I am a Linux beginner/amateur and I have sort of had enough of copy and pasting commands I find on the internet without having a good understanding of how they actually work.

I guess my end goal is to be able to comfortably install and use arch Linux with my own customization’s and be able to fix it when things go wrong.

What tips/ideas do you have for getting better at navigating the terminal, and getting a better understanding of how the os works. What is a good roadmap to follow? And how did you, advanced Linux user, get to the stage your at now?

Edit: my current distro is bazzite just in case you were interested and thanks for all the replies you are all really helpful.

  • fool
    41·
    8 days ago

    Work at the tip of your “paygrade” and try to make immersion as fun as possible. Maybe consider using a different disk for Linux, since mistakes are the best way to learn. (Don’t reinstall just because something broke).

    Here are some fantastic ways to make mistakes:

    1. Install a more involved, but typical, CLI-centric, DIY-friendly distro – from today’s order of difficulty, that’s EndeavourOS, (install is easy, then you can learn one package at a time), Arch Linux (install is hard iff you have trouble with understanding wiki structure, and you’ll want familiarity with what packages you need), and Gentoo (the installation guide is incredible).
    2. Try out new CLI software. The terminal is your friend! Are you gonna back up videos with yt-dlp? Perhaps make a shell script for something? Maybe search the AUR for something cool to try out (underrated function of the AUR: test-driving!). With a terminal, who needs file explorer?
    3. Play a game. Linux games exist… they’re called CTFs ;). Bandit is pretty fun for beginners (try to keep notes! Maybe use Git?): https://overthewire.org/wargames/bandit/
    4. Make unnecessary customizations (“rices”). Your shell can be made sexy (ohmyzsh?). Your lockscreen can be made sexy. Your windows can be made sexy. (And if you break something, don’t reinstall :3). Remember: if you build something pretty and see it every day… absolute epic.
    5. And of course, flex your hands, get your apron on, have fun popping the engine and fixing! How does one ask questions, put in due diligence, Google, read logs (like journalctl or dmesg or --verbose or whatever)? This is a skill you don’t lose – and we’ll be happy to answer a good question.

    Of course all of this depends on where you are (the tip of your paygrade). For pasting commands specifically, as you said… do 'em one at a time – and understand each one.
    Like, what is piping |? Why is xargs after it? Why can one stop ping with CTRL+C? What does man curl say about this weird curl command? How does one even read a manpage well, anyway (and is curl cheat.sh/SOME_COMMAND better)? Why is there so much gpg?

    And at the end of the day… remember how fun this shit is. The engine is open; we’re allowed to look inside. Woohoo!