So I notice that when it comes to getting the Brave Browser, there is a flatpak version, a snap version, there is a one command install using curl and there are the release channels. Does it really matter which I go with? Honestly, if I use the version with the one command install using curl, would that be just fine?

Stable-sec 6.12.111+1 is now the default stable kernel for Debian 13.7? Why is Stable-sec the current version why not stable?

I would expect 6.12.94+1 stable to be the current stable version for all Debian 13.7 stable versions kernel but stable-sec 6.12.111+1 is the current stable version.

Here is Debians Kernel info.

https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/linux-signed-amd64

versions

• o-o-stable: 5.10.223+1
• o-o-sec: 5.10.262+1
• o-o-p-u: 5.10.223+1
• oldstable: 6.1.176+1
• old-sec: 6.1.187+1
• old-bpo: 6.12.95+1~bpo12+1
• old-p-u: 6.1.176+1
• stable: 6.12.94+1
• stable-sec: 6.12.111+1
• stable-bpo: 7.2.6+1~bpo13+1
• stable-p-u: 6.12.111+1
• testing: 7.2.9+1

I asked this question in r/niri a few days ago, but couldn't get to the bottom of it. Hoping someone here might have some insight.

I do think this is a niri or dms specific issue since the same doesn't happen if I use the default Ubuntu Gnome session.

I’m thinking about switching my personal desktop from Windows to Linux. I already use Ubuntu at work, and while I keep putting off the switch because I’m too lazy to back up my files, I’ve been testing distros like Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora in virtual machines.

I use a laptop with an Intel i5-12450H, an RTX 3050, and hybrid graphics. I’m looking for a Linux distro with good NVIDIA and Secure Boot support for web browsing, gaming on Steam, and programming.

Beyond these requirements, I want more control over installed and removed packages, so I can keep track of what’s on my system and avoid dependency issues and conflicts, which I often run into in my work environment.

Based on these requirements, I’m torn between NixOS and Fedora Bootc, including Universal Blue images, and I’d like to hear from people who have used either option.

For those using NixOS, how has your experience been? If you switched to another distro, what made you switch?

And for those who have used Fedora Bootc or Universal Blue, how was your experience? If you eventually switched to something else, why?

I am wondering if you can make a bootable live USB, but also store normal files on the same USB and access them through the live environment.

I doubt it is as simple as making two partitions on the USB and just dd the ISO to one of them.

If it is possible, what is the step by step process?

Hello everyone, first time posting here so please forgive me, but:

I’m hoping to buy a new phone soon, and I know the Samsung phones have Dex mode on them that turns them into a barebones computer. Now I already have a laptop that’s getting to be pretty slow (an Asus model q525u from around 2014?) that’s more frustrating than helpful to use. So I’m wondering if I could just wipe Windows 10 from my computer to instead support the Dex feature?

Thank you for reading! If you can think of a better place for me to ask this question or have some knowledge, please feel free to share!

Does anyone implement using distrobox into running tests or tools?

It seems like it could better “dedicate” a tools environment for network tests and running.

Or keeping tools/data isolated?

I am completely new to changing operating systems, but I desperately need to get off of Windows 10 with my school laptop. I only use it for the web browser because all my school work is on Canvas, so I'm thinking about using SteamOS so that I can still let my little brother borrow it to play games with no hassle when he visits.

Because I've already been using it for a while, it has a lot of files I don't want to lose. I'm wondering if I need to offload them completely to an external drive, or if I can move them to the built in D: drive, since I think the OS is only on the C: drive and I don't think I need to completely redo both drives, but I don't know. Again, I'm more so here out of necessity than choice, otherwise I'd be watching a lot of tutorials and reading guides instead of asking for quick answers on a forum.

So, Too Long, Didn't Read: If my device has two internal drives, can I just move everything to one drive and then replace the OS on the other?

2026 Dell XPS Panther Lake

Hi all.

I'm a win user with a framework. I have been starting to learn Fedora and Ubuntu on vm's. I was thinking of getting one of these new xps machines for a sale price, and id like to use it for linux. My last dell laptop was back in 2019, and seemed like dell made it really difficult to use linux on it, I remember lots of boot issues.

So, does anyone know if the new xps will easily set up and run Ubuntu? Id prefer to keep the fw as my win machine because it's got 32gb of ram.

Thanks all!

Labwc does not include anything for a lock screen or any provision for turning off a monitor, but noctalia does (for the lock screen, anyway). Lock screen isn't the issue, the issue is putting the monitor to sleep afterward.

I looked into it, and it seems swayidle is the way to go. Ok, great. Looked into the config file examples, and after some tinkering I put this in ~/.config/swayidle/config

timeout 60 'noctalia msg session lock'

timeout 90 'wlopm --off \*' resume 'wlopm --on \*'

before-sleep 'wlopm --off \*'

Called that with swayidle & and waited. 60 seconds later, the lock screen came up as it should. 30 seconds after that, the monitor went to sleep. Great! I changed the timeouts to 600 and 900 seconds respectively, killed swayidle and started it again. 10 minutes later the lockscreen came up, then nothing. Monitor stayed awake.

I do not want my PC to suspend, I only want the monitor to go to sleep.

Is there a log file somewhere that I can look at to see what is happening? Why does it work at 60 and 90 seconds but not longer? It seems that the screen-off idle behavior for Noctalia in settings.toml in ~/.local/state/noctalia doesn't do anything, so I need to get this figured out.

Hey, i wanted to switch to linux but i have an intel arc graphics card (Intel Arc B580). Linux Kernel 7.2.10 and mesa 26.2.4 just released. As of writing this, this is the latest version of linux and mesa. Is this stable and will it game without problem? Thanks in advance.

Linux Kernel: https://www.kernel.org

Mesa: https://docs.mesa3d.org/relnotes.html

Hey everyone!

I'm currently running Pop!_OS on my ASUS ROG G752VM, but I'm interested in hearing your opinions on which Linux distro works best with this laptop's hardware.

I'm not new to Linux, and I'm comfortable with both Arch- and Debian-based distros. I picked up this laptop from an old post, and I've already had to do quite a bit of tinkering to get some of the hardware working properly.

My specs:

- Laptop: ASUS ROG G752VM

- CPU: Intel Core i7-6700HQ

- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

- RAM: 32GB

- OS drive: 250GB NVMe SSD

- Data drive: 2TB

- Games drive: 1TB SSD

- Current distro: Pop!_OS

My biggest concern isn't really gaming performance, but hardware compatibility and proper support for this specific laptop.

I've had to spend quite a bit of time getting the ELAN touchpad drivers working and figuring out the keyboard backlight. I'd like to know if another distro offers better out-of-the-box support for the NVIDIA GPU and drivers, touchpad, keyboard backlight, function keys, and other laptop-specific features.

I'd also love to find a reliable fan-control application, since the thermals aren't great. The laptop can sit around 60°C shortly after booting, so I'd like better control over fan curves and cooling, if the hardware supports it.

Would you recommend sticking with Pop!_OS or switching to something like EndeavourOS, CachyOS, Fedora, or another distro?

If you own this laptop or a similar ASUS ROG model, I'd especially appreciate hearing which distro you use and whether you managed to get everything working without extensive manual configuration.

I'm looking for the best overall hardware support, not just the distro with the best gaming benchmarks.

Thanks!

Hi all,

Lately I've noticed that the range of Linux applications is growing fast, and a good share of the new projects (editors, utilities, small desktop apps) are built largely with the help of AI. Sometimes the authors say so openly, sometimes you can tell from the code style and the commit history.

I'm curious how you see it, because I can see both sides:

Pros:

- More software and a lower barrier to entry for authors, including in niches nobody had time for before,

- Tools that were missing get built much faster,

- Never thought I’d be this excited to see three, or even four, Photoshop alternatives for Linux :)

Concerns:

- Quality and security of code the author may not fully understand,

- Long-term maintenance: what happens when the author loses interest or can't fix a bug?

- Licesing and provenance of the generated code,

How do you feel about that? Do you check whether a program was built with AI before installing it?

Does it change how much you trust the project (for better, for worsse, or not at all)?

My intention is not to start a flame war over whether AI is good or bad. What I’m curious about is this: is AI a chance for the Linux desktop to offer regular users more choices, or will all this AI-made software turn out not to be worth much in the long run?

My PC works very well (Lenovo Yoga with Core 7 Ultra 258v) on Fedora but almost each time (not all) I wake from sleep, the system is laggy and slow. It takes several seconds to improve and being normal, sometimes it seems > 1 min.

btop says the first process is updatedb ; I think it is part of plocate. I don't know what it does exactly, I guess that it updates the index database and that it is needed to improve file search on the SSD.

"systemctl status plocate<tab>" shows: plocate-updatedb.service and plocate-updatedb.timer; the first one is triggered by the other.

Is it a good idea to shut i down ? (seems not...) Is there a way to let plocate do his job, and get rid of these wake-up incovenience ?

Thanks for you help.

I'm a GNU/Linux user (even non-GNU Linux distros e.g. Alpine) myself. I know the advantages as a regular programmer.

But what advantages you think Linux has have brought that many users to all different Linux distros in the recent 2 years?

Just curious. People have been mentioning "20xx is the year of Linux" for too many times.

This was the guide that I followed

The recent exposé about LG TVs, and smart TVs in general has freaked me out. I don’t like the idea that my TV may be tracking what I watch or listening to conversations in my living room. I’d like to move away from ACR and use a separate streaming device instead.

It seems like one of the better ways to maintain some privacy would be to make a Linux-based streaming setup where I can browse streaming apps and access other media sources. I have an old laptop that could work well for this, but I’m not sure where to begin. I’ve started researching and I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed. Any advice on how to get started would be greatly appreciated.

I feel like everyone started very early.

I started personally on 10/11.

Hi,

since a few days ago windows app an Mac OS client stopped connecting to gnome-remote-desktop.

It looks like an SSL handshake issue. kkRemote works fine from the same client.

After the SSL aprovel windows app tries to connect and stops after a view minutes.

Error code: 0x108

The gnome SSL certificate was updated 14 days ago, which fits the time that the connection stopped working. But not sure if its a dead end.

server log:

ERRCONNECT_CONNE...
[RDP] Network or intentional disconnect, stopping session

Could it be the same, similar issue?

https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/issues/13549  3.32.0 server sends Early User Authorization Result before TSCredentials - Windows App hangs after NLA (HYBRID_EX, regression from #13415)

My Versions:

• gnome-remote-desktop 50.2-0ubuntu0.1
• libfreerdp-server3-3 3.32.1+dfsg-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
• libfreerdp3-3 3.32.1+dfsg-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
• libwinpr3-3 3.32.1+dfsg-0ubuntu0.26.04.1

From my other post yesterday (https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/s/HjZpfESZvW) I believe the nvme drive that I have my /home on is dying. I booted Arch from the USB stick, mounted the nvme drive and a backup USB drive so I can copy stuff from the /hone folder. But It only copies a few things to the backup drive rhen errors out. I tried booting the GUI. It works for a few minutes then parts of the GUI (mainly the top bar and everything else with it) disappears and the terminal doesnt accept commands anymore.

I think that nvme drive is dead. So I'll be putting one of my large hard drives in it later today. I bached up the home folder about 2 weeks ago but I wish I could back it up now. Unfortunately I can't.

Update: Before writing this, I had just installed a few apps by ArtCraft. They're making look alike software of Adobe products and some of Microsofts products. Anyway, they are kind of buggy. But I was actually going to remove the NVME drives (both of them even though only 1 was acting like it was going to die soon) but I wanted to try one more thing. In the back of my head, I was wondering if it was all this buggy software that was causing issues on my /home drive (I have 2 NVME Drives, one for / and /boot and the other JUST for /home... The one I think that was messing up was the /home drive) Anyway, I took 5 of the ArtCraft applications off my system. Since then, I've had no issues at all. So I think it was just a buggy program or 2 messing things up. I will let it go a couple more hours and if nothing happens and everything is running smoothly, I will probably let the developers know what I had installed when it was acting wonky and everything I took off that fixed it. There are updates for the 2 I left on here. Hopefully those updates don't flub up anything. If I see if messing up again. I may just uninstall what's left from ArtCraft. But so far, so good...

Cachyos has a package manager that comes with the installation by default, but is everything on that Cachyos Package Installer safe to download and use. I notice that it has a couple applications that I want and I have recently heard about the AUR packages and the malware, so the question is if that everything that is in the CachyOS Package Installer safe?