Weekly Questions and Hardware Thread - September 04, 2019

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This megathread is for all your question needs. As we don't allow questions on r/linux outside of this megathread, please consider using r/linuxquestions or r/linux4noobs for the best solution to your problem.

Ask your hardware requests here too or try r/linuxhardware!

https://redd.it/czfve9
@r_linux

PCManFM-Qt and custom home-made actions in contex-menu

Can you describe step by step the necessary actions to add custom commands, in the contextual menu in this file manager, when I right-click on a file or folder?

https://redd.it/czg1d5
@r_linux

Porting desktop environment from one distro to another distro

Hello everyone,

I am quite new to Linux. I just came across the distribution called Enso OS. And so far, I really love the desktop environment of this distribution. It is XFCE but all the transition, animation, and overall design are very nice. However, I would like to use Manjaro. Is it possible to port the desktop environment From Enso OS to Manjaro?

Thank you.

https://redd.it/czh2dq
@r_linux

Linux desktop note taking app in 2019

I want to use a note taking app to replace my .txt system. My criteria are:

- works on Linux (Ubuntu lts)
- free software (very much prefer so)
- native app or at least resourceful (so no electron or java stuff)
- respects my privacy
- self-hosted sync is possible (using my openmediavault server)
- has an android client
- doesn't require to signup to a service
- is preferably maintained


I came across a few apps like evernote and simplenote but they seem to require an account, which I am opposed to.
I am looking forward to your recommendations.

https://redd.it/czh0ac
@r_linux

Failed messages at boot time

While I boot my linux machine I get some msg: \[Failed\] Failed to start <some systemd service>. I mention the parameter Restart=Always in .service file and the service get successfully start after few sec. On every boot the failed comes for one time for this service and after that service restart successfully.

But I want to eliminate the failed completely. How should I debug this?

https://redd.it/czhpei
@r_linux

Linux desktop in the AI era

I am a happy Linux desktop user for a longer time than is decent to disclose. But I sense times are-a-changin and I am wondering what to do about it and what others think or are doing about it.

The issue is of course how the Linux desktop can morph into a more 'intelligent' environment that can boost productivity (while obviously preserving privacy)

Some ideas and directions I am thinking (aloud) about:

* Enhanced desktop search. Still using recol that (hasn't evolved much really)
* Better integration of browser data (bookmarks, rss feeds) into an overall 'knowledge base'
* More event driven notifications (eg Smart suggestions about inefficient usage patterns)
* Self-assessment of installation "health"

It think at the root we would need some sort of an 'AI' strategy and design to which individual apps would conform.

The upside seems obvious. There is also a downside in doing nothing: Proprietary (and privacy-lite) cloud based 'desktops' are likely to increasingly roll out such features...

Any thoughts?

https://redd.it/czhbqa
@r_linux

NixOS Weekly #12: Mobile NixOS, import-from-derivation, one-page introduction, runtime type-checker, a job
https://weekly.nixos.org/2019/12-mobile-nixos-import-from-derivation-one-page-introduction-runtime-type-checker-a-job.html

https://redd.it/czitp1
@r_linux

Simulate high latency network using Docker containers and “tc” commands
https://medium.com/@kazushi/simulate-high-latency-network-using-docker-containerand-tc-commands-a3e503ea4307

https://redd.it/czj21p
@r_linux

Richard A Steenbergen – A Practical Guide to (Correctly) Troubleshooting with Traceroute
https://archive.nanog.org/meetings/nanog47/presentations/Sunday/RAS_Traceroute_N47_Sun.pdf

https://redd.it/czispj
@r_linux

Pinephone running Ubuntu Touch video
https://twitter.com/Mariogrip/status/1169049411231637505

https://redd.it/czko58
@r_linux

Managing rekordbox collections/playlist through Linux software
https://www.reddit.com/r/Rekordbox/comments/czidrt/managing_rekordbox_collectionsplaylist_through/

https://redd.it/cziw6s
@r_linux

LibreOffice developers team up to improve PPT/PPTX (PowerPoint) file support
https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2019/09/04/libreoffice-developers-team-up-to-improve-ppt-pptx-powerpoint-file-support/

https://redd.it/czlm7o
@r_linux

finnaly switched

I finally made the switch to Linux from windows last night and loving it so far, I can't believe how much easier it is to connect Bluetooth devices in Linux, it's a snap

https://redd.it/czn07o
@r_linux

Trying to set up an Open University LUG. Anyone else here who's also a student?

I'm starting the Open University, next month, and was surprised that there's no Linux or Open Source group. So I'm wondering if there were any other OU students here that would like to help me get an OU LUG off the ground?

https://redd.it/czioak
@r_linux

Charging Money For Linux Distros And Open Source Software? It's More Successful Than You Think
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/09/03/paying-for-linux-distros-and-foss-software-successful-elementary-os/

https://redd.it/czoid0
@r_linux

I'm adding another VM because of this Daniel Foré interview at the Linux for Everyone podcast: Episode 7: The elementary OS Interview
https://linuxforeveryone.fireside.fm/7-elementary-os-daniel-fore

https://redd.it/czotti
@r_linux

stringhasher - A simple utility to get an int hash in a certain range from a string.

[stringhasher](https://gitlab.com/RobertZenz/stringhasher) allows you to hash a given string to an int hash in a certain range. You can grab [1.0 from the GitLab releases](https://gitlab.com/RobertZenz/stringhasher/-/releases). For example:

$ stringhasher "abcde"
450550038

$ stringhasher -l4 -u12 "abcde"
9

Internally it uses [murmurhash1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MurmurHash) to hash the given value.

Why did I need such a thing? Well, I've collected a few contacts in my NextCloud addressbook over the years, and some "modern apps" are so nice and don't display the name of the contact but only the photo, if there is any. Otherwise they only assign a color to the contact, which doesn't do anything for figuring out who it is. So I wrote a shell noscript which generates automatic avatars for all my contacts with the first three letters of the first and last name in it. I also wanted to them to have a random color picked from a certain set, so I needed a way to derive a number from the name, hence this tool. Simplified usage example:

COLOR_1=eeeeec
COLOR_2=fce94f
COLOR_3=fcaf3e
COLOR_4=8ae234

hash=$(stringhasher -l1 -u4 "contact name")
color="COLOR_$hash"

echo ${!color}

And for every ones sake, here is the whole noscript that I used (it assumes the displayname to be in the format "lastname, firstname", though):

#!/usr/bin/env bash


COLOR_1="#fce94f"
COLOR_2="#edd400"
COLOR_3="#c4a000"
COLOR_4="#fcaf3e"
COLOR_5="#f57900"
COLOR_6="#ce5c00"
COLOR_7="#e9b96e"
COLOR_8="#c17d11"
COLOR_9="#8f5902"
COLOR_10="#8ae234"
COLOR_11="#73d216"
COLOR_12="#4e9a06"
COLOR_13="#729fcf"
COLOR_14="#3465a4"
COLOR_15="#204a87"
COLOR_16="#ad7fa8"
COLOR_17="#75507b"
COLOR_18="#5c3566"
COLOR_19="#ef2929"
COLOR_20="#cc0000"
COLOR_21="#a40000"

COLOR_F_1="#2e3436"
COLOR_F_2="#2e3436"
COLOR_F_3="#eeeeec"
COLOR_F_4="#2e3436"
COLOR_F_5="#eeeeec"
COLOR_F_6="#eeeeec"
COLOR_F_7="#2e3436"
COLOR_F_8="#eeeeec"
COLOR_F_9="#eeeeec"
COLOR_F_10="#2e3436"
COLOR_F_11="#2e3436"
COLOR_F_12="#eeeeec"
COLOR_F_13="#2e3436"
COLOR_F_14="#eeeeec"
COLOR_F_15="#eeeeec"
COLOR_F_16="#eeeeec"
COLOR_F_17="#eeeeec"
COLOR_F_18="#eeeeec"
COLOR_F_19="#eeeeec"
COLOR_F_20="#eeeeec"
COLOR_F_21="#eeeeec"

CONTACTS_FILE="$HOME/contacts.vcf"
AVATAR_DIRECTORY="$HOME/contacts"


grep --extended-regexp "^FN:" "$CONTACTS_FILE" \
| sed --regexp-extended "s/\r//g" \
| sed --regexp-extended "s/^FN://" \
| while read name; do
simpleName="$(/bin/echo -n "$name" | sed --regexp-extended "s/(.*)/\L\1/g" | sed --regexp-extended "s/[^a-z]+/-/g")"

if [ ! -f "$AVATAR_DIRECTORY/$simpleName.png" ]; then
shortenedName="$(/bin/echo -n "$name" | sed --regexp-extended "s/^([A-Z][a-zA-Z]{2}).*, ([A-Z][a-zA-Z]{2}).*/\U\1\L\\\n\U\2/p" | head -n 1)"
hash="$(stringhasher -l1 -u21 "$simpleName")"

echo "$name => $simpleName => $shortenedName => $hash"

background="COLOR_$hash"
fill="COLOR_F_$hash"

convert \
-background "${!background}" \
-fill "${!fill}" \
-font "Liberation-Sans-Narrow-Bold" \
-gravity center \
-pointsize 196 \
-size 512x512 \
label:"$shortenedName" \
"$AVATAR_DIRECTORY/$simpleName.png"
fi
done

https://redd.it/czq6pl
@r_linux

[Podcast] EP021 High-level Scientific Computing with GNU Octave
https://flossforscience.com/podcast/season-2-episode-9

https://redd.it/czqe75
@r_linux

Python library for wifi and bluetooth on linux
https://github.com/bisoncorps/signalum

https://redd.it/czrk5e
@r_linux

Is Windows update really that bad in comparison to Linux?

One of the main gripes you can be sure to hear about as to why someone switched is automatic updates. I hear you and I get it that Windows does push small updates rather frequently. Most of which are security updates. Security is a never ending battle. Given the target Windows is for malware it doesn't seem too unreasonable. If Linux had the same market-share on the desktop I would imagine similar update measures would need to be adopted. If we ever got that point I don't think many Linux distributions would be free anymore anyway. Someone has got to fit the bill for all that backend work. Microsoft has recently made some changes giving the user more control over how they manage their updates and if you are hell bent on not updating at all there are a number of ways to completely disable windows update. One claim I have heard is some people saying their files were deleted by Windows update. I'm not trying to discredit anyone but I have never experienced this on my work or personal machines, I know of no one who has ever experienced this, I worked IT during my undergrad and never experienced this. I have quite a few friends who have careers in IT and manage thousands upon thousands of Windows machines who have never experienced this. I've asked many coworkers and they have never experienced this. I have searched the internet for this issue and all I have found was a bug in the 1809 October update that may have deleted files but it appears more so that it created a Windows.old directory for no reason and moved files there and people couldn't find it. Regardless it has been fixed and is no longer an issue. Also we all know one of the main rules of computing is to keep backups of your important files no matter what operating system you are using.

https://redd.it/czj8tg
@r_linux

Why does Linux still use the GPLv2?
https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/1774/why-does-linux-still-use-the-gplv2

https://redd.it/czan9t
@r_linux