TIP-1: use notepad to copy paste this code and amend it to your needs. And only then copy paste it into the command-line.
TIP-2: using the command-line gives you cool pepe bonus. TIP-3: Move without worries. If you fuck it up, no harm will come to you. You simply start again.
Once done, restart your PC, laptop.
F2 will bring you into bios, change boot order. OR, F12 allows you to choose bootorder. Boot from USB.
enjoy livecd. You will have to enter passwords and other stuff to make full use. Remember usually there is no persistence, meaning all change to the system are lost on reboot.
If you wish to use persistence: make sure your USB is at least 16G big, and use MXlinux live cd, as persistence is pack and parcel of it, and you can set it up on first boot in the advanced settings.
TIP: Consider using: Mullvad VPN/ Mullvad Browser, Front-ends for several websites. find them over at github, search for front-end
I think this is not the best instruction to encourage new users. Should try to avoid use of the terminal to start, so no dd. The layman isn't going to be able to figure out how to use the command properly anyways. Just instruction to 'burn' the iso to USB and go thru install should be enough. VPN, persistence, etc are too much for first timers. Hopefully they can figure out changing the boot order....
"Force of habit is a powerful force" - Amen on that. Just look how many people are probably still using toothpaste and dental cleanings with fluoride in them (much like municipal water systems). There's a reason folks in the country wake up first, fluoride apparently gums up your pineal gland.
Powered through and made a bootable Linux OS from a 256 Gb flash drive. However the flash drive now only has a capacity of 5 Mb (FAT). Did I screw up, or do I make another partition on the USB drive somehow? I was hoping to backup all my files to the USB in case I'm going to re-format the laptop <gasp> for Linux in the near future...these are not things to take lightly.
I love this site and the knowledge warriors here. Thanks for the info. Time to resurrect all those sub-32 Gb flash drives laying around so I can help some folks out later, but I'l also look into Ventoy.
Lots of time invested already in Windows, not sure of what it take to convert all personal data, pictures, movies, games, files etc to a new OS like Linux
Personal data & pictures should be a priority backup item at least once or twice a year. Especially if they're under a Windows User partition, as they would be very difficult if not impossible to recover if something bad happens like a complete computer meltdown or loss. This should be almost a thread in itself.
Normally, if you consider word, excel, that sort of thing: you have 4 options available, using:
LibreOffice/ OpenOffice. This is compatible, so no conversion is needed.
WPS/ AnyOffice: compatible
FreeOffice: compatible.
Why this division? Because all three have a different approach and differ in terms of functional compatibility. For instance, FreeOffice has the option of combining a database to a word or spreadsheet document natively. the applications, mentioned under [2], do not have that capability, [1] has that capability but it depends on some archaic Oracle library that may or may not work, and if it works it may break.
So in essence: the usual functions work, but the more ... unknown and hardly used functions like nameranges etc won't as the VB-script back-end is not available.
Database
Should you be using Access as a database, kexi might replace it. But a better way of using database systems would be mysql, sqlite, monodb.
Games
In terms of games: That is an issue solved by several means that may or may not work or partially work:
wine (wine HQ).
steam
COG.
Pictures
Pictures, movies,etc are no problem at all. All the codecs are available and ship with the distro, or can be installed with one click if you so choose, because many of the codecs are non-free.
Solutions
Then you have also the option to setup a dual boot of windows and linux, This means that your computer boots up and you choose each time to boot-up windows or linux.
Within a Linux setup a virtualization via boxes, virtlib or virtualbox is possible. Personally I use virtlib, that specifically works well on MXlinux. This means that windows could run within a virtual environment. This requires some resources in terms of cpu power and ram.
With the focus on games, you could setup a virtualization of a stripped down windows version to play games.
Other items
If you were to install MXlinux, there are two variants. Systemd and sysvinit. Sysvinit is the standard, and ships with torify and mullvad, which can come in handy.
Personally, I use systemd, because I also like to use lokinet, i2p and others. Then systemd works best. This means that TOR-browser, BISQ-1, BISQ-2, HAVENO, and CAKE wallet can easily be communicating via Tor.
advantages:
In general, for each matter there are opensource and free solutions. And the main difference between Linux and Windows is not about the systems per se, or the vulnerabilities, but the man, or rather attitude. You can be a user, paying through the nose, or a free man scaling the walls of the prison. If you are willing to learn a thing or two, willingness to communicate [sic], Linux is your friend and an awesome teacher.
I got downloaded and completed Integrity/Authenticity check, but I guess I'm going to have to buy another thumb drive cause the two I have can't even format them.
If I have an empty 250gb USB drive, can I burn the image to that to make it a bootable device? And then I guess if I had to boot from it I could change boot options to make sure it look at that drive.
Only thing I don't know is if before Windows disk manager loads if it even knows that drive is out there.
I did exactly that the other week to install a new distro on a thinkpad, when my usb stick turned sour. Not ideal, but I had no other option available. Shops closed and all that. However, take into account, modern bios systems can play a trick on you, when booting from a usb-HDD/SSD.
But in terms of your usb sticks: you are indicating you cannot format these. Are they being recognized? Meaning, do they indicate a drive number? Have you tried to use device manager? What does it tell you when you put the sticks in?
you could use diskpart from the commandline to restore your usb sticks after using this command: Get-PnpDevice
Message appears stating need to be formatted, click YES to format
Have tried but format as FAT32 and NTFS, fails.
I tried a while back going into Disk Manager to format. Same issue. Can't get around it.
It's possible that it messed up when I had it inserted into a client provided laptop that had BitLocker enforced on all drives. And now with stick inserted into different laptop, I have no RWX ability.
You could try and restore from superblock, later on, once you have linux running on live-cd or installed.
if live -cd, take careful note of the drivenumbers, so not to mix things up, because the live -cd is also sourced from a USB connection. The size usually gives it away.
On Linux CLI
<<<LSUSB>>
See if it is recognized correctly.
<<<lsblk>>>
Find the drive number. Usually something like sda/ sda1/sda2 or sdb/sdb1/sdb/2
<<<dumpe2fs /dev/sdX | grep superblock>>
Find the list of superblocks available. When the first does not work, try another.
Usually, you should see something like:
Primary superblock at 0, Group descriptors at 1-6
Backup superblock at 32768, Group descriptors at 32769-32774
Backup superblock at 98304, Group descriptors at 98305-98310
Backup superblock at 163840, Group descriptors at 163841-163846
<<<fsck -b superblock-number /dev/sdX>>>
If CLI asks to fix something, enter yes.
Once done, mount it
<<<mount /dev/sdX /mnt>>>
and go from there. sdX = drive you need restoring.
I personally use Ubuntu. Get the GUI - not any of the server options. Ubuntu is generally the most friendly. You can try Mint, Debian, Red Hat (may have to pay), or Kali (mainly for ethical hacking). But Ubuntu is the most friendly version. It is easy to install as a dual-boot in your OS.
This, just download Ubuntu to a 16gb or larger flash drive. It's simpler to navigate. Most PCs have boot on usb enabled from the factory now. If not, if the HDD is inaccessible it should default. Just because the OS is corrupted doesn't mean you've lost your files, and dual booting into Ubuntu will allow you to check the disk for integrity.
You really don't even need 16gb but that gives you the ability to back up files while you are loaded into it
Best Linux distro for a first timer who games with an Nvidia, is a new YouTuber who wants to someday stream, and Records and edits their own videos with Davinci Resolve and other editors like after effects?
Try or at least look into Nobara. It's setup with the packages for gaming and has OBS pre-installed. One of the best distros as far as gaming goes (with Linux any distro can be tweaked to work how you want it but certain distros have "out-of-the-box" functionality with the packaged applications.). You shouldn't have to mess with driver packages and all that too much.
Before going "bare-metal" I suggest many of you that are new to Linux install a distro in a Virtual Machine like VirtualBox and play with it a little first before you go formatting your drives with a fresh install of your selected distro or before you burn a LiveUSB.
And remember, if you use Arch (I recommend you stay away from Arch and highly recommend you stay away from Gentoo until you become more familiar with the Linux system) you have to let everyone know with "I use Arch btw".
Process:
If you cannot get hold of rufus, you can use the command line (cmd) and the dd command.
<<< dd if=c:\path_to_folder\path_to_folder\filename.iso" of=d:\filename.iso status="progress" conv="fsync"<<<
TIP-1: use notepad to copy paste this code and amend it to your needs. And only then copy paste it into the command-line.
TIP-2: using the command-line gives you cool pepe bonus.
TIP-3: Move without worries. If you fuck it up, no harm will come to you. You simply start again.
TIP: Consider using: Mullvad VPN/ Mullvad Browser, Front-ends for several websites. find them over at github, search for front-end
Options.
I think this is not the best instruction to encourage new users. Should try to avoid use of the terminal to start, so no dd. The layman isn't going to be able to figure out how to use the command properly anyways. Just instruction to 'burn' the iso to USB and go thru install should be enough. VPN, persistence, etc are too much for first timers. Hopefully they can figure out changing the boot order....
IMO...
I agree, other than just burning/moving it to a USB, I always found Ubuntu to be the most straight forward and friendly Linux distro.
Interesting perspective. I'd rather see someone fuck it up an learn a thing or two, than remaining in the learned helplessness camp.
I like Ubuntu MATE ("MATE", pronounced Ma-Tay, ----- like the tea)
Where to go for such a Linux option?
Force of habit is a powerful force.
"Force of habit is a powerful force" - Amen on that. Just look how many people are probably still using toothpaste and dental cleanings with fluoride in them (much like municipal water systems). There's a reason folks in the country wake up first, fluoride apparently gums up your pineal gland.
That is 100% involved.
Powered through and made a bootable Linux OS from a 256 Gb flash drive. However the flash drive now only has a capacity of 5 Mb (FAT). Did I screw up, or do I make another partition on the USB drive somehow? I was hoping to backup all my files to the USB in case I'm going to re-format the laptop <gasp> for Linux in the near future...these are not things to take lightly.
+1 for Ventoy. It allows you to easily drop multiple distro ISOs so you can have one USB with a whole bunch of LiveUSB images to try out.
I love this site and the knowledge warriors here. Thanks for the info. Time to resurrect all those sub-32 Gb flash drives laying around so I can help some folks out later, but I'l also look into Ventoy.
Lots of time invested already in Windows, not sure of what it take to convert all personal data, pictures, movies, games, files etc to a new OS like Linux
you dont need to convert anything, just different programs same functions and files.
Personal data & pictures should be a priority backup item at least once or twice a year. Especially if they're under a Windows User partition, as they would be very difficult if not impossible to recover if something bad happens like a complete computer meltdown or loss. This should be almost a thread in itself.
Depends on what you are using.
Office applications
Normally, if you consider word, excel, that sort of thing: you have 4 options available, using:
Why this division? Because all three have a different approach and differ in terms of functional compatibility. For instance, FreeOffice has the option of combining a database to a word or spreadsheet document natively. the applications, mentioned under [2], do not have that capability, [1] has that capability but it depends on some archaic Oracle library that may or may not work, and if it works it may break.
So in essence: the usual functions work, but the more ... unknown and hardly used functions like nameranges etc won't as the VB-script back-end is not available.
Database
Should you be using Access as a database, kexi might replace it. But a better way of using database systems would be mysql, sqlite, monodb.
Games
In terms of games: That is an issue solved by several means that may or may not work or partially work:
Pictures
Pictures, movies,etc are no problem at all. All the codecs are available and ship with the distro, or can be installed with one click if you so choose, because many of the codecs are non-free.
Solutions
Then you have also the option to setup a dual boot of windows and linux, This means that your computer boots up and you choose each time to boot-up windows or linux.
Within a Linux setup a virtualization via boxes, virtlib or virtualbox is possible. Personally I use virtlib, that specifically works well on MXlinux. This means that windows could run within a virtual environment. This requires some resources in terms of cpu power and ram.
With the focus on games, you could setup a virtualization of a stripped down windows version to play games.
Other items
If you were to install MXlinux, there are two variants. Systemd and sysvinit. Sysvinit is the standard, and ships with torify and mullvad, which can come in handy.
Personally, I use systemd, because I also like to use lokinet, i2p and others. Then systemd works best. This means that TOR-browser, BISQ-1, BISQ-2, HAVENO, and CAKE wallet can easily be communicating via Tor.
advantages:
In general, for each matter there are opensource and free solutions. And the main difference between Linux and Windows is not about the systems per se, or the vulnerabilities, but the man, or rather attitude. You can be a user, paying through the nose, or a free man scaling the walls of the prison. If you are willing to learn a thing or two, willingness to communicate [sic], Linux is your friend and an awesome teacher.
I got downloaded and completed Integrity/Authenticity check, but I guess I'm going to have to buy another thumb drive cause the two I have can't even format them.
If I have an empty 250gb USB drive, can I burn the image to that to make it a bootable device? And then I guess if I had to boot from it I could change boot options to make sure it look at that drive.
Only thing I don't know is if before Windows disk manager loads if it even knows that drive is out there.
I did exactly that the other week to install a new distro on a thinkpad, when my usb stick turned sour. Not ideal, but I had no other option available. Shops closed and all that. However, take into account, modern bios systems can play a trick on you, when booting from a usb-HDD/SSD.
But in terms of your usb sticks: you are indicating you cannot format these. Are they being recognized? Meaning, do they indicate a drive number? Have you tried to use device manager? What does it tell you when you put the sticks in?
you could use diskpart from the commandline to restore your usb sticks after using this command: Get-PnpDevice
or <<<Get-PnpDevice -PresentOnly | Where-Object { $_.InstanceId -match '^USB' } | Format-List>>>
However, if you were to install a linux distro via your usb-hdd/ssd, your options to get a usb working again, multiply.
Thanks for thoughful reply fren.
One 4GB Stick is recognized. Shows drive number.
I tried a while back going into Disk Manager to format. Same issue. Can't get around it.
It's possible that it messed up when I had it inserted into a client provided laptop that had BitLocker enforced on all drives. And now with stick inserted into different laptop, I have no RWX ability.
You could try and restore from superblock, later on, once you have linux running on live-cd or installed.
if live -cd, take careful note of the drivenumbers, so not to mix things up, because the live -cd is also sourced from a USB connection. The size usually gives it away.
On Linux CLI
<<<LSUSB>>
See if it is recognized correctly.
<<<lsblk>>>
Find the drive number. Usually something like sda/ sda1/sda2 or sdb/sdb1/sdb/2
<<<dumpe2fs /dev/sdX | grep superblock>>
Find the list of superblocks available. When the first does not work, try another. Usually, you should see something like:
<<<fsck -b superblock-number /dev/sdX>>>
If CLI asks to fix something, enter yes.
Once done, mount it <<<mount /dev/sdX /mnt>>>
and go from there. sdX = drive you need restoring.
Good luck!
Thanks.
I personally use Ubuntu. Get the GUI - not any of the server options. Ubuntu is generally the most friendly. You can try Mint, Debian, Red Hat (may have to pay), or Kali (mainly for ethical hacking). But Ubuntu is the most friendly version. It is easy to install as a dual-boot in your OS.
This, just download Ubuntu to a 16gb or larger flash drive. It's simpler to navigate. Most PCs have boot on usb enabled from the factory now. If not, if the HDD is inaccessible it should default. Just because the OS is corrupted doesn't mean you've lost your files, and dual booting into Ubuntu will allow you to check the disk for integrity.
You really don't even need 16gb but that gives you the ability to back up files while you are loaded into it
Exactly, the first recommendation for new Linux users should obviously be Ubuntu ( https://ubuntu.com/desktop ).
Howto Create a bootable USB stick on Ubuntu : https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-ubuntu
Can also set it up to dual boot and only use Windows as needed.
I do this on my Surface Go with Pop_OS
Good Linux info.
Good up the good work.
Glad I use Mac and not Bill HellGates’ system.
I like the version that removes windows.
Pegged for future....
Best Linux distro for a first timer who games with an Nvidia, is a new YouTuber who wants to someday stream, and Records and edits their own videos with Davinci Resolve and other editors like after effects?
Thank you for the great write up!
Well, that is somewhat of an issue, although Nvidia is now moving towards supporting Linux fully.
Where the installation of Nvidia drivers used to be very cumbersome, these days it is a breeze.
But since you are indicating yourself to be a first timer, try these for a change: 1.https://nobaraproject.org/ 2. https://iso.pop-os.org/22.04/amd64/nvidia/42/popos_22.04_amd64_nvidia_42.iso
Especially the first one is geared towards your current needs.
Later on you could install with the package manager: Kdenlive for video-editing and OBS studio for recording.
Try or at least look into Nobara. It's setup with the packages for gaming and has OBS pre-installed. One of the best distros as far as gaming goes (with Linux any distro can be tweaked to work how you want it but certain distros have "out-of-the-box" functionality with the packaged applications.). You shouldn't have to mess with driver packages and all that too much.
Thank you for the advice!
Lernstick Edu Live. A german language Debian distro meant for education, big at 17GB but your younglings should love it.
https://releases.lernstick.ch/
Before going "bare-metal" I suggest many of you that are new to Linux install a distro in a Virtual Machine like VirtualBox and play with it a little first before you go formatting your drives with a fresh install of your selected distro or before you burn a LiveUSB.
And remember, if you use Arch (I recommend you stay away from Arch and highly recommend you stay away from Gentoo until you become more familiar with the Linux system) you have to let everyone know with "I use Arch btw".
You all do realize this only affects windows users who have crowdstrike installed? It’s typically corporate ware for spying on your employees.
It was realized when I said I know it’s only crowdstrike machines. Then I added it’s good to have one just in case. It was in the thread title.
You can get a live chromebook operating system which is based on Linux on a USB too. Turn your PC into a chromebook easier to use for tech challenged
People still use windows?