monovergent

joined 9 months ago
sorted by: new top controversial old
7
"Deploying" images rather than installing from the official ISO? (lemmy.ml)
 

I like my Linux installs heavily customized and security hardened, to the extent that copying over /home won't cut it, but not so much that it breaks when updating Debian. Whenever someone mentions reinstalling Linux, I am instinctively nervous thinking about the work it would take for me to get from a vanilla install to my current configuration.

It started a couple of years ago, when dreading the work of configuring Debian to my taste on a new laptop, I decided to instead just shrink my existing install to match the new laptop's drive and dd it over. I later made a VM from my install, stripped out personal files and obvious junk, and condensed it to a 30 GB raw disk image, which I then deployed on the rest of my machines.

That was still a bit too janky, so once my configuration and installed packages stabilized, I bit the bullet, spun up a new VM, and painstakingly replicated my configuration from a fresh copy of Debian. I finished with a 24 GB raw disk image, which I can now deploy as a "fresh" yet pre-configured install, whether to prepare new machines, make new VMs, fix broken installs, or just because I want to.

All that needs to be done after dd'ing the image to a new disk is:

  • Some machines: boot grubx64.efi/shimx64.efi from Ventoy and "bless" the new install with grub-install and update-grub
  • Reencrypt LUKS root partition with new password
  • Configure user and GRUB passwords
  • Set hostname
  • Install updates and drivers as needed
  • Configure for high DPI if needed

I'm interested to hear if any of you have a similar workflow or any feedback on mine.

Which CLI app/utility you wish there was a GUI for? in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (4 children)

yt-dlp. Too many options to remember and look up every time, but all useful and missing from GUIs when you just want to dowload audio or 'good enough' quality video in batches without re-encoding.

While nmtui is perfectly fine for the CLI-uninitiated, I sometimes wonder why the nm-connection-editor window doesn't provide the same level of functionality.

4
How Wayland handles security considerations vs MacOS Quartz or Windows DWM? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
4 comments fedilink
 

As I understand it, X11 has many inherent security concerns, including programs being able to read the contents of other windows and intercept keystrokes. Wayland addresses these concerns but at the moment breaks certain functions like screen readers, cursor warping, and the ability of a program to resize its own window.

I am curious as to how the display protocols of MacOS and Windows handle these situations differently. How does a program in those operating systems gain permission to read the contents of other windows, if at all? What is to be done in Wayland for these functions to be more seamless or are there inherent obstacles?

Finally back down to 14 tabs, still too embarrassed to show anyone in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

No shame in that. My phone's at 305 tabs. I'll look random things up throughout the day and sometimes I'll find a longer article that I'd like to read later. But I hate reading on my phone. So it just hangs out until my next tab purge, which is perhaps a yearly event.

What does your desktop look like? in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

More or less replicated the desktop layout I had used throughout childhood, sans desktop icons

  • Debian 12 stable
  • XFCE + Chicago95
  • Chicago95 black cursors
  • Helvetica bitmap font
  • Not shown: wdm login and slock screen locker
  • Running on an X230T with classic keyboard mod to complete the look
what caused you to get into Linux? in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Windows 10. When your OS no longer respects your choices and you have to fight it every minute, there is something wrong. The creeping invasions on privacy have only cemented my use of Linux

Truthfully, I'm not sure if I would have ever switched over if Microsoft kept the Windows 7 paradigm. But I started my search for alternatives when Windows 8 - already too adventurous for me - came with the computer I bought.

Towards the end of my time using Windows 10 as my primary OS, the realization that the UI is not an inherent component of the OS sealed the deal. As a Windows 2000 fan, I fell in love with the way Chicago95 Debian replicated the look and stability that I had sorely missed.