*nix OS that will support my hardware, while allowing GUI desktop

[hextet]

I recently got into *nix because my class at school is teaching us Linux that will progress to Linux administration so I thought I might as well use linux at home because that will make the learning easier. I use RHEL6 at school, and Ubuntu 12.04LTS at home. The problem with Ubuntu 12.04LTS is that when I tried installing the driver for my GTX 765M, it corrupted my Ubuntu installation, and I was never able to get it to work, so I had to reinstall. I've been doing some research into Arch Linux, and it sounds like the way to go. Is this true? I want to make full use of my hardware, have a Linux box, but still have a graphical environment. Due to this, I was thinking of going with Arch Linux, and using KDE for a GUI desktop. Is this a good idea?

 

[smakme7757]

Installing the Nvidia driver package can be a PITA, but it does work. So i guess the unfortunate phrase of "You're just doing it wrong" is worthwhile mentioning here .

Also the "Corruption" you mention is just that the driver isn't working so you don't get a screen output. Your Linux install is most likely perfectly fine.

A way to fix that is to boot into recovery mode when you hit the GRUB screen. From there you can use the shell to mount your root directory "/" and then remove the Nvidia driver. It won't matter what Linux distribution you use if they don't have the driver available via the package manager. You will still be forced to install them yourself.

I got it working in Debian easy enough, it's been a while since I've used Ubuntu, but I remember the Nvidia drivers being available in the "Additional Drivers" part of the settings panel. As explained here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia

I wish I had of written down the steps I used to install these drivers - It worked 100% for me. It seems it's a massive problem with newer people coming to Linux and wanting to get the most out of their 3D hardware.

Actually I might make a small guide tonight.

 

[lxskllr]

Arch is gonna be more work to setup and maintain. You'll get the newest software, and more chances for your system to break. GNU/Linux is GNU/Linux though, and if something works on one distro, it'll work on any unless the software you use relies on some kind of weird quirk of a particular distro.

I like Debian, and I think it's great choice for a community supported workhorse. It's solid and stable. A RedHat clone is good for something enterprise-like if you want to practice maintaining that kind of machine. Otherwise, just choose what you like to use. As long as it isn't too far off the beaten path, any software will work on it, and it's just an issue of how much work you have to put in it.

 

[Jodell88]

Arch is gonna be more work to setup and maintain. You'll get the newest software, and more chances for your system to break.

Arch will take more to setup without a doubt. Maintenance is quite easy and system breakage is at the same level as any other distro IMO.

 

[lxskllr]

...and system breakage is at the same level as any other distro IMO.

I haven't run it myself, so I'm not intimately familiar. I've heard reports both ways, but it's intuitive to me that running the very latest packages will give more chance for things to break, especially when going through big transitions. I ran into it with Debian sid, and to a lesser extent, testing.

 

[Jodell88]

I haven't run it myself, so I'm not intimately familiar. I've heard reports both ways, but it's intuitive to me that running the very latest packages will give more chance for things to break, especially when going through big transitions. I ran into it with Debian sid, and to a lesser extent, testing.

I've been through some huge transitions with Arch and my systems have never been broken. You do raise a point. If the OP goes with a distro like Ubuntu he would just have to reinstall every six months or so, If he goes with Arch, he'll just have to spend the extra ten or fifthteen minutes when a potential system breaking update is released to follow the instructions for updating.

 

[JManInPhoenix]

For me Ubuntu 12.04 works pretty well (seems most long term Ubuntu distributions do for me).

After I built my new computer this past summer, I put 13.04 on it - that OS was a POS. In the past week I tried out 13.10 and that was pretty much the same story as 13.04. Hoping that 14.04 will be better.

A lot of the stuff that just works in 12.04 doesnt work in the later versions or it takes a lot of tweaking to get it to work:

printer support - turn on the printer after installing the OS and 12.04 finds it, installs the driver and it works. 13.04/13.10 doesnt auto install the printer driver. Selected the recommended driver and all it did was spit out page after page of blank paper. Deleted driver, installed another driver from the same manufacturer but different model and that worked.

games (just cheesy linux games, not real 3d games) - xgalaga works great in 12.04 (required a tweak to get the sound). 13.04/13.10 the screen goes huge and the game is unusable. Some of the other puzzle games I have installed work fine in 12.04 but not correctly in 13.04/13.10.

netbeans for GTKprogramming - this actually works fine in 12.04, 13.04 & 13.10

Google Earth - works with 32 bit version in 12.04 (I am running 64 bit) ok. Could not get it to install in 13.04 & 13.10 with 64 bit (didnt try the 32 bit version so that may have worked).

Did not care for the Ubuntu One registration during 13.10 install (i opted to skip it) but is Ubuntu trying to become a social media place now?

The games, especially xgalaga, are getting older so it's kind of a given that support for them wont be forever. The printer driver & google earth though, imo, should be plug & play just like they were in the earlier versions of Ubuntu. My first version of Ubuntu, 6.06, I remember almost a week of googling weboards, etc to find all the answers to get set up correctly - by the time 8.04 rolled around, everything just worked. Now with 13.x it seems I am back to googling for a lot of answers...

 

[lxskllr]

Did not care for the Ubuntu One registration during 13.10 install (i opted to skip it) but is Ubuntu trying to become a social media place now?

UbuntuOne's kind of useful for backing up non-sensitive data. They also have music streaming, and stuff like that, but I don't use it. It's not the only game in town by a long shot, but it probably integrates into the Ubuntu desktop pretty nicely. I haven't actually used it on Ubuntu.

 

[smakme7757]

This is how i installed the Nvidia drivers on Debian. I've changed the commands so they should work on Ubuntu.

1. Install the following packages:
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sudo apt-get install build-essential

2. Download the latest version of the Nvidia drivers from Nvidia http://www.nvidia.com

3. Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to get a terminal window. Log in with your user.

4. Navigate to your Downloads directory
cd /home/<username>/Downloads

5. Make the Nvidia driver download executable
Type chmod 700 NVIDIA-Linux and then press TAB to complete the file name
The whole command will look something like:
sudo chmod 700 NVIDIA-Linux-Version-Whatever

6. Stop the Unity shell
sudo service lightdm stop

7. Type the following to get the kernel version
sudo cat /proc/version

You will get an output like:
Linux version 3.8.0-34-generic (buildd@toyol) (gcc version 4.6.3 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5) ) #49~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Nov 13 18:05:00 UTC 2013

You are interested in the bold part, so write that down.

8. Run the nvidia installer
(Presuming you are still in the Downloads folder)
./NVIDIA-Linux (Press TAB again to complete the file name) and add --kernel-name= Add the bolded text here:

So the whole command will look something like:

./NVIDIA-Linux-Version-Whatever --kernel-name=3.8.0-34-generic

That will then start the installer. You will be asked a few questions. From memory i answered the following:

*Accept the license
*Install 32bit libraries = YES
*Run nvidia-xconfig = YES

I don't think I got many other questions. After that you can just start the unity interface or restart your PC
sudo service lightdm start or shutdown -r now

I just did it about 3 times to make sure it works, so if i haven't forgotten something that should work for you

UbuntuOne's kind of useful for backing up non-sensitive data. They also have music streaming, and stuff like that, but I don't use it. It's not the only game in town by a long shot, but it probably integrates into the Ubuntu desktop pretty nicely. I haven't actually used it on Ubuntu.

I have an account. I keep scripts and Linux "stuff" in there. I'm no big fan of cloud storage, but it has its uses!

 

[hextet]

I did some research and I'm going to go with Linux Mint Debian, I really like the look of the Cinnamon desktop, and I think I'll like it more than Ubuntu. From what I read the Nvidia drivers will work on there. How difficult would it be to install them? smakme: I installed the Nvidia driver from the Additional Drivers window. That didn't work, I did some google searching and tried the various methods that the ubuntu forums mentioned and none of them worked. This was a few months ago so I don't remember the exact steps I did but I spent a solid 1-2 hours trying to get it to work and nothing happened. xskllr: I don't really want to use a RedHat clone at home, seeing as how we use RHEL boxes every day at school for our Linux courses, so I want something more end user based than an enterprise type machine.

 

[smakme7757]

I did some research and I'm going to go with Linux Mint Debian, I really like the look of the Cinnamon desktop, and I think I'll like it more than Ubuntu. From what I read the Nvidia drivers will work on there. How difficult would it be to install them? smakme: I installed the Nvidia driver from the Additional Drivers window. That didn't work, I did some google searching and tried the various methods that the ubuntu forums mentioned and none of them worked. This was a few months ago so I don't remember the exact steps I did but I spent a solid 1-2 hours trying to get it to work and nothing happened. xskllr: I don't really want to use a RedHat clone at home, seeing as how we use RHEL boxes every day at school for our Linux courses, so I want something more end user based than an enterprise type machine.

My post above is how I install the latest Nvidia drivers from Nvidia.com on Debian, but the commands should get it installed on Ubuntu 13.04 and 13.10.

The service lightdm stop and service lightdm start commands would be different on Linux Mint. I'm not sure what shell it uses though. Maybe Gnome?

 

[hextet]

I believe the MATE desktop uses gnome-terminal, not sure about cinnamon. Theo nly hting that's keeping me from swapping to LMDE is that they supposedly don't get all security updates? IS this true?

 

[lxskllr]

Theo nly hting that's keeping me from swapping to LMDE is that they supposedly don't get all security updates? IS this true?

They get security updates eventually, but they lag a bit. LMDE is a semi rolling release, where packages get released in bundles. I'm not sure what the frequency is, but I think it's monthly.

I don't see a big purpose of LMDE at this point, unless you especially like Mate, Cinnamon, or the Mint menu. It's basically just Debian, but farther from the source. It's useful as a potential escape route from an Ubuntu base, but that's more a concern for the devs.

 

[hextet]

Ah okay, well I think Cinnamon is really nice, and looks like something I'd prefer to unity. Hmm well now I'm starting to think maybe I'll just stick with Ubuntu and wait for 14.04LTS to come out.

 

[MrColin]

I recently got into *nix because my class at school is teaching us Linux that will progress to Linux administration so I thought I might as well use linux at home because that will make the learning easier. I use RHEL6 at school, and Ubuntu 12.04LTS at home. The problem with Ubuntu 12.04LTS is that when I tried installing the driver for my GTX 765M, it corrupted my Ubuntu installation, and I was never able to get it to work, so I had to reinstall. I've been doing some research into Arch Linux, and it sounds like the way to go. Is this true? I want to make full use of my hardware, have a Linux box, but still have a graphical environment. Due to this, I was thinking of going with Arch Linux, and using KDE for a GUI desktop. Is this a good idea?

You probably know this already but CentOS and Fedora will be most similar to RHEL. You can get packaged drivers by adding the RPMFusion repository for Fedora.

 

[powerhouse65]

I did some research and I'm going to go with Linux Mint Debian, I really like the look of the Cinnamon desktop, and I think I'll like it more than Ubuntu. From what I read the Nvidia drivers will work on there. How difficult would it be to install them? smakme: I installed the Nvidia driver from the Additional Drivers window. That didn't work, I did some google searching and tried the various methods that the ubuntu forums mentioned and none of them worked. This was a few months ago so I don't remember the exact steps I did but I spent a solid 1-2 hours trying to get it to work and nothing happened. xskllr: I don't really want to use a RedHat clone at home, seeing as how we use RHEL boxes every day at school for our Linux courses, so I want something more end user based than an enterprise type machine.

Linux Mint Debian is a rolling release. It gets updated more frequently, with newer stuff, so chances are that here and there things break.

I use Linux Mint for the past 7 years. Right now I'm using Linux Mint 16 64bit Mate. I prefer Mate over Cinnamon for its features and the robustness, though Cinnamon has gained a lot in popularity. Unless you need support for multiple screens, in which case Mate is the clear winner, both should be OK.

If you are new to Linux, you should consider Linux Mint 16 Petra (Mate or Cinnamon) instead of Linux Mint Debian, for the reasons I gave above.

While installing, particularly on a desktop PC, consider uysing LVM for everything but /boot (or use the default, but enable LVM). It's something that come in useful later, for example when you want to "grow a disk", or simply backup your stuff (using the snapshot feature on a running system). See here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=108442#p610315.

Last not least, here some observations:
1. Linux Mint/Ubuntu are quite different from Redhat/Fedora/CentOS.
2. Archlinux has excellent documentation! I use it all the time, even though I'm running Linux Mint.
3. Linux Mint is probably the easiest, most complete Linux distro I ran into. Once installed, you get a fully working system with all important applications installed. Also, you can choose a version which includes all the codecs for video viewing etc. (if it's allowed in your country to use these codecs).
4. BEFORE installing anything, get unetbootin (for Windows if you need to), download the distro you like to check, insert a USB flash stick and install the distro using unetbootin onto the USB flash drive. Then boot from USB and see how it works. Play with it, try things, but don't install unless you're sure. Download different distros and compare, if you want to.

Good luck!

 

[ico]

GTX 765M? A laptop, right?

No point of installing nVidia drivers. I don't think you are going to game either in Linux. Just use Intel HD graphics which should be working properly by default.

Rather disable the nVidia card by blacklisting nouveau module. This is the open source driver for nVidia. Blacklisting it will turn off your nVidia GPU completely under Linux.

Create a file /etc/modprobe.d/nouveau.conf with the following contents:

blacklist nouveau

Using only Intel graphics is the way to go for laptops. Linux already has poor battery life. I also blacklist radeon on laptops with discrete AMD GPU.

As far as distro is concerned, I will recommend Arch. Personally it was my first Linux distro. Bleeding edge distro always having the latest updates. I learned a lot while trying to install it as I had close to zero experience with Linux. Pain is gain.