I am a long time user of Linux mint around 16 years I would guess. On older machines using 32 bit. Always preferred mate as it’s always been a reliable source working out of the box first time and every time.
One thing I have never understood is compatibility mode when selecting install.
Occasionally an install would not work so had to select that option to make it happen.
So 2 questions
What is compatibility mode
What is forced PAC
Not had to do that for some time and it was a hang up for Ubuntu installs going back to version 8 or 9. I stopped using Ubuntu when I discovered mint mate so around 12 Ubuntu.
Reading between the lines in the manual, it seems to imply that compatability mode will blacklist some drivers which may be troublesome… ie some drivers will not be loaded into the kernel at boot time, even if they may be required for your hardware.
I think the logic of that is that there can be more than one suitable driver for some hardware, and it helps to choose the best one if you eliminate some that are known to be faulty.
I must admit that the business of choosing the best drivers for a particular set of hardware is not someting that I have understood. I have always assumed there is some “guardian angel” out there looking after it for me.
I think it goes like this… some drivers are generic and cover a whole range of devices… others are specific to one brand or type. The generic ones may fail in particular cases, so if you blacklist them, you have a better chance of getting the best driver for your computer’s hardware.
Someone please correct me if this is not the way it works.