this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
58 points (93.9% liked)
Linux
54955 readers
460 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Run a LiveUSB of anything else. If it works, install that instead.
Stop listening to AI.
The best advice was gratuitous.
I get ai being an existential threat to most of the denizens of lemmy (overwhelmingly techy and left leaning) but ai vastly simplified the Linux install process for me. I took a c++ class 10 years ago that I failed and that was about the extent of my programming knowledge so without AI it would've been a nightmare trying to get everything set up. Gemini remembered what distro I was installing, my drives and their /dev/ name or whatever, how I should insert those into fstab, why grub wasn't picking up my nobara install, etc. AI might be useless in other situations but computer commands and troubleshooting I think it's the one place it excels.
If ai gives you something to try it's better than nothing. But I was going to suggest another distro if someone else hadn't. Thanks ai...
Doing nothing is way better than running random commands suggested by AI, or anyone for that matter, if you don't know what it does. I've seen AI suggest to run
rm -rf ~/, which is obviously never a good idea.What would that command do? Not obvious to this newb. Format everything?
Yeah, sorry for assuming it's obvious. Maybe I've been around Linux people too much xD
AngryCommieKender is mostly right. It would delete every file and directory in your home directory, which is the Linux equivalent of the Users/ folder on Windows. It's where all of your Documents, Pictures, Downloads, config files, and the likes are stored.
I'm not sure it's a protected action, since it's not the actual root of the computer. But, I've never tried, so I don't know :P
I think there may be some safeguards in place so that it doesn't, but yeah. It reads something like (rm) remove/delete, (-rf) remove/delete the folder, (~/) do this recursively until you hit root (Unix equivalent of C:).
I may have some of that parsed incorrectly, I haven't taken the plunge into Linux quite yet. As soon as I figure out what I did wrong in my current hardware build I will install Linux. Probably Mint.
It wouldn't remove /.
(r)e(m)ove
-(r)ecusively
(f)orce
~ /home/thisuser
/ just reinforces that we are referring to the ~ directory itself
Thanks! It's been a while since I've used Linux terminal commands.
I should have phrased that better. I agree copy and pasting commands off of the internet is a terrible idea. Be they from ai or from a forum or wiki. By 'try' I meant look into. As in explore that path. To you and I 'try' means something different than a new user. I will be more careful in the future