Linux

Hi....

• I don't know what to say in the introduction, but in brief I have some questions about Linux, which were formed after trying some distributions on DistroSea and observing Linux communities on the Internet. Can you help with the answer?

1. I liked Gnome DE interface very much, but whenever I look at the empty workspace after closing an app , I feel that something is missing (sorry, I have been using Windows for almost 15 years). Is there an add on - or any other way - to install some apps on workspace? Or do I have to get used to it as it is ?

2. I read that Linux is more problematic on laptops than on personal computers, is this true? If so...what are the usual problems and is there a way to avoid them?

3. Are there any distributions that come with the minimum pre-installed apps ? ... I mean not even a video or music player

4. If I want to delete a pre-installed app (let's say the default browser), can this be done easily or does it require root, like Android?

5. Does rooting invalidate the system from obtaining updates?

6. I read that switching DEs is easy... but how exactly is it done? Something in the settings, or downloading the interface independently, or customizing it to be similar to the other, or something else?

7. Lazy question : What are wayland and docker? I see a lot of people mentioning them

• Sorry for the many questions, and thanks in advance

I just got a drawing tablet, and have been wanting some software that would allow me to work out math problems, draw architecture diagrams, etc. I've seen some tools like Excalidraw, which look handy for the sharing capabilities. I also have just used plain krita, which has great feedback for the pen sensitivity, but obviously is overkill for whiteboarding.

Are there any tools you use or recommend for handwriting or picture drawing? Pen or mouse?

Finally, another web engine is being developed to compete with Chromium and Firefox (Gecko), and they're also working on a browser that will use it.

Here's the maintainer talking about the current state of the project, and a demo of the current functionality

Edit: I am trying to put linux on a compaq armada 1700.

I just need to gush for a minute. I am about to shutdown my server in order to move it to the basement. This off the shelf $300 desktop running Pop!_OS is my self-hosting server that has dutifully done it's job without a single complaint. It has been rebooted maybe three times since 2020 and it currently has an uptime of 840 days. That's 840 days of not ever thinking about this thing. It self updates via Cron jobs and just...works.

I am afraid to open the box up though. Those dust bunnies must be huge.

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping there are people here who work on FOSS and have applied for grants to support their software financially. I am applying for a grant opportunity that is asking for a software from US gov agency.

My requirements:

• I want to publish it under Open Source Licenses like GPL (not MIT) so other corps can't take this to use on their product,
• The grant agency will get the source code, they can do whatever as long as the license is held,
• I will develop the features they want, and request during the duration of grant,
• I will want to continue development independently after the grant, or apply for more grants from other organizations,
• To clarify the previous point, I do not want to give them the final product so they own it, and I can no longer do anything on the program.

So, if anyone has done similar things, please give me advice on this. Their requirement says "a web repository" should be provided at the end, so I think I can apply with the intention of giving them the software code while keeping the rights. But I don't want to make a mistake in application/contract and lost the rights to the program, I want to develop a lot further than just the features they want for their use case.

Or at least dual license to protect the Open Source Side while giving the grant organization rights to take the code for their other programs because of the money they spent.

I've been trying to get rid of my cellphone for awhile now. I switched to JMP.chat, I have Pidgin set up to make calls/texts, etc.

I use Trisquel GNU/Linux on my Libreboot laptop, my boss is fine with it.

My strategy looks something like this:

• Use earpiece that's connected via Bluetooth, have narrator software read out notifications (notifications from Microsoft Teams, Thunderbird, etc.)

• Put laptop into sleep mode, maybe use a script to put it into a special sleep mode to make sure I'm connected to WiFi while walking around warehouse so I can receive calls/texts timely.

• Forward all notifications from Teams to my email, so that I'm not relying on the web-based version to be open.

• For travel on the road, I have a USB modem that's connected to my LibreCMC router. I also have my laptop set up in my car on a stand.

Any suggestions?

TIA!

Hey folks,

So, I have an old school iPod I got from someone it’s sweet and I want to put my music on it. Is there a decent app in Linux that will be able to do the sync of music? Or is it able to be just copied to like an external drive?

I got my hands on a Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500 - you may have seen these in conference rooms, its a small Teams Room or Zoom Room device, based off their Tiny lineup, with a built-in touch display thats about 11" in diagonal.

https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkSmart/ThinkSmart_Hub_500/ThinkSmart_Hub_500_Spec.pdf

I left the 128gb nvme in there for now, and threw Debian 12 on it. Touch worked throughout the installation process, all I did was attach a keyboard, power, and network (along with the thumb drive with netinstall), now installed with KDE.

Considering the specs, the only part I'm surprised works well is the touchscreen, its otherwise just a generic lenovo tiny (which I have several of already, 6th-9th gen, as part of my tiny/mini/micro server stack). I could have chosen a different flavor, but I'm a long, long, loooonngggg time Debain user so its my go-to.

In terms of touch, tap, drag, and long press are all working. Video looks good with the UI set at 125% scaling, and to be candid its rather snappy and responsive.

I did this 100% for my own personal entertainment, so now for some thoughts for the community - what would be fun to use it for? A few of my thoughts....

• I could use it as a HomeAssistant kiosk. Neat, but.... overkill compared to the tablets doing the same job.
• Make it an emulation station, attach my steam controller and maybe my usb adapters for N64/GC/Sega/PS/etc.
• Use it to test a series of distributions to see how well they handle touch drivers for this silly thing (EndeavorOS is probably going to happen, I may be a long time Debian guy but I should spend more regular time in other things, and not just my arch VMs).
• I don't know, gcompris for my kids? They already have it though on an android tablet and an old mac mini (like, 2011ish) hooked up to the TV in the living room.
• Make it another proxmox endpoint for the cluster, install a DE anyway, and then let it be an always-visible display for grafana?
• Install OBS, let the hdmi capture have some purpose?

What about you folks, what would you find fun to do with this box?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ndlug.org/post/1001830

Today, we’re happy to announce the launch of the 2GB Raspberry Pi 5, built on a cost-optimised D0 stepping of the BCM2712 application processor, and priced at just $50.

The new D0 stepping strips away all that unneeded functionality, leaving only the bits we need. From the perspective of a Raspberry Pi user, it is functionally identical to its predecessor: the same fast quad-core processor; the same multimedia capabilities; and the same PCI Express bus that has proven to be one of the most exciting features of the Raspberry Pi 5 platform. However, it is cheaper to make, and so is available to us at somewhat lower cost. And this, combined with the savings from halving the memory capacity, has allowed us to take $10 out of the cost of the finished product.

So, while our most demanding users — who want to drive dual 4Kp60 displays, or open a hundred browser tabs, or compile complex software from source — will probably stick with the existing higher memory-capacity variants of Raspberry Pi 5, many of you will find that this new, lower-cost variant works perfectly well for your use cases.

Let's be honest: I only use Java for Minecraft. So I only debugged with it. But all version, server or client, all launchers. All of them use double (or more) RAM. In the game the correctly allocated amount is used, but on my system double or more is allocated. Thus my other apps don't get enough memory, causing crashes, while the game is suffering as well.

I'm not wise enough to know what logs or versions or whatever I should post here as a cry for help, but I'll update this with anything that'll help, just tell me. I have no idea how to approach the problem. One idea I have is to run a non-Minecraft java application, but who has( or knows about) one of those?

@[email protected]'s request:

launch arguments [-Xms512m, -Xmx1096m, -Duser.language=en] (it's this little, so that the difference shows clearly. I have a modpack that I give 8gb to and uses way more as well. iirc around 12)

game version 1.18.2

total system memory 32gb

memory used by the game I'm using KDE's default system monitor, but here's Btop as well:

this test was on max render distance, with 1gb of ram, it crashed ofc, but it crashed at almost 4gbs, what the hell! That's 4 times as much

I'm on arch (btw) (sry)

Finally got tired of my Windows 11 install, and I considered a Linux move. For years and years, I tried to move over, even all the way back in the Ubuntu 16.04 days, even daily drove for a few months, but there would always be something that would make me move back (including but not limited to HDR, support for my old iPod, Outlook calendars, so on). However, on my most recent attempt (running Arch and KDE) things just... work? Yeah, some command line trickery is needed for stuff like HDR gaming (and turns out the screenshots work now, they just get downsampled to SDR by Steam), but this works so so much better than my previous attempts to move over. In recent years, the experience is just so much more polished than it used to be. The situation is no longer "that won't work", it is "you can do that, with some minor tweaks". All my Steam games work nearly perfectly, with only a few changes like Proton GE needed. There are now even improvements like how text on my QD-OLED monitor (which is notoriously fuzzy on Windows) is crisp and clear, or how my Xbox controller's screenshot button works over Bluetooth on Steam unlike Windows which ignores the button entirely over Bluetooth. Things are really looking up!

I using sddm and installed awesomeWM. And using /usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup for my dvorak layout(setxkbmap us -v dvorak). But after each pacman update or installation my configuration is not working. I'm new to artix/arch, so can you help me?

I'm writing a program that wraps around dd to try and warn you if you are doing anything stupid. I have thus been giving the man page a good read. While doing this, I noticed that dd supported all the way up to Quettabytes, a unit orders of magnitude larger than all the data on the entire internet.

This has caused me to wonder what the largest storage operation you guys have done. I've taken a couple images of hard drives that were a single terabyte large, but I was wondering if the sysadmins among you have had to do something with e.g a giant RAID 10 array.

Spotted by: https://www.soeren-hentzschel.at/mozilla/exklusiv-sehen-wir-hier-das-neue-mozilla-logo/

Hello all, for a few weeks/months now, my computer has stopped going into suspend mode. Here is what happens when putting it to sleep (using GNOME's power menu) or using systemctl suspend:

1. Display turns off, peripherals turn off (keyboard lights off etc), fans spin up before sleep as usual
2. Fans go back to idle speed, computer stays on
3. Have to press the keyboard, wake the display up and go in the power menu again to suspend it (from the lock screen), and it works every time like this.

I have no idea what could be preventing suspend and what I could find online did not really help a lot. I don't think it is a USB device because I tried unplugging most of them except my mouse or my keyboard and it still did not work, and the second time on the lock screen it always suspends like intended

• Distro: Fedora 40
• DE: Gnome 46
• GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1080Ti (Wayland)
• CPU: Intel 10850K
• MB: Gigabyte Z590 Gaming X (everything is up to date)

thx !

I am using Debian for long time and really like it for stability. Recently I wondered if it is possible to run Arch Linux from chroot. I want to run full Wayland session from Arch. I found Archbox project and it is worked for me, but I couldn't start any Wayland compositor from tty (Error: can't connect to Wayland socket . ). How can I properly do this? Or maybe there is a better way than chroot?

Wayland seems ready to me but the main problem that many programs are not configured / compiled to support it. Why is that? I know it's not easy as "Wayland support? Yes" (but in many cases adding a flag is enough but maybe it's not a perfect support). What am I missing? Even Blender says if it fails to use Wayland it will use X11.

When Wayland is detected, it is the preferred system, otherwise X11 will be used

Also XWayland has many limitations as X11 does.