Previous: Welcome to /fglt/ - Friendly GNU/Linux Thread.
Users of all levels are welcome to ask questions about GNU/Linux and share their experiences.
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If you would like to try out GNU/Linux you can do one of the following: 0) Install a GNU/Linux distribution of your choice in a Virtual Machine. 1) Use a live image and to boot directly into the GNU/Linux distribution without installing anything. 2) Dual boot the GNU/Linux distribution of your choice along with Windows or macOS. 3) Go balls deep and replace everything with GNU/Linux.
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Why haven't you installed Source Mage GNU/Linux yet, /fglt/?
Cameron Lewis
Install GuixSD
Alexander Barnes
How do I install gentoo on a UEFI system? The minimal installation iso doesn't support UEFI and thus I cannot boot in UEFI mode but it is strongy recommended to do so...
Jace Parker
So, what do you people actually do on your Linux machines? Any productive work?
Angel Roberts
Download the LiveDVD, then.
Ayden Young
Programming and server testing/hosting
Cooper Perez
Is there a difference between using ubuntu and installing a DE (KDE, Mint, or XFCE) over using the dedicated flavors for that DE (Kubuntu, Ubuntu Mate, Xubuntu)?
Joseph Rodriguez
You'll probably have some unnecessary Unity/GNOME junk with the Ubuntu+KDE route.
Adam Hall
What distro should I choose?
Joshua Taylor
arch
Matthew Barnes
Fedora.
Landon Murphy
is devuan project fucking dead? I subscribed to their announce mailing list months ago and I haven't received a single smidge of information whether 2.0 is actually going to come out within the next year.
Zachary Taylor
I have a question about systemd. I know about the cons, but what would the """pros""" about it? What's the worst that could happen if I use Devuan instead of Debian?
Gavin Scott
Linux Mint Xfce 18.2
Jackson Rodriguez
I'm set on Plasma, though.
Brody Miller
This is why declarative package managers are going to be so awesome and will probably eventually make the whole idea of creating new distros just to change default software obsolete.
Xavier Garcia
Depends with your experience with Linux.If youre startin out for the first time in Linux then go for Ubuntu.Next hop on to Fedora or dive into Arch/Antergos/Manjaro straight
Noah Ortiz
OpenSUSE They have a very good KDE integration.
Lucas Gutierrez
Im building a vidya rig, should i put linux on it, ive never used linux before
Easton Rodriguez
source mage
Ethan Parker
The init system is more or less never seen or used by your average user
However, systemd is much more than just an init system. So I guess you can get some pros like having systemd handle networking for you or whatever other bloated junk it comes with. If you consider that sort of thing to be a pro rather than a con in the first place.
Colton Perez
Seems pretty interesting. Have you used one yourself?
Xavier Turner
What is the point of distro hopping? Isn't there a distro that you can use like windows as in install, configure and just keep using that?
Wyatt Bennett
People like variety.
Adam Bennett
Anyone running Linux mint 8.2 on virtualbox on a win10 computer using the guest additions?
The colors of the backround are fucked whenever i log in no matter what I do. Everything is too bright or overexposed.
Nolan Taylor
Well what you say is actually the truth. Theres no point in distro hopping but it depends on your preference if youre comfy with the current distro then dont hop its simple.. Experiences different distros wont harm you either
John Sanchez
Yes, NixOS.
Say for example you wanted to create one of those silly distros that's just a fork with a few changes to initial setup here and there. If you wanted to do that on NixOS then as you start going you'll quickly realize that all you're doing is changing your "configuration.nix", so there's no need to make a whole new distribution, you just distribute your custom nix file.
I can't wait until they take off. I'm sure /fglt/ will have a bunch of pastebins on hand with different declarations that new users can just drop in place during install, instead of having to point them to separate distros.
Lincoln Diaz
Also for the record, although I'm using NixOS I would really prefer it if Guix wins the declarative package manager race
Evan Anderson
If NixOS was updated as frequently as Arch I would switch in an heartbet
David Mitchell
if you're going to use it for games you should probably dual boot or do a gpu passthrough setup. Still go for it if you're intrigued by it though
Adam Hall
I'm sure in the future we'll see distros like that. It should even be possible to implement USE flags and have a declarative Gentoo-like system.
Nathan Evans
manjaro linux
Joshua Wright
What exactly is the difference between the major distros? Is it just the package manager and some default programs and configuration? I'm guessing not. What is fundamentally different about them?
Samuel Gomez
Actually distro hopping is more like testing diffrent distros untill you decide to stay on distro you like.
Its like go mint>ubuntu>debian>kubuntu>slackware>gentoo>void>archlinux. I hoped on many distros on my VM. But at the end i just ended up installing Mint KDE on my computer and sticking with it.
Thomas Young
Just the package managers and terminal commands. Also the gnome de's vary but that can be dealt with.all distros can be made to look like anything.So there isnt much differences really except for the difficulty in using.
Jason Watson
The most fundamental difference are the repos they get software from. Distros that use the same repos are basically the same distro with minor changes. If they also supplement with additional custom repos then they'll differ more. And then of course distros with totally different repos are the most different.
Luke Wilson
I have laptop and desktop, both have plasma installed. Laptop has kde neon, desktop has manjaro. I'm using audacious as music player, on neon is aucious 3.9.something from ppa, on desktop audacious-qt5 from aur. My problem is multimedia keys works on neon, but doesn't on manjaro. How do i fix that?
James Ward
...
Matthew Gray
Are all distros based on the same Linux kernel? Are there any good forks to the Linux kernel? Is GNU Hurd a viable alternative?
Carson Ward
Why should I install AUR packages by typing all that shit in the terminal instead of just clicking it in "Add/remove software"?
Chase Jones
he's clearly saying that he does use GNU/loonix for most of work but only in the terminal
Wyatt Perez
Your choice really. Using the terminal way more fun than just clicking a button.
Colton Baker
or KDE neon
Tyler Morris
but I'm not good at memorizing a lot of commands
Jackson Martin
Linux, the kernel, is modular. Different distros might build it with different parts which is why you'll often see additional info in the name of the kernel besides just version, like the distro name for instance. But as long as they say the same version then the parts are the same, just which parts are built in might differ.
Gabriel Myers
On Arch KDE Plasma.....
Why do I get SIGNIFICANTLY better desktop performance with Nouveau vs Nvidia propritary?
>Nouveau --> all animations are 60fps, tooltip effects 60fps, resizing windows 60fps, everything is flawless
>Install NVIDIA >Resizing windows is choppy as fuck and is like 5fps >Tooltip delay is stuttery >everything feels like shit
I don't get it Why? What's this about? How do I fix this shit?
Luis Morales
What's the point of using stuff like Neon, which is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian? Why not go straight to Debian?
Jonathan Gutierrez
Vertical integration.
Easton Adams
Which version of Opensuse?
Nathaniel White
There is no memorizing once you have done it 3-4 times. Shit jjust automatically clicks in your head
Carter Roberts
Same, it doesn't help. I also noticed that i have "player"(i don't know how it's called in english since my locale is not english) widget in systray, but i'm missing it on manjaro.
Easton Long
Meaning...?
Evan Davis
Do you have a guide for what I'm supposed to enter in the terminal? I'm trying to find one on the wiki it doesn't really tell you step-by-step what to do
Gabriel Martinez
Nvidia proprietary drivers are shit on Linux. Hell, even the proprietary AMD drivers are shit compared to the open source ones. That's just how things are, for whatever reason.
Zachary Cox
You may have to set a keybinding in Audacious or find out what package the systray widget is.
Noah Lee
Which distro are you on Currently? Ubuntu has the easiest installation guides so far
Asher Wilson
On KDE how do I change the wallpaper the an individual virtual desktop?
Zachary Foster
do they not work in other applications or only audacious?
Oliver Perez
That's just the quality difference between proprietary and open source things. Open source gets a bad rap because it can't fix what is literally being hidden. The more advanced parts of the driver used for high end graphics are more difficult to reproduce blindly, so they aren't as good as proprietary. But simple things like desktop graphics have always been better in the open source drivers
Ryan Gomez
>Nvidia proprietary drivers are shit on Linux False
Cooper Anderson
Doesn't KDE use "Activities" rather than virtual desktops? You can change wallpapers on those.
Bentley Jenkins
Arch Linux (antergos specifically), trying to install Firefox Nightly from the AUR
Nicholas Walker
Isn't the general rule that you should use proprietary drivers for Nvidia and free drivers for AMD?
heres another one. Well I myself have been having trouble installing Nightly because there is no app version yet on Fedora I think you can find nightly with the help of the pacman command
Carter Richardson
Are you manually doing it or using a wrapper? I highly suggest you get pacaur and use it then pacaur -S firefox-nightly
Done
Andrew Collins
I see the settings, but I can't figure them out. Is there a no-nonsense guide out there? Or someone using KDE that can give me pointers?
Luis Young
this seems nice, are there any downsides to using it?
Cameron Miller
Did anyone here switch to GNU/Linux for practical reasons and not for philosophical/political ones? Can GNU/Linux be an overall better experience than windows, despite maybe not having as many programs available?
I agree with the free software philosophy but I've always been way too lazy to make the switch. But lately I've been getting so fed up with windows that I don't think I can put it off anymore.
Leo Ross
zero its just a wrapper for pacman that allows you to install from the aur,basically, it does alot more stuff that you may find useful in the future
Evan Torres
i wish i could use linux but for some reason my motherboard stops recognising new uefi drives soooo
Angel Hall
>Can GNU/Linux be an overall better experience than windows? Is this a joke? This is the main reason for me. Philosophy comes much later.
Gabriel Myers
I didn't know a wrapper like that existed, and here I was typing in the links into the terminal.
Jackson Kelly
I think most people did it for both reasons for example installing packages is a helluva lot easier and safer than searching for software online like windows
Henry Parker
Not a joke. And thanks, that's the kind of thing I was hoping to hear.
Matthew Bennett
alright looks like I'll use it then thanks for the help bro
Nicholas Ramirez
>You may have to set a keybinding in Audacious I don't see how it's possible. There is no keybindings in audacious itself and there is no audacious >what package the systray widget is. I don't really know how. They do work in vlc and mpv.
Noah Price
Just with KDE's "show all windows" functionality it already blows windows forever GUI-wise.
Add keyboard shortcuts and virtual desktops to the pot and you'll never be able to go back to windows without grimacing. Or you can use a tiling windows manager, or get cairo dock, or whatever the fuck you want.
That's the whole point of Linux. Literal, practical freedom.
Also, doesn't come bundled with spyware like the latest windows release, which is "nice to have" :^)
Easton Anderson
how to solve this problem?
Jackson Diaz
>and there is no audacious in keybindins in plasma settings
Ryder Edwards
>having options >a problem that's the whole point of linux desu
Luis Morgan
You can't. Everyone is a special snowflake and it must be done their way
Evan Jenkins
>change wallpaper and color scheme >get 2x more hits per day >profit
Henry Bennett
...
Cooper Nguyen
you can't profit off of free software famalam
Lincoln Ortiz
Use "nvidia-settings" to set your GPU to "Maximum Performance Mode". Adaptive is shit, especially with small GPUs.
Jeremiah Robinson
Basically no worrying about viruses or other malware, no need to defrag your harddrive because GNU/Linux uses filesystems that were actually made this millennium. CLI tools that actually work? I still laugh at old self (and people who still do this) for downloading 3rd party software just to do simple file conversions because windows doesn't have the right tools. Also generally easier access to more software that doesn't think it's smarter than you, and a community that will actually help you even if you break something because you were doing something stupid/fun
Basically for any computer nerd (or any programmer) OSes like GNU/Linux or BSD's are must-haves. You absolutely cannot have even 1/10th the amount of fun tinkering around with (or efficiency developing software) on Windows or Mac, and in fact even just using them is HIGHLY frustrating to people who know a lot about computers because of how restrictive they are.
Robert Ross
My Arch setup is significantly faster (booting, regular performance, etc.) than my now-unused Windows setup.
Furthermore, having the actual tools to improve my system is a huge part of why Linux (esp. Arch) is great. Config files >>>>>> registry editing. Reading manuals >>>> googling and finding esoteric answers based on god-knows-what that you just have to accept as being correct.
The best I can say is this: when I used Windows, I was very "aware" that I was using Windows -- aware of the flaws and the things that I always had to keep in mind to be safe/etc. I frequently forget that I'm using Linux: I don't worry about the environment that I'm in and, instead, just do computing stuff.
Levi Brooks
>installing packages is a helluva lot easier and safer than searching for software online like windows >Basically no worrying about viruses or other malware
What about pirated games? I often get pirated GOG games on windows from basically anywhere because I can check the digital signature. Some of those games are available for (GNU/)Linux. I've been checking and it seems they're just big .sh files. Is there anyway to know I'm not running sudo rm -rf / if I run them?
Carter Gomez
Where should I go from Ubuntu that's not vanilla Debian?
Juan Martinez
Thanks. It's not the same, though.
I'm using different virtual desktops, that achieves what I want (having windows associated to one or the other), but then I can't have different wallpapers.
sudo would ask you for your administrative password. That's the point. Windows is not a true multi-user system. It's a single user OS that added multi-user functionality like a bandaid on top and some security for admin "accounts".
So that would be the first major thing you'd have to change about your thinking on GNU/Linux. Every single file/directory has individual permissions, and pretty much nothing can be changed by non-privileged users outside of $HOME. Basically it's like the whole thing is set up as a big sandbox. Most software is installed outside of $HOME and "run as" your user but "owned by" root. Meaning they literally lack the capacity to modify even themselves.
As long as you aren't doing things as root or giving arbitrary software permission to do anything then all damage should theoretically be contained to your $HOME. So worst case scenario if you get infected and can't fix it: create a new user and move your stuff over, delete old user, done. Of course it is possible for root files to get infected, but the odds of that happening are like being struck by lightning.
Jeremiah Ortiz
Offtop
Is there an IRC chat for Friendly GNU/Linux, I loosely recall seeing one some time ago, but I might be tripping. Thanks
Isaac Parker
does anyone else have problems with softwar-properties-gtk on debian 9? On debian 8 it had an option to switch between graphics drivers but now it's not there.
Samuel Ward
Trying to make an always on stream to add as a kodi channel. I have a few different named pipes that I'm pushing data to, but to get kodi/libmpv to pick it up I need to proxy the named pipes to something local via TCP/UDP or something so that it can be read as a video stream (libmpv won't play from the named pipe directly for some reaosn).
What would be the syntax for this with netcat?
Jeremiah Smith
It's the easiest way for me to get up to date software for older systems. Windows has dropped support and sometimes it's hard or impossible to find drivers/software. GNU/Linux just works.
Matthew Anderson
So you're saying that to run a .sh game installer I wouldn't need root? Obviously to install almost anything on windows you need to give it full administrative rights. But I think I probably thought the same would sort of apply on GNU/Linux because to install things you need root (as in sudo apt-get install). But now that I'm thinking about it, this means I'm running the package manager as root, but not the application I'm installing, correct? Also, nice convenient trips.
