today's howtos
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HowTo Geek ☛ How to Install and Use Yay on Arch Linux
Arch Linux is a widely known and highly regarded Linux distribution. Arch Linux is a strictly bare-bones distribution. Unlike most distros, it doesn’t come preloaded with a collection of typical applications. When you install Arch Linux, you’re installing a minimalist take on Linux. Once you’ve got Arch running on your computer, it's up to you to install any applications you want to use.
That’s a great way to set your computer up because there’s absolutely no bloatware. The only applications installed are the ones you’ve considered and decided you want. And that bare-bones philosophy is taken seriously. You don’t even get a graphical desktop environment. If you want one, you install it yourself, using the Arch Linux package manager, pacman.
That’s all fine in theory, but here’s the conundrum. There’s a massive software repository of additional applications that you can select from, called the Arch User Repository, but pacman doesn’t know about it. It can neither search through it nor download anything from it.
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Network World ☛ Essential responsibilities of a Linux sysadmin
While I don’t imagine that I’ll ever tire of “playing” on the Linux command line – where “playing” implies enjoying how easily I can get a lot of work done by stringing commands together or creating scripts – I’ve spent the bulk of my career as a systems administrator, and this role involves a significant array of responsibilities.
I started my computer career as a programmer helping to automate criminal code (Title 18) so that the larger federal courts could better manage their criminal cases – a challenge that became more important after the Speedy Trial Act limited how long they had to file an indictment, charge a defendant, and commence a trial. I then moved into administering Unix systems.
When I was first introduced to Linux, I thought it an interesting novelty. A potentially free OS with open source code? The idea was intriguing, but I had my doubts about how well it would work over time. Yet it wasn’t long before I found myself moving into administering Linux systems as my primary job, and I then spent several decades doing just that. In this post, I’ll detail what I see as the primary responsibilities of this role.
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XDA ☛ What is a swap file in Linux and how much should you use?
A swap file is a form of virtual memory, similar to random access memory (RAM) and cache on a processor in which a file swap can be used to store temporary data. It's the slowest form of memory, located on an HDD or SSD, and is reserved by the Linux system for use when the OS runs out of RAM. By configuring your Linux installation to use a swap file, you can technically use more RAM than your PC has physically installed.
This would allow the OS to have more apps running simultaneously and more data loaded for immediate retrieval than would otherwise be possible. Because the swap file (or page files) is not stored using physical components, such as one of the best RAM modules on the market, we only recommend using a swap file if you're unable to install more physical system memory. By default, an operating system such as Linux will manage the swap files automatically.
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[Repeat] Ubuntu ☛ Cloud storage security best practices
Data is like the crown jewels of any organisation, if lost or exposed there could be severe repercussions. Failure to protect against system failure could lead to the loss of business data rendering a business non-functional and ultimately causing it’s failure. Exposing sensitive data to unauthorised parties not only leads to reputational damage, but can also cause businesses to incur massive fines.
This blog takes a closer look at these risks and how you can mitigate them with Ceph’s security features. Let’s start with some of the most common ways in which data breaches can occur: [...]
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University of Toronto ☛ blog/unix/XOffscreenIconMistake
One of the somewhat odd things about my old fashioned X Window System environment is that when I 'iconify' or 'minimize' a window, it (mostly) winds up as an actual icon on my root window (what in some environments would be called the desktop), in contrast to the alternate approach where the minimized window is represented in some sort of taskbar. I have strong opinions about where some of these icons should go, and some tools to automatically arrange this for various windows, including the GNU Emacs windows I (now) use for reading email.
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Rachel ☛ Feedback: lots more WPA3, and then some
At least one person mentioned the 11 hour WPA3 problem on my Raspberry Pis and asked if I was experiencing clock drift. This is kind of funny to me since I've been picky about keeping clocks synced in my personal and professional lives these past few years. So, no, not really. All of those Pis have chrony installed, and it's doing a great job of keeping their clocks disciplined.