General Linux Chat and Small Questions v. I broke my Arch Install - Hardware & Software

I've shown my dad, who's not a big fan of computers, how much faster Linux works on his laptop than Windows XP does. He was pretty amazed by the considerably faster operations done on Linux, so he asked me to permanently install Linux on his PC. Of course, I had to automate tasks for him which I consider trivial, but other than that, it's a glorious day.

[QUOTE=mastersrp;45717117]The trackpad doesn't have to be any less "godly" when using Linux.[/QUOTE] Based on the multi-tasking abilities that OS X is built around, then yes. But really, both are Unix based systems, I couldn't see anything to gain from doing it.

[QUOTE=Killervalon;45717242]Based on the multi-tasking abilities that OS X is built around, then yes. But really, both are Unix based systems, I couldn't see anything to gain from doing it.[/QUOTE] OS X isn't "built around" multi-tasking abilities though, nothing really is. But sure. Anyway, my point was more that if one wishes to use Linux to avoid being in a locked down system, then they can. Linux is more open both from a legal standpoint, but also from a software ecosystem point of view. However, it isn't always (read: rarely) as consistent in design as OS X is, but that's a side effect of the flexibility that it provides.

[QUOTE=supervoltage;45717154]I've shown my dad, who's not a big fan of computers, how much faster Linux works on his laptop than Windows XP does. He was pretty amazed by the considerably faster operations done on Linux, so he asked me to permanently install Linux on his PC. Of course, I had to automate tasks for him which I consider trivial, but other than that, it's a glorious day.[/QUOTE] My father who is essentially computer illiterate runs Mint Linux full time. His 2006 Core 2 Duo laptop is tons faster than my mom's Core i3 Windows machine which is 4 years newer. He's never had it crash or have weird issues. For what he uses it for, its overkill. I want to get my mom on Linux too, but I'm afraid the change might be too jarring for her. Though her OS of choice is OS X, so maybe I could make it work.

[QUOTE=Demache;45718255]My father who is essentially computer illiterate runs Mint Linux full time. His 2006 Core 2 Duo laptop is tons faster than my mom's Core i3 Windows machine which is 4 years newer. He's never had it crash or have weird issues. For what he uses it for, its overkill. I want to get my mom on Linux too, but I'm afraid the change might be too jarring for her. Though her OS of choice is OS X, so maybe I could make it work.[/QUOTE] I should've installed Mint. I installed Arch for him. Doesn't matter though since I've enabled SSH by default on his PC, so I can access it from anywhere if any problems arise.

I want to switch to Xubuntu, but something keeps putting me off. Are they moving to Mir and does it include the spyware crap that normal Ubuntu has?

[QUOTE=Adam.GameDev;45718930]I want to switch to Xubuntu, but something keeps putting me off. Are they moving to Mir and does it include the spyware crap that normal Ubuntu has?[/QUOTE] Shouldn't be. And no, it doesn't come with it. Those are Unity-exclusive features. [quote=Wikipedia]As of May 2014 the only announced [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment]desktop environment[/url] with native support for Mir is Canonical's [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_(user_interface)][i]Unity 8[/i][/url]. No other [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution]Linux distribution[/url] has announced plans to adopt Mir as default display manager.[/quote] And the "Amazon spyware", if I recall, you can disable them [url=https://fixubuntu.com/]with a shell script[/url] if you still use Unity.

Thanks, I'm going to try LMDE + GNOME3 and Xubuntu and see what's best

what's the deal with all of the "spyware" and "botnet" stuff surrounding Ubuntu these days? I talked to a guy who was convinced Ubuntu turned your computer into a bot zombie which was then used to improve Amazon's webservice

[URL="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ubuntu-spyware.html"]It sends what you search for to Amazon[/URL] [editline]17th August 2014[/editline] It's opt-in in 14.10 though I think [editline]17th August 2014[/editline] Remind me never to install a second desktop environment again.

Tried an OpenSUSE LiveCD and my PC shat itself. Lets hope the installation disk goes better

So, I'm trying to install Arch on this Sony Vaio When I attempt to run cfdisk, and a FATAL ERROR occurs. It was about a bad partition How do I take care of it?

I've been here before but it was a while ago now. Looking to install Mint (again) on my computer, only now I have an SSD. Would I go about partitioning a small portion of my SSD (Say, 10-15GB) like I would a HDD, or are there things I need to take into consideration first? I'm no stranger when it comes down to tweaking, but the articles I've been reading keep talking about cell space and over-provisioned zones on the SSD - and it's starting to go over my head a little bit. Any help/tips/shit I should know first?

[QUOTE=lew06;45726119]I've been here before but it was a while ago now. Looking to install Mint (again) on my computer, only now I have an SSD. Would I go about partitioning a small portion of my SSD (Say, 10-15GB) like I would a HDD, or are there things I need to take into consideration first? I'm no stranger when it comes down to tweaking, but the articles I've been reading keep talking about cell space and over-provisioned zones on the SSD - and it's starting to go over my head a little bit. Any help/tips/shit I should know first?[/QUOTE] While a swap partition isn't going to instantly destroy modern SSDs, it is still a somewhat bad thing. However, it is a requirement in extreme situations, so I would recommend partitioning as you would normally do (or do what you usually do), but when the system is up and running, you will need to change some system settings about swappiness. Particularily, it would be probably more ideal to have a low swappiness. Swappiness determines how often the system uses the swap file/partition. A swap of 10 means "always" and 0 means never. A swap value of 1 means only when nothing else is possible, so a 2 or so could probably work for you.

[QUOTE=lew06;45726119]I've been here before but it was a while ago now. Looking to install Mint (again) on my computer, only now I have an SSD. Would I go about partitioning a small portion of my SSD (Say, 10-15GB) like I would a HDD, or are there things I need to take into consideration first? I'm no stranger when it comes down to tweaking, but the articles I've been reading keep talking about cell space and over-provisioned zones on the SSD - and it's starting to go over my head a little bit. Any help/tips/shit I should know first?[/QUOTE] it should be pretty much the same as if you were installing it on an HDD. I don't know much about cell space, but over-provisioning is simply leaving 10-20GB of unallocated space on the SSD. [QUOTE=mastersrp;45726356]While a swap partition isn't going to instantly destroy modern SSDs, it is still a somewhat bad thing. However, it is a requirement in extreme situations, so I would recommend partitioning as you would normally do (or do what you usually do), but when the system is up and running, you will need to change some system settings about swappiness. Particularily, it would be probably more ideal to have a low swappiness. Swappiness determines how often the system uses the swap file/partition. A swap of 10 means "always" and 0 means never. A swap value of 1 means only when nothing else is possible, so a 2 or so could probably work for you.[/QUOTE] is swap really neccesary on a linux system if you have enough memory installed? I know that Windows will go mental if you don't give it any swap, but I haven't had issues with that with no swap on my Arch install

[QUOTE=PredGD;45726557] is swap really neccesary on a linux system if you have enough memory installed? I know that Windows will go mental if you don't give it any swap, but I haven't had issues with that with no swap on my Arch install[/QUOTE] Well, MOST of the time it should never be an issue. To this date I don't recall seeing more than 0 swapped on my netbook, HOWEVER if it EVER happens that a process runs wild or goes crazy or leaks memory or WHATEVER, then using 100% of RAM WILL freeze your computer completely. Having swap ensures that there is some space to move. And in most cases it will allow you time enough to find the process and kill it, or in the worst case save your work and kill init.

[QUOTE=PredGD;45726557]it should be pretty much the same as if you were installing it on an HDD. I don't know much about cell space, but over-provisioning is simply leaving 10-20GB of unallocated space on the SSD. is swap really neccesary on a linux system if you have enough memory installed? I know that Windows will go mental if you don't give it any swap, but I haven't had issues with that with no swap on my Arch install[/QUOTE] Page file size is removed on my Windows 8 laptop with 16GB RAM. No noticable problems.

[QUOTE=FPtje;45726778]Page file size is removed on my Windows 8 laptop with 16GB RAM. No noticable problems.[/QUOTE] huh, that's weird. I had issues with programs constantly yelling at me that there was no memory left even though there were 6GB unused

Was messing around with ufw on my server: [code]$ sudo pacman -S ufw $ sudo ufw enable Command may disrupt existing ssh connections. Proceed with operation (y|n)?y[/code] ...oops.

I dread to think of how many CD's I've wasted trying to make LMDE work [editline]18th August 2014[/editline] [code]mint@mint ~ $ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt mint@mint ~ $ sudo chroot /mnt mint / # sudo update-grub sudo: unable to resolve host mint /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig: 99: .: Can't open /usr/share/grub/grub-mkconfig_lib[/code] Getting this after I do update-grub on the LiveCD after it decided not to create a grub.cfg. I have no idea what I'm doing, and Google isn't helping

[QUOTE=Adam.GameDev;45727747]I dread to think of how many CD's I've wasted trying to make LMDE work[/QUOTE] Use USB sticks. [editline]18th August 2014[/editline] Use one USB stick*

It'd be great if the LiveUSB programs found my stick :v:

So I just received my [URL="http://goo.gl/RPTc5W"]DealExtreme branded Wi-Fi adapter[/URL] which turns out to be using the RT5370 chipset. Is it possible to get this working somehow in Arch Linux ARM for the Raspberry Pi? I can get it on a wired connection if possible.

[QUOTE=MasterFen006;45727856]So I just received my [URL="http://goo.gl/RPTc5W"]DealExtreme branded Wi-Fi adapter[/URL] which turns out to be using the RT5370 chipset. Is it possible to get this working somehow in Arch Linux ARM for the Raspberry Pi? I can get it on a wired connection if possible.[/QUOTE] I haven't dealt with the ARM version of Arch before, but I'm going to assume the steps should be the same as the regular computer version install 'wireless-tools' and reboot. udev should pick it up as 'rt2x00usb' using the lsmod command. after that, it should be fairly straight forward [URL]https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/WPA_Supplicant[/URL]

Screw it, I'm trying OpenSUSE Tumbleweed

[QUOTE=PredGD;45726793]huh, that's weird. I had issues with programs constantly yelling at me that there was no memory left even though there were 6GB unused[/QUOTE] I don't use swap on Linux, and I have pagefile disable on Windows. 8GB of RAM, no problems on either

[QUOTE=Original User;45725736]So, I'm trying to install Arch on this Sony Vaio When I attempt to run cfdisk, and a FATAL ERROR occurs. It was about a bad partition How do I take care of it?[/QUOTE] Mayhaps it's GPT partitioned? And maybe stick to fdisk and gdisk, simple is better. [editline]18th August 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=mastersrp;45726356]While a swap partition isn't going to instantly destroy modern SSDs, it is still a somewhat bad thing. However, it is a requirement in extreme situations, so I would recommend partitioning as you would normally do (or do what you usually do), but when the system is up and running, you will need to change some system settings about swappiness. Particularily, it would be probably more ideal to have a low swappiness. Swappiness determines how often the system uses the swap file/partition. A swap of 10 means "always" and 0 means never. A swap value of 1 means only when nothing else is possible, so a 2 or so could probably work for you.[/QUOTE] Even if you need swap, use a swap file instead of a swap partition! You can trivially change its size, move it to a different drive, or get rid of it entirely if it ends up being useless. Much more flexible, and I think the performance is comparable.

Swap files have had the same performance as swap partitions since ages ago. I can't use a swap file because btrfs doesn't support it though. Also, you can't hibernate with a swap file and an encrypted filesystem. Need LVM 'n shit for that. Thankfully I don't use hibernate, simplifies partitioning.

[QUOTE=Adam.GameDev;45727747]I dread to think of how many CD's I've wasted trying to make LMDE work [editline]18th August 2014[/editline] [code]mint@mint ~ $ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt mint@mint ~ $ sudo chroot /mnt mint / # sudo update-grub sudo: unable to resolve host mint /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig: 99: .: Can't open /usr/share/grub/grub-mkconfig_lib[/code] Getting this after I do update-grub on the LiveCD after it decided not to create a grub.cfg. I have no idea what I'm doing, and Google isn't helping[/QUOTE] as root [code]mount /dev/sdXY /mnt/point mount /dev/sdXZ /mnt/point/boot # if you have a separate boot partition mount -t proc proc /mnt/point/proc mount --rbind /dev /mnt/point/dev chroot /mnt/point grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg[/code] i forget whether mounting proc and dev are necessary for grub2-mkconfig to work but that will definitely work also when you did "sudo chroot" you became root inside the chroot (if that makes sense), so the extra sudo was unnecessary

[IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/TuXwmS.png[/IMG] go away, q, let me set a password