edit: for anyone curious, the problem was Xorg wasnt loading or something (stuck on systemd ‘graphical interface target reached’ with no graphical interface). because of a typo in a config file.
Cannot relate to that. I modify the crap out of my Arch install and keep it in perfect condition all the time.
I was definitely scared if Arch before trying it. Seemed like the general consensus was that it wasn’t a matter of if Arch would break, but when. I heard that updating everything will eventually break the system. Well, I figured, I’d like to try it just to see. I haven’t had a single problem and it’s the setup I’m most proud of l, having spent the most amount of time building it up to exactly how I like it.
7 years strong here with only 1 reinstall to switch to 64 bit
Same as my Windows installs.
2 reinstalls now* I had to upgrade my NVME drive and the old one shit the bed while I was moving data, so everything on this system is fresh now… At least I keep the important stuff backed up in git haha
nixOS. But seriously. You can change something in the config file, and if it doesn’t work, you can roll back to a previous file. It can also control for things like custom kernels.
Trying to get teamspeak hotkeys to work in arch wayland - tinker with system for 2 hours - give up and try to revert the changes for 2 hours - give up and load btrfs snapshot - still got bugs you didn’t have before - give up and install Debian.
When you install, partition your drive.
/homegoes on its own partition and will probably be the largest one. Then you can wipe the/partition and reinstall all you want, takes 15 minutesIf you’ve done any weird customisations you may want to make a ba k up of /etc . I wouldn’t recommend blindly restoring /etc , but at least you’ll have a record of the system configs, should you need to redo stuff post reinstall.
It is normal for a beginner to only have 1 tool in their debugging toolbox 🤷♂️
Git good and solve the problems you create.
Surprising to me so I must do some things right :
- dedicated /home partition
- OS on SSD, new OS on fast USB stick
- backup on another physical disk of important data (usually a subset of /home )
- other partition for OS testing
- other working device for instructions and search online (mobile phone is usually enough)
- documented setup for complex tools, e.g /home/Prototypes where you might have container setups, e.g docker-compose.yml
Usually if you have this in place its a matter of hour, at most. Sure in 1h you will not have ALL the apps you need perfectly configured but, for me at least, enough to feel at “home” again. It’s usually about having ~/.bashrc or ~/.tridactilrc in place but if you do have /home on another partition, it’s basically “free”.
Goddammit I’m literally right now trying to decide if I want to spend an entire day wiping and reinstalling the OS in my main PC or if I can live with the current glitches for now. Full disclosure, in my case the glitchy behaviour is entirely on me trying to tinker with the OS and accidentally breaking stuff, not an issue with Linux or the distro.
Without hesitation I will always recommend reinstalling the os I have it down to a fucking science haha
its worth it i would say
1 Find new distro
2 Install new distro
3 Break many things
4 Goto 1- Eventually return to Mint and admit you don’t know as much as you thought you did
I feel personally offended by this
Yes
- You get bored again and find NixOS, and your head explodes, but you have found the final distro.
I tried NixOS in a VM with 2GB memory and the package manager OOM’d when searching for a package…stayed with Tumbleweed on my metal.
oh no it’s time again…
I have nix on a VM where I am tuning a config. It seems like a total pain in the ass to have to get everything set up using their scripting language. Things you just take for granted with a normal distro now require you to know the arcane language of Nix to get running.
I can absolutely see the advantage of it though. I would love nothing more than to take my current popOS install, settings, configs, etc and be able to port that literally anywhere.
As long as you arent doing anything to advanced nix is basically only a configuration languages. You probably have to make heavy use of the option search to know where and what to configure
I didn’t even know the option search existed. I just asked ChatGPT and it just tells me the option I need.
ChatGPT is not yet really good for Nix, probably because the training set consists of not that much nix yet. So yeah browsing in nixpkgs and either the options or package search is the way to go IMO.
It’s not for everyone. I think it’s almost a requirement to be a programmer, and to be familiar with functional programming. It also has quite a few (necessary?) quirks/magic (module system, overlays, typing, config overrides etc.).
Actually one of my colleagues just switched from Pop OS! since System76 put all focus into their new desktop environment (while the current distro is barely maintained), which will be available on NixOS too, when it’s ready (which is his plan to use, and mine too).
I mean, I use NixOS daily, and aside from installing the occasional package or setting up some dot files, I don’t really touch my Nix config. NixOS was my first daily driver Linux distro and it has a lot of features that I probably take for granted. Early on, I felt like switching from GNOME to KDE. Two lines. Later on installed Hyprland, no problem, then switched to XMonad(had some Wayland issues) and it was stupidly painless.
Sure, Nix has its “fuck you” moments too, but those are usually never anything truly system-breaking, and can be fixed after an hour or two of Discord support chats. In my eyes, the benefits of Nix definitely outweigh the flaws. Do I wish it was a slightly more sane language? Perhaps. But it’s really when you start using it that you learn to appreciate everything you get. Seriously, I much prefer editing a couple of lines in a config file to pasting commands off the Internet in hopes to achieve what I’m looking for.
NixOS is, imho, the best Linux distro for programmers or anyone with a decent understanding of Linux (obviously not for computer noobs, and that’s totally fine).
Wow first Linux distro, not bad, it’s not particularly beginner friendly (you’ll have to know how linux works and learn all the Nix related stuff), for me it’s the last distro though^^
I’d had a decent understanding of Linux going in, tbf. Mostly from hanging out on Discord with tons of Linux users. My Nix system is still quite young (a little over 2 months old), but it’s great.
Getting off the ground was kinda hard though. Luckily, I’ve been using flakes from the very beginning and always setup my dot files with home manager, so I’ve kept the system nice and reproducible.
For those interested, here’s my dot files.
- Swear that one day you’ll build Linux from scratch to learn. Never do it.
… but if you do it starts here https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/prologue/foreword.html
I had a lot of fun few years ago.
Please, always use a dedicated hard drive to tinker with LFS, never ever try anything on a machine that’s suppose to be used for work or do anything else. You’ll think this is common sense, but it’s anything but. LFS is involved, complex and takes a significant chunk of time. Make sure you don’t need that machine you’re tinkering on.
This is a very accurate comment. I do like this every damn time. It has been years now lol!
So true, I just had a bug and after reinstalling I go to find out it was just a driver issue. Screw nivdia.
Reinstalling is the Windows way of solving problems.
Additionally, going full Linux and then trying to install Windows again is a nightmare (but I guess that’s not really what we’re talking about here).
I learned the hard way to never trust windows to not destroy other disks. One time it decided to place the boot partition on a disk it saw having a unknown file system. Turns out it was a disk on a raid-array. After that I physically unpower all other disks before installing windows.
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this is also the go to in any buisness env, wipe and reimage
yep. not worth the troubleshooting time when you can pull a brand new image from the servers in about 5 minutes, especially when it ties into a file server so you don’t have to worry about lost data.
literally about to do this today. Ubuntu->Fedora
I have only really done this while i used windows, on linux i have always been able to find a solution that didn’t require reinstalling; on windows on the other hand i had a time where it just started to bluescreen at every boot out of nowhere…
Meanwhile I’ve had Linux distros just completely bork themselves 20 minutes after install. Or during an update. Or while running a terminal command, because the “friendly” Linux community refused to give me GUI instructions, or simply explain what the command did.
They should explain what the commands do. Nobody should be blindly copy-pasting commands into their terminal.
Also, consider the source. Advice you get from Stack Overflow is going to be better than what you get from some random you DMed who said they were a “Linux ninja”.
Haven’t reinstalled a distro in probably a decade.
Have done the same with Windows.
Only on new systems, or on systems not owned by me.
- What distro?
- Are you hiring? If not, are you mentoring?
- I make a great [food]!
- Or have you just been stuck using Windows for the past ten years?
The last time I reinstalled a distro to fix an issue was Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake.
aw, you got better :)
Throw away system
Buy new one
First install!
Discard computer. Return to monke
Same. And I never fucking will. I will learn how to fix it if it kills me.
