HowTos, KDE, GNOME, and more

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 17, 2025

• Instructionals/Technical

  • 1 reason your laptop’s fingerprint sensor might not work in Linux

    If you have a laptop, new or used, that has a fingerprint sensor, odds are that it won’t work with your GNU/Linux distro, even though it would work with the laptop’s factory-installed OS (read: Windows). Why is that?

  • Net2 ☛ Ubuntu 24.04 Printer Troubleshooting Guide: Fix USB, Network, and Driver Issues

    Printer configuration on Ubuntu 24.04 involves multiple layers—from drivers and CUPS (the Common Unix Printing System) to kernel modules, network settings, and permissions. This comprehensive guide explains common printer issues and provides step-by-step solutions to fix printer issues on Ubuntu 24.04. Ubuntu 24.04 brings many improvements, but configuring printers can remain challenging.

• Desktop Environments/WMs

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • Kaidan 0.11.0: Qt 6

      Kaidan supports Qt 6 now!

      In addition, this release improves the user interface and fixes some bugs.

  • GNOME Desktop/GTK

    • OMG Ubuntu ☛ Tiling Shell GNOME Extension Expands Window Suggestions

      A new version of Tiling Shell, the flexible window snapping assistant for GNOME Shell, is available. Tiling Shell v16.2 now surfaces nifty ‘Window Suggestions’, a feature introduced in last month’s v16.0 release, when using edge tiling. Edge Tiling (as no doubt you well know) is triggered by dragging a window to the sides of the screen.

• Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Open Hardware/Modding

    • CNX Software ☛ GEEKOM A6 Review – Part 3: Ubuntu 24.04 tested on an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H mini PC [Ed: Windows products given as 'gifts', presented as "Linux"]

      We’ve already checked out the hardware of the GEEKOM A6 mini PC with an unboxing and teardown in the first part of the review, and thoroughly tested the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H mini PC in backdoored Windows 11 Pro in the second part, so it’s now time to report our experience with Ubuntu 24.04 GNU/Linux on the mid-range mini PC.

    • Hackaday ☛ Piano Gets An Arduino Implant

      [Paul] likes his piano, but he doesn’t know how to play it. The obvious answer: program an Arduino to do it. Some aluminum extrusion and solenoids later, and it was working. Well, perhaps not quite that easy — making music on a piano is more than just pushing the keys. You have to push multiple keys together and control the power behind each strike to make the music sound natural.

• Development

  • Programming/

    • Hackaday ☛ How Hard Is It To Write A Calculator App?

      How hard can it be to write a simple four-function calculator program? After all, computers are good at math, and making a calculator isn’t exactly blazing a new trail, right? But [Chad Nauseam] will tell you that it is harder than you probably think. His post starts with a screenshot of the iOS calculator app with a mildly complex equation. The app’s answer is wrong. Android’s calculator does better on the same problem.