Thoughts on PulseAudio, Solutions, problems, alternative and everything in between...

What are everyone’s experiences with PulseAudio? Mainly I see it get a lot of hate and have had some bad adventures with it myself but what do you think? Have you found an alternative? What problems did you face?

https://redd.it/l6i0kq
@r_linux

Light Linux Distros

I am a Windows user and I am tired of it's battery and resource consumption on my laptop even when I'm doing something as simple as writing down notes in Word. That's why I am compiling a list of the lightest Linux distros so I can test the boot time, memory usage, CPU usage, and software load times to find a fast and efficient Linux OS for my laptop when I'm at school so I can have an easier load on my battery when I'm out all day at classes. I will report my findings here once testing is completed.

So far for testing I have:

Linux Lite 5.2

Puppy 9.5

Debian 9

Peppermint 10

​

Tell me your favorite lightweight distro to be included in my testing! (I've really never used Linux... like... ever so this will be interesting to test out)

https://redd.it/l6lp3t
@r_linux

Problems with the ping command

As the noscript indicates I'm having a few problems with the ping command on my computer. I'm using Pop!\_OS. When I ping a machine (my Pi in this case) which is on my local network, I only use it to check when it is back online after a reboot. So when the pi goes offline, I should see the following output

```
PING 192.168.1.108 (192.168.1.104) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.149 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.143 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.161 ms
From 192.168.1.103 icmp_seq=4 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.1.103 icmp_seq=5 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.1.103 icmp_seq=6 Destination Host Unreachable
```

But instead of looking at "Destination Host Unreachable" after the 3rd icmp_seq, it will "pause" the output and will resume after the host is back online. So this is what I see in reality.

```
PING 192.168.1.104 (192.168.1.104) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.135 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.142 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.143 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=20 ttl=64 time=0.140 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=21 ttl=64 time=0.141 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=22 ttl=64 time=0.153 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=23 ttl=64 time=0.206 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=25 ttl=64 time=0.264 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=26 ttl=64 time=0.243 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=27 ttl=64 time=0.154 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=30 ttl=64 time=0.146 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.104: icmp_seq=31 ttl=64 time=0.148 ms

```

And as you can see, it skipped the output after 3rd icmp_seq and resumes the output normally with the 20th icmp_seq. And notice another abnormality between 27th and 30th. I'm running wired with my Linksys gigabit router and my NIC is an Intel I211 (rev 03). The aforementioned abnormality of that weird pause between the 27th and the 30th icmp_seq is more apparent when I ping google i.e. over the internet where the ping is much higher than 30 ms.

To check if my router was at fault, I tried doing the same thing - ping my pi and ping a google server. I did that over WiFi from my MacBook Pro and everything worked as expected, there were no weird issues as I mentioned above. I also tried hooking the MacBook with a wired adapter on the same port of the router where my computer was previously connected - to check if that particular port on my router was faulty, but I didn't face any problems on that specific port as well.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? I'm unsure if this is a distro specific problem as Intel NICs are pretty reliable and work well with Linux and I would assume neither the NIC nor router are at fault here.

Considering I can't see when there is a "Destination host unreachable" and the ping sequence resumes without any `icmp_seq=29 destination host unreachable`; All I normally see is "Huh, there's no problems with my internet connection. Everything is fine. I'll just press control C (`^C`) and quit out of ping. *then I see the packet loss* Wait, I didn't see any errors in the output, how did I get packet loss more than 0%?"

I don't know what is causing this. Any help will be awesome. TIA!

Edit: I'm using the `terminator` terminal emulator and I checked if it was a terminal emulator problem by doing the same thing in Pop's default `gnome-terminal` but I got the same result. This the first linux distro I've used on this computer and hence, I'm unsure if this is a Pop!_OS specific problem. Running `ping -V` shows `ping from iputils s20190709`.

https://redd.it/l6s80k
@r_linux

AMD or nVidia low-end gpu for server ?

Hey I need to buy a lowend GPU for my machine (running debian) - it runs headless most of the time (but the board wont boot without GPU). Currently I am using very old PCI-E1 gpu and I am suspecting it might be source of crashes.


So I am looking to buy a new GPU. I've read that AMD has currently amazing opensource drivers. So is buying AMD here better than nVidia ? Currently looking at either Geforce 710 or Radeon 230.

https://redd.it/l6t38p
@r_linux

The junior wannabe sysadmin course at r/LinuxUpskillChallenge start this Monday

This free month-long course is re-starting again on the first Monday of next month.

Daily lessons appear in the sub-reddit /r/linuxupskillchallenge \- which is also used for support/discussion.

Has been running successfully now every month since February 2020 - more detail at: [https://LinuxUpskillChallenge.org](https://linuxupskillchallenge.org/)

* Steve

https://redd.it/l6ur5f
@r_linux

Archman OS: Why you should avoid using it

There is a plenty GNU/Linux distributions out there.

Maybe you are curious to test new distributions. Arch Linux is a great distribution. It is free and open source distribution, secure, fast but it is targeted to advandced users. Many Arch Linux based distributions does exists, and you can check it on official site and Distrowatch.

One of these distribution is turkish intelligence MIT ("milli istihbarat teskilati)", not related in any way to Massachusetts Institute of Technology) funded/related Archman OS. The project is hosted in Turkey, but they are using Cloudflare services, so you can't say where they actually are.

The first point is their effort to steal Arch Linux identity. They do not have any relation to official Arch Linux project, but they say that they offer official suport for Arch Linux and arch based distributions. How it is possible that?

A time ago the projects leader tulliana was dismissed by Manjaro project after trial of political influence in favor of the corrupt and antidemocratic turkish government and clear confrontation with Philip Müller. This is not a surprise since his involvement in MIT affairs.

Archman OS is hosted somewhere in Turkey, where it is hard to say. The projects official site has no clear WHOIS data.

The official mirror is located in Bursa, Turkey and do not supports secure HTTPS connections (see this and this). The secondary mirror is from "Anadolu Panteri" - a hobby project by islamist GNU/Linux activist.

Some of the source code is hosted by Gitlab, but you can't actualy build a ISO from files found there. Binary prebuild ISO files are located in Sourceforge. As you can check, provided ISO files are incompatible with official Archiso.

The developer is not providing any security check: gpg public keys and signatures are missing from "official" provided repositories and ISO files.

The name Archman (r) is a copyright violation itself. Arch linux has a manual documentation project named archmanweb project. In Archman OS official site they say the name come from "Arch Linux" and "Pacman", but they do not have any rights under these products and marks. Using the name "archman" is not ethical without any written permission from Arch Linux project. As stated in official Arch linux trademark policy:

>Building on Arch Linux or for Arch Linux. If you are producing new software which is intended for use with or on Arch Linux, you may use the trademark in a way which indicates the intent of your product. For example, if you are developing a system management tool for Arch Linux, acceptable project noscripts would be "System Management for Arch Linux" or "Arch Linux Based Systems Management". We would strongly discourage, and likely would consider to be problematic, a name such as ArchMan, Arch Management, ArchTools, etc. Furthermore, you may not use the Trademarks in a way which implies an endorsement where that does not exist, or which attempts to unfairly or confusingly capitalise on the goodwill or brand of the project.

As you see Archman OS is not free (as in freedom) open source, and not affiliated in any way with Arch Linux. The projects is closed and vague security with clear affiliation with official turkish government. Before using it think twice, othervise you should wander why your data is stollen by turkish government. You have been warned.

Tariq Abdala, a security reasearcher from Cairo, EG.

https://redd.it/l6w5ru
@r_linux

#Gratitude

I want to say thank you to all the thousands of professionals and volunteers that have helped to improve my life through their contributions to Linux and its diverse ecosystem. #thankyou

https://redd.it/l6x3fv
@r_linux

Is doas a good alternative to sudo?

I updated my sudo recently for the bug which supposedly escalate root permissions by some brute force attempt.

In an effort to find the solution (not just updating it), I came across doas. I read some articles by dedicated openbsd application subexecutor and some community post on r/BSD. Those post and articles are quite old and may not fit well in current scenario.

The thing which is not clear is, is it really better than sudo (if not best)? The OpenDoas repository appears to be updated quite regularly though it isn't popular among most of the Linux distros (Arch doesn't have documentation, which is pretty odd).

Do you guys prefer Doas over Sudo? If you do, please elaborate.

https://redd.it/l6y7nv
@r_linux

The Common Desktop Environment (CDE) is still developed and modern in 2021
https://raymii.org/s/blog/The_Common_Desktop_Environment_CDE_is_still_developed_in_2021.html

https://redd.it/l6z7vj
@r_linux

Ubuntu 21.04 Will Try To Use Wayland By Default
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/trying-wayland-by-default-again/20575

https://redd.it/l70vb6
@r_linux

How does notabug.org compare to other free software hosting solutions?

I just want to check what are the best alternatives. I had code on github and was thinking to move it to gitlab. But they turned out not to be very interested in GDPR compliance.

As an alternative, I found notabug.org. What are other possible alternatives?

https://redd.it/l6x0cq
@r_linux

GitLab is moving to a three-tier product subnoscription model
https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2021/01/26/new-gitlab-product-subnoscription-model/

https://redd.it/l6rdhf
@r_linux

Gamestop stock price noscript

I made a really short noscript (just one curl command piped into other commands to filter it) to display the Gamestop stock price (or any other stock price of your choosing). It is not the pinnacle of noscripting; it could be a lot shorter, but it has worked reliably for about 24 hours now. I'll put the command below as well as a link to the GitLab repository where I will be updating it if it breaks.

​

echo "\$"$(curl -s `https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GME` | grep 'data-reactid="50">' | awk -F "data-reactid=\"50\"" '{print $(NF-3)}' | cut -c 2- | sed 's/<.*$//')

​

Here is the link to the GitLab: https://gitlab.com/maxchristman/gamestop-ticker/

https://redd.it/l779uc
@r_linux

YT-Splitter: Download music compilations or albums from YT and automatically split and categorize them into individual mp3 files
https://redd.it/l75pu6
@r_linux

Rocky Linux gets a parent company, with $4m Series A funding
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/01/rocky-linux-gets-a-parent-company-with-4m-series-a-funding/

https://redd.it/l78xex
@r_linux

Write Protected Bootable back to USB

Heya! Okay, so I entirely switched an old computer's operating system over to Linux both to save its functionality and for a college course and the next in its sequence. I used balenaEtcher to do so.

Now that that's over, I need to reformat it back to regular FAT usb so that it can continue waiting for usage as either backup or for me to fill my main usb and move on to it. It's currently Write Protected, so Windows can't just straight up reformat it. I tried using EaseUs toolsm to undo the Write Protection, but that failed to work.

Any ideas on how to fix it?

[probs unimportant note: I use it as USB, but it is actually in fact an external 1TB HDD meant to store the my files once the other one is full\]. I currently have both Windows and Ubuntu at my disposal, so I can follow instructions for fixing it in either.

https://redd.it/l7bxo1
@r_linux

audit full command line AND environment variables

Anyone have a decent way of of keeping track of all commands run with a certain path i.e /foo/bin/hello.sh xxx vvv xccc

AND arguments AND the environment variables passed in (so basically the execve call)

I *thought* auditd would do this for me - but it only keeps 4 args and no environment variables.

https://redd.it/l7dpph
@r_linux

How do you "become" a distro maintainer/developer?

Greetings fellow humans, human fellas.

I am a fresh College student with big dreams and ambitions to one day develop and maintain existing/my own distributions of Linux.

For now, I'm simply using a variety of Linux distributions for daily tasks(currently on EOS and Fedora), and I'm studying Python and slowly working my way to c, rust, etc.

There are many resources on how to develop software FOR Linux or for the Kernel itself. I want to become a distro maintainer and developer for existing distros or for my own one, which I assume is a bit different from the two above.

Sadly, there does not seem to be much information about becoming a maintainer/developer. I'm not sure where to start. From my experience, I learn quicker when I know what steps I should take, and right now, I might as well be shooting myself in the dark.

If there is any advice you guys can give me, I would greatly appreciate it.

I truly hope to give back to the community and make it to the big leagues. Thank you for reading.

https://redd.it/l6wr8d
@r_linux

Should I switch to linux and wipe Windows 10?

I use windows because some games I play have VMProtect and don't run. I don't want to loose everything because I can not back everything up. I have used ubuntu on an older laptop, I am thinking about Hackintoshing, using linux, or just sticking with windows. Windows is shit but everything I play and stuff doesnt run well under linux (And the game I play most doesn't have a linux version and it has a poorly optimized Mac version)

https://redd.it/l7fpc6
@r_linux

Planning To Switch To Linux

This year i plan to switch over to Linux, i am looking for distro suggestions, my chocies right now is Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Linux Mint.

I am using a Dell Latitude E6410 with
I5 560m
8GB of ram,
256GB SSD and 1TB HDD,
I plan on using just 1 512GB SSD later on in the year.
My current OS is Win 7, no fancy support plans, just plain Win 7 Pro that was meant for the laptop.

https://redd.it/l7hqjv
@r_linux

anticheat engine ideas on linux and possibly other platforms

hello everyone! I had some thoughts recently for an anticheat engine and I wanted your opinion.

THE PROBLEM

anticheat software is obviously a big problem in linux especially with the new trend of kernel level anticheat engines, but not only there. having a kenel level anticheat software, can be a major vulnerability in the system, as someone can potentially get kernel level access to multiple machines. if the program crashes all hell breaks loose. by installing it you are basically giving full access to the company providing the game/anticheat. they say they won't use this for nefarious reasons obviously but still I personally do not trust them.

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

I have only a small idea of what an anticheat basically checks for to find the issue. every program works differently for sure but if you know anything or you can point me somewhere that would be helpful. I am also not an expert programmer, but a beginner and a gamer.

THE THOUGHT

so I had the following thoughts for an anticheat software:

1. check installed programs in $PATH
2. collect info about the absolute path of the game's installation directory
3. verify game file integrity with checksums
4. check active processes
5. send 1 to 4 info to the server before logging in and block access if anything is wrong or at failure to send
1. check for cheat software
2. make sure the running process matches the absolute path
3. compare checksums
4. check for cheat software
6. sent 3 & 4 info at constant time intervals during the online play. This can also be randomized to avoid detection from the user's machine. perform actions 3 & 4

I can already think of the commands for this. they don't need root level access.

THE QUESTION

wouldn't that work on linux? am I missing something really important? that could also work on other platforms with the appropriate commands.

it sounds like an easy noscript to make. the tests can be done in server side and I think the noscript, to collect and send info, can be installed locally, as it can also sef-check for checksum.

am I dumb for thinking it's simple?

https://redd.it/l7j3tc
@r_linux