Linux Questions

This will be for a physically small i5 laptop for various programming fun. The candidate linux should be easy to install, and provide a large selection of CLI programs.

I want to sync retroarch save files across devices on my local network using a bash script. Plan is to run the script as a cronjob to keep all machines synced.

This does the trick as a one-off in the terminal: rsync -a /home/localuser/.config/retroarch/states/ [email protected]:/home/remoteuser/.config/retroarch/states/

• Copies new save files to remote location
• Updates any save files which were modified

But when I put the same line in a bash script rsync's behavior changes. My bash script looks like this:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
rsync -a /home/localuser/.config/retroarch/states/ [email protected]:/home/remoteuser/.config/retroarch/states/

I call it with bash sync_saves.sh

• Copies new save files to remote location
• ~~Updates any save files which were modified~~

Strangely, rsync doesn't update modified files when run as a script. But it's not failing altogether, because it transfers new files OK. What am I missing?

Update: if I do the rsync in the reverse order (remote machine -> local machine) then the bash script works as expected. So my issue exists only when rsync goes local machine -> remote machine. Why would this matter?

Update 2 (Solution): I changed the command to rsync -razu /home/localuser/.config/retroarch/states/ [email protected]:/home/remoteuser/.config/retroarch/states/, but I'm not sure that made any impact. The issue was how I was doing my testing. I was doing touch testfile.txt to change the modification date on a file & then I'd try to transfer it with the bash script & watch the modification date on the downstream machine as confirmation that it moved correctly. Problem is that rsync must be smart & doesn't transfer a file if only the modification date changes. It requires the contents to also change. Whenever I tested this way I would never see the file transfer, but when I changed my testing method to change the contents of the file instead (not just the modification timestamp) then all worked fine!

I feel like a dummy for initially mixing testing methods & coming to the wrong conclusion about what was happening, but happy it's working now & maybe I learned a lesson!

Briefly: I'm running Kubuntu right now, just installed a second ssd. If I install another distro (say opensuse) on it, can I tell it to use the same /home that kubuntu is using (which is on a separate partition and drive)? Actually looking to switch distros, but I want to keep all my data where it is on the bigger hdd, while moving games to the ssd.

If you want/need more details:

• ssd1: windows, kubuntu /
• hdd1: kubuntu (opensuse) /home
• ssd2: (goal) opensuse /, second partition for games

Title. Plasma 6 just dropped on my arch-based distro, and it came with an option for a colorblindness correction filter:

Neat little tool that my Protanope ass was very excited about, and it works.

The thing is.

Some time ago Windows also introduced one of those, and in Windows, you can turn it on and off with a key-combination shortcut. I use that a lot on Windows, to keep the filter off and turn it on just when it is necessary (look, every person experiences colorblindness differently, and on my end, these filters while useful for certain kinds of work, are very ugly most other times)

Now, I already know I can set a key-combination shortcut to a terminal command on plasma. Easy peasy.

But for me to do that on plasma I'd need to have a way to switch the effect on and off from the terminal.

I know that I can do systemsettings kcm_kwin_effects to launch the configs app straight into the relevant tab. But now I'm wondering if I could make that even more automatic, maybe using the --args thing, which apparently is literally meant for sending commands directly to the configuration module. But then I wouldn't know what the command is.

I want to configure a Raspberry Pi 4 as a web (application) server.

Although I could of course simply do it via Raspbian, I would love to use an Immutable/auto updating OS like Fedora Core OS/Fedora IoT/OpenSUSE MicroOS.

To my surprise, every solution does not look very turnkey ready for Raspberry Pi 4.

Please correct me, if I am wrong but it seems:

• For Fedora Core OS/OpenSUSE MicroOS it seems like I have to download the firmware for the Raspberry Pi, partition the sd card by hand and afterwards login to configure WiFi and/or use an ignition file on a separate USB stick on boot

• For Fedora IoT it seems I need a running Fedora system first (yes, I know about LiveCDs) and I still need to edit by hand the Wifi configuration How to install Fedora IoT on Raspberry Pi 4. Further, it seems Fedora IoT has 'fixed' version numbers and no automatic updates.

So, my questions:

• It seems Fedora IoT is the nearest fit for my use case and comparatively the easiest version to setup?
  • Am I missing out on Fedora Core OS or OpenSUSE MicroOS?
  • Are there other viable immutable options from reputable sources?
• Does anyone know about an immutable distribution, where the initial setup is basically like Raspbians 'dd image to sdcard and copy user credentials and wifi config to the /boot partition.'?
• How does Fedora IoT handle updates between versions (like Fedora 38 to Fedora 39)
  • Is it a regular update or do I have to tell the OS to update explicitly
• Most important question: Anyone here has experience with running Rasbian and one of my options in practice and can give some advice/recommendations if immutable is worth it?

Solution: I bought a dolphin bar. Its not here yet but it should work better.

Rebooted my computer earlier today and walked away while it did its thing. When I got back to to it some minutes later, I saw a black screen with that "_" text cursor flashing on the topleft corner. Which was, of course, odd.

Hitting Ctrl+Alt+F2 sent me to the TTY. Which is to say: The system was still up, and indeed, calling for a process manager loaded showed that sddm was still running, as were a bunch of other processes.

Still, attempts to get sddm to do its thing failed. I tried to systemctl restart the sddm service, I tried to reboot the computer. I tried to delete customizations to its config files in case they were breaking something.

In all of those cases -- Title happened. The mouse cursor would show up for a second or two. And then it'd kick me back to the black screen with text cursor because something was fucked.

I eventually managed to get to my desktop by entirely disabling the sddm service, rebooting so I'd just get the TTY, and then doing dbus-run-session startplasma-wayland to run Plasma manually once logged in (thank FUCK for smartphones and access to internet search on them for helping me figure this out).

So that's a workaround, and it sorta works but I'd like to get my display manager back, please. :P

Further information:

• I am running EndeavourOS.
• As implied, I use KDE Plasma under Wayland as my DE.
• I have an AMD GPU
• I am at the latest version of every relevant package -- The reboot I mentioned at the start of the thread was just after running a sudo pacman -Syyu
• I did try to search for my specific issue but nothing relevant came up? A lot of older issues, under X11, and most involving NVidia stuff. None seemed relevant to my case.
• Having found the workaround I used the computer all night and had no other issues, which to me signals it's something about sddm and ONLY sddm that is broken, whether it's some config that got fucked up or some bs with my own incompetent package management.
• I am, of course, able to provide logs and stuff if you tell me which ones and where to get them, cuz yeah.

Well, my issue is simple to explain, but I tried everything to solve it without success.

I like recording gameplays, just for fun. The game I currently make recordings for is not resource heavy (it's Doom 2 through GZDoom). I'm using Lubuntu 22.04.

So, here is the command I've just used:

ffmpeg -f x11grab -draw_mouse 0 -framerate 30 -probesize 42M -video_size 1920x1080 -i :0 -f pulse -i default -c:v libvpx-vp9 -r 30 -g 90 -quality realtime -frame-parallel 1 -qmin 4 -qmax 48 -b:v 4500k -c:a libvorbis prueba.mkv

The issue is, if I record without including the audio, then the video plays smoothly after being recorded. But if I record including the audio, no matter what parameters, codecs, bitrate or anything I use, then the video is barely watchable, with lots of choppiness, and even with delay between audio and video, apparently.

SimpleScreenRecorder works fine, but sometimes there are few frames dropped and I don't like it much. OBS is very heavy for my hardware (Mac Mini 2016, Intel Core i5 1.4 GHz 4260U, Intel HD Graphics 4000, 4 GB RAM).

I also tried VAAPI, with same results as above.

And the thing is that I remember recording some years ago, with no issues at all.

I don't know what to do. Any tip or solution?

I feel stupid, but I want to install Kubuntu, as a dual boot for my windows 10 PC. I am a total rookie with linux. Maybe even less than rookie. I have 3 Flash usb sticks, but one of them seems broken, and the two others too small. I also have a USB card reader, where I can put an SD card in but I don't seem to be able to boot from that.

I also tried a trick with Unetbootin, but windows wouldn't let me boot from that either, even though it gave me the option to, on restart.

My question is, can I install a smaller version of Kubuntu from my 3,8Gb usb stick and upgrade to the newest version later, after it has been installed? I am not totally locked to Kubuntu, but I think that i have read that its the best version for beginners. I will easilly be convinved to another version though, if you guys think its better

I have lingering setup and I can still access the container but for what ever reason Podman seems to be unable to access the GPU for no apparent reason.

I think this may be an issue with systemd but I'm not entirely sure.

Solution: you need to be logged in for it to work. I accomplished this on a separate VM with autologin to icewm.

I'm looking to pass though host power information to allow for the guest os to adjust power usage.

Title. Been meaning to upgrade my GPU, and Intel Arcs are undercutting their AMD equivalent by quite a bit?

But like, I am not going to switch back to Windows. And I don't want to spend a lot of money on a new computer part just to learn it doesn't support my OS properly.

Now. I did search for this and found a phoronix benchmark thing -- But it's from almost a full year ago.

So.

Anyone have an Intel Arc GPU and can tell how they are doing as of now?

I installed ~300 updates via Discover a couple of nights ago. I sensed something had gone amiss when Firefox both crashed and wouldn't resume after I opened a brand new session (ie. no tab reloads). I got the crash report box, then a subsequent crash.

Full reboot. Up comes the login screen. The password field cursor is unresponsive to keyboard input, and isn't blinking. The virtual keyboard button isn't responsive either, despite my having mouse movement. I then reboot, this time via recovery mode, which loads the crappy fallback graphics driver with only 1024*768 resolution available. This persists after package repair attempts and sudo apt autoremove to clear disk space. My AMDGPU drivers don't seem to be functional at all.

var/log/apt/term.log (below) reveals the latest driver versions are 24.x. Presumably these were upgraded during the update, prior to which I was on an earlier working version? That's all I can think of.

What other logs should I consult for troubleshooting? Would driver reversions work? How do I get back to a normal display? Your input is appreciated!

Preparing to unpack .../libglapi-mesa_24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libglapi-mesa:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) over (23.3.3+git2401121944.151cd31e051~j~mesarc4) ...
Setting up libglapi-mesa:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) ...
Preparing to unpack .../libgbm-dev_24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libgbm-dev:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) over (23.3.3+git2401121944.151cd31e051~j~mesarc4) ...
Preparing to unpack .../libgbm1_24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libgbm1:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) over (23.3.3+git2401121944.151cd31e051~j~mesarc4) ...
Setting up libgbm1:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) ...
Preparing to unpack .../libegl-mesa0_24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libegl-mesa0:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) over (23.3.3+git2401121944.151cd31e051~j~mesarc4) ...
Setting up libegl-mesa0:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) ...
Preparing to unpack .../libgl1-mesa-dri_24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libgl1-mesa-dri:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) over (23.3.3+git2401121944.151cd31e051~j~mesarc4) ...
Setting up libgl1-mesa-dri:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) ...
Preparing to unpack .../libglx-mesa0_24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libglx-mesa0:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) over (23.3.3+git2401121944.151cd31e051~j~mesarc4) ...
Setting up libglx-mesa0:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) ...
Preparing to unpack .../025-libegl1-mesa-dev_24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libegl1-mesa-dev:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) over (23.3.3+git2401121944.151cd31e051~j~mesarc4) ...
Preparing to unpack .../048-libosmesa6_24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libosmesa6:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) over (23.3.3+git2401121944.151cd31e051~j~mesarc4) ...
Preparing to unpack .../060-libxatracker2_24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libxatracker2:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) over (23.3.3+git2401121944.151cd31e051~j~mesarc4) ...
Preparing to unpack .../080-mesa-va-drivers_24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking mesa-va-drivers:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) over (23.3.3+git2401121944.151cd31e051~j~mesarc4) ...
Preparing to unpack .../081-mesa-vdpau-drivers_24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking mesa-vdpau-drivers:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) over (23.3.3+git2401121944.151cd31e051~j~mesarc4) ...
Preparing to unpack .../082-mesa-vulkan-drivers_24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking mesa-vulkan-drivers:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) over (23.3.3+git2401121944.151cd31e051~j~mesarc4) ...
Preparing to unpack .../102-xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu_23.0.0+git2401241940.4d7a9a6~j~mesarc0_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu (23.0.0+git2401241940.4d7a9a6~j~mesarc0) over (23.0.0+git2309251950.31a092a~j~mesarc0) ...
Setting up mesa-vulkan-drivers:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) ...
Setting up mesa-vdpau-drivers:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) ...
Setting up xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu (23.0.0+git2401241940.4d7a9a6~j~mesarc0) ...
Setting up libgbm-dev:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) ...
Setting up libxatracker2:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) ...
Setting up mesa-va-drivers:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) ...
Setting up libosmesa6:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) ...
Setting up libegl1-mesa-dev:amd64 (24.0.0~rc3+git2401302259.6dadb9b032c~j~mesarc4) ...

Further info

• KDE neon 5.27, dual boot
• Kernel 6.5.0
• X11
• GPU R9 390, single monitor setup

Hello guys, I have a question about GNOME Nautilus and the sizes of icons in list view. In the included screenshot, you can see the list view of my home folder with lowest icon size. However, the entries are still rather tall compared to other file managers. To reduce the need of scrolling, I would like to reduce the icon size further. Is there any way to do this? Thanks!

Edit: The issue is resolved now. I found out, that padding is too large in the theme I use. The issue was already fixed upstream, only had to apply one commit to fix.

EDIT: Solved! Check this comment!

I use a keyboard with an american layout. I find it much better for coding and actually love this keyboard to pieces. However, I still need to write in portuguese.

The dead keys in Microsoft Windows worked perfectly for me but the Linux ones do not. Some characters are not available and are replaced by characters that don't exist in the portuguese language.

In X11 I fixed this by using an .XCompose file with the keybinds just like in Windows. Source here, it works perfectly.

In Wayland, the .XCompose file works for pretty much all apps. Firefox is fine, kitty is fine, Vivaldi is fine. Unfortunately electron apps with the --ozone-platform-hint=wayland ignores the .XCompose file and I get the default keybinds. Since I own an nvidia card I really need these flags, otherwise the electron apps will aggressively flicker and/or eat letters while I'm typing.

I've searched far and wide, there are several open bugs in chromium, electron and wayland repositories. Everyone seems to be pointing fingers at each other for years and no workaround to make .XCompose work seems to be available.

I'm wondering if there is an alternative way to customize the dead keys under Wayland. Thanks in advance.

Here is my problem:

Our TV is connected to a SBC running a GNOME/Wayland desktop, where we watch Jellyfin and sometimes Netflix/Hulu through Firefox.

I'd like to be able to trigger pause/play (space button) from Home Assistant, which is running on my home server.

What I am thinking of would be a server/daemon running on the TV computer that my home server would be able to send keys to via a CLI tool (in this case the space key). I am surprised to find that I cannot locate any program like this.

Can anyone provide any suggestions here?

Other ideas:

• Jellyfin's HA integration doesn't let me pause/play from it, and that still doesn't handle Hulu/Netflix.
• I was able to get this working through SSH and there are tools like ydotool/wtype here that work, but I found waiting for SSH to be a bit slow to connect.

Update: I got frustrated and coded up a solution: https://gitlab.com/neilsimp1/kbsrv

Can I get a better Nvidia+Wayland experience by using prime and connecting the display to an AMD iGPU? I saw that in the last year Nvidia Prime had some improvements, do they make it feasible?

I can't just try it because I have yet to buy said AMD iGPU. And I'd like to know it before buying

For reference I use MX Linux with Systemd enabled.

I'm pretty new to Linux and have been running this for around a month. Everything was perfectly fine until yesterday (7th) when, on booting, I saw a glimpse of the logon screen for a second and was then taken to a black screen with some white text that read "[7.300130]". Searching for this number doesn't bring up anything.

Eventually I found that I could get into a terminal here by pressing ALT+F1. I also found a lot of people suggesting that if you get past grub and then have a very similar problem (blank screen, flashing cursor rather than a number) then it could be graphics drivers so I uninstalled and reinstalled them to no avail.

Somewhat embarrassingly, the eventual solution was very simple. After I opened the terminal with ALT+F1 I could get back to the GUI with ALT+SHIFT+F7 and.. everything was fine.

Still though, whenever I boot now, I get a glimpse of the logon page, then the black screen with the number, and then doing the shortcuts above gets me back to the logon screen and after that everything is normal.

My first instinct is to say some update on the 6th must have caused this. I have checked /var/log/apt/history.log and I did run apt upgrade on the 6th but the only update was to mx-welcome which I don't think is relevant.

Although it's only a minor nuisance I would like to not have to do this every time I boot. Any idea what this is?

I've noticed that some apps sometimes don't start from the GUI. I've seen it on several computers (all running Ubuntu 22.04). That includes double-clicking an appimage icon from an explorer window, or launching an app through a launcher shortcut. But if I open them manually from a terminal window they never fail to start.

The terminal workaround is fine... But any ideas what could be wrong with the GUI? Is there a service I can restart to try to get the functionality back?

EDIT: I'll add that the issue is sporadic. Steam will open fine from the GUI today, but tomorrow it won't, etc. (It's not as simple as a bad path in a shortcut)

I'm very new to Linux but have wanted to set up a media server since the early 2000's so I've finally set up a mini-pc with Mint and I was roughly following this guide that I'd found on Lemmy Complete Guide to Building.... I've had very little luck with the instructions provided in the link but like most of the suggested packages and have successfully gotten OpenSSH, Jellyfin, Docker and Docker Composer installed and working as far as I know. The newest problem that I'm having trouble finding an answer to is while following the instructions on hub.docker.com.

I have pulled the Docker image but when I go to create and run the container I get a message docker: invalid reference format.

I believe I have everything entered exactly as I'm supposed to:

$ sudo docker run --name adguardhome --restart unless-stopped\

-v /home/justin/server/adguard/workdir:/opt/adguardhome/work
-v /home/justin/server/adguard/confdir:/opt/adguardhome/conf
-p 53:53/tcp -p 53:53/udp
-p 67:67/udp -p 68:68/udp
-p 80:80/tcp -p 443:443/tcp -p 443:443/udp -p 3000:3000/tcp
-p 853:853/tcp
-p 784:784/udp -p 853:853/udp -p 8853:8853/udp
-p 5443:5443/tcp -p 5443:5443/udp
-d adguard/adguardhome

Does anyone have any advice for me?

I'm considering buying second small touchscreen monitor, but I've been only ever running single monitor setup. How much hassle would it be? Is it possible to make mouse captive to primary monitor, and operate this secondary only as touch? Would running screens at different resolutions be a big problem?
Running KDE on Wayland, AMD graphics.

Workaround

I'm not sure what was going wrong with what I was doing initially, but, thanks to @[email protected], as suggested, I disabled the tftp server system service, and, instead, started it with the following command:

sudo in.tftpd -L /srv/tftp --verbose --permissive -s

and it then flashed successfully.

Original Post

I'm trying to flash firmware to a router (Archer C7) using TFTP, but, when the router makes the request for the firmware file over TFTP, the TFTP server responds with the following error

Error code: Access violation (2)
Error message: Only absolute filenames allowed

This is the config for tftpd in /etc/conf.d/tftpd:

TFTP_OPTIONS="-s"
TFTP_DIRECTORY="/srv/tftp"
TFTP_USERNAME="tftp"
TFTP_ADDRESS="192.168.0.66:69"

I have the firmware file in /srv/tftp, and both the firmware file, and /srv/tftp have chmod 777 permissions.

The TFTP server is running on Archlinux, and is installed as tftp-hpa from the arch repos.

If I test as a client, I can get it to download if I specify the full (absolute) path to the file /srv/tftp/filename, so it seems that the config isn't pointing the server to /srv/tftp as the relative path... How would I go about fixing that?

Hi, I’m using riverwm & the battery monitor script i’m using is working on terminal but not working through the autostart file. I have given it the executable permission.

~/.config/river/scripts/bat_status_notifier.rb &

I was just about to try to compile btop with cmake, which gave me some errors about python. which cmake returned ~/.local/bin/cmake which made me curious. After listing ~/.local/bin I found several files there, which all have a similar script within them. from import main

#!/usr/bin/python3.11
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import re
import sys
from cmake import main
if __name__ == '__main__':
sys.argv[0] = re.sub(r'(-script\.pyw|\.exe)?$', '', sys.argv[0])
sys.exit(main())

Have I caught some sort of malware/virus? Are these save to remove? I know that pip installs --user binaries into ~/.local/bin, but after inspecting it, there are just these

pip list --user
Package      Version
------------ -------
configparser 6.0.0
protonup     0.1.5
razer-cli    2.2.0

I have been trying some of the immutable linux OSes because from what I understand they are more modern and feature better security and reliability. What I have found so far is shocking. Half of these don’t support my laptop (probably because it’s nvidia optimus). Some I tried like guix were very difficult to install, configure, and use with sprase documentation. Good luck trying to use KDE, wayland, or pipewire for example. BlendOS was notably better and could at least run on my laptop but chocked with nvidia driver issues.

I have switched to pop os on my laptop for now but looking at alternatives and what to install on my desktop.