Linux

15356 readers

118 users here now

Welcome to c/linux!

Welcome to our thriving Linux community! Whether you're a seasoned Linux enthusiast or just starting your journey, we're excited to have you here. Explore, learn, and collaborate with like-minded individuals who share a passion for open-source software and the endless possibilities it offers. Together, let's dive into the world of Linux and embrace the power of freedom, customization, and innovation. Enjoy your stay and feel free to join the vibrant discussions that await you!

Rules:

Stay on topic: Posts and discussions should be related to Linux, open source software, and related technologies.
Be respectful: Treat fellow community members with respect and courtesy.
Quality over quantity: Share informative and thought-provoking content.
No spam or self-promotion: Avoid excessive self-promotion or spamming.
No NSFW adult content
Follow general lemmy guidelines.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world

Learning fixes without looking everything up or having the answer given outright (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.world

46 comments fedilink hide all child comments

How do you guys actually learn how to fix certain things? Its mind boggling how one can visit a forum and there's people saying "oh yeah just run -c xhhkrk ()<>[] bbbhjl and that will fix your sound issue"

Like WHERE do you even start? I hate having to look things up all the time when everyone else on windows "just works". Copying commands off forums endlessly doesn't really help you learn.

Example, installed cachyos on an older laptop, but sound and screen dimming will not work. I have no ides where to even begin with that. I feel like a windows user could at least poke around control panel and probably fix the issue but its way harder with linux.

I have had luck with almost everything working with mint on my desktop (except vr, oculus is a nighmare to get working) and have been running that about a year. If I had to set it all up again id have to re look up everything I forgot since then..

If there was something like man but easier to parse through, that would be immensely helpful. Like for my sound issue, if there was a better organized manual that I could look under "sound" and see the inner workings laid out and common issues, thats what we need. Otherwise people are going to be terrified of linux because its so hard.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

First always take notes of the steps you took to do something. If you were throwing shit at the wall then try and do it again using only the correct steps. I have saved my own ass by taking down notes. Include the commands (obviously), what they do, why you're using them, the expected output, and errors you came across with their solutions.

Since you said you wanted man pages to be easier to parse, I'll give you some advice on how to approach these, admittly, intimidating blocks of text. One skill I have learned is how to read those intimidating technical documents and actually get the information I need from them. A good practice is take a tool, a programming language, data format, etc. that you already know and look at the technical specifications. Since you already know how it works you should be able to understand the information in there, and learn how to parse out that data. RFC 2119 also gives some guidance on some of the word usage in those documents (it's very limited), and is a nice short one to get used to reading stuff like that.

Another thing is I just try shit out to see what happens. Would probably be a good idea to do this on a machine you don't care about reimaging, or make a backup of all the data you care about losing. I'm a very learn by doing kind of person and have learned a lot this way

Finally if you have the time and knowledge looking at source code can really give you an understanding of how a tool works. This is my absolute last resort, so don't think you have to do this.

Edit: I wrote this assuming you're ok with getting into the nitty gritty of Linux. Otherwise I would recommend switching to a more user friendly OS. It looks like you're trying to set it up for gaming, this is a guess and I could be wrong. I have been using Bazzite for about 6 months now, and the only times I have issues with it is when I try to do power user stuff that isn't gaming related (e.g. trying to install a build tool to build something from source code).

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I do take notes just in the stock notepad program.

No I do enjoy messing around. My main desktop has mint and its been a good mix of gui and terminal stuff to get it to do what I need. Really no issues except vr which is stupid oculus fault anyway.

I just dont know where to start or how to apply things ive learned from some of the site others have posted. I couldn't ever do this with math either so it's probably just a learning disability. Once something gets complex my brain refuses to continue processing.

I just would like some stuff to be a little more straightforward. Such as, seeing what programs are actually installed. This is ridiculously harder than it needs to be unfortunately. I also have to help the SO with these issues and I usually just end up having to look it up and go well I guess linux does this differently, that sucks. Or seeing what program is being used for audio- i dont know where to even start for that because I cant come up with a command out of the blue.

[–] chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

The place to start is searching "How to do x in Linux (or the name of the specific distro you're using)?". If you are trying to figure out how to do something with a specific program searching for "How to do x in {program} on Linux?". I've been using Linux for years and still need to look up the syntax for commands or a reminder on how to do things. I would also focus on learning things that you actively need so you can apply what you learned immediately. I definitely agree with you that see what is actually installed can be a mess. There's so many different installation methods that it's nigh impossible to have a single unified interface. I would try to stick with one installation method as much as possible so most things are able to be listed in one spot.

For how to apply things it's common to feel overwhelmed with the complexity of certain tasks. It's important to try and break that down into smaller parts. An example of something I was recently dealing with was getting SSH access from an external network setup on a server that is running NixOS. There's so many steps to take to get that setup, but each individual step is easy to do. I broke down the problem like this:

Find the server's local IP address. Easy to pull up on the machine itself or looking at the devices connected to my router.
Ping that IP address from the computer I want to SSH from.
Enable the SSH daemon on the server.
1. In my case this was just settings a variable to true, but in most cases it would be installing if via a package manager (varies depending on the distro), but I run Fedora so I would run sudo dnf install openssh openssh-server. I can find those package names by running dnf search ssh or "SSH server on fedora".
2. Ensure the SSH daemon is enabled and running by running sudo systemctl enable sshd and sudo systemctl start sshd
Try to SSH into the server from the computer I want to use.
Create some SSH keys so I can do authentication via a private key file instead of a password (much more secure, and good practice).

I can go on, but each step I feel is simple to execute and doesn't require knowledge from any subsequent step. As for how I know what the steps are, I am following some tutorials or docs online like this, digging through man pages, and personal experience.