The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread

I have been both newbie and expert in certain forums, and the key is picking the right forum in which to ask your questions.

Unfortunately, people new to the whole forums experience don't know... There isn't a guide built into google that will tell them, "don't click on that link, those guys are dicks" or anything.

Welcome to the internet, I guess.

Man, I can't tell you how many times I've Google'd answers for Linux, especially when I first started to use it a decade ago. I honestly had no idea what I was doing, but I was tired of Windows, and Linux seemed aesthetically pleasing to me. No Wi-Fi when I installed it, so I did panic slightly. However patience and time solved that issue and I was a converted man.



That being said, though, I still use Windows on some computers in the house. Well, one laptop I should say. Reason being is for one of my Windows phones. (yes. Don't hurt me )

I'm just gonna leave this right here -

Stuck with Windows? Cygwin rocks.

Slow. But, it's complete.

If anyone has an implementation that is more "mother may I?" than Ubuntu/Kubuntu, don't tell me.

Trying to build lftp (Debian) with ssl support, because why include ssl support in the repository build.

Already linked in ssl and socks. Get past security and login. Can even cd - but no ls, put or get without an unknown protocol error.

Btw - cifs is a total bork festival in 14.04 but autofs seems to work like a charm.

I think that Ubuntu is the Linux against production software use.

Lol

To validate -

ldd `which lftp`

And instead of libssl - as stated in the rtfms - it has libgnutls and I didn't notice. I ought to be OK, now to recheck what sent me here.

Still hate it and love it.

It's called wbadmin.

If you have to use Windows and have heard of this, the operative part is wb. Ever seen the dancing frog with the top hat pushing the old WB channel? The one that used to show the Animaniacs cartoon?

Think of that if you ever get stuck on a Windows node and have to use wbadmin.

Task at hand - back up some mapped network drives in Windows to a local USB drive.

Despite techsoft Microsoft saying that's (obviously) ok, give up. The documentation is wrong (as becried by IT foons across the land) and it cannot be done.

Solution - install Ubuntu in a virtual machine, aurofs mount the Windows shares and use cron (via an /etc/cron.d entity) to perform the backup.

Takes less time than googling to see if I'm telling the truth.

Silly Task Scheduler and wbadmin - no match for cron and zip.

Insanely sad really. Not a clich

For anyone with a TI-83 and some time - have some fun.

Running Debian on a Graphing Calculator | Hackaday

Super Smash Bros on a Calculator | Hackaday

So my roommate received a Microsoft Surface Pro 3. This is a very very nice tablet. Its a computer really it so steps up the tablet level. I have to hand it to the boys at Redmond for this one. I am impressed. But I am a Linux Guy. My Roommate decided that he wanted me to wipe it and install Linux Mint on it for him. He has been more interested in Linux since I moved in So I downloaded the latest edition from the website dd'd it over to a thumb drive and booted to it. I choose to start Linux Mint and then went to a black screen. It stayed that way for a bit. Like almost an hour. I thought hmmm maybe a bad download so I removed the thumb from the tablet and put it in my laptop rebooted and booted into Linux Mint Cinnamon and no problem. So hmmmm. I decide ok Lets try it with Mate. So I burn Mate over to a thumb and boot to it on the tablet and lo and behold the same thing but this time just about ten minutes of black screen So I said hmmm isn't this interesting. I at this time was giving up hope of being able to accomplish this task. I decided to see if I could get anything to load up so I downloaded the latest Fedora. Remembering that Gnome 3 was redesigned to be more touch screen friendly was my deciding factor. So I burned it to the thumb that I had Linux Mint Mate on and put it in the tablet booted and wahla up comes Fedora. Touch works and everything. Wifi works, Sound works, Screen is Amazingly crisp and clean. So I installed Fedora 21 on it and I have to say that I am impressed with Gnome 3 as a tablet Desktop Manager. I still don't really care for the fact that they killed it for the desktop but being an android user I would love to see a Fedora with Gnome 3 ROM. Don't think it will happen cause I know I'm not that talented

I installed all the codecs and stuff he needs to really enjoy the Linux experience. But over all I am extremely impressed with the way that this tablet works and I am super impressed with Fedora and Gnome 3 being able to install on it and run it like they own the bi*** lol

Well I guess they do now

(Raises Glass) Here's to another future Linux user

frog

Ok. My official response is WTF.

Microsoft locks those tablets down with UEFI secure boot and the proprietary MS key, not the shim one they hand out. Did they revoke that policy or something?

Joelgp83 said:

Ok. My official response is WTF.

Microsoft locks those tablets down with UEFI secure boot and the proprietary MS key, not the shim one they hand out. Did they revoke that policy or something?

Click to expand...

I really have no clue bro. He had read where people had put Linux Mint on it and said everthing worked good but in my research it looks like those are all duel boots. We wiped the OS completely but uefi is locked and I'm not sure but its using a recovery boot option to boot into fedora. All I know is that it works it boots into it and its a very powerful tablet.

As I recall, the UEFI certificate that Ubuntu (and thus Mint, being a fork of Ubuntu) is flawed. That's why I use rEFInd as my boot loader and self-sign my operating systems.

Fedora has their own certificate and it doesn't have the problems that Ubuntu does.

So help me understand frog - will that Surface do a live USB of Fedora, for those that want a quasi dual boot?

Early Yes it will run a live usb with no problem. Like I said its the only OS on it and everything works with exception to the camera's but doing some research looks like a kernel update could be done someone says they recompiled theirs and its working. I'm just not comfortable playing with kernels at this point lol so if someone includes the patch in an official kernel then the camera's will work.

I have a rather interesting issue regarding certain Ubuntu-based distros (but not Ubuntu iself!). i found some nice highly polished UI distros out there, most if not all based in Ubuntu. they install fine, but soon as i connect to a wifi network, BAM! insta hard lockup. have to pull the plug.

Vector Linux 7 SoHo does the same thing, sadly. i tried turning off WPA2 security, tried eliminating the router and going to my phone's own hotspot, same result. everything is fine, you can scan networks, edit the options, and connect, but soon as it reports 'connected' BAM! hard lockup. not a kernel panic, everything just frozen and mouse doesn't work. can't ctrl F-2 or anything.

Regular Ubuntus work fine, but don't offer the level of polish i like, and currently i'm instaling KDE to attempt to resolve that, but i really wanted the themed distros to work. one was Pear Linux 6, the other Elementary OS Luna, and Vector 7. all hard freeze upon connecting to wifi. this is a Toshiba Satellite with AMD 64-bit CPU, RealTek RTL8188 wifi.

Nick, I am at work now, so limited internet, et al.

I have a Toshiba S55t-A5238 running Mint, so I know your pain.

I don't recall which WiFi module I have, but in order to get it to work, I had to change kernels.

If you search me out at the Linux Mint forums (try using Dngrsone and S55t-A5238 as search parameters), you'll see what I had to do to fix my laptop.

i have never changed kernels so don't plan to start now, thanks. i just settled on a KDE theme until i can simply use a different wifi card vs the in-built one. though it is odd how it seems to work (out of box) but soon as you get online, lockup. i've never heard of the internet locking something up solid, either the wifi works or it doesn't in my experience.

i kept the last distro as a dual boot and will later test the other wifi adapter 'dongle' i use for such situations where the wifi isn't detected, as it's a linux wifi adapter.

Whatever works for you, man.

OK, i just had another 'funny' issue with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on the same laptop.

I shut it down and went home, and when i booted back up, i login, and i see the loading splash screen for KDE, and....

nothing. blank desktop, wallpaper, mouse pointer responds, but nothing happens when i right click or attempt to do anything.

Had to boot back to Unity, which did work, and create a different user, and then KDE worked fine. what gives? nothing in the log, and i know it shut down properly. it's as if something gets corrupted when i reboot. i'm now afraid to shut it down again. KDE did work perfectly fine before i shut it down so i don't understand. i had a nice Vista theme but it was working. it's as if the Plasma Desktop crashed. if i hit Ctrl-ALT-F1, and then hot CTRL-ALT-F8, it had the mouse pointer on a black screen, wallpaper gone.

Cosmic rays, dude.

either that, or the 2 year old HDD is dying...but fsck gave no errors either. glad i didn't have anything installed that mattered, just my Vista Aero theme and Firefox Vista theme. just curious why i had to use a new user account to get it working?

It froze about the time you'd expect to hear the little tune KDE plays on login. sound works though, but it is ironic.