FAQ - Read before you post a request for help

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Before you post a question or request help, please read this FAQ in case your question is already answered. If it is not, use the template for opening a request for help, so you can be helped quicker and more efficiently, which is probably one of your primary goals when addressing your issue, as well.

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Q1: How do I install Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Linux Mint, Peppermint OS, LXLE or any other Ubuntu-based distribution?

See here for a list of guides:

Q2: Linux does not boot. How do I fix it?

Before messing around, create a backup of all important data. Once you have verified the backup has completed successfully, do the GRUB2 reinstallation by following each step in a guide carefully and precisely. Don’t skip steps and don’t skip sentences.

Ubuntu:
What you can do is re-install GRUB2 manually, as stated here or here.

You also have a choice on boot repair disks, like these.

Q3: How do I configure the GRUB Menu?

Grub Customizer

By default, this software is primarily available on Ubuntu.
To install it on non-Ubuntu distributions, see the following:

Q4: How to dual boot Linux and Windows?

Dual boot installation guides:

Note:

  • Windows 10 is technically in almost all cases equivalent to Windows 8/8.1 . Therefore most guides applicable to Windows 10 are also applicable to Windows 8/8.1 and vice versa.
  • When installing any number of Linux distributions alongside Windows, you have to always first install all non-Linux products and at the very end the Linux product you want to ultimately serve the bootloader with. The reason is that the most recent installation overwrites each previous one.
Q5: How do I backup? What backup software to use?

IMPORTANT

A backup is only safe, if you made a test restoration of your backup!
If you did not restore the backup as a test, you will never be sure, if it restores in an actual emergency situation!

To create a test restoration, you usually would set up a Test OS, then restore the backup you recently created to the Test OS. If that restoration worked, then you can be sure that it will work, once you will really need it the most.

Software with guides:

Q6: Installation of Linux fails. How do I fix it?

First make sure the following things are correct.

If you are on Windows

  1. Download the ISO image of the distribution you want to install.
  2. Go to the distribution’s download location, once the download finished completely.
  3. Shift + Right click the file.
  4. “Copy as path”.
  5. Press Windows button + R.
  6. Enter “powershell” without the quotes and press Enter.
  7. Enter following command: Get-FileHash paste-here -Algorithm SHA512 | Format-List. Replace paste-here with the path you copied in step 4, by right clicking into powershell. This process can take some time, so be patient.
  8. Check if the hash output is the same as provided on the distribution’s website.
  9. If it is the same, proceed with further steps. If it is not the same, repeat step 1-9.
  10. Now download Rufus.
  11. Open the program and burn the ISO to the medium of your choice in DD mode (very important).
  12. Optionally, enable bad blocks check, if you aren’t sure that your live medium is good to go.
  13. Once the burn process completed succesfully, retry the installation, once again.

If you are on Linux

  1. Download the ISO image of the distribution you want to install copy the path to your downloaded ISO file.
  2. Open a terminal and execute sudo apt install -y rhash.
  3. Execute the following in a terminal: rhash --sha512 /path/to/file, replacing /path/to/file with the path you copied in step 1.
  4. Check if the hash output is the same as provided on the distribution’s website.
  5. Burn the ISO image, as described here.
  6. Once it is burned, check the hash of the CD itself, as described in step 3, but this time replacing /path/to/file with the path to the actual CD.
  7. If the hash is again the same, then retry the installation, once again. If not, repeat all above steps.
Q7: What is the difference between BIOS and UEFI? How do they work?
Q8: How do I increase system performance?

So I want to first make clear, that increasing system performance is like cancer. People always hope for a very simple, very inexpensive and very fast treatment, that just makes everything better. However, there is no single, simple and quick solution to such a problem. You have to make sacrifices to master either.

That means, one can only really increase system performance with these quite rudimentary methods:

  • Use better hardware.
  • Use less storage space. If you have less things available, there are less things cluttering your performance.
  • Use less apps, especially at the same time.
  • Use “lightweight” Apps. E.g. you don’t need to use Atom or even LibreOffice for most text editing, you might as well use Kate (my recommendation) or Geany, which are by a huge pile quicker to use.
  • Especially for Linux: use “lightweight” desktop environments. Use LXQT, LXDE or XFCE or anything based on that. Do NOT use Gnome, Unity, etc.
  • Especially for Linux: use “lightweight” window managers.
  • Especially for Linux: don’t use a GUI, if you don’t really have to. E.g. I see no purpose in having a GUI for hashing files. I just use rhash on the command line, which is plenty of good enough. (There are also pseudo "GUI"s for the command line, which seem to the human like it’s a graphical interface.)
  • Keep your OS clean. Do not clutter it with downloaded files or programs. If you downloaded something used it and do not need it anymore, then do not forget to delete it afterwards. This way you won’t have to reinstall the OS every year, to keep the initial performance level.
  • In the worst case, you have to re-install your OS. Are you trying to make an old and already cluttered OS quicker? Do not bother – it’s almost always a waste of time. Take a backup of all important files, only (not all files, or else you will save the clutter, too), then re-install the OS cleanly, as described in other answers above. This will save you a lot of time, in the end.

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<!-- COPY AND PASTE THIS TEMPLATE INTO YOUR POST, THEN FILL IT WITH THE REQUESTED INFORMATION! -->

## Specifications

<!-- Run the following lines AS THE ROOT USER and post the output into this section: -->
<!-- inxi -Fxmz -->
<!-- dmesg --time-format iso > dmesg_$(date +"%Y%m%d%H%M%S").log -->
<!-- dmesg --time-format iso -l err,crit,alert,emerg > dmesg-err_$(date +"%Y%m%d%H%M%S").log -->

-> Add the output of `inxi -Fxmz` command here!
-> Add the output of `for f in $(find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -name 'dmesg*.log'); do echo "${f}"; printf '%s\n\n' "$(<"${f}")"; done` command here!

<!-- If you experience connection/internet issues, also do the following: -->
First, install dependencies:

-> apt update
-> apt install -y dnsutils traceroute hping3 netcat tcpdump

<!-- If you are experiencing connection issues when connected to a VPN -->
<!-- Execute the following commands -->
<!-- 1. When you are connected to the VPN. -->
<!-- 2. When you are not connected to VPN. -->

-> ip a
-> ip route
-> traceroute 8.8.8.8
-> nslookup example.com

<!-- Post the output here for both iterations, if having problems with a VPN connection. -->


#### Additional Information (if applicable)
- Software title | (E.g. Nextcloud)
- Software version | (E.g. softwarename -V)
- Was the software title installed freshly or updated/migrated?

#### Steps to reproduce
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#### Expected behaviour
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#### Actual behaviour
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#### Extra details
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What to do when you do not have a backup to restore your faulty Linux OS

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