/fglt/ - Friendly GNU/Linux Thread

Welcome to /fglt/ - Friendly GNU/Linux Thread.

Users of all levels are welcome to ask questions about GNU/Linux and share their experiences.

*** Please be civil, notice the "Friendly" in every Friendly GNU/Linux Thread ***

Before asking for help, please check our list of resources.

If you would like to try out GNU/Linux you can do one of the following:
0) Install a GNU/Linux distribution of your choice in a Virtual Machine.
1) Use a live image and to boot directly into the GNU/Linux distribution without installing anything.
2) Dual boot the GNU/Linux distribution of your choice along with Windows or macOS.
3) Go balls deep and replace everything with GNU/Linux.

Resources: Please spend at least a minute to check a web search engine with your question.
*Search: qwant, searx, ixquick or startpage.
*Many free software projects have active mailing lists.
*Many free software projects have an active bugzilla where you can check and report errors.

$ man %command%
$ info %command%
$ help %command%
$ %command% -h
$ %command% --help

Don't know what to look for?
$ apropos %something%

Check the Wikis (most troubleshoots work for all distros):
wiki.archlinux.org
wiki.gentoo.org

Jow Forums's Wiki on GNU/Linux: wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/Category:GNU/Linux

>What distro should I choose?
wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/Babbies_First_Linux
>What are some cool programs?
wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/list_of_applications
directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page
>What are some cool terminal commands?
commandlinefu.com/
cheat.sh/
>Where can I learn the command line?
mywiki.wooledge.org/BashGuide
grymoire.com/Unix/
>Where can I learn more about Free Software?
gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html
>How to break out of the botnet?
prism-break.org/en/categories/gnu-linux

/fglt/'s website and copypasta collection:
fglt.nl && p.teknik.io/wJ9Zy

Previous thread:

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Other urls found in this thread:

wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/backlight
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

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Should I get Wifi usb for netinstall? I don't have immediate access to ethernet.

Netinstall implies getting things from the net. If just want a minimal install you can use the normal media, deselect what you don't want at install time and still use it later as a limited local repo.

Pic related, my internet was very slow back then.
All software in the Debian repos can be downloaded as CDs or DVDs. You can use this discs during the installation or after as a local repo.

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.Xresources file isn't in ~/
where the hell do i find it?

I think it's called .xinitrc now. If not you can create it.

yeah, but I want functional wifi, and it's not really a minimal install.

It is probably better to use a full CD or DVD and install the wifi stuff afterwards.
Or you can boot a live installation media of debian, get the wifi working and save all the packages you had to install in another media in case they don't get copied to your new system.
Another option is installing Debian on a VM, pass the WiFi adapter to it, get it working and then again save the packages for use in your new system.

What's the best lightweight browser? Only have 2gbs of RAM and you know how firefox is.

if it's not in the home directory just create it yourself.

also locate .Xresources

First of all use zram. Palemoon, Midori and Links2 in order of memory usage. There is also QupZilla but I never tested it.

Is GearVR -> SteamVR possible on Linux?
If yes, what are some implementations

What the appeal of MX Linux ?
This distro grows more and more on Distrowatch.

It has a good default experience with Xfce, which is basically the last sane DE.

xinitrc is the xinit startup configuration
Xresources is resources settings
Xdefaults deprecated by Xresources

Never seen someone using it.
Only posts about it.

I () also have never seen many people using it.

whats the best day of the week/month to upgrade packages
sunday?

friendly debian with fewer ancient packages

done that, tried to XTerm.vt100.reverseVideo: true
didn't work

the real file is somewhere else, creating it myself doesn't work

tl;dr: Best filesystem for storage in a HDD?

I have a dual boot computer, but lately I been having less and less excuses to boot to windows, namely pure gaming on games that won't be ported. I have a NTFS HDD but it keeps shitting the bed when during outages or such and will bring the system down. So I'm thinking of moving all my data to a new hard drive and just leave the NTFS untouched and unmounted. So which filesytem to use?

Depends on your distro. For Debian and CentOS any day is good. For Gentoo Monday so you have your system up to date before the weekend. For Arch Friday because you will need the entire weekend to fix it and your mom won't let you miss school.

What kind of data? In advance, the response will probably be XFS or ext4.

Torrents (aka videos and music), data dumps, pictures, that kind of data. Maybe some games...
Do any support compression?

Linux is a kernel.

hey thats not friendly

Btrfs and ZFS support compression.
Btrfs but it's not yet ready for production despite whit Arch users will tell you. ZFS also does but Linux support is not as good as in Solaris and BSDs.
If you really want compression ZFS is the way to go.

Note: Afaik the compression is per file and not filesystem wide, for that you will want deduplication.

I think XFS has or will have deduplication. ZFS already supports it but stores the dedup table in RAM, which can grow quite large - 1GB per 1TB, what makes people mistakenly think it's only for big datacenters.

Final answer: ZFS if you really want compression. Otherwise XFS or ext4. In the case of ext4 remember to disable the system reserved space.

srry

i'd rather use btrfs than zfs on linux.
btrfs also can do snapshots, which lets you copy a snapshot for external backup, which you would need LVM to do with another filesystem, and LVM has significant performance drawbacks when copying a snapshot

btrfs is not stable for some raid levels, but otherwise I've never had a problem with it

>Final answer: ZFS if you really want compression. Otherwise XFS or ext4. In the case of ext4 remember to disable the system reserved space.
I'll need to check if the space gain is worth the RAM given I have 16

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1. That's only when the FS is mounted.
2. Not all data goes up to this ratio. I suggest you create a ZFS filesystem with 10% to 20% the size of all your data and copy stuff there to see how much ram it uses and if the saved space is worth it.

I have a personal mirror of libgen, it's all in ext4 and I never had a problem.I think that in this situations it's always better to be in the safe side.

Also the algorithm that will give the best compression results will probably be gzip. Gzip allows you to decompress to a stream so you can use the file while it is being decompressed. Multimedia will not gain anything from compression and might even get bigger.

I'm tired and that's why the text is shit.

Thinking of switching from arch to fedora but the only thing I'm concerned about is my AUR (zotero, xmind, etc). I like having them up to date so use packer. I understand that fedora doesn't have an AUR so I would need to download the program upstream?

Using Zotero as an example, install and update? make install in a folder seems pretty annoying since I'll have to locate the folder, download the update then make install again, not to mention if it doesn't support make uninstall.
I hear I can make an rpm, which is like a deb, which I think is like an installer. Will this update it for me?

>I hear I can make an rpm, which is like a deb, which I think is like an installer. Will this update it for me?
No, you will have to create a new rpm every time.
Use GNU Stow to keep manually installed software easy to administer.
Always install this kind of software under /usr/local

and """GNU""" is a bunch of utilites, your point?

Does anyone here know a way to call machinectl shell command for a systemd-nspawn container without root access? I need that for my patched dmenu that's supposed to be able to run application inside containers.

Operating System*

*Mammal

The Linux kernel*

I think I'll go with ext4 since it's true and tested while it seems data deduplication isn't ready on a good FS yet.
And you make a good point on multimedia not gaining much from compression which will be the bulk of the data.
Thanks for the support

Oh yeah, forgot to tell you. There are windows drivers that allow read only access to ext* filesystems.

>windows drivers that allow read only access to ext* filesystems.
Kinda defeats the point since I wanted to use the disk seamlessly between OSes. The NTFS drive will mostly sit there holding games for whenever I feel like playing them. Like once a month or so

Wait, what? You were expecting to just use GNU/Linux filesystems on windows?

Nope, the other way around, but there are no chkdsk /f for NTFS on Linux to fix the drive after an unexpected shutdown (and with the current storms in the are, shit goes down a few times a week).

lol

That's not me.
I didn't understand but whatever.

Are you from reddit?

No , iam from India the greatest country there is my friend no offense .

Please, point me to this ""GNU Operating System"" I want to test it out.

Linux distributions can function without GNU bloat and shitware.
>ibn4 b-but you can't compile the linux kernel without GCC!
And? That doesn't make it any more GNU than my fucking applications compiled with it.

assist me with my shitbox, what can I do with my current OS/hardware to make things run faster

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That post was neither good nor funny. Go away.

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change to Openbox or xfce.
get off *buntu shit for arch or debian.

Use Xfce or LXDE. Gnome is a shit bag tied to your leg. Also use zram.

Can someone recommend a good music player that uses qt, since i'm using plasma and didn't like amarok, so i'm looking to replace it.

just use foobar, desu.

My thinkpad x220 has uefi and legacy mode. Does this mean I can install gentoo with the bios method if I boot in legacy mode?

use uefi only.
there's literally no reason not to.

Thank you for your reply. The reason I ask is that I've successfuly installed gentoo with the bios instructions but I failed to reboot to grub the one time I tried on uefi

try to boot a live CD in UEFI.
you probably just messed something up.

the only way to install gentoo with UEFI is to use an outdated piece of shit live CD.

>all my "knowledge" comes from memes and is as shallow as my intelligence
Never post again.

t. buntu brainlet

dank memes bro

why don't you use a native player

nothing really compares to foobar that i've tried.

This was awhile ago
I'm using the systemrescue cd. Which is nice because I can boot it to a graphical environment and copy and paste from the handbook

he right you know

>i possess no real knowledge, all i can do is post memes and opinions i picked up from others to pretend i fit in on this technology related forum
You don't know what makes a distribution. You don't know how environments or software works. Consider euthanasia.

No, he isn't you fucking retard. Running the same software on different distributions won't make your computer faster. Nor will changing to a different environment make your usage, like web browsing, a better experience, because you are still running the same software, retard.

nice samefag m8.
And i'm sorry you developed stockholm to a GNUL distro and fail to realize there's better options.

You found nothing that plays music?

>i don't know what "samefag" is: the post
Why are you still posting? Stop wasting bandwidth. You don't even know what distribution I'm using you fucking retard.

>Running the same software on different distributions won't make your computer faster.
oh the irony from the top of Mt. Stupid

nothing that is a good as foobar or better.
I really don't understand this allergy you people have to wine.

Do you run more Windows programs in Wine or is foobar the only one?

foobars the only one minus games.

what are some features you need in foobar?

Stability. It's based on the rock-solid Debian stable.

>visiting distrowatch
Stop.

>firefox using tons of CPU resources at 50-70% CPU load
>about:performance shows nothing amiss, all process and tabs at 2-0% CPU usage each
>losing my shit trying to find out what is happening
>about to go full tinfoil believing a bitcoin miner has infiltrated my system
>eventually realise I installed an addon that opens things directly in mpv, when it does the process is still owned by firefox instead of the mpv instance and watching very high quality media on my shitty computer uses a ton of resources

I am my own worst enemy with computers. I was getting pretty close to a full system paranoia wipe.

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sensible kek

Really all it needs is the same ricablity as foobar with ease of use in managing playlists and searching. While retaining a very minimal UI that's free of anything and everything i don't want. I don't care to learn yet another CLI interface so MPD doesn't interest me because it's a hindrance.

deadbeef. it's just a clone of foobar to the point where you are told to read foobar docs for help. it's not exactly foobar though and not quite as good but good enough. It's still surprises me how much better foobar is than literally every other player available. I don't understand why the creator of foobar won't just open source the damn thing so we can have a native linux version, it's like he is withholding it from linux on purpose.

It's tied too heavily to VS shit for starters so i can assume he probably doesn't bother with linux at all.
But yeah I don't understand why so many people miss the point of why Foobar is so great.

It's not like it's being sold for money, I don't see why doesn't he just release the code and let random faggots do the job for him.
It's the one software that is truly irreplaceable from Windows.

The codes most likely shit, or he just doens't want to deal with the public. Which i get. But yeah it'd be nice if he just threw it up someplace with an MIT license so the public could atleast maintain a fork if he doesn't want to. oh well.

The one feature I like about foobar more than any is how it handles large libraries. it's loads and handles them so much faster than anything else I've tried. Also bulk tagging operations are lightning fast. I've happy with the functionality that deadbeef provides and use it as my standard player. But I keep foobar around just for when I need to either bulk tag, or do something like replaygain scan a large collection of new music. The customisation and plugins of foobar are fantastic, but those things aren't unique to foobar.

>really like i3's hotkeys
>need bspwm

how hard would it be to change the hotkeys?

Does anyone have reliable or up to date GNU/Linux PDF documentation?
I'd like to teach myself the intricacies of GNU/Linux, and the best medium for me as a student tends to be PDFs.

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libgen is your friend m80

pdfs are gay, wipe your drives and jump in

already did

So I've worked out how to change my brightness in the commandline, by sending "echo number > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brigtness"
However, I want to know if this is a dangerous way to do this, and how can I tell what the minimum and maximum values I can put in this file? Because people were saying that a value of 7 was pretty good, but here I am unable to see the screen on anything lower than 200, and 2000 is pretty good. How high does this value go and what happens if I go over?

most hardware these days are pretty good about handling bad values. It will most likely reject it and not change or reject it and go to the highest/lowest it can.
wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/backlight

>Her(his) GNU/feelings got hurt
Stay mad GNU/faggot

fuck off mentally ill tranny.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but is it possible to dual boot some linux distro and windows and have them display on their own respective monitor?

is tux racer still maintained?

you'd need to VM and a screen that supports splitting.

How could it be dangerous? To vid that problem just have the changes in brightness to be % based increments, rather than absolute values. FO rinstacne my i3 config for those keys is

# INCREASE screen birghtness
bindsym $mod+F6 exec brightnessctl set +2%

# REDUCE screen birghtness
bindsym $mod+F5 exec brightnessctl set 2%-

but you can do something very similar for other programs that handle the brightness changes