I love this! Not only for the comedic value, but throwing kernel oopses on-screen when they can’t be easily captured when unprepared would be of great help in solving system problems. Unlike the cryptic messages Windows displays, Linux kernel messages are quite useful.
I just wish they would use another name for it, it’s linux here no need to copy windows slang! Or use another color! (I hope they’ll update it to make it a customizable color)
Fun fact: The Windows BSOD colour was as easy as adding a couple of lines to a .INI file for a long time. Then, as they tend to do, they made it more difficult, but it was still possible. Third party tools were written to do the work.
Very recent MS Windows I have no idea about. My search-fu is failing me.
Anyway, my point is that the "two lines in a config file" method would be nice.
Knowing systemd though, it'll be "send some kind of message into a /proc pseudo-file", or a sub-sub-sub-command of one of the many systemd* commands which ultimately does the same thing.
I’ve never been a fan of the UEFI logo inserting itself into the boot screen. It’s basically just an advertisement for the hardware vendor because they’re jealous of the OS having the spotlight. And it’s an ad that, like so many other ads before it, screws over the security and privacy of the advertisee because fuck you that’s why.
I don’t know. It looks more aesthetically consistent. Your computer has to display something. Average users would be scared if it dumped logs on the display. so the vendor logo makes sense. It COULD just say loading, but this is a bit pedantic I think.
With UEFI, it goes “Motherboard Logo -> Motherboard Logo”
Sure, it’s more consistent, but the alternative is not user unfriendly, the only people it’s unfriendly to is the marketing wankers at Dell, Lenovo, Acer, etc.
When it comes to security, particularly at boot time, fuck the user. Users don’t interact with devices at boot time so it doesn’t matter if it shows a blank screen, a mile of logs or a screaming clown penis. If it was up to users no device or service would have a password or security of any kind, and every byte of information about your life would be owned by 'The Cloud." Let the marketing wanks insert their logo into the Windows boot process,
I want to insert my own logo into the boot process, and I want these ducking vendors to properly validate and assess their mother ducking software. But nooo, penetration tests and any remediations are too expensive for these pieces of bit. Why do it when you can just stick your dick in everyone’s face, right?
The article didn’t mention this, but would disabling the UEFI logo in the boot screen mitigate the vulnerability until proper patches get rolled out? (Or honestly at this point, I’d keep it disabled even after it’s patched in case they didn’t patch it right. UEFI’s are all proprietary so it’s not like you can check.) Since the vulnerability is in the image parser, would bypassing that be enough?
As pointed out, in Windows defence, it’s actually faster where it matters. And none of it is going to matter in adoption until every thing is supported 1-1.
The only reason we’re behind on adoption vs Windows as this point is that people who write software for Windows, don’t do it for GNU/Linux, or even publish specs in the case of drivers.
It’s not the OSes problem. It hasn’t been for a long time. It’s stubborn developers (mainly corporations like Broadcom, Nvidia and Epic). We shouldn’t need to write compatibility layers for completely foreign software to run, or write drivers to drive a megacorporation’s hardware, and those are both a monumental task, but the community continues to achieve it anyways.
A lot has been done and continues to be done by the community, and that’s great, but the real problem is the corporations who refuse to invest a little bit of their time in GNU/Linux support (and those who have an irrational vendetta against it).
Causes are a part of the reality. And when people go online and complain about how “lInUX SuXxx” because their proprietary Nvidia drivers didn’t work, and blame the OS instead of the company who is meant to be providing proper support for their devices or at least documentation for other developers to use, it plants the idea in people’s minds that the OS itself is simply inferior, which has connotations of it just being a bad system. Instead of “it will work perfectly when drivers are actually released by the manufacturer”. It tarnishes it’s reputation even after that particular device gains support, and that is another reason why adoption is low.
Hell, nVidia was actively working against having a working opensource driver reverse engineered by Nouveau. Linux is a thorn in their side and the only reason they somewhat support it today is that GPU compute works so much better on Linux.
I wouldn’t use CentOS for private/ desktop stuff personally.
Do you really need its features? Afaik, the “security” features you mentioned are mainly for server use. At least that’s what I have in my mind right now when I researched possible candidates for my home server some time ago.
I think sticking with a “home use” distro would suit you better.
There are a few options as suggestions:
Stay on Kinoite
==================
There’s barely any configuration drift compared to the mutable Fedora. Therefore, it should be less buggy.
Fedora Atomic KDE gave me the best Plasma experience yet. I often tested KDE (I’m a Gnome guy myself, but here and there hop to KDE for a few months) and on most installs on other distros like Suse/ Workstation/ Debian, it got more and more buggy after a few weeks due to updates and tweaks.
So, bugfixes often didn’t apply to my system, only the default one or the install from the devs.
I find Fedora’s release schedule to be the perfect sweetspot between reliable, stable and up to date.
If you’re really impatient, you can always switch to the nightly builds (on Atomic), which are more bug prone and rolling. Maybe, Plasma will be stable enough before it hits the official image. But you should keep at least one stable image in your bootloader.
Debian and Leap
==================
Debian “just” got it’s new release and will be stale for the next years. BUT, many of those Plasma 6 bug fixes will be backported to 5.27. Still, many of the QOL-changes are 6-exclusive.
OpenSuse Leap also gives you a great KDE experience and is pretty similar to Debian, both in release schedule and when the last big update hit.
Distrobox
============
You can use an Arch/ Tumbleweed container on Debian/ slow release distro to get all the newest KDE stuff on the outside and keep your stable base beneath.
Why? Because, in my experience, Plasma only gets more refined each update. As long as there aren’t any new big features, there are about hundred bugs resolved weekly.
Or, you can do the opposite. Use something newer, like TW, Slowroll, Sid(uction) or Arch, to get the newest software under the hood, and use the Debian repo to get a stable DE.
Just what you prefer.
In your case, I’d settle with Fedora (mutable or Atomic, in your case the Kinoite version, as I’d prefer that one too), and just don’t upgrade to the newest version.
The older version is always supported for a year or two, and you don’t have to upgrade each release. The bug fixes always get backported if possible.
Thanks! Yes its a shame that Debian (and Leap?) Will not have Plasma6 in like 6 months where stable release would fit perfectly.
My experience is the same, on Manjaro Plasma was way better than on Kubuntu and Manjaro convinced me of Plasma. Fedora is a sweet spot and staying with F39 for a while (even though I will probably switch to F40 right away as Plasma6 has sooo many bug fixes I personally reported) could work.
You mean a rootful Distrobox with a DE in it? I have to try that out, sounds crazy. Would need a seperate home if that is possible, as I dont want to have messed up dotfiles.
The distribution “managed by a single person” depends on hundreds of people working on different sofware to keep up. It’s not “one person doing better than the thousands of Microsoft employees combined” implication they are pushing
Windows 11 beat the linux distros by up to 20% in 1% lows which are argued as much more important by most tech reviewers. It wasn’t consistant at all which means that there was a giant margin of error.
I love linux and linux gaming has gotten radically better, but I am tired of tech “journalism” literally just cherrypicking, misleading, clickbait trash.
Yeah, the only time proton can actually outperform windows is when it spots a fundamental performance error that the app has made, and is able to optimize it out, AND no windows driver does the same. This is comparing Linux+proton at its best vs windows+native at its worst.
What we really want to see is Linux+native at its best vs windows+native at its best. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of demanding games that natively support Linux.
Not to mention the major hurdle for Linux gaming is anti cheat software being brought over. Too many games are 100% unplayable because the devs don’t allow their anticheat to be installed on Linux systems
If you compromise your system with software that you don't know and potentially can introduce a backdoor (even involuntary via bugs), you have a rootkit installed.
If you don't trust it, don't install it with admin privileges. Maybe don't install it at all. Anticheat is a shady business. And mostly not owned by the company that produces the maybe trusted product to be protected.
“A rootkit is a collection of computer software, typically malicious, designed to enable access to a computer or an area of its software that is not otherwise allowed (for example, to an unauthorized user) and often masks its existence or the existence of other software.”
That’s the Wikipedia definition, in CompTIA Security+ the concept of the malware masking itself is quintessential to the definition of a rootkit. I hear this shit all the time from people on here who think anything that gets elevated privileges is a “rootkit” and hasn’t the slightest idea what the fuck they’re talking about.
“But you don’t know if it could install a backdoor!”
You don’t know if half the shit you install is doing that either, or is Easy Anticheat known for doing this in some official investigation? Did someone find out that Activision is deploying malware in ricochet?
If not, you’re operating on suspicion that you don’t harbor for other software without evidence, based purely on things you’ve probably just barely heard about.
You should notice that I use the word "trust". I install stuff on my servers and PCs from people who I trust. Why should I trust someone who makes an anticheat engine. Why should I have a reason to do that?
You should also understand that a kernel-level piece of code that can be updated is a very good rootkit. It contains all essential tools to modify hardware, kernel, install drivers, keyloggers etc. It satisfies the definition of "rootkit" very well.
One single piece of code is enough to be a rootkit.
Rootkits: The rootkit is considered to be a type of Trojan horse. Many Trojan horses exhibit the characteristics of a rootkit. The main difference is that rootkits actively conceal themselves in a system and also typically provide the hacker with administrator rights.
I really wish valve would make this more clear on steam store pages. It says games are “unsupported” on steam deck due to anticheat when really it should say something like “The developer of this title does not allow players using the steam deck” so that people are more aware it’s not linux or valve’s fault
In the defence of client side AC; if the entire game runs on the server, then network delay makes FPS:es awful to play. Being able to trust clients and let them do hit detection is quite important in making online FPS:es responsive. In addition, cheats that remove walls/grass, highlight players or even autoaim are near impossible to detect server side. One could try to use heuristics and statistics but it would be difficult to tell the difference between cheaters and players who are just good at aiming and map awareness.
It also doesn’t work. I know that’s what the parent comment said, but it’s a total scam at the company level too.
“Oh, server networking is hard to do right. Let’s do it client side”
“Oh, people are cheating. Let’s add anticheat”
Ensue 3 years of fixing network consistency bugs and playing whackamole with cheaters
I’ve developed games where the client is the source of truth, and games where it’s the server. It is almost always better to do anything that will be developed for more than a few weeks serverside.
Also from an engineering perspective it makes LOADS more sense as you can apply patches to the servers instantly vs. requiring the users patch the game themselves.
Oh, absolutely. I can’t believe we deployed web apps on IIS for instance. What a shitshow that was. If you can run the important bits on something predictable like linux with all the serverside tools that gives you, why wouldn’t you.
Honestly I can't say that I miss installing rootkits with terrifying privileges just to play games. I'd rather limit the privileges games have with Flatpak etc., not give them even more.
Sure but gaming is predominantly a social pastime. Meaning that most gamers will make the trade off between installing anticheat and not playing the game their friends are all playing, much like the overwhelming majority of people will trade privacy in favor of being able to send a message to friends on Facebook.
It doesn’t matter how much you value your privacy: most people don’t care and never will. So without the option to give away privacy to play the latest Ubisoft game they won’t be using Linux. Full stop.
Yup. People always latch on to the “Sony (it was actually on Philips, who ran the disc factory that Sony had a stake in, but that’s just nitpicking) installed a rootkit on PCs in the 90s via CDs” and say about how awful that is, and they’re right, then they throw that out the Window and install more advanced rootkits filled with god knows what telemetry when they install games.
I’ll need to give Linux gaming another chance at some point.
All I know is that people were saying games run great on Linux a couple of years ago as well, but when I actually tried it for myself the performance was unusable.
Maybe that was my fault for over complicating my setup, but even when I tried a basic setup it still felt very janky.
Not sure if anyone’s able to advise, but does RTX and variable refresh rate work on Linux?
Same, I could not get a single game to run normally on Fedora Kinoite, AMD GPU, Wayland. Idk maybe amdgpu pro and x11? But xwayland should also work normally…
All three major GPU manufacturers support ray tracing and variable refresh rate on Linux. When playing windows games, ray tracing has to be handled through VKD3D, which AFAIK supports most but not all DXR features. I haven’t had any problems with it though.
The one thing that can still completely make or break your (Windows games on Linux) gaming experience is anti-cheat software, since it’s up to the game developers to enable it for wine. The major anti cheat providers offer solutions for this, but not all game studios are interested in their games running on platforms other than windows. Games like valorant will probably never work. Good riddance though.
What about hdr. I saw it mentioned for the Steam Deck update, so wondered if that is finally working on Linux. I do like taking advantage of HDR on the TV.
That’s in the works still right now, steam deck has it and I think it’s possible to get it working on other distros but isn’t on by default in most I don’t think
It’s in the early stages, but yeah you can do it in KDE Plasma if you’re prepared to jump through a couple of hoops (basically doing the same thing the Deck does)
Linux won’t have proper HDR support until mid-late next year.
Thanks, I’ll definitely need to give Linux gaming another shot then.
The last bit that might hold me back is getting my Hue Sync stuff working. It sounds silly, but it really makes games feel so much more immersive that I don’t want to be without it.
There’s a GNOME extension called HUE lights that allows you to control everything from your tray, entertainment zones and all. Similar probably exists for KDE/etc.
Valorant is a fucking awful game with über ban techniques when you force quit a game for some reason, like needing to go to the bathroom in middle of game play.
I can’t understand anyone can accept such a thing.
I’m sure there’s lots of solutions, but Steam with Proton for any windows only games has generally worked great for me.
Where I encounter issues, the Lutris flatpak install has worked well for me.
Both I believe use wine, but it is probably easier use downstream solutions like the above when getting started, instead of learning wine. Not that there aren’t benefits to learning it, just in a immediate issues -> lets go back to windows VS it just kind of works pretty good comparison.
Steam having a fair number of games that are directly Linux compatible now days is nice too.
Your systemd file looks ok, but I think it’s doing exactly what you are telling it.
The solution may lie in the backup.service. Is that code you can modify? The OnCalendar=weekly doesn’t specify when in the week the service should run so that config may be vague.
If I understand the desired function here, you will need the service up all the time. It will just wait politely and occasionally run the specific backup script. It’s up to the backup script to determine when the last backup was made and either exit early because it hasn’t been a week or run the backup and reset a flag file.
At least that’s the approach I would take. Systemd is a very vigilant, but very stupid, service manager. It just watches and triggers services based on just a few criteria. Any logic more complex needs to go in the service itself.
the timer has no idea if it was triggered during last boot. It only has the context of “this” boot, so it will do it right after a reboot and set a timer to start the service again after a week of uptime.
So if you reboot every day, it will trigger the service every day, even though you set it to weekly in the timer.
So it’s up to your .service file to determine if it has been run this week or not.
Not sure about the other ones, but I use Btrfs because of subvolumes and backups.
Subvolumes are like special folders inside of your partition that mount separately. Ex. In my btrfs partition, I have a @home partition that is mounted to /home
This makes it easier to choose what you are backing up, because you can say, “just copy everything in @home to the backup location”
If I got any of that wrong, feel free to correct me!
I mean, is it actually easier to copy everything in @home than it is to copy everything in /home? Btrfs has always kinda felt like it’s a bunch of extra steps to solve problems I don’t have.
The real power for btrfs for me is incremental backups; you can take a snapshot of your home partition and send it to a backup device, then you can take a second snapshot a week later and just send the differences between them. I do my weekly backups like this. You can keep many multiple snapshots to roll back if needs be since only the differences between snapshots take up space. This is the tutorial that got me started.
Yeah, alright, I see how that could be useful for someone who isn’t me. I don’t have much that’s important on my computer, and for what little there is I just have a second ssd I drag and drop it onto. That one has Mint installed on it in case I do something stupid to my main drive, because I routinely do stupid things to my main drive.
I suppose it depends on how much stuff you have, doing a full back up of my home every week is too time consuming to be practical but takes a couple of minutes with this method.
Keeping multiple past snapshots is overkill for me but I do it because I can, more-or-less. It would be useful if I accidentally delete a file and only remember it months later.
Kinda. You can copy your snapshots from @home too, meaning a restore from backup also restores your local file version history. There are also tools to push snapshots around as a large archive instead of dealing with smaller files directly.
The COW can also reduce the chances of running rsync on a large file that is currently being accessed, and getting a partial file in your backup. Or I suck at rsync 🤷♂️
You’re right, atomic snapshots are a big advantage of CoW fs.
Rsync backups done while the system is running have a chance of being broken, while CoW fs snapshots are instant and seem basically as if the system suddenly lost power.
OK, many thx for the tips. Since my script in the service file is already doing some logging, i will try to use the last log entry, to find out, when it was last time running and exit the script, if it is not in the timeframe of 1 week.
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