https://whynothugo.nl/tags/linux/Recent content in Linux on WhyNotHugoHugo -- gohugo.ioenTue, 09 Apr 2024 11:11:46 +0200https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2024/04/09/darkman-portal-configuration/Tue, 09 Apr 2024 10:33:42 +0200https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2024/04/09/darkman-portal-configuration/Since early 2022, darkman supports exposing the dark mode / light mode preference via the appropriate xdg-desktop-portal API. While this works quite well, it’s been a constant source of questions, since setting it up and actually understanding how it works is far from trivial. The xdg-desktop-portal is a kitchen-sink service1, which implements dozens of unrelated functionalities mashed together. Some of these features are implemented directly in the portal, while others are delegated to portal implementations.https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2024/01/06/extended-usages-of-the-primary-selection/Sat, 06 Jan 2024 00:50:20 +0100https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2024/01/06/extended-usages-of-the-primary-selection/When some text is selected, it becomes the primary selection. Other applications can then access this primary selection. The most common usage is to paste it by middle clicking elsewhere, but that’s really the full extent of the interactions that are currently available1. There is a lot of unexplored potential in this feature. For example, it is perfectly feasible to have some desktop-wide special menu with actions that apply on it.https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2023/11/19/setting-up-an-alpine-linux-workstation/Sun, 19 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2023/11/19/setting-up-an-alpine-linux-workstation/In the upcoming months I will travel to visit family and friends. I intend to work remotely during some of those weeks (and will take some other weeks off too). In preparation for this, I’ve set up a new1 ThinkPad T14s Gen 2i laptop that I’ll be using to work remotely. This article covers the steps that I take when setting up Alpine on this device. It is not intended to cover all possible installation options, but is a reference of my particular setup.https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2023/02/18/in-praise-of-alpine-and-apk/Sat, 18 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2023/02/18/in-praise-of-alpine-and-apk/Since the change of year, I’ve been using Alpine Linux on my main computing device (a new desktop PC that I assembled in December). These are some notes on in, some niceties and caveats. I used ArchLinux for over a decade before, so keep in mind that my main point of reference/background is using Arch+pacman. However, this is not an “Arch vs Alpine” article. My woes with package management[permalink] Over the years, I’ve experimented with many ways of “keeping a list of the list of packages installed”.https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2021/12/07/running-eve-online-on-linux/wayland/Tue, 07 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2021/12/07/running-eve-online-on-linux/wayland/Initially, the launcher would render only a black window, and nothing else. I noticed that moving it off-screen and back again, it would have updated content, but remained frozen. As a coincidence, I noticed that when moved onto the edge of the screen, parts near the edge would render, and would respond to input events, whereas other parts didn’t. This made it obvious that the game was doing something funny with window positioning.https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2021/11/26/the-issue-with-flatpaks-permissions-model/Fri, 26 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2021/11/26/the-issue-with-flatpaks-permissions-model/There seems to be a lot of discussion of whether Flatpak is terrible or is great, whether it’s the future or whether it’s complete trash. I think Flatpak does a lot of very useful things, and requires more work in other aspects. I’m not sure what the The One True Package Manager™ will be, but I’m sure we can all learn some lessons from flatpak. Isolation[permalink] Flatpak itself does a pretty good job of isolating applications.https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2021/09/03/how-disk-encryption-works/Fri, 03 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2021/09/03/how-disk-encryption-works/Note: this article avoids being too technical and is rather geared towards non-technical users. Without disk encryption[permalink] Historically, computers used to ask you for a username and password after you turned them on. This was mostly an authentication mechanism to prevent strangers sitting in front of your computer from using it. However, they could still open the computer, remove the disk, and access all your information without further obstacles. The password prompt was a soft protection, akin to a security guard outside the entrance to a room with an open window on the other side.https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2021/06/16/my-desktop-wide-microphone-mute-toggle/Wed, 16 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2021/06/16/my-desktop-wide-microphone-mute-toggle/I use a global hotkey (Super1+m) to toggle my microphone between muted and unmuted. It’s been very handy so far. Different videocall applications all have different hotkeys to mute / unmute oneself, and this avoids me having to keep a mental map of all the different mappings. It’s also been super handy when pair-programming; I can mute while typing and unmute when I need to talk, saving my co-programmer the pain of hearing my rather loud keyboard.https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2021/06/11/a-simple-boot-setup-with-secureboot/Fri, 11 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2021/06/11/a-simple-boot-setup-with-secureboot/I use a pretty simple setup for booting my systems. The hardware firmware (UEFI) loads a signed bootloader (systemd-boot in my case, but gummiboot is basically the same for non-systemd systems). The bootloader loads a signed executable that bundles the kernel, initrd and the cmdline (I’ll call this the bundle" from here on). The initrd prompts for the encryption passphrase, mounted the decrypted disk, and then boots the actual OS. That’s the basic boot process.