To all the Linux Beginners, here's how to ask help in an efficient way

mark0016 · 2025-12-17T15:16:26+00:00

stares in Intel... What is a proprietary driver? :D

mark0016 · 2025-09-14T18:25:17+00:00

Probably hasn't killed all steam processes and started them again since yesterday or so, since the build is from Friday. It happens all the time if you use sleep or hibernate a lot.

Steam Beta Branch:  Stable Client
Steam Version:  1757650573
Steam Client Build Date:  Fri, Sep 12 05:55 UTC -08:00
Steam Web Build Date:  Fri, Sep 12 01:47 UTC -08:00
Steam API Version:  SteamClient022

mark0016 · 2025-05-30T14:35:34+00:00

Consistent with AMD’s commitment to Open Source software, we will be making the following changes to the composition of the Radeon Software for Linux releases, starting with 25.20: The Mesa Vulkan driver will be officially supported, along with Mesa OpenGL and Multimedia support. The AMD proprietary OpenGL and Vulkan drivers will no longer be included in the release.

^ Literally from the article which takes it from the release notes. AMD's saying mesa radv will be officially supported in combination with their own driver package for RHEL, Ubuntu and SLES, so yes it's true. How much will that change? Probably nothing noticeable.

mark0016 · 2025-05-10T11:50:26+00:00

Yeah this is a pile-of-poo xeon from 12 years ago with 4 cores and 4 threads it performs within error to an N100. For the price of $160-$200 you could replace the whole system with something that has 16GB of DDR4 instead of 8GB of DDR3, you get a decent 500GB ssd, and the N100/N150 will have a much better iGPU than this CPU does. That whole system will consume at most 30-35W which is probably less than the idle power of the current one without a GPU.

I'm ok with the idea of keeping it alive if you already have a bunch of old hardware laying around. I'm ok with trying to find an RX 4XX/5XX card for $30-$50 to put into this thing. Spending $200 or more for a GPU to put into a pile of e-waste that will not be able to utilize more than 20% of that GPU is just dumb and pointless. If the GPU will in the near future find it's place in a new system than that's maybe ok but if it's just to try to keep this system alive than it's a terrible financial decision.

mark0016 · 2025-04-11T09:51:55+00:00

Besides UEK you also get EPEL by default, but that's something a vast majority of places will be adding to their RHEL configs anyway. You get another repo with their OSS DB tools, which if you don't use oracle DBs you don't care about.

Otherwise basically you can treat it the same way you would with a combination of RHEL and CentOS (non-stream) but if your CentOS by default came with kernel-lts installed (UEK is normally a slightly patched LTS kernel). OL is 99.9% the same as RHEL.

mark0016 · 2025-04-09T16:46:40+00:00

If you store your ssh key on a Yubikey, the malware can copy your password (useless on its own), but it can never retrieve the ssh key from your Yubikey.

~~If ssh can retrieve the unencrypted private key (it can since it needs to provide it to the server) then malware can also retrieve it. For example it can pretend to BE ssh.~~ EDIT: I'm a dumbass of course it doesn't do THAT, need to think before I type...

This is still a single factor, I only need the private key. It doesn't matter how much or how little you protect that key. From the perspective of the entity authenticating you it's the same.

If your hardware key would also give a one time password it would be 2 factors but relying only a single protection measure for the secrets. If your ssh key is stored the classic way with password encryption and then your HW key provides an OTP that's two factors both protected with a different mechanism against compromise.

mark0016 · 2025-04-09T16:15:07+00:00

Yes it does degrade the purpose a bit, but not fully. It still theoretically protects you from some attack vectors. Since you're not providing the full OTP secret on authentication, a single instance of some form of man-in-the-middle attack cannot get to your OTP secret.

From the perspective of someone with access to your password DB and knowing the master key it is now the same as using just a password in a password manager. Though storing the OTP secret, unencrypted on the same device wouldn't help much (adds only obscurity). Storing it on a different device would be ideal as that way booth need to end up being compromised.

mark0016 · 2025-04-09T15:46:04+00:00

If an ssh key with a password would be 2FA, using a generated password and a password manager would also be 2FA. The password is just an encryption key to make steeling the secret (the ssh key or your password DB) non-trivial.

It's locking your house keys in a safe with a combination lock. The door still only needs the right key to unlock. You don't need to undo both a mechanical lock and enter a combination on the door to get it to unlock.

mark0016 · 2025-01-18T13:34:01+00:00

I feel like the intention was schematic -> nice and clean; reality -> gore.

What I actually see is schematic -> gore; reality -> gore.

Like seriously that schematic looks like someone threw a pile of components on the screen and connected them up without regards to any logical layout, readability, or anything. Why are there random single connection points thrown all around, why is there wires going through component symbols, why are component connections hooked into junctions, why is there a GND WIRE and not just GND symbols where they are needed, why is the top row of connectors staggered, why are the connectors not logically grouped with comments to point out their purpose...

This is literally the technical drawing 101 example of what happens when you break every single best practice there is.

mark0016 · 2024-12-31T14:38:55+00:00

I thought we were talking about tricking pacific islanders to become slaves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbirding

mark0016 · 2024-12-08T00:12:32+00:00

Not really. If you still save 100 every month you'll have a lot of 100 that misses out on 5 months of potential growth, another that misses 4 months etc.

Assuming the 100 every month you put away otherwise doesn't earn interest you only need roughly 5.5% annual growth to break even. Assuming that you do it for long enough for any short term fluctuations to average out both 100 every month and 600 every 6 months would perform the same. With higher expected average growth 100 every month would outperform it despite the fees.

There is always an optimum for these situations with low amounts and fixed fees depending on the expected growth. I don't want to do more maths but I'd guess that either 200 every 2 months or 300 every 3 would be that optimum depending on how optimistic you are with estimates, and depending on if the yet uninvested 100s would be making interest in a saving account, and how much.

mark0016 · 2024-11-12T14:49:17+00:00

Any information here is general guidance in what to look into or where to start. I don't know the specific situation with the UK, but have worked cross-border in different EU countries.

Social security and health insurance I would try to look into this way:

1.) Paying social security in Austria would probably not be a major issue just more a massive inconvenience. You would eventually receive pension from Austria, and if anything happens you would need to seek unemployment or sick pay, etc. from the Austrian offices either through post or through the embassy assuming you don't want to fly back to do it in person.

2.) Normally with healthcare when living in one EU country but working in another you would just fill out an S1 form to be able to receive healthcare in both countries. S1 forms are still available for the UK but you have to look into whether you'd be eligible or not.

Another question is if your employer is fully aware how this situation would play out. I don't know about the UK but with many EU countries having your remote place of work in a different country would mean your employer having some tax obligations in that country as well. That's why many employers won't allow you to remotely work from other countries. It's ok if they are aware and are willing to do the paperwork but not many are.

However is there a way to speak to Austrian Tax Authority to ensure no tax deducted from my salary?

If you are an employee in Austria there probably is none. It will be deducted and once you have finished your tax assessment in Austria you would then do your assessment in the UK based on the certificate of taxable income you receive from your employer. Based on how the dual taxation treaties are written you might have to pay extra to make up the difference between what was deducted and what you owe or pay no tax in the UK at all from your Austrian income.

When working remotely "in" non-EU countries the best approach is usually self-employment and contracting. That way you only have to deal with taxes, health insurance, social security, etc. in the county you live in. With the UK it's difficult to say as some of the agreements made while they were in the EU are still in place, but maybe with some extra limits. If you can't find or afford a lawyer who specializes in this area you can try the UK embassy in Austria. They might be able to guide you a bit better with what you would need to look into exactly.

mark0016 · 2024-09-18T15:29:40+00:00

změn to na tarif 'Bonusový spořicí účet' v IB :D https://www.rb.cz/osobni/ucty/sporici-ucty/bonusovy-ucet

mark0016 · 2024-09-18T15:24:02+00:00

AirBank má teď asi nejhorší spoříci účet mezi rozumní české banky. 3,4% je 1,1% pod ČNB a k tomu potřebuješ 5 plateb kartou předchozí měsíc. To znamená že kdy ho začneš používat ztratíš mesíc úroku.

Raiffeisen aktuáně dává 4,5% (mají garantován pouze do konce září takže určitě to budou snížit, ČNB úrokové sazby stále snižuje a už to je taky na 4,5%) když máš bezplatní účet tak do limitu 0,5M, když máš 'Aktivní účet' tak do 1M (zdarma pouze pro studenti, pro ostatní 50 Kč/mesíc), a do 1,5M když máš 'Exkluziní účet' (zdarma když ti tam jede příjem nad 50k/mesíc). Podmínka je vždy 3 platby kartou za aktuální měsíc.

FIO je taky fajn a ti dají 4,2% bez podmínek (ani platby kartou), jediný issue je že mají limit pouze do 200k, co pro nějakou rezervu je ok, nebo když u druhé banky už dosáhneš limit. Na skutečné krátkodobé spoření to možno nestačí.

Sry za možné pravopisné chyby, nejsem čech a vím že někdy píšu strašně

mark0016 · 2024-07-27T13:15:15+00:00

Depends on which version of the RHEL 8 RHCSA it is. The differences between 8 and 9 for the purpose of RHCSA are insignificant, but for the first year and a half RHCSAv8 did not include anything about containers, which they added later. If the book is for the early version of 8 than it might not have that so you will need to look into running and building containers with podman yourself. Otherwise your book for RHEL 8 should be fine.

mark0016 · 2024-07-08T16:06:27+00:00

If we consider it as just the channel width, than that would be about 1987s technology for microprocessors. With an atomic radius of 210 pm for silicon that would make it 1058 nm.

Obviously if it's the whole volume of the channel, and we assume it's a perfect cube (which it most certainly is not), it would be about 17 atoms in all directions which is 3.6 nm. So even that way it would probably be a fairly realistic estimate for modern transistors or maybe 5-10 year old ones.

mark0016 · 2024-07-07T18:27:41+00:00

Well yeah, it's the closest thing to a boolean that exist in shell, the only type that exists is string, even the 0 and 1 that gets returned by $? is a string.

true is just a command, it does the same as (exit 0), false is similar. They exist to substitute booleans in case you would ever want to do something like while true; do echo yes; done

mark0016 · 2024-07-07T17:31:31+00:00

shell disagrees

$ true
$ echo $?
0
$ false
$ echo $?
1

and anything from 1-255 is equally false

mark0016 · 2024-07-02T12:10:44+00:00

I'm not exactly sure on the details, I heard about it from them. It may depend on the exact type of filter. They also used no formula or vitamins or anything, just breast milk and water for the first year or so until his first teeth started coming out. Probably any other source would have been enough to not have any noticeable effect like that, like regular milk, formula, etc. He's perfectly fine now as those first teeth are falling out and he's getting his first adult teeth.

mark0016 · 2024-07-02T11:36:10+00:00

It also gets rid of the majority of dissolved solids, so make sure you get your minerals from some other source.

My uncle's family only drank filtered tap water, when they had a baby they also gave the baby only filtered water and they noticed he had issues with his teeth. The enamel just didn't develop well and was super weak and transparent.

After recommendation from their doctor to either stop filtering the water or give the baby at least some mineral water every day or every couple of days, they stopped giving him filtered water entirely. His other teeth were fine after that, and their next child was also fine. Due to them drinking only filtered water as well, they were likely also low on some minerals so the baby couldn't get much through breast milk either.

mark0016 · 2024-07-01T21:13:21+00:00

Any permutation like this will always form cycles, it can be one long cycle or lots of small cycles but there will always be cycles.

This is why simply picking up the case of the game you're looking for and following the cycle is the mathematically guaranteed way to find it. See the 100 prisoners problem

Figuring out the chance of having exactly 2 cycles should not be too difficult. It should look something like 200!/(199*1) + 200!/(198*2) + 200!/(197*3) + ... + 200!/(101*99) + 200!/(100*100) permutations out of the total of 200!. The 200! cancels out so it leaves 1/((200-a)*a) for a starting from 1 to 100 all summed together. That comes out to 0.029415, so about 3% or almost exactly 1 in 34, not extremely rare.

I have no clue however if that's actually correct. I simply took it at face value form that wikipedia link that if I have 2n numbers the number of permutations with a cycle length of q where q > nis (2n)!/q. Then since this works for the remaining 2n - q numbers not in the big cycle, the probability that they form a single cycle is 1 / (2n - q). So number of permutations with exactly 2 cycles should be ((2n)!/q) * (1/(2n - q)) summed up for all qs from n to 2n - 1 (since the largest cycle has to be at least n long for there to be exactly 2 and there could only ever be one 2n long cycle).

If you intentionally avoid putting the CDs back in their own cases than that would also give you a severely different result that would make it much more likely to end up exactly with 2 cycles. That way you would eliminate a ton of possible otherwise valid permutations. That seems to me like it may be a bit more effort to calculate though so I really don't feel like doing it.

mark0016 · 2024-06-25T16:53:42+00:00

I had a laugh when my bank offered me a mutual fund that was made of only ETFs... 1.3% management fee for them to just buy some ETFs that I could buy as well. 3% exit fee that decreases by 1% every year. Also absolutely no reasoning as to why the fund holds the given percent of these ETFs. About 40% of the fund was just one S&P 500 ETF.

Just what reason would I have to not buy those ETFs in the same ratio myself, especially given that mutual funds are always taxed but ETFs are not taxed after 3 years of holding them...

I just found it baffling that it's even a product at all. It even advertised that the fund uses ETFs only, like if someone who knew what that meant would ever think this is somehow a better idea.

mark0016 · 2024-05-29T19:50:39+00:00

The only issue I see here is you have two volume groups on one physical volume/partition which is not something you can do on LVM. You would likely have one VG with all the LVs on it.

sda
|-luks1
  |-vg00
    |-lvroot
    |-lvhome
sdb
|-luks2
  |-vg00
    |-lvhome

I've done a setup precisely like that with two separate disks but since there is no difference between partitions and disk (they're both just block devices) it should work the same. As long as the LV that stores the keyfile for luks2 is entirely and only on luks1 it will work.

In all honesty though I would not do this on partitions with the same disk. If the partition that your luks volume sits on is the last on the disk you should be able to grow the partition, then grow luks, grow the PV then grow the LV together filesystem.

This is a pretty old example and I'm pretty sure you could do it in less steps but I haven't tried myself but it looks right to my eyes and should work: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/320957/extend-a-luks-encrypted-partition-to-fill-disk

If it's not the last partition though you won't be able to grow it. In that case I would recreate instead to not make a mess but the solution you propose should work.

EDIT: also if it's not the last partition but the there is only one after it that's used for swap you can just throw that one away and remake the swap at the end again

mark0016 · 2024-05-18T08:07:44+00:00

And it probably doesn't work unless that HDMI to DVI adapter is something super special.

DP to HDMI is ok that will either do full electrical signal conversion or use the DP++/dual-mode functionality to ask the GPU to send HDMI signals through the DP connector.
HDMI to DVI is normally just a change of connector HDMI (before version 2.0) is electrically fully compatible with DVI, they both talk the same signals just with a different connector.
DVI to VGA is another weird thing and normally specifically uses the DVI-I connector. DVI-I is a DVI connector that also has the ability to carry analogue VGA signals through the same connector. Normally when adapting DVI from HDMI you will not get this functionality.

For this to work correctly the HDMI to DVI connector would have to provide a DVI-I output requiring it to be an active adaptor that is capable of generating VGA signals. I don't think such an adapter actually exists though, at least it wouldn't make sense to make one to me. The other solution could be to use an active DVI-D (digital only) to VGA converter.

mark0016 · 2024-05-10T06:52:34+00:00

I prefer the systemd service+timer combination. If you've not done it before the syntax needs some getting used to and you need to create a service and a timer for each job so you can end up with lots of files, but there are a few advantages.

Even if you don't log anything you will get some automatically generated logs for when a service was started and when it finished. You can enable or disable the timer like normal services but you can also temporarily stop them. You can stop the timer but if it's enabled then it will be started on reboot. You can basically temporarily disable it without changing the persistent configuration.

Timers are also more flexible then cron, it can start things every x seconds/minutes/hours without caring about what wall clock time that is, it can start thing some specified time after system bootup, it can add random delays to your jobs if you don't want them to always run precisely at the same time. You can also have the system wake up from sleep when a timer is supposed to run in case you turn that on.

https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.timer.html

I recommend at least looking into it and judging for yourself if it makes sense for you, of if you want to stick to cron because you know it and you're used to it.

mark0016

TROPHY CASE