Smart Questions

Wrong ways of asking a question:
1. Can I ask a question ?
2. Is there anyone who can help me ?
3. Are there any "XYZ" experts / pros around ?
4. Anyone expert in "XYZ" ?
5. I am facing an issue with "XYZ"

Right way of asking a question and mentioning the details:
- Describe your problem related to XYZ in detail.
- Describe what were you doing before the problem occurred.
- Describe what steps you have done after the problem occurred.
- Mention your hardware specs / software information.
- Attach a screen shot / screen record of the problem.

More info you provide, higher are the chances of your problem getting resolved.

http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
http://dontasktoask.com

#smart_question

Boot Time

Check which processes are slowing down your boot time. Enter any of these commands in terminal and post your output.
systemd-analyze time
systemd-analyze blame
systemd-analyze critical-chain
systemd-analyze plot > plot.noscript

#boot_time

Linux Basics

Linux Distro = Base + Desktop Environment + Window Manager + Display Manager + Display Server

Base - The main root of the distro
Stable Base, Slowest Updates - Debian
Semi-Rolling Base - Fedora
Rolling Base, Fastest Updates - Arch

Desktop Environments = A collection of programs and utilities, customizations + Window Manager + Display Manager + Display Server
GTK3 DEs - GNOME, Cinnamon, XFCE, Mate
QT5 DEs - KDE Plasma

Window Managers - Draws and controls windows of applications
Stacking WMs - Mutter, KWin, Xfwm, Openbox
Tiling WMs - i3, bspwm
Dynamic WMs - awesome, dwm

Display Managers - The interface which allows a user to login into the system after booting process is complete.
GUI DMs - GDM, LightDM, SDDM
Console DMs - CDM, Console TDM

Display Server - Manages input and output from OS, Hardware over a GUI.
Legacy, Widely Used - X Org
Modern, Still under development - Wayland

#linux_basics

Kali Linux

Hey!
How having a creepy profile pic and using Kali Linux or it's tools won't make you a hacker ?
Check @skids_say for hilarious things !

Also Kali Linux should be never used as a daily-driver. You have been warned.

Should I use Kali ?

#hackerman

Install Linux Mint

Download ISO : https://linuxmint.com/download.php

Guide : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZZaM5BRz4I

#install_mint

Learn Linux

Is this your first time with Linux? Don't worry, we all were once like you. Have a fun time learning Linux.

Common Usage
https://github.com/mikeroyal/Linux-Mint-Guide

Choose Linux Distro
Libre Hunt | Distro Chooser

Basics
Live Boot | Installation

Learning
The Art of Command Line | Linux Command | Linux Journey | Linux Survival

Wikipedia
Arch Linux | Manjaro | Debian | Ubuntu

systemd by example - the systemd playground
https://systemd-by-example.com

#learn_linux

Help regarding making partitions.
#partition

Convert MBR to GPT

Without data loss - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/81502-convert-windows-10-legacy-bios-uefi-without-data-loss.html

With Data loss - https://www.diskpart.com/articles/gparted-convert-mbr-to-gpt-4125.html

#mbr2gpt

Linux Mint Docs

Linux Mint has a wonderful documentation. If you are confused on anything starting from installation to usage, you should definitely have a look at it.

#docs

Dual/multi-booting Windows and other Linux distributions

This will ensure Windows does not over write Linux GRUB entries in a common EFI partition after each Windows update.
NOTE: Windows should be installed first.

Tips:
1. When you install Windows, by default it creates a 100MB EFI partition for itself. Create a separate EFI partition of around 256MB for each Linux distro.
2. If you have 2 or more physical drives, install Windows on 1st drive and other Linux distros on the rest of the drives.

#multi_boot

Tools for creating bootable USB drive from ISO image(s)

External Tools:
1. Ventoy: https://ventoy.net (multi-ISO boot support)
2. Rufus: https://rufus.ie/
3. Etcher: https://www.balena.io/etcher
4. Unetbootin: https://unetbootin.github.io
5. WoeUSB: https://github.com/slacka/WoeUSB

Built-in Tools:
1. dd : https://www.ostechnix.com/how-to-create-bootable-usb-drive-using-dd-command
2. GNOME Disk Utility > USB Drive > Options > Restore Disk Image
3. Linux Mint USB Image Writer

#usb_tools

Linux turns 29 today !

https://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/happy-29th-birthday-linux-200824193505.html

Backup Tip

If you have some extra space on your HDD or SSD (20-30GB+), you can create a separate partition during installation specially for backing up system. In the picture it has been created as /mnt/timeshift and formatted as ext4.

After booting up, install timeshift sudo apt install timeshift. Open timeshift and then select the partition you created for storing system backups.

Using this method, you can restore backups even when your / (root) partition gets deleted or corrupted.

You can even restore to your previous distribution if you don't like your current distro.

Thanks to @prathamesh_d for tip.

Good article on TRIM

https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/ssd.html

Thanks to @johnswr