r/linux4noobs Jan 04 '20

Still on Windows 7? Don't want Windows 10? Consider switching to Linux (and specifically, Ubuntu). A Guide.

1.2k Upvotes

Any actions taken as part of this guide are solely at your own risk - unfortunately there is no way to account for every hardware configuration or error that may potentially crop up. BACK UP YOUR CRITICAL DATA BEFORE DOING ANYTHING

On the 14th Jan 2020, official Windows 7 support ends for most users. This means if you run Windows 7 beyond that date, you're no longer going to receive security and system updates, which will leave you increasingly vulnerable to viruses, malware and system failure. Depending on how critical your data is and how often you back up - if at all - there's a potential you can lose everything.

This is a somewhat opinionated but no-bullshit guide for those of you still on Windows 7 who really don't want or won't move to Windows 10. Aside from my own additions, it's going to reference a lot of great guides and advice written by other people, but conveniently collected in a single place. It's crazy, but it might just work.

Have you considered... Linux? Specifically, Ubuntu.

No, hear me out. Because I'm going to start (and save you a lot of time) by telling you why you SHOULDN'T switch to Linux. If any of the criteria listed apply, then:

The guide is broken into the following sections, if you want to jump to the points that are relevant. If you want to get straight to it, go to (4):

  1. Why shouldn't I go with Linux?
  2. Why should I go with Linux?
  3. Why Ubuntu?
  4. What's involved in switching?
  5. Installation of Ubuntu
  6. Tips for new users using Ubuntu
  7. Gaming on Linux
  8. Alternative Software
  9. TL;DR or The Conclusion
  10. To do list for the guide

1. Why shouldn't I go with Linux?


If you:

  • Don't feel comfortable installing an operating system and you don't have someone that can do it for you;
  • Have someone that helps you with all your IT-related activities who is not familiar with or dislikes Linux (ask them);
  • Are big into multiplayer games. (There are exceptions here, discussed in more detail in the Linux Gaming section);
  • Use multiple game clients and have a lot of games on platforms other than Steam;
  • Are into any sort of VR;
  • Absolutely need Outlook and refuse to consider any other mail client, like Thunderbird;
  • Use a VPN provider that doesn't have a Linux version and aren't willing/able to change;
  • Are subscribed to multiple video streaming services other than Netflix and watch these on your PC frequently;
  • Use Photoshop, Premiere, 3D Studio Max - actually, if you have any Windows software that you are locked into due to muscle memory, experience and/or professional requirements and that have no Linux version. (There are, however, often a Linux alternatives for a lot of these);
  • Require assistive technologies, such as screenreaders. While Ubuntu comes with several built-in assistive tools, there's a lot of specialised assistive use cases, tools and hardware that don't work on Linux and have no comparable alternative;
  • Want to be able to buy whatever piece of hardware that takes your fancy without researching it and expect them to work out the box with zero hassle. Especially niche and specific hardware like flight controllers, sound boards and so on;
  • Use iTunes extensively for your media library and/or interacting with your iPhone;
  • Have a large archive of Microsoft Office documents that use complex formatting, macros and/or formulas that you refer back to frequently.
  • have the worst-case scenario: rely on legacy or ancient software or hardware you're not sure you have the installation media for anymore, can't find a replacement, can't download it and it doesn't work on Windows 10. In this case, you're going to have to keep that Windows 7 box around and it's even more imperative that you make sure it's not accessible from the web or network. Start looking at moving to a more modern equivalent of it AND converting your work to a format that'll be accessible.

Some of this stuff you can work around with some effort, but it's more likely going to be more trouble than you're willing to put up with. And that's fine; Linux can't help everyone. The more of these that apply, the more certain you can be that you shouldn't consider Linux and should just go with Windows 10, unless you're willing to ~sacrifice~ compromise.

2. Why should I go with Linux?


Because whether you're a general user, a gamer or a specialised user with niche interests or requirements, Linux can provide you the same experience you're getting now with some already stated exceptions. In many ways, it's better - it's free, it's generally runs better on older hardware than Windows, it's relatively more secure due to a small user footprint and you'll have a huge, vetted library of free software that you can access. There are some applications - older Windows software and games, for instance - that don't work on Windows 10 but do on Linux, thanks to projects like Wine and Proton. It can 99% of the time update itself without interrupting whatever you're doing.

That being said, it's not perfect. You will lose some things. You will need to learn new ways of working with your PC. This is inevitable. That's the cost of switching.

Which is not to say Windows is without a cost. Unlike Windows, none of this functionality comes at the cost of your privacy and freedom. Linux will let you configure it as you like, and dive into the nitty-gritty settings to fine-tune it further. It will not try and trick you into creating yet another online account to use it. Aside from a few missteps (Ubuntu and Amazon, for one), it keeps its nose out of your business. It does not come with a unique advertising ID that links your multitude of online and offline interests and programs into a nice, tidy, profitable pack of data to be shared with "trusted third-parties". It does not serve you ads in a product you paid for. It does not try and push you into multiple online services.

In short, it does not suffer from any of the privacy concerns of Windows' future.

Now, I know people are going to throw snark about lead-and-tin alloys, their pliability and how easy that makes it to fashion headgear, but please note I said "future"; while they're not necessarily prying now, your operating system - and for almost everyone, that means Microsoft - has a very privileged position in your life as far as personal data is concerned. Any time you search in the file manager, every word you write and document you save, your budget calculations, every photo you view and program you use, every voice command you give Cortana, Windows - and by extension Microsoft - knows about. And there's nothing in their Terms of Service that stop them from starting to collect more detailed data if they so choose.

It's not a question of whether you prefer Windows 7 over 10 - Windows 7 got the same telemetry features as Windows 10 ages ago. Rather, ask yourself if you're happy with Microsoft's evolving business model, one that is shifting more and more of your content online and is intricately and opaquely tied to your personal data? If you're not, you're not alone: Holland isn't happy. Germany's not too thrilled either. There are legitimate reasons to be wary of Window's market dominance and increased level of embedded user analytics. Linux offers you an alternative.

3. Why Ubuntu?


Ubuntu LTS is by far the most commonly used desktop Linux distro and the one with the widest support by software developers and hardware manufacturers involved in Linux. If you're searching for solutions, you'll mostly find Ubuntu ones. Lastly, Ubuntu's LTS versions are supported for long periods of time: 18.04, which we'll be recommending, is supported until 2023, while the next version coming out in April, Ubuntu 20.04, will be supported until 2025.

One of the things you'll quickly learn about the Linux community is that someone will ALWAYS suggest a different Linux distro. In this case, it'll probably be Linux Mint, which aims to be a newbie-friendly Linux. It's based on Ubuntu, is similar to Windows 7 and will MOSTLY work the same as Ubuntu. I still suggest Ubuntu, but whatever, follow your heart.

To keep this guide as approachable as possible, and to have access to the widest range of help and support, I decided to focus on Ubuntu. Anything other than these two and you're just making things harder for yourself as a new user. You can always switch once you get a feel for how things work.

4. What's involved in switching?


I promised you a no-bullshit guide, so I'm going to cut straight to it. Take your time with all of these steps, do them properly, and you shouldn't have a problem.

First step: back up all your important documents, photos, email, games - whatever is important to you, and preferably somewhere external to your machine. This is just good advice regardless of whether you're switching to Linux or not. Always have a backup.

If you're a gamer, check out the following guide by PC Gamer's Jarred Walton on how to back up your games across multiple clients.

While you're backing up, install Thunderbird (Mozilla's open-source mail client) and copy your mail over to it. You'll have a much easier time doing this in Windows than in Linux to start. Thunderbird can automatically pull your mail from Outlook if installed on the same machine. Then follow the steps here for backing up your Thunderbird profile. You'll restore this in Linux later. Make sure you have your mail account details.

Get hold of your Windows 7 serial key. If it's physical media, like a DVD, then check and make sure the key is in the box or on the disc. If it's a laptop that came with Windows 7 preinstalled, it's usually a sticker on the specific laptop. You'll need this if things go awry and/or decide Linux is not for you.

Check the minimum specs for Ubuntu 18.04.03 here. If your system doesn't meet them, you're going to have a bad time regardless of whether you go with Ubuntu or Windows 10 (Windows 10 minimum requirements are bullshit, btw. 1Gb Ram, 1Ghz processor? I challenge anyone to link me to a Windows 10 video running on those specs where it performs acceptably.). There are lightweight alternatives if you can't afford a new PC, (Lubuntu, for instance), but upgrading your PC should be your first step in this case.

Here comes the arduous bit. Make a list of your current hardware, software and services that you use frequently, make sure you have the installation media for the critical pieces of software you use (Don't expect to be able to just copy/paste the applications you have) and do a search on whether they run on Linux. I'd recommend following the "Software" section in this guide on Migrating to Linux by /u/PBLKGodofGrunts]

A lot of the Linux software alternatives, such as LibreOffice and GIMP, are available for Windows as well. Consider downloading those that interest you to try out in Windows and get a feel for how they work.

Ultimately, to echo the advice you'll find that you can either run it, have an alternative or just can't switch. That's okay; Linux can't help everyone.

Download the Ubuntu LTS 18.04.03 distro. The "LTS" means it's a long-term support version - you won't have to think about this exercise for the next three years if you're lucky. Ubuntu LTS 20.04 is coming out in four months, which'll be supported until 2025, but since most of the focus is still on 18.04, you're better off sticking with it for now.

Whichever you choose, you'll have to write it to a DVD or USB. If it's a DVD, use whatever you normally use to write DVD ISOs. If you're going to use a USB, here's a guide to doing that.

Did I mention to back-up your important data? Back-up your important data. Double-check that it's all there. If you want to take an extra precaution, you can use Clonezilla to clone your current OS drive. It's not necessary, but if things go bust, Clonezilla allows you to restore your PC to precisely the way it was before you started without needing to install Windows from scratch. However, Clonezilla can be a bit daunting if you're not technically inclined. Check out this somewhat out-of-date video by cButters Tech for a general idea of what's involved.

Lastly, try running Ubuntu as a Live CD/USB first. This will allow you to run Ubuntu as if it were installed, but without making any changes to your current installation. Please keep in mind that the Live is not indicative of performance... it will run slower than if it was installed, as it has to read everything off the DVD or USB stick first and load it memory. The important thing to check here is that it's picking up all your hardware, that it's displaying on your screen correctly, that all your drives are available, and so on.

Live USB should perform better than a Live DVD. Check out the "Okay, it's installed/Okay, I'm running the Live CD. What tips do you have for using Ubuntu?" section to get an idea of what you should be checking.

5. Installation.


You've done all the above, triple-checked your backups and either decided that you can't make the jump or you're ready.

However, before you begin installing, you have one last decision to make.

There's a lot people that suggest dual-booting - that's where you keep Windows around and just install Linux alongside it. This is often proposed as a safety net and a means for people to have the best of both worlds. I don't, for a couple of reasons:

  • If you are going to dual-boot, you'll need to update to Windows 10 anyway, and if you're going to do that, why bother with Linux in the first place?

  • Data will be spread between two operating systems. Instead of backing up and maintaining one OS, you'll be maintaining two. It's doable but a PITA.

  • You're sabotaging your efforts, and your switch to Linux will likely fail. That's not a statement on Linux's capability or ease of use. A lot of things are easier on Linux - but they won't be at first. You probably have years of Windows use ingrained in you; you've come to expect things to work they way Windows works. That's not ease, that's familiarity; that's a boiling frog. And the moment something throws you a challenge in Linux, the temptation to just "do it" in Windows will be too great. And the more you do that, the more running Linux will seem like a chore than a choice.

  • If you absolutely have no option but to run Windows 10, do it in a virtual machine - you get the benefits of dual-booting but with the bonus of limiting Windows 10 to a virtual environment where access to the rest of your system (and personal data) is restricted while allowing you to run your non-negotiable applications (other than games or any intense 3D applications) just fine.

If you decide to dual-boot, you'll need to find a recent guide that covers this. Typically, it's best to update to Windows 10 first, then follow the guide to dual-boot Ubuntu. None of the guides I found seemed good for beginners, so I'm willing to take suggestions from the comments.

If you take my advice and simply dive in, installing Ubuntu on your machine will be a painless process: just follow the steps here in a beginner's guide written by Jason Evangelho and you should be fine.

6. Tips for new users using Ubuntu?


Things that you should do only once Ubuntu's installed are prefixed with an [+]. Otherwise, the tip applies to both installs and Live demos:

  • Power off, log-out and running taskbar applications will be in the top-right of the screen by default.
  • To search, press the Windows key on your keyboard. This'll bring up Ubuntu's search bar. You can use this to find applications, folders and system settings.
  • In the File Manager, your Home directory will be where your primary OS and applications will typically be installed, while the Other Locations will list additional hard drives (usually your additional storage drives). By default, Ubuntu does not actually mount the drives in the "Other Locations" section. Clicking on any of them, however, will automatically mount them. If you want to learn more about the general structure of Ubuntu's file system, you can do so here.
  • Ctrl+Alt+T will bring up the terminal. The terminal is where you'll often be sent if you're attempting to diagnose a problem, perform specific tasks or install specific tools/software. Check yourself before your wreck yourself before copy-pasting commands from strangers on the 'net. Be super cautious of any command that involves "sudo" and "rm".
  • The default office suite for Ubuntu is LibreOffice. Try it out: see if you can open a couple of your documents, like spreadsheets and Word docs. You might be pleasantly surprised. Writer is the word processor, Calc is for Spreadsheets. Formating on complex documents will likely be broken. Don't save any of these at this point.
  • In fact, open up a couple of common files you normally use - images, documents, compressed files, music, videos and so on. Get a feel for how it works, what opens and what doesn't. Sometimes, you'll need to install some software first before it will work.
  • Check the list of alternative software for some suggestions on what to install if you seem to be missing something.
  • Plug in your phone and see if it detects it and you can access your files. If it's Android, you should be fine.
  • You'll notice that some commands - like updating - require you to enter your password again. This is a security feature similar to when Windows ask you to run a program as administrator or with elevated privileges. If you didn't initiate the command that brought up the password request, be cautious about entering it in.
  • [+] Change your desktop preferences and move the application bar to the bottom of the screen. By default, Ubuntu puts it on the left-side. Hey, maybe you'll like it like that! This was the one Windows habit I was never able to shake.
  • [+] Try and store your data in the pre-defined folders (Music, Videos, Documents, Pictures). You don't have to, but you'll make your life a lot easier doing so.
  • [+] Search for and create a shortcut to the Software Updater. This allows you to quickly check for and install Ubuntu updates.
  • [+] Likewise, create a shortcut to the Ubuntu Software Centre. To start with, you'll want to stick to installing applications from the Centre. These have been specifically tested to work on Ubuntu and will 99% run without a hitch. You'll be able to remove applications from here as well.
  • [+] Speaking of the Centre, Ubuntu comes preinstalled with an Amazon launcher. Use this time search for it and remove it. Or don't, it's up to you.
  • [+] Sometimes, you'll see there's two versions of a piece of software in the Centre. This is most likely due to there being a Snap version of it. Snaps are self-contained versions of the software that are usually the most up-to-date; however, they can run erratically or not have access to some things on your system, like fonts. I'd stick with the ubuntu-bionic versions for best compatibility.
  • [+] If you're a gamer, change your graphic drivers so you can get reasonable performance. For Nvidia, simply search for the Software & Updates application, open it, select the Additional Drivers Tab, and check whether you're using the Nvidia Driver. You'll want to select the one that's listed as proprietary and tested. AMD's a little more complicated and I profess to having little experience with it. I'll happily take advice from the comments in this instance.
  • [+] When downloading some games or applications specifically for Linux, you'll often get a .Deb file or a script. A deb file can often be run as is by double-clicking in Ubuntu; you can read more about them here. Scripts often need to be run from the terminal and made to be executable. You read more about that here. Again, same safety check applies to running anything you download from the web.

7. Gaming on Linux


If you're a gamer, I'd recommend the following the guide by /u/PBLKGodofGrunts on the /r/linux_gaming subbreddit. But to summarise...

The Good News

Thanks to Valve's involvement in Linux through Proton and the efforts of the Wine team, Linux gaming has never been better. It's now possible to play many Windows-only games with no hassle and minimal performance loss. Just a few examples of recent games that run just fine on Linux are the Resident Evil 2 remake, Sekiro, Halo: Master Chief Collection (single-player and custom multiplayer games), DOOM, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Risk of Rain 2, Total War: Three Kingdoms, and more; you can even toss a coin to all of your Witchers. To get an idea of games that run on Linux, you can visit ProtonDB, Wine AppDB or Lutris and search for your desired game. If you're primarily a single-player gamer, the transition should be mostly painless.

Another amazing development is the number of open-source implementations of older games game engines that allow for playing of classic and retro titles on modern hardware, (such as DevilutionX for Diablo 1)often with improvements, bug fixes and quality of life improvements, ensuring they'll be able to run into the future.

However, the most critical development is that the number of developers and platforms that provide and support native Linux games has increased significantly. Feral Interactive publishes several AAA Linux ports, numerous indies now provide a Linux version, and store fronts like GOG and itch.io provide an alternative with DRM-free games.

The Bad News

Despite all of this, gaming remains one of the biggest hurdles to adopting Linux.

If you're into multiplayer gaming, you're out of luck. While many multiplayer titles do work on Linux (LoL, Dota 2, CS:GO, TF2, Rocket League, Warframe, Overwatch, Starcraft II, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, Elite: Dangerous, Monster Hunter:World and so on), many more don't - Fortnite, some Call of Duties, Apex Legends, PUBG, Battlefield, GTA Online. Essentially, anything with an anti-cheat is likely NOT going to work, and there's always the risk that playing a Windows multiplayer game will get you banned due to anti-cheat measures that dislike any whiff of Linux. My suggestion is check which games you play and go from there.

Unless you're using Steam, running other launchers is complicated and prone to constant breakage without continuous effort and maintenance. Epic, Origin, Uplay and GOG Galaxy can all run on Linux with some effort. Lutris does sort most of these out, but you'll need to follow the instructions here, which means your going to have to install Wine first.

Some games simply don't work, and there's no solution for it.

Some of the latest developments aren't going to be available to you. VR is tiny on Linux, and you'll likely lose access to most of your VR software and experiences.

Despite being fairly technical already, many gamers do expect things to "just work". Here's a list of things that require some effort to get working correctly:

  • Super-sampling is out. Not entirely, but it's more complicated than Windows.
  • Access to things like custom shaders and injectors are also going to be limited. Mods can be more complicated or, in some cases, not available.
  • You'll lose some of the benefits of your Gsync/Freesync monitors, since the two tech don't work that well on Ubuntu's standard display compositor. This will change once Ubuntu shifts to Wayland.
  • Things like community game patches are often aimed at Windows, with no Linux alternative.

Most importantly, AMD and Nvidia graphic cards are handled very differently on Linux when compared to Windows. Ubuntu uses an open-source driver by default - this is alright for general use but terrible for games and 3D applications. To get decent performance, you'll need to install their respective drivers.

Nvidia's latest Linux drivers are made available in Ubuntu directly. However, this is just the drivers: Nvidia's GeForce Experience isn't available on Linux and you're going to lose access to all of its tools. That means no Ansel in many cases, no DSR, no predefined gaming configs and no ShadowPlay (Although OBS offers a decent alternative in this case). See the Tips section above on how to install it. On the plus side, the installation process is a breeze and Nvidia's performance is fairly solid.

AMD benefits from much better open-source drivers and active support from AMD, but unfortunately suffers from delays for support of their most recent cards and a fairly complicated install process . AMD uses the MESA Driver, combined with Valve's ACO shader compiler, to deliver performance boosts. Installing these drivers can be a complicated, multi-step process. I'm sorry I can't help you on this; I'll happily take someone's advice on getting this working in Ubuntu LTS and include it in the guide.

8. Alternative software


This is a quick and dirty guide to equivalent software for Windows applications in Linux.

  • Antivirus software: This may seem counterintuitive, but for the most part Linux does not require any sort of anti-virus software. While viruses for Linux exist, the number of viruses and such that target the Linux desktop specifically is tiny compared to Windows. You can read up about it here.. That being said, if you are concerned there are several tools available for detecting both Windows and Linux malware on the same page. Follow good internet hygiene, don't open suspicious links/mails and think before just randomly following command instructions on the 'net.
  • Microsoft Office: LibreOffice. Or you can access Office365 online.
  • Adobe Photoshop: GIMP, Krita
  • Adobe Premiere: Blender
  • 3D Studio Max: Blender
  • Illustrator/CorelDraw: Inkscape
  • Xsplit: OBS
  • Windows Media Player: VLC
  • Basic Audio Editor: Audacity
  • Audio Mixing: Ardour, Mixbus
  • Adobe Reader: While there are several PDF readers on Linux you can use, almost none of them play well with Adobe PDFs with advanced features. You're better off sticking with what comes with Ubuntu, and if it doesn't work, open it up in a browser.

9. TL;DR or The Conclusion


Switching to Ubuntu is possible and relatively safe if you do some research on which apps/games/software/hardware you use will and won't work on Linux first, you BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT DATA before doing anything and don't expect a 1:1 experience with Windows. It's all dependent on your flexibility, technical experience and willingness to learn and compromise.

If you're not, Windows 10 is a perfectly acceptable choice to upgrade to: you'll benefit from improved security compared to Windows 7, a larger selection of hardware and software and will have to put less effort to make everything work at the cost of your privacy and some ads.

If you have legacy software or unsupported hardware that doesn't run on either, you're kind of screwed. I'd keep the Windows 7 box around, make sure it's disconnected from all networks (for your sake as well as others) and start making emergency contingency plans to find a modern alternative.

I know that people are going to take issue with some of the difficulties I raised, and suggest they're really not dealbreakers. Before you post, consider whether a new user coming from Windows 7 who'll be using Linux probably for the first time in their life will have the knowledge, gumption and willingness to perform sometimes complex technical steps in an operating environment they're unfamiliar with and where it's much, much easier to really break things.

Feel free to post criticisms and suggestions in the comments. If there's some good advice worth including, something needs further clarification or I need to correct something, I'll edit it in with credit.

10. To do list for the guide


  • I'd really like to add a section on assistive technology and software that works on Linux, but as I don't use any of it, I feel my research would be limited and miss vital pieces. If you have advice on this, let me know.
  • A good, up-to-date and easy-to-follow guide for dual-booting.
  • Instructions on how to install AMD drivers correctly on Ubuntu.

r/linux4noobs Jun 21 '20

Distrochooser: "Welcome! This test will help you to choose a suitable Linux distribution for you"

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927 Upvotes

r/linux4noobs 3h ago

How do I install steam on CachyOS?

6 Upvotes

I'm new to linux and to get the max performance I'm using Cachy, but it's not debian based so I have no idea what I'm doing


r/linux4noobs 5h ago

learning/research Advice for BTFRS backup or snapshot

8 Upvotes

Can you explain to me like I'm five what are BTFRS snapshots and what's the difference with backups?

I read about it but I'm not sure I understand.

I recently messed up my home directory a bit, so I'm thinking of setting up a backup/snapshot but I don't know where to start.

I have btfrs assistant but apparently it's for root only.

P.S. I just upgraded to Fedora 44


r/linux4noobs 10h ago

learning/research music by the terminal

19 Upvotes

Are there currently any good ways to listen to music online via a terminal? I saw that a few years ago there were several projects, but I wanted to know if there's something like listening to a YouTube Music playlist or something similar, I like listening to music while I play games, but I don't really like leaving my browser open in the background because it causes stuttering in the game.

But if don't have anything like that, something to download multiple songs at a reasonable speed would be welcome too, I just really didn't want to spend many hours doing something simple.


r/linux4noobs 1h ago

storage HDD Partitions Read/Write and some Videos are not working correctly

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Upvotes

r/linux4noobs 2h ago

[Tutorial] NTFS external drive won't mount from Nautilus auto-mount on Linux-Ubuntu

3 Upvotes

The problem

I plugged my external drive (WD Passport, NTFS) into Ubuntu and clicking it in Files/Nautilus threw the generic error: "wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock... missing codepage or helper program".

The cause: the volume had the dirty flag set — Windows didn't unmount it cleanly (usually thanks to Fast Startup, or pulling the drive without ejecting). The kernel's ntfs3 driver refuses to mount a dirty volume to avoid making corruption worse, and udisks (which Nautilus uses) has no option to force it. Result: the GUI click always fails.

You can mount it from the terminal with -o force, but then you have to do that every single time you plug it in. Below is how to automate it so it mounts on plug-in and unmounts on removal, showing up normally in the Files sidebar.

⚠️ Important: this is a workaround, not a repair. The dirty flag is still there. The real fix is running chkdsk X: /f on a Windows machine once — after that the drive mounts on a single click and you won't even need this rule. Until you repair it, avoid writing much to the drive (risk of making the corruption worse); read-only is safe.

Step by step

1. Find your drive's UUID:

lsblk -f

Note the UUID of your drive's partition (something like 72EA9772EA973179).

2. Find your uid/gid and username:

id -u && id -g && whoami

These are usually 1000 for uid and gid. Keep all three values.

3. Create the udev rule (replace YOUR_UUID_HERE):

sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/99-external-hd.rules > /dev/null << 'EOF'
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="block", ENV{ID_FS_UUID}=="YOUR_UUID_HERE", TAG+="systemd", ENV{SYSTEMD_WANTS}="external-hd-mount.service"
EOF

4. Create the systemd service (replace YOUR_UUID_HERE in all three spots and your-username with your own; adjust uid/gid if they aren't 1000):

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/external-hd-mount.service > /dev/null << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=Auto-mount external HD
BindsTo=dev-disk-by\x2duuid-YOUR_UUID_HERE.device
After=dev-disk-by\x2duuid-YOUR_UUID_HERE.device

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/bin/mkdir -p /media/your-username/EXTERNAL_HD
ExecStart=/bin/mount -t ntfs3 -o force,uid=1000,gid=1000,umask=022 /dev/disk/by-uuid/YOUR_UUID_HERE /media/your-username/EXTERNAL_HD
ExecStop=/bin/umount /media/your-username/EXTERNAL_HD

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

5. Reload the rules (no reboot needed):

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

6. Test: unplug and replug the drive. It should mount on its own and show up in the Files sidebar. Check with:

systemctl status external-hd-mount.service

Notes:

  • If you want to mount read-only (safer while the drive is dirty), replace force with ro,force in the ExecStart line. It shows up the same in the GUI, it just won't let you write.
  • The BindsTo line is what makes it unmount on its own when you remove the drive.
  • After running chkdsk on Windows, you can delete both files — the drive goes back to mounting on a normal click.
  • Prevention: turn off Fast Startup on Windows (Power Options → "Choose what the power buttons do" → uncheck "Turn on fast startup") and always eject the drive before removing it, on both OSes.

AI Acknowledgment: This solution was built with the help of Claude, Anthropic's AI, which walked me through the diagnosis (identifying the dirty flag from dmesg*) and building the udev + systemd rule.*


r/linux4noobs 14m ago

installation I am losing my mind

Upvotes

So, I'm trying to create a windows side boot using an external SSD. Windows does not like external hard drives so obviously I'm trying my very best to do what windows doesn't want me to do but I'm honestly failing. I just want to skip past the setup wizard of windows so I don't have to deal with it saying "you cannot install this on a flash drive" or whatever it says. I have tried woeusb to just install the Windows iso but it also makes a setup and I feel like there's an answer but I just cannot find it.
Please save me, I need to play destiny 2.


r/linux4noobs 2h ago

learning/research Mouse freezes on KDE wayland?

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3 Upvotes

r/linux4noobs 6h ago

shells and scripting Sudo reflector fails only under specific circumstances.

4 Upvotes

So when the protocol is https and I have a timeout of 60 it fails with the error 403: forbidden. But when the protocol is http with a timeout of 60 it works just fine. Why? Is it safe to just use http?


r/linux4noobs 6h ago

programs and apps KDE Connect Notification sync contents are blank

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4 Upvotes

r/linux4noobs 3h ago

Meganoob BE KIND How to watch 4k YouTube vids on Steam Machine

2 Upvotes

My Steam Machine is my main PC. Running Steam OS. I can watch vids on YouTube on the desktop mode, but it's locked at 480p. I know how to change the resolution in YouTube itself, but it won't let me choose 1080 or 4k. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I'm going thru Google to YouTube. Thanks for any help you can provide.


r/linux4noobs 9h ago

programs and apps Why hasn't anyone made a UWP compatability layer like Wine?

6 Upvotes

I haven't seen anyone make or use a UWP compatability layer and what I have researched there isn't one. Is it just too hard? Is there not enough interest?


r/linux4noobs 3h ago

dual monitor freezes , GNOME on Wayland

2 Upvotes

hey

i am on wayland and using intel i5 12th gen and nvidia 4050 and when something is playing on the secondary display or something is there (any window) it'll pause or freeze but when its empty it'll be normal but pauses randomly
my nvidia smi
suggest me something what can i do

Thu Jul 23 00:41:28 2026       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 580.159.03             Driver Version: 580.159.03     CUDA Version: 13.0     |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |           Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                        |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 ...    Off |   00000000:01:00.0  On |                  N/A |
| N/A   47C    P5              3W /   60W |     150MiB /   6141MiB |     17%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                              |
|  GPU   GI   CI              PID   Type   Process name                        GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                               Usage      |
|=========================================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A           91811      G   /usr/bin/gnome-shell                     41MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A          633025      C   /proc/self/exe                           82MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

r/linux4noobs 1d ago

migrating to Linux How did YOU learn to use the terminal?

87 Upvotes

Did you learn it out of necessity, i.e. learning to fix things? Did you learn it deliberately for ease of use in navigating file directories? Did you use any terminal spinoffs that give menus of commands, perform autocomplete, or check for mistakes? Did you read documentation published by your distro?

Terminal is clearly very useful, but I find that I don’t do any single command regularly enough to really memorize it, except for things like fastfetch or lsblk. I’m curious how so many in the Linux community seem to have mastered it so well.


r/linux4noobs 8h ago

shells and scripting Original Pinebook reflashed emmc - trouble building U-Boot to reinstall

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3 Upvotes

r/linux4noobs 1d ago

I’m having the best time I’ve ever had with Linux and I feel like a fraud

69 Upvotes

tldr; Claude has made Linux enjoyable and now I want to know more

I’ve wanted to love Linux for over a decade. I’ve tried it sincerely many times throughout that time, I distinctly remember getting wifi and Bluetooth working on an old XPS13 where the chip did both but the config wasn’t right, and the signal was terrible it took me all day and I was very pleased to have fixed it.

I never really understood Linux and trying to organise files to where I thought they should be but never really being sure, things not working as I wanted them to or worse my attempts at fixing them making things worse.

So I would wrap up another Linux attempt and reinstall windows accepting defeat that I didn’t understand how to troubleshoot or maintain a Linux install.

But now, with Claude anything is possible. I know that there is a deep dislike of LLMs in the Linux community, I get it but without having the instant context based support which can explain what specific flags are doing and how after reading a man page why my attempts didn’t work or I’d be lying if I didn’t say fix this, it’s just fun.

If I want to deep dive an issue or implement something on my own, I can do that knowing that the answer machine can assist whenever. If I need something to just work, I can get it to make it so.

I am picking things up, I certainly know a lot more than I did before but it feels fraudulent to claim myself as a Linux user. Now things are flowing and blockers that used to take hours to being deemed unfixable can be resolved in 30 minutes to an hour I feel unstoppable and I’m having a great time.

I certainly would not be confident enough to self host my own services, but now I do with proper backups and monitoring.

Idk what the point of this post is, Claude + Linux is a great time if you’re mentally deficient I guess.

I do kind of feel like having functional infrastructure to play with makes the whole thing come together, I didn’t start my first IT job standing up a windows domain and associated services - they were just there and I got to monitor and configure them, I can now do windows stuff at a reasonably high level with or without LLMs so I’m not completely computer illiterate but Linux historically didn’t stick.

Since I’m making such progress, and enjoying it I figured that understanding the RHCSA material would be worth while, that’s the current strategy alongside continuing the ‘enterprise-ish’ home lab I’ve got going on.


r/linux4noobs 11h ago

learning/research How do dual boot systems work

5 Upvotes

Yo I just wanted to ask how dual boot systems work since I have a dual boot of fedora and windows 11 on my laptop


r/linux4noobs 11h ago

migrating to Linux Recently migrated, a few how to questions

5 Upvotes

Recently moved to Nobara Official (i believe it is modified KDE), its all running great, no complaints about performance, ease of setup etc, just a few how to questions. These are all things i know how to do on Windows, but seem unclear on Linux.

I figured out how to get the taskbar (unsure if its called that on linux, the bar at the bottom where the open apps show and the clock is) on both monitors, but can i have it so it only shows icons for the apps open on that specific monitor?

Can the icons next to the clock be collapsed, it feels like they take up 1/4 of the taskbar?

It seems that i can only pin certain things to the taskbar, i have a app i used regularly on windows, it has a linux version, it runs perfectly, but i cant pin it to the taskbar, the file is an executable, but maybe its because its not an "application". Also it has a icon.png file in the same folder, but i cannot get the icon to display, so i get a generic grey document with an ! in the middle in the folder, and on the taskbar it is the wayland icon.

Final questions, more of a request for suggestions. What basic apps should i consider replacing, i dont think i like dolphin (i cant quite figure out why), i have used alacritty before in the terminal, but konsole seems fine, so hit me with any suggestions for different basic apps


r/linux4noobs 13h ago

distro selection I need help deciding a distro for legacy hardware that modern distros don't support

6 Upvotes

Namely, the Nvidia GeForce 640 Kepler GPU. I think it is no longer supported in the kernel. Newer distros (Mint 22.3, ZorinOS 18.1, Debian 13, Fedora 44) produce graphical bugs like flashing or artifacts. Debian 12 seems to solve those issues, although I haven't tested the performance beyond clicking through UI elements and light internet browsing. Interestingly, both Debian 13 and Debian 12 used nouveau but Debian 12 worked better. I tried MX Linux which seemed to support the GPU but the UI of the desktop environment was very customized and complicated. This is a family PC so I need something simple looking like GNOME (which also sadly isn't the most resource efficient). I don't think Debian 12 would be a right final option because it performs worse, like the global search stuttering a lot, and also it looks old in some areas (my dad is sensitive to that lol) and supports few extensions, should we need any. I'm at a crossroads.


r/linux4noobs 17h ago

distro selection What is an easy gaming distro with Nvidia support

9 Upvotes

Hello,

I want to transition my gaming PC to run on Linux because I've been frustrated with Windows 11 lately. What gaming Distros do you recommend.

  • Mostly play single player games, but I play a lot of Marvel Rivals and friendslop over Discord
    • Steam is my preferred game store.
  • I use an RTX 4070 and a i7-14700F
  • I don't have any experience with Linux on PC.
  • I am looking for a distro just for gaming because I have a laptop that I'm fine with running windows.
    • I want to install Steam OS but am waiting for Nvidia support, and I don't have the money to buy an Intel or AMD gpu and motherboard/cpu.

r/linux4noobs 13h ago

hardware/drivers Monitor Res issues gsync v1

3 Upvotes

I have a old v1 gysnc monitor and I'm using an AMD 9070xt . The monitor is a second monitor but for life I me I cant find a resolution to get it working, It will only run at 640 . I've tried a few different distros and everything I can find to mess with trying to get it to work I can get as far being able to set the monitor to 4k but no display unless it's set at 640 . I think it's not reading the monitor and it's a display port only monitor so no option to try hdmi . Is the combination of an AMD GPU with Linux and a old v1 gync monitor the cause of my issues anyone else fixed this


r/linux4noobs 20h ago

How safe is switching desktop environments really?

9 Upvotes

I recently switched from Mint to Fedora KDE. While I do think I prefer Fedora there are a few minor things that irk me, and I'm pretty sure it's all connected to KDE Plasma.

I wanted to test this and try Gnome, but I don't want to do a complete reinstallation of linux. How safe is it to just try installing a new DE?

EDIT: thanks for answering guys, relieved some hesitation on my end. Found out real quick Gnome was NOT what I'm looking for. Guess I'll play around until I find what I like.


r/linux4noobs 1d ago

migrating to Linux Why do people dislike Snap packages??

29 Upvotes

I was planning to switch to kubuntu and was reading on multiple places that people hate the use of snap packages in it. I don't really understand what their problems with it are and would like to know as I want to make it my daily use distro and well, want to be someone who uses the command line for installation (idk why, it just sounds like something fun to do).

So, what exactly are its shortcomings and isn't Snap like the default on all ubuntu and ubuntu based distros??
Is it bad enough that I should consider fedora as the new distro??

PS: I had been using Mint till now, but want to try something a lil better and more customizable.


r/linux4noobs 9h ago

Linux on two different pcs using usb

1 Upvotes

I am installing cachyos on a usb, but I want use it on two different computers. The one I’m planning on installing it on is a Samsung laptop, it probably uses integrated graphics. But I am wondering if I can use the same installation on my other laptop which is more powerful but has an nvidia laptop gpu. Will this cause problems with booting and if so, how can I prevent it?