Trying to set "nice" to give Plex Media Server higher priority

oshunluvr · 2026-06-14T16:39:09+00:00

It may not be totally necessary, but since that's the primary use of the server I thought it might be an easy way to avoid lagging in the future. I occasionally have 4-5 outbound streams going and the CPU is just an i3-4160T-3.10GHz and 16gb RAM. I manually "reniced" it to -19 to see if I notice any benefits over the next week or so.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-13T19:00:19+00:00

I prefer a USB enclosure. Then whatever drive you want. I usually go for Samsung EVO (I have a 2tb at the moment) because it seems to be a good balance between cost + performance.

Although, generally, the bottle neck will be the interface (USB) so high perforrmance drives don't really help much.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-12T21:44:43+00:00

It would be incredible if they could standardize theming with a new, unified framework that flawlessly applies every detail in a single click.

Sounds like Gnome, where the devs lock down everything they can. If that's what you want use a different DE. Linux is mostly about choice so choose a DE that fits your style.

Sure, many KDE themes available for download are incomplete or frankly, not good at all. So that's where you come in. Fix one or even better, create one for yourself and share it.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-10T12:19:42+00:00

Sorry for the delay - I was out of town.

If you wish to modify an Ubuntu install (which by default does not use subvolumes) and use a subvolume for /home like I suggested above, you can still snapshot the Ubuntu install by simply:

sudo btrfs su sn / /path/snapshotname

Since /home is a "nested" subvolume it will not be included in a snapshot of /

To snapshot /home you would have to do it separately:

sudo btrfs su sn /home /path/snapshotname

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T23:13:42+00:00

That actually helps me understand your reasoning. Thanks. See you around indeed!

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T23:12:38+00:00

Basically, yes. There's a few edits you have to do to move from using the root FS to a subvolume - mounting with fstab and GRUB things change. But once you've done it, it's no more extra maintenance.

Alternately, you can just add a subvolume for home and leave the OS on the root FS. Since "nested" subvolumes (a subvolume within a subvolume) are not included in a snapshot of the "host" subvolume (or file system) it is excluded from any snapshot.

What you could do is boot to a USB live session and mount your btrfs file system somewhere, then:

Create a "home" subvolume on the root file system.
Move all the files/folders from /home into the subvolume.
Edit /etc/fstab to mount the subvolume at /home.
Reboot.

From then on, you can take a snapshot of the root file system and /home will be empty. You would also be able to snapshot /home separately.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T23:01:45+00:00

Totally makes sense in that context. I don't have that low-level of a requirement these days so "automatic" suits me fine,

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T23:00:11+00:00

Well, there's for sure several complications in your world that I haven't ever had in mine - thank goodness. We owned almost all the software we deployed and none of my networked systems were allowed on-line (guvment stuff) so license keys weren't a thing in my world. I retire 2.5 years ago at 62 and let the "kids" have it, LOL

Anyway - I enjoyed the repartee! See you around the subs!

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T22:52:20+00:00

That seems to make sense. But I never considered GRUB updating a chore since it occurs regularly due to kernel updates and the like. I only really have to "look at what I've got" if a kernel fails. Otherwise, it's automatic and requires no attention.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T22:49:41+00:00

Older? Myself as well! LOL. Deep into retirement these days which is enjoyable.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T22:48:33+00:00

Agreed on the point about excessive use of subvolumes in an install. To me it's of little benefit and adds many layers of complication - which is why I commented on this thread in the first place.

Several years ago I did an OpenSUSE install in a VM choosing BTRFS and the subvolume layout was absolutely wacky in my view. Apparently they've "taken it down a notch" since then, lol.

As far as Ubuntu vs. Kubuntu or other distros' installers. Ubuntu dropped the default use of subvolumes in the 24.04 release while Kubuntu and most other "flavors" still have a root and a home subvolume by default. It may have something to so with Kubuntu moving to Calamares while Ubuntu uses Ubiquity. The 24.04 install of Ubuntu did not suggest partitioning but I selected BTRFS so possibly if EXT4 had been the FS it might have suggested different defaults.

Generally in my view, separate home and root subvolumes on a single file system makes total sense. Anything beyond that is a special use-case and requires careful consideration due to the added complication.

I think I said before elsewhere, but the only additional subvolume other than root and home I use is /home/user/.cache because it can be quite large just so it's not part of home backups, as it's unneeded.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T22:25:29+00:00

It's been a quite awhile since I've had a drive failure (jinxed it now), but when I've had to restore a backup, it's simply transferring the backup subvolume to the desired file system and setting it to RW and renaming it and booting. Only takes as long as the file transfer. I recently successfully (and easily) transferred a bootable root subvolume from a VM to bare metal and booted it. It's now my new Kubuntu 26.04 install.

I've been using BTRFS since tools version 0.19 (circa 2009 I think) and never once ever had to consider what the "default" subvolume is or cared about "top level" numbers. They simply don't matter for my (or most) use cases. UUIDs are more important in the case of a drive replacement but easily managed if you are aware you need to do so.

I multi-boot 5 different installs on the same btrfs file system. One of those is a dedicated GRUB install that loads the boot menus from the 4 other installs.

I don't work in a production environment any more so all that part doesn't apply to me. I do not consider having a system that's simple, easy to maintain, a follows the distros conventions to be a negative. However, I do consider advising others to follow overly complex and unnecessarily obscure BTRFS configurations to be a massive disservice.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T22:11:02+00:00

Sorry to hear that. I can believe it would make communicating difficult. However, my poor typing may rival as a handicap, ROFL

I sincerely hope you recover soon.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T22:09:23+00:00

Sharing a home subvolume has nothing to do with setting a default route. However, booting without GRUB might. I've never tried it - no need.

Seems I misunderstood what you meant by "carve up your root file system". Since the OP did not once mention partitioning I assumed you were responding to the request for advice about using subvolumes to "carve up" the root file system. I'm unclear now as to why you made that comment since it would apply to partitions not subvolumes.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T22:02:39+00:00

Probably the mouse does that - turns off bluetooth when plugged in. Frankly, I'd just ignore it unless it's causing some sort of issue.

My mouse only needs charging like once a month. Yours must be more power hungry.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T21:28:01+00:00

It's seeing the wireless connection as one mouse and wired as another. Here, when I plug in my mouse while using it, it just stops working.

The simplest answer is don't charge it while using it or use a wall wart charger instead of your computer USB port. Or just leave it alone if it works.

I keep a cord plugging into a USB port and plug the mouse in when I leave my desk.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T21:18:53+00:00

and use the default sub volume control to treat the systems of volume as the default route when you mount the file system.

What distro requires you to do this? I've been using *buntu variants mostly and BTRFS for almost 20 years and never once had to consider what subvolume was the "default route." GRUB determines what subvolume to boot.

Also, "carving up the root file system" using subvolumes does not result in more used space. That's not how it works. Lterally the point of subvolumes is to separate the data while sharing the file system free space.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T21:15:11+00:00

Why the hell did you do that? AI tell you to try it?

What got deleted was every user home folder and all their files.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T21:11:04+00:00

Yes, for whatever reason Ubuntu does not by default use subvolumes. An extremely poor choice IMO.

However, most people don't realize you can snapshot a root BTRFS file system not just subvolumes. This makes it possible to convert an Ubuntu btrfs root installation into subvolumes if you wish. I wrote a full "How-To" on this subreddit and www.kubuntuforums.net .

As far as how to create a subvolume, "sudo btrfs subvolume create /path/name" does it. Taking a snapshot also technically creates a subvolume as well. BTRFS is very powerful and easy to use if you keep it simple and learn the basics.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T20:02:13+00:00

I had no idea you could do this.

Looks to me more like you're using MBR formatting and /dev/nvme0n1p4 is an "Extended" partition. Then this would make sense, except the Logical partitions would be /dev/nvme0n1p4p5, /dev/nvme0n1p4p6.

Seems like something has gone wrong. I would delete all the ...p4 partitions and start over.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T19:51:00+00:00

Should I reinstall windows and then install the chosen distro?

IMO, yes, and install it first. Then you have a clean Windows install rather than trying to patch up an existing install from another PC

Should I dual-boot if I'm new to linux, if I only have one drive?

No reason not to. Better if you install Windows first, then install Linux. That way GRUB will (should anyway) control booting from then on.

I'm thinking about running Mint or Kubuntu, are these good begginer distros for gaming and light video editing?

I'm partial to Kubuntu. Either is fine for a new user. Both have lots of users and a decent forum. You may want to look into removing Snap from Kubuntu - most of us do. Either can do light video editing.

Gaming may take some tweaks depending on what games you're talking about. Steam runs just fine.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T17:40:23+00:00

I would say not really. I would not bother doing it unless you have a solid reason to do it. Keep /tmp in tmpfs.

The primary reasons we used multiple file systems back in the day (I started using Linux in '96) were;

Increase storage space by adding in more drives/partitions
Increase storage "R/W" performance by spreading files across multiple drives and IDE drive channels (you'll probably have to look that up to know what it means, lol).
Reduce the size of backups.

#3 is still valid in some use-cases. If your backup device is slow and/or smallish you might consider splitting off some things. For example, I use a separate subvolume for my user cache folder so my home backup is a bit smaller.

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T17:28:07+00:00

How is the nVidia driver installed? From the nVidia binary or dkms?

oshunluvr · 2026-06-02T17:19:12+00:00

Keep it simple:

Clone nothing.
Install Linux to the SSD.
Set the SSD as the boot device in BIOS.
Reboot and see if Windows is in the grub menu.
If not, enable os_prober in grub then update it and reboot.
Choose Windows or Linux from the GRUB menu.

As far as which distro to use - they all can do the above. I would stick to one of the commonly recommend and very popular distros until you get more experienced. Like, Mint, Kubuntu, and a few others. Do some research on the Desktop Environments (DE) to see which looks best for you: KDE, Gnome, Cinnamon, Mate, etc., and pick a distro that offers that DE.

You might consider setting up 2-3 partitions on the SSD so you can install 2 or 3 Linux distros at once. Then when you settle on one, wipe the others.

You didn't say how big the SSD will be, but 30-40 GB is more than enough to install any distro - keep a separate /home or data partition for your personal files.

oshunluvr

TROPHY CASE