 2012 at 21:10

Hi

I'm using a new MSI motherboard which came with a limited Linux distro called Winki. The trouble is it doesn't appear to have terminal installed. I have a USB Wireless LAN Adapter which I have a Linux driver for but without terminal it seems my hands are tied behind my back :confused:

Just wondered if someone more in the know with Linux knows a way to add terminal or whether there is a shortcut key combo to bring up terminal if its just been removed from menus rather than stripped out of the OS all together?

cb_linus · 17 Sep 2012 at 21:40

You can sometimes switch between X and full screen terminal with ctrl + alt + f1 (I think ctrl + alt + f7 to get back to X)

thenewoc · 18 Sep 2012 at 10:12

Thanks, I tried that but unfortunately it just gave me a blank grey screen.

OhEsEcks · 27 Sep 2012 at 16:46

I know this is late, but I also have an MSI motherboard that comes with Winki. Which I never install. Winki and other "instant on" OS's are completely pointless for any user. They're all based on Splashtop or variations of, and completely stripped back. I had an Asus motherboard a few years back who first adopted splashtop and it was useless too. They give you a browser, VOIP and IM and that's about it. It really is for people to just boot into to check a webpage, or maybe message someone and that's it. If you never turn your computer off, waking from sleep/hibernate is more useful. I honestly hate the software and I hate that it's bundled on hardware. From what I remember of Splashtop/Express Gate, it's not like a hidden partition installed on your main drive, but an actual ROM chip on the motherboard (you could disable it in BIOS). I'm assuming with Winki it's installed on a hidden partition and booted first, since I haven't noticed an option in BIOS to disable it.

thenewoc · 28 Sep 2012 at 10:20

It is best to install it to a separate partition, otherwise if you install it on your system partition it prevents you using the HDD backup to make an image of the partition where Winki is installed. That was the first pitfall to avoid. I agree with you that it is pretty much pointless for the fast boot function but with it being the backbone to some of the options in the BIOS it would be nice for it to be set up in the way it was intended so its available to use. I think perhaps its most useful feature is the HDD imaging as I see W8 doesn't have the full drive image option as W7 had. I prefer to use a native app if its part of the OS or components in my build rather than going off piste. It also has the strange oddity that it doesn't work if the controller is set to RAID. In this case it means having it installed on a USB flash drive otherwise I would have it on a small HDD partition. Anyways I'm still stuck at the moment as I can't get terminal on it, which I think is the only way of getting my Linux driver for my wireless adapter onto it. Might send MSI technical a support ticket and see what they say. Bet they hardly get any enquiries on the matter, I'm surprised they have kept it interwoven into the BIOS options TBH.