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1 • libdvdcss (by George Washington on 2015-04-20 02:02:48 GMT from Europe)
"The Software Freedom Law Center has given the go ahead for Debian to distribution both ZFS and libdvdcss packages and we should soon see these features appear in Debian's repositories."
Well, well, well. It's about time!
2 • Myths and Misunderstandings ZFS (by EarlyBird on 2015-04-20 02:44:55 GMT from North America)
Have never had the time to dig into the ZFS documentation. Was aware of the "features", but had also come across all the "myths and misunderstandings" referred to in this weeks Distrowatch article. Many many thanks for the review and clarifications from those of us without enough time in our lives to explore these things on our own.
Once spring has sprung, spring cleaning is finished, the Stanley Cup playoffs are over, the kids are out of school for the summer, etc. etc, may FINALLY have a chance to play around with ZFS for myself. A great example of what makes this website so valuable!
(meant sincerely; some "troll" is likely to to even misrepresent a heartfelt complement. Geeze, I'm getting cynical in my old age....)
3 • ZFS (by Jonathan Vasquez on 2015-04-20 03:52:44 GMT from North America)
As a person that has been using ZFS on Linux for more than 3 years and develop tools and tutorials for people installing Gentoo Linux completely on ZFS, I'm extremely glad to hear you debunk most myths. You are completely right about all of them. Great job!
4 • Myths and Misunderstandings ZFS (by Ham Hamington on 2015-04-20 03:55:50 GMT from North America)
> As you can see, the ECC RAM suggestion only applies to enterprise environments with strict integrity requirements.
No. It doesn't *only* apply. It's strongly recommended as business data = money. However, my family photos from years gone by are priceless to me and I want to take precautions to keep them safe forever. Yes, I back them up, but a flipped bit won't show up until years down the line when my grandkids want to look at the photos.
I agree with you that ECC isn't required/minimum specs but it's recommended. I've never had a hard drive fail in 15 years but I still have redundancy. I've never had a cosmic ray flip bits but I have ECC just in case.
I wear my seatbelt every time I get in a car, but in 30 years I've never had a car accident.
5 • Prodigious LMDE2 offspring sets example for Debian parent (by k on 2015-04-20 06:31:17 GMT from Europe)
Excellent review of LMDE2, thank you. Outstanding quality and user-friendly contribution from LMDE team, kudos. Would be much appreciated to have similar Debian (Jessie) installer.
6 • LMDE2 (by Rufovillosum on 2015-04-20 08:26:31 GMT from North America)
As a longtime LMDE user, I'm waiting for Mint to release its update path to LMDE2. We should also point out that LMDE2, like LMDE, is intended to be a rolling release distribution.
7 • LMDE2 - rolling release? (by Hoos on 2015-04-20 09:51:29 GMT from Asia)
This is from the first post of the Mint "Betsy" FAQ thread: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=197&p=997249
"2.3) - The switch to Debian Stable was decided in August 2014. LMDE 2 aka Betsy is directly following Jessie since its release in March/April 2015. Advantages and disadvantages of using Betsy over the main edition are explained here"
If it's now tracking Jessie directly, it's not really rolling anymore. Previously LMDE tracked Debian Testing.
8 • Non systemd distros (by nematoad on 2015-04-20 10:47:10 GMT from Europe)
I'm not sure that I agree with the statement that Mint is the only mainstream distro shipping without systemd. PCLOS has stated that they see no reason to move to systemd.
Whether you class PCLOS as "mainstream" I don't know. I do, and I am really pleased to have an alternative to systemd.
9 • Evolve OS (by Ariszló on 2015-04-20 11:39:39 GMT from Europe)
How can a common abbreviation like OS be disputed?
10 • Comment # 9 (by brad on 2015-04-20 11:56:35 GMT from North America)
Think of iOS, for instance - probably a trademark, if not more protected. Although some people may think that intellectual property is a BS concept, others are willing to sue (and win!) over it.
11 • Non Systemd distros (by Jose on 2015-04-20 12:11:29 GMT from North America)
As comment #8 pointed out, PC Linux OS does not use systemd.
I should also point out that the oldest Linux Distro, Slackware, does not use systemd.
You may not consider either to be "mainstream" but that is a matter of opinion.
I use both and I am quite happy with them.
12 • Solus OS (by ceti on 2015-04-20 12:51:08 GMT from South America)
Glad that the Solus OS is back in track (sort of). I loved the project in the past and hope to see a new version very soon. Welcome back!!!
13 • Manjaro Linux without systemd (by Paraquat on 2015-04-20 13:04:47 GMT from Asia)
Manjaro Linux is a popular distro, based on Arch. When Arch went with systemd, so did Manjaro, but now the project is offering an alternative release that inits with OpenRC instead. This does not mean that Manjaro is planning to abandon systemd, but OpenRC is now supported as an option.
There is an excellent thread about this topic on the Manjaro forum:
https://forum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=21447.0
And you can download Manjaro-OpenRC here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/manjaro-openrc/files/upcoming/xfce-openbox/
14 • @9_OS_dispute (by gee7 on 2015-04-20 13:26:22 GMT from North America)
OS is a copyright of Ordinance Survey maps, which is funded and controlled by the UK Government. Mr Cameron is just protecting the country's assets.
This copyright applies only to the UK, so there will be no dispute with, for example, PC Linux OS, whose developers have US residence, but the lead developer of Solus lives and works under UK law.
15 • ECC RAM (by Jesse on 2015-04-20 13:52:35 GMT from North America)
>> "No. It doesn't *only* apply. It's strongly recommended as business data = money. However, my family photos from years gone by are priceless to me and I want to take precautions to keep them safe forever. Yes, I back them up, but a flipped bit won't show up until years down the line when my grandkids want to look at the photos."
I do not think storing family photos will be affected by the use of ECC RAM, for two reasons. First, a few bit flips are unlikely to be noticed while viewing the photos. Your photos are likely to be affected by bitrot less than a physical phtoto would fade over time. Second, unless you are looking at (and editing) the photos on a regular basis, the photos will spend almost zero time in RAM. Photos will almost certainly spend 99.9% of their lives on a hard drive or other storage media. Having ECC RAM would only affect your photos if you were opening them, editing the photo and then saving the result on a regular basis, which seems unlikely. ECC RAM will not protect you against bitrot on the storage media.
Financially you (and the photos) would be much better off investing in an extra external hard drive or optical media so you can store multiple backups of your photos. ECC may have uses outside the enterprise, but protecting family photos isn't likely to be one of them.
16 • #14 (by jadecat09 on 2015-04-20 14:32:53 GMT from Europe)
So Pinguy OS is not safe either?
17 • You're always startled when a GUI is responsive. (by sniggle_bits on 2015-04-20 14:43:05 GMT from North America)
On dual-core 2.8GHz. To me, that says current GUIs are far too complex. The 1984 Macintosh (not that I'm an Apple fan) was impressively snappy on 8MHz 68000, as was the somewhat later Amiga. Graphical desktops should by now be instant. Programmers need to stop adding excess. -- If want to try zippy, Puppy Simplicity. Also has no major flaws except see my #3.
2nd topic: my experience with ZFS on FreeNAS 8 (or whatever, last year) wasn't so great. The data drive went flaky (though Windows XP is now "happy" on it...) and the system wouldn't even boot from its USB drive. So, hmm.
3rd topic: a personal triumph. Puppy, along with nearly every Linux I've ever tried, will not actually respect keyboard rate settings except for the session: it pretends to save, but every power-up resets to max (33cps in Puppy). All Linuxes have ridiculous high default rate. -- Anyway, after a couple hours of experiment, I managed to find xset and its syntax, and then, DESPITE reading a how-to, got a script working in Startup that sets it to the desired 10cps.
Point is, what's easy in Windows -- meaning STAYS SET when says it is -- can be a severe trial in Linux.
Oh, and PCLinux 2013 is so rabid about number-lock being on (for the password that I don't use!) that it will reset it to on at least two dozen times if pressed during boot-up.
People :just leave my keyboard rate and number-lock as set in BIOS. That really is enough irritation to despise Linux. Not everyone wants the full UNIX experience.
18 • Xubuntu becomes Abi-free! (by albinard on 2015-04-20 14:56:38 GMT from North America)
At last, Xubuntu has shaken off Abiword! For years I installed Xubuntu, but immediately had to ditch Abiword and replace it with LibreOffice, and all that on slow DSL. The endless document corruptions of Abiword will, I hope, also vanish from other lightweight distros like Lubuntu.
19 • LMDE2 - rolling release? (by bison on 2015-04-20 15:25:54 GMT from North America)
@7
More info from the LMDE 2 MATE release notes:
Edit by Clem: No, it’s a frozen release as far as the base is concerned. We’ll respin the ISOs and update the desktop layers though.
20 • @16_Pinguy_OS (by gee7 on 2015-04-20 16:09:23 GMT from North America)
If Pinguy OS applied to copyright protect their name in the UK, as Ikey Doherty did with Evolve OS, then yes, they would be requested to stop using that name by the UK Government. Filing an application draws attention to the applicant.
I notice that it is spelt as one word - PinguyOS - on their homepage but the use of OS as a suffix would still break copyright law, I think.
However, if they just use the name Pinguy OS (from developer's nickname name Pingu, see: http://forum.pinguyos.com/Thread-What-does-Pinguy-mean?) , and go quietly about their business of making a good distro, I think they will pass underneath the radar, unless they suddenly become a billion pound success story.
Whatever the case, I wish both developers good luck and sharp coding, and personally, I think Solus is a much better name that Evolve - to throw light on the world (Solus) gives benefit to more people than to keep continually changing (Evolve).
21 • OS (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2015-04-20 17:04:32 GMT from North America)
"OS is a copyright of Ordinance Survey maps" - it should be a trademark: the context is maps, and should not be generalized to all markets.
22 • Couplacomments (by Coolsville on 2015-04-20 17:11:09 GMT from North America)
I don't know much about ZFS and btrfs, but I've heard they are similar, and btrfs is having its problems. I wonder if this will spell the end of btrfs.
I know that the dispute of the EvolveOS name is just to protect UK IP, but why couldn't the UK license the "OS" part for, say, 1 pound, in perpetuity? Given the nature of Linux distros, I don't think there's much chance here of EvolveOS running anybody over.
At least, that's what's sometimes done on this side of the lake. Maybe licensing, like tea, is different over there. (The tea is better, anyhow).
23 • Mint LMDE 2 discrepency (by cykodrone on 2015-04-20 17:15:53 GMT from North America)
It's touted to be based on Jessie, which is not even officially released yet and is supposed to go full blown (or almost full blown) systemd. Now according to this LMDE 2 MATE package list,
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mint&pkglist=true&version=2-lmde-mate#pkglist
it would appear systemd is only 'shimmed' in, it still contains sysvinit elements. Does this mean updates during the length of the release (LMDE 2 and Jessie) will gradually see more systemd elements added as it goes along? What a dog's breakfast. I'll be staying far away from this, I pity the brave that will take the plunge, Jessie will go down as a perpetual systemd beta release, *rolling eyes*, wait for the next befouled T*y St*ry character, lol, skip this perpetual beta release. I too am a PCLOS user, I contributed financially while the project was still young, I'm glad I did, it paid off. I recently called PCLOS a 'hybrid', apt-tified RPMs, rolling install (huge bonus, aging installs and new version installs can be annoying, 'upgrades' rarely go as planned), custom tailored packages (some are even cutting edge, if it works well, they'll use it). If it aint broke, don't pull a 'Lennart'. ;D
24 • @20 (by jaws222 on 2015-04-20 17:16:32 GMT from North America)
"I think Solus is a much better name that Evolve "
I was hoping that he would just call it IkeyOS
25 • LMDE2's init program (by frodopogo on 2015-04-20 19:15:44 GMT from North America)
@23
The reason LMDE2 "still contains sysvinit elements" is because sysvinit, NOT systemd is the init program. Clement Lefebvre decided that whatever people say about it, systemd is NOT a mature technology, and decided not to use it at this time. You should be commending him for his prudent "wait and see" attitude, and NOT just blindly going along with Debian's adoption of systemd.
26 • Re: LMDE2's init program (by cykodrone on 2015-04-20 20:15:58 GMT from North America)
@25 How is that even possible, doesn't LMDE 2 track the Debian Jessie repos? Aside from freezing/pinning those packages out, it's still Debian Jessie under the hood. That being said, how long until serious bugs, conflicts and breakages start to appear because of the two different levels of systemd usage and inclusion? Mint is getting away with this for now because they're not using a systemd dependent DE, like Gnome 3.x for example. Aside from Mint and LMDE 2, Debian is rushing a beta release with a beta init to market, reminds of a proprietary OS I used to use, lol. :D
This situation is indicative of the systemd growing pains and headaches for re-spins and derivatives of their systemd loving parent distros. I like Clem and I like Mint, but I wouldn't want to be him or his devs right now. :/
27 • init software and Mint (by Jesse on 2015-04-20 22:17:32 GMT from North America)
>> "How is that even possible, doesn't LMDE 2 track the Debian Jessie repos?"
Yes, but Debian has multiple init systems in its repositories. Users can (and frequently do) swap out one for another. In fact, we've linked to tutorials which show users how to do these init swaps. The systemd init software is the default for Debian "Jessie", but it is not the only option. Mint's LMDE is not just Debian "Jessie" with a new theme, they use Debian's packages, but in their own configuration.
>> "That being said, how long until serious bugs, conflicts and breakages start to appear because of the two different levels of systemd usage and inclusion?"
This will not and cannot happen during the life span of the distribution. Debian "Jessie" is a stable release of Debian which means it will not change for the next four years, apart from security updates. Since LMDE is based on Debian's Stable repository people using LMDE will not need to worry about init compatibility during the supported life cycle of the distribution. Now, LMDE 3 may change course, but that is years down the road and people will need to expressedly upgrade to it to get the new software.
It sounds to me like you're confusing Debian Testing or Unstable (which change over time) with Debian Stable which does not change its software or configuration during its life span.
28 • Re: init software and Mint (by cykodrone on 2015-04-21 00:49:26 GMT from North America)
@Jesse (27)
I hear what you're saying and I realize you are far more knowledgeable than I am, but I have also done some time in the Debian trenches. What I'm referring to is the dependency variable caused by the unknown of what users may install post installation. Unless Clem and crew tested every single package in the Jessie repo, there's a lingering possibility that package 'x' will require Jessie's level of systemd as opposed to LMDE's, best case scenario, FULL Jessie systemd gets installed in LMDE because the user didn't read the pre-installation dependency list, worst case scenario, breakage of varying degrees. One more variable is Debian devs could 'fix' some packages any time during the release cycle due to bug reports, making them more systemd dependent in the process and possibly conflicting with LMDE's custom config. We are wasting keystrokes on this because LMDE is considered a use at your own risk side project anyway. What will be really interesting to watch is when Mint's core base parent (Ubuntu) goes full systemd. :D
I don't know if you were reading my Ubuntu Mini CD CL Xubuntu LTS install on my spare SSD updates in the last DW Weekly comments but a similar thing happened to me, in case you didn't read them, I successfully 'roto-rooted' any 'scope', 'unity', 'pulse' and 'am*zon' related packages out, when I tried to install Shotwell, it wanted to drag some of those packages back in, after reading that dependency list, I declined the install.
29 • Solus. (by Kubelik on 2015-04-21 01:01:04 GMT from Europe)
@20
"to throw light on the world (Solus) gives benefit to more people than to keep continually changing (Evolve)."
Sol is Latin for sun. Solus means alone.
@24
"I was hoping that he would just call it IkeyOS".
I think you got a point. Not that it is necessarily a bad thing to do what your genius tells you. - But that is what it is. And this probably is not the last time Ikey is changing:)
30 • @29 Solus (by IkeyDoherty on 2015-04-21 01:09:37 GMT from Europe)
Solus means alone in Latin. In old Irish it means light, it purposefully has a double meaning, and when you combine those meanings you get closer to what the project is.
"And this probably is not the last time Ikey is changing"
You speak as if you know me on a personal basis, and I'm sure this isn't the case. We've changed our name due to legal issues, what's the problem with that?
"IkeyOS" - that's a bit ridiculous now isn't it? "OS" is half of the problem here, plus I'm building for more than myself. Now, what makes that name awkward (ignoring the intent of the comment):
ikey.com -> keyboard manufacturer. Can't use my own name :)
..What would you shorten "IkeyOS" to? :P
31 • systemd (by Kubelik on 2015-04-21 01:53:30 GMT from Europe)
@23
"Jessie will go down as a perpetual systemd beta release"
Debian is a fairly conservative distro and has just before the freeze of Jessie in november last year pulled systemd in as default. With some small problems initially, since it was still rolling.
But systemd being beta? I have been using it for years in Fedora, openSUSE, Mageia etc. without problems.
Does it still evolve? Yes. So does GRUB 2 even though its replacement, Gummiboot, is already being rolled out (Antergos).
PCLOS is much more conservative than Debian. It kept KDE3 alive to the last minute, before switching to KDE4. And it is just now switching to GRUB 2. - Nothing wrong with that. But that's it.
@25
"Clement Lefebvre decided that whatever people say about it, systemd is NOT a mature technology, and decided not to use it at this time."
Maybe you should notice that Clem's own current Cinnamon 2.4 is not fully compatible with systemd. So who is mature is maybe open for discussion?
32 • @30 Solus. (by Kubelik on 2015-04-21 02:30:50 GMT from Europe)
Sorry Ikey. No personal offence intended. But we are producing/discussing free software. I try to be as objective and contructive as I can. I have no other agenda.
That also includes a fair amount of critical spirit.
"You speak as if you know me on a personal basis". I don't think so. I base myself on your own writing. See for yourself here:
http://www.linuxnyheder.dk/content/pardus-pisi-og-solusos
"We're changing!
This is the last communication from SolusOS, and will be for a little while. To speed up the changes, we're going to be turning everything off soon.
All legacy support for SolusOS Eveline will end with the follow up post. SolusOS 2 Alpha images are no longer supported
Updates will not travel to either release
We're redoing SolusOS inside out, and shaking off the dust we've gathered over our existence. We're relaunching, babyfaced and new. The old SolusOS (and connections) will disappear completely.
When we come back, all services will have completely changed, as will SolusOS itself. We're aiming for stable release in a matter of months. Not years. We're not looking for team members now or external assistance, please just pretend we don't exist until we return.
Estimated return, 2-3 weeks."
and:
"The old Solus OS was killed early to prevent destruction. It was being killed from the inside out.
“started contributing to Evolve OS.” – I am the founder and owner of what was called Evolve OS, which is now once again Solus."
33 • GNU Hurd and Myths and Misunderstandings: ZFS (by Oko on 2015-04-21 03:57:25 GMT from North America)
I am very excited to see the new minor version of GNU Hurd which has been in works for the past 17.5 years and I can't wait to try Debian GNU/Hurd in production on my servers in particular in the light of the systemd fiasco.
I am glad Distro Watch myths busting machine has been in full swing this week:
"On a related note, I often hear people claim ZFS is not stable or ready
for use on Linux. Usually, I hear this claim from people in the FreeBSD
or Solaris communities."
Well at least people from those two communities have heard of Linux which can't be said for most members of Linux monoculture. On the more serious note is ZFS now Linux file system flavour of the week? What happened to superior BTRFS file system? Do we have to wait for BTRFS 0.1 minor version release 17.5 years like for GNU Hurd?
Finally we can all breadth easier as 3025 the year of the Linux on desktop is closer than ever thanks to the hard work of Linux Mint developers.
34 • Debian Jessie free spirit blooms off LMDE2 and Ubuntu (by k on 2015-04-21 05:34:06 GMT from Planet Mars)
Naturally, having enjoyed LMDE2's fine quality, had to experience Jessie free spirit. After repeated failed Grub boot load attempts to 'raise' Jessie, alongside her 'parents', Ubuntu's boot-repair tool delivered. Thank you teams Debian, Ubuntu and Linux Mint.
35 • @ 32 (by IkeyDoherty on 2015-04-21 06:44:39 GMT from Europe)
There's still a direct line of continuation between the projects.
SolusOS 2 - became Evolve OS - which is now Solus, because of naming issues.
SolusOS did face serious issues, and was shut down with good cause. Pasting comments doesn't alter that.
Like it or not its still the same codebase to this day, the same mission and the same objectives :)
36 • LMDE2 and systemd (by Linux Apocalypsis on 2015-04-21 07:32:07 GMT from Europe)
I have followed with interest the exchange of ideas cykodrone and Jesse and my personal impression, having been a Debian user for a decade (and now searching for a new home), is that Jesse is right.
The scenario that cykodrone would certainly become true for Testing or Sid, but I think it is unlikely with stable. Debian has decided not to prevent any package from having systemd dependencies (even if they are not strictly required), which, in practical terms, means that it will not be possible to produce a systemd-free Testing or Sid re-spin.
With Stable it should be possible, for, once the re-spin developers had built purged versions of the concerned packages and configured apt to install only those regardless of the version number, you should be safe. Of course, they will need to rebuilt the packages each time that a bug-fix or vulnerability-patched release is available, which can be tedious if the concerned packages are many.
Now, this is true as far as you stick to "vanilla" LMDE2. Meaning that you will certainly run into issues if you start to pull packages from Testing/Sid (which a lot of people do when stable starts to get outdated) or if you add certain 3rd party repositories.
Finally, someone else has mentioned Debian's conservative approach. My personal impression, yet to be confirmed, is that notion belongs to the past. It is clear that using half-backed quickly-evolving technologies such as systemd or adding PPAs, just to mention a couple of examples, do not fit on my idea of a conservative approach. I expect this new approach to have an impact on the distro's stability and reliability.
37 • LMDE and systemd (by Jesse on 2015-04-21 12:57:39 GMT from North America)
I'd like to point out that there are two things which will prevent systemd from being a dependnecy issue with LMDE 2. First, for new systemd dependnecies to get pulled in, it would require that the dependencies on packages change. That is highly unlikely in Debian Stable. Changing dependnecies mid-life cycle would be a big no-no for Debian developers (or any other distro with LTS).
Second, very few packages rely directly on systemd and those are typically changed to pull in a shim instead of systemd. This means that if a user installed a package that wanted systemd, they would just get the compatibility layer. The Mint team does not need to test all packages against systemd, they just need to make sure the small handful that do rely on systemd directly pull in the alternative compatibile software. It should be virtually impossible for a user to accidentally pull in an altnerative init system do to unforeseen dependencies.
This has been discussed at some length on the Debian forums and in the Without systemd wiki.
38 • LMDE2 & systemd (by linuxista on 2015-04-21 14:55:15 GMT from North America)
Does anyone know whether systemd will be optionally supported by LMDE2, i.e. choice for those who prefer it as an init system? Otherwise, LMDE2 seems to be hitting the balance just right for reasons to use Debian (Debian stable) while mitigating the major downside (having updated applications without package and dependency conflicts).
39 • Linux kernel Hijack (by Luke on 2015-04-21 17:32:17 GMT from North America)
Is it just me or do others think the devs of systemd are trying to hijack the Linux kernel. I think for what they are trying to accomplish they come up with their own kernel. Just my opinion.
40 • April fools (by M.Z. on 2015-04-21 18:01:04 GMT from Planet Mars)
@39 - hijack
Well that was the April fools joke around here at the beginning of the month, & it was discussed at length despite how absurd it was. You can't hijack something with a free/open license that is designed to allow users to fork and take control. The GPL gives control to whoever has a copy of the software, so how the hell can any single group take control? It makes no sense, full stop. If you have a problem follow the LibreOffice model & get some devs to fork your open project, problem solved. How can one piece of GPL code invalidate the GPL license on the Linux kernel? If you can't explain that one then the whole hijacking thing makes about as much sense as Bigfoot shooting JFK from the grassy knoll.
41 • Fedora Beta (by forlin on 2015-04-21 19:15:06 GMT from Europe)
A new Fedora release is always a landmark, even that the just released is still a Beta. I've just installed it and will reboot after this comment. The install process was really fast and easy, except on this, that I would like to bring to the attention of the developers. It's the mount points. A think some more guidance could have been provided. like an hint about the various possible ones. Thinking about newcomers, perhaps it would not be excessive to suggest the / though I never found yet a Distro doing so.
42 • ZFS compatibility (by GrzegorzW on 2015-04-21 21:23:17 GMT from Europe)
I wonder if BSD ZFS and Linux ZFS are binary compatible - i.e. is they can mount and read-write each other file system. The long time pain with BSD and Linux systems was poor support for their counterpart system (BSD has full support only for ext2 system, while Linux never had really good support for UFS system). The irony is that only one common file system they both supported was propeirteary NTFS. So if I wanted to setup e.g. Linux/PC-BSD dual boot system with shared /home partition it was very hard or not possible. Now I count it may be possible with ZFS for user data. Enybody did such exteriments ?
43 • @15: ECC/bitflips (by Will B on 2015-04-21 21:24:26 GMT from North America)
Hi Jesse,
"Having ECC RAM would only affect your photos if you were opening them, editing the photo and then saving the result on a regular basis, which seems unlikely. ECC RAM will not protect you against bitrot on the storage media."
That is true to an extent, but don't forget when files are copied, transferred, etc. I imagine some part of the file is in RAM for a moment somewhere along the line.
I personally have a very large collection of photos that I treasure, but ECC isn't in the budget for me, and I'm not really concerned.
Thanks for the LMDE and ZFS articles! :-D
44 • ZFS and ECC RAM (by Jesse on 2015-04-21 22:38:53 GMT from North America)
@42: >> "I wonder if BSD ZFS and Linux ZFS are binary compatible"
They should be so long as you are using the same feature set. Newer versions of ZFS can work with files and storage pools ceated by older versions of ZFS. However, older versions of ZFS may not be able to work with files/pools created by newer versions of ZFS. So long as both your Linux installation and BSD installation are using the same feature set of ZFS then you should be okay.
@43: >> "That is true to an extent, but don't forget when files are copied, transferred, etc. I imagine some part of the file is in RAM for a moment somewhere along the line."
Yes, but in none of those scenarios is the data in RAM written back to the original files, changing them. In theory the new copy of the file might suffer from a problem, but the original would still be fine. A simple checksum of both files would verfiy whether the new file had been corrupted during the copy/transfer. So long as you verify your new files are identical to the originals the lack of ECC RAM is not a problem.
45 • ZFS (by E.L on 2015-04-22 05:48:38 GMT from North America)
I think the reason why ZFS forums generally insist on ECC RAM is because of the "self-healing" aspect of the file system.
Typically, you'd schedule scrubs once or twice a month. During this time, the file system checks your disk for any errors and automatically corrects them if corruptions are found.
ZFS, however, cannot detect bit errors in RAM and so, this could result in the file system actually "correcting" your file that is perfectly fine, which inadvertently corrupts it instead.
In best case scenario, you'd simply end up with a file that you cannot open or incorrect characters/colors. At worst case scenario, you could potentially result with a zpool with a completely thrashed meta-data, which would cause you to lose the ability to mount your pool
No other file system has this extensive scrub system that could inadvertently thrash your entire file system. With that being said, I don't particularly think it's bad design, it's just ZFS was built with enterprise systems in mind and as such, it assumes that enterprise-grade hardware is used and completely trusts your RAM 100%.
46 • @29-Solus @24 (by gee7 on 2015-04-22 11:14:22 GMT from North America)
Thank you, Kubelik, for trying to clarify.
I already knew that Sol is Latin for Sun and as each word carries its own significance and associations, there is, in my reading of the word Solus (besides Solus meaning Alone as in its derivatives Solitary and Solo) the meaning of light, and of a new dawn. This was my reference and my interpretation of the word's ambience.
@24 If the suffix OS remains a problem, it may have to be shortened from IkeyOS to Ikey's, which is a friendly name for a distro, as if it were a coffee shop or club in which you could pop in to chat to friends ...
47 • ZFS, BTRFS default on which distros? (by Greg Zeng on 2015-04-22 11:38:13 GMT from Oceania)
Search in Distrowatch does not know about ZFS nor BTRFS. Some very daring distros allow BTRFS to be chosen, or even to be the default file system.
What is not mentioned is that the file systems have different release versions, but the discussion is hard to find on these versions. On my computers, NTFS-comprssed partitions can be accessed (read & write, if permitted) by all my operating systems, for data. BTRFS, which was betaware until August last year, is the closest to the several versions of NTFS. So should Linux standardize on the free version of NTFS?
I found that Linux's Grub-Customizer had trouble with my Linux distros which did not install on EXT4. Perhaps that has changed sometimes?
48 • @45 ZFS (by E.L) (by ILoveLinux on 2015-04-22 12:50:06 GMT from Germany)
>>ZFS, however, cannot detect bit errors in RAM and so, this could result in the file system actually "correcting" your file that is perfectly fine, which inadvertently corrupts it instead.
But that would be true for the Windows "Check Disk" (chkdsk) utility, too, wouldn't it? Faulty RAM can cause chkdsk corrupting a perfectly fine FAT/FAT32/NTFS partition or single files.
Many help forums strongly advise against the use of such automated file system repair utilities.
So when using ZFS on a non-ECC system, I'd say it'd be wise not to schedule any scrubs at all or to do so only after powering the system down and using a utility like memtest86+ run off a bootable USB stick to detect faulty ram prior to a scrub.
It's the way I've been running PC-BSD since their 10.0 release and I haven't run into any ZFS related problems so far on my non server-grade hardware.
49 • ZFS Scrub (by Jesse on 2015-04-22 15:51:32 GMT from North America)
@45: >> "Typically, you'd schedule scrubs once or twice a month. During this time, the file system checks your disk for any errors and automatically corrects them if corruptions are found. ZFS, however, cannot detect bit errors in RAM and so, this could result in the file system actually "correcting" your file that is perfectly fine, which inadvertently corrupts it instead."
You are half right. When ZFS performs a scrub it does check the data on disk against a checksum to make sure the data's integrity has not been comprimised. However, ZFS only attempts to correct the bad checksum if it is used in a RAID or mirrored disk scenario. What this means is if the checksum of one copy of the file is bad and another copy of the file is good, then the bad copy is replaced with the good copy.
For a ZFS scrub to over-write a file, it needs to have another good copy of the data to use. The corrupted file is overwritten by a known good copy. Even if ZFS mistakenly thinks a good file is really corrupted, it will only replace that file with a verified good copy of the data. This is discussed in the zpool manual page under the "scrub" sub topic.
The scenario you are describing where ZFS wipes out good files with corrupted data because it mistakenly thinks the checksum no longer matches the data cannot happen because the only time data is overwritten is whenthere are multiple good copies of the data available to act as backups.
>> "No other file system has this extensive scrub system that could inadvertently thrash your entire file system."
Neither does ZFS. This is why I started this Myth and Misunderstanding series. A lot of people have these ideas that are partitially correct while leading to the wrong conclusions, or have heard misinformation repeated often enough it has become "common knowledge".
50 • @41 Fedora partitions (by far2fish on 2015-04-22 16:57:22 GMT from Europe)
Try searching for "fedora 21"+partition+scheme in Google. Brings up a link to the official doc with recommended partitions and sizes if you prefer custom partitioning.
I have not seen a similar doc for Fedora 22, but I expect if to be pretty much like in F21.
In the Anaconda installer, you basically choose custom disk layout, then suggest that the installer create the defaults for you, finally remove / and /home, and re-create those to your likings.
51 • PPA? (by nobodyspecial on 2015-04-23 08:17:35 GMT from Oceania)
Is there going to be some kind of reputation/vetting process for upcoming Debian PPAs?
Or will Debian want us to install random binaries from untrusted users like they do in Ubuntu land?
52 • @49 ZFS (by anon on 2015-04-23 11:26:53 GMT from North America)
If the memory corruption occurs in the checksum, you would have a checksum that does not match the written data. This would result in a permanent, unrecoverable error.
It is also possible as the original reader suggested to corrupt the data file in a mirror.
If the memory of the data block was flipped momentarily while the checksum was computed for it, and flipped back again as it was written out to disk, then it would be possible for one side of a two-way mirror to have bad data which corresponds to the checksum, and another side to have good data which does not correspond to the checksum, and the good side will thus get ovewritten during scrubbing.
53 • ECC (by anon on 2015-04-23 11:35:04 GMT from North America)
Also wanted to add:
out 15 years of building machines and testing them (and software dev), and running memtest and I have seen a couple flipped bits. Once which ECC caught on a system running 24/7 for many, many years. Another time during memtest after a few days. One particular location had exactly one bit flipped twice (2 one-bit errors at the same location our of hundred iterations over it)
So from my experience, it is indeed rare. But it does happen.
Also, 1 or two or a few bits of error can ruin a photo. Arstechnica did this experiment as they were testing bitrot in their articles about BTRFS and ZFS. But furthermore, it can ruin a any document too. 1 bit can make a gigantic difference in the some financial value for example.
54 • Bad checksums (by Jesse on 2015-04-23 14:04:06 GMT from North America)
>> "If the memory of the data block was flipped momentarily while the checksum was computed for it, and flipped back again as it was written out to disk, then it would be possible for one side of a two-way mirror to have bad data which corresponds to the checksum, and another side to have good data which does not correspond to the checksum, and the good side will thus get ovewritten during scrubbing."
If you are in an area that experiences so much radiation interference that you're gettng that many flipped memory bits back-to-back, you have much more serious things to worry about than file corruption. You're dreaming up a scenario that is so unlikely your odds of winning the lottery while getting struck by lightening are better. This scenario also seems to assume you don't have backups, which if your data is that important, you will have.
55 • @51 (by Corbin Rune on 2015-04-23 14:40:48 GMT from North America)
Considering how long it took the Debian folks to go for systemd ... I'm willing to bet that "Debian PPAs" would be much more reputation-based. Just call it a hunch, considering the distribution's known conservatism.
56 • LMD2, Entroware, Ubuntu_Mate (by gee7 on 2015-04-23 22:11:27 GMT from North America)
For those who live in the UK, it's a refreshing change to see a company selling computers pre-loaded with Linux, in this case Ubuntu Mate, see:
https://www.entroware.com/store/about-us
I have never been a fan of Ubuntu because of various concerns, much preferring Mint, and am looking forward to trying Mint Debian 2 when the upgrade pack is ready (LMD 1 is feeling rather clunky these days). Thank you Clem for bringing us a distro without systemd, it may well attract users from other distros.
However, for the first time in five years, I am giving Ubuntu a whirl with Ubuntu Mate on my Raspberry Pi - it feels zippier than Raspbian, and whether I keep it on the Pi or no, it must be said that it is the best general system for the Pi I have come across. I'm also trying Ubuntu Mate 14 LTS on a laptop, using Ixquick as a search engine and the command line or Synaptic for Downloads, to offset some of my privacy concerns. Ubuntu Mate is a first class operating system, no wonder it can now be bought on laptops or desktops. Their team really would have a great distro if they added privacy safeguards to the default ... I wish, huh? I just hope that LMD 2 can reach the same level of performance.
57 • Graph with donations (by Ricardo Sohn on 2015-04-23 22:17:00 GMT from South America)
Hi folks,
I have made 2 graphs with gnuplot from data donations of DistroWatch up to March 2015
the links are:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1oakcnyzpqpkncy/distrowatch%20donations-1.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x09q71hw308c3z4/distrowatch%20donations-2.png?dl=0
58 • to anaconda and 2fish (by forlin on 2015-04-24 00:36:07 GMT from Europe)
far2fish: fish where you like, I keep mine:
Anakonda is great and could be perfect.
You know why?
Read @41
59 • Build Your Own Linux Distro (by fr33 on 2015-04-24 02:46:41 GMT from Europe)
Build Your Own Linux Distro
Ben Everard | April 23, 2015
http://www.linuxvoice.com/build-your-own-linux-distro/
https://archive.is/3z3hY
"Do you have a favourite distro that you’ve spent hours customising? Mayank Sharma shows you how you can spin it into a live distro that you can pass to friends, family, or even on to DistroWatch!"
60 • Quick Look at and Commentary about Ubuntu Mate 15.04, Mint Mate 17.1 and Mate (by Ben Myers on 2015-04-24 03:32:48 GMT from North America)
I took the opportunity to download the fresh new Ubuntu Mate 15.04 and boot it up on one of my elderly laptops which I'll put affordably into somebody's hands once I get all decent parts for it.
The system is a Dell Inspiron 6000 with 1.7GHz mobile P4, Intel mobile 915 chipset,1680x1050 graphics on a 15.4" screen, 2GB of DDR2 memory, 60GB IDE drive, and a 32MB ATI mobile X1300 video. The latter is important, because it tells me how low I can go on graphics memory with a modern operating system. DDR2 laptop memory is really cheap these days, so it makes no sense to have less than 2GB of system memory. Older laptop DDR is less plentiful and more expensive.
My criteria for selecting a distro are really simple. It needs to have contemporary software like LibreOffice, GIMP and Firefox for people to use. And it needs to have these and other productivity software installed as part of its installation process. it is also important that the distro provide a non-PAE option to run on some elderly laptops.
Ubuntu Mate 15.04 meets these criteria and runs smoothly with the 32MB graphic subsystem. The same is also true for Mint Mate 17.1.
My takeaway here is that Mate is lightweight enough to run well with 32MB graphics, and its desktop is attractive with neither too much glitz nor too many rough edges. Cinnamon is also an attractive desktop, but Mint Cinnamon would run only with degraded graphics on the Inspiron 6000, so it does not fit the category of lightweight.
The Inspiron 6000 is typical of the low range of computer I would consider for Linux. Others would include the Dell Latitude D610 and the IBM Thinkpad T43. All have similar specs, but different screen resolutions.
Next, when I can scare up an even older laptop, I can see what happens with Mate on an even more constrained 16MB graphics subsystem, maybe a 12" IBM Thinkpad X31.
61 • Ubuntu Unity is anti-privacy/LMDE 2 (by M.Z. on 2015-04-24 07:17:23 GMT from Planet Mars)
@56
It's really only Ubuntu Unity that is anti-privacy, though I see no reason to use any distro directly affiliated with such a bad actor as Ubuntu. If you don't care about privacy enough to avoid all Ubuntus on principle, then use the non-Unity versions as you would any other distro. Me I won't do it until I'm convinced that they have finally fixed their main edition, which is sad because I sort of want to try kubuntu with KDE 5, but not bad enough to use an Ubuntu. Of course if you care about the principle of privacy but like the Ubuntu/Mint family I'd try Mint 17.x with either XFCE or Mate for a light weight desktop, or perhaps LMDE 2 Mate.
I'm actually dual booting LMDE 2 Mate with Bodhi 3 on my old backup PC, & it seems at least as fast as Bodhi on the same hardware & it's running under 300MB of RAM according to the Mate system monitor. I think the free & top commands are only reporting more because using less would be wasted RAM according to the folks who design those bits of Linux that eat idle RAM. At least that's my understanding of why both lightweight distros report eating half my 1.5 GB of RAM according to those command line system monitors.
62 • anti-privacy (by gee7 on 2015-04-24 08:49:19 GMT from North America)
@61
Hi M.Z.
I already have LMDE 1 (it's been on my computer since it first started years back) running Mate and am eagerly awaiting the update pack for LMDE 2 ... I would never touch Unity but first tried Ubuntu Mate out of curiosity because of some enthusiastic reviews on Jupiter Broadcasting ... What is a cause for worry is the Software Centre - it links the user's ip address to commercial enterprises trying to sell books and computer parts, by the look of it. Perhaps the developers can explain more about that. That is why I installed Synaptic Packet Manager - to avoid the Software Centre - though I usually find it easier to get get new software using "apt-get install" on the command line ...
I still use Gnome 2 on Debian Squeeze for many things but my hard drive is failing, so I need to clone it at some time fast as I will never be able to set it up again, because of problems of finding old software - Mate is a sweet system running much the same as Gnome 2 , now it has become more polished. I also use Debian Jessie with XFCE.
Cheers
63 • Mint 17.1 (by zykoda on 2015-04-24 13:18:14 GMT from Europe)
Could not get an install to work (hung midway without messages) for 32 bit Cinnamon and Mate. LMDE 2 Cinnamon goes to fallback. On the other hand LMDE 2 Mate is the star on this occasion with full installation and boot. Ubiquity seems at fault on the ubuntu versions. LMDE 2 Cinnamon fallback is a graphics card(ATI 9200)/Xorg issue. LMDE 2 Mate is not happy with Firefox, Opera or Chrome browsers as thay glitch out with Flash issues; however Dillo comes to the rescue. Of course the machine is 2004 vintage with ASUS A7V333 rev 1.04 motherboard, 1.5GB ram Athlon 2200+ at 1800MHz. I do like the LMDE 2 installer with gparted.
64 • Ubuntu gives a choice. (by Eddie on 2015-04-24 18:53:45 GMT from North America)
Well with all the talk that has been going on about init systems I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that Ubuntu now gives you a choice on which one you want to use. I wonder how many other distros will give you a choice with that. As far as privacy goes, people here are professional enough that it would not be any problem to go completely private if that is even possible. The general public doesn't care, they are just one big happy online family. So it's really a non issue.
65 • privacy (by BluPhoenyx on 2015-04-24 20:17:23 GMT from North America)
When everyone ignores the situation because most people don't care, then those who are trying to take advantage of people's ignorance automatically win. When your principles don't matter enough to take a stand, of any sort, then you deserve to be taken advantage of which is exactly what companies like Canonical are doing when they configure software to default to spreading your information or opting you in for whatever.
The real problem isn't dissembling your searches or passing your information to other businesses. It is doing so by default, not telling anyone about the situation AND assuming that it is okay to do this without asking the user.
For myself and those systems that I manage, we choose a distribution that gives us more control and more privacy. At the very least, this is an OS such as Salix or Slackware, however, Manjaro with preinstalled OpenRC looks interesting.
Cheers
Mike T
66 • PCLinuxOS (by Linux Apocalypsis on 2015-04-24 22:02:13 GMT from Europe)
I am trying the different systemd-free alternatives:
- Lubuntu-LTS is nice even it not as stable as one would expect. After upgrading I logged into a blank screen and ended up switching to LXQt. So far so god, but this is just a provisional solution.
- Mint-LXDE (unofficial respin). Same problem as with Lubuntu. When trying to fix it the MDE got replaced with LightDM and that was the end of my Mint experience. Another problem is the uncertainty concerning systemd adoption in the future.
- LMDE2. I have not tried yet because of the uncertainty concerning systemd adoption in the future.
- Manjaro-OpenRC. It was great but did not survive the first upgrade.
- PCLinuxOS (LXDE). I am writing from it and so far it has been a delightful experience. The performance and the responsiveness is excellent (among the best with any OS I have tried this far). Operation and upgrades are flawless. System management (both GUI and CLI) feature-rich and trouble-free. The only issues are: 1) Aesthetics, it is ugly as hell but that is very easy to fix; and 2) After using Ubuntu you can miss a few packages from the package manager. This one looks like a keep.
If the lack of packages becomes a real issue, I might try some Gentoo derivative.
67 • Re: PCLinuxOS (by cykodrone on 2015-04-25 04:51:26 GMT from North America)
@66
I'm running PCLOS MATE, I love it, I'm not a huge LXDE fan, I like some meat on the bones of my DE, lol, but no too much like KDE (bloat). Anyway, about packages, join the forum, they have a section there where you can ask for a package to be built, I asked for gelemental and it was in the repo in a few days (I had stated in my request there was no rush). KDE has been their main DE so the repo is a little shy of gtk apps...for now.
MATE was a bit ugly OOTB too, but I quickly remedied that. I think their thinking is MATE is supposed to be their 'lite' alternative so they use low resource GUI choices (like the Square icon set, blech).
I say PCLOS is more n00b friendly than Mint, it has far more custom system admin tools, etc. I've used both, Mint was never perfect, PCLOS comes closer to perfect. I vote PCLOS to be the best Windows refugee distro too, bar none. I used PCLOS way back in '06/'07, it was pretty good then already, it just got better over the years, no crazy over engineering or fixing things that aren't broke. PCLOS is a hybrid, Mint is Ubuntu with a buggy tweaked DE. O_x
68 • privacy & PCLOS (by M.Z. on 2015-04-25 06:08:50 GMT from Planet Mars)
@62
I wouldn't put any sort of privacy violation of marketing scheme past Canonical, but I haven't heard about the software centre, only the Dash/Unity search functions.
@65
Agreed 100% on Canonical & their abuse of power over the noobs that they try to attract with their distro. Privacy is a real issue to me, & I use Linux in part because I try to be a conscientious consumer. I don't see the point of switching from Windows or Mac to Ubuntu if Canonical makes their distro a free/open OS that is as bad for consumers as the big proprietary players. What's the point of free & open software that plays catch 22 with the privacy of insufficiently wary users? It's against the spirit of the GPL & much of the purpose of 'free as in speech' software.
@67
I like PCLinuxOS too, but I got to say that Cinnamon is the best modern Gtk desktop around. On most of my hardware Mint Cinnamon doesn't seem buggy at all, & is great for everything but online streaming.Their DE also available in the PCLOS repos, though I have only used the PCLOS version a little bit. If PCLOS had something as nice as the Mint Software Centre & the Mint Update Manager for user friendly software browsing & updates I'd agree that PCLOS would be better, but it isn't quite there yet in my opinion. I can also get a few important bits of software in Mint & other members of Debian family that I can't get in PCLOS. It's still very close in my mind because I like some of the more up to date software in PCLOS & the lack of any need to reinstall. I think PCLOS is definitely a keeper on at least one or two of my systems, but I sure like Mint in both Cinnamon & KDE flavours & I'm glad that both PCLOS & Mint are around.
69 • Debian_lights_way_for_Archlinux (by k on 2015-04-26 10:11:16 GMT from North America)
Salient, informative and timely comments above, thank you. Team Debian has really gifted Linux users and would be users with a very powerful, secure and stable information and innovation technology. Also brilliant and promising, the Archlinux team and community provide a highly educational :) , customizable, and secure alternative, if one gets it installed and running in their lifetime. :)) Joking aside, Deb and Arch are flying off together, and soon, very soon, others will have faded back to black.
70 • Mint 17.1 review (by imnotrich on 2015-04-26 19:30:45 GMT from North America)
I've been running Ubuntu Studio 14.10 with mostly good results for a while now, a few frustrations like fslint not deleting duplicates even when run as root and being unable to print pdf files, Ekiga is no longer compatible with Ubuntu and won't register with my voip provider (which is ok - SFLphone works perfectly) and after some recent updates borked my install further I decided it would be easier to start fresh. Instead of using a regular hard drive for the OS, I installed a 32gb SSD for the OS and a freshly formatted 1tb hard drive for my home partition. Debian 7.8 attempted, No joy, Debian failed to get grub correct and I booted to a blank screen. So I tried Ubuntu Studio 14.10 again. No joy. While Ubuntu did a proper job with the partitions, Ubuntu couldn't figure out permissions. I couldn't run any programs, I could put launchers on the desktop but they would not launch and other issues. Plus Ubuntu STILL hasn't fixed the wrong language bug, it assumes you want Spanish/Spanish numbers, money and other formats based on your time zone selection rather than the OS and keyboard language you specify during the install.
So rather than get my fingernails dirty and spend two weeks struggling with everything that Ubuntu didn't do right, I decided to try something different.
In the past I've been critical of Mint based on previous experiences, but Mint obviously does something right because lots of people are very fond of this OS.
So I grabbed Mint 17.1 xfce and installed it. The live install disk was very snappy (hope so-I have a quad core and 16gb of RAM) and I was excited.
Sadly, I found the xfce install to be clunky, slow, they did get permissions and language correct but lots of system hangs. I couldn't use usb hard drives or thumbs because tumblerd would cause the system to lock up and corrupt ntfs file systems (ouch). Multiple other bugs. So I deleted Mint 17.1. Zap.
Not convinced my experience was the last word about Mint, I grabbed the Cinnamon version.
INCREDIBLE! It's a fast, classic interface that is intuitive and most everything seemed to work with little or no configuration. I can print pdf's from Adobe reader again! Fslint failed the same way as with Ubuntu, but I found a previous version of fslint and that solved it. Streamtuner2 in the repos was broken, it wouldn't call audacious but that was easily fixed upgrading to the newest version not yet in the repos. The only issue I have not been about to fix after two weeks is printing. The printer works fine locally, and CUPS has been directed to publish/share on my network. My Windows laptop can see the printer, but for some reason it won't print from Windows even though I have the current, correct driver installed. I thought it might be a firewall issue and it may still be, however CUPS log shows the print jobs as having completed successfully even though they did not.
Interestingly, when I try to pint the linux box by name or ip I get a response but when I try to ping cups port 631 I am blocked. But when I open the firewall configuration gui, it says the firewall is not enabled. How can this be?
Another possible firewall issue that I had with both Ubuntu Studio 14.10 and Mint 17.1 is with Spideroak, my cloud back up app randomly connects/disconnects or gets a "reconnecting too fast" error. Spideroak support insists this is a network or firewall issue, and there is nothing wrong with my network plus Spideroak works perfectly fine on all my other machines - so again I believe the firewall is at fault.
Even more interesting, thanks to shields up I learned that none of my ports are in stealth mode. Hey, even Microsoft Firewall can do THIS correctly. What's the malfunction, MINT? Overall a much improved use experience, but printing/network printing and firewalls are basic functionality for most users. Why version 17.1 was allowed out the door without these basic functions working OOB is perplexing.
71 • I neglected to mention (by imnotrich on 2015-04-26 21:35:39 GMT from North America)
Another problem with CUPS that Ubuntu had - always thinking my usb printer was disconnected or off line, when in reality it was plugged in and turned on.
Fortunately, Mint solved that bug.
However, now I'm also fighting with cgminer and bfgminer. They refuse to detect any usb devices unless run as root, and then only sometimes.
Still fighting with Spideroak too. Took two weeks to get the sync folder working properly, it would only download 14mb of 4gb before stopping. In the past when that's happened I've had sync folders on other machines get nuked. Fortunately, that didn't happen this time. I finally fixed the sync problem by deleting the partially downloaded "hive" as they call it, and copying in a backup copy from a usb hard drive. Of course Spideroak still doesn't download or upload consistently. It's offline much of the time. Very frustrating.
In the meantime though I've managed to get network printing to function by completely disabling the firewall on Mint. Not optimal and as time permits I'll have to experiment with firewall settings so CUPS can communicate with trusted devices on my home network, and my ports are stealthed as they should have been OOB. Linux=the freedom to be frustrated by bugs.
72 • 70/71 • … review (by Kragle on 2015-04-26 22:03:20 GMT from North America)
Normally, someone who tries many apps and notices errors would be valued as a tester (assuming such concerns are reported, of course), but does a grating whine offset favorable prospects of reception? Perhaps enlisting the aid of a translator could be helpful in such a situation. I recommend one versed in Polite, or Civil … both dialects are popular in Franch-speaking areas, and others. Of course, not every distro's dev-community is receptive to such information.
…
That said, even a snarky review can be informative, and thus useful.
…
SFLphone.org, from 2009 … spun-off (Very recently - the 14th) to new SourceForge-project; originators (Montreal/Quebec_City/Paris) replacing with Beta Ring.cx … both GPL3 … intriguing. Expansion of anti-privacy laws in the U.S. (relieving businesses of liability to customers for giving private data to government agencies) about the same time … coincidence?
Number of Comments: 72
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| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Full list of all issues |
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TupiServer Linux
TupiServer Linux was a Linux distribution designed for servers and based on Kurumin Linux. It can be used as a live CD without a need to install it on hard disk.
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