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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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I wanted to move my Arch VM to bare metal, so I copied out all the important bits. Then I wanted to move that copy to a new drive so I could boot into it.
I THOUGHT I'd MV all the files in the Arch install's etc directory using sudo MV /etc ...
I also (somehow) mashed my install's etc with Arch's and bungled both, with no live CD to help.
I learned a thing or two about absolute file paths...
Can't say I have any interesting stories. Most of mine are just the head-scratching "I don't know why that didn't work; guess I need to reinstall" kind of story. Like enabling encrypted LVM on install and suddenly nothing is visible to UEFI. Or trying to switch desktop environments using tasksel and now I have a blank screen on next reboot. That lame kind of stuff.
My coworker though... he was mindlessly copy/pasting commands and did the classic rm -rf $UNSETVARIABLE while in / and nuked months of migrated data on his newly built system. He hadn't even set up backups yet. Management was upset but lenient.
I somehow locked myself out of sudo when trying to give my user permission to read serial devices.
Had to reinstall.
I deleted the entire taskbar.
Before I understood how to properly build and test mesa (graphics driver), I compiled it and then procedeed to manually symlink the files in the lib and lib32 directories. When I pressed enter on that ln command, the UI immediately crashed and X would no longer start after rebooting the computer. Reinstalling mesa from a virtual terminal wouldn't fix it so I just reinstalled the system. Good times :)
Somehow I found ways to remove and break the GUI multiple times in multiple ways in multiple distros.
Different scenarios, different times, different issues trying to "fix". My usual fix after this was always to copy what I think I still had important and then move on with a reinstall.
Recently I have been playing with ZorinOS and broke it in the same way by fidgeting with pipewire. Distro hoped to Fedora Silverblue due to the immutable filesystem. I wonder if I will break this one in a way I cannot revert it easily with rpm-ostree. I almost feel challenged.
I had rEFInd and GRUB installed entirely by accident, and a botched update for Arch hosed my entire EFI setup making it impossible to boot Linux or Windows w/o a LiveCD. Thankfully it self repaired once I nuked rEFInd. I ended up going back to Ubuntu, but I hate snaps. I still would recommend Arch for most Linux users who want the power windows.
Relied on an AUR package for building and signing my unified kernel image... one day it was outdated and geberating the image failed, I noticed that by the fact that the system refused to boot my OS. Fixing it was done in a few minutes but boy, that was a shock :D
Guess who also checks the exact output of the kernel rebuild now before rebooting!