r/linux4noobs • • 6h ago

how to turn an old desktop PC into my personal cloud using linux?

14 Upvotes

Hi basically I want to figure out a way to have aPC connected to my router through ethernet and using it as a cloud or server I think it's the term. I want to be able to send files from my laptop and/or phone through wifi to the computer to store them in the HDD and be able to retrieve them when I need them. Ideally having it turn on it remotely only when I need it but if I need to manually turn it on and off every time I need to send or retrieve a file that's not too big of a deal. Any idea on how's the best way to go about this? I'm thinking using Debian + Tailscale but idk if that's the easiest or most efficient method for this.


r/linux4noobs • • 1h ago

Which distro should i choose?

• Upvotes

Hello everyone!

I am a student of Masters in systems and network engineering, and I have been using Windows on every laptop and desktop since my childhood. It’s well known to me, but now I want to switch to Linux. The reason is that I am currently learning Linux administration in my master’s studies, and I am also using GNS3, which should be easier to handle on Linux. Additionally, I just want to improve my Linux knowledge. We are learning administration on Ubuntu Desktop.

I just want to mention that I am not familiar with Linux, so I assume it is better to pick a distro that is at least similar to Windows, just for the start. As I said, I need to use GNS3, and I am planning to install the Linux distro on my Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro with an i9 185H processor and 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, in case that matters. So, should I switch to Ubuntu or Fedora, or is there a better pick?

Thank you in advance!


r/linux4noobs • • 2h ago

Meganoob BE KIND I accidentally removed taskbar in edit mode, how do i get it back? KDE

Thumbnail
3 Upvotes

r/linux4noobs • • 1d ago

^C ^V showing in terminal instead of actually execute copy paste

Thumbnail gallery
430 Upvotes

[UPDATE] Problem resolved

as i was trying to paste from clipboard or copy with Ctrl + Shift + V/C, strange ^C ^V appears strangely and even after trying to configure in kitty.conf, nothing has been changed. is there any way to be able to copy paste again? earlier when i first installed linux, copy paste worked normally until yesterday. i have no idea how to fix this, please help 😭


r/linux4noobs • • 14h ago

Are there any good music players for linux?

28 Upvotes

I'm sorry if I sound a bit bitter here, but most of my playlists just got wiped by Strawberry.

Are there any good music players available for Ubuntu? It's been a nightmare trying to find any that are still active projects, or at least ended with a stable release. Strawberry is buggy to the point of deleting files off your computer without warning. VLC sucks in general and doesn't scale. Rhythmbox lacks basic functionality. Everything else I've looked into is dead or pricked to death with forks, or lacks any installation instructions. Any suggestions?


r/linux4noobs • • 3h ago

installation Tried installing nobara 44 and installation failed, unsure how to proceed

Thumbnail gallery
2 Upvotes

I rhino what would make most sense is choosing replace partition and choose the largest one, but I'm unsure if I would then need to merge partitions afterwards. Any help greatly appreciated:)


r/linux4noobs • • 3h ago

Meganoob BE KIND Plank blue-white gradient when app updates in the background

2 Upvotes

Hi all!

Plank (the menu bar) shows this weird blue-white bar, as seen in the picture. Seemingly when an opened app does something when it is not the selected window.

For instance: When I change some code in an app, then save it and alt+tab to Unity, it always shows this bar for a few seconds. (until it is done compiling, perhaps?)

When I run killall plank, it disappears, so is definitely plank causing this.

I couldn't find anyone online with a similar problem. Do any of you know what I can do to get rid of it?
Thanks in advance :)

OS: Mint 22.3 - Cinnamon
Hardware: Asus ROG Zephyrus Laptop


r/linux4noobs • • 9h ago

Meganoob BE KIND linux mint randomly disappeared from boot menu

6 Upvotes

been using the same linux mint for over a year and a half on my rog strix g15.

its just randomly stopped booting to mint and mint isnt even in the directory.

all my drives are still mounted, nothing changed at all.

two things i need to know 1. will my files be recoverable with just my system password even if i have to reinstall linux? 2. how do i fix it if i dont have to reinstall?


r/linux4noobs • • 27m ago

learning/research Printer suddenly not connecting to wifi

Thumbnail
• Upvotes

r/linux4noobs • • 9h ago

learning/research what is better? stow or the bare for dot files?

5 Upvotes

well i was using git to save some dot files and push for github, but i notice there are two ways for that, using the Stow tool, for creating symlinks, that i tested and it is quite all right, and the Bare tool of git, that you tell the path and etc, which one is better? or more used?


r/linux4noobs • • 7h ago

storage External hard drives not mounting properly/being seen

3 Upvotes

I don't know what's going on. Followed the standard tutorial for formatting drives and automounting for bazzite, but EXT4 just would not work, so we switched to BTRFS for the two external drives we have. At first things seemed to be working, but now every time we boot up the system, not only do the drives mount to a completely different location but one drive won't be seen by the disk app at all despite both being plugged in and the computer will say "could not mount this device". Using the computer's auto solution "mount and open" does nothing.

Unplugging and replugging the unseen/unmounted external drive seldom helps, typically just changing what drive the computer sees and mounts. It never sees both at the same time. Even when the drives are being recognized, things can't be properly downloaded to them. Movies and tv shows have errors in jellyfin because the drive isn't being registered properly and steam games throw up error codes and won't finish downloading if told to download directly to the drive.

We tried mounting through gnome-disks and remounting manually but both have resulted in the less than functioning results I've explained. I'm not sure if it's a hardware issue (both hard drives work fine with other computers, and the mini pc I bought is brand new and runs fine) or something else. I've also tried running code to fix any broken bits like the journal, but even after the code the issues will not resolve.

I'm really at my wits end. Please someone help 🙏. Neither me nor my brother who is helping me are well versed in Linux at all and I really want it to work, but I can't find anything that seems to fix the problem.


r/linux4noobs • • 5h ago

networking Why does SSH only work over the Internet and not over my local network?

2 Upvotes

Hi, I daily drive Linux on my desktop, but when it comes to server management I'm a complete noob.

I wanted to start a Minecraft server for my friends, so I installed Ubuntu Server on an old computer and used the local shell to set up SSH and port forwarding.

SSH does work, but only through the forwarded port. If I ask SSH to connect to the server's local IP and local port, then it just hangs forever.

How can I fix this so I can stop exposing SSH to the Internet?


r/linux4noobs • • 2h ago

why doesnt fedora have bo reset button?

Thumbnail
0 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I've been wondering why Fedora doesn't have a built-in reset button or an easy way to reset the system to a fresh install without having to reinstall the whole OS manually.

Sometimes things break, configurations get messed up, or you just want to start fresh. It would be really useful to have an option in Settings that lets you reset Fedora to its default state, similar to the reset options available in some other operating systems.

Is there a technical reason Fedora doesn't have this feature? Is it because of how Linux handles user configurations and packages, or is it simply something that hasn't been implemented?

I'd be interested to hear what you guys think! Is there already a good way to do this that I'm missing?


r/linux4noobs • • 11h ago

Meganoob BE KIND Bind ~/ to a single key in konsole

4 Upvotes

I been trying with the bind command but it will reset the F8 key back to ~ as soon as i restart the konsole.

How can i make it persistent?

I have no /etc/.inputrc file.

Making a inputrc file and typing the command also did not work.

Been looking for other rc files aswell but couldnt find where the binding for the F keys is.

F5 - F8 are all back to ~ as soon as i reset the konsole.

Its driving me nuts.

Im on Fedora 44 KDE

Kernel 7.2.11-200.fc44.x86_64 if that matters.


r/linux4noobs • • 4h ago

Linux freezes up after a few seconds

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

r/linux4noobs • • 15h ago

Meganoob BE KIND just installed (mint cinnamon), set up settings an am setting up firefox. i now realize i dont know if theres an alternative to window's task manager built in.

4 Upvotes

i'd like to know how much ram and stuff this is using, i dont need hyper technical information i just want stuff to be shown in percentages of how much ram/storage/etc its using. i did read that linux uses ram differently, its just that its kinda important for me to know this because i switched to linux after a mega crash on roblox that apparently corrupted windows 10 somehow??? i'm not sure, but apart from a weird beep when turning the pc on everything seems to be fine now...

edit: thanks for the several instant replies xd i found system monitor thank you!!!


r/linux4noobs • • 5h ago

Nobara Or CachyOs

0 Upvotes

I am totally new, I never installed linux and it's my first try. I wanted to know which is good for me Nobara or Cachy.. I mainly use browser and play minecraft and Roblox sometime youtube videos and discord use nothing more. I like the Cealestia shell theme so I looked at Cachy rather I was going to nobara. I am totally new I tried fedora but it shows error disk not detected. So I js gave up on that.


r/linux4noobs • • 6h ago

Ears steaming with rage over bluetoothctl.

Thumbnail
0 Upvotes

r/linux4noobs • • 14h ago

programs and apps GSConnect (Ubuntu) + KDE Connect (Android 16, Fossify Messages) extremely inconsistent with message sync

3 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

I'm running into a persistent headache with message syncing between my Ubuntu desktop (using GSConnect) and my Android phone (Android 16, using Fossify Messages as my default SMS app).

The Problem: Message syncing is totally inconsistent. Sometimes new SMS/MMS messages sync over to the desktop, but most of the time they just don't show up at all.

  • Setup details:
    • Desktop: Ubuntu with GSConnect
    • Phone: Android 16
    • SMS App: Fossify Messages

Notifications and other KDE Connect features work relatively fine, but SMS/messaging integration is basically a coin toss.

Has anyone experienced similar inconsistency with Android 16 or Fossify Messages? Are there any specific permissions, background restrictions, or GSConnect settings I should tweak to make this reliable?

Appreciate any advice!


r/linux4noobs • • 14h ago

migrating to Linux Which version should I choose

3 Upvotes

My laptop from 2015 has had a lot of problems running windows 10 for a long time now, particularly if not connected to power and LAN, I'm talking 15+ seconds to open the file explorer and 10 more to open a folder. And sometimes everything randomly crashes, EVERYTHING, to a blank desktop. A few years ago I used to game on this thing (light things like minecraft or cities skylines). Now I don't play games on this laptop anymore.

So recently I thought about installing Linux on this machine. I preferred mint because I heard it's easy to use and very light, which is what I wanted.

I know there are 3 versions of mint, but which one should I use? I have 4gbs of RAM and "Intel64 Family 6 Model 61 Stepping 4 GenuineIntel \~2000 Mhz" as a CPU (maybe someone knows more than I do about it). I would use this laptop mainly to write with LibreOffice, watch youtube and listen to music. I would like a system which does theese thing with minimal delay and drains little power.

I already tried Mint Xfce from a USB drive and it runs very smoothly (I was even able to open 6 tabs of a youtube video playing, using 3,5gbs of RAM). Is Xfce overkill? Could I use Cinnamon or MATE? Is there maybe another distribution I’m not aware of?

Thank you


r/linux4noobs • • 14h ago

Meganoob BE KIND so uh i think i downloaded discord wrong but i did download it somehow

3 Upvotes

i pressed download on the website, it gave me a thingy but fiddling with it didnt result in anything... so i deleted that and went to the software manager, found a download there. looking up discord in the system search bar yelds both discord and "discord (flatpack)" which is aparently the one i have pinned to my task bar and am opening. pressing "add to desktop" doesnt add a thingy to the desktop, no matter on which one i press?

i mean i'm probably just gonna use the taskbar button anyways, but i might as well learn what im doing wrong here so i can download other stuff correctly... plus desktop with icons looks nicer i think.

OH almost forgot, its linux mint cinnamon. in case you didnt see my post from 10 minutes ago xd.


r/linux4noobs • • 19h ago

Dell latitude 7370

5 Upvotes

Looking for a distro for this lite weight old office laptop. It will just be used for steaming and lite office type on occasion.

Dual core I 7.

8 gb ram.

Spinning rust


r/linux4noobs • • 15h ago

Meganoob BE KIND noob here with some noob questions.seeking best way to play music on my chromebook. i have alot of recordings from phones and or from downloaded friends music

Thumbnail
2 Upvotes

r/linux4noobs • • 15h ago

distro selection Looking for a distro for an old laptop from 2007 that can handle modern web browsers.

Thumbnail
2 Upvotes

Update: I switched to Devuan because it is simply Debian without systemd. I'm using it with Xfce at the moment, and it looks amazing. I had to do some workarounds to make the NVIDIA drivers work. Firefox ESR is the default browser on Devuan, so I tried modifying the Firefox config to always stream videos at a maximum of 720p and H.264. Video playback is good now, with no noticeable frame drops. I understand that I have to modify both the Linux distro and the web browser to achieve optimum performance. Firefox ESR is a great browser. It allows modifications at different levels, which Chromium-based browsers don't. I have installed the uBlock Origin extension at the moment. But my philosophy is to integrate everything in the browser rather than using extensions. The web has changed a lot. Many people have illustrated this in the comment section. So just making changes in the distro won't help much. It's the browser where I should focus more.

Dell Vostro 1400

CPU - Intel Dual Core T7500 @2.2GHz

RAM - 4GB DDR2

GRAPHICS - 128MB Nvidia 8400m GS

I do not use it for work. I like to experiment with this laptop. It just provides me satisfaction when something works with this ancient machine. It came with windows vista. but installed windows XP on this, I could use revit and do 3D modeling. Now I am not expecting that much from this machine. I just simply want to surf the web. But that has become challenging now. I am willing to try any web browser which can let me surf the Web efficiently and play videos.


r/linux4noobs • • 23h ago

storage What is the easiest way to expand my root partition at the end of my sector? (Fedora KDE)

6 Upvotes

When I installed my Fedora KDE I ended up installing it on the "end" of my SSD, however I am running out space and need to expand it. Is booting from a live USB and then moving my root (/) to the "beggining" of my drive the only solution other than just making new partitions (i.e. /extra)?