One of the things I like about Linux is that there are so many small commands and shortcuts that can make everyday use easier, but a lot of them seem to be things you discover by accident or learn after you've already needed them.

I'm not talking about advanced sysadmin tricks or complicated shell scripts. I mean practical little things that are genuinely useful once you know they exist.

For example, Ctrl + R in Bash lets you search through your command history, which is much nicer than repeatedly pressing the up arrow when you know you've run a command before.

I'm curious what other tips people have that are simple enough for a beginner to use immediately but useful enough that experienced users still rely on them.

What's one Linux command, keyboard shortcut, or small terminal trick you think every newcomer should learn early?

I'm interested in what experienced Linux users would recommend to someone who mainly wants to use their computer for browsing, studying, office work, programming occasionally, and general everyday tasks.

There are so many distributions and desktop environments that choosing one can feel harder than actually installing Linux. Every recommendation seems to come with a different philosophy, customization options, or warnings about what beginners should avoid.

For someone who values stability, sensible defaults, good hardware compatibility, and minimal maintenance, would you recommend something like Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, or something else?

I'm not necessarily looking for the most customizable or technically interesting setup. I'd rather have something that works reliably without needing to troubleshoot it every other week.

What would you install for that kind of user today, and are there any common beginner mistakes you'd suggest avoiding?

I'm leaving Windows soon and I need a program to take notes for studying.

I really like the infinite page layout (especially vertically), the textboxes and the section subdivisions (although I'd like the chance to nest subdivisions, if possible) as well as the markdown, the high number of list bullets and sync options.

What alternative would be the best compromise? I've heard of Obsidian, Xournal++ and other options, but IDK what's the best option for me

Hi.

A novice Linux user is typing something in the web browser, then suddenly the screen goes black.

I come to see what's happening. There is a cursor blinking so it's clearly a virtual terminal. I cycle through Ctrl+Alt+F keys hoping to find the desktop again, as it usually resides in F7 or F9, but to no avail. In F1, I run top, and to my surprise all the apps that are supposed to be running are gone.

So the desktop is completely gone. Killed. But killing X11 normally, via killall X, killall Xorg or kill -9 -1 usually returns to the display manager (lightdm in this case), and here the screen just goes completely black, with an unresponsive cursor icon, though other vterms work correctly and you can start X again, although it's a fresh session.

I am pretty sure a keyboard shortcut is the cause of this, but I haven't been able to investigate which keyboard shortcut it is.

If anyone knows more about this, I would gladly accept any explanations, and solutions on how to disable this.

If nobody knows anything then I'll result to writing a keylogger, since, unlike Wayland, you can do it under X11, and hope it manages to log the shortcut before the shortcut kills it along with all other X11 applications.

Thanks.

There's a lot to learn when getting into Linux, from package managers and permissions to system services and reading logs. It can be overwhelming when a simple problem leads you down a rabbit hole of terminal commands and forum posts.

For people who've been using Linux for a while, what skill made the biggest difference in how confidently you troubleshoot problems? Was it learning basic terminal commands, understanding the filesystem, figuring out how to read logs, or something else?

I'd especially like to hear what you'd recommend learning early instead of waiting until something breaks.

I just got my thinkpad t480 for simple school task and maybe some very light gaming on the side and I was wondering if Linux would help it run better or if I can still use it for school with Linux.

so i've been thinking about dualbooting on my pc and i want to use linux mint and tbh i am not sure if i want to do it so what should i expect when installing linux, what should i do after installing linux, are there some quality of life apps i can install on linux etc. i just want to know anything that could be helpfull with starting with linux and if i don't like it how can i uninstall it

(and i feel like its important to say i use my pc mostly for gaming)

i am sorry if i write wierd but english isn't my native language

I was installing Linux Mint on my laptop when I started encountering several errors. Somehow, I ended up at a CMD and ran the "exit" command; immediately, a kernel panic appeared, stating something like "attempted to kill init," along with an exit code consisting entirely or mostly of zeros, I don't recall exactly. When I turned the laptop off and back on, it booted into the Windows installation I already had, but Linux Mint failed to install. Have I damaged any of the hardware?

Hey, I've been trying multiple linux distros, but one constant is always the same problem with audio. If, while my laptop is turned off, I unplug and plug again my headphones, once I turn it back on, the audio quality is terrible. It's low, it's broken, I can't understand any voice. If I unplug it and plug it back again, it goes back to working. I have searched everywhere. Currently I'm using Fedora 44 with Gnome. I disabled power save on my grub, but only that so far and it didn't work. Any tips?

EDIT1:
i found the following command:
echo "options snd_hda_intel power_save=0 power_save_controller=N" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/audio-fix.conf

sudo dracut --force
which apparently fixed the issue. I tested and it's working. If it breaks again i will return here.

Hey guy, I'm new to Linux and recently installed Kubuntu alongside Windows (🤮), and for the most part I do like Linux. But I have had some problems regarding my internet. So my laptop is a Vivobook Go E1504GAB_E1504GA (1.0) paired alongside my Wi-Fi card, the MEDIATEK Corp. MT7902 802.11ax PCIe Wireless Network Adapter. So when I installed Linux, the internet did not work at all, so I had to boot into Windows and download some random ahh GUTHUB driver things to make it work, which I think was something called a MediaTek-Mt7092-Linux-Driver-Installer-main, and this would allow me to have the internet. So I took that, put it onto a USB flash drive, and boom, I had internet. But the internet was slow, so I disabled some power-saving settings and some other changes that I cannot remember, and it seemed like it was good for about a day. The next time, however, I opened my laptop, and everything was working fine. I even installed a script (def not steal), I took it and put it onto my device via Konsole to tell my device that every time I open the laptop, it will connect to my wifi. All was good until the end of the day, when it would turn on and off again and again, and the wifi would be really slow and very annoying to work with. I really do like Linux, and I would have to switch back to Microslop because my goddamn internet won't work. If you guys have any fixes to this to make the internet more stable, fast, and not disconnect, or anything positive, let me know. PS: I don't mind using the konsole/terminal, so if anything comes to be, lmk what to do, and I'll do it. Thanks in advance. 🐧

I have a headless raspberry pi setup as a weather display. I want to add a friends wifi information to it and then send it to him across the country. Is it edit /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf and add a block there? Or another method?

Hey y'all. I was gifted a Nvidia 5060 OC 8GB. I am going to build a system around the card. I'm not a gamer so I don't care much about the 8GB card, it's better than my current GTX960. I build a new rig like every 10 years and this one is 11 years old at this point. I have been a Debian guy for nearly 20 years so I'm not really asking for an help with getting anything actually set up.

I am more curious if anyone spots an obvious problem with any of the hardware. Something like "The BE2XX wifi chipset isn't supported with speeds faster than 802.11B" or "Realtek is known to revert to token-ring networking under any kernel >5.0" or "STOP! The Ultra 7 270K literally explodes with anything later than Bookworm!!".

I am looking a bundle that includes:

Intel Ultra 7 270K Plus

32 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 PCS-48000 CL38 (2x16GB)

Gigabyte Z890 Eagle Wifi7 Plus

* The MB has an onboard Realtek 2.5GbE LAN chip but unfortunately I can not seem to narrow it down to a specific chip.
* There is also an onboard Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE202 (BE200NGW M) which also has BT 5.4. As an aside, I have a Ubiquiti U6+ AP so Wifi 7 isn't a deal breaker.
* The sound (I use a bluetooth sound bar anyway) is a Realtek ALC1220.
* Obviously it's based on the Z890 chipset.

And, of course, the Asus Geforce RTX 5060 8GB (DUAL-RTX5060-O8G)

Thanks for reading!

TLDR: Is doing a clean Linux Install best for getting rid of MacOS or can I just delete the MacOS partition and shuffle my existing Linux install to the front of the disc? Are there risks of bricking the laptop with SIP being a thing.

So I've been working on a 2017 Intel Macbook air in Kubuntu and it's great, lots of tweaking to get it just how I like and now it's pretty much flawless, never want to go back.

The issue I'm having is I saved the MacOS partition just in case for dependencies etc, but it keeps messing up the EFI and locking me out of GRUB. I think it's something to do with that System Integrity Protection thing, but can't work out how to nuke that for good either. The only fix I've found is installing Kubuntu again on a spare partition so it can reset GRUB as the default boot and then going back into my old install. Not ideal, huge time sink and I'm always worried about my files, even with regular backups. rEFInd was no help, unfortunately. I've thought of making another boot partition as a backup but that kind of seems like more of a headache.

I'm done with MacOS at this point, just want a single boot system. My question is how do I go about doing that without bricking my lappy? Can I just delete the MacOS partition and shuffle my Kubuntu stuff to the front, or should I do a clean install of the whole drive and start from scratch? Would be nice to not have to re-tweak Kubuntu, but very do-able if it'll mean not risking a brick. Currently sda1 has my boot, then 100GB is in sda2 with MacOS, then I have a swap partition, and all my good stuff is on sda4 with some junk around it.

Thoughts?

I have a new 2-computer KVM switch. Steetek brand off Amazon. Supports 2 DisplayPort monitors per computer so there are a total of 4 DP in and 2 DP out. It's connected to two computers with old AMD GPUs:

• Computer #1: OpenSUSE 16.0, kernel 7.3.0. GPU is an old Radeon RX570. Running Xwayland 24.1.6

• Computer #2: Fedora 43, kernel 7.2.11. GPU is an old Radeon Pro WX 3200 (RX550-class GPU). Running Xwayland 24.1.13

The KVM is connected to two monitors: a 38" Acer widescreen (3840x1600) and a generic 24" Lenovo-brand (1920x1080). Both (obviously) connected via DisplayPort. Both monitors are old. I think DP1.2 is the most recent protocol supported by them.

(Before I go further, I'll mention that without the KVM, neither computer shows any issues when connected to both monitors simultaneously.)

With the KVM in place, switching from computer #1 to computer #2 is pretty solid.

Switching from computer #2 to computer #1 is dicey. The Lenovo monitor seems fine but the Acer monitor usually goes into a loop where its signal will bounce on and off every 5-10 seconds. When this is happening, the system journal on Computer #1 shows the following:

Oct 20 19:20:35 excelsior kernel: [drm] DM_MST: DP14, 4-lane link detected
Oct 20 19:20:44 excelsior kernel: [drm] DM_MST: stopping TM on aconnector: 00000000bdbcb8d7 [id: 93]
Oct 20 19:20:44 excelsior kernel: [drm] DM_MST: starting TM on aconnector: 00000000bdbcb8d7 [id: 93]
Oct 20 19:20:44 excelsior kernel: [drm] DM_MST: DP14, 4-lane link detected
Oct 20 19:20:58 excelsior kernel: [drm] DM_MST: stopping TM on aconnector: 00000000bdbcb8d7 [id: 93]
Oct 20 19:20:59 excelsior kernel: [drm] DM_MST: starting TM on aconnector: 00000000bdbcb8d7 [id: 93]
Oct 20 19:20:59 excelsior kernel: [drm] DM_MST: DP14, 4-lane link detected
Oct 20 19:21:03 excelsior kernel: [drm] DM_MST: stopping TM on aconnector: 00000000bdbcb8d7 [id: 93]
Oct 20 19:21:04 excelsior kernel: [drm] DM_MST: starting TM on aconnector: 00000000bdbcb8d7 [id: 93]
Oct 20 19:21:04 excelsior kernel: [drm] DM_MST: DP14, 4-lane link detected
Oct 20 19:21:14 excelsior kernel: [drm] DM_MST: stopping TM on aconnector: 00000000bdbcb8d7 [id: 93]
Oct 20 19:21:14 excelsior kernel: [drm] DM_MST: starting TM on aconnector: 00000000bdbcb8d7 [id: 93]
Oct 20 19:21:14 excelsior kernel: [drm] DM_MST: DP14, 4-lane link detected

Connecting Computer #1 directly to the monitors using the same cables has worked for years (literally, since around Covid lockdowns). But I have swapped all 4 cables in that signal path with spares just to see if it might fix things. No change.

I've also swapped Computer #1 and Computer #2 on the KVM switch itself to see if the problem moves to the other set of outputs. It does. The problem follows Computer #1 (the one with the RX570 GPU).

So to recap:

• 2 Linux boxes with old amdgpu GPUs, 2 monitors. Each machine works fine when directly connected to 2 monitors.
• With the KVM switch, computer #2 shows no problems but computer #1 results in one of the monitors blinking out every 5-10 seconds. Log messages show TM starting and stopping.

Any ideas what might be going causing the connection to cycle repeatedly on Computer #1 when the KVM is in the signal path?

Hello everyone and thank you.

I have some questions regarding maximizing battery life on my HP Omen 16 (Core Ultra 5 225H | RTX 5050) gaming laptop that's on CachyOS.

When I'm on battery, I switch to 60Hz, lower brightness as conditions allow, and have it automatically switch to Power Save mode.

I've read about PRIME Offload so, should I still go into iGPU Mode through BIOS?

Should I use TLP instead of the default Settings's Power Management? Or, Auto-CPUfreq?

Any other advice?

I'd like to know what graphical interfaces are available in lightweight Linux for storage on USB drives and limited microSD cards.

Hey guys, I have Proton VPN and the other day I found out about Split Tunneling.

I set it up to exclude apps but I am not sure this is running correctly as internet speed seems slow and having issues when updating things.

I am using Linux mint Cinnamon.

So I added the following to my exclusions:

Lutris, Steam, Update Manager and Software Manager

In Lutris I was downloading a GoG game and getting speeds of 13MB/s

I turned the VPN off now to test wow forever and it is downloading it at 50MB/s

So I am wondering if I have set it up properly and if there was a way to test it.

(I run Lutris Flatpak version and Steam System version as it was the versions available on Software Manager)

I am installing Ubuntu for the 3rd time

But it has the same problem of crashes firefox, brave etc

And also had problems with

Sudo apt update

Get error segmentation fault (core dumped)

this is what my terminal tells me "usb usb1-port1: over-current condition

usb usb1-port2: over-current condition"

I found out what those two ports are and are no longer using them, these two are my back ports and my motherboard seemingly has no way of disabling individual ports(i think)

my motherboard is a B450M H from gigabyte

i quadruple checked the ports to see if it was "unclean" there are some dust on them butt its clean and the io plate is not touching the inside of the ports or anything like that( i think)

i used llms but to no avail

my question is simple could this over current being drawn be a problem and is there anyway of solving it

I get:

Device 0 (VID=1bbb and PID=0168) is a Alcatel 6030a.

libusb_open() failed!: Permission denied

LIBMTP PANIC: Unable to initialize device

terminate called after throwing an instance of 'MtpErrorCantOpenDevice'

what(): Can't open device

I've looked this up online and tried all the recommended fixes, such as to /etc/fuse.conf, a new udev rule, changing the permissions on the device. I can load my older phone with no problem. This is a minor inconvenience, not an insurmountable problem. I'd like to understand.

I’m running into an issue getting Ollama to work on my NixOS setup. Everything else in my system configuration works fine, but ollama.service fails to activate whenever I rebuild my config.

Here is how I’ve configured Ollama:

services.ollama = {
  enable = true;
  openFirewall = true;
  user = "ollama";
  package = pkgs.ollama-cuda;
};

Here is the error output during nh os switch:

> Activating configuration
Error:  
    0: Activation (test) failed
    1: Activating configuration (exit status ExitStatus(Exited(4)))
      stderr:
         Checking switch inhibitors... done
         activating the configuration...
         reloading user units for <user>...
         restarting the following user units: nixos-activation.service
         restarting sysinit-reactivation.target
         the following new units were started: NetworkManager-dispatcher.service
         warning: the following units failed: ollama.service

And here are the relevant logs from journalctl -u ollama.service:

systemd[1]: Starting Server for local large language models...
(ollama)[59822]: ollama.service: Found pre-existing public StateDirectory= directory /var/lib/ollama, migrating to /var/lib/private/ollama.
(ollama)[59822]: ollama.service: Apparently, service previously had DynamicUser= turned off, and has now turned it on.
(ollama)[59822]: ollama.service: Failed to set up special execution directory in /var/lib: Device or resource busy
(ollama)[59822]: ollama.service: Failed at step STATE_DIRECTORY spawning /nix/store/...-ollama-0.32.3/bin/ollama: Device or resource busy
systemd[1]: ollama.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=238/STATE_DIRECTORY
systemd[1]: ollama.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Not sure if it helps but I use preservation (impermanence/state persistence).

Hi.

Is there a setting to have the archive feature in Nautilus to not create a folder? For example, I go to .7z a .html file. If I later decompress it, it's inside a folder. I would rather it was just as it was.

Thanks.

I know its not possible in any sense to match a TUI in performance and memory usage with a GUI, but I want to try and build UI that at least feel like a TUI while bringing the style and extensibility a modern UI has to offer. I've been working with QML lately, and don't know if that can be optimized any further than what something like Slint might do. Are there other options or methods out there? Have others looked into this? I know this is a bit of a stupid question so I'd appreciate any kind of response lol so I have an idea of what I'm getting myself into.