The Linux Thread - The Autist's OS of Choice

[eternal dog mongler]

I've been using a steam deck for the past little while and personally I prefer it's desktop mode Linux variant to any version of Linux I've tried so far. I think it's possible to get steamOS installed on a pc itself, but what was it modified off of so I could start there? What are the negatives of using it as a windows replacement?

It's Arch + KDE. Just modified heavily.

I don't know what you'd get into trying to use it on a desktop.

 

[byuu]

What's wrong with grub? i have no issues with it aside from the lack of a proper command to update it

Remember when you just had to edit your lilo.conf or menu.lst?
Now you need a whole configuration generation process and a grub.d and all that crap. And also need to worry that it's too fat to fit into the MBR.

 

[Toolbox]

I don't know what you'd get into trying to use it on a desktop.

There's already a desktop mode on the system which is a full desktop linux variant. The deck touchpads emulate a mouse, and there's a virtual keyboard you can use. I much prefer it to other versions of Linux I've used and that includes other versions of Arch. From your above information I assume that means I should just try using their OS by itself.

 

[Quatro]

Does anybody know if you can configure xdg-open to open .onion links with TOR browser? I'm not seeing anything. It looks like there used to be a firefox addon that did this, it no longer works and I don't really like that solution anyways. Short of that I figure I'll just replace the xdg-open default-web-browser with my own program that does the matching.

 

[burntwater]

Because of recent happenings and a growing distrust of public DNS providers I set up an old Raspberry Pi with raspbian 64 bit to use as a recursive DNS resolver.

I tried to get unbound working on it but for some reason it wouldn't respond to queries (due to IPv6 I think) so I ended up with BIND9 as the server. It works just fine and responds fast enough so I'll just stick with it.

 

[AmpleApricots]

With buying a graphics card I'm lately getting back into videogames somewhat more again, and with that modding. Since I am a pirate by conviction and wouldn't use the normal steam client even if I wasn't, modding needed special attention. Together with steamcmd I wrote a few sh-scripts that download/prune/update the modding folders of my games automatically. Best thing is, I made it so generic that it's universal for any game that allows anonymous download of steam mods.Just needs a mod "master file" in the directory with steam ID of the game and ID of the mods. It also has support for pulling and updating mods that are offered via git.

Null's offering of various links in the past few days and me not liking bookmark managers and generally often finding myself in the situation where I just want to note some text down that's on my screen but having really no practical (read: automated) solution for it, I wrote sort of a text clipper (coming from newspaper clippings, get it? I remember newspapers. I'm old) where I can just mark some arbitrary text on my screen and hit a keyboard combination to have it recorded in a regular text file with the unix timestamp. I can then not only search the file with a script sorted by date etc. but also with normal text tools like grep. I also added a function where I can add a note to a clipping, which really just appends the notes' text to it. Sometimes the simple solutions are the best.

 

[metaxas1441]

Linus is a retard tho and prolly bricks his Windows machine regularly as well.

I stopped following Linus years ago when I realized he was mostly just shilling stupid gadgets instead of talking about computers. He is the kind of retard who would forget to screw in the standoffs for the mobo and just upload the video anyway. He is a hack.

That being said, I have Manjaro XCFE on one system, with Whonix KVM running on it often as well. On an old thinkpad, I'm running Arch with Luke Smith's LARBS. It's basically an installer that sets up DWM and such for the user. It's a good option if one likes his current setup.

 

[verymuchawful]

Why does font rendering sometimes just shit itself?

On Arch + XFCE4 (how do I fix this without rebooting) (plz)

 

[emergenigger]

View attachment 3679025
Protip: ESC then Shift + ZZ

CTRL + ] for the kool kids.

 

[LinuxAutist]

I remember taking this screenshot from reddit somewhere and it reminded me of Linux and the adventure with using it:

View attachment 3678053

I still keep coming back to try Linux, but every time I meet a roadblock that eats up my spare time and energy which incentivizes me to pursue my other hobbies rather than keep fiddling with Linux.

Still, I'd like to hear what are everyone's tips & tricks to recommend to someone trying Linux as a newbie, and also what mentalities would be useful to have in order to make exploring Linux more fun

This post you shared sums up my opinions on "normie" tech users perfectly. Anyway, when talking in regards to Linux, I think it is more efficient to think of it as a hobby rather than a computer you would trust to use 100% of the time. I personally do use it 100% of the time, but that should not be your goal. Look at using Linux-based operating systems as a hobby first, actual computer use after. Now, once you're acquainted with everything, then maybe consider switching over full time. I would recommend to have a dedicated virtual (or real hardware, if you can spring for it) machine to run whatever distro you choose (I'd recommend Mint, but any distro will do). PM me if you have any questions by the way, I'm usually stalking around here most nights. There is a lot to talk about, this hobby is almost endless in complexity and sheer amount of things you can learn.

 

[Mister Uno]

Man, this isn't the first time, but on my Debian install, xfce shits itself. Window manager breaks and I can't do much. Going to the terminal gives me a "xfwm4 gtk cannot open display". Seems online solutions I manage to find doesn't work. When I installed and switched to lxqt, works fine. Anyone have this issue before? I'd much rather stick with xfce.

 

[emergenigger]

in regards to Linux, I think it is more efficient to think of it as a hobby rather than a computer you would trust to use 100% of the time.

Depends what kind of software stack you have on your operating system. The less obscure things you have, the more it is likely that whatever your issue is has been solved. Most popular distros like Ubuntu or Mint are stable enough to be a daily driver and you can easily switch from windows.
Hell,I've hopped onto Ubuntu LTS 20.04 a few years back from windows and I had no issues( apart from some issues that were a fault of the hardware, and those and even more were found on windows ). As much as GNOME troonware eats your RAM and requires a modern system,it is good and stable enough for daily use.

Not to mention said distros are tard-proof and you won't wipe your important stuff or break your system,unless you are literally Linus Gabriel "Yes, do as I say" Sebastian.

There is a lot to talk about, this hobby is almost endless in complexity and sheer amount of things you can learn.

Absolutely true.

 

[K-Hole]

I installed Whonix in VirtualBox just recently after all of this fiasco. It runs the Tor browser kind of natively once you get it set up. You can import an image in to VBox when you start it and it will make up a virtual 100GB dynamic disk that only takes up about ohh, less that 8GB on your hard drive. You need to start up the Gateway server thing to start then browse by starting the Workstation virtual disk just after - full instructions given. Couldn't be easier if you already have VBox set up.

It installs the virtual disk images to your C drive and you need to use the manager to move the disk images to somewhere else if your system disk is getting a bit slim/thin.

The machine I tested it on only has 8GB of RAM and it really needs ALL of that to get going. You can't have any other programs open. It sets up with 1GB of RAM or something for the Gateway server image, then it sets about 2GB of Virtual RAM for the Workstation image where you do the actual browsing.

It worked really well but was slow. I needed to close down all other programs to get it to work, but it just about got by. Connected in a few minutes after searching for best nodes and all that. It's a Debian based distro IIRC.

Whonix - Superior Internet Privacy

Whonix ™ runs like an App and is a Free, Open Source, Kicksecure ™ hardened Linux distribution. It can anonymize everything you do online!

www.whonix.org

This has all been done on an old windows 7 box by the way, but you can set it up on mac and linux. I'm just proof of concepting it at the moment, but I plan to run it in Qubes

Qubes-Whonix ™ Overview

Qubes-Whonix ™ -- Advanced Security and Anonymity

www.whonix.org

I've got a fairly recent 250GB SSD that I plan to install it to and I will run whonix straight from the Qubes install I put on there. You can't put Qubes on a VM like VBox because it's a type 1 Hypervisor (did I get that right?) based on Xen - it needs bare metal to run - so Qubes won't fit inside VBox. But Whonix does.

The reasons Whonix gave for choosing VBox to run on (apart from all the other OS's/VM's) is that it is popular and easy(ish). I only really came across Qubes when I was researching Mullvad VPN and greater security in general. It's been a while since I had a brush up, so the last few days downtime I've been getting back up to speed.

One thing to note, Mullvad would not run the .top version of KF except when I was going through the Romanian servers. Weird. I had to try dozens before it worked, then it stopped working of course.

I've been running OS's inside various VM's nested inside other various OS's for a while. Windows XP on a Linux Live boot USB on a Windows 7 box. That kind of thing. Just experimenting and fucking around. I can usually get things to work. You can't get help in the Linux community because they are fucking autistic sperg faggots, so you're on your own, so better buckle up, bucko!

I'd not really tried the Tor private page browsing in Brave, but it works very well. Not so secure as other methods, but perfect for reading shit off the farms if you aren't doing anything else at the same time that can be sniffed. You really want a dedicated Tor browser. That is why I like Qubes and Whonix so much - that will give me just what I need.

It's been a while since shit has tickled my fancy very much in Linux. SystemD was a downer. Linux Mint was fun for a good few years and I even got a LAMP stack going on it in the Debian version. But all good things come to an end.

I'm kind of done with dual and triple booting, so an install of Qubes OS that will run a VM of Whonix that will run Tor browser is a good choice for me. And according to the notes and FAQ that system should be fairly translatable and migratable to other common type computers from a USB3 SSD. Good luck with that! I know I know...

The great thing about Whonix is that I think it's a pretty easy way to set up Tor browser on your computer without totally fucking it up (it does all that shit for you), IF, ... you know how to set up Virtual Box. Even then, learning to do that is not that difficult. Lots of great tutorials.

Once you got VBox going, you just need to import a single file that sets up both virtual machines for you. Start the server up first, then the workstation, then browse to your hearts content.

Just make sure you have at least 8GB of RAM.

Looking forward to putting this on my 24GB RAM machine and also booting it off a dedicated Qubes SSD later on in a VM.

 

[Had]

I still keep coming back to try Linux, but every time I meet a roadblock that eats up my spare time and energy which incentivizes me to pursue my other hobbies rather than keep fiddling with Linux.

Still, I'd like to hear what are everyone's tips & tricks to recommend to someone trying Linux as a newbie, and also what mentalities would be useful to have in order to make exploring Linux more fun

It can depend what you use your system for, for web browsing most every distro will give you a better out of the box experience than windows. Personally I enjoy arch and use Manjaro because it means I don't have to think about making my own arch install, plus I love how it looks default.

I haven't dicked around with gaming shit too much yet but it's 10 times better than it was even 4 years ago, but i'm stalling putting it on my main gaming rig.

Mint was my main babiest first distro that I actually used and ubuntu is also good too (terry davis used it).
I like mints similarities to windows 7, and it's basic usability.

I think it's best to move towards arch but these are good starting points, if you have a spare/older laptop install a distro on there and see what you think

 

[notafederalagent]

It sets up with 1GB of RAM or something for the Gateway server image

You can set that down to 512MB or less (double check docs to be sure) and it will run the gateway in text mode.

edit:
https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/RAM_Adjusted_Desktop_Starter (https://archive.ph/2YE3P)

RAM to 256MB
Video memory to 16MB
https://www.whonix.org/wiki/RAM#Whonix-Gateway_™_CLI_RAM_Saving_Mode (https://archive.ph/FjWlk)

 

[Celebrate Nite]

Man, this isn't the first time, but on my Debian install, xfce shits itself. Window manager breaks and I can't do much. Going to the terminal gives me a "xfwm4 gtk cannot open display". Seems online solutions I manage to find doesn't work. When I installed and switched to lxqt, works fine. Anyone have this issue before? I'd much rather stick with xfce.

I had xfce issues as well on my distro (Devuan Chimera). I remember I had to open up a terminal once it booted up to the desktop with Ctrl+Alt+T and type "xfwm4 --replace" and that magically made everything come back up, only my desktop icons were kinda fucked. I remember one day after a reboot that it just decided to work normally again, idk why.

 

[IamnottheNSA]

I love how linux, doesn't need to gate keep retarded youtubers because they're too stupid to fix basic issues.
he distro hops from pop -> mint -> ubuntu
His "biggest issue" was with input lag on resizing things (it's a whole millisecond slower!)

He literally points to linus bricking his system for proof of how it's hard for new users, witch would be more understandable if understanding and show casing tech wasn't literally linus's job.

>Linux """challenge"""
Am I the only one bothered by how difficult they are making it sound? Like nigga what's so challenging about it? Just use it, nigga. Unless it's a meme distro you would be fine.
And even if it is a meme distro it will still work just fine if you follow the instructions - my first Linux distro was Gentoo, prior to that I've been winfagging for my whole life, with some DOS experience. I had no problem installing and running it.

And hey, speaking of bricking your system - Windows 9x allowed you to do the same thing, very easily, and yet I don't think anyone can call Win9x hard to use.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

As much as GNOME troonware eats your RAM and requires a modern system,it is good and stable enough for daily use.

I don't know how much of this is GNOME and how much is the GNOME-centric distros using massive amounts of memory already (Fedora is notorious for this.)

 

[notafederalagent]

Mental Outlaw does a video on the KF situation, I'm 11 minutes in and he obviously didn't do any research into how kf is setup. Doesn't know Null owns the servers and doesn't know if KF has an onion address even after a preliminary search.

archive.ph ghostarchive

 

[Had]

Mental Outlaw does a video on the KF situation, I'm 11 minutes in and he obviously didn't do any research into how kf is setup. Doesn't know Null owns the servers and doesn't know if KF has an onion address even after a preliminary search.

archive.ph ghostarchive

Based commentor lays it all out