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jmcunx Tech blog

This will contain personal ramblings about various tech items.

OS - 2023-12-05: In the vtwm mailing list I saw an issue with Firefox and vtwm. The same issue also happens in twm. The issue has to do with "AutoRaise" and probably impacts many "older" Window Managers. If enabled Firefox menus act very odd. To fix, you do this in Firefox:

1. go to "about:config"

2. set "widget.gtk.grab-pointer" to "1"

3. Restart Firefox

OS - 2023-12-04: In testing 10.0 RC1, I discovered this issue (port-amd64/57387) screen tearing issue still happens on a heavy load, even when the External Monitor is not connected.

OS - 2023-11-17: I have been running NetBSD RC1 since Nov 7, so far no issues. There was a minor pkgsrc issue with Firefox115, but it was fixed quickly via PR pkg/57688. File "/usr/pkg/bin/firefox115" needed to be changed to use "/usr/pkg/lib/firefox115/firefox115". One thing like, is with pkgsrc you can have two versions of Firefox installed. I have Firefox versions 102 and 115. Eventually I may remove 102.

OS - 2023-11-15: I have been playing around with xfce on Slackware for the past week so. So far, after I configured it to my needs, I find it very nice. I think xfce is a DE I could see myself using. I tried KDE and at work we are forced to use GNOME3. Both of these are good, but they are a bit too much for me. GNOME3 annoys me a little, KDE is nice but too fancy. One thing to note about xfce, holding down the "alt" key and using the mouse wheel, enables screen zoom. A very nice feature, but I was not aware of it. I accidentally zoomed in a number of times and had to exit xfce to undo it. In a long search session I found that key combination and I use it often these days.

OS - 2023-11-09: NetBSD 10.0 RC1 was released on Nov 7 and upgraded on the 7th. I have it on a spare drive on the T420. So far it is working great, no issues. I like the NetBSD folks, they are very friendly and no drama.

OS - 2023-10-20: I have a travel Laptop (T420) with OpenBSD. I noticed connecting to other systems via ssh was problematic since the upgrade to 7.4. I did some searches and discovered if you are using an old RSA key, this can cause issues. So the recommendation to correct is to use ssh-keygen(1) and create a new key of type ed25519. I re-created the ssh keys and that corrected he issue.

OS - 2023-10-18: I started playing with the new OpenBSD memory leak "detector". I took a simple program, added a leak and compiled it. It worked great and I found this check to be much simpler than how to test using valgrind under Linux and it is built into the OS. So no third party applications needed. Nice Work OpenBSD team.

OS - 2023-10-16: OpenBSD 7.4 was released, as usual the upgrade from 7.3 was trivial. All is working great, no issues. I was planning on waiting for a couple of days, but this morning I changed my mind :)

GIT - 2023-10-12: I am locked out of GitHub, I went there to see some images someone put together for BSD. I have 7 days to enable 2FA or something will happen, I do not know what. Next week or so I will try again and see what happened. As noted below, I moved my repositories to sdf.org as taballs a few weeks ago, so Microsoft GitHub is dead to me.

OS - 2023-09-25: I have been playing with KDE on Slackware for the last few weeks. I have it setup to my liking, but usability is a bit lacking. The only issue I really have happens when I try to use an External Monitor with the Laptop. My requirement is to use one monitor at a time. So, when I plug the External in, I need to restart via kquitapp5 to activate my setup. When I revert back to the Laptop Monitor, it reverts to a resolution I do not like. I need to logout and back in. On the Laptop I want to use 1600x900, but if forces 1920x1080 and it is a pain to flip it back. So, I dread the day we will be forced to use Wayland instead of X.

GEM - 2023-09-20: For Gemini rendering, I have used bombadillo, amfora, lagrange and Emacs elpa. Though all are good, I find elpa to be the best. Plus with Emacs, you can even directly edit the files on the remote server using TRAMP Mode.

GIT - 2023-09-10: I completed the move of my repositories from Microsoft GitHub to my Gemini Capsule. Links to the repository is in my main Gemini Capsule.

GIT - 2023-08-29: I just received a notice from GitHub telling me I have until October 12 to enable 2FA for my repository. This requires the use of a Cell Phone, I will not give Microsoft my Cell Number. So I am not yet sure what I will do, but I expect I will be deleting my GitHub ID and going elsewhere. For me, I consider this 2FA change the straw that "Broke the Camels Back". This link describes other issues I have with GitHub since Microsoft purchased it.

(https) sfconservancy.org

OS - 2023-08-26: I usually do not like to link items here, but these links touches a bit on were Linux is moving. The future of Linux concerns me because it seems to be heading to become a Microsoft Windows Clone or maybe an Apple Clone. The end result is you the "user" could end you with a system that spies on you in a similar manner as Windows 11 and Smart Phones. Plus, you will be unable to make the OS work the way you want it to. Right now, we have Slackware, and Gentoo who are fighting this Linux Trend, plus the *BSD for a similar OS. But I fear it is a loosing battle. Red Hat type Distros and many Debian type Distros seems to have already started moving over to making their system "work like Windows". I expect around 5 or 10 years from now, using Linux will be rather similar to using Microsoft Windows.

Secure Boot

More Secure Boot Issues (techrights)

GIT - 2023-08-10: As many of you know, just about everyone moved to git. I moved to git many years for items items I made public on GitHub. Even were I worked they moved to git, I even heard SAP now uses a git back end. I really do not like git, I doubt I ever will, but it is usable and not that difficult. I grew up with SCCS and RCS, and to me they are the best. The main reason is these force you to talk to people when you want to change an object. When someone checks out the object, no one can change it until the person releases it. To me, this alone will help avoid software bugs and testing issues. But the world moved on to where "fast" is considered better that safe. With that said, one thing I really like about git, and the reason I deal with it, GnuPG signing. That is worth the price of admission.

HDW - 2023-08-10: Late yesterday I was on librachat ##ibmthinkpad talking to people about the nVidia Heat issue on the W541. The end result is if you have a W541, best to avoid using OpenBSD and NetBSD on it until the heat issue can be fixed. I have opened a PR for NetBSD (kern/57540), OpenBSD's main rule about nVidia is "Avoid it at all cost". Which to be honest that is now my rule. But I was able to get the W541 at an extremely cheap price when I retired. FWIW, my main OS, Slackware, works great on the W541.

GEM - 2023-08.09: Copied most of my WEB Site to Gemini Space, the WEB Site was updated to point to my capsule. Only one more item to move, but that page needs a full rewrite. Why did I move ? Gemini is far easier to maintain and it ensures one cannot "spy" on people who accesses my Capsule.

GEM - 2023-08-02: Learned Gemini, I am slowly moving my WEB Pages to my Gemini Capsule.

HDW - 2023-07-10: Participated in the Old Computer Challenge 3

OS - 2023-01-01: For the last few years I have been also using OpenBSD and NetBSD to test my development objects along with RHEL and Slackware. There is a very minor issue with the BSDs on the Thinkpad W541, but far from a showstopper. When running BSD, the nVidia Chip heats up quite a bit, with Slackware, no issues.

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$Id: tech_2023.gmi,v 2.26 2023/12/05 14:44:48 jmccue Exp $