Personal certificate management on Linux

Recently I've been wondering about personal certificate management solutions on Linux (certificates that are usually given out by government to access government sites, sign documents, etc...). I have googled around and couldn't really find a good solution for this.

Basically what I want to achieve is the same thing that Windows has. In Windows you import your personal certificate into the OS certificate store and set a password for it. Then every time an application wants to use said certificate (for example web browser when accessing secure pages or Adobe Acrobat when signing PDFs) you need to enter a password in order to decrypt it.

In Linux the only options I found so far are:

1. Importing the certificate into Firefox cert store, which is used by Mozilla Firefox, LibreOffice and some others. However the problem with this solution is that the certificate then sits unencrypted on your hard disk and anyone with access to your machine can easily copy it. The Firefox certificate store can be encrypted using a Primary Password (used to be called Master Password), however this password is not only used to encrypt certificates but also a bunch of other stuff which means you have to enter it every time you open Firefox. This makes for a lot of unnecessary password typing as I open my browser lots of times but only need to use the certificates rarely - I would prefer to enter the password only when I actually need it.

2. Gnome Seahorse - This seemed like the perfect solutions as it encrypts your passwords/certificates using your login password and then hands out access to them to requesting applications. This solution works really well for SSH private keys, however when I tried to import my personal certificate (.p12 file) in it the import button stayed disabled. This seems to be a pretty old bug, that doesn't look like it'll be fixed any time soon (or at all).


What other solutions are out there? What I want to achieve is to simply store my certificate securely (protected with a password) and then enter this password every time an application wants to use said certificate. To me this seems the only sensible way to manage personal certificates, or am I missing something?

https://redd.it/lvy0gr
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Disabling IPv6 for OpenVPN tunnels can speed up the VPN

Hi all, just discovered this as I went from near native speeds of 90Mbps to 1.5Mbps after a day or two. After investigation it turns out that many VPN providers don't enable IPv6 in their OpenVPN config. And there are many links on how to turn it off. I just thought I'd share this, as this did not seem to be common knowledge, to me at least.

Essentially all you have to do is turn off IPv6 for the current VPN tunnel interface.

Network Manager gives me tun0 as the tunnel interface. You can find yours with

$ ip address

To disable IPv6, run

$ sudo sysctl net.ipv6.conf.tun0.disable_ipv6=1

And append net.ipv6.conf.tun0.disable_ipv6=1 to the end of your /etc/sysctl.conf file to keep the kernel configuration on reboot.

Hope this helps someone!

I wrote a full blog about it here
https://jamochl.com/speed-up-openvpn-by-disabling-ipv6/

https://redd.it/lw1ko9
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Blackbird Secure Desktop – a fully open source modern POWER9 workstation without any proprietary code
https://www.osnews.com/story/133093/review-blackbird-secure-desktop-a-fully-open-source-modern-power9-workstation-without-any-proprietary-code/

https://redd.it/lw0m9n
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abc : A command-line tool for frictionless C programming

While coding my school projects, I got tired of my slow workflow in C. So I decided to write a "small" bash noscript to automate this workflow, and it ended up accidentaly being a 300 line "project manager"... The front-end is mainly inspired of the `cargo` tool in Rust, so if you have already used it you'll be at home :).

## What it looks like

Right now you can :

* Create a new project with `abc new <project_name>`
* Initialize a project within a directory with `abc init`
* Compile your code with `abc build` or `abc b`
* Compile and execute your code with `abc run` or `abc r`
* Run unit tests with `abc test` or `abc t`

Also you shouldn't need to fiddle too much with the Makefile !

## The main feature: Tests!

After polishing the noscript for the last few days, I decided today to add test support (and I'm quite proud of it!). Right now if you want to write a test in a file all you need to do is to wrap an integer function like so :

#ifdef TEST
int test_two_plus_two() {
int x = 2 + 2;
return (x == 4);
}
#endif

and `abc test` will do the rest!

You can check out the noscript [here](https://github.com/martin-fl/abc). My main goal was to have a lightweight utility that I didn't have to impose on my programming partners, and except for the tests, my goal is achieved :)

The noscript is mainly POSIX-compliant except for a dependency on `ripgrep` for faster parsing of tests. Oh and it is only *fairly* tested so if you find any bugs let me now !

https://redd.it/lw406a
@r_linux

Elegant bash conditionals
https://timvisee.com/blog/elegant-bash-conditionals/#nice-to-know

https://redd.it/lw0ofg
@r_linux

Which Linux CLI/graphical tools you wish, you would have started using earlier?

I have learnt so many cool commands and tools just by visiting forums particularly memes one (it's true)

1.bat (enhanced cat command which highlights syntax and give easily readability using less: yeah less is more)

2.tldr (name defines it, don't want to sniff through whole man pages to get some necessary commands, tldr{some distros ship it as tealdeer} is your friend)

3.scrcpy (android wireless debugging tool, really useful if you don't wanna fudge around with cables)

Edit:typo

https://redd.it/lw59dj
@r_linux

Electron 12 has just been released with Wayland support

There's nothing specific about Wayland in the release notes but it can be tested by installing the latest Electron version and running:

electron --enable-features=UseOzonePlatform --ozone-platform=wayland

https://redd.it/lw7cvk
@r_linux

Fish shell 3.2.0 released.
https://github.com/fish-shell/fish-shell/releases/tag/3.2.0

https://redd.it/lvwhj0
@r_linux

Steam Link now available on Linux
https://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/10/3106892760562833187/

https://redd.it/lw9wjr
@r_linux

Explaining the MIT license
https://gustavopinto.medium.com/explaining-the-mit-license-ddc8bc44a14a

https://redd.it/lw9it5
@r_linux

KDE Plasma 5.21.2, Bugfix Release for March
https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/5/5.21.2/

https://redd.it/lwcykp
@r_linux

Hello world from the project to properly establish regression tracking in the Linux kernel development process
https://linux-regtracking.leemhuis.info/post/hello-world/

https://redd.it/lwapw1
@r_linux

Does anyone have a Juno computer?

I am looking to upgrade and was about to buy Apple because I already have Linux but Linux is simply too good to ignore and is harder to decrypt by authorities than Apple or Windows (If encrypted during installation). I am about to buy from Juno Computers and would like to ask:

1. Does anyone genuinely own a laptop from them?
2. Are you happy with your laptop?

I am aware of Starlabs but reviews and reddit users are not happy with their laptops and the rest of the companies are not in Europe (Tuxedo and Laptopforlinux not included).

Cheers for your assistance.

https://redd.it/lw9wxp
@r_linux

And Now For Something Completely Different : I'm exploring (and getting excited by) Elementary development
https://bluesabre.org/2021/02/28/and-now-for-something-completely-different/

https://redd.it/lw3sxi
@r_linux

Why is GNU HURD not (A)GPLv3

I was just reading the wikipedia page about the GNU Hurd kernel.

But i noticed something. It said its GPLv2+, why ? Why did they not relicense the GNU Hurd to GPLv3 or AGPLv3 since its GPLv2 or later ? Will it ever be ?

https://redd.it/lw9hyt
@r_linux

Looking for a old-folk friendly distro to sustitute windows

Hello everyone! Im looking for a linux distro to replace an old windows system for a couple of old folk's laptop in order to make it more efficient, less bloated etc...

i want something windows like and friendly enough for the to use so I was thinking something like Ubuntu or Elementary OS.

What do you guys think?

https://redd.it/lwjmpi
@r_linux

Is MacOS = premium Linux?

I bought Mac and I saw interface is so similar to Linux. It is 180° different than Windows. I bought Mac not even looking how it OS looks (just wanted to get rid of Windows). We had in school Linux so it was so similar.

So is the MacOS a premium Linux? #everythingbetterthanwindows

https://redd.it/lw8z5f
@r_linux

As a semi-experience linux user, I want to completely make the switch from Windows to Linux, but I don't know where distro to choose

Hi, for my entire life essentially I have used windows (I'm not that old tho). Although, for a few months last year, I used Manjaro cause my school gave me a 7-year-old computer and Windows was too heavy. I honestly liked Manjaro a lot, but I don't if it's the best for me.

&#x200B;

Things I just can't stand about Windows:

\- Doesn't work half the time -- as a programmer, I have to constantly mess with stuff, and windows decides to be an asshole about it. I would venture to say that I have spend over 30% of the time on my computer fixing it.

\- Viruses -- I like downloading free stuff and viruses are just a fact of life for this.

\- Slow -- I will have discord, a dozen chrome tabs, and spotify open and it will lag when I switch desktops.

\- Driver Issues -- I have had to deal with more display, network, power, and mouse drivers than I can even recount.

\- Awful with second monitors -- constantly worrying whether it would recognize my monitor every time I plug my laptop into its dock.

&#x200B;

Things I'm also looking for:

\- Python, Java, Javanoscript, and Cuda support

\- Support for running .exe files

\- Simple setup

\- Speed and good memory management

\- It just works

\- Second monitor support

Some additional comments:

Over the past 2 years or so I've become mildly familiar with Ubuntu, Manjaro, and Raspbian so I'm not an absolute noob. I'm an avid Chrome user and I will constantly have at least 25 tabs open across 3 different windows, so I would like to be able to do this without really worrying about lag or OOM stuff (ik chrome uses bricks of ram, that's why I'm mentioning this). In addition to all this, my daily driver is the HP envy x360 15m-dr0012dx (i7-8565U), and recently my battery life has been absolute garbage, like 1.5 hours with medium usage, as opposed to the 8 hour battery life it started with (\~1 year ago). I'm fairly sure the batter is physically in good shape (95% health), at least thats what the windows battery health tool told me. Anyways, I think this is a result of lots of background tasks + potentially a virus. One more thing to note, I want a very user-friendly experience, as in I can access nearly everything from well-designed GUIs. One thing I think windows did really well is the start menu (its slow tho) and its search, they are just so convenient and I would like a Linux distro that has that or something similar (one of the reasons I originally choose Manjaro). As an added note, I would like the ability to play around with it and make it look fancy like the people at r/unixporn but not as hardcore.

Thank you!

TLDR: I'm looking for a solid Linux distro to use instead of Windows


EDIT:

One big thing is I would still like to dual boot it with windows

https://redd.it/lwm5ft
@r_linux

Best Programming language for making GUI or desktop application in Linux

I use openSUSE and I'd like to develop some software to use as a desktop software. But, I'm unsure what language or framework to use.

I moved not too long ago to linux and i know that for developing Windows applications you mainly use c++. Can you use c++ to develop GUI desktop apps in Linux??

Any insight or suggestions are welcome.

https://redd.it/lwmvmt
@r_linux

Advice wanted: A good, cheap multimedia storage SSD for linux.

Over the past couple of years I've dragged along with a 1TB Samsung 850 Pro SSD as a secondary storage device. I say dragged along because it's quite possible the most buggy POS disk I ever had to contend with, at least on linux. It has this...thing...it does, where if it is engaged in writing for any substantial amount of time it will simply stop in continuous chunks 5% of the time, corrupting whatever file it's currently writing to, making it pretty useless as mass-storage. It intermittently complains about "unavailable DRM-features" in the TTY, and generally slows down system boot and shutdown because something about it needs to time out. Works fine on windows though, and the EVO version supposedly works fine on linux too.

Anyway, it's getting the boot. I've filled up my M.2-slots (1 for system, 1 for steamgames and whatever), and now I'd like some cheap, not necessarily blazing fast, storage for movies, music and what have you (though not spinning disks).

Any good recommendations for what to look at? I'm thinking 1-2TB 2.5" SATAIII SSD's.

https://redd.it/lwnh1a
@r_linux

Memory Usage comparison between GNOME & AwesomeWM in Ubuntu TABLE

Ubuntu installed some weeks ago. Only installed apps (from apt) are google-chrome-beta , htop & vscode. I measured memory usage in htop with each apps opened one by one.

Hardware age: 7yrs.

Total memory: 3.74 gigabytes

CPU: Intel i3 G2020@2.90GHz

&#x200B;

|Apps|GNOME (megabytes)|AwesomeWM (megabytes)|
|:-|:-|:-|
|Just after login|732|411|
|LibreOffice Writer|880|570|
|Thunderbird|878|599|
|Firefox|1.04 gigabytes|710|
|Shotwell|790|511|
|2mins after above app closed |720|456|

I do acknowledge the difference between window managers and desktop environment. It just demonstrates that using just a window managers provides a significant advantage over DE on lower hardware. Ofcoure I can lower it down further with Arch or gentoo, but we will see it in the next episode of my GNU/Linux adventure. I don't know KDE compares. Until then, awesome is awesome.

Can't demonstrate using Chrome, as it has some 300 tabs open (724 tabs open in Chrome Canary in mobile - my poor Andoid :-(

https://redd.it/lwodgg
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