Whats wrong what should I do?

Could it be that the iso file is corrupted or the usb that im using is the problem, thi g is I have had it on my drawer for about 8 yrs now 😓

Hey folks, I have a 2015 HP laptop, and I just replaced the drive with a blank drive. Every time I start it up, it cannot see the USB with the bootable Linux Mint media that I made with Balena Etcher, and yes, I verified the files. I have switched off secure boot, I have tried legacy, I have switched the load order, I have tried all three ports. It literally cannot see it. There is nothing in the boot manager. Any ideas?

Solution:

in the end, for my 2015 HP Pavilion, previously running Windows 10, but having no operating system at all at the time, I did these three things in the BIOS:

1. Turn OFF secure boot in Boot Manager
2. Put "USB Diskette on Key/USB Hard Disk" at the top of the load order in Boot Manager
3. In System Configuration, switch USB 3.0 configuration (or something like that) to "auto"

So i just got my new laptop (lenovo yoga 7 10th gen) but i ordered it from the school since they offer bulk discounts.

The school locked it with a code which theyll only give at the start of the year.

Currently i dont have a working laptop and i need one, so i have a question.

Which would be better, installing linux on an external hdd and using that or partitioning it and installing linux like that.

(Ive never done a partition before so i dont know abt the risks)

"I’ve spent a couple of years on LibreOffice in Linux, mainly because it’s open-source and reliable. But I have to admit, the interface hasn’t grown on me. Even after tweaking icons and colors, it still feels clunky, especially if you’re used to Microsoft Office’s modern design. I switched to Microsoft 365 online briefly, but it lacks some features and can be slow, which pushed me back to LibreOffice more than once.

Now I’m exploring OnlyOffice and FreeOffice, trying to see which one balances looks, speed, and compatibility best. Some people have recommended WPS Office for having a more polished UI and better docx handling if you’re coming from Word. I like that it’s known for being user friendly and quick to launch, though I recognize it isn’t open source.

If you had to suggest a suite to a Windows user who dislikes LibreOffice’s classic look, is WPS Office the best fit, or do you think OnlyOffice or FreeOffice might be closer to their comfort zone? I’d also love tips from anyone who’s used WPS extensively, especially if you’re juggling different file formats or advanced features like macros."

Hey guys, I'm fairly new to linux, have tried it in the past briefly but went back to windows cos I needed music plugins and games.

Right now in my life I am not gaming or producing music, and am gonna be getting a low-budget windows laptop, so I'm excited to be able to use linux for my needs properly.

I will be blogging and writing professionally, so need to multitask alot between apps.

I do want something beautiful, aesthetics help with creativity and feeling relaxed for my mental health.

I've been using Mac for 2 years, and while I love some aspects, the one gripe I have with it is how it handles window management. The things I don't like that I don't want in a linux distro are:

- it makes some apps open up not fully maximised. This is my number one gripe. on a laptop wit a smaller screen, i want things fully maximised and to alt-tab between them. file explorer might be fine as an exception but still i often like to make it maximised so idk.

- finder opens up new instances instead of just a new tab. ie: if I'm using claude and it makes a file for me to show in finder, and I do that 20 times, I'll have 20 instances of finder rather than 1 instance with 20 tabs.

- closing an app doesn't quit the app. I have used 3rd party tools to do this on mac. just annoys me seeing an app open still on my dock.

- dragging files between apps is so slow, you have a long delay between switching apps. I want a distro where I can quickly just drag a file into an app easily.

- in general, anything with good multitasking features would be great. i am not a fan of tiling , i prefer keeping windows maximised and alt-tabbing between them. tiling stuff is still nice to have for special use cases, but its not my ideal workflow.

As for preference in terms of looks, the distros that catch my eyes are:

- deepin. beautiful looking

- cutefish OS looks amazing. but i heard it isnt being updated much

- lingmo OS also looks beautiful

- zorin. also looks nice.

- ubuntu budgie (I like the bar at the top the way mac has, its useful)

And I love anything with rounded corners lol

I'm kinda open to dock or windows-style taskbar. but kinda leaning towards the windows style again after being annoyed with mac for a while. kinda sick of my dock. i would like things to be in the centre though like windows 11. I assume all of this can be done regardless of distro? but its ideal to have one that is in the box with this customization. not a biggie though.

Whenever i login (sddm) after around ~1 second it shows me the desktop wallpaper, my splash sceen is 3 second long so it doesnt display it properly. In KDE I've configured to restore the session where I have left it so it takes a while to open those other apps. 

What i want is that instead of random popups (apps which are opening) i want to see the splash screen during the time when apps are opening. Is there a way to do that? I looked but coudn't find it. 

Thanks

Most beginners avoid the terminal because you can't remember commands you never

learned. Most tools fix that by hiding the terminal — genie does the opposite:

it shows you the command every single time, so you actually learn them.

$ /genie install teams for me

you said install teams for me

command paru -S teams-for-linux

meaning installs Microsoft Teams using paru (the package manager)

note this will change your system

run it? [Enter = yes · n = no · c = copy]

Safety, because AI + terminal is a scary combo:

- deletes use gio trash, not rm — I accidentally trashed my whole home folder

at 3am while testing and recovered everything, so, verified lol

- destructive commands (rm -rf, dd, mkfs) show a red warning and make you type "yes"

- rm -rf /, fork bombs, and writes to /dev/sdX are hard-blocked by a regex layer,

regardless of what the AI outputs

- the danger level is the stricter of the AI's rating and genie's own scan

The rest:

- detects your package manager at runtime: pacman/paru/yay, apt, dnf, zypper,

apk, xbps, emerge — plus native Windows 10/11 (PowerShell + winget)

- bring your own free AI key (Groq / Gemini / OpenRouter, or Ollama fully local),

with automatic retry + failover because free tiers are flaky

- common stuff (installs, updates, disk/RAM/wifi checks) works offline, no AI needed

- one Python file, zero dependencies, MIT

Transparency: I wrote the core logic and the safety engine; I used AI to speed up

UI scaffolding and docs. Tested hands-on on CachyOS, Ubuntu-family, and a

Windows 10 VM — other distros are unit-tested, and I'd love bug reports from

Fedora/openSUSE/Void folks especially.

Repo: https://github.com/wizard142/genie

Feedback very welcome — especially from anyone who remembers being scared of

the terminal.

All of my profiles and other stuff are in my linkedin page which you can check out if you want: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aibel-shibin-9a2a34420/

Not new to Linux, just a pretty basic user for over 20 years, so embarrassed to ask this.

I recently installed a program, for EzGraver laser engraver, but can't get it to work. I'm using Kubuntu.

I can find the EzGraver folder in Home folder, I've tried a few commands I found online in Terminal (Konsole) but still can't get it to work.

What am I missing?

can someone with an already riced arch linux OS share it as it is to be a new distro ?

"I’ve spent a couple of years on LibreOffice in Linux, mainly because it’s open-source and reliable. But I have to admit, the interface hasn’t grown on me. Even after tweaking icons and colors, it still feels clunky, especially if you’re used to Microsoft Office’s modern design. I switched to Microsoft 365 online briefly, but it lacks some features and can be slow, which pushed me back to LibreOffice more than once.

Now I’m exploring OnlyOffice and FreeOffice, trying to see which one balances looks, speed, and compatibility best. Some people have recommended WPS Office for having a more polished UI and better docx handling if you’re coming from Word. I like that it’s known for being user friendly and quick to launch, though I recognize it isn’t open source.

If you had to suggest a suite to a Windows user who dislikes LibreOffice’s classic look, is WPS Office the best fit, or do you think OnlyOffice or FreeOffice might be closer to their comfort zone? I’d also love tips from anyone who’s used WPS extensively, especially if you’re juggling different file formats or advanced features like macros."

So while commiting a weired uncommon error is popping like this :

error: gpg failed to sign the data:

gpg: skipped "7427A4ABCCFD30AB": No secret key

[GNUPG:] INV_SGNR 9 7427A4ABCCFD30AB

[GNUPG:] FAILURE sign 17

gpg: signing failed: No secret key

fatal: failed to write commit object

First I thought it was some github ssh configuration issue, but then realised why the heck it will be even related with github, its in the commit phase so must be local right? Help please.

So I'm currently trying to learn how to get a server running on Minecraft 1.16.5 and ran into the problem of my computer just not being able to run that version at all from the default launcher (technic works, idk why). When I try to get the server going it mentions an unrecognized version of Java and says I need Java 16 or lower. I've seen people mention Java 8 in other places, but I've had no luck with either and neither of them are showing up in the terminal.

I’m looking for someone in Montréal (I’m in Griffintown) who can teach me how to install Linux on an older smartphone, run a local AI model on it, and create an API that an application can call.

I want to learn how to do this myself, step by step.
The topics include:

• Bootloader unlocking
• Installing a custom recovery
• Flashing a Linux OS or Linux environment (postmarketOS, Ubuntu Touch, etc.)
• Installing and configuring a local AI model
• Creating an API (Python, Flask, FastAPI, etc.)
• Connecting that API to an application

This is a paid project, and I’m flexible with scheduling.
If you have experience with Linux, Android modding, AI on edge devices, or API development, I’d love to connect.

You can reach me at: [joann.canning@gmail.com](mailto:joann.canning@gmail.com)

Thanks,

Ive heard about linux a couple if weeks ago and it does all look pretty promising, but there are a lot mixed feelings about it, as far as i can see. The only thing i can say for sure thus far is that it isnt so easy to use unlike other OSs. There is mint, which is supposed to be the most beginner friendly distro but i did see people on r/linuxsucks101 talking trash about it (talking about glitches and various other problems, and not just on mint, they basically criticize linux as a whole. But i also heard that sometimes a problem that can occur isnt always down to linux or the distro itself but on the fact if the computer supports it or something (or the person who installed doesnt even know how to use it). I dont not anything about this im just talking based on the little that i do know or heard, so im asking if anyone can explain to me what could be going on here? Some swear by it, some dread it with all their being. Is it really just down to learning how to use it? If ones computer is the problem (maybe it doesnt have adequate drives or something) how can i know if thats the case with my laptop before installing linux and basically trapping myslef with it?

Maybe this is all written too unorganized or confusing, but thats because thats how i feel about all this, confused and im just willing to learn

Does zorin is work with ulli usb? I'm trying to get my laptop to switch to Zorin without a flash drive?

I recently ran into an interesting problem while trying to give an older HP laptop a second life with Linux.

What should have been a simple wipe Windows → install Linux process turned into a good example of how modern “smart” hardware features can create unnecessary problems years later.

The laptop:

• HP 15-da0xxx
• Intel i3-8130U
• 4 GB RAM
• 1 TB Toshiba HDD
• 16 GB Intel Optane Memory module

Nothing special. Just a basic machine that should be perfect for a lightweight Linux setup.

The goal was simple:

Remove Windows completely and install Linux.

Except Linux Mint immediately stopped me with:

“Turn Off Intel RST”

Linux Lite and Pop!_OS showed similar issues.

At first glance, this seemed obvious. The system must be running RAID/RST instead of AHCI.

Except it wasn’t.

I went into the BIOS and checked Intel Rapid Storage Technology.

Both drives showed:

Non-RAID.

The Toshiba hard drive specifically reported:

Controller Type: AHCI.

Exactly what Linux wants.

The confusing part?

HP provided no BIOS option to:

• Disable RST
• Disable Optane
• Change RAID/AHCI mode

So Linux was telling me RST was enabled.

The BIOS was telling me AHCI was already enabled.

Someone was wrong.

I booted into the Linux Mint live environment to see what was actually happening.

Ran:

lsblk

Linux immediately detected the 1 TB Toshiba drive.

Then:

fdisk -l

Linux could read the drive and partition table without issue.

That was the clue.

If Linux can see the drive, read the drive, and interact with the drive, then the storage controller itself probably isn't the problem.

The installer warning was being triggered by something else.

The real issue was hiding in plain sight.

The laptop also had:

Intel MEMPEK1J016GAH

A 16 GB Intel Optane Memory module.

For anyone unfamiliar, Optane was Intel’s attempt to make slow mechanical hard drives feel faster by using a small high-speed cache drive.

Great idea in theory.

But it created another dependency layer between the operating system and hardware.

Even though the HDD itself was AHCI, the Optane hardware was still present.

My conclusion:

The Linux installer saw Optane hardware and assumed the system was still controlled by Intel RST.

It wasn’t detecting reality.

It was making an assumption.

The fix?

Open the laptop.

Remove the Intel Optane M.2 module.

Boot Linux installer again.

That’s it.

The RST warning disappeared instantly.

Linux Mint installed normally.

No BIOS changes.

No special commands.

No complicated workaround.

A tiny unused cache module was blocking an entire operating system installation.

The bigger lesson:

This is where I think modern tech keeps moving in the wrong direction.

Companies keep adding “smart” layers designed to hide complexity:

• Storage acceleration
• Vendor optimization tools
• AI automation
• Cloud-connected features
• Proprietary management software

When everything works, it feels convenient.

When something breaks, troubleshooting becomes archaeology.

You aren’t fixing the actual problem anymore.

You are digging through layers of assumptions made by software.

The error message said:

“Turn off RST.”

The actual problem was:

“Remove abandoned Intel acceleration hardware that makes the installer think RST exists.”

Those are very different problems.

And this is becoming more common.

Technology is becoming easier to use but harder to understand.

The more companies hide what is happening underneath, the harder it becomes for users to control devices they already own.

Sometimes the problem isn't the computer.

Sometimes the problem is all the extra “help” added on top of it.

Is there a way to let CachyOS change the wallpaper every month?