A big part of learning Linux is screwing up computers and starting over.
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Pretty much everytime I try to do fancy stuff with the bootloader I get pretty close to nuking systems.
Worst was my 1st UEFI system where I was trying to get rEFInd to show multiple OS to boot from... eventually gave up and went back to the warm embrace of GRUBIf you take the plunge and switch to systemd-boot it's worth it. It's the only boot manager I've tried in the last decade that feels like an upgrade from GRUB.
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My crippled kernel count is around 6, how about yours?
I would actually be amazed if I ever bricked a PC fucking around with installing things to it. At the very worst, I might have to move a jumper pin to flash the CMOS and start fresh like I never even touched the thing.
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Yeah but breaking like six computers to do it, or one computer six times, seems like a pretty steep price for that when I basically just use my computer for gaming browsing and the occasional audio/video edit.
OP said breaking the kernel, not the machine. The computers would be fine, its pretty damn difficult to brick a computer using software, at least by accident.
Normal users will not break their kernel, op is likely doing some advanced tinkering. I have been using Linux for years and am definitely an advanced user and Ive broken my kernel zero times.
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Never the kernel but just about every time I touch /etc/fstab I fuck something up. I've done that a lot....
Oh, I typed that line wrong to mount the drive and because the non-os drive isn't detected you're only going to boot to emergency mode?
Cool cool cool.
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My crippled kernel count is around 6, how about yours?
No no no! When you break something in Linux systems you fix it. Starting over and reinstalling everything is what you do when you mess up on Windows.
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Nah, if you're installing something user friendly (ie Linux Mint just for an example) it'll work 1st time, guaranteed - or your money back.
But... you'll only really learn once you've fubar'd something... just like
falling offriding a bikeI want double my money back if the free program doesn't work!
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OP said breaking the kernel, not the machine. The computers would be fine, its pretty damn difficult to brick a computer using software, at least by accident.
Normal users will not break their kernel, op is likely doing some advanced tinkering. I have been using Linux for years and am definitely an advanced user and Ive broken my kernel zero times.
Gotcha, that's reassuring
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No no no! When you break something in Linux systems you fix it. Starting over and reinstalling everything is what you do when you mess up on Windows.
Funny I did not expect so many people that resist starting over. Next time I'll give fixing stuff a shot
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No no no! When you break something in Linux systems you fix it. Starting over and reinstalling everything is what you do when you mess up on Windows.
Generally yes. My exception was the time i accidentally nuked python in it's entirety...
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My crippled kernel count is around 6, how about yours?
I just spent 11 days on a dual boot repair in fstab, passwd, loads of ecryptfs, amongst other boot and login issues. Before restoring from the full system backup after getting mad to finally want to use my PC. 11 fucking days almost all day in terminal. TOO many partitions and too many folders inside of folders to get to my ecryptfs files. I got so lost LSing around.
After it all though, and it was an aneurism and a half. I still want to finish my goal and reinstall my dual boot this time correctly aiming the folders correctly.
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I would actually be amazed if I ever bricked a PC fucking around with installing things to it. At the very worst, I might have to move a jumper pin to flash the CMOS and start fresh like I never even touched the thing.
Not sure you can fully brick a PC. Simple BIOS update and your back to scratch load an OS and go again. Hardware failure. That's where the bricking happens.
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Pretty much everytime I try to do fancy stuff with the bootloader I get pretty close to nuking systems.
Worst was my 1st UEFI system where I was trying to get rEFInd to show multiple OS to boot from... eventually gave up and went back to the warm embrace of GRUBI just had 8 titles in boot menu all for the same OS. 🤌
I know exactly what I'm doing. It's a dual boot system. -
Maybe 1 or 2 back when things were less stable, but any time I have used Linux in the past 7 years or so, and particularly since I started using Debian as my primary OS, I haven't had any problems outside of trying to get some windows applications to emulate correctly, and one time when I echo'd into sources.list with > instead of >>.
If you want shit to just work when you want and stay out the way when you aren't using it. Debian of whatever source is what they call stability. I've done rolling, and bleeding edge. It's all a constant pain. Becomes a job to maintain or bug track or check logs. I'll never go back.
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It's even better if your only internet connection is that computer you broke.
This is the nightmare of my last 2 weeks. Well 11 days.
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Never the kernel but just about every time I touch /etc/fstab I fuck something up. I've done that a lot....
I've messed fstab, passwd, and others up so many times. It's a stroke to fix it and not being able to use your system for days. Zaps the drive to even mess with the computer.
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If you want shit to just work when you want and stay out the way when you aren't using it. Debian of whatever source is what they call stability. I've done rolling, and bleeding edge. It's all a constant pain. Becomes a job to maintain or bug track or check logs. I'll never go back.
That was my thought as well.
Back when I was new to Linux, I tried a lot of different distros in virtualization for shorter periods of time, and of course ran into the issues that come with the cutting edge stuff.
Last year I wanted to install a distribution to my laptop properly as a test before putting it onto my desktop, and I came to that same conclusion because at the end of the day I couldn't justify using bleeding edge, because I couldn't really even name anything I NEEDED from it. Yes, it is fun to have cool, new things, and it can be a lot of fun to play around with in a VM or something, but I don't actually need any of that stuff for what I do on a computer day to day right this second.
After that, the answer was pretty clear for me as to what distribution to use.
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May I introduce you to my lord and saviour NixOS?
Knock Knock Knock.
We (Jehovah's Witness) would like to know if you had a minute, so we could come inside, and talk to you about OUR Lord and Savior... Linux Mint.
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Just did a fresh install after attempting to migrate from a proxmox VM to baremetal (turns out my mobo only supports UEFI and after spending an hr trying to convert I just gave up and reinstalled)
I just spent 11 days not using my PC. Your sweating after an hour
I was thinking about what laptop I'm gonna buy to replace this broken desktop. -
Once you break it a few times, you start to understand the value of btrfs or ZFS snapshots.
What about Rsync. Does it get love? Any snapshot is good if it works. Backups are the shit.
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My gosh this hits home. If only I could stop tweaking. It's always just this one little thing. Then another and on until it's so fucked I don't even know where to begin. But it's magical when she works.
