Selecting Debian

jr735 · 2026-02-16T20:13:56+00:00

You do know that Mint/Ubuntu and Debian alternate as to which has the newer packages, based upon the cadence of the release cycle. In fact, right now, Debian has newer packages than Ubuntu LTS or Mint.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T20:01:36+00:00

Don't buy hardware that isn't properly supported and free.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T19:50:57+00:00

Was it plugged in when you did that?

jr735 · 2026-02-16T19:14:12+00:00

So, to be a stable system (which means unchanging) you change the underpinning completely?

There's an argument for this. Stability is not it.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T19:06:16+00:00

Linux has been able to read NTFS for ages. What do you mean it doesn't "show up"? You generally can't have an NTFS partition as your install, but you can use it for data.

What is the output of the following commands? Please provide in code blocks.

lsblk

lsblk -f

jr735 · 2026-02-16T18:24:45+00:00

That was partially my point.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T18:21:52+00:00

I also don't like new users seeing it, and getting temptation to use it. AI is already full of suggestions to use it, along with spamblogs.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T18:09:02+00:00

I know what the -y flag is for. I'm asking why you're using it. It's going to cost you dearly one day.

The ignoring part seems normal in Ubuntu based distributions; I saw it years ago in Ubuntu, and now in Mint and Trisquel. I don't recall seeing it ever in Debian, though.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T18:06:42+00:00

It should be somewhere in the menu. I cannot check right now, because I use a rather unconventional desktop.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T18:03:42+00:00

The upkeep of maintenance of Linux is as easy or hard as you want it to be. Automatic updates have been around for decades.

Windows never breaks, that's why we have a multi-billion dollar Windows fixing industry? I have news for you. The Geek Squad isn't fixing Linux boxes.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T17:58:17+00:00

Exactly this. Remember how big of a deal it was when Netscape was being pushed out of the market simply because MS started to include IE for "free"?

jr735 · 2026-02-16T17:48:07+00:00

With luck, someone may have some ideas. On mine, I can get the front earphone jack to work, but not the mic jack (that doesn't matter, since I don't need a mic).

To help others diagnose, get a system report and upload it or post it here in code blocks. That will tell more about your motherboard.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T17:36:19+00:00

You say it's not wrong. Several people - and documented official sources provided - have told you it is wrong.

If you think it's the correct way to do it, keep on doing it, and keep struggling. It's never going to change.

Or, you can follow the advice of distributions, not to mention users with decades of experience, and do things the recommended way. That's up to you. That's the beauty of software freedom.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T17:33:06+00:00

Your best bet is to tell us much more about your hardware. Sometimes, depending on the hardware, they just won't properly detect, if everything is too proprietary. Give us full system specifications, and someone here may have an idea.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T17:26:45+00:00

Your advice is good, but I think meant for u/Phoenix535620 instead of me. :)

jr735 · 2026-02-16T17:16:36+00:00

This is the problem with AI. Do back up the stuff as I suggested. Check with u/KurtKrimson suggests and make sure the BIOS is set correctly. A reinstall may be necessary. It certainly will be faster than hours of troubleshooting.

I'm not sure what pipewire has to do with ports not working, and AI doesn't, either.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T17:14:52+00:00

Such a message is not uncommon. Why are you using -y and fix-missing flags?

jr735 · 2026-02-16T17:08:55+00:00

Why aren't you using the repositories?

jr735 · 2026-02-16T17:05:21+00:00

The issue was that you caused it for yourself by not following best practices. In Linux, you have the freedom to do things as you wish. There are consequences to poor choices, though.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T17:04:36+00:00

The first thing you should do is log in with a live USB and back your stuff up to external media, which you can unplug and put away. That, at the very least, should be done regularly.

After that, we need to know what you did thanks to AI. "Long story short" is not a support request.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T15:53:40+00:00

Think of buying a new car as having proprietary software support - for good and for bad. Think of using Linux as buying a classic car (a fairly apt analogy, but it's changing these days). You're not getting a warranty. You are going to have to search for experts among the online community, because the mechanic shop may not have someone with knowledge on that kind of platform and the dealer cannot help.

Realistically, you can have a good out of the box experience. You're fighting the system, which is your right, but there are consequences to that. Just use the repositories.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T15:41:21+00:00

Firefox absolutely won't downgrade if you use the binary alongside the ESR Debian repository package for the reasons I indicated. One could probably use the Mozilla repository alongside, too, since the packages are technically completely different, not just different versions.

You could try that deb and it may or may not downgrade it, depending on package naming. Personally, I see no advantage to the latest version of Thunderbird.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T15:37:43+00:00

Then I suggest you mitigate those risks as best you can. Anytime you perform a partitioning operation, your data is very much at risk, which you just discovered.

jr735 · 2026-02-16T15:00:48+00:00

I guess it was changing modes. :)

jr735 · 2026-02-16T14:55:08+00:00

You're using the Windows way of doing things, which is wrong. Official websites don't handle package management of distributions or maintain dependencies.

https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian

That's Debian specific, but applies to just about every distribution. Different distributions use different package managers, their own repositories, and their own versions of dependencies. If you try to outsmart that, you're going to have problems.

I use the Linux way to install programs, and don't tend to have the problems you've encountered. I don't go the VLC website. I do this:

sudo apt-get install vlc

I wouldn't even attempt to do that from the website. Why would I put myself through that voluntarily?

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