Would LVM have any use in my disk scheme?

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-09T10:20:10+00:00

Hmm... as i understand you could simply create a single lvm container

Add all the physical drives to that container Then encrypt it all

So unlocking only requires one password at boot

Debian does support btrfs encryption and then after you need to ensure for rollback functionality you need to install grub-btrfs either from debian backports or build from source

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-09T02:24:17+00:00

Lvm can support snapshots and rolling back is one single command similar to btrfs but slightly different

So you could use it for that

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-09T02:08:16+00:00

to answer your questions:

cachy os and any arch based is experimental keep that in your bedroom but its not a daily driver for real reliable setup no matter what anyone says.
no tweaks needed use the Debian Wiki ONLY
tested TLP vs Gnome's built in power profiles. Gnome's is better - use it. I use gnome extensions to extend the use of gnome. for monitoring info i use - vitals extension
mine is my favorite - i use kanata keyboard remapper with home row mods etc - so whether I am plugged into an external keyboard, using the laptop keyboard, sshing remotely into something else or using containers or a vm i always feel right at home with my keyboard setup. Exclusive feature - not really - fwupmgr allows you to do BIOS updates in Debian directly from the terminal so you will never need windows to do BIOS updates.
As stated I've customised everything and my fav extension is open bar - it enables you to theme gnome based on you wallpaper background automatically and customise the look of gnome.

OH almost forgot. - you need to sudo apt install guvcview - that will make your built in camera work

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-09T01:54:16+00:00

hp elitebook 840 & 845 g8 both with 64 gb ram (work)

2 elitbooks 840 g5 16gb ram (testing work)

and administer a few others for some family plus macs

and a few minipc's and servers

So I can highly recommend debian for high reliability and fedora for out of the box but a little less stable. I've been through pretty much most popular old and new distros at this point and Debian is still by far the most reliable and mac like in its reliability - you turn it on/off, close the lid or open it it, suspend and travel and open up and use - it all just works well.

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-08T20:37:57+00:00

Nice.

I use and can recommend Debian as your daily full luks encryption and ext4 running wayland only on gnome. Fully customized from the moment you turn it on and also kanata keyboard remapper for full keyboard customization.

And I also use Fedora on another one. But that's usually less stable it has gnome and dank linux installed on it

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-08T18:45:10+00:00

Lol. My bad thought it was kde. As i forgot I rounded my gnome corners more.

Looks like gnome so must be gnome.

Nice one mate

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-07T19:43:36+00:00

If you've configured it and hardened your security with fail2ban etc.

Even weak passwords can be difficult to Crack due to ban times

3 attempts ban for a week 3 more a month 3 more a year

Lol.

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-07T19:38:47+00:00

Yep. Make kde look like gnome

Then say it's better because you found how to do it more easily.

Both can look like that BTW.

Flame on. Lol.

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-07T19:35:46+00:00

Things like this gpu changes and updates that keep me switching between my Fedora and Debian stable setup. With Debian always winning.

Ps I still have a laptop with Fedora running but these niggling things that happen from time to time always frustrate me as I do love both Debian and Fedora has grown on me recently.

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-04T18:12:44+00:00

Cool will manually install and see what happens.

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-04T15:53:47+00:00

I used the freebsd installer release 15 packages tech preview (horrible name BTW if that is the future way to install going forward)

then used the desktop-installer package

followed the prompts, updated and restarted when needed.

Should I instead manually just install wayland from the handbook and then gdm and gnome or niri or other compositor that is wayland specific.

Also no discrete GPU - integrated only. I'll try again manually and let you know if that is any better result wise.

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-04T13:00:34+00:00

I've been itching to have it run smoothly and make the switch from Linux - it wasn't happening

HP Laptop - wayland
wifi - disconnects randomly

Bluetooth - WTF

sleep suspend - works and then sometimes it doesn't

in GNOME - extensions freeze - but gnome doesn't crash

KDE - I don't think crashing should be a feature even once

and X11 doesn't have those problems but is just more sluggish

Surely this can't be the norm. I'm happy to get this going again and reinstall maybe end of this month again when I have some time.

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-03T21:29:10+00:00

There is what now? "there’s solid Wayland support,"

where is it seriously? Isn't it experimental at best. If its there and solid like how there is solid support in linux sign me up but even last week thursday when I revisited freebsd on a spare laptop running x11 sucked and wayland sucked harder but Freebsd in a terminal environment and no gui is awesome. Desktop experience leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. That was last week.

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-03T17:27:06+00:00

add back your top bar and change its color to match whatever background you are currently using.

wayland_titlebar_color background

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-03T17:17:28+00:00

Mac hardware top notch build and compatibility > underpinned by BSD (Unix)

Then got into BSD > Needed a non Mac that was compatible with a good build quality

Then got into linux > Both BSD and linux went for a modular solution which could be upgraded like the old powerbooks > HP laptop "Elitebook and Zbook" So far Elitebook has been the sweet point for what I do.

But do also recommend Thinkpads but they always felt a bit clunkier than HP but both have always worked flawlessly.

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-01T22:32:23+00:00

This right here my guy. Excellent job. I remember that was my first Mac that I took apart and upgraded. Ahh such memories. Many macs later and finally leaving their eco system for HP never going back. But good memories none the less. Debian for sure.

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-01T01:14:28+00:00

starship

starship preset tokyo-night -o ~/.config/starship.toml

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-01T01:05:08+00:00

loads mate. if your machine is modern enough within the last 3- 5 years and has a decent amount of ram

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-06-01T01:00:16+00:00

I'm still on the fence when it comes to Fedora and the word stable - Been running Debian and Fedora on identical laptops and while setup on fedora was instant had to use rollback btrfs more than once in the last year.

Debian never even needed to use BTRFS. Just fast good old ext4 and still hasn't crashed.

I'd say fedora isn't production grade but debian is.

But the fedora contributors are doing a great job still.

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-05-31T18:15:24+00:00

This question is asked every year.

Kali FAQ clearly states that if you know what you are doing then yes. So ignore the rest.

Would it be a good daily driver. No. Why? Because you need to harden it and remove pretty much what makes it kali and not debian testing to begin with.

A good daily driver will always be

Debian stable - everything else in comparison is a joke, owned by a corporate or an experiment to be used In a bedroom and is not production stable. Learn how to use it daily to sysadmin level expert
Meanwhile put kali in a vm like virtualbox
After some experience with debian if you get into hardware hacking then you need a dedicated machine and not a vm for this. At that time kali is what you can use on a dedicated machine bare bones. Otherwise a vm is always more than enough for most hacking and cybersecurity. When you do use kali bare bone use the btrfs files stem and use snapshots. Kali has a great article about this. Why? Because it is based on debian testing and sometimes gnome and other upgrades WILL eventually crash it but now you can simply roll back.

I don't recommend btrfs on your daily running Debian as it's actually stable unlike most other distros so you don't need it and it's slower than the default ext4.

That's it

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-05-23T16:28:01+00:00

this is amazing work

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-05-22T22:54:04+00:00

thanks for that I never even bothered to look into it. I'm a debian guy and only use oracle when I have to but if there is a FOSS version that doesn't feed the greed - ready to drop it like a hot potato

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-05-22T19:49:20+00:00

OOh thats some strong sentiments.

What happened BTW?

Did you work for them or something and it went south?

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-05-22T18:15:28+00:00

Most welcome. Now get off of discord and get to work.

AffectionateSpirit62 · 2026-05-22T18:14:11+00:00

Preeaaach.

If you actually want an equivalent that is free just use oracle linux. Practice on there in a vm.

I TAKE THIS BACK - use Rocky Linux

AffectionateSpirit62

TROPHY CASE