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2 yr. ago

  • Beyond the article being ancient at this point (in terms of AOSP and Android development lifetime), Stallman's argument boils down to the same talking points of Free Software purism.

    To the first real point being transformed here: Android is not GNU/Linux because it does not contain much of the GNU Project's software. While it's correct to claim it's not GNU/Linux, how does it not make it Linux still? Is Alpine Linux not considered "Linux" because it doesn't contain GNU? Please elaborate on this point of Linux being Linux because it has GNU.

    To the second point of including proprietary drivers, firmware, and appplications: we once again meet the questionable argument of transforming an OS to something else. Points are made that Android doesn't fit the GNU ideals due to its usage and inclusion of proprietary kernel modules, firmware, and userland applications. These are valid points to be made in that these additions muddy the aspect of Android (as packaged by Google and major smartphone manufacturers) being truly free software. However the same can be said about traditional "GNU/Linux distributions". Any device running on x86 (Intel, AMD) will be subject to needing proprietary firmware in order to function with that firmware having a higher control level than the kernel itself, just as Android would. There is also the note that while it is less necessary now to have a functioning desktop, a good portion of hardware (NVidia, Broadcom, Intel, etc.) require proprietary kernel modules and/or userland drivers in order to have full functionality that the average user may want. Finally, there is proprietary applications as well. Some Linux desktops include proprietary applications like Spotify, Steam, Google Chrome by default. Are we really to also exclude an overwhelming majority of the biggest Linux distros as Linux as well being that they include proprietary software or rely on proprietary code in some fashion? GNU itself lists very few distros as GNU-approved.

    To note, AOSP does have a different userland environment than your standard Linux distro running X11 or Wayland. That is by far the best reason I could think of to classify Android as a different category of 'Linux' from say Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Arch, Gentoo, Slackware, and others. However, AOSP is still capable of running with no proprietary userland software and can even be made to still run cli applications as well as run an X11 server that is capable of launching familiar desktop Linux applications. I really think that the arbitrary exclusion of Android from being Linux by virtue that RMS doesn't think it fits with GNU ideals is silly. If there are better arguments to be said for why Android (especially AOSP) shouldn't be seen as Linux with a different userland ecosystem rather than not Linux entirely, I'd love to see them. However, I remain unconvinced so far.

  • The A485 is actually such a terrible laptop. I would never reccomend such garbage to anyone considering mine almost never worked properly. I had in three years have six main board replacements for various hardware faults. Not a single of the boards has been free from severe hardware faults.

  • I have been utilizing BunkerWeb for some of my selfhost sites since it was bunkerized-nginx. It is indeed powerful and flexible, allowing multi-site proxying, hosting while allowing semi-flexible per-site security tweaks (some security options are forcibly global still, a limitation).

    I use it on podman myself, and while it is generally great for having OWasp CRS, general traffic filtering targets and more built on top of nginx in a Docker container, the way Bunkerweb needs to be run hasn't really remained stable between versions. Throughout several version upgrades, there have been be severe breaking changes that will require reading the setup documentation again to get the new version functional.

  • For the longest time reading this post, I didn't catch that you were setting up a simple dual boot for an internal SSD and thought with using tools like Ventoy you were making a multiboot portable install.

    You are obscenely overcomplicating this. Your current approach is almost completely wrong to getting a functional multiboot system that passes secure boot and everything else.

    Quite literally, bootstrapping from windows can use Rufus or ventoy on a USB stick to dump the ISOs on. Then boot into bios from the USB EFI entry. From there, simply install Fedora (no VM necessary). You'll get Fedora installed in a GPT/EFI configuration (if you formatted your drive for install). If doing manual partitioning to leave space or do other configurations, format the drive to GPT. If multibooting, you may want to expand your EFI partition beyond 512MiB for multiple distros.

    For other Linux OS to install alongside, you can then install them in the free space. Another comment mentioned to not install a bootloader on the secondary OS(es), which is generally a good idea.

    For Tails, it is not meant to be installed on an SSD. It is best to use it on a flash drive.

    Overall, a majority of your issues stem from the following:

    • trying to use live distro images as an actual OS install
    • using Ventoy as your bootloader
    • using legacy MBR partition tables instead of GPT without expressed need for them
    • Using virtualbox in general to provision bare metal hardware (changes need to be made in your VM software of choice to get EFI booting to work)

    I'd argue your conclusion of people not switching to Linux because you found it too hard is almost entirely not because of any issue on Linux, but the factors you wedged yourself into on a modern x86 PC due to your methods in accomplishing your goal.

  • Could you elaborate on this? As someone who uses SystemD extensively on workstations and servers for spawning and managing both system-level and user-level services, I do find minimal issues overall with SystemD minus some certain functionalities such as socket spawning/respawning.

    Of course some of default SystemD's housekeeping services do suck and I replace them with others. I would like to see the ability to just remove those services outright from my systems as separate packages since they do remain useless, but it isn't that big of an issue.

  • This is render offloading, not GPU switching. GPU switching implies switching the primary rendering device (the one power the displays) entirely rather than rendering on a separate GPU and copying the output to the primary.

  • I'm glad I am not the only one who calls my little ASUS netbook craptop. Kinda flimsy and definitely underpowered, but a perfect little device to run basic applications and terminal applications on a minimal window manager.

  • Before going any further to adjust your Z offset and other factors to tune for better bed adhesion, you should probably adjust your bed to actually be level as well as ensure (seeing that you only have one z lead screw?) that the X axis frame isn't sagging on the side not containing your Z lead screw. Once you've got those factors sorted out, you should check your probe repeatability and then set your Z offset accordingly.

    Bed adhesion even with proper, clean first layers can be a pain depending on the bed surface, material being printed, how clean the bed is of oils and other contaminants, how hot the material is being extruded, and how hot the bed is among other factors. While using a bed mesh will greatly help to account for off-zero unevenness in your bed surface, you really shouldn't use it to compensate for uneven bed leveling (especially when it looks like you are nearing more than 0.5 mm in unevenness).

    To diagnose other print issues, it will be helpful to see a picture showcasing the problems described in a failed print.


    As a side note, it is somewhat difficult to read your Klipper config file without using view source as it is being markdown formatted. You can negate it by using three graves on the lines above and below it so that it is wrapped in a 'code block' and isn't formatted.


    \ Some code
    \   eeeee
    \   fffff
    \

    Turns into

     
        
    Some code
      eeeee
      fffff
    
      
  • User-Centric Innovation: Unveiling the Industry-Leading Battery Life

    We know how a smartwatch becomes integral to its wearer's life, and battery life can't be a concern. That's why we went back to the drawing board, driven by community feedback, to ensure the OnePlus Watch 2 delivers an exceptional user experience. With up to 100-hour battery life in full Smart Mode, it sets a new industry standard, ensuring that your watch keeps pace with your life, uninterrupted.

    Really impressive how OnePlus is touting a relatively mediocre 4-day (at best) battery life on a smartwatch as something exceptional or something that they (falsely) claim as industry-leading. Maybe it is good by typical WearOS device standards, but is by no means top of the line for the smartwatch industry.

  • In general, Microsoft doesn't support many filesystem formats at all. In the same way you shouldn't attempt to cross-run a steam library from Windows on Linux, you really shouldn't do from Linux to Windows. It's in part due to how permissions, execution flags, filesystem case sensitivity, file metadata, is interpreted by Windows applications vs. Unix-like applications. There will be issues going either way when using foreign filesystems in complex tasks.

    While it should be expected that the files will have the same contents where they are actually the same (i.e. a Proton game will be the same as a Windows game as it comes from the same steam depot), there is a good chance that translation of interpretation isn't to be 1:1 on either side. Furthermore with using Steam libraries, Steam includes additional data beyond just the game files, which is likely why they are invalidated. A significant portion of visible cross-os portability issues is due to many applications like Steam using OS-specific file structures. More than likely Steam is going to intentionally make the library metadata not fully compatible between Linux and Windows Steam and force validation before launch because there is a good chance the games aren't even compatible builds or otherwise have additional compatibility content dragged along (such as Proton WINE prefixes that are to be completely ignored when launching from actual Windows or having additional libraries, modded executable binaries that have platform-oriented patches).

    If you seriously want to run a cross-share of a Steam Library between Linux and Windows, you should really utilize Steam Cloud save. If you want to "deduplicate" your games, your best bet would be if you can open the foreign fs and have a compatible copy of the game, to simply clone the game files to the current filesystem and remove from remote rather than attempt to force a multi-os single-partition shared library. You are less likely to destroy your Steam library if you treat the actual libraries separate, but move the games like they were downloaded externally. Barring being able to do that, just don't cross-share games. Simply reboot into the OS that has the game you want to play instead.

  • One can comfortably use NTFS to read and write files on modern Linux distributions, but NTFS in general is not very suitable for running applications on or using for long-term usage between a dual-boot. Windows can and will often lock up NTFS partitions whenever it decides to hibernate rather than shutdown or sometimes suspend. NTFS while not being the greatest FS in general will also have worse performance on Linux than Windows. You can totally keep data stores on a Linux system, though you won't be able to make use of many of the advanced features some Linux/BSD-oriented filesystems offer. You can totally keep your drives as they are now, though if you intend to make a full switch you should consider migrating your drives' data over to more Linux-oriented filesystems (be it Btrfs, Xfs, or Ext4 is your choice depending on the features you want). In short, NTFS works but lacks a lot of features and performance that a more suitable filesystem would offer.

  • I am not sure if jest, but you could always take a few seconds at protondb to see that yes, all of those games do in fact run on Linux. Forza in particular seems to have issues for some users, but everything else works with minimal hassle.

  • The desired alternative is not Matrix simply because privacy-conscious, open-source ecosystem vs. proprietary solution is not the goal. Matrix would still generally be terrible for support. What people want is publicly searchable content that is ideally indexed like a wiki. Many will happily settle for issue boards or even forums though. Discord has pathetic search capabilities in comparison to any search engine and has no way to properly and publicly backup information that is posted to the platform. With a website of any kind, one could clone the site for mirroring or simply get a web archive service to crawl relevant sections.

  • Not the same person, but I greatly enjoy my (now second) Pebble classic for several reasons, which I imagine some are shared between Starayo.

    • Always-on Display
    • Week-long battery life
    • High contrast display that can be read easily in low light as well as in direct sunlight
    • Simple notifications support, with quick canned replies
    • physical button navigation that make the watch easy to use without needing to look at it
    • Isn't obscenely large
    • quick launch application shortcuts from holding side buttons
    • simple media playback control that is responsive
    • Doesn't attempt to be another smartphone, but rather as a local companion to your existing smartphone (doesn't thrive on individual apps, but rather companion apps to complement smartphone usage)
    • Customizable and relatively simple to write applications and watchfaces for.

    Unfortunately for me, fossil's watches do not match up. Looking at the gen 6, still uses an ill-suited AMOLED display that is bound to have poor contrast in direct sunlight unless the brightness is cranked so far that it will blow through the battery. Even then, the average battery life on the gen 6 is atrocious compared to most Pebble models as many reports say it can make it through one day. I'm sure by now, WearOS devices have worked out some of the kinks to make them easier and faster to use, though I am not sold on needing a personal assistant in order to do basic tasks (as Fossil markets their gen 6 smartwatch; I do doubt that this is necessary for general function).

    Also, this might be controversial, but I personally feel that a device that has Bluetooth and is intended to communicate with a device that is often within ten feet of it really doesn't need to waste resources and probably become more of a privacy nightmare by including Wi-Fi, LTE, and other data communication methods (beside NFC). Furthermore, pretty much every WearOS device I have seen has had a struggle to keep battery life for more than a couple days, and everyone deems that devices that can should be praised for whatever reason. Seeing as my ancient smartwatch that does most of what these newer watches do yet can effortlessly hold a six day battery life at worst, I seriously question why newer watches that have so much compromise and are incredibly misguided as to what a complementary wearable should be are what are being developed. Not to mention that the Pebble classic on launch was $99 USD whereas one can easily find $400+ smartwatches that still have way too much compromise in comparison.

  • There are not many Android phones that actually let you flex the open source benefits of AOSP. Android as it is packaged on many devices is not open source, and nor are the devices willing to fully let you install what you want. Ironically some of the only choices you have with the highest degree of freedom are from google.

  • Yes, just make sure that the boot setup for the distro install is compatible with what you intend to install it onto (I.E. if your server is going to be using EFI to boot an OS, install your Ubuntu instance as GPT, EFI onto the SSD). Depending on what wireless modules you are using and where you are sourcing them and how you are installing them, you might need to ensure Secure Boot is disabled in the BIOS of your server. This will be the case if the kernel module package you are installing doesn't sign the wireless adapter driver you intend to use. Otherwise, most drivers you could possibly need should be baked into the kernel and you should be good to go.

    (One further sidenote coming from someone who has not used Ubuntu in a long time (since 16.04's release), it would be good to check in the /etc/fstab file that the filesystem references are using either UUID or PARTUUID. Depending upon the drive layout of the server you are mounting the intended drive into, traditionally labeled references such as sda or nvme0n1 can change depending upon the slots each drive is seated. Using UUID or PARTUUID in the fstab reference alleviates any potential complications from this scenario where fstab might reference the wrong drive in mounting partitions. I do believe Ubuntu would likely do this by default nowadays, but it can't hurt to check.)

  • VideoLabs is made up of many of the same contributors of VideoLAN, including Jean-Baptiste Kempf themself. It is arguable that this is in fact Unity banning VideoLAN's VLC bridges for media playback in Unity.