Yeah, tmp is using tempfs. As for var the two main reasons are to prevent issues where something goes wrong and logs file up the the root filesystem (rarely happens these days) and to prevent emerging large programs from filling it up as well. Compiling something like openjdk or libreoffice can easily fill it up so keeping it separate is best.
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Linux Distro Noob thread of Linux noobs
- Thread starter Flying_Phoenix
- Start date
Yeah, tmp is using tempfs. As for var the two main reasons are to prevent issues where something goes wrong and logs file up the the root filesystem (rarely happens these days) and to prevent emerging large programs from filling it up as well. Compiling something like openjdk or libreoffice can easily fill it up so keeping it separate is best.
Just remember that if you install a group package, like xubuntu-desktop on Ubuntu, you can't just simply remove that package to remove all the applications that comes with XFCE because the group package just points to other packages to install. In the case of XFCE though, that might not be a ton of applications. But with something like Gnome there's gonna be so much stuff it installs with it that it becomes almost impossible to restore everything the way it was should one want to do that.
It's not a huge issue or anything, just a lot of extra applications in your menus. But heads up anyway.
GameplayWhore
Member
I've been using archlinux at home for the past half year, and my babies at work generally run opensuse. Also, I am posting from my phone right now, and that uses Google's Linux distro. My WD Live TV may have a custom kernel on it, bit I'm not certain, as it might be a whole 'mother OS in there. My Wii also has something or other of that nature, as it's modded and can fully boot into X.
GameplayWhore
Member
I often put /boot into the first partition, as I was told long ago that bootloaders really like being at the start of a drive. Is this no longer the case?
Also, it's only ext2, to keep it simple. Also, I could (but don't) make it read only so that an rm -rf / command won't kill the bootloader, which might allow other OSes to boot up even if my main one is deleted.
I've honestly never had a use for a separate /boot partition in any of my Linux setups. Aside from instances when the root filesystem can't be accessed directly, there's no need to use one in my opinion.
Even if the bootloader gets killed I can just get an install CD/USB image and boot from there.
GameplayWhore
Member
This is true, except that in my case the computer has no optical drive, and I habitually lose every usb drivelet that I buy. :O
But anyway, so that thing about it being wise to force /boot into the first few sectors of the drive is now a sort of mythical untruth?
Yeah, I'm really curious to test out some other GUI's/window managers, but I don't want to screw up what has been a great thing going with Ubuntu/Unity.
If you want to install something simple, like fluxbox or awesome or gnome-shell*, then you should be fine. If you want to install KDE, which would pull hundreds of packages, it might be best to use a Live CD instead.
* installing gnome-shell is simple in your case since you already have 95% of GNOME on your system.
Oh, actually. That's happened to me where /var explodes in size (in /var/log). Maybe someday I will have to consider separating it. Maybe when I repartition everything for UEFI+GPT.(I'm using MBR now). Anyone have experience with GRUB2?
Hm, I never noticed taht openjdk was that big (I think I have that?) but I've heard that libreoffice can be... less than pleasant.
So, out of curiosity, how big are you partitions?
I think I have 30GB for /, but it feels up a lot (due to /var mostly)
I think it's my first partition, but I'm not sure if it's required. I'm sure I've put it in another location in a double boot situation before, but not sure.
/boot normally isn't mounted for me. When I have to recompile a kernel and put it in /boot, I have to mount it first. So, that keeps me away from accidentally deleting it.
How about XFCE?
Code:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs 3.3G 600M 2.6G 19% /
/dev/sda5 9.4G 1.6G 7.4G 18% /var
/dev/sda6 38G 15G 22G 41% /usr
/dev/sda7 865G 623G 199G 76% /home
none 1.0G 24K 1.0G 1% /tmpGameplayWhore
Member
Well, that doesn't sound right. KDE's made so that you can install the base system alone (on Archlinux, it's "kde-meta-kdebase", probably just "kdebase" in most distros), and any KDE-related set of apps each have their own metapackage. For example, if you wanted all the KDE graphics apps, that's kde-meta-kdegraphics. PIM apps are kde-meta-kdepim. Educational stuff is kde-meta-kdeedu. Games based on the KDE libraries are in kde-meta-kdegames. But those are just extraneous apps. It's like saying to install "MS Windows" you have to also install the packages "MS Office", "MS Flight Simulator", "Halo", "Exchange Server", and so forth. They're not essential to the environment, they just happen to be under the same general branding.
Unless ubuntu just happens to handle things in the most inane way possible and only allows a kde metapackage that installs every possible KDE-branded app in the repository. But that would be silly. Surely there's a "kde-desktop" that just installs the essential kde apps and then a "kde-everything" that installs everything starting with "kde" (and maybe anything starting with "koffice" -- that's its own giant suite of stuff).
GameplayWhore
Member
Wow.... I just briefly visited slashdot and viewed an article on virtual desktops. Man, Linux users on /. are assholes! And, to be fair, non-Linux users there seem to be total jerks, too, in any discussion where said kernel is involved. I can't believe a website that had such a wonderful, supportive userbase in the past has been so fully corrupted. D:
I'd like to thank you guys for being more like the actual computer power user types that I know in real life. You know, kind and supportive and stuff.
I'd like to thank you guys for being more like the actual computer power user types that I know in real life. You know, kind and supportive and stuff.
Huh, maybe I should allocate more space to / afterall. Mine is smaller than your /usr alone. Much less var+usr+/'
Btw, do any of you use the PS3 controller with Linux? I used to use it and it worked, but now it doesn't seem to work anymore.
I think it's getting mapped to /dev/input/input(something) instead of /dev/input/js*
Which is weird. I wonder if the driver changed for it recently.
Huh, it's always been my impression that everyone on /. was a jerk
GameplayWhore
Member
Huh, it's always been my impression that everyone on /. was a jerk
Huh. Well, it's been a good number of years since I visited it compulsively. Maybe either the userbase turned sour in that time or I was just such a different person back then that I didn't notice its prevalence.
Or I was a jerk and got better.
TouchMyBox
Member
Heh, I had pretty much the same question this morning. Download the image and feed it into this http://www.linuxliveusb.com/
To Linux Mint users: I haven't used Linux super regularly for about two years and understand that Linux Mint is now the shit since ubuntu went ahead and scared away its userbase with unity. Which flavour of Linux Mint is going to get me more women? The Vanilla gnome one, or the LXDE version?
I've never used or heard of LXDE before, does it have any relation to XFCE? I kinda like the look of it, is it mature and well-supported?
Thanks for the help! Can I use this program on Linux, or is it Windows only?
Oh and this should help you understand the differences between LXDE and whatnot. It helped me at least.
From what I can tell, LXDE is a super light distro (lighter than XFCE), and basically resembles some of the older Windows GUI's. At least that's what the site says.
ComputerMKII
Banned
Why switching to Linux Mint just because of Unity? Ubuntu + Cairo Dock are very good.
TouchMyBox
Member
Thanks for the help! Can I use this program on Linux, or is it Windows only?
Oh and this should help you understand the differences between LXDE and whatnot. It helped me at least.
From what I can tell, LXDE is a super light distro (lighter than XFCE), and basically resembles some of the older Windows GUI's. At least that's what the site says.
Ah yes, that is windows only.
Last time I had to do something similar in linux, I found that there was a tool built-in to ubuntu for making bootable usb keys from live cd images.
Thanks for the suggestion. That looks pretty hot.
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
Docks.
Why switching to Linux Mint just because of Unity? Ubuntu + Cairo Dock are very good.
Damn, that looks beautiful. If I manage to not like it, will it be safe to just uninstall through the software center?
(Also, what the hell is GNOTE? It's one of the add-ons that can be installed with it in the software center.)
Okay, thanks for the help
TouchMyBox
Member
Docks.
I felt the same way when I was hardcore into gentoo. Then I installed OSX for several months and I learned that docks are pretty cool if they are done well.
ComputerMKII
Banned
I've never tried to uninstall it. If you want to go back to Unity, just select it in the Login screen.
LXDE and xfce are desktop environments (like Unity, GNOME or KDE), not distros (like Ubuntu or Linux Mint).From what I can tell, LXDE is a super light distro (lighter than XFCE), and basically resembles some of the older Windows GUI's. At least that's what the site says.
MrCunningham
Member
I've been using Mint 12 for a couple months now, and I made the switch from Ubuntu 11.04 (I've been using Ubuntu since 7.04). I really was not a fan of unity at all and avoided 11.10 because of this. But Mint has been OK so far, I don't think it is quite as polished as Ubuntu as a whole, but it's definitely serviceable.
I'm currently using Cinnamon 1.4 as my DE and I have to say, for anyone looking for a Gnome 2 experience on Gnome 3. I highly recommend checking out the latest version of Cinnamon. It's still a little early in development and doesn't have as many applets as Gnome shell yet, but it is still really stable and brings the Gnome 3 user interface much closer to Gnome 2 than the Gnome shell could while still retaining most modern features of gnome 3.
I would caution people trying out new distros(betas especially) to either do so on a persistant USB install or to create a partition especially for this use. I went the extra mile and bought a separate hard drive just for Linux so I have a small 300MB boot partition, my main Linux install of about 465Gib, my test partition of about 25Gib and a shared swap partition of 3Gib. It's a good learning curve to be able to rip your Linux install to shreds and rebuild it knowing if you stuff anything up it really doesn't matter.
Also for those asking about Mint I found it to be a very polished distro as far as looks are concerned but on 3 computers I experienced fairly common desktop environment freezes. I did like the icons so I stole them and use them in my Xubuntu install.
Also for those asking about Mint I found it to be a very polished distro as far as looks are concerned but on 3 computers I experienced fairly common desktop environment freezes. I did like the icons so I stole them and use them in my Xubuntu install.
Would this be a good way to test out Mint?
I actually used that to get Ubuntu 11.10, used a Windows computer to download it and put it on the USB. I can't seem to figure out if the program works on Linux though.
I actually used that to get Ubuntu 11.10, used a Windows computer to download it and put it on the USB. I can't seem to figure out if the program works on Linux though.
ComputerMKII
Banned
It looks like Unetbootin, so I guess it's good.
Well first off what distribution and version did you run upgrade-manager -d from? Also why did you run it as -d?
The update manager can be very indiscriminate when it comes to updates and if you want a graphical tool for upgrades then running mark all upgrades in Synaptic will preview all changes before you apply them. As for VLC you can completely remove it by typing
and then reinstalling it from the Software Centre or Synaptic should get it up and running again. This might solve any issues you are having.
The update manager can be very indiscriminate when it comes to updates and if you want a graphical tool for upgrades then running mark all upgrades in Synaptic will preview all changes before you apply them. As for VLC you can completely remove it by typing
Code:
sudo apt-get purge vlcWell, I was going to update Ubuntu to 12.04 (I couldn't wait) and I saw the other updates. For some reason, I thought those were just standard updates, instead of experimental updates, so I installed them.
Well if you didn't hit the ugrade button then those updates should just be regular updates. After you purge vlc with my command don't forget to run
Code:
sudo apt-get updateIt actually seems to be okay now. VLC 2.0.1 was buggy before, so perhaps this wasn't even related. I still appreciate the assistance though! If anything does go wrong, I'll follow your advice.
On a side note, I'm soooo tempted to upgrade to 12.04, but my main and only computer is running 11.10 right now.
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Currently don't have a copy of Ubuntu installed or any Nix at home for that matter on my desktop. I have a 2nd HDD just sitting their free though to which I'm going to finally install Ubuntu 12.04. Been wanting to for a couple of weeks now, but never got around to it. So I figure I'll wait for "Beta 2" (even though it's all one thing since it updates as you go each day) to hit this week and install that.
I'll post impressions, and maybe that can help you if you should upgrade now or just wait in case I see any major hangups.
I'll post impressions, and maybe that can help you if you should upgrade now or just wait in case I see any major hangups.
No. Wubi will install alongside Windows and you will be shown a screen at boot that will allow you to choose to boot Ubuntu or Windows. If you just wait a few seconds Windows will boot automatically.
Seriously, I'd wait until at least Beta 2 like Brettison mentioned above. Im running a 12.04 install right now and atm packages are being updated daily and things aren't all that stable. I've been offered partial upgrades 4 or 5 times in the last two weeks and if you don't know what you're doing these can break your system in a major way.
Here's a link to the 12.04 sub-section of Ubuntu Forums. Have a read up of that page and you'll see some of the problems people run into. There's a sticky there about partial upgrades as well.
http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=412
Here's the release schedule for 12.04
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/ReleaseSchedule
http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=412
Here's the release schedule for 12.04
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/ReleaseSchedule
I'm not sure what you're talking about. There's a new kernel release just about every week (multiple releases since there are multiple 'streams'.) I'm going to guess you mean 3.3, since that's the highest number right now.
But yea, I don't know much about Ubuntu, but I don't think they update kernels all that frequently. But there's nothing stopping you (AFAIK) from just putting your own in there. 3.3.0 was released like two weeks ago and I don't think Ubuntu updates kernels that frequently? (not so sure.)
I don't think I quite understand what or how kernals work. :/
I'm running on "3.0.0-16 generic" and I saw some article talking about how 3.3 was out with new improvements.
The kernel in 12.04 will most definitely not be the latest kernel, if that's what you mean. It will be a kernel version that the Ubuntu team has chosen a while ago, when they started work on 12.04. Then they just patch in security updates that comes with newer versions manually and rebuild it. This is for stability's sake. Things could break if you introduce new kernel versions all the time.
But as mentioned there's nothing that stops you from compiling your own kernel from the source codes yourself and running that. You just need a bit of knowledge about the hardware you're gonna use the kernel on and be able to use the configuration programs like menuconfig, nconfig or xconfig.
Edit: 3.0.0-16 means that ubuntu has patched and rebuilt that kernel version 16 times. I don't know if they also include the new features of the newer kernel versions or if they just patch in the security updates.
And what the kernel is; it's the piece of software that sits between the OS/applications and the hardware. The software speaks to the kernel and then the kernel tells the hardware what to do.
But as mentioned there's nothing that stops you from compiling your own kernel from the source codes yourself and running that. You just need a bit of knowledge about the hardware you're gonna use the kernel on and be able to use the configuration programs like menuconfig, nconfig or xconfig.
Edit: 3.0.0-16 means that ubuntu has patched and rebuilt that kernel version 16 times. I don't know if they also include the new features of the newer kernel versions or if they just patch in the security updates.
And what the kernel is; it's the piece of software that sits between the OS/applications and the hardware. The software speaks to the kernel and then the kernel tells the hardware what to do.
Okay, I think I understand it now, thank you!
A kernel is like the center of the OS. It's like, the lowest level of functions. So stuff like, memory management, thread management, etc. It's the thing that actually "talking" to hardware.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_(computing)#Kernel_basic_facilities
I'm not really sure what the improvements are specifically. I don't really notice that much difference when I update kernels usually (since everything is already pretty fast.)
I think the biggest thing that people were talking about was that Android stuff was going back into the kernel. I would guess it's a lot of power management stuff.
Yeah usually you wont notice any differences between kernel versions. The new stuff they add is mostly support for new hardware, so if your hardware already works you wont notice anything. It's only when they add new features that you might notice anything. At least if it's a very useful feature that everyone will use. Or sometimes they might rewrite some system to be more efficient, but usually you don't notice that either.
One example I can think of is when they started using libata for HDDs instead of the older system. This meant that older non SATA disks started being named like SATA disks in the operating system, so instead of "hda" being the first HDD it became "sda" just like it always was with SATA drives.
One example I can think of is when they started using libata for HDDs instead of the older system. This meant that older non SATA disks started being named like SATA disks in the operating system, so instead of "hda" being the first HDD it became "sda" just like it always was with SATA drives.
Huh, so that's why that happened. I never knew.
Because I remember some drives a while ago being named hd* but I had no idea why.
The more you know *jingle*
Okay, I see. I thought the Kernal was just another part that can be upgraded.
So, I've been messing around, and I decided to see if I can update my graphics driver, and I managed to find the corresponging driver on the AMD/ATI website, and I'm going to update it by running it through the terminal, but I have a few questions:
1.) Can it, or what do I do, if it breaks Ubunutu?
2.) What if it slows down Ubuntu (like the proprietary driver I tried through the Add. Drivers app)? Can I restore back to my standard driver?
So, I've been messing around, and I decided to see if I can update my graphics driver, and I managed to find the corresponging driver on the AMD/ATI website, and I'm going to update it by running it through the terminal, but I have a few questions:
1.) Can it, or what do I do, if it breaks Ubunutu?
2.) What if it slows down Ubuntu (like the proprietary driver I tried through the Add. Drivers app)? Can I restore back to my standard driver?
Yes. Traditionally, IDE/PATA based HDDs were named hdX in linux, while SATA and I believe SCSI HDDs were named sdX. But when they made libATA they changed it so that everything is called something with s. So hdds, whether SATA or not, are called sdX and DVD readers and the like are called srX. I guess it's for consistency's sake because I remember the old way being rather confusing sometimes, although it WAS easier to see if it was an IDE drive or a SATA drive and that's not the case now.
Edit: @Izick: I recommend that you do not install the driver manually. You should find a way to do it "the ubuntu way" so to speak. I don't think it would break anything (don't quote me on that though) but it could be a bitch to get rid of later should you want to.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "the Ubuntu way."