Linux

For tech wizards and n00bs alike. Questions, answers, or just general hoo-haa.

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RobbieThe1st
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#76 Post by RobbieThe1st »

chrisfrey93 wrote:If I learned anything in two years using Linux then this: If you have no idea how it works and if it works, never change anything! ... or you will regret it. Thats my painfully experience. And about Symphonas question. A clear yes.
Yea, and I'd also say "back it up" - so when it -does- break, you can revert and fix it.

---
BTW, got my Linux-based Nokia N900 today. This thing's awesome! Fully-unlocked Debian-based OS(Maemo 5), easy root access, nice user interface...
And thats on top of all the cool hardware bits it has.

boygenius32
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Re: Linux

#77 Post by boygenius32 »

Well, if you have access to the internet, it's not that hard to begin to understand an easier distro like Ubuntul

RobbieThe1st
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Re: Linux

#78 Post by RobbieThe1st »

These past couple of days, I've started to realize how -nice- Linux is to have when problems arise.
Take this example:
My PC has a AMD Phenom II x4 3.2ghz processor, 4GB of DDR3-1600 ram, and a GeForce GTX 260 video card.
A few days ago, I started experimenting with OCing my desktop. I got up to 3.8ghz stably with below-limit voltage, then backed off a bit.
Yesterday, I got on the PC at my usual time. I booted it up, then left to get something. When I came back less than 5 minutes later, my PC had rebooted.
I went into the bios, disabled my OCing and booted again. It booted, but a couple minutes later it crashed.
I tried underclocking things just to be safe, but it still wouldn't boot - After this, it wouldn't even get to the login screen before locking up.

After deciding I couldn't do anything with it right then, I grabbed a spare system that was lying around(Athlon x2 2.6ghz processor, 2GB ddr2-800 ram), pulled the motherboard/cpu/memory out of it and replaced my own with those. Now, to make matters more interesting, I have three SATA harddisks in a RAID-5 software raid configuration - If one drive dies, all my data is still there. Problem is, this new motherboard only had 2 SATA ports.
I plugged the first two harddisks into those ports, and then plugged the third into a USB->SATA adapter, which then got plugged into a USB port.
I installed my own video card and sound card, then put the case back together, plugged it in and crossed my fingers.
IT BOOTED.
Not only did it boot up first try, but all three harddisks were detected, accepted, and assembled into the raid. All my data is available, and at a decent speed too(though writes are slower due to the USB connection). All drivers were auto-loaded, no fuss no muss.

Essentially, I took my harddisks and stuck them in a significantly different PC, plugged one harddisk in via USB, and it ran! Contrast this with Windows, where you can't even boot off a -single- USB drive, let alone get away with swapping the motherboard. And even if you got the motherboard accepted, Windows would make you download new drivers for everything, reactivate, etc. etc.

I LOVE LINUX.

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Symphona
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Re: Linux

#79 Post by Symphona »

Oh yes, Linux may have downfalls, it may have niggling annoyances, but when it works, its normally to save your bacon...

The problem is getting used to having that much power at your fingertips and then booting Windows again :redhair:
Linux is hard...

pokeatthedevil
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Re: Linux

#80 Post by pokeatthedevil »

The only problem I have with linux is iTunes... and I have all my programs put onto Windows, but I can change that. Right now it's just another OS to learn because I don't know where anything goes.

RobbieThe1st
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Re: Linux

#81 Post by RobbieThe1st »

iTunes sucks. There's plenty of /better/ alternatives out there for both Windows and Linux; and even if you have a piece of Apple hardware there are solutions for transferring data back and forth.

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Symphona
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Re: Linux

#82 Post by Symphona »

Yea, fun fact though, things like Rhythmbox all work with Ipods from a fresh boot (or at least they install the right codecs with only a prompt) but anything open source on Windows seems to have real issues with it...which means I've never actually managed to avoid itunes on Windows :S
Linux is hard...

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TheDragonfiend
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Re: Linux

#83 Post by TheDragonfiend »

This may be a fair bit of a necropost but i just had to say this...

Favourite bit about linux is usb raids you can actually hit nearly 40Mb's with a usb raid and thats write speeds XD the closet thing to that on windows is some shaky russion software with no translation!!!
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Symphona
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Re: Linux

#84 Post by Symphona »

Hmm, anyone have any ideas about what might be killing Skype recently? I'm running 11.10 Ubuntu Netbook version, had skype installed for a while, occasional problems when starting a call, either outgoing or incoming. Recently, booting skype at all causes major system lag, often requires a hard restart.

Mumble (another voip client) has similar problems, although with less devastating consequences. Going by that vein, it might be the sound drivers, but...who knows. (running pulseaudio for the record)

Cheers guys,

Sym
Linux is hard...

RobbieThe1st
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Re: Linux

#85 Post by RobbieThe1st »

What's the machine's specs?

Pulse does take a bit of CPU, but shouldn't take that much - perhaps a couple hundred mhz of one core when playing audio.
Also, check the task manager; find out what's using resources(CPU, ram or IO) when it's lagging.

Evilsqirrel
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Re: Linux

#86 Post by Evilsqirrel »

Alright. I have been playing with Arch for a bit in a VM, and I went to get a package off the User repo.
I download the tarball, place it in a directory I can get to, and run pacman. I get an error saying "invalid or corrupted package". I have tried this about 7 times, re-downloading the package every time, to no avail.

In case I am missing anything in the command, here is what I have been using:

Code: Select all

sudo pacman -U /path/to/file/foo.tar.gz
That is the basic form that I have tried. I feel like I am doing something wrong here, hell I am almost positive about it.

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philip284
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Re: Linux

#87 Post by philip284 »

Evilsqirrel wrote:Alright. I have been playing with Arch for a bit in a VM, and I went to get a package off the User repo.
I download the tarball, place it in a directory I can get to, and run pacman. I get an error saying "invalid or corrupted package". I have tried this about 7 times, re-downloading the package every time, to no avail.

In case I am missing anything in the command, here is what I have been using:

Code: Select all

sudo pacman -U /path/to/file/foo.tar.gz
That is the basic form that I have tried. I feel like I am doing something wrong here, hell I am almost positive about it.
I don't know just about anything about Arch. But here it says
Pacman is written in the C programming language and uses the .pkg.tar.xz package format.
So Is the tarball a .pkg.tar.xz? I usually see .tar.gz for source code.

edit: google more found this
Installing packages from the AUR is a relatively simple process. Essentially:
Acquire the tarball which contains the PKGBUILD and possibly other required files, like systemd-units and patches (but often not the actual code code).
Extract the tarball (preferably in a folder set aside just for builds from the AUR) with tar xzf foo.tar.gz.
Run makepkg in the directory where the files are saved (makepkg -s will automatically resolve dependencies with pacman). This will download the code, compile it and pack it.
Look for a README file in src/ it might contain further information needed later on.
Install the resulting package with pacman:
# pacman -U /path/to/pkg.tar.xz
If a tree falls in the woods, but no one is around to hear it, does it still kill the squirrel it landed on?
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Evilsqirrel
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Re: Linux

#88 Post by Evilsqirrel »

Derp. must have missed it. I am sorry about making you google that for me. the help is much appreciated.

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philip284
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Re: Linux

#89 Post by philip284 »

you're welcome.
If a tree falls in the woods, but no one is around to hear it, does it still kill the squirrel it landed on?
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RobbieThe1st
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Re: Linux

#90 Post by RobbieThe1st »

Typically, a .tar.gz is a 'tarball', and will usually contain the source of an application(to be compiled by the end user), or, in some cases, binary files which need to be extracted to the correct location and manually made to work(without the aid of a package manager).

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