Installing Linux
If you are new to Linux, then I suggest that you read this whole story all the way through, before you get started; and then you can refer back to it as a reference, while you’re installing Linux.
After switching back and forth between KDE Neon and Kubuntu a few times, I think that Kubuntu is a much more stable and easy to use operating system. KDE Neon may have the latest KDE software, but Kubuntu seems to work a lot better with non-KDE software, at least for self taught programmers like me.
I’ve been using KDE Neon for a year or so. I finally got used to all it’s weird quirks, like using a different repository, with all the latest software. It is okay. It is not as comfortable as Kubuntu, but the advantage of using KDE Neon is, when I get a complete local software development environment set up, I will be able to work on improving the KDE applications I like using.
I tried Pop-OS!, with the POP-OS! modified GNOME desktop, for about 6 weeks during the summer of 2020. I like Pop-OS!, mainly because it is produced by System76, a Linux hardware company. They produce computers with Linux installed by default. I like that.
Pop-OS! is a great operating system. I like it. It took me a while to get it configured the way I like, because the way to do that is so different from KDE. Now that I do have it properly configured. GNOME is a pretty cool desktop.
Unfortunately, I agree that the GNOME Code of Conduct is obnoxious and offensive. I’ve already made the switch back to Kubuntu, on the 4th of July, 2020. Now, in September of 2021, I’m back to using KDE Neon. It is working better than ever.
I’ve tried other Linux operating systems, like Arch Linux, Manjaro and Fedora. I keep coming back to Kubuntu. In my opinion, KDE is a great looking and very functional desktop and Ubuntu is very familiar to me and very popular in the Linux community. There is a lot of documentation to help you find your way around the Ubuntu operating system.
Probably the most important advantage of Ubuntu is its relatively well developed and easy to learn user interface. And KDE makes any operating system, including Ubuntu, far more user friendly.
Installation
I’ve recently used the following process to make many different USB/ISOs. I’ve installed Linux many times. So, I know this process works.
That does not mean that you should just blindly follow my example. You are responsible for your own actions. There is no guarantee that GPL software will work as intended. It usually does, there is just no guarantee.
You can follow my example. Just do so with your eyes wide open. Make sure you understand what you are doing and why. Make sure the commands you use, match your current circumstances. In other words, make sure that you adjust the dd command to reflect the actual location of your files, not the locations used in my example. I use this article to refresh my memory, every time I install Linux on another computer.
Download the version of Linux you want from the distro website. Kubuntu is still my favorite. Some people like minimalist software. I like the visual cues that KDE Plasma’s graphical displays provide. I’ve replaced Kubuntu with KDE Neon during the upgrade from Kubuntu 20.10 to KDE Neon 21.04. It’s working fairly well so far. A lot better than previous versions.
Be careful when you type or copy and paste a long command into your Konsole, stop and read every letter and make sure there are no typos. Take your time. Building your Linux installations is important business, it’s an art and a computer science.
Preparing your computer.
You usually have to prepare the computer you’re installing Linux on, by getting into the BIOS and changing the boot order list. You get into the BIOS by clicking on <esc> while the computer is starting.
The videos I’ve watched about this often say, you click on <f2> or some other function key. The only one that has ever worked for me is <esc>. I usually use HP computers, which probably has everything to do with using <esc> to get into the BIOS.
There are many other things you can work on in your bios. I’ve only turned off secure boot and changed the boot order list.
Once you get into your bios, navigate to boot order list. Make sure that secure boot is disabled. Set “boot from USB” to enabled and move “boot from USB” to the top of the list. Then save and exit.
Use the arrow and the little keyboard that the Bios supplies, rather than your computer’s keyboard. I was able to move around in the Bios using the arrow keys on my computer, but when I tried to use my computer keyboard to change settings, they would change, but they would not stay changed. You have to use the little pop up keyboard to change the settings.
It’s taken me all day long to figure out how to install Linux on this laptop. I’m not even sure what exactly finally worked. As far as I can tell, for this 3 year old HP Envy, I had to get into the bios, move all the USB options above the OS options in two boot order lists, the UEFI list and the Legacy list.
I’m pretty sure I left the legacy boot enabled, the secure boot was definitely disabled. I used the touch pad on my computer to control the mouse pointer and key pad provided by the bios, not my computer’s normal mouse pointer.
I want corporations to thrive, but its things like this, intentionally designing this computer to make it as hard as possible to change the operating system that drove me to start using Linux in the first place.
Capitalism is private property and free enterprise. Family farmers invented capitalism. Corporations are private property, but they are not free enterprise. You have to constantly be on guard against the state and corporations, which are both trying to control everything.
I’m teaching you to use free and open source technology to build up your own capital, your own private property that you own and control. Exercise your self determination, your free enterprise. Create something valuable and trade your arts and crafts in the world wide free marketplace.
My new desktop has an entirely different system. I’m assuming that it is the new UEFI system, replacing BIOS. I wish I could take a screen shot of it. I definitely want to get in there and explore UEFI. I don’t want to break my computer, so be careful.
Creating a Live USB/ISO on Windows
On Windows 10, you can create a bootable USB with Linux on it by installing the UNetbootin application on your computer. Download the Linux distribution you want to install.
Open the unetbootin-windows-677.exe file (Your version number will probably be different). Select the “diskimage” radio button. Click on the three dots and browse to the Linux image you downloaded earlier. Select the file and click “open.”
Select the USB drive you want to install Linux on and click OK to proceed. UNetbootin will install Linux, along with a bootloader onto the USB. Be patient, it will take a while. Once its finished, you can use the USB to install Linux on your computer.
Another option is to use the Rufus application. Install Rufus on Windows. Launch Rufus. Insert your USB stick. Select the correct device in the devices drop down list. Select FreeDOS in the boot selection drop down list.
Leave the Partition scheme and Target system with their default selections. Click on the Select button to the right of the Boot selection drop down list and select the appropriate ISO from your file system. Click START at the bottom of the Rufus form.
Follow the wizard. The wizard may inform you that it needs additional files. Select Yes. Select “Write in ISO Image mode.” The wizard will warn you that it is destroying all content and formatting on the USB stick. Select ok.
Use your browser to explore. Check out several different sources and use them to solve any problems from your perspective. You have whatever brand of computer you have. Each one will be slightly different. In general, the process will be the same for all PC computers. The computer will take about 10 minutes to write the ISO to your USB stick. When it finishes, the status will be a full green bar with Ready printed in the center. Select close, and you’re done.
I’ve never installed Linux on an Apple computer. I’m not sure it is even possible. Apple is even more totalitarian about their software than Microsoft. And since they control the hardware, as well as the software, they can manufacture their computers to be incompatible with Linux.
Creating a Live USB/ISO on Linux
Installing Linux is fairly easy. The hardest part is getting the BIOS set, so that you can replace the operating system. I’ve done this dozens of times. Now that I have my configuration files saved, I can have a new operating system installed and configured in a few hours, easy! It took me a day or two, not long ago. Now, it takes me a few hours to do what used to take me a few days.
Warning! You are entering dangerous territory here. You can destroy your computer. Make sure the dd command is correctly formatted, so that you replace only the software on your USB and not the software on your computer.
Go ahead and make the change from the military industrial complex, to the free and open source ecosystem. Just be careful. Have fun and be careful. Be patient and allow each stage of the process to finish completely, before starting the next step.
Use the command
lsblk
to list all the hard drives on your computer, enabling you to identify your usb drive.
Without the USB in the USB slot:
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0 7:0 0 91M 1 loop /snap/core/6405
loop1 7:1 0 86.9M 1 loop /snap/core/4917
sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2 8:2 0 915.1G 0 part /
└─sda3 8:3 0 15.9G 0 part [SWAP]
With the USB in the USB slot:
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0 7:0 0 91M 1 loop /snap/core/6405
loop1 7:1 0 86.9M 1 loop /snap/core/4917
sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2 8:2 0 915.1G 0 part /
└─sda3 8:3 0 15.9G 0 part [SWAP]
sdb 8:16 1 7.5G 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 1 1.9G 0 part
└─sdb2 8:18 1 4M 0 part
Using the dd command to make a bootable USB drive:
First, use the command
sudo su
to switch users to the root account, to get permission to change the formatting on the USB disk.
Use the umount command to unmount the usb drive. Notice there is only one n in umount. In my case the command is:
umount /dev/sdb
dd stands for disk dump or disk destroyer, depending on how well you use it.
dd if=Downloads/kubuntu-20.10-desktop-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdb status=”progress”
if is the file on your computer that you want to install on the USB. of is the USB. You’re moving data from if= to of=. Status=”progress” just displays some information about the progress of the process. Of course, I also replace Downloads/kubuntu-20.10-desktop-amd64.iso and /dev/sdb with the appropriate file and block.
I usually have to replace the quotes around progress. I guess the quotes that you paste in, do not exactly match the quotes that you type in the Command Line Interface.
sdb is the critical factor. It is the partition that your usb is mounted on. Your operating system is usually mounted on several sda partitions.
Once you finish installing the ISO onto the USB, then carefully mount the USB drive using
mount /dev/sdb
and then exit out of the root account. You can also just ask your file manager, I’m using Dolphin, to safely remove the USB.
Right click on the USB/ISO item in the Devices list in your file manager. It asks you to mount the drive, click on that option. Then right click on it again and click on, safely remove the device.
I almost always have HP computers, so that is probably why I always press escape instead of F2, to get to the BIOS setup; and the mount command never works for me. I always have to use Dolphin to remount the USB drive and then, safely remove it from the computer.
You will figure out and follow the correct sequence for your particular configuration. Remember, Brave is the best web browser and search engine, for doing research.
Be patient and careful and make sure that the commands are correct for your application and the process is properly completed before disconnecting the USB. That way the ISO will go onto your USB and not your hard drive.
Like this:
$ sudo su password for aodha21: root@1world:/home/aodha21# umount /dev/sdb umount: /dev/sdb: not mounted. root@1world:/home/aodha21# dd if=Computer/manjaro-kde-18.0.3-stable-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdb status="progress" 2120536576 bytes (2.1 GB, 2.0 GiB) copied, 419 s, 5.1 MB/s 4152936+0 records in 4152936+0 records out 2126303232 bytes (2.1 GB, 2.0 GiB) copied, 614.031 s, 3.5 MB/s root@1world:/home/aodha21# exit exit
I’m working on replacing Pop!_OS on one of my laptops with Ubuntu Studio. When I rebooted the computer with the USB drive in it, it came up with a very minimal grub command line prompt.
I tried and tried different things. I finally typed in help and it listed a bunch of help topics. I looked around and found the exit command. I typed in exit and it displayed a list of options to boot from. I selected boot from USB and I am now installing Ubuntu Studio.
Just saying! Your computer will often tell you how to do things. You just need to ask it. I’m leaving this little aside in this story to demonstrate that you can solve problems when you get stuck.
Be patient. Use Brave a lot. Just type your question into the browser and browse around and look at several different solutions. Find the best one, or the best combination of solutions, for your circumstances.
Ubuntu Studio turned out to be too much for that older computer, so I ended up installing Kubuntu on it. Now, I have Kubuntu on both of my laptops. I guess I’ll focus on getting really good at installing, operating, maintaining and repairing Kubuntu on a variety of hardware.
During the summer of 2020, one of my laptops was destroyed. Someone, not me, stepped on it. So, I’m down to one laptop. I have Kubuntu installed and I’m experimenting with the Kwin window tiling. As usual, after a few weeks working with this new Linux installation, I’m really liking Kubuntu.
The massive variety of Linux configurations makes proprietary software boring. The big disadvantage of Linux is that it is not always easy to connect it to proprietary machinery, like Printers and TVs. Sometimes you have to install drivers manually and program the computer to talk to other machines.
Linux is still far more fun to use than any other computer operating system. The big advantage of using Linux is that you get to be the artist. You control your computer and your free enterprise, rather than the corporations that built your computer and created the software on it, leading you around.
With the KDE desktop you do not need to be a computer programmer to use Linux. It is a fully featured desktop computer system that you can use right out of the box. Start reading the help directories of the applications you use. While you are using the graphical KDE applications, start investigating and practice using the terminal.
Investigate the Linux Filesystem. Explore the C and C++ programming languages to understand Linux and KDE. Focus on C, C++, QML and JavaScript to make yourself a KDE Linux specialist. Learn how to use the ancient and extremely powerful Vim text editor. Lately, I’ve been investigating Lua and Rust. Neovim is written in Lua and my new terminal, Wezterm is written in Rust.
My plan is the get, Wezterm set up with zsh and Tmux and Neovim. I got Wezterm installed on my new desktop and it seems like it might have Tmux or some other version of terminal multiplexer built in. Once I get them properly installed and set up, which will probably take several days, I will limit myself to only using Neovim for text editing, in order to get used to the unusual user interface.
Photo by Bob Mccoy using KDE Spectacle screen capture Photo by Caio from Pexels Photo by Andrew Neel from Pexels