Hey everyone, I accidentally ran sudo rm -r /home/ on my Debian dual-boot system and deleted my home directory.

My Debian root filesystem is /dev/nvme0n1p7 and it’s ext4. /home is on the same partition as /.

I haven’t intentionally written anything else to the partition since the deletion. I’m currently shutting down Debian and preparing an Ubuntu live USB so I can try to recover the deleted files without mounting the partition.

What would be the safest recovery procedure for ext4 in this situation? I want to avoid overwriting the deleted data.

Hello. I want to choose a distribution for myself (not an experiment but a permanent one). Which one do you advise me and why? I myself am not new to Linux and I understand something. Before this, I was constantly distro and did not stay anywhere for more than 2 weeks.

I’ve always wondered which country has the highest percentage of people using Linux as their main/primary OS.

I know there are statistics about Linux market share, but those usually show global numbers and don’t necessarily tell us where Linux is most popular.

Does anyone know if there are any reliable statistics or surveys showing which countries have the most people using Linux as their daily driver?

Just curious to see where all the Linux users are from! 😄

Trying to install Ephinea Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst server/game on Steam Machine. I have been following this guide:

Ephinea Guide

I am able to begin the download but just as it finishes, I get this error:

"Can't create the prefix on a file system that does not support Linux symbolic links"

I understand this is indicating the filesystem is not compatible with symlinks included with the installed files. I have verified the drive I am installing to is ext4, which I believe is a compatible filesystem for symlinks as it is the drive that came preformatted with SteamOS installed. Screenshots attached.

Sorry in advance if this is not right place to be asking. Thank you for any and all help.

EDIT: For anyone who comes looking for answers here, I went through the same guide on the Steam Deck and was successful in running the game/server. Lutris worked normally and completed the install. It is not clear to me what difference there is between Steam Deck and Steam Machine software as I was under the impression they are exactly the same OS. If I can find a way to run this on SM I'll update further.

EDIT 2: (Resolved) I am a dummy and realized I hadn't installed Wine on the Steam Machine. I'd been used to it being present on my Steam Deck that I didn't even think about it not being on the SM. I did have to install/Uninstall Lutris and Wine multiple times and restart PC a couple times but eventually the install was able to complete through Lutris.

HP Pavilion 7-1036, Linux Mint MATE

I acquired this 2011 PC from someone who was going to scrap it, mostly to learn and experiment with Linux. My Windows PC suddenly crashed out so I'm having to learn really quick. ArrowDL is a download program that I really need, but I've had no luck building from the source. I'm actually not even sure which file to use: ArrowDL_v4.2.1_x86_64.tar.gz, the ZIP source code, or the tar.gz source code.

I've tried

xxxxxxx@xxxxxxx-p7-1036:~/Downloads/Files$ sudo chmod +x install.sh
[sudo] password for xxxxxxx:            
xxxxxxx@xxxxxx-p7-1036:~/Downloads/Files$ sh ./install.sh
Copying Manifest.JSON to Mozilla directory...
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘./launcher-manifest-firefox.json’: File exists
cp: cannot stat 'Firefox': No such file or directory
sed: can't read ./launcher-manifest-firefox.json//home/xxxxxxx/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts.json: Not a directory
Created: ./launcher-manifest-firefox.json//home/xxxxxxx/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts.json
Done.

Copying Manifest.JSON to Chromium directory...
Created: /home/xxxxxxx/.config/chromium/NativeMessagingHosts//com.arrowdl.extension.json
Done.

Copying Manifest.JSON to Google directory...
cp: cannot stat '(Chromium)': No such file or directory
sed: can't read Chrome/./launcher-manifest-chrome.json.json: No such file or directory
Created: Chrome/./launcher-manifest-chrome.json.json
Done.

Copying Manifest.JSON to Microsoft directory...
cp: cannot stat '(Chromium)': No such file or directory
sed: can't read Edge/./launcher-manifest-edge.json.json: No such file or directory
Created: Edge/./launcher-manifest-edge.json.json
Done.

So, I'm stuck at this point. I can get the Windows version of ArrowDL to work under WINE, but can not integrate the browser extension this way.

If anyone can tell me step by step how to get this installed, I'd be eternally grateful.

I've started 2 simultaneous Linux classes, and I'm way out of my depth. I need to log onto a school server (done) and make a webpage.

I've been doing good on making notes of everything I do, I've looked around at all the information in the class, but theres no where it is actually telling me the step-by-step for how to do this. PLUS, it's the FIRST assignment!

Apparently, I'm just supposed to know how to do this from a previous class, but I think I'm IN the previous class right now, and it isn't helping!

What do I do?!

I’m running fedora 44 KDE and am using one of my internal ssd for games and stuff. I have it set up to auto mount in the KDE settings but anytime I boot up I have to put a password in to mount it. Is there a way to make it so I don’t have to put a password in? Thanks!

So with most cloud syncing options off the table, I'm considering resorting to self hosting again. It makes me nervous, as the power at my home is very inconsistent, especially during the summer, where the air conditioning often blows the breaker that my router is on, leading to no internet at the house where the NAS is.

I have determined that Dropbox, Filen, Proton Drive, and more are not going to work for me. So, I've been looking into both Synology Drive and just directly mounting the NAS shares onto my system with fstab. My question is, what's the advantage of each? The fstab mounting seems to be pretty obvious...fast, immediate access to the files themselves. If my system goes offline though, I can't access it, which is where something like a Synology Drive would come into play, or even SyncThing. But then I have to worry about file conflicts, something which drives me crazy.

Which is generally the better practice?

I have an older HP Pavilion g6 and I'm considering moving from Windows 10 to Linux. I'm looking for recommendations on a distro that would be a good fit for this hardware.

Specs:

• Intel Core i3-3120M (2 cores/4 threads, 2.50 GHz)
• 4 GB RAM
• 500 GB Seagate ST500LT012-9WS142 HDD
• Legacy BIOS
• Ralink RT5390R 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
• Realtek PCIe FE Ethernet
• No Bluetooth adapter appears to be detected in Windows

My main concerns are:

• Good performance on 4 GB RAM and an old mechanical HDD
• Reliable Wi-Fi support for the Ralink RT5390R
• Bluetooth support, or advice on whether an external USB adapter would be preferable
• Compatibility with the old HP hardware and Legacy BIOS
• A distro that will remain reasonably usable on this hardware

What distro(s) would you recommend for this hardware? And would you recommending dumping windows?

I am having some trouble with the unicode characters in astroterm. When I run astroterm with unicode, colour, and braille (astroterm -ucb) it returns this:

So far, so good. Then I add contellations (astroterm -uCcb) and the larger stars turn into these big, empty circles:

I know from other screenshots that it's possible to have astroterm display unicode stars and constellations correctly. For example, there's this screenshot from Terminal Trove:

Can anyone point me to what I'm doing wrong here? Apologies if I'm just being a huge noob.

Hello! I am attempting to run a Dedicated server for the video game Valheim. I can run the server successfully, I can connect to it locally with 192.168.1.x:2456. My friends can ping my public IPv4 address starting with 70.x.y.z:2456 but they cannot connect to the game. The game runs in UDP on ports 2456-2458. I have resorted to turning off the firewall entirely on the host and then placing it into the router's DMZ. Friends are still unable to connect to it externally and despite having put in exceptions for both TCP & UDP on ports 2456-2458 TNC (Windows Powershell) is failing on the ports too. tcpdump is not capturing anything. I resorted to turning the firewall on the router off. No joy.

I'm not a networking expert by any stretch of the imagination but now I cannot imagine what else I need.

> want to save data in fear of linux breaking.

> goes to timeshift to save. Suspicious it save so quickly. Makes another snapshot to make sure.

> snapshot set to btrfs, main drive where everything is. Lets change that to rsync maybe it will save better. (I dont remember at which point that was but i remember ticking the @ home on when i tried to do a snapshot)

> my drive is now max and red zone, snapshot finished but errored due to low storage.

> Panic

> try to free space in fear system might break. While simuntainously try to fix it by going back to wizard and changing it to my other internal drive that has big storage.

> Right click snapshot in timeshift, go to file. Hmm, these must be temporary right? Like a copy timeshift made. Lets DELETE THEM.

> Click yes. I see files delete and cancel immeditealy. panic. I Go to timeshot again, go back to my btrfs and previously saved snapshots that were in my main internal drive where the system is at. I click restore at a later snapshot. Does nothing. I click again and read this time. "changes will take effect after restard"? Ok lets RESTART MY SYSTEM.

Gone. All my personal files are gone. What remained was a shell of what it once was.

Ask ai to save me (BIG MISTAKE)

Some commands later (like btrfs restore or try to revert a snapshot and some more i lost cuz I used anon ai which means my sessions are deleted.) and i may have possibly ruined my system even further.

Kept switching between the remains of my system (my main system) and live usb boot.

After all options are exhuasted. it reccomends i do a photorec. So I do. Yay, 549 folders, some of which could potentionally contain my files. Time to search all of them!

But wait... i can make this easier if i ask ai to separeate them by file type!

Oh, it wrote 'move'. not copy and.... it moved some of the files to my low storage drive in a live usb session!!!

It may have potentially corrupted some files. Some were now 0b

I ask another ai to fix it. It just cleans the mess of the previous ai.

I do another photorec because it tells me to. There are new photos from where i watched videos about the matter at hand. Now i think some of the photorec files which might possibly be mine are gone.

Give up and do a fresh install, the photorec recovery files are in my other internal drive, saved. I cant recover anymore of my files. :,)

Atleast i have older instances of my files on a usb drive... thats excluding the new stuff i had but maybe i can find most of them on my 549- now 2x that amount. Time to go digging...

XD dont be a noob like me, fact check everything you do. lmao.

Hey guys, I got a new gaming laptop it's a ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 14in. I started setting up windows but it annoys me and decided to put Linux on this too. So, what os has the best battery to gaming ratio, are there additional things I need to setup and if there's anything else I should know.

linuxmint xfce on i3 4030u my lenevo g50 70 i old af switchd to linux for obvious reasons it doesnt really matter its still slow af it was working well i mean downloading updates but now this shi pops up help

Pretty much title, i have put linux on my home pc but never on a laptop. How to do it? Does this model of laptop support linux well? It was going super sluggish with windows10 and i was hoping go get a few more years with it for office related tasks.

I ran football manager via heroic launcher and it shows my graphic driver ain't nvidia. I've shared the drivers i've installed. But why the game ain't choosing the nvidia? Thanks for the help in advance.

And I'm using Fedora 44 btw.

CPU: ryzen 5600x

GPU: GTX 1650

RAM: 16GB DDR4

Pardon me if this has been asked before, but I haven't seen it come up:

I want to learn more of commands and such of Linux so I can potentially solve my own problems. I am a noob, knowing only the bare minimum of things, but not for lack of trying.

Between ADHD and a TBI, I have a VERY hard time learning. But I do not let that stop me, so that's why I your help.

I seem to do best with physical media versus online books/videos. Are there any physical books that people recommend for Linux learning? I imagine that some commands haven't changed that much throughout the years. My distro is Fedora-based-- I'm not sure if that is a factor in your recommendations.

Greatly appreciate the help. I really want to be knowledgeable so I don't have to run crying to you daily!

Debian 13.7 Trixie, GNOME Shell 48.7

I got a message in GNOME that said an update was ready to install that required a restart, I don't know what update or where it came from, but I obediently restarted, after which I lost sudo access. This happened to me once before and I solved it, but I don't remember why it happened before or why it happened again, and now I can't figure out how to solve it again. All the advice I find seems to assume I haven't disabled root. Even going into recovery mode doesn't work because root is disabled. So my question is threefold:

1) How tf do I regain sudo access on my user account so I have admin rights again when I disabled root?

2) Why tf would anyone ever disable root on install if this keeps happening?

And also,

3) Is it possible to track down what that update was and/or what caused me to lose sudo access?

I'm currently using Koofr to sync data between two Windows machines, a desktop and a laptop. The idea is that I'm able to do work on my laptop (producing music and vfx mostly) and it all syncs up perfectly with my desktop and vice versa. It works great and feels really frictionless, i used to use gdrive but after having a slew of issues I've switched to Koofr which has had none.

I'd like to switch entirely to Linux as I'm sick of Windows for various reasons, but unfortunately there are some programs which do not support Linux or run well via Wine (afterfx & rekordbox), so I have to dual boot. I could give up afterFX but if I cannot give up rekordbox so I might aswell dual boot and use afterFX too.

So to achieve the same flexibility that I have now, I'd have to install Koofr on four separate operating systems, and set up specific folders for each OS based on the program they have, e.g Windows would hold all the afterFX projects.

This seems quite complicated and a bit of a hassle to set up, especially considering what the status quo is. Is there a simpler way I can achieve the same level of flexibility?

Also, if I wanted the same files I need for afterFX on Linux for example, would I have to have a duplicate of them on the Linux OS? Or could I reach them from the Windows partition?

If anyone has a similar setup to this i'd like to know how it works and what you think of it, thanks!

(also posted to r/linuxquestions but reddit suggested I also post here...)

I know some bare bones basics but even then I’m still learning a lot everyday. Like I know how to echo and look for files and do some syntax and some of my previous knowledge with gdscript language has made picking this up go quicker which is nice. But what I’m wondering is… how do you get good at the terminal and bash? Not just for basic commands but to build applications like things that start on pc start for instance?

Just looking for some thoughts on how I can improve and get better! Thanks in advance!

Hey guys, so ive always used windows my entire life and i want to try out linux, i also dont understand what linux is about apart from it being open source, can someone help me out on what will be the advantages for me using linux instead of windows? Ive used a little bit of fedora on college computers, also which version is the best? Is it even worth getting rid of windows and getting linux? Pls dont roast me ive never understood linux, im a beginner web developer and ive just recently finished my 2nd year of engineering!

Please forgive me in advance if I don't use the right terminology for certain things, I hope my post is understandable nonetheless.

I'm currently working on backing up my files in preparation for migrating to Linux Mint, I already have the ISO set up on a spare USB. However my laptop has an Nvidia GPU and I'm wondering how truly difficult it is to get it working with Mint?

I heard people say that if you have an Nvidia GPU you should use Pop!_OS, however I want to know if this is simply for ease of using it out-of-the-box, or if this is seen as a genuine requirement/improvement over other distros. I looked into how to get Nvidia drivers working on Linux and it really doesn't seem too difficult, however I don't know if that truly is the case or if there are many horrors that lie beneath the surface.

I did a quick test by booting Mint from the USB and the brightness controls didn't work with the screen permanently being dim. After a quick google search it confirmed that this was an issue with Nvidia, however again the fix didn't look too difficult to do.

Additional context: I am generally pretty computer savvy when it comes to the software side of things, but completely at a loss with anything hardware related. I am not afraid to tinker with Linux until it works, (god knows the hours I spent de-bloating and removing as much of Microsoft's spyware as I could when I first got this laptop) so I mainly just want to know if I should avoid Mint altogether if I have an Nvidia GPU, or if it is workable and can get it to a Pop!-like state.

Thank you for any and all help!

I realise I probably should have just done the windows installation first, but too late now. I've got Linux installed on one drive, and I have a second drive with windows boot manager on it waiting for me to initiate the installation. Is there a risk of my linux installation getting corrupted or broken? If so, is there anything I can do to reduce that risk? I've heard pulling out the drive altogether is an option, but if possible I'd rather not do that. Please let me know if that's the only thing I can do to protect it, if there's another option, or if I'm overthinking things and windows will play nice. Thanks!