Run Linux from USB and use storage only for... storage: yay or nay (and why)?


I am just about to set up my new Linux machine, which will be used to convert analog video and audio to digital video and audio. Is there any reason why I shouldn't run the system off of a live USB stick (say, a good quality one from Sandisk), that is, without installing Linux on the hard drive and not setting up a boot partition, a system partition, and all that?

You Find Out Who People Really Are When Family Dies


A Crayon Eater lost his father, only to be confronted with the family bullies. What happens next is too epic for this description.
#Redonkulas #Karma #FamilyDynamics

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My new neighbor Virtanen


Trail camera footage of my new neighbor(s) taken in September 2026. With the help of Finnish Mastodon I named them Inari and Aarni (Virtanen). 😀

I post more everyday stuff of the wildgarden and the family Virtanen on my Mastodon account @magdalenahai@mstdn.social (but it's mostly in Finnish, sorry!)

CAUTION: the trail cam footage has some flicker I couldn't quite get rid of in the editing, so if you're prone to migraine etc., please tread carefully!

Music:

DADA: Gravity of Us
Music from #Uppbeat
uppbeat.io/t/dada/gravity-of-u…
License code: HHNZ8M4NCBIAGPGC

This entry was edited (today, 10:45 AM)

[yt-dlp or compatible] What are your favorite/best configuration tweaks?


Naked self-interest disclaimer: I want the best config for the --output option, one that sorts downloads into folders, respects playlist order etc., and never ever displays the string NA, no matter which extractor is used (I mostly use youtube and bandcamp).
This entry was edited (today, 8:01 AM)

I finally got a compatible device (Redmi Note 4 - 2017)


Hardest part?


Unlocking the bootloader. Because it's Xiaomi. I have screenshots from the whole process, but that's more of a thing for "mildly infuriating" community.
Fun fact: Xiaomi doesn't even allow installing APKs via ADB without Mi account...

Why is it running plasma-desktop?


It's the first UI I tried. I've used it with a touchscreen before, and it worked well.
I've also tried installing both plasma-mobile and plasma-desktop, but the configurations seem to clash.
Also, when I use Android I always increase DP in developer settings to >600 which switches some UI elements to tablet mode. I prefer more things on the screen.

plasma-mobile vs plasma-desktop


Apples and oranges, yes, but I'll compare them. I am allergic to apples, but not oranges. Wait, that's not what I was talking about...

Nice things in plasma-desktop


  • Sleep works (dmesg reports s2idle).
  • More powerful UI (proper desktop).


Nice things in plasma-mobile


  • Extra buttons in Konsole (tab, arrows, ctrl).
  • Screen can be locked and turned off.
  • Existing buttons on phone are automatically mapped to navigation in Plasma.


Bad things about plasma-desktop


  • Even if I set power button to "Turn of screen", it immediately turns back on.
  • Awful CLI experience without needed buttons.
  • Pressing back and home buttons causes awful noise on headphone output.


Bad things about plasma-mobile


  • Sleep isn't available as power option. systemctl suspend seems to properly put it into sleep based on kernel logs, but pressing button first time won't do anything, while causing a reboot when pressed the second time.
  • While phone's buttons are mapped, I didn't find a setting to hide on-screen buttons, so you just get each button twice.


Running without modifying anything (aside from bootloader unlocking)


I didn't yet want to modify anything on the device, so I just flashed PostmarketOS to SD card.
The device is then booted through a computer using fastboot boot with lk2nd bootloader image.


Miscellaneous


This section is just about me being dumb.

I have no idea about what's going on during the boot process.
There's 49 partitions on the internal storage, I don't know what they're all used for, nor how data is loaded from them.
::: spoiler Partition table
```<>
Device Start End Size Attrs Name
1 131072 303103 84M GUID:60 modem
2 393216 393217 1K fsc
3 393218 393233 8K ssd
4 393234 394257 512K sbl1
5 394258 395281 512K sbl1bak
6 395282 396305 512K rpm
7 396306 397329 512K rpmbak
8 397330 401425 2M tz
9 401426 405521 2M tzbak
10 405522 406033 256K devcfg
11 406034 406545 256K devcfgbak
12 406546 439313 16M dsp
13 439314 442385 1.5M modemst1
14 442386 445457 1.5M modemst2
15 524288 524351 32K GUID:60 DDR
16 524352 527423 1.5M GUID:60 fsg
17 527424 527455 16K GUID:60 sec
18 655360 677887 11M splash
19 786432 788479 1M GUID:60 aboot
20 788480 790527 1M GUID:60 abootbak
21 790528 921599 64M GUID:60 boot
22 921600 1052671 64M GUID:60 recovery
23 1052672 1054719 1M GUID:60 devinfo
24 1054720 7346175 3G GUID:60 system
25 7471104 7995391 256M cache
26 7995392 8060927 32M persist
27 8060928 8062975 1M misc
28 8062976 8063999 512K keystore
29 8064000 8064063 32K config
30 8064064 8588351 256M oem
31 8650752 8650815 32K GUID:60 limits
32 8781824 8782847 512K mota
33 8782848 8784895 1M dip
34 8784896 8850431 32M mdtp
35 8850432 8851455 512K syscfg
36 8851456 8859647 4M mcfg
37 8912896 8913151 128K GUID:60 lksecapp
38 8913152 8913407 128K GUID:60 lksecappbak
39 8913408 8913919 256K GUID:60 cmnlib
40 8913920 8914431 256K GUID:60 cmnlibbak
41 8914432 8914943 256K GUID:60 cmnlib64
42 8914944 8915455 256K GUID:60 cmnlib64bak
43 8915456 8915967 256K GUID:60 keymaster
44 8915968 8916479 256K GUID:60 keymasterbak
45 9043968 9044479 256K apdp
46 9044480 9044991 256K msadp
47 9044992 9045007 8K dpo
48 9045008 10748943 832M cust
49 10748944 122142686 53.1G userdata

:::

If I collected info correctly, BootROM loads whatever SBL is, which then loads whatever ABOOT is (which probably includes fastboot), which then decides what to load next (recovery, boot).

But how?  
Does it look at the partition table for the names/UUID, or does it look for disk offsets? (There are suspicious holes between partitions.)  
If the former, I could re-partition it.  
If the latter, I'd be fucked.

Anyway, when it comes to backups, I first erased cache and userdata (``fastboot erase``), booted TWRP, and cat the internal storage over ADB shell, storing it as a sparse file. It takes up just 3.3GiB.  
I also checksummed the storage and image file for verification.

I also tried to extract the stock recovery into Android boot image without extra data after it.  
I don't know how to determine the real size, so I used ``unpack_bootimg`` and ``mkbootimg`` to get the original image, rather than whole partition.  
The checksum of re-created boot image was different to original truncated partition image, but upon closer inspection with ``xxd`` and ``diff``, this was just a difference in header:  
```<>
00000010: 68c2 4f00 0000 0081 0000 0000 0000 f080  h.O....... | 00000010: 68c2 4f00 0000 0081 0000 0000 0000 0000  h.O.......

But I found it might indeed be a good idea to just keep a full image backup. After a bunch of NULLs, there's more data.
file doesn't recognize it, but running strings on it reveals readable text:
<> California1 San Narciso1 Yoyodyne, Inc.1 Yoyodyne Mobility1 Yoyodyne1#0! yoyodyne@example.com0
Indeed, it seems this is a certificate: source.android.com/docs/core/o…

Anyway, I am once again getting reminded it might be good to learn assembly (ARM in this case). The content of sbl1 and aboot seems to be an ELF, so I might be able to pop it into Ghdira, and try to figure out what it's doing.
Maybe. I don't know, I have the most stupid of ideas usually.

This entry was edited (yesterday, 11:55 PM)

XLibre support discontinued on Artix


[...] What I forgot to mention is that metux created huge numbers of commits using AI without checking them, but I never published that until here.

When these 3 persons learned about my Xorg advices in our forum they kicked me out of the xlibre team and startd to make my - personal - life hell.
Source: forum.artixlinux.org/index.php…


It could be that I'm late, but if there are any other Artix users out there who wonder why a pacman -Syu asks whether you want to replace xlibre, here's the reason.

Adèle Haenel - sa réponse après la censure de l'émission


Réponse suite à ses propos dans l'émission La Grande Librairie sur France Télévisions.
This entry was edited (yesterday, 2:41 PM)

Adèle Haenel - Carte blanche - Génocide Palestine


Vidéo censurée, d'où une copie ici.
This entry was edited (yesterday, 5:11 PM)

John Hardy #demo #Z80 #CPM & #TEC1 #javascript #vm #lispyGopherClimate #gameDev


Show thread:
gamerplus.org/@screwlisp/11726…

John Hardy's Mastodon post linking his TEC1 talk at that Sydney museum referenced in the show in 2023:
jorts.horse/@jhlagado/11726221…

Triptych adventure : jhlagado.github.io/triptych/?d…

The TEC1 as seen at the end (cool if you liked the talk ^)
jhlagado.github.io/wicked-tec1…


#lispyGopherclimate 8am UTC Sunday-morning-in-Europe #peertube #live coming up in T-1 hour and counting,

toobnix.org/w/bYyCxTHWgQBRAi22…

@jhlagado demoing #Z80 #adventure #gamedev running in-browser and #retrocomputing or to turn the #interlisp phrase, dare I say #retrofuturism ?

The reason I tagged interlisp is that I think Z80s were popular around the same time as the d machines "A lisp machine for only 30,000 dollars?"

#lisp #demo #livestream #interview

Livechat in #lambdaMOO please IYKYK


This entry was edited (yesterday, 4:06 PM)

How to turn a Smart TV into an "almost" full-fledged Linux workstation


Not for the faint of heart

Jason Perlow’s New NCZ-OS Scratches Several Itches in One Distro - FOSS Force


What would you do if you bought some capable hardware that you really like, but there’s no Linux distribution that runs well on it?

When Jason Perlow found himself in that predicament, he broke out some tools and built his own Linux distribution to fully support it. He’s calling the distro NCZ-OS, and it currently supports arm64 machines, with a specific focus on the CIX Sky1 platform, targeting Radxa Orion O6/O6N and Minisforum MS-R1 devices. Support for OrangePi systems is currently under validation.

He’s not stopping there. He’s now working on getting it to work on some older hardware that’s been stranded by Microsoft and Apple.

If Perlow’s name seems familiar, there’s a reason for that. For years his byline graced articles on sites such as CNN, Linux Magazine, ZDNet, and others. He’s also spent stints as an employee at the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, and IBM. Some of you might also know him for his foodie videos.

“I think the story here is interesting because I have heavily used AI pair-programming tools (Codex, Claude, OpenCode/Goose/Pi) to put this distro together, along with Yocto as the build system,” he told me in a conversation that took place via email. “This would have been basically impossible for a single person to do five years ago.”

Making Linux Safe for Arm CIX Sky1

In some ways the project harkens back to the 1990s, when coders were working to build GNU/Linux distributions that would work on whatever hardware they had laying around and needed to get it to work on.

“I bought a Sky1-based system,” Perlow said. “It was an attractive piece of hardware for $600 — 64GB RAM, 12 cores, GPU, and NPU. When it arrived, a lot of stuff wasn’t working out of the box. I decided to keep it and not return it, and see if I could get it to do as advertised. I now own two (Minisforum, Radxa) with a third on the way (OrangePi).”

NCZ-OS originally used an Ubuntu base, but now starts with the arm64 port of Debian testing (forky). It uses a customized Debian installer with a bit of built-in failsafe: the base system is installed directly from the image, doing away with issues, like maybe an iffy network connection or unreachable mirror.

“The goal is specific: make the SoC’s accelerators work under a current kernel and a fully Wayland desktop,” he said. “On new Arm silicon the accelerators are usually the last thing to work and often the thing that never does, with the GPU falling back to software and the NPU and video engine present only as device nodes nothing can drive. Closing that gap is the point of the project.”

There have been numerous workarounds necessary to get the OS working to his liking. That’s not surprising. According to Perlow, the CIX Sky1 is not only new technology, it was apparently initially designed for China’s domestic smartphone market, so architecturally it has more in common with a phone-class system-on-chip than a conventional PC. Although it’s supported by some other distros, the support is incomplete.

“NCZ-OS is not the only option and I would not want to suggest otherwise,” he said. “Armbian maintains a CIX board family, Radxa publish Debian and Fedora images for the Orion O6, Ubuntu has a concept image, and CIX publishes an SDK and is upstreaming core SoC support, which matters more in the long run than any downstream image. A community project, Sky1-Linux, assembled kernel and GPU packaging and drew genuine interest, though its repositories have had no activity since March 2026.

“What differs here is the scope of what is made to work on one image, and the practice of measuring each claim on hardware before making it,” he added.

Perlow isn’t stopping with NCZ-OS as a specialized Arm distro. He’s working on a specialized x86 version too.

“The x86 target is deliberate rather than opportunistic, and it is the one I care most about,” he said.

He’s attacking x86 on two fronts, starting with enabling full desktop support for older Macs that were built before Apple said goodbye to Intel and x86 in 2020.

“I have been a committed Mac user since leaving Microsoft in 2017, and none of the Linux desktops I’ve used since then has given me a compelling reason to switch,” he said. “I own an Intel Mac from 2020 which is largely abandonware, with the exception of the T2 kernel being developed [a Linux kernel with patches or drivers for T2-equipped Macs], but there is no distribution that really is tuned for it. They all kind of stop at the kernel and are the same Ubuntu or Arch or whatever distro experience everyone else gets.”

“That’s not a bad thing necessarily,” he added, “but I think you need a compelling reason for end users with older systems to switch to Linux more than ‘my abandoned hardware now works.’ That doesn’t pull millions of systems necessarily out of the e-waste pile.”

Mac branded x86 machines that were manufactured in the years leading up to Apple’s change to its own chip design are still capable today, Perlow pointed out, but they need a specific kernel patch series to make the keyboard, trackpad, audio, and networking work.

“That series exists and is maintained by the t2linux community,” Perlow said. “Carrying such a series on a current base is the same task this project already performs for Sky1, which is why it is a realistic target rather than a wish.”
A Wintel 10 Lifejacket Too…

There’s more in Perlow’s sights than specialized Arm and old Apples.

“I also have several Windows 10 laptops that are perfectly good but also abandonware — right now they are servers, I don’t like the Linux desktops that exist today. I want to develop a fully modernized distribution that is open source but also delivers an end user experience that doesn’t compromise and ‘just works.'”

“The Steve Jobs approach,” he added. “That’s a very lofty thing for one person to try to do. I’m no Google — but I’m arrogant and motivated…”

He’s talking, of course, about Windows 10 machines with modern specs that couldn’t make Microsoft’s cut for the upgrade path to Windows 11. Official support for Windows 10 from Redmond ended last October, although in some cases extended support remains available through October 2027.

NCZ-OS’s desktop environment is Singularity, which is not a Windows clone by any stretch, but offers a conventional layout that won’t confuse Windows (or Mac) users. It’s from Italy-based Mirko Brombin, whose tech resume checks multiple boxes, including UI/UX designer, open-source developer, and Linux project founder. He’s probably best known as the creator of the popular Wine front end, Bottles, and the Debian-based Linux distribution Vanilla OS.

For the x86 version, Perlow said he intends to use the same Debian Forky base, installer, and Singularity Wayland desktop, paired with a Yocto-built Linux 7.2 kernel.

“The initial targets include T2-equipped Intel Macs from 2017-2023 and capable Windows 10 systems that cannot officially move to Windows 11,” he said. “The goal is the same on both Arm and x86: support as much hardware acceleration as possible and deliver a modern, cohesive experience rather than merely making abandoned hardware boot Linux. I expect the x86 work to be easier, although hardware has a habit of punishing statements like that.”

Release information and downloads are available on GitHub.

Linux Mint reveals new calendar and ebook reader apps


Two new apps are coming to Linux Mint later this year: a new calendar and eBook reader.

Plus, the Ubuntu-based Linux distribution has redesigned its (overlooked) document hub, Library, to make it easier to find and manage documents scattered across you device from one place.

Both new apps join the XApp Project, Linux Mint’s collection of home-grown, cross-desktop GTK apps (which now has a new website wearing the popular Claude design aesthetic).

Clockenstien is Mint’s new Calendar app

Clockenstein is Linux Mint’s new calendar app but, lest anyone scream in horror at the terrible name, the user-facing label is just Calendar. It replaces GNOME Calendar in Linux Mint’s default software lineup (about time – it was an older, pre GTK4/libadwaita build).

Now a calendar is a calendar. It needs to let you see and browse dates, add events, create calendars for different tasks – things that Linux Mint’s clockenstein can do from the off.

But integration with online services is important since most of us move between devices during the day. So calendars can be entirely offline and kept local, or sync to/from online providers like Google Calendar or through CalDAV via cloud services like Nextcloud.

Clem says the goal was make sure it was always obvious when remote calendars aren’t working and in-sync, so users can tell if something is up. Failing silently isn’t helpful if there’s an important event you assume you’ll get a reminder about, but never do.

“Down in the laboratory, there’s a little more going on”, says Lefebvre.

A background daemon is used to keep remote calendars in sync and check for any upcoming events that have reminders enabled. If there’s an issue, events stay visible but become read-only – you can’t edit or add – until connect is back online.

Reminders are handled via a notification agent. They get shown on the desktop at the appropriate time so you can action or snooze or be reminded later. Backend interfaces allow other desktop environments to interact or replace the notification agent.

Book Reader ePub viewer

The new Book Reader (xepub) app is designed (surprise) for opening ePub files. It looks to offer a clean reading experience, that Linux Mint’s Clement Lefebvre says is ‘similar’ to a Kindle or a Kobo. It also keeps track of where you are in a book so when you re-open it, you can resume reading.

Features wise, it will offer what you’d expect: chapter and page navigation, full-text search and bookmarks, as well as adjustable page zoom and font options. An annotations feature lets you highlight selections of text, with a colour, and add notes.

Finally, an internal look-up system lets you select a word and ferry it to a search engine (wikipedia, dictionary, etc) to find out more about it.
Library gets a dust off
Linux Mint's Library app showing document filtersThingy – a personal document hub

Linux Mint has also redesigned its Library document manager, which you may know by the package name thingy.

Documents are now grouped by file type, rather than the app that opens them. So, for instance, you can see just your PDF files in one view, rather than finding them scattered amongst all files the the default document viewer XReader handles.

Common file types are listed in the Library sidebar, but you choose what’s shown and in one order. And, more usefully, you can create your own custom groups that contain a mix of different file types, and even specify them from specific folders.

When can I get the new apps?

Linux Mint’s new Book Reader and Calendar apps will make their official debut in Linux Mint 23, expected to arrive towards the end of the year. That release will also ship with the new and improved Library app too.

Plus, other changes the team has revealed and teased to date (and, no doubt, a few still to come).

If you don’t want to wait, the source code is up on GitHub (each linked in their respective paragraphs above). You can check them out (pun klaxon) to test, and file any issues you find or glaring feature requests you may have.

Exciting stuff!