Hi everyone!

I'm genuinely curious about people who still use x11 instead of Wayland as their daily desktop environment. I'd like to understand what makes you stick with x11 and how you deal with some of its limitations.

I'm not trying to start another x11 vs. Wayland war. I'm simply interested in hearing about your experiences.

There are a few things I've been wondering about:

Modern Wayland desktop environments seem to offer much smoother and more integrated animations and transitions. How do you achieve a similarly polished experience on x11? Do you use a compositor like Picom, or does your desktop environment handle everything?

One thing I really appreciate about modern desktop environments is touchpad gesture support. Pinch-to-zoom, in particular, seems less straightforward and consistent on x11.

For those using x11 on laptops, how do you handle this? Is there a reliable way to get pinch-to-zoom working across applications?

What are the actual advantages that keep you on x11? Is it application compatibility, your preferred window manager, stability, performance, customizability, or something else?

I'd also like to ask something slightly related.

I've been interested in trying some BSD operating systems, particularly Freebsd. However, I have an rtx 4060, and I was under the impression that using nvidia on bsd might require sticking with x11/xorg or dealing with significant Wayland compatibility issues.

That uncertainty has honestly made me hesitant to give bsd a try.

For those running bsd with nvidia gpus, what's your experience? Is the situation better nowadays? Would you recommend trying freebsd with an rtx 4060?

I'd love to hear about your actual setups, the software you use, and the compromises you've had to make.

#!/usr/bin/nft -f
#
# WireGuard VPN kill switch (Arch Linux)
# Only loopback, the WireGuard interface and the VPN handshake/transport
# packets on the WAN are allowed. Static network config required (no DHCP).
#
#   Check:   sudo nft -c -f /etc/nftables.conf
#   Enable:  sudo nft -f /etc/nftables.conf
#   Disable: sudo nft delete table inet killswitch

define WAN_IF        = "wlp1s0"        # physical interface
define WG_IF         = "wg"            # WireGuard interface
define VPN_IP        = 109.235.50.17   # VPN server address
define VPN_PORT      = 1637            # VPN server UDP port
define WG_LOCAL_PORT = 39110           # must match ListenPort in wg.conf
define FWD_PORT      = 8538            # AirVPN forwarded port (TCP + UDP)

destroy table inet killswitch          # clear old table, no error if missing

table inet killswitch {
    chain input {
        type filter hook input priority -10; policy drop;      # drop by default
        ct state invalid drop                                  # bad packets
        iifname "lo" accept                                    # loopback
        iifname $WG_IF ct state established,related accept     # replies via VPN
        iifname $WG_IF tcp dport $FWD_PORT accept              # forwarded port, TCP
        iifname $WG_IF udp dport $FWD_PORT accept              # forwarded port, UDP
        iifname $WAN_IF ip saddr $VPN_IP udp sport $VPN_PORT udp dport $WG_LOCAL_PORT accept    # WireGuard from VPN server
    }
    chain output {
        type filter hook output priority -10; policy drop;     # drop by default
        ct state invalid drop                                  # bad packets
        oifname "lo" accept                                    # loopback
        oifname $WG_IF accept                                  # all host traffic via VPN
        oifname $WAN_IF ip daddr $VPN_IP udp dport $VPN_PORT udp sport $WG_LOCAL_PORT accept    # WireGuard to VPN server
    }
    chain forward {
        type filter hook forward priority -10; policy drop;    # host doesn't route
    }
}

Pretty much the title. I've been using Linux for about 15 years now and really miss the compiz cube. Not just for the eyecandy but because I could create different workspaces and switch between them 3 dimensionally. I really miss the workflow.

Last time I looked a few years back there was a revival fork called compiz-reloaded but it was kinda buggy.

For reference I, use KDE on Ubuntu studio as my daily driver.

I am practicing bash scripting and i have come to realize that quite a number of things are un-intuitive but what really stood out was the `set` command, like why would the designers of it choose to have `+` for disabling and `-` for enabling a feature.

I know its a small thing, but come on, like why do that? where they just trying to play mind tricks on us😂, or is it a deliberate design feature.

Am just curious, not complaining, i find it funny they chose that design choice

I recently bought a domain and for self-hosting i chose my steam deck(i don't have anything else at hand that can work 24/7 with enough memory) as a server.

The "problem" that i have right now is that i don't want for steam deck to waste resources on screen and graphical session(since i do everything on it via ssh and i feel like it gets warm a bit). What i also want is so that i could easily switch graphical option back in case i want to play at some point in future. I also don't want to change distro because of all stuff that is on drive.

Is there a way i could do that? Can you explain why i shouldn't do that?

I recently installed Fedora KDE linux on my laptop and everything works fine except restarting. every time I restart the computer just goes on black screen but stays on. Caps lock does not turn on when im on the dark screen.

I tried sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args="reboot=efi" plus ACPI and PCI. (did a turn off and on after applying each and then tried the restart. I also removed the old one after trying the new one to make sure only one is active at a time.) But none of them helped with the black screen and it still happens.

Can someone please help me find out what the problem is and how to fix it? I have been working on it for hours and asking AI but it does not seem to be very useful.

Here are the specs of the computer if it helps:

Operating System: Fedora Linux 45

KDE Plasma Version: 6.8.3

KDE Frameworks Version: 6.32.0

Qt Version: 6.11.2

Kernel Version: 7.3.3-300.fc45.x86_64 (64-bit)

Graphics Platform: Wayland

Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS w/ Radeon 780M Graphics

Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (14.8 GiB usable)

Graphics Processor 1: AMD Radeon 780M Graphics

Graphics Processor 2: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU

Manufacturer: LENOVO

Product Name: 82XT

System Version: LOQ 15APH8

I have been using powershell at work a bit and the more I use it the more I like it. Having an object based shell just makes a lot more sense than outputting plaintext. I was just wondering what the best object based shells are for Linux, is powershell the best even for Linux?

My friend's laptop needed an upgrade and because of how much I glazed linux he decided to try it, i went to his home and had my tools ready, a laptop, a usb drive, and a bunch of ISO's, i showed him different DE's and distros, we tried to install arch (i told him i would be his tech support lol) but for some odd reason the iso was broken, we tried cachy os but it didn't work either, even when using other cachyos boot options, his laptop is dell Inspiron n5110, it's too old to have secure boot, it has an Intel gpu ALONGSIDE an NVIDIA gpu, and they are ANCIENT i tried ISO's on my machine and they worked just fine, on cachyos it stuck at loaded graphical interface, also his font was strangely weird, i decided it was another nvidia problem so i went and made intel the default from bios, but it still didn't work out. I didn't want to try mint and Ubuntu because he wanted something that's new, fast and cool, while mint is just a super fast windows (from the outer shell ofc) I'm so frustrated and I'm taking it as a challenge, please help. Sorry for bad English

Hey to all dear Linux users.

This is what my GRUB‌ menu looks like:

*Arch Linux

Advanced options for Arch Linux

Arch Linux

UEFI Firmware Settings

UEFI:CD/DVD Drive (EFI BootNext)

UEFI:Removable Device (EFI BootNext)

UEFI:Network Device (EFI BootNext)

UEFI OS (EFI BootNext)

UEFI OS (EFI BootNext)

UEFI: VendorC ProductCode 3.00, Partition 1 (EFI BootNext)

And as you can see, it's just a bit too messy and there are two "Arch Linux" options, the first one of which gives a kernel panic error after choosing.

So, if you know how I‌ can get rid of those extra options and have a clean GRUB menu please comment down below.

Just after installing kali KDE plasma in dualboot with windows 11 on lenovo loq-15 the battery started charging veryyy slow (like 1% every 8 to 12 minutes) both linux and windows charges very slow now,I've tried a lot of solutions but none of them worked please can anyone help ??? It's so important.

Ciao a tutti! sono passato da poco a linux prima usavo un portatile abbastanza vecchio. Ora voglio passare a un Lenovo ThinkPad ma non so quale..
Ho bisogno che sia in modo d tale da poter personalizzare le parti interne, Grazie dell’attenzione :)

I recently switched to a combination of grim + satty for taking screenshots and annotating them.
And I noticed that it takes roughly a second to startup from about 100 tests the avg was ~1.05 seconds.
Which feels like an insanely long startup time. So I'm looking for any information on why the startup takes so long or if its normal.
And if not what can be done about it.

On NixOS with hyprland as WM.

Hi Everyone. I'm struggling to remote onto a niri + noctalia desktop running Garuda Linux. Teamviewer is installed and setup but when i try to remote onto it, it just keeps loading on the "Please wait while connecting" part but if i switch to a Plasma session then I can remote just fine onto the pc. Has anyone had this before and manage to resolve it? I even tried to get some AI assistance but no dice. TIA

i just installed fedora 3 days ago, but early on i found out that the terminal wasn't so scary after all. i liked having to use my mouse less often, so im now slowly configuring niri, noctalia, and ghostty.

im not a programmer and im not learning to become one but burning my eyes at nano feels kind of repetitive. it just feels so barebones

so thats why im looking for a tui te, as someone who's going more for the aesthetics and a little bit more quality-of-life features (whatever those may be). pls recommend something a beginner who's picky with appearances would like

Hey party people, Im wrapping up my semester at college and Im finishing my Adv. Administration in Linux and we have to take the certification test. Im fairly confident Im ready, but i just wanted to make sure. Is there a place I can review or test my knowledge before the big exam?

So I have been trying to figure out why I keep experiencing these seemingly random crashes. I tried Fedora, Manjaro (twice) and CachyOS. What happens is that while i'm doing business as usual, very suddenly Firefox and electron apps (such as discord, steam, spotify, obsidian) will crash. Some other apps on the other hand stay open, like Dolphin. Crash reports haven't been of much help or maybe I don't know how to read them properly, I think an LLM told me Firefox was trying to access an inaccessible part of memory and that caused the crash. Sometimes though, my entire computer freeezes and if i had audio playing it starts repeating itself and i have to restart by pressing the physical power button.

Memtest86 full test concluded with 0 errors. I changed GPUs from RTX 4070 Super to RX 9060 XT and that didn't work. Tried many distros, what was consistent between them was KDE Plasma. I have disabled PBO, fast boot, secure boot, and CSM from the UEFI/BIOS. These crashes do not happen on Windows (i have a dual boot system, both OSes are on different disks).

My next plan is to try something else than KDE but man, if that doesn't fix it i don't even know. I guess it could be my CPU (Ryzen 5 3600X) then? Any help would be greatly appreciated

Hello! I'm 14, i mostly use windows but now i want to use linux. The problem is that i don't know which distro to use to make it feel more like windows and it was good for gaming. I would be very grateful for any of your advices

Hey everyone, I’m trying to put a lightweight Linux distro on an old Lenovo B50-80 laptop for my family to use, since I don't want them using a stripped-down custom Windows ISO for security reasons, and standard Windows 10 is way too heavy for it.

​Specs:

​Model: Lenovo B50-80 (80EW)

​CPU: Intel Core i3-5005U (Broadwell)

​RAM: 8GB

​Boot Mode: Legacy BIOS / MBR

​Note: My physical E and 3 keys are dead on the built-in keyboard, so typing boot parameters manually in GRUB without e is a huge pain unless I use an external keyboard or on-screen keyboard.

​The Problem:

Every Linux distro I’ve booted so far (Linux Mint, EndeavourOS, and Linux Lite) refuses to recognize the built-in touchpad out of the box. The keyboard works fine initially, and an external USB mouse works fine, but the trackpad is completely dead and doesn't even show up properly in the mouse/touchpad settings.

​Both the keyboard (PNP0303) and the touchpad (Synaptics SYN2B39 / Elan ETD0630) seem to be sharing the legacy i8042 PS/2 controller.

​What I've tried so far:

​1. Ran sudo modprobe -r ideapad_laptop psmouse && sudo modprobe psmouse proto=imps in the terminal on a Live USB — the moment I ran this, it completely locked up my built-in keyboard too.

​2. Pressed the hardware touchpad toggle key (F6 / Fn+F6) in the live environment — didn't wake up the touchpad and ended up freezing the keyboard again.

​3. Added pci=nocrs and i8042.nopnp=1 to the boot parameters (by pressing Tab on the live USB menu, couldn't type i8042.reset at the boot screen because of my broken E key) — still no touchpad response.

​Has anyone with a Lenovo B50-80 (or G50-80 / B50-70 from the same generation) actually gotten both the touchpad and keyboard working reliably on Linux? Does an older LTS kernel (like 5.15) fix the i8042 controller lockup on this board, or is there a specific GRUB parameter combo / BIOS setting I'm missing?

Hello! I’m not new to Linux; I used it as my primary (and only) operating system from 2011 to about 2018 (Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Debian, etc.). Since then, I’ve used Windows exclusively—mainly because the PC was intended solely for gaming, and I didn’t want any unnecessary complications (please don’t crucify me for switching to Windows!).

I’d like to start using Linux again from time to time, and I want to run it on actual hardware rather than in a VM. Since I’ve rarely (if ever) set up a dual-boot system, I have a few questions about how to partition my drive for this.

My setup includes an i7-13700KF, an RTX 4080 Super, and 32GB of DDR5 RAM. I’m running Windows 11 in UEFI mode with "Fast Startup" disabled; Secure Boot is enabled (and must remain so, due to certain games).

Regarding storage, I have two 2TB NVMe drives. Windows and some games are installed on the C: drive, while the D: drive holds a large collection of other games. I can’t dedicate an entire drive to Linux (and I don’t need that much space for it anyway), so I could free up about 500GB on the D: drive for a Linux installation.

How should I partition that 500GB space? Do you have any recommendations for this dual-boot setup? In the past, I’ve run into issues where the system time would be incorrect when switching back to Windows after using Linux—how can I prevent that?

My goal is to minimize any impact on my current Windows installation. I even considered using a small-capacity external USB SSD, but I feel that wouldn’t quite be the same as a "real" hardware installation, given the limitations of a USB connection.

Any general tips on how to set up this dual boot? Thanks!

Ganhei uma batata em forma de notebook, IdeaPad 1 da Lenovo, que tem nada de processamento nem Ram, e eu estou pensando em colocar um Zorin OS nele para tentar rodar uns indies tipo qualquer coisa, por que isso roda nada, compensa eu migrar?

So after a day trying to install and error and trial now im having a issue with a password that I never install was hoping someone could help me out so I can install updates that is required