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

[QUOTE=PulseFrog;51991456]Are there any real dangers at the moment to disabling secure boot? I bought a new Asus gaming laptop that had Windows 10 pre-installed, which is great for gaming, but I am trying to dual boot Ubuntu MATE with it. I tried to install it with secure boot enabled but I couldn't enrol the key for some reason. I know that I might be able to do it with some work, but I bought this laptop yesterday and don't want to mess with it too much so that I don't risk breaking it. So, I decided to disable secure boot and install Ubuntu. But are there any real security dangers to disabling secure boot? How common are boot kits and how does one get infected by one? I don't think I've ever encountered a boot kit. Does the attacker need physical access to your computer to install a boot kit or can it somehow be done remotely, and if it can be done remotely, how? What attack vectors do I need to be careful of? Thank you in advance for any and all answers! :)[/QUOTE] Since Microsoft leaked their golden key - Secure Boot is all but useless as a real security measure anyway.

[QUOTE=Adam.GameDev;52016532]Could you set the VM to boot from the Live USB?[/QUOTE] I don't know. As I said, I never used a VM before. Just wanted to know before I get the stick set up one way or the other.

I recently got one of those wearable silicone bracelet USB sticks which aspiring musicians tend to sell around towns and places. After getting rid of the horrid music off of it (but not before making a backup of it on my Mega account) I installed Alpine Linux on it and now I'm literally wearing a Linux distro :v:

Mad Max has just received the Vulkan support on Linux as a public beta update and holy shit it's a huge improvement in terms of performance. [url]https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/mad-max-meets-vulkan-in-a-new-fully-public-beta-for-linux-benchmarks-and-opengl-vs-vulkan-comparisons.9345[/url]

[QUOTE=KenjiKusanagi;52033116]Mad Max has just received the Vulkan support on Linux as a public beta update and holy shit it's a huge improvement in terms of performance. [url]https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/mad-max-meets-vulkan-in-a-new-fully-public-beta-for-linux-benchmarks-and-opengl-vs-vulkan-comparisons.9345[/url][/QUOTE] Hot damn, the FPS is essentially doubled across the board and then some more. I really hope they have more Vulkan ports on the line. I bought Mankind Divided, but I didn't play it from start to finish on Linux because it couldn't reach stable minimum of 60 FPS.

I'm super glad they branded it as Vulkan instead of "OpenGL next" or whatever. Microsoft did everything in their power to give OpenGL a bad name and we're finally free of that with Vulkan, and if Vulkan sees widespread use, it'll be much more efficient for devs to create ports to Linux and Mac.

[img]http://files.ilj.io/img/what_is_this.png[/img] Anyone know what is causing this? If I push up sometimes a really long string messes up the text. Tried Googling but it's hard to figure out how to describe exactly what's going on here.

404 on the image.

Pretty sure it was something like this but in image form: [code]curl -sL https://echo what what[/code]

[QUOTE=Dr. Evilcop;52017253]It was alright when I used it, but then they had thing where someone compromised the actual ISOs on their website with malicious code, which is hugely worrying. I also like Xubuntu (an officially-recognized flavor of Ubuntu) better anyway, so I generally don't even bother with Linux Mint. I also found Cinnamon was really glitchy with a Nvidia GPU but maybe that was just me. I used quite a few Ubuntu derivatives before switching to Manjaro/Arch Linux, and I definitely think Xubuntu is the best of the bunch.[/QUOTE] Always verify integrity of your disto and where convenient, torrent.

How do you get a makefile to install something to /usr/bin for you on Arch Linux? I'd rather not sudo it as I want to put it on the AUR with a PKGBUILD as well. I'm trying the below command to install it to /usr/bin: [code]install -m 755 $(executablehere) /usr/bin[/code] But it gives a permission denied error. Is there another way I can get it to work? Edit: I'm tired, stupid and impatient. I didn't fully read the wiki for Arch. Excuse me for the post. Basically, you need to use the $pkgdir as a fakeroot environment, out of which makepkg will create a package installable by pacman. You don't copy/install things to /usr/bin like some form of inbred monkey.

[QUOTE=supervoltage;52054343]How do you get a makefile to install something to /usr/bin for you on Arch Linux? I'd rather not sudo it as I want to put it on the AUR with a PKGBUILD as well. I'm trying the below command to install it to /usr/bin: [code]install -m 755 $(executablehere) /usr/bin[/code] But it gives a permission denied error. Is there another way I can get it to work? Edit: I'm tired, stupid and impatient. I didn't fully read the wiki for Arch. Excuse me for the post. Basically, you need to use the $pkgdir as a fakeroot environment, out of which makepkg will create a package installable by pacman. You don't copy/install things to /usr/bin like some form of inbred monkey.[/QUOTE] Right, as Pacman (which will have superuser privileges) will move it there for you afterwards.

[QUOTE=-Xemit-;52066052]Does anyone know how to configure a laptop with an nvidia optimus thing so there's as little things going wrong as possible? Installed xubuntu on it yesterday because programming on windows is pretty ehh and now my battery doesn't like it. I'm not even sure which you it's using :s:[/QUOTE] [url]https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee[/url] I will note I had a much easier time getting this working in Arch Linux than Ubuntu, but that was years ago. [editline].[/editline] That is, if you want to be able to use your Nvidia card. If that doesn't matter, just disable the Nvidia card entirely.

So quick question. (forewarning: I'm pretty Linux-tarded so forgive me) I've got a Beaglebone Black running Debian Jessie. Thing with the BBB is, it doesn't have a whole lot of RAM or CPU power, and I'd like to trim the fat so to speak. I'm not using the GUI, everything I've done with it so far has been over SSH, but I do plan on trying OpenCV on it down the road, so I was wondering what you guys might recommend to free up some system resources/how to see what's running/installed and get rid of the stuff I don't need.

[QUOTE=Zero-Point;52081448]So quick question. (forewarning: I'm pretty Linux-tarded so forgive me) I've got a Beaglebone Black running Debian Jessie. Thing with the BBB is, it doesn't have a whole lot of RAM or CPU power, and I'd like to trim the fat so to speak. I'm not using the GUI, everything I've done with it so far has been over SSH, but I do plan on trying OpenCV on it down the road, so I was wondering what you guys might recommend to free up some system resources/how to see what's running/installed and get rid of the stuff I don't need.[/QUOTE] Debian is quite "trimmed" from the get go. You should test out OpenCV first and see if it actually has a performance issue before you start putting time in a tiny and possible unnecessary performance improvement.

Made a pretty handy utility: [url]https://github.com/silverhammermba/launch[/url] If you have a terminal-centric workflow with some occasional GUI stuff, I think you will find it useful.

[QUOTE=Larikang;52084421]Made a pretty handy utility: [url]https://github.com/silverhammermba/launch[/url] If you have a terminal-centric workflow with some occasional GUI stuff, I think you will find it useful.[/QUOTE] What's the difference between using this and just running the command with & ?

[QUOTE=Dr. Evilcop;52084609]What's the difference between using this and just running the command with & ?[/QUOTE] It detaches the process and silences stdout/stderr. It's more equivalent to running with (cmd &>/dev/null &), except it also allows you to write to the process's stdin.

Was participating in a defensive cybersecurity competition this past weekend and had a pretty interesting scenario happen when the 'Red Team' of attackers got into one of our CentOS boxes for a few minutes- 1)They chattr'd the ssh command to immutable and replaced chattr's binary with the one for echo 2)They replaced our bash shell prompt text with" rm -rf / " (in place of root @ whatever, for example). Sneaky fuckers.

[QUOTE=Larikang;52084960]It detaches the process and silences stdout/stderr. It's more equivalent to running with (cmd &>/dev/null &), except it also allows you to write to the process's stdin.[/QUOTE] isn't it clobbering any argument past the first though? so i can't run "launch atom *.cpp *.h"

Anyone who have had success moving their parents or grandparents who only use their computers for checking their mail/facebook/pictures?

I've had success with a few elderly clients at old jobs. Just have to move through it slowly, have them repeat a few times, and write them out some instructions for when they forget.

[QUOTE=Levelog;52095635]I've had success with a few elderly clients at old jobs. Just have to move through it slowly, have them repeat a few times, and write them out some instructions for when they forget.[/QUOTE] Got any recommendations? I'm considering testrunning mint with cinnamon on my grandparents to see if that might be something for them.

[QUOTE=LordCrypto;52091189]isn't it clobbering any argument past the first though? so i can't run "launch atom *.cpp *.h"[/QUOTE] Nope, that's exactly what it's for. It lets you do any kind of shell magic you want when launching a GUI. Relative paths, globs, process substitution, etc. Everything works.

[QUOTE=Larikang;52098533]Nope, that's exactly what it's for. It lets you do any kind of shell magic you want when launching a GUI. Relative paths, globs, process substitution, etc. Everything works.[/QUOTE] goddammit you're right i forgot my c arrays to pointer logic

Is there something special needed to get the new Thinkpad touchpads working well? I just got an X270 and the touchpad is jittery, I can't seem to find anything online about it.

[QUOTE=FlamingSpaz;52099884]Is there something special needed to get the new Thinkpad touchpads working well? I just got an X270 and the touchpad is jittery, I can't seem to find anything online about it.[/QUOTE] My X220 works out of the box. Is it jittery in Windows as well?

Nope, it worked as expected in Windows. I installed the synaptics package and it's smooth now, though I now cant rest my finger in the left click zone or it thinks I want to scroll. I'll take that over bad mouse movement I guess.

[QUOTE=FlamingSpaz;52103420]Nope, it worked as expected in Windows. I installed the synaptics package and it's smooth now, though I now cant rest my finger in the left click zone or it thinks I want to scroll. I'll take that over bad mouse movement I guess.[/QUOTE] So you were using libinput before? Maybe report a bug?

I feel the need to warn you I'm completely illiterate with Linux, here goes. I have Ubuntu on a USB flashdrive, and it works. I can boot directly into it from the F12 boot menu. Is there any way to have a driver already installed on the OS? I'm trying to get a windows laptop disinfected, and I can't get the drivers for the NIC to work. My only guess is the drivers it came with are only compatible with 802.11n cards and not g/b. The logical next step is to find a compatible driver for it, and install it somehow. Thing is I can't seem to figure out where in the folders I'm supposed to put any sort of drivers. If someone could point me in the right direction, that'd be great.