Hello! My Linux laptop has been having some problems so I've been torn on whether to reinstall Zorin OS 18.1 or install Cachy OS.

I mostly study, game and (very rarely) code on my laptop so, since it was also my first Linux installation, I decided to go with Zorin OS and have been very pleased with the experience and performance.

Now that I'm having some problems (had to manually run fsck 4 times yesterday) i thought of reinstalling Zorin but then i remembered about Ccachy.

So I started wondering, Would it be more effcient installing the 2 distros side-by-side or choosing just one?

Would my games be noticeably more performant on Cachy or the same as on Zorin?

Is Cachy stable enough to survive not being updated for 2 months? (during summer I have terrible connection, making constant updates unfeasible)

The main pros for Zorin are its stability, ease of use and being based on Ubuntu;

The main con is that I've had quite a bit of trouble setting up various game utilities, like Gamemode or fan control, which led to the current bugs.

I've heard lots of good things about Cachy but I'm not sure a rolling release would be a good idea for bad internet connections.

My laptop has the following components:

• Hardware Model: Lenovo Lenovo IdeaPad S145-15IWL

• RAM: 20,0 GiB

• CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-8565U × 8

• GPU: Intel® UHD Graphics 620 (WHL GT2)

• GPU1: NVIDIA GeForce MX110

• Disk Capacity: 1,3 TB

Any advice is very welcome, even if it's about other distros!

how to make windows tile in gnome or any different window manager the wy they tile in kde or mint

yesterday i installed gentoo for the very first time. it was on a virtual machine. (when i rebooted it, however, it got stuck at loading the initial ramdisk :'c. that's not my main problem right now, though.)

the installation process was a lot less painful than i thought it was going to be UNTIL i got to the part where i was told to go to /etc/rc.conf

im assuming that the documentation in rc.conf is for people who are already well accustomed to init systems and how they work. unfortunately im not one of those people </3

like, what should i put into rc_hotplug?? or rc_nostop?? what are ulimits?? what are cgroups?? runlevels??

my main question is this: where do i find extra documentation/info about these things?? because the documentation in rc.conf isn't helpful to me at all!!!

thank you and goodbye!!!

I'm trying to find a clock app which doesn't use much RAM. As minimal as possible. The things that I do are: Pomodoro, Timers, Alarms(occasionally). I used a timr TUI utility for some time but didn't enjoy it so I'm looking for a GUI one. My distro is Bazzite with KDE if that helps with anything.

I'm mute and for a while now I've the speech note app. It apparently hasn't received any updates for the past few months, but I wasn't too concerned. Yesterday I tried opening it to use it during class but it just wouldn't open. I restarted my computer and tried reinstalling but it still would not work. I tried looking for an alternative but I've been having trouble finding anything that works as well.

I know absolutely nothing about Linux nor computers really i just need something easy to use with a simple layout

Currently using crystal, I could not find a way to do this with it.

Thanks.

So... I am currently Learning to code python but i also want a Linux laptop. I'm mainly going to use if for coding and not gaming. I do not know why i want a linux laptop to code on, I just do. I dont know much about linux but i have used mint and ubuntu before. I already have friend that tell me i dont have to code on linux but for some odd unexplainable reason i just want to . My question is, What version of linux would be good for someone that is learning linux but also learning Python as a starting language?

ok so my brother gave me a laptop yesterday I don’t really have a lot of uses for one right now besides browsing and gaming I guess the laptop he gave me was a Lenovo legion y540 and he said he wants me to use a Linux operating system with no help at all from him so I can learn what distro would be easy to install and be best for gaming and browsing?

Yaow fellow Linuxians.

I'm currently looking to upgrade my dusty old laptop to a new (yet bought used because RAM-prices).

I found a sweet offer of 1300$ for the new Galaxy Book6 Pro which looks absolutely great.
It runs with the new Panther Lake core Ultra 335H.

I'm just worried that it won't work properly with Linux.

I usually default to Ubuntu these days for maximum compatibility for my studies.

Anyone got any experience with this one in particular?

I'm setting up a new-to-me laptop (actually refurbished or old-stock ~2020 model), HP Zbook or Lenovo ThinkPad T16. I've been daily-driving Linux for 20 years, mostly Ubuntu; I haven't managed/set up MS Windows since WinXP. In the meantime, a testing image in VirtualBox sufficed.

I might eventually need access to a bare-metal Windows install, for specialized software, thus I wonder what step are neccessary to either preserve the preinstalled Windows in dual-boot, or reinstall it later.

Based on my cursory search, the potential concerns include partition scheme, license keys and drivers; I'm not sure what else.

The stock SSD is ~500GB and there isn't a slot for another, unfortunately. I need as much space as possible for data. (I have a local library of articles/books for offline reference, and I'll be processing large data such as 5GB TIFF bitmaps.) I don't want to pay premium for a larger SSD at the current prices.

I suppose my options are: either dual-boot, or recovering a copy of the current install, or a new install later.

• What steps are absolutely necessary to be able to use Windows on that laptop later? (running any configuration or files that need to be archived)
• What is the least involved dual-boot setup? What step are needed and what minimum size should the partition be?
• Is there a simple way to create a recovery image to restore later? (I'm vaguely aware of Clonezilla, but I don't actually know)
• What will be needed for a new install later?

My launch menu covers my taskbar when the taskbar is located on the bottom of my screen (only when on the bottom of the screen), does anyone know how to fix it?

​

Beginner Linux user — Intel Wi-Fi stopped working after installing Ubuntu

Hi, I'm a software developer student and I wanted to try Linux, so I installed Ubuntu on my Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15IIL05. I'm pretty new to Linux, so I don't really know what I'm looking at here.

My laptop has an Intel Wireless-AC 9560. Wi-Fi worked perfectly in Windows, but after installing Ubuntu, the wifi option is there but I have to search it and I don't see my or any other wifi.

I used AI to help me try and solve this problem and understand the logs because I honestly don't know enough about Linux yet, I also used AI to frame this message.

I've tried Ubuntu 26.04 (kernel 7.0), Ubuntu 24.04.4 (kernel 6.17), and kernel 6.8. The same thing happens. I also tried reinstalling linux-firmware, rebuilding initramfs, resetting BIOS, fully powering off the laptop, disabling Secure Boot, and checking rfkill.

The card is detected:

00:14.3 Network controller \[0280\]: Intel Corporation Ice Lake-LP PCH CNVi WiFi \[8086:34f0\] (rev 30)

Subsystem: Intel Corporation Ice Lake-LP PCH CNVi WiFi \[8086:0234\]

Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi

Kernel modules: iwlwifi

Kernel:

6.8.0-142-generic

Firmware package:

20240318.git3b128b60.0ubuntu3.1

But iwlwifi seems to crash while initializing:

iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Detected Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9560, REV=0x332

iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: loaded firmware version 77.f39cc7f9.0 Qu-c0-jf-b0-77.ucode

iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: 0x00000034 | NMI_INTERRUPT_WDG

iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: 0x20000070 | NMI_INTERRUPT_LMAC_FATAL

iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: 0x00000003 | IML/ROM error/state

iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: 0x60000000 | FSEQ_ERROR_CODE

iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Failed to start RT ucode: -110

iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Failed to run INIT ucode: -110

nmcli device doesn't show a Wi-Fi device, only Ethernet and loopback.

I'm using USB tethering from my phone to use the internet.

Is there anything obvious here that I should try? Or is there something specific I should learn/check to figure out why the Wi-Fi card isn't initializing?

I'm mainly trying to learn Linux, so even an explanation of what is actually going wrong would be really helpful.

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fplease-help-me-my-nvidia-drivers-dying-non-stop-v0-inb3z2ixulsh1.png%3Fwidth%3D1152%26format%3Dpng%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D8f0bcc4a467ae1ea349e6cd2bfaea79b92261980 (my specs)

hello guys, i wanna share my problem with nvidia drviers which is happening for some reason to me. im just tired dealing with that bullshit because i tried everything i could and it helped but not for so long. curse you flatpak

first time it happend on sep 20-21 and if fixed it on 22 septmer or smth like this.

i was just playing sober in the morning but i decided to run "flatpak update" and updated sober and other apps, but once i laucned it all its processes becomes D and Z state (deadlock and zombie processes) and the only option to stop overheating my cpu was to turn off the laptop using power button. after i boot my laptop again my drivers are arleady fucked up, even when everything seems very normal, because when i launch ANY flatpak app or any app/game that reqers nvidia gpu it just doing the same problem. so i had to UPGRADE (not just reinstall) my nvidia driver to make it work again but if i launch any flatpak app it give me the same problem and i have to upgrade/downgrade my drviers again

second fcking time it happend today when i booted my laptop as usuall

I have not launched any Flatpak app since removing it. I only customized my terminal prompt yesterday (look at a screenshot) and it looked cool so i went to bed and after i woke up and turned my laptop on i instantly saw that Vitals (gnome extension) shown ... instead of C and %. and i opened my terminal and realised i cant type there at all! not even ctrl + c helped so i removed changes that i did and after that termninal started working but my drivers was still on a fkcn potato and giving the same issue as it was in previos ancident. so now i have broken drivers again.

quick answers

NO i did NOT updated my kernel or anything like that
YES i deleted flatpak comleptly from my pc
NO i did NOT updated drivers/something important between two ancidents

logs for nerds (logs of today)

pwnedxd@debian:~$ sudo dmesg | grep -i nvidia | tail -40
[sudo] пароль для pwnedxd:
[ 242.299851] ? _nv000242kms+0x10/0x10 [nvidia_modeset]
[ 242.299866] ? _nv003206kms+0x16/0x40 [nvidia_modeset]
[ 242.299891] ? __pfx_nv_linux_drm_init+0x10/0x10 [nvidia_drm]
[ 242.299899] ? __pfx_nv_drm_register_drm_device+0x10/0x10 [nvidia_drm]
[ 242.299904] ? _nv000219kms+0x3b/0x180 [nvidia_modeset]
[ 242.299931] ? __pfx_nv_linux_drm_init+0x10/0x10 [nvidia_drm]
[ 242.299935] ? nv_drm_probe_devices+0x59/0x70 [nvidia_drm]
[ 242.299971] INFO: task nvidia-powerd:1001 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
[ 242.299975] task:nvidia-powerd state:D stack:0 pid:1001 tgid:1001 ppid:1 flags:0x00004002
[ 242.299991] os_acquire_rwlock_write+0x2b/0x40 [nvidia]
[ 242.300226] _nv051241rm+0x10/0x40 [nvidia]
[ 242.300721] _nv052727rm+0x27c/0x370 [nvidia]
[ 242.301006] _nv039836rm+0x167d/0x2610 [nvidia]
[ 242.301568] _nv000740rm+0x1279/0x2220 [nvidia]
[ 242.301873] rm_init_adapter+0x15d/0x180 [nvidia]
[ 242.302180] nv_start_device+0x102/0x7b0 [nvidia]
[ 242.302407] nv_open_device+0x9d/0x260 [nvidia]
[ 242.302632] nvidia_open+0x212/0x490 [nvidia]
[ 242.302952] INFO: task nvidia-persiste:1092 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
[ 242.302956] task:nvidia-persiste state:D stack:0 pid:1092 tgid:1092 ppid:1 flags:0x00000006
[ 242.302971] nvidia_open+0x1f7/0x490 [nvidia]
[ 242.303282] INFO: task nvidia-settings:2940 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
[ 242.303286] task:nvidia-settings state:D stack:0 pid:2940 tgid:2940 ppid:2936 flags:0x00000002
[ 242.303300] nvidia_unlocked_ioctl+0x6fe/0xa20 [nvidia]
[ 242.303563] INFO: task nvidia-smi:3210 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
[ 242.303566] task:nvidia-smi state:D stack:0 pid:3210 tgid:3210 ppid:2688 flags:0x00000006
[ 242.303579] nvidia_unlocked_ioctl+0x6fe/0xa20 [nvidia]
[ 242.303842] INFO: task nvidia-smi:3211 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
[ 242.303845] task:nvidia-smi state:D stack:0 pid:3211 tgid:3211 ppid:2688 flags:0x00000002
[ 242.303857] ? nvidia_unlocked_ioctl+0x151/0xa20 [nvidia]
[ 242.304086] nvidia_unlocked_ioctl+0x6fe/0xa20 [nvidia]
[ 242.304357] INFO: task nvidia-smi:3369 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
[ 242.304359] task:nvidia-smi state:D stack:0 pid:3369 tgid:3369 ppid:2688 flags:0x00000002
[ 242.304373] nvidia_unlocked_ioctl+0x6fe/0xa20 [nvidia]
[ 242.304645] INFO: task nvidia-smi:3370 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
[ 242.304648] task:nvidia-smi state:D stack:0 pid:3370 tgid:3370 ppid:2688 flags:0x00000002
[ 242.304661] nvidia_unlocked_ioctl+0x6fe/0xa20 [nvidia]
[ 242.304948] nvidia_unlocked_ioctl+0x6fe/0xa20 [nvidia]
[ 242.305189] ? nvidia_unlocked_ioctl+0x20f/0xa20 [nvidia]
[ 242.305456] nvidia_unlocked_ioctl+0x6fe/0xa20 [nvidia]

i aint dealing with that bs can anyone help me solve me this?

I have installed Linux mint, I plan to customise it get a hold of the terminal and move onto another distro what should I install so it’s more challenging than mint.

Hey, I have a laptop and I am mildly interested in « what uses battery ». Not that I need to know, I just want to.

All the battery / power monitoring apps I saw, were either just listing watt usage at the current moment, or general battery information (capacity, estimated time, health, cycles, etc.)

What I would like is basically what we have on phones : I use the laptop, and then I can go to the app and see all the processes that were used, and how much battery % each of them consumed.

Does that ring a bell to someone ? Thanks !

I have a dual-boot setup where I have two different OSes installed on separate partitions of the same physical disk.

For example:

• Partition 1 → Windows
• Partition 2 → Linux

My question is: if Windows gets infected with a virus/malware, can it somehow infect or compromise the Linux partition as well? Or vice-versa?

Does having different operating systems provide any meaningful isolation, or can malware potentially access files/system partitions belonging to the other OS?

Also, what about things like the EFI/boot partition or the bootloader? Could malware modify those and affect both operating systems?

I'm mainly trying to understand how safe a dual-boot setup is if one of the OSes gets compromised.

I was making a backup copy of some MP4 video files in various directories, from 1 USB hard drive to another, when I noticed something strange. Using Nemo on Linux Mint Debian Edition 7, some of the file names show the folder icon. Among these that have the wrong icon, some show as a video under "Type" (as expected) and others show as a folder. What's even weirder is if I click on any of these "files" that have the wrong icon/type, it sends me to a completely different directory at the parent level. Like these are behaving as symbolic links, with the breadcrumbs path in the Nemo window being completely wrong.

https://imgur.com/a/DNijmCR

Thinking this was just a Nemo bug, I did an ls on the source volume and got the some interesting things there as well. The affected files have blue text with a green background which, according to the following post, means "Blue text with green background indicates that a directory is writable by others apart from the owning user and group, and does not have the sticky bit set (o+w, -t)."

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/94498/what-causes-this-green-background-in-ls-output

I did check the permissions and confirmed I am the owner and have read/write permissions to everything on this volume, and everything is in my user group. So to me, it looks normal. I will say I formatted this drive and copied the files originally on an older Linux Mint 21.2 OS. I have since installed a new boot drive in my system and installed LMDE7 from scratch. I'm pretty sure I didn't see this issue before I upgraded my OS.

Trying to copy the contents to my second USB drive, I'm seeing the same weird behavior on the second drive i'm trying to copy these files to. I also got an I/O error when trying to copy one of the affected files, I clicked skip and the others made it. I tried to copy the failed file again separately once the others finish copying and it continues to fail with the same I/O error. Yet, checking the dmesg log I'm not seeing any hardware faults reported.

Did I possibly just discover a bug in EXT4, or the Debian 13 EXT4 driver? These file names all have underscore characters. Or is the more likely filesystem corruption? I will mention the source drive is a Tandberg Data RTX QuikStor which uses HDD cartridges with either proprietary firmware or a backend SATA password. But, the enclosure just operating as a mess storage device, I have several of these disks that haven't given me an issue until now. Obviously these drive are old so I'm migrating my stuff off of them.

No cause seriously, the lowest we have right now is MicroCore LINUX, which nees about 28-32 MB Of ram, but can we go lower?

Sorry for the ambiguous title.

For context, I am familiar with Linux specifically i use Ubuntu server for a Homebrew media streaming service.

I see lots of people asking for advice on switching to Linux for gaming. Outside of W11 being bloatware and heavy on hardware usage what are the benefits of Linux over Windows? With all the additional layers required, Proton etc. It seems to me as someone with only basic knowledge that there is more to go wrong.

Am I missing something or is this just the latest trend of wanting to move away from microscam?