this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Help with fresh install [SOLVED] (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by GloriousGherkins@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Hello- I’m completely new to Linux and have just completed my first installation. Everything is working, but my first challenge is that only one of my monitors has an image, and it’s stuck in 640x480 instead of 3440x1920.

I installed openSUSE Leap 15.6 with KDE plasma. Processor is a Ryzen 3700x with an NVIDIA 4090 GPU.

I tried to troubleshoot as best as I could, but didn’t get very far. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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[–] j4k3@piefed.world 1 points 1 month ago

All distros have niche purposes, but most components are compatible.As an abstract concept, Linux From Scratch is like ultimate god mode. That walks you through everything in extraordinarily overwhelming fashion to build a operating system from scratch.

Gentoo is like LFS on easy mode with a package manager to help you stay on top of a working system. It is still like maybe demigod mode. The main thing with Gentoo is that you have access to compiling everything from source, so you can integrate any changes you would like to make to packages within the package manager.

If you understand a UNIX operating system on a LFS/Gentoo level, Arch is like both of these, but with binary packages.

Debian is primarily for a more complete base system with stability where they make long term support kernels. Debian is primarily for creating custom tools on servers and for reverse engineering hardware. Most hardware drivers come from Debian.

Red Hat is the goto for commercial server stuff. Many Kernel maintainers and developers work for Red Hat. Fedora is up stream of Red Hat and has most of the tools from Red Hat. The book The Linux Bible is the goto book for learning IT and networking and is written around Fedora/Red Hat.

So the reason for the bla bla bla is because understanding the purposes of each of the distros will guide you to essential documentation. This is the key to intermediate level Linux; when you understand where to look for information across all distros.

  • LFS will walk you through any components in tutorial detail if you can find the entry point and ground your understanding.
  • Gentoo is likely to have similar tutorial guides and information that has easier entry points.
  • Arch is like the giant warehouse of components. Arch has the wiki which is the principal documentation on the components themselves. What Arch is not, is tutorial. The wiki is an encyclopedia. Use it as such.
  • Debian has the bootstrapping stuff and documentation to port onto new hardware or explore.
  • Red Hat/Fedora have the information and tools for the kernel and networking. If you want to mess with something like the CPU scheduler or configuring numa architectures, these are the places to look for documentation.

These are general loose guidelines. For your monitor resolution issue, I would start with Gentoo and Arch. I had a similar issue when I tried Arch back around 8-9 years ago, but I do not recall the details and it has probably changed considerably since the X11 to Wayland transition.