/r/linux4noobs

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Linux introductions, tips and tutorials. Questions are encouraged. Any distro, any platform! Explicitly noob-friendly.

Linux introductions, tips and tutorials. Any distro, any platform! Explicitly noob-friendly.

If you're posting for help, please include the following details, so that we can help you more efficiently:

  • your operating system and version
  • the hardware you're using
  • a description of the problem
  • output that was displayed (if any)
  • the things you tried to fix it
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Questions are encouraged. If you fix the problem yourself, please post your solution, so that others can also learn.

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/r/linux4noobs

273,533 Subscribers

1

ASUSPRO P1440 Laptop, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS & a Linux Noob - is it possible?

I am not a programmer or developer or anything. I've just been using Ubuntu for 15 years and now I am used to it and cannot use anything else.

I recent;y bought a second hand but new ASUSPRO P1440 with Windows 10.

I have been writing a book for the last 8 years using OpenOffice and I cannot go back.

I only just discovered that Asus and Linux don't like each other. This is a great shame. I thought I could follow the instructions on the Ubuntu website to install their Ubuntu 24.4 LTS but I have since discovered that people are using other Linux products on their Asus laptops like Mint and others names that I do not recognize or understand.

I just want Ubuntu and I just want to finish my book on an OS that I familiar and comfortable with.

I have a formatted empty 32 GB USB, I have the patience, and I have very basic knowledge but am good at following instructions.

I have read online what other people have done for other ASUS laptops but TBH I don't really understand.

Should I just pay someone to do it? Is it even possible? Is it worth it? Or should I give up and just finish my book on Google Drive? Something I loath to do.

1 Comment
2025/02/01
22:18 UTC

1

[Issue] Archcraft does not boot at all

I've been using laptop with Archcraft and Windows in dualboot for a while, but from some point Archcraft just stopped booting when i choose it in the GNU GRUB dialogue - it just shows the black screen without any signs of life, Windows boots as usual. The only things I can relate to this is the fact that system failed to boot after using liveusb with kali (but I haven't made any changes on hard drive) and maybe laptop was forcibly shut down while Archcraft booting or turning off process.

Here is the screenshot of gparted:

As I understand, the only partition related to the Archcraft is nvme0n1p5.

https://preview.redd.it/zwbj1humokge1.png?width=792&format=png&auto=webp&s=9f55e31b1ab34f2791ae0f9e3607471dfddafae9

0 Comments
2025/02/01
18:51 UTC

1

Something weird happened on Fedora 41.

I switched from Windows 10 to Fedora 41 yesterday. Already got a lot of things working, I'm actually writing this while using it, but one thing that still is incredibly weird is that it didn't wipe all my data.

On Windows, I used to have 2 storage disks. A System C: and a Work D:. I had access to both and could install things on both. When installing Fedora I only now have access to a /var/cache with ~50 GB which came out of nowhere. All my data is still here on both storage disks C: and D:. And seems like I don't have access to them, or at least can't install things onto them. When installing it didn't detect any additional storage disks, except for one that said 950 GB.

I assumed it was the fault of a weird Windows partition, the reason I had 2 drives and that only one appeared on install. I also assumed that 950 GB was the added sum of both storage disks, and that the Fedora workstation was treating it as one.

So in the end, I've got no idea what happened, why I kept all my data, and if it means that I still have access to Windows. I would appreciate any help.

0 Comments
2025/02/01
14:37 UTC

1

Should I pick Linux Mint or Debian?

I'm currently using Linux Mint on my laptop and it works fine. But I'm thinking about switching to Debian and using it with Cinnamon. Which would be the better choice, especially in the long term?

I'm new to linux but I want to switch permanently on both my laptop and desktop. I'm sick of windows.

0 Comments
2025/02/01
13:55 UTC

0

Stop me if you've seen this.

I have a Sony Vaio PCG-4A1L 10.5" Intel 1GHz 512MB 30GB PCG-TR3AP laptop from 2004. (I think) What's your recommendation?

5 Comments
2025/02/01
21:11 UTC

3

Going from Windows to Linux

I have always used windows but want to go down the road of being an ethical hacker. I was told the best thing to do to be migrate to Linux OS fully. But do I need to have any kind of skills or information before I do that? I don't want to mess anything up. Thank you

10 Comments
2025/02/01
20:37 UTC

1

headless OpenSUSE + NoMachine -- KDE doesn't seem to load when I try to connect remotely?

When I tested NoMachine, I had a monitor plugged in. Now that it's headless, it's an 840x600 black square that shows two notifications: That I'm running NoMachine and that I'm connected. I don't get any connection errors (or any errors at all), and my network is fine.

Is there a setting I can toggle (or anything) that can ensure KDE loads up when I connect remotely?

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is anyone is wondering :)

1 Comment
2025/02/01
20:33 UTC

0

Help me understand keyrings?

I looked up what they are supposed to do and read a few articles but I still don't quite get the point.

I installed Mint and set auto login because it's a desktop computer that isn't going anywhere and I trust everyone in the house.

So then Chrome wants to setup a keyring. I read that a keyring is a layer of security when you don't manually login with a user password, which makes sense to me since my browser has saved passwords, etc.

But then I figured, I might as well just login that one time and forget about the separate keyring. I enabled login passwords again, but Chrome still asks me for a keyring..? I tried deleting it, but it asks me to create a new one.

The one behavior of a keyring that doesn't make sense to me is that if open Chrome with the keyring, it's completely unlocked.. forever. That seems less safe to me. For example, if I go to password manager I can reveal any password and it never asks for verification regardless of how much time has passed. Compared to Windows, the password manager is locked behind the Windows login and it's set to timeout rather quickly, after maybe a minute or two. So if someone sits down at my open computer after I JUST revealed a password they can maybe fish out a password or two, but soon enough it will timeout and ask for the Windows login password to reveal more passwords. Not perfect but that seems safer to me.

Anyway, getting back to what I'd like to do. I just want to disable the keyring completely because it doesn't seem to serve any point to me. Once I open Chrome by typing the keyring password, it's completely open and there is no security. So, in a sense it's the same as not having any keyring password at all. Can I simply remove all keyrings and uninstall the keyring manager? I would be happy with the simply security of having a logon password required upon startup and waking from sleep.

5 Comments
2025/02/01
20:08 UTC

1

Seeking for distro advice

I have been using all this time Ubuntu, Kali Linux.

Normally i will use this distro for programming mainly and i do not really want any DE. I will probably use console or DWM. But i want to sometimes play 1 or 2 game.

I want to use lightweight distro and not very much ram or cpu eater, i know there are plenty of distros but i can not properly google them. Sorry for bothering, If you know please just write the name that i can look for in firefox.

0 Comments
2025/02/01
13:27 UTC

1

Ubuntu 24.04 - Touchpad randomly freezes with NVIDIA On-Demand mode (MSI Prestige 15)

Hi all,

I'm experiencing a peculiar issue with my touchpad on Ubuntu 24.04. The problem occurs specifically when using NVIDIA On-Demand mode, but completely disappears when switching to Performance mode.

System Specs:

  • Model: MSI Prestige 15 A12SC-044IT
  • CPU: Intel i7-1280P
  • GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1650 (4GB GDDR6)
  • RAM: 16GB LPDDR4
  • Storage: 1TB SSD M.2 PCIe 4.0
  • Display: 15.6" FHD with 100% sRGB
  • Network: WiFi 6E
  • Driver version: 550.120

Issue Description: The touchpad randomly freezes, particularly during the first 30 minutes after boot, but only when using NVIDIA On-Demand mode. External mice work perfectly fine. When switching to Performance mode, the issue completely disappears, but this obviously impacts battery life significantly.

What I've already checked:

  1. The issue is consistent and reproducible
  2. External mice are not affected
  3. The problem is directly correlated with the NVIDIA power management mode
  4. System is fully updated

I suspect this might be related to power management or PCI-E power states, but I haven't found a definitive solution yet.

Has anyone encountered similar issues with MSI laptops or NVIDIA On-Demand mode? Any suggestions for troubleshooting or fixing this without having to stay in Performance mode?

If needed, I can provide logs or additional information.

Thanks in advance!

0 Comments
2025/02/01
11:47 UTC

0

Running window apps without wine?

There clams to be a linux OS called: win4lin, that say to run windows apos on linux without wine I never heard of it and it doesn't exist in distrowatch. Anyone else heard or see this?

4 Comments
2025/02/01
19:54 UTC

10

Is it just me, or is Arch really not that hard to install?

Recently I came to Linux and currently I'm running CachyOS (Arch-based distro). It's working pretty perfectly for me and I was thinking.
"Since I've seen a couple of videos on Arch installation, let's give it a try, cause why not?"
Up until this point I had only tried a couple of Debian-based distros, like Ubuntu and its flavors, and not to mention Linux Mint 22.
When I installed Arch, I used the archinstall command, since it's insanely powerful and useful. Sure, it's a beginner's way to install Arch, but personally setting up Arch this way is much more time effective than putting 400 commands and then spamming Reddit with your "I use Arch btw" comments under a Debian user's post.
Let me know your opinions on what distro you guys like (and recommend me something for programming please).

33 Comments
2025/02/01
19:44 UTC

1

Debian WiFi help

Hi

Recently put Debian bare (utils) on a laptop and managed to install base i3 through some guides

Used an ethernet but now want to set up WiFi

Looked at various guides , and some YouTube videos to try to learn. The two main websites I have looked at are : Thelinuxcode Linuxconfig

Only listing these here as a reference to others, not to call them out as it's undoubtedly user error and not understanding something.

I gave my user root privileges a few days ago, when I check my user privileges it returns the [all : all] all line

I'm trying to set up a config file for wpa_supplicant with my network info on one line to then connect to the network

When I run a command like the following: sudo wpa_passphrase "network name" "network passkey" > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

It returns : Permission Denied

I have added sudo And found a thread on the arch Wiki where they said to add Sudo ch -c for elevated permissions just for that single command

This didn't work either

I'm completely lost on how to create this config file to connect via the wpa_supplicant

10 Comments
2025/02/01
19:08 UTC

4

Equivalent of AUR on other distros

I have been using Arch for quite some time and want to try something else. Are there any other distros with something like AUR?

9 Comments
2025/02/01
18:34 UTC

2

Looking for guide

Can somebody pinpoint me to an extensive guide of how to build your own desktop from server (also called minimal installed).

Can't find anything. Not that I can't just install ready-to-go spin of fedora or mint for that matter: I just want to understand, how to assemble everything yourself.

For example, I would like to configure myself a sway-based desktop. I couldn't find extensive guide, explaining the steps, commands (what needs to be installed, in what order, sudilo systemctl enable-start services etc).

I did one installation loooong time ago using i3 but since then I have completely forgot everything and it seems that when it comes to wayland it is a little different...

3 Comments
2025/02/01
18:31 UTC

2

Headset microphone

I have a laptop, running Ubuntu 24.10. And my internal microphone works, but not my wired headset microphone. The headset audio works just fine just not the microphone, and the headset is detected only as an input device after unplugging it. Ive tried reloading pipewire, reinstalling ubuntu (also had this problem on ZorinOS) and ive messed with Alsamixer a bit.

0 Comments
2025/02/01
18:28 UTC

1

How can I connect my PC to my wifi? As when I open the wifi settings it doesn't show any network. I'm using cutefish os

0 Comments
2025/02/01
09:53 UTC

6

What is the Linux equivalent to a batch file and how do I write one?

I I'm using MB media server on a Linux distribution, and as far as I can tell it does not automatically update. I want to write a script that will automatically run the update command when I click it. I know when I windows machine you would write a . BAT file to do that, but I don't know what the equivalent is on a Linux system

7 Comments
2025/02/01
18:11 UTC

1

File systems

Is there any tutorial to train on the specific aspects of ext4, btrfs, ntfs, etc? I would like to try, and understand, what is going on when one has a real file system issue and how to recover. Yet so far I never had any issue and do not feel mature I that topic by lack of experience....

2 Comments
2025/02/01
18:11 UTC

1

Help is there anything I can do?

So I just got Linux mint up and running and optimized a bit but on my old windows I had something called acer nitrosence and from there I could see my GPU and CPU and change my fan settings to Auto, custom and max is there anything app I can use to see the temperatures and change fan settings or is there anything I can put into the terminal?

1 Comment
2025/02/01
17:55 UTC

2

Multiple distro setup for 1 drive - advise needed

Looking to setup some distros for scientific testing. I have allocated 150GB for each distro across one physical disk. I have watched a few of the videos about doing this for 2 distros but nothing that showed more. I also created a /home partition. The goal with that would be shared home drives. Don't know if that is possible?

I know some folks are going to recommend Distrobox or a VM but I need full GPU capabilities with OpenCL and OpenGL functionality as well as full CPU cores so those methods don't seem like options

What are the things I need to be aware of when installing each of these to their respective partition? How to best manage the EFI partition for each distro because that seems like the most complicated area given how some of these may use the same folder and naming conventions? Any recommendations about using the same home drive for all?

https://preview.redd.it/bu9psj6idkge1.png?width=2548&format=png&auto=webp&s=e657431430e7a1af73d56cf0d28c75a1044bd079

2 Comments
2025/02/01
17:48 UTC

0

Cleaning many apt-get installs?

Hello!

I have done many apt-get install x on my laptop and I don't really understand what it really does (aside from downloading/installing x. Where are those files saved? I downloaded many things and I usually like to know where everything is so I can uninstall what I don't need and so on. I like to keep the space cleaned basically.

On my windows, I just download everything in a downloads file and there I can delete anything I don't need anymore. This is kinda true for my linux laptop too, except when I use the terminals installs (apt-get install, pip install, so such) I don't really know where those go.

Is there a not-too-complicated way to do this cleaning?

I use linux for university but I'm still not too good with it, though I'm starting to get quicker and I think it's super awesome to be this speedy ;')

Thank you for any help!

7 Comments
2025/02/01
17:45 UTC

4

what to do with old lesser known mobile e-waste?

Im not sure if this is the right place to post this at, if not feel free to re direct me.

I have a bunch of old tablets and phones that im trying to give a second life. they each have different issues and some are lucky to even have 2ram. they are from when i was a kid for the most part. Ive tried looking thru many custom android roms but they dont support my devices. ive manly been focused on a rca tablet with 1gb of ram, running android 6 that has a hard time downloading apks.

i wish it was possible to install linux on them but im not sure if its possible. One can achieve this thru a virtual machine but i want to replace android.

4 Comments
2025/02/01
17:32 UTC

1

installation going on for hours - linux mint on old macbook pro

hi lovelies, after doing some research and watching a step-by-step how-to video, i decided to try installing linux mint (cinnamon) on my old macbook pro - the 2011 version, bought in 2015 or so, to try it out before doing the whole thing on my actual PC (the macbook has been sitting around unused, so i just wiped it).

i downloaded the ISO, flashed it to a USB stick and everything went relatively fine, a few tiny hiccups but i got to the installation. it's been hours though, i started around 14:00 and it's still going.

i'm not super tech-savvy, so it's possible that i did something wrong, or maybe the USB stick is old or the macbook itself is too old (so i should've tried xfce instead?) or my wifi is just shit, or the cause is something i haven't even thought about yet. so would someone care to give me some input? should i just try to let it do it's thing, or give up?

i hope this or something like this hasn't been asked already, i didn't really find a similar question in the sub.

9 Comments
2025/02/01
17:01 UTC

12

Opinions on Debian as a daily driver?

I've been using linux mint for years. I'm wondering what benefits there would be to switching to Debian.

I hear a lot of Linux veterans speak very positively of the distribution but from afar the distro does not seem all that special.

37 Comments
2025/02/01
16:48 UTC

2

Need help accessing a samba shared folder

On the server side (which runs lubuntu) I edited the file /etc/samba/smb.conf adding the following

[Downloads]
comment= Network Shared Folder by Samba Server on Ubuntu
path = /home/itguysnightmare/Downloads
force user = smbuser
force group = smbgroup
create mask = 0664
force create mode = 0664
directory mask = 0775
force directory mode = 0775
public = yes
read only = no

Folder ownership was changed like so: sudo chown -R smbuser:smbgroup ~/Downloads

And I changed permissions like so: sudo chmod -R g+w ~/Downloads

I then restarted the service systemctl restart smbd

On client side, which runs solus with kde, I opened dolphin, went to network and shared folders (smb)

It asks for a password. Username and password of the user running on server didn't work.

I'm not sure what I did wrong but I'd sure love to learn.

6 Comments
2025/02/01
16:44 UTC

2

custom cursor help

I recently installed a custom mouse them on the Ubuntu and I created a .icons folder to get to work, followed countless tutorials, and got a custom theme on it. My main gripe is that when ever I use an application Firefox or Spotify it turns to the default Ubuntu mouse theme, and everywhere else it's the custom cursor that I installed. I just recently started using Linux and have no idea what I am doing and most things I've found keep mentioning a emacs command and and more .icons folder stuff. Does anyone know what I can do to fix this?

10 Comments
2025/02/01
16:31 UTC

2

What is that?

I was installing Emacs from the terminal, and this appeared:

distro: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

https://preview.redd.it/sjos22nuzjge1.png?width=809&format=png&auto=webp&s=9547447118ec0ff0783941e5d9ea98c4a3042696

10 Comments
2025/02/01
16:23 UTC

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