Seeking guidance from more expert Linux users

Issues & Assistance
1

Hello, first things first your distro is suggested by many people for good out-of-the-box experience with pop_OS! so; kudos for your achievement. Why didn’t I chose pop_OS! over CachyOS? Because; it is debian based and I really dislike debian package manager, it freezes, it gives random bugs, it even gives errors when you try to cancel a download and stays in constant downloading state. So, I asked ChatGPT and it suggested me CachyOS because of pacman. And I am okay with that. I just wanted to say these. But; there are problems I have about Linux distros in general and I need a guidance. This might be little bit long writing so, if you have no patience you do not have to read at all, do not feel guilty :slight_smile: Reminder, English is not my native language so, I really have hard time to describe my exact problems verbally in detail. Thank you for understanding.

First, I should say I am not a techie person and I do not aspire to become one, I am just a regular guy who suffers from OCD and hates privacy invasion of big tech companies for any possible reason. Thatswhy, I am literally done with Windows. Windows used to be actually very smooth and aesthetically customizable operating system for a regular person (for power users it was different case, though). But; Microsoft continued to enshittify its prime product and made it non-viable option for me. They implemented forced ads, forced random updates, arbitrary changes in system, UI, widgets, themes… Plus, they demanded my private data in the façade of improving their systems. So, I paid for Windows, Microsoft enshittified it, moreover they wanted to grab my private data like cutpurse. So, it is really to be mocked by someone who use your money to do it. Their spoiled-ness has no bounds. Thatswhy, Linux is only viable option but; of course no system is perfect and Linux has its problems. (At least to according to perspective of a regular guy.)

As you know, Linux consists of different modules which are developed by independent teams or sometimes even singular persons. These people work on these modules for free for greater good with no revenue expectation, and I tip my hat to this fact and motive. But, this causes another problem. High decentralization is tend to have more inconsistency and this is the case for Linux. Lemme explain.

Because, I had problems in a linux distro, I had to fix it as soon as possible, I consulted ChatGPT about this matter. It gave me some codes but; some of them refused to be executed. So, ChatGPT said something like ‘Ah, it seems they removed this function in this version of this specific module.’ and this was not one time thing. Even-though, motives of linux developers are probably good, they make a lot of changes and this makes nearly-impossible for a regular person to fix even a simple error.

Second is konsole is not talkative. I will give you an example but; before that I want you to know I suffer from high level of OCD so; file integrity is very important to me. I cannot tolerate even negligible amount of corruption. In my particular experience, I tried tp copy a folder which was 10GB and it was copied instantly. It did not make any sense because, I did not have NASA computer. There should have been a mistake so, I consulted ChatGPT and wanted it to give me a code to check folder integrity and it did. I believe it was some function called DRY-RUN. And I executed it and got no output. ChatGPT said it was ok but; as I said I have OCD so; I tried this code with a fake destination. So, in new scenario, I did not have source folder and copied folder but; source folder and non-existent folder. And surprisingly it gave no output again. So, different scenarios but; same result. I am not Nostradamus so, I cannot guess what is exactly going on and what this particular “no output” result means in every possible scenario. I cannot know if the system gives me “no output” because, files are identical or it aborted the execution of the code because one folder does not exist in the first place. To make it clearer I will write a story. Jane works in an automative company and works on a project. She created “Orange Butterfly Project” folder as source and created lots of files in it. Then copied this folder to another location. After copying it she continued to work on source folder and even added two more files to it. But, unfortunately she did not realize she had not copied these two files to copied folder. So, this copied folder did not include these new two files and she did not realize this. Surpisingly; she was not worried at all because; she was prepared for the moments like this. She has also developed a habit to check file/folder integrity before finalize her presentation. For safety check, she wanted to check file integrity between two folders but, she had an old habit, she writes destinations of folders/files manually because, she believes it increases motor-coordination ability. Unfortunately, this would be her undoing. She misspelled copied folder name as “Orange Butterfly Projecr” and executed dry-run function. And system gave no output and she believed it was okay. But, it was not. Because, this “no output” was not for successful integrity check, it was for “there is nothing compare”. Sadly, konsole was not talkative and said nothing so; she assumed “no output” was a good sign. She went to her company for representation. She checked her files before representation starts then she noticed there were two files missing. Representation was incomplete so she got fired. Of-course, this is an unlikely scenario but; I made up this scenario to make you understand pointless ambiguity of “no output” in the system. I believe it should be more “readable” and “talkative” to users.

Third, there is no auto-logging for konsole operations which sucks because, half of your time in Linux is actually in it. Let alone auto-logging, after a point, konsole even erases old lines so, you cannot even see them at all after a period of time. I do not like it at all.

Fourth, this is very minor issue but bugging me. I have tried lots of linux distros out of curiousity in the past (most of them were debian-based iirc) and there was (and there still is) weird “Caps Lock” delay in all of them. I find it very frustrating and I could not find any solution. It is not about computer, brand of my keyboard etc. it is about system itself. Something is wrong and I do not know what it is. I wrote about this matter in a linux forum and people mocked me and said they could not recreate what I encountered. I use Caps Lock to use majuscules. I learnt it that way and I tend to keep it that way. I use Caps Lock for 26 years to use majuscules and I do not want to use Shift like some people suggest. I will demonstrate to you what I mean.

APple BAnana Orange CHerry >>> I have written these without restraining my typing speed. I do not have to restrain my speed in Windows OS but; in every linux distro I tried I encountered this error and I want it to be solved. I find it utterly frustrating. It might be minor (or even negligible) issue to you but for me it is mind-itching (I have OCD as I said.).

There is no application or function which works like CCleaner in Linux. I mean there are some suggestions but; they gave me “incomplete” vibes. And I was right about my suspicion because, when I accidentally check some folders; I saw some folders which were used by programs I uninstalled still there so; I had to remove them manually.

There is no globalized {I don’t know if this is true word to use in this context.} option to check integrity of distro at all. When I consulted ChatGPT, it said to me “check pacman, check flatpak, check this, check that separately.” I wish there was a OVER-command to execute all this functions at once. Plus there is a repo system in Linux. And, linux is community-driven project so people check websites and add repos from them but, this is chaotic because, especially windows refugees like me do not know if these repos are safe or not at all. Because there is no centralized checking system. Repos are sources of AppStore in Linux if I understood correctly (I used AppStore as an analogy here.). So, you enrich your AppStore with more repos but; how can I know if I do have some “shady” repos? It scares me a lot. In Windows, you download an executible file and run it then install it. If there is “shady”ness you remove it with revo, you clean residues with ccleaner. You manually check afterwards if there is more resistent residues than, you scan the computer against residual malwares. But, in Linux, this is not the case. And adding repo directly to your AppStore, gives you vulnerability. You can actually recognize and legitimize a shady repo without even noticing it and it installs trojans, viruses to your system and your system does nothing because it really believes they are legit and recognized applications so their functions are totally normal so there is nothing to worry about. I find this very very wrong. I believe this is weakest point of all Linux.

What do you recommend to me?

2

Hello and welcome,

As someone that has had various support roles I can only say that this really does not seem to be the case. Even for the more familiar or educated users there are all the examples of things like a win update that breaks win. Or even updates that function perfectly but might as well equate to malware for the non-consensual changes they make.

Uh-oh.
This can be a recipe for disaster.
These LLMs have a pretty poor track-record and it only gets worse with more specialized distros like Cachy.
If used at all they need to be tempered by a human with actual knowledge on the subjects .. else .. you might get confident ‘answers’ that will just wipe your local data or worse.
Its great you arent using one to admin the system directly but if you are not familiar with any of the subjects and are simply blindly copying from the LLM then its only one step removed.
Like this is the darling example of the last weeks but its not the only one;

???
So the LLM gave you some deprecated commands and this is somehow a problem with said distro?
Or with linux itself?

What exactly are we talking about here?
konsole is just a terminal emulator.
It does not decide what output the softwares output.
Its just a glorified screen that things run in.
Whether some command like cp returns anything is entirely dependent on cp, its flags, or any related configurations such as an alias for said command (which really in turn is just what commands and flags those things equate to).
So again you might need to give a real example and not stream of consciousness.

Again what do you mean?
history logs all commands and runs as long as it is configured.
Thats 500 commands for me. Maybe you set something else?
Or maybe you mean something else?
If you mean certain commands or the system as a whole then you are not really talking about konsole.
konsole is not in the background running anything.
konsole is a terminal emulator allowing you to run things.
Like journalctl where you might find some of the things you were looking for.
But it is still not entirely clear what that was so maybe something else?

What are you looking for exactly?
Maybe a self-advert but there is:

Integrity of the system?
In what way?
You probably have filesystem integrity checks running every boot for example.

You should not be adding any repos.
You can sure but theres few examples that make sense and they are highly specialized.
You should have Arch repos and Cachy repos and likely nothing else.

It seems like you are combining a lot of different things due to not being familiar with any of them so we have different issues and distros all merging together into new issues that do not really exist.

I could not possibly over state how much less safe of a model this is than the repository system.

What?
That we have permissions based things?
No - this is much more secure than the windoze model above.
With or without a ‘ccleaner’.

I might suggest going through the Arch Wiki for some basic understanding and then going from there.

3

This is the first mistake.Especially ChatGPT is a very bad advisor from what I experienced so far. Perplexity.ai is superior, but in general, all AI tools only really work fine if you have a basic idea of the topic you chat with them about. All of them tend to give you very, very wrong information when asked in the wrong way. I’ll give you my basic Perplexity prompt that I use for chats about CachyOS later today (I’m at work right now).

So your first problem is not a problem of Linux but of LLMs in general.

Redarding your second problem (with copying files), there seem to be some misunderstandings here.

First of all

Konsole is a terminal emulator, it cannot be talkative by itself. It is the commands you execute in that terminal which might be more or less talkative, some are more talkative with a --verbose option, if they have it.

So unless you tell us what you actually executed in Konsole, we can’t help you there. And again: don’t talk to ChatGPT and expect sane results.

And that is about all I can read on one coffee-break :smiley:

Edit: and of course @cscs ninja’d me once again :laughing:

4

I sincerely thank you for your response. Of-course my understanding is totally limited so, there are probably some nuances I missed. But; I want to clarify couple of things you asked, if I may.

So the LLM gave you some deprecated commands and this is somehow a problem with said distro?
Or with linux itself?

I understand not trusting fully to an AI is an understandable choice but; if you want to fix some issues very fast, you need fast response. For example, let’s consider I have very urgent problem in the system and do not know what to do and I managed to reach you via forum and you wanted me to execute some codes and write the output so you could understand what was the problem. So, I gave you output then you gave me new code, I took another output and gave it to you so on so on. I really appreciate effort but, does it seem efficient? And the other people have lives so, maybe I need a quick fix but, no person can give me quick response because you know they have lives. Thatswhy, I used LLM.

Again what do you mean?
history logs all commands and runs as long as it is configured.
Thats 500 commands for me. Maybe you set something else?
Or maybe you mean something else?

When I mean konsole I mean terminal thing. I do not know much about terminology but what I meant was “You execute a code and get no output.” Also, I had no idea how history works in konsole/terminal/command prompt. I saw no indication and ChatGPT said it did not exist. I just wanted a function which automatically saves all inputs and outputs from each separate session of a konsole/terminal/command prompt in separate text files. So, if I make mistake, I can open that text file track back my logs to solve the issue.

You should not be adding any repos.

I beg to differ because some applications do not exist in (semi-)official repos at all. Some applications do not even have pacman versions so, I had to enable flatpak. For example, I use MusicBrainz Picard and JDownloader but I could not find them in the (semi-)official repos so, I either asked LLM to help me add repos for these or went to these applications’ websites to check their guides to add their repos. But; LLM mentioned something as flatseal so I also downloaded and blocked some permissions of some flat programs. I believe it is kinda similar to Android’s permission system. At least at the surface.

So unless you tell us what you actually executed in Konsole, we can’t help you there. And again: don’t talk to ChatGPT and expect sane results.

rsync -ah --checksum --dry-run

5

You want verbose, so use the verbose flag: rsync -ahv --checksum --dry-run

6

I checked but; my concern still remains. I just want this system gives me output like these.

In first scenario,

I have one original folder and copied folder from it. And I executed rsync -ahv --checksum --dry-runIt gave me lots of file locations as list but; did not actually give me understandable result such as “These folders are totally same.” or “2 files are different, do you want to change them?”

In second scenario, I have one source folder and one non-existent folder. And, it gave me lots of files again but; no meaningful result such as “There is nothing to compare.” I wish it would talk to me with using human language :slight_smile:

7

Ok, let’s have a go - that was an epic story…

  1. Stop using ChatGPT for Linux commands. it just makes up stuff ont eh spot, and doesn’t understand much about version differences, and error meanings. For terminal commands, use the terminal - man, TLDR, or the Arch Wiki (CachyOS is Arch‑based).

For dry‑run folder comparisons, the correct tool is rsync -avhn --delete source/ dest/ (no output = identical content). If you misspell a path, rsync gives an explicit error: “No such file or directory”. Konsole is quiet because the command you ran likely failed silently – that’s a fault of the command (ChatGPT’s bad advice), not of the terminal.

Simply the way you criticise Konsole, and Debian, reflect very poorly on your abilities and attitudes.

  1. Caps Lock delay is not a universal Linux issue. I’ve seen this before, and it’s partly an issue I have seen with simply sloppy behaviour. In the past - with more mechanical devices, we learned to work around limitations - now people expect to simply mash the keys and have the system work it out.

What you describe (APple BAnana) tells me that you’re just not able to type as you should type. To type ‘Apple’ you should have released ShiftA before hitting the P. Similarly, for Banana, I’ve never managed to accidentally hit the ‘a’ before releasing the ‘Shift’. Maybe it’s a skill issue - or maybe it’s that my typing is only at 80wpm, so it’s just too slow to satisfy your OCD.

Slow down your typing until you can type properly and accurately. Caps only stops working when you RELEASE THE KEY. This is the correct behaviour, inherited from mechanical machines where you had to SHIFT by depressing a lever, you release the lever to release the shift.

  1. Cleaning uninstalled package residues: On CachyOS (Arch), leftover config files are normal. Use pacman -Qtdq to list orphaned packages, then sudo pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qtdq) to remove them with their configs. Never use CCleaner‑like tools (e.g., BleachBit) as root – they break Arch systems.

  2. Repository safety: You are right – adding random third‑party repos is dangerous. On Arch/CachyOS, stick to the official repositories (core, extra, community) and the AUR (Arch User Repository). For AUR, always read the PKGBUILD and comments. If you want a “centralized checking system”, use a distro with strong defaults like openSUSE Leap (Tumbleweed also has automated testing) or Linux Mint – both have curated repositories and GUI software stores. Mint is Ubuntu‑based (Debian family), but its software manager only shows safe, vetted packages by default.

Given your OCD and desire for predictability, verifiable operations, and fewer terminal surprises, I strongly recommend avoiding CachyOS.

Rolling releases (Arch, CachyOS) change weekly, and their commands behave differently over time – exactly what triggers your anxiety.

Instead, try Linux Mint (Cinnamon). It is:

  • Not Debian (it’s Ubuntu LTS – stable, but APT is fixed and doesn’t freeze if you use apt correctly) I also like NALA more than APT btw.
  • Has a “Timeshift” backup built‑in (you can verify folder integrity before/after)
  • Caps Lock issue is absent (tested; works like Windows)
  • Software Manager shows only safe repos by default
  • Comes with a GUI for cleaning caches and removing old kernels

HUGE red flag right there.

Duckduckgo results are almost instant - but WE must understand and parse them.

If we can’t, then we enter the forum and WE WAIT FOR RESPONSES>

If we can’t wait, we install something STABLE like Mint.

9

Actually, this “rolling release” thing was a fear for me but; then a person told me there was a file format called “btrfs” which lets you to roll back changes anytime you want if you are not okay with recent updates. He said it took “photographs” of the system to be able to roll it back easily. For this reason, even though CachyOS is rolling release distro, it seems enough to be considered stable. Moreover, updates are not mandatory in Linux and a person can choose what module to upgrade or not, it makes little bit easier to find sweet spot. I have OCD but I also have tendency for fine-tuning. It seems oxymoronic I know but, I am epitome of oxymoronity. :slight_smile:

I want to say I actually fell in love with pacman in CachyOS, there is no lag, no bug, no download loop like debian package manager. I do not know if Linux Mint can give me same stability with its package manager per se.

10

I used timeshift with Linux Mint for 6 years - no problems with rolling back.

It seems that you have a problem with language - the people advising you also don’t know what they’re talking about.

If you want that kind of stable, you could look at Bazzite instead.

The advice about ‘updates not mandatory’ is also completely misleading to you.

You should ABSOLUTELY always fully synchronise when you update.

11

But eventhough, I have chosen to move from CachyOS to Mint; there would still be problems I wanted to solve.

  • I want exact full logs with timestamps of every input/process/output in command prompt/terminal/konsole as separate text files in a folder.
  • I want to be able to use package manager without being have to execute any codes through command prompt/terminal/konsole

These two are very essential to me. Others are important too but especially these two are very very very important.

It seems that you have a problem with language

I did not get if you mentioned my English skills or not-using-correct-Linux-terminology. In either case, my sincerest apologies.

12

Unfortunately, your text was too long to read completely. If your criticism boils down to the two points mentioned above, you should be aware that Linux is merely the kernel upon which Arch is built. CachyOS takes advantage of this fact very successfully.

Mint is also based on the Linux kernel, but uses a different language. Have you inquired with them yet?

13

Both of these are in the standard cachy repos.

No you cannot do this safely in Arch derivatives.

14

This is not reasonable or practical.

Just having the history should be more than enough.

There are also note applications - like Marknotes - where you can make notes about what you’re doing.

If you insist on staying on an Arch‑based system, you must accept that the terminal is mandatory and logging is your own DIY project. Given your stated needs, that path will cause you ongoing frustration.

15

Technically speaking xonsh shell actually provides this as standard I believe…or extremely close (i.e. it captures command output in history at least)

Not that I am about to recommend xonsh to someone not comfortable in the terminal​:rofl:

16

No, but just imagine - do your update in the terminal and see how much output there is - now imagine capturing all of that spam to an archive.

Sure, it’s possible… but sure - I only ever heard of ONE person in ten years that said it might be a good idea to have as a standard feature.

17

Fair enough!

But…. Maybe learning a little techie stuff may help in this instance :wink:

What probably happened here is that you’re using BTRFS as it’s the default CachyOS filesystem, and BTRFS uses something called “Copy on Write”:

  1. You ‘copied’ a file from A to B.
  2. The filesystem didn’t actually make a copy, it just made a reference from the original file (A) and called that reference B. This is instantaneous from a user perspective.
  3. If you now try to edit A or B, then the filesystem will make an actual “physical” copy, before writing your edits.

(Note this only applies if you are copying to/from the same partition. Otherwise it will always make a full copy.)

18

As was said before: this is not true for an Arch Linux. You can choose when to update, but not what to update. It’s an all-or-nothing situation: you pacman -Syu or you don’t. There is no “update package X but not package Y”, because this would be a partial upgrade which is unsupported.

First of all: BTRFS is a file system, not a file format, but maybe that is what you mean. But what that person told you is a slightly wrong interpretation of what BTRFS snapshots really are. Don’t get me wrong: I also like the fact that I have them, but they are not always 100% reliable in terms of rolling back your system. I know because just recently, I went back to a former snapshot because I wanted to prove something (can’t find that thread now, though) and that completely killed my system. Could not boot anymore, was thrown into emergency mode instead.

So I booted from a Live ISO, chrooted into my system, did a pacman -Syu, sacrificed a baby goat on the altar of madness and luckily, I could boot again.

What I am saying is that having snapshots might still lead to problems when trying to restore them.

As others already said: this is a highly unusual request and I doubt that there is any automatism for that.

Let me ask you this: did you ever have something like that in Windows? And if not: why would you need it all of a sudden?

I am keeping diaries (== plain text files) of the things I tweak on my system, so I can look them up later. But they do not contain every single line of terminal output, that would be crazy.

19

Strictly speaking this is actually possible, but extremely dangerous for anyone who doesn’t have an extremely thorough understanding of the system. There are two instances where I downgraded a package waiting for something else to catch up - in ten years…

This sounds more a feature of an immutable/atomic distribution to be honest, or a sandboxing scenario; you could run an older version of software as long as it has a matching runtime bundled with it.

So yes, overall - unless you already understand it, just understand the basic rule “You just can’t do that stuff”.

This kind of attitude (I can do what I like) is likely what caused issues running Pop!_OS.

20

also BTRFS is constantly checksumming your files when it accesses them to confirm no corruption.

21

As promised, here is my “initial prompt” when I talk to Perplexity about Cachy:

Let’s talk about Linux CachyOS. Answer like an IT professional would do. If any of your answer might lead to possible problems, issues or repercussions, inform me about them before answering.

Although it seems as if OP is already gone :smile: