General Linux Chat and Small Questions v. Year of the Linux Desktop! - Hardware & Software

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;50758176]Is CentOS good enough for every day use? I always saw from a distance that CentOS was designed for use in enterprise servers.[/QUOTE] CentOS is also definitely a workstation OS, though Red Hat has slowly been trying to push Fedora as the go-to workstation version. Though it's technically a testing distro the non beta versions are just as stable as any other mainstream desktop one. [editline]22nd July 2016[/editline] Plus with either option you get that sweet RHEL experience that most datacenters and huge providers use.

[QUOTE=SataniX;50756397]Ah.... Before reading this I did download and burn the standard minimal installer - my wireless adapter doesn't even show up in lspci.[/QUOTE] That's not always bad. You might just need to install linux-firmware. Gentoo doesn't come with that by default because...copyright, or...software patents...or GPL...or something, I don't know. You can go wired for like five minutes, right? Or just download it onto a flash drive even, copy it into /usr/portage/distfiles It only gets gross with older Broadcom because then you have to start fucking around with b43-fwcutter, and trying to find which older Broadcom chips you have, and which firmware you need, and it's just gross.

[QUOTE=lavacano;50760202]That's not always bad. You might just need to install linux-firmware. Gentoo doesn't come with that by default because...copyright, or...software patents...or GPL...or something, I don't know. You can go wired for like five minutes, right? Or just download it onto a flash drive even, copy it into /usr/portage/distfiles It only gets gross with older Broadcom because then you have to start fucking around with b43-fwcutter, and trying to find which older Broadcom chips you have, and which firmware you need, and it's just gross.[/QUOTE] Pretty sure it's just a matter of emerging [url]https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/sys-kernel/linux-firmware[/url] while chrooted using the livecd you're installing it with.

Do any of you have experience with one board computers like a Banana / Orange / Raspberry Pis? I'm thinking of getting one to play around with for a bit and run a little server off of, any tips / advice or experiences with them? Running GNU/Linux, of course

[QUOTE=AG;50761741]Do any of you have experience with one board computers like a Banana / Orange / Raspberry Pis? I'm thinking of getting one to play around with for a bit and run a little server off of, any tips / advice or experiences with them? Running GNU/Linux, of course[/QUOTE] Make sure to get some decently fast storage. I remember it made a huge difference on my Raspberry Pi when I got a good SDHC. Also try to overclock them to make them run faster (if it is safe). I used the build-in overclock on my original Raspberry Pi and it did make quite a difference. In addition, I would recommend you to go check out the community and how much software is available for the platform you choose. I can't say anything for the Banana or Orange, but I know the Raspberry Pi has great support, and most of the packages you will find in Debian / Ubuntu is on the Raspberry Pi. I used the original RPI (256 MB single core) as my home server for a year or two. It was okay as a file server. It managed to push 100 Mb/s, which is the max for it's Ethernet port. It also worked fine as an OpenVPN server and a DIY WIFI access point.

[QUOTE=drblah;50762026]In addition, I would recommend you to go check out the community and how much software is available for the platform you choose. I can't say anything for the Banana or Orange, but I know the Raspberry Pi has great support, and most of the packages you will find in Debian / Ubuntu is on the Raspberry Pi.[/QUOTE] Wouldn't they all have the same software selection since they're all ARMv7?

[QUOTE=Adam.GameDev;50762127]Wouldn't they all have the same software selection since they're all ARMv7?[/QUOTE] The first gen rPI's uses a bastardised 'hybrid' of ARMv6 and ARMv7

[QUOTE=Van-man;50762272]The first gen rPI's uses a bastardised 'hybrid' of ARMv6 and ARMv7[/QUOTE] Luckily for us that was a long time ago and version 3 does not suffer those issues. If you want to get a Pi, keep withthe Raspberry starting out. The community is larger than every other board combined and thus you have a wealth of support.

[QUOTE=Van-man;50762272]The first gen rPI's uses a bastardised 'hybrid' of ARMv6 and ARMv7[/QUOTE] I feel like I'm going to regret asking, but, how?

[QUOTE=Adam.GameDev;50763255]I feel like I'm going to regret asking, but, how?[/QUOTE] Because Broadcom, that should be a good enough answer if you've been unfortunate to deal with their wireless chipsets under Linux

Guys, can someone give me pointers on how I can go about making a basic script (bash script?) for making a backup of a file that is in my Android root folder every half a second? I basically want to take snapshots of it and then manually analyze to see how this file changes as time passes. Timestamp of backup as filename would be great feature too. I have rooted my phone and believe there are apps out there for running scripts easily on your phone, if not then there is always ADB connection to PC (which I believe gives unrestricted shell access to your Android phone). I have been using Arch for month so I know some basic commands and stuff but I have never shell scripted before. Any advice and pointer is appreciated. [editline]24th July 2016[/editline] How to I use unixtime as destination filename in cp? [editline]24th July 2016[/editline] cp /source.txt /backups/`date +%s`.txt Would work I guess. [editline]24th July 2016[/editline] I did this: while true do cp source.txt `date +%s`.txt sleep 1 done Thanks for your vigorous support :v: [editline]24th July 2016[/editline] Now I need to figure out how to go subsecond, like 0.5sec. Unixtime doesn't show such granularity so the files would get replaced. Do I make like "sleep 0.25" and make 4 folders, so destination path of pasted file rotates between these 4 folders? [editline]24th July 2016[/editline] Or just use date +%s%N for nanosecond precision. Anyway, I'm done rambling, thanks for reading.

[QUOTE=celarigalu;50764842]backup script[/QUOTE] [code]$ man date $ cp -a /path/to/file /backup/directory/file.$(date +%Y.%m.%d.%H.%M.%S.%N)[/code] patience young padawan, the thread is slow also nanosecond change precision is kinda silly

Not sure if this is a right thread but I think you guys would know. What are chances of system crash or bricked device if you alter few Android RAM values set by some app that is neither system app nor anything too significant, while it's running?

[QUOTE=celarigalu;50765595]Not sure if this is a right thread but I think you guys would know. What are chances of system crash or bricked device if you alter few Android RAM values set by some app that is neither system app nor anything too significant, while it's running?[/QUOTE] we have an Android thread what the hell are you doing that requires userspace memory modification on android anyway

If you're only modifying the memory of the userspace application, typically the only thing that will crash, is the application, if something goes wrong. [QUOTE=lavacano;50765712]what the hell are you doing that requires userspace memory modification on android anyway[/QUOTE] Bypassing license verification, redirecting IAP APIs, changing game highscores, all come to mind.

[QUOTE=SataniX;50755659]Alternatively I really used to like #! - is there a good replacement?[/QUOTE] [url]https://crunchbangplusplus.org/[/url] 1.1 is coming out soon: [url]https://www.reddit.com/r/crunchbangplusplus/comments/4ra7wy/devnews_cbpp_11_i386_live_rc1/[/url]

I have a quick question about some distros I have found, mainly these: Manjaro Linux 16 (ArchLinux based) Linux Lite 3 (Ubuntu/Debian based) Zorin OS 9 (Ubuntu/Debian based) Are any of those good for my old 2010 Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 laptop? I have Linux Mint 18 installed on it.

[QUOTE=KenjiKusanagi;50771365]I have a quick question about some distros I have found, mainly these: Manjaro Linux 16 (ArchLinux based) Linux Lite 3 (Ubuntu/Debian based) Zorin OS 9 (Ubuntu/Debian based) Are any of those good for my old 2010 Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 laptop? I have Linux Mint 18 installed on it.[/QUOTE] I'd personally stick with Mint on it. Can't say much for the others, but I'd recommend not using Manjaro, basing an OS off Arch sounds like a mental idea to me, and would just be painful...

[QUOTE=AG;50771383]I'd personally stick with Mint on it. Can't say much for the others, but I'd recommend not using Manjaro, basing an OS off Arch sounds like a mental idea to me, and would just be painful...[/QUOTE] Arch is pretty great though, what's wrong with basing something off of it? [editline]25th July 2016[/editline] which DE does Zorin use? Zorin's own? looks pretty neat actually, I imagine with a few tweaks I could totally use it myself.

[QUOTE=PredGD;50771771]Arch is pretty great though, what's wrong with basing something off of it?[/QUOTE] I just found Arch to be an utter pain to use and maintain, and I don't understand the idea behind AUR whatsoever. Why are those packages not in official repos? And the library conflicts with Steam and some other programs, it makes the process of using things over-complicated for no benefit

[QUOTE=AG;50771806]I just found Arch to be an utter pain to use and maintain, and I don't understand the idea behind AUR whatsoever. Why are those packages not in official repos?[/QUOTE] the AUR packages are all user maintained and anyone can create an AUR package, aka packages will be more available. it's less work for the repo maintainers. I think if an AUR package is popular enough it might get merged into the official repo (think that's what happened to slop and maim at least?) I personally love the AUR. on something like Ubuntu I assume you'd have to wait a while before a package becomes available in the official repos since someone with the proper permissions would have to add it. if there's a package missing in the official Arch repos, then some random guy can just create it in the AUR! so much faster and gets you so many more packages [editline]25th July 2016[/editline] library conflicts? I haven't experienced that myself, what was up?

[QUOTE=PredGD;50771837] library conflicts? I haven't experienced that myself, what was up?[/QUOTE] Steam wouldn't work for me without some workaround for using older libs, due to Arch's being the most up-to-date and I think Steam's wasn't, so had to use some funky command to launch Steam every time, and I could never get the desktop icon to work properly for opening it too, but may just be on my part or me missing something

[QUOTE=AG;50771909]Steam wouldn't work for me without some workaround for using older libs, due to Arch's being the most up-to-date and I think Steam's wasn't, so had to use some funky command to launch Steam every time, and I could never get the desktop icon to work properly for opening it too, but may just be on my part or me missing something[/QUOTE] did you have the lib32 package for your GPU drivers? I think I had the same thing until I realized I never installed the lib32 part of the driver. these packages are in the multilib repo which isn't enabled by default (should be enabled by default if you ask me).

[QUOTE=PredGD;50771942]did you have the lib32 package for your GPU drivers? I think I had the same thing until I realized I never installed the lib32 part of the driver. these packages are in the multilib repo which isn't enabled by default (should be enabled by default if you ask me).[/QUOTE] I do remember having the 32 bit drivers for OpenGL, but not sure about the other video drivers. That was probably the cause of it then, oops. Are the non-free repos enabled by default in Arch too?

[QUOTE=AG;50771971]I do remember having the 32 bit drivers for OpenGL, but not sure about the other video drivers. That was probably the cause of it then, oops. Are the non-free repos enabled by default in Arch too?[/QUOTE] I don't think they separate free and non-free in Arch, so yeah kinda. Steam and Skype are both in the official repos for example

[QUOTE=AG;50771909]Steam wouldn't work for me without some workaround for using older libs, due to Arch's being the most up-to-date and I think Steam's wasn't, so had to use some funky command to launch Steam every time, and I could never get the desktop icon to work properly for opening it too, but may just be on my part or me missing something[/QUOTE] pacaur -S steam-native steam-libs Was all you needed to do. Steam-native tells steam to use the system-installed libraries by default so you don't have to use the "funky" command. It's easy enough to use the command too, though. Steam-libs installs all the libraries steam uses. Also, when you want to run a non-simple command through a .desktop file, I generally find it easier to point the desktop file to a bash script containing the command. That usually works better. Don't rip on Arch Linux because you didn't take the time to understand what you were doing :v:

[QUOTE=Dr. Evilcop;50772012]pacaur -S steam-native steam-libs Was all you needed to do. Steam-native tells steam to use the system-installed libraries by default so you don't have to use the "funky" command. It's easy enough to use the command too, though. Steam-libs installs all the libraries steam uses. Also, when you want to run a non-simple command through a .desktop file, I generally find it easier to point the desktop file to a bash script containing the command. That usually works better. Don't rip on Arch Linux because you didn't take the time to understand what you were doing :v:[/QUOTE] And it's also the fault of steam being a kind of trash program that only cares about Ubuntu. I've seen some wizardry done to get steam working on other distros such as the install script on NixOS having to create a chroot for it. Also you mentioned pacaur and I was wondering, people seem to prefer that and yaourt for AUR helpers but I've been using aura, any big benefits to using those? Or is it really just preference.

Mostly preference. I use Pacaur because it lets me accept the installation of packages/say I don't want to view the install script [I]before[/I] they all start installing, so once I do that it's pretty much autonomous. With yaourt you accept/reject things, install a package, then accept/reject things for the next package, then install the next package, and so on. With AUR packages that have a ton of dependencies, yaourt is practically impossible to use. Ive never heard of aura though. Is that a GUI AUR installer perhaps?

I use yaourt because it's the first AUR helper I heard of. only thing I find insanely annoying is how much I gotta babysit it if there are any dependencies. perhaps I should try out pacaur instead

[QUOTE=PredGD;50772099]I use yaourt because it's the first AUR helper I heard of. only thing I find insanely annoying is how much I gotta babysit it if there are any dependencies. perhaps I should try out pacaur instead[/QUOTE] Yep, that's exactly the reason I switched to pacaur. They're mostly the same other than that one very important detail. Yaourt makes nice use of colors and also shows comments from the aur page which can be helpful sometimes, but it just isn't worth how impractical it gets with lots of dependencies.