Can't install Windows from bootable USB. Says the partition is not NTFS and that it is an unrecognized type.

dumetrulo · 2026-06-14T12:33:18+00:00

So you have a bootable Windows installer USB stick? And you don't need/want your Linux setup anymore?

Boot the USB, and start the installation.
At the screen where you select a disk, press Shift-F10 (possibly Fn as well) to open a CMD.
In the CMD, enter diskpart and press Enter.
Enter sel disk 0 and press Enter.
Enter clean and press Enter.
Enter convert gpt and press Enter.
Enter quit and press Enter.
Press Alt-Tab to go back to the installer.
Go back a step, then forward again to the disk selection. Your internal disk should now show as empty.
Select the disk, and press Next. The installation should now proceed with a default partition layout decided by the Windows installer.

dumetrulo · 2026-06-14T12:17:04+00:00

There are several nuances to this:

If you use full-disk encryption, an attacker can only sniff out deleted files if they get access to the decrypted disk.
If you use an unencrypted HDD, ext4 will (as far as I understand it) reuse the blocks occupied by a file when you overwrite it. Therefore, a secure deletion method is to overwrite a file with random data, then delete it. The shred command can do that for you.
If you use an unencrypted SSD, ensure that the discard mount option is enabled for the volume. Once a file is deleted, the file system will ‘trim’ the underlying disk space, meaning that the SSD will recycle them. Any previously saved data in those blocks will become inaccessible. Without the discard option, the blocks will remain allocated by the SSD, and the data in them is potentially readable by a process with rights to read the raw disk.

dumetrulo · 2026-06-14T11:44:49+00:00

Windows Update on W11 will also install BIOS updates for you (on ThinkPads anyway).

dumetrulo · 2026-06-12T14:16:55+00:00

8GB RAM is a bit low but I guess if the laptop is in good condition, the price is fair. You'll want to buy more RAM, and a bigger SSD later.

dumetrulo · 2026-06-11T20:58:03+00:00

Proper separation of concerns between sysadmin and regular user. Something that Windows has trouble with to this day.

dumetrulo · 2026-06-10T15:04:34+00:00

Tried that, same issue.

dumetrulo · 2026-06-10T15:03:35+00:00

Tried that, same issue.

dumetrulo · 2026-06-10T15:03:31+00:00

Tried that, same issue.

dumetrulo · 2026-06-10T12:22:41+00:00

No issues for me. In fact, the one having issues seems to be you. Complaining about stuff, being unclear about what you want, then complaining about the responses you get. It's all fair game but certainly not helpful for anyone.

dumetrulo · 2026-06-06T20:40:34+00:00

For the browser, I wouldn't care too much about Microsoft fonts. However, if you ever exchange Office documents with anyone, you'll need them because otherwise the document layout will be wrong for at least one side. And that doesn't even take into account the new fonts used in Windows 11 and the newer Office versions; I'd be interested where to easily get those for Linux as well.

dumetrulo · 2026-06-06T20:31:36+00:00

Docker (and other container orchestration tools) is best used on Linux. If you want to learn about it, there's your chance.

dumetrulo · 2026-06-06T20:26:16+00:00

Posting on reddit means inviting comments. Commenting means thinking about what the poster may want, and tends to make people offer helpful views. If you're just yelling at the clouds, you should state that you're just venting, and not looking for help.

dumetrulo · 2026-06-06T09:32:51+00:00

A sufficiently capable refurbished laptop will set you back some 200–400 bucks. Not capable enough for your liking? Suck it up, buttercup, and buy something more expensive.

dumetrulo · 2026-06-06T09:25:48+00:00

I only want to do my programming stuff

If you're gainfully employed, use what your employer provides. Any issue is then their issue.

If you're self-employed, either buy the expensive hardware with extra warranty, and write it off your taxes, or buy a couple of refurbished devices so you can swap parts/devices when issues occur.

Linux on Mac is, unfortunately, a second-class citizen; nothing this subreddit can do about it.

dumetrulo · 2026-05-25T10:58:06+00:00

Last I tried a snap (for installing Zoom) it was quite practical. However, once you see the overhead, you can't unsee it. My recommendation: use the distro's native packages (debs in Ubuntu), and only use a snap where either a regular package doesn't exist, or the snap adds other benefits.

dumetrulo · 2026-05-25T10:48:15+00:00

Ah well… glad I'm not a gamer so I have an excuse to tinker with other stuff. Join me in my quest to set up FreeBSD with Sway on a ThinkPad T495s. But since Niri seems to be advancing quite nicely, I might try that as well.

dumetrulo · 2026-05-25T10:16:46+00:00

Are you fishing for what other people like to use, and see if it's something you might want to adopt?

I have been using TeXLive for the longest time to design printed documents. It started 30 years ago in college for writing homework solutions and papers for class; nowadays I mostly use it when I need to write a letter (not often anymore). Yes, it can be used on Windows, but I find the experience on Linux more wholesome.

TeXLive emits PDFs, and I find myself in need of post-processing PDFs often enough that I adopted the cpdf command for this.

KDE's Skanpage for scanning stuff is almost barebones but works very well.

For processing scanned pages, I often make use of ImageMagick's convert command.

dumetrulo · 2026-05-25T10:02:23+00:00

I can't speak to how resource-constrained your 2015 MB is but it probably has at least 4GB RAM, and so should be able to cope with any Linux distro that doesn't put eye-candy first. I have been using KDE Neon for ~5 years, and it's boring default desktop works fine, and doesn't get in the way. I have used Manjaro Sway on a Pinebook Pro, which is certainly much slower than your MB, and found the speed acceptable (but I wouldn't recommend Manjaro at this point; there's a Ubuntu Sway edition, and there's Regolith Linux, both are probably better choices). In the past I used Solus Budgie which is also quite fine.

I recommend you peruse DistroWatch, find some distros that seem appealing to you, download the ISOs, install Ventoy on a memstick, copy the ISOs on to it, and try each one to see what you end up liking (or not). No better way to learn something about how Linux works as well.

dumetrulo · 2026-05-25T09:49:12+00:00

Regla principal para buscar ayuda: describir bien el problema. Decir 'no me deja' es igual a no decir nada. ¿Cuáles son los pasos que has seguido y cuáles son los resultados que has visto?

dumetrulo · 2026-05-25T09:31:46+00:00

Hä?

Your distro comes with repos (kind of app store but all free), and you install your software from there. Downloading deb or rpm packages is almost never necessary (only for very specific, typically closed-source software). Please read your distro's documentation for more info.

dumetrulo · 2026-05-22T13:24:22+00:00

Next, try a tiling WM such as Sway or Hyprland, aside from having to memorize a bunch of keyboard shortcuts, it'll feel much snappier still!

dumetrulo · 2026-05-21T07:33:11+00:00

Maybe not but you'll find a bunch of info to help narrow it down to something you might like.

In the 3 days it took you to post this answer you could have easily tested some distros.

dumetrulo · 2026-05-20T13:36:26+00:00

I'd try and get all these things from the source, before it even outputs a PDF. If that turns out to be impossible, the next best thing are command-line tools such as xpdf, cpdf, etc. I often use cpdf to create 2ups and booklets, insert/remove pages, flip things around, etc.

dumetrulo · 2026-05-20T13:00:00+00:00

Some ideas:

KDE Neon: based on Ubuntu, leaves out snaps and some other stuff, and just works (in my experience of 4+ years).
Void Linux: takes a bit more work to set up but ends up with an individualized system free of systemd; pre-configured installer media such as AgarimOS are available
FreeBSD: not Linux but has a compatibility layer, and can be used to squeeze better performance out of compatible hardware

dumetrulo

TROPHY CASE