A space biologist by training and a (Arch)Linux user by passion #ArchLinux #Linux #KISS #FOSS #terminal, #python https://www-gem.codeberg.page

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: February 17th, 2023

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  • LibreWolf is indeed based on the hardened Firefox arkenfox user.js so you get its benefits which means a privacy-focused browser but Librewolf also comes with more settings pre-adjusted, telemetry removed, useless features removed…

    I’ve played with Firefox settings for years before Librewolf was created and it saves me so much time, ensure my browser stays up to date and functional, and is able to perform fingerprints test way better than any other many web browsers I’ve tried.




  • To investigate the issue you may want to use a bootable drive and chroot into your system. This will allow you to see any error messages using the journactl command. Once you know what’s going on exactly you’ll be able to fix it or get a better assistance from people here or on the Arch forum.
    I know someone who encountered the exact same login behavior after this update. It appeared that some packages were broken and he had to reinstall them.


  • I second that. Always have a bootable disk ready (or even better a bootable image on your machine) so you can recover from any issues in a snap. Over the course of 20 years using Linux I can only remember two blackscreens. Unlike other OS, these situations don’t happen randomly but mostly when the user mess up with the system (like in your case) and that’s great opportunities to learn a lot about your system because that’s when you really need to understand how it works.


  • The general idea is that a desktop environment provides you with common graphical user interface elements such as icons, toolbars, wallpaper, and desktop widgets. In other terms it’s purely an aesthetic question. You can also decide which of these features will be useful to you and install the appropriate package(s) if you don’t want to grab the bundle that comes with any DE.

    As far of timing is concerned, you can always experiment and install what you need as you go. The only downside to wait will depend on how good your distro is in managing packages dependencies.

    Personaly, my Linux journey made me realize that the features offer by a DE were actually negatively impacting my productivity and a windows manager (a tiling one for me) was all I needed. But this decision - like a lot of others - comes down to personal tastes. Note that not using a DE doesn’t mean relying on the terminal only.



  • If you’re using only one monitor, simply duplicate and scale your laptop screen instead of using the extended approach.
    To give you a rough idea, this will look to something like this:
    xrandr --output eDP1 --mode 1366x768 --scale 1x1 --output HDMI1 --same-as eDP1 --mode 1920x1080 --scale 0.711x0.711
    Use xrandr to find the monitors names and resolution. The scale option is simply the ratio between your 2 resolutions.


  • The behavior you are requesting of bspwm is counter-intuitive to this rule you specifically wrote. Nonetheless, if VS Code popup windows have a different instance name, you could have a script running in the background which checks instance name of any new window and execute the command bspc desktop -f last when a VS Code popup appears.
    If the instance name is the same for VS Code main app and its popup windows, you may listen to the state of VS Code windows (using bspc subscribe; see the manpage) and execute the previous command on VS Code floating windows (because popups will be floating).
    For example, apply this to all VS Code windows:

    while bspc subscribe -c 1 node_focus node_state > /dev/null; do
        bspc query -N -n "focused.floating" | while read -r wid; do
        bspc desktop -n $wid -f last
    done
    

    For your second question, if I understand correctly you’re trying to have a given workspace moving to your external monitor when available and returning to your primary monitor if no other monitor is connected. You can look at the archwiki to learn how to setup bspwm for multi monitors. Using the same if conditions as explained in this wiki you could also have for example a rule bspc rule -a Code follow=on desktop='^4' when only one monitor is connected, and bspc rule -a Code follow=on desktop='^7' when an external monitor is connected (and workspace 7 will be defined to be shown on your external monitor).



  • Terminal is faster when you’re used to it and sometimes offer more customization options to some apps that has both a GUI and TUI/CLI version.

    I use the terminal (st with zsh and tmux) for:

    • file management (advcpmv, fd, trash-cli, fzf …)
    • emails (neomutt)
    • text editing/coding (neovim)
    • project management (taskjuggler)
    • image viewing/organization (ucolla,ge)
    • online video browsing (ytfzf)
    • calendar (khal)
    • ssh
    • vpn
    • news aggregator (newsboat)
    • web, bookmarks manager (buku)
    • passwords manager (pass)
    • dotfiles manager (stow)
    • not in the terminal but I also have a lot of scripts used in rofi to control my audio input/outputs, launch a web search, access my bookmarks, autocomplete username and password fields

    I’m sure I’m missing some obvious tools I use daily. It’s hard remember everything when it becomes so natural.

    I have shared my experience with some of these tools here.



  • It’s always difficult to find a good starting point but remember that you’re not married to your apps so you can easily switch from one to another and maybe come back later. Over the years, I’ve seen most of Linux users going that route because 1) it’s fun and you learn a little bit from each experience, 2) Linux users are generally curious, 3) some apps may be more suitable to your workflow at a given time but your workflow may change over time, 4) Linux offers us so many options so it’s like unleashing kids in a toys store, you want to try everything :)



  • I’ve often heard Emacs users pose the argument that Emacs as an Elisp interpreter does just one thing. It’s just that this single thing allows the myriad of functionality it offers. So in that sense comparing it to a terminal/console seems more apt than comparing it to a text editor. I wonder what you think of that argument.

    I only used emacs for a year so I may be wrong but speaking only about how I used it and my current workflow I don’t see a difference. Looking at the usage (and not the code), my very first impression of emacs was that it’s acting as a terminal multiplexer which I was used to and so I liked this aspect. Anytime you need to do something that goes beyond the tasks of an IDE (calendar, email…) you switch window/panel (I’ve always been confused with the specific emacs terminology). That’s exactly what I’m doing with Tmux where I run neovim and call other apps with a single keybinding. Then I can freely switch from one to another, close one, recall it in the state I’ve closed it…
    Again, this is related to the philosophies of emacs and neovim (i.e. do-it-all or do one thing). While neovim is “only” an IDE, emacs goes beyond, and for me this is not a negative criticism of either app. You build a tool with the coding language you need to implement some functionalities. In that sense, to compare apple to apple, emacs has to be compared to neovim coupled to a terminal multiplexer.

    Hehe, that’s cool! Currently I’m really happy with Thunderbird so I don’t expect to move away anytime soon, but I’ll keep it in mind.

    I used Thunderbird as well and did the switch mainly to allow me to achieve the workflow described above. I do most of my tasks in the terminal. Neomutt would certainly be one additional layer of complexity in your transition to an IDE, unless you chose to use emacs for your emails. Actually configuring emacs as an email client or going with neomutt is pretty similar. But at the end - and this is an example of the higher level of granularity I mentioned earlier - neomutt is more customizable.
    Talking about the level of customization of the IDE functionality only, the plugins I use offer more configuration options in neovim as well.

    Orgmode is also one (the?) big star player in emacs and neovim is trying to attract some users by developing a similar thing here or there but this is not something that would benefit to my workflow. This is maybe one of the reason why people choose emacs vs neovim and why I could quit emacs easily. Going back to the coding language, you can see that the use of lua opens new doors to the original vim. What I appreciate though is that you don’t have to implement any features if you don’t use them in neovim so I can keep my system limited to my needs. This is also seen as a bad thing by some when you start because emacs is capable of quite a lot with a fresh installation while neovim can barely open itself ;)

    Overall we’re all sharing personal experience so no generalization should be extrapolated from single visions and I’m aware of my own bias and preference for singl- task, lightweight, fast tool.