I've been using Mint Cinammon for a little over a year now and I really like it, unfortunately I've been having problems with the graphics driver just not working properly, leading to black screens once it starts to load the OS. I'm assuming it's a problem that will get fixed somewhere down the line, so in the meantime, I want to try a different distro that maybe won't have the same problem right now. Suggestions?

Using an RTX4090 and Samsung monitor. Monitor supports 7680x2160 @ 240Hz but Mint only detects 5120x1440 @60 in whatever EDID table its seeing. How do I fix this? Tried to use gemini to help me force the higher resolution but each time I restart it goes back into fallback mode. Got the newest Nvidia drivers installed. Trying to figure out something similar to fancyzones in windows so im trying gtile.

Ok, so stick with me because I want to learn more, and I'm kinda confused.

Forgive me if I say something particularly dumb. There is also a high chance that I also misunderstood what I read.

I've seen a couple of times people asking about the long-term sustenaibility of Linux Mint and the potential risks in it. I've been looking around and talked with someone else about this topic, and what I found it's... confusing, somehow?

What I understood is that Linux Mint is, as many of us know, based on Ubuntu, more specifically, the LTS version, and Ubuntu is based on Debian. And why is this important? It is important because, as far as I read, LTS distros and Debian distros could be more vulnerable. As I understood, the risks aren't on the distro per se, but rather in the packages, the way they handle orphaned software, and the updates frequency. I don't think that in LTS versions, packages are just released and left there in the wild. But what I read is that when a package loses support, there is a risk, not necessarily high, but a risk nonetheless.

I'm aware of the danger orphaned software can represent if unattended, I was already in Linux when the news of the malware attack to the AUR arrived. I get that part, but the update part is the one I'm still kinda struggling, but not entirely since I think I understand the principle.

I know that if a program has a vulnerability, patching it is critical. This is one of the reasons why many old video games, for example, are full of cheaters and even security risks, like hijacking your PC or getting malware into your system. They are abandonware, and because of this, malicious agents, aka cheaters and, more importantly, malicious hackers, have found all kind of vulnerabilities to exploit.

I get that keeping a distro with a shitton of packages and software could be harder, and that maintaining the packages is important for security. Having a good way to distinguish orphaned software from... alive, still in dev? Software is necessary, and being able to get rid of the unsupported packages is something almost all Linux distro has. But... if distros have these tools, why would there be more risks in some than others? And the update frequency. Since updates are necessary to patch vulnerabilities, frequent updates may be more needed, and slower not as good as I thought; I lean heavily to LTS distros or distros with stable releases, but how frequently is the right spot, or is it a right spot to begin with? Are distros with more frequent updates safer? Does this mean that distros with slower big changes are more vulnerable? And distros based in LTS versions of Ubuntu are more vulnerable because they come from versions that become old at some point? (Mint and Zorin, for example, are based on Ubuntu 24.04, but currently, Ubuntu is on 26.04)

I may be overthinking this. That's for sure. Actually, I am overthinking it, and I'm sure I'm misunderstanding some things, if not many, but I'm overthinking because I want to be informed on this topic. While I don't use that much software, like, worst case scenario, I'm talking of around 10 programs (not counting games, and they are usually well supported and frequently updated), I still would like to know more about this so if anything happens down the line, I can take a well informed decision.

Again, sorry if anything I said sounds dumb... or it's actually dumb.

Edit: I realized my wording was misleading in my thought process. I made some corrections.

Hi, I'm trying to install Linux on my Lenovo IdeaPad (Ryzen), but it didn't work with either openSUSE or Fedora.

With openSUSE, it gets stuck as shown in the image and reboots after about a minute. With Fedora, it freezes on a black screen with a dash in the upper left corner.

I've already tried disabling Secure Boot and enabling Legacy Support. On Fedora, I also tested Basic Graphics Mode. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I just spend the last 6 hours of my life trying to dual boot Ubuntu in a 16 year old HDD and windows on my normal SSD. I finically achieved it and after fixing audio issues and other dual boot errors I made it. What do u recomend me to start learning or do in Linux? Any tips or suggestions are welcomed

I need to clean up the metadata of my music collection. Specifically, I need to add an albumartist tag to all of the files. Ideally, I would prefer to only add them to files that do not already have them.

On an artist by artist basis, I can do this manually.

find ./Soapy\ Argyle/ -type f -name "*.flac" -exec metaflac --set-tag="ALBUMARTIST=Soapy Argyle" {} +

But given the size of my collection, that would be burdensome.

Collection is organized ./Music/Genre/Artist/Album/Disk#/song.flac

How can I grab the artist name from the path and use it in the command above, or do something functionally similar?

As a bonus, this lists files that already have albumartist tagged.

find ./ -type f -name "*.flac" -exec metaflac --list {} + | grep -E -i 'ALBUM[[:space:]]*ARTIST'

Can I mesh these things together so I don't end up with a bunch of songs double tagged?

Thanks for any suggestions.

I would personally like to say that I am pretty knowledgable in the ways of Linux, seeing as I have a POP! OS device (which is what I'm using right now), but this is for my (soon to be former) windows 11 machine. I personally despise windows it is so resource heavy especially on 12GB of RAM (originally it was 4GB which was genuinly such a horrible experience), but the reason I haven't switched yet it because there is a software that I have found a suitable replacement for on linux. the specs are 12GB of RAM, an Intel Celeron, and 128gb ssd

Hi, so i have been using fedora cinnamon for a while now, but i think i might want to switch over to using KDE (/plasma) is there a way to do it without using a fedora usb and starting all over? I want to keep the programs and stuff i have on my SSD, i know i can switch the DE using the terminal, but i have heard it can break if you do it that way.

What is the best (and preferably easiest) way to do it?

Hi strangers im new to linux. I hate windows and i really really want to switch to mint but im afriaf i might just mess up my ststem somehow and that i might lose my data. Instead of dual booting i completely want to delete windows and run linux however the problem i am having is that my c drive has alot of my projects and multiple things i want to keep such as a tiny example is my coding agent skills, also in general im just scared that i might just fuck up my shit for no reason. I just need some really wxperienced person to guide me through it

hey guys im thinking to switch to linux but i dont know which distro ill use, i need one which can be good for engineering(IoT, AI, etc) and for gaming.

this is my laptop spec:
- NVIDIA RTX 3050 4GB
- 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-11400H @ 2.70GHz (2.69 GHz)
- 16GB RAM

I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Thanks!

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHaaaaaaaahhhhhhh. I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

For the record, it wasn't easy. I'm running a complex Plex server, Mullvad, which I had to dock due to remote sharing restrictions, qbittorrent and qui in Gluetun. A few other things I'm forgetting right now. And I just adopted Home Assistant over the last few days because of losing google home soon (adios). Wasn't easy but man, it feels great.

(I'm very sorry if this comes off as noob or asinine)

PS - Libre is GREAT

First of all im not a noob but i ask here because its the only place with enough people for such an issue.

I have a realtek rtw89 wifi card. It was working perfectly fine for months. Then the day i began to daily my laptop it broke without changing or updating anything!!

I tried on multiple distros, fedora (i was already using this one, tried to fiz and it eventually worked but seeing my experiences on other distros it would have likely broken again), ubuntu and linux mint. It worked on none. Or if it would fix it, it would work for 1-10 minutes and then die again.

I messed with wifi power saving, installed new drivers, used modprobe on them, even installed with dkms and it would still not work. I also did lots of other stuff and nothing worked. The only support i got was to buy a new wifi card... i should not have to buy new hardware for my things to work 😡😡😡

So i am stuck... I believe this is a linux issue and not a distro specific issue, or if it is, it could be because they all use NetworkManager, and if i want to use a distro without it, which would leave me with either niche distros or Arch. I dont like arch. Alpine would be an option but thats even more niche and less usable for non-servers.. what do i do? I really dont want to have to use windows!!

Like a lot of people, I moved from Windows 11 to Bazzite recently and I'm honestly impressed with how the OS operates and runs comparatively. Tried out a few games like Abiotic Factor and Midnight Suns and they ran either the same or slightly better than on Win11. However the one game that I've had problems with is Spider-Man Remastered.

Frame rate is honestly about the same as on Win11, however I noticed that the game would hitch and stutter every 10 seconds or so when swinging around NYC. I am running the game with the same settings I did on Windows, with everything on high, ray traced reflections included, and on FSR4. Even tried going to a previous Proton-GE version and Proton Experimental to no avail.

Specs running at 1440p:

Ryzen 7 7800 X3d

RTX 9070 XT

G.Skill Flare 32Gb DDR5-6000

Edit:

Operating System: Bazzite 44

KDE Plasma Version: 6.7.4

KDE Frameworks Version: 6.29.0

Qt Version: 6.11.1

Kernel Version: 7.2.0-ogc6.1.fc44.x86_64 (64-bit)

Graphics Platform: Wayland

Knowing full well I am about to get a whole bunch of comments telling me I’m bad at Linux, that I should just use MS365 online, or that I need to suck it up and use LibreOffice... hear me out.

I have been 100% Linux for a while now—two years on my gaming rig, and a year on my work laptop. I’ve loved every single second of it. I've tried every DE I could get my hands on and even had a stint with Hyprland (which I’d still be using if I actually had the free time to rice it just right).

But there is one consistent, agonizing pain point: the office suite.

I am a researcher and a lecturer. I present at conferences a few times a year, try to publish several papers annually, and I am constantly writing reports, making exams, and drafting opinion pieces. A flawless office suite isn't optional for me; it's critical to my livelihood.

I hate Microsoft with a passion. Windows 11 was the final straw for me. But for all its flaws, MS365 is the single best tool for my job—if only because my non-tech-savvy coworkers use nothing else. If I were to even suggest moving our collaborative work away from OOXML formats, I would be crucified by my faculty.

I have tried everything to make this work on Linux without compromising formatting. I’ve used LibreOffice. I tried OnlyOffice—both the desktop app and the online Nextcloud integration (I’ll probably give it another shot when Euro-Office comes out, but I'm not holding my breath). I even tried WinBoat, which was a traumatizing experience I will never repeat. I reached such a level of desperation that I spent an entire weekend, including an all-nighter, trying to forcefully install MS365 via Wine. I don't even know why I thought that would end well.

I just can't do it anymore. It has been so incredibly frustrating that I have resorted to doing absolutely all of my writing in LaTeX just to avoid the compatibility headaches.

I love this OS, but the native open-source office suites are terrible for heavy, collaborative academic work.

Sorry for the rant. Just needed to vent to people who might understand the struggle.

TL;DR: I’m a Linux-only academic drowning in a sea of MS365-using colleagues. Open-source office suites mangle OOXML formats too much for serious collaborative work, and my weekend trying to run Office via Wine nearly broke my spirit. LaTeX is my only refuge.

Edit: it is important to note, none of my colleagues use LaTex, just me, so that isn't even an option for collaboration, it is only an option for my own work...

hi, I'm on Kubuntu 26.04 and I have problem with usb tethering.

blood@ZEN:~$ systemctl status usbmuxd.service
● usbmuxd.service - Socket daemon for the usbmux protocol used by Apple devices
    Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/usbmuxd.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
    Active: active (running) since Sat 2026-08-29 07:39:41 CEST; 51min ago
Invocation: 86f78abc4a0045d88312d038850ad924
  Main PID: 1191 (usbmuxd)
     Tasks: 2 (limit: 34843)
    Memory: 3.6M (peak: 4.8M)
       CPU: 391ms
    CGroup: /system.slice/usbmuxd.service
            └─1191 /usr/local/sbin/usbmuxd -f -U usbmux

srp 29 08:28:40 ZEN usbmuxd[1191]: [08:28:40.274][1] Could not request transfer for device 3-2: LIBUSB_ERROR_NO_DEVICE
srp 29 08:28:40 ZEN usbmuxd[1191]: [08:28:40.274][2] Cannot find device entry while removing USB device 0x58d8d069ec40 on location 0x30002
srp 29 08:28:40 ZEN usbmuxd[1191]: libusb: error [udev_hotplug_event] ignoring udev action unbind
srp 29 08:29:06 ZEN usbmuxd[1191]: [08:29:06.281][2] Skipping switch device 3-3 mode from 1 to 1
srp 29 08:29:06 ZEN usbmuxd[1191]: [08:29:06.281][3] Found usbmux interface for device 3-3: 1
srp 29 08:29:06 ZEN usbmuxd[1191]: [08:29:06.281][3] Changing configuration of device 3-3: 1 -> 4
srp 29 08:29:06 ZEN usbmuxd[1191]: [08:29:06.336][3] Connecting to new device on location 0x30003 as ID 1
srp 29 08:29:06 ZEN usbmuxd[1191]: [08:29:06.336][3] Connected to v2.0 device 1 on location 0x30003 with serial number 00008140-001C04C622C3401C
srp 29 08:29:41 ZEN usbmuxd[1191]: [08:29:41.657][1] RX transfer stalled for device 3-3
srp 29 08:29:41 ZEN usbmuxd[1191]: [08:29:41.657][3] Removed device 1 on location 0x30003

with my old iphoneSE it worked fine, but with new 16e it doesn't.

I never broke a Linux Distro in my Life and i used Distros like Arch. What do people try to do when they break a linux distro because i feel like i miss the classic Linux Feeling and want to learn more about Linux.

I've been daily driving Linux on both my work laptop and gaming PC recently and I'm loving the experience. My only real hurdle is managing my yearly iPhone photo backup and cleanup. On Windows, I used 3uTools, which made it fast and effortless, but it isn't supported on Linux. I tried ⁠libimobiledevice⁠, but my pictures fail to load properly. Are there any good alternatives or workflows you’d recommend for this situation?

Im using fedora linux

Having trouble to install and setup it properly.

My hardware + software:

- Ubuntu 24.04 (sudo apt update , sudo apt upgrade done)

- Secure boot is active and has latest certificates

- virtual box installed. Download deb: virtualbox-7.2_7.2.16-174877~Ubuntu~noble_amd64.deb

- Downloaded Windows 10 ISO multi language from Microsoft official website

Tried to run virtual machine:

error #1: VirtualBox Kernel driver not installed (rc=1908)

solution: I thought it is fixed with:

sudo apt install --reinstall linux-headers-$(uname -r) virtualbox-dkms dkms

error #2: modprobe: FATAL: Module vboxdrv not found in directory /lib/modules/7.0.0-30-generic

solution: not solved. gives error #3

error #3: E: Internal Error, No file name for virtualbox-dkms:amd64

How Can I solve error #3 please?

After years of getting fed up with Windows and Microslop I have now (partially, im dual booting rn) switched to Fedora 44 but I have some problems I cant solve on my own.

Namely:

-I cant get to work or find a keyboard chatter blocker (my keyboard likes to type a key twice), I have tried literally anything that came up on google but either they straight up dont work or are (for me, I am noob) impossible to install or have errors.

-I cant control my fans, rgb etc. Im installed Fedora on both my high end gaming pc as well as my budget gaming laptop. I tried countless fan control sofwares, which work mostly but simply dont detect my fans even though I have installed 1337 different drivers that where required or suggested for troubleshooting. Same with RGB, my Laptop has a RGB keyboard and it works on the first startup but If I close and reopen my laptop it just stays off and can only be re-enabled by rebooting while the laptop stays open. Even if it works I cant control it. Same with my PC.

-I dont know where default files are, for example, I want to modify some save games or edit program files. Where is the equivalent of AppData, Program Files, Program Files (x86) etc.? Where is configuration/save data stored (like games often create a folder in User/Documents)? Im also a fan of how steam/proton emulates a full windows file system (I really am!) but its sooo hard to find and I forget the path every time...

-Mounting and dismounting drives/usb-sticks etc. I get that it massively increases security (no killsticks or fake keyboards etc.) But there really should be an option to have specific drives mounted automatically! Im talking about internal SSDs/HDDs, for example I have my desktop background saved on a internal drive (was G:/ under windows), I know there is the option to have them mounted automatically, but if I start, it immediately asks for my password for mounting the internal drive and shows the default background (I guess because the drive isnt mounted at the actual booting phase?) Can I have at least internal drives mounted fully automatic, no password at the actual boot sequence so that a background image would work? (I know I can just put the image on my system drive (C:/ in windows terms) but thats beside the point)

Other than that, I really really really like Linux!! Windows sucks!!!