The biggest mistake I feel I ever done is installing multiple Linux distros in my servers. Not because having more than one, but doing it without paying much attention and accidentally removing everything instead of creating a partition once
uninstall intel driver, while having auto login enabled. Don't question. I don't have an answer. But yeah I ended up not being able to even go into the shell with ctrl + alt + F3 was just completely unusable
1) don't remote-edit a firewall config unless you really know what you are doing. 2) even if you do know, prepare an automatic undo for the case you thought you knew but the firewall knew better. 😏
Opened /etc/passwd in vi and deleted every user other than my own and root. Rebooted and half the processes wouldn't start and got dropped into a recover shell.
Ended up having to reinstall the os. (Wasn't the first time or the last that I had to reinstall)
I used to not split /home and / in two separate partitions and at the moment of reinstalling I had to wipe everything. Now I just mount the /home partition and wipe / when I want to reinstall or change distro.
Second advice I wish I knew sooner (not for a complete newbie) is to use BTRFS (with the @ and @home subvolumes) together with Timeshift. Snapshots has saved me many times after wrong updates or wrong config edits.
you most likely will need the .snapshots in root(not in all distros by default, smart to have snapper or such anyhow) DO NOT delete that (or anything else in root for that matter) should you need more space.
chmod -R 777 * (from /) on a Solaris system. After a lot of trying to update permissions to what they should have been I just wiped it all and reinstalled.
When your package manager tells you that the command you copy-pasted from a 5-year-old forum post will erase critical system files, and requires you to confirm your actions by typing the words "Yes, do as I say" into the command prompt, it's probably best to find another solution to your problem.
when I was like 15 I wanted to install Linux for hacking, I partitioned my then Windows 8 laptop with Ubuntu, then I found a random script online to install metasploit, it didn't work but it still installed a shit ton of dependencies I wanted to remove, so I changed all instances of "install" in the script to "remove" and ran it
and it uninstalled networking, like literally only the loopback interface was left
Confusing the distro with all of Linux, so expecting different desktop environments and packing managers to be all the same no matter what I picked. Leaning into that, picking a DE that was too heavy for my system (did not try a live boot first), and that each distro has a different set of packages available even if they use the same packaging manager. It was all learning curve stuff for how distros were different from each other.
in the old days: Typing „ci /etc/passwd“ instead of „vi /etc/passwd“ and ignoring any messages. That was the day when I learned to boot a Sun Sparc 4 or 5 from tape…
Not inherently a Linux problem, but never use RAID 0. I was doing this many years ago with a bunch of Raptor drives, opened the case, unplugged one of the drives in that RAID configuration, and lost everything. I don't even know what I was thinking. Don't use RAID 0 kids.
I removed a package by force because I didn't realize that two packages needed to be upgraded in the same action. In my case it was glibc so even commands like `ls` failed.
So triple check every command where --force is enabled, mistakes have real harsh consequences there.
FQQD :3
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Back To Analog
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to Back To Analog • • •Patrick Laimbock
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Thijs
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to Thijs • • •Diana Islas Ocampo 🏳️⚧️
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Competitive Mall
in reply to It's FOSS • • •partitioning the wrong drive when attempting a dual boot, or having a friend partition over a media collection, which was not backed up.
If you're experimenting, or installing for keeps, just pull the other drive.
Superboom
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Avoca
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Louis
in reply to It's FOSS • • •FynnND
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Juanjo Salvador
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Joachim Tuchel
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Eli Roberson (he/him)
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Metal_Head
in reply to It's FOSS • • •TagHunt
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Walker
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Zeki Çatav 🤔 ☕ 🕯️🎶
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Zoltán Ács
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Konrad
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Duncan Blues
in reply to It's FOSS • • •2) even if you do know, prepare an automatic undo for the case you thought you knew but the firewall knew better.
😏
Suramya Tomar
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Opened /etc/passwd in vi and deleted every user other than my own and root. Rebooted and half the processes wouldn't start and got dropped into a recover shell.
Ended up having to reinstall the os. (Wasn't the first time or the last that I had to reinstall)
Matteo Paolucci
in reply to It's FOSS • • •I used to not split /home and / in two separate partitions and at the moment of reinstalling I had to wipe everything. Now I just mount the /home partition and wipe / when I want to reinstall or change distro.
Second advice I wish I knew sooner (not for a complete newbie) is to use BTRFS (with the @ and @home subvolumes) together with Timeshift. Snapshots has saved me many times after wrong updates or wrong config edits.
jspb
in reply to It's FOSS • • •lorddresefer
in reply to It's FOSS • • •IS
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Simou
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Sepelius
in reply to It's FOSS • • •michaelbrien
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Erik Ward
in reply to It's FOSS • • •modprobe_drift
in reply to It's FOSS • • •River City Random ☑️
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Jackie Jude
in reply to It's FOSS • • •when I was like 15 I wanted to install Linux for hacking, I partitioned my then Windows 8 laptop with Ubuntu, then I found a random script online to install metasploit, it didn't work but it still installed a shit ton of dependencies I wanted to remove, so I changed all instances of "install" in the script to "remove" and ran it
and it uninstalled networking, like literally only the loopback interface was left
WG
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Ian
in reply to It's FOSS • • •isaiasnbl
in reply to It's FOSS • • •würzekoch
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Typing „ci /etc/passwd“ instead of „vi /etc/passwd“ and ignoring any messages. That was the day when I learned to boot a Sun Sparc 4 or 5 from tape…
Karlbert
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Nishant Neeraj Agnihotri
in reply to It's FOSS • • •MrGrumpyMonkey
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to MrGrumpyMonkey • • •Agam Singh
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Doing `rm - rf /*` in a VM to see what would happen but forgot to unmount my NAS from `/mnt`...
Good thing I keep a 3-2-1 backup system!
Qwey
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Amethyst
in reply to It's FOSS • • •I removed a package by force because I didn't realize that two packages needed to be upgraded in the same action. In my case it was glibc so even commands like `ls` failed.
So triple check every command where --force is enabled, mistakes have real harsh consequences there.