Linux for Beginners: Sharing My Experience and Lessons Learned

RavenLunatic

RavenLunatic

RavenLunatic

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18 Dec 2008
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399
I have decided to move away from Windows and have chosen Debian 12 as my new operating system.

I have spent the last week learning how to set everything up the way I want, and I am very happy with the result.

I have taken a disk image with Rescuezilla as a backup in case I lock out root again lol

Now here is my problem.

I first wanted to create my very own Debian Live USB with all my files, settings and programs all set up and ready to go. When run live-build I end up with an ISO only 300MB in size which is obviously wrong. I have searched and searched but I can’t find a solution. I wanted my own live USB to make it easy to convert my other 2 machines when the time comes.

My next idea is to somehow create a script to automatically download all my apps, settings, and files when I install a fresh copy of Debian, but I can’t find any programs that can do this.

While I am very happy with Rescuezilla, I don’t think it is ideal for transferring my OS onto different hardware.

What is the best practice backup and restore process for Debian or Linux in general?
 
I am liking Timeshift, thank you for the suggestion.

I can do a “sudo apt list –installed” which lists every programme installed.

Is there anyway to only list the programmes that I have installed that were not included in the installer iso?

I have lost track of what I have installed over the past couple of days.

Is there any way to list the programmes by date installed?
 
Thank you, I was hoping for a list of apps rather than every dependency. It seems that Linux can be too thorough, but I am getting used to that.

Is Linux as durable as Windows when moving a drive image to completely different hardware? or is it best to install from scratch?
 
Yes, I really loved installing a fresh copies of Windows XP to refresh the system after it got full of junk. There is something cathartic about setting up or renewing a system from scratch. I think I will just make a list to refer to when I update my next machine so I will have a record of what is needed in the future if I ever need to re-install.

What is the view on getting programmes for Linux? Should I use Repository's as much as possible or is downloading .deb files fine?
 
I have just spent 24 hours trying to get my second PC on Debian. I was presented with a Black screen after logon. For some reason nouveau did not like the 3090. To make things worse Grub wasn't working properly either. Every other keypress was double typed, a nightmare! I discovered an hour ago that Grub needs CSM enabled to work correctly which helped a lot. I have added a line to Grub "nouveau.modeset=0" and I am now able to get to the desktop :-)

I have tried to install nvidia drivers three times but it does not appear to be working. I have started tty1, closed GDM, sudo ./the driver everything seems to be doing something with the exception of a warning about 32bit being missing. There is no indication or nvidia app to show for itself.

I must have reinstalled Debian 20 times both full and netinst installers. The important thing is I have learned a lot about Grub and what a PITA nouveau is.

edit
My mistake there is a Nvidia X server app so it appears to be working! :-)
 
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Rob2D said:
Welcome to the Linux world! You made the best choice with Debian (IMO).

First off, as Buffalo said, you're definitely going to want to be on Trixie/Testing. Debian stable is great for an old laptop or a server but for something you're going to use every day you need to be current. I would always suggest using the Weekly Testing Build for any new installs which can be found here: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/amd64/iso-cd/ Then choose advanced options --> expert install (don't worry, you don't actually have to be an expert).

Your system will for sure not be as durable as Windows. Windows can be near impossible to kill at times which is a blessing and a curse depending on how you look at it I suppose! So Timeshift is a good shout if you want that sort of thing but in my experience Timeshift can be hit or miss so I'd also agree with the above about just backing up all your stuff and keeping a list of favourite programs and configs. Linux will almost always be faster to reinstall than deeply troubleshoot if you need to get it going again in a hurry. I would never advise moving a drive to different hardware. On Windows or Linux. Windows will at some level try to soldier on through but you would only be inviting disaster doing the same on Linux. OS's are compiled and installed for the hardware they find themselves on. Never move them.

Always get your stuff from the official repos when you can but of course there will be times when a .deb package is all you have. Just try to be as aware as possible what these packages are doing and try not to worry too much. I would say install Flatpak as well (easy instructions on Flathub website). You will often find things that are mainly flatpaks these days. And appimage is a great new choice for beginners since these are little standalone versions of whatever app you're trying out. You just download them, make them executable and off you go. But they will never update obviously as they are fully contained.

Seeing as you are on an Nvidia card (a fellow 4090 enjoyer ;)) I would offer more advice. Don't use nvidia-driver from the repo or any other location people tell you to try (you can hook up to the nvidia developers repo and such like). You should grab the .run installer from Nvidia's website just like you used to on Windows. This may trigger some people but I don't care. Unlike Windows, Nvidia offer several different versions of their Linux driver. The one in the repos ,535 as of writing this, is old AF and won't offer you things like DLSS etc. So you'll want to pick a newer one. I'm currently on the latest (565) with no issues. Just do a quick Google before choosing to see if there's any trouble with the most recent driver. Before installing you'll need to have all your ducks in a row. Things you'll need:

apt install build-essential (probably should always have this anyway)

apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) (always good after a linux kernel update)

apt install gcc make acpid dkms libglvnd-core-dev libglvnd0 libglvnd-dev libc-dev vulkan-tools (the above might have already brought in some of these. dkms super important)

Don't worry about blacklisting Nouveau, the Nvidia installer does that for you these days.

Get ready for the 32bit Nvidia libraries. Make a folder anywhere you like to house them and append "--compat32-libdir=*" to end of the ./ execution command on the .run Nvidia installer. Where * is the place you chose for the 32bit libs. If you forget don't worry, the installer will mention this.

Once you trigger the installer you choose Nvidia Proprietary and then pretty much say yes to all the options it will give. Once done just reboot and you should be golden. Updating the drivers in the future should be as easy as just running a newer installer, it's pretty clever these days. This is probably the best write up I've seen on the subject: https://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2021/debian-ubuntu-linux-mint-nvidia-guide/ It's a bit long winded and you don't need to follow it every step but it's a good read to understand what's going on.

For games, make sure the drive you install them on is formatted Linux friendly like ext4. Steam and proton can't read anything else. That's all I can think of for now. You will certainly break everything a few times but don't give up hope.
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Thanks, I finally managed to get the 32bit libraries and the other lib's installed and was able to run the Nvidia driver to install 32bit again without any warning messages. Its a mystery where the 32bit Nvidia libraries went as there is nothing in the folder I specified lol.

I went with the latest production driver 550 as I want stability more than new features.

I was going to say that I am still on the Windows 537.58 drivers still, but looking at control panel they have secretly updated them to 560.94 without warning me :-( Must have been hidden in a Windows update.

Are there any Linux benchmarks I can run to make sure all is working?

I am planning on running a Windows 11 Pro VM on my main rig once I convert it to Debian. What is the situation with TPM and secure boot? Is it possible to run a Windows 11 pro in a VM without any hacks?
 
Rob2D said:
Oh did you know to do: "sudo dpkg -add-architecture i386" ..... I forgot to mention that. It enables 32 bit support on your system.

Yeah 550 should be decent as well. It can be tough to choose. One does not "simply" install Nvidia drivers on Linux ha!

As for benchmarks, all the Unigine benchmarks have Linux versions. So you can give Heaven a spin just like you would on Windows.

Never ran a W11 VM yet, I only need XP/7/10 VM's for work but I'd imagine it shouldn't be too hacky at this stage. I'd expect there's just some option or other you tick for a vTPM or something.
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Can't remember the command I used but system said something along the lines of have i386 as a foreign architecture enabled - I must have set i386 up when installing something else.

Unigine Heaven ran just fine getting average of 70fps at 4K extreme setting. That was until I accidently set it to a full screen res that my monitor could not display....

Is there a key combination like Crl+Alt+Del Task Manager on Windows to terminate a malfunctional app? I had to turn my monitor off and on where it loaded back to desktop, but would not let my pointer leave the black screen box created by Heaven, so had to reboot. Alt tabbing did not work either though it does work on the desktop normally.

I am satisfied that the Nvidia drivers are fully operational :)
 
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Thanks, for my Debian 12 it's "top". A lot of stuff is going on in background, but all the process that belong to me are in the top few lines I think.

I have set up my terminal shortcut to CTL-ALT-T, it's as good as any.

I want to use terminal as much as possible, as I think that is the best way to understand how Linux works, and I think I am getting the basics right.
 
Down another rabbit hole....

Today I have found out that Linux does not like Realtek audio and there are no drivers to fix it!

Audio out works just fine, but line in just won't work, and I have tried everything. To make things worse it causes Tenacity and Audacity to record white noise at one tenth speed.

I found a temporary fix was to use an old USB sound dongle I had lying around, which finally aloud me to record, alas only in mono, but at least it works.

Can anyone suggest a decent USB sound dongle capable of recording in stereo with Linux support? My recording machine is a mini ITX so I can't get a proper sound card.
 
Changed the title as this thread has grown arms and legs.

Firmware is installed and the system can see two ports but none of them works as a line in.

Pulse Audio, which I installed hoping it would help, turned out to be the cause of the slow recording speed. It seams it causes a conflict with ALSA.

I have tried to get Pipewire working but I cannot get the pipewire.service running. I am told the service does not exist even when I can see the config file in the correct place. I have uninstalled it and re-installed it without success.

Also, I managed to kill Gnome desktop somehow with my experiments. I was remoting in via windows, when I remotely restarted the Linux machine I was presented with a tty command line prompt on the Linux machine :-( fortunately I was able to run tasksel from the tty1 line to get it back, and most of my programmes appear to be intact.

Is there a command I could have typed to relaunch GDM? I tried startx but that did not work.

I must remember to run timeshift more often as I thought I was going to lose a couple of hours work.

edit
Appears I should have used "sudo systemctl restart gdm3" never mind I will note that down for future mishaps lol
 
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