Switching from Windows to Linux: Sharing My Experience and Lessons Learned

4 hrs later and I am back up and running for the 21st time.

I think the problem was nouveau, its always nouveau :-(

Anyhow I have blacklisted nouveau and hopefully won't be a problem going forward.

  1. sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf
  2. blacklist nouveau
    options nouveau modeset=0
  3. Ctrl O then Ctrl X
  4. sudo update-initramfs -u
  5. sudo reboot

Verify the blacklist​

After rebooting, you can verify that the nouveau module is blacklisted by running:
lsmod | grep nouveau
This should not list the nouveau module as loaded.

Edit: Action number 4 is really important so I have put it in bold
 
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I consider myself really lucky, I hear some horror stories, but ran a 3080Ti for ages with the default nvidia drivers on Ubuntu and never had any issues. Even gamed through Steam/Proton and Lutris for Battlenet.

Still have that install, but rarely use that PC any more as I don't get much time to play games these days.
 
Removing the nouveau drivers caused the online account window in settings from rendering the log on screen for Google and MS accounts.

to fix

sudo WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 gnome-control-center online-accounts

and all is well again :-)

Edit its not a permanent fix - you have to run the command every time you want to add an online account.

It works with other gnome online account windows too.

in the case of onedriver
sudo WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 /usr/bin/onedriver /Mount point/

Edit 2: Its not a fix as everything is setup as root and not user. Don't think there is a work around other than setting up everything before black listing nouveau.
 
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A bit of a problem...
"sudo WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 /usr/bin/onedriver-launcher" runs the onedriver GUI as root as I am sure you know.
I need to run it with "WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1" as a user.
Is this possible? At the moment I can only access my files as root :-(

Edit:
:-) I just had to use "onedriver -a --no-browser /path/ to/ mount/" and I was able to complete setup :cool:
 
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Looks like I made things difficult for myself.

Don't download the first Nvidia drivers from nvidia.com instead install the drivers from the repository.
I followed this thread and it installed an older driver but also did a huge load of configuration as well as disabling nouveau correctly without breaking the Gnome settings.

Edit: I thought I might have been able to manually upgrade the drivers after installing the repo version, but the Nvidia installer is having none of it. My previous work around's to get drivers for the 3090 installed did not work for the 4090 and resulted in a black screen every time. Looks like I will just have to wait for the repository to get updated.

Anyway that's all three of my PC's now running Linux so I am committed now.

Edit 2: I found a solution further down.
 
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Here's another option if anyone wants a Debian based distribution with more packages configured from first installation;

PikaOS Linux

Welcome to PikaOS Linux!
wiki.pika-os.com wiki.pika-os.com

Looks quite featured, though not used it myself.
 
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The issue with installing software in the video looked like he had an update of the system already going on (the could not get "lock" error), patience or a reboot would have sorted it.

Though I understand Da Vinci Resolve can be a pig to install in any case.

Edit - Obvs there is a lot going on for comic effect :)
 
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LOL Locked out root again trying to get my RAID volume mounted without having to enter a password every time I restart :rolleyes:

Edit: Managed to undo the edit to fstab by using the Debian live USB.

Back in business :-)
 
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You should be able to add a fstab entry that calls a credentials file containing your username and password. At least I do that when mounting a network SMB share. Not sure what your RAID volume is though.
 
I have been using a programme called Gigolo to mount SMB shares automatically but have not been able to work out how to get the location URI for mounting physical disks. I thought I would try adding the RAID volume to the fstab file but it seems a bit overly sensitive if not done correctly. I will look into creating a credential file as I may help me learn how to format the entry on fstab properly.

The RAID voulume is a Highpoint RocketRAID 840 SATA Controller card I bought several years ago. At the time I thought it would be cool to see how fast I could get 16 SSD's going in an array. Turns out it was around 7GB/s which is nothing today, but I thought it was stupidly fast at the time maxing out a PCIe gen3x8 connection. The controller is so fast it could do it in RAID5 without it slowing down. I still run the array today with 500GB SSD's as they are as cheap as chips and I have only had 2 disks fail, and I have never lost data.

Going to Linux has been problematic for the card as it is only supported up to Debian 11, however the driver works partially but it can't handle sleep states. Randomly the WebGUI will report all disks have failed after a wake event requiring me to reboot to get the disks back in full working order.

I am going to try to re-configure the card as a HBA and try to set it up with ZFS in a Z2 vdev. Its a bit risky as the card does not support IT mode but I don't currently have any data on the drive. If it doesn't work, I have ordered an LSI SAS 9300-16I to do the job properly.

Edit: Highpoint support just confirmed the linux driver does not support sleep at present. This is a known limitation.
 
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How is your RAID formatted?

If you take a look in /dev/disk/by-id and /dev/disk/by-uuid you should be able to see the disks and any partitions. Find the UUID for the RAID partition and use that in fstab to mount it.

That's how it works for the most part but it can vary for different filesystems.
 
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