• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Linux Distro Noob thread of Linux noobs

Onemic

Member
Today has been a frustrating day to say the least. My import still hasn't been shipped yet and I decided to say fuck it an install Elementary. First thing In notice when it finishes installing. None of my drivers that were auto installed with Ubuntu were installed with Elementary. Meaning, most importantly, I can't access the internet on my laptop anymore... I was able to connect through my wired connection, but additional drivers says there's nothing to install. :/

Guess it's time to go back to Ubuntu...sigh.
 
Today has been a frustrating day to say the least. My import still hasn't been shipped yet and I decided to say fuck it an install Elementary. First thing In notice when it finishes installing. None of my drivers that were auto installed with Ubuntu were installed with Elementary. Meaning, most importantly, I can't access the internet on my laptop anymore... I was able to connect through my wired connection, but additional drivers says there's nothing to install. :/

Guess it's time to go back to Ubuntu...sigh.

What is your wireless adapter?
 
Have no clue, it's integrated with my laptop, a Dell studio 1737

Not a 100% sure but I think most Dell wireless cards from that era are based on Broadcom hardware which is proprietary so Elementary maybe doesn't ship with it. You could use contrib/non-free in your sources.list and then install broadcom-sta-common (at least my Debian installation would offer those packages) and the firmware: firmware-b43-installer. That hopefully should do the trick. You probably miss the proprietary AMD driver fglrx aswell. I don't know much about Elementary OS.

Maybe wait if someone with more knowledge confirms that I am not the best when it comes to advice :)
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Today has been a frustrating day to say the least. My import still hasn't been shipped yet and I decided to say fuck it an install Elementary. First thing In notice when it finishes installing. None of my drivers that were auto installed with Ubuntu were installed with Elementary. Meaning, most importantly, I can't access the internet on my laptop anymore... I was able to connect through my wired connection, but additional drivers says there's nothing to install. :/

Guess it's time to go back to Ubuntu...sigh.

There are broadcom drivers in the repo. I've dealt with this a ton on various distros over the years. Install those then BOOM you are good to go.
 
The repo? where do I find that? I dont see anything in the software centre

Try this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx#b43 - Internet access

There you have a guide to find out what wireless card you exactly have and the neccessary step to enable it either via a proprietary or open-source driver depending on your hardware. I hope that helps you otherwise just come back here and ask. Especialy if apt-get doesn't find the package please post your /etc/apt/sources.list - maybe you are missing contrib/non-free packages there.
 
Welp, I need some serious help.

So I might have uninstalled an important library on accident and now X11 (among other programs) won't even start. Fortunately I still had command line so I reinstalled the package and restarted but everything is still busted.

Long story short I backed up files and tried to reinstall Ubuntu from an old CD until I had time to really fix things. Turns out that doesn't work because Grub comes up having ignored both the CD and USB sticks I had tried to use. Actually, Grub doesn't do diddly squat because my keyboard doesn't work on the Grub selection screen and I can't access my BIOS to fix that.

So....1) Any help in fixing my Crunchbang problem? (2) Any help fixing my Grub/BIOS problem?
 
Welp, I need some serious help.

So I might have uninstalled an important library on accident and now X11 (among other programs) won't even start. Fortunately I still had command line so I reinstalled the package and restarted but everything is still busted.

Long story short I backed up files and tried to reinstall Ubuntu from an old CD until I had time to really fix things. Turns out that doesn't work because Grub comes up having ignored both the CD and USB sticks I had tried to use. Actually, Grub doesn't do diddly squat because my keyboard doesn't work on the Grub selection screen and I can't access my BIOS to fix that.

So....1) Any help in fixing my Crunchbang problem? (2) Any help fixing my Grub/BIOS problem?


1) What library did you uninstall? Do you have an error message?

2) Buy a cheap keyboard that'll work with your BIOS.
 
1) What library did you uninstall? Do you have an error message?

2) Buy a cheap keyboard that'll work with your BIOS.

1) fontconfig. Pulled this from .xsession-errors using the command you gave Karsius last page:
Code:
XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /opt/firefox/libxul.so:
libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Couldn't load XPCOM.

little later...

xscreensaver: 17:19:23: SIGHUP received: restarting...
xscreensaver: 17:19:23: running as The_Treechopper/The_Treechopper (1000/1000)
xscreensaver: 17:19:23: could not restart process: No such file or directory
XIO: fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server ":0.0" after 361601 requests (361598 known processed) with 0 events remaining.
g_dbus_connection_real_closed: Remote peer vanished with error: Underlying GIOStream returned 0 bytes on an async read (g-io-error-quark, 0). Exiting.

this one is repeated about five times later...

Xsession: X session started for The_Treechopper at Sat Oct 26 19:53:38 ... 2013
localuser:The_Treechopper being added to access control list
GLib-GIO-Message: Using the 'memory' GSettings backend. Your settings will not be saved or shared with other applications.
xterm: fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) or KillClient on X server ":0.0"

2) But I don't even get a BIOS splash screen. I press the power button and it goes straight to Grub. This is for a laptop anyway
 
1) fontconfig. Pulled this from .xsession-errors using the command you gave Karsius last page:

2) But I don't even get a BIOS splash screen. I press the power button and it goes straight to Grub. This is for a laptop anyway

1) Can you take a look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log ? I warn you, this log is *very* verbose. I suggest you use less to view this file and start at the end, going up until you find something pertinant.

2) Sorry, I won't be able to help you here.
 
1) Can you take a look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log ? I warn you, this log is *very* verbose. I suggest you use less to view this file and start at the end, going up until you find something pertinant.

2) Sorry, I won't be able to help you here.

1) Haha, you weren't kidding about this file. Looking through it now and will edit this post if I find something. Keep seeing "No input driver specified, ignoring this device" but that doesn't seem too crazy.

2) That's ok. Thanks for helping anyways.
 

Luixfern

Member
So I installed Elementary on my laptop and loaded steam on it. I launched dota 2 and a pop up came up saying s3tc textures support wasnt installed. It seems I have to install linux intel drivers and I have no clue. HELP ME PLEASE.
 
One thing I forgot to ask: when you say that X11 doesn't work, can you see the login screen or it just throws you back at the terminal?

Slim comes up and allows me to log in like normal but after that I get a small (about 1/6 of the screen) black box that runs command line. I can still use ctrl + alt + f1 at log in like before.

Ok, found an error(s):
Code:
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
(WW) The directory "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.


EDIT:
So I installed Elementary on my laptop and loaded steam on it. I launched dota 2 and a pop up came up saying s3tc textures support wasnt installed. It seems I have to install linux intel drivers and I have no clue. HELP ME PLEASE.

The first response has an answer and a link to a discussion for more in depth analysis.
 
So I installed Elementary on my laptop and loaded steam on it. I launched dota 2 and a pop up came up saying s3tc textures support wasnt installed. It seems I have to install linux intel drivers and I have no clue. HELP ME PLEASE.

Try this: http://askubuntu.com/questions/231176/how-do-i-install-s3tc


Slim comes up and allows me to log in like normal but after that I get a small (about 1/6 of the screen) black box that runs command line. I can still use ctrl + alt + f1 at log in like before.

Ok, found an error(s):
Code:
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
(WW) The directory "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.

Sorry man, I made you look through the Xorg logs for nothing.

Basically, Xorg works, but it starts xterm instead of openbox. Can you try starting openbox manually

Code:
openbox &

note, the ampersand is important.
 
Try this: http://askubuntu.com/questions/231176/how-do-i-install-s3tc




Sorry man, I made you look through the Xorg logs for nothing.

Basically, Xorg works, but it starts xterm instead of openbox. Can you try starting openbox manually

Code:
openbox &

note, the ampersand is important.
Eh, that's ok. I learned something.

"openbox &" produces:
Code:
[1] 2540
@The_Treechopper: bash: openbox: command not found
Then it was hanging so I ctrl + c'd out of it
 
Eh, that's ok. I learned something.

"openbox &" produces:
Code:
[1] 2540
@The_Treechopper: bash: openbox: command not found
Then it was hanging so I ctrl + c'd out of it

apt-get install openbox

It depends on libobrender, which in turn, depends on libfontconfig. By uninstalling fontconfig, it uninstall openbox.

After installing openbox again, logout (exit in the shell) and log in again.
 
apt-get install openbox

It depends on libobrender, which in turn, depends on libfontconfig. By uninstalling fontconfig, it uninstall openbox.

After installing openbox again, logout (exit in the shell) and log in again.

You are awesome. Unfortunately, still got some problems. Slim logs me in and Conky appears but my taskbar is gone and all keyboard commands except firefox are busted so I can't really do anything.

EDIT: And by keyboard commands I mean when I try to open the file browser is flashes an error message saying "Failed to execute child process "thunar" (No such file or directory)"
 
You are awesome. Unfortunately, still got some problems. Slim logs me in and Conky appears but my taskbar is gone and all keyboard commands except firefox are busted so I can't really do anything.

Uninstalling libfontconfig most likely uninstalled a bunch of stuff. You'll need to reinstall them.

There is a metapackage for crunchbang, cb-metapackage. On their blog, they describe it as:

The metapackage recommends all packages used in the default install.

Might be worth it to re-install it.

sudo apt-get install cb-metapackage
sudo apt-get build-dep cb-metapackage
 
Uninstalling libfontconfig most likely uninstalled a bunch of stuff. You'll need to reinstall them.

There is a metapackage for crunchbang, cb-metapackage. On their blog, they describe it as:



Might be worth it to re-install it.

sudo apt-get install cb-metapackage
sudo apt-get build-dep cb-metapackage

Apt-get says I already have the latest version. Also tried to cb-configs just in case but it says the same thing. Of course, apt-get also displays "The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:" like normal and there have to be over 200 packages listed. Wish there was some way to see dependencies missing that are common to multiple packages.
 
Apt-get says I already have the latest version. Also tried to cb-configs just in case but it says the same thing. Of course, apt-get also displays "The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:" like normal and there have to be over 200 packages listed. Wish there was some way to see dependencies missing that are common to multiple packages.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall cb-metapackage
sudo apt-get build-dep cb-metapackage
 
sudo apt-get install --reinstall cb-metapackage
sudo apt-get build-dep cb-metapackage

from sudo apt-get build-dep cb-metapackage:
Code:
E: Unable to find a source package for cb-metapackage
I reinstalled and although it didn't download anything again it did its stuff without errors.
 
from sudo apt-get build-dep cb-metapackage:
Code:
E: Unable to find a source package for cb-metapackage
I reinstalled and although it didn't download anything again it did its stuff without errors.

sudo apt-get remove cb-metapackage
sudo apt-get install cb-metapackage

If the first command wants to remove everything, say no!
 
sudo apt-get remove cb-metapackage
sudo apt-get install cb-metapackage

If the first command wants to remove everything, say no!

Oh crap...it works! Seriously, thank you so much for the help. Plus, I learned where to find log files and that crunchbang has a super handy metapackage.
 
Oh crap...it works! Seriously, thank you so much for the help. Plus, I learned where to find log files and that crunchbang has a super handy metapackage.

Good!

Btw, it's rare that you need to reinstall a linux install. Removed programs / libraries can be reinstalled (in the worst case, there are some tricks that can be done with a live CD), fucked configuration can be restored from the maintainer's default, grub can be reinstalled easily, etc. The only moment where installing a distro again makes more sense is if you lose a major partition (say, /usr).
 
Ok, so now that things have been sorted out I have a question. I deleted fontconfig (the debian packaged version) to reinstall a newer (from source) version.

If a newer version was installed directly after the old library was deleted why did Crunchbang freak out? Was it something as simple as it wasn't installed in the same location or are repo packages treated different from source packages in Linux?
 

Onemic

Member
I noticed that in Ubuntu, whenever the system is suspended for over an hour or more and I come back to it, my wifi adapter no longer works. If I check my wireless settings all I can do is to set enable networking(which os for some reason disabled) and that's it. No wifi networks or anything. Only way I can fix it is to do a reboot. Anyone knwo why this happens?
 

phoenixyz

Member
I noticed that in Ubuntu, whenever the system is suspended for over an hour or more and I come back to it, my wifi adapter no longer works. If I check my wireless settings all I can do is to set enable networking(which os for some reason disabled) and that's it. No wifi networks or anything. Only way I can fix it is to do a reboot. Anyone knwo why this happens?
I had the same problem after my update to 13.10. For me the problem was that the network manager did not wake up with the rest of the system. Try
sudo nmcli nm sleep false
if it works you can create a script so it is run everytime on wakeup in /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d (for more info look here).
 

Number45

Member
Trying to decide which distro to use for home at the moment. All I (read: my family, I don't use the home PC often) really need is a browser, and the ability to edit word/excel and maybe publisher files. The ability to print/scan as well - Brother do provide drivers so hopefully that won't be a problem.

I've installed Ubuntu, but I'm not entirely happy with the way it's performing at the moment (and I'm not a fan of Unity). Tempted to give the Debian edition of Mint a go as it should perform better. I used a non windowed version of Debian at work so I'm semi comfortable with how it works (although I'm FAR from an expert on Linux in general).

Any suggestions? Mint seems the obvious choice.

EDIT: Can I use the Ubunto tool to create a bootable USB from the Mint ISO?
 

phoenixyz

Member
Trying to decide which distro to use for home at the moment. All I (read: my family, I don't use the home PC often) really need is a browser, and the ability to edit word/excel and maybe publisher files. The ability to print/scan as well - Brother do provide drivers so hopefully that won't be a problem.
While LibreOffice is a good Microsoft Office replacement interchanging files between Word/Excel and Writer/Calc can be a pain in the ass. But as long as it works for you, everythings fine.

I've installed Ubuntu, but I'm not entirely happy with the way it's performing at the moment (and I'm not a fan of Unity).
What exactly is the problem with Ubuntu? I also don't like Unity, that's why I use Xfce, but you can also use KDE, Gnome or LXDE without a problem on Ubuntu.
 
Trying to decide which distro to use for home at the moment. All I (read: my family, I don't use the home PC often) really need is a browser, and the ability to edit word/excel and maybe publisher files. The ability to print/scan as well - Brother do provide drivers so hopefully that won't be a problem.

I've installed Ubuntu, but I'm not entirely happy with the way it's performing at the moment (and I'm not a fan of Unity). Tempted to give the Debian edition of Mint a go as it should perform better. I used a non windowed version of Debian at work so I'm semi comfortable with how it works (although I'm FAR from an expert on Linux in general).

Any suggestions? Mint seems the obvious choice.

Mint is okay but it takes rather long until you get updates ("update packs"). They call it a rolling release because the team ports/tests packages from testing but that happens not really often. Last time Debian Stable was further ahead than LMDE. I personally would go with Debian wether stable or sid you have to decide for yourself. The minimalistic, fast and "dangerous" (=newest packages) approach would be Semplice but you don't get a traditional desktop with icons. Crunchbang the "safer" version or if you like Ubuntu maybe Elementary (did not try that myself). You could try a few distributions in VirtualBox to see what you get - of course this is no indication for hardware support, speed or anything.

I have a Brother printer aswell and it took me some time because there is no true 64Bit version of it but I managed to get everything including the scanner working.
 

Number45

Member
Mint is okay but it takes rather long until you get updates ("update packs"). They call it a rolling release because the team ports/tests packages from testing but that happens not really often. Last time Debian Stable was further ahead than LMDE. I personally would go with Debian wether stable or sid you have to decide for yourself. The minimalistic, fast and "dangerous" (=newest packages) approach would be Semplice but you don't get a traditional desktop with icons. Crunchbang the "safer" version or if you like Ubuntu maybe Elementary (did not try that myself). You could try a few distributions in VirtualBox to see what you get - of course this is no indication for hardware support, speed or anything.

I have a Brother printer aswell and it took me some time because there is no true 64Bit version of it but I managed to get everything including the scanner working.
Thanks, perhaps Mint isn't the right way to go at the moment.

While LibreOffice is a good Microsoft Office replacement interchanging files between Word/Excel and Writer/Calc can be a pain in the ass. But as long as it works for you, everythings fine.
Yeah, this'll be the only PC in use once it's settled so interchangeability isn't too much of an issue. As long as it doesn't cause any issues for my daughter for school, and I don't see why it would.

What exactly is the problem with Ubuntu? I also don't like Unity, that's why I use Xfce, but you can also use KDE, Gnome or LXDE without a problem on Ubuntu.
Primarily Unity and performance. Now that you mention it, I should give one of the others a go. Do Ubuntu package an ISO with Gnome any more? I thought it had been replaced by Unity (I know that Kubuntu/Xubuntu etc. exist).

Hmm, I'd like to keep it relatively light so perhaps Xfce is the way to go.

I've instructed everyone to keep their data in Dropbox during the transition so that messing around doesn't cause too many problems.
 

Gonff

Banned
What is a good distro you guys would recommend for a work environment (programming/development)?

Right now I am using Manjaro. It's not 100% stable but it gets the job done. Is there something better that I can switch to without losing everything I have?

I've used Linux quite a bit, but mostly as a hobby (playing with Ubuntu/Fedora and Mint). I thought it fit in with the kind of work I was doing, so I figured I'd try Manjaro.
 

phoenixyz

Member
Primarily Unity and performance. Now that you mention it, I should give one of the others a go. Do Ubuntu package an ISO with Gnome any more? I thought it had been replaced by Unity (I know that Kubuntu/Xubuntu etc. exist).
Yes, there is a Gnome flavor: Ubuntu GNOME. You can also just install every desktop environment on your current installation. ubuntu-gnome-desktop, xubuntu-desktop, lubuntu-desktop and kubuntu-desktop are the metapackages.
 
Primarily Unity and performance. Now that you mention it, I should give one of the others a go. Do Ubuntu package an ISO with Gnome any more? I thought it had been replaced by Unity (I know that Kubuntu/Xubuntu etc. exist).

Hmm, I'd like to keep it relatively light so perhaps Xfce is the way to go.

I've instructed everyone to keep their data in Dropbox during the transition so that messing around doesn't cause too many problems.
Ubuntu Gnome is what you're after. I used it for a while before jumping ship to Crunchbang and it's a well thought out, modern looking Ubuntu flavor. I eventually switched because I wanted something even less resource intensive but that should be good for your family.
 

NotBacon

Member
Thanks, perhaps Mint isn't the right way to go at the moment.


Yeah, this'll be the only PC in use once it's settled so interchangeability isn't too much of an issue. As long as it doesn't cause any issues for my daughter for school, and I don't see why it would.


Primarily Unity and performance. Now that you mention it, I should give one of the others a go. Do Ubuntu package an ISO with Gnome any more? I thought it had been replaced by Unity (I know that Kubuntu/Xubuntu etc. exist).

Hmm, I'd like to keep it relatively light so perhaps Xfce is the way to go.

I've instructed everyone to keep their data in Dropbox during the transition so that messing around doesn't cause too many problems.

Elementary is definitely worth a shot. Beautifully designed while somehow super light on resources. Ubuntu Gnome is a little heavier but still a good choice too. Also I would give regular Mint a go. Not LMDE. LMDE lags behind a lot while normal Mint is basically a polished more user friendly version of Ubuntu.
 

Number45

Member
Thanks folks, trying the Gnome version at the moment. Fun and games not helped by the fact that I'm not sure there aren't other problems with the hardware (issues with various USB devices and the hard drive has been suspect for some time now). But that's actually one of the reasons I want to make the household less dependent on the PC in the short term.
 
Ok, so now that things have been sorted out I have a question. I deleted fontconfig (the debian packaged version) to reinstall a newer (from source) version.

If a newer version was installed directly after the old library was deleted why did Crunchbang freak out? Was it something as simple as it wasn't installed in the same location or are repo packages treated different from source packages in Linux?

It freaked out because you removed a package that's required by other packages. The only way the package manager knows that the requirements for a package are fulfilled is if the required packages / functionality are marked as installed in its database. It doesn't have any means to figure it out by looking at the file system.

To replace a distro-provided package, you either have to use a package from a third party (unofficial repository, ppa), compile and install a "source package" (see https://wiki.debian.org/SourcePackage ) or you can use equivs (see http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-helpers.en.html ).

You have to be careful when you replace packages like this. Expect upgrades to be a pain (your unofficial does not fulfill the requirements anymore, which causes a cascade of upgrade failures, for example).

Also, to remove a package without uninstalling your whole system, you have to provide the replacement before removing said package, so you don't break the requirements of the dependant packages.
 

zoku88

Member
So, I got a Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus and decided to check out Gnome's HiDPI stuff.

For most of the included settings and whatever, the screen was actually quite readable.

Unfortunately, I think the system DPI is still 96DPI (not sure if this is Xorg's fault or Gnome overriding it to set it to 96 still). I'll see what happens when I set the display size in a xorg file, I guess.
 
So, I got a Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus and decided to check out Gnome's HiDPI stuff.

For most of the included settings and whatever, the screen was actually quite readable.

Unfortunately, I think the system DPI is still 96DPI (not sure if this is Xorg's fault or Gnome overriding it to set it to 96 still). I'll see what happens when I set the display size in a xorg file, I guess.
I'm not sure if this would help, but you can change the font DPI scaling in gnome-tweak-tool, going to the Fonts section and changing the Scaling Factor. The sections might be named differently in different versions, but not unrecognisably so.
 

zoku88

Member
I'm not sure if this would help, but you can change the font DPI scaling in gnome-tweak-tool, going to the Fonts section and changing the Scaling Factor. The sections might be named differently in different versions, but not unrecognisably so.

I tried that. I think that just affects the thngs that were already working (like the GNOME stuff.)

Not other applications that read the dpi and adjust text size.

EDIT: I guesss this is moreof an xorg problem than a gnome problem, as xorg disabled auto dpi detection a while ago, I think.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
OH SNAP WHERE IS ANDREX?!?!?!

OMG Ubuntu

Debian, the foundation upon which many Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, are based, is to switch to Xfce as its default desktop environment.

Dropping the zero, Gnome 3, and getting with the hero, Xfce!
 

hitsugi

Member
OH SNAP WHERE IS ANDREX?!?!?!

OMG Ubuntu

Debian, the foundation upon which many Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, are based, is to switch to Xfce as its default desktop environment.

Dropping the zero, Gnome 3, and getting with the hero, Xfce!

I like XFCE, but if you asked me why I prefer it to Gnome.... I couldn't really give many reasons. I just started disliking Gnome on the release of Gnome 3.
 
Top Bottom