I tried, I really did

I’ve been an IT professional for 20 years now, but I’ve mainly dealt with Windows. I’ve worked with Linux servers through out the years, but never had Linux as a daily driver. And I decided it was time to change. I only had 2 requirements. One, I need to be able to use my Nvidia 3080 ti for local LLM and I need to be able to RDP with multiple screens to my work laptop running Windows 10.

My hope was to be able to get this all working and create some articles on how I did it to hopefully inspire/guide others. Unfortunately, I was not successful.

I started out with Ubuntu 22.04 and I could not get the live CD to boot. After some searching, I figured out I had to go in a turn off ACPI in boot loader. After that I was able to install Ubuntu side by side with Windows 11, but the boot loader errored out at the end of the install and Ubuntu would not boot.

Okay, back into Windows to download the boot loader fixer and boot to that. Alright, I’m finally able to get into Ubuntu, but I only have 1 of my 4 monitors working. Install the NVIDIA-SMI and reboot. All my monitors work now, but my network card is now broken.

Follow instructions on my phone to reinstall the linux-modules-extra package. Back into Windows to download that because, you know, no network connections. Reinstall the package, it doesn’t work. Go into advanced recovery, try restoring packages, nothing is working. I can either get my monitors to work or my network card. Never both at the same time.

I give up and decide it’s time to try out Fedora. The install process is much smoother. I boot up 3 of 4 monitors work. I find a great post on installing Nvidia drivers and CUDA. After doing that and rebooting, I have all 4 monitors and networking, woohoo!

Now, let’s test RDP. Install FreeRDP run with /multimon, and the screen for each remote window is shifted 1/3 of the way to the left. Strange. Do a little looking online, find an Issue on GitHub about how it is based on the primary monitor. Long story short, I can’t use multiple monitor RDP because I have different resolution monitors and they are stacked 2x2 instead of all in a row. Trust me I tried every combination I could think of.

Someone suggested using the nightly build because they have been working on this issue. Okay, I try that out and it fails to install because of a missing dependency. Apparently, there is a pull request from December to fix this on Fedora installs, but it hasn’t been merged. So, I would need to compile that specific branch myself.

At this point, I’m just so sick of every little thing being a huge struggle, I reboot and go back into Windows. I still have Fedora on there, but who would have thought something that sounds as simple as wanting to RDP across 4 monitors would be so damn difficult.

I’m not saying any of this to bag on Linux. It’s more of a discussion topic on, yes, I agree that there needs to be more adoption on Linux, but if someone with 20 years of IT experience gets this feed up with it, imagine how your average user would feel.

Of course if anyone has any recommendation on getting my RDP working, I’m all ears on that too.

Sina,

I get it, but could your use case e any more niche?

gnuplusmatt,

There is a “tested” dev snapshot of freerdp on the flathub beta repository, its pretty good even supports kerberos/protected accounts. I’ve also used the thincast gui app from the freerdp developers (also on flathub), which is also built on the dev branch and the gui exposes multimonitor options (but its not something I usually use).

Grofit,

Every 5 years or so Windows annoys me so much with its nonsense that I salt the earth and install a Linux distro.

The last time I did this was Ubuntu (tried manjaro or whatever its called before too) and every time I find a problem that requires hours of trawling the Internet just to find I need to basically rebuild/test/maintain my own version of the library/component.

It gets to the point where I can’t really be productive and I begrudgingly go back to windows as it’s less faff and more productive for me. Then the timer starts again for I get too annoyed with windows.

I want to love Linux, but its not as simple as “just using it.” (unless you are using a steam deck, that is brilliant for its use case).

Part of the problem for me I feel is that the Linux eco system is so wide and vast that we don’t have a singular collective agreement on where to share effort to get something as stable and easy to use as Windows etc. From this thread alone people seem to hate Ubuntu, and sur maybe it’s bad, but most non Linux people only know of that Linux distro.

The sheer vastness of the eco system is it’s downfall, if there was 1 main shell everyone got behind and was used by companies and end users then we would have a huge knowledge base of problems and fixes as well as a concerted effort in a shared direction. As it stands at the moment most companies using Linux don’t have a shell layer, then end users are probably all using various different shells and related components etc, so effort and support is not consolidated as everyone is pulling in their own directions.

I get this is one of the things that draws in the current Linux userbase, but for those of us who just want to do same stuff we do on windows/mac we don’t really care about being able to mix and match stuff, we just want to get behind something that gets out of our way and let’s us use the computer, not faff in the infrastructure of the OS.

ReakDuck,

Why Ubuntu?

Its literally the worst Linux

potentiallynotfelix,

I hate ubuntu with a passion. It’s the most bloated linux distro, snaps are a terrible idea, it looks terrible, and linux mint is just the better option.

ReakDuck,

Same, I just dont get why I got so many downvotes.

SuperSpruce,

You definitely are not a typical user, and you have specific requirements that heavily bias towards Windows.

Just do what works best for you. Yes, you’ll have to put up with Windows BS, but your problems with daily driving Linux are worse.

TheMonkeyLord,
@TheMonkeyLord@sopuli.xyz avatar

This is great advice!

More people should turn to linux, absolutely, but it shouldn’t be just because it is linux. I think people should look at what they want from their device in particular, look at what is offerred by multiple systems and os’, and decide from there that they want to use linux because it does x, y, z best.

That is what made me decide to use linux as more than just a project or afternoon curiosity!

Grofit,

I think a lot of us are just sick of Windows being eroded into garbage spyware, unless we want to run mac hardware there is no other alternative really.

Linux is really the only alternative, and I would love it to do everything better than the other OS’ rather than being content with it just being good for specific use cases.

WaterBear,

VMs in which Windows hosts fors RDP run are my solution.

However I try to not having to use Microsoft systems which makes a lot of problem go away.

For a majority of tasks Linux daily drivers are fine, however at work we have plenty of computers with varying operating systems, some even from before 2000.

qaz,

I mostly use SSH to manage servers, but you could try cockpit if you want something more graphical.

ITGuyLevi,

Don’t give up too easily friend. I’ve been slowly moving some of my hone systems away from Window’s, and much like you, I’ve spent close to 20 years as a Windows admin. I have the advantage of using Linux on my always ancient laptops over the years and it is my personal opinion that Debian is the way to go.

Give LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) a go, it is very familiar to navigate coming from Windows and isn’t going to have constant updates breaking stuff (looking at you Arch).

First thing after installing run apt-get update, then add the Nvidia drivers (add the source to your sources and install, if you need help, post back and we’ve got you!) and reboot.

zwekihoyy,

fedora’s Nvidia support is leagues ahead of anything debian based in my experience. that’s not to mention debians insanely out-dated package repo.

yournamehere,

i’ve been using a stick for 20 years of combat. i’ve seen people use f16 fighters and flew on a plane once. now i am bummed out i can’t operate an f16.

Jean_le_Flambeur, (edited )

I have seen few comparisons as deranged as this one

yournamehere,

i have seems english.

Jean_le_Flambeur,

Thanks for the heads up I guess…?

DrillingStricken,

Hey buddy, no stress, I feel ya! Switching OSes is like trying a new flavor of ice cream – it can be an adventure at times. But, let me share some wisdom from my Linux journey. When we focus on the small stuff, we unintentionally give power to the big guys. Linux is all about flexibility and community support. Sure, it might not be perfect right away, but that’s part of the fun! Keep pushing through, you’ll soon see why so many of us love this open-source world. Let’s rock this Linux life together

KrapKake,

I would think that some of these problems with RDP and monitors might be caused by running Wayland with an Nvidia GPU. I’m pretty sure both Ubuntu and Fedora use Wayland out of the box by default. Best off using Xorg until Nvidia sorts their shit.

ikidd,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

Remmina

loudWaterEnjoyer,

Dont fall for bait guys

zarkanian,
@zarkanian@sh.itjust.works avatar

but if someone with 20 years of IT experience gets this feed up with it, imagine how your average user would feel.

Do you think “your average user” would run into something like this? How many people are running 4 monitors?

ibt3321,

https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/5dd2ed30-7855-4279-882a-04059a4013eb.png

Damage,

Grandma loves sitting in front of her 4 ultrawides while discussing the day with her friendly LLM

ikidd,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

I run 6 on 2 gpus and it’s Just Werked ^TM^ for a few years now. On a Core2 Duo machine even.

Jean_le_Flambeur, (edited )

This is stupid. While i am all up advocating for foss, trying to argue peoples usecases into non existence is not helping anyone.

My grandparents ran into problems with Linux because they wanted to connect their TV (second monitor) and use team viewer with it (to control it from their phone.

Some of my super non it friends use lots of monitors because who the hell knows why they need this for office stuff.

Its really bothering me that a part of “Linux die hards” always blames missing features or complicated processes on the user.

“Oh yeah, you want a working system? HERES WHY YOU SHOULDT WANT THAT AND WHY IT IS ACTUALLY A FEATURE THAT ITS NOT WORKING. Noob”

I think we need to accept that Linux is not for anyone.

Sure I can install the aur version of team speak from console, but my grandparents can’t. They can’t even read English documentation.

For people living it Linux is fine, and better than other systems, you can change your desktop envirment, fit it to your needs, not be constantly spied on, change everything you want (if you understand it enough to compile from source) nice.

But if you want anything more than “one monitor, mail, office (with bad grammar and spell check)” but are not comfortable with reading through pages and pages of documentation or spending an amount of time tinkering with your PC others spend with their kids, Linux just won’t work!

And we need to be honest to people with that or we set wrong expectations.

I am not dumb and not a total noob, but I broke my system recently because I wanted to change my username and didn’t read through all the little details why Linux can’t do this like any other os. On any payed os this is one klick, on Linux your documents break (because of groups), your desktop items break, your taskbar breaks (and I still haven’t got the taskbar panel working today, because no matter what the home folder in plasma settings is, panel always interprets ~/ as the old homefolder path, which doesn’t exist anymore and for the love of god I can’t find where panel stores this info), loots of symlinks break and im thinking about just installing from scratch because it is easier than to fix everything.

Linux just isn’t a payed os and you can’t expect everything from it you can from windows or osx. There are (lot of) usecases win and osx easily accomplish, and Linux doesn’t if your not a nerd or have lots of time.

Just saying those usecases are “not needed”. While people clearly need them is only helping Microsoft and apple.

lightnsfw,

“Oh yeah, you want a working system? HERES WHY YOU SHOULDT WANT THAT AND WHY IT IS ACTUALLY A FEATURE THAT ITS NOT WORKING. Noob”

That shit is why I hate Microsoft so much. The whole strength of Linux should be the flexibility to do what you want to do with it. 100% agree with you that Linux isn’t there yet but I am certainly trying to get there with it.

Toribor,
@Toribor@corndog.social avatar

Do you think “your average user” would run into something like this? How many people are running 4 monitors?

I’m at the point where I have to admit that the ‘average user’ isn’t even using a desktop or laptop at all.

Whayle,
Whayle avatar

Same as you, in IT forever, ...I switched, and I'm never going back. It's fast, and it's brought the joy back for me. Nvidia needs to do better, but that was the only difficulty I had.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • linux@lemmy.ml
  • Durango
  • DreamBathrooms
  • thenastyranch
  • magazineikmin
  • tacticalgear
  • khanakhh
  • Youngstown
  • mdbf
  • slotface
  • rosin
  • everett
  • ngwrru68w68
  • kavyap
  • InstantRegret
  • JUstTest
  • cubers
  • GTA5RPClips
  • cisconetworking
  • ethstaker
  • osvaldo12
  • modclub
  • normalnudes
  • provamag3
  • tester
  • anitta
  • Leos
  • megavids
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •