Stephan Sokolow @ssokolow@qoto.org

pseudoscience (n.): A process of inquiry superficially similar to science, but characterized by seeking evidence for explanations instead of explanations for evidence.

Networking Tip: If your client says "No route to host" on some ports but not others, double-check your server's firewall configuration... for example, if you're trying to use UFW and something also installed firewalld behind your back, you're going to get very confusing symptoms that won't be fixed by asking UFW to flush your iptables and re-create them.

#linux #ubuntu #kubuntu #debootstrap #network #networking

KDE Tip: If the Display Settings snapping is preventing you from getting the alignment you want (eg. top-aligned 1280x1024,1920x1080,1280x1024), try changing (but not applying) resolutions, then snapping, then changing them back.

(eg. To work around the forced centerline snapping, I changed the 1920x1080 to 1280x1024, snapped them together as a uniform row of 1280x1024, changed it back, and then hit apply).

#kde #linux #plasma

Tip: The YD-RP2040 isn't 100% compatible with name-brand Raspberry Pi Pico boards. If you need to build something that has it acting as a USB host, prepare for the slightly fiddly job of tacking a piece of resistor leg between the two legs of a BAT54C barrier diode facing the USB C connector to allow current from Vin to flow to the USB connector... also, the (VBUS) and (VSYS) silkscreens on the bottom are wrong. Vout is *not* VBUS. Follow https://github.com/initdc/YD-RP2040/blob/master/YD-2040-2022-V1.1-SCH.pdf #electronics

I **REALLY** wish "why did that happen?" help/logs were standard. I spent months frustrated that the hand-me-down iPhone I use as a WiFi eReader had started spontaneously toggling the flashlight and/or the rotation lock with the last iOS update and then I serendipitously discover that it can be fixed by turning off a "tap on the back of the phone" feature I never knew existed. (No clue why it's triggering when I use the Otter Box's belt holster as a phone grip, but whatever) #ios #iphone #ui #ux

Tip: If you get an MMSYSTEM262 error from The Incredible Toon Machine and no CD music and you have more than one CD drive (eg. physical and DAEMON Tools or Alcohol 52% Retro Edition), the fix is probably to go into
Control Panel
→ Multimedia
→ Devices
→ Media Control Devices
→ CD Audio Device (Media Control)
→ Properties
→ Settings
... and change "Default CD-ROM drive for playing CD music". #retro #retrocomputing #win95 #windows95 #gaming #sierra #error

Tip: If you're getting strange read/write errors or "sharing violation"s when running "make boot disk" tools/batch files in 86Box and you're using the Flatpak version, create your floppy disk images inside ~/.var/app/net._86box._86Box/ or grant a manifest permission. Apparently there's a bug or incompleteness in the Flatpak documents portal FUSE filesystem. #dos #retro #retrocomputing #win95 #windows95

Generally, I think they all fall under "It looks like a mobile app that's pretending to be a desktop app (the "Window settings for firefox" header, the part that darkened, and the modal) has been embedded in a frame inside a native QWidget app (the window decorations and the action buttons at the bottom) and you can tell.

...maybe it's a mix of the inconsistent font size and the way the modal isn't centred on the darkened region and evokes memories of X11 top-level windows when the window manager has died.

...but yeah. As an end-user, all I can say is "you KNOW when something is written in Kirigami because it's got that nagging ugliness to it that you lack the UI design skill to diagnose, but you can sense".

Just upgraded from Kubuntu 20.04 LTS to 22.04 LTS... I suppose, if KDE is going to slowly migrate to a technology like QML that, even in Kirigami, is a leaky abstraction over an Android UI toolkit, it's at least good that it forces them to ship uncompiled QML that I should easily be able to patch to un-tablet-ify the calendar widget's font size. (Though that does mean I'll have to be careful about what I Flatpak, given its designed hostility to ad-hoc end-user patching.)

Just got OPNsense set up. If you're on TekSavvy DSL, following https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/how-tos/ipv6_dsl.html then restarting your router and disconnect/reconnect cycling LAN devices will WORK to get you IPv6 (you may need to toggle Firefox's DoH to get fallback working on https://ipv6-test.com/ )... but it won't get you ICMPv6. Follow https://homenetworkguy.com/how-to/configure-ipv6-opnsense-with-isp-such-as-comcast-xfinity/ for that but set "any" as the destination address instead of "WAN address" or it won't work. #ipv6 #opnsense #network #networking

Tip: If you're setting up systemd sandboxing for a libusb-based daemon, you'll need to allow AF_NETLINK sockets (eg. RestrictAddressFamilies=AF_NETLINK) if you want it to work... I'm still trying to figure out a working DeviceAllow string for my CM19A so I can go back to the DevicePolicy=closed and PrivateDevices=yes I was using with my CM17A. #systemd #sandbox #security #usb #linux

...and before anyone has an opinion on it, the iPhone in question is a hand-me-down that I use as an eReader because it was already armored to the gills when I got it. The hack is because I refuse to create an iCloud account to download a proper reader app from the App Store.

Tip: If you're stubborn like me and have a bunch of two-page spreads that Calibre splits and orders incorrectly, you too can work around the iOS Files app's refusal to load subresources and turn it into a quick-and-dirty CBZ reader by embedding your pages into an HTML file using data URIs... it actually performs quite well in my testing. (<2s load time for a 40MiB CBZ)
https://gist.github.com/ssokolow/482f9277251c7fdbd907c2711109f050
#html #ios #safari #iphone #python #ebook #ebooks #comics #manga

Does anyone have any tips for reducing Debian's initramfs boot time beyond `MODULES=dep` and `COMPRESS=lz4`? I don't care enough to take on having to manually run a new kernel build every time an update comes down, but I'm having trouble finding an equivalent to Archwiki's "mkinitcpio/Minimal initramfs" page which explains what further customization hooks there are.

(I'm setting this thing up as an sccache node, so there's no GUI and it's running unattended-upgrades, but that doesn't mean I can't try to get the boot times as low as maintainably possible. I've got another one I might have to resort to running Archlinux on to get boot times appropriate for my "fake the Weecee I can't afford to build by using a fullscreen 86box" idea.)

#linux #debian #initramfs #boot #optimization

Why am I not surprised that the one product review Amazon responded with "Edit and resubmit" to was the one where I said I had to return it because Amazon's single-SKU warehousing led the official SanDisk store to send me counterfeit SD cards inserted into the supply chain by some Amazon Marketplace seller. #amazon

In case anyone's interested, I recently added the reference links I used to the README for my practical example of how to write a maximally sandboxed systemd service when you still need to invoke a subprocess from the host system's repositories.
https://github.com/ssokolow/fan_remote

Downloaded an OSBoxes VM of Ubuntu 22.04 to test something... discovered that the "Want to hear about backup software?" popup appears to be taking lessons from Microsoft's "Free upgrade to Windows 10" popups... thankfully, before I could get back to it and check if the "I don't consent to hear more" X was just an only-on-hover thing, the screensaver kicked in and got rid of it for me. Yet another reason GNOME isn't the DE for me, I guess.

Flatpak just pushed #thunderbird 115 and I was called in to do tech support. (Reassure that the sudden access to landing pages that "Compact View" used to hide didn't mean account access had broken and undo the changes that didn't get automatically settings-preserved based on using an existing user profile.)

I did what I could but does anyone know why the account names are no longer alphabetized and how to put the menu bar back above the toolbar when "Hide System titlebar" is unchecked?