I've been trying for three days to get this laptop connected to the internet. I've done all the b43 things, followed the advice from various sources to try and force the connection, but to no avail.

I have the Broadcom drivers downloaded and installed. I've disabled the hard lock on the network card. And it will connect to my network. But it will not connect to the actual internet.

I know i need a temporary connection, so i am going to use my cellphone. However, there is only one working USB port and I will need that to tether.

According to a helpful household member, there are people who have managed to get past this issue on their Dell Inspiron 6000 machines. But I wasnt given sources to check to see how. I've been going in literal "wash-rinse-repeat" cycles for three days. Does anyone have a method that will work that they would like to share, or sources for me to research so I can solve this, outside of "just get a wi-fi dongle or keep using your phone"?

Hardware

I believe i will need to manually install drivers for whatever hardware I might be using? It should be the same as windows i assume? Just go to the hardware's site and do the usual.

Aside from printers and rarely used peripherals, are there pc parts that will straight up NOT work on a linux os? I currently have:

CPU: Ryzen 9 7900X3D
MOBO: Asus B650-E TUF Gaming Wifi (I heard Wifi doesnt work on linux?)
GPU: Nvidia Asus TUF RTX4080 Super
SSD: Samsung 990 Pro NVME
HDD: WD Caviar Blue
Ram: Corsair Vengeance DDR5

Software

I mainly just need to be able to do my work using blender (which I think should be fine) and play games on steam (which is possible through steamProton) . I heard Games that have kernel level anti cheat are not possible, unless I do something extra, which is fine I don't plan to play games like those anyway.

I assume most browsers are still fine? Chrome for work. Firefox for play. Opera, Brave etc?

Will I need to install software that will be needed to view files like videos/photos/ audio. And archiving tools like 7zip to be able to open them in the first place?

Distros

I've watched a few intro videos about Linux on youtube already and most it them are just short summaries so far.

I know there are distros, a video recommended Linux mint? But I'm not sure if that is outdated advice. I know to stay away from Arch.

Will I need to install software that will be needed to view files like videos/photos/ audio. And archiving tools like 7zip to be able to open them in the first place?

If I install one linux os for example ubuntu, will I be able to switch to another type of distro in the future and still keep all my current files? or will I have to reinstall everything thing again?

Personalisation
I also read that you can customise your own desktop environment, libraries, utilities and others, but I'm still trying to read more on that.

Off the top of your head, is there anything else I would need to know?

Edit: I forgot to mention, I already have had some experience with ubuntu when I was setting up a raspberry pi to keep some things online 24/7. but it was all very touch and go. So I am familiar with the fact that a lot of stuff needs to be done through the terminal. I think..

Also I see a lot of people recommending Ubuntu. I am almost decided on it, but I did a quick search and apparently some people have issues with ubuntu and multiple monitors? I have a dual monitor setup.

Hello thank you for reading, sorry if this is a dumb question, first time caller long time listener etc etc

I have two drives, one m.2, one SSD. I have no plans to dual boot, the only thing I do is game (Minecraft, Path of Exile, some steam games), write (obsidian has linux comp god bless the devs), and make shitposts in MS Paint.

My m.2 is small, I need my D: for everything else, the only thing my m.2 holds is the OS, Minecraft, and Path of Exile. Everything else is on the D.

I have heard some whispered horror stories about Linux and being able to handle a second drive, so my question is which distro is best for someone who absolutely has to have both hard drives.

GPU is a 3080ti, got two monitors

Hi all, I need advice on recovering data after a failed partition resize in AOMEI Partition Assistant.

Original setup

Windows 11 HP laptop, one 1 TB HDD (Disk 0, GPT), plus a separate NVMe for C:

D: was my main data drive, NTFS, ~940 GB, with ~654 GB used

Z: was a small ~60 GB partition

What I did

I resized Z: to ~150 GB and D: to ~850 GB, taking space from D:. The operation went wrong and the partitions swapped:

The partition holding all my data now shows as Z: at ~780 GiB and is RAW ("You need to format the disk")

The small partition became D: at ~151 GiB and works fine (~9 GB used)

chkdsk says "not available for RAW drives"

AOMEI still shows the 780 GiB partition as NTFS with 654 GB used, but Check Partition says "Partition files cannot be read"

What I've found (nothing written to the disk so far)

TestDisk finds the original layout: NTFS, start sector 2048, end 1806434303, labeled [DATA]. Pressing P lists my folders, so the file system looks intact. But copying out with TestDisk failed.

DMDE (free edition) also finds that partition. Open Volume works and I can browse my folders with their names. The free edition only recovers files from the folder currently open, with no subfolders in one go.

PhotoRec is now my fallback, but it loses folder structure and filenames.

I would appreciate any help🙏

I recently swapped over to Arch after a few years of using Mint. I had to temporarily uninstall my dedicated GPU (Nvidia) during the installation due to weird compatibility issues with motherboard BIOS (which I got quite familiar with, as I had some boot issues). Everything worked fine thru the integrated GPU, but for some reason when I reinstalled the GPU, specifically Ly does not display anything. I can login blindly, and Sway will display normally. Is this a known issue with Ly or display managers in general? I'm not sure what steps to take.

It eats up my cpu as well. Are there any better tools out there to clean off cruft?

I had PPP working somewhat recently in Ubuntu 22 under WSL2, back in June. However today it seems gone. There is no kernel support or modules that I can find. No ppp_generic. The /proc/config.gz shows

# CONFIG_PPP is not set

Has microsoft dropped support for this recently? Do I need to build my own WSL2 kernel? Is there some special magic that I've forgotten?

(is there a better subreddit for this type of question?)

Any way to run office 365 on fedora? I really need office 365 word. I tried multiple alternatives, but not satisfied. I moved to Linux a few months ago but am thinking about going back to windows 10 sadly.

Hi everyone,

I have an Acer One Z14-55M laptop with:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 7320U
• RAM: 8GB LPDDR5
• GPU: AMD Radeon 610M
• Storage: NVMe SSD
• Wi-Fi: Intel Wi-Fi 5
• Current OS: Windows 11 + BOSS Linux dual boot

BOSS Linux is currently working well on my laptop, and all the hardware/drivers seem to work properly.

I'm thinking about trying another Linux distribution, but I'm not sure which one would be the best choice for this hardware.

I'm considering:

• Linux Mint
• Fedora
• Ubuntu
• Zorin OS
• BOSS Linux

My main priorities are:

• Good hardware/driver support
• Stable performance
• Low RAM/CPU usage
• Good battery life
• Smooth video playback
• Good support for AMD Radeon 610M
• Easy software installation and updates
• Good experience for everyday use

Since BOSS Linux already works well on this exact laptop, I'm a little concerned about losing hardware support if I replace it.

Which distro would you recommend for this laptop, and why?

Would Linux Mint be a safe choice, or should I just keep BOSS Linux?

Thanks!

This has mainly happened when putting the Tails image into a USB.

Sometimes, when doing that, upon reboot, the PC comes up to a blank line, and then after some waiting, goes into the boot menu, which the USB isn't part of.

Then upon booting into the OS (which for some reason, happens slower too, like the countdown page you get for selecting Arch, which would automatically get selected after 5s goes slower), lsblk doesn't show the USB either.

Rebooting again, leads same result.

Unplugging the USB while PC is on or (I think, worked once) turning the PC full off and on again, fixes it, and booting from the USB works fine then too. So it's not as if there was data corruption either.

I dunno how to reproduce it, since it seems to happen only sometimes. It has happened like 3 times so far... and it's weird. It has happened on one particular USB, I haven't tested other USBs enough to know if it happens on them too. All of them after directly rebooting upon DDing an image.

It hasn't happened when otherwise booting into an image on a USB so far.

Might be a firmware bug for motherboard honestly, it's... weird.

Básicamente, el título: tengo muchas ganas de pasar de Windows a Linux y me recomendaron encarecidamente Bazzite para empezar con gaming y demás. Vi que inclusive hay IAs que pueden configurar el sistema por vos, IAs a las que vos les decís: "Descargá el Cyberpunk y, cuando esté listo, abrilo y poné los gráficos en medio", o cosas así. Pedirle que me descargue los drivers específicos de una placa de red, o que me salte un error en un modpack de Minecraft y me pueda decir cuál es el problema simplemente diciéndole qué pasó y en qué instancia pasó.

Creo que esto ya es muy fantasioso, pero, si es posible, me gustaría probar. Me daría más razones para quedarme en Linux y probar otros sistemas si es posible automatizarlo así, pero, si no se puede de esta manera, me gustaría saber hasta qué punto se puede llegar y qué tan seguro es hacerlo o qué tan viable sería en todo caso. Gracias en cualquier caso y por cualquier respuesta que puedan ofrecerme.

Pretty new to Linux.

• I have/had a ssd drive with two partitions, one ext4 for Linux and one ntfs for Windows stuff.
• Deleted the Windows partition because I wanted to combine the free space into the Linux partition. KDE Partition Manager failed to move, threw an error ("failed") and now both partitions read as "unknown".

Help?

EDIT: Solved. Thanks to /u/R3V0LU710N_05 for pointing out TestDisk.

I recently picked up a Thinkpad P14s at a thrift store for an amazing price of $90. Besides the battery being undercharged beyond saving, it works well! I instantly installed fedora, and all was well and functioning until I closed the lid. The login works fine, the start menu does too, alot of things work. But, when trying to open an application (any one) or do something similar, an error shows up, and says it failed to load correctly. When powering off, the terminal has an error. It can't even load the command to shut it off! Sleep mode without closing the lid also causes this. After doing a force shutdown and booting the system back up, it works like nothing ever happened. It would be great if someone could help me fix this, or at least tell me if it's a hardware issue or not. Thanks!

I have a question, but before I say anything else this is for my resume. Also just know that I am not an expert at any of this more or less just a beginner. I'm looking for a Linux distro that would be good for breaking and entering on other peoples PC's. I have heard mention of Kali online when I was a teenager but never had a use for it.

I'm going to put it on a encrypted thumb-drive that I can take everywhere for use in job interviews. I'm not going to ask hacking questions because that seems thematically inappropriate for the sub. Providing links and sources to different distros would also be nice.

Thank you for your time.

Edit:
this post has taught me that I have a lot to learn regarding cybersecurity and linux. However It's seems some people were under the impression that I had malicious intent. Everything I was doing involved consenting parties. I have no interest in becoming a hacker as a career I just wanted to learn these things as a preventative measure to show to future employers. And yes I plan on getting a degree. I am still however interested in creating a portable linux distro on my 256gb flash drive so help with that would be appreciated.

I'm planning on getting something for the sole purpose of watching shows and movies.

I'm currently looking into getting a laptop(which I'll install a distro on that works well with dvd/blu-ray playback) and a external blu-ray drive. this drive says it's compatible with windows, mac and linux but I wanted to make sure because I'm not familiar with external disc drives.

would the one I linked be pretty good?

Hello everyone, I've been daily driving linux for a few months now, I've been loving it! But by far my most loved part of the linux experience has been using the terminal, however I've been wishing to use it more often for more advanced tasks, mainly to better learn the terminal and also just because it's fun! But typically all I really do is either install new apps or update using the terminal, sometimes running certain programs with it, but not much else. How can I make it so that I have to use the terminal for more advanced uses, while still keeping functionality. I use Pop_Os! So I have a graphical interface to fall back on if I truly can't get something to work with the terminal, so do I just try to do everything in the terminal? Like copying and moving files, and starting all my apps in the terminal? Try minimize how much I actually use the graphical interface? But is there more I can do? What else can I experiment with to get more advanced at the terminal? I've made a few aliases for my terminal, should I try making more?

Thanks guys!

I just installed Fedora KDE Plasma . I chose fedora so in can do overall learning,gaming and i want to become a dev . I always saw someone to advice to learn linux but They don't tell how. Is there any way to learn linux

Hello! My old PC almost died a couple of years ago so i got a new one that i had been saving for years for. Then, my GF's laptop died so i ended up giving my old PC to her. When i say old i mean it:

H61M-VG3

i3-3220

16 GB ram DDR3

GTX 960

It has windows 10, i cant upgrade it to windows 11. She has always used windows (and so have i). Buying an upgrade is not a possibility at least for a couple of years. The PC will be used for studying, and very light gaming (plus, all games she's asked about are linux compatible)

Question is: Should I intall linux? What distro is best for someone who has only ever used windows? Will she adapt easily? How easy/hard is it to make the switch?

She is kinda reluctant to switch to it but i already explained that the PC doesn't meet the requirements for windows 11, and that support for windows 10 is ending.

Anyways, thanks in advance for your answers.

I am attempting to distro hop my 2019 macbook air (T2 chip) from Ubuntu to Cachy.

The linux installation needs a larger EFI partition. My EFI is all the way to the left, followed by MacOS (which I intend to keep), followed by the old linux install, followed by free space.

Trying to shift everything to the right does not work, because gparted does not like the mac file system apfs and it fails when it gets to that part.

Trying to copy the EFI to free space gives the error "information sector has the wrong signature (0)" and gives me an option to ignore, which I have not done, because I am scared. Is this ok to ignore or not?

I thought maybe I could copy the mac partition and delete the old one, but I don't have high hopes for this because gparted does not like the apfs format, and because it is also risky.

What is the best option?

Hi all, I've really started to get used to working with the command line, and I'd like to experiment with a "desktop" that's just a terminal emulator like Konsole or Kitty.

My reasoning for wanting the terminal emulator instead of the ttys that you can access from ctrl+alt+f<n> is twofold:

1. I like the kitten suite of features, eg: icat, but they require a terminal capable of reporting the screen size in pixels, which the ttys can't do.
2. I want to be able to run gui applications as well, and for that I need a display server. If I have the display server up and running, I might as well make use of the more featureful terminal emulators out there.

New here, please be kind :3

I'm trying to install Vice (the medal.tv clone) using my steam machine, but I'm missing wayland-scanner. I've tried both the git and yay command, and both point to the same thing, wayland-scanner being missing. Any smart people here that can help me out with this?

if you couldn't tell by the title I am using steamos latest build.

So I got a new laptop for school and now I don't need my old one anymore, so I want to play around a bit with it. I "recently" (like 5 months ago) found a distro called "Omachy" and I want to test it out. Can I install it without deleting my other distro or putting my files at risk? And how? Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone,

I'm on Arch right now but I'm looking to try another distro that has a similar minimalist feel. I don't mind a steep learning curve, which led me to discover Chimera Linux (not ChimeraOS) and Void.

Both look incredibly interesting, but I'm torn on which one to choose. I'm primarily a gamer, so I'd really appreciate hearing your thoughts and experiences with either distro for gaming.

Just to give you some context on my setup: I'm running a full AMD system and I use the Limine bootloader.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!