Ultimate Linux Guide

[Gachr]

THE TUTORIAL IS BEING WORKED ON, SO SOME INFORMATION HERE MIGHT BE INACCURATE OR WRONG, I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE THAT YOU'VE DONE FOLLOWING THIS TUTORIAL

 

The Main Tutorial

Introduction

1. What is Linux?

The very basic question. If you were interested, you probably looked it up on wikipedia:

"Linux (Listeni/ˈlɪnəks/ LIN-uks or, less frequently used, /ˈlaɪnəks/ LYN-uks) is a Unix-like and mostly POSIX-compliant computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open-source software development and distribution. The defining component of Linux is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on 5 October 1991 by Linus Torvalds."

And probably finished your research on this, not helpful at all, isn't it? Well, I'm going to make it easier

 

Linux is a kernel, so very basic part of an operating system. There isn't the original "Linux" OS, just systems based on it, the whole family is called the Linux OS family, which includes hundreds of systems. In this guide, I'll be referring to any Linux system as just "Linux".

Don't worry about it though, you don't need to know exactly what it is to use it

But I'll go a bit advanced considering the fact that this is a PC-enthusiast forum.

 

2. - I never heard of it...

- Like I said before, you don't need to know what it is to use it. You use it everyday without knowing.

- Whaaa? But I use Windows on my PC!

- Yes, but what do you use on your phone?

- Android.
- It is the most popular mobile OS, and it is based on Linux.

- But Android is very buggy in many ways.

- Yes, it uses the advantages of Linux but it doesn't really follow the Linux path. Personally, I think it is a disgrace for the whole Linux community.

 

- Where else is it used?

- Routers, smart TVs, cars, fridges, printers at your home. In public places things like display boards are using Linux as well.

 

3. Why would I want to use it on my PC?

There are a lot of reasons, depends what you expect from your PC. Most people will be able to use only Linux as their daily driver. You can always have Windows and Linux side by side, most people do that, I did as well.

Those are the reasons why I use it, they are also one of the biggest advantages of Linux systems:

1. 100% free to use, there are some distros (systems) which cost, but I won't talk about those, at least for now..

2. Completely free from viruses and bloatware (ask bar FTW!). It is completely safe. Well, as long as you don't do anything stupid.

3. A lot of great, free software.

4. Way better performance. If you really want, you can make your system take up less than 200MB of RAM at startup, of course with GUI. Also games work way better (I got way more FPS in Metro:LL on Linux that on Windows).

 

Other reasons why you might want to use Linux:

1. Very high customizablity.

2. You can just go with CLI.

3. You are a Mac user who uses a PC and wants something more like OSX than Windows. (OSX and Linux are very similar!)

 

Reasons why you might not want to use Linux:

1. Software which you use isn't available on Linux. (there is a lot of alternative software though)

2. Your hardware doesn't work with Linux. (mostly sound cards and little things like that)

 

4. How do I get it then?

Like I said before, there are a lot of different Linux systems out there. The most popular (it's losing its popularity though) is Ubuntu. While it was the most user-friendly and easy distros since its release in 2004, it has gone bad. Canonical, the company which was behind Ubuntu began to tell users what they should do and began to make money on Ubuntu, a lot of people didn't like it. They don't put too much care to the system as well. What should you use then?

A distribution (distro) that is really good and user friendly is Linux Mint, almost everything works out of the box, it is very reliable. It is based on Ubuntu, but Mint developers fix a lot of things and make the whole distro way more stable.

It is the best everyone-friendly distro out there in my opinion, I'll be using it for the rest of the guide.

 

Distros come with different environments, so saying it simpler - GUIs. There are a lot of them out there, Mint uses an environment called Cinnamon, it is one of my favorites, but also comes with more customizable MATE. Cinnamon is a "child" of GNOME3, which is another one. Mint comes in less popular KDE and XFCE editions, which are next environments. Well, for now, let's stick with very user-friendly and similar to Windows Cinnamon.

 

Installation

PICTURES COMING SOON

First of all, we need something to install the system from. Some time ago you were able to get some free CDs, but those times are over.

You'll need a DVD or a flash drive. While most people these days use flash drives for their Linux installations, I'm old-fashioned and I use DVDs. I personally used UNetbootin for installations from a flash drive. For doing it from a DVD, use any program that is able to write an ISO onto a disc, if you're using Windows, you can use the stock Windows writer.

 

When you have your installation medium, you can proceed to the installation. First set your medium as the first in the boot priority. You might want to disconnect all the other drives than the one that the system will be installed on, just to be sure you won't do anything to them.

 

After the system gets ready, you'll be in your desktop. Congratulations, the system has been successfully.

I'm joking of course, sorry to freak you out. I couldn't stop myself. What you see there is the "Live CD", this is a really nice thing about Linux distros that lets you use the system from you CD (well, now DVD or flash drive). It can be also used to fix the system in case you do something stupid.

You can proceed to the installation right away.

 

First choose your language and click next, then it will say about the requirements in order to install the system. You shouldn't care about the disk space if you'll erase the whole disk anyway. You'll need the Internet connection sooner or later, so it's good to have it. If you're on a laptop, it will also inform you about whether your laptop is connected to a power source, well, better do it, really.

 

Then you'll go to the choice of how you want to install the system. And here I need to apologise, I wasn't in the Linux community for a while, I got behind so I can't explain you the manual partitioning, apparently some things changed here. I personally just took "Erase disk and install Linux Mint". I should update this soon.

 

After that, the system will begin to install. Meanwhile you'll set up your account and some settings. Everything that I wrote is just in my personal case, fill it up with your information.

First chose your location.

 

Then keyboard layout.

 

Then your name (could be real name or a nickname), computer's name, username (no capital letters!) and password (don't make it too long, you'll need to type it in A LOT). Then chose whether you'll be being logged in automatically.

 

After the installation is finished, you'll need to restart your computer. It depends on your case, but I had a small problem and it didn't restestart completely by itself. After ejecting the CD I needed to restart the computer manually.

If everything went right, you should boot in your system

 

Post-Instalation

First you need to log to your account, which you sat up with the installation. Then you'll see the interface, it's VERY similar to the older Windows interfaces (XP FTW) so you shouldn't have any problems finding out about stuff here. In the menu you'll have a search bar, categories and favorites.

 

The first thing to do after the installation is installing the updates. The "shield" in right bottom corner is your update manager. A good and a bad thing about Linux are the updates. The update tool is so great that it updates both the system and the programs, so no more "Java Updater" It is very handy, but there is a bad thing about it as well. Updating can break your system as well as not updating, but we need to live with that. I personally go #YOLO and I install everything. Possibly dangerous updates are unchecked by default, this is a good thing about Mint here.

 

Before doing anything else, you should change your GPU drivers from open-source (it might seem cool, but they really suck actually) to properitary drivers from Nvidia or AMD. Just look for "Driver Manager" in the Menu and chose the reccomended drivers. Usually if you're using a laptop or something like that, additional drivers for you might be displayed there, usually it's a good idea to install them, especially if your wifi or bluetooth aren't working.

 

Another very important thing to know about Linux is how you install your programs. No more googling for a download, here you do it just like on phones, you go to the app store (in this case "Software Manager"), look for apps and install them. It's very easy and it protects you from bloatware.

 

FAQ (please look at The Main Tutorial first)

What about my XBOX 360 Controller?

It works with most distros out of the box, including Mint.

If you have the XBOX One controller, it should be partly supported from kernel 3.17, check what kernel your distro is using. Mint is currently using kernel 3.13, 3.17 or later should come in Mint 17.1 or 17.2

 

Mini Tutorials

Admin in Terminal

You'll need to use terminal for the tutorials above. If you want to do anything serious, you need the administrator privileges. You can do it either by switching onto administrator account, to do it simply type "su" into the command line and type in your password. Some distros block that, you can cheat it by saying "sudo su". For one time use of the admin privileges, simply type in "sudo" in front of the command. All of my commands already include sudo.

Gachr

 

My NTFS (Windows) partition doesn't want to open.

It is a very common error, happened to me a few times as well. Don't panic, your data isn't lost (unless you've done something stupid earlier), you can fix everything by opening the terminal and typing in the following command:

sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdxX

Replace x with the drive letter (a, b, c...) and X with the partition number (1, 2, 3...). If you don't know which partition it is, check it using gparted or other partition program. In my case it was:

sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdb1

Gachr

 

Spotify Installation

Copy this:

deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free

Then execute this command:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Go to the bottom of the document and paste it by pressing ctrl + shift + v. Exit and save by pressing ctrl + x, then Y and then enter.

 

Then execute those commands:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 94558F59sudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install spotify-client

Gachr

 

Chrome Installation

Even though Chrome doesn't come in the default repos and you can download (often better) alternative which is Chromium, you can still get Chrome:

First execute those commands:

sudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install libindicator7 libappindicator1

Then if you're using a 64bit system, execute this:

cd /tmpwget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

But if you're using a 32bit system, execute this:

cd /tmpwget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb

Then you need to finish off with the final, installing command:

sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable*

Gachr & @Opcode

 

Feel free to submit your mini tutorials

 

Alternative Software

Firefox - Firefox

Internet Explorer - Seriously? Oh well, none.

Chrome - Chromium

Opera - Opera

Windows Media Player or others - VLC or Totem

uTorrent - Deluge

Music Player - Banshee or others

Office - LibreOffice

 

THE GUIDE IN BEING MADE... RIGHT NOW. MAKING IT TAKES A LOT OF TIME, SO IT WILL TAKE A WHILE TO BE FINISHED. IT IS POSTED ALREADY BECAUSE PEOPLE CAN FIND IT USEFUL ALREADY. THE GUIDE IS MADE BY ME IN 100%. IMAGES ARE EITHER MINE OR FOUND ON THE INTERNET.

[EpicAdom]

This is a great idea. I'm glad to see someone doing it.

[NerdNinja]

Wow! This is great! I know some stuff about Linux but not a lot. Used it a little. Can't wait to see if I learn something!

[Gachr]

Please feel free to ask any newbie questions, I'll answer them in the guide and improve it that way

[MatazaNZ]

Favourited and bookmarked. I look forward to reading this

[Gachr]

@MatazaNZ

Thanks

Nexr part will be written tomorrow, I will reinstall my distro for the purposes of this tutorial, but I've got some stuff to finish before I can do that.

[MatazaNZ]

@MatazaNZ

Thanks

Nexr part will be written tomorrow, I will reinstall my distro for the purposes of this tutorial, but I've got some stuff to finish before I can do that.

I look forward to it. I recently installed Mint on my desktop. Using it as my daily so I get used to it as well as I'm used to Windows

[Opcode]

I have no information about XBOX One controller though.

Linux kernel 3.17 brings forth XBOX One controller support (without force feedback).

[Gachr]

Linux kernel 3.17 brings forth XBOX One controller support (without force feedback).

Thanks for the contribution!

[MatazaNZ]

Just thought I would say that Chrome works on Linux, you don't need an alternative. Haven't tried Chromium though

# 64 bit

$ wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

$ sudo gdebi google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

# 32 bit

$ wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb

$ sudo gdebi google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb

[MatazaNZ]

Just another contribution: During installation, for those already running Windows, and don't want to erase the drive, you can select "Install alongside Windows 'X'" and then choose a partition size, and it will install and configure the Grub boot loader to enable you to choose the OS you want to start up when booting up. Just thought that might be worth noting for installation

[Opcode]

Just thought I would say that Chrome works on Linux, you don't need an alternative. Haven't tried Chromium though

# 64 bit$ wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb$ sudo gdebi google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb# 32 bit$ wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb$ sudo gdebi google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb 

You could always just use apt-get to install the two dependencies that Chrome requires (see here).

[Destroyer]

Awesome, i've messed around with linux a bit before but nothing really serious as this was when steam did not support linux and there were limited games which supported it. This is going to be enough to give me that push to go and give it another try.

[Opcode]

@Gachr

 

You could add both of my guides here and here to your main post if need be. The first is for installing applications on Ubuntu and the second is upgrading the Ubuntu kernel.

[Gachr]

Just another contribution: During installation, for those already running Windows, and don't want to erase the drive, you can select "Install alongside Windows 'X'" and then choose a partition size, and it will install and configure the Grub boot loader to enable you to choose the OS you want to start up when booting up. Just thought that might be worth noting for installation

Yeah, I know it well, but haven't done it myself. I'll at that too I think

 

 

Just thought I would say that Chrome works on Linux, you don't need an alternative. Haven't tried Chromium though

# 64 bit

$ wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

$ sudo gdebi google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

# 32 bit

$ wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb

$ sudo gdebi google-chrome-stable_current_i386.deb

 

 

@Gachr

 

You could add both of my guides here and here to your main post if need be. The first is for installing applications on Ubuntu and the second is upgrading the Ubuntu kernel.

Thanks a lot! I dunno about updating the kernel yet (I don't want anybody to break anything...) but for sure I'll use the ones for the apps that don't come in repos

 

Have you done an installation on UEFI? That's what I was having problems with... everything works great if I do it by the preset installer settings. I tried almost everything when intalling manually. Making the BIOS as well as fat32 partition and it didn't work, for my first installation it automatically created a fat32 partition and the second time none... I'm really lost here.

[bradscoolio]

From reading your tutorial so far I can tell you, yourself, are not overly experienced with linux. This thread will need to improve significantly for it to be pinned. I hope it does so here's a list of the shit I think this thread needs

 

Please preface this command as a command to never run under any circumstance except when at an apple store: 

sudo rm -rf /

 

Plox add a tut on the octal permission system and chmod:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod

 

List of distributions, their pros/cons and use cases:

http://distrowatch.com/

 

And manual partitioning and filesystems:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/partitioning

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/File_systems

 

And FileSystem Hierarchy: 

http://blog.mypapit.net/upload/files/linux_file_structure.jpg

 

And wildcards:

http://tldp.org/LDP/GNU-Linux-Tools-Summary/html/x11655.htm

 

And History of UNIX systems:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Unix_history-simple.svg/2000px-Unix_history-simple.svg.png

 

And Overview of command line basics (ie. cd, mkdir, cp, mv, rm, chmod), this guys tuts are amazing:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLnpHn493BHGmEYzbjWPJsnRMhvs-PSYG

 

And GPL (the license linux is published under) and the copy left philosophy:

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

 

And Ricing:

https://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php?title=GNU/Linux_ricing

 

And Wine (for those who just can't 'give up'/'find alternatives to' windows programs):

https://www.winehq.org/about/

 

I can guarantee that you will never be able to even mention everything that you can do with linux, however, if you cover the main stuff you should be good.

I'm thinking of more to add... more to come... maybe.

[Gachr]

From reading your tutorial so far I can tell you, yourself, are not overly experienced with linux. This thread will need to improve significantly for it to be pinned. I hope it does so here's a list of the shit I think this thread needs

Well, the story is that I just came back to the Linux world after some time of abstence, I was sick, a lot of free time and considering that the forum didn't have anything like that I decided to do this one. I wanted to help so many people as it's possible. I would greatly appreciate a help from people with more experience.

The links are great, I know most of them but I don't think that I'll go a bit more advanced, especially with stuff like WINE which I never used. I hope for contribution from Linux users

[MatazaNZ]

Another contribution. This is a thread posted a tiny while ago for helping choose a Linux distro if you wanted to add it http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/202063-linux-distribution-choosing-guide/