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Linux Distro Noob thread of Linux noobs
- Thread starter Flying_Phoenix
- Start date
Does whatever system monitor you have show high memory or CPU usage or spikes while using any programs?
GameplayWhore
Member
I'm mostly opensuse with a tiny bit of debian (and arch at home), but I'm still interested in knowing what the questions are.
edit: Also, OS problems tend to be deterministic. If your operating system is getting slower, then there is a specific mechanism that is causing it. It is not vaguely rotting.
Q
qizah
Unconfirmed Member
Thanks I'll try that.
I mostly use Chromium, that's what seems to take up the most CPU usage.
GameplayWhore
Member
How many tabs do you usually run it with? Is it taking you over the physical limit of memory (that's what causes most speed-related issues for me). You might want to try using it with the "click to play" option enabled so that it's not automatically running all flash plugins at all times. Or going so far as using whatever equivalent it has to NoScript.
This morning Fedora failed to boot to the login prompt. After a few tries I confirmed it was not a one-off problem.
It's fortunate that I could boot to the command line. As a random guess, I ran yum update. It installed a bunch of stuff, and I rebooted. My computer then started up fine, so apparently that fixed the problem. I wonder what I did to break it... or what specifically fixed it.
FireFox had crashed and refused to restart when I turned my computer off last night. Perhaps that had something to do with it. The only line I saw while booting was "Started Collect UEFI-saved oopses for ABRT".
It's fortunate that I could boot to the command line. As a random guess, I ran yum update. It installed a bunch of stuff, and I rebooted. My computer then started up fine, so apparently that fixed the problem. I wonder what I did to break it... or what specifically fixed it.
FireFox had crashed and refused to restart when I turned my computer off last night. Perhaps that had something to do with it. The only line I saw while booting was "Started Collect UEFI-saved oopses for ABRT".
Q
qizah
Unconfirmed Member
Tried to update Gnome 3.6 to 3.8 via cmd line tonight. Total. Failure.
It essentially nuked my whole OS. I've been using Ubuntu for years but I'm still not 100% comfortable with it nor command line so I follow instructions on sites like OMGUbuntu with full confidence. Now I'm fresh installing 12.04 (only one I had on a USB stick) and hoping the upgrade to 13.04 will go smoothly after and that I can install Gnome 3.8 properly.
Worst part is that this had to happen right before E3. >_>.
It essentially nuked my whole OS. I've been using Ubuntu for years but I'm still not 100% comfortable with it nor command line so I follow instructions on sites like OMGUbuntu with full confidence. Now I'm fresh installing 12.04 (only one I had on a USB stick) and hoping the upgrade to 13.04 will go smoothly after and that I can install Gnome 3.8 properly.
Worst part is that this had to happen right before E3. >_>.
Is there any special reason why you're installing 12.04 and then upgrading to 13.04 rather than just installing 13.04? The amount of files it pulls down from the net to upgrade you might as well download 13.04
. Plus you're far better off with a fresh install imo, than upgrading.I had lots of freezing problems with Gnome 3.8 although I admit that was in a Virtual Machine so take it with a grain of salt.
Kevitivity
Member
If you're using a package based distribution like Debian or Redhat, always update with packages provided by the distro unless you really know what you're doing.
Q
qizah
Unconfirmed Member
Is there any special reason why you're installing 12.04 and then upgrading to 13.04 rather than just installing 13.04? The amount of files it pulls down from the net to upgrade you might as well download 13.04
I had lots of freezing problems with Gnome 3.8 although I admit that was in a Virtual Machine so take it with a grain of salt.
Well I really am only limited to one computer and so I had a USB stick with 12.04 already on it. This is weird, I installed 12.04 and have all my files still but on the newer kernals my audio doesn't work and I can't connect to wifi.
Yea there were a rash of audio problems related upstream to the Linux Kernel but I thought that was solved mostly with the latest kernel and updates.
A lot of the problems were related to alsa and pulseaudio just not loading at boot and a reboot sometimes would fix the issue. If not you need to start digging in your sound properties to see if your card is being detected.
Also look in Software and Updates(???) and check the last tab to see if any additional wifi drivers are available.
A lot of the problems were related to alsa and pulseaudio just not loading at boot and a reboot sometimes would fix the issue. If not you need to start digging in your sound properties to see if your card is being detected.
Also look in Software and Updates(???) and check the last tab to see if any additional wifi drivers are available.
Did the gnome session fail to open? I had this exact issue a week ago. I fresh installed 13.04, updated everything, then upgraded to Gnome 3.8, nothing else. On reboot the session wouldn't load and everything I tried failed to fix it. After much frustration I ended up just going with Mint 15.
Q
qizah
Unconfirmed Member
I just ended up downloading Ubuntu 13.04 and made a bootable USB stick. It works fine now but I have to redownload some applications I had previously, but damn is my machine faster.
I went for a year+ without doing a fresh install and had a bunch of crap on my system. This feels nice, but I lost a few music files but retained the important stuff on Ubuntu One.
I downloaded Mint as well and made a bootable USB stick but I haven't tried it yet. Might give it a go in the future.
Was this only for VMs?
I usually keep my kernels pretty up-to-date and don't remember any audio problems.
From what I was reading it was limited to Ubuntu and certain sound cards. I never experienced it in VM at all but I had an issue with it on my Intel work pc and 13.04. Every now and then it wouldn't detect the card but that just stopped after the first updates started rolling in.
benjipwns
Banned
Thanks for the different new recommendations last week. Laptop is coming friday, messed around with Manjaro some and I like that rolling release aspect, might go with Xubuntu to start as kinda a midway point for now anyway to spend more time with Xfce with something similar familar underneath plus the games I have in the software center. (And to see how they run at least first.) I don't really use my laptop for anything important so it's no problem to start from scratch later.
Maybe I'll triple boot, but that seems like it'll lead me down a path where I'm sextuple booting and only ever installing updates on all of them. I know my VMs got to this state once a few years ago.
Maybe I'll triple boot, but that seems like it'll lead me down a path where I'm sextuple booting and only ever installing updates on all of them. I know my VMs got to this state once a few years ago.
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Soooooo System 76 is refreshing their "SLIM" line laptop.
It's like a tale of two cities up in there. The screen is slim where as the body ehhhh not so much. Plus it appears to have a big arse hinge. Honestly System 76 needs to hire a better industrial design team to work with the engineers.
Oh well at least it's Haswell with Iris Pro for a GPU. You should get good performance and intel has the best set of drivers for linux.
It's like a tale of two cities up in there. The screen is slim where as the body ehhhh not so much. Plus it appears to have a big arse hinge. Honestly System 76 needs to hire a better industrial design team to work with the engineers.
Oh well at least it's Haswell with Iris Pro for a GPU. You should get good performance and intel has the best set of drivers for linux.
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
I'm using a System76 right now and I wouldn't imagine using anything else for Linux.
That "slim" though... ain't so slim. I got excited when I read their twitter but it's thicker and heavier than my Pixel. =/ They definitely need to make a Macbook Air competitor, since the Linux ecosystem needs it and they're the only ones making good Linux-only consumer hardware.
Wait it's Haswell? Hmmmm, somewhat redeemed. I also didn't know their All-in-One was down to $750. obamanotbad.jpg
That "slim" though... ain't so slim. I got excited when I read their twitter but it's thicker and heavier than my Pixel. =/ They definitely need to make a Macbook Air competitor, since the Linux ecosystem needs it and they're the only ones making good Linux-only consumer hardware.
Wait it's Haswell? Hmmmm, somewhat redeemed. I also didn't know their All-in-One was down to $750. obamanotbad.jpg
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
That is the whole reason for the "slim" redesign. They like everyone else are coming out with new Haswell models.
System 76's laptops work and perform very well and you don't have to worry about drivers.
Still for the price ie once you actually customize the thing for more RAM and an SSD it isn't cheap. It isn't expensive compared to the competition per say, but for that price point I expect a little better industrial design work.
System 76's laptops work and perform very well and you don't have to worry about drivers.
Still for the price ie once you actually customize the thing for more RAM and an SSD it isn't cheap. It isn't expensive compared to the competition per say, but for that price point I expect a little better industrial design work.
Have they fixed the SSD head cylinder issue yet?
Wow RHEL 7 is shaping to be the best release ever.
- Gnome shell classic, so finally a nice desktop
- Kernel 3.11
- Open vSwitch!!
- XFS by default
- Parallel NFS (YAY!)
- MariaDB (Fuck you Oracle )
About time they updated RHEL, way too many improvements in the last couple of years.
- Gnome shell classic, so finally a nice desktop
- Kernel 3.11
- Open vSwitch!!
- XFS by default
- Parallel NFS (YAY!)
- MariaDB (Fuck you Oracle
)About time they updated RHEL, way too many improvements in the last couple of years.
Wow RHEL 7 is shaping to be the best release ever.
- Gnome shell classic, so finally a nice desktop
- Kernel 3.11
- Open vSwitch!!
- XFS by default
- Parallel NFS (YAY!)
- MariaDB (Fuck you Oracle
About time they updated RHEL, way too many improvements in the last couple of years.
The moving to MariaDB is a big FU to Oracle of which I'm in favor of. OpenSUSE has followed suit as well.
Also in my quest for "my" perfect Distro, I've landed on OpenSUSE. RPM packages which are widely available, doesn't break like Fedora, isn't as dated as CentOS for a desktop environment in Xfce is damn near perfect. Running it at home and at work for connections into all my CentOS boxes and I'm loving it.
Their tumbleweed feature is really what sold me.
Their tumbleweed feature is really what sold me.
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
Gnome Shell Classic? Gtfo.
But opensuse comes with KDE by default instead of xfce, which means that they are wrong in everything!
Is there a xfce-opensuse or did you just downloaded the DVD/Network image?
Gotta try it sometime...
EDIT: Wait im stupid...SuSe Studio of course.
The DVD installer let's you choose. Of course I only use xfce!
smokeandmirrors
Banned
Finally installing Ubuntu as my desktop replacement, with Windows 7 being used mainly for gaming and if I feel like dabbling in Windows development.
Q
qizah
Unconfirmed Member
Is cloud9 in Chrome a good programming environment for a noobie? Or are there easier ways to program in Ubuntu?
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Q
qizah
Unconfirmed Member
Not quite sure. I want to learn a language... any suggestions? What's a fairly easy language for beginners?
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
I want to recommend JavaScript but I kinda don't.
Not sure about 'easy', but beginners should probably use either python or C.
I first learned on Java, but.... I wouldn't recommend doing that...
The uni I studied at had us learn Scheme, lol. Very interesting and different from most modern languages, lol.
Btw, I would recommend, if you're just learning, to stick with a text editor instead of an IDE. (And try your hand at making your own Makefile, while you're at it.)
python <3
easy to learn, difficult to master, awesome libraries.
For editing I would recommend sublime-text, awesome fast editor.
Theonik
Member
Only a horrible person would tell someone touse JavaScript if he doesn't have to.
Besides the Python suggestion, Java is a pretty good learning language if you want to get into object oriented languages.
archnemesis
Member
Geany is also good if you want a lightweight alternative.
Treechopper
Member
I'm biased but I would start with C. Not super easy to pick up but I feel like I have a much better grasp of what's going on within the computer. Just....pointers man....
C is a good starting point if you consider ever going deeper into programming or plan to learn some more languages. It has a rather steep learning curve since it's missing a lot of "comfort" of more modern languages, but it teaches you the very basic underlying concepts of programming. If you don't care about that, and just want to learn a language, I'd stick to Python or Java.
Q
qizah
Unconfirmed Member
Python seems most popular here, so I'll start there!
Now should I use something like code academy to learn or is it better to learn on your own desktop? Does it matter? I'm completely new so sorry if these questions sound stupid lol.
Now should I use something like code academy to learn or is it better to learn on your own desktop? Does it matter? I'm completely new so sorry if these questions sound stupid lol.
Treechopper
Member
This is true. With my personality I get frustrated if I don't understand something and mess up on it as opposed to understanding it but just not being good at it. I feel with C the former is less possible because you have to understand what's happening to not have errors popping up in your face the whole time.
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
JS is fun as hell when you know what stuff to avoid. My advice would be to read JS: The Good Parts and go from there.
Kevitivity
Member
Python - it's a great starter language and it's on everything. Mac, Win, Linux, Unix.
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Also if you've never learned a language I'd recommend some of the online stuff that is laid out for you. There are some Coursera online courses as well as some things like Code Academy and Code School.
On a side note do any of you Linux users feel safer, happier, maybe vindicated etc... for using Linux now that all of the PRISM stuff leaked about the US Government surveillance?
Do you actually feel more secure than say using Windows or even OSX? Do you even care? Do you think using Linux is even really a benefit in cases like this?
On a side note do any of you Linux users feel safer, happier, maybe vindicated etc... for using Linux now that all of the PRISM stuff leaked about the US Government surveillance?
Do you actually feel more secure than say using Windows or even OSX? Do you even care? Do you think using Linux is even really a benefit in cases like this?
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
It doesn't seem like PRISM was talking about desktop OS's, so it doesn't matter. The only benefit Linux really has in that area is disk encryption, and that's only if the feds raid your house or something.
With Ubuntu wanting to always connect your searches to the like of Amazon and wanting to expand that functionality, no , out of the box I don't trust some Distro vendors any more than some other OS vendors. Being open source is a plus but your OS phoning home data and passing it on is not under your control.
Also Linux lacks widespread implementation of easy use behaviour blocking which can to some extent control software vendors from data mining. On Windows most firewalls have this functionality available, if not switched off by default.
Linux is a very secure platform for the everyday user but privacy is one area where it's lacking big time.
I don't care too much because I believe most of the data gathering is anonymous usage mining and besides I'm not a terrorist or pedobear. What I do mind a lot is my traffic being bubbled because of my usage data and surfing habits and I actively avoid Google because of that. If I go on Google Mail, Facebook, etc. I open have the links redirect to another browser. I also have cookies set to block by default and temporarily allow them until I log off as needed.
At this point I'm more concerned with my kids going on social sites and trusting everyone under the sun like their mother. >_>
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
There was the idea floated out there though that MS was specifically holding back patches for security holes in Windows in order for the US Govt to use them before they pushed the patch to the end users.
Do they even need to do that though? If you have a windows install have a look through your Task Manager and see just how many are set to dial home to Microsoft and are tied into generic system services that require internet access. There's also that little thing called Windows Update that scans your PC and uploads the info back to Microsoft servers. If government has access to the servers then they have the data.
The reality is these companies are all data mining as much as they can and having a name and location to that data just adds more value to it. We already have rogue teams of trained killers roaming the world with a free ticket to 'find, fix, and finish' targets. Let's just hope they don't get the wrong address in your street like they've been doing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Theonik
Member
It really depends on the distro in question. It's an open source thing rather than just being Linux. Ubuntu's stance on the matter for example has been quite appalling.
Not that it makes you that much safer. Data can be extracted in many different levels than just your computer. So keeping programs from phoning home doesn't mean people don't know what you're doing especially on your browser.