Linux

This is a combo of 2 tricks.

Based off this german guide, a bit outdated and not suited for the Flatpak

Goal

a signature like

Firstname Lastname
Role
_____
<fancy logo>
Company name
Contact info including website and mail

This is probably really easy in Outlook, and kinda linux-y (bundling together parts that only make sense if you are a programmer) on Thunderbird.

1. The Sandbox

When attaching an image, Thunderbird Flatpak needs to have permanent access to that location.

By default it uses portals, so if you use "attach image" it will use some /run/doc/... folder that is gone after restarting the app.

For some reason, using the KDE Plasma Flatpak settings or Flatseal, granting the app access to a certain location, doesnt work, even if you use the real location of the image.

So instead:

1. Create a directory in the internal Flatpak's folder

mkdir ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/SIGNATURE

2. Copy the attachment image there (company logo etc.)
3. Copy the path to the image (for example in KDE Dolphin, no idea about GNOME)

2. The HTML Signature

Just write a new mail (Ctrl+N) and write exactly your signature in there.

You dont need the

--

As that is automatically inserted below the last line.

Add the picture, but replace the path with the real path, not the /run/doc/... one of the portal.

Then the image is inserted, you can resize it.

Now instead of sending, in the menu under "File" use "Save to..." and instead of .eml use .html.

If you want to add a clickable mail address, in the mail compose toolbar, behind the "picture icon" there is a menu, select the "link" icon.

You can add a normal http/https link there. But using mailto:[email protected] you can make it a clickable mail link!

(Whoever needs that in a mail)

3. Sandbox again.

Save that file to the same ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/SIGNATURE folder.

4. Account settings

Navigate to these settings, in the first page of your account, instead of writing your signature, use "use HTML file".

Select the file or paste the exact ~/.var/app/... location in there, again, dont use the portal.

---

Done!

Once figured out it makes sense. That directory in the Flatpaks storage will not be deleted or interrupt anything. So this is a clean way.

flatpak remove --delete-data thunderbird would purge that entire folder and all it's contents.

Using "rum" and a custom version by "ElementalWarrior" of WINE, compiled yourself.

Should also work in a Distrobox container

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/18636248

I've always approached learning Linux by just diving into it and bashing my head against problems as they come until I either solve them or give up, the latter being the more common outcome.

I wouldn't take this approach with other pieces of software though - I'd read guides, best practices, have someone recommend me good utility tools or extensions to install, which shortcuts to use or what kind of file hierarchy to use, etc.
For example, for python I'd always recommend the "Automate the boring stuff with Python", I remember learning most Java with that "Head first Java" book back in the days, c# has really good official guides for all concepts, libraries, patterns, etc.

So... lemme try that with Linux then! Are there any good resources, youtube videos, bloggers or any content creators, books that go explain everything important about linux to get it running in an optimal and efficient way that are fun and interesting to read? From things like how the file hierarchy works, what is /etc, how to install new programs with proper permissions, when to use sudo, what is a flatpak and why use it over something else, how to backup your system so you can easily reconstruct your setup in case you need to do an OS refresh, etc? All those things that people take for granted but are actually a huge obstacle course + minefield for beginners?

And more importantly, that it's up to date with actually good advice?

There's been some Friday night kernel drama on the Linux kernel mailing list... Linus Torvalds has expressed regrets for merging the Bcachefs file-system and an ensuing back-and-forth between the file-system maintainer.

On Friday a set of fixes were submitted for merging into the current Linux 6.11 cycle. There were little fixes plus two big "fixes" around an rhashtable conversion and a new data structure for managing free lists in the BTree key cache. That later one eliminates the BTree key cache lock and avoids some locking contention that can appear in some multi-threaded workloads.

But this "fixes" pull request touches more than one thousand lines of code and we're now more than half-way through the Linux 6.11 cycle. This is far from the first time that big "fixes" pulls for Bcachefs have been submitted post merge window and not the first time that it's not strictly bug fixes but also heavier more feature-like additions being made via fixes pull requests. Linus Torvalds had enough and responded to the pull request.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/21338325

Local dummy here (slightly more technical than the average user, likely far less than most people in this community) considering switching over. Checked the sidebar for any beginner's resources and looked at a few of the top posts and saw mostly Linux news and stuff meant for people already using the OS.

For my specific case, I use a Mac as my daily driver and (heresy) I am happy, but I also have a Windows computer that I am thinking of switching over to Linux. I use it to play games my Mac can't, and to run [email protected] (I do not run the community but the thing the community is about) and/or Folding at Home whenever I'm not using it to game. Some of them are Steam games, some indies not on Steam, some emulated. Little to no multiplayer games, and absolutely no multiplayer that has anticheat. I have tried running some of the Windows-exclusive games with WINE and they worked but ran extremely slowly, however that was done on my Mac so it may not represent the results of running WINE on Linux.

I dont even know how to summarize that machine 😄

It is absolutely awesome.

Turris is a company by the czech TLD registrar CZ.NIC, which is ran as a nonprofit and invests a ton in open source network software.

The Origin

This talk summarizes it well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB5OG_V3aSE

They wanted to build a device to analyze hacking attacks on the people in Czechia.

The device should be as close to the network as possible (i.e. a router) and have compelling and understandable hardware that could be upgraded over time.

So... they made a router. Originally using PowerPC, now on ARMv7 (poorly only their mobile MOX already is on ARMv8).

Where to get it

Originally they gave the devices away for free, under the agreement that the users contributed the Sentinel analysis data.

Then they opened an indiegogo campain, which far exceeded their expected amount of funding.

Afterwards they had their own webshop, which is now discontinued.

Instead, these stores are available:

• Rubytech DE (The strangest signup method I ever had :) but all fine)
• Discomp CZ
• Amazon

Note: they sent me an additional Tshirt, ethernet cable and tube scarf, which is... interesting, but could be considered waste.

Tbh, I use the tube scarf daily :D

Poorly they didnt add any stickers!

Also, they dont have a good system to determine the recipient country, so I have an additional power supply cable for another country.

They also included a wall mount, with a set of perfectly fitting, longer screws.

All screws have regular phillips heads.

Software

They took OpenWRT, but extended it a ton. As they have 8GB of storage and 2GB of RAM, they can do stuff way above the minimum hardware requirements of OpenWRT.

They have a graphical package manager in the WebUI, and use BTRFS snapshots for atomic updates. Which is totally cool!

That was over 10 years ago and the first router they made is still supported with updates.

Hardware

The data sheet can be obtained here.

The "Omnia Wifi6" I got uses a bit outdated hardware, similar to my Thinkpad T430. They will very likelybswitch to m.2 slots and ARMv8, so you may want to wait for such a revised model.

The current Omnia has 3 mini-PCIe Slots, 2 USB-3 ports and a ton of pins accessible from the inside.

• The left one supports USB, and below you can plug in a SIM card and use an 3G/4G/5G card. With an additional package, this can be used to automatically fallback to cell network, when the regular connection fails.
• The middle one is just mini-PCIe
• The right one supports mSATA so with a simple adapter you can use SATA SSDs for near-native speed. (I want to do that, but it may need an additional power supply)

And, of couse in the front it has fancy RGB LEDs. They are used as indicators for the running state, and for the action you do by pressing the "Reset" button.

In the back it has 4 ethernet sockets, 1 WAN ethernet socket to connect to the internet, one SFP socket for a fiber connection, a multi-purpose button and a power socket.

The button in combo with the LEDs is used for various things like reboot, reset, update, update from local file, update from internet.

Setup

To set it up, connect it to power and with one of the LAN (not WAN) sockets to a Laptop, using ethernet.

Right, before setup it doesnt open a wireless connection! This was confusing for me but really make sense.

In the browser enter http://192.168.1.1 and a very nice graphical WebUI guides you through the setup.

If you use it over LAN, accept the self-signed TLS certificate in your browser, then HTTPS should work.

Applications

It runs a highly extended variant of OpenWRT. There is a huge amount of software. It varies from preinstalled installable through packages, from Foris WebUI integrated to advanced, requiring the normal OpenWRT LuCI or requiring configuration through the terminal.

An incomplete and chaotic overview:

• file server: SMB, DLNA, encrypted storage, mdadm
• Transmission bittorrent client
• OpenVPN server & client
• Wireguard (advanced)
• Nextcloud, Syncthing (both have acessible login pages from the main WebUI)
• Tor
• Adblock
• Dynamic firewall
• haas: honeypot as a service (needs a public forwarded IPv4 address)
• Turris Sentinel: security data collection service, analyze incoming threats (the use they originally intended)
• Librespeed: lightweight network speed test
• support for LXC containers to run your favourite Linux distro
• schnapps to manipulate BTRFS snapshots
• LAN monitoring with PaKon and Morce

NOTE: the data collection service "Sentinel" is opt-in and disabled by default.

DNS

The DNS Server is not set, I used nic.cz with DNSSEC, other providers like Cloudflare and Quad9 are also available, just like manual setup.

DNSSEC works with a single button press, without any issues!

Configuration

You can configure things with a config file, that you insert over a USB stick.

Storage

You can plug in an external drive (USB of course, but I want to try mSATA to SATA) and it formats it and moves all data on there.

It sets up different RAID systems, I dont know if encryption is supported.

So, you have over 7 different ways to host a fileserver on there, up to a full instance of Nextcloud. This is crazy!

Wifi Routing

You can open 2 Wifis (no idea how that works) and each can also have a separated Guest network.

Security:

• By default, WPA3 with WPA2 fallback is used. I changed it to WPA3-only, as WPA2 is vulnerable to attacks (see this video on how to sniff passwords with Kali Linux, which requires a custom kernel driver)
• 2 Guest networks possible, I highly recommend to use those for everyone apart from Admins
• VLANs are also supported, and need to be enabled.
• Reminder: before first configuration, no Wifi is enabled. There is no initial password set.
• you can have different passwords for the admin WebUI and ssh.

The reach is great, but roughly equal to the modern Fritzbox we already have, which only has a single, hidden antenna.

The time to connect to the Wifi is a bit longer than at the FritzBox.

Community & Support

Their code is all hosted on the CZ.NIC Gitlab.

The Turris team can be contacted via email and they respond pretty quickly.

The same contact is used for repairs.

They also have a Discourse Forum for a long time, where people can exchange bugs, issues, software and hardware mods, adapters etc.

Other fun stuff

The founder of Turris has a Blog

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ndlug.org/post/1014669

Follow up to: “Something has gone seriously wrong,” dual-boot systems warn after Microsoft update

SBAT was developed collaboratively between the Linux community and Microsoft, and Microsoft chose to push a Windows update that told systems not to trust versions of grub with a security generation below a certain level. This was because those versions of grub had genuine security vulnerabilities that would allow an attacker to compromise the Windows secure boot chain, and we've seen real world examples of malware wanting to do that (Black Lotus did so using a vulnerability in the Windows bootloader, but a vulnerability in grub would be just as viable for this). Viewed purely from a security perspective, this was a legitimate thing to want to do.

...

The problem we've ended up in is that several Linux distributions had not shipped versions of grub with a newer security generation, and so those versions of grub are assumed to be insecure (it's worth noting that grub is signed by individual distributions, not Microsoft, so there's no externally introduced lag here). Microsoft's stated intention was that Windows Update would only apply the SBAT update to systems that were Windows-only, and any dual-boot setups would instead be left vulnerable to attack until the installed distro updated its grub and shipped an SBAT update itself. Unfortunately, as is now obvious, that didn't work as intended and at least some dual-boot setups applied the update and that distribution's Shim refused to boot that distribution's grub.

...

The outcome is that some people can't boot their systems. I think there's plenty of blame here. Microsoft should have done more testing to ensure that dual-boot setups could be identified accurately. But also distributions shipping signed bootloaders should make sure that they're updating those and updating the security generation to match, because otherwise they're shipping a vector that can be used to attack other operating systems and that's kind of a violation of the social contract around all of this.

In one of my posts, I noticed this removed comment:

I was curious what it was, so I checked the modlog, but it states that the last mod action in this community occurred a month ago:

What's up with this? Are mod actions being scrubbed from the modlog?

https://spirallinux.github.io/

BTRFS, GUI Flatpak manager, Theming, nonfree codecs etc., printer support, timeshift preconfigured

Their goal is to make vanilla debian usable, with only debian tech. It is just a config, no "small distro dies and users need to switch"

Might not be the most secure (loose printer configs, preinstalled drivers for random stuff that is not normally a problem)

I'm looking for a cheap and portable tablet that I can use for writing. Microsoft Surface Pro tablets, at least around the gen 4 models, are rather cheap to buy used, and they seem decently well made. Naturally, were I to buy one, I would have to install Linux onto it.

I've been peripherally aware of the Linux Surface project for some time now. I looked at it recently, after having not for some time, and it seems that they have really made good progress compared to what I remember, and it's making me much more interested in trying to install Linux on a Surface Pro.

Having never owned a Surface Pro, I'm not sure which models are the most reliable and sturdy. I'm not looking for something that's the flashiest; I want something that works well. I want something pragmatic — something akin to the idea of an older era of Thinkpad (eg T460). I want a pen with low input delay and good accuracy, reliable and responsive touch controls, and a decent display. I was thinking the Surface Pro 4 might be a good choice, but it's hard to know as there aren't many videos out there of people installing Linux on them, so I'm wondering what your experience has been with Microsoft Surface Pro's and installing Linux on one.

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Cross-posts:

• https://sh.itjust.works/post/24035406

It's the MinisForum V3

---

Pros:

• Touchscreen (currently works best on KDE Plasma)
• AMD CPU (Ryzen 7 8840U) [8 cores, 16 threads] + GPU (Radeon 780M)
• Power button + Fingerprint reader (built into the tablet portion thankfully)
• 3.5mm audio jack
• 65W PD power adapter (likely to be GaN)
• Magnesium alloy body
• the inclusion of gyroscopes means display auto-rotation is supported
• 1x stylus pen included
  • [4096 level pressure, up to MPP 2.6 SLA]
    • (I have no idea what any of that means, hopefully it's useful to yall)
• Keyboard that is/has:
  • Detachable
  • Backlight LED lighting
  • Even-surface actuation pressure touchpad
  • an optional purchase (which can be deselected before checkout)

Alt text: An image of the purchase checkout options for the MinisForum V3 Tablet with the Magnetic Detachable Keyboard (both which are on sale for $999.00 and $149.00 USD respectively as of Aug 21, 2024)

Cons:

• Made in China: "Motherboard Manufacturer: Shenzhen"
• Supported storage: M.2 (2280) 2TB max
• cursed Microsoft Copilot button (thankfully on the detachable keyboard rather than on the tablet itself)
• Limited customization/configuration options in BIOS
• Weak magnets on kickstand
• Inaccessible user manual/BIOS(Windows users be damned)
• Ryzen AI (locked to Windows, personally I find this as a gimmic anyways)
• due to MinisForum disuading customers from opening up their devices I'm adding that the battery is not replaceable (void warranty at your own risk)
  • CPU is un-upgradeable (This is now a con due to Framework providing users the ability to upgrade even from Intel to AMD or vice-versa)
  • WIFI 6E (802.11ax) is soldered/un-upgradeable unlike Frameworks's laptops
  • RAM is confirmed to be soldered/un-upgradeable
    • only two configurations available as of Aug 21, 2024: [32GB max, 16GB]

Features/Specifications

• Weighs: 946g
• Battery: 50.82Wh
• Display: 14", 16:10 ratio, 2560*1600, 165Hz
• 2x [type c] USB-4 at 40Gbps max
• 1x [type c] USB VLink(DP-in)
• 1x SD card (UHS-II)
• Volume rocker button
• Bluetooth: BT5.3
• RAM (assumed both configurations are LPDDR5 with speed/frequency: 6400MHz)
• 2x cameras:
  • [Front]: 2M, Windows Hello, Dual D-mic, Face ID, ESS
  • [Rear]: 5M, Auto focus

Extra Info

VLink TL;DR:

• (on laptops) it's a special type of port that's primarily meant for extending ports with a USB-C hub or driving as a secondary monitor
  • VLink Tomshardware
  • VLink Anandtech

A web accessible Virtual Machine powered by Docker, Debian, and noVNC. Webbian allows you to execute a single docker run command to get an entire linux system with a web interface.

Additionally:

• a ton of ISO downloads, ARM and RISC-V support
• Local AI integration for detecting images, searching through docs, finding stuff and writing emails.
• Wayland support.
• A new UI which is a mix of MacOS, Windows 11 and KDE Plasma.
• Atomic updates.
• A new containerized package format (linglong) competing with Flatpak, with some improvements over it.

So, a couple years ago, somebody published the 2017 free desktop client of SketchUp on the chocolatey repos, and I managed to snag it before it got taken down. I use it primarily to make woodworking plans.

I'm wrapping up my transition plan to Linux, but I'm not really up to date on SketchUp alternatives. The only ones I know of are Blender (afaik more for animation and 3D printing) and FreeCAD (CAD seems like overkill, since I'm just doing simple cuts and joinery).

Are there good Linux/FOSS alternatives to SketchUp that have similar features, or is the web client the only reasonable option?

I'm soon going to transition to full Kubuntu and remove Windows from my PC. I've been looking for alternatives to a lot of the stuff I use and this one was a bit problematic. Or so I thought.

I'm also going to migrate from Google to Proton at the same time and it looks like some of these tools support Proton Drive as well!