Linux Questions

I tried making the switch fully from Windows earlier this month but the fact that VR wasn’t working well was a big issue that caused me to have to go back to Windows.

I contemplated just having a smaller partition for Windows for VR gaming, but I really want to make the switch fully if possible. I’ll keep Windows on a spare laptop, but that’s it. I want all my main computers to be on Linux.

Are there any distros that work best for this or any tips to share?

I have a Meta Quest 3 that I like using for VR gaming on PC. I’ve been really into Skyrim VR lately and modding in it too. So to find a way to both mod Skyrim VR and play VR would be my goal to accomplish. Wireless VR is not a must but it’s nice. If it has to be one way, whether USB or wireless, that’s fine with me. I’m not strictly needing one way or the other. All of my VR games are in Steam so far, so any tips would be great for this setup.

I tried Bazzite and KDE Neon and both were giving me issues with VR. I had ALVR since Steam VR doesn’t work in Linux natively.

I'm looking to buy a drawing tablet, specifically the XP-Pen Deco L to use with Krita. I'm running Fedora KDE with Wayland on my desktop and was wondering if anyone has experience using drawing tablets on Wayland, and if all works as it should. I checked the digi-mend driver and it supports this tablet and XP-Pen themselves publish a driver on their website, but from a quick search it seems to be X11 based.

Problem: new kernels not showing up in boot menu

I can install new kernels, and I see them in /boot/efi/{PARITION_UUID}, but they don't show up in the systemd-boot menu.

Data

Normally, Fedora shows the 3 latest kernels (plus a recovery kernel) in the boot menu. I only see up to 6.11.6 in the systemd-boot menu. On the /boot partition, I see much newer kernel versions (both labeled fc40 and fc41)

➜  ~ sudo ls /boot/efi/808f2c9ae4464f1ab2f0a7d367da1b30 -l
total 20
drwx------. 2 root root 4096 Jul  4 19:25 0-rescue
drwx------. 2 root root 4096 Nov  8 12:42 6.11.6-200.fc40.x86_64
drwx------. 2 root root 4096 Nov 18 17:57 6.11.7-200.fc40.x86_64
drwx------. 2 root root 4096 Nov 12 16:47 6.11.7-300.fc41.x86_64
drwx------. 2 root root 4096 Nov 20 10:10 6.11.8-300.fc41.x86_64
➜  ~ sudo ls /boot/efi/808f2c9ae4464f1ab2f0a7d367da1b30/6.11.8-300.fc41.x86_64 -l 
total 72484
-rwx------. 1 root root 57917440 Nov 20 10:10 initrd
-rwx------. 1 root root 16304488 Nov 20 10:10 linux

Systemd-boot

I started with other distros on this disk before I settled on Fedora. Since I was happy with systemd-boot and its automatic discovery of boot entries, I chose to use systemd-boot when I installed Fedora. I know that Grub is the default bootloader and manager for Fedora, but I have systemd-boot. It's an option in the installer.

Major OS upgrades and rolling back the rollback

Last weekend I upgraded from Fedora 40 KDE Spin to Fedora 41. On the next Monday morning, screensharing in Edge Browser had stopped working, so I rolled back to a Fedora 40 snapshot with BTRFS Assistant. This turned out to be an issue in the latest Edge version, not in the underlying OS, so I rolled back the rollback and went to the Monday evening snapshot, then upgraded my packages.

Ever since, I'm not seeing new Kernels in the systemd-boot menu. Any idea how I can fix this, short of a fresh install of Fedora 41 KDE?

I had some missing libraries like libmtp, after extracting the tar, what do I do with the folders? do I need to extract to a specific area? can I move them after installing?

Hello. I want to write an Udev rule to change my laptops's EasyEffects profile whenever I connect a speaker set or headphones to the 3.5mm jack. The concept is relatively simple: when I connect something to the jack, I want it to fire a script that will set this Dconf setting:

gsettings set com.github.wwmm.easyeffects last-loaded-output-preset 'None'

And when I unplug the speakers/headphones, it'll set this:

gsettings set com.github.wwmm.easyeffects last-loaded-output-preset 'Laptop'

("None" and "Laptop" are EasyEffects profiles).

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find useful info, since almost all of the results I found online refer to Bluetooth or USB devices. I checked within /sys/class/sound/ and /dev/ for a file where I could query the status of the jack (something like "connected"/"disconnected") but I can't find something relevant. I have a similar rule that changes GNOME's font scaling when I plug my HDMI display, and it does that by running this script:

function monitorConnected () {
  statuses=$(cat /sys/class/drm/card1-HDMI-A-{1,2,3,4}/status 2>/dev/null)    
  for status in ${statuses[@]}                                                
  do                                                                          
        [[ ${status} == "connected" ]] && return 0                              
  done                                                                        
  return 1                                                                    
  }

So I thought that I could do something similar for the 3.5mm jack. Or maybe there's another method? Any hints? My OS is Fedora 41 and I'm using Pipewire, btw.

If I want to install and use a different desktop environment than came with my distro, what (if any) problems can I expect to encounter?

I currently use Debian with GNOME and I want an optimised system for music production and graphic design. As far as I can tell, the two main options I have are to make some tweaks to my current system's configuration (rt kernel, swap use, cpu behaviour and others) or to switch to a dedicated media distro which is configured already. The creative distros that I like the look of don't use GNOME though.

Which option will be easiest for me?

I've seen these pop up before but didn't have a specific use for them, as I do all my own containers on a couple docker host VMs using compose. But for someone getting into it, it would seem like the way to go, maybe as a Docker-within-Docker container, or a full distro.

I know Portainer does a bit of this with it's Stacks, where you can choose some containers to deploy a pre-built app, as does some NAS software like Unraid. I'm looking for something that has a fairly well maintained stockpile of pre-configured containers that it can deploy (maybe after editing) and manage. I'm sure I've seen github projects that do this but I'll be arsed if I seem to be able to find anything right now. Bonus points if it deploys a Traefik proxy for its applications and configures them to it.

I imagine there's a dozen projects like this that the community can point me at.

Partially related to my previous post here, but instead of support this is more of a general question.

(tl;dr: AntiX boots fine on the aforementioned laptop, while other distros need a custom kernel argument in order to boot, why does this happen?)

While messing around and trying to get Linux to boot on my friend's laptop, I noticed that AntiX specifically booted without needing to mess with any kernel arguments (unlike Fedora [and forks], and presumably others too [I only checked Fedora-based distros since that's what I was trying to install]). What's different with AntiX compared to (at least) Fedora to where Fedora has issues booting while AntiX boots perfectly fine?

I kinda want to guess that AntiX uses a different bootloader, but then why would a kernel argument be the thing that fixes Fedora?

I tried to install Aurora on a friend's Acer laptop, but ran into this issue which was resolved in the same thread, and the temporary fix works the same. When I tried to modify the grub config to apply the permanent fix, /etc/default didn't hold anything relating to grub. Where is the config file for grub, and is it editable?

Good day people!

(This paragraph is fluff, feel free to skip) First I'd like to thanks everyone who has answered my questions thus far. A of now I'm daily driving CachyOS on my "laptop" and Bazzite on my gaming PC. I've settled on Hyprland after running with sway for a few days and have been forcing myself to solve problems and do file management using the CLI exclusively (excluding firefox for duckduckgoosing help). I've gotten semi-comfortable manipulating files, but haven't had to do anything too skill intensive yet.

On to the question! I am currently looking to set up a home server. My use case is for storing media, specifically videos (for watching) and game Roms (for playing older games on emulator). With this use case in mind, what's a good resource to learn how to get started? For those who have home servers set up with similar purposes, how did you arrive at your current set-up? What considerations should i take before, during, and after set-up?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Thank in advance! Hope to hear from you all soon!

@linuxquestions Hi there, could someone please assist me with some Linux advice on setting up an X1 Carbon laptop? Thank you

Good day all!

First I'd like to thank all the people who replied to my first post and provided so much valuable information! Since then I've been trying to force myself to get comfortable with using the terminal! To this end I've been running Sway as my Desktop Environment and printed out a cheat sheet to place next to my screen.

Now, a paragraph deep, for the question(s):

How do y'all customize your terminals? I'm not looking for tutorials, just your preferences. How long did it take for you to settle on your favourite? What did you prioritize when customizing? What customization are you fondest of?

Thanks in advance to any and all replies, hope to hear from you all soon!

I am currently using GNOME Backups (aka Déjà Dup Backups) to backup all my files to a "backups" folder in my Dropbox. This is not a good solution - first because I want to stop paying for dropbox, second because I don't want to keep everything in the cloud, third because everything is stored twice on my laptop and storage is precious.

I therefore want to manage back-ups locally instead. I would like to keep using Déjà Dup, as it has worked really well and effortlessly.

My initial idea is very bare bones. I could keep an old laptop running 24/7, connect a hard drive, and use SSH file transfer in Deja Dup in order to store everything on that machine. That said, I have a few concerns as well.

1. Is this a good way of doing things? Should I be doing something else instead?
2. I'm not always at home - will it be a problem if the Backup software cannot find the folder because it's not on the correct network, or will it have the sense to wait until it's connected to the correct wifi?
3. Will the old laptop use a lot of power, or is it regrettable for any other reason? Is it possible to make it automatically hibernate for example during the nigthtime? Or to have it spend very little power unless anything is connected via SSH?
4. Would it be better to get a dedicated device, like a Rasberry Pi or something? I don't have all too much faith in my old laptop not making noise with the fan running at random times.

It looks like my partner will be getting a new laptop running Linux soon enough as she has to hand in her work computer, so it would be good timing to get a proper solution into place.

Thank you in advance!

I've been trying to follow documentation on the Roon website to get a roon server set up on a fresh endeavourOS install. I'm getting confused by various forum threads I've come across. Has anyone in this community successfully gotten roon server working on Linux? I'd really appreciate any concrete guidance as to how you got it set up.

I understand that there's no gui and that I'll have to connect to the server with the android app from my phone, but I can't tell that the service is running and when I search for the server from my phone, nothing appears.

Thanks!

I did all the same steps. I downloaded the file. I wrote it to the SD card, but then when I go to start it up, I just get this loading screen that lasted about an hour before I just shut it down.

What am I doing wrong here?

Good day all,

I'm currently about 3 months into using Linux exclusively for personal computing and gaming. I stared out trying EndeavourOs /w the Linux Surface kernel on my Surface, having now settled on Manjaro on my surface and CachyOS on my gaming rig.

So far the experience has been relatively painless. Now, having settled down comfortably into a rhythm of running sudo pacman -Syu, getting lost in the AUR and wiki, I feel like exploring more into what Linux has to offer.

So, on to my question, what do i do now? There's a bit of choice paralysis for me. Where did you all decide to dig in first? What resources did you use? What projects did you take on to deepen your knowledge? What do you feel is essential for crossing the threshold from average user to almost-superuser, then from there and beyond?

Thanks in advance for your time. Hope to hear from you all soon.

I am looking to run a desktop in a container. I know I can pass the display in with /dev/dri but I am not sure about keyboard and mouse input

cross-posted from: https://lemy.lol/post/30887473

I sometimes play games and also open my music player, but the sound from the game drowns out the music, so I need to go into the sound mixer on KDE and manually lower the game's volume every time.
I was wondering, is there a way to do this process automatically? As in setting up conditions like "if music is playing (some MPRIS API?) then lower all other apps' volumes)", maybe even crazier "if some app is outputting voice then set its volume back up and lower music app's volume or pause its playback altogether for some specified timeout that keeps being refreshed for as long as voice is heard".
I imagine the latter is a bit of a dream, but maybe for the first, even some quick sound profile selector would go a long way, say switching from "normal profile" to "background music profile", etc. which specify preconfigured volumes for those apps.
Is that a thing?

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41741300

As a lifelong Windows user I've just for the first time switched to Ubuntu and I'm learning how to navigate the system but I haven't found an easy way to update my Carbon's X1 Gen 6 BIOS from its hard disk and would appreciate any advice.

I'd be also happy to hear what I should do as a newcomer to Ubuntu to make my experience with it better and have an easier time overall.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/22225508

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/22209812

EDIT: Turns out my login information was slightly wrong, and had nothing to do with security.

My school uses EAP for its student WiFi, but there's no option for "EAP" security (PEAP, LEAP and every other option in KDE's WiFi security settings wouldn't connect). I'm pretty sure there was an option for EAP on Linux Lite (my previous OS before kinoite) which connected successfully. Is it possible to use EAP in Kinoite, and how do I enable/use it?

I am looking to write a playbook that updates and reboots each system one at a time. It need to verify that the node comes back healthy before starting on the next one. If it fails it should stop altogether.

I think I can just wait for a reboot and then check a condition before starting on the next one. Has anyone done this before? I think it is doable but I am curious on the thoughts of others.

For content I am looking to not kill my kubernetes cluster.

I recently bought a Corsair HS55 Wireless Headset. They stated it supports Dolby 7.1, IF you use the iCue software, which doesn't work on Linux.

Using pavucontrol, I can change the profile between Analog Stereo Output, Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output and Digital Surround 5.1 (IEC958/AC3) Output, but the Analog one is the only one that works. The other 2 just results in broken audio. There's not even a 7.1 option.

I don't have high hope about this, and I expected it to not work when I bought it, but it would be nice if anyone has some ideas.

Now that we're a week in and most people have probably repaired their PCs from the shitty Windows Update breaking GRUB I have some question.

I have a dual boot as well and thought I was safe, as I installed my Linux Mint on an independent disk. My friend laughed and told me that won't protect me.

I logged into Windows some days ago as I had to write a document in MS Word for university and the windows update told me it was ready with a very threatening red dot in the tray. I expected it to take control over my PC and to reboot 10 times, do some typical Windows stuff, but nothing happened.

Now I have this update waiting and I am scared my Linux will break. I know there are fixes out there, but is there a way to prevent it BEFORE it happens? Can I somehow upgrade the vulnerable GRUB version?

Thanks a lot for your help my fellow penguin fans.

I like understanding how commands layer on top of each other.

All three have iproute2 as a dependency, which makes me think the answer is 'yes'.