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

[QUOTE=shadowdude14;50505394]Anyone know the best linux distro best for running simulations? I'm doing physics research with a professor over the summer, and the entire department uses linux, and after using it in the labs for a while its pretty nice. For me, gnuplot and the terminal being built right into the OS seems great. Whats the best distro for running simulations/science/programming?[/QUOTE] You'd be fine with most popular desktop distributions. There's no need or benefit for subject-specialised ones. I'd try to get a system as close to the lab computers as possible. You should also ask your fellow researchers what they use on their own computers.

[QUOTE=DrTaxi;50505537]You'd be fine with most popular desktop distributions. There's no need or benefit for subject-specialised ones. I'd try to get a system as close to the lab computers as possible. You should also ask your fellow researchers what they use on their own computers.[/QUOTE] I actually emailed my professor that question yesterday and actually just responded. She said they use fedora scientific

Makes sense, definitely go with that then.

[t]http://i.imgur.com/Rmw6OJN.jpg[/t] This is sort of how I feel when I finally get it to do <very specific thing probably involving kludged bash scripts and cron jobs>

[QUOTE=Little Donny;50504378]Haiku?[/QUOTE] This is probably one of the more interesting non-Unix systems out there. It really does do a lot of cool stuff, but it's also still in alpha and has been for many years.

Should I try funtoo? I've done gentoo and need to do a reinstallation because I've created a monster (just a disaster with packages on KDE, it'll save time to just reinstall I think.) I'm just wondering if there's any big reasons to use funtoo instead.

Every time I've asked qhy someone prefers Funtoo over Gentoo, I never get an answer, so I don't really think there is any reason to use one over the other. Do you just want to get rid of KDE? This oughta do it: [code]# emerge -c $(qlist -CI kde)[/code]

[QUOTE=thelurker1234;50522806]Should I try funtoo? I've done gentoo and need to do a reinstallation because I've created a monster (just a disaster with packages on KDE, it'll save time to just reinstall I think.) I'm just wondering if there's any big reasons to use funtoo instead.[/QUOTE] Not really. I mean with Funtoo, having portage in git is pretty neat, but now that Gentoo is doing that too, I don't really see any big reasons really. I mean there's some differences in how they operate, but they're functionally equivalent.

Nice change from arch. Everything always works. Mostly. [t]http://storage5.static.itmages.com/i/16/0615/h_1465987448_4229294_6e94a86f24.png[/t]

[QUOTE=reevezy67;50525514]Nice change from arch. Everything always works. Mostly. [t]http://storage5.static.itmages.com/i/16/0615/h_1465987448_4229294_6e94a86f24.png[/t][/QUOTE] you got a negative 2GB RAM stick? :huh: Unity looks surprisingly nice when the panel is at the bottom. if only Unity would work on Arch without all of the hacking

archey has that bug. [editline]15th June 2016[/editline] Also notice the Microsoft office icons? That's Libre office, comes default like that on Ubuntu Kylin.

[QUOTE=reevezy67;50525514]Nice change from arch. Everything always works. Mostly. [t]http://storage5.static.itmages.com/i/16/0615/h_1465987448_4229294_6e94a86f24.png[/t][/QUOTE] Which desktop environment is this? Also if it's not KDE and I'd like to switch to it. Is it as simple as just using apt-get and selecting the environment at the login screen?

It's Unity, the linux distro is Ubuntu Kylin. Didn't want to bother installing Chinese input. 太麻烦了

having some issues building libcurl-compat on the AUR. [code]==> Extracting sources... -> Extracting curl-7.49.1.tar.gz with bsdtar ==> Starting build()... configure: error: 'PATH_SEPARATOR' variable not set. Can not continue. ==> ERROR: A failure occurred in build(). Aborting... ==> ERROR: Makepkg was unable to build libcurl-compat.[/code] I've tried removing it and reinstalling, but now I can't get it back at all.

[QUOTE=Number-41;50525551]Is it as simple as just using apt-get and selecting the environment at the login screen?[/QUOTE] Depends on your specific display manager, but usually yes [editline]15th June 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=PredGD;50525769]having some issues building libcurl-compat on the AUR. [code]==> Extracting sources... -> Extracting curl-7.49.1.tar.gz with bsdtar ==> Starting build()... configure: error: 'PATH_SEPARATOR' variable not set. Can not continue. ==> ERROR: A failure occurred in build(). Aborting... ==> ERROR: Makepkg was unable to build libcurl-compat.[/code] I've tried removing it and reinstalling, but now I can't get it back at all.[/QUOTE] The guy who made the PKGBUILD fucked up. Leave him a strongly worded comment.

[QUOTE=lavacano;50527116]Depends on your specific display manager, but usually yes [editline]15th June 2016[/editline] The guy who made the PKGBUILD fucked up. Leave him a strongly worded comment.[/QUOTE] had a feeling it was on my end as there were no comments about it not building on the AUR. weird too, I exited bspwm and entered Gnome and suddenly it'd build.

snip too late

Hi guys, I'm trying to get a dual boot set up. I've got ubuntu 16.04 installed now but my gui just looks like this: [t]http://i.imgur.com/3DNDUes.jpg[/t] I can get into a TTY but ctrl alt f7 presents me with that clusterfuck Occasionally I'll see this error [t]http://i.imgur.com/ki03W2c.jpg[/t] Graphics card is an HD 7870, GA 990x mobo and an fx8350. I'm definitely not a linux expert, so I don't really know how to go about troubleshooting this, any help is much appreciated.

[URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/AMD"]Try installing the proprietary drivers for your Radeon card.[/URL] That'd be my guess anyway, judging from the pictures.

Or if you don't want to do that, see if Ubuntu has a "radeon firmware" package you need to install.

I'm fairly sure Ubuntu ships with the firmware by default. Under Debian, you need to install linux-firmware-nonfree to get the firmware files that radeon needs.

[QUOTE=Fergeh;50538778]Hi guys, I'm trying to get a dual boot set up. I've got ubuntu 16.04 installed now but my gui just looks like this: [t]http://i.imgur.com/3DNDUes.jpg[/t] I can get into a TTY but ctrl alt f7 presents me with that clusterfuck Occasionally I'll see this error [t]http://i.imgur.com/ki03W2c.jpg[/t] Graphics card is an HD 7870, GA 990x mobo and an fx8350. I'm definitely not a linux expert, so I don't really know how to go about troubleshooting this, any help is much appreciated.[/QUOTE] If you have the time, try booting something like [url]http://dl.sabayon.org/iso/monthly/Sabayon_Linux_16.05_amd64_MATE.iso[/url] in live mode and see if it just works. If it does, that means newer drivers work better for you. If it doesn't, you should probably install the proprietary drivers. Alternatively, just install the proprietary drivers and see if it works.

Thanks a lot for your help guys <3

[QUOTE=Fergeh;50543795]Thanks a lot for your help guys <3[/QUOTE] Did you get it fixed? What worked?

Hello! Not sure if this is a running issue or it's just me, but I keep getting some relatively specific TF2 crashes running on Arch. When I go onto the Barnblitz map, and do nothing, the game will run fine, however when I attempt to move or swap weapons, the game will crash after a second or two, but not on other maps, such as KOTH Harvest. Am I the only one having this issue? And does anyone know of a solution?

[QUOTE=AG;50549958]Hello! Not sure if this is a running issue or it's just me, but I keep getting some relatively specific TF2 crashes running on Arch. When I go onto the Barnblitz map, and do nothing, the game will run fine, however when I attempt to move or swap weapons, the game will crash after a second or two, but not on other maps, such as KOTH Harvest. Am I the only one having this issue? And does anyone know of a solution?[/QUOTE] I've had issues with seemingly random crashes in TF2 as well, however I haven't been able to pinpoint it. It seems to happen most often during the second round of a game on any game I've played in offline mode.

Hello, I am currently using Ubuntu MATE and I started getting a message every time I boot informing me that there is an error and asking me to report. When I on the report button, I am asked to enter my password. Should I enter my password? Also, why doesn't the message include information about which program(s) crashed? I might be able to troubleshoot the problem if I knew which program crashed. The action is: com.ubuntu.apport.apport-gtk-root I found someone with a similar problem: [url]http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2205517[/url] According to one of the answers in that thread: [QUOTE]Apport will help us report a bug by collecting log files and stuff. [B]As these files may include certain information that we may not want to be included in the bug report Apport asks permission to collect this information and it informs us of the fact that sensitive information is being included[/B]. We have the option to cancel.[/QUOTE] How sensitive can the information the report includes be? This is why I don't want to report. Thank you for any and all answers! :smile:

So I tried many Linux distros and configurations on my semi-old laptop with i5 and 525m but couldn't get it right. Either my double monitor setup didn't work or my fan spinned at 100% all the time. I had zero luck with my external HDMI monitor on Arch, Debian, etc. On Ubuntu 14.04 my HDMI monitor worked fine but fan spinned at 100% till I manually installed nVidia drivers or bumblebee or something. But then my HDMI monitor stopped working. On 16.04 HDMI monitor shows some picture but it's all fucked up, it mirrors the other screen and I can't even turn off the mirroring, it all gets messed up in other ways too. Am I overlooking something? Is there a distro out there that might work better with old laptops or should I just give up on it? [editline]20th June 2016[/editline] Is it just me or is no Linux distro mature enough to be plug-and-play like Windows yet? Most people seem to have some kind of problem with it.

[QUOTE=ecapsbuS;50554041]So I tried many Linux distros and configurations on my semi-old laptop with i5 and 525m but couldn't get it right. Either my double monitor setup didn't work or my fan spinned at 100% all the time. I had zero luck with my external HDMI monitor on Arch, Debian, etc. On Ubuntu 14.04 my HDMI monitor worked fine but fan spinned at 100% till I manually installed nVidia drivers or bumblebee or something. But then my HDMI monitor stopped working. On 16.04 HDMI monitor shows some picture but it's all fucked up, it mirrors the other screen and I can't even turn off the mirroring, it all gets messed up in other ways too. Am I overlooking something? Is there a distro out there that might work better with old laptops or should I just give up on it? [editline]20th June 2016[/editline] Is it just me or is no Linux distro mature enough to be plug-and-play like Windows yet? Most people seem to have some kind of problem with it.[/QUOTE] Most of the problems are half-assed drivers by hardware vendors or X creaking at every seam.

[QUOTE=Van-man;50554391]Most of the problems are half-assed drivers by hardware vendors or X creaking at every seam.[/QUOTE] Do newer laptops have better Linux drivers or is it hit-and-miss thing? Is there any good laptop out there with gaming GPU that will works seamlessly with most distros and also is not made by some underground company but something like Asus, HP, Lenovo, etc.? Is there any list out there of "Linux laptops"?