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Linux Distro Noob thread of Linux noobs

I have mixed Windows / Linux network at home, and while I have had success with Samba to share the Linux file server with my Windows stations, I'm trying to set up NFS to share the drives among the Linux machines.

I seem to be running in trouble though, I'm not sure what I missed, but I keep getting "access denied by server while mounting". I'll cover what I did:

1) On the file server (LUbuntu) I installed the NFS server (sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server).

2) I added a simple share to the /etc/exports file:

/media/oracledragon/datadrive/backup 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0(ro)

3) Restart the NFS server (service nfs-kernel-server restart)

4) Even though the restart indicates it udpates the export, I did it again anyways (exportfs -a).

5) On the client machine (XUbuntu) I install the NFS client tools (apt-get install nfs-common).

6) I check what is being offered by the remote machine and it indicates the export is ok:

showmount -e 192.168.1.100

/media/oracledragon/datadrive/backup 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0

7) Finally, I try and mount the remote share, not in fstab, just in the shell for the time being:

mount 192.168.1.100:/media/oracledragon/datadrive/backup ~/Backup

(the ~/Backup directory exists on my client machine).

8) This fails:

"mount.nfs: access denied by server while mounting 192.168.1.100:/media/oracledragon/datadrive/backup"

Has anyone set up an NFS share before? I feel like I'm probably missing something basic, but so far aside from the above steps I have not seen anything extra on the various articles and Ubuntu community postings, etc., that I have read.


Well I got the chance to revisit this and I finally got it working! Not much solid documentation that I could find on this. I had more than one problem, something that makes it hard to troubleshoot:

A) I'm using a natted connection on my VM. Probably most people won't run into this. But it meant that my 192.168.0.0/24 range wasn't accurate as NFS sees me as 192.168.0.10 and my VM thinks it is 10.0.2.15. You need both configured in /etc/exports and /etc/hosts.allow

B) I was trying to share something off of root (ex: /videos). This doesn't work for some reason. If you see a log entry like "refused mount request from <ip> for <path> (/): not exported", you can't export root. I needed to remount my videos drive from /videos to /export/videos, and this point it worked.

C) The share wouldn't mount as NFS reported that an illegal port had been requested. I had to add "insecure" to the etc/exports options for the mount point in order to get past that.

This problem began to make more sense to me once I could figure out how to get some logging. Two of the most important steps for me were:

A) Enable NFS logging. You need to use rpcdebug on the NFS server to do this:

sudo rpcdebug -m nfsd -s proc

This will write logging into /var/log/syslog (ubuntu) or presumably /var/log/messages on others.

B) Mount from the prompt with verbose logging:

sudo mount -v <mount options>

Its not perfect yet, my permissions are still sloppy since in my desperation to finally get the darn thing working I was opening things left and right, but if anyone else is having NFS problems (it was supposed to be so easy!) perhaps the above may come in handy.
 

NotBacon

Member
so is there no way to upgrade from my preexisting elementaryOS Luna to the new Freya? don't really feel like starting from scratch...

Back up everything dear to you and do a fresh install. It's the Linux way, if you don't want package problems down the road.
If you're not on a rolling release distro
 

bernardobri

Steve, the dog with no powers that we let hang out with us all for some reason
So, while using Spotify on Ubuntu (14.04) on some reason, the app doesn't show sections in my music library like Artists, Albums, etc that I have included in my favorites, just leaving me with bare options. I find this very odd given that the rest of the devices that I use (like on OSX) the app shows my music library without any kind of problems... I unistalled and reinstalled the app and still doesn't let me access my library, so I'm left to wonder if I did something wrong?
 

Tenebrous

Member
Anyone using Debian 8? How are you finding it? The reviews seem to be pretty positive, and that MATE desktop environment looks really slick.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
So, while using Spotify on Ubuntu (14.04) on some reason, the app doesn't show sections in my music library like Artists, Albums, etc that I have included in my favorites, just leaving me with bare options. I find this very odd given that the rest of the devices that I use (like on OSX) the app shows my music library without any kind of problems... I unistalled and reinstalled the app and still doesn't let me access my library, so I'm left to wonder if I did something wrong?

I always just use the website. Works for me vs dealing with app compatiblilty on Linux.
 
So, while using Spotify on Ubuntu (14.04) on some reason, the app doesn't show sections in my music library like Artists, Albums, etc that I have included in my favorites, just leaving me with bare options. I find this very odd given that the rest of the devices that I use (like on OSX) the app shows my music library without any kind of problems... I unistalled and reinstalled the app and still doesn't let me access my library, so I'm left to wonder if I did something wrong?
Ah, I thought I replied to you. Sorry!

I uninstalled the client. I don't know if they're actively maintaining it, but with each package update the client kept accruing more bugs. The web client's not ideal, but it works well.

Also, if you have or are using the Spotify client, check the .cache directory for Spotify stuff. I had 2.5 GBs of stuff just left there after the uninstall.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Edit: I have Ubuntu 15.04 installed, and I have a dual monitor setup, but one monitor is 120hz and the other is 75hz. I can set that just fine, but if I run with both monitors at once the GUI only paints at 75hz. Any way to set separate GUI refresh rates per display like windows does? It's pointless to have my 120hz monitor going that fast if only my cursor benefits.
 

jvm

Gamasutra.
Fedora 22 next week. Woo!
Aaaand up and running.

Somehow fonts manage to still look terrible in Chrome. What the heck, people?

GNOME fonts look fine. Got to find some site that explains how to fix this ... again. :p
 
Aaaand up and running.

Somehow fonts manage to still look terrible in Chrome. What the heck, people?

GNOME fonts look fine. Got to find some site that explains how to fix this ... again. :p
I thought Fedora was a rolling release? Do they just have fast updates?
 

mvtn

Member
GAF actually has a Linux general? Woo.

Been using Linux for good 4-5 years, now using Arch for 6 months and loving it.
 
Hi Linux GAF!

I'm currently running Ubuntu LTS 14.04 on a high-ish end Dell Laptop (XPS 15" i7 with 6GB RAM) and I'm thinking of either upgrading to 15.04 or switching to another distro. I will mainly be doing web development (Ruby/RoR + JS MVVC frameworks with PostgreSQL databases and AWS SDK stuff) so pretty much every distro out there will cover that. I've been generally happy with Ubuntu's performance/ease of use but I honestly don't like Unity that much and greatly miss Gnome's flexibility.

I've been considering either Mint or Arch, but I don't want to deal with driver issues; I will need video/audio support to work flawlessly for Skype/Hangout conferences, etc.

What say you guys?
 

tuffy

Member
I've been considering either Mint or Arch, but I don't want to deal with driver issues; I will need video/audio support to work flawlessly for Skype/Hangout conferences, etc.

What say you guys?
Considering Mint is an Ubuntu derivative it seems unlikely that you'd run into driver issues. But it's easy enough to test just by using a bootable CD or bootable USB stick and trying it out as a live CD. Or if your laptop's hard drive is easily accessible, just install to a spare drive and experiment with it that way.
 

mvtn

Member
I've been considering either Mint or Arch, but I don't want to deal with driver issues; I will need video/audio support to work flawlessly for Skype/Hangout conferences, etc.

What say you guys?

Considering Arch has an amazingly well updated packages, I'd probably go for Arch. I really doubt that you'll find any drivers problems, since their Wiki is the best resource for Linux users available.

Also, don't be scared of Arch, to be honest, I use it for good 6-7 months and still haven't got any huge problems. Actually, back in Ubuntu almost every Kernel update broke my system, especially distribution upgrades, those were deadly.

If you don't feel like doing the 'official' install, try EvoLution, it's an amazing CLI installer with its own iso that works flawlessly well.

I'll happily help you with any problems that you encounter, just PM me.
 
Thank you guys! I now know what my weekend plans are going to be. Will post back with impressions on each and will sure ping you mvtn if I encounter any issues. :D
 

Gr8one

Member
I wanted to report in as a new Linux user. I was visiting my parents last week and my father was about to take an old computer to recycle. I decided to save it as i'm changing career paths and I was accepted into a special 1 year business oriented IT infrastructure management program and figured I should start learning linux.

I installed Ubuntu 14.04 on it and my god is it snappy on this old Athlon 64 machine. I'm really impressed. I had some fun messing around in the GUI but i'm more interested in some of the more serious stuff to prepare myself for my program and I have some questions:

Is there any good guides for learning terminal commands?
I installed LAMP and was wondering if anyone had any recommended guides on setting up an apache & mySQL servers?
Is there any good general linux noob sites or youtubers I should watch?

Sorry for the bump, its just a lot of the information i've been findings looks to be quite outdated, things move so much faster in linux that some 2 or 4 year old guides I found aren't really helping me. Also I love the first page with people saying "never run as root", I accidentally ran firefox as root in terminal, and afterwards couldn't run it again unless I was root, so I had to reinstall Ubuntu. Learning this OS is making my head-spin but I'm having a lot of fun doing it!
 

mvtn

Member
I wanted to report in as a new Linux user. I was visiting my parents last week and my father was about to take an old computer to recycle. I decided to save it as i'm changing career paths and I was accepted into a special 1 year business oriented IT infrastructure management program and figured I should start learning linux.

I installed Ubuntu 14.04 on it and my god is it snappy on this old Athlon 64 machine. I'm really impressed. I had some fun messing around in the GUI but i'm more interested in some of the more serious stuff to prepare myself for my program and I have some questions:

Is there any good guides for learning terminal commands?
I installed LAMP and was wondering if anyone had any recommended guides on setting up an apache & mySQL servers?
Is there any good general linux noob sites or youtubers I should watch?

Sorry for the bump, its just a lot of the information i've been findings looks to be quite outdated, things move so much faster in linux that some 2 or 4 year old guides I found aren't really helping me. Also I love the first page with people saying "never run as root", I accidentally ran firefox as root in terminal, and afterwards couldn't run it again unless I was root, so I had to reinstall Ubuntu. Learning this OS is making my head-spin but I'm having a lot of fun doing it!

Hey! Welcome to Linux community and enjoy your stay.

Good to hear that Unity runs well on old rig since it's well known for being broken.

Doug Rumbaugh did an amazing series about terminal and stuff around it as well.

Also, there are some other YouTube channels worth watching:


 

Gr8one

Member
Hey! Welcome to Linux community and enjoy your stay.

Good to hear that Unity runs well on old rig since it's well known for being broken.

Doug Rumbaugh did an amazing series about terminal and stuff around it as well.

Also, there are some other YouTube channels worth watching:



Thanks so much for that. I will be busy for a while watching Doug Rumbaugh. I had no idea you could combine commands and set up aliases.I can wait to learn to make some bash scripts and automate sorting my music collection.

I actually saw a Nixie Pixel video before I installed Ubuntu and I have developed a slight nerd crush on her. I noticed she's only been using linux for a few years and seems quite knowledgeable which gives me some hope.

Just out of curiousity: Why do you want to setup a LAMP stack?

There's a section of my program that will focus on SQL. I figured setting up a SQL server and messing around with database entries and learning some of the basic commands. might be beneficial. Make me more comfortable at least before classes start, considering I don't have any programming knowledge. It's a 2 year program condensed into a year with a 4 month practicum so I really don't want to fall behind.

I also am interested in setting up Apache server and trying to do some kind of web based frontend like rutorrent, and use it for a plex media server. I'm basically just looking for things to mess around with and trying out some system admin monitoring tools. I'm not sure on the usefulness for an infrastructure management program but I think it will be fun to learn.

So far i'm having a lot of fun, even learning about UUID and configuring fstab, setting up where my partitions will mount. Just having a blast. I've been messing around with Samba and only running into some issues with my windows 8.1 laptop recognizing my shared directories. I'm actually thinking about setting up a partition on my gaming rig and trying out Mint and checking out KDE and/or Gnome, and trying some of my linux steam library. I wish I would have done this years ago, I am really really impressed with whole experience.
 

phoenixyz

Member
There's a section of my program that will focus on SQL. I figured setting up a SQL server and messing around with database entries and learning some of the basic commands. might be beneficial. Make me more comfortable at least before classes start, considering I don't have any programming knowledge. It's a 2 year program condensed into a year with a 4 month practicum so I really don't want to fall behind.

I also am interested in setting up Apache server and trying to do some kind of web based frontend like rutorrent, and use it for a plex media server. I'm basically just looking for things to mess around with and trying out some system admin monitoring tools. I'm not sure on the usefulness for an infrastructure management program but I think it will be fun to learn.

So far i'm having a lot of fun, even learning about UUID and configuring fstab, setting up where my partitions will mount. Just having a blast. I've been messing around with Samba and only running into some issues with my windows 8.1 laptop recognizing my shared directories. I'm actually thinking about setting up a partition on my gaming rig and trying out Mint and checking out KDE and/or Gnome, and trying some of my linux steam library. I wish I would have done this years ago, I am really really impressed with whole experience.

You could also try Arch Linux. It's probably going to be interesting if you are having fun learning Linux.
Also, when you are finished messing around with Apache and MySQL you could give Nginx and PostgreSQL a try. My feeling is that the traditional LAMP stack is getting out of style. Especially PHP.
 

injurai

Banned
Wanted to do a LFS build. Any advice or recommendations? I was originally going to do it on a VM but I might just buy a cheap chromebook for it.
 

Tenebrous

Member
I think I messed up my Debian 8 install.

My system has a 120GB SSD with Windows 7 on it, a 1TB HDD with games and whatnot on it, and a 60GB SSD I bought to experiment with (currently have Debian 8 on it). When I installed GRUB, I chose to put the loader on my 120GB Windows 7 SSD after misinterpreting the wording.

Tried booting directly to C/120GB SSD from Bios, but it just takes me to GRUB with Debian 8 as the only option.

How screwed am I?
 

Milchmann

Member
I think I messed up my Debian 8 install.

My system has a 120GB SSD with Windows 7 on it, a 1TB HDD with games and whatnot on it, and a 60GB SSD I bought to experiment with (currently have Debian 8 on it). When I installed GRUB, I chose to put the loader on my 120GB Windows 7 SSD after misinterpreting the wording.

Tried booting directly to C/120GB SSD from Bios, but it just takes me to GRUB with Debian 8 as the only option.

How screwed am I?

If you can boot Debian not much.

Install the package os-prober, edit the file /etc/default/grub, so that there is no line "GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true" (comment it out if there is) and run the command update-grub.
 

jvm

Gamasutra.
Anyone done a GNU/Linux and Windows 8.1 dual install? I'm about to try it out on s new Dell laptop.
 

Slavik81

Member
Delta RPMs reduced 432 M of updates to 40 M (90% saved)
I do love yum.

Anyone done a GNU/Linux and Windows 8.1 dual install? I'm about to try it out on s new Dell laptop.
Lots, and lots of people have. You'll be fine. Linux installers play friendly with existing Windows installations, though you may need to resize your Windows partition to make space first.
 

Young Magus

Junior Member
So I booted up my arch laptop the other day and the internet/wifi icon was not showing on my screen. Thinking that it could be a distro error, I downloaded ubuntu MATE on another computer and made a USB. Long story short that doesn't work. My laptop still works tho.

Without any internet access on my laptop, is there a way to figure out what the hell is wrong with my.....internet access on my laptop?

Edit: Still on arch btw. Couldnt switch to Ubuntu.
 
Not distro-related but what's the best word processor available if I want the best DOC/DOCX compatibility (read and write)? Was just about to install LibreOffice but maybe there's something better I don't know about.
 

jvm

Gamasutra.
Lots, and lots of people have. You'll be fine. Linux installers play friendly with existing Windows installations, though you may need to resize your Windows partition to make space first.
So far so good. Thanks for the positive thoughts. I did automatic partitioning with resizing and it looks great. Haven't rebooted into Windows, but honestly I'm pleased with the snappy feel of Fedora 22 on this new laptop.
 

Slavik81

Member
I have to say, Fedora 22 looks a lot different than Fedora 21. It seems like they randomly tweak the appearance between each release. It seems like just a couple releases ago, they made everything curved. This time flat and pointy is in.
 
I have to say, Fedora 22 looks a lot different than Fedora 21. It seems like they randomly tweak the appearance between each release. It seems like just a couple releases ago, they made everything curved. This time flat and pointy is in.
This is a change in Gnome 3.16, if you mean things like the drop down when you click on the clock.

It doesn't fit well with the gnome shell theme, making it look like they don't belong to the top bar.
 

injurai

Banned
I thought Gnome was just adding more aesthetic options and you could always use the old ones. They just market the new look each time it rolls out. Or am I wrong in thinking that. (I don't use gnome)
 

ricki42

Member
Speaking of Fedora 22 appearance, I'm using the xfce spin, and for some reason evince doesn't use the system window decoration/borders. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Wanted to do a LFS build. Any advice or recommendations? I was originally going to do it on a VM but I might just buy a cheap chromebook for it.

I had never even heard of LFS, but now I really want to try this (if I ever find the time...). I'd be curious to know how well it works on a chromebook.
 

Massa

Member
I have to say, Fedora 22 looks a lot different than Fedora 21. It seems like they randomly tweak the appearance between each release. It seems like just a couple releases ago, they made everything curved. This time flat and pointy is in.

Up until Fedora 21 the GNOME Shell used its own toolkit, St. Now that GTK+ 3 has caught up and offers everything they need they killed that, and the theme for the shell had to be completely rewritten.

I expect them to tweak the new look some more in the next few releases, now that the tech side has stabilized somewhat.

Speaking of Fedora 22 appearance, I'm using the xfce spin, and for some reason evince doesn't use the system window decoration/borders. Does anyone know how to fix this?

That's because it uses client side decorations. GNOME integrated the toolbar and window controls into one single bar for most of its core apps, so that apps look more compact and integrated. There's a 'nocsd' hack that attempts to revert this but I wouldn't recommend it, it's an ugly hack.
 
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