It’s been a week. Ubuntu Studio, and every day it’s something. I swear Linux is the OS version of owning a boat, it’s constant maintenance. Am I dumb, or doing something wrong?
After many issues, today I thought I had shit figured out, then played a game for the first time. All good, but the intro had some artifacts. I got curious, I have an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and thought that was weird. Looked it up, turns out Linux was using lvmpipe. Found a fix. Now it’s using my card, no more clipping, great!. But now my screen flickers. Narrowed it down to Vivaldi browser. Had to uninstall, which sucks and took a long time to figure out. Now I’m on Librewolf which I liked on windows but it’s a cpu hungry bitch on Linux (eating 3.2g of memory as I type this). Every goddamned time I fix something, it breaks something else.
This is just one of many, every day, issues.
I’m tired. I want to love Linux. I really do, but what the hell? Windows just worked.
I’ve resigned myself to “the boat life” but is there a better way? Am I missing something and it doesn’t have to be this hard, or is this what Linux is? If that’s it’s just like this I’m still sticking cause fuck Microsoft but you guys talk like Linux should be everyone’s first choice. I’d never recommend Linux to anyone I know, it doesn’t “just work”.
You must log in or register to comment.
deleted by creator
Think of your workstation running Ubuntu Studio as new shoes that need running in.
I’ve been using Debian Linux as my primary desktop for over 25 years. The amount of downtime I experience is negligible. When I look at the sheer volume of MacOS updates requiring a reboot, or the absurd number of “fixes” pushed by Microsoft, I’m very content.
This.
In my experience, once you have the potential hardware compatibility issue fixed, it’s smooth sailing and simply a matter of getting used to the different tools on Linux!
Yeah. I also appreciate the ability to actually fix most problems. I probably ran into fewer problems on windows, but when I did, the problems were beyond repair.
^ This, Debian just works and gets out of your way. But no one seems to recommend it.
Yeah because if you have new hardware you’re shit out of luck
I’m on AM5 with a 6800 and would have a newer card if the cost wasn’t so high. I run Sid for fun but I can run stable with backports and flatpaks
Misinformation. Debian 13 is brand new. Backports supports new hardware as needed.
You’re trying to tell us Debian will always have the latest kernel and packages needed to support new hardware, and there’s no disadvantage in this domain by using Debian? (Sid aside)
Yeah, kernel gets patches even on stable Debian, plus at most it will be a year or so old
https://nerdburglars.net/question/getting-rx-9060-9070-gpus-working-on-debian-bookworm/
The internet is littered with posts of people trying to get new stuff working on Debian. Bookworm was the latest Debian release at time of posting. It does not support this six month old GPU
Not really a friendly distro for non tech-savy people, so it’s complicated to recommend it online to strangers.
I get it that’s the impression and maybe i have used it for so long so i might have a blind spot but what makes it complicated? Its got a gui installer, a live cd. Other than the not having cutting edge software what makes it complicated?
I usually start a desktop on Mint since it’s got at least some new drivers and a few more tools with Cinnamon desktop.
If the hardware is finicky or there’s odd devices a distro doesn’t handle, I often just try a different distro instead of driver hacking. It’s a very big hammer, but I’d rather have things work with the distro configs instead of maintaining it myself.
Servers? Debian.
Desktops? Mint (prettier Debian out of the box)
Otherwise? Use what works with the least effort.
I get what your trying to say, and the analogy works between Windows and Mac, just a different GUI and keyboard commands. Linux is like wearing someone else’s shoes and learning to run in them. It’s similar, but not the same.
Literally every day something breaks. I’m at a point I have things working enough that I’m scared of experimenting because it’s so fragile.
I hear your frustration and understand what you’re concerned about.
Ask yourself this.
Is the thing that I’ve discovered is broken today something that I’ve fixed before?
If you use the package manager that comes with your distribution and don’t install random software from the Internet, and don’t follow unverified procedures written by anyone with a keyboard, then the answer is almost certainly “no”.
I say this with the benefit of knowing what’s good practice and what isn’t. I can tell you that if you come at this with a “Microsoft Windows” approach, you’re likely to spend weeks, if not months in purgatory. It’s no different from migrating between MacOS and Windows, or vice-versa. You need to remember that just because Linux looks similar, it’s a different beast and is so by design.
I’d strongly recommend that you start using the machine with ONLY the packages available through the Ubuntu package manager. If you run into strife, you can ask for support. If you go outside that and you break something, you get to keep both parts – and truth be told – that’s true with any other operating system, just that the lines are not as blurred.
In Linux world many of the distributions can cross pollenate applications and solutions, but that requires experience that new users don’t (yet) have.
One way to deal with the “jump” is to keep your “old” Windows (or MacOS) machine around while you get comfortable with the lay of the land.
The thing that most people switching to Linux have forgotten is that this requires experience. You cannot expect to just jump into a new Operating System and take all your old habits with you. Think for example about the differences between iOS and Android, a world of difference.
So, keep at it. This frustration will pass.
Make sure you backup your /home directory regularly. That way if you ever blow something up and are left on your own, you can blow away the drive and start again, restore from your /home backup.
Meanwhile, keep asking questions.
Good luck.
That’s great advice, thank you. If I just copy my home directory I can replace it if things go south? What about other distros?
https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian
if you wanna read up a bit more on that
Pretty much the same.
Word of warning. Your /home directory contains your documents, but it also contains configuration files. If the packages you’re installing have different versions, you might discover that the config file for a different version doesn’t work on the version that’s installed. This isn’t universally the case, some applications are smart about this, others less so. You can find many of them as “hidden” “dot” files.
You can find all of them like this:
find /home -type f -name '.*'Explanation:
find- the find command/home- the place to start looking-type f- find files only-name '/.*'- find things only starting with a ‘.’
Do you guys just have flawless experiences or what?
When I was new to linux I had many issues but the longer I used it the less problems I had. I think its a combination of new users not understanding the different parts of linux and not understanding the linux way of doing things. That leads to a lot of tweaking which can cause more issues than it solves.
Now that i’ve been on linux for 4 years everything works as expected and this is after changing distros a few times. my systems are pretty much untouched in terms of root folder tweaks or anything. I would say to keep trying linux since its not ‘boat life’ constant maintenance over the long term.
Windows was just the boat you already knew.
Now you have a new (more adaptable) one and don’t know all it’s squeaks and rattles. You’re neither dumb nor is something wrong. You just aren’t familiar with what it needs from you.
Give it some time (a week compared to how long in windows?) and attention and soon you’ll wonder why you ever second guessed it.
Good point, I just needed to vent I think. Honestly after bricking it after day 1 ( I made a user the owner and had no sudo privileges so I was in a login loop), day 2 was a lot easier so I guess I’m learning haha
In my first day of using linux I was trying to mount my 2nd hard drive and I mounted it to / which lead to me having to reinstall because i didnt know what i did or how to fix it and my computer was no longer turning on.
I’m a stereotype, my first bounce off of Linux was getting stuck in vim flailing around and overwriting some critical config file before powering off and coming back to a terminal prompt.
Not having a second device to search for answers, I just went back to Windows.
After 4 years on linux I have no idea how to exit vim and just spam control zx until vim is killed.
It’s a very neat system.
It’s a lot like switching to Linux, it’s weird and doesn’t feel intuitive until you’ve been using it for a few months when you start wondering how you ever lived without it.
Come to the dark side: https://www.vim-hero.com/lessons/intro-to-modes
I like your boat analogy. It does take more work to keep it running in top condition, and when it’s firing on all cylinders it will run circles around windows. Also, people that don’t have one and talk shit are just jelly.
It stopped happening to me when I bought hardware supported by Linux. Intel or AMD GPU, a Thinkpad laptop, Atheros wifi, all the stuff that people recommend.
If it makes you feel any better, I say the same thing about windows when I’m forced to use it.
It isn’t just a different operating system, it’s also a different workflow and set of habits.
Stick with it, it will reward you.
You’re not dumb and we don’t have a flawless experience… but me and my son aren’t nearly having as much trouble as you. Maybe you’re unlucky with hardware support. For some it does “pretty much” works. I’m genuinely glad you’re sticking to it some more and I hope you continue learning and that your experience gets smoother.
I think machine compatibility plays a huge role, some machines do mostly ‘just work’ while others are a pain. It also definitely requires some tinkering, though mostly on setup or on the first week or two in my experience.
Also, ymmv and a lot of people swear by them but I’ve never had good luck with Ubuntu based distro, they’ve always been super buggy with hard to track fixes for me. I like fedora a lot better and it similarly has decent (though not nearly as extensive) community support for weird bugs, but I know people swear by many things.
You didn’t mention which version of Ubuntu Studio you’re running. Is it 24.04 LTS by any chance?
My initial thought is that you are probably running Wayland, and that your version of Ubuntu has KDE Plasma 5 instead of 6 and/or outdated Nvidia drivers that don’t work super well with Wayland.
A quick search shows that this is all default on Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS, which is the first version you’ll find at ubuntustudio.org. :(
Ubuntu 25.04 (non-LTS) has Plasma 6, which is a very important upgrade if you are using Wayland, especially with Nvidia GPUs.
Just a guess. If I’m right, you have a few choices:
-
Upgrade to Ubuntu Studio 25.04 (non-LTS). It has newer stuff like Plasma 6 that fixes a LOT of problems like this.
-
Switch to X11 instead of Wayland. This will likely introduce a new set of problems though. X11 has no future.
-
Switch to a different DE than KDE. I am not sure what is best in this situation.
-
Install the latest Nvidia drivers manually instead of getting them from the Ubuntu repo.
Option 1 is by far the simplest choice.
The Linux desktop is in a big transitional phase these past few years, as more distros default to Wayland even before a lot of their packages are updated to fully support it. It’s a terrible time to be stuck with outdated “LTS” distros. This is why I hopped away from Debian 12 (13 is out now so yay, but it was a year too late for me).
OK, you’re right on the money haha. I am on 24.04 (though not sure about LTS) and have been running Wayland, not X11, and it was the first version on the site. Big question is am I wiping everything to update? That seems silly but I’m super cautious now and don’t remember when I installed 24.04 if there was an option to do the ol’ Windows “update and keep everything” option. Do I just make another USB install and I can update while keeping settings or is this a full restart?
On further investigation, it looks like you’d need to do an in-between upgrade to 24.10 before going to 25.04. I didn’t realize that before. It’s been a long time since I upgraded an Ubuntu system.
Here is the relevant documentation you’d need for upgrades:
From 24.04 to 24.10: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OracularUpgrades/#Upgrading_Ubuntu_Desktops_to_24.10
And then basically the same thing again to go from 24.10 to 25.04: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PluckyUpgrades#Upgrading_Ubuntu_Desktops_to_25.04
In case you’re not familiar with Ubuntu’s naming and update conventions, I’ll explain briefly, because it’s confusing for beginners: Each release has a name and number. The names loop through the alphabet in the format “Adjective Animal”, and the numbers are the release date in format “year.month”, with new releases every six months, in April and October. Then there are the “Long Term Support” (LTS) releases that are released every two years, matching the April “xx.04” main releases. You’re currently on “Noble Numbat” (24.04), which is followed by “Oracular Oriole” (24.10) and “Plucky Puffin” (25.04). Totally intuitive, right?! -_-
OR you could back up your stuff and install a clean 25.04. I’m not sure if the installer has an option to retain an existing home folder. Again, it’s been a long time since I used Ubuntu specifically. Perhaps someone with more recent experience can chime in.
I just installed and ran update-manager and it says there’s an upgrade to 25.04, no mention of 24.10. I’m assuming this should be ok?
Edit: I’m an idiot with too much Linux on the brain. I have Studio installed on my laptop as well. I’m gonna jump straight to 25.04 on there and test. Thanks.
Cool. I could well be wrong about the double-step requirement. It sure sounds that way, but the Upgrade Notes page is very old so maybe it’s easier now? Keep us posted!
Good thing I tested, going from 24.04 to 25.04 completely borked my laptop. Currently reinstalling 24.04 and gonna see if I can go to 24.10. Can’t seem to find a way so far, only option I have is 25.04.
Well that sucks. You might be able to try “The Debian Way” mentioned here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Upgrades#The_Debian_way_of_upgrading
(Ubuntu is derived from Debian, which is why “the Debian way” works.)
The gist is to replace all instances of “noble” with “oracular” in your /etc/apt/sources.list file, then run some commands to do the distro upgrade.
I might give that a go. I’m throwing Bazzite on it right now to test it out. I really don’t want to start from scratch again with my main PC but if Bazzite does what I need I might be better off. I’m guessing since it’s based on Fedora backing up my home directory probably won’t work but I’ll look onto it if I go that route.
-
Hello again, I remember you from another post I commented on lol.
So a few things:
- Linux didn’t “just work” for me when I switched over. I actually started my Linux journey with Arch like an idiot lol. Imagine the problems I had, pretty much nothing worked out of the box. I eventually got everything working after about 2 weeks of constant troubleshooting in the arch wiki, Linux forums, Reddit, and YouTube videos.
Then a few months later I accidentally blew up my whole system with some command I ran without understanding what I did, broke everything, couldn’t even boot into my OS anymore. I decided to distro hop a few times to see what worked best for me. Arch is great if you are a power user, but at the time I wasn’t, so it was a terrible choice for me.
I bounced between a few different distros and settled on Nobara, which is based on Fedora but with a ton of kernel-level patches for better gaming performance. And it came with lots of gaming related software already installed.
-
I actually had as many or more issues with Windows leading up to trying Linux. Windows has always been pretty buggy for me, just bad luck I guess. On average I have way more issues with Windows than Linux, and the Linux issues I can usually solve, but the Windows issues generally I just had to end up dealing with because there was no good solution.
-
I remember when I posted to you the other week that the most important thing for Linux distros was if it worked for you, and if you liked using it. Seems like so far you’ve answered that question with Ubuntu Studio in the negative. It’s not been working well for you, and you’re getting frustrated using it. That’s fine, the beauty of Linux is there are a ton of other options, and you aren’t stuck with just having to deal with a specific distro.
Some people will swear by a specific distro. They’ve used it for 10+ years on 15 different computers and never had a single major problem. Great for them, that doesn’t mean you will or won’t, try several, find your home distro and stick with it.
For me, there is one distro I would recommend for new Linux users more than any other, Linux Mint. It is based on Ubuntu, so you’ve already got a bit of experience with that under the hood. It comes with a easy GUI utility for installing NVidia drivers, so you don’t have to manually install additional repos and drivers via the terminal. Their Cinnamon desktop isn’t the prettiest or most modern looking desktop, it doesn’t have a ton of customizability either, but it’s rock stable. I’ve never had a single major crash or lock up with the Cinnamon desktop environment, it’s simple, intuitive, and stable.
Part of starting the Linux journey is trying different options. Some users get lucky their first time and land on the perfect distro that they use for years, but most don’t. Most try a handful of distros before settling on their favorite. You probably wouldn’t go to a shoe store, try on the first pair you see and then buy them right? You browse the selection, find a few that look nice and seem comfy, try them on, walk around in them, pose a bit, then pick your favorite.
And like I said before, as you build up your Linux skills, the issues will become easier and easier to solve. Problems that took me hours to troubleshoot and solve when I was new take 5 minutes to fix now. Things that I had to watch hours of videos and read dozens of forum posts to understand are just “common sense” to me now. You’ll get there, just keep an open mind and hold on, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
If you need/want additional help, DM me and I will do my best to help out. For Linux Mint if you decide to try it, don’t worry about the various alternative versions they have. Just go with their standard download, Linux Mint, Ubuntu edition, with the Cinnamon desktop.
I really appreciate you taking the time…again haha. I get that it’s a learning curve, my biggest issue is pretty user specific. I’m a freelance voice actor, which is why I chose Ubuntu Studio.
My concern for distro hopping is audio issues, more than I’ve already experienced. Ubuntu Studio was “built for creatives” so it seemed like the best option and based on my experience, it probably is haha. I can’t imagine trying to make this work from scratch.
The obvious answer is to go back to Windows, it really is WAY better for precise audio recording the easy way. Though I’ve matched (and even bettered) my audio output with Linux, it takes a lot more time and effort which won’t get better. Linux takes more steps for NY work flow and there’s no way around that.
That said, I made the switch for personal reasons, and I’ve fully committed even though it’s created many hurdles. I needed to vent, and really appreciate you and everyone else taking the time. Thank you.
No prob, always happy to help another user if I can, especially the newbies. I was you once, I remember many nights of wanting to rip my hair out and toss my computer out a window lol.
Audio issues can be a bear. What is your current setup? DAC, Microphone, DAW of choice, etc?
Shotgun mic into Behringer UV1 into Scarlett 4i4. I went from Adobe Audition to Reaper and it’s been a fucking challenge. Adobe is a garbage company, but I didn’t pay for it:) I love FOSS so much but Ardour was a bitch and a half. ALSA is frustrating as well as you can’t use more than one program at a time and JACK and PulseAudio don’t seem to recognize the Scarlett so those are out. I’ve got things working, but it dumbs down to like 3 clicks per 1 on Audition. Takes more time overall.
The issue is you installed Ubuntu with an RTX 3060 and you intend to game, heh.
You need a distro optimized for gaming on Nvidia out of the box, and Ubuntu Studio is not it. Not unless you want to DIY overhaul the whole system and maintain it forever.
You need Bazzite, probably. Or CachyOS.
You could fix Ubuntu temporarily, eventually, but it will always be like a boat once you start configuring stuff yourself. But use a gaming distro, and gaming fixes and setups come down the pipe for you.
TBH I have made this mistake more than once. Now I run don’t a distro that focuses on this and have never looked back.
Not much of a gamer, I went with Ubuntu Studio because I’m a voice actor so audio was my primary (which was and is still a bitch to deal with haha). My system can handle games, and I wondered why something as non-intensive as Civ VII was clipping in the intro video.
Nope, but they have extremely short memories. They spent 2 hours yesterday tinkering with 4 issues. But when you ask them, their system has been solid for months.
Linux is very much a boat. Or more accurately the same engine used in 50 different boats all with their own quirks.
haven’t fucked with the os settings since i had to swap some hardware a few months ago.
I don’t know if it’s of any solace, Linux used to be a much more… ahem… “involved” experience a decade or two ago. This was more-or-less the norm:
I can’t really say what the newcomer experience is nowadays, but I can say for sure that even in the worst-case (as it was in the times when I started using it), after a couple months of furious issue-fixing and trying new things, you will eventually settle on a setup that works for you. Some people actually get addicted to all the problem-solving and start looking for more issues to fix; some start distrohopping to find a “more perfect setup”, getting their fix of issue-fixing in the process. If you’re not one of them, congrats, at that point you can (mostly) just continue using it, until you need to update your hardware, then process may or may not be repeated depending on your luck. If you really hate fixing issues twice, you can look in the direction of declarative distros like NixOS or Guix, but I will warn you that the two-three months of furious hacking is still very much a thing here, but after that you’re set more or less for life.
I’ve installed Debian Linux on over 50 devices by now. A vanilla configuration with GNOME works pretty much out of the box for me on a high-end desktop with a modern NVIDIA graphics card.
I’d say the biggest part of the learning curve is figuring out which apps are good and suitable for what you’re trying to do. Just like with Windows and macOS and Android and iOS, there’s only a handful of viable options among an overwhelming sea of poor ones.
There are many wrong ways to install NVIDIA on any given Linux distro and architecture, and only one functional way. As others here are saying, that’s on NVIDIA, not you or Linux.
General advice: whenever possible, strongly prefer your distro’s standard package manager to install things over any other method. With Ubuntu, I believe that’s either apt or snap.
Also: if you find yourself poking around in some obscure system internals while troubleshooting an issue, you probably took a wrong turn somewhere.
