I was just adjusting my fstab today… Genuinely blows my mind how far Linux has come and I still have to delve into hard to read text files to open my damn drive when I boot my computer.
Yeah I ended up installing gnome disks on my kde bazzite install because the default disk management wont do it without jumping through hoops but gnome disks has a nifty little check box and then problem solved.
Why this can’t just be default I don’t know because every other OS I’ve used has it figured out.
Usually both KDE and GNOME includes all kind of programs as default for many tasks, however both side have a better program for something than the other. As a result, going purist is not the best option all the time. Distros that choose KDE or GNOME try to minimize the package size by not mixing these two a lot because nowadays many DE related programs come with a lot of dependencies. Naturally Gnome Disks also has dependencies that you will only install because of it, unless you already have other Gnome programs.
I always choose the best program that does the job so I end up with both KDE and GNOME dependencies. Flatpak kinda helped with this issue though. I tried going purist once years ago but when it comes to productivity, I always ended up with the program that works the best, so a lot of dependencies. I don’t care anymore since I started using SSDs.
Fragmentation is not a bad thing but I agree that instead of making programs deeply related to their DEs, they should keep that minimal if that’s possible. Like I mentioned, Flatpak mostly solved this issue. Bazzite uses almost everything from Flatpak which is actually good from this point of view (while it might have other challenges on its own, like not everything is on Flathub, gets better though).
I would say even Ubuntu with telemetry is leagues better than a cleaned Windows 11 when it comes to privacy, but I understand what you mean.
Not sure when did you switch but if you’re kinda new with Linux, it just needs time to recalibrate your knowledge. Once you learn the best for your every need, things like these won’t be an issue. I wish the defaults would always be the best. Some distros actually pick their pre-installed programs really well, but most distros usually go with default suites, like if it’s KDE, then everything is KDE because of the integrity.
I have been trying to switch to linux for over 10 years, I have been using bazzite with some success for a few weeks. I have been using windows since the dos days and I am a windows system admin with 10 years of experience. I can make windows do unholy things with little effort. Granted thats mostly because I have 10 years of experience but in those same 10 years I still know fuck all about linux because between the seemingly purposely unhelpful community and all this stupid segmented bullshit I can never get it to actually do anything so I just say fuck it and harden another windows install.
Finally Bazzite seems to be making some of that stuff a little easier but then I still run into quality of life shit like not mounting all of my installed drives by default like literally every other OS I’ve used.
P.S what is a DE? I’m sure it’s basic knowledge for linux veterans but I have no idea what that means.
DE is for “Desktop environment”. Most distro let you choose from quite a few. The two best known one are Gnome and KDE, i believe. But there are many more.
“Desktop environment” might just be two words without much meaning to you. If that the case, in the linux context, a desktop environment is basically the GUI to your computer: file explorer, desktop, taskbar, general setting manager and so on.
I see. Well, while GUI has improved a lot on Linux in recent years, if you still want to know it fully, you’ll need to learn the CLI part. CLI on Linux is really powerful and that’s why you usually won’t find any forum replies related to GUI. That might seem a down part for people who are new to Linux, however it makes it easier for the people who are trying to help. Sadly you can run into jerks and gatekeepers everywhere but fortunately they are not a big portion, they just talk loudly.
Once you learned the CLI, it’s almost always the same and it changes very little in time. This is the hard part and normal user don’t need to know CLI anymore, which is why the desktop Linux adoption gets better nowadays. But if you’re a power user, you’ll need to learn the CLI, at least the parts you require.
what is a DE?
Sorry, I should’ve mentioned it at least once. It means desktop environment. You may also see people talk about WMs, those are window managers. Every DE has a WM, but if you decide to use a standalone WM, you’ll need to install every other software yourself which normally come as bundled in a DE. Of course, I’m not talking about distros that come with WM options. Those usually cover the software part pre-installed. If you don’t want to configure anything on yourself, DEs are the safe choice here. If you enjoy configuring everything (at least I’m looking at it that way) to your needs, you usually do that once (and upload your configs to your personal repo, that way when you need a reinstall, you just pull your configs from git and you’re ready to go). That’s why Linux veterans seem to prefer WMs a lot. There is no limit to configuration, this is both pro and con, depending on where you stand.
Regarding not auto-mounting, the main reason there most likely security related. Again, I agree that more distros should offer more visible options related to that, though some distros already do that. But it should stay as a choice. There are differences between Windows and Linux and this is one of those. If you’re talking about the filesystems on the disks installed in your PC case, they’ll auto-mount if they’re a Linux filesystem. As default, this won’t happen with NTFS partitions.
What really upsets me is when you ask you get 10 wrong answers and every one of them is condescending, angry or outright calling you and idiot for not having some niche esoteric knowledge that I shouldn’t even have to know because this is just basic functionality.
Also I figured it out (on bazzite) so yay but it took literal weeks to piece together tiny bits here and there until I finally cracked it.
All fstab does is provide data for the mount command. Typically your OS just runs something like mount -a on boot and it mounts all the filesystems as listed in the fstab.
You can just run a mount command for your drive on startup as root. It would be doing essentially the same thing and its quite simple even for a new CLI user.
And there’s the typical non-answer I usually get,
a helpful answer would read something like;
To auto mount drives on Bazzite open terminal and type
sudo rpm-ostree install gnome-disk-utility
Wait for-ev-er…
Reboot
open “disks”
select your disk you want to auto mount
you’ll see an icon that looks like a window with a play symbol in it that is “Additionaal Partition Options”
click on it and select “Edit Mount Options”
you may or may not have to toggle user session defaults
check the box that says mount on startup
enter your password if asked and reboot to verify.
And those are admittedly terrible instructions but at least they actually answer the question instead of “just use fstab” like a new linux user would have any idea what that is or what to do with it.
There wasn’t any question asked in the thread I replied to.
“just use fstab”
What I actually said was:
You can just run a mount command for your drive on startup as root.
Which is significant because its less verbose than the fstab
a helpful answer would read something like; To auto mount drives on Bazzite open terminal and type…
Its not a given that someone would know how to automount disks in X desktop environment. One can’t provide a step-by-step process on something they do not know.
And yet I have to jump through a thousand hoops before my drives will mount on boot.
I was just adjusting my fstab today… Genuinely blows my mind how far Linux has come and I still have to delve into hard to read text files to open my damn drive when I boot my computer.
I’m using Gnome Disks and never had to edit fstab for years.
Yeah I ended up installing gnome disks on my kde bazzite install because the default disk management wont do it without jumping through hoops but gnome disks has a nifty little check box and then problem solved.
Why this can’t just be default I don’t know because every other OS I’ve used has it figured out.
Usually both KDE and GNOME includes all kind of programs as default for many tasks, however both side have a better program for something than the other. As a result, going purist is not the best option all the time. Distros that choose KDE or GNOME try to minimize the package size by not mixing these two a lot because nowadays many DE related programs come with a lot of dependencies. Naturally Gnome Disks also has dependencies that you will only install because of it, unless you already have other Gnome programs.
I always choose the best program that does the job so I end up with both KDE and GNOME dependencies. Flatpak kinda helped with this issue though. I tried going purist once years ago but when it comes to productivity, I always ended up with the program that works the best, so a lot of dependencies. I don’t care anymore since I started using SSDs.
The more I try to learn linux the more I hate linux, this fragmented crap is not helpful and only adds pointless road blocks.
It is easier for me to strip all the privacy invasive bullshit from windows 11 than to setup a usable linux install.
I feel like that shouldn’t be a sentence I should ever have to say.
Fragmentation is not a bad thing but I agree that instead of making programs deeply related to their DEs, they should keep that minimal if that’s possible. Like I mentioned, Flatpak mostly solved this issue. Bazzite uses almost everything from Flatpak which is actually good from this point of view (while it might have other challenges on its own, like not everything is on Flathub, gets better though).
I would say even Ubuntu with telemetry is leagues better than a cleaned Windows 11 when it comes to privacy, but I understand what you mean.
Not sure when did you switch but if you’re kinda new with Linux, it just needs time to recalibrate your knowledge. Once you learn the best for your every need, things like these won’t be an issue. I wish the defaults would always be the best. Some distros actually pick their pre-installed programs really well, but most distros usually go with default suites, like if it’s KDE, then everything is KDE because of the integrity.
I have been trying to switch to linux for over 10 years, I have been using bazzite with some success for a few weeks. I have been using windows since the dos days and I am a windows system admin with 10 years of experience. I can make windows do unholy things with little effort. Granted thats mostly because I have 10 years of experience but in those same 10 years I still know fuck all about linux because between the seemingly purposely unhelpful community and all this stupid segmented bullshit I can never get it to actually do anything so I just say fuck it and harden another windows install.
Finally Bazzite seems to be making some of that stuff a little easier but then I still run into quality of life shit like not mounting all of my installed drives by default like literally every other OS I’ve used.
P.S what is a DE? I’m sure it’s basic knowledge for linux veterans but I have no idea what that means.
DE is for “Desktop environment”. Most distro let you choose from quite a few. The two best known one are Gnome and KDE, i believe. But there are many more.
“Desktop environment” might just be two words without much meaning to you. If that the case, in the linux context, a desktop environment is basically the GUI to your computer: file explorer, desktop, taskbar, general setting manager and so on.
I see. Well, while GUI has improved a lot on Linux in recent years, if you still want to know it fully, you’ll need to learn the CLI part. CLI on Linux is really powerful and that’s why you usually won’t find any forum replies related to GUI. That might seem a down part for people who are new to Linux, however it makes it easier for the people who are trying to help. Sadly you can run into jerks and gatekeepers everywhere but fortunately they are not a big portion, they just talk loudly.
Once you learned the CLI, it’s almost always the same and it changes very little in time. This is the hard part and normal user don’t need to know CLI anymore, which is why the desktop Linux adoption gets better nowadays. But if you’re a power user, you’ll need to learn the CLI, at least the parts you require.
Sorry, I should’ve mentioned it at least once. It means desktop environment. You may also see people talk about WMs, those are window managers. Every DE has a WM, but if you decide to use a standalone WM, you’ll need to install every other software yourself which normally come as bundled in a DE. Of course, I’m not talking about distros that come with WM options. Those usually cover the software part pre-installed. If you don’t want to configure anything on yourself, DEs are the safe choice here. If you enjoy configuring everything (at least I’m looking at it that way) to your needs, you usually do that once (and upload your configs to your personal repo, that way when you need a reinstall, you just pull your configs from
gitand you’re ready to go). That’s why Linux veterans seem to prefer WMs a lot. There is no limit to configuration, this is both pro and con, depending on where you stand.Regarding not auto-mounting, the main reason there most likely security related. Again, I agree that more distros should offer more visible options related to that, though some distros already do that. But it should stay as a choice. There are differences between Windows and Linux and this is one of those. If you’re talking about the filesystems on the disks installed in your PC case, they’ll auto-mount if they’re a Linux filesystem. As default, this won’t happen with NTFS partitions.
What really upsets me is when you ask you get 10 wrong answers and every one of them is condescending, angry or outright calling you and idiot for not having some niche esoteric knowledge that I shouldn’t even have to know because this is just basic functionality.
Also I figured it out (on bazzite) so yay but it took literal weeks to piece together tiny bits here and there until I finally cracked it.
All fstab does is provide data for the
mountcommand. Typically your OS just runs something likemount -aon boot and it mounts all the filesystems as listed in the fstab.You can just run a mount command for your drive on startup as root. It would be doing essentially the same thing and its quite simple even for a new CLI user.
And there’s the typical non-answer I usually get, a helpful answer would read something like;
To auto mount drives on Bazzite open terminal and type
sudo rpm-ostree install gnome-disk-utility
Wait for-ev-er…
Reboot
open “disks”
select your disk you want to auto mount
you’ll see an icon that looks like a window with a play symbol in it that is “Additionaal Partition Options”
click on it and select “Edit Mount Options”
you may or may not have to toggle user session defaults
check the box that says mount on startup
enter your password if asked and reboot to verify.
And those are admittedly terrible instructions but at least they actually answer the question instead of “just use fstab” like a new linux user would have any idea what that is or what to do with it.
There wasn’t any question asked in the thread I replied to.
What I actually said was:
Which is significant because its less verbose than the fstab
Its not a given that someone would know how to automount disks in X desktop environment. One can’t provide a step-by-step process on something they do not know.
I forgot about this, but AFAIK you’re still better off with fstab to give yourself all permissions for everything to work properly.