unbound-adblock: The Ultimate DNS firewall
https://geoghegan.ca/unbound-adblock.html

https://redd.it/l1jdqf
@r_linux

Is it worth switching to M1 Mac as a Linux User

As Linux user, I would love to hear the opinion of my fellow linux users how they feel about the M1 Mac and is it worth making the switch to apple m1 macbook, if not then what are some powerful alternatives that we could use that would be as powerful as m1 macbook and run linux

https://redd.it/l1l8kh
@r_linux

Have linux watch windows folders

I have a setup in my home with a ubuntu pc that acts as a server, and my work/gaming pc which runs windows.
The server is for data storage and I'd like to somehow monitor certain folders with linux so that when a new object is added/created in said folders, it first activates a task in windows, in the folder (a powershell noscript to be precise) and after a set amount of time, it should import the created file to the ubuntu server. The ubuntu server can access the folders on windows via smb, windows hovever can't access and modify the Ubuntu files (samba doesn't work for some reason, permissions etc are set correctly)

Is something like that even possible? I'm relatively new to Linux so I don't know if something like this could be done.
Any ideas and suggestions are welcome

https://redd.it/l1k933
@r_linux

BTRFS, defragmentation and compression: unclear/divergent informations.

So, I recently installed my OS with BTRFS and I've trying to learn better about it. But I just found conflicting information about compression and defragmentation.

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E37670\_01/E37355/html/ol\_use\_case1\_btrfs.html

This Oracle page says that "LZO offers a better compression ratio, while zlib offers faster compression".


https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Compression

While, the wiki says that

"ZLIB -- slower, higher compression ratio (uses zlib level 3 setting, you can see the zlib level difference between 1 and 6 in zlib sources).

LZO -- faster compression and decompression than zlib, worse compression ratio, designed to be fast
ZSTD -- (since v4.14) compression comparable to zlib with higher compression/decompression speeds and different ratio levels"

Some of them should be wrong OR it's something about the level option for ZLIB. Maybe when it's a low level of compression it's faster and when it's a higher level of compression it has a better compression rate. Anyway, does anyone have a clarification about that?

​

Also, about defragmentation: the wiki says "Currently (v4.14), it's not possible to select "no compression", using the defrag command. This may change in the future." while the Oracle page instructs to use the "-c" option to compress while defragmenting. Is the wiki out of date or something?

https://redd.it/l1ihla
@r_linux

How would I monitor my GPU usage like in windows task manager?

I can't seem to find any apps that display my GPU usage which is very important because I'm planning on gaming on this machine and I'd like to see how well my GPU is performing. Right now I'm using a crappy placeholder GPU until I can find a good one. Any help would be much appreciated thx :)

https://redd.it/l1or1r
@r_linux

Kids find a security flaw in Linux Mint by mashing keys
https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon-screensaver/issues/354

https://redd.it/l1nfwg
@r_linux

Raid 1 SSD+HDD

I know, stupid question, but I'ma post it anyways: Can I set up a fast SSD and a reliable HDD in RAID 1, so that it is not slowed down IN READING (!) by the HDD? The use cases I'm thinking of are:
1. Network storage where upload speed is negligible, while download speed is crucial.
(Usually uploading is a task whose completion does not need to be awaited for you to start doing the next thing, while downloading usually happens when the file is crucial for the continuation of your work, leaving you in a busy-idle state. Ofc this is not always the case, but in my experience a general tendency.)
2. Fast booting times of an SSD in combination with the reliability of an HDD.... Yeah ok scrap that one for linux. But if anyone wants to still play advocatus asini, one could argue that the user who wants that has the stupidity of not being able to mount the HDD at the right place, combined with the craziness of making such a sophisticated setup.

Would you suggest such a setup for the first scenario?

https://redd.it/l1pqg6
@r_linux

PSA: By default, Firefox on Linux doesn't match with your monitor's native/current refresh rate if you're using a high refresh rate monitor. Here's how I fixed it.

Just discovered this today while trying to fix Firefox's mouse scrolling as I can feel it's quite janky compared to when using Chrome/Chromium (still on Linux) or when I'm on Windows (dual boot) on any browser.

It felt like I was running 30 \~ 60 FPS at the minimum so I can definitely feel the difference since the rest of the system runs at 144hz (i.e, dragging windows around, mouse pointer, games, etc.).

My current setup: F33, Gnome wayland, 2k 144hz monitor.

\---

To correct this. First, make sure that you're running the supported refresh rate of your monitor (I already did so this wasn't my problem). But on Gnome, it's just in the Settings > Displays > Refresh Rate. I think you need xrandr for other WM though.

Next, open Firefox's about:config and set this key (default = -1):

layout.framerate 144

That's it! Restart Firefox and scroll through any webpage in your monitor's native speed!

\---

**Bonus:** Here's the mouse scrolling tweaks that I used to match with my preference (first problem as mentioned). YMMV so feel free to tweak this in case you prefer a different feel.

general.smoothScroll.msdPhysics.enabled true
mousewheel.minlinescrollamount 30

There are other related settings that you could tweak like:

general.smoothScroll.currentVelocityWeighting
general.smoothScroll.mouseWheel.durationMaxMS
general.smoothScroll.mouseWheel.durationMinMS
general.smoothScroll.stopDecelerationWeighting

The first two was sufficient enough for me so I left the other settings as is.

Edit:

So I tried to replicate the same issue on Xorg as a guy below said nothing changed from his side, I found that this seems to be more about the display servers or compositors (Wayland, Xorg) than Firefox all alone.

I tried logging in through an Xorg session and set the layout.frame_rate back to -1 and there I had no issues with scrolling not running on the right frame rate, it was all good, tested after a few restarts and it was running correctly. I then got back to wayland and it was all the same issue again, set back to the frame_rate to 144 and it was all good.

I'm not familiar yet with how display servers or compositors work under the hood so I'll let someone else chime in on this if this was actually the culprit here.

https://redd.it/l1re17
@r_linux

Multiple distros considering removal of Chromium

Jochen Eisinger from Google replied that they will not revert their decision to ban sync support of Chromium.

Multiple distros are considering removal of Chromium from their official repositories, such like Arch Linux, Fedora, Debian, Slackware (?), OpenSUSE etc.

https://redd.it/l1xzah
@r_linux

Plasma 5.21 Beta Release
https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/5/20.90/

https://redd.it/l21lr7
@r_linux

Archinstall is now available in the official package sources of Arch Linux

https://archlinux.org/packages/?q=archinstall

> Just another guided/automated Arch Linux installer with a twist. The installer also doubles as a python library to install Arch Linux and manage services, packages and other things inside the installed system (Usually from a live medium).
>
>Source: https://github.com/Torxed/archinstall

This should make the installation of Arch Linux easier for some. I think the inclusion of the package in the official sources is good. However, I will probably stay with Ansible myself.

https://redd.it/l1trl0
@r_linux

Raspberry Pi Pico - The new flexible $4 microcontroller board from Raspberry Pi
https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-pico/

https://redd.it/l211ul
@r_linux

Ubuntu 21.04 will maintain Gnome 3.38

Hey there,

The topic of what to do about the new GNOME started being discussed and after some consideration we decided to stick to GTK3 and GNOME 3.38 this cycle.

There are quite some moving parts in GNOME 40

* The new shell design, is it going to be fully ready in one cycle? what’s the impact on our desktop and extensions? it’s likely that we will have design questions to resolve and non-trivial code changes
* GTK4 is out, Debian is packaging it (currently waiting on NEW review) so that part shouldn’t create extra work for us but then what’s the impact? is the new version stable enough? GNOME isn’t likely to transition fully over a cycle, does it bring risks?
* yaru and the new GTK, how ready is it?

Those are topics we are going to spend resources on and ideally, we would be helping to move things forward, but it’s already mid-cycle, we didn’t account for any of those and the team is already overworked.

We should be careful bringing any GTK4 update in the default installation until the theming question is sorted out at least. It plays nicely that Debian starts its freeze around now so it’s not likely that autosyncs will create issues for us.

Hopefully we manage to resolve enough of those questions in the remaining of the cycle to be in a better position to include the new versions when I -serie opens.

​

[https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/staying-on-gtk3-and-gnome-3-38-this-cycle/20466](https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/staying-on-gtk3-and-gnome-3-38-this-cycle/20466)

https://redd.it/l27khb
@r_linux

Startix 2.0 released!

It doesn't seem that a lot of people cared about Startix but even for the few that did and for the hard work I did, I'm announcing version 2.0 that brings improvements and bug fixes to the installer! As always thanks a lot to anyone that will check the installer! Let me know if you need anything!

https://redd.it/l1ul8y
@r_linux

Expanding a Volume



Hello all, I'm back for a second round of Ubuntu help.

I have acquired a HyperV VM and it's run out of space. I need to maintain the data within the VM so I simply expanded the .vhd size in Hyper-V Manager. I've done this hundreds of times for Windows OS VM's but never had a Linux based VM.

How would I go about expanding this volume? I've tried to do some research and have found several articles that almost get me there but then a step in the process doesn't make any sense based on the options in front of me.

Any help in accomplishing this would be much appreciated!

So far I have ran cfdisk and I can see sda5, my full volume listed as an LV2M_member, and right below it I see the expansion amount listed as Free Space.

I was following these steps, but when I got to the part involving the start and end blocks the numbers weren't lining up so I q'd out there.

https://redd.it/l2c2mx
@r_linux

Best practice for executable location?

Forgive me for I am still learning Linux, but one of the things I'm big into are best practices and security. I'm learning slower since I'm trying to understand things, but I'm hopeful that it will help me in the long run.

That being said, for this particular instance I am creating a Call of Duty server. The server is fairly basic: there is a main folder which contains the server files. Outside of the main folder is the cod_lnxded executable which runs the server. Many tutorials online that I see are copying these to the /home/user/.callofduty directory and running the server from /home/user/.callofduty/cod_lnxded. I've also seen one guide put the .callofduty folder in /bin/.callofduty.

My question here is why is it being done this way? Since the server is running in a Docker container, I am creating the user, assigning the user's permissions to the files, and running the server as the user so that it doesn't run as root. Is this the reason that the user directory is being used? Should this server be located in the /srv folder instead, or is there a more appropriate location for it?

Just trying to understand why things are being done the way they are. Thanks for the help!

https://redd.it/l216n3
@r_linux

Anything to 'contains' package, a little bit Docker-style but more relax ?

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for something that allows to package a development environment.
Something like this:

- I need package A, B, C
- then on another project I need package D which conflicts C
- So I need something that allows me to plug in A, B, C and take it out when I don't need, then plug in D, back and forth, in a simple way

It's not only about convenience but if ever some packages mess up the system, I can just take it out and get back my fresh new system. So theses must be in a container of some kind.

I've been using Docker before for this purpose but it's too much of tweaks, since Docker is really meant for complete isolation.

I've heard about Singularity, is it something for this use case ? Otherwise anything else ? I've also heard of Bedrock but not sure what is it.

Thank you for the suggestions !

https://redd.it/l2evy3
@r_linux

OpenGL 4.2 support for Zink has landed in Mesa
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/8620

https://redd.it/l2c500
@r_linux

I want to start using linux

I want to start using linux (rn I use windows) but I don’t know what linux to start with, and I don’t know if I will be able to familiarize myself with it. Should I switch or no?

also, if anyone has any important things I should know before switching, please tell me! :)

https://redd.it/l2gxa9
@r_linux

This is 2021: what's coming in free/libre software for creative professionals
https://librearts.org/2021/01/foss-in-2021-preview/

https://redd.it/l26rgk
@r_linux

State of "modern" local storage (btrfs, bcachefs, Stratis, VDO, ZFS, dm-integrity, etc.)

I can't be the only one that is... perplexed by the state of modern local storage on Linux. The documentation for a lot of these, especially Stratis, VDO and dm-integrity seems to be sparse, and no one but Red Hat really seems to be embracing the first two. It's hard to even find out if Stratis properly supports RAID yet. dm-integrity seems like it could be a huge deal, and yet it's mostly utilized in blog posts, combined with md-raid. btrfs has been cyclically shunned and embraced over the years, with the latest being Fedora 33 now utilizing it as the default supposedly. XFS is apparently having CoW support hacked on. bcachefs was up for mainlining recently, or the beginnings of it, though no new news has come in some months, and the actual status of where the FS is at feature wise is pretty inconsistent. ZFS, as usual, is well documented and battle tested, but has the horrible annoyances with licensing issues.

So what is the actual state of Stratis, VDO, dm-integrity? Will other distros embrace it? Is btrfs finally reaching some sort of trust? Will bcachefs be what everything moves to in the end? Documentation is contradictory and inconsistent almost across the board for all these competing solutions.

https://redd.it/l2i0vi
@r_linux