Got Arch stable after almost a month - suggest what I should do next

I had some pretty nasty hardware issues, but after about a month of troubleshooting, installing and uninstalling Arch 3 times, re-partitioning drives and rebuilding bootloaders many times, I finally have a stable setup. It really is like breaking free of chains. I despise loading into windows now and once time and money permit I'll aim to migrate as much over to linux as I possibly can.

Now that it's finally stable (for now), I'm looking for suggestions as to what to do next. I've got a fairly basic setup. I'm on KDE Plasma and didn't even install their application package. I've only been installing packages as I need them essentially and have most of my normal tools for work and daily use.

What are some suggestions in terms of customization, optimization or just tool installation for a new linux user?

https://redd.it/1ptqj3j
@r_linux

What is the best & worst distro you've used so far?

What is the best & worst distro you've used so far? And why?

Which one would you recommend and which one you totally wouldn't?

Was there a distro you tried and was hyped for it only to be dissappointed in the end? Was there a distro that surprised you in a good way? :)

https://redd.it/1ptr98e
@r_linux

Are there any distros that you don't daily drive (anymore), but remember fondly?

For me it's Slitaz Linux. I downloaded it and daily drove it for half a year when 4.0 was still new (2012/3). My computer specs at the time were Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD, pretty measly even for that time period. Slitaz was small, nimble, and served me well.

The aspect I remember the most fondly however is the visual language: Clearlooks-esque theme, orange colors, Faenza icons, Polar cursors, the DejaVu Sans UI font, all of which combined makes for a coherent yet distinct 2010s style.

It was during my distrohopping days. I switched to Puppy Linux (another interesting memory) after that. The development of Slitaz eventually fizzled out, and now it's a dormant distro with mostly old packages.

What are some distros that you have fond memories of?

https://redd.it/1ptrs22
@r_linux

Pro Audio Config v1.9

A professional opensource audio configuration tool for Linux systems that provides a simple graphical interface to manage PipeWire and ALSA audio settings. Made for everyone, from music listeners to gamers, streamers, musicians and other heavy users...
Finally, an easy way to configure sample rates, bit depths, and buffer sizes without digging through config files:

Pro Audio Config on GitHub

Tested on for Arch, Fedora and Ubuntu (for all maju DEs Gnome,KDE, Cinnmaon MATE, XFCE...)

Monitor tab in action - Monitor tab scrshot

# Whats new:

Configuration Inspector Tab

Comprehensive File Scanning: Automatic discovery of all PipeWire/WirePlumber configuration files
Active Status Detection: Heuristic-based identification of active pro-audio configurations
Visual File Indicators: ✓ checkmarks show files currently influencing system audio settings
Smart File Organization: Clear separation between user and system configuration files
Desktop Environment Integration: Intelligent terminal detection for system file editing
File Metadata Display: Size, modification time, owner information, and content preview
Refresh Capability: On-demand rescanning of configuration files and PipeWire state

Enhanced Audio Monitoring Reconnection

Manual Reconnect Button: One-click recovery for monitoring connection issues
Multi-attempt Strategy: Exponential backoff reconnection with intelligent retry logic
Service Health Monitoring: Automatic detection of PipeWire service interruptions
Connection Cleanup: Removal of stale monitor ports before reconnection attempts
PID Change Handling: Automatic recovery when audio daemons restart
Monitoring Thread Lifecycle: Proper cleanup and restart of monitoring threads

 Smart Active Configuration Detection

Filename Pattern Recognition: Files starting with "99-" or containing "pro-audio" identified as active
Content Analysis: Detection of common pro-audio settings in configuration files
Application Signature: Files containing "# Generated by Pro Audio Config" marked as active
pw-dump Integration: Property parsing to identify referenced configuration files
Heuristic Fallback: Content-based detection when direct references unavailable

release-notes: Notes Version 1.9

If you like it and want to support new releases in the future, donate button in the readme...

New config inspector

https://redd.it/1pttb07
@r_linux

Meta Is Using The Linux Scheduler Designed For Valve's Steam Deck On Its Servers
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Meta-SCX-LAVD-Steam-Deck-Server

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

Linux 6.19 boosts old AMD GCN HD 7900 GPU performance by ~30% with AMDGPU
https://videocardz.com/newz/linux-6-19-boosts-old-amd-gcn-hd-7900-gpu-performance-by-30-with-amdgpu

https://redd.it/1ptxz5p
@r_linux

Tiny OSC52 clipboard helper from remote servers — useful or redundant?

Working locally on macOS I got very used to piping things into pbcopy... configs, logs, whole files, so I could inspect or paste them elsewhere in one command.

When working on remote Linux servers over SSH, I really missed that workflow, so I put together a small helper using OSC52 to send data from a remote shell directly into my local clipboard (tested with iTerm2).

Here’s the noscript:

#/usr/local/bin/rc
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

usage() {
cat <<'USAGE' >&2
Usage:
rcopy <file>
rcopy - < <(command)
rcopy -p "literal text"

Env:
RCOPY_MAX_BYTES=75000
USAGE
exit 2
}

max_bytes="${RCOPY_MAX_BYTES:-75000}"
mode="file"; literal=""; src=""

[[ $# -ge 1 ]] || usage
case "$1" in
-h|--help) usage;;
-p|--print) mode="literal"; literal="${2-}"; [[ -n "$literal" ]] || usage;;
-) mode="stdin";;
*) mode="file"; src="$1";;
esac

tmp="$(mktemp)"
trap 'rm -f "$tmp"' EXIT

if [[ "$mode" == "literal" ]]; then
printf '%s' "$literal" >"$tmp"
elif [[ "$mode" == "stdin" ]]; then
cat >"$tmp"
else
[[ -f "$src" ]] || { echo "rcopy: not a file: $src" >&2; exit 1; }
cat -- "$src" >"$tmp"
fi

bytes="$(wc -c <"$tmp" | tr -d ' ')"
if (( bytes > max_bytes )); then
echo "rcopy: ${bytes} bytes exceeds limit ${max_bytes}. Refusing." >&2
exit 1
fi

b64="$(base64 <"$tmp" | tr -d '\n')"
printf '\033]52;c;%s\033\\' "$b64"
echo "Sent ${bytes} bytes via OSC52" >&2

Now I can do things like:

`rcopy nginx.conf`

`journalctl -u foo | rcopy -`

…and paste locally to inspect, diff, or share elsewhere.

I’m curious:

* Do people already use something similar?
* Is there an existing tool that does this better / more cleanly?
* Or is this a reasonable quality-of-life hack for SSH-heavy workflows?

Genuinely interested whether this is useful or just reinventing something obvious.

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

State of this subreddit

This used to be a place to discuss technical topics and patches, now it’s a place where memes and windows compability and adobe is posted about. And superstitions are shared instead of facts.

I wish it could go back to how it used to be, but I know it will never.

https://redd.it/1pu00t6
@r_linux

Have you ever used Slackware?(Not meme)
https://redd.it/1pu0mgu
@r_linux

Fabrice Bellard (creator of FFmpeg & Qemu) Releases MicroQuickJS
https://github.com/bellard/mquickjs

https://redd.it/1pu2egw
@r_linux

Intel NPU firmware published for Panther Lake - completing the Linux driver support
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Panther-Lake-NPU-Firmware

https://redd.it/1pu0vj4
@r_linux

Remember Window Positions - for KDE Plasma (restores positions of your applications)
https://redd.it/1pu43tu
@r_linux

Case study. Linux - the savior of old hardware.

I've been wanting to write this for sometime now, but things were hectic. I run a small media company, which in this case really means that not that much money is available for secondary needs hardware. Yet, it is exactly that "secondary" hardware that makes life better. Next to our set of offices sits a fine IT company (merry folk, love them), that has a rather large number of regular office clients under their care. Most of the time, when Excel stops running as smoothly as it used to on the first day, or the system feels sluggish and all that, it is easier, faster and cheaper in the end (for these great folks) to just get a new office PC for the client, set it up and take the older box away. These used boxes are then cannibalized for parts (no one really knows why, actually, just a prudent thing to do) and afterwards are stacked in a huge room behind their own office forever. Once in a blue moon, they can't fit the newly arrived old box inside that room, so they'd just get all that stuff out and take it to a dump. Aha! I thought and went to them the first time I have had a thought, that maybe my own FTP server would be beneficial against using a paid remote server (I do have some sensitive media sometimes - before it is officially released as a final product, I wouldn't want it to be leaked). They were all pro, since the blue moon was approaching and gave me a full access to the "room". That has been the beginning of the journey a few years ago that got me very much into linux world, so far, in fact, that I am now (no special education or anything like that in this field) actually noscripting for my servers (with the help of AI, but nevertheless).

And it is linux that enabled me to turn office low powered outdated trash boxes that wouldn't properly run Excel into mighty helpers:

All in all - these systems are game changers for my small company and could only happen because of linux - even if I had to purchase the hardware, the amount of work you can get out of very lame stats with linux is mind boggling.

Yes, it wasn't easy to get it all play nice and it is still a work in progress. Yes I had to create custom noscripts to have these all play nicely with each other (mostly load balancing, monitoring and watchdog solutions), but you can do that with linux. I use mostly Ubuntu servers, but only due to my initial lack of proper education, while Ubuntu had a lot of information about it and lots of forums for help.

All in all I just wanted to show (and show off a little) that it is possible to setup an incredible network of lame PCs that will do a lot of wonderful tasks for almost nothing, but your time.

https://redd.it/1pu0jgr
@r_linux

postmarketOS v25.12: The One Where The Saga Continues
https://postmarketos.org/blog/2025/12/23/v25.12-release/

https://redd.it/1pu3lt5
@r_linux

The Age of Linux Starts Now - YouTube
https://youtu.be/8DdxJEIWoT8

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

Linux tiny distribution written in JavaScript!
https://github.com/popovicu/ultimate-linux/

https://redd.it/1puf1sq
@r_linux

Preparing my first RHSCA EXAM

Hey guys, how's life? Last month i started to learn linux in first time. Mostly I only used program langs such as c++, c, python etc. but when I start to learn linux I'm so confused. Like everything is a file EVERYTHING!!! So I need some advice guys, im so overwhelmed about the rhsca exam. I study 7 hours daily but after 1 week i forget to much the same thing that I did a week before. What do you suggest this poor guy.
(P.S for now im reading the sander van vurght's book rhsca cert guide now im on the 11th chapter. For now i can do too much thing, for example yesterday I download and config antivirus with the help of ai(sometimes i thought when i use ai for creating something on the linux i feel cheating and not learning :( Now I'm on my laptop wathcing my course's videos then I'll start to do labs and exercises on the book and redo my course assignments with a timer.

Thanks advance.

https://redd.it/1puj5fr
@r_linux

Understanding LXC for Production

I’m interested in building a malware analysis sandbox. For each analysis run, I need to automatically provision a fresh virtual machine, execute a malware sample, collect results, and then fully destroy the environment. The sandbox should support multiple operating systems such as Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android.

My main focus is on the orchestration layer, specifically, which technologies or tech stacks can be used to automate the deployment, execution, isolation, and teardown of these environments efficiently and securely.

Will LXC help or should i look at something else if i want it to be production grade

https://redd.it/1pugx08
@r_linux

Mouse Tiler - for KDE Plasma (Probably the fastest manual tiler available)
https://redd.it/1pulj4o
@r_linux

Libxml2 Narrowly Avoids Becoming Unmaintained
https://hackaday.com/2025/12/23/libxml2-narrowly-avoids-becoming-unmaintained/

https://redd.it/1pumo3i
@r_linux

KVM Guest VMs Using Intel AMX Can Cause The Linux Host To Kernel Panic
https://www.phoronix.com/news/KVM-Guests-AMX-Host-Panic

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