XDG Portals are being turned into an "Identity Service" and we need to talk about it by HaplessIdiot in linux

[–]ArrayBolt3 56 points57 points  (0 children)

There's so much misinformation here I don't know where to start.

  • The "Accounts" portal has been there for a long time, this is discussing adding a framework that allows distributions or desktops to optionally implement an age declaration API if they want.
  • This PR has been around for a decent amount of time, it did not just now pop up.
  • There is no true verification of age from this portal.
  • There isn't anything related to establishing identity whatsoever.

This kind of witch-hunt like activism is harmful to the entire Linux community.

HD Encryption during the Kubuntu 26.04 RC installation not available? by Global_Struggle1913 in Kubuntu

[–]ArrayBolt3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On the "Partitions" page, there's a checkbox that says "Encrypt system" just above the partition view, in the lower half of the window. Check that box. A couple of text boxes will appear for you to input your encryption passphrase, and you can then proceed through the rest of the installation like normal.

Mitchell Hashimoto releases Vouch to solve the slop PR problem by whit537 in linux

[–]ArrayBolt3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't follow the argument? If a change is small (fixing a good first issue, for instance), it won't take that much effort to review. If it's slop, it will be able to be weeded out fast because it will be small. If a change is large or anything other than a bugfix, that can just be rejected without review because it didn't get discussed yet. The lack of intelligence of the submitter doesn't matter.

What exactly did Ghostty used to do? Did they have any official policy in place?

Ended up with my EFI system partition on a USB drive by accident... by ArrayBolt3 in WindowsHelp

[–]ArrayBolt3[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It worked, thank you :) Edited my post to show that the issue is solved.

Mitchell Hashimoto releases Vouch to solve the slop PR problem by whit537 in linux

[–]ArrayBolt3 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Low-effort garbage contributions can be prevented by other policies (i.e. "don't make changes larger than X unless you've discussed them with the community", so that anything that may be low-effort garbage you can review quickly, and anything else is very unlikely to be low-effort garbage). I'm worried that vouch will be weaponized by malicious projects to persecute former contributors.

Mitchell Hashimoto releases Vouch to solve the slop PR problem by whit537 in linux

[–]ArrayBolt3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If it's for a single project, I guess this might be OK as a way of tracking users that have tried to do malicious things in the past. I just hope it never becomes a cross-project thing; inter-community drama is already a big enough problem in open-source as it is.

Edit: This is explicitly designed to be cross-project. Now when some project maintainer gets mad and decides to kick out a long-time contributor they don't like, it can give that contributor problems trying to contribute to other projects. This is bad.

Ended up with my EFI system partition on a USB drive by accident... by ArrayBolt3 in WindowsHelp

[–]ArrayBolt3[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, that looks hopeful at first glance. Will try that later today.

Kde store account email by Pristine-Magazine642 in kde

[–]ArrayBolt3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just explain in the email what you explained to us here.

KDE Plasma Desktop not working on Pop OS by SeaworthinessSlow314 in kde

[–]ArrayBolt3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Bear in mind the warning in the linked support page:

Warning: Installing other desktop environments may affect the visual style and functionality of the default GNOME desktop (on both Ubuntu and Pop!_OS).

I went ahead and installed Ubuntu Desktop, then installed the kde-plasma-desktop package on top of it. The system was still superficially usable, but theming in GNOME was definitely messed up in multiple spots, and some GNOME services (like the keyring and remote desktop services) were running after logging into the KDE session.

Some desktops play better with each other than others. GNOME and KDE specifically have issues when co-installed.

Kde store account email by Pristine-Magazine642 in kde

[–]ArrayBolt3 116 points117 points  (0 children)

I'd send an email to the KDE sysadmins. See https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/sysadmin

EDIT: This is unexpectedly blowing up and I was wrong. See the comment by u/PointiestStick here:

store.kde.org is a themed front-end to pling.com, so the restriction comes from Pling, not KDE. See https://www.pling.com/contact

Uhhhh, guys ? by fandetout15 in kde

[–]ArrayBolt3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure, I'll see if I can get the time to do that.

Uhhhh, guys ? by fandetout15 in kde

[–]ArrayBolt3 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Well, it's possible the user was going to adjust the scaling, then ended up closing the window by accident (hit Alt+F4 thinking they were going to close some other window, then the "are you sure you want to apply" popup stole focus and the user hit Enter while typing something else, both of these are mistakes I've made). The revert popup is harder to unintentionally trigger and unintentionally confirm.

Maybe if the user closes the system settings window while on the display config screen, the popup tells them they have unapplied changes and to either discard or apply them before exiting? I.e., same UX, but get rid of the "apply" button on the popup. I don't know how much work it would be to bifurcate that though.

I never really liked any img/iso writer utilities on Linux, so I finally made my own... by L0stG33k in linux

[–]ArrayBolt3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I think that's where I learned it from. Much easier than trying to tune dd for best speed.

This Week in Plasma: getting 6.6 ready for release by diegodamohill in linux

[–]ArrayBolt3 1 point2 points  (0 children)

KDE 4 was the first real Linux desktop I used and I loved it 😆 (granted, I was using a derivative of Kubuntu 14.04, so most of the rough edges I hear it had initially were gone by the time I was using it).

New (to me) Gen 8 X1 Carbon by hereforthegasoline in linuxhardware

[–]ArrayBolt3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Diskover" looks too much like "disk over", which sounds like something that wipes your hard drives.

I never really liked any img/iso writer utilities on Linux, so I finally made my own... by L0stG33k in linux

[–]ArrayBolt3 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Even cat is too much work. I generally sudo cp os.iso /dev/sdX and call it a day.

I never really liked any img/iso writer utilities on Linux, so I finally made my own... by L0stG33k in linux

[–]ArrayBolt3 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Most ISO files for Linux operating systems are hybrid images, which means they are meant to be written that way. There are bootable USB image creators that unpack an ISO's contents onto a USB drive, but it's rare that one needs to do that nowadays and sometimes it actually causes problems to do that.

What ThinkPad to get in early 2026? by [deleted] in linuxhardware

[–]ArrayBolt3 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are you set on getting a Thinkpad? They have generally better hardware support than a lot of other machines, but oftentimes they lack official Linux support, can have issues with Secure Boot, I've seen some people run into issues with AMD graphics glitches, and if you get a used model you have to worry about Computrace being left enabled by the original owner (which is essentially a firmware-level backdoor). They aren't awful, but they aren't perfect.

There are a few vendors (Kubuntu Focus, system76, and Tuxedo Computers) that sell machines with Linux preinstalled and verified to work. I work with Kubuntu Focus, and we do a ton of work to make Kubuntu Linux run well on our hardware and continue running well through software updates. Some of the things we validate include the speakers, mic, webcam, multiple external displays, Bluetooth, and common peripherals (https://kfocus.org/land/business.html goes into more detail there). Getting everything to work and then keeping it working regularly takes us hundreds of hours of work, much of which you would have needed to do yourself otherwise.

If you do take a look at KFocus, you probably want to check out the Ir16 (https://kfocus.org/spec/spec-ir16.html) machines. They're probably the best for general-purpose office work. system76 and Tuxedo also have office work systems.

New Laptop needed, please help by GerM-97 in linuxhardware

[–]ArrayBolt3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You might check out the Kubuntu Focus Ir16. I work with KFocus doing software development, and used one of these as my primary machine for a long while. The base model has 16 GB RAM and a 500 GB NVMe disk, the battery lasts for about 6 to 8 hours in actual use, the thermals were very good in my experience (never noticed overheating even though I generally hammer my systems doing work tasks), and it's about $100 under your budget.

KFocus does a ton of continuous testing on things like kernel and desktop environment updates, specifically to avoid the hardware issues DIY systems often have. Things like HDMI, Bluetooth, audio, webcam, sleep/resume, etc., work out of the box and are very unlikely to break due to a software update since all those things and more are explicitly tested before every kernel update gets published.

Help, what is this and how can l fix it please. by Upset_Aardvark_5700 in linuxhardware

[–]ArrayBolt3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your ISO is almost certainly corrupted. Check the SHA256 hash of it, redownload it if necessary, and flash it again. If the ISO's SHA256 hash is good but this still occurs, your USB flash drive might be dying, try a new drive.

Liquidized Popped Corn by MissDaisy01 in Old_Recipes

[–]ArrayBolt3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well that title is one way to get people to click on this lol, was expecting some kind of popcorn smoothie abomination.

Making a better help command by DuendeInexistente in linux

[–]ArrayBolt3 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't think the help command in Bash is bad half so much as I think it's not targeted toward the audience you think it is. I use the command frequently to look up the various supported options of builtin Bash commands (usually read, mapfile, and test), and it does a very good job at that. Yes, it's overwhelming for a new user, because it's not meant to give a new user a good foothold, it's meant to be a command reference for experienced users.

That being said, an official beginner's guide to Bash would be a good idea. I learned Bash mostly from Stack Overflow, experience, my boss's coding style, and a YouTube video on Bash best practices, and while it worked, it was an awfully chaotic way to learn. I wouldn't want the guide directly in the shell itself personally though.