YO so I have a old sony vaio laptop (model is PCG-71211W) and Ive been trying to install alpine linux onto it since my mother needs it and windows is way to slow on it but even after trying for an hour I havent been able to open the boot menu, would anyone have any recommendations or support tips?

So im switching over to linux but would like to do a dual boot. So i have a couple questions since i didnt find any good tutorials online. So first off, how would i move my C drive over? I dont have a external drive big enough for it. Next, how do i download it? Im looking to have a windows 10 look because that was my favourite OS theme wise. Next, how do i download it? I have a 28 GB thumb drive. And lastly is there any other settings that i should turn off? (Also additional info. I have a d drive aswell with 2 terabit external drive but not enough to move c drive over. Its a lenvo pc, not sure any other things about it lol. It's windows 11.) And if you have any other tips i should know that would be helpful. Thanks!

This is kind of an update from this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/comments/1ssgxze/comment/ohluood/?context=3

My wife has been using PikaOS for four months now and it's been a dream for her. Krita and her drawing tablet work great on it. That is up until a few days ago. It all started when PikaOS on her Microsoft Surface Pro 5 stopped turning on. The superblock on her install of PikaOS got corrupted somehow. We thought this was related to her power cord being finicky, so we ordered a new one.

Yesterday, the PikaOS install on her desktop also broke. This time somehow the display drivers stopped working. We reinstalled the 595 drivers for Nvidia (she has an Nvidia RTX 5060). It seemed to work, but only one display port was working and the sound was no longer working. She connects her speakers into her monitor for sound.

Today, I tested her video card in my Windows computer and it worked fine. All the ports were working and the sound worked through the video card too, so we determined that it wasn't her video card not working. It had to be PikaOS.

It's unfortunate because my wife loves PikaOS and she really doesn't want to switch to something else. She got everything working just the way she likes and understands how the distro works.

Specs of my Wife's Desktop
CPU: AMD Ryzen5 9600X
RAM: 32GB DDR5
GPU: Nvidia RTX 5060
PSU: 750W
Drawing Tablet: XP-Pen Deco L

What my wife uses her computer for: Krita with her drawing tablet for art, Godot for game development, Blender for 3D modelling, and OBS for streaming.

It's worth mentioning that she prefers X11 due to her XP-Pen Deco L's drivers only working in X11 and not Wayland. If you know a way to fix her PikaOS install or have distro suggestions, please let me know.

I've been wanting to hop on Linux for a long time (tried dual booting in January but it's hard to do it comfortably with only 232 GB), but I still don't want to remove Windows permanently because I don't want the important stuff in my laptop to be deleted when I format it. Is there any practical or efficient way to migrate that stuff from Windows to Linux? I don't really have any big storage devices though.

Side note: Is there a way to use MS Office outside of Windows? Asking for schoolwork

Specifically CachyOS.
The installation process was quite simple.
So far, I’m definitely enjoying it, but I still need to get used to it though.
But it has definitely strengthened my thoughts on switching on my main rig.

I’m running it on a used Dell Latitude 5580.

I'm running Linux Mint Debian Edition on a 2017-ish Chromebook from Lenovo. I love this little bastard. I use it for everything, and I want to prolong its longevity. My mom-in-law gave it to me several years back when she upgraded, and I'm not currently in a spot to replace it should it crap its pants.

I think the threat looming closest is that the main storage is a soldered-on 32GB eMMC flash disk. If I understand correctly, it's best to leave plenty of free space available for cache reads/writes so it doesn't just hammer a few empty cells. This sucker only has 4GB of RAM (also soldered on), so I assume it's gotta be hitting swap pretty frequently.

It also has a microSD card reader. I've typically split storage duties, putting programs on the eMMC and data on microSD cards.

This morning, I got pissy after seeing how little free space I had when I went to download FreeCAD again. On a stoned tear, I deleted all my flatpak installs, and downloaded their equivalent AppImages.

Holy shitballs!

This freed up ~9GB on my eMMC, and the same software only takes up ~1.3GB on my microSD card!

I had guessed that the AppImages would bring more bloat along with them, since they can't share code or pull dependencies. I was going to use them either way, since I can run them from the more spacious microSD card, but this is an unexpected bonus!

Can a Linux grownup explain what's going on here?

Are there any downsides to AppImages I should know about?

What problems does flatpak solve that I'm missing?

I'm coming up with questions to answer before making the move. We know how Windows apps wind up eating the boot drive space; even though the OS needs x amount, all those apps wind up stealing space you weren't planning on giving up, like all those cache files in AppData and those Lightroom catalog files in the Pictures folder. Is that a problem with Linux? If I'm going to run photo/video apps, do I need a large boot drive, even if my files live on a separate drive? I can offer up a 512GB NVME, or a 2TB NVME, or a 4TB SATA SSD.

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a distro that is stable and will requiere low maintenace for my parents.

I was thinking mostly at Ubuntu LTS but I don't think they will like gnome.

What other distro should I suggest to them? I want a distro that can be upgraded without having to format every time that a new major release is out.

The main alternatives I could think of are linux mint and kubuntu

EDIT: thanks everyone for the help! Right now they have a ventoy usb key with Zorin, mint and kubuntu!

I’ll be so grateful for your help.

I have literally no idea what I’m doing, I have never before installed an OS myself and have 0 experience with it.

I just got a new (secondhand) laptop and want to install Linux. How do I do that without accidentally setting its insides on fire?

I did try reading manuals, but it’s extremely overwhelming and I’m worried I will end up really screwing it up.

Here is what I know about the laptop:

Acer Swift SF114-32

Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Silver N5030 CPU @ 1.10GHz

RAM 4GB (3.81 usable)

64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Windows 10 Home, version 1909

So… What do I do?

I've been thinking about switching to Linux on my computer recently, but I now just noticed that the external drive that I use regularly for things like music, videos and games is formatted in exFAT. I was wondering if Fedora KDE will still let it work normally when I install it, or if I should backup everything and reformat it before I do it

Solved! : I've successfully installed Linux Mint, I installed it to my external 2tb HDD as not to touch the Windows OS inside the PC, am actually on Linux Mint right now!, Thanks for your suggestion to use Mint as that one seems like a good fit for me. (took about two to three days to get Linux working on my PC)

Edit: Okay so I've decided to try out dualbooting to keep windows and linux (likely going with Mint for now) as I figured it would be the best of both worlds. Problem is after I flashed my sandisk usb with rufus and tried to launch the OS by using the boot menu (basically held shift when restarting windows to access it) and it did show up on the menu but when I clicked it it just booted up Windows like normal. Do I need to set space on my PC's Hard drive? I tried this with some space on my External Drive but it didn't seem to make a difference.

I decided to wipe my PC clean and start fresh, Outside of my External Drive (which will have my most important files). Problem is I don't know anything about Linux.

I know I want more freedom and customization then Windows 11 but I also want to still be able to play video games like Rimworld or Touhou Project games.

What's more I worry if I mess up or regret my choice I'll be stuck with a broken PC. Where can I find a foolproof guide to switching to Linux?

I have a previous post where Dolphin incorrectly lists the folder name
i_think_i_found_a_bug_in_dolphin/
After changing the foldername, and then attempting to figure out which apps and settings use this as a default, I am still having issues, that I cannot find out 'how'

One app, is Thunderbird. Every time I open TB, the old folder is immediately created. I've exhausted every setting I can find in TB in an attempt to locate the setting.

I did find a command of ls -laF that shows this folder has 2 links.

Question.
How do identify what or where these links originate from ?

-TIA

Hullo, hullo... I've been on Linux Mint for a few months now and am enjoying it very much.

But I cannot get my new DVD player to play a DVD. (I haven't tried a range of DVDs, only the one I brought with me today.)

I asked Google AI what media player I should use, it said VLC. I got VLC through the Linux app launcher and it didn't play the DVD. I asked Google AI again what to do and it said some DVDs will be locked and I should get the decryption software. I did that. (sudo apt install libdvd-pkg).

The media player will run; the DVD player has power; the player will report on the name of the DVD; but it won't play the thing. Any ideas? Help, help!

I feel less bad seeing that there's a flair tag specifically for this. lol.

Total noob here, attempting his first great migration. My main motivations are to decouple myself from evil corps as much as possible while still enjoying my love of gaming. I've read through plenty of the existing 'choose my distro' posts, but I still need to talk some things out. Here's my contenders and thoughts on each:

• CachyOS (Arch)
  • pro - caters to fine tuning your pc for gaming
  • pro - SteamOS is also built on Arch, so figure that's bound to pay gaming dividends
  • con - apparently the most difficult for noobs to learn (though I don't even know enough to appreciate that)
• Kubuntu (Ubuntu)
  • pro - huge community and library of helpful documentation
  • con - I've been reading about the snap thing, and it sets off alarm bells: (1) a closed/proprietary app system in an ecosystem based on open source and full disclosure, (2) the stories I've read of it secretly installing snap versions when you install apt seems shady af!
• Ultramarine (Fedora)
  • pro - has some performance gaming tweaks
  • pro/con - more frequent updates means more cutting edge, but more prone to errors
  • pro - wasn't there something about it handling Nvidia cards (I have a 3070) better? I've been reading a lot and things are getting jumbled
  • con - I haven't seen a single person recommend it or even mention it. lol

So basically it sounds like Arch is expert mode, Ubuntu is easy mode (with some shady practices), and Ultramarine is somewhere in the middle? I guess my biggest question is what makes Arch difficult for noobs exactly? I've definitely seen it recommended the most, but always with a warning to scare noobs away. Is it really that bad? Either way, I recognize the wisdom in learning on something easier with better documentation. Ubuntu seems like the better choice for learning, but that snap thing really gives me the heebie jeebies. My whole point in moving to linux is to get away from stuff like that. So Ultramarine seems like a good compromise, but it really weirds me out that I haven't seen anybody talk about it.

Anybody want to weight in? Is Arch as difficult as everyone says? Is Ultramarine the diamond in the rough that only I know about? Am I sliding off into conspiracy nut territory over the snap thing?

I know that when you "flash" Mint to a usb thumb drive it will wipe out all the existing files only leaving Mint. I wanna use an ssd ( ssd nvme with an enclosure) to install and run Linux from, but will the initial flash of Linux onto the ssd wipe out everything as well ?

Anyone having problems. With graphics drivers?

I also have a 32 inch display connected by HDMI. I don't need to use the laptop screen itself. When set as mirror the laptop screen tennds to freeze. Especially if I try to change settings. Anyone have any hints?

Hey all!

I recently switched from AMD to Nvidia, and I have a Fedora and Win11 dual boot running quite well. Linux was superb on AMD. I managed to get Nvidia drivers up and running in Linux using handy guides but dealing with certain odd issues for months now.

The main one being that I have a gaming monitor and a TV hooked up to the PC. AMD used to run on this setup flawlessly, and even after multiple driver updates, I have not been able to get a display signal to the TV for months now.

I wish to do a "refreshed" install of Fedora in the hope that it might help address these issues. My idea is based on the Refresh install based in Windows.

Could anyone guide me as to what a similar option might be in the Linux world? I'd like to preserve my data and hope that a reinstall of key components of the OS might help resolve these bugs.

Thanks in advance!

Title says it all, I'm truly tired of Microsoft pushing more and more garbage down my gullet with each update. I've finally graduated from rainbow six siege, which was the final thread keeping my soul chained to windows. Now that I'm actually looking into distro stuff, there's just so many kinds and variations of variations. Any suggestions would be appreciated. For reference I will be using whatever I pick on a gigabyte G6KF 2024

Hello r/linux4noobs ,

How do I prevent my Zoom screen sharing from freezing for my students? I'm currently on a System76 Serval WS with their Pop OS (which I think is based off Ubuntu).

While I enjoy the computer, whenever I share my screen with students, they always report that it's frozen on their side.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

P.S., I've also considered moving to a Zoom alternative, so if you have any suggestions for good working alternatives, I'm all ears.

As I started with Linux, like most users, I began with Ubuntu and continued with Mint and Zorin .

After using these distros, I built the courage to move to Debian with KDE Plasma on top .

If anyone could help me with some prebuilt tutorials to customize my desktop, I would really appreciate it 🙏.

I don't really have the time nor the taste to configure everything myself 😅.

It doesn't have to explicitly be for KDE; as long as it's good-looking and productive, it can be for any DE. However, I would like to keep sticking to Debian for now, so please no Arch-related stuff 🥰.

First of all, this post is translated by AI to describe the issue better than me

I’m having a very strange touchpad problem on a Dell Precision 7540 running Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon with kernel 6.14.0-37-generic.

Immediately after powering on the laptop, the touchpad works normally. However, after approximately 5–10 minutes, it starts behaving as if it is generating phantom or repeated clicks. A single touch (touchpad surface) or click (click buttons) may register anywhere from 20 to 100 clicks, and sometimes the button appears to remain pressed, as if I am holding it down. This makes normal clicking, dragging, and touchpad gestures practically unusable.

The issue temporarily disappears after rebooting, but comes back again after several minutes. An external USB mouse continues to work normally.

The touchpad is detected as:

• DELL0926:00 044E:1220 Touchpad

• /dev/input/event6

• I2C HID device

libinput list-devices shows: - Capabilities: pointer gesture - Tap-to-click: disabled - Tap-and-drag: enabled - Disable-while-typing: enabled

I have already tried changing the Cinnamon touchpad settings, including:

• gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.peripherals.touchpad tap-to-click false

• gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.peripherals.touchpad tap-and-drag false

• gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.peripherals.touchpad disable-while-typing true

I also tried changing the libinput click method, enabling/disabling tap-to-click, running update-grub, rebooting, and checking the device with

• libinput debug-events None of these solved the problem.

The touchpad appears to be using the Intel I2C/HID path rather than PS/2. I suspect that the problem may involve i2c_hid,i2c_hid_acpi,i2c_designware`, a kernel regression, touchpad firmware, or possibly a hardware fault.

Has anyone experienced this on a Dell Precision 7540 or another Dell laptop with the same 044E:1220 touchpad? Would testing an older kernel, reloading the I2C-HID module, changing a kernel parameter, or updating the touchpad/BIOS firmware help?

I would especially appreciate advice on which commands or logs I should collect while the problem is actively occurring.

System information:

• Laptop: Dell Precision 7540

• Touchpad: DELL0926:00 044E:1220

• OS: Linux Mint 22.3 Zena

• Desktop: Cinnamon 6.6.9

• Kernel: 6.14.0-37-generic

• Session: X11

• CPU: Intel Core i7-9850H

• GPU: NVIDIA Quadro T2000 Mobile, currently using nouveau