[OC] Introducing pwmenu: A launcher-driven audio manager for Linux
https://redd.it/1nogolx
@r_linux

Software for audio CD ripping?

I wanted to create accurate (as close to perfect) digital replicas of some audio CDs. I saw that this would be done through ripping them into BIN/CUE files. I was wondering if there were any tools or anything that you guys would recommend to be used in this case? I am prioritising perfect replication over anything.

Edit: Just to clarify, this is not to extract audio files to listen to the tracks. I meant a digital replica that could be burned onto other CDs to make a perfect copy. So preserving every bit of data is needed.

https://redd.it/1nohn20
@r_linux

Im Doing it! Im switching to Linux!
https://redd.it/1nomebn
@r_linux

New Patches Optimize EXT4 Online Defragmentation for Better Performance

A set of 13 patches were posted today to the Linux kernel mailing list for optimizing the online defragmentation handling by the EXT4 kernel driver. The online defragmentation improvements for EXT4 can net a nice performance win with a very significant improvement in a variety of scenarios.

Huawei engineer Zhang Yi posted the patches to the Linux kernel mailing list for improving the EXT4 file-system online defragmentation handling. Plus it's also working toward converting the EXT4 buffered I/O code for regular files over to the IOmap infrastructure. Zhang Yi explained with the LKML patch series:

* "Currently, the online defragmentation of the ext4 is primarily implemented through the move extent operation in the kernel. This extent-moving operates at the granularity of PAGE\_SIZE, iteratively performing extent swapping and data movement operations, which is quite inefficient. Especially since ext4 now supports large folios, iterations at the PAGE\_SIZE granularity are no longer practical and fail to leverage the advantages of large folios. Additionally, the current implementation is tightly coupled with buffer\_head, making it unable to support after the conversion of buffered I/O processes to the iomap infrastructure.
* This patch set (based on 6.17-rc7) optimizes the extent-moving process, deprecates the old move\_extent\_per\_page() interface, and introduces a new mext\_move\_extent() interface. The new interface iterates over and copies data based on the extents of the original file instead of the PAGE\_SIZE, and supporting large folios. The data processing logic in the iteration remains largely consistent with previous versions, with no additional optimizations or changes made.
* Additionally, the primary objective of this set of patches is to prepare for converting the buffered I/O process for regular files to the iomap infrastructure. These patches decouple the buffer\_head from the main extent-moving process, restricting its use to only the helpers mext\_folio\_mkwrite() and mext\_folio\_mkuptodate(), which handle updating and marking pages in the swapped page cache as dirty. The overall coding style of the extent-moving process aligns with the iomap infrastructure, laying the foundation for supporting online defragmentation once the iomap infrastructure is adopted."

The benchmarks included as part of [the patch series](https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20250923012724.2378858-1-yi.zhang@huaweicloud.com/) are very enticing:
Some really solid wins at the different block sizes and both for written/unwritten extent moving.

Source: [New Patches Optimize EXT4 Online Defragmentation For Better Performance - Phoronix](https://www.phoronix.com/news/EXT4-Faster-Online-Defrag)

https://redd.it/1nomfjv
@r_linux

Linux isn't (that) hard and is so awesome!!

New Linux user here that migrated off of Windows 10 to Linux Mint yesterday and I was shocked at how user-friendly and smooth both the transition process and actually using Linux is!

Yes, it is an adjustment and a learning curve, since Linux is NOT Windows or MacOS, but you can't fault the OS, as most people incurred the learning curve when they picked up their first Windows or MacOS PC all those years ago and most people are not exposed to Linux until a later age, if at all.

But I have to say there are SO many great guides online that walk you through exactly what you're inquiring about. Yes, there are more guides for Windows or MacOS in volume compared to Linux, but it's quality, not quantity. The Linux community is so knowledgeable and makes such great guides. Contrary to popular belief, I find the community to be even more hospitable with being open to helping.

Also, the way Linux functionally operates is such a refreshing new perspective on PC OS... I really dig the idea of having a "one-stop shop" Software Manager, similar to the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store on Mobile OS.

Lastly, the command Terminal may seem intimidating to non-techy people (believe me, I'm a normie), but it feels so badass and cool to use... I've used so much ChatGPT, DeepSeek, etc. to help me prompt out commands to achieve what I want to achieve and I really feel the power in my hands.

I love Linux!! I have had no trouble as well with getting setup and meeting my gaming needs on Linux, finding Linux software alternatives (e.g. LibreOffice), and even having Wine as an option (if you really need Windows).

I hope others and more people can be exposed to the magic of Linux and enjoy it, as Windows 10 support comes to an "end" in Oct 2025, and we all know how negative the perception of Windows 11 is. 😉

https://redd.it/1noqu7w
@r_linux

Guys, how do I get him out of my terminal?
https://redd.it/1noxh7i
@r_linux

Why are so many Linux newbies going to Linux Mint?

I remember when everyone would install Ubuntu LTS and it was a really good distro for its time. Now everyone says "Mint or zorin OS!" I do know that Ubuntu is forcing snaps and the cold startup time for chromium (I use it on my Ubuntu) is like ~10 secs. It's not really that horrible, just slightly slow.

https://redd.it/1nozluk
@r_linux

Finally made the move to Linux!

Got sick and tired of all the random crashes that was plaguing my old Thinkpad X270 (previously running Windows) so I finally installed Linux Mint. Haven't regretted my decision yet. I can do everything I was doing before, but this time without the frustration. :-)

https://redd.it/1np5uwn
@r_linux

Is there anyone that uses windows on work and linux at home? How is it?

I used windows from 7 then 8 on my netbook and since it was so trash switched linux and im using it since then. Now I'm applying for job IT support role where everything runs on windows. Is there any reason to dualboot at home?

https://redd.it/1np346g
@r_linux

Announcing the Soft Launch of Fedora Forge
https://communityblog.fedoraproject.org/announcing-the-soft-launch-of-fedora-forge/

https://redd.it/1np68r3
@r_linux

GNOME 49 drops support for non-systemd ; Artix Linux drops support for GNOME
https://forum.artixlinux.org/index.php/topic,8700.0.html

https://redd.it/1np8pq5
@r_linux

Linux 6.18 Adding A New Power Savings Option For The Intel Graphics Driver
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.18-SLPC-Power-Profile

https://redd.it/1npbh71
@r_linux

Intel Moves Pre-Arc Graphics To "Legacy" Driver On Windows - Linux Users Need Not Worry
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-11th-14th-Gen-Legacy-Drv

https://redd.it/1npbgnq
@r_linux

SPARC v9-targetted Linux Distro?

I'm getting into the SPARC eco-system in a quest to collect all of the dead-tech RISC UNIX workstations of old. In that vein, I've glommed onto a reasonably new (13 years old) Sun SPARC T5-2 server.

Now, what to run on it? I've downloaded Oracle Solaris 11.4, but I'd rather do straight up Linux, but I don't know if it has drivers for all of the funky hardware that SPARC brings to the party. I know Debian does/used to have a sparc port, but this is a sparc64 architecture.

If worse comes to worst, there's always the Gentoo sparc64 port.

But really, if it were relatively straight forward, I'd love to have an Arch sparc64 (SPARCH-64?) port.

https://redd.it/1nphvch
@r_linux

Open Infrastructure is Not Free: A Joint Statement on Sustainable Stewardship
https://openssf.org/blog/2025/09/23/open-infrastructure-is-not-free-a-joint-statement-on-sustainable-stewardship/

https://redd.it/1npitr0
@r_linux

SUSE Announces Better Support for NVIDIA CUDA

SUSE in partnership with NVIDIA today announced making the NVIDIA CUDA TOolkit officially available on all SUSE platforms.

Similar to Canonical's recent announcement of official support for NVIDIA CUDA within Ubuntu Linux archives, SUSE today announced formal CUDA support on SUSE Linux operating systems.

This evolved support for NVIDIA CUDA on SUSE Enterprise Linux includes simplified installation support via the SUSE repositories, continuous updates for new CUDA packages that align with the latest NVIDIA official releases, and is available to all SUSE users.

SUSE wrote in today's announcement:

"Following a close collaboration with NVIDIA, SUSE can now distribute the NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit directly within our products. You might have already seen the news from NVIDIA about this; we’re excited to share what this means for you, our developer community. Our goal is simple: to make deploying CUDA on SUSE platforms radically easier, helping you accelerate your work in AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and beyond.
...
We’ve teamed with NVIDIA to bring the CUDA software stack directly into SUSE products.
This means you can now get the essential CUDA components right alongside your other SUSE packages, which will streamline your entire setup and dependency management. This is a game-changer, especially for complex AI frameworks like PyTorch and essential libraries like OpenCV."

Source: SUSE Announces Better Support For NVIDIA CUDA - Phoronix

https://redd.it/1npttla
@r_linux

Alright, this is a bit of a weird question

I’ve been looking for answers about how to run the Ultrix Window Manager, the first x11 window manager from 1985. I cannot find instructions on how to compile it, and can’t even find its dependencies. I’ve found a github repo with the source code, but it’s archived and doesn’t have any info on compiling.

https://github.com/Arquivotheca/uwm is the repo for anyone wondering

https://redd.it/1npn7o2
@r_linux

How much space does your Flatpak take up?
https://redd.it/1npxsa8
@r_linux

Linux for a 1.7 Ghz, 16 GB RAM laptop.

Title says it all, using an ALLDOCUBE i1506s with an Intel N95, 16 GB of RAM, and an 500GB HDD. Stopped using Windows 11 within a month, it was insanely slow. Using Linux Mint XFCE, but the experience isn't great. Issues everywhere, and old versions or missing packages thanks to Ubuntu base. Want a non-Ubuntu Linux distro and a DE that will run good on such hardware. Not that good at Linux yet, so do not reccomend Arch or Gentoo. Use it for daily stuff, like web browsing, some YT, Reddit. Also some student work. Text editing, and some extremely light gaming (browser games).

https://redd.it/1npwqrh
@r_linux

mgmtconfig version 1.0.0 now released

Dear reader,

Your mod is the main author of a next generation automation tool. I'm trying to make this open source work sustainable so I've started an open source style company.

If you'd like to encourage this work, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

~

Ten years of #mgmtconfig

Version 1.0.0 now released

https://purpleidea.com/blog/2025/09/25/10-years-of-mgmt/

https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/releases/tag/1.0.0

https://m9rx.com/news/10-years-of-mgmt/

Please share if you're so inclined:

https://mastodon.social/@purpleidea/115263337144317190

https://bsky.app/profile/purpleidea.bsky.social/post/3lznalos6uk2l

https://x.com/purpleidea/status/1971088021404655862

https://redd.it/1nq0h33
@r_linux

Yt-dlp: Soon you'll need Deno or another supported JS runtime, to keep YouTube downloads working as normal.
https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/14404

https://redd.it/1nq1xxe
@r_linux