General Linux Chat and Small Questions v. Year of the Linux Desktop! - Hardware & Software

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/9wL7QJo.png[/IMG] [h2]Welcome to the GNU/Linux thread, where you can talk about Linux and other Linux related stuff.[/h2] [B]What is Linux?[/B] Linux is an operating system, a large piece of software that manages a computer. It is similar to Microsoft Windows, but it is entirely free. The accurate name is GNU/Linux but "Linux" is used more often. Linux is not one company's product, but a number of companies and groups of people contribute to it. In fact, the GNU/Linux system is a core component, which is branched off into many different products. They are called distributions. Distributions change the appearance and function of Linux completely. They range from large, fully supported complete systems (endorsed by companies) to lightweight ones that fit on a USB memory stick or run on old computers (often developed by volunteers). A prominent, complete and friendly distribution to step into GNU/Linux is Ubuntu. [B]How do I get Linux?[/B] You can download a Linux distribution from the list below. Simply download the .ISO file, and burn it to a CD/USB Stick. To install the Linux live medium onto an USB stick, you can use the following Program:[URL="http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/"]Link[/URL] After you have installed the medium onto the USB Stick, you reboot your computer, and boot off the USB Stick. The rest is self explanatory. [B]Distributions:[/B] there are many flavors of Linux to choose from. Below are some of the most popular ones. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/DhSHFHS.png[/IMG][B]Ubuntu[/B] Ubuntu is the most well known Linux distribution, and the entry point of most people who like to check out linux. Ubuntu is a Debian based linux distribution, but aims to provide more recent packages and Updates than Debian. Website: [URL="http://www.ubuntu.com/"]Link[/URL] Download: [URL="http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop"]Link[/URL] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Lbvlk37.png[/IMG][B]Linux Mint[/B] Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based distribution whose goal is to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including media codecs, java, flash and other stuff, to make the overall user expierience better. Website: [URL="http://www.linuxmint.com/"]Link[/URL] Download: [URL="http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php"]Link[/URL] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/wBmGEwP.png[/IMG][B]Debian[/B] Debian is the mother of many Linux distributions, like Ubuntu. Debian can be considered as Rock Stable, but doesn't provide as Up-to date Packages as other Linux distributions-. Website: [URL="http://www.debian.org/"]Link[/URL] Download: [URL="http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst"]Link[/URL] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/7IUBETJ.png[/IMG][B]Fedora[/B] Fedora is the Opensource version of the enterprise Linux distribution Red Hat. Fedora can be considered a Bleeding edge Distribution, and is shipping with the Gnome Shell by default. Website: [URL="http://fedoraproject.org/"]Link[/URL] Download: [URL="http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora"]Link[/URL] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/QlyV4qS.png[/IMG] [B]Archlinux[/B] Either love it or hate it. Archlinux is a Bleeding edge rolling release distro, which means, shit will break. Website: [URL="https://www.archlinux.org/"]Link[/URL] Download: [URL="https://www.archlinux.org/download/"]Link[/URL] Wiki: [URL="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Main_Page"]Link[/URL] Installation guide: [URL="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_Guide"]Link[/URL] Beginner Guide: [URL="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide"]Linux[/URL] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/5HybG3S.png[/IMG][B]Gentoo[/B] Gentoo Linux is a versatile and fast, completely free Linux distribution geared towards developers and network professionals. Unlike other distros, Gentoo Linux has an advanced package management system called Portage, which compiles and installs packages from source. Website: [URL="http://www.gentoo.org/"]Link[/URL] Download: [URL="http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/where.xml"]Link[/URL] Wiki: [URL="http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Main_Page"]Link[/URL] Installation guide: [URL="http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-quickinstall.xml"]Link[/URL] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/qhBMofe.png[/IMG][B]CentOS[/B] CentOS is an enterprise-class Linux Distribution based off the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Distribution and mainly used for servers. CentOS doesen't provide up-to-date packages, but its packages are considered Rock-Solid. Website: [URL="http://centos.org/"]Link[/URL] Download: [URL="http://centos.org/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=15"]Link[/URL] Wiki: [URL="http://wiki.centos.org/"]Link[/URL] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Dgcb5D8.png[/IMG][B]openSUSE[/B] openSUSE Linux is the open source version of the SUSE Linux enterprise edition. One of its famous features is the YaST Control Center, a tool to manage and administrate the whole OS, and is the main package manager on openSUSE. Website: [URL="http://www.opensuse.org/en/"]Link[/URL] Download: [URL="http://software.opensuse.org/123/en"]Link[/URL] Wiki: [URL="http://en.opensuse.org/Main_Page"]Link[/URL] [b]Other useful Links and Resources:[/b] [b]Distrowatch:[/b] [URL="http://distrowatch.com/"]Link[/URL] Provides News about new releases of Linux/*BSD/*NIX distros. [b]Gnome-Looks:[/b] [URL="http://gnome-look.org/"]Link[/URL] Provides Themes/Resources for Gnome/GTK based environments. [b]KDE-Looks:[/b] [URL="http://kde-look.org/"]Link[/URL] Provides Themes/Resources for KDE based environments. [b]Archlinux Wiki[/b] [URL="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Main_Page"]Link[/URL] The Arch wiki contains many informations about many programs for Linux. If you ever have a problem creating configfiles/troubleshooting a program, you should check out the Archwiki first. [b]4bit Terminal Designer[/b] [URL="http://ciembor.github.com/4bit/"]Link[/URL] Very useful tool to generate a color-theme for your terminal. [b]GNU/Linux Distro chart[/b] [URL=http://futurist.se/gldt/wp-content/uploads/12.10/gldt1210.svg]Link[/URL] A chart about the many GNU/Linux Distributions

kubuntu > all

I'm still a fan of good old ubuntu. I seem to stick with ubuntu installations a lot longer than with any other distro (Still change Desktop Environment tho.) Ubuntu Minimal > Arch

Void Linux is pretty cool. Considering getting it working on my Banana Pi too, that could be nice.

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;46928833]Crunchbang > all fight me[/QUOTE] [t]https://openmodelica.org/images/debian_splash.png[/t][t]http://www.xappsoftware.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/431px-xorg_logosvg.png[/t][t]https://wiki.manjaro.org/images/f/fb/Openbox-logo.png[/t] so amazing [editline]14th January 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=kaukassus;46928853]I'm still a fan of good old ubuntu. I seem to stick with ubuntu installations a lot longer than with any other distro (Still change Desktop Environment tho.) Ubuntu Minimal > Arch[/QUOTE] Yeah I use ubuntu (server), just install xorg and awesome and you're good to go, I found it easier than debian to get the nvidia proprietary drivers set up, and there's not much difference so I'd say it is better

Gentoo god-race reporting in. (Please don't actually take this sort of post seriously)

[QUOTE=lavacano;46929063]Gentoo god-race reporting in. (Please don't actually take this sort of post seriously)[/QUOTE] Running a build server on my desktop. Want to share the binpkg files on my netbook. Change use flags. Entire system breaks on every update. Why :( So that's why my netbook no longer uses a Gentoo-based system.

I use Xubuntu which seems to break on me the least of everything, and performs okay. For some reason all computers utterly hate me which is fucking dandy considering my career choices mean I will have to deal with them a LOT all my life To me the best operating system is the one that breaks the least and which I can fix the easiest once it breaks.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;46929220]I use Xubuntu which seems to break on me the least of everything, and performs okay. For some reason all computers utterly hate me which is fucking dandy considering my career choices mean I will have to deal with them a LOT all my life To me the best operating system is the one that breaks the least and which I can fix the easiest once it breaks.[/QUOTE] FreeDOS then?

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;46928833]Crunchbang > all fight me[/QUOTE] this guy knows his distros

[QUOTE=Shotz;46929467]this guy knows his distros[/QUOTE] does crunchbang got a new release, or is the one from 2013 still the most current?

[QUOTE=kaukassus;46929479]does crunchbang got a new release, or is the one from 2013 still the most current?[/QUOTE] 2-2013 If it ain't broke don't fix it right...?

God damnit we used to be arch fanboys. What the fuck happened

Btw Chivalry: Medival Warare has functioning Linux beta, you can just go to Preferences for the game on steam and op in into the Linux Beta. It's as fun as ever and runs pretty alright.

[QUOTE=FPtje;46929552]God damnit we used to be arch fanboys. What the fuck happened[/QUOTE] It started using [i]systemd[/i]

Sabayon masterrace :D This reminds me I should probably run a dist-upgrade on all my debian servers, been a while since I did that last. After the fix for the bash exploit I think.

[QUOTE=kaukassus;46929479]does crunchbang got a new release, or is the one from 2013 still the most current?[/QUOTE] it gets released as much as debian stable gets released so yeah pretty crusty

[QUOTE=mastersrp;46929667]It started using [i]systemd[/i][/QUOTE] it was the fact that it never works that turned me off from arch systemd taking over an entire ring whether i want it to or not is a downside yes but i feel like arch would let you change init systems in theory so i don't think that's one of my myriad of issues [editline]14th January 2015[/editline] also remember the other day when i was bitching because i couldn't get TF2 to run any better than one frame per second well, it turns out that other source games work just fine (I've so far tried HL2DM and CSGO), and it's [i]just[/i] TF2 that has issues. I'm not doing anything different as far as common engine settings go (everything maxed out at 1600x1200 fullscreen, multicore rendering off because I think that bug is still a thing, all the files for all the games are on the same ext4 filesystem), so I'm really confused now at least I've ruled out dependency issues

Just so we have this on the first page, so all beginners will run into it: You should download Gentoo and get started with that, it's the easiest way to start running Linux. [url]https://www.gentoo.org/[/url]

[QUOTE=lavacano;46934091]it was the fact that it never works that turned me off from arch systemd taking over an entire ring whether i want it to or not is a downside yes but i feel like arch would let you change init systems in theory so i don't think that's one of my myriad of issues [/QUOTE] Yeah, my post was a failed attempt at being sarcastic, hence the emphasis. Anyway, Arch does allow you to change the init systems, however I am not sure it would work if you wanted to run something like GNOME 3, although I havent tried getting it working. Runit is available in the repos though. On a side note, I got [url=http://www.voidlinux.eu/]Void Linux[/url] running on the Banana Pi. The process was almost as simple as could be. While none of the official images work, their packages are already compiled for ARMv7hf, so I simply dd'f the latest bananian release (Debian for BPi) to a 8 GB class 6 SD card I borrowed, downloaded the ODROID rootfs for Void Linux on ARM ( [url]http://repo.voidlinux.eu/live/void-odroid-u2-rootfs-latest.tar.xz[/url] ), and mounted the SD cards second partition (the root filesystem partition. Boot is on the first partition, so no issues there). Then I simply cd'd into the SD card rootfs path, and ran rm -rf *, the most lovely of commands, followed by tar xpf path/to/void-odroid-u2-rootfs-latest.tar.xz. Sync, unmount, and booted it up in less than 10 seconds (I didn't time it), and it works fucking great. The reason I borrowed the 8GB SD card was to avoid taking backup of my entire 16GB class 10 SD card, which would take a fucking long time, so I instead did this, expanded the filesystem on the 8GB SD card on-line (while card is in use), expanded the filesystem, rebooted, then plugged my 16GB sd card into my netbook. From there, it was simply a matter of mounting the 16GB sd card, running tar cf shit.tar * inside my home directory of the 16GB sd card, and then send that shit to the running system on the BPi. When that was done, unpacked, and sync'd, I powered off, dd'd the 8GB sd card file system data into an 8.0G raw file, and then dd'd that file to my 16GB sd card. Expand partitions, filesystems, reboot, and done. Alright, maybe the process doesn't seem so simpe now, but it was really much simpler to get done that I had imagined. And that's not even the best part. Fast boot times, eudev, runit init system, fast package manager, are all just side effects of the switch from Bananian to Void Linux. The best was yet to come. Because when I plugged it into my 1680x1050 monitor, which only worked with digital2analog signal converter cables on Bananian, the resolution was no longer capped at 1280x720. [i]I was on the full resolution, using nothing but xf86-video-fbdev[/i], and it was great.

Arch masterrace reporting for duty [editline]15th January 2015[/editline] been almost a year since my last reinstall on my laptop, still running like new

So I'm having an issue with a cron job of mine. I'm trying to run a bash script every hour on a raspberry pi with an RTLSDR dongle. I can execute the script just fine, but when I hand it over to cron it just comes up with [code]#!/bin/bash DATE=$(date+"%Y%m%d%H") FREQ="143M:149M:16k" NAME=$DATE+"_vhf" #ftp login info if [ "$1" = "uhf" ]; then FREQ="429M:451M:16k" NAME=$DATE+"_uhf" fi rtl_power -f $FREQ -g 10 -i 10 -e 55m -c 10% $NAME.csv python heatmap.py $NAME.csv $NAME.png #The really boring "upload $NAME.png to the FTP" part rm $NAME.csv rm $name.png [/code] My error log says that "rtl_power" is not found (everything else executes correctly), yet I can execute the bash script manually with complete success. I'm not entirely sure whats going on here as linux isn't very familiar to me. My crontab looks like this: [code] SHELL=/bin/sh PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin MAILTO= 15 * * * * SUp4hhaxr /home/SUp4hhaxr/bandsurvey.sh [/code] I'm even more confused since rtl_power is located in /usr/local/sbin but all my errors seem to be because cron is looking for it in /usr/bin:/bin only if the error line "X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/usr/bin:/bin>" is to be believed.

[QUOTE=Cakebatyr;46937876]So I'm having an issue with a cron job of mine. [/QUOTE] You can specify the path in the bash script, replace [code] rtl_power -f $FREQ -g 10 -i 10 -e 55m -c 10% $NAME.csv [/code] with [code] /usr/local/sbin/rtl_power -f $FREQ -g 10 -i 10 -e 55m -c 10% $NAME.csv [/code]

I'm using ElementaryOS at the minute. It seems pretty good and looks good if you install some of the extra elements like the icon packs. [URL="http://elementaryos.org"]http://elementaryos.org[/URL]

Just installed Lubuntu on Lenovo Ideapad S205 and it gets to the post screen to ask for boot options then just reboots itself over and over. Any ideas?

[url]https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/3671[/url] This is actually really scary. So Steam on Linux can accidentally execute [code]rm -rf /*[/code] on the system in certain cases.

[QUOTE=kaukassus;46944990][url]https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/3671[/url] This is actually really scary. So Steam on Linux can accidentally execute [code]rm -rf /*[/code] on the system in certain cases.[/QUOTE] [code] sudo ./steam.sh [/code] fuck

[code] # Scary! rm -rf "$STEAMROOT/"* [/code] Why steam. whyyy (The script doesen't check if $STEAMROOT is empty.) [editline]16th January 2015[/editline] Happy little accidents. just like [url]https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee-Old-and-abbandoned/commit/a047be85247755cdbe0acce6f1dafc8beb84f2ac[/url]

[QUOTE=mastersrp;46929667]It started using [i]systemd[/i][/QUOTE] But systemd is fucking nice, imo it's way better than init. Also arch loonix represent

[QUOTE=kaukassus;46944990][url]https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/3671[/url] This is actually really scary. So Steam on Linux can accidentally execute [code]rm -rf /*[/code] on the system in certain cases.[/QUOTE] Ouch.