About a week ago I setup Ubuntu as my primary OS on an old machine. It is my first time trying a unix based OS (previously windows). It has been ok, but it seems like every time I try to install something I run into problems. The app has the wrong permissions or I don’t have the right packages or I need to change port settings ect… I was expecting a learning curve but I wanted to know if this is something I should expect to be a long term issue or if I will aquire the skills to side step stuff like this over time?
Update* I got it working. Last night I reinstalled it and figured it out. Two issues. On initial install I failed to update one of the packages needed. I also assigned the service to a group without the required permissions. On reinstall I rectified both of these issues and it works flawlessly. Thanks all for your help and input (and ignoring typos in the title)!
Yes, it will get better over time. You are using an entirely new operating system. Things are different, but aren’t that hard to learn.
My big tip for installing Linux is to use the package managers when possible. Every distro comes with at least one package manager, which can install many pieces of software. On Ubuntu, there are two: snap and apt. (Yes, this is confusing. Canonical is trying to change the way they package software, and it has made their distro harder to use).
Also, what kind of software are you installing that requires different permissions or ports? If you’re trying to set up servers you many be better off with a different approach.
How are you trying to install things? Use the graphical package manager or apt. Don’t just try to download things from wherever.
Also, maybe try Linux Mint (Cinnamon Edition) instead of Ubuntu. Things there “just work”, and the UI is more similar to what you are used to with windows.
I downloaded this from the graphical package manager
It looks like sonarr is not in the official Ubuntu mirrors. The website mentions adding a new repo to apt. Is this what you did, or something else?
Recently I installed POPOS! and it comes with popshop app store. Its bit laggy especially on startup, but installations are like search -> press install button -> done. Its so freaking simple and intuitive
Im also new in desktop linux and still didnt decide what is my main OS, but POP OS made me not look further. Didnt try gaming yet tho
Ubuntu kinda sucks from my experience with it, but it will be a learning curve
You do learn to deal with those kinds of issues pretty quickly eventually but at least at the moment you’re realistically not going to have a completely seamless experience with desktop Linux for a while yet
You’re probably better off going with snaps/appimages/flatpaks than apt-get I think because they come with all their dependencies
