Linux Distro Suggestions

ThatITGuy

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I have a second desktop I am wanting to turn into a personal server. It is an i7 930, with 8GB RAM and a GTX 460. The primary usage would be running PLEX server so I can stream my movie and music, which I already have saved to a storage drive currently formatted as ExFAT. I currently have all of this set up and running in Windows 10, but want to try out Linux.

Must haves:

1) Ability to relatively easily get PLEX up and running, using the second (and potentially third) hard drive as the source for the content. Content is a mix of MP4 and MKV for the movies, with MP3 and FLAC for the music files.

2) Ability to share the drives/folders with Windows PCs and control which machines on the network can view the file and which cannot. Something easier than having to set up user accounts for the different machines to use would be preferable, but after Homegroups were removed from Windows I had to do that anyhow, so I am ok if there is no other option. Homegroups was nice because I could authorize at the machine level, removing need for separate local accounts and logging in (I suck at password management because i frequently forget what I used). I currently have Foobar2k on all of the machines, using a playlist that points at the files on the one machine. Not as concerned about DLNA for these, just seamlessly accessible via the network from the windows based media players.

3) (Free)Driver support for the onboard LAN, Nvidia card, sata ssd main drive. When looking at Debain, i saw multiple mentions of non-free drivers.

4) At least relatively stable and secure. Built in (idiot proof) security to keep me safe while I learn things. Think Windows 10 out of box. As for stability, I currently have Windows automated to reboot daily @ 2AM, because i found leaving it running for days at a time I would end up with file shares losing connectivity/visibility. Even with that, it is still pretty much set and forget. It logs itself in and gets PLEX back up and running without any intervention required. In other words, i do not mind it not being 100% stable, as long as i can get things set up so that it is still "set and forget".

5) Ability to easily remote in from other PCs (and if possible, on-network mobile devices). Will eventually stick this in a closet and run it headless.

Nice to haves:

1) Gaming - Ability to get Steam up and running for the occasional game. In addition to this, it would be really nice if it supported the "Steam Link", so i could connect my tablet via Steam Link app, and play on it from my bed. WINE and any other recommended tools to play Windows based (non-Steam) games would be great as well.

2) Additional Security options - I saw some Distros mention they route traffic through Tor. I saw others mention "additional security layers". While i expect the OS to be secure, anything additional that doesn't impact system, network, or internet performance would be nice.

3) I would like to try out something based on Debian, to play with some of the security and network testing focused tools. I have used Mint and other Ubuntu forks in the past, looking to try something a little different. I am open to other variants of Linux, but have heard a lot about Debian here at work.

Also, Does anyone have a good USB boot disc creator they would recommend? I remember I had something a while back, where i could just download the distro, open it in the tool, and it would then create the bootable install to the USB Thumb drive (which also gave the option to install everything to the internal drive if I wanted). I have since lost it and cannot remember what it was I used. I will likely create a few USB drives for any of the suggestions, so I can test them out.
 
I have a second desktop I am wanting to turn into a personal server. It is an i7 930, with 8GB RAM and a GTX 460. The primary usage would be running PLEX server so I can stream my movie and music, which I already have saved to a storage drive currently formatted as ExFAT. I currently have all of this set up and running in Windows 10, but want to try out Linux.

Must haves:

1) Ability to relatively easily get PLEX up and running, using the second (and potentially third) hard drive as the source for the content. Content is a mix of MP4 and MKV for the movies, with MP3 and FLAC for the music files.

2) Ability to share the drives/folders with Windows PCs and control which machines on the network can view the file and which cannot. Something easier than having to set up user accounts for the different machines to use would be preferable, but after Homegroups were removed from Windows I had to do that anyhow, so I am ok if there is no other option. Homegroups was nice because I could authorize at the machine level, removing need for separate local accounts and logging in (I suck at password management because i frequently forget what I used). I currently have Foobar2k on all of the machines, using a playlist that points at the files on the one machine. Not as concerned about DLNA for these, just seamlessly accessible via the network from the windows based media players.

3) (Free)Driver support for the onboard LAN, Nvidia card, sata ssd main drive. When looking at Debain, i saw multiple mentions of non-free drivers.

4) At least relatively stable and secure. Built in (idiot proof) security to keep me safe while I learn things. Think Windows 10 out of box. As for stability, I currently have Windows automated to reboot daily @ 2AM, because i found leaving it running for days at a time I would end up with file shares losing connectivity/visibility. Even with that, it is still pretty much set and forget. It logs itself in and gets PLEX back up and running without any intervention required. In other words, i do not mind it not being 100% stable, as long as i can get things set up so that it is still "set and forget".

5) Ability to easily remote in from other PCs (and if possible, on-network mobile devices). Will eventually stick this in a closet and run it headless.

Nice to haves:

1) Gaming - Ability to get Steam up and running for the occasional game. In addition to this, it would be really nice if it supported the "Steam Link", so i could connect my tablet via Steam Link app, and play on it from my bed. WINE and any other recommended tools to play Windows based (non-Steam) games would be great as well.

2) Additional Security options - I saw some Distros mention they route traffic through Tor. I saw others mention "additional security layers". While i expect the OS to be secure, anything additional that doesn't impact system, network, or internet performance would be nice.

3) I would like to try out something based on Debian, to play with some of the security and network testing focused tools. I have used Mint and other Ubuntu forks in the past, looking to try something a little different. I am open to other variants of Linux, but have heard a lot about Debian here at work.

Also, Does anyone have a good USB boot disc creator they would recommend? I remember I had something a while back, where i could just download the distro, open it in the tool, and it would then create the bootable install to the USB Thumb drive (which also gave the option to install everything to the internal drive if I wanted). I have since lost it and cannot remember what it was I used. I will likely create a few USB drives for any of the suggestions, so I can test them out.

I'd probably suggest Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, or Ubuntu Mate 18.04, if you'd like that desktop environment better. I guess here's my reasoning/responses when going through your list:
1) I saw a blurb about Plex being available as a snap. Should be stupid easy to get it installed. https://snapcraft.io/blog/plex-arrives-in-canonicals-snap-store Disclaimer - I have never used Plex.

2) If not using users for permission handling, I think you can use "hosts allow/hosts deny" lines per share in the samba config. This could allow you to create separate shares (even pointed at the same content) and whitelist machines access by IP. If an all or nothing approach is ok, then you could do this at the firewall level.

3) I think there may be a little confusion in this one (my side, or yours). Most references to "non-free drivers" are regarding the license and availability of source code. Free as in Freedom, not as in cost. Ex. Nvidia makes up-to-date linux drivers available, for no cost, but they are not considered free (as in freedom) because you're just loading a black boxed binary blob that we have little idea on how it works. In contrast, the mainstream AMD drivers are built out in the open and you're free to see how the sausage is made.
In short, the freedom of code just depends on what devices you own or purchase. Unless it's really exotic, most things should work fine even if they're not distributing Freedom. Historically weak devices are wifi adapters and legacy nvidia cards.

4) 18.04 LTS will get you to 2023 for support. Features and experience shouldn't really change on you as far as the OS goes. The Plex snap should update as it goes.

5) NoMachine and VNC have worked ok for me in the past. If you develop your terminal game, then you can get a lot done with SSH... I'm just not sure about managing Plex.

NTH:
1) Installing Steam from 18.04 is easymode. In home streaming works from a linux host. With SteamPlay enabled, you might get further than you'd expect with the windows only part of your library. Of course temper your expectations going into it.

2) No opinion. I know you can get tor going, but it's not part of the Out Of The Box experience.

USB: building the install media on windows I'd probably use Etcher. It's nice looking and easy to use.
 
Straight Ubuntu. My Plex runs on Ubuntu 16.04 (too lazy to upgrade to 18.04 just yet). It's even more improved now since Plex is now a Snap meaning just install it and forget it. No more dependency crap or updating. It's all taken care of by the Snap. Basically it's install it, configure it, and forget it.
 
I agree with using Ubuntu. I personally run a Plex DVR server on Ubuntu 18.04 server, and it's great. Personally, I'd recommend you use Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop as a start since that will give you a GUI to use. Once you've developed as a linux admin, you can try the server builds out, but you have to be comfortable with completely managing the system via command line for the server builds.

In detail, here are my recommendations (steps):
1. Install Ubuntu 18.04
2. Install proprietary NVIDIA drivers. https://www.linuxbabe.com/ubuntu/install-nvidia-driver-ubuntu-18-04
2. Install Plex either using the snap or via the deb downloadable on Plex's website. One thing to note about the deb, is that it doesn't add an entry into your /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ folder which means that updates wont be automatic. You can create a manual entry, but that may be more than you want to do. If that is the case, I'd recommend using the snap, although I have no experience with the PMS snap. I'd assume it works just fine, but snaps are essentially sandboxed containers, and that can sometimes cause issues with directory traversal and permissions. For the snap run sudo snap install plexmediaserver --beta. Another thing to note about the snap, is that it is currently beta, so if you are using Plex for TV recordings, then I'd recommend going with the deb method. To add plex to your sources.list.d you can go to this page and it gives instructions for adding it. Two simple commands in the terminal.
3. Next you'd setup your shares using samba. This seems like a pretty good tutorial.
4. For remote admin I'd recommend sticking with SSH and just working with the terminal. Most of what you'll need to do regularly (updates, restart services, etc) is very easy to do from the terminal, and that means you won't need to configure a VNC server or anything else. To go the SSH route, just run sudo apt install openssh-server. That's it. You now have remote administration. Just open Putty on your Windows machine, connect to the server IP on port 22 and use your server username and password. Boom pow done. Now, if you want to go the VNC route, then I recommend googling for a TightVNC server tutorial. Been a while since I've fiddled with VNC, so I'm not going to recommend a tutorial as I don't know a good one.
5. Finally, install Steam by running sudo apt install steam or by installing from the Ubuntu Software store. That's it. Steam on Linux works almost identically to Steam on Windows. In home streaming is supported out of the box as well, so the Steam Link should work just fine.

As far as security goes, Ubuntu is quite secure out of the box, but if you want to go the extra mile you could install ufw-gtk and use it to configure your firewall, however I would argue this isn't really necessary. Doesn't hurt, but not necessary.

Hope this helps.
 
1) Gaming - Ability to get Steam up and running for the occasional game. In addition to this, it would be really nice if it supported the "Steam Link", so i could connect my tablet via Steam Link app, and play on it from my bed. WINE and any other recommended tools to play Windows based (non-Steam) games would be great as well.

You can game on Linux, but if it's not on Steam, it's hit or miss. You may have problems and they may be irreconcilable. It may work great.

I generally recommend using the best tool for the job; in the case of gaming, Windows is it.

With respect to Plex: Plex is perfectly happy running on any number of platforms, Windows being one. Windows can also do your file sharing/serving, and it can run remotely extremely well with Remote Desktop Services.

I mention this because you have three competing goals: running a server, playing games, and playing with Linux.

Typically if something is a server, that's what it should do- same for gaming, as that adds to potential instability (from crashes to needed reboots), and playing with Linux.. you want to do on a VM if you don't have a system that can be dedicated to that purpose.
 
You can game on Linux, but if it's not on Steam, it's hit or miss. You may have problems and they may be irreconcilable. It may work great.

I generally recommend using the best tool for the job; in the case of gaming, Windows is it.

With respect to Plex: Plex is perfectly happy running on any number of platforms, Windows being one. Windows can also do your file sharing/serving, and it can run remotely extremely well with Remote Desktop Services.

I mention this because you have three competing goals: running a server, playing games, and playing with Linux.

Typically if something is a server, that's what it should do- same for gaming, as that adds to potential instability (from crashes to needed reboots), and playing with Linux.. you want to do on a VM if you don't have a system that can be dedicated to that purpose.
I can't argue with any of the points made here. Well said!
 
Thanks for the help. I have another box that is dedicated for gaming, so the gaming aspect is low priority. I just included the nice to have items in case there were multiple options, but some had that and others did not
 
I love gaming under Linux, no issues here. More than enough titles under Steam to keep a long term gamer such as myself very happy. ;)
 
Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora. In that order. If you plan to game, you may want to consider the desktop version. Even still, it'll be easy to get a GUI installed on Ubuntu server, although the other two are pretty easy nowadays too. I don't think you'll be disappointed any which way you go. Let us know how it turns out for you
 
Most people are going to suggest you start with Ubuntu and that isn't a bad option.

I always suggest Manjaro to new users... its arch based and no its not a popular server option as its rolling. Manjaro I find is a good distro for most people to get familier with Linux with. Its easy to install... and will allow you to "install with non-free" drivers from first go. (as others have already went over this simply means closed source drivers) This means you will be up and running with the Nvidia drivers from your first boot.

Plex should be easy enough to install under Manjaro... although I believe you will have to turn on AUR support. (Arch user repository) The AUR are packages maintained by end users.... the main advantage of the AUR is for newer users it means almost every Linux software anywhere can be installed even if its not part of a distros main packages (which the closed source plex in general is not)
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Plex

A few things to consider... being rolling you will see more updates. IMO this is better for most users, as you will almost always have the latest versions of everything without having to install in some cases shady non standard repositories (such as PPAs in Ubuntu distros) to by pass distros standard test and release cycles. The only down side is potential data usage if you have restraints on your downloads or have a super slot connection or something. (remember Linux isn't windows my Manjaro install can update 1gb of updates in about 2-3 min)

If you do choose.. Manjaro (and perhaps find the same command for any distro you install) first thing you want to do is change your mirror list. (where your distro will download updates from) Open your terminal program and run the following;
sudo pacman-mirrors --country United_States Canada
(sudo gives your user account admin level privileges ... pacman is the manjaro package manager) Running this command will change your mirror list to servers in those 2 countries. (think there are only 3-4) it will check which one is fastest for you and use that one first.

On your question about USB writing;
https://www.balena.io/etcher/
I suggest etcher... its simple its cross platform. So you can use it under windows, mac, and Linux. I haven't had any issues writing any of the major distros with it.
 
While I would agree with giving Manjaro a go for desktop use, I can't say I'd ever recommend a rolling distro for server duty. Servers demand stability and reliability, not the latest and greatest. Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, etc are all great options for server duty, but not Manjaro. There's a reason enterprise servers aren't running Arch based linux distributions.
 
While I would agree with giving Manjaro a go for desktop use, I can't say I'd ever recommend a rolling distro for server duty. Servers demand stability and reliability, not the latest and greatest. Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, etc are all great options for server duty, but not Manjaro. There's a reason enterprise servers aren't running Arch based linux distributions.

Doesn't sound like this server is going to be running a bank or anything. ThatITGuy mentions potentially gaming... and running things with wine ect.

In that case I would say running Manjaro is just fine. For gaming your going to want the latest kernel, your going to want the latest Nvidia drivers... and having the most up to date versions of tools like wine and its libs ect. Is imo worth considering. Manjaro makes for a very good home server. Its arch with an extra layer of distro testing. Honestly its been one of the most reliable distros I have used the last few years. Of course if it was a company server running accounting and inventory stuffs then ya Centos or RHEL are much better options. With stuff like that though a brand new Linux person looking to setup a home server is going to be doing a lot of configuration, and hoop jumping for the gaming stuff then is required for a simple home media server.

My vote would still be Manjaro, it will allow him to run the latest kernels drivers and the AUR Plex entries are very good and easy to setup as I understand it. (I'm not a plex user... I run UMS myself I rarely touch non Open Source software unless there really isn't a decent open alternative. Just my opinion but UMS is a superior media server) ThatITGuy did mention potentially wanting to stick with something Debian based and frankly at that point I would say just install Mint. Which has much the same target audience as Manjaro.
 
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Plex is easy to install in Ubuntu. I don't think one could go to wrong with Manjaro either
 
You can also run the latest kernel under Ubuntu, even Ubuntu LTS.

Of course you can run pretty much any Kernel on any distro.

The point is for a new user (and lazy old ones)... Manjaro makes it very easy to run multiple kernels. I always leave a LTS backup kernel installed, not that I use it often but I can always reboot with the current LTS kernel at anytime. I normally hop to the next line when it gets to revision 2 or 3... and keep the last one on my system for a few updates just incase I need/want to fall back. If you want to install a RC kernel or something you can do so from their GUI tool which is pretty cool. Right now I have 4.14 LTS installed as my fallback... The latest 4.18 I haven't removed yet, and I'm running 4.19.

https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?title=Manjaro_Settings_Manager

You can run multiple kernels with other distros of course... Manjaro just makes it a little easier for new folks. imo
 
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Of course you can run pretty much any Kernel on any distro.

The point is for a new user (and lazy old ones)... Manjaro makes it very easy to run multiple kernels. I always leave a LTS backup kernel installed, not that I use it often but I can always reboot with the current LTS kernel at anytime. I normally hop to the next line when it gets to revision 2 or 3... and keep the last one on my system for a few updates just incase I need/want to fall back. If you want to install a RC kernel or something you can do so from their GUI tool which is pretty cool. Right now I have 4.14 LTS installed as my fallback... The latest 4.18 I haven't removed yet, and I'm running 4.19.

https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?title=Manjaro_Settings_Manager

You can run multiple kernels with other distros of course... Manjaro just makes it a little easier for new folks. imo
Yet I still fail to see the benefit in this case. See, you mention that this isn't a traditional server, and I would agree, however rock solid stability could still be desired. For example, in my use case, Plex is not just a media indexer, but also our over the air DVR software. Let me tell you, when a recording gets missed my wife lets me know about it. Hence the reason I use Ubuntu server. The latest and greatest isn't as important as the server being solid and reliable. So yes, even a home user could desire the stability of an actual server OS that isn't rolling. Arch is great for many things, but reliability is not one of them. Sure it's more reliable than it used to be, and Manjaro takes things a step further by holding packages back, but it still isn't as good as Cent, Ubuntu, Debian, etc.
And to the go Mint recommendation, I only have to ask why? Why would someone go downstream two forks when base Debian would do just fine? Why go Mint when you can go Ubuntu and get the same experience? Your recommendations are honestly making less and less sense.
 
I really can't stand the way everyone recommends Mint to newcomers. I think it's one of the worst distro's available.

Of course you can run pretty much any Kernel on any distro.

The point is for a new user (and lazy old ones)... Manjaro makes it very easy to run multiple kernels. I always leave a LTS backup kernel installed, not that I use it often but I can always reboot with the current LTS kernel at anytime. I normally hop to the next line when it gets to revision 2 or 3... and keep the last one on my system for a few updates just incase I need/want to fall back. If you want to install a RC kernel or something you can do so from their GUI tool which is pretty cool. Right now I have 4.14 LTS installed as my fallback... The latest 4.18 I haven't removed yet, and I'm running 4.19.

https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?title=Manjaro_Settings_Manager

You can run multiple kernels with other distros of course... Manjaro just makes it a little easier for new folks. imo

You can pretty much do the same under Ubuntu. I have numerous kernels I can roll back to in the instance my current one fails for whatever reason, although they aren't kept updated as such.

I have to say though, it's incredibly rare I have to do such a thing.
 
I really can't stand the way everyone recommends Mint to newcomers. I think it's one of the worst distro's available.
Why? Honest question as I repeatedly see either Mint or Manjaro recommended.
 
That's funny, I used Mint in the past on an old laptop that was running Win 8. It was slow and had issues. Put Mint with cinnamon on it and handed it over to a ten year old for use. Of course all it really saw was Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, Facebook duty and other general internet functions, but the ten year old took to it easily enough.
I kinda liked it. Almost ran Mint on my current Linux box but thought Ubuntu had better Steam support.
 
Why? Honest question as I repeatedly see either Mint or Manjaro recommended.

It's buggy as all hell. There's an issue with the WM, the WM you're stuck with and can't change, that causes juddering when moving windows under certain situations - It's been a problem for years. I also don't understand the fascination with Cinnamon, IMO it's a horrible looking DE.

It's the only distro that didn't even provide the option to force composition pipeline running Nvidia hardware/drivers, it simply wasn't there?!

The biggest issue I find with Manjaro is it's Arch base, the users aren't the friendliest bunch and it's still not as stable as an Ubuntu based distro in my experience.
 
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It's buggy as all hell. There's an issue with the WM, the WM you're stuck with and can't change, that causes juddering when moving windows under certain situations - It's been a problem for years. I also don't understand the fascination with Cinnamon, IMO it's a horrible looking DE.

It's the only distro that didn't even provide the option to force composition pipeline running Nvidia hardware/drivers, it simply wasn't there?!

The biggest issue I find with Manjaro is it's Arch base, the users aren't the friendliest bunch and it's still not as stable as an Ubuntu based distro in my experience.
You've got some good points here, but also some unfair criticism. I agree that Cinnamon has issues, especially with the WM. The problems with Muffin are what caused me to stop using Cinnamon, however the comment that you are stuck with Muffin are a bit unfair considering GNOME, Budgie, and other DE's that rely on the GNOME stack all share this restriction. Also, the juddery windows is one of the main reasons I switched from GNOME 3 based DE's to KDE/Plasma. In GNOME desktops with Steam open, which it always is on my machine, windows just don't operate smoothly. It's an extremely frustrating issue that no one in the GTK3 community seems inclined to address. Personally, I really like the look of Cinnamon, but that's a totally subjective opinion, so to each their own. Personally, I recently switched to Plasma, and I'm absolutely loving it so far.

Regarding force composition pipeline, that must've either been some unique scenario with the machine you were running it on, or you missed the option, because it's definitely present in the NVIDIA settings application on Mint, and has been for at least two years. The reason I say two years, is because that's when I first started switching to Linux, and I started on Mint, and I definitely used that option. I also fail to see how a desktop environment could remove that option from nvidia-settings. The DE should have zero impact on the settings available in nvidia-settings because, as far as I'm aware, nvidia-settings affects the display server directly bypassing anything the compositor is doing. I could be wrong here, but I don't think so.
 
I had always heard good things about Arch. Never tried it myself, or any of it's variants. Did hear it had a learning curve but was very "customizable". Maybe when I cobble some extra parts together I'll give it a whirl.
 
I have installed Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, and will be doing the snap install of PLEX today (it kept erroring on me last night when I was playing with it). Spent part of the weekend troubleshooting why my USB Live Install disk was going black screen when i would try to do an install as well as when i selected to just try Ubuntu without installing. It ended up being a combination of having the USB stick in NTFS (FAT32 fixed this) and running with nomodeset.

I may set up Steam later in the week, but my only real curiosity with that was getting games installed/running on the server and streaming (through SteamLink App or the other remote desktop apps) to my tablet. I can just do that with my other PC if I cannot get it figured out. A lot of those games are older, more slow paced games (Warcraft III, KOTOR 2, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, Star Wars Battlefront 2 - the nonlootbox one, etc.) and i had not wanted to install them on my newer gaming PC.

I am curious about trying out some of the other suggestions or distros mentioned (Manjaro, CentOS, KDE/Plasma). Is there any drawback to setting up a VM within the Ubuntu install and installing these within the VM to play with? Am I better off just doing the Live USB instead? Any suggestion on a VM software (with preference on lowest performance impact when it comes to trade-offs)?

Thanks for everyone's help and inputs.
 
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You've got some good points here, but also some unfair criticism. I agree that Cinnamon has issues, especially with the WM. The problems with Muffin are what caused me to stop using Cinnamon, however the comment that you are stuck with Muffin are a bit unfair considering GNOME, Budgie, and other DE's that rely on the GNOME stack all share this restriction. Also, the juddery windows is one of the main reasons I switched from GNOME 3 based DE's to KDE/Plasma. In GNOME desktops with Steam open, which it always is on my machine, windows just don't operate smoothly. It's an extremely frustrating issue that no one in the GTK3 community seems inclined to address. Personally, I really like the look of Cinnamon, but that's a totally subjective opinion, so to each their own. Personally, I recently switched to Plasma, and I'm absolutely loving it so far.

Regarding force composition pipeline, that must've either been some unique scenario with the machine you were running it on, or you missed the option, because it's definitely present in the NVIDIA settings application on Mint, and has been for at least two years. The reason I say two years, is because that's when I first started switching to Linux, and I started on Mint, and I definitely used that option. I also fail to see how a desktop environment could remove that option from nvidia-settings. The DE should have zero impact on the settings available in nvidia-settings because, as far as I'm aware, nvidia-settings affects the display server directly bypassing anything the compositor is doing. I could be wrong here, but I don't think so.

I criticize any distro that forces you to use a specific WM. It's not how Linux was supposed to be and it always results in issues that could be easily resolved if the user could just swap WM's. I'm also not a fan of Gnome, I think it's an even worse DE than Cinnamon. Too locked down without a magnitude of extensions and too limiting with many performance issues.

I also didn't miss force composition pipeline under Mint Cinnamon as it was a specific feature I was testing on a bear metal fresh install. Under Mint Cinnamon the option simply wasn't there, but it was available under every other distro.
 
I am curious about trying out some of the other suggestions or distros mentioned (Manjaro, CentOS, KDE/Plasma). Is there any drawback to setting up a VM within the Ubuntu install and installing these within the VM to play with? Am I better off just doing the Live USB instead? Any suggestion on a VM software (with preference on lowest performance impact when it comes to trade-offs)?

I configure other distro's for testing under VM's all the time, no problems. 100% recommended.
 
I would take Ubuntu Mate over Mint or Manjaro any day. I've had extreemly poor experience with Manjaro and I actually nicknamed it as Shitjaro after it failed to install in 3 different hardwares I had. Also I've had about 10 times as much problems with Mint compared to Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubumtu Mate or plain Ubuntu. I would recommend Debian for stability but then again it's just too spartan for most desktop users.
 
You guys got me itching to try something else on my laptop. Previously ran Manjaro without major issue. With Plasma coming out since then, I may give it a shot. It's hard to break away from something that's been treating me so well though. Such is the struggle!
 
You guys got me itching to try something else on my laptop. Previously ran Manjaro without major issue. With Plasma coming out since then, I may give it a shot. It's hard to break away from something that's been treating me so well though. Such is the struggle!
Out of curiosity, what distro are you currently running?
Any suggestions on software to use, and any guides on setting it up?
For quick and dirty VM setup, I'd recommend either Virtualbox or GNOME-Boxes (assuming you are on a GNOME based distro). If you want to get into the nitty gritty, then I'd recommend utilizing the KVM subsystem built into Linux. The easiest method for KVM is to use virt-manager. For the record, GNOME-boxes also utilizes KVM, however I've found that while it is super easy to use, it's also very restrictive as far as configuration goes.
 
Linux Mint with XFCE


That seems like an odd choice. XFCE is fine for a minimalist DE, but AFAIK, there's nothing special about it on Mint. Just as well to go with Debian or Ubuntu if using XFCE, as Mint effectively just pulls from those anyways. In fact, the main Mint release (not Debian Edition) is pinned to the Ubuntu LTS, so its repos may not have the latest versions of common apps.

Main reason to go with Mint is if you want the latest Cinnamon DE.
 
That seems like an odd choice. XFCE is fine for a minimalist DE, but AFAIK, there's nothing special about it on Mint. Just as well to go with Debian or Ubuntu if using XFCE, as Mint effectively just pulls from those anyways. In fact, the main Mint release (not Debian Edition) is pinned to the Ubuntu LTS, so its repos may not have the latest versions of common apps.

Main reason to go with Mint is if you want the latest Cinnamon DE.
Not true. Sure, XFCE is nothing special on Mint, but a lot of the tools that Mint has such as Timeshift, their excellent Update Manager, and others are non-DE specific advantages Mint provides. Personally I wont use Mint because I don't want to be stuck on an LTS base for two years, but the distro has a lot going for it beyond Cinnamon.
 
Current headache: I have the movies and music on a separste hard disk from the OS (sdc1 in this case). Got Plex installed and went to add the movies folder and Plex cannot see any of the additional drives.
I created a new folder in /mnt/ folder (plexmedia) and made it so it pointed to the hard disk.
If I navigate through Files I can open that plexmedia mount point just fine, with it directing me to the hard disk as expected.

I tried changing permissions on the mount point, and tried to track down a plexmedia config file to see what user was being used (and to possibly change it to my user name, which one suggestion had given as a solution) but neither the file, nor the plex user account seem to exist.
Plea starts up and seems to work fine, other than this not being able to see my media folders.
The drive I am trying to point to is in ext4. I have 2 other drives, one in ntfs and one in ext4 and plex cannot see those either.

Any ideas?
 
Current headache: I have the movies and music on a separste hard disk from the OS (sdc1 in this case). Got Plex installed and went to add the movies folder and Plex cannot see any of the additional drives.
I created a new folder in /mnt/ folder (plexmedia) and made it so it pointed to the hard disk.
If I navigate through Files I can open that plexmedia mount point just fine, with it directing me to the hard disk as expected.

I tried changing permissions on the mount point, and tried to track down a plexmedia config file to see what user was being used (and to possibly change it to my user name, which one suggestion had given as a solution) but neither the file, nor the plex user account seem to exist.
Plea starts up and seems to work fine, other than this not being able to see my media folders.
The drive I am trying to point to is in ext4. I have 2 other drives, one in ntfs and one in ext4 and plex cannot see those either.

Any ideas?

I'm trying to install the plex snap so I can try to reproduce it, but seems I caught the slow server and am only pulling it in at 200kb/s. o_O

but off the cuff, I think snap confinement is keeping it from browsing where it's not allowed. To enable it, I think you're going to have mount your storage under /media and add the "removable-media" interface to the snap.

Things to read:
an exchange about snaps accessing mounted network storage - https://askubuntu.com/questions/896...cation-to-access-a-network-mounted-disk-drive

popey talking about snap interfaces - https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/interface-management/6154
 
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200288596-linux-permissions-guide/

I don't run Plex and I'm not sure if this will be super helpful or not. The Plex site does seem to do a decent job explaining Linux permissions.

It is fairly easy to check permissions first. ls -al should tell you all you need to know. If there is no seeming permission issues... then at least you can say you ruled that out. :)
 
ThatITGuy - I guess I'm not able to reproduce it. I installed the snap, mounted a fat formatted usb drive under /mnt/tempjunk/ without bothering to mess with ownership or permissions (so just the default read), and was able to add it as a media folder and run a slideshow. :-/
One thing I did notice was that I'd have to scroll back up on the folder navigation, so initially it looked like some folders were empty. I'm not sure what to recommend from here though.
 
ThatITGuy - I guess I'm not able to reproduce it. I installed the snap, mounted a fat formatted usb drive under /mnt/tempjunk/ without bothering to mess with ownership or permissions (so just the default read), and was able to add it as a media folder and run a slideshow. :-/
One thing I did notice was that I'd have to scroll back up on the folder navigation, so initially it looked like some folders were empty. I'm not sure what to recommend from here though.

It sounds like the drives aren't mounted correctly?

ThatITGuy, are you using automount or are you trying to mount permanently using fstab (You can use the 'Disks' GUI as opposed to editing fstab BTW)? If you are trying to use automount and you reboot the machine, they won't be seen by Plex until you double click on them and effectively 'automount' the drives, once automounted they will appear on the desktop and should be visible to Plex.
 
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