Amateur Linux Hour

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Betonhaus said:
Linux Mint. All in all it's the most supported distribution and is user friendly. The more unique and rare a distribution is the more likely it has severe bugs that are difficult to fix.

Linux Mint is experimenting with a Debian edition, but go with the regular version until they decide if they will make Debian the main version or not.
Click to expand...
I downloaded the .iso file from their website and chose the Cinnamon style since my computer isn't a potato, but didn't see anything regarding different editions. Should I go back and look for an older build or is the Debian edition something they haven't rolled out for a main release?
 
Does anyone have a view of docker vs podman for containers?

I hear that podman is designed to run rootless, and with security baked in, whereas security was bolted onto docker, and therefore podman is better. The only concern I have with podman is that it's owned by RedHat, and they have progressively been making things worse in Linux-land.
 
khaine said:
Does anyone have a view of docker vs podman for containers?

I hear that podman is designed to run rootless, and with security baked in, whereas security was bolted onto docker, and therefore podman is better. The only concern I have with podman is that it's owned by RedHat, and they have progressively been making things worse in Linux-land.
Click to expand...
I think docker is supported by a larger community, so it's more likely to have the software you use and have issues fixed over time. Red Hat seems to be relying on some form of vendor lock in for future profits.
 
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khaine said:
Does anyone have a view of docker vs podman for containers?
Click to expand...
Betonhaus said:
I think docker is supported by a larger community, so it's more likely to have the software you use and have issues fixed over time. Red Hat seems to be relying on some form of vendor lock in for future profits.
Click to expand...
And so does Docker. (See also Docker Desktop Licensing)

Personally I prefer Podman as it seems more Open Source than Docker, even if it is RedHat. The underlying Container runtimes are the same anyway these days.

If you want real nerd cred, run Containerd and nerdctl.
 
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Dropping this observation here: as many will know, getting Linux to talk to Windows machines by hostname rather than IP is miserable and involves installing libnss-winbind and all the rest.

But even if you do everything "right", you can still end up in a situation where Linux just will refuse to communicate with some Windows machines. Why?

It turns out that if you have VMware installed, it will set up virtual network adapters for NAT and host-only connections. These adapters are always considered "plugged-in" and get their own local IP addresses automatically assigned (in your same subnet) without your knowing.

As it happens, this means that in response to nmblookup and similar, your Windows machine will return three IP addresses, two of which aren't necessarily hooked up to anything. This apparently wrecks everything on the Linux side, and pings etc. will fail. Removing the virtual adapters fixes this, if you're not really using them. Marking them "disconnected" might work too.

I bet there's some way to trigger this same issue if you have multiple physical NICs on the Windows side and assign static IPs to the unplugged ones or something, but I haven't played around with it more.
 
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khaine said:
Does anyone have a view of docker vs podman for containers?

I hear that podman is designed to run rootless, and with security baked in, whereas security was bolted onto docker, and therefore podman is better. The only concern I have with podman is that it's owned by RedHat, and they have progressively been making things worse in Linux-land.
Click to expand...
I run podman containers in my server and really do enjoy the rootless feature. You can pretty much do all the essentials like creating pods and virtual network devices. The only annoying thing is that podman is a bitch to keep updated on Ubuntu based distros cause the upstream repos are so behind. However, the latest and greatest podman runs great on Fedora as expected. I had issues with passing hardware devices from USB and PCIE to the container in Debian.
 
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Kosher Dill said:
Dropping this observation here: as many will know, getting Linux to talk to Windows machines by hostname rather than IP is miserable and involves installing libnss-winbind and all the rest.

But even if you do everything "right", you can still end up in a situation where Linux just will refuse to communicate with some Windows machines. Why?

It turns out that if you have VMware installed, it will set up virtual network adapters for NAT and host-only connections. These adapters are always considered "plugged-in" and get their own local IP addresses automatically assigned (in your same subnet) without your knowing.

As it happens, this means that in response to nmblookup and similar, your Windows machine will return three IP addresses, two of which aren't necessarily hooked up to anything. This apparently wrecks everything on the Linux side, and pings etc. will fail. Removing the virtual adapters fixes this, if you're not really using them. Marking them "disconnected" might work too.

I bet there's some way to trigger this same issue if you have multiple physical NICs on the Windows side and assign static IPs to the unplugged ones or something, but I haven't played around with it more.
Click to expand...
Speaking of VMware, I've installed a Windows 11 VM for remote work purposes. However, when pressing the meta key, it registers on both Linux and Windows, which kinda sucks.
I'm using KDE Plasma with Wayland, is there a way to disable the meta key on Linux's side when using VMware?
 
Gatdam Animal Person said:
Speaking of VMware, I've installed a Windows 11 VM for remote work purposes. However, when pressing the meta key, it registers on both Linux and Windows, which kinda sucks.
I'm using KDE Plasma with Wayland, is there a way to disable the meta key on Linux's side when using VMware?
Click to expand...
That's a KDE bug I believe. The same thing happens when using Virtmanager/qemu in Kubuntu X11 and Wayland.
 
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Betonhaus said:
Switch to X11?
Click to expand...
Surprisingly, the issue remains. I've tried this for a multiscreen issue when RDPing to a Windows PC.
Car Won't Crank said:
That's a KDE bug I believe. The same thing happens when using Virtmanager/qemu in Kubuntu X11 and Wayland.
Click to expand...
To get around this, I'll write a script which will do the following:
  1. Disable the Meta key on Plasma
  2. Launch the Virtual Machine
  3. When the VM is turned off, re-enable the Meta key
  4. ???
  5. PROFIT!
 
If anyone stumbles on the same issue, here's a late Christmas gift for you:
Code: 
#Copyright 2023 Gatdam Animal Person

#Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

#The above copyright notice, this permission notice and the word "NIGGER" shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

#THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.



#!/bin/bash

VMDIR="/your/vm/directory"
VMNAME="Windows 10 x64"

# Disables the META Key for Plasma
echo "Disabling the META key..."
kwriteconfig5 --file ~/.config/kwinrc --group ModifierOnlyShortcuts --key Meta ""
qdbus org.kde.KWin /KWin reconfigure

# Starts VMWare
echo "Starting VMware Workstation ($VMNAME)"
vmware -qX "$VMDIR/$VMNAME/$VMNAME.vmx"

# Reenable the META Key for Plasma
echo "Enabling the META key..."
kwriteconfig5 --file ~/.config/kwinrc --group ModifierOnlyShortcuts --key Meta "org.kde.plasmashell,/PlasmaShell,org.kde.PlasmaShell,activateLauncherMenu"
qdbus org.kde.KWin /KWin reconfigure

# Done!
echo "DONE!"
 
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Betonhaus said:
That page is referencing Debian 8, and current SteamOS is based on Arch Linux. I don't think that page is current
Click to expand...

Actually you are entirely correct, I don't know wtf I was thinking. I saw a thumbnail for putting SteamOS on some Google Meeting room device and thought huh, odd. Did a quick search and thought I saw it was released somewhere end of November to the public. opps

Edit: Ok I see what this guy did. Cringe as shit video but it's using an open source project that uses the SteamOS/deck UI over Fedora making it sorta a DIY 'SteamOS'. bah
 
Last edited:
Okay so simple question:

On Linux Mint 21.2 I'm using Firefox as my default browser. When I play a youtube video the video itself plays choppy unless I play the video in full screen. Any idea why?
 
Dr. Geronimo said:
Okay so simple question:

On Linux Mint 21.2 I'm using Firefox as my default browser. When I play a youtube video the video itself plays choppy unless I play the video in full screen. Any idea why?
Click to expand...
Try playing the video full screen with subtitles. If it flickers whenever subtitles pop up, try enabling or disabling hardware video acceleration.
 
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