u/SleepyGuyy

I am trying to get a specific cursor theme to apply to my setup.

I initially removed the hyprcursor lines from my hyprland.lua file, and instead set this Xcursor theme: https://www.gnome-look.org/p/2367339/

The Xcursor theme would only work when I used Libre Office, outside of that app it reverted to the default Hyprland logo.

I didn't have hyprcursor anywhere in my config, but it seemed to be over-riding my xcursor theme using the default hyprcursor.

So instead I used hyprcurosr-util it --extract the xcursor theme, and then --create the hyprcursor theme.

Those are the only two commands in the ReadMe file on the git repo.

Below is a screenshot of the default cursor in the newly generated hyprcursor theme, opened as an image in Gimp (but it appears the same when used as a cursor theme).

https://preview.redd.it/fd2hv1qo3kjh1.png?width=511&format=png&auto=webp&s=8db37b21aed5e10f88a7030d1eed73b21f1e0015

If you're familiar with the Wii pointer that would help here. The center colour is wrong, but the edges seem correct.
Also I used the normal size 24 and it was much much smaller than usual.

Is there any way to get this to work?

If not, do people have suggested places to browse existing hyprcursor themes? I don't know where to find them.

https://preview.redd.it/8p7ihjgw08jh1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=f16cbf53eff9eaa2f31ac7a29cb5e351acecf160

I've wanted to learn how to use a Window Manager for a while, and I chose to try to tackle that while also learning to use Gentoo. That stretched the timeline out a few months but I admit I'm also just clueless and struggle with WM stuff. I find answers hard to find.

I started using Hyprland last week, and now it's in a place where I can really enjoy it.
I usually use foot terminal, but switched to Ghostty just now for the transparent background for the screenshot.

I'm using Noctalia for the top bar, and the "SwayClassic" colour scheme, set to dark mode.

I was updating when I took the screenshot that's why I was using 11GB of ram, something using rustc I guess.

Also it says I'm using the Wii_Pointer cursor theme, but it's not showing up. So I still am stuck with the Hyprland logo.

I'm new to Hyprland, and I find the way each monitor displays a different workspace annoying to use. It's hard to explain but basically I want a "traditional" workspace setup, where all monitors represent one workspace, and switching to a new workspace clears all monitors.

I've looked up this issue but it's hard to explain and I keep getting unrelated threads. I'm also getting older threads from the before times.

Is there a way to make one workspace display across both monitors? So that I switch to workspace 2 and both my monitors are clear?
This is essentially what Gnome / Plasma / similarly common desktops do by default.

I just wanted to post my entry into Lua and celebrate beginners. I don't really know if I will commit myself to coding regularly, but I'm pleased with Lua regardless.

I found the Lua online book ( https://www.lua.org/pil/contents.html ) very easy to read and learn from.
I'm still near the start but many other languages make the very start extremely boring or tedious to read through. The Lua documentation and this book are nice to walk through and use.

I'd like to note my script below starts with the #! script line. I never even realized you could do that. I've never really dabbled in bash scripting or other kinds of system scripting. But the Programming in Lua book starts with it, and got me to think about it as I went through my day. It's that kind of tutorial design that sparks ideas and excitement.

I also recently installed Hyprland in my gentoo system, that sounds advanced but I have no clue what I'm doing and still working on it. But I found the lua config file nice to work in, and it got me to look at the language a bit more.

I should clarify, I actually have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, I know you'd think I should be able to learn any language and I should be coding daily. But frankly I cannot and I do not, I struggle to get myself to write code outside of work (and my work was mostly Javascript/CSS).

Last year I was layed off and I spent the year frantically trying to get another development job, and dipping my toe into various tech stacks that companies claim they want. I made little progress and ultimately failed to secure a job. The software job market is worse then ever here in North America and it's time I move away from it. I'm joining the military, and I'm lucky I even have the opportunity to. But with my exit of the industry, I'm now more interested than ever in having fun with programming in my spare time. I'm embarrassingly slow learning, but I'm happy to take it easy.

Below is my extremely simple script to run OpenRC's shutdown command.
I've noticed different init systems use slightly different shutdown commands, with different flags and expectations. I only use Gentoo sometimes, as my second distro, so I always forget the specifics of OpenRC's shutdown command. I realized today I could write a Lua script right in my /usr/bin/ folder and call it the name of my custom command!

I watch Youtube playlists late at night on my desktop computer, from bed. I lay in bed with wireless, or sometimes long-wired headphones, and watch Youtube to get comfy and fall asleep. I don't want to have to get back up, ruining my near-sleep state. So I always run shutdown with a delay.
In SystemD, this is just sudo shutdown 'minutes'. But OpenRC wants a halt and Poweroff flag added, otherwise it just.. sits on a black screen all night.

So this is /usr/bin/myshutdown (reddit seems to be eating tabs and spaces so it's not tabbed sorry)

#!/usr/bin/lua
minutes = tonumber(arg[1])
if not arg[1] or not minutes then
print("myshutdown requires number of minutes!")
else
os.execute("sudo shutdown -hP " .. arg[1])
end

Despite how simple it is, I did actually end up troubleshooting some stuff.
I ended up re-learning that Lua just doesn't care about null (or "nil") values and I can just call stuff without worrying of a crash.
I also had to look up simple things like finding array length (strangely non-direct answers, saying to use 'getn' but arg doesn't work with it... etc....).
I found out arg has nothing in it if you don't put any arguments in it, that may sound obvious but some languages put the program name in arg[0] (of course Lua has no 0... right?).
I discovered all args are of type string, and require translation, here I found tonumber but I didn't look into any better ways to do that.
There were likely a few other things, I spent a couple hours writing this, somehow.

I'm now wondering if I can write one script, that detects which init system is running and runs the appropriate flags. Or maybe there's some other way to call shutdown that would be convenient.

I think I tried a distro, or maybe FreeBSD (?) before that wouldn't let me delay shutdown. I can't remember what it was, but I'd be curious to find out more.

Ultimately I don't really write software for fun, and a lot of the issue is coming up with an idea I even care about. This was an exciting change of pace, a fun idea and a very quick outcome. It makes me want to try more, and Lua's ease-of-use is to blame lol.

Thank you to the Lua community and developers.

Just a disclaimer about my Linux history. I have distro-hopped a lot in the past five years. The experienced among you know that this does not make me experienced.

I've noticed people online refer to many distros as "stable" and speak on wanting "stability", and I admit I don't always know what they mean. I feel that people call almost anything stable, and that people are too quick to decide a distro is "stable".

I've seen people refer to rolling release distros as "stable", like Cachy OS. I've seen more experimental distros like Void be praised for stability.

Stable traditionally refers to things like Debian Stable, or OpenSuse Leap. These distros have numbered versions and do not get huge package changes. But I am suspecting that maybe this characteristic only actually meaningfully applies to someone running a server or maybe doing dev work.

I've had my most reliable experiences in rolling release distros. Up to date packages for gaming/steam to work and launch correctly, newest tools for development work, and most feature-rich and bug-fixed version of desktop environments and applications.

However I've had negative experiences too. I've only tested Cachy a couple times briefly (like one or two days each). Despite this, I encountered serious problems in my system, like not being able to power down without holding the power button. I feel like people use a distro for a month and call it stable without really knowing if it is. And maybe this isn't fair but I feel stability is something judged over time, but instability can be confirmed in a single experience. One bad day ruins the "stability" claim. If a distro ever ships with an issue like "I can't turn off my computer" I feel like it doesn't deserve the stable label.

I've also used Solus, a lovely independent distro that is rolling release. It's praised for stability, holding back certain things until a stable version is available. Despite this, I've had serious bugs in the shipped desktop environments and display managers. Things like my computer locking itself after idle, but not responding to any key strokes so you can't type the password. And graphical bugs in Budgie (which was being held back for "stability"). This happened over multiple tests, across months or even a year or so.

I've also had bad experiences with Fedora, which used to be my most-used primary distro (I'd stick to it for nearly six months in one of my multiple hops to it). System booting to a black screen after an update, and desktop instability and slowdowns. I've avoided it for a year now, but that's a point release distro, and is supposed to be stable (according to Fedora fans).

I think my frustration stems from the ambiguity of the term "stable" in online communities. I feel like I can't take any opinions or advice on stability seriously. Maybe these distros are stable in a more sys-admin way, but as a user I encounter issues. As a user my interest in stability is to essentially never encounter issues.

Currently I use Debian Testing, a version of Debian that people seem scared of because it isn't Debian Stable. But it has been a very reliable system.

Another aspect I haven't touched on is "repairability". I've found Debian really easy to fix issues in, like switching drivers when I had ethernet issues (which happened in other distros too and was an issue with the kernel's opensource driver on my specific chipset). Something I would've avoided doing before now.

I have an Arc A750 8GB GPU in my system (with an i5-12400 and rebar enabled in bios).

I wanted to post about how I can't play certain games, which seem to be Linux specific Arc specific issues.

I think it's important people know this limitation. And it seems like it goes un-mentioned. People assume because Intel has opensource GPU drivers, that they must be good on Linux. They are easy to install, and to be clear are reliable otherwise, but I don't think they keep the opensource in parity with the Windows ones. I noticed sites and Youtubers who have started covering Linux gaming, have not mentioned Intel having different reliability on the OS (in particular I was sad to see Gamers Nexus not test or bring up the issue).

I am unable to either get to gameplay, or stay in gameplay for more than a couple minutes in a number of games. Each game behaves differently, but any given game always behaves exactly the same every time, it isn't unpredictable behaviour. I have tested lots of Proton versions, and tried various launch commands users report on Proton DB. Unfortunately there are very few Arc users there. I also distro-hop a lot, I have used every distro under the sun, and these issues are not affected by distro at all, they behave identically. Finally and most importantly, I have tested across roughly two years of Mesa updates, I have used older drivers and I have used cutting edge drivers, the GPU driver version has had no effect on the behaviour. Which convinces me that these issues have gone un-addressed.

A few games I have issues with:

Forza Horizon 5 - can get into gameplay but it freezes/crashes after a couple minutes whether or not I drive the car.

Warhammer Space Marine 2 - tested the demo, and the opening cutscene plays and then locks up at the very end on a black screen with audio.

--- I have issues with many modern Capcom games. ---

Kunitsu Gami - Was unable to get to gameplay. Locked up after starting the campaign from the main menu.

Resident Evil Village - I could play the opening sequence in the house. But the game would lock up after that sequence completed and the cutscene ended. Seemingly locks up when it tries to load the next level.

Street Fighter 6 - I could get into gameplay but the moment I blocked an attack the game freezes.

There are likely a couple I am forgetting. I admit it's not a huge number of games. I want to be clear, this is not an issue of performance. When a game runs, it runs as well as any 8GB Vram card does on Windows. My issue is specifically fatal errors of some kind.

I've experienced these issues for the two years I've owned my Arc card (obviously some games being discovered later in that two-year span).

I wanted to post about it, and maybe get advice from other Arc users. I am not very present in the Arc-specific community but from what I've seen there are very few Linux users in this sub-reddit. I really hate using Discord for stuff like this too. I've reported atleast one of these issues about a year ago to Intel, but never got a reply from a person. At the time I posted here or maybe in the forum and was encouraged to report it directly. But it was such a pain to report and they didn't even respond so I'm not gonna do that again.

I would also like to know, does the B series fix these issues? Are there any B-series owners who have played these games?

Better yet, are there A-series owners who can play these? Is there possibly something wrong with my generation of CPU? I know I used to have an issue with certain Unity games because of a math error built into a particular function in Intel CPUs. That mostly got patched in later versions of the engine to avoid that operation.

I am using Nix OS for the first time, and I seem to be getting a lot of different answers when I ask a simple question: how do I find available packages and install them?

I was sent to the nix os wiki

wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Adding_programs_to_PATH

Where is explains there are three ways to install packages permanently:

- adjust configuration.nix to include the package within environment.systemPackages

- use nix-env

- use nix profiles

it explains that nix-env is deprecated and not reliable.

The link to explain nix profiles leads to an empty wiki page.

And adjusting the configuration.nix file only works if I know a package exists and what it's called in the repo.

Within the configuration.nix file there is a commented section surrounding an example "environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ "

Here it says to run nix search package-name to search for packages.

But when I run that command the terminal returns a message that says that feature is experimental and not enabled.

I'm really struggling to get straight answers out of both the community and the wiki pages and Nix manual.

Is there a general guide for adding software to nix os?

I want my foot terminal to display it's title like other more typical desktops/window managers.
Currently Hyprland seems to exclude the top of the window from terminals.
I also wouldn't mind the window control buttons being added back, but that is not mandatory.

I added a window rule to my hyprland.lua config

hl.window_rule({

name = "titlebar-terminal-windows",

match = {

class = "foot"

},

`decorate = true`

})

I thought maybe what I was missing was "window decorations". However this didn't change anything visibly. I notice on the Hyprland wiki, it says decorate is true by default, so what I am looking for is called something else?
https://wiki.hypr.land/Configuring/Basics/Window-Rules/

This correctly targets the foot terminal (I tested using border_size=30 alongside the decorate command).

I also checked foot.ini for anything called title or decoration and couldn't find anything that worked.

https://preview.redd.it/7bo8jzzuj7gh1.png?width=957&format=png&auto=webp&s=7722acbf9eb47e37ed0557c5365103fd80919a36

I am trying to install the dependencies for Hunchentoot, and they recommend quicklisp for an easy way to get them.

So I installed quicklisp as per ( https://www.quicklisp.org/beta/ ) and successfully started sbcl with quicklisp loaded and got started.

I believe I successfully installed quicklisp.

But while searching packages using (ql:system-apropos "string") I made a typo and got an error, I aborted back to the * ("top-level"). Tried the command again with no typo, and got an error again (i forget what the error was).

So I quit sbcl and re-loaded back in, with the same load command, sbcl --load quicklisp.lisp (I am in the directory with it).
Quicklisp informs me that I already installed quicklisp, so I don't have to load it.

Despite this, now I can't call any quicklisp commands. It says "Package QL does not exist".
Is there something special I have to do to get (ql: ...) available to me while in sbcl's repl? Something that the initial install did for me?

Below is an example where I --load quicklisp.lisp, however I've tried just loading sbcl with nothing, and running "(ql:system-apropos "RFC2388") and I still get the error of a missing package.

RFC2388 was successfully found earlier before I broke everything, that's why I'm using it as an example.

I'm still new to sbcl and I find the error read-outs confusing, so maybe I'm missing something obvious here. But how can I get quicklisp back? If it's installed should I be able to just call ql anytime in sbcl?

>
sbcl --load quicklisp.lisp

>This is SBCL 2.6.4.debian, an implementation of ANSI Common Lisp.

>More information about SBCL is available at <http://www.sbcl.org/>.

>SBCL is free software, provided as is, with absolutely no warranty.

>It is mostly in the public domain; some portions are provided under

>BSD-style licenses. See the CREDITS and COPYING files in the

>distribution for more information.

> ==== quicklisp quickstart 2015-01-28 loaded ====

>To continue with installation, evaluate: (quicklisp-quickstart:install)

>For installation options, evaluate: (quicklisp-quickstart:help)

>* (quicklisp-quickstart:install)

>debugger invoked on a SIMPLE-ERROR in thread

>#<THREAD tid=33573 "main thread" RUNNING {1203FE8003}>:

> Quicklisp has already been installed. Load #P"/home/nathan/quicklisp/setup.lisp" instead.

>Type HELP for debugger help, or (SB-EXT:EXIT) to exit from SBCL.

>restarts (invokable by number or by possibly-abbreviated name):

> 0: [LOAD-SETUP] Load #P"/home/nathan/quicklisp/setup.lisp"

> 1: [ABORT ] Exit debugger, returning to top level.

>(QUICKLISP-QUICKSTART:INSTALL :PATH NIL :PROXY NIL :CLIENT-URL NIL :CLIENT-VERSION NIL :DIST-URL NIL :DIST-VERSION NIL)

> source: (ERROR "Quicklisp has already been installed. Load ~S instead."

>SETUP-FILE)

>0] 1

>* (ql:system-apropos "RFC2388")

>debugger invoked on a SB-INT:SIMPLE-READER-PACKAGE-ERROR in thread

>#<THREAD tid=33573 "main thread" RUNNING {1203FE8003}>:

> Package QL does not exist.

>Stream: #<SYNONYM-STREAM :SYMBOL SB-SYS:*STDIN* {12000417D3}>

>Type HELP for debugger help, or (SB-EXT:EXIT) to exit from SBCL.

>restarts (invokable by number or by possibly-abbreviated name):

> 0: [CONTINUE ] Use the current package, COMMON-LISP-USER.

> 1: [RETRY ] Retry finding the package.

> 2: [USE-VALUE] Specify a different package

> 3: [UNINTERN ] Read the symbol as uninterned.

> 4: [SYMBOL ] Specify a symbol to return

> 5: [ABORT ] Exit debugger, returning to top level.

>(SB-IMPL::READER-FIND-PACKAGE "QL" #<SYNONYM-STREAM :SYMBOL SB-SYS:*STDIN* {12000417D3}> T)

>0]

I am using Sway in Gentoo, but I think I want a slightly more ... I guess popular Wayland window manager. I don't like Plasma or Gnome. Also I use OpenRC as my init, if that is important. I noticed Cosmic on Gentoo's wiki, says it prefers SystemD.

I'd like to find an alternative with more online help, as I'm still learning and struggling to get a more feature-rich desktop working. I recognize Plasma is a feature-rich and easy option, I've just found I don't like it when I tried it in other distros.

Some background on me:

I am still new to window managers and configuring desktop environments, I've spent most of my time in Linux in more "polished" DE's (Gnome, Plasma, bit of XFCE Budgie and MATE too).

When I installed Gentoo on my computer for the first time, I made it a bit hard on myself by also trying Sway. I don't like Gnome or Plasma, and I want a Wayland desktop (I have had various issues with X11 desktops over the past year, and I also just want to "learn on" a Wayland solution). If possible I would enjoy a quicker compile time than what I experienced wehn I had some KDE plasma stuff installed on my system.
While I have been enjoying Sway, I also don't really know how to get it up and working the way I want.

I'm still using the default bar, which is a simple slim bar at the top with the desktop workspace numbers to the left, and the un-formatted date and time to the right.
My application launcher is I think wmenu, and I can't get it to see Flatpaks (but struggled to get any other recommended application launchers to work at all).
The only screenshot utility I got working, doesn't allow me to save to clipboard, and I find the typing-interface clunky and slow to use.
I also have had some instability that I suspect has been Sway locking up temporarily with little cause.

When I search stuff up online, I'm struggling to find easy answers on how to configure Sway and add a nicer bar. I get the impression Sway is a somewhat unused desktop, and is not in very active or up-to-date development.

My single biggest issue is I can't stream anything in Discord. Even after installing xdg desktop portal, I can't get a stream running (simply won't continue past the discord source selection popup). After some searching, it seems like the likely issue is xdg desktop portal doesn't work in Sway before version 1.12, and Sway stable on gentoo is 1.11. I don't want to start pulling testing dependencies.

I'd like to have a more traditional and feature-rich top bar. With notiications, background applications, network and volume controls, etc. And I'd like to be able to use flameshot or a similarly convenient screenshot utility. Tiling isn't even a mandatory feature, but I admit I find Sway's default controls intuitive. In the past I also liked Pop OS's defaults intuitive. But sadly I can't use Cosmic comfortably on OpenRC (according to the Gentoo wiki).

What sorts of options are there for me? Which ones do people find easy to get working? I think Hyprland is popular but I don't know much about it. Also I have tried Niri via PikaOS's Niri install image and had a bad time (but maybe that was PikaOS).

I'm having a hard time finding the solution to this because I don't know what to call it.

The editor auto-closes brackets (I'm learning Lisp so there's a lot of brackets).
I don't have an issue with the editor adding right brackets.
What I do have an issue with is if my cursor is up against one of the right brackets, and I go to add a new pair of brackets, it will "swallow" my right bracket into the existing one. Thus breaking my bracket pairs. It's also just generally frustrating for it to do something different than what I typed.

To try to explain, If I have:

(example ( (expression) (another --- the auto closed brackets will be here-> )))

If my cursor is where the arrow points, right up against the ")))"
And I want to add an inner expression inside "another". I would naturally type left bracket and right bracket "()"

However, it will place my right bracket overtop the existing right bracket within ")))". Swallowing it into the existing triplet.
I end up with this:

(example ( (expression) (another --- the auto closed brackets will be here-> ()))

Also yes, despite having auto-close on, it will not generate the right bracket I need when I type left bracket ( . Because I am up against a right bracket, it seems to think I want to pair it with that one. Despite the fact this breaks my bracket pairs.

I might just disable auto-close brackets anyway, that would be a simple solution and I don't really mind writing closing brackets.

I'm wondering how I can get a nicer to read terminal setup. This probably doesn't apply specifically to FreeBSD but I know so little about terminal customisation in general.

I've been following the FreeBSD Youtube channel recently, and I really like how they've customised thier terminal, but I've never really touched that stuff. I'm attaching some screenshots from the FreeBSD Youtube channel videos, showing that person's nice looking terminals.

One is a basic terminal but also has an easier to read font and font-size, and highlights things inside the man pages (seen in the recent mdo privileged escalation video):

nicely formatted first line of a terminal, with a colourful flourish and a little FreeBSD logo, and the current time.

man page for mac_do that is in a nice font and highlights key words in colour.

They also have an older video (the faster wi-fi one) where they are using this multi-tab terminal:

screenshot of a terminal that has some UI around the main terminal section, including tabs and a title.

In contrast, I am trying to setup a FreeBSD virtual machine, so I don't yet have a desktop environment. I'm not sure if I can make this tty look any better:

basic looking tty terminal text. blocky and large, as seen in my bare FreeBSD virtual machine.

My main issue is it's hard to read man pages, maybe just the font's too large, but also it's just kinda a rough font.

But if I need a desktop to get this look (or something similarly nice), I'd still like to know how I can get it easily. I will soon be setting up a desktop regardless.

I'd feel bad marking this as "help needed", it isn't really needed. But I assume the flairs are important categories.

This isn't actually breaking anything but I'm just worried about it. It shouldn't be happening.

My setup: I have Gentoo with Sway installed on a second drive, a separate SSD from my other distro (Debian Testing).

I installed Gentoo back when I was maining PikaOS (also Debian sorta), but have since distro-hopped my main distro three times. Third time landing on what I use now, Debian Testing with Gnome. Debian is installed on an NVMe, and Gentoo is on a spare SATA SSD. So technically Gentoo came first, but I installed it alongside a distro I don't use anymore. Not sure if that's relevant.

Debian Testing is using defaults, so I think it's an ext4 drive. But Gentoo I installed as a ZFS drive. I haven't had any issues with that yet.

Whenever I install a distro I name my machine after a combination of the distro and the machine. This helps identify it in my logged in sessions on services like password managers and Vivaldi browser and such. Often services will name the session after the machine.

The issue: sometimes.... not all the time. Sometimes my terminal will say the name of my Debian installation instread of my Gentoo.

I just now booted up my Gentoo system, opened a terminal, ran sudo emerge --sync, and sudo emerge -avuDN at world.
Then I noticed while it was executing the emerge, it showed my Debian name. At the top of the terminal, it shows what command is executing, and it said at nathan@DGdesk500 : emerge.

But when the command finished, it reverted to my Gentoo name "gendesk500":

https://preview.redd.it/0ceh54i1e98h1.png?width=173&format=png&auto=webp&s=d4a4c29c329034acdc340552971b4eda42a4a543

And to confuse me even more, if I then open a new terminal... it shows the Debian name:

https://preview.redd.it/mepldhvte98h1.png?width=155&format=png&auto=webp&s=df3aa629b44227bb2a111ea50b42fdc1c69e5961

And then, just to check, I ran emerge --sync again, in the terminal that now saying "gendesk500" and I got this while it was executing

https://preview.redd.it/lijei3enf98h1.png?width=253&format=png&auto=webp&s=5b53626a8e5020265919198f942238feb9e9fdc8

So the title of the terminal says I'm executing a command in DGdesk , but the terminal itself was saying gendesk when I executed the command.
Also when this command finishes, the title returns to gendesk, and the terminal green text stays gendesk.

However, when I open a new terminal, it's DGdesk DGdesk still.

It's as if running emerge somehow fixes the name thing, but only after it completes. And during the command it's always wrong.

Does anybody know how this works? Where it's getting my Debian name? I don't really know how it's reaching across drives to get that, my Debian drive isn't even mounted when I'm in Gentoo.

I am currently on a 6.x kernel, but would like to get on 7.x. I think I've been on 6.18 since I installed Gentoo a couple months ago.

uname -a

Linux MyDesktopName 6.18.33-p1-gentoo-dist ...etc....

I have read through this page, which offers more than one way to select a different kernel
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Kernel/Upgrade#Emerging_the_new_kernel_sources

However, the steps involve emerging the gentoo-sources and then selecting your kernel. My issue is, I don't know how to download the kernel I want.

I emerged gentoo-sources like it shows, and then eselect kernel list gained another entry "linux-6.18.35-gentoo-r1".

However the emerge command does not let me pull in more specific packages such as sys-kernel/gentoo-sources/gentoo-sources-7.0.12-r1.ebuild . This is not a "valid atom".

I'm still new to gentoo so I don't fully understand how the kernel is handled here, I thought maybe each kernel version was a package I could install, and then select which I want to use using eselect.

I also ran a depclean just before this, and saw sys-kernel scroll by, and am worried I might've uninstalled my kernel. So I haven't rebooted my system yet.

Running eselect kernel list reveals I still have the dist selected:

Available kernel symlink targets:

[1] linux-6.18.33-p1-gentoo-dist *

[2] linux-6.18.35-gentoo-r1

Can I just... pick a kernel and say run it? I feel like I can and I'm just missing a crucial step or not understanding how to target a kernel.

Also if I don't do this, will I eventually automatically be placed on kernel 7.x?

I was wondering if anyone here uses OpenMandriva, and if so why? What is unique about it?

I can look up the distrowatch https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=openmandriva
And their website https://www.openmandriva.org

And I can read about the history dating back to Mandrake and progressing UIs in Linux desktops.

But I'd love to know what it's users in 2026 think about it. I imagine much of what made it unique is now somewhat common, but the project is still going. It's an independent distro so it's no small task to maintain.

I don't mean to insult the project like "Why does this even exist" but I would like to know why it is important to the people using it.

In a similar fashion, Solus is a lesser-used independent distro that is being worked on. I understand Solus users value it for ease-of-use and a fast boot time and fast package manager. Because of that I started using it's XFCE image on my laptop and it's been great. That user experience helped me understand the distro's direction better.

Would love insight into OpenMandriva's fan base or even just user experience from more than a quick glance.

And I know the easy answer is, why don't I try it. I already distro-hopped a lot and I need to stop. Maybe I should make a little VM, but even then it will take a long time before I've really experienced it.

I have Gentoo installed as a second distro, so I don't yet use it every day. I tend to forget some things and consult the handbook for quick answers.

One issue I run into is when I run an update, and the command finishes far too soon. It finishes successfully, with no errors. And yet I know it didn't really update. I don't have an example of it happening right now, but I seem to remember it not listing packages that need updating (or maybe only listing a couple?).

I will not use Gentoo for several days or even several weeks. I know there are many updates for sure.

I'll run emaint --auto sync

Then I'll run emerge -avuDN at world (symbol gets caught by reddit).

Sometimes I do -avuDU instead on my first or second attempt. I'm under the impression capital U does not re-compile on use-flag changes. But based on my use it's unclear which one does which.

Nothing compiled and it didn't list a big list of packages to be changed.

Then I run the command again, no change.

I run the command again, no change.

I run the command again, suddenly a couple dozen packages have updates available and it begins compiling long things.

Does this sound familiar? Is this a classic newbie mistake? I'm sorry I'm missing details like the output from the console. I don't have screenshots working in Sway yet, and also I can't replicate the bug without updates to install.

For new people looking for a simple and reliable Linux desktop experience, I worry that most of us recommend things a bit blind.

I am getting the impression a lot of common recommendations are not very reliable, and give new people a bad experience. And that many of us (including myself) recommend stuff that we have barely used or we don't really know is reliable on most hardware.

Linux Mint, Ubuntu, and CachyOS seem like somewhat common suggestions, and I have had problems with all of them (I dont remember all the specifics, but just trust me lol). I have problems with other lesser recommendations too. But this isn't actually about my gripes with specific distros.

I just wanted to open the question, do we feel confident in our recommendations?

Because of my experiences in Mint I often avoid recommending it, giving Zorin OS instead because my time in that was relatively flawless. But I don't use Zorin anymore, havent for a year or two. And I'm usually the only one recommending it, maybe its very unreliable on some hardware. I don't think I can confidently recommend it anymore.

And remember when every Linux youtube channel was telling people to install Manjaro? Only for that distro to become largely discarded by the general community because of packaging issues.

I distro-hopped so often I never actually got a solid multi-week or month test-run in most of the distros I've tried. And distros I have used a long time I usually learn to hate.

fastfetch of Solus, on the default Solus XFCE desktop.

Just hopped off of OpenSuse Tumbleweed (XFCE). OpenSuse was excellent and I don't have any real issues with it, but Zypper and Yast (and Myrlyn) were a bit slow. Had the urge to try Solus XFCE. I didn't realize it had an XFCE install image and I felt Solus was better than ever last time I tested it, but Budgie had issues.

My laptop is a Lenovo 1i 14 inch, which came with 4GB of RAM. However it has an empty SODIMM slot (even though the 4GB is soldered in, very weird), so I added an 8GB stick (totalling 12 GB).

I'm still getting settled, so I may run into issues yet. I haven't tried to install ghcup or ghc yet, I haven't tried any dev tools (but I'm not worried).
I will say I don't like Discover is the GUI app installer, it's quite slow and unresponsive. Solus used to have their own GUI package manager that was really fast, but it's been deprecated (I imagine it had plenty of issues I never saw). But Discover is easy for me to ignore.

The package manager eopkg is unbelievably fast, WAY faster than Zypper, much faster than dnf, pacman, or apt.
And of course Solus boots up faster than any distro I've tried.

Very cool distro. If you're comfortable with a limited package repo it's worth trying. You can of course still install flatpaks and I believe snap packages. And if you're comfortable, can dig into source packages and appimages.

TLDR; Does anybody have a B-series card, and use Linux. Have you played any of these games for an extended period of time, and did you have issues? Or if you have an A-series card, can you give me details of your setup, maybe I can fix mine.
- Forza Horizon 5
- Resident Evil 8
- Street Fighter 6
- Kunitsu Gami
- Pragmata (Demo)
- Space Marine 2

I would like to know if my driver / game issues are resolved with the newer Arc cards. Someone online replied to me somewhere else, that the A series didn't implement something specific and that might be why, unfortunately I forget the details.

Details about my crashes:

I switched to the A750 almost 2 years ago now, and shortly after that I switched over to using Linux full-time.
I've mostly had a good time on Linux with gaming, but I've encountered an issue I don't see people posting about much online.

My game locks up when trying to play many modern Capcom games, as well as Space Marine 2, and Forza Horizon 5. I've tested this across various Linux distros, kernels, Mesa graphics drivers, and versions of Proton compatibility layer. Nothing solves these crashes, some happen a minute or so into gameplay, some happen at specific actions or a cutscene, and some during the menu. Each game acts consistently with it's own crash, for example Resident Evil 8 always locks up after the first sequence when the last house cutscene ends.

Importantly I really don't have issues otherwise gaming on Linux with my Arc card.

And worth noting, these are all games that work on an Intel Arc card on Windows.

The best I can guess is the Intel open source driver has issues with these games.

I have owned an Orange Pi RV2 for a year or two now, but I've barely used it.

Most of that is because I don't want to use Ubuntu on it. I'd like to try lighter weight distros.

However I only know how to boot up the official images from Orange Pi and Canonical, it's Ubuntu and I think a Debian Gnome thing (I forget). You flash them to a micro SD card and the system boots from it as is.

Many Linux distros offer RiscV images on their download pages.

However booting a distro on this is more complicated than a typical X86 PC desktop or laptop, and I don't know how to do it. With a typical PC I could just put the image on a USB stick and it would boot it.

I know this uses something called U-Boot? But I dont know... how to make that work with any arbitrary riscV distro image.

Any direction in getting other distros to boot on my system would be greatly appreciates.

side note: I tried imaging Chimera OS 's RiscV image to an SD card and it actually displayed something. But it was corrupted looking lines of blocks. That is the only time I've ever gotten something on screen from an alternative distro.