Ever had a question about Linux but felt too afraid to ask? Well now’s your chance, ask any question about Linux, no matter how noob or repeated it is, and I and others will help answer them.

Previous noob question thread: https://lemmy.ml/post/14261893

  • wheeldawg@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    I don’t know if this is specifically possible. I’m not quite rookie-level new (been using it about a year now) but I have something I would love to have convenience-wise.

    It’s a desktop machine with regular speakers, and I have a wireless headset that connects to its own dongle (not Bluetooth). It’s there a way to switch to the headset automatically when I power it on, and revert to speakers when I turn it off?

    I feel like it’s possible hardware-wise, but I’m not tryna learn how to code to make it happen, and I don’t know how to find a software solution. I don’t even know what to call what I’m looking for.

    • qpsLCV5@lemmy.ml
      0·
      16 days ago

      i’d suggest starting by finding out what package in your distro actually decides where audio goes - mostly it is pulseaudio (older) or pipewire (newer).

      depending on the details of how your distro and the dongle work, it could either be a simple “pactl set-default-sink <headset-name>”, or a more complicated set of udev rules or pipewire/wireplumber scripts.

      note that distros using pipewire still often support a lot of pactl commands, so it may be worth looking at the simple option even when not using pulseaudio.

      • azuth@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        15 days ago

        They can also use pavucontrol, whether they use pulse or pipe, for a GUI to select default audio interface as well as easily switch apps to different outputs if needed

  • PatrickYaa@lemmy.one
    0·
    16 days ago

    Howdy. I have a “homeserver” that I’d like to actually start using. What’s currently keeping me from it are… Permissions.
    I have TrueNas Scale running on top of Proxmox, and I can’t for the life of me not access NFS Shares from other VMs (specifically a Debian VM that I use as Docker Host) that I host in Proxmox. Plox hlp.

  • wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    16 days ago

    I’m always too afraid to ask… Is this year finally the year of Desktop Linux? Is next year the year of Mobile Linux?

    trolololo.jpg

    I kid, this year has been the year of Desktop Linux for well over two decades for me. Obviously! And I think this megathread is great idea :)

  • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    What is something Linux related that you’ve learned recently?

    As a meta question, could this work as an additional (or alternate) recurring discussion question? It felt similar in intent, to encourage people to keep learning / asking questions and chances are that if someone learned something then others will benefit from the information (or correct them)

    • TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org
      0·
      16 days ago

      I learned how a kernel actually loads a program and switches between them by using timer interrupts and interrupt vectors that point to specific locations in memory to resume execution from. Not specifically Linux related, but I’m trying to learn more computer science, and it just clicked for me two weeks ago. I’ve been programming microcontrollers for ten years, but those are monolithic programs, and while I knew what interrupts were and have used them, I never understood how an OS actually runs multiple things while staying in control. Now I do.

      It’s one of those “aha!” moments like when I realized classes and structs are just data types like any other in C++ when I was starting off programming and can be used like them. OOP became fun after that.

      • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
        0·
        16 days ago

        I remember when the mapping of virtual memory segments clicked for me. I think i said out loud, “that’s so clever!”. Now it just seems so fundamental to managing memory for user space applications, but I hadn’t thought about how it was done before.

    • SeikoAlpinist@slrpnk.net
      0·
      16 days ago

      After 26 years of using Linux, I did my first baremetal “immutable” distro install last week.

      My youngest son is starting school and instead of the Chromebooks that they recommend, I took a chance and installed Fedora Silverblue on a $200 Lenovo “student-rugged” class laptop. Everything works and he hasn’t had any issues so far. He gets access to the same student platform as the other students through Chrome, but then I can install Minetest and Tux Paint and GCompris as well.

      The older kids run Debian stable for years now, but if this works out, I might transition them over next semester.

    • pixelscript@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      13 days ago

      The other day I learned that you can just grep an unmounted filesystem device. It will read the entire disk sequentially like it’s one huuuuge file. And it will reveal everything on that disk… whether a file inode points to it or not.

      Used it to recover data from a file I accidentally clobbered with an errant mv command. It’s not reliable, but when you delete a file, it’s usually not truly gone yet… With a little luck, as long as you know a unique snippet that was in it, you can find it again before the space gets something else written there. Don’t even need special recovery tools to do it, just use dd in a for loop to read the disc in chunks that fit in RAM, and grep -a for your data.

  • zcd@lemmy.ca
    0·
    16 days ago

    No question here, just wanted to highlight that I use arch btw

  • ClanOfTheOcho@lemmy.world
    0·
    16 days ago

    I have an old (2017) Windows 10 box that is ineligible for Windows 11. Originally purchased to run my Oculus Rift, it now just streams YouTube and Twitch and plays some old Steam games and occasionally school related stuff (Lexia, Scratch, stuff like that).

    I started thinking that, rather than worrying about an unsupported Windows OS on my network, I might upgrade to Mint or Ubuntu.

    So, my question(s) is/are, how much of a hassle will such an upgrade be? Will I need to wipe the drive, or can I keep my files without having to back them up first? Can I run Windows games on Steam with Wine? Are there good 3D card drivers nowadays?

    I’m reasonably versed in using Linux as a user, less so as an admin, in case that affects the way you answer.

    • zcd@lemmy.ca
      0·
      16 days ago

      There would be no hassle in wiping the drive, you can do it as part of the super easy installation process for any Linux distro. Ideally you would back up any important files and drop them into your fancy new file system once the install is finished. And you can pretty much launch almost any game directly out of steam and it will run. There are a few exceptions for some of those games with anti cheats that rootkit your system, but the majority just work out of the box. Drivers included, but Nvidia might be ever so slightly annoying

    • MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      To install at minimum you’ll need to likely shrink existing partitions and create new ones for linux if you don’t want to wipe the drive, that would be a dual-boot setup with Windows still installed along side. Or you can just wipe the drive entirely and have only Linux.

      Regarding the files you should already have backups of anything important, if you don’t, set it up ASAP.

      Messing with partitions can easily cause data loss if something goes wrong.

      You also never know when hardware failure, malware, power surges, lightning strikes, or whatever other disaster will happen and cause data loss. 1 copy of files might as well be 0 copies.

      • ClanOfTheOcho@lemmy.world
        0·
        16 days ago

        I’m pretty sure anything of value is already backed up to my NAS. I’m just paranoid that my kids might freak out that I destroyed their state fair winning Scratch project or something.

        • MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          0·
          16 days ago

          I just do full system images for that reason, easier than trying to pick and choose what should be backed up. Used to use Veeam, currently using Synology Active Backup.

          For online backups I don’t due to size, but for local backups it’s just way easier.

    • Fecundpossum@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      Everything people are saying here checks out, but you might struggle with VR. I haven’t tried VR on Linux yet, but I’ve heard some things about support being pretty janky. Maybe others with experience can weigh in.

      • ClanOfTheOcho@lemmy.world
        0·
        16 days ago

        I’d be interested to see what people have to say regarding VR setup, but the Oculus gets little use anymore. I have a few games that were never ported to the newer, self-contained systems (I have a Quest 3), and we’ve downloaded a bunch of custom Beat Saber levels that I might feel bad about, but the sensors are a big enough pain to set up that I don’t know that I’d feel that bad.

        • Fecundpossum@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          16 days ago

          Yeah, I’ve considered VR for a long while, but between the already existing headaches, and the Linux related headaches I’ve heard of, I’ll just wait until I’m retired for VR space games, VR racing, and VR porn. Hopefully it’ll get better before I’m dead.

        • RobotZap10000@feddit.nlEnglish
          0·
          15 days ago

          I myself have a Quest 3. I use Air Light VR as a streamer, which only worked after I added something to do with a vrmonitor.sh to the SteamVR command line. Half Life: Alyx runs natively and works just as well, but I’ve had bad luck with most other games, primarily because Steam Cloud didn’t synchronize the Windows saves to my Linux machine. VR even on Windows is already a PITA to set up, and I just don’t have the willpower to get it working properly on Linux. This is the only reason why I even keep the waste of space that is my Windows partition.

    • RobotZap10000@feddit.nlEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      1. Depends on how much crap you’re willing to put up with. It’ll all be worth it in the end! (Pro tip: disable secure boot in BIOS)

      2. I wrote a whole guide on the two options, but then accidentally deleted my comment. You can either install Linux on another drive, or shrink your NTFS partition and install Linux alongside it. You can always access NTFS from Linux, but not the other way around (by default). If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, you should really look it all up. I would personally just backup and wipe, you can always reinstall Windows if you want to.

      3. Have you heard of Valve’s Steam Deck? It’s a handheld gaming device that can play nearly every PC game, and it runs Linux! Valve made gaming on Linux an absolute breeze thanks to Proton. There are some popular games that don’t work, either because Tim Sweeney hates Linux (yes, really) or because the anti-cheat won’t accept Linux, but I only know about Destiny 2 and Rust that have that problem. Easy Anticheat works just fine, I play Apex Legends and Deep Rock Galactic with no issues!

      4. If you have AMD, you don’t even have to think about it. Their drivers are part of the Linux kernel. Nvidia is not impossible to use, but you might have some issues. I experience random desktop environment crashes that I can only attribute to their drivers, but it only happens on startup sometimes, which is the least annoying it could be. If you choose a distro that doesn’t mind automatically installing non-free software, you probably won’t need to think about it either. The open source driver, Nouveau, works fine but performs awfully in games (or at least it did a year ago).

      If you just want some clear instructions: backup your files, wipe your disk and install Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition. It’s easy peasy to use and getting the proprietary graphics drivers is only a few clicks away. Just configure your Steam games to run through Proton and you might not even tell the difference.

    • Blisterexe@lemmy.zip
      0·
      16 days ago

      Games work fine, if you install linux as a dual boot, you can move the files over (windows files appear as if the windows install was a usb key). Also drivers are fine

  • SavvyWolf@pawb.socialEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    I have a server that has multiple services running under multiple users that each store data. I want to be able to bundle all this data up and send it to another server for backups.

    At a high level, how do I manage permissions for this? Currently I run the backup as root, then chown it to a special backups user which can log in through ssh. But this all feels clunky to me.

    • kylian0087@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      15 days ago

      Might want to take a look at a dedicated backup tool like Borg. It will keep all the proper permissions and file attributes in the backup.

    • Cyclohexane@lemmy.mlOPM
      0·
      16 days ago

      There are many ways to do this, but the next up from users is using groups!

      For each file or data directory, create a group that owns it. This group should have the service’s user as member. Then create a user for running the backups, and add it to all these groups.

      The benefit of this is you don’t have to use root, and you have an association of directory to group that you can always change. You can for example grant a user access to a data directory by just adding it to its group.

  • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
    0·
    16 days ago

    I got one!

    What constrains access to an rpc port in the file system? Is it just the permissions of the port or is there more to the whole process?

      • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
        0·
        15 days ago

        I meant to write socket instead of port because I was tired.

        If for example a program can take rpc over a socket which is a file somewhere is it just the filesystem permissions that determine what can be done or is there more at play?

  • Cattypat@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    Alright, absolute noob here, I’m not particularly interested in computer science or an OS I have to obsessively research. First, how is gaming on Linux nowadays? I play a lot of games, most of which are not triple-A, so I wonder how accessible this is. Second, what distributions are accessible and still customizable? I have all kinds of peripherals I’d like to be able to use, speaker systems, midi controllers, etc.

    • Auster@lemm.ee
      0·
      16 days ago

      About gaming, from my personal experience, it’s overall pretty straight forward. When issues happen, you just got to have patience to read through logs and search up on Google or similar any suspicious parts of the log. Worst part is usually DRM/anticheat, but from what I can gather, usually pretty isolated cases are problematic due to compatibility, usually requiring the devs to go out of their ways to make the DRM incompatible.

      As for the distros question, perhaps Linux Mint? It trades off bleeding edge updates for the sake of stability. Just avoid the Debian-based variant of Mint for now as it’s still in beta.

      • Kangy@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        15 days ago

        I may be misunderstanding here and feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but I was of the understanding that Mint wasn’t a good gaming platform because of the fact it’s not bleeding edge

        • Auster@lemm.ee
          0·
          15 days ago

          To my knowledge, besides the newest updates not necessarily being as stable, but also, other softwares that interact with it would need time to adapt themselves to be sure they’re as compatible as they were before. In a situation of constant updates, other software would always be on a situation of catching up, whereas updates that take a bit longer to land allow “for the dust to set down”.

    • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
      0·
      15 days ago

      It used to be that someone with midi controllers could be assumed to be technical enough to say “you’ll be fine, everything will work”, but most of the time nowadays software just automatically figures out stuff and you don’t have to go looking at the implementation chart and using midiox to see where you’re screwing up,

      So,

      I’ve never seen an interface that didn’t work, but if you’re not comfortable troubleshooting midi signals then give it a shot and see.

      What are you using midi for, a daw?

    • DesolateMood@lemm.ee
      0·
      16 days ago

      Fellow Linux noob, just started using it earlier this year so if someone with more experience wants to weigh in, please do.

      That said, gaming on Linux is pretty good. Steam’s proton makes most games playable out of the box, although it’s still a good idea to check Proton DB to see if any particular game you want to play is playable.

      As for your other question, I’m not totally sure what you mean by accessible and customizable, but I don’t think any of your peripherals are going to be distro locked. The Arch Wiki is a pretty good resource for, well, everything, but most relevant to you for your peripherals (it also usually gives good information for any distro, not just arch)

    • comma@midwest.socialEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      Q1: Pretty good! Use ProtonDB to check what games work, and if you need to apply any fixes.

      Q2: Linux Mint is the most popular choice for beginners, and it’s extremely easy to use. Other people choose Pop!_OS because it’s apparently better for gaming (I haven’t tried it). However, I think the best distro for gaming, while still being extremely stable, is Nobara (a distro based on Fedora Linux).

      Also, practically all Linux distros are customizable, don’t worry about which one’s the best.

      P.S: You can browse through the most popular distros here: DistroWatch

      (Background: I’ve been obsessively using Linux for four years.)

      • LucidBoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        0·
        16 days ago

        I can also recommend Zorin OS for a semi-familiar look with a very polished design. Switched to it as my first distro after ditching Windows for good.

  • Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    Is it that much better to have a Desktoo Environment, on my desktop computer? I’m still halving it with Windows trying to get my games to run on arch lol

      • Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        16 days ago

        I tried running i3, using the arch wiki for the nvidia package. It suggested just the ‘nvidia’ package for a 2080 TI. Launched steam with proton (forget the newest version at the time it was like last month). Nothing would happen when launching any game. Probably doing a lot wrong or something, sorry if this isn’t enough info. I did no logging.

        • potentiallynotfelix@lemdro.idEnglish
          0·
          16 days ago

          First off, I’d recommend you use the nvidia-dkms package, because that can make upgrading kernels easier. Second, let me explain the hierarchy of GUIs on Linux. At the base level, you have the display server. In your case, you are using the X11 display server. The display server is at a very low level, and only handles the rendering of content. The three prominent display servers are X11 and Wayland. The second tier is the window manager. It’s pretty much essential, and it lets you move around windows, stack them, etc. You’re using i3. The third tier is desktop environment. The desktop environment is completely optional, and it controls things like taskbars, start menus, and system trays. DEs are not needed for computer use, but they can make things like customization easier.

          In your case, I don’t believe your issue is with your window manager or display server, I believe it is with Steam or Proton. What game are you trying to play? Some games aren’t able to be compatible with Proton, unfortunately.

          Edit: A few corrections that I just thought of. First off, the display server doesn’t “just” handle rendering things. It handles input, and communicates to Linux, which will tell the hardware what to render. Second, I didn’t explicitly mention this, but I thought that I should, a desktop environment still relies on a window manager for handling windows, it just adds functionality. Also note I wrote this reply partially in response to another commend, so sorry if I yapped a bit too much.

          • Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            16 days ago

            I have another bookmarked comment telling me to use that. Thank you for all the information. I guess my question was a little vague. I was just thinking a DE might be easier for my setup rather than a port of my laptop setup. I’m bookmarking this, too. I’ll give your advice a go the next time I find time to Bork my desktop again. Definitely never buying nvidia ever again.

            • potentiallynotfelix@lemdro.idEnglish
              0·
              16 days ago

              I don’t think your GPU is the issue here as well, I think your game might not work. If you want to try and diagnose the issue, I’d be happy to help. First, add the following to your Steam game options: PROTON_LOG=1 %command%. Then, run the game. This will make a log file in your home directory, with the prefix “steam-” and then your appid. If you want to upload the log or paste the output here, I can try and look at it and try to help.

              • Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                15 days ago

                That may be a while for me. But I will try to remember to swi g back around here and comment in like, a month or two lol whenever Recall is about to hit. I will admit, I tried to launch Sea of Thieves, Elden Ring, Cassette Beasts, and the Master Chief Collection, all which have really great scores on protondb. I chalked it up to inexperience at the time but I’ll run these log commands.

                • potentiallynotfelix@lemdro.idEnglish
                  0·
                  15 days ago

                  If they have good scores on protondb, it’s probably an issue with configuration. First, make sure you’re running it with proton. Go to the game’s configuration > compatibility and tick “force the use of a specific steam play compatibility tool.” then select the highest version of proton available(don’t choose experimental if your game is supported according to protondb). Then, click play. if needed, proton will install and this should solve your issue. If it doesn’t, then you can delete steam(sudo pacman -R steam), and remove the .steam folder in your home folder. This deletes your configuration for steam, and might help resolve issues. Then, re-install steam(sudo pacman -S steam), and sign in again. Download your game and set up proton as I told you. If that still doesn’t work, you’ll want to make a post and share the log files.

  • WeebLife@lemmy.world
    0·
    16 days ago

    I’m on Linux mint 22 and my audio outputs don’t change automatically. When I plug in USB headphones, audio won’t output to them unless I manually change it in settings.

    Also, why can’t I interact with the panel applets (on the right side) while I’m in game? For example: I’m playing a game, I plug in my headphones, I have to manually change the audio output so I hit the “windows” key to bring up the panel, but I can’t interact with any of the applets on the right side of the panel (I can’t select the audio icon and change settings from there). I have to search audio settings in the panel then alt tab to it. It’s really cumbersome

          • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            0·
            14 days ago

            Fedora KDE does. I think it’s going to go with the DE rather than the distro, I bet Kubuntu also does.

            I think dating back to the Space Cadet keyboard, Unix systems recognize 6 modifier keys: Shift, Control, Alt, Super, Meta and Hyper. It is my understanding that they choose to bind either Super or Meta to the “Windows” key (or the octothorpe whatever that thing is called key on Macs) and in practice it’s used as another modifier key, often with Windows-like functionality such as opening the Menu if tapped tacked on.

          • WeebLife@lemmy.world
            0·
            14 days ago

            “Pactl load-module” outputs “you have to specify a module name and arguments.”

            I duck go’d that command and it seems like it’s for pulseaudio. The latest mint release uses pipewire for the audio server. Is the command different for that?

            • nmtake@lemm.ee
              0·
              14 days ago

              “Pactl load-module” outputs “you have to specify a module name and arguments.”

              As I said in earlier comment, please run "pactl load-module module-switch-on-connect" exactly. Note that Pactl and pactl are different commands and the former is invalid.

              Is the command different for that?

              As the name suggests, pactl is a command for PulseAudio. PipeWire supports application written for PulseAudio, including pactl. Try "man pipewire-pulse" to get further info.

  • GlenRambo@jlai.lu
    0·
    16 days ago

    Is plasma big screen really an option? Id like to install it on a desktop to act as a android tv. Launch Stremio, YT and maybe one or two other apps/websites. Easy big tile navigation with remote (flirc).

    It’s in dev since 2020. The images hosted on the site are bit for any of my hardware. It says theres a Debian package. Installed that though LMDE but it was horrible. Somone mentioned Kububtu can install it with apt, but its not listed. Think I’ll give up.

  • Manalith@midwest.social
    0·
    15 days ago

    I’ve got one progam that I need for work that I cannot get to run on Linux. I’ve tried WINE on both Ubuntu and Zorin (and winlator for android). I have the installer exe file and try to launch with WINE but then nothing happens. Is that a program problem, WINE limitation, or something else? Is there a different program I should try to launch it?

    • kyoji@lemmy.world
      0·
      15 days ago

      How are you launching the exe with WINE? Try doing it via the command line if you aren’t already. That way you may get some more information about why it isn’t working. Its as simple as wine path/to/your/exe

      You could also try something like Bottles, which will let you use possibly newer versions of WINE without modifying your system’s WINE.

  • mat@linux.communityEnglish
    0·
    15 days ago

    My Ubuntu server (which has been working for a few years now) recently asked me in a full-screen prompt while updating something about GRUB. There was a list of partitions with just one element, which is the partition that GRUB os on. I was focused on something else so I just hit enter, but now I am really scared to reboot it. Is there any way to pull this back up or to double-check that everything is ok with the machine?

    • jhdeval@lemmy.world
      0·
      15 days ago

      you can use grub-mkconfig to verify the grub config and rebuild it if necessary. i dont recall the exact syntax for your distro so I would look it up first.