First-time user encounters various problems with Zorin OS

[Viktors]

Hello everyone!

This is my first time installing a Linux distribution, and I have to say, I really enjoy the customization and overall experience of Zorin!

However, the experience of setting everything up has not been as smooth and I have some questions that I hope you could answer.
This is my inxi/specs
I am also dual-booting Windows 10 with Zorin as there are still some things I want to keep that are better on Windows.

Firstly, there is a very weird issue with my keyboard as it often glitches out and keeps repeating some keystrokes like backspace and other letters, but this is 100% not an issue with the keyboard itself as in Windows it works perfectly. A temporary workaround that I found was to disable key-holding whatsoever so that a keystroke cannot repeat, but this comes with a downside – I myself can’t hold buttons on my keyboard for them to be repeated.

Secondly, when installing Zorin I chose dual booting as I plan on using both it and Windows, but when creating the partition on my hard drive for the OS, it created both the partition for the system and what I assume is a EFI/booting partition (not sure) and for some reason this has appeared in Windows as a browsable partition. When trying to remove a drive letter from it in Windows so that it is no longer in the UI when browsing my PC, the system app that is used for it, Disk Management, simply has all the options grayed out. Is there a possibility that I can hide it somehow else?

Thirdly, is there a way to set a ‘default’ audio device as I have multiple but use only one. Maybe there is a way to just disable the others?

I also have some questions about the Wi-Fi settings in the OS. My computer has two Wi-Fi adapters, one on the motherboard and one attached through USB. The USB adapter is much better than the motherboard one as it provides much better speeds and much less latency, but when checking my internet speed through the Ookla speedtest it shows speeds for about 40 megabits/second while the USB adapter usually provides me for about 300 megabits/second. How would I go about switching which adapter I use?

Lastly, I wanted to ask if there are some drivers that are needed for the USB adapter. The adapter I am using is based on the RTL8814AU chip, it is the TP-Link T9UH V2, and the latest Linux drivers for it on their site are impossible to use as when trying to use “sudo make” on the files that are provided in the terminal (I was following the steps they provided for installing the drivers) just sends a bunch of errors and doesn’t create anything installable that would work. I suspect that it might be linked to the fact that the released drivers are for an old kernel version, but might there be another driver that can be used for this?

Thanks in advance for everything!

[Aravisian]

@Viktors

Firstly, there is a very weird issue with my keyboard as it often glitches out and keeps repeating some keystrokes like backspace and other letters, but this is 100% not an issue with the keyboard itself as in Windows it works perfectly. A temporary workaround that I found was to disable key-holding whatsoever so that a keystroke cannot repeat, but this comes with a downside – I myself can’t hold buttons on my keyboard for them to be repeated.

You might try:

sudo apt install xserver-xorg-input-all

And try using those device drivers rather than the libinput.

@Viktors

When trying to remove a drive letter from it in Windows so that it is no longer in the UI when browsing my PC, the system app that is used for it, Disk Management, simply has all the options grayed out. Is there a possibility that I can hide it somehow else?

There really isn't, just as you cannot necessarily hide many other aspects of the system. If you are not actively using that drive letter, you can safely ignore it.

The wifi and wifi-usb questions blend together... so, I think a general answer that can be detailed more later may suit.
I think you are likely quite correct that the kernel may be involved. Using DKMS (Dynamic Kernel Module Support), many drivers can be utilized without needing to reinstall them everytime the kernel upgrades.
While that issue causes consternation with some, it is easy to remember that Windows would have the exact same problem if it upgraded its kernels as swiftly as Linux does. In this case, Linux moves faster.
Install git (always useful)

sudo apt install git build-essential

Use git to grab the drivers

git clone https://github.com/morrownr/8814au.git
cd 8814au

Change Directory into that folder

cd 8814au

And then run the installer script with:

sudo ./install-driver.sh

For DKMS Support, instead:

make dkms_install

Not all drivers work with DKMS, however. So the most System Stable move is to install an LTS stable kernel and default boot to only that kernel.
For example, you might use the 5.8 kernel:

sudo apt install linux-headers-5.8.0-63-generic linux-modules-5.8.0-63-generic linux-modules-extra-5.8.0-63-generic linux-image-5.8.0-63-generic

As long as everything works, you would not need to upgrade the kernel as that really mostly applies to providing support for the Newest Hardware.
Lock in the 5.8 kernel as your default boot:

[HOW TO] set an older kernel to default boot

You may need to use an earlier kernel than the current kernel used by Zorin. This method allows you to set the kernel that you will boot into by default. To set the new kernel to default: Boot into the kernel you wish to be Saved. Open terminal and run: sudo nano /etc/default/grub Change GRUB_DEFAULT=0 to GRUB_DEFAULT=saved Hit enter to drop down a line. Add GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true ctrl+x to exit, then the y key to say yes to save, then the enter key to save as current configuration. Ru…

@Viktors

Thirdly, is there a way to set a ‘default’ audio device as I have multiple but use only one. Maybe there is a way to just disable the others?

I will let those far better than I am at Sound Issues field this as I am opinionated.
Welcome to the forum.

[Viktors]

Hi and thanks so much for the help!

The Wi-Fi drivers were installed perfectly even without the DKMS support and now in the settings I can see that I have two adapters, the USB one and the one on the motherboard, so Wi-Fi problems are no more.

However, the solution you provided for fixing my keyboard did not help much, as it did not change anything, and every second key input does nothing, so I have to repeat it twice or thrice just to get it typed. I really hope that someone has another solution as this is way too much of a dealbraker for me if I can't type normally.

Still, I am very grateful for your help thus far, and I wish you a pleasant day!

[Aravisian]

@Viktors

However, the solution you provided for fixing my keyboard did not help much, as it did not change anything, and every second key input does nothing, so I have to repeat it twice or thrice just to get it typed. I really hope that someone has another solution as this is way too much of a dealbraker for me if I can't type normally.

That sounds like Sticky Keys are enabled. Can you please check and disable it if it is?
https://quick-adviser.com/how-do-i-turn-off-sticky-keys-in-ubuntu/

[boldos]

One of the great ways to choose between multiple output (and input) audio devices on your desktop is to use Sound Input&Output Device Chooser extension:
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/906/sound-output-device-chooser/

(Let us know, if you have trouble installing/enabling the desktop extension )

[Viktors]

Hey everyone!
Thanks for all of the replies! The keyboard situation magically disappeared for now after I booted into Zorin today, so hopefully that doesn't come up anymore.
The extension that boldos recommended works very well and the installation was not hard.
However, I have another question and hopefully I am not tiring you by asking you so many questions.
So, I have installed Steam and due to the fact I am dual-booting, all of my games are already installed on my other partitions that use NTFS. When mounting the drives, I can access them through /mnt/<insert_name_here> and Steam can interpret the needed folders as the game libraries, but it can't quite interact correctly as there are absolutely no write permissions that I have when interacting with anything outside the Zorin OS partition that I have.
Here is an image of my two drives (one is an ssd with a capacity of 480GB and the other is a 2TB drive, the green outline is where my games are stored and red outline is where Zorin is located.)
How would I go about getting Steam to be able to write to those partitions?
Thank you so much all, you have been a huge help!

[Viktors]

Hi everyone! To everyone searching for a solution to remove a drive letter that has appeared in Windows from installing Zorin OS, you can use this tutorial, as it helped me. Have a great day everyone!