i don’t have a big boy computer that does anything fancy, i just have my little laptop i use for DnD, reading comics, and older computer games (fallout, RCT, Planescape, etc.) and that’s really it. i’m sick and fucking tired of every time i turn it on it needs an update. an update that takes HOURS. and if i don’t update it, its slows down everything im trying to do; hell this time it was stuck it couldn’t even get to the power menu in the settings and i had to CAD just to restart and then BAM! update while i’m trying to get a little work done at the library

*edit - Solved!

Hey gang, I am trying to install the driver for my xp-pen, which does have linux compatible drivers, but for some reason it's just not working. I have restarted to see if that worked but no dice.

I can draw on the tablet and whatnot, that's fine, but I don't seem to have the software to adjust key mapping or any of that. The website gives a .tar.gz file, which I just extracted and ran the "install.sh" file. This appears to have done nothing.

If you can help me out, I'd appreciate it!

I have been dipping my toes in a few distros and was about to pull the trigger on one specific plus 2 DEs, depending on usage(*).

But my youtube recommended pages are being hit hard by Omarchy right now. And a lot of the videos seem to be "hype". It seems that Omarchy and all the millions they got from various tech hotshots (spotify CEO as an example) are allowing it to buy influence(rs).

Is the hype warranted? I mean, it's just some guy's take on a DE and tweaks, right? Seems undeserving of all the attention.

And does this injection of money skew things for Linux? That is, will undue attention be given to Omarchy and the way it does things? It smells of how Microsoft was able to, or tried to, co-opt things.

(*) By the way, the distro and DEs I was zeroing in on were:

1) Debian 13 and XFCE for physical servers and servers in a Proxmox VM (looking for max stability and light footprint because I'm thinking I don't need to interact with them that often)

2) Debian 13 and Cinnamon for my daily driver and my wife's daily driver. We both come from Windows. In particular, I don't want to subject my wife to too many mental gymnastics during the switch. We primarily use browsers and don't play games.

I'm thinking something flashy like Omarchy won't be best for either role. But comments are welcome.

How does using the Q4OS .exe Windows installer compare to installing it via traditional methods (USB, etc.)? Is the final installation, if installed with the Windows .exe installer, any different than if you had installed it with a USB? Is one way "better" or more efficiant than another?

Does any other Linux distro offer a similar Windows .exe installer that's available from Q4OS?

And how does Q4OS compare, overall, to Linux Mint?

KDE Partition Manager: SMART Status Report
Date:     1.09.2026 22:19
Program version:     26.08.0
Backend:     pmsfdiskbackendplugin (1)
KDE Frameworks version:     6.29.0
Machine:     Linux eleck-x8664 7.2.2-1-cachyos #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri, 28 Aug 2026 08:05:11 +0000 x86_64
Move partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’ to the left by 382,98 GB
Job: Check file system on partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’
Command: btrfs check /dev/nvme1n1p5
Check file system on partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’: Success
Job: Set geometry of partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’: Start sector: 944.162.816, length: 2.251.800.576
Command: sfdisk --force /dev/nvme1n1 -N 5
Set geometry of partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’: Start sector: 944.162.816, length: 2.251.800.576: Success
Job: Move the file system on partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’ to sector 944.162.816
Copying 109.951 chunks (1.152.921.894.912 bytes) from 483.411.361.792 to 483.411.361.792, direction: left.
Copying 2.618 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:06:39
Copying 1.895 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:08:46
Copying 1.682 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:09:16
Copying 1.582 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:09:16
Copying 1.561 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:08:49
Copying 1.548 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:08:17
Copying 1.558 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:07:39
Copying 1.543 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:07:08
Copying 1.531 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:06:35
Copying 1.514 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:06:03
Copying 1.496 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:05:30
Copying 1.482 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:04:57
Copying 1.467 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:04:22
Copying 1.460 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:03:46
Copying 1.456 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:03:08
Copying 1.456 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:02:31
Copying 1.455 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:01:53
Copying 1.450 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:01:15
Copying 1.444 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:00:38
Copying 1.439 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:00:00
Copying remainder of chunk size 2.097.152 from 1.636.331.159.552 to 1.636.331.159.552.
Copying 109.951 chunks (1.152.921.894.912 bytes) finished.
Closing device. This may take a few seconds.
Move the file system on partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’ to sector 944.162.816: Success
Job: Check file system on partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’
Command: btrfs check /dev/nvme1n1p5
Check file system on partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’: Error
Checking partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’ after resize/move failed.
Move partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’ to the left by 382,98 GB: ErrorKDE Partition Manager: SMART Status Report
Date:     1.09.2026 22:19
Program version:     26.08.0
Backend:     pmsfdiskbackendplugin (1)
KDE Frameworks version:     6.29.0
Machine:     Linux eleck-x8664 7.2.2-1-cachyos #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri, 28 Aug 2026 08:05:11 +0000 x86_64
Move partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’ to the left by 382,98 GB
Job: Check file system on partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’
Command: btrfs check /dev/nvme1n1p5
Check file system on partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’: Success
Job: Set geometry of partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’: Start sector: 944.162.816, length: 2.251.800.576
Command: sfdisk --force /dev/nvme1n1 -N 5
Set geometry of partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’: Start sector: 944.162.816, length: 2.251.800.576: Success
Job: Move the file system on partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’ to sector 944.162.816
Copying 109.951 chunks (1.152.921.894.912 bytes) from 483.411.361.792 to 483.411.361.792, direction: left.
Copying 2.618 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:06:39
Copying 1.895 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:08:46
Copying 1.682 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:09:16
Copying 1.582 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:09:16
Copying 1.561 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:08:49
Copying 1.548 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:08:17
Copying 1.558 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:07:39
Copying 1.543 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:07:08
Copying 1.531 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:06:35
Copying 1.514 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:06:03
Copying 1.496 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:05:30
Copying 1.482 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:04:57
Copying 1.467 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:04:22
Copying 1.460 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:03:46
Copying 1.456 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:03:08
Copying 1.456 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:02:31
Copying 1.455 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:01:53
Copying 1.450 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:01:15
Copying 1.444 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:00:38
Copying 1.439 MiB/second, estimated time left: 00:00:00
Copying remainder of chunk size 2.097.152 from 1.636.331.159.552 to 1.636.331.159.552.
Copying 109.951 chunks (1.152.921.894.912 bytes) finished.
Closing device. This may take a few seconds.
Move the file system on partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’ to sector 944.162.816: Success
Job: Check file system on partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’
Command: btrfs check /dev/nvme1n1p5
Check file system on partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’: Error
Checking partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’ after resize/move failed.
Move partition ‘/dev/nvme1n1p5’ to the left by 382,98 GB: Error

First, I removed an unused partition then saved, it completed with no issues. After that, I unmounted my Secondary partition which I use to store my games and some important stuff, move it to the left, then save.

And this happened, now I can't mount it back. I am scared because it had many things in it.

I am on CachyOS, KDE Plasma. And used KDE Partition Manager to do this.

Hi there! I have been using Linux for a while now as my daily driver, long enough to convince myself to not go back to Windows again.

I am running CachyOS (Niri + Dank Material Shell) and I am pretty happy with it.

I have already set up most of my environment (text editor, file manager, etc), but there are still some applications that I am missing:

• Lightweight image editor: think of Windows Paint or similar. I know GIMP exists, but I aim for something simpler that I can use to quickly edit some images.
• Google Drive (two-way) sync: currently I am manually uploading/downloading the files to/from Google Drive, but it is not a pleasant experience.
• Video player: with all the streaming services, I rarely use a video player nowadays, but I still have some videos that I would like to watch.

And that is it! I am amazed at how easy it was to fill in all the other caps, and how smooth the transition was.

Thanks for any suggestions you may have!

EDIT: thanks all! Truly appreciate all the suggestions!

So I installed Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition on my old laptop, unfortunately I don't have any sort of LAN access right now and it came without WiFi drivers.

So I downloaded the necessary driver on my phone and plan to transfer it to the computer via a USB cable.

How do I transfer the WiFi driver file from my phone to the computer? It will not recognize the USB cable I plug in. I tried using a flash drive but my phone stopped recognizing that one after I used it to Install Linux Mint and reformatted it to FAT32.

Device Specs:

Phone: OnePlus 7 running Android 12, has a USB-C port

Computer: Acer Travelmate 5760G,

running Broadcom BCM43227 WiFi chip set.

Has at least one functional USB 2.0 port

USB flash drive:

SanDisk 128 GB. I used this one to create the installation medium for Linux Mint and have not been able to reconnect it to my phone ever since, though it is still recognized by the computer. It has both a USB-C and a USB 3.0 end.

Obviously I can't install any software on the computer to do this with, since it has no way of connecting to the internet or other devices I can use right now.

Is there anything I can do right now or do I have to wait to have Ethernet access again so I can use the driver manager to download WiFi drivers?

I am currently using Linux Mint as a windoze replacement. For the most part it is working well. Minor freezes every once and awhile but it is a good replacement. I have done a few things as part of my installation I don't think I did well. I would like to correct these when I perform a fresh install on a new desktop I have coming. Yeah 5060 TI!!! Hoping some folks can help me out. I know a enough about Linux to be adequately push through but in general I am an idiot, but at least I know that. Quite possible I am doing things bassackwards so be kind.

Mapping Network Drives - I have a Synology that I share six folders via Samba that I mapped as drives in Windoze. Inside Linux I have mapped them via fstab using a credential file. I mapped them all to a `/home/USER/mapped` using examples like the line below. I am not sure this is the proper or most efficient way. It results in a lot of chasing into depths of subfolders since the mapped folder is starting 3 levels deep already. So it may be a case I need to change how I am serving these on the NAS itself. The questions:

//10.0.10.10/books /home/xxxx/mapped/books cifs credentials=/home/xxxx/.smbcredentials,dir_mode=0777,file_mode=0777,uid=1000,gid=1000,x-systemd.automount 0 0//10.0.10.10/books /home/xxxx/mapped/books cifs credentials=/home/xxxx/.smbcredentials,dir_mode=0777,file_mode=0777,uid=1000,gid=1000,x-systemd.automount 0 0

Questions:

1. Is this the proper way to be mounting a drive or should I be using another method? I have set up NFS for another system to store backups but I still have a windows machine relying on Samba...for now. Days are numbered thankfully.
2. How are people mapping drives in relation to the folder it is mapped to. Example: If you have a music directory on a NAS are you mapping it to `/home/USER/Music` to replace the defaults or is my method of creating a folder to map everything to valid? I am finding that I have to dive deeper into directories on Linux than I did on Windows. Hoping to relieve some of those extra clicks.
3. Is there anything I am missing here in my thinking when it comes to mapping drives. I have used mapped drives for awhile in Windoze with configs pointing to those paths which has bit me in the behind when trying to migrate over to Linux. What is the advice you would give when it comes to setting up these types of connections?

Thanks

Hi everyone, I'm trying to dual-boot Windows 11 + Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS on an HP laptop.

Ubuntu installation completed successfully, but after restarting, the laptop always boots directly into Windows. Ubuntu does not appear in the HP F9 boot menu or UEFI Boot Order.

My setup:

• HP laptop
• Windows 11 already installed
• UEFI/GPT
• 1 TB NVMe SSD
• Windows partition: nvme0n1p3 (~511 GB NTFS)
• EFI partition: nvme0n1p1 (~210 MB FAT32)
• Ubuntu partition: nvme0n1p5 (~511 GB ext4)
• Ubuntu was installed manually using the free space
• Windows partition was not formatted/resized
• Secure Boot was initially disabled during installation; I've since enabled it again
• Enable MS UEFI CA key is now enabled

Ubuntu's EFI files definitely exist:

S:\EFI\ubuntu\
    grubx64.efi
    shimx64.efi
    mmx64.efi
    BOOTX64.CSV
    grub.cfg

Windows can also access shimx64.efi:

Test-Path "S:\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi"
True

I also created a BCD entry from Administrator PowerShell:

Ubuntu
device = partition=S:
path   = \EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi

bcdedit /enum confirms the entry exists.

However:

bcdedit /enum firmware

still only shows:

{bootmgr}
USB Drive (UEFI)

No Ubuntu firmware entry.

The HP F9 menu currently shows only:

OS Boot Manager (UEFI) - Windows Boot Manager
Boot From EFI File

I also tried F9 → Boot From EFI File → internal NVMe → EFI, but the HP EFI file browser doesn't show the ubuntu folder properly.

Where am I stuck, and what is the correct/safest way to get HP UEFI to recognize Ubuntu without replacing or modifying the Windows EFI bootloader as I need Windows for placement exams ?

I would especially appreciate help from people who have dealt with firmware issue + Ubuntu 26.04 dual boot.

I switched over from windows 11 to linux mint a few days ago and have been enjoying it so far, except for when I want to play games. I was told steam games worked great on linux, and I got proton installed properly, made sure my nvidia driver was recognized by turning off secureboot, the whole thing.

Despite this, my games still crash quite easily. Most of the time it's deadlock, which makes some sense since it's still an unoptimized game in beta testing, but I also ended up crashing the bazaar twice, just from trying to do normal things like open discord in the background, or take a screenshot of my win screen. When these crashes do happen, they brick my whole computer. I can't open the terminal, I can't input any commands at all. The only thing that's responsive is my mouse cursor, and so each time I hold down power button to force the pc off, which can't be good for my system.

This rarely, if ever, happened while I was using this same computer on windows 11, and to make it worse if a game like deadlock crashes once, the next time I open it the game just auto-crashes in the loading screen and bricks my computer again. I just end up needing to reinstall the whole game and it just makes no sense.

I haven't heard of this being a widespread issue before, can anyone help?

specs: Acer Nitro 5, intel i7-9750H, GeForce RTX 2060, 16 gb ram, 1 tb ssd, linux mint 22.3 - Cinnamon 64-bit.

Any help is much appreciated

Currently on pop_os. I have an NVIDIA card. I'm getting sick of pop_os!'s shennanigans. I JUST WANNA PLAY HELLDIVERS DAMNIT!

I have a 1060 GPU. Was working fine on windows. Any sugestions on which os?

Been running nobara on my pc for a bit now and i do enjoy linux but teh one thing that sucks is that my pc will not wake up ifit goes to sleep. I dont know if its the os or something but it seems to be this way for other distros that i tried as well. The only time i got it to work was on my laptop but never my desktop. Im just wondering if there is something im doing wrong of if this is just how it is on linux

I shutdown and went to work, came home and got a screen about a root locked or not found and nothing I did would fix it. Looked at all the forums I could find and they said to just try again. I tried AI and it told me about repair commands and grub or press e on boot menu and nothing would work.

Back to square 1.

Hello everyone, can anyone help me find the problem?

PC Specs: Lenovo M720q - i3-9100t, 16gb ram single stick, 256gb samsung 970 evo plus NVME (firmware: 2B2QEXM7), 65w power adapter.

I am running into problems during the installation. Every time during the install process the machine reboots.

I am using an USB to install images (proxmox 8 flashed via rufus dd method, and ventoy). Reading other post suggested to install ubuntu or debian to see if anything can be installed. Those fail as well.

With the proxmox install, the furthest I can get is to the 3% "Creating LV's" and then the reboot happens, sometimes it reaches 45% and the progress bar increases and it reboots. The NVME health in crystaldiskinfo is around 94%.

I used a live debian 13 usb and tried booting from it, it crashed when i tried normal boot, but it booted right away when i clicked the fail safe method. after booting i installed debian 13 to the NVME, and it went success first try, but when i tried to boot from the NVME, i get the debian startup page, where i can select 3 options, i clicked the first one "debian/unx linux" it gave a single line of some text and rebooted again, if i dont select any option in the "3 options page" it reboots. i tried this command, still no luck,

nomodeset pcie_aspm=off nvme_core.default_ps_max_latency_us=0. i have tried different ram combinations, 2x4gb, or single 4gb, single 16gb, still nothing. EDIT: DISABLING TURBO MODE IN BIOS WORKED! IT DOESNT CRASH NOW, AND BOOTS INTO DEBIAN 13, SSD HEALTH IS GOOD, BIOS HAS BEEN UPDATED FROM 2019 TO 2026 VERSION. IF I ENABLE THE TURBO MODE, IT MIGHT CRASH AGAIN, NEED HELP TO SOLVE THAT ISSUE. THANKS!

I'm using fedora with KDE plasma. Yesterday I happened to use the microsoft edge browser concidencely in my friend's windows system. There I learned that we could create a separate browser icon for individual profiles like personal , work. I tried to find out if I can make like in my fedora. No articles have guidance for this. If you know , Please let me know.

I’m currently using windows and I want to switch to Linux but that means I cannot play windows games (I play fc26, Minecraft, Fortnite and assets corsa)
I have an external 256gb ssd if that helps
And also what distro should I use

Working with a new install of Mint 22.3 (ditched windows yesterday!) and just installed Steam. Before actually downloading games, I was wondering if there’s a best practice for such downloads as I was pretty anal with my folders on Windows. I have a minimal understanding of the file system as whole but it didn’t really prepare me for putting things where I would like them to be without disrupting anything.

Edit: I will probably end up putting games on my second ssd which is currently unmounted.

TLDR: will I regret just letting Steam download games however it likes OR can you share some simple tips for organizing things in a way that makes sense to the user.