New to Bazzite and Linux in general. A few questions please..
(I tried to post on the bazzite reddit but every time the post just said it was removed by reddits filters and I have no idea why?)
Hi, I'm coming from windows and glad to be rid of its ever-increasing nonsense. I have dual-booted to Bazzite to dip my toes in without burning bridges. To Bazzite's credit I have hardly gone back to the Win partition for the last month now and I am pretty happy with it as far as replacing an OS can go. I mostly play games so that was important and why I decided to make the plunge to Linux for Bazzite specifically.
HOWEVER. In a way bazzite makes me feel like I'm back in the windows98/xp days trying out a version people have debloated, which, while successfully making it smaller, now half of whats in it doesn't run properly. It really does give me that feeling. Now I can expect 99% of my problems are stemming from just not knowing how Linux does things, but there does seem to be some things that just don't work or seem to be purposeful decisions that end up making things harder than it needs to be. Anyway I'll stop rambling and get to it.
1. I don't understand the filesystem, so I don't understand why I have to click on my other drives in dolphin to 'mount' (?) them before anything can access them. I tried looking up getting them to auto mount but the guide said i have to format them specifically to do so. No, I need whats on them to stay intact and I don't understand what would be so difficult to automate what clicking on them in dolphin does.
2.Similar to 1, I got the music player app Strawberry, but every time the PC is run I need to clear its library and re-add all the music because it doesn't think they exist anymore. This seems to be an issue with it making fake links to where the files are. How do I tell it to add the REAL file locations so it doesn't need this nonsense every time I run it.
99 Replies
. None of the supplied on-screen keyboards work. I regularly stream from the PC to a tablet and need an onscreen keyboard. Going into settings > keyboard > virtual keyboards... that's where they're meant to be right? I'm looking in the right place? Well nothing here works. Nothing. Fcitx? Maliit? the others? nothing. Some of them give me a system tray keyboard to click on, but it does nothing. Sometimes when I click on it it says I'm closing the onscreen keyboard that didn't exist in the first place. Are these supplied ones just garbage? Then why are they there? Do I need to jump through hoops to get them to work?
4. Apparently part of the Linux learning experience is learning its terminal. Instead I get a pretend terminal that gets angry and yells "ujust" at me whenever I try to do something. This seems really dumb? Cut out the very thing that is always touted as the real power under the hood of Linux? And so I have no option to learn the terminal in bazzite cause it seems to be this neutered 'ujust' nonsense? If I am trying to learn and follow a guide to do something, and it needs the terminal, I am just out of luck?
That's all for now. I know I might sound a bit salty due to my frustration with things that I'm used to being simple, but I do appreciate the effort put into Bazzite. Honestly, the simple fact that with a fresh PC you could install Bazzite, install something like Helldivers2 in steam and just run it is great. This will win a lot of gamers over. Thanks for reading.
well i can explain mounting
you are correct about you not understanding mounting because you don't understand the filesystem
in Linux/Unix(basically everything that isn't Windows)
there's this idea of "everything is a file"
Hey thanks I didn't think any'ne would be about
including devices
i have noticed that with my drives being how they are in the mnt folder etc
Also I am again sorry for this big post here. As i said i was pasting the exact thing into reddit and it was being filtered
each device is represented as a file
for example
/dev/sdawhat would that device be? i dont have a sda folder in there
typically it would be the first detected sata hard drive
or SATA SSD
you're probably using an NVME
my m2 is sata unfortunately
probably still getting detected as an NVME
so the device would be
/dev/nvme0n1
this device contains all of the raw data on the drive
including the partition tablei am sorry i misread what you said earleir, i do have a dev/sda etc sorry for the confusion
ok
anyway thats besides the point (i think)
ok
well this device contains all of the data
yep
literally everything
including data about the partition
ok, but with it all contained in this one 'file' what do i do with it
to 'mount' etc
partitions are given their own individual files
which contain the data restricted to them
this data includes the filesystem
a filesystem provides structure
to organize data
it is what makes the concept of a file
yes
without understanding a filesystem it's all just random data to a PC
the act of "mounting" is what tells the kernel to try & find a known filesystem on a partition
#2 add directory permission to strawberry with flatseal
& attach it to an existing folder
thanks mrvictory
such that all the files tracked by the filesystem appear there
yep
#4: base system restricts certain modifications on bazzite. If you want to fool around, you can do so in a distrobox without a chance of harming base operating system.
Other linux distributions don't do this
all mountable devices don't get mounted automatically for security reasons
because the act of reading & interpreting the filesystem can pose risks
mrvictory- oh so the full terminal is there, just, hidden for my safety?
alright nagito, so then can i tell it to auto mount or is this jsut off limits?
Not exactly. I'm assuming you tried to use "dnf" to install a package. Dnf will not work on bazzite so instead of a mysterious failure bazzite will tell you to use other tools to achieve your goal.
yeah you aren't supposed to use that ter,oma; ,ich
You can define automount, the docs describe thag iirc. One moment
no nope not off limits
Auto-Mounting Secondary Drives - Bazzite Documentation
Bazzite is a custom image built upon Fedora Atomic Desktops that brings the best of Linux gaming to all of your devices.
i read this and it says i have to format the drive and with a specific file system to do so
thats not an option
Do you want to play games on a partition formatted as NTFS?
no that's counter productive
as long as the filesystem isn't corrupted & thus can be interpreted it can be mounted
NTFS is the windows default, if you formatted on windows you have NTFS
no the games are on the main drive, the storage drive that i want to mount is ntfs tho
NTFS is find for data storage/transfer but lacks features required by the windows compatibility layer on Linux
Ok then, skip formatting and proceed with rest
ok i'll give it a go
Do manual mounting
so playing Windows games off of NTFS on Linux may or may not work
depending on the game
hehe i'm not trying to do that, the storage drive isnt something i'd game from
i just wanted to storage drives to al;ready be mounted without me having to go into dolphin and select them each boot up
mrvictorywin - jsut going back to the strawberry permissions. thats flatseal > strawberry > then the filesystem section?
also there are ways of changing files without affecting the underlying filesystem
which bazzite can employ
a filesystem need not be limited to a physical device
what do you mean by that nagito?
like, whats a use case for that
safely testing things
oh ok
you're talking about delving into the terminal
without permanently affecting the system
yep
Linux does many things through various filesystems
there's a concept of "virtual filesystems"
these aren't stored on a disk
for example
devtempfs
this one is mounted in /dev
it's what gives you access to device files
there's also procfs & sysfsone sec
these expose information
On github I've seen someone executing dangerous commands from AI trying to fix an issue
And telling the commands don't work
like about your CPU
motherboard & stuff
when you say device files do you mean like extra plugged in devices like thumbdrives and phones etc? just so i'm following right
yes those devices & all other devices on the system really
including keyboards GPUs etc
ok
there is
/dev/mem
this one contains the contents of your RAM ALL of ittalking about devtempfs, i thought you were explaining the idea of a temp file system for extra pluigged in devices.
as an example
oh wow
thats pretty cool
it's a temporary filesystem that creates device files dynamically
as you add/remove devices
yep
i... am not the type of person to do that kind of thing.. lol.
another thing
due to this abstraction
you can format a regular old file
with a filesystem
& mount it
thats a little confusing
Linus from LTT hit a bug and blew up their desktop environment executing a dangerous command.
it already seems a bit inception-y with the file for the whole filesystem is a file i can see in the file system
haha
The restrictions make sense, even more when people ask AI to solve their problems and get incorrect advice
as i said before a partition is exposed as a file that happens to contain a known valid filesystem
if a regular file were to contain a known filesystem you can mount it
i do understand the caution with the terminal. but it also seems weird to put it behind the terminal that bazzite uses
the act of formatting is writing valid filesystem data to a file
yeah
A small number of commands (just dnf?) are aliased to show a message, other commands would fail with read only file system error
be that a device file or a regular old file
ok so you've been going over #1 with me, i'll follow the guide further tomorrow and see how i go.
#2 is solved now, thanks. and #4 has been explained too.
getting used to the environment is just something i'll gradually learn with use, but you've told me a few things that should help start that process
ampther fun/ kinda useful thing
if you set a filesystem label on a drive
even in Windows
when you plug in the device/partition on linux
the label will apear in
/dev/disk/by-label/YOUR_LABEL
this file is a so called symbolic link
& can be used in place of the actual device file in all casesok
you do understand what i mean by label?
thats interesting, but why would i have to use it in place of the normal one
yes i understand labels for drives/partitions
you know how when you plug in a flash drive into Windows & select format
& it lets you label
yep
well this is that label
yeah i went and checked that folder and i can see the old windows partitions
called by their labels
the device file name may change depending on how many drives you have & when you plug in your drive/when it is detected
oh, while the labelled symbolic link will remain the same?
sda is the first device sdb second sdc third & so on
the link will always refer to the same devicegood to know
unless you have multiple devices labelled the same of course
haha
this is why UUIDs exist
they're just unique numbers
alright then. thank you for the education. i've got to go now however!
tied to either the filesystem or partition itself
if there is anything else you think i should know please put it here. i'll be back tomorrow to go over any other replies
but thanks for what you have shared so far
3. On-screen keyboards aren't great on Linux unfortunately, but for this case are you sure that your tablet-to-PC inputs are treated as touch inputs and not just mouse clicks? That might explain why they aren't showing up at all
4. The terminal is very much not watered-down, Bazzite works very differently from most Linux distros and with certain commands (dnf) you are far better off using alternatives (flatpak, AppImage, brew, distrobox, and only if all else fails rpm-ostree to get normal dnf functionality)
i wouldn't call it very different
i'd almost call it barely different
the only difference i can see is how the root filesystem is intended to be permanently modified
& a couple of slightly different locations for certain things
the only thing that's drastically different is the location of everything on the actual on disk filesystem
but this doesn't matter when the OS is up & running
True, but "slight differences" to me implies most things will work exactly the same. For someone who mainly/only uses the terminal to follow tutorials, which often want you to use dnf to download things, I think it makes more sense to exaggerate a little
yeah dnf not working exactly the same from the user perspective is weird
i mean why is it
rpm-ostree & not like dnf-ostreethanks @TealMango for the input. i'm not using the touchscreen on the tablet when streaming, i'm using a bt mouse. I need an onscreen keyboard i can mouse-click on keys. And yes i know that sounds painful but it is not for full-on typing. In Utilities theres Keyboard Layout Viewer. All I need is that but be able to click on the keys to send those keystrokes through. Are there any other onscreen keyboard apps I could try?
And reading over this thread I can certainly see my ignorance with the terminal. I can bet some readers might have thought It good that it appeared sequestered away from me, to save me from myself.
dnf does still work just not on the host system, if you want to install an rpm you can use
and then you can DNF everything you want. Distroboxes have complete integration with the host system
in order to make the app available on your host, use
distrobox-export --app <package>
here's some more information https://docs.bazzite.gg/Installing_and_Managing_Software/
Installing and Managing Applications - Bazzite Documentation
Bazzite is a custom image built upon Fedora Atomic Desktops that brings the best of Linux gaming to all of your devices.
Thanks!