Can I get some more detail on basic setup?

Hi everyone, I am a new Linux user. I wanted to get some more details to basic setup of Fedora 31.

1: I just wanted to know what type of install method I should use if I wanted to connect to the internet with privacy and transfer documents to from computers. What setup should I use? ( Settings, apps, tools, etc)

2: When referring to installing on a drive, if I were to install Fedora on a computer, would it be a usb disk drive?

3: Network connectivity and Internet does not work when I try to boot to any Linux distro on a USB. Some distro do not boot at all on HP and MAC computers that are Brand new. The network does not show.

4: Fedora does not boot on a live usb. Fedora does not boot in secure or non secure boot. It goes to the ā€œLVM command process are running in the background etcā€¦ā€

The only way I can access an installation would be thru the Graphical Troubleshoot method. It only gives me an option to install to the usb, which is used. Do I override the USB?

Welcome!


The trouble with the Fedora Linux is, that it is a "test-bed" for an Enterprise OS. So it is rather designed for people who work with Linux kernel, or want an preview of the next full-bloated consumer-grade software.

Please, take no offence, but that is rather wrong distro for an newbie. Try the Ubuntu LTS first. Then (maybe) play with Arch Linux. Finally (maybe), come there.

Inspired by
Arch compared to other distributions.


PS: Fedora do have some default firewall running (and SELinux activated).
PSPS: If your USB have no wear leveling, your install probably may not last for long.

PSPSPS, about transfer and privacy:

That is not at all true; itā€™s designed for developers, maybe, but not such a specific type of user as kernel developer.

And then you go and recommend Arch first? That doesnā€™t make sense.

3 Likes

Warning: Opinion

I'd recommended Ubuntu LTS as first (and possibly, as last).

That does make sense; Arch has:

  • no SELinux by default (less troubles)
  • Greater wiki (for end-users)
  • Greatest main site with all links right there
  • Installation done without auto-magic (which is sometimes (s..so..some..ha-ha..times (tough with all of my respect)) being broken)
  • Proprietary drivers in default repositories (less troubles, if needed)
  • LTS kernel in the default repositories (no need to worry about the overwriting of that last working copy)
So, that is certainly can make a sense to try Arch before Fedora, if user are adventurous. If no - Ubuntu or the others from that family. Best of us can afford Gentoo (hardware-lovers).

PS: At least iā€™m imagine such.

Sorry, the following post is totally off topic in relation to the @tuxedopuffin questions. But I would like to write some personal thoughts/opinions.

This is not totally true. If you think so, then any open source software is a test bed for any commercial enterprise. Also Ubuntu is a product of Canonical, and Canonical makes money selling support/whatever on the same distro ā€œtestedā€ by a whole community. Debian is a test bed for any flavor of downstream distribution. OpenBSD is a test bed for various enterprise NAS. And if you think so, also the Linux kernel is a test bed for many commercial products (also the evil Micro$oft).
If you like to see the world in that way, you are totally free.
What I think is that the whole life is a give and receive. When I started to play with computers, there where not free and gratis products (we had such often bloated freeware or shareware softwares, ok). If you wanted to use a program or an operating system, you had to buy it orā€¦ you had to be a pirate and make an unauthorized copy of the floppy disks of your friends.
Today we have the possibility to learn and work with great softwares and systems in total legality. We should thank the whole community and the worldwide movement of the free software, but also many (not all) enterprises that put money on some projects and let the whole world to legally use such great stuff.
(Disclaimer: I donā€™t work for any of these enterprises).

Well, also without a firewall you have less troublesā€¦ Without a password to type at each command you have less annoyancesā€¦ Etcā€¦

I tried Arch. And trust me, if you need to work, it is not the right distribution for you. If you want to tinker and you have the time to play/learn, if your hobby is customization and tinkering of dozens of options and configurations, then it could be a nice distro.

Well. One of the reason why many people choose Fedora, is that there is not proprietary stuff in the default repositories.
In addition, from the point of view of the community and of the sponsors (Red Hat in primis), avoiding legal threats is healthy in order to further a project.
You know, perhaps today we may have been all BSD users instead of Linux, if BSD hadnā€™t been in legal quagmire in the early '90s, who knowsā€¦
We are always in a threat: look at the recent news about GNOME.

In addition it is not so difficult to add third party repositories in Fedora if you need them.

Indeed, maybe :slight_smile: I think that this is a false myth. For instance Iā€™m not a developer and I use Fedora with success :sweat_smile:

1 Like

Please, no BanHammer


Chit-chat

Arenā€™t that is a trouble for a newbie, anyway? And Arch-users have their very own bugzillaā€¦


I didnā€™t tell thatā€¦ Just SELinux. Issues with this rather weird.


I used Arch. And trust me, only came to Fedora to understand people there.


:flying_saucer: Mommy told me not trust the modersā€¦


If your need to work:

  • your choose LTS distros. What was working today will work tomorrow.

If your need to work to help other people to work using the computersā€¦

  • Welcome there, at the edge.

GNU does not approve Fedora. And gnome-software offered to me proprietary by defaultā€¦


Thanks for sharing!

:grin: For the records, GNU does not approve any mainstream distroā€¦ any distro that you can install in the vast majority of hardware out there without too much hassles. Explaining Why We Don't Endorse Other Systems - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation

2 Likes

As far as I know, you have to expressly enable some third party repository. Gnome software ask for that the first time you open it.
In Fedora by default there are not third party repositories installed/enabled.

Since youā€™re new, I would start with Fedora Workstation (https://getfedora.org/en/workstation/) and if you donā€™t care for that implementation you can start looking at the spins. (https://spins.fedoraproject.org/)

Fedora can be installed to a USB drive, a Virtual Machine or the hard drive in your computer.
Iā€™d recommend trying a live USB of any distro prior to installing it.

Network connectivity can be tricky depending on the wifi card that is being used in the machine.
You might want to go through and look through the forums for the distro you are trying searching for the laptop model number or the wifi card that is in the machine to see if someone has had a similar issue or if drivers need to be loaded. The tools available to troubleshoot this will vary depending on the distribution but you should be able to start with lspci or lsusb (running in a terminal) .

I would rebuild the live usb using: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/creating-and-using-a-live-installation-image/

You could also try ( I donā€™t think this is it. )

  1. edit start fedora 31 ( press e ),
  2. add nomodeset after ā€˜quietā€™
  3. start boot with ctrl + x
    see if you boot up properly

Reference installation Documents:
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora/f31/install-guide/
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/

There are also some videos/how-toā€™s in various locations if you search for something like ā€œfedora 31 installation guideā€

Regarding the apps and setup there are a lot of different ways to do things in Linux, I would start looking at the specifics of what I want to accomplish and narrow the questions down.

I hope that helps.

5 Likes

Ok well, Iā€™m not that new to Linuxā€¦ I know how to use. I just have not made a hard drive usb with the OS.

The problem that I am having is that once I set this up and I turn it off, it is slow. It will not boot properly it seems, and I use encrypted setup.

Iā€™m not sure if this is normal, but it appears thereā€™s nothing I can do with this.

I am starting to wonder if this is mainly only for server users. It may be hardware, but I donā€™t think I would get much of a difference itā€™s setting up with different or brand new gear, after all this stuff is open source.

Do i need a WiFi card with every computer? Internet only works with a WiFi card on mine.

Iā€™ve a ā€œPackard Bell EasyNote TE11HC/EG50_HC_HRā€.

In the case of such troubles, iā€™ve had to search the Web with

  • "EasyNote TE linux install"
  • "EasyNote TE linux issues"
  • ...
    1 Like

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