Theory Waste your time effectively with linux

[svgmn1]

odd should pick it up, though i'm pretty lazy with my linux systems I always just install grub and all its efi files directly into /boot/, makes /boot/ a bit messy but its never bothered me, did the same when I used to daily drive arch for half a decade before moving to gentoo, if you need any other help or can't get it working just hmu, i'll typically respond decently fast

Thanks brocel
reinstalling grub with that line then mkconfig did make the vmm bios detect grub

however for some reason boot process still gets stuck at run /init as init process, even after reinstall of initramfs.

Selinux is excluded from being the culprit, I made sure that all semodules/options are chosen using --menuconfig so the kernel have them, as well as installing userland selinux utils.

I double and triple checked that everything points at the right location/path of everything.

maybe genkernel is the culprit and can't make an initramfs for this specific profile, idk, I will try dracut or something to install initramfs seperately.

 

[zd60]

Thanks brocel
reinstalling grub with that line then mkconfig did make the vmm bios detect grub

however for some reason boot process still gets stuck at run /init as init process, even after reinstall of initramfs.

Selinux is excluded from being the culprit, I made sure that all semodules/options are chosen using --menuconfig so the kernel have them, as well as installing userland selinux utils.

I double and triple checked that everything points at the right location/path of everything.

maybe genkernel is the culprit and can't make an initramfs for this specific profile, idk, I will try dracut or something to install initramfs seperately.

you can try generating just a initramfs directly with genkernel to see if that changes anything

 

[svgmn1]

you can try generating just a initramfs directly with genkernel to see if that changes anything

yes, I did try it in the optimal way forcing a clean install with all ramdisk modules like this

genkernel --install --no-clean --no-mrproper --loglevel=5 --log=/var/log/genkernel.log --all-ramdisk-modules initramfs

no error or anything suspecious happens, however I am getting a clue why this happnes

when I generated initramfs by genkernel, returned an xz archive for the image using file /boot/initramfs.img

HOWEVER now after installing with dracut then ran file /boot/initramfs.img it returned an ascII cpio archive, hmmmm


so right now I'm experimenting with dracut and staying away from genkernel to see if this difference does anything

 

[zd60]

yes, I did try it in the optimal way forcing a clean install with all ramdisk modules like this

genkernel --install --no-clean --no-mrproper --loglevel=5 --log=/var/log/genkernel.log --all-ramdisk-modules initramfs

no error or anything suspecious happens, however I am getting a clue why this happnes

when I generated initramfs with dracut and copied the initramfs then ran file /initramfs it returned an ascII cpio archive, while the initramfs generated by genkernel, returned an xz archive for the image. so right now I'm experimenting with dracut and staying away from genkernel to see if this difference does anything

yes, I did try it in the optimal way forcing a clean install with all ramdisk modules like this

genkernel --install --no-clean --no-mrproper --loglevel=5 --log=/var/log/genkernel.log --all-ramdisk-modules initramfs

no error or anything suspecious happens, however I am getting a clue why this happnes

when I generated initramfs with dracut and copied the initramfs then ran file /initramfs it returned an ascII cpio archive, while the initramfs generated by genkernel, returned an xz archive for the image. so right now I'm experimenting with dracut and staying away from genkernel to see if this difference does anything

hmm, that's one of the quirks about gentoo is that it can be installed so many different ways, I don't ever typically do much with genkernel besides making my initramfs, you might benefit from specifically pointing to your kernel config in the /usr/src/linux/.config in you genkernel command, is your fstab setup to point to drives via their UUID or their drive name like /dev/sdX ? its probably worth setting up your fstab to use drives by UUID since they don't change and typically cause less booting issues too long-term

 

[svgmn1]

hmm, that's one of the quirks about gentoo is that it can be installed so many different ways, I don't ever typically do much with genkernel besides making my initramfs, you might benefit from specifically pointing to your kernel config in the /usr/src/linux/.config in you genkernel command, is your fstab setup to point to drives via their UUID or their drive name like /dev/sdX ?

I pointed towards both root and efi in fstab using UUIDs of the partitions which I grabbed from lsblk -f instead of using regular paths, you can find full fstab info in the config.txt file I sent earlier

I didn't use a config or messed anything with menuconfig, I used genkernel all which should in theory automatically cover up everything (right?)

 

[zd60]

I pointed towards both root and efi in fstab using UUIDs of the partitions which I grabbed from lsblk -f instead of using regular paths, you can find full fstab info in the config.txt file I sent earlier

I didn't use a config or messed anything with menuconfig, I used genkernel all which should in theory automatically cover up everything (right?)

I've tried parsing through a bit of the files it seems like your fstab is a little weird for the /boot/ you seem to have noatime on the /boot/ which isn't something typical at least not for me my fstab is setup for /boot/ like this


/boot/ vfat defaults 0 2

you can modifiy it to be /boot/efi, i'd then probably regenerate your grub.cfg

 

[zd60]

@svgmn1 also maybe I missed it but is there a specific reason for you to use the --no-nvram flag in yoru grub-install you don't typically need it for a desktop install or in a vm

 

[svgmn1]

I've tried parsing through a bit of the files it seems like your fstab is a little weird for the /boot/ you seem to have noatime on the /boot/ which isn't something typical at least not for me my fstab is setup for /boot/ like this


/boot/ vfat defaults 0 2

you can modifiy it to be /boot/efi, i'd then probably regenerate your grub.cfg

yes cando and will, noatime was just put there because I read it improves fs performance

will change efi path as well then regenerate grub.cfg

@svgmn1 also maybe I missed it but is there a specific reason for you to use the --no-nvram flag in yoru grub-install you don't typically need it for a desktop install or in a vm

I reintalled and reconfigured grub at this point without this flag already, I think back then it was just to test or something idk so I wrote it and forgot

 

[nazianime]

I use Linux as my personal desktop and it’s good, a few headaches but I don’t run windows games so ehh. I’ll just pirate games on older consoles and run those instead. Microsoft has become such hot garbage that the pain of using Linux > using windows.

I still use windows 11 for work because professional applications I have to use but that’s it though. Just right now I tried to use quick assist to help a colleague and that shit won’t open, on the most vanilla install with all the updates, literally broke itself. That’s how much trash microshit has become. But seriously fuck pajeetsoft, adobe pajeet, and google jeet, all ran by Indian ceos to the ground.

 

[svgmn1]

/boot/ vfat defaults 0 2

you can modifiy it to be /boot/efi, i'd then probably regenerate your grub.cfg

this is weird as hell
after installing with dracut then doing these, now the system boot stuck at "cdrom: uniform cd-rom driver revision: 3.28" for like minutes then it shows these warnings "dracut warning: /dev/disk/by-uuid/4a57c1a8-388b-42e7-a689-e859ea4c7dea does not exist dracut warning: /dev/disk/by-uuid/F0E6-FDD2 does not exist "
I double-checked the uuids saved from lsblk -f, they are THE EXACT SAME UUIDS, down to each character

idk what to try anymore tbh since uuid pointing should be exact and bullet proof in theory

 

[svgmn1]

this is weird as hell
after installing with dracut then doing these, now the system boot stuck at "cdrom: uniform cd-rom driver revision: 3.28" for like minutes then it shows these warnings "dracut warning: /dev/disk/by-uuid/4a57c1a8-388b-42e7-a689-e859ea4c7dea does not exist dracut warning: /dev/disk/by-uuid/F0E6-FDD2 does not exist "
I double-checked the uuids saved from lsblk -f, they are THE EXACT SAME UUIDS, down to each character

idk what to try anymore tbh since uuid pointing should be exact and bullet proof in theory

I'll take a rest today already spent too much time on checking stuff

 

[zd60]

I'll take a rest today already spent too much time on checking stuff

I might've overlooked it in your files that you sent but did you install the sys-kernel/linux-firmware package and I didn't see this in your make.conf but if yoru on efi you typically need to add this to your make.conf
GRUB_PLATFORMS="efi-64"

 

[svgmn1]

I might've overlooked it in your files that you sent but did you install the sys-kernel/linux-firmware package and I didn't see this in your make.conf but if yoru on efi you typically need to add this to your make.conf
GRUB_PLATFORMS="efi-64"

will check and do if necessary, tomorrow
thanks for the help so far bud

 

[zd60]

will check and do if necessary, tomorrow
thanks for the help so far bud

sounds good just hmu whenever

 

[svgmn1]

sounds good just hmu whenever

Fuck yeah brother it did boot

turns out the only thing that was missing is running touch /.autorelabel
rookie mistake for such a manual distro, but Idk if that was the only thing missing for dracut kernel to detect and load my disk? because I reinstalled with dracut, then force installed intramfs with dracut then installed the linux-firmware as you reminded me.

I got another problem right now after boot since I want a DE, turns out it's a hassle even for a small DE like lxqt/lxd
and setting selinux labels is failing when I try to install anything.
turns out file_contexts is missing in etc/selinux/mcs/file, tried to install sec-policy/selinux-base to fix that but it fails. so right now it can't install anything because "unable to set selinux security labels!" keeps appearing when emerging anything.

seems like another rabbit hole for me to dig in

 

[zd60]

Fuck yeah brother it did boot

turns out the only thing that was missing is running touch /.autorelabel
rookie mistake for such a manual distro, but Idk if that was the only thing missing for dracut kernel to detect and load my disk? because I reinstalled with dracut, then force installed intramfs with dracut then installed the linux-firmware as you reminded me.

I got another problem right now after boot since I want a DE, turns out it's a hassle even for a small DE like lxqt/lxd
and setting selinux labels is failing when I try to install anything.
turns out file_contexts is missing in etc/selinux/mcs/file, tried to install sec-policy/selinux-base to fix that but it fails. so right now it can't install anything because "unable to set selinux security labels!" keeps appearing when emerging anything.

seems like another rabbit hole for me to dig in

The setting labels issue sounds like I've something I've read about on the wiki for selinux on gentoo

might want to read over here again just to make sure you got everything configured correctly
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/SELinux/Installation,

if its your first install of sec-policy/selinux-base I think it requires to be emerge with -selinux feature disabled at first I could be wrong been a little bit since I've set it up

 

[svgmn1]

The setting labels issue sounds like I've something I've read about on the wiki for selinux on gentoo

might want to read over here again just to make sure you got everything configured correctly
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/SELinux/Installation,

if its your first install of sec-policy/selinux-base I think it requires to be emerge with -selinux feature disabled at first I could be wrong been a little bit since I've set it up

Yes, which is exactly what I did
FEATURE ="-selinux" + emerge, however it gave me some sort of error with a log, mostly about lines in python scripts which seems ambiguous at best.
gotta boot my laptop, test again and do some searching first.

 

[zd60]

Yes, which is exactly what I did
FEATURE ="-selinux" + emerge, however it gave me some sort of error with a log, mostly about lines in python scripts which seems ambiguous at best.
gotta boot my laptop, test again and do some searching first.

did the package fully compile or did it fail, do you have that log file?

 

[svgmn1]

did the package fully compile or did it fail, do you have that log file?

No it failed, here's the log file: (skip to L 1164 for the failures)

it is strange because in the wiki guide it just mentions installing the kernel first then using this line to install the sec-policy/selinux-base and optional use flags
so I don't even know what I'm missing tbh

 

[zd60]

No it failed, here's the log file: (skip to L 1164 for the failures)

it is strange because in the wiki guide it just mentions installing the kernel first then using this line to install the sec-policy/selinux-base and optional use flags
so I don't even know what I'm missing tbh

Oh wow there's a lot of file collisions in there, honestly if you're comfortable with it might be worth just restarting the whole install from the start instead jumping from one problem to another might be faster, seems like something might've went wrong during the install possibly

 

[svgmn1]

No it failed, here's the log file: (skip to L 1164 for the failures)

it is strange because in the wiki guide it just mentions installing the kernel first then using this line to install the sec-policy/selinux-base and optional use flags
so I don't even know what I'm missing tbh

I think im getting close to solve this
even though sestatus is set 0 right now I may need to disable selinux temporarily using grub menuentry
but then this would render my fs read only for some reason
what I dislike about gentoo is the philosophy but I have to admit it's a super resilient os
all the issues and the bugs you throw at it and your progress won't get fucked over or ever have to start from 0 (so far atleast, which I hope it doesn't change)

 

[svgmn1]

Oh wow there's a lot of file collisions in there, honestly if you're comfortable with it might be worth just restarting the whole install from the start instead jumping from one problem to another might be faster, seems like something might've went wrong during the install possibly

why lol I feel like I can fix anything wrong with it at this point

 

[zd60]

why lol I feel like I can fix anything wrong with it at this point

lol okay, the file collisions are usually easily fixed, if you have the feature collision-protect setup in your make.conf typically just disabling it and re-emerging the package fixes it, also you def can fix pretty much everything from this point on yeah just adds more time before you're up to a fully work system idk how much time someone is willing to dedicate to installing a linux distro most people would've gave up already lol

 

[svgmn1]

lol okay, the file collisions are usually easily fixed, if you have the feature collision-protect setup in your make.conf typically just disabling it and re-emerging the package fixes it

It's ok brocel I'll figure it out
just need more time and search tbh thanks for the help so far

 

[zd60]

It's ok brocel I'll figure it out
just need more time and search tbh thanks for the help so far

oh I got nothing but time, I don't mind helping still, I just know you might run into something I've not delt with before

 

[DPRKcel]

Intentionally using a low quality and shitty OS just so you can have a purpose through tinkering it all the time is low IQ and you should off yourself

 

[svgmn1]

Intentionally using a low quality and shitty OS just so you can have a purpose through tinkering it all the time is low IQ and you should off yourself

thanks for the tip, will certainly do

 

[Hoppipolla]

Or you could have just installed Mint on a compatible system.

 

[kay']

 

[svgmn1]

Or you could have just installed Mint on a compatible system.

Just settle with a light ubuntu distro with cinnamon theory

 

[Hoppipolla]

Just settle with a light ubuntu distro with cinnamon theory

Yah I tend to go for Mint with MATE. It's a very safe choice! And no dual booting.

But I'm tempted to switch to an Arch-based distro and XFCE as it feels more 2025!

 

[svgmn1]

But I'm tempted to switch to an Arch-based distro and XFCE as it feels more 2025!

Don't
AUR is a meme, 90% of the time you'll stick pacman instead, did it with manjaro, the numbers are deceiving since you'll find the AUR riddled with modded clones or replicas of already common packages, yay will just make it look like a normal package manager and that's it, also arch is a slave distro, you will slave yourself for it to reach it's peak. arch based distros are no better and will push you to try vanilla arch to get rid of their problems, stability and poor performance.

and XFCE as it feels more 2025!

Don't
Xfce neither looks or feels 2025, you'll regret that choice.

If you want a light distro with some customization, go debnetinst (ironically a stone age distro) with no DE and slap a wm/desktop server of your choice instead, something like hyprland or whatever, that will give you more than enough time to waste on tinkering and customization if that's what you're looking after and it would be nearly identical in lightness to arch and lighter than 99% of "lite" distros.

That's it, no need for the latest thing, a solid system with less chances to break is what you're supposed to be looking for, matter of fact you'll find yourself more leaning towards not willing to change anything or update anything the more time you daily drive an os whether it's fixed or rolling, a stable pr distro like debian means stable performance and reliability for doing what you want to do on a pc everyday.

 

[Hoppipolla]

Don't
AUR is a meme, 90% of the time you'll stick pacman instead, did it with manjaro, the numbers are deceiving since you'll find the AUR riddled with modded clones or replicas of already common packages, yay will just make it look like a normal package manager and that's it, also arch is a slave distro, you will slave yourself for it to reach it's peak. arch based distros are no better and will push you to try vanilla arch to get rid of their problems, stability and poor performance.


Don't
Xfce neither looks or feels 2025, you'll regret that choice.

If you want a light distro with some customization, go debnetinst (ironically a stone age distro) with no DE and slap a wm/desktop server of your choice instead, something like hyprland or whatever, that will give you more than enough time to waste on tinkering and customization if that's what you're looking after and it would be nearly identical in lightness to arch and lighter than 99% of "lite" distros.

That's it, no need for the latest thing, a solid system with less chances to break is what you're supposed to be looking for, matter of fact you'll find yourself more leaning towards not willing to change anything or update anything the more time you daily drive an os whether it's fixed or rolling, a stable pr distro like debian means stable performance and reliability for doing what you want to do on a pc everyday.

Apparently even CachyOS isn't as stable and dependable as Mint, which is interesting.

I do think XFCE is pretty good though. I'm not saying it's the best DE but it's light and seems more fully-featured than modern MATE. And you can just install Mint XFCE (or Mint MATE) and call it a day without any real need for messing around.

I wonder what most Linux servers are running these days. That tends to be a good indicator of back-end stability.

Like how Ubuntu is a popular server and is also a solid foundation for Mint.

 

[svgmn1]

I wonder what most Linux servers are running these days. That tends to be a good indicator of back-end stability.

Like how Ubuntu is a popular server and is also a solid foundation for Mint.

You should look for a minimal ubuntu install and do the same for a setup of a desktop/display (hyprland or another desktop compositer) then since most servers will always use ubuntu, in fact more now than ever since people are moving away from rhel.

This would grant you something lighter than mint itself, possibly lighter than even the lightest ubuntu based (Lubuntu).

Keep in mind that Ubuntu is not debian and is hoggier than Debian (in netinst) regardless of how minimal or stripped it is or it's based distros are.

Also both deb and ubuntu share the same packages, it's just that ubuntu has the "newer packages" which isn't such a big deal as I explained before (same point that arch mainers flex about, although deb based distros are more stable) if that's your thing pr you value it that much go for it.

 

[svgmn1]

You should look for a minimal ubuntu install and do the same for a setup of a desktop/display (hyprland or another desktop compositer) then since most servers will always use ubuntu, in fact more now than ever since people are moving away from rhel.

This would grant you something lighter than mint itself, possibly lighter than even the lightest ubuntu based (Lubuntu).

Keep in mind that Ubuntu is not debian and is hoggier than Debian (in netinst) regardless of how minimal or stripped it is or it's based distros are.

Also both deb and ubuntu share the same packages, it's just that ubuntu has the "newer packages" which isn't such a big deal as I explained before (same point that arch mainers flex about, although deb based distros are more stable) if that's your thing pr you value it that much go for it.

Think of it as assembling your own distro, much like as you would waste your time on distros like arch or gentoo, net installs with no gui and installing several components later, but instead of making it a time wasting hell for the user with "muh freedom of choice and endless options" you already give them a functioning package manager with a functioning core, functioning utils and partitioners with stability, as any os should.

 

[Hoppipolla]

You should look for a minimal ubuntu install and do the same for a setup of a desktop/display (hyprland or another desktop compositer) then since most servers will always use ubuntu, in fact more now than ever since people are moving away from rhel.

This would grant you something lighter than mint itself, possibly lighter than even the lightest ubuntu based (Lubuntu).

Keep in mind that Ubuntu is not debian and is hoggier than Debian (in netinst) regardless of how minimal or stripped it is or it's based distros are.

Also both deb and ubuntu share the same packages, it's just that ubuntu has the "newer packages" which isn't such a big deal as I explained before (same point that arch mainers flex about, although deb based distros are more stable) if that's your thing pr you value it that much go for it.

I think it's worth the trade-off of a somewhat heavier distro if it means you get an easier experience.

 

[svgmn1]

I think it's worth the trade-off of a somewhat heavier distro if it means you get an easier experience.

the difference is minimal but ocd and autism will push you to think that you need to shave off more once your system encounters something that pushes it near it's limit, even though anything that isn't windows 11 will practically be a feather on most modern pcs.

As long as it's a stable deb based distro and not an arch based distro, fedora or big feature rich distros like pop or something, the difference is not really big tbh so go with a bare ubuntu and install components yourself.

 

[Hoppipolla]

the difference is minimal but ocd and autism will push you to think that you need to shave off more once your system encounters something that pushes it near it's limit, even though anything that isn't windows 11 will practically be a feather on most modern pcs.

As long as it's a stable deb based distro and not an arch based distro, fedora or big feature rich distros like pop or something, the difference is not really big tbh so go with a bare ubuntu and install components yourself.

It's just more hassle though I think.

And yeah I used to compile kernels years ago.

I agree that Windows 11 tends to be much heavier.

 

[svgmn1]

It's just more hassle though I think.

And yeah I used to compile kernels years ago.

I agree that Windows 11 tends to be much heavier.

Not as big of a hassle as vanilla arch for sure
You just install the stuff you need with the package manager with a couple of commands.
if a wm or dc/ds like hyprland is too much you can always opt for a DE instead.

I'm saying a mainstream opinion but kdep and gnomethe only de that looks and feels 2025 imo, kdep being better because even though it's gigantic it countless themes for customization and looks good fresh out of installment, It's super smooth even on my hogger of a distro (fedora)

it's gigantic but I mean it's just 5 gigs, unless your distro is really big (incase of netinstalls, it isn't) everything will take like 6.5 gigs of storage and 1200 mbs of ram at most.

 

[Hoppipolla]

Not as big of a hassle as vanilla arch for sure
You just install the stuff you need with the package manager with a couple of commands.
if a wm or dc/ds like hyprland is too much you can always opt for a DE instead.

I'm saying a mainstream opinion but kdep and gnomethe only de that looks and feels 2025 imo, kdep being better because even though it's gigantic it countless themes for customization and looks good fresh out of installment, It's super smooth even on my hogger of a distro (fedora)

it's gigantic but I mean it's just 5 gigs, unless your distro is really big (incase of netinstalls, it isn't) everything will take like 6.5 gigs of storage and 1200 mbs of ram at most.

I guess it depends how much you really want that "2025 desktop" feel. Whatever that really means, you know?

Personally... I really have no desire to keep up with whatever computing may be like in 2025 or 2030 or 2035! As long as it works, I'm happy!

Do you prefer KDE or Gnome? For me I think I'd go with KDE if I was choosing between those. More fully-featured and similar to classic Windows.

 

[Extern]

What is the quickest way to learn linux?

 

[Extern]

I used to be into linux when I was 13 or so, would just tinker with stuff until I bricked my system then reinstall, getting back into it now but trying to actually proper learn it
Also windowmaker is best wm

 

[svgmn1]

I guess it depends how much you really want that "2025 desktop" feel. Whatever that really means, you know?

Personally... I really have no desire to keep up with whatever computing may be like in 2025 or 2030 or 2035! As long as it works, I'm happy!

Do you prefer KDE or Gnome? For me I think I'd go with KDE if I was choosing between those. More fully-featured and similar to classic Windows.

Same, I have no desire to do anything, used to have a plan to learn code on fedora months ago and took a break, still on that break

I could switch to debian but I barely use my laptop these days anyway, All I do is play assetto corsa on windows 11 (Dual booted) and I don't think a lighter distro will grant me more fps for that game.

KDE of course would be easily my pick

 

[svgmn1]

I used to be into linux when I was 13 or so, would just tinker with stuff until I bricked my system then reinstall, getting back into it now but trying to actually proper learn it
Also windowmaker is best wm

Idk I would say just installing and running any distro whether on vm or real hardware as the problems that shit family of os gives you will automatically forge your knowledge or refresh your memory.

My no.1 tip would be to avoid AI assistance for help with your distro at all costs unless it's a common problem or a general question, never rely on ai of command lines.

 

[Hoppipolla]

Same, I have no desire to do anything, used to have a plan to learn code on fedora months ago and took a break, still on that break

I could switch to debian but I barely use my laptop these days anyway, All I do is play assetto corsa on windows 11 (Dual booted) and I don't think a lighter distro will grant me more fps for that game.

KDE of course would be easily my pick

Yeah I keep meaning to dive more into web development.

Modern Gnome always seems so strange to me. I guess they're trying to shoot for some kind of strange "modern" desktop feel. I feel like I check it out periodically just to see what they're doing with it.

Maybe I'll do that now, lol

 

[Diddy]

You could run the Linux command line on Windows, but you can’t run the Windows command line on Linux.

 

[Diddy]

You could run the Linux command line on Windows, but you can’t run the Windows command line on Linux.

Unless you use Wine or a VM, but that’s more work that installing a WSL.

 

[Hoppipolla]

You could run the Linux command line on Windows, but you can’t run the Windows command line on Linux.

Nor would you want to. XD

 

[svgmn1]

You could run the Linux command line on Windows, but you can’t run the Windows command line on Linux.

Thanks for the piece of wisdom diddycel