Linux Experiences/Rants or Education/Certifications thread - March 02, 2020

Welcome to r/linux rants and experiences! This megathread is also to hear opinions from anyone just starting out with Linux or those that have used Linux (GNU or otherwise) for a long time.

Let us know what's annoying you, whats making you happy, or something that you want to get out to r/linux but didn't make the cut into a full post of it's own.

For those looking for certifications please use this megathread to ask about how to get certified whether it's for the business world or for your own satisfaction. Be sure to check out r/linuxadmin for more discussion in the SysAdmin world!

_Please keep questions in r/linuxquestions, r/linux4noobs, or the Wednesday automod thread._

https://redd.it/fc6f5r
@r_linux

How to edit menu items openELEC 8.0.4

Trying to take the YouTube Add-on, and put it on the sidebar.

This is for my grandfather's new media center PC, so trying to make things as intuitive and simple as possible.

I found [this video on customizing the home screen](http://youtube.com/watch?v=esPTXwTxljA) however I don't get these same settings on the version of Kodi I'm using.

Not sure if I need a skin change, or im missing some crucial setting option.

All help is greatly appreciated.

https://redd.it/fc4tzq
@r_linux

Introducing the Stear Prime
https://invidio.us/watch?v=3l1W5KliXaI

https://redd.it/fc86r7
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Want to get rid of windows for more space.

Hey all. I was given an HP Stream 14 but the thing only has 32GB of storage. Windows 10 basically takes up all the spaces and leaves me with just little to nothing. I have never used Linux but heard it used less space but also that there are many types of Linux.

I was wondering if anyone can help me out to choose which one to install on this laptop. I will only be using it for web browsing and watching YouTube, Netflix. Storing documents and photos.

Thanks if anyone can help.

https://redd.it/fc8qt4
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Firefox: How Mozilla wants to fight against Google
https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000115095254/firefox-how-mozilla-wants-to-fight-against-googles-dominance

https://redd.it/fc9nft
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Can BorgBackup restore hardlinked files correctly?

If I have 1 file hardlinked to 5 different folders which are all backed up, and then I attempt to restore them from backup, will hardlink associations also be restored, or will I end up with 5 separate copies of the file?

https://redd.it/fca1v7
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How we optimised our build system using umake

Over the past few months we worked on a project to improve our build times. We wanted to replace our makefile based build with something modern and fast. We compared multiple tools such as google bazel, facebook buck, ninja and plain old cmake. At the end of the day we figured that none of them matched our exact needs.

Eventually we reached tup, which looked very promising. The issue with tup was the lack of strong remote caching. Initially we wanted to improve tup to match our needs. After a while we figured that we should just build something new. With all the good stuff that we took from tup and strong caching like sccache from mozzila. The result was a brand new tool - umake. It is fast (really fast), easy to use and correct. No more building the same binary in the office if someone else already built it. No more running make -j10 and getting broken results. It just works, and it works fast.

I'll be happy to hear your thoughts on the topic.

For more details check out: https://drivenets.com/blog/the-inside-story-of-how-we-optimized-our-own-build-system/ https://github.com/grisha85/umake/

https://redd.it/fcb8xg
@r_linux

One of the biggest #FOSS misconceptions is that there's an army of contributors supporting every project.
https://twitter.com/bluesabredavis/status/1232274701264785409

https://redd.it/fcbh09
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Slax is so much more than I first thought.
https://redd.it/fcases
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[OC] SpotPRIS2: Control Spotify Connect devices using MPRIS2
https://github.com/freundTech/SpotPRIS2

https://redd.it/fccp20
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A mysterious calendar entry

I suspect many of us are aware of the `calendar` command, which lists various things - historical events, holidays etc., on that day or upcoming days. For a bit of fun, I have the following line in my .bashrc

`grep $(date +%m/%d) /usr/share/calendar/calendar.history`

Which lists the history related items on that day only at the start of every terminal session. Today it gave me

`03/02 Blackthorn winds (New England) (Does anyone know what this is?)`

I did not know what that meant. So I did a few internet searches. "Blackthorn Winds", "Blackthorn Winds New England", "Blackthorn Winds 2nd March", and so on. The sole information I could find was from this LDS site

[https://www.deseret.com/2000/2/27/19493013/blackthorn-winds-make-bushes-bud](https://www.deseret.com/2000/2/27/19493013/blackthorn-winds-make-bushes-bud)

Which merely ties "Blackthorn Winds" to New England and the 2nd March - no other info is given.

​

I'm aware that this isn't a history subreddit - but this doesn't seem to a notable event in history, but rather some GNU easter egg. Does anyone know more?

https://redd.it/fcbbqm
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Revisiting stable-kernel regressions [LWN.net]
https://lwn.net/Articles/812231/

https://redd.it/fcdnnm
@r_linux

fluid gestures

Hey y'all, wanted to share something I have been cooking up for the last few months. A fluid gesture application for both touchscreen and touch-pad. I finally got it to be more or less customizable (a few weeks ago actually) and I think it is ready for prime time. You may need to mess around with to get it running but I have tried to make it as easy to start with as possible (just run the install noscript). Check it out at [github](https://github.com/natask/gestures).

https://redd.it/fc9qoe
@r_linux

ANN: Druwez 0.1 - Use drag & drop or the clipboard to print multiple files at once from the file manager

[Druwez](https://www.florian-diesch.de/software/druwez/) is a GTK based graphical printing tool written in Python.

With Druwez you can use drag & drop or the clipboard to print multiple files at once from the file manager without opening any dedicated applications.

You can optionally save print jobs to print them later (again). Only the file names but not the file content are saved in that case so you don’t need much disk space.

Druwez itself can handle PDF, PNG, JPEG and SVG files. To print other file formats you can define converters. A converter is a shell command that reads a file and writes PDF, PNG, JPEG or SVG data to standard output. For each converter you define shell patters for the files it should convert.

By default Druwez use unoconv as converter for various office file formats and Ghostnoscript for PostScript files.

Druwez is Free Software (GPLv3)

https://redd.it/fcdfy3
@r_linux

FYI: UK users - Channel 4 live TV now works

I haven't been able to view Channel 4 for approx 5 years (it used to work with hal-flash but after about 2015 you haven't been able to)

You can now watch it live on Linux (and I assume 40d) as they have changed their site.

You need flash enabled however.

Some really good content on the channel, including Channel 4 news.

I have only tested it with Chrome (as I do not have a flash plugin ever enable in my main browser, Firefox)

https://redd.it/fchllc
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Status of AMD platforms in Coreboot | FOSDEM 2020
https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/coreboot_amd/

https://redd.it/fciua6
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WireGuard Gives Linux a Faster, More Secure VPN
https://www.wired.com/story/wireguard-gives-linux-faster-secure-vpn/

https://redd.it/fceb83
@r_linux

"Contained" wine app?

Does anyone know of any Wine based apps that instead of having a user have to install Wine first, wine-ifies the .exe so it is perfectly portable and can be put on Linux systems without Wine? Like what Winebottler for Mac OS does but for Linux.

If I've made a program for Windows that works flawlessly on Ubuntu using Wine, I'd prefer to release it as a standalone download that's ready to be launched instead of detouring the users with having to have Wine installed first. Maybe it's a non issue being that Linux users in general are very savvy and most already have Wine.

https://redd.it/fc9qry
@r_linux

fork() can fail: this is important
https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2014/08/19/fork/

https://redd.it/fclarg
@r_linux

This Month in Mutter & GNOME Shell | February 2020
https://blogs.gnome.org/shell-dev/2020/03/02/this-month-in-mutter-gnome-shell-february-2020/

https://redd.it/fclohq
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Founder of Open Source ESR banned from OSI Mailing list

The man who helped write the "Open Source" definition is now a persona non grata on [opensource.org](https://opensource.org/).

More info: [http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8609](http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8609)

https://redd.it/fclrve
@r_linux