Which Linux version

[Aruna]

Yeah, right. Where is Debian trixy? Years behind that website
But good for orientation.

Have a heart, Thaddy! You know exactly when it dropped—Debian 13 was released on August 9th, 2025. That’s just 13 days ago, not decades! It may not be all encompassing but it has what it takes to give somone a feel for what exactly he/she is getting into? 

[Aruna]

another pet-peeve about the default Ubuntu and Debian desktops is the 4 steps to shutdown

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1. sudo shutdown -h now

Be careful: running this will close everything without saving work! 

[dbannon]

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1. sudo shutdown -h now

Be careful: running this will close everything without saving work!

I strongly suggest -

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1. sync; sync; sudo shutdown -h now

To at least make sure the things you think are saved, have, in fact, made it to disk.

Davo

[duralast]

Multiple syncs is legacy. Modern Linux handles it automatically. There is no real difference between reboot, shutdown, halt, and poweroff when using systemd.

The init system (using systemd) catches the halt command and begins a graceful shutdown sequence. It is the init system that sends signals, such as SIGTERM and later SIGKILL, to other running processes to allow them to shut down cleanly. Applications can use sigaction to catch these SIGTERM signals and perform cleanup tasks.

Under sysvinit, the halt command typically invokes shutdown to perform a controlled and graceful shutdown.

[Hansvb]

Installing a Linux variant will be something for the winter and only after I have been able to find a good installation manual. I can't even get through the installation now. I thought to start with Linux Mint. That's a beginner-friendly version as far as I read it. But it doesn't seem to run well next to windows 11 because of Secureboot. It must be enabled for win 11 and disabled for Linux mint. (As far as I have been able to find it). So I thought I'd try Ubuntu, which can run with secure boot on next to win 11. I already get stuck when installing. I have 2 ssd's in the laptop, 1 with a few partitions and 1 new empty one. I can't trace the names that Ubuntu shows me back to the correct blank disk.

[srvaldez]

@Hansvb
have you tried the live CD/DVD ?
you can try it that way before you invest time in installing
installing alongside Windows can be tricky, I don't risk it, when I want to install Linux on a drive I first unplug all the hard-drives except the one I want to install Linux on, then afterwards I plug the drives back in
although that's not 100% foolproof, if on a Linux update, Linux may install Grub where it's not wanted

[Hansvb]

I start from a usb with an iso and can try/test and/or install ubuntu with it. Since I have space I want to install it.
This morning I made a new attempt. I had previously taken a wrong turn in the installation process. You have to choose "erase disk" And then you only see the disks that are in the PC. Choose the right one, installed it and boom, gone is Windows  . The dualboot menu only saw Ubuntu.
Using chatgpt a some sudo.... Commandos further I have it working. Windows and Ubuntu side by side. Windows now starts automatically after 10 seconds unless I choose Ubuntu. I can change that now. If im gonna use Ubuntu more the that will be the new default . So I am one step further. Tonight I'll see if I can get Lazarus on it. I saw that I could install Lazarus 3.8.
And then buy a good Ubuntu book.

[cdbc]

Hi Hans
Whoa-hahaha.... Welcome to the Dark Side mate \o/\ö/\o/ 
...Now the fun begins...
Regards Benny

[Hansvb]

Hi Benny,

I didn't start with PCLinuxOS. I want to keep Windows 11 next to it for the time being and Ubuntu can handle bitlocker. (I still have to activate it because it had to be turned off during the installation). When it is dark again in the evening in a few weeks, I will work on it. Have to go all the way back to basics, I don't even know how to create a folder yet. All i ever used on a pc is msdos and then windows.

[cdbc]

Hi Hans
Don't worry mate ...'With a little help from your friends'....
Unix/Linux:
To create a directory in the terminal/CLI => 'mkdir' pascal ('md' pascal)
To remove an empty directory in terminal => 'rmdir' pascal ('rd' pascal)
To delete a file => 'rm' unit1.pas ('rm' -f unit1.pas means force, don't ask)
'cd' ~  means change directory to /home/hans/
'pwd' => (p)rint (w)orking (d)ir   writes the working dir your standing in
'exit' closes the terminal (or exits root-mode SU)
'cat' unit1.pas writes a textfile to screen
'ls -l' shows the content of the current directory (dir in dos)
regards Benny

[Hansvb]

ha cool, some of them i know from the windows cmd.

[Nimbus]

Also note, you can easily get a fully functional Linux system (any major Distro) just inside your Windows terminal. Recent versions allow both console and GUI apps as far as I remember.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/faq

[Hansvb]

It looks like I chose the wrong Ubuntu version. 25.04 doesn't support GTK2. And  Lazarus needs it. That's about it for now. maybe later i will install ubuntu 24 which is a long term release.

[Thaddy]

Hans,
Lazarus does not need it...
Lazarus is not bound to gtk2, although it is the very conservative default, you can build Lazarus with gtk3 or versions of Qt.
You can also install gtk2 on Ubuntu 25...
So the options are there.
Higher Qt versions also work better with Wayland.

[Hansvb]

With the prerequisites mentioned here

https://wiki.freepascal.org/fpcupdeluxe

I seem to get somewhere. Lazarus 3.8 works now but I have already removed it. Tomorrow or later this week I'll see if I can get lazarus 4.0 to work as well.