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Linux Distro Noob thread of Linux noobs

T

Treechopper

Member
Nostremitus said:
I can't say. Someone on the Steam Forums suggested I switch back to Xorg, then reinstall Steam because apparently Steam doesn't like to install properly on 14.04 with Catalyst already installed. I switched back to Xorg and rebooted, but now Linux won't boot at all. It drops to a shell. So, I'm just gonna say screw it and start a fresh install.

So, any Steam gamers on here? What distro have you had good luck with using AMD cards?
Click to expand...

I've used Steam on Arch just fine, but I have an Intel card. Don't screw it! A member here brought me back from a shell after I accidently deleted part of my Openbox install.

What does your /var/log look like? There's normally some Xorg info in there. Are you positive lightDM is targeting the right files? There are many things you can do to figure out the problem and not lose all your hard work.
 
H

Hugh Buelow

Member
Nostremitus said:
I can't say. Someone on the Steam Forums suggested I switch back to Xorg, then reinstall Steam because apparently Steam doesn't like to install properly on 14.04 with Catalyst already installed. I switched back to Xorg and rebooted, but now Linux won't boot at all. It drops to a shell. So, I'm just gonna say screw it and start a fresh install.

So, any Steam gamers on here? What distro have you had good luck with using AMD cards?
Click to expand...

On Arch, amd64, with the radeon driver. Steam is a pain because of the difference in the provided shared libraries, which caused X to crash as soon as I started steam.

In my case, a way to fix the issue is to preload a bunch of libraries to override those provided by steam.
 
M

Massa

Member
phoenixyz said:
That's one aspect. It just feels so cumbersome juggling applications/windows compared to Xfce/Windows.
Click to expand...

If you'd like to try it the current versions of Gnome 3 have a "classic" session that basically gives you both; the Gnome 2 interface, and the new Activities overview when you press the Super (Windows) key.

I always preferred per-application management rather than a long and crowded windows list. Back when I first started using Linux I used WindowMaker, which was a clone of the NeXT interface (NeXT is now OS X). What Gnome 3 and Unity do is nothing new, they're just following that paradigm rather than Windows.

The nicest thing about Gnome 3 though is its dynamic workspace handling. I'm so much more productive with it that it's painful when I have to do something for Mac or Windows.
 
N

Nostremitus

Member
Massa said:
How did you install the AMD drivers?
Click to expand...
With the "additional drivers" tab.


phoenixyz said:
I doubt games will work any better with the open source drivers.
Click to expand...
No, their suggestion was to uninstall Steam, go back the Xorg, reinstall Steam, then reinstall CCC. Apparently there an issue with the Steam installation process if CCC is installed before Steam.

Treechopper said:
I've used Steam on Arch just fine, but I have an Intel card. Don't screw it! A member here brought me back from a shell after I accidently deleted part of my Openbox install.

What does your /var/log look like? There's normally some Xorg info in there. Are you positive lightDM is targeting the right files? There are many things you can do to figure out the problem and not lose all your hard work.
Click to expand...
How do I get that without booting into the OS?
 
N

Nostremitus

Member
So... I started it back up and it took a while and the screen flashed several times but eventually restarted as if nothing had happened...

ran the Xorg log

I'll list all of the warnings errors and unkowns...

Code: 
[    29.656] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
[    29.656]    Entry deleted from font path.
[    29.656] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/" does not exist.
[    29.656]    Entry deleted from font path.
[    29.656] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/" does not exist.
[    29.656]    Entry deleted from font path.
[    29.656] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi" does not exist.
[    29.656]    Entry deleted from font path.
[    29.656] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi" does not exist.
[    29.656]    Entry deleted from font path.

[    29.839] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module fglrx

[    29.839] (EE) Failed to load module "fglrx" (module does not exist, 0)

[    29.974] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for modesetting
[    29.974] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for fbdev

[    29.990] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for vesa

[    32.697] (WW) RADEON(0): Option "Monitor-DFP5" is not used
 
T

Treechopper

Member
Code: 
[    29.839] (EE) Failed to load module "fglrx" (module does not exist, 0

Go here. That particular package is the video driver. Install that (sudo apt-get install fglrx) and restart to see what happens.
 
I

inm8num2

Member
Just installed Ubuntu through VirtualBox. I'm hoping to play around with it and even try using Wine to run some older windows 95/3.1 games. "Emulator" within an emulator, what could go wrong? :p (After some more reading I see Wine is not an actual emulator.)

Whenever I upgrade my laptop hard drive (or build a desktop down the road), I hope to have dual partitions for Linux/Windows. Time take the plunge. I've been interested in Linux for so long, so it just makes sense to get my feet wet at least. :)
 
N

NotBacon

Member
inm8num2 said:
Just installed Ubuntu through VirtualBox. I'm hoping to play around with it and even try using Wine to run some older windows 95/3.1 games. "Emulator" within an emulator, what could go wrong? :p (After some more reading I see Wine is not an actual emulator.)

Whenever I upgrade my laptop hard drive (or build a desktop down the road), I hope to have dual partitions for Linux/Windows. Time take the plunge. I've been interested in Linux for so long, so it just makes sense to get my feet wet at least. :)
Click to expand...

Welcome............ BROTHER
 
S

SteveWinwood

Member
Guys I need your help!

So I deleted my linux partition because I was running out of room on my ssd. I restarted it to repair the bootloader but it doesn't seem to work! I insert the repair drive I made and follow these instructions: http://askubuntu.com/questions/419464/error-no-such-partition-grub-rescue
but every time I restart it brings me back to:

error: no such partition.
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue>

I don't know what to do now!

Any help is appreciated.
 
T

Treechopper

Member
grub rescue *shudder*

So you deleted Linux to expand your Windows partition? I'm assuming you started the computer with your Windows CD in the drive?
 
S

SteveWinwood

Member
Treechopper said:
grub rescue *shudder*

So you deleted Linux to expand your Windows partition? I'm assuming you started the computer with your Windows CD in the drive?
Click to expand...
I made the usb recovery disk because my understanding was all I'd have to do is reset some of the boot stuff through a command line on it.

Yes I had booted with it in, followed the fixes and when I reboot that's when I get the grub recovery.

Also since I wrote that post it's not going to the normal recovery drive menu for Windows anymore and now just saying my computer needs to be repaired and to insert a recovery disk so that's fun :/
 
E

Elfforkusu

Member
Well, it sounds like your master boot record was dependent on the partition you just formatted. So you could either:

1) bail out and reinstall linux to that partition, wherein it will fix the master boot record (and hopefully in the process recognize your windows partition)
2) figure out how to get Windows to fix the master boot record
 
S

SteveWinwood

Member
Elfforkusu said:
Well, it sounds like your master boot record was dependent on the partition you just formatted. So you could either:

1) bail out and reinstall linux to that partition, wherein it will fix the master boot record (and hopefully in the process recognize your windows partition)
2) figure out how to get Windows to fix the master boot record
Click to expand...
thats what bootrec.exe/fixmbr in the command line on the windows recovery disk was supposed to do

but it didn't

because reasons
 
S

SteveWinwood

Member
okay now i cant use the keyboard at any point to even get into the bios menus and the usb drive doesnt work at all

i have no clue where to even begin

edit: figured it out

had to reset bios, change the usb drive to not eufi (no clue why) and then repeat the steps
 
Xisiqomelir

Xisiqomelir

Member
swecide said:
I should add that it is very very VERY basic. Probably my own fault for expecting something like linux from scratch and what I got was "What does ls do?".
Click to expand...

This is true. I aced the final before I started looking at the course materials.

However it's still a nicely polished presentation, and a good way for people to start to formalize their l33t skillz.
 
T

this_guy

Member
swecide said:
I should add that it is very very VERY basic. Probably my own fault for expecting something like linux from scratch and what I got was "What does ls do?".
Click to expand...

I was looking forward to this too, but looking at the material I'm not going to learn anything.
 
I

injurai

Banned
I would still consider myself a linux greenhorn. But most of my learning as come out of necessity.

It's helped a lot being moved onto an antiquated project at my internship that gets me away from windows/java. All my work is linux command line and bash scripts at the moment.

The best way to create that necessity for yourself though is probably take the dive into arch. It has some of the best linux documentation around.
 
G

Gallbaro

Banned
I just started playing with opensuse for a thin client deployment.

It is interesting. I cannot tell whether I love it or hate it.

All of the servers in my company are CentOS so I am trying to stay away from debain based distributitons.

But I can feel myself drifting back to Ubuntu for LTSP.

Edit:

Functionally just had a VM inside another VM. Probably going with ubuntu at this point for user terminals.
 
T

Treechopper

Member
What is the draw for centOS and opensuse? I know they're geared for business like Red Hat, but what makes them unique? Do they attempt to be more secure? More stable?
 
G

Gallbaro

Banned
Treechopper said:
What is the draw for centOS and opensuse? I know they're geared for business like Red Hat, but what makes them unique? Do they attempt to be more secure? More stable?
Click to expand...


CentOS just runs sooo damn good. Stability is king for my servers. We have what at best can be called a "Distributed Data Center," with a KVM hypervisor, zfs, and LDAP server (Centos) hosting a Zenoss collector VM (CentOS) and a openvpn instance (Unix) phoning home from multiple locations. Each location will likely be getting a asterisk instance as well.

These are life safety and SLA required equipment so CentOS for our servers always.

On the desktop side I have been playing around with the idea of ditching windows, I have an inherent distrust of employees who do not use computers past outlook and word. So to avoid mucking about with Puppet I am thinking LTSP would be a proper implementation. So I am just playing around with the different distro's that have active LTSP support.
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Treechopper said:
What is the draw for centOS and opensuse? I know they're geared for business like Red Hat, but what makes them unique? Do they attempt to be more secure? More stable?
Click to expand...

CentOS is RHEL without the Red Hat stuff. People who felt they could get by with that without needing to buy into RHEL in terms of distro and support turn to that.
 
T

tuffy

Member
Vanillalite said:
CentOS is RHEL without the Red Hat stuff. People who felt they could get by with that without needing to buy into RHEL in terms of distro and support turn to that.
Click to expand...
It helps that CentOS is binary compatible, so commercial packages built for RHEL can run on CentOS unmodified.
 
T

Treechopper

Member
So how does centOS accomplish this stability? Super old packages they keep polishing? Limited subset of new packages they support? Are they more aggressive about making sure everything works out of the box for new releases?
 
M

Massa

Member
Treechopper said:
So how does centOS accomplish this stability? Super old packages they keep polishing? Limited subset of new packages they support? Are they more aggressive about making sure everything works out of the box for new releases?
Click to expand...

A typical Fedora development cycle is 6 months long, with 4 months of adding new features and updates, and 2 months of letting things stabilize and fixing critical bugs. Red Hat takes Fedora, runs that second stage for another 12 months or so, with more rigorous tests and bug fixing work, and then releases an "Enterprise" level OS.

Additionally, 'stable' means it doesn't change (much). Updates are issued only to fix critical bugs and security issues that are found post release. This means as a user you can expect things to work 5 years from now as they work right now; also, bugs that annoy you today will also annoy you in the future.

What you don't have to worry about is rebooting your system and finding that the new kernel doesn't work with some hardware you own, or the new Xorg breaks output to your secondary monitor. If a library exists as libfoo.so.5 in your system you don't have to worry about an updating replacing it with libfoo.so.6 and breaking your locally compiled programs.

Oh, and CentOS is even bug-compatible with Red Hat. They simply replace the logos and other very small things. Red Hat is basically a free operating system but they don't let anyone use their logos and trademarks for anything, including redistributing it. CentOS simply replaces the logos.
 
G

Gallbaro

Banned
Massa said:
Oh, and CentOS is even bug-compatible with Red Hat. They simply replace the logos and other very small things. Red Hat is basically a free operating system but they don't let anyone use their logos and trademarks for anything, including redistributing it. CentOS simply replaces the logos.
Click to expand...

Well yeah, FOSS is kind of the foundation of GNU/Linux. Red Hat does not get a special pass and all work they do on the OS must be provided back to the community that they are using the code from.

Red Hat likes to pretend that people are cloning their hard work and efforts that they did all on their own.
 
N

NotBacon

Member
Gallbaro said:
CentOS just runs sooo damn good. Stability is king for my servers. We have what at best can be called a "Distributed Data Center," with a KVM hypervisor, zfs, and LDAP server (Centos) hosting a Zenoss collector VM (CentOS) and a openvpn instance (Unix) phoning home from multiple locations. Each location will likely be getting a asterisk instance as well.

These are life safety and SLA required equipment so CentOS for our servers always.

On the desktop side I have been playing around with the idea of ditching windows, I have an inherent distrust of employees who do not use computers past outlook and word. So to avoid mucking about with Puppet I am thinking LTSP would be a proper implementation. So I am just playing around with the different distro's that have active LTSP support.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know some of these words.

Sometimes I swear networking/administration is more confusing than programming.
 
T

trilobyte

Member
Gallbaro said:
Rule number 1, always test in production. The surest way to learn.

The gun to head method!
Click to expand...

QfzGxQb.jpg
 
T

Treechopper

Member
CurlySaysX said:
can someone create a linux gaming ot in the gaming section. thanks.
Click to expand...

I'm honestly surprised (and happy) that this group has been moving at the pace it has been the past couple of days. Getting a Linux gaming OT would net you a bunch of trolls and one-timers before the thread would die in a few days*. That is, unless it's a support group like the "I need a PC" guys. I don't know if you would want a thread that's overrun with "Why is there no sound, fix it please!"

*see the Ubuntu and Elementary release threads
 
M

Massa

Member
CurlySaysX said:
There is a windows mobile gaming OT, and they only have a handful of games.
I'm also pretty sure there is a vita and a wii u OT.
Click to expand...

The mods actually closed the Vita thread in favor of a PSN thread. They'd probably ask you to discuss Linux games on the current Steam thread instead of creating a new dedicated one.
 
G

Gallbaro

Banned
Typing this on a CentOS 7 powered Lenovo X220 Tablet convertible.

Unfortunately most packages have not been made for CentOS 7 yet, but damn the GNOME 3 implementation on this device is the best GUI I have used yet.

Try it.
 
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