Linux

Hi, I've just replaced my "HTPC" and done a fresh install of Debian on it. There's a strange issue with Kodi and the focus under Wayland: after some time Kodi (running in full screen) loses focus so I cannot navigate it with the TV remote anymore, but I have to switch back to Kodi using ALT+TAB on the keyboard. I'm not sure of when this happens, basically I power on the TV on the next day and Kodi has lost focus, the PC is always on. Since something like this had never happened before on the old PC (running Mint), I tried switching to xorg instead of Wayland and the problem disappeared. Desktop environment is KDE, Kodi is installed via official flatpak. No standard keyboard or mouse are connected to the PC, only a wireless keyboard with touchpad which is pratically always powered off, so it is impossible that someone is switching focus by mistake. Does anyone have any clue?

https://youtu.be/hKypVQuA7yk

Please and thank you

Linux mint 22.1 and jackett is hogging 200+GB of virtual memory. I do have a couple -arrs running, and calibre server, but it seems a ludicrous amount of memory. Reading on the webs it seems people think 20GB is crazy.

Any help/thoughts where to look? Not using Docker.

I let Discover handle updating to Fedora 42 and got a kernel panic error, so I backed up /home/ and did a fresh install of Fedora 42.

I started my restoration by nuking /home/ with sudo rm -R /home/ and then copied everything over via Dolphin as stuff was slowly torn asunder as parts unloaded from RAM. Everything seems intact so far...

This is going to be nice. Good first step.

UPDATE: After hours and dozens of fixes it simple does not work. The Boss Katana Mini X seems to be completely incompatible with Linux. I'm gonna install Windows again on my Surface. W11 works like dogshit on it but at least I can use it to connect to my guitar amp.

Leaving the thread open in case a solution does eventually appear.

OP:

I'm having an issue with a BT speaker, well Guitar amp. actually. (BOSS Katana Mini X)

Device is a Microsoft Surface Pro 7.

It connects, but it wont play any sound at all. I'm now at the point where I'm considering installing W11 on that Surface again just so I can connect it to my amp to play some guitar with backing tracks and whatnot. I hate using my phone for this.

• Speaker is chosen as the output device.
• Tried to switch to PipeWire
• Installed Blueman and a Pulse Audio interface
• Also tried this on Fedora 41(GNOME)
• Bluetooth earbuds from JBL works fine and get normal sound
• I have installed the kernel for Surface devices, but I also tested this BEFORE installing that and there has been no difference on both Ubuntu and Fedora.

What I notice is there's only two configs I can chose from on the settings for the amp as an output device, instead of the long list I have on other devices. Possible cause?

Look, I've only been a Linux user for a couple of years, but if there's one thing I've learned, it's that we're not afraid to tinker. Most of us came from Windows or macOS at some point, ditching the mainstream for better control, privacy, or just to escape the corporate BS. We're the people who choose the harder path when we think it's worth it.

Which is why I find it so damn interesting that atomic distros haven't caught on more. The landscape is incredibly diverse now - from gaming-focused Bazzite to the purely functional philosophy of Guix System. These distros couldn't be more different in their approaches, but they all share this core atomic DNA.

These systems offer some seriously compelling stuff - updates that either work 100% or roll back automatically, no more "oops I bricked my system" moments, better security through immutability, and way fewer update headaches.

So what gives? Why aren't more of us jumping on board? From my conversations and personal experience, I think it boils down to a few things:

Our current setups already work fine. Let's be honest - when you've spent years perfecting your Arch or Debian setup, the thought of learning a whole new paradigm feels exhausting. Why fix what isn't broken, right?

The learning curve seems steep. Yes, you can do pretty much everything on atomic distros that you can on traditional ones, but the how is different. Instead of apt install whatever and editing config files directly, you're suddenly dealing with containers, layering, or declarative configs. It's not necessarily harder, just... different.

The docs can be sparse. Traditional distros have decades of guides, forum posts, and StackExchange answers. Atomic systems? Not nearly as much. When something breaks at 2am, knowing there's a million Google results for your error message is comforting.

I've been thinking about this because Linux has overcome similar hurdles before. Remember when gaming on Linux was basically impossible? Now we have the Steam Deck running an immutable SteamOS (of all things!) and my non-Linux friends are buying them without even realizing they're using Linux. It just works.

So I'm genuinely curious - what's keeping YOU from switching to an atomic distro? Is it specific software you need? Concerns about customization? Just can't be bothered to learn new tricks?

Your answers might actually help developers focus on the right pain points. The atomic approach makes so much sense on paper that I'm convinced it's the future - we just need to figure out what's stopping people from making the jump today.

So what would it actually take to get you to switch? I'm all ears.

Edit: This worked for me in Zorin! Thanks for the ideas & discussion in the replies! https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-create-folders-in-gnome-44-to-declutter-the-application-overview

Hi, I'm looking to switch to Linux full-time on my desktop. Aside from my NAS, I'm pretty unfamiliar with Linux in general.

On Windows, I have apps pinned to the Start menu grid, with apps in groups/folders for easy access. I don't pin anything to the taskbar or leave icons on the desktop. For the apps I care about most - and there's around 40 of them - they're available with just 3 clicks maximum. I can reorder them and put them in groups (or pull them out of groups) anytime.

Here's what that looked like (note the top row): https://i.imgur.com/Y9PmYoG.png

On Zorin OS (Ubuntu-based) via Gnome, I haven't had any such luck. ArcMenu is great but offers no app group support. This also a feature that doesn't seem to be in very strong demand in general. I can use the Gnome menu editor (Alacarte, rebranded as "Main Menu" in Zorin) to hide the default categories & make my own. This would be a perfectly suitable solution... but doing so requires multiple steps per app - no copying & pasting, no drag & drop, each one has to be created on a per-category basis. The amount of effort is considerable. I don't mind doing it once of course, but if I decide to reorganize, it'll require all of that effort all over again.

I'm fully happy with Gnome, I'm looking for a productivity-first DE and the only issue is this app menu situation which is a hard deal breaker. I guess I just have three questions:

1. Are there alternative menus I can check out which might be able to solve this?

2. I doubt this, but: Is there an easier menu-category editor I could use? Something that allows for at least moving/copying between categories, so I can grab an app from All Apps or something and put it where I want it. Choosing a unique name, finding an icon, copying the terminal command, etc. is a ton of work just to stay organized.

3. Would using a different DE offer the flexibility I'm looking for in this situation? I'm willing to switch DEs or even distros to fix this - it's seriously the crux of my workflow.

If this is the wrong community to post this, please point me in the right direction and I'll post there. Thanks in advance, I've been trying to find a fix for this for several hours and I'm not sure where to look for an answer.

I'm currently working on a build tool, which does caching based on the last-modified timestamp of files. And yeah, man, I was prepared for a world of pain, where I'd have to store a list of all files, so I could tell when one of them disappears.
I probably would've also had to make up some non-existent last-modified timestamp to try to pretend I know when that file got deleted. I figured, there's no way to ask the deleted file when it got deleted, because it doesn't exist anymore.

Thank you, to whomever had that smart idea to design it like that. I can just take the directory last-modified timestamp now, if it's the highest value.
In fact, my implementation accidentally does this correct already. That's how I found out. 🫠

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/19564932

https://github.com/thingsiplay/crc32sum

# usage: crc32sum [-h] [-r] [-i] [-u] [--version] [path ...]

crc32sum *.sfc
2d206bf7  Chrono Trigger (USA).sfc

Previously I used a Bash script to filter out the checksum from 7z output. That felt always a bit hacky and the output was not very flexible. Plus the Python script does not rely on any external module or program too. Also the underlying 7z program call would automatically search for all files in sub directories recursively when a directory was given as input. This would require some additional rework, but I decided it is a better idea to start from scratch in a programming language. So I finally wrote this, to have a bit better control. My previous Bash script can be found here, in case you are curious: https://gist.github.com/thingsiplay/5f07e82ec4138581c6802907c74d4759

BTW, believe it or not, the Bash script running multiple commands starts and executes faster than the Python instance. But the difference is negligible, and the programmable control in Python is much more important to me.

What is this program for?

Calculates the CRC hash for each given file, using Python's integrated zlib module. It has a similar use like MD5 or SHA, but is way, way weaker and simpler. It's a quick and easy method to verify the integrity of files, in example after downloading from the web, to check data corruption from your external drives or when creating expected files.

It is important to know and understand that CRC-32 is not secure and should never be used cryptographically. It's use is limited for very simple use cases.

Linux does not have a standard program to calculate the CRC. This is a very simple program to have a similar output like md5sum offers by default. Why use CRC at all? Usually and most of the time CRC is not required to be used. In fact, I favor MD5 or SHA when possible. But sometimes, only a CRC is provided (often used by the retro emulation gaming scene). Theoretically CRC should also be faster than the other methods, but no performance comparison has been made (frankly the difference doesn't matter to me).

Hi. I recently encounter these random freezes on the Fedora i3 flavor. I tested on 2 different computers with different graphical hardware (Intel and AMD) and different configs (fresh install and my own config). I got the random freeze on all of them. It is very hard to replicate these freezes and journalctl does not show any error. Even with the fresh install version, I still get these freezes.

The freezes are something like:

• Cannot use Mod+key to launch anything. This includes Mod+D for Dmenu or Rofi, I test with both. Further, you also cannot launch things like terminal: Mod + Enter.

• Mod+ number still works. So you can switch workspace but cannoy launch anythint

• Mod + key for mode works. So in my case, I bind Mod+0 to show a mode bar with selections to shutdown, reboot or logout. Pretty similar to how Manjaro i3 handled it. When the freezes occur, this is the only way for me to logout.

• Force reboot or just logout and log back in solves the problem.

Anyone on i3 Fedora has these issues? I am 100% sure it is Fedora specific because I test the same setup on Debian and Arch and never get these freezes.

Or is there maybe a way to set the pager for all help related queries to some command? I'm using bat and would like to pipe all --help through | bat --language=help by default for the syntax highlighting and colored output... Or if you know a lower effort way to color the output of --help let me know.

I'm going to switch to arch for my general-purpose laptop, since I feel like kubuntu is not enough for me, I want to try a tiling WM and do some ricing.

I'm still undecided between plain arch or CachyOS, because that optimisation looks promising and I also game on my laptop.

The fact is that CachyOS seems more "bloated" with some unnecessary packages, so what do you suggest me? A simple arch installation, arch using the cachy-linux kernel and its optimisations or a debloated CachyOS install? Thank you all in advance.

This year, so far, I've moved two older family members over from windows 10 onto Linux. I opted for an ubuntu based distro as I'm familiar enough to troubleshoot it, even remotely.

The first was a laptop, about 10 years old; windows was unusably slow. Luckily, the transition was smooth, Linux Mint took first attempt and no issues were had, everything worked out of the box except swipe scrolling - a quick tutorial sorted that out (terminal intervention was needed). 4 hours total setup (including a pile of desktop shortcuts), dual boot just in case she had issues.

The second was an older machine, a desktop, Frankensteined out of old parts (oldest being the motherboard at 15 years old). It ran windows 10 without a single hitch or slowdown.

2 days to get it "running", I had to repair grub to get the damn thing to boot after an install finally took. In the end I had to go with lubuntu with a manual cinnamon install because I hit my 4th mint install attempt and got a strong case of the"fuck thats". At the end I have a machine that has ghost headphones flickering into existence giving choppy sound that is pretty unusable. There is also horrific graphical glitches when booting (harmless, but I crapped a brick when I first saw it) - though I suspect this is just the fact there is an elderly Nvidia card in there.

A lot of time spent in terminal was unable to even identify what was happening - a first for me! My money is on a bios update, but yeah, not fun on old boards.

All in all, two very different experiences. It's not a warning against Linux (make the change now while the support is there!), just a warning that the road isn't always smooth. The bumps can come in odd places - you'd think the laptop would be the tricky one but nope, desktop rig was the worst.

Good luck out there with the change folks!

Hi, so I want to building a pc for a home server (?) or NAS. I dont really know whats the most appropriate term but what I intend to build is a one pc for my household. currently my requirement is one work 'pc' capable of heavy 3d modeling one light work pc. two 4k gaming tvs. (they most likely wont be used at the same time)

my knowledge of technical stuff is bretty basic so please be patient with me.

before, i used my steam deck to stream my work pc using parsec but i thought i just want to jump all in on linux and using vm to use more niche 3d softwares.

my budget is flexible as long as i dont need to use enterprise hardware. also i heard nvidia is not good for linux so i'd like to confirm if that is still the case as im thinking of using 5090 if not, i hope amd releases an equivalent capable card or if any according my quick research suggest.

as for linux, the only distro (?) i ever used is the steam deck one and i love it. im not a programmer or even remotely capable one so i'd like to avoid anything that has to be manually typing commands at terminal but im open to surface level tinkering.

thank you for your time

macOS has a bunch of apps which can do so, including SketchyVim. Basically you would have all the vim modes motions and operators, inside any text box in the OS / in any app. I just did some looking up and asked LLMs, but didn't find any linux equivalents of that. Ideally they would work on wayland and have app or window class exceptions.

After hours of trying understand how to set up VSCodium with Java extension, i found a solution so here it is, idiotproof (i hope) tutorial for future me and others like me ;)

Flatpak VSCodium with java extension

Via Terminal

1. Install VSCodium:

flatpak install com.vscodium.codium

2. Install "Extension Pack for Java" extension for VSCodium:

flatpak run com.vscodium.codium --install-extension vscjava.vscode-java-pack

3. Install flatpak openjdk extension. (In this case openjdk21):

flatpak install flathub org.freedesktop.Sdk.Extension.openjdk21

4. Add two new environment to use flatpak openjdk extension in VSCodium:

flatpak override --user --env=JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/sdk/openjdk21 com.vscodium.codium && flatpak override --user --env=PATH=/usr/lib/sdk/openjdk21/bin:/app/bin:/usr/bin com.vscodium.codium

5. Restart VSCodium:

flatpak kill com.vscodium.codium && flatpak run com.vscodium.codium

6. Done.

Via Graphical interface

1. Install "VSCodium":
   1. Go to app store and search for "VSCodium".
   2. Make sure it's flatpak versionn.
   3. Click Install button and after downloading open the app.
2. Install "Extension Pack for Java" extension in VSCodium:
   1. Go to Extensions pannel (on the left).
   2. Search for "Extension Pack for Java".
   3. Click Install button.
   4. Close "VSCodium".
3. Install flatpak openjdk extension. (In this case openjdk21):
   1. Search for "Terminal" app and open it.
   2. Paste command below:

flatpak install flathub org.freedesktop.Sdk.Extension.openjdk21

3. Click `Enter`.
4. Close "Terminal".

4. Install "Flatseal":
   1. Go to app store and search for "Flatseal".
   2. Click Install button and after downloading open the app.
5. Allow VSCodium to use flatpak openjdk extension:
   1. Search for "VSCodium" in Flatseal.
   2. Go to Environment.
   3. Click + button (to the right from Variables) and paste:

PATH=/usr/lib/sdk/openjdk21/bin:/app/bin:/usr/bin

4. Click `+` once again and paste:

JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/sdk/openjdk21

6. Restart VSCodium

PS

There is formatting issue with markdown but it's on lemmy side i think

I really wish that I was born early so I've could witness the early years of Linux. What was it like being there when a kernel was released that would power multiple OSes and, best of all, for free?

I want know about everything: software, hardware, games, early community, etc.

Hello!

I am pleased to announce a new version of my CLI text processing with GNU sed ebook. This book heavily leans on examples to present features one by one. In addition to sed commands and options, regular expressions are also discussed in detail.

Links

You can read the book online here: https://learnbyexample.github.io/learn_gnused/

Interactive TUI app for exercises: https://github.com/learnbyexample/TUI-apps/blob/main/SedExercises

Feedback

I would highly appreciate it if you'd let me know how you felt about this book. It could be anything from a simple thank you, pointing out a typo, mistakes in code snippets, which aspects of the book worked for you (or didn't!) and so on. Reader feedback is essential and especially so for self-published authors.

Happy learning :)

I am trying to update from Silverblue 41 to 42 (fully updated) but run into issues when attempting to update from both the software app and from CLI.

The problem using the software app is the same as what is described by this other user, who is using Fedora Workstation not Silverblue like I am:

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/update-to-fedora-42-fails-in-gnome-software/148885

When I click the download button, it looks like it's downloading multiple files since the progress bar goes from 0 to 100 several times, and then it gets up to 95% then suddenly returns to the download button. This happens in about 30 seconds.

Using the CLI method, I run the following command:

rpm-ostree rebase fedora:fedora/42/x86_64/silverblue

and get the following errors:

 Problem: conflicting requests
  - package dnf5-plugin-automatic-5.2.12.0-2.fc42.x86_64 from updates requires libcurl-full(x86-64), but none of the providers can be installed
  - package dnf5-plugin-automatic-5.2.12.0-1.fc42.x86_64 from fedora requires libcurl-full(x86-64), but none of the providers can be installed
  - package dnf5-plugin-automatic-5.2.12.0-2.fc42.x86_64 from updates-archive requires libcurl-full(x86-64), but none of the providers can be installed
  - package libcurl-minimal-8.11.1-4.fc42.x86_64 from @System conflicts with libcurl(x86-64) provided by libcurl-8.11.1-4.fc42.x86_64 from fedora

SOLUTION: Uninstalled layered packages in dnf-automatic, libreoffice, and rpmfusion and then restarted. Rebase command successfully completed thereafter.

I want to create a USB gadget with a raspberry pi zero 2W. I'm starting with imitating a webcam I already have to see how much of this I can figure out. I've used the online documentation and a couple AI bots to get this far quickly, but I'm hung up on a ln command. It's telling me "ln: failed to create symbolic link 'configs/c.1/uvc.usb0': No such file or directory" when trying to create the link. This makes no sense to me though. I'm trying to create the link, of course it doesn't exist yet. That's what that command is supposed to do.

I've confirmed this problem in alpine linux and raspbian lite.

Below is the little script I have so far just to create the device:

#!/bin/bash
modprobe libcomposite
cd /sys/kernel/config/usb_gadget/
mkdir -p fauxcam
cd fauxcam
echo 0x046d > idVendor  # Logitech Vendor ID
echo 0x094b > idProduct # Brio 105 Product ID
echo 0x0200 > bcdUSB
echo 0x9914 > bcdDevice
mkdir -p strings/0x409
echo "111111111111" > strings/0x409/serialnumber
echo "Brio 105" > strings/0x409/product
mkdir -p configs/c.1/strings/0x409
echo "UVC Configuration" > configs/c.1/strings/0x409/configuration
echo 250 > configs/c.1/MaxPower
mkdir -p functions/uvc.usb0
ln -s functions/uvc.usb0 configs/c.1/
echo "usb0" > UDC

Back in August 2024, I discovered a linux distro called Dragora GNU/Linux. Dragora has a unique package manager called qi. For package instalation, Qi feel like installpkg from Slackware. For building package, qi takes some similiar approaches from PKGBUILD (Archlinux) and APKBUILD (Alpine linux). Qi uses a recipe as alternative of PKGBUILD, APKBUILD or slackbuild file to build package. Qi seems universal to use across distros, I’ve been actively using it on Ubuntu, Dragora, and LFS.

Hey again.

Thank you again for all of the help with the dual boot and repartition a few weeks back. I am running Linux Mint.

I repartitioned the Linux side to about 25 GB and over the last few weeks just downloading updates, I guess it has filled up. It tells me there is only 75 MB left. Is that normal or can I free up room again?

Also, the printer no longer prints. It just hangs when I try to print. It shows up correctly as the HP Deskjet 3510 but won’t print. Any tips on how to fix?