The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible

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Visti: Apr 26, 2010

Does anybody here use AwesomeWM? I'm having an odd problem where focused windows' titles in the taskbar are always "Invalid", but it works fine when the clients aren't focused.

# ? Feb 9, 2011 15:35

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# ? Jun 8, 2024 00:25

Keito: Jul 21, 2005; WHAT DO I CHOOSE ?

Visti posted:

I'm having an odd problem where focused windows' titles in the taskbar are always "Invalid", but it works fine when the clients aren't focused.

From that it sounds like you've misconfigured how focused windows' titles are shown.

# ? Feb 10, 2011 08:03

pram: Jun 10, 2001

So I have a bunch of backups that I want to move to folders automatically, does anyone have any ideas on how to accomplish this? I began writing a perl script to do this but I'm just assuming that there has to be something out there that does what I need already.

Basically I have like 10 daily backup tars and a bunch of monthly backups. I just want to keep a year of monthlies in a folder or something and automatically delete the rest when they get old enough. There has to be something that does this right??

# ? Feb 10, 2011 20:43

Bob Morales: Aug 18, 2006; ~~Just wear the fucking mask, Bob~~

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

Pram posted:

So I have a bunch of backups that I want to move to folders automatically, does anyone have any ideas on how to accomplish this? I began writing a perl script to do this but I'm just assuming that there has to be something out there that does what I need already.

Basically I have like 10 daily backup tars and a bunch of monthly backups. I just want to keep a year of monthlies in a folder or something and automatically delete the rest when they get old enough. There has to be something that does this right??

cron job

# ? Feb 10, 2011 20:50

Vulture Culture: Jul 14, 2003; I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.

Pram posted:

So I have a bunch of backups that I want to move to folders automatically, does anyone have any ideas on how to accomplish this? I began writing a perl script to do this but I'm just assuming that there has to be something out there that does what I need already.

Basically I have like 10 daily backup tars and a bunch of monthly backups. I just want to keep a year of monthlies in a folder or something and automatically delete the rest when they get old enough. There has to be something that does this right??

find /path/to/backups -type f -mtime +365 -exec rm -f {} +

# ? Feb 10, 2011 21:00

pram: Jun 10, 2001

Yes thanks I realize you can make a bunch of cron jobs to do this. :thumbsup:

It just seems like there must be some program for keeping files sorted at least.

# ? Feb 10, 2011 21:10

TheGopher: Sep 7, 2009

Misogynist posted:

find /path/to/backups -type f -mtime +365 -exec rm -f {} +

Trying to figure this one out because I haven't used find like this, and I'm curious about a few things:

"-mtime +365" is saying only include files modified more than 365 * 24 hours ago, right? Could I use -mtime -7, for example?

"rm -f {} +" This part I get, delete with no prompt all matching files, but I'm not sure what the '+' is used for here. The examples I see have the curly braces single quoted, but maybe it has to do with the use of the '+'?

# ? Feb 10, 2011 21:30

pram: Jun 10, 2001

TheGopher posted:

Trying to figure this one out because I haven't used find like this, and I'm curious about a few things:

"-mtime +365" is saying only include files modified more than 365 * 24 hours ago, right? Could I use -mtime -7, for example?

"rm -f {} +" This part I get, delete with no prompt all matching files, but I'm not sure what the '+' is used for here. The examples I see have the curly braces single quoted, but maybe it has to do with the use of the '+'?

-mtime -7 would find everything that is <6 days old, and the + just adds everything it finds to the rm command instead of doing rm on every individual file, so its like ls directory | xargs rm -f

# ? Feb 10, 2011 21:38

Turnquiet: Oct 24, 2002; My friend is an eloquent speaker.

Linux greenie here. I am trying to get a script to launch at startup on a OEL server. It needs to do the following:

1)run the following as a service_account
2)export USER_MEM_ARGS="-Xms1024m -Xmx2048m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m"
3)export RBACX_HOME="/u01/app/OIA_11gR1BP01"
4)Launch the startWeblogic.sh script found in /u01/app/weblogic/user_projects/domains/base_domain/

So far I have gotten this to work, and it includes 2-4, but I don't know how to make 1 happen:

code:

export USER_MEM_ARGS="-Xms1024m -Xmx2048m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m"
export RBACX_HOME="/u01/app/OIA_11gR1BP01"
/u01/app/weblogic/user_projects/domains/base_domain/startWeblogic.sh

I have no idea what to put in the first line to get it to start all those commands as the service account used to install and manage weblogic. I will also be writing a script that launches the stopWeblogic.sh script in the $WLHOME directory.

To get it to start and stop, I am creating a S99weblogic_start file in /etc/rc2.d and symbolic link it to the script referenced above, which is going to be placed in /etc/init.d/. To get weblogic to exit gracefully, I will create a stop script in init.d which will have a symbolic link to a K99weblogic_stop rc6.d file.

Any major flaws in my plan? My first guess is yes since I am very, very new at this.

# ? Feb 10, 2011 23:15

Grey Area: Sep 9, 2000; Battle Without Honor or Humanity

On RHEL you can use the daemon function in /etc/init.d/functions

code:

. /etc/init.d/function

daemon --user=my_user my_cmd

in your init.d script and put the actual script in a separate file outside init.d

You can look at the scripts in /etc/init.d to see how you use it.

edit: It's best to use chkconfig to create the links in the rc?.d directories so you con't gently caress it up.

# ? Feb 11, 2011 10:31

Eggnogium: Jun 1, 2010; Never give an inch! Hnnnghhhhhh!

I'm trying to do an assignment for my Operating Systems class where we use POSIX threads to parallelize matrix multiplication. I'm running Windows, so my best two options are to run a virtual linux machine or to try and run it through SSH on my school's linux server. I've got some questions about the virtualization option in the virtualization thread, so my questions here are about the second.

When I try to run my code on my school's linux server, I get a segmentation fault as soon as I start using more than 64 threads (the next value my program uses is 256). I've spent about an hour trying to track down the problem in my program but it's proving to be extremely effusive. So I'm wondering if the server admins somehow capped the maximum number of POSIX threads that can run per process. Is this possible for them to do? If so would it show up as a segmentation fault when that number is breached? And if so is there some way I could check (through SSH)? I'd rather avoid contacting the server admins directly as my school is pretty large and I doubt they'd get back to me soon enough to be helpful.

# ? Feb 11, 2011 18:37

Bob Morales: Aug 18, 2006; ~~Just wear the fucking mask, Bob~~

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

Eggnogium posted:

I'm trying to do an assignment for my Operating Systems class where we use POSIX threads to parallelize matrix multiplication. I'm running Windows, so my best two options are to run a virtual linux machine or to try and run it through SSH on my school's linux server. I've got some questions about the virtualization option in the virtualization thread, so my questions here are about the second.

When I try to run my code on my school's linux server, I get a segmentation fault as soon as I start using more than 64 threads (the next value my program uses is 256). I've spent about an hour trying to track down the problem in my program but it's proving to be extremely effusive. So I'm wondering if the server admins somehow capped the maximum number of POSIX threads that can run per process. Is this possible for them to do? If so would it show up as a segmentation fault when that number is breached? And if so is there some way I could check (through SSH)? I'd rather avoid contacting the server admins directly as my school is pretty large and I doubt they'd get back to me soon enough to be helpful.

I don't think you can limit threads, just processes. You probably have a memory leak or the stack is getting messed up. Go in #c on Freenode or post in the Cavern of Cobol.

What does 'ulimit -a' give you for output?

# ? Feb 11, 2011 19:00

Erasmus Darwin: Mar 6, 2001

Eggnogium posted:

So I'm wondering if the server admins somehow capped the maximum number of POSIX threads that can run per process. Is this possible for them to do? If so would it show up as a segmentation fault when that number is breached?

How's your error handling? From the pthread_create manpage:

quote:

If pthread_create() fails, no new thread is created and the contents of the location referenced by thread are undefined.

So if you don't check pthread_create failure, you'll be working with an undefined pointer, and the process will seg fault sooner or later.

Also, from the same manpage:

quote:

ERRORS
The pthread_create() function shall fail if:

EAGAIN The system lacked the necessary resources to create another
thread, or the system-imposed limit on the total number of
threads in a process {PTHREAD_THREADS_MAX} would be exceeded.

# ? Feb 11, 2011 19:06

Eggnogium: Jun 1, 2010; Never give an inch! Hnnnghhhhhh!

Erasmus Darwin posted:

How's your error handling? From the pthread_create manpage:

So if you don't check pthread_create failure, you'll be working with an undefined pointer, and the process will seg fault sooner or later.

I think I'm handling this case:

code:

int rc = pthread_create(&T[i], &attr, threadMain, (void*) &P[i]);
if(rc)
{
	printf("ERROR; return code from pthread_create was %d\n", rc);
	exit(-1);
}

Erasmus Darwin posted:

Also, from the same manpage:

I did some digging to try to find PTHREAD_THREADS_MAX and I did find these lines in /usr/include/bits/local_lim.h

code:

/* The number of threads per process.  */
#define _POSIX_THREAD_THREADS_MAX       64
/* We have no predefined limit on the number of threads.  */
#undef PTHREAD_THREADS_MAX

I'm assuming that first #define means I'm just poo poo out of luck.

Edit: Now I'm even more confused, because I wrote a simple test program to create 256 threads that do nada and it ran just fine. This points to a problem in my code but it still doesn't square that it runs fine on my virtual machine.

code:

#include <pthread.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

pthread_t threads[256];

	
void *thread_main(void * arg)
{
	sleep(10);
}

int main()
{
	int i;
	for(i = 0; i < 256; i++)
	{
		pthread_attr_t attribs;
		pthread_attr_init(&attribs);
		pthread_create(&threads[i], &attribs, thread_main, NULL);
	}
	
	for(i = 0; i < 256; i++)
	{
		void* status;
		int rc = pthread_join(threads[i], &status);
	}
}

Eggnogium fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Feb 11, 2011

# ? Feb 11, 2011 19:49

covener: Jan 10, 2004; You know, for kids!

Try limiting the default pthread stack size by running with e.g. ulimit -s 1024.

Linux uses ulimit -s as the minimum, and 8-10MB if ulimit -s is unlimited! The pthread API for this set's a guaranteed minimum, but does not actually reduce the big value if that's the default.

# ? Feb 11, 2011 20:05

Eggnogium: Jun 1, 2010; Never give an inch! Hnnnghhhhhh!

covener posted:

Try limiting the default pthread stack size by running with e.g. ulimit -s 1024.

Linux uses ulimit -s as the minimum, and 8-10MB if ulimit -s is unlimited! The pthread API for this set's a guaranteed minimum, but does not actually reduce the big value if that's the default.

Perfect. This fixed it! Thanks a ton, everyone!

# ? Feb 11, 2011 20:09

alexnessie: Jun 12, 2005; [.........Elysium.........]

Ubuntu thread is too quiet to post this, and it's not important enough for HOTS, so I'm hoping I can ask this here quickly.

I'm not the greatest at linux, so please post your fixes as if you were speaking to an idiot.

I installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my netbook last night, everything worked flawlessly, wifi and sound especially, and then I went to bed.

Today I couldn't connect to my wifi, and I remember a couple of things I've owned wouldn't connect unless I gave them a static IP.

I went into edit connections, then the IPv4 tab for that connection.

I set it like this:
Address : 192.168.2.69
Netmask : 255.255.255.0
Gateway : 192.168.2.1
DNS servers : 192.168.2.1
Search Domains : 192.168.2.1

Now it connects to the network (supposedly) but I can't do anything online, even trying to go to 192.168.2.1 in firefox (my router) results in "server not responding"

Any idea how I unfuck this guys? Any more info you need just ask.

Edit: Apparently this situation has unfucked itself without me doing anything.

alexnessie fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Feb 11, 2011

# ? Feb 11, 2011 21:44

Turnquiet: Oct 24, 2002; My friend is an eloquent speaker.

Re: my weblogic startup script. After some tweaking, I have it set to respond to start/stop commands, and enabled logging. The issue is it does not work. It displays "Starting Webloig..." then nothing.

code:

#!/bin/sh
#
# weblogic start and shutdown
#
# Bootup and shutdown script
#
# /etc/init.d/weblogic
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:       weblogic
# Required-Start: $network $nfs $informix
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start:  2 3 5
# Default-Stop:
# Description:    Start weblogic server
### END INIT INFO
 
trap "exit 255" 1 2 3           # ignore signals
 
WL_HOME=/u01/app/weblogic/user_projects/domains/base_domain
export USER_MEM_ARGS="-Xms1024m -Xmx2048m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m"
export RBACX_HOME="/u01/app/OIA_11gR1BP01"

case $1 in
'start')
        echo "Starting weblogic..."
        #
        # have the system run out of /u01/app/weblogic/user_projects/domains/base_domain
        #
        # start weblogic as svc_oia
        #
       su - svc_oia -c "$WL_HOME/startWebLogic.sh ALL >${WL_HOME}/logs/boot.log 2>&1" &
    ;;
'stop')
        echo "Stopping weblogic..."
       su - svc_oia -c "$WL_HOME/bin/stopWebLogic.sh ALL >${WL_HOME}/logs/stop.log 2>&1"
    ;;
*)
        echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop}"
    ;;
esac

I may just be missing a character somewhere, but I am starting to get crosseyed. Is there a log or something I can check for results when root runs this script?

# ? Feb 11, 2011 21:59

other people: Jun 27, 2004; Associate Christ

alexnessie posted:

Ubuntu thread is too quiet to post this, and it's not important enough for HOTS, so I'm hoping I can ask this here quickly.

I'm not the greatest at linux, so please post your fixes as if you were speaking to an idiot.

I installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my netbook last night, everything worked flawlessly, wifi and sound especially, and then I went to bed.

Today I couldn't connect to my wifi, and I remember a couple of things I've owned wouldn't connect unless I gave them a static IP.

I went into edit connections, then the IPv4 tab for that connection.

I set it like this:
Address : 192.168.2.69
Netmask : 255.255.255.0
Gateway : 192.168.2.1
DNS servers : 192.168.2.1
Search Domains : 192.168.2.1

Now it connects to the network (supposedly) but I can't do anything online, even trying to go to 192.168.2.1 in firefox (my router) results in "server not responding"

Any idea how I unfuck this guys? Any more info you need just ask.

Those seem like reasonable settings to me, nothing is jumping out.

I hate when people do this to me, but may I suggest you instead work on configuring the router correctly for DHCP so that you don't have to deal with this problem every time you connect a new device?

Can you reach 192.168.2.1 (your router, I hope) in your browser, and can you ping other machines on the network?

Did you try removing the "connection" from your network settings in ubuntu and letting it rediscover the network?

# ? Feb 11, 2011 22:00

other people: Jun 27, 2004; Associate Christ

I just came home with a new Brother HL-2270DW wireless laser printer :o. It had linux drivers, but I see now (per the instructions) that to connect it to a wireless network, you have to configure it by plugging it in via usb to either a windows or mac. Oops.

Does anyone know if there is a way to do this from within linux? Google is not offering much help.

# ? Feb 11, 2011 22:01

c0burn: Sep 2, 2003; The KKKing

Kaluza-Klein posted:

I just came home with a new Brother HL-2270DW wireless laser printer :o. It had linux drivers, but I see now (per the instructions) that to connect it to a wireless network, you have to configure it by plugging it in via usb to either a windows or mac. Oops.

Does anyone know if there is a way to do this from within linux? Google is not offering much help.

Virtualbox with USB passthrough and an XP install?

# ? Feb 11, 2011 22:12

alexnessie: Jun 12, 2005; [.........Elysium.........]

Kaluza-Klein posted:

Those seem like reasonable settings to me, nothing is jumping out.

I hate when people do this to me, but may I suggest you instead work on configuring the router correctly for DHCP so that you don't have to deal with this problem every time you connect a new device?

Can you reach 192.168.2.1 (your router, I hope) in your browser, and can you ping other machines on the network?

Did you try removing the "connection" from your network settings in ubuntu and letting it rediscover the network?

It's not every new device, some work fine, some go mental, but I'll look into that.

In the time it's taken for a response, the netbook started working fine online, the pc I used to type that post stopped connecting, I said "gently caress it" and restarted everything (pc, netbook, router) and suddenly it's all working fine, so I guess thanks for the late help but it's fixed.

# ? Feb 11, 2011 22:13

enotnert: Jun 10, 2005; Only women bleed

Kaluza-Klein posted:

I just came home with a new Brother HL-2270DW wireless laser printer :o. It had linux drivers, but I see now (per the instructions) that to connect it to a wireless network, you have to configure it by plugging it in via usb to either a windows or mac. Oops.

Does anyone know if there is a way to do this from within linux? Google is not offering much help.

Way I do this is connect it to the wire to begin with, check what just pulled an IP, then connect to that IPs webpage and configger.

# ? Feb 11, 2011 22:22

other people: Jun 27, 2004; Associate Christ

I got it, thanks!

How do I want to connect this thing? LPD, IPP, JetDirect, etc? Is one better?

# ? Feb 11, 2011 23:01

enotnert: Jun 10, 2005; Only women bleed

Kaluza-Klein posted:

I got it, thanks!

How do I want to connect this thing? LPD, IPP, JetDirect, etc? Is one better?

I use lpd. . . good n simple, just remember brothers due that crazy queue name of binary_1 or something

# ? Feb 12, 2011 02:29

ShizCakes: Jul 16, 2001; BANNED

Turnquiet posted:

code:

#!/bin/sh
#
# weblogic start and shutdown
#
# Bootup and shutdown script
#
# /etc/init.d/weblogic
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:       weblogic
# Required-Start: $network $nfs $informix
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start:  2 3 5
# Default-Stop:
# Description:    Start weblogic server
### END INIT INFO
 
trap "exit 255" 1 2 3           # ignore signals
 
WL_HOME=/u01/app/weblogic/user_projects/domains/base_domain
export USER_MEM_ARGS="-Xms1024m -Xmx2048m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m"
export RBACX_HOME="/u01/app/OIA_11gR1BP01"

case $1 in
'start')
        echo "Starting weblogic..."
        #
        # have the system run out of /u01/app/weblogic/user_projects/domains/base_domain
        #
        # start weblogic as svc_oia
        #
       su - svc_oia -c "$WL_HOME/startWebLogic.sh ALL >${WL_HOME}/logs/boot.log 2>&1" &
    ;;
'stop')
        echo "Stopping weblogic..."
       su - svc_oia -c "$WL_HOME/bin/stopWebLogic.sh ALL >${WL_HOME}/logs/stop.log 2>&1"
    ;;
*)
        echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop}"
    ;;
esac

I may just be missing a character somewhere, but I am starting to get crosseyed. Is there a log or something I can check for results when root runs this script?

Remove the `-` from the su command, the presence of which causes you to run your command in a login shell, which has the effect of dropping your environment variables. So the command would be:

code:

su svc_oia -c "$WL_HOME/startWebLogic.sh ALL >${WL_HOME}/logs/boot.log 2>&1" &

# ? Feb 12, 2011 04:11

angrytech: Jun 26, 2009

I'm trying to write a bash script that mounts a smb share. Unfortunately the documentation for gvfs-mount doesn't mention any command line flags to provide it with a username or password.
In a nutshell: I'm trying to automate mounting an smb share that is secured via AD credentials. However, the linux systems are not bound to the domain, so using samba seems to be out of the question.
I've chosen gvfs because I've been told that it's the "correct" way to mount network locations in mint, but I'm not married to it.
Does anyone have any pointers?

angrytech fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Feb 12, 2011

# ? Feb 12, 2011 18:49

enotnert: Jun 10, 2005; Only women bleed

angrytech posted:

I'm trying to write a bash script that mounts a smb share. Unfortunately the documentation for gvfs-mount doesn't mention any command line flags to provide it with a username or password.
In a nutshell: I'm trying to automate mounting an smb share that is secured via AD credentials. However, the linux systems are not bound to the domain, so using samba seems to be out of the question.
I've chosen gvfs because I've been told that it's the "correct" way to mount network locations in mint, but I'm not married to it.
Does anyone have any pointers?

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=42713

Worked for me in a test, work for you?

# ? Feb 12, 2011 21:04

waffle iron: Jan 16, 2004

Try installing and running Gigolo to mount the device. Then right click on the connection and select "Copy URI". That should give you something you can use. I don't have any SMB servers I can test, but it's going to look something like smb://username:password@HOST/PATH. I'm not sure where the domain comes in.

# ? Feb 12, 2011 21:53

haunted bong: Jun 24, 2007

I recently decided to hop back into Linux, and after downloading and installing the most recent Ubuntu distro, I've noticed that my wireless internet connection is, well, utter crap. Going from being as quick as it is in Windows, to slower than dialup, to randomly disconnecting. I've googled around and my USB adapter is supposed to be something that works "Out of the Box" (It's a Belkin F5D8053v4), and I am pretty much at my wits' end. Does anybody have any experience with this, and furthermore, can give me some tips?

# ? Feb 13, 2011 17:39

other people: Jun 27, 2004; Associate Christ

Has anyone tried ubuntu 11.04 yet? As far as I can tell, it is impossible to use nvidia drivers at the moment, making it a bit of a dead end right now. Does anyone know different?

# ? Feb 13, 2011 18:55

Takes No Damage: Nov 20, 2004; The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.; Grimey Drawer

Setting up Baby's First Linux Box here. I've recently taken a job at a telecom company where I have to mess around in servers at data centers. So now I'm doing things like ssh-ing between two Cisco routers so I can vi into /etc/hosts and change domain and IP information. Just a few weeks ago that sentence would have been totally Greek to me.

So I want to take a junky old PC from 2007 up to work and put Linux on it just to give me a way to become more familiar in the OS and I wanted to ask if there was any flavor of Linux that would be better for this than another. I'm looking for something with a balance between being user friendly enough so I'm not completely lost, but still be 'Linux' enough so I become more comfortable having to mess around in the console. I did make a Knoppix LiveCD last week and booted my laptop with it just to mess around but I didn't get very far.

# ? Feb 13, 2011 23:10

other people: Jun 27, 2004; Associate Christ

Takes No Damage posted:

Setting up Baby's First Linux Box here. I've recently taken a job at a telecom company where I have to mess around in servers at data centers. So now I'm doing things like ssh-ing between two Cisco routers so I can vi into /etc/hosts and change domain and IP information. Just a few weeks ago that sentence would have been totally Greek to me.

So I want to take a junky old PC from 2007 up to work and put Linux on it just to give me a way to become more familiar in the OS and I wanted to ask if there was any flavor of Linux that would be better for this than another. I'm looking for something with a balance between being user friendly enough so I'm not completely lost, but still be 'Linux' enough so I become more comfortable having to mess around in the console. I did make a Knoppix LiveCD last week and booted my laptop with it just to mess around but I didn't get very far.

Debian is what I think of as "standard" linux, in that it isn't trying to be super user-friendly (like ubuntu), but it also doesn't go out of its way to be a pain in the rear end (unless you want to listen to an mp3 :lol:

# ? Feb 13, 2011 23:33

Vulture Culture: Jul 14, 2003; I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.

Kaluza-Klein posted:

Debian is what I think of as "standard" linux, in that it isn't trying to be super user-friendly (like ubuntu), but it also doesn't go out of its way to be a pain in the rear end (unless you want to listen to an mp3 ).

To clarify what this fellow means by "unless you want to listen to an mp3," Debian is a distribution very heavily adhering to the tenets of the free software movement, so they don't distribute any patent-encumbered codecs like MP3 or H.264 in their default repositories. This may occasionally bite you.

# ? Feb 13, 2011 23:47

darkhand: Jan 18, 2010; This beard just won't do!

Another nice thing about debian (from what I've seen) a lot of ubuntu problems/fixes are nearly identical. And since both debian and ubuntu have pretty fantastic support networks and documentation, a lot of common problems you come across can easily be fixed by googling.

# ? Feb 13, 2011 23:53

Takes No Damage: Nov 20, 2004; The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.; Grimey Drawer

Yeah I can see that being an issue for someone trying to use it as their 'standard' desktop. It's less of an issue for me since this is more a science experiment for me than anything, I'm definitely hanging on to my Win7 box

Figure I'll get LiveCDs of Fedora, Debain and Ubuntu (or maybe SUSE aaah so many) and see if anything clicks for me. Regardless I'll still be doing network config and program installs and scripting through the terminal so I'll still get my Linux Experience^TM, correct?

# ? Feb 13, 2011 23:57

darkhand: Jan 18, 2010; This beard just won't do!

With the rise of ubuntu a lot of configuration has been abstracted into GUI interfaces and the GUIs have spread into other distros. With that said, most anything in a GUI can be done through scripting or a terminal, so you get the best of both worlds.

It really is a great time to get into linux because it's never been easier, and once you learn the conventions you can switch distros at the drop of a hat, compounding your knowledge.

# ? Feb 14, 2011 00:03

FISHMANPET: Mar 3, 2007; Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams

angrytech posted:

I'm trying to write a bash script that mounts a smb share. Unfortunately the documentation for gvfs-mount doesn't mention any command line flags to provide it with a username or password.
In a nutshell: I'm trying to automate mounting an smb share that is secured via AD credentials. However, the linux systems are not bound to the domain, so using samba seems to be out of the question.
I've chosen gvfs because I've been told that it's the "correct" way to mount network locations in mint, but I'm not married to it.
Does anyone have any pointers?

This works for me in Ubuntu so it should work in Mint too:

sudo mount -t cifs //computer/ISOs/ /crap -o user=domain/user%password
This uses the smbfs package. You can check the manpage for mount.cifs to see all the ways you can pass usernames and passwords.

# ? Feb 14, 2011 00:22

Bob Morales: Aug 18, 2006; ~~Just wear the fucking mask, Bob~~

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

Takes No Damage posted:

Figure I'll get LiveCDs of Fedora, Debain and Ubuntu (or maybe SUSE aaah so many) and see if anything clicks for me. Regardless I'll still be doing network config and program installs and scripting through the terminal so I'll still get my Linux Experience^TM, correct?

A good exercise to do in different distributions is to install the dev tools and build a couple things like Gimp, Apache, and Qt. Then install (without looking at a walk-through on the distributions website) LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and get a simple website going using phpBB or gallery or another popular package.

You'll get a good view of how things are done differently between them, from file locations, starting/stopping services, basic configuration, package installation...

Misogynist posted:

To clarify what this fellow means by "unless you want to listen to an mp3," Debian is a distribution very heavily adhering to the tenets of the free software movement, so they don't distribute any patent-encumbered codecs like MP3 or H.264 in their default repositories. This may occasionally bite you.

Same goes for Fedora. But installing MP3 support is usually as simple as adding a non-free repository or apt source and then installing a package.

# ? Feb 14, 2011 01:34

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# ? Jun 8, 2024 00:25

some kinda jackal: Feb 25, 2003; �
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Is there a good way to pare down the "amazing poo poo" opensuse installs? I am building a computer for my mom at my dad's request after her Mac started failing, but I have this sinking feeling that if I let her loose on opensuse the way it is I'm literally going to be on the phone with her every five minutes trying to explain something.

Stipulation is that it'll be opensuse because that's what my dad "knows" and he won't hear anything against it. If I tell him to just build it since he knows about opensuse, he'll build it his way and they're basically going to murder each other because my mom is a technophobe and needs a five minute talk through of how to move a mouse to launch firefox, and my dad will just tell her to browse for Firefox among the other 200 apps installed on the system and will get upset when she can't find it, etc etc.

Things like the plasma desktop, the dozens of icons in the tray, the multiple desktops -- all have to go. Ideally I would like to make the experience as simple as possible, and remove any chance of her clicking something and being taken to some desktop, or opening some widget window -- hopefully you guys know where I'm going with this.

Like ideally I would love to recreate as much of the mac "experience" as I can, a dock-ish thing with four launchers for an email client, a web browser, and a photo manager.

I have literally not used Linux on a desktop since like 2003 or so, so when I installed openSuse I was pretty blown away by all the whiz-bang that they've added.

I hope this doesn't come across as combattive or anything. I really enjoy Linux on the server side of things, and I'm not looking to start any debate on the usability of Linux as a desktop, just some advice to help me pare down the features in Suse for my technophobe mom

# ? Feb 14, 2011 02:02

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible

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