Question Linux on a USB or VM?

[mikeymikec]

So does the latest version of VirtualBox oblige you to sign in with an Oracle account or something?

 

[biostud]

I use VMware, even though they have bad business practices. But the private version works really well and is still free.

 

[igor_kavinski]

So does the latest version of VirtualBox oblige you to sign in with an Oracle account or something?

No but they might be tracking the IPs that download VirtualBox. If it's a public IP belonging to a large company, they may send emails telling them that they need to buy a license for using the VirtualBox Extension Pack since the default license is for personal use only. This is kind of the same thing they did with Java. I know at least Western Union switched away from using Java to Node.js when Oracle started sending out the final notices of Java needing a paid license for commercial use.

 

[manly]

I use VMware, even though they have bad business practices. But the private version works really well and is still free.

Broadcom aspires to be as "bad" as Oracle.

As igor mentioned, Oracle has been trying to get businesses to pay just to use the Java VM.

 

[biostud]

Broadcom aspires to be as "bad" as Oracle.

As igor mentioned, Oracle has been trying to get businesses to pay just to use the Java VM.

Yeah, I know... But the very few hours I spend on a VM, I like that it works and just do what I expect.

 

[manly]

Yeah, I know... But the very few hours I spend on a VM, I like that it works and just do what I expect.

I don't use virtualization much, but I have a soft spot for VMware because I used it starting with version 1.0. So as a home user, I wouldn't mind using it again. Businesses is a different calculus.

Note that Linux has excellent virtualization in KVM. At this point, I wouldn't touch anything by Oracle. Chairman Larry Ellison was Elon Musk long before Musk revealed himself.

 

[biostud]

So I got steam installed and made a user account for my kids, so they don't use my user. I found out how to share the folders and steam would find my shared games on the ext4 data drives. But a few seconds after launch the game would just close, just like the if they were installed on NTFS. I found out if I used the "Move install folder" and moved the game, the game would launch fine and also if I moved it back. Unfortunately this results in the game not wanting to launch from my account.

Weird...

 

[biostud]

So I got steam installed and made a user account for my kids, so they don't use my user. I found out how to share the folders and steam would find my shared games on the ext4 data drives. But a few seconds after launch the game would just close, just like the if they were installed on NTFS. I found out if I used the "Move install folder" and moved the game, the game would launch fine and also if I moved it back. Unfortunately this results in the game not wanting to launch from my account.

Weird...

I got help from the linux mint forum if anyone is interested:

Steam's default Steam-library is in the case of Linux inside the home-directory of the user running Steam which is not good for sharing said library over multiple Linux user-accounts. You mention a "shared drive" with the Steam-library: I will assume this is available at e.g. /data/SteamLibrary. Substitute as needed -- but careful: I do hope it's a normal internal, always mounted "shared drive" and not something e.g. auto-mounted under /media/<you>. If it's not a statically accessible Steam-library on a normal always mounted drive, said mounting should be dealt with first. Then...

Install "bindfs" with sudo apt-get install bindfs and assuming your/kids' Linux user-accounts are "dad" / "kids", overlay the Steam-library with a bindfs-mounted copy of itself as

Code: Select all
sudo bindfs --perms=0660:+X --mirror=dad:kids /data/SteamLibrary /data/SteamLibrary
What this does is have "dad" see all files under /data/SteamLibrary as owned by "dad", "kids" as by "kids", and had things work for every Steam-game and Steam-situation that I once tested this with. Both you and kids would have /data/SteamLibrary setup as their Steam-library and both would access it as if it were private to them. Please test.

If you're satisfied things work you can automate the bindfs mount in /etc/fstab by adding a line to it as

Code: Select all
/data/SteamLibrary /data/SteamLibrary fuse.bindfs perms=0660:+X,mirror=dad:kids
A small "niceness" tweak can still be to have a group "gamers" or "steam" that you add users "dad" and "kids" to and instead use --mirror=@steam to mean 'anyone in group "steam"' but, note, if you e.g. insist on kids not having the ability to (un)install games from/to the shared library whereas you yourself do, things get to be more trouble quickly with Steam.

I'd not insist: as you can see, in the basis it's just one line added to your /etc/fstab to have things Just Work.

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=2662484#p2662484

 

[biostud]

I just had to do my first "Timeshift" as something got borked and when trying to switch between users it asked for my root password and simply froze the computer, so only a hard reset would get me going. Yay! my first time borking Linux

 

[biostud]

First time I really played World of Tanks on Linux, I broke my damage record 8K+.

Coincidence? I think not

 

[biostud]

The file system of Linux is unforgiving.

So I tried renaming my boot partition using gparted, which resulted in being unable to mount the drive during boot, giving me a plain console with very few options. A little help from Claude and I got the drive mounted and I was back. Obviously wanting to change back I just changed the name back to the old, but without changing a specific line in etc/fstab, and now it wouldn't even boot into a command line.

So I fired up the install USB and did timeshift two times, didn't help. Got help from Claude on how to mount my boot drive and fix the fstab file. Everything booted and was fine..... Until I realized that I apperently one time had used timeshift to restore my OS drive on my Linux data drive wiping the data stored there...

Great fun....

So lesson learned, don't mess with the file system and particularly your boot drive. :/

 

[manly]

In a nutshell, how does Steam on Windows handle a game install shared by multiple users?

The file system of Linux is unforgiving.

So I tried renaming my boot partition using gparted, which resulted in being unable to mount the drive during boot, giving me a plain console with very few options. A little help from Claude and I got the drive mounted and I was back. Obviously wanting to change back I just changed the name back to the old, but without changing a specific line in etc/fstab, and now it wouldn't even boot into a command line.

So I fired up the install USB and did timeshift two times, didn't help. Got help from Claude on how to mount my boot drive and fix the fstab file. Everything booted and was fine..... Until I realized that I apperently one time had used timeshift to restore my OS drive on my Linux data drive wiping the data stored there...

Great fun....

So lesson learned, don't mess with the file system and particularly your boot drive. :/

You're leveling up your skillz rather quickly. Most casual users would be stuck if they mucked up their Linux booting.

/etc/fstab mostly uses UUID nowadays. It's unclear why your mucking around damaged the boot process. When you said "renaming" the boot partition, are you referring to the UEFI boot label of the OS? Or the ext4 volume label of the filesystem?

Do you pay for Claude or any AI services?

 

[biostud]

In a nutshell, how does Steam on Windows handle a game install shared by multiple users?



You're leveling up your skillz rather quickly. Most casual users would be stuck if they mucked up their Linux booting.

/etc/fstab mostly uses UUID nowadays. It's unclear why your mucking around damaged the boot process. When you said "renaming" the boot partition, are you referring to the UEFI boot label of the OS? Or the ext4 volume label of the filesystem?

Do you pay for Claude or any AI services?

I think the problem is I didn't exactly know what what I was renaming, but it somehow prevented it to be mounted at boot.

Luckily it was just my steam installs and two VM on the partition, and I have recreated it now.

No I don't pay for Claude.

 

[mikeymikec]

The file system of Linux is unforgiving.

So I tried renaming my boot partition using gparted, which resulted in being unable to mount the drive during boot, giving me a plain console with very few options. A little help from Claude and I got the drive mounted and I was back. Obviously wanting to change back I just changed the name back to the old, but without changing a specific line in etc/fstab, and now it wouldn't even boot into a command line.

So I fired up the install USB and did timeshift two times, didn't help. Got help from Claude on how to mount my boot drive and fix the fstab file. Everything booted and was fine..... Until I realized that I apperently one time had used timeshift to restore my OS drive on my Linux data drive wiping the data stored there...

Great fun....

So lesson learned, don't mess with the file system and particularly your boot drive. :/

I'm puzzled, what does "rename the boot partition" mean? You turned / into /stephanie/ ?

I have to say, I applaud your "learn Linux really fast by intentionally breaking stuff" approach, I don't think I can bring myself to do that any more.

 

[biostud]

I'm puzzled, what does "rename the boot partition" mean? You turned / into /stephanie/ ?

I have to say, I applaud your "learn Linux really fast by intentionally breaking stuff" approach, I don't think I can bring myself to do that any more.

It is really not intentionally.
I had no idea that changing a name on a drive could prevent it from booting.

Also it was not intentional that I timeshifted to a wrong partition.

But as I have dual boot, I still have a working Windows with all software and data, so let's say Linux is still in its beta phase.

Also I don't really game that much, but I like fixing computers which doesn't work, so it's a good hobby for me.

 

[mikeymikec]

It is really not intentionally.
I had no idea that changing a name on a drive could prevent it from booting.

Also it was not intentional that I timeshifted to a wrong partition.

But as I have dual boot, I still have a working Windows with all software and data, so let's say Linux is still in its beta phase.

Also I don't really game that much, but I like fixing computers which doesn't work, so it's a good hobby for me.

I still don't understand why you... I'm guessing here ... changed the volume label for your root partition? It wouldn't even show up in Linux during day-to-day usage, and unless you still ext4 support in Windows then it won't show up there either...?

Looking at fstab on my computer, the root filesystem references a UUID so I'm even more confused!

 

[biostud]

I still don't understand why you... I'm guessing here ... changed the volume label for your root partition? It wouldn't even show up in Linux during day-to-day usage, and unless you still ext4 support in Windows then it won't show up there either...?

Looking at fstab on my computer, the root filesystem references a UUID so I'm even more confused!

Because instead of having those nvme0p1n4 names I prefer names which makes sense hence my I have a SN7100DATA, but I apperently did it the wrong way for my boot drive.

Also remember I really don't know how things work, I just know what I would like to have.

Shared steam/data library between two users, naming drives/partitions etc.

And it seems like the file system is a bit more restrictive than on Windows, then I just FAFU it

 

[mikeymikec]

I wonder if my use of the repair boot program in 2023 changed all the device pointers to UUIDs, because my fstab doesn't mention nvme at all.

This UUID business is interesting because on Windows when I set up encrypted backup systems for some customers with veracrypt, I use UUIDs to point my backup system at the correct backup drive, but apparently one can't do that the same way on Linux because reasons.