today's leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Apr 30, 2023

• I got a DOI from arXiv for my MSc!

  I couldn't find a way to publish this via my university, which was a little disappointing. And I didn't have the time or energy to rewrite it for submission to a journal. Then a couple of people suggest that I submit it to arXiv.

• 2023-04-28 LLW 2023: learning and exchanging legal knowledge

• 2023-04-25 [Older] The FSFE is helping to build an 'Internet of Humans'

• Exciting SQLite Improvements Since 2020

  So let's take a look at some of the exciting improvements and refinements that SQLite has seen since 2020. This list focuses on changes related to the supported SQL instructions and the CLI.

• Preliminary support for fscrypt v2

  The ext4 filesystem supports per-folder encryption, called "fscrypt". This is a feature that can be enabled using the 'tune2fs' utility.
  

  In EasyOS, the working-partition (usually) has fscrypt enabled, and some folders are encrypted. This means, if the drive is stolen, no one will be able to read the contents of those folders.
  

  The advantage of encrypting a folder, compared with a file as may be done in Puppy Linux, is the folder has no size limit, or rather, it is the limit of free space in the partition.
  

  There is a utility name 'e4crypt' in the initrd, that decrypts these folders at bootup. Easy has used this utility up until the present; however, it is what is called "version 1" fscrypt, and has some serious problems with multiple users.
  

  When I took Easy down the path of running apps as separate users, things got complicated. I had to use the 'keyctl' utility for each user to decipher the folders. And recently it got even more complicated with Flatpaks, that run in a sandbox and have great difficulties with recognizing the kernel keys -- meaning unable to access the encrypted folders.
  

  Since the 5.4 kernel, I think about 2020, there has been fscrypt v2, that looks like it might make usage with multiple users much easier. Here is some early information about v2:
  

• 2023-04-27 [Older] The Linux Link Tech Show Episode 1002

• Which operating system is best for a VPS OS, Linux or Windows?

  Looking for the best VPS OS for beginners? Here's a comprehensive guide to help you compare the features of different options available today.

  While most people are familiar with VPNs and their use cases, only a few know about VPN's more powerful and secure software brother, VPS.