I’ve got a Pop_OS system76 machine that runs well straight out of the box. I love it and it’s my daily driver. However I’d like to learn more about how it works, Linux internals and how to use it to the best of its capabilities. I want to learn about things like system-d Wayland, error logging (there seems to be a few of them) directory structure and drivers. For instance, how do I know that my and GPU is being leveraged to the fullest?
I DONT want to build a system from the ground up, which I expect to be a common suggestion.
I’d prefer to read literature, blogs, and articles relevant to me, my system and not dated.
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance
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Start self hosting some web services.
Way ahead of you but that only scratches the surface of Linux. I’ve got a docker compose stack with a bunch of services, DNS and reverse proxies… But that doesn’t teach me about the internals on my workstation
Gotcha. I feel like I learned a lot of Linux stuff by standing up and configuring servers (log analysis, iptables, systemd…). I guess that’s the stuff I’m interested in though. I’ve never cared about compiling packages or tweaking the kernel for example.
What do you want to know?
I will say Arch isn’t the greatest learning experience. It is good if you want to learn how to install Arch but that’s about it.
The best way to learn Linux is though random (sometimes dump) side projects. Take some random idea and run with it. Spin up containers and VMs and build things.
Well for starters, my Wacom tablets drawing pen’s eraser sometimes stops working until I restart my machine. How can I restart the service for this without restarting my machine? How can I identify what service that is? How can I debug the error to prevent it in the future?
You can list running services by running systemctl or systemctl | grep “service name”
I don’t believe Wacom has a service but I could be wrong
One alternative option would be to get a Raspberry Pi (or similar SBC) and run it using command line only. You will quickly learn the basics of Linux internals (directory structure, systemd, common command line tools and approaches).
Just search or ask whatever questions you have about Linux (just like your question on GPU use). Overtime you will gain extensive knowledge of linux and before you know it you will be a linux power user.
I probably will :) but some baselineing would be nice too
- Start manually building and installing all your software instead of using packages
- Try writing a simple app with some tutorials
- Start reading Phoronix religiously and looking into each news item
- Build a distro from scratch on some old spare hardware
Thanks for the tip on phoronix, I’ll look into this.
