# Ubuntu giving me crap



## Harry9001 (Jan 9, 2017)

Hi guys,
I was begining to fall in love ubuntu until I started gaming on it(which I had decided not to do).
Now, came in the driver problems, nouvelle(if i got the spellings right) or the nvidia one. Despite of choosing the nvidia one, the game gave me trouble(The forest).

Now, I decided to download and manually install the driver, then I can to discover that you need to blacklist the nouvelle driver and lots of other BS. I then proceeded to do so, during which ubuntu gave up on me and stopped booting.
Tried repairing Grub using terminal and Boot repair but no luck.

Tried to reinstall, got a input/output error, tried to do a fresh install, the same error.
From the past 2 weeks I've been using the live usb for using my computer.

I posted the entire thing detailed on the ubuntu forum, but guess nobody could help me... :/
So here I am back on my favorite forum
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2347729


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## hellrazor (Jan 10, 2017)

Why would you ever download the driver from the nVidia site?


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## FYFI13 (Jan 10, 2017)

hellrazor said:


> Why would you ever download the driver from the nVidia site?


Windows related habits


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## Harry9001 (Jan 10, 2017)

hellrazor said:


> Why would you ever download the driver from the nVidia site?


Well, because the driver when selected from the software & update wasn't working properly. So, I decided, Imma download it from the official website and install it manually.


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## Aquinus (Jan 10, 2017)

hellrazor said:


> Why would you ever download the driver from the nVidia site?


For the same reason I download AMDGPU-Pro from AMD's website?


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## R-T-B (Jan 10, 2017)

Aquinus said:


> For the same reason I download AMDGPU-Pro from AMD's website?



Going outside the package manager is nearly always asking for trouble.


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## bug (Jan 10, 2017)

Aquinus said:


> For the same reason I download AMDGPU-Pro from AMD's website?


To install the latest drivers for Nvidia on Ubuntu, you do this: https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa
To blacklist nouveau, instructions straight from the source: http://askubuntu.com/questions/481414/install-nvidia-driver-instead-nouveau

I have no idea how the OP managed to mess up GRUB in the process. Though, judging by his specs, newer drivers are rather unlikely to help, the problem probably lies somewhere else.


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 10, 2017)

This is a pretty good "How to" for installing nvidia drivers

You can download the driver for your video card for Ubuntu 64bit from here. Assuming that you are using Ubuntu 64bit now. If you installed Ubuntu 32 bit, there is 331 version of the same driver for Ubuntu 32bit. Save your driver somewhere where you can easily access it, like your user home directory or inside a newly created *nvidia* directory in your user home directory.

To be able to install your nvidia driver you have to remove your previous video driver with this code in a terminal window:

   sudo apt-get remove nvidia* && sudo apt-get autoremove

After you finish with this one, you should also blacklist the nouveau driver by editing this file with either:

   gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

or

   sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

…and add these lines at the end:

   blacklist nouveau
   blacklist lbm-nouveau
   options nouveau modeset=0
   alias nouveau off
   alias lbm-nouveau off

If, by any chance, there is no *blacklist-nouveau.conf* present in /etc/modprobe.d/, you can save your file as *blacklist-nouveau.conf* when prompted.

And you can also disable the Kernel Nouveau by typing these lines in a terminal window:

   echo options nouveau modeset=0 | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/nouveau-kms.conf

and after that

   update-initramfs -u

Now you can reboot your computer, and when you get to the login prompt, press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to exit to the terminal console. Login with your username and password.

Go to the directory where you saved your nvidia driver using the command *cd* in the terminal console. Eg. *cd nvidia* considering that you are already in your user home directory after you login. You can use command *dir* to be able to see your exact driver's name.

To stop your display manager or the X server, you can type in the console this code:

   sudo stop lightdm   or

   sudo lightdm stop

If you are not using *lightdm* as your default display manager (DM), replace lightdm with your default display manager, which can be either *kdm* or *gdm* or whatever your display manager is.

You should get a message in the terminal console saying --> lightdm stopped/waiting

And now you can finally install the nvidia driver using a code similar to this one:

  sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64.....run    (for Ubuntu 64bit) 

or

  sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86.....run    (for Ubuntu 32bit)

If you don't type the exact name of the driver, you'll get this message: *NVIDIA-Linux... could not be found* and you should type again the code for installing the driver.

Nvidia installer automatically installs the driver, and at the end it will ask you whether you want to save your new X configuration. Press Yes. After reboot and getting to your desktop and changing your NVIDIA settings as you please you should open a terminal window and type in this code:

  sudo nvidia-xconfig

to save your new nvidia configuration in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

*Note*

You might need to install some extra software packages if nvidia installer gives an error and prompts for missing dependencies:

   sudo apt-get install dkms fakeroot build-essential linux-headers-generic

But you need to install all these missing packages only if nvidia-installer can't do the job by itself.

It can happen that after reboot your system shows a black screen or enters the low graphics mode. To fix this you should exit again to the console terminal, login with your username and password, and use the code provided above *sudo nvidia-xconfig* and also make use of the following tutorial. It is meant to fix the greeter assuming that they haven't fixed this bug in Ubuntu 14.04.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/451221/how-do-i-install-the-nvidia-driver-for-a-geforce-gt-630http://askubuntu.com/questions/451221/how-do-i-install-the-nvidia-driver-for-a-geforce-gt-630


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## bug (Jan 10, 2017)

@brandonwh64 If I understand correctly, at this point the problem is a messed up GRUB, not installing the nvidia driver.
Also, when editing system files, sudoedit is the right way to go. Running gedit/kate with sudo will change ownership of files in your home folder and cause trouble down the road


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## Aquinus (Jan 10, 2017)

R-T-B said:


> Going outside the package manager is nearly always asking for trouble.


If you're just installing packages without involving the package manager but, the AMDGPU-Pro "installer" copies the debs locally and configures a local apt source. You can still use the package manager even if you're not using Ubuntu's sources.

```
$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/amdgpu-pro.list
deb [trusted=yes] file:/var/opt/amdgpu-pro-local/ ./
```

This is what it does OOTB.


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## hellrazor (Jan 11, 2017)

Harry9001 said:


> Well, because the driver when selected from the software & update wasn't working properly.


And did you try to figure out why it wasn't working?


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Jan 13, 2017)

Harry9001 said:


> Hi guys,
> I was begining to fall in love ubuntu until I started gaming on it(which I had decided not to do).
> Now, came in the driver problems, nouvelle(if i got the spellings right) or the nvidia one. Despite of choosing the nvidia one, the game gave me trouble(The forest).
> 
> ...


Welcome to the hell known as Nvidia. Next time choose AMD or Intel. AMD drivers are now built into the kernel. Ive been rocking AMD and Intel gpus for years without issue under Linux.


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## bug (Jan 13, 2017)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> Welcome to the hell known as Nvidia. Next time choose AMD or Intel. *AMD drivers are now built into the kernel*. Ive been rocking AMD and Intel gpus for years without issue under Linux.



Unless you need OpenCL. Or HDMI audio. Or have something pre GCN 1.2.


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## Aquinus (Jan 13, 2017)

bug said:


> Unless you need OpenCL. Or HDMI audio. Or have something pre GCN 1.2.


Or you can throw AMDGPU-Pro on your machine and that issue becomes a non-issue?

```
$ clinfo
Number of platforms                               1
  Platform Name                                   AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
  Platform Vendor                                 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
  Platform Version                                OpenCL 2.0 AMD-APP (2236.5)
  Platform Profile                                FULL_PROFILE
  Platform Extensions                             cl_khr_icd cl_amd_event_callback cl_amd_offline_devices 
  Platform Extensions function suffix             AMD

  Platform Name                                   AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
Number of devices                                 2
  Device Name                                     Hawaii
  Device Vendor                                   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
  Device Vendor ID                                0x1002
  Device Version                                  OpenCL 1.2 AMD-APP (2236.5)
  Driver Version                                  2236.5
  Device OpenCL C Version                         OpenCL C 1.2 
  Device Type                                     GPU
  Device Profile                                  FULL_PROFILE
  Device Board Name (AMD)                         AMD Radeon (TM) R9 390 Series
...
```

So... the joke is on you. Now OpenCL doesn't ship with AMDGPU alone which is in the mainline kernel and pre-4.9, CIK parts require a flag getting set when the kernel is compiled (unless you're using AMDGPU-Pro,) so, it's not like you can't use it if you have a pre GCN 1.2 card. I personally have had more issues with DPM and the kernel itself than the drivers to be honest. On top of that, I do have Vulkan support with AMDGPU-Pro and I do have to say that DOTA runs far smoother on Vulkan than in OpenGL.

Either way, AMD's new mix open-source/closed-source stack is pretty interesting in the sense that the core driver is open source and is in the kernel and that the closed source extensions really just use the same driver but, with added software.


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 13, 2017)

I built a Nvidia/steam streaming machine for fun a while back using ubuntu and it was pretty painless.


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## bug (Jan 13, 2017)

Aquinus said:


> Or you can throw AMDGPU-Pro on your machine and that issue becomes a non-issue?
> 
> ```
> ...
> ...



Idk, I've tried to keep track of the development for the better part of 2016 and it's still not clear to me which driver you need for which functionality and for which card. Not to mention that after all the turmoil, their OpenGL performance is right where it was before (i.e. in the gutter).
Regardless, my comment was aimed at the guy who implied that by switching to AMD you get everything out-of-the-box.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Jan 13, 2017)

you do get everything out of the box. Everything that is normally necessary. And installing AMD drivers is relatively painless. I have never had issues installing the drivers or having the drivers crash on me. Im rocking a Hawaii card too. 7970ghz


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## bug (Jan 13, 2017)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> you do get everything out of the box. Everything that is normally necessary. And installing AMD drivers is relatively painless. I have never had issues installing the drivers or having the drivers crash on me. Im rocking a Hawaii card too. 7970ghz


I can't win, can I?
If I point out OpenGL on AMD is poorly implemented, you'll tell me Vulkan is the way forward.
If I point out Vulkan is not (yet) available in AMD's open driver, you tell me Vulkan is not "normally necessary".

The simple fact remains, only the closed driver fully enables the functionality of a card. Even then, it doesn't work for older cards. And it doesn't work with newer kernels. Imho, far from simplifying things, switching from Nvidia to AMD is more likely to give you more headaches.


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## FYFI13 (Jan 13, 2017)

brandonwh64 said:


> I built a Nvidia/steam streaming machine for fun a while back using ubuntu and it was pretty painless.


Same here. Using Ubuntu Mate 16.10 with GTX970 for gaming daily and no issues whatsoever. Driver installation involved 4 mouse clicks, literally.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Jan 13, 2017)

That is why I said AMD or Intel. Intel is flawless on Linux. Or did you forget that too.


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## bug (Jan 13, 2017)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> That is why I said AMD or Intel. Intel is flawless on Linux. Or did you forget that too.


Are you for real?
Distributions are dropping xf86-video-intel like crazy because it hasn't seen a new release in years.


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## alucasa (Jan 13, 2017)

People complaining about Windows should look at this thread.

@R-T-B is right. Unless you are a guru or have a throughout, proven, tutorial, going outside of package manager is almost always trouble.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Jan 13, 2017)

bug said:


> Are you for real?
> Distributions are dropping xf86-video-intel like crazy because it hasn't seen a new release in years.



You really think you dont install Intel drivers? Intel has its own driver installer. https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads
Works every time and gets regular updates. The latest release supports kernel 4.8.11.
I do something called research. You should try it sometime. ^_^



alucasa said:


> People complaining about Windows should look at this thread.
> 
> @R-T-B is right. Unless you are a guru or have a throughout, proven, tutorial, going outside of package manager is almost always trouble.



And no. That is categorically false. the package manager is just a GUI for the command line tool. In the case of Debian/Ubuntu/Mint, is it a GUI for Synaptic/APT. For Redhat/Fedora/CentOS, you have Gnome Software/Yum Extender which is a GUI for DNF. OpenSUSE has their package management as a GUI version of Zypper. Arch has its tools like Yaourt-GUI to install from Arch repos and Arch User Repos.

The package manager is a simple, graphical way to install software but if you know the name of the package or program, 9 times out of 10, you can install it faster through the terminal.

In Debian based distros installing VLC is as simple as: sudo apt-get install vlc -y

In RedHat based distros with DNF: sudo dnf install vlc -y
In Arch: sudo pacman -Sy vlc
or yaourt-gui, option 9, vlc, and number of package that matches vlc.

Under Fedora with DNF I can set it up to automatically check and install either the security patches or all updates with DNF-Automatic. I run Fedora on my server because once I setup DNF Automatic, I can only worry about software updates and not security patches.


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## bug (Jan 13, 2017)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> You really think you dont install Intel drivers? Intel has its own driver installer. https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads
> Works every time and gets regular updates. The latest release supports kernel 4.8.11.
> I do something called research. You should try it sometime. ^_^



xf86-video-intel - 2.99.917 - that driver was released in December 2014
But yeah, you do research...


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Jan 13, 2017)

bug said:


> xf86-video-intel - 2.99.917 - that driver was released in December 2014
> But yeah, you do research...


And where did I state that xf86 was updated? I didnt because it isnt. Intel packages that driver with a bunch of other stuff that actually makes a difference. The main reason people are dropping xf86 drivers is because they are switching to Wayland on which xf86 WONT WORK.

Like I said, perhaps you should do some research first before claiming Nvidia is the best option.

Here is Intel's driver stack (Dec 2016) that is installed via their installer:

Linux Kernel - 4.8.11
Mesa - 13.0.1
xf86-video-intel - 2.99.917
Libdrm - 2.4.74
Libva - 1.7.3
vaapi intel-driver - 1.7.3
Cairo - 1.15.2
Xorg Xserver - 1.19.0
Intel-gpu-tools - 1.17


And oh snap....would you look at that, when you read the release notes, you see Vulkan drivers..... [vulkancts,HSW] all vulkancts tests assert on HSW

And as far as you stating that AMD drivers dont support Vulkan under Linux.....bullshit. You clearly havent done your research. Here is the latest driver stack contents from AMD for Linux:

* Base Feature Support*


Supported APIs:
OpenGL 4.5 and GLX 1.4
OpenCL™1.2
Vulkan™ 1.0     *<----- Oh SNAP would you look at that!*

VDPAU
Vulkan™ support for DOTA2  *<--- Ohh Damn, look there!!!*

Basic display features
Basic power management features
KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) and ADF (Atomic Display Framework) support
GPL compliant kernel module
FirePro™ Features (EDID Management and 30-bit color)
Install script and Debian packages for Ubuntu 16.04, RHEL 7.2 and 6.8


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## bug (Jan 13, 2017)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> And where did I state that xf86 was updated? I didnt because it isnt. Intel packages that driver with a bunch of other stuff that actually makes a difference. The main reason people are dropping xf86 drivers is because they are switching to Wayland on which xf86 WONT WORK.



Stop. Please, just stop.

Distributions are moving away from the intel driver because it's old and unmaintained, Wayland has nothing to do with it. Please note that distros that drop xf86-video-intel are switching to xf86-video-modesetting, so clearly this move has nothing to do with the migration to Wayland.
See: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Debian-Abandon-Intel-DDX
and http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fedora-Xorg-Intel-DDX-Switch


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Jan 13, 2017)

bug said:


> Stop. Please, just stop.
> 
> Distributions are moving away from the intel driver because it's old and unmaintained, Wayland has nothing to do with it. Please note that distros that drop xf86-video-intel are switching to xf86-video-modesetting, so clearly this move has nothing to do with the migration to Wayland.
> See: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Debian-Abandon-Intel-DDX
> and http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fedora-Xorg-Intel-DDX-Switch




"basically Intel hasn't been investing many resources at all into this X.Org driver." I wonder why......Wayland.  Ubuntu is switching to Mir. Xserver uses xf86. the signs are all there.

https://01.org/linuxgraphics/community/wayland


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## Aquinus (Jan 13, 2017)

bug said:


> Idk, I've tried to keep track of the development for the better part of 2016 and it's still not clear to me which driver you need for which functionality and for which card. Not to mention that after all the turmoil, their OpenGL performance is right where it was before (i.e. in the gutter).
> Regardless, my comment was aimed at the guy who implied that by switching to AMD you get everything out-of-the-box.


Sure. I've *heard* that closed source nVidia drivers are actually pretty good with respect to performance and stability.

As for drivers, basically anything GCN 1.0 or earlier should be using radeon, AMDGPU (kernel driver alone ootb,) is good for GCN 1.2 cards. AMDGPU-Pro will install on GCN 1.1 cards but, it's not perfect. On the other hand, I do feel (anecdotal evidence warning,) that AMDGPU-Pro is smoother and possibly more performant than the radeon driver to be honest. I honestly think that AMD should put even more effort into AMDGPU because, if there are other people like me who are super unhappy with the issues Windows 10 is causing thanks to being a perpetual beta version whether you like it or not, better support in Linux might help people switch.

In reality, people don't want to fight with their computer or their OS. If I could start Ubuntu and have *good* support OOTB, I would be pretty happy and I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Jan 13, 2017)

I am pretty satisfied with Fedora 25. I have not had any issues so far running under Wayland instead of XServer.


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## bug (Jan 14, 2017)

Aquinus said:


> Sure. I've *heard* that closed source nVidia drivers are actually pretty good with respect to performance and stability.


Performance is basically on par with Windows (since it's really the same driver). But what makes me come back is day 1 support for newer kernels and X servers. AMD has fixed these last two issues, now they have to fix performance and enable all features in AMDGPU (non-Pro) and I may start to look towards the red camp again. I actually considered a 480 when I upgraded last year, but when I looked at the driver situation, I got a headache instead.




Aquinus said:


> As for drivers, basically anything GCN 1.0 or earlier should be using radeon, AMDGPU (kernel driver alone ootb,) is good for GCN 1.2 cards. AMDGPU-Pro will install on GCN 1.1 cards but, it's not perfect. On the other hand, I do feel (anecdotal evidence warning,) that AMDGPU-Pro is smoother and possibly more performant than the radeon driver to be honest. I honestly think that AMD should put even more effort into AMDGPU because, if there are other people like me who are super unhappy with the issues Windows 10 is causing thanks to being a perpetual beta version whether you like it or not, better support in Linux might help people switch.



AMDGPU is where all the efforts are concentrated, but it seems it still moves at a really slow pace.



Aquinus said:


> In reality, people don't want to fight with their computer or their OS. If I could start Ubuntu and have *good* support OOTB, I would be pretty happy and I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one.



Hear, hear.


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## RadFX (Jan 14, 2017)

Harry9001 said:


> Hi guys,
> I was begining to fall in love ubuntu until I started gaming on it(which I had decided not to do).
> Now, came in the driver problems, nouvelle(if i got the spellings right) or the nvidia one. Despite of choosing the nvidia one, the game gave me trouble(The forest).
> 
> ...



This may not be the best solution but the last time I had that problem I had to re-install Windows and let it fix the filesystem. Then I was able to re-install Linux after.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Jan 14, 2017)

RadFX said:


> This may not be the best solution but the last time I had that problem I had to re-install Windows and let it fix the filesystem. Then I was able to re-install Linux after.


How would Windows "fix" an EXT4 or BTRFS filesystem?


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## bug (Jan 15, 2017)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> How would Windows "fix" an EXT4 or BTRFS filesystem?


Windows has the tendency to mess any bootloader that you may have previously installed. That's why you install Windows first and Linux afterwards. But I don't think this solution fixes anything in this case.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Jan 15, 2017)

bug said:


> Windows has the tendency to mess any bootloader that you may have previously installed. That's why you install Windows first and Linux afterwards. But I don't think this solution fixes anything in this case.


you can also boot from a live disc and reinstall/configure GRUB or LILO. you could also just run Windows in a VM with PCI passthrough.


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## Harry9001 (Jan 17, 2017)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> you can also boot from a live disc and reinstall/configure GRUB or LILO. you could also just run Windows in a VM with PCI passthrough.


Tried the live disc, but lol, today after like 2 weeks of using it as my primary OS...it died on me, my USB was no longer considered as bootable by the bios.

I just ordered a new SSD, gonna install windows on it and manually remove Ubuntu system files from the HDD.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Jan 17, 2017)

Harry9001 said:


> Tried the live disc, but lol, today after like 2 weeks of using it as my primary OS...it died on me, my USB was no longer considered as bootable by the bios.
> 
> I just ordered a new SSD, gonna install windows on it and manually remove Ubuntu system files from the HDD.


pity. the BIOS failed you not the OS.


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## Harry9001 (Jan 17, 2017)

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:


> pity. the BIOS failed you not the OS.


Whatever maybe the reason, I'm done with ubuntu... But I do thank it, I learnt terminal  

Gonna go back to windows, with this decision of mine my family would surely be happy(they found ubuntu hard to use)

Anyways, thanks guys


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## bug (Jan 17, 2017)

Harry9001 said:


> Whatever maybe the reason, I'm done with ubuntu... But I do thank it, I learnt terminal



I can guarantee you haven't. You've merely scratched the surface.
But you did the right thing in the end. If installing Ubuntu was so much trouble, Linux is definitely not your cup of tea. Kudos to you for trying and looking at alternative OSes though


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